Any ideas on a barebone/no OS laptop?

SteveFT

Looking into purchasing a new laptop with some more juice. No ambitions of gaming or anything like that. All I need is CPU power/cores and lots of RAM. I was thinking something along the lines of an i7 with 16gb of ram. The computer will be used for day to day stuff, but I would also like to use it for running multiple VMs for Linux, Windows 7/8, and Windows Server. I might be practicing with a host and 1-2 additional VMs at a time, so I don't want to worry about juice. I realize that a desktop would likely work better, but it is important that this machine be mobile.

I was hoping to find a machine that doesn't have RAM or an OS (or free OS). I feel like the ram upgrades are completely over-priced. On Newegg I've found quotes of $140-160 for a 16gb kit (2x8gb). Some notebook manufacturers list an 8gb --> 16gb upgrade at more than this. Likewise, I've seen that Windows can add $100-150 to the quote for a machine. This is money that I'd like to save because I'm hoping to pay ~$800-1,000 total including the upgrade. Perhaps my price point is off, but other than a good processor and RAM, my requirements aren't much.

Any ideas? I will keep looking via Google, but not seeing a heck of a lot.

Hypntick

My suggestion would be a Sager. I purchased one about a year ago, no OS and had solid customization options. I ended up with a 3rd gen i7 with 16GB of memory, and a GeForce GT 650M, which allows me to do the little gaming I enjoy. I bought an 11 inch model for maximum portability, set me back right around 1k or so after rush build and rush shipping. If you want the site I got it from, let me know and i'll send you a PM with the link.

-hype

I would highly recommend a W series Lenovo Thinkpad. These things are beasts!!!

I've had a W510 series for about 3 years now, cost me 1200$. As soon as I got it, I maxed the ram to 16 gb. I ran a lot of virtual labs on it using vmware. And was running 4 VMs at a time. I use it daily at about 4-8 hrs. I absolutely love it, plus the customer service is by far the best. I call say I need this, they send it next day, No BS! Over the course, I've gotten 3 AC adapters replaced, and 1 LCD Screen. The LCD had lines going through it, probably because I was lugging it around in my backpack and dropped it on the sides. Of course I have to ship my faulty part back. I still have a Thinkpad T40 from ~2004 that is still kicking! Absolutely no hardware faults, like you see with crappy Dell and HP, bad MOBO, Vid card etc..

The newer series; W520 and W530 both have max ram of 32 GB. Plus has a lot of processing power! If you want to buy one, wait atleast until new years eve, Lenovo has a big sale where you could snatch up this great laptop for roughly 1000$. And it is worth every damn penny!

SteveFT

-hype wrote: »

I would highly recommend a W series Lenovo Thinkpad. These things are beasts!!!

I've had a W510 series for about 3 years now, cost me 1200$. As soon as I got it, I maxed the ram to 16 gb. I ran a lot of virtual labs on it using vmware. And was running 4 VMs at a time. I use it daily at about 4-8 hrs. I absolutely love it, plus the customer service is by far the best. I call say I need this, they send it next day, No BS! Over the course, I've gotten 3 AC adapters replaced, and 1 LCD Screen. The LCD had lines going through it, probably because I was lugging it around in my backpack and dropped it on the sides. Of course I have to ship my faulty part back. I still have a Thinkpad T40 from ~2004 that is still kicking! Absolutely no hardware faults, like you see with crappy Dell and HP, bad MOBO, Vid card etc..

The newer series; W520 and W530 both have max ram of 32 GB. Plus has a lot of processing power! If you want to buy one, wait atleast until new years eve, Lenovo has a big sale where you could snatch up this great laptop for roughly 1000$. And it is worth every damn penny!

Did all of that happen within the first year? I see that they now have a 1 year warranty. Is this different than when you bought one?

We use Lenovo laptops at work and I do like them. The problem I'm having is that they don't seem to offer no OS. I'll check with their sales team and see if they do it without advertising it. I do like that it is expandable up to 32gb of ram (4 dimms). That would mean I could buy it stock with 8gb and expand it to 24gb and not have to worry about RAM ever. The only thing I didn't like was the video card, which I'm sure adds some $$ to the price.

