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Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

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Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#591

Post by tmchu »

mcv wrote: post #274
fy20 wrote: post #51

A few years ago I would have said ThinkPads but I think there are better options available now. At the end of last year I wanted to replace my T470, and wanted to upgrade to something with a more powerful (not U-series) CPU. The ThinkPad option that fitted my requirements was on back order for months, so I looked around... The ASUS ROG line of gaming laptops had exactly what I wanted, although they look a bit garish,…

If you're going for a Thinkpad, the T480 from a couple of years ago seems to be the gold standard. The current successor of that model is the T14, but I have no idea if it's as good. I got an X1 Extreme, which is a gorgeous machine, and very powerful, but it eats through its power like no laptop I've seen before. Battery charge rarely lasts more than 2 hours. One big advantage of the high-end Thinkpads: they're spill…

The T480 that I got is the worst laptop purchase I have done in years. The m2 port is not bolt in but you will need to buy an adapter if you want to install a second drive if your configuration is only 1 drive. The USB-C charging port had problem quickly after a year where it don't receive charge unless you put it in the JUST the right position and pray to god that it will keep charging. And the USB-C card is part of the mobo so you are looking at $700-800 mobo swap to fix the problem.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#592

Post by StillBored »

xwdv wrote: post #585
StillBored wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yah, I thought that was clear. But if you get one of the machines with 4G soldered, your basically limited to 1/2 the full capacity of the hardware (36G vs 64G IIRC). edit: Its actually 20-24G max according to the spec sheet, compared with my similar age cheepe dell which does 32G because it has two dimm slots so I have a pair of 16G dimms in it.

Put a 32G dimm on an 8G and you get 40G

I'm not sure that actually works on that machine, the intel specs list 32G max on the chips, which likely if its like some of their other designs caps the individual DIMM channel capacity. I've gone over the lenovo recommended RAM configs before when the intel spec supports it, but intel has been enforcing capacity limits on many of their parts (presumably in the low level binary firmware blobs which refuse to train DIMMs which otherwise might work) for the last few years.

Even so, if you get it working, its the equivalent of 1/2ing your ram bandwidth.

PS: what you probably want is a T480, same generation little thicker, with both ram slots, and the extended battery if one wants a beefier version.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#593

Post by rootusrootus »

tmh88j wrote: post #566
masklinn wrote: post #547

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The keys on the new ones still have pretty short travel though. Much shorter than the pre-butterfly generation, which wasn’t very deep in the first place. I can well understand that people who like / want deep key travel would dislike them.

I hate the butterfly keyboard too, but most importantly the worthless touchbar is gone and the physical escape key is back.

Am I the only one who thinks the touchbar isn't that bad? I have a MBP that has the touchbar and a real escape key. I'm a little sad they ditched the touchbar, I wish they had kept it but put it above the row of function keys. There are some things for which it's handy.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#594

Post by philtar »

ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #211
JabavuAdams wrote: post #200

** "I don't want to use a Mac" ** "I've had these problems with Mac" Reasonable response: Cool, use what works for you. EDIT> Here are some suggestions that match your constraints. Annoying response 1: You should reconsider because Mac works great for me. Annoying response 2: Your problems aren't real problems. Annoying response 3: Let's live debug your problems in this thread to see if they're real problems. Guys. I…

It's every Ask HN thread, every time I want to ask a question here I give up because I find myself listing the obvious, requirement-breaking answers that I know will come but that I don't want to see. It's not like stack-overflow where often the users are beginners and don't know what they want and it's sometimes helpful to point out XY problems. Here people are technically literate and know what they want yet the re…

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Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#597

Post by rootusrootus »

bodge5000 wrote: post #282
JabavuAdams wrote: post #200

** "I don't want to use a Mac" ** "I've had these problems with Mac" Reasonable response: Cool, use what works for you. EDIT> Here are some suggestions that match your constraints. Annoying response 1: You should reconsider because Mac works great for me. Annoying response 2: Your problems aren't real problems. Annoying response 3: Let's live debug your problems in this thread to see if they're real problems. Guys. I…

The one big thing thats always deterred me from Macs is the poor ecosystem for gaming. I dont play a lot of games anymore, but its a pretty reliable way of getting some much needed socialising in so I probably wouldn't want to lose it completely. The problem is most workarounds I've seen are either to severly limit the games I can play or to get another computer/console for playing games, which just seems to be turni…

I use a console for gaming and a Mac for a daily driver. I never really got into PC gaming, though, I've always felt like the console experience was better. At least for the games I enjoy playing.

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#598

Post by [deleted] »

gzer0 wrote: post #499
factorialboy wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's part guilt. Doubting your expensive purchase, thus reinforcing it with this behavior. Apt comparison with religion, especially with recent converts. That's not to say all Apple products are bad.

> Doubting your expensive purchase Except, there is not a single Windows/Intel based laptop that can offer the same performance as say, for example, an M1 Macbook air ($750). There really is no comparison and there is nothing that comes close on the Windows side at that price point. If there is, please link me because I would love to know. M1 has made Macbooks not only superior in performance, but also more economica…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#599

Post by [deleted] »

MetaWhirledPeas wrote: post #572
rootusrootus wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why Mac seems to attract so fanatic behavior? That is a good question. But ... > They seem to want to push everyone to use Mac, like religious fanatics try to push everyone to their "truth". As soon as you can adequately explain why there are people that are vehemently anti-Apple, you will have the answer to this question. You make it sound like it's only pro-Apple people that are fanatics.

> As soon as you can adequately explain why there are people that are vehemently anti-Apple, you will have the answer to this question. Oh, oh! I know this one. Apple's devices are extremely closed. This is antithetical to the spirit of personal computing. But this is only one component: what ultimately pushes Apple to generate an anti-Apple crowd is the combination of them being a closed platform, them using every d…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

#600

Post by nicoburns »

anta40 wrote: post #582
0n34n7 wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why Mac seems to attract so fanatic behavior? Ever think it’s simply because they are amazing machines instead of being some conspiracy or mass brainwashing?

Amazing machines? I haven't tried extensively the M1, so my experience is still limited to the Intel Macs. They are OK. Not jaw droppingly good, just okay-ish. I work as a mobile app dev and unfortunately you can't avoid Mac for iOS dev :p

The new M1 Mac’s really are impressive. I suspect I might be similarly impressed by the latest AMD chips with 8 cores, but quite a lot of my everyday workloads are seeing 5x-10x performance increases over my previous 2015 MacBook.
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