Framework laptop. I think the concerns about it being beta are unfounded, the few quirks it has are also had by Lenovo/Dell etc but you don’t have a discerning userbase talking about a single model so much.
Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
101–110 of 813 posts
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#102> "battery life" vs "Optimized for intensive computing usage" These are contradicting conditions. (Unless maybe on an M1?) If you do use the CPU then battery life will drop even for the best laptops to a few hours max, while the fans will spin like crazy emulating a helicopter taking off. All the above mentioned laptops will behave like that. At my last place I had a Thinkpad P1 which is supposedly for the above ment…
> Battery life tips: 1. get the simplest screen (FHD instead of 4K, 90Hz...). 2. don't get an integrated 3D card.
This sounds counter-intuitive. I thought integrated graphics used less power than a discrete amd/nvidia card.
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#103I got myself a T440p because the 4th generation is the last one with replaceable display, battery, RAM and CPU. They're quite heavy but that's not an issue for me. Best bang for the buck I ever spent. Bought it around 2015 in used condition for around 250EUR, then upgraded CPU, RAM, batteries (2x as of now), got a bigger SSD and HDD (512GB+4TB) and got an IPS display and a touchpad of the T480 which fits in there. I…
If replaceable CPU isn’t a priority, I can recommend the T470 or T480.
I’m currently using a T470 [1] with 16 GB DDR-3 3200MHz RAM [2], a 2 TB NVMe SSD [3], a Wi-Fi 6AX card [4], the Innolux N140HCG-GQ2 1080p 100% sRGB 8-bit 400 nits panel [5] (based on the T14 / T490 display), and the Lenovo 61++ battery [6].
The result is a laptop that can hold 17 hours of battery (95Wh), supports a Thunderbolt 3 dock and the old Lenovo dock, supports USB-C PD charging and the old Lenovo charging port and is the perfect mix of performance, repairability, and compatibility.
You can build this laptop yourself, depending on how the pricing is where you are, for about 600 €.
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[1] https://www.afbshop.de/notebooks/20668/lenovo-thinkpad-t470-... [2] https://www.amazon.de/dp/B08LQG2SDS/ [3] https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07MLJD32L/ [4] https://www.amazon.de/dp/B087WVLPXW/ [5] https://www.xelent-store.de/Innolux-N140HCG-GQ2-400cd-Low-Po... [6] https://www.amazon.de/dp/B06WGMPFCD
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#104get an hp elitebook in the 8 series (830, 835, 840, 845) the cheapest one with 400 nit screen and put as much ram and ssd as your budget allows, maintenance is easy nothing is soldered. I spent less than 2k on mine
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#1052022 12th gen intel Asus rog strix You'll thank me later
With linux?
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#106> I looked into the Framework laptops and so far it looks like they are still a bit beta. I'm not sure that's fair, (and it's pedantically wrong - they're in production - but I know what you mean) the hardware is the nicest I've seen besides Macbooks (I agree with you about macOS, but I do like the hardware, keen for Asahi one day but that is very much beta ( alpha actually I think)) and Linux is Linux? It works fine…
I use a Framework and it's been fantastic. Even the fingerprint works "out of the box" (in quotes because in Arch Linux nothing is really out of the box... I just had to install the right package). The only particularly disappointing thing is that the battery drains mega fast while suspended. This is something I might be able to tinker away, of course. And for what it's worth, non-functional suspend is basically par…
> The only particularly disappointing thing is that the battery drains mega fast while suspended
That's a killer - it's 2022 and Apple are still the only company who can get that right. I'd switch over to a Framework in an instant (for dual-boot Linux/Windows) if they could fix that.
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#107serious question: what is the practical difference between MacOS and Linux? Do you have a habit of modifying your wifi drivers and recompiling the source? I am big on open source but have never felt my life was improved chasing dependencies vs just brew install ... I have never had a satisfactory battery + sleep/standby experience on a linux machine, vs a Mac I can leave unplugged for weeks and it wakes back up where…
Containers are a constant headache on MacOS. The likes of Lima have greatly improved the situation, but there are still several issues (network reliability and performance are significant issues).