In any case it looks like it could be a great buy. I'll look for a deal. Thanks!

-hype

The LCD happened like 4 months ago. The adapters are very heavy and my brothers throw them around the wire usually shorts. Wait until cyber Monday or new years. That's when they have the best deals. Make sure you get extended warranty, I believe its 90$ for 3 years.

You will not be disappointed.

CCNTrainee

Thanks to this post it got me looking into buying custom built laptops as well.

In my search, I found what I think is a gem... XOTIC PC | Sager NP8235 (Clevo P151SM1)

It has a 4th gen i7 Quad, a 770M GPU, 2 mSATA bays for SSD upgrades, free promotion for a 1TB HDD, you can upgrade to 32gb RAM as well. With my settings that I want, it runs at 1400. You can find much cheaper models without the high end GPU, which will cut it real low. Just food for thought...

SteveFT

I was considering Sager because there are a number of positive reviews out there. My concern is whether or not many Linux distros will work with it. I'd like to think that it would all work fine, but I don't know what kind of hardware is in the Sager. Dell and Lenovo seem to have a number of computers that are "certified" to work with Ubuntu. I doubt this is perfect either. However, drivers are likely going to be kept up to date for computers that are widely distributed.

Another machine I'm considering is the Lenovo ThinkPad E531. See below:

ThinkPad E531 | Small Business Laptop Optimized for Windows 8 | | Lenovo (US)

Looks like a good 3rd generation i7 processor. For only $720, I will just take out the 4gb of ram and install a 16gb kit for $140. So, for only $860 I have a machine that fits my needs. This wouldn't be great for anyone interested in gaming obviously because of the integrated graphics. With this most being a virtualization lab and general use computers, I'm not sure if I can justify paying the extra money for a graphics card. Also, from what I've been reading this might reduce the battery life by quite a bit.

The other strong option is the Sager with integrated graphics, a 4700MQ i7 instead of the 3rd generation (benchmarks don't seem to be much different), but a considerably better screen (FHD) and larger hard drive (+250GB) for $930.

Without knowing anything more, I think I might have to go with the more popularly used brand and save the $70.

ccnxjr

The Sager laptops look exciting!

I wonder if the drivers for the Sager hardware is open source and/or which distros have the right drivers for it.

The Technomancer

Sagers, for the most part, use Clevo barebones shells.

Get a Clevo barebones shell, get parts that are known to work with the distro that you want, and learn how to build a laptop, or send that parts list to a boutique shop and have them build it so you get a warranty.

petedude

The Technomancer wrote: »

Sagers, for the most part, use Clevo barebones shells.

Get a Clevo barebones shell, get parts that are known to work with the distro that you want, and learn how to build a laptop, or send that parts list to a boutique shop and have them build it so you get a warranty.

Ick. I'd rather just buy System76 or something and be done with.

It's no longer that cost-effective to build your own, unfortunately, unless you're building either gaming rigs or servers. The trend may change again in the future, but I can't even begin to guess when or how.

QHalo

I have a W530 with 32GB of RAM in it and two SSDs (HDD bay in the DVD slot). I can't make this thing cry. The only con so far, heavy.

SteveFT

QHalo wrote: »

I have a W530 with 32GB of RAM in it and two SSDs (HDD bay in the DVD slot). I can't make this thing cry. The only con so far, heavy.

I'm leaning in this direction. The more I use my W530 at work, the more I like it. I just wish they would drop even $80-100 for the Windows license.

SteveFT

petedude wrote: »

Ick. I'd rather just buy System76 or something and be done with.

It's no longer that cost-effective to build your own, unfortunately, unless you're building either gaming rigs or servers. The trend may change again in the future, but I can't even begin to guess when or how.

