New Laptop Advice

Mutata

Good Afternoon folks

So I am in the market for a new laptop. I currently have a pretty decent laptop, but there have been shortcomings from my current device. Battery life, and weight.

I was waiting for the announcement of the Macbook Pro refresh, and while that has happened I am looking at alternative options as the 3200$ for the fully upgraded version is a little hefty.

I will be using the laptop mostly for running VMs , surfing the web, light coding/scripting and surfing the web. Gaming would be a nice to have, but my desktop is more than sufficient to fill that role.

Here's what I'd like to see. For reference my currently laptop is one of the ASUS ROG 17" series. Nice laptop, but an absolute power-hungry-monster-behemoth

· i7 preferred , i5 acceptable
· 16GB memory preferred, 8GB acceptable
· 15.6" FHD
· Thin & Light (This is important)
· Battery life (Also important) would like to see 7+ hours
· dGPU maybe?

I have done some scouring of my own but havent quite hit something that tickled my fancy. Was wondering if anyone else had some good options

Much appreciated

NotHackingYou

If thin and light is important, hold out for the retina macbook pro!

Haswell

CarlSaiyed wrote: »

If thin and light is important, hold out for the retina macbook pro!

Agreed. I am eyeing the new 13" MacBook Pro Retina that just got announced today! I love the build of Apple laptops. Their industrial design is simply amazing.

Mutata

I did see that, I just feel that bang-for-buck wise. They are pretty weak

NotHackingYou

I have a 15" rMBP with 16GB of RAM and the higher clock speed quad core i7. If you are comparing raw power versus another make of laptop yes it is more $$ for similar performance but keep in mind the quality of the machine counts for a lot - plus the beautiful screen. I don't see many other laptops offering 1920x1200 right on the laptop display, and certainly not while being as physically light as a macbook.

TechGuru80

Frankly I love my Retina Macbook Pro. Works well for anything and allows for Windows for the limited times I need it. I have the quad-core 15 inch...would have liked 13 inch but it was dual.

NovaHax

Another vote here for Macbook Pro. Drop $50 for VMware Fusion and it makes for an awesome portal VM host!!!

stryder144

Yet another vote for the new MacBook Pro. Keep in mind the following: if price is a concern, go to Dell or HP's websites and source a computer that has as close to identical specs as the MacBook Pro you are interested in. I dare say, you will find the prices very close. Add in the extra software they include in the price and it definitely is very competitive. When you include the non-tangible benefits (fit, finish, etc), you might find the advantage tipped in the favor of the MacBook, as well.

For comparison:

Apple MacBook Pro; Dell Precision M4800; and the Intel Haswell website. The Dell is about $100 cheaper, has a better processor, somewhat better graphics, but half the SSD size. The MBP has a more gamer friendly nVidia graphics chip and better built-in graphics (Iris Pro). For some, the graphics might be considered close. Most people won't find much of a difference with the processor, but the one in the Dell is technically faster with more cache available. Considering the price of SSDs, it is pretty nice to see half-TB SSD in a slightly more expensive model. Plus, the MBP has an option for a 1TB SSD (for a whopping $500 more!). Obviously, the added software is potentially worth more than $100...YMMV.

NotHackingYou

Apple also just announced that OS upgrades will be free from now on...

DoubleNNs

stryder144 wrote: »

The MBP has a more gamer friendly nVidia graphics chip and better built-in graphics (Iris Pro).

Gaming on a Mac??

CarlSaiyed wrote: »

Apple also just announced that OS upgrades will be free from now on...

That's awesome. I think I'll be upgrading to the new MBP w/ Retina soon then. (Coming from a Macbook Air)

stryder144

Yeah, I know, gaming can be a joke on the Mac. The big difference is that the Dell had the Quadro GPU and the Mac has a GeForce GPU. Seeing as the Quadro has traditionally been more of the professional graphics type of chip and the GeForce the gamer or enthusiast chip, I felt it best to say the Mac had more of a gamer chip. Naturally, you could put Windows 8.1 Pro on that baby...lol.

BGraves

To be fair, a lot of games have been adopting MAC versions as well. Steam has added quite a few from my list for MAC, LoL has a Mac client now, etc. The opportunities for gamers are opening up if you have the appropriate hardware to run them! Obviously it's still not the library that PC's have but it is getting better!

DoubleNNs

Besides whether the hardware can handle the games or not, I've experienced poor ventilation on Macbooks while gaming - I've experienced overheating while playing 10 year old games.

