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Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

arstechnica.com

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Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#51

Post by vardump »

Shengbo wrote: post #47
vardump wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very excited about ECC in laptops, and want to buy one as soon as possible, but... Shame it's released by a company which cannot be trusted anymore. I know the bigger blunder (SuperFish) happened in consumer laptop, but all things considered, I can't trust Lenovo any more. That means I won't buy anything they make. I miss old Thinkpads. Is there any serious laptop manufacturer left at all? A company that builds g…

Not really, I think we can say goodbye to user-replaceable hardware with the rise of the Ultrabook form-factor. A couple of months ago I was looking for a laptop to buy and I wasn't in a hurry so I checked out literally every manufacturer I could find. In the end I defaulted to Macbook Pros. The hardware is great and OS X doesn't really get in my way. If you want customization and prefer matte screens, System76 is pr…

Yeah, also using a 2015 Macbook Pro. 256GB SSD is already full and 16 GB non-ECC RAM is small and unreliable.

At least 2015 Macbook Pro 13" is pretty fast and light. I also love the display. Wifi is pretty snappy, download speed from internet is over 250 Mbps, which is enough for me.

I'll swap the internal SSD to 1 or 2 TB model once they become available.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#52

Post by SamReidHughes »

vetinari wrote: post #49
SamReidHughes wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rule of thumb for Thinkpads and Linux is that you'll be fine as long as you get an Intel wifi card (or some other known quantity) and integrated graphics. For example, the NVS 4200M gpu hasn't really worked out of the box for me even on Ubuntu on a T520, nor the Quadro 2000M on a W520, without having to do some fiddling, or (later) knowing what specific packages to install. Optimus or certain multi-monitor setups…

Maybe we got lucky, but unless we do BTO, we won't get other than Intel wifi there. Maybe the local Lenovo representatives really like our market :) The last time I've seen something unsupported was T400 with ATI/Intel hybrid graphics. I disabled the ATI part, as Intel was good enough and ATI was crappy under Windows too. (the ATI part worked under Linux, but the switching between ATI and Intel didn't. So it was use…

> For your NVS4200M gpu, didn't Ubuntu offer you an installation of restricted drivers? I vaguely remember that when you booted on such configuration, there was an icon in upper right tray that did exactly that.

Yes, I mean, I vaguely remember that, too. But often that didn't work, and when it did, you still didn't get Optimus, and multi-monitor stuff was still annoying to set up (until you learn to install some nvidia-settings package, but even then you're manually configuring the monitor mappings in a GUI every time you start up). Now it looks like the official drivers let you turn on/off the discrete GPU, but only after restarting X. Maybe using Bumblebee is simpler too now.

> On the other hand, when installing Windows 7, it's good to have ethernet driver and tvsu ready at usb stick. (Windows 8 works out of the box too).

Lucky. On some Latitude I had to put that on a DVD because the USB support wasn't there.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#53

Post by Shengbo »

vardump wrote: post #51
Shengbo wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, I think we can say goodbye to user-replaceable hardware with the rise of the Ultrabook form-factor. A couple of months ago I was looking for a laptop to buy and I wasn't in a hurry so I checked out literally every manufacturer I could find. In the end I defaulted to Macbook Pros. The hardware is great and OS X doesn't really get in my way. If you want customization and prefer matte screens, System76 is pr…

Yeah, also using a 2015 Macbook Pro. 256GB SSD is already full and 16 GB non-ECC RAM is small and unreliable. At least 2015 Macbook Pro 13" is pretty fast and light. I also love the display. Wifi is pretty snappy, download speed from internet is over 250 Mbps, which is enough for me. I'll swap the internal SSD to 1 or 2 TB model once they become available.

Well, their SSD pricing is pretty ridiculous but other than that I've been really happy with mine. Good keyboard, really nice screen, best trackpad I've ever used. And the thing feels really sturdy compared to most laptops I've tried.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#54

Post by vardump »

Shengbo wrote: post #53
vardump wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, also using a 2015 Macbook Pro. 256GB SSD is already full and 16 GB non-ECC RAM is small and unreliable. At least 2015 Macbook Pro 13" is pretty fast and light. I also love the display. Wifi is pretty snappy, download speed from internet is over 250 Mbps, which is enough for me. I'll swap the internal SSD to 1 or 2 TB model once they become available.

Well, their SSD pricing is pretty ridiculous but other than that I've been really happy with mine. Good keyboard, really nice screen, best trackpad I've ever used. And the thing feels really sturdy compared to most laptops I've tried.

