best laptop w/ windows 7 pro

ganutenator · Jan 21, 2016

It's laptop buying time again.

Mainly, because I want to get one before I can no longer get one w/ Windows 7 Pro.

What in your opinion is the best out there:
quickest, good touchpad, under $2k?

Please don't make this a debate about the OS, as most of you all should know, the plc and hmi software etc determine this.

mendonsy · Jan 21, 2016

It depends on what is important to you.
I use the Dell 'M' series which have all the horsepower of a desktop, but the battery life on them is terrible because they use a quad core I7 CPU and have a 17" screen.

ganutenator · Jan 21, 2016

remember the Dell Inspiron where it had to slots for batteries and you could hot swap them? that would be cool.

Also, over all satisfaction w/ your laptop.
I am currently using a Samsung I7-2675QM w/ 2.2GHz cpu and 6 gigs of ram, but the touchpad is absolutely horrible, and the Samsung driver updates were horrible.

RDS · Jan 21, 2016

If you don't mind a factory refurb laptop, Dell has this site:
http://dellrefurbished.com/
You can pick the OS and features you want plus you don't get a load of "crapware" to uninstall.

geniusintraining · Jan 21, 2016

ganutenator said:
Please don't make this a debate about the OS.

Would never do such a thing... but now that you brought it up

Paullys50 · Jan 21, 2016

Dell XPS 15" or the Dell m3800. Both are powerful, sleek and smaller than what I have recommended in the past.

I currently have the Dell m4800 and would love to downsize. Prior to that had the Dell m6700 (freakin' beast).

The XPS and m3800 are at a point where SSD and 16GB of RAM are easy to get in a small package with a good price point. Plus they are straight up ***y!

EDIT: OS is a non-issue, VMs FTW!

Lovell · Jan 21, 2016

I suggest finding one with a native com port if you intend to connect to older PLC hardware. Sometimes USB-Serial adapters are not compatible (ie. it needs COM1 or COM2).

Operaghost · Jan 21, 2016

A suggestion on what to avoid..........

Our group uses the Dell Latitude "E" series. I have the E6530. It seems like we are constantly getting laptops repaired. My Ethernet port died a month or so ago. We had always had good luck with Dell, but I would steer clear of that model line.

If you buy a PC direct from Microsoft, it is crapware free. I would also consider a touchscreen. I really miss it when I move from my Surface Pro 4 back to my work laptop.

OG

harryting · Jan 21, 2016

We used to be all Dell Latitude (their coroporate line) now we are all Lenovo Thinkpad. ThinkPad T series are very good. IMO. There's enough USB ports (4) and very solidly built for our line of work.

mbartoli · Jan 21, 2016

I still really like my Panasonic Toughbook... Win 7, lots of RAM and a real serial port, plus it is damn near indestructible. Battery seems to last forever, too.

brendan.buchan · Jan 21, 2016

I second the Lenovo recommendation.

We are now using the Lenovo ThinkPad T540p's.

I spec them with Win7 Pro, i7 quad core processor, 16GB ram and a 128GB SSD. I then order the SATA HDD caddy accessory and replace the DVD-RW with a 500GB SSD for running all the programming VM's.

Very solidly built laptops and blazingly fast with both OS and VM's running off SSD's. This build comes to just shy of $3K here in AUD so I'm guessing it will be under $2K over there.

ASF · Jan 21, 2016

At the risk of being accused of sacrilege, I'm going to suggest a macbook pro? Seeing as you'll (presumably) be running VM's for all your software anyway, the hardware doesn't make a lot of difference. My company has 3 of them and they're super powerful, killer battery life, amazing display and trackpad, and I've never had any issues with running Windows VM's and doing things in a PC world. We spec 13", 16GB ram and at least 512GB SSD (latest one was 1TB SSD), it's a bit more than $2k here but we pay the Australia Premium for everything with an apple logo on it here so you might get it in under $2k there.

brendan.buchan · Jan 21, 2016

Jeez ASF. I'm not sure I could take any programmer using a Macbook seriously.

MATT116 · Jan 21, 2016

HP ZBook G2 17".
Will hold 2 hard drives 3 if you want to take the cd drive out also supports pcie m.2 ssd
Plenty of horse power, have no problems running 2 vms at a time but the battery life is horrible and they can be pricey think I spent $3200

ASF · Jan 21, 2016

brendan.buchan said:
Jeez ASF. I'm not sure I could take any programmer using a Macbook seriously.

I get that a lot. But then when I've started two VM's and am online with the PLC before their host has booted up, they tend to quiet down. And when they're tethered to a power outlet after an hour and I'm still going on battery after 6-8 hours, the longing glances start

best laptop w/ windows 7 pro

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