New laptop suggestions, Programming & Gaming

[Estex]

While you asked Sze, I can say that I don't feel that they're smaller. I *DO* kind of miss my home/pgup/pgdown/end keys, but I've started using vimium for chrome, and at least my browsing hasn't been affected. I've actually started using vimium on my desktop, as I find that using Vimium I need less movement to browse now, and browse a bit faster.

BTW, as a competitor/alternative to the XPS15 I would actually look at the P34G v5, and not the P34W v5.

Hmm. Certainly, the specs of the P34G match those of the XPS15, but the two major drawbacks that I can see (compared to both the P34W and the XPS 15) are 1) the 960m instead of the 970m in the P34W, and 2) the lack of thunderbolt 3 incorporated into the USB Type C port.

The benefit of having the TB3 on the XPS 15, of course, is that I could eventually get an external GPU. Alternatively, at least with a 970m I could play up-to-date games until I'm able to afford a new desktop build. Decisions decisions! The Gigabyte would cost me around the same thing as the XPS 15, in all likelihood, which I'll admit, is kind of leaning back in the XPS 15's favour considering its 15" screen, slimmer metal body, and the major consideration: TB3 for a future external GPU. I'm curious just how much an egpu dock through TB3 will cost, though. ARGH! So many things to consider XD

I imagine the keys on the XPS 13 seemed smaller simply because the entire thing is crammed into such a tiny frame. Optical illusion!

 

[sm625]

How about the MSI GT72S? At any rate, for programming, your battery life is going to be only about 5% worse than the idle battery life, which still puts you at 4 hours.

 

[Estex]

Alas, the MSI GT72S is double the weight limit I've set on this thing, and far thicker and larger than anything I'd put into my backpack. This needs to come around with me to classes all day, which means 15.6" and roughly 5 lbs is my max.

 

[Estex]

So! Now that E-gpu cases are becoming available, I've decided to go for the XPS 15. I will give you guys an update on the quality and state it arrives in. Hopefully all will be well. Thanks for all of your help, folks!

 

[sze5003]

So! Now that E-gpu cases are becoming available, I've decided to go for the XPS 15. I will give you guys an update on the quality and state it arrives in. Hopefully all will be well. Thanks for all of your help, folks!

You will like it. I just hope they come out with that cable so I can add another hd for Linux or storage. The new bios update made the laptop boot really quickly now. Battery life is more detailed now too. But I didn't notice any longer battery life.

 

[Estex]

You will like it. I just hope they come out with that cable so I can add another hd for Linux or storage. The new bios update made the laptop boot really quickly now. Battery life is more detailed now too. But I didn't notice any longer battery life.

That's awesome news. I imagine things will be more streamlined in the BIOS & drivers department very soon. They always need to work out the kinks - it's just a shame that seems to happen AFTER we buy their products.

Personally, I'm excited to see when USB keys with C-type adapters flood the market, especially those that actually utilize USB 3.1 rather than 3.0 speeds.

 

[ringtail]

It is suggested that you go HERE and instead of browsing around their clunky site, directly ASK THEM by phone or email to suggest what they can do considering your BUDGET + REQUIREMENTS.

They've CONSISTENTLY delivered great deals to us on many Sager, MSI and ASUS laptops. I recommend them because I'm a happy customer. Those all have proved excellent.

REMEMBER: DON'T BUY LENOVO, which brand was discovered by FBI to contain secretly embedded phone-home chips and software to steal USA intellectual property. DON'T PATRONIZE LENOVO!!! Your DOLLAR is like a VOTE, as Robert A. Heinlein said in several of his wonderful novels. Don't VOTE for LENOVO!!! Avoid LENOVO brand.

 

[giantpandaman2]

\

REMEMBER: DON'T BUY LENOVO, which brand was discovered by FBI to contain secretly embedded phone-home chips and software to steal USA intellectual property. DON'T PATRONIZE LENOVO!!! Your DOLLAR is like a VOTE, as Robert A. Heinlein said in several of his wonderful novels. Don't VOTE for LENOVO!!! Avoid LENOVO brand.

They had the Superfish scandal and that's it. Keep the ridiculous stuff in off topic.

 

[Fallen Kell]

They had the Superfish scandal and that's it. Keep the ridiculous stuff in off topic.