> Do you have a habit of modifying your wifi drivers and recompiling the source?
Not even once. But thank god for the people who do put in the effort to code support for shitty walled gardens[1]. This age old strawman argument diverts attention away from many of the other virtues of Linux.
My personal coding and gaming machine runs Linux. My work laptop is MacOS. Almost every day (as no exaggeration) there is something new that doesn't work on MacOS, that yet another hostage of the Apple ecosystem has fixed for Apple.
> improved chasing dependencies vs just brew install
This is a very strange comment considering that brew was inspired by Linux package managers. Brew is incredible compared to what is available on MacOS (which, to be clear, is nothing), but it doesn't hold a candle to what's happening in the Linux world - especially with the likes of ostree, guix, and nix.
MacOS is an operating system designed for creators and influencers. It can be modified to the bare minimum of development competency. Even Windows pulls ahead of it with WSL, and that's saying something.
I can't comprehend why developers voluntarily subject themselves to it.
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#108A 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,…
Second this. I run an Arch derived distro on my ASUS AMD Zen3 5900 with 8 cores/16 hw threads and the cpu benchmarks are close to the M1 macs for about half the price. The Realtek WiFi device is a problem with hp laptops too. Works but needs a cold reboot after the hibernate wakes up. Are you saying the intel WiFi chip is pin compatible with the Realtek? That’s an amazing find.
The slots are usually Mini PCIe (if not M2).
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#109These threads always surprise me with the number of people who buy new thinkpads. Nothing wrong with them I'm sure (well, maybe a few things wrong with them), I just never even considered it as an option. I recently picked up an old 2005-ish (edit: 2011 actually) x220 for a few hundred quid off ebay which seems to be running nicely. Specs aren't anything to shout about but it works fine for what it is. Durability wis…
I also have a x220. A couple of the benefits/tradeoffs: The keyboard is the best, I have never used a laptop with a better one. Using a dual core sandybridge is slow but if you develop on a slow machine you'll never build something your customers can't use. You can install coreboot on it and remove IME. It is on the list of systems Qubes (and every other Linux) runs 100% on. The screen is only 720p but you can instal…
> if you develop on a slow machine you'll never build something your customers can't use
This is the philosophy I try to go by. Some call it premature optimisation, but I just like working on optimisation as part of the normal dev process, rather than a secondary step which is all too easy to gloss over.
It gets a bit more difficult when it comes to game dev though, which is the current dilemma I'm in (need a new personal machine, which may end up being the x220, but that'll find use in any case).
Re: Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?
#110serious question: what is the practical difference between MacOS and Linux? Do you have a habit of modifying your wifi drivers and recompiling the source? I am big on open source but have never felt my life was improved chasing dependencies vs just brew install ... I have never had a satisfactory battery + sleep/standby experience on a linux machine, vs a Mac I can leave unplugged for weeks and it wakes back up where…
I like being able to replace individual parts of my laptop with newer, better hardware without having to throw out the whole device. I like that this new hardware just works, instead of the OS vendor only supporting a handful of approved internal Wi-Fi modules. It’s awesome that I can build custom PAM modules and disk encryption unlocking solutions to enforce that both a password and a YubiKey need to be present to u…
> I like being able to replace individual parts of my laptop with newer, better hardware without having to throw out the whole device.
Do you actually do that, or do you just like the idea of being able to do it ? Even on a desktop PC, where upgrading is much easier and more common, I've never seen the point.
Either you upgrade fairly often, in which case you pay a relatively large amount for marginal improvements, or you upgrade every few years, in which case you need to replace so many parts you might as well replace the entire machine.
Say you upgrade the CPU to a newer model after a year, that's a fairly costly upgrade and how much additional performance will you get in return ?
If you wait a few years to upgrade your CPU, you'll find that the new CPU also requires a new motherboard, and the new motherboard requires a new type of RAM. They you find out that your old GPU is now a bottleneck, and when replacing that you realise your new GPU requires an new power supply as well. By the time you're finished all you've done is recycled the case.