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Most expensive laptops

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Re: Most expensive laptops

#51
post #8
post #5

Outside of some of the fascinating VAIO laptops with their wild and wacky features, I have never loved a super expensive laptop. I like a laptop that can get the job done when I need to and easily be fixed if I need to when I am on the road. At the moment that is Framework, and previously thinkpad, and a while ago, Powerbooks. I have learned as I became older that the device is a tool to getting the work done, not so…

> I like a laptop that can get the job done Of course, but it depends on the job. If you're working on heavy 3D scenes, or doing video work in 4k or 8k, then "gets the job done" will be an expensive laptop. Maybe not $8k expensive, but $4k easily. For this kind of work it's often cheaper to buy a highly specced gaming laptop rather than a workstation laptop.

I do find a gaming laptop usually has far worse battery life over a dedicated workstation laptop, plus it isn't something you can really carry with you day to day. A Zbook or a thinkpad is both not super heavy and does fit in.

Re: Most expensive laptops

#52
post #5

Outside of some of the fascinating VAIO laptops with their wild and wacky features, I have never loved a super expensive laptop. I like a laptop that can get the job done when I need to and easily be fixed if I need to when I am on the road. At the moment that is Framework, and previously thinkpad, and a while ago, Powerbooks. I have learned as I became older that the device is a tool to getting the work done, not so…

When you buy a really nice power tool or hand tool, it's going to last you a very long time. It will remain fit-for-purpose for decades to come. The cost can often be justified because it's an investment in emotional happiness. It feels nice to use an expensive quality tool, and it feels nicer knowing that you'll be able to continue doing so for many years.

One of these expensive laptops? It's going to be as obsolete as a cheaper laptop in a couple of years' time. Hell, it'll probably start feeling old and slow after the next round of Windows updates in less than a year.

Re: Most expensive laptops

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

video editing, multiple projects

Sure, but are you really doing all video editing on all projects on the go?

A couple 4k cameras filming at 60fps at, for example, tech conference and you can about fit a single days footage on those 24TB,

Re: Most expensive laptops

#54

Isn't the GPU throttled anyways? Because it's going to be a mobile version?

But if you're just interested in doing some machine learning on it, then it's all about how much RAM and not really how fast. I used to use my gaming laptop to do a lot of local ML

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Re: Most expensive laptops

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

video editing, multiple projects

Sure, but are you really doing all video editing on all projects on the go?

8k raw video is very large - even a single project will fill that up and need extra storage to add externally.

Re: Most expensive laptops

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've come across a few in the past, these 18 inch giant-ass "desktop replacement" / gamer things that had insanely large power bricks. Been a few years but I think they all had desktop GPU chips from NV. But I think it's not possible to do any more, not with any high-power card that is... the RTX 5090 has a TDP of 600-ish watts, you can neither get in that kind of power into a laptop, even at 24 volt that's still 25…

That's not the case. A 5060 has a 145W TDP, which is borderline feasible. A 5090 is 575W, which is approaching furnace territory.

Thanks, fixed. I intended the 5090 indeed but haven't had a coffee.

Anyway, even the 145W of a 5060 are... an ugly challenge to meet. The 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro for example can happily guzzle 90W when you max out the i9 CPU and the dGPU and gets uncomfortably warm after a few minutes once the aluminium case goes into thermal equilibrium.

Add in even just a 60W CPU to match with a 5060 and you're looking at double that heat to be dissipated!

Re: Most expensive laptops

#57

Expensive is relative. I'm the CTO of a small startup and we're leasing our laptops from Apple. We don't have huge budgets. I got my 16" M4 Max, 48GB, 1TB model a few months ago. Costs us 105 euro/month. That includes 3 years of extended warranty. After the lease is over (3 years), we have the option to buy the laptops at a discount typically. The new value of this thing is around 4500 euro, I think. We could have go…

Can the average person lease a laptop or just businesses?

Re: Most expensive laptops

#58

Expensive is relative. I'm the CTO of a small startup and we're leasing our laptops from Apple. We don't have huge budgets. I got my 16" M4 Max, 48GB, 1TB model a few months ago. Costs us 105 euro/month. That includes 3 years of extended warranty. After the lease is over (3 years), we have the option to buy the laptops at a discount typically. The new value of this thing is around 4500 euro, I think. We could have go…

Can the average person lease a laptop or just businesses?

I don't think they officially support leasing to individuals directly, but it's very easy to setup a leasing/biz account with them as a business. I think any Apple store has a POC there that can help / see: https://www.apple.com/shop/finance/business-financing

You can very easily setup an LLC and obtain an EIN. It's been a minute since I've setup an Apple financing account, so I don't recall what they require on the finance side. I'm certain they will want to see some sort of financial proof, but I doubt they will care much if you're not a proper operating biz. I'm not sure if proof of finances will need to be linked to a banking account under the business name, but if so, that's easy enough to setup with an ebank once you have an EIN.

All of that being said, the tradeoff will be if you're willing to deal with the potential state/federal tax and biz reporting requirements of having the business. It's not hard esp if it's not a real active business, but just another thing to deal with.

Re: Most expensive laptops

#59

Expensive is relative. I'm the CTO of a small startup and we're leasing our laptops from Apple. We don't have huge budgets. I got my 16" M4 Max, 48GB, 1TB model a few months ago. Costs us 105 euro/month. That includes 3 years of extended warranty. After the lease is over (3 years), we have the option to buy the laptops at a discount typically. The new value of this thing is around 4500 euro, I think. We could have go…

I can vouch that for a critical engineer/CTO/VPE at a startup, it totally pays to get the next day onsite warranty, even when a good chunk of your work is on remote servers.

I ran my laptop so hard the motherboard had to get replaced 2-3 times... but always was fixed quite promptly.

Re: Most expensive laptops

#60
post #34
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes (at least there used to be), but obviously that has a certain effect on their battery life and cooling requirements.

at that point, it's about portability, not battery life

you can pretty easily carry around a small form factor PC at that point. even a tower, where my LAN guys at.
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