Laptop recommendation. 1200 gbp

UKB

Member
Join Date
Aug 2014
Location
UK
Posts
56
Well, time for a new Laptop, primarily needs to run TIA on a VM.
Any suggestions, or alternatively, anything to be avoided?
1200 gpb to spend.

Thanks, UkB.
 
I spent a month researching my new laptop and although we don't get a budget, it's expected to last a couple of years. But they are a daily driver as we don't use desktops.

I looked at the linked one, but 17" display, it was bulky and with 66wh battery, that is not going to last long.

I wanted fast performance, a num-pad, small, light-weight and quick, as I also run TIA on a VM and Studio 5000 et al on the host.

I eventually went with:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/GIGABYTE-AERO-15X-Notebook-i7-8750H/dp/B07C1GKJYH?th=1

and 3 months in - I can safety say. It's by far the best laptop I have owned. The battery lasts all day on-site and it's quick as fig.

That said, I work for an SI, so we are away 50% of the time and may or may not be in the vicinity of a socket, so battery life was important as was a 4k screen.

That also said, we are only a mid-size firm with 10 or so field guys and we don't have an IT department trying to get us to buy a cheap brick of a laptop for as cheap as possible.

If you're carting it around your own site, then the linked is a good choice, if you're out and about, maybe not IMO

EDIT: Over budget, yes. But well worth the extra if you can swing it.
 
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If you're carting it around your own site, then the linked is a good choice, if you're out and about, maybe not IMO

And just to add further... I have novatech laptops from 2006, still run today... they don't add bloatware if you get them to install the OS.

I'm never too far from a socket and don't travel (fly) much, so will look into a spare battery from the outset and a docking station.
 
I have a Dell Precision 7520, but now there is a 7530:

Precision 7530

Reasons I bought this one:

Has a regular 2.5" HDD spot, as well as an NVMe slot to add an SSD (I added one after because it was cheaper than Dell's). I have 1TB + 1TB installed now (not that you would need it!)
Has 4 RAM slots. I had ordered 16GB, but added another 16GB after, because I run many virtual machines. (Again, not that you would need it)

After I got it (I hadn't seen it before I bought it), I like the build quality. Backlit keyboard is nice for low-light conditions. It has a separate number pad. 4GB GDDR5 video memory makes for a good graphics experience.

This one's over budget too... but sometimes you have to weigh additional features & better quality against a lower budget.
 
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I have been using IBM/Lenovo laptops for years and have always been happy with them. They have great keyboards. The T series are quite robust, T4xx for 14" and T5xx for 15". The latter have a numpad. L series are cheaper and somewhat simpler construction. Even those have not let me down. At work we have a few L530 laptops that have been in use for years and go with our mechanical guys on commissioning jobs. Lots of travel, tough environments (dust, salts) and still going strong.


Since you intend to run VM's: get some extra memory installed right away, I'd say 16GB or more. At least 500GB disk space, preferably 1TB. SSD is much faster. If 1TB SSD costs too much, then get a laptop with two drives: boot from the smaller SSD, use the 1 TB drive for data and your VM images.
 
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