Actually, it isn't just Superfish:

http://www.techworm.net/2015/08/lenovo-pcs-and-laptops-seem-to-have-a-bios-level-backdoor.html

And please notice, the only reason this particular backdoor has been "removed" was because it was found. There are plenty of other ways there could be a new replacement or alternative backdoor on the systems that have not yet been found.

 

[linkgoron]

You will like it. I just hope they come out with that cable so I can add another hd for Linux or storage. The new bios update made the laptop boot really quickly now. Battery life is more detailed now too. But I didn't notice any longer battery life.

Just to add on the battery life - I'm getting 9-11 hours of battery life from mine (again, i7/512/FHD/16GB), but I'm not doing anything heavy. Either way, I'm extremely satisfied with my battery life.

 

[Estex]

Just to add on the battery life - I'm getting 9-11 hours of battery life from mine (again, i7/512/FHD/16GB), but I'm not doing anything heavy. Either way, I'm extremely satisfied with my battery life.

That's great news!

My criteria included having at least 4 hours of battery life, so 9 to 11 is absolutely killer. Thank god, I have access to a fresh copy of Win 7 to put on there when I get it. Do you recommend any of the default Dell applications? I've heard mention that their colour management utility is handy.

Now I just need to find a skin for the laptop and a nice sleeve

 

[linkgoron]

That's great news!

My criteria included having at least 4 hours of battery life, so 9 to 11 is absolutely killer. Thank god, I have access to a fresh copy of Win 7 to put on there when I get it. Do you recommend any of the default Dell applications? I've heard mention that their colour management utility is handy.

Now I just need to find a skin for the laptop and a nice sleeve

BTW I have the 84Whr battery, and my current workload really is light and non-heavy.

I don't really like to give advice on accessories, as I just don't really care about them as long as they work - but for a sleeve I bought the incase MBP 15 neoprene case. It's nothing to write home about, but it works. I bought it because I wanted a sleeve with a zipper, as I've read some post somewhere that a laptop can fall out of sleeves that close with magnets if you hold the sleeve upside down. While it doesn't sound likely, and I'm not even sure if it's actually true, I just didn't want to take any chances as the sleeve isn't very important for me. If you need a real case which is more like a bag with pockets and stuff, I'd look somewhere else.

This is the case:
http://www.amazon.com/Incase-Neoprene-15-inch-MacBook-CL60226/dp/B00BKNCLHG

I haven't used any of their apps, and I think I cancelled or didn't install some that the computer asked me to install. I haven't had anything pop-up or annoy me, except for the annoying nVidia geforce experience crap.

I kind of miss my dedicated home etc. buttons, so for browsing and stuff I installed Vimium. I've been so happy with it and with some of my custom key-mappings that I've installed it on two extra desktops that I work on.

 

[Estex]

BTW I have the 84Whr battery, and my current workload really is light and non-heavy.

Yeah I'll have the same 84Whr battery. In fact I think we have the exact same build, and most of my workload will be intermittent use during classes. In comparison, I currently have a Samsung Series 9 ultrabook and the battery life is 2.5 hours at -most-, so in comparison I'll have about 3 times the amount that I'm used to.

Out of curiosity - for those of you who have either the XPS 13 or XPS 15 - how do you feel about the wireless card? Is it good so far?

I ask because I'm considering getting the Killer Wireless-AC 1535. It's $50 CAD on Amazon, and the idea of having a new card that gives extended range seems crazy appealing. If there's one thing I'd love to do with this new laptop, it's make sure that I have the best connectivity possible. Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about wireless cards outside of how to change them. The 1535 has an M.2 connector, so as far as I can tell, it should fit

 

[DietDrThunder]

So I'm not trying to hi-jack this thread, I'm looking to get an XPS. My kid is heading off to college in the fall. My kid will be a computer science major, and I'm trying to determine how much is enough and how much is overkill. I know they'll run a VM with a flavor of linux, and some sort of development environment for their software course work. I know I'll need to get the 512GB SSD, but I'm not sure if more than 8GB of ram or if more than the 1080p display is necessary. What are your opinions?

 

[sze5003]

So I'm not trying to hi-jack this thread, I'm looking to get an XPS. My kid is heading off to college in the fall. My kid will be a computer science major, and I'm trying to determine how much is enough and how much is overkill. I know they'll run a VM with a flavor of linux, and some sort of development environment for their software course work. I know I'll need to get the 512GB SSD, but I'm not sure if more than 8GB of ram or if more than the 1080p display is necessary. What are your opinions?

