Top spec laptop

k4p84

New member
hey all,

mate of mine has been asked to get a laptop for work.

It is to run as a server, web server, Database server, it will be to demo products to clients.

they have a budget of about £3000.

so it needs to be a powerful machine.

I know you can shell out near £5000 for an Alienware but you are paying a lot for the badge and gfx which are not essential.

Since it will be running a virtual server etc i think we are looking at the sort of 3ghz CPU area and 8gb ram.

Plus with the budget i have suggested popping in an SSD.

Any help finding a notebook to cover all the bases would be appreciated.

ED
 
If it is for work, then graphics power is not important, so we're talking business class. It should NOT have shared VRAM. Output ports are important, he should be able to hook it up to a bigger screen or a projector.

I would get something with the mobile Quads, Q9000 for example, true it's got a lower clock speed, but two extra cores do make a bigger difference in business applications then the extra clock speed of a dual core.

8GB or RAM is a must for database/server jobs, even if they are only temporary demonstrations. I would get a 17" or a 15". He should think a lot before buying how mobile he wants to be. I have a 17" Inspiron and at times it feels heavy after a full work day.

Don't get a laptop with a desktop Quad, it will be very heavy and the battery will be gone before you can finish a sandwich.

If he has the money one or two SSDs are a must. There are laptops (17") that can carry two of them in RAID0, or maybe one SSD for speed and one normal, slower but larger HDD for storage.

In the business world presentation is important, so you can only get something like Lenovo (IBM), Dell or HP. Anything else and you're not a professional.

The Lenovo W700 looks sweet and expensive if he wants a Quad, there is one with QX9300 @2.53GHz. If he'll go with a Dual Core, the Lenove W500 will serve him well, for a lot less money.
 
Quadro FX 2700 is just a rebranded 9700m GTS 512MB, so what's the problem with it? Small OpenGL optimizations for CAD and that's about it. Price? Well, it's a business machine, so high price is a given.
 
Not exactly, I am saying that the Quadro can do whatever the GTS can do. The GTS can do most things the Quadro can. But both products use the same GPU.

But for the intended use of the laptop, there is no difference.
 
If it's for remote management of a server, then any junker will do, he only needs a 10" netbook with an Atom CPU with 512MB of ram and integrated graphics... lol.

I thought he was one of those power user blokes we hear so little about.
 
name='k4p84' said:
hey all,

mate of mine has been asked to get a laptop for work.

It is to run as a server, web server, Database server, it will be to demo products to clients.

they have a budget of about £3000.

so it needs to be a powerful machine.

Since it will be running a virtual server etc i think we are looking at the sort of 3ghz CPU area and 8gb ram.

ED

quoted
 
So it is settled then, he needs the beast that is Lenovo W700. With the baddest mobile quad core (QX9300) and an upgrade from 4GB to 8GB.

I think it should fit the bill and the budget. BTW, you can find Dell Latitude models and also HP's that would be similar, but the Lenovo should have a cool Wacom digitizer as an option which would be kinda cool at presentations.
 
name='Sihastru' said:
Not exactly, I am saying that the Quadro can do whatever the GTS can do. The GTS can do most things the Quadro can. But both products use the same GPU.

But for the intended use of the laptop, there is no difference.

The quadro ranges do indeed have the same gpu cores as their geforce equiv, but not too much similarities after that.

From that point u are looking at the costings, for whatever u pay for the "geforce" gpu, u can times that by.... anything from 3 to 10 for a quadro.

Hence, and being as he won't need a quadro for any cad work or stereo imagining, live broadcasting, I'd save anything upwards of £1000 and get a latop without - concentrating my money on what the other important required features are and settle for a.... 9700m.

For example, the quadro will not play a game as well as a geforce and a geforce wont do cad as well as a quadro.
 
He won't game on it, he won't do CAD on it... so, if he can afford it... for him the rest of the system is important, find another laptop with better build quality, same components and better price... and post it here so he can have more then one choice.

So far we only gave him the Lenovo W700, and just hints that there are other laptops out there (Dell, HP) that inspire professionalism and are acceptable for business use during meetings with important clients... but are they better and cheaper for the intended use?
 
How about quoting a server laptop akin to the Eurocom Phantom 9xx series ?

Less then £1500, and more credibly component-ed.

(As opposed to £1000 on the table straight away for a quadro, which was the point I was trying to make)
 
The problem with the Phantom is that it uses desktop components. It is hot as hell, heavy as 12 kilos of mortar (without the power brick), battery life in so low they should just take it out completely...

And yes, you can get the Phantom with a Quadro :). So, while it ditches the Quadro it goes very wrong in all other departments that should make a laptop... well... a laptop. It has power at a low price, but it might cost you more then you expect. I don't see anyone carrying around that piece of concrete around for a whole day.

I just want to make a point: I am not trying to make him buy a Quadro. The problem is that the W700 comes with one. Except for that, the rest of the laptop is exactly what he needs.

I don't think the Quadro 2700 is 1000 anyway, but I don't know how much it is exactly. With Lenovo you pay for the name, for the product placement in the business class, for better materials, for better build quality, not just for the sum of the parts.
 
name='Rastalovich' said:
I'd suggest taking a look at the components (noting the mobility suffixes) in this section:

http://web.eurocom.com/ec/ec_model_config1(1,188,0)

U can put in it whatever u require, or leave out, whichever the case.

All the Quads there are Desktop parts (all 95W TDP) which means a massive cooling solution, added weight, low battery life. It can fit 2 mobile graphics cards in SLI and three HDDs... This thing is massive and heavy.

It's not a laptop, it's a DTR... it will burn rubber like there's no tomorrow, but it won't move from where you install it the first time. The power brick must be massive and heavy also (220W).

I can't argue with the price however, but with no constraints in size you can have a simpler design that will cost less to implement.

I mean look at these:

m188_2.jpg


that's a lot of metal

m188_4.jpg


thickness is two to three times the norm.
 
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