Good Ultrabook/lightweight laptop?

pwjohnston

I’m looking for laptop recommendations. I just got a new job were I will need to go a Data center on occasion and I need something solid and reliable. I really want an ASUS Zenbook Prime, but a big issue is I don’t know that I trust getting a laptop that does not have a NIC. This is probably silly.

I’m leaning toward the Lenovo T430s:
ThinkPad T430s - hard-working, rock-solid business laptop from Lenovo (US)

I’m going to be putting Linux(Fedora) on it so OS is irrelevant. Though a Win8 Pro license would be a plus since you never know when you just have to have Windows. Other criteria, I would prefer something that I can upgrade the ram on to at least 8GB, 16GB would be better. I can do that manually, I don’t want to pay for exorbitant RAM I can get from Crucial. Sandy Bridge i5 or above. (I can’t believe I’m saying that since I’ve always been an AMD guy.)

Recommendation, anyone?

kriscamaro68

The 430s is an awesome laptop. We will be using that as our laptop standard here at work. Before that our standard was the 420s. I like the 430s because it has the ability to have 16gb of ram which a lot of laptops still can't seem to do. It also has the ability to install an msata drive+a7mm thick sata drive+a drive bay sata drive. Or you can get an extra battery for the drive bay. A nice setup would be a 128 or 256gb msata ssd drive+a 128 or 256gb 7mm ssd and and extra battery for the drive bay. This way you could load the OS on the msata drive and use the regulser sata drive bay with an ssd for the vm's. No slowdown at all then. That would be a workhorse.

The trackpoint/cats tongue is also a nice feature in my opinion. I hate trackpads. Also you can get the screen res at 1600x900 which is more than most of them since 1366x768 seems to be the crappy standard these days. Also make sure to get the backlit keyboard otherwise it will come with a light that shines down on the keyboard that will drain the battery quick.

All in all its a great laptop.

ptilsen

I would really wait it out for a couple weeks. Surface Pro and ultrabook convertibles are coming. Some will have NICs. No-NIC models are fine for the average consumer but IMO are completely unacceptable for the average IT professional. The chances you'll need or at least want to plug in at some point are pretty high. Do not go NIC-free.

Honestly, if it weren't for this shift in the market, I would be recommending Macbooks all day at this point. First-gen ultrabooks were pretty horrid. Second-gen came a long way, but I really have not been thrilled with the quality and specs of any of them. I spent hours researching what was out and what was coming out, and everything was a compromise. Either you accept an absurdly small resolution for the screen size or poor build quality, usually both. Frankly, for $500 to $800 more I would get an MBP + Windows and not make that compromise.

Luckily, Windows 8 on Ultrabook convertible looks like an extremely versatile mobile platform. You get a fully capable Ivy Bridge laptop that can function as a tablet. Surface Pro would be my pick for frequent air travel, but for what you'll be doing, I think the Ultrabook convertible might end up being a better pick.

If you can really afford some time, Haswell Ultrabook convertibles will be out sometime this Spring. My money's that we see them actually hit the market in April. We'll see some useful new features, a bit better performance, and probably better battery life and miniaturization.

If you want a traditional Ultrabook, take your pick. They're all pretty comparable, with some real winners and losers. Just be sure to upgrade to SSD and RAM yourself. The OEM's try to collect the most ridiculous premiums on SSDs these days. My personal struggle was largely the resolution -- you really want 1920x1080 for a 15'', 1600x900 on a 14'', and 1440x900 on a 13'' as minimums. Far too many are a notch are two below what they should be.

tpatt100

I bought a Dell XPS 15z about six weeks ago, it was on sale and was a 2011 model Dell was clearing out. Oh boy was that the biggest piece of...... I ended up returning it. Dell did not do thermal tests or something on it because the fan was fairly loud and ran when I did anything on the laptop even using Office. I did some Googling and yeah it was a common problem of heat/shut downs, complaints no wonder it was on sale for so low.

I ended up with a Macbook Pro, upgraded the ram to 16gb was easy to open and put the RAM in. I don't have any interest in the newer Retina ones because it is hooked up to an external monitor while I am home.

I heard good things about the Thinkpads though, they stuck with what works rather than experiment with trying to be sleek.

Not sure about Surface Pro, I am hesitant on new hardware with new OS at launch.

jdancer

Cheapest notebook with a wired NIC is the Acer AO756. Don't let the CPU fool you, it's a Sandy Bridge. It's really screams with a SSD, and with PC3-12800 memory.