Since the newer versions are becoming far more compact than the past generations, I can't imagine them being suitable for gaming still, even if the hardware technically supports it.

BGraves

^DoubleNNs, I'm definetly not saying that anyone should switch to a MBP for "just gaming" from a PC. Obviously the difference in design/purpose are different there and overall PC's tend to be better suited for gaming.
What I AM saying is, the possibility to play games on MAC is increasing and the hardware IS(ever so slowly!) getting more suitable.
Although myself have never had any vent/heat issues with my 13 mbp when playing LOL at low settings. It gets warm but provided it's on a hard flat surface, no notable issues. Obviously I'm not trying to run GTA4 on high settings or anything, lol.

@Mutata
The MBP's were refreshed yesterday, what are your thoughts on it? Personally I couldn't drop that amount of $ on a laptop and be happy with what I was getting in return. Still quite happy with a 13 inch mbp and a desktop pc for gaming though.

Mutata

@BGraves, the upgrade cycle was actually what I was waiting for before I made any decision. The point that I'm having trouble getting past is I'd want the model with the GT750 and 16GB of RAM, thats about $3,200. looking at laptops that had similar specs (minus the SSD which in most cases can be put in for $200) I can get the Lenovo Y510P for 1,000 - which has SLI 750s (again the card isn't my concern as I game on desktop) same CPU/RAM. Seems like a better deal.

Thats a difference of 2,200. That's essentially a Titan and a box stuffed with RAM for VMWare.

However; I was in the same boat about a year ago. When I bought my current ASUS ROG laptop (i7, 24GB RAM, GTX 660M). It was a fun machine to buy, but the sheer size and lack of battery make it tough to use say sitting on the couch.

MrAgent

I bought an ASUS X75A for about $500 for grad school. It has an i5 and 8 gigs of RAM. I went and bought a SanDisk 256gb ssd for $130, and it runs VMs like a champ. I do a lot of virtualization on it for different security labs for class. I may end up adding more ram so I can run more VMs as well.

BGraves

@Mutata
Yes, I am a bit underwhelmed by what they are offering for that amount of money, even knowing it's a incredibly solid/versatile/dependable product(like others have mentioned above). So def can agree that there might be better options out there for you for what you are wanting to do.
Can't provide any real recommendation on which route to go, it's really based on personal preference and what is being offered by who. I do like the look of the new Dell XPS 15 Touch though and that might be similar to your wants. I'm holding out for a Surface 2 Pro to replace my work laptop though, would be nice for the travel that is involved! Good luck!

JoJoCal19

Mutata wrote: »

I will be using the laptop mostly for running VMs , surfing the web, light coding/scripting and surfing the web. Gaming would be a nice to have, but my desktop is more than sufficient to fill that role.

There is no laptop I like more for this use than a MBP. I have a 2011 MBP 15" with quad i7 and love it. In my opinion OSX blows W8 away and is just so much more pleasant to use for everyday tasks. I like that I can dual boot Windows 7 for all of my IT needs. Since I have one of the MBPs with optical drive, I will be swapping in an SSD in an opti-bay in place of the optical drive and will install just Windows 7 on that and install VMWare Workstation for my InfoSec/Pentesting labbing.

RouteMyPacket

13" Macbook Pro Retina here....I bought this for work and it is by far the best laptop I have ever had. Where did you get $3,200 from? They start at $1,499 now down from $1,699

Check AppleInsider | News and rumors since 1997

ptilsen

15'' MBP with the Geforce, at a low low $2,600.

kriscamaro68

Check this out as it might be exactly what you are looking for: Razer Blade 14": The World's Thinnest Gaming Laptop - Razer United States

networker050184

I love the MBP but I just can't justify spending that kind of money personally. Give me a ThinkPad, dual boot it with my Linux distro of choice at the time and I'm good to go.

NotHackingYou

Does the Razer Blade really only have 1600x900 resolution? Newegg.com - Razer Blade RZ09-01021101-R3U1 Intel Core i7 4702HQ(2.20GHz) 8GB Memory 256GB SSD 14" Notebook Windows 8.1

ptilsen

^Absolutely. Resolution is probably the most common concession PC manufacturers make today, and one reason why I'd seriously consider an MBP if I were in the market for a laptop. This idea that we don't need a minimum of 1920x1080 on anything bigger than 11'' is just insane.