Oh yeah, the trackpad is sweet! I don't understand why other manufacturers put those crappads in their products, they're often borderline unusable.

Its ability to drive 4k monitor at 60Hz is also nice. I know it's not enough for everyone, but 4k is all the resolution I'll ever need from a computer display.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#55

Post by odiroot »

bitL wrote: post #36
odiroot wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? For me and any others chiclet keyboard (especially ThinkPad style) is a lot nicer than older "touching" sloped keys.

Yes, for you. For me, definitely not. I am getting close to RSI when using any chiclet keyboard besides MBP that somehow made it fairly acceptable but still inferior to original ThinkPad. The rest, like newer ThinkPads, ASUS, Dell, Toshiba etc. are just plain awful, I feel pain in my wrists after ~20 minutes of using them. And a lot of touch typists complain about chiclet keyboards as well. Flatness everywhere is get…

I meant exactly ergonomy, not the looks. For my fingers ThinkPad's chiclet keyboard is a lot better than both MBP's and old IBM keyboards.

I guess to each their own.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#56

Post by riquito »

dagw wrote: post #41
jmnicolas wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do on a laptop that requires more than 64 GB of RAM ?

I use more than 32 GB of RAM all the time for ad hoc data processing, analysis and transformation and personally I'd like to be able to do the same work on my laptop that I do on my workstation. Especially since I often divide my time between a couple of different offices.

> I'd like to be able to do the same work on my laptop that I do on my workstation

I'm afraid you will never get what you want as long as you keep upgrading both your laptop and your workstation.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#57

Post by falcolas »

vardump wrote: post #51
Shengbo wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, I think we can say goodbye to user-replaceable hardware with the rise of the Ultrabook form-factor. A couple of months ago I was looking for a laptop to buy and I wasn't in a hurry so I checked out literally every manufacturer I could find. In the end I defaulted to Macbook Pros. The hardware is great and OS X doesn't really get in my way. If you want customization and prefer matte screens, System76 is pr…

Yeah, also using a 2015 Macbook Pro. 256GB SSD is already full and 16 GB non-ECC RAM is small and unreliable. At least 2015 Macbook Pro 13" is pretty fast and light. I also love the display. Wifi is pretty snappy, download speed from internet is over 250 Mbps, which is enough for me. I'll swap the internal SSD to 1 or 2 TB model once they become available.

> I'll swap the internal SSD to 1 or 2 TB model once they become available.

I'd personally only do this if the 1/2 TB models were also SSD. OSX is so IO heavy now that any machine without an SSD feels like it's wading through molasses to get anything done.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#58

Post by dagw »

riquito wrote: post #56
dagw wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use more than 32 GB of RAM all the time for ad hoc data processing, analysis and transformation and personally I'd like to be able to do the same work on my laptop that I do on my workstation. Especially since I often divide my time between a couple of different offices.

> I'd like to be able to do the same work on my laptop that I do on my workstation I'm afraid you will never get what you want as long as you keep upgrading both your laptop and your workstation.

I don't know. With this laptop I'd probably pretty much be there, assuming this new mobile Xeon CPU can post numbers in the same ballpark as a desktop Xeon from a year ago.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#59

Post by hobarrera »

chuckup wrote: post #27
RexRollman wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's incredible and should be more widely reported.

I just replied to the Ars thread - it's even stranger. Windows 8 and up have an officially Microsoft sanctioned way of letting manufacturers load software through Firmware, called "Windows Platform Binary Table". It means it is impossible to do a clean install of Windows now. I've seen zero mention of it anywhere - maybe Lenovo was the first to pull the trigger and make use of it recently.

"Windows Platform Bloat Table" seems like a more appropriate name, IMHO.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#60

Post by zantana »

zx2c4 wrote: post #9
ChuckMcM wrote: post #2

Ok, call me skeptical but I did not think Intel would get these out for Q4 of 2015. That 15" laptop is probably way over kill but it has some really nice specs. I think what I really want though is one of these bad boys in the NUC form factor.

In NUC factor with 4 gigabit ethernet ports.

Oh Chipzilla, unleash the NUC!

I bought the i3 version which has almost all of the Virtualization extensions and that thing is great for a home lab. I can easily run 6-8 small vms no problem.

It's a fine line with these products, because the memory can really add to the price tag, but its more favorable than cluster of Raspberry Pis to me.

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