SteveLord

HP Elitebook Folio 9470m just came out. It's overall very solid and has no major issues or defects that I can see. I seem to be the only person on the planet that was even following this thing prior to release as few on the internet have mentioned it and no publications reviewed them early.

Just avoid core i7s used in these as they typically cost A LOT more and and only carry extra cache and a slight bump in clock speed.

thegoodbye

I'd say get the Zenbook. I ordered two a few weeks ago and the usb ethernet adapter that comes with them provided fairly decent speed. They're also slick, easy to type on, and fast.

chrisone

I use a macbook pro retina at work. I am a network engineer so I need ethernet and usb to serial. In the data center i have my usb to serial for my console connections and my usb to ethernet connection. It is a little annoying having to carry the usb converters but when you work with an ultra book its worth it. You get used to carrying both, plus laptops stop carrying serial ports more than 5-7 years ago. So USB to serial should be in your tool set if you are doing networking. Other than that, the usb to ethernet needs some time to get used to, but not a big deal when you get to work with such an awesome laptop.

ptilsen

SteveLord wrote: »

I seem to be the only person on the planet that was even following this thing prior to release as few on the internet have mentioned it and no publications reviewed them early.

I haven't kept up, but I finally gave up on HP. Too many bad experiences on the PC side of things. They're still a leader because of business market penetration, but their PC quality really took a dive. I came from an HP shop where we always sold our customers PCs, and I even recommended them to friends and family for a while. All of a sudden they started failing left and right. I also wasn't impressed with the design or specs of any of the recent laptops. There are a few lower-tier manufacturers making better products, IMO. Not saying the Folio isn't worth a look, just sharing what I've found thus far.

SteveLord wrote: »

Just avoid core i7s used in these as they typically cost A LOT more and and only carry extra cache and a slight bump in clock speed.

And hyper-threading. Logical cores count a lot when it comes to running VMs. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you -- i5s are actually going to provider a superior overall experience for most uses in a laptop, just not virtualization.

pwjohnston

kriscamaro68 wrote: »

The trackpoint/cats tongue is also a nice feature in my opinion. I hate trackpads. Also you can get the screen res at 1600x900 which is more than most of them since 1366x768 seems to be the crappy standard these days. Also make sure to get the backlit keyboard otherwise it will come with a light that shines down on the keyboard that will drain the battery quick.

The 1366x768 is also another gripe. My 4 year old 14" R61 does 1280 x 800 so that standards is not much of an improvement. The 1600x900 is a good start. Thanks for the endorsement, it makes me feel a little better.

pwjohnston

SteveLord wrote: »

Just avoid core i7s used in these as they typically cost A LOT more and and only carry extra cache and a slight bump in clock speed.

That's something that is becoming more and more apparent as I'm looking at these. I wanted an i7 to get quad core cause I know I'm going to run at least 1 VM, but at this point it's probably not necessary.

tpatt100

I have always hated trackpads or those eraser head thingies on the Thinkpad I had years ago. I am loving the trackpad on my MBP though. The single, double or three finger swipes feels very natural for me now. Wish I had the external pad they sell for use when I am at home but not paying the price for that convenience

pwjohnston

chrisone wrote: »

So USB to serial should be in your tool set if you are doing networking.

This is actually a good point. I started another thread about it.

http://www.techexams.net/forums/off-topic/83094-noc-data-center-engineers-what-do-you-have-your-toolbox.html

SteveLord

ptilsen wrote: »

And hyper-threading. Logical cores count a lot when it comes to running VMs. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you -- i5s are actually going to provider a superior overall experience for most uses in a laptop, just not virtualization.

Nope, not this time. Take a look for yourself. These i5s and i7s all do 4 threads. These cpus are also not the same as those used in normal laptops, which have more cores and use more power.

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nel

i have a lenovo 430 at work and the hardware specs are good. However, without doubt, this has got to be one of the worst cosmetically designed laptops i have used. This thing belongs in the 1990's!!! LOL! i know looks arent everything but come on, you want something decent looking.

pwjohnston

nel wrote: »

i have a lenovo 430 at work and the hardware specs are good. However, without doubt, this has got to be one of the worst cosmetically designed laptops i have used. This thing belongs in the 1990's!!! LOL! i know looks arent everything but come on, you want something decent looking.

That's why I want a Zenbook, those things are nice or even a Samsung Series 9. Doing my job right takes priority though.