8gb is fine becuause you can upgrade yourself later. Not sure if you need the 4k screen unless he will be working in adobe or graphics related software.

If you are running a lot of VM machines go with the i7 model.

 

[DietDrThunder]

8gb is fine becuause you can upgrade yourself later. Not sure if you need the 4k screen unless he will be working in adobe or graphics related software.

If you are running a lot of VM machines go with the i7 model.

Is the RAM up gradable? I don't know why, but I thought the RAM was soldered in.

 

[sze5003]

Is the RAM up gradable? I don't know why, but I thought the RAM was soldered in.

If you are talking about the 15 inch model, yes. Mine has 2 4gb sticks in it now.

 

[Estex]

I just started computer engineering & computer science in college, and I can tell you that the XPS 15 is more than enough.

The requirements for -our- devices include:
- AT LEAST 12gb or RAM
- AT LEAST 512gb of storage
- AT LEAST an i5 processor

That's it. And even in this case, 90% of the people who are in this program still use laptops with 8gb of RAM, and storage is no longer an issue considering you can get external SSDs if necessary.

The 4K screen will be utterly unnecessary. Better off getting the FHD 1080P screen and more battery life as a result.

 

[DietDrThunder]

I just started computer engineering & computer science in college, and I can tell you that the XPS 15 is more than enough.

The requirements for -our- devices include:
- AT LEAST 12gb or RAM
- AT LEAST 512gb of storage
- AT LEAST an i5 processor

That's it. And even in this case, 90% of the people who are in this program still use laptops with 8gb of RAM, and storage is no longer an issue considering you can get external SSDs if necessary.

The 4K screen will be utterly unnecessary. Better off getting the FHD 1080P screen and more battery life as a result.

Unfortunately, Dell won't let me configure an XPS 15 with 16GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, and a Core i5 processor online.

 

[Estex]

Really? Are you outside North America? I seem to remember that different countries offer different configurations. They only make the XPS 15 with i7 processors as far as I'm aware, so that's more than enough. All of their models are pre-configured, so you won't do much modifying, yourself. The one that I ordered here in Canada has 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a Core i7 with 1080P FHD screen.

Take a look at the XPS 15 page where all of the models are displayed and see if there are little arrows at the top right that let you move forward and back. The Canadian site automatically shows "4/6" between these arrows, meaning I had to click the right arrow to see the next two models - one of which was the model I selected.

 

[sze5003]

Unfortunately, Dell won't let me configure an XPS 15 with 16GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, and a Core i5 processor online.

When I ordered, and I'm in US, the i5 only came with a 1tb sshd hard drive and 8gb. The i7 came with a 256gb ssd and 8gb of ram. Now they have changed the configs.

 

[DietDrThunder]

Really? Are you outside North America? I seem to remember that different countries offer different configurations. They only make the XPS 15 with i7 processors as far as I'm aware, so that's more than enough. All of their models are pre-configured, so you won't do much modifying, yourself. The one that I ordered here in Canada has 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a Core i7 with 1080P FHD screen.

Take a look at the XPS 15 page where all of the models are displayed and see if there are little arrows at the top right that let you move forward and back. The Canadian site automatically shows "4/6" between these arrows, meaning I had to click the right arrow to see the next two models - one of which was the model I selected.

I can get the XPS 15 with a Core i7, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SDD, with a 1080PFHD screen, but I can get a Core i5 configured this way.

 

[sze5003]

I can get the XPS 15 with a Core i7, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SDD, with a 1080PFHD screen, but I can get a Core i5 configured this way.

Yup this is the top config for the US. I also wanted the i7 with the hard drive they have in the i5 but they don't do that either.

 

[linkgoron]

As a computer science major myself, the i5 xps is much more than enough.

For reference - I finished my degree with a T420 with 8GB RAM and a dual core i7-2620m. I did, however, dual boot Linux instead of using a VM as I felt that the performance wasn't good enough. We are, however, 4+ years later and talking about a quad core, so I think that it would more than enough.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I never enjoyed the performance of my Linux VM under Windows 7. You'll want more than 8GB of RAM for the VM.

Dual booting is much better performance wise.