Mutata

The new XPS 15's are pretty interesting.
High res, similar specs to the RMBP couple hundred bucks cheaper

ptilsen

Actually, the new XPS 15'' is pretty interesting. Basically the same weight/height and specs, dropping Retina edit: scratch that, it comes with 3200 x 1800 on the pricier model for a touchscreen and $350. I suspect battery is far worse during real-world use than the MBP, but still pretty good. Very interesting.

Mutata

@Ptilsen, resolution on top models are 3200x1800. If I'm not mistaken that's similar to Retina?

ptilsen

Yep, I made an edit. Pretty impressive. I'd wait for reviews, professional and shopper, for both products, however. One iteration of the MBP had serious screen problems (plenty of other Macbooks as well), and Dell has certainly had its share of problems. The MBP still has a couple minor advantages, but nothing to justify the price (unless you have some need for OS X), so if qualitative analysis and reliability are good, the XPS 15 line looks really, really solid.

One other thing is my understand is that Apple has done a decent job making Retina resolution actually usable and useful. Microsoft, less so. Hence, wait for reviews. For the price difference, though, I'd probably opt for the middle-tier, $1,849.99 Dell if the resolution is no good.

Apple was wise to drop the price, but they should have upped the RAM or something as well. The IRIS Pro-only 15'' is $2,000 for 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD. Crazy.

kriscamaro68

I just bought the top of the line new MacBook Pro for my wife as she is in the A/V industry and uses Final Cut for everything. A few things I think give the MBP an advantage over the XPS15 is that it uses PCIe based SSD which allows for quite a bit faster SSD than a Sata connect SSD and also it allows for the Corei7 4960HQ CPU while the XPS15 is only a 4702. If neither of those is useful then the price difference is pretty big between the highend XPS15 and the MBP-highend. I couldn't justify the 1tb ssd so she will have to deal with the 512gb ssd. Once it arrives sometime next week I will see if she will leave it alone long enough to do a possible review of it.

ptilsen

The PCI-E thing is a valid difference, though I would want to see benchmarks in Boot Camp or at least same-app benchmarks in Mac OS X to see the actual performance difference. The CPU, however, is a non-issue, IMO. You'll find very few real-world laptop needs for even a Core i7 over an i5. I actually wish I'd gotten an i5 in my Ivy Bridge laptop. The i7 makes it hotter and sucks up power for what is usually an imperceptible speed difference (mind you, I thought I'd be doing more virtualization than I am when I bought it).

Another minor benefit, from my research, is that the MBP can output to three 1080P monitors comfortably or two plus the built-in. I don't think the Dell can output to three, period, but it might be able to do two and itself. This might sound like a silly difference, but to me it's the difference between actually replacing my desktop (I use three 1080p monitors when programming, and not even a 3200x1800 monitor will entice me away from my setup).

But really, I think someone would be crazy not to wait for reviews and benchmarks. The cheapest of the Dell 15s is a ton of money for a computer that if you think about it is really only a marginal improvement over a last-gen or two-gens-old model at twice the price. Better be sure about your decision before blowing a grand or three.

kriscamaro68

ptilsen wrote: »

The PCI-E thing is a valid difference, though I would want to see benchmarks in Boot Camp or at least same-app benchmarks in Mac OS X to see the actual performance difference. The CPU, however, is a non-issue, IMO. You'll find very few real-world laptop needs for even a Core i7 over an i5. I actually wish I'd gotten an i5 in my Ivy Bridge laptop. The i7 makes it hotter and sucks up power for what is usually an imperceptible speed difference (mind you, I thought I'd be doing more virtualization than I am when I bought it).

Another minor benefit, from my research, is that the MBP can output to three 1080P monitors comfortably or two plus the built-in. I don't think the Dell can output to three, period, but it might be able to do two and itself. This might sound like a silly difference, but to me it's the difference between actually replacing my desktop (I use three 1080p monitors when programming, and not even a 3200x1800 monitor will entice me away from my setup).

But really, I think someone would be crazy not to wait for reviews and benchmarks. The cheapest of the Dell 15s is a ton of money for a computer that if you think about it is really only a marginal improvement over a last-gen or two-gens-old model at twice the price. Better be sure about your decision before blowing a grand or three.

My $3k is already blown as she is already into the hockey season and her imac is not cutting it at all anymore even after fresh install. We have been waiting for this revision for awhile so with her needing to get work done in Final Cut we took the leap. She also makes enough to pay for it on side gigs she works for ESPN and what not so I am not to worried about it.