My Dell XPS M1330 Laptop is having issues, again. It seems that the NVIDIA GPU is having some issues with overheating. I have had the motherboard replaced once already and now it is acting up again. Dell’s current solution is a BIOS update that will basically run the fan non-stop. But that is a not a real fix. I might replace the MB once more and that will be it. I loved the machine but it is proven to be untrustworthy and I rely on it too heavily to be without it while I wait for another service call.
So I am in search for a new laptop. I generally run Office and a few other applications. I primarily develop, design and demo using either Virtual PC or VMWare. Here are a few items that are high on the priority list:
Support 32 and 64 bit
Min 4 gig of ram, 8 gig preferred
15 inch monitor
Nice to have SD slot
Need to have ExpressCard slot.
Dell is out – not going there anymore.
Basically I am in the market for a high-end laptop that will run a few VMs without bogging down. Feel free to suggest something.
Everyone will recommend you something based on their experience with their laptops. so you can expect