Any personal experience with System76? I'm also considering the Gazelle Professional. For just under $1000 I can get a FHD 15.6" screen, i7 4700MQ, 750GB 7200rpm drive, and do the 16GB ram upgrade myself. Cons are that I don't know if it is as well built as the Lenovo and it is not as expandable. The latter might not be as big of a deal because 16gb is likely more than enough for the virtualization that I will be doing.

On the other hand, the Lenovo has a discreet video card, but only HD+ screen (not a big deal in either case). The biggest difference is that it would be ~$350 more with the same specs. The 530 would offer more expandability. However, I'm not sure if having >16gb will ever be important. If it is at some point, the processor will probably be too outdated anyways.

I'll be making a decision after I check out the holiday deals.

inscom.brigade

Sager looks really great! I would love 32g RAM, but after toting my work laptop back and forth to work on the train, I opted for a lighter weight laptop. I do not run VM much but I have my ccie GNS3 lab running 24 routers and all the configs are loaded with protocols and tunnels. the CPU resourse hang at around 60-70 %, while my RAM usage is hanging at 40%. I said I am ccie labbing so gamming is not in the picture. I bought a samsung chromos 7. Max's out at 12g ram which I have and is 3rd gen i7. this is much liter than my dell work i7 and I have yet to cause it to hang or lock up.

CCNTrainee

Just to update everyone on this matter, so I ended up buying the Sager after all. Wasn't interested in getting a gaming at first, but when I was fooling around with the custom configs, I wasn't getting much deals with the "bang for my buck". In turn I would have at least dropped a grand which included shipping to an APO location. I couldn't justify spending nearly a grand and still now being able to run games.

I had more deals when I decided to lookup for a laptop with a decent GPU and just for a few hundred more I would have a 4th gen i7 quadcore with the 2nd greatest/latest Nvidia mobile GPU for gaming. Tell you the truth I could have got it right under 1300 but decided to let them up the RAM to 16 so I could qualify for the instant rebate sale. I opted out on their SSD since I found a 240/256 gb for $150 including free shipping and a guaranteed quicker delivery for a APO location, waiting to see what Cyber Monday has to offer for SSDs, but the shipping options to my location is what going to be the deciding factor for me.

In the end, my total was a little over $1400 with shipping included. Due to being overseas, I didn't qualify for the free UPS shipping. It’s being shipped by USPS as priority mail, which is the only option for APO locations costing $75 to ship out. This was cut in half due to Military discount. My setup is a 15.6 screen, i7 4700MQ (2.4ghz Quad-core) w/ diamond thermal compound, NVidia GTX 770M GPU, 16 gb RAM, 1TB HDD, Blue-Ray Burner, NO OS and a few free stuff. The sales manager have been real informal, so I had a nice experience all together. Just food for thought for anyone that is looking into a system for the Holidays.

CCNTrainee

inscom.brigade wrote: »

Sager looks really great! I would love 32g RAM, but after toting my work laptop back and forth to work on the train, I opted for a lighter weight laptop. I do not run VM much but I have my ccie GNS3 lab running 24 routers and all the configs are loaded with protocols and tunnels. the CPU resourse hang at around 60-70 %, while my RAM usage is hanging at 40%. I said I am ccie labbing so gamming is not in the picture. I bought a samsung chromos 7. Max's out at 12g ram which I have and is 3rd gen i7. this is much liter than my dell work i7 and I have yet to cause it to hang or lock up.

How much is the weight and what size do you have?? How is the battery life on your Samsung?? Depending on how the Sager feels on the day to day basis, I may just invest into a lighter model down the road for true mobility.

SteveFT

Ended up buying a Lenovo W530 for $999 at TigerDirect. This deal seems too good to be true, but I couldn't find any reason not to do it. On Lenovo's website, it would have cost ~$1300, with a slightly lower end processor (3630QM). The only difference I found was the 1366 x 768 display as opposed to the 1600 x 900. I'm hoping that this a typo because every other site has the 24384BU model listed with the 1600 x 900 display. If it is in fact the 1366 x 768, then I can live with it.