New Computers, Laptops and Slates.

Mike Lucey · 1 Jun 2016, 15:56

I thought I'd start a thread on new computers, laptops and slates that are coming on stream and keep it updated. I'd gladly welcome any updates from others also.

I used to love working on my 17" laptop screens and it took a while to get used to the smaller 15" screen that I now have with the BMP Retina.

I have just noticed that Dell have introduced an interesting hybrid laptop, the New Inspiron 17 7000 2-in-1. This package ticks all the right boxes with its 17" screen, sixth generation Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16 GB RAM and either a 1 TB HDD or a 512 GB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce 940MX graphics card with 2GB ram , a USB Type-C port, a single USB 2.0 and a USB 3.0 port, alongside an HDMI-out slot. The only downside is the 1080p resolution, which comes out to a low 130 PPI.

Maybe this resolution would not be such as problem as even though I have very high resolution available on the MBP Retina I don't always have it set to such.

The starting price looks enticing at $900, maybe enough to soften the lack of high resolution http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-17-7778-2-in-1-laptop/pd?oc=dncwscb6106b%26amp;model_id=inspiron-17-7778-2-in-1-laptop

Mike

kaas · 10 Jun 2016, 15:00

I'm up for a new laptop as well. So many choices..and still soo few since most brands don't offer a product for my 'ridiculous' wish-list. I'm looking for:

a nice looking business style laptop (no plastic crap, no fancy gaming design and no bright fancy gaming colors)
a good ips display. 15" and 1080p will do.
3 Mhz dual/quad core cpu (Intel)
dedicated gtx graphics, somewhere in the 900 series
and of course; fast ssd, good keyboard, etc.

I have been a long time user of Thinkpads and I really like the keyboards and small red-mouse pointer. They look like black boxes though and the screens are not that great most of the time. The ThinkPad T560 might be an option; i5-6200U (dual core 2.4-2.8 Ghz a bit underwhelming), GeForce 940MX 2GB is ok.

An alternative could be a Dell XPS 15 9550; i7-6700HQ (quad core 2.6-3.5 Ghz), GeForce GTX 960M, nice looks and thin bezel. Keys on keyboard are apparently flat (on Thinkpad they are curved). I know someone who did have lots of problems with his xps13 a few years ago so would be interested to hear some more.

Another one could be HP Envy 15-ae121nd; 6500U (dual core 2.5-3.1 Ghz) GeForce GTX 950M. Again, would be interested to hear more if someone uses this one.

Lets keep this thread going so we all now where to look for a decent laptop.

Charlie__V · 10 Jun 2016, 15:23

@kaas said:

I'm up for a new laptop as well. So many choices..and still soo few since most brands don't offer a product for my 'ridiculous' wish-list. I'm looking for:

a nice looking business style laptop (no plastic crap, no fancy gaming design and no bright fancy gaming colors)

a good ips display. 15" and 1080p will do.

3 Mhz dual/quad core cpu (Intel)

dedicated gtx graphics, somewhere in the 900 series

and of course; fast ssd, good keyboard, etc.

Lets keep this thread going so we all now where to look for a decent laptop.

I have been looking at the Dell Precision Mobil Workstations.
(I like 17" screen w/numbers keypad/SSD/4gb gtx/16gb ram/etc)
I have concerns about the high resolution displays due to the issues w/inferencing in SU.

Kaas:
A 15" model may work for you.

%(#BF4000)[Precision 15 5000 Series (5510)
Dell Mobile Precision Workstation 5510 XCTO, Windows 7 Professional English, French, Spanish 64bit (Includes Windows 10 Pro License)

Unit Price: $1,998.57

$599.57 = $1,399.(US)

BUILD MY DELL

Processor Intel Core i5-6300HQ (Quad Core 2.30GHz, 3.20GHz Turbo, 6MB 45W, w/Intel HD Graphics 530)

Operating System Windows 7 Professional English, French, Spanish 64bit
(Includes Windows 10 Pro License)

Video Card Nvidia Quadro M1000M w/2GB GDDR5

LCD 15.6" UltraSharp FHD IPS (1920x1080) Wide View Anti-Glare LED-backlit with Premium Panel Guarantee

Memory 8GB (2x4GB) 2133MHz DDR4 Non-ECC

Primary Storage 500GB 2.5 inch SATA 7200 rpm Hard Drive

Secondary Storage No Additional Hard Drive

Wireless Intel Dual-Band Wireless-AC 8260 Wi-Fi + BT 4.1 Wireless Card (2x2)

Driver Dell Wireless 8260 Driver

Keyboard Internal Single Pointing Backlit Keyboard, English]

Charlie

juju · 11 Jun 2016, 07:22

CHARLIE_V:
you're wasting money on the quadro GFX card, unless you'll be using it with a program that can actually take advantage of it (thus has specific "special" driver), rather take that and invest in higher clock speed CPU (if possible).

kaas · 11 Jun 2016, 08:24

@Charlie_V
Thanks for the suggestion. It seems the Precision 15 5000 Series (5510) is/looks almost identical to the xps15 although its hardware is not as good at the same price(at least over here in The Netherlands). Slightly less cpu speed, quadro instead of gtx960m, 8 Gb memory and 256 Gb ssd instead of 16Gb and 512 Gb ssd.

still looking...

Charlie__V · 11 Jun 2016, 14:34

@juju said:

CHARLIE_V:
you're wasting money on the quadro GFX card, unless you'll be using it with a program that can actually take advantage of it (thus has specific "special" driver), rather take that and invest in higher clock speed CPU (if possible).

juju,
thanks, and I agree with what you say here. (I know SU does not suport this)
I have been considering LumenRT and understand that will use the quadro hardware as designed.

And also, I recall reading some time ago that "todays" cpu clock speed is in no way the same as the old way of measuring.
IOW todays 2.7~3.0ghz is many time(s) faster than single core cpu 2.7~3.0ghz of years ago. (IDK.....is this correct?)

Charlie

Charlie__V · 11 Jun 2016, 14:40

@kaas said:

@Charlie_V
Thanks for the suggestion. It seems the Precision 15 5000 Series (5510) is/looks almost identical to the xps15 although its hardware is not as good at the same price(at least over here in The Netherlands). Slightly less cpu speed, quadro instead of gtx960m, 8 Gb memory and 256 Gb ssd instead of 16Gb and 512 Gb ssd.

still looking...

kaas,
Isn't that always the way, close but no cigar.

Couple of things I consider with the precision series:

Relatively zero bloatware when shipped. (and options to remove "trial software")

OS options like Windows 7 Pro (I favor this ....for now)

And it does seem more like a "buisness" machine than the xps, though the current xps look a lot less like the spacehip XPS I used to own.

Charlie

edit:
and IDK about the Netherlands, but I receive "coupons" and "special" offers regularly from Dell.
(I am not a dell rep...just sharing info)
and have found that if you call your order in often times they can either throw in hardware and maintain price or offer discounts on the spot.

juju · 13 Jun 2016, 11:11

@unknownuser said:

And also, I recall reading some time ago that "todays" cpu clock speed is in no way the same as the old way of measuring.
IOW todays 2.7~3.0ghz is many time(s) faster than single core cpu 2.7~3.0ghz of years ago. (IDK.....is this correct?)

Unfortunately my technical knowledge doesn't quite extend to the intricacies of CPU architecture, but the answer is both yes and no.

Yes: considering a single core vs single core and clock for clock today's CPU's get more done those of yesteryear, mainly due to optimizations and additional instruction sets. Add to that the effect of multiple cores, and you have your answer quite clear, but some software isn't optimized to utilize multiple cores, they then merely help take care of other things in the background. Setting software and core affinity can help single core applications.

No: unless the software can actually benefit from the optimizations and additional instruction sets, you're pretty much in the same spot you were years ago, apart from power efficiency and heat dissipation. Some improvements will be hard to spot in the real world and many of them only really stand out in benchmarks designed to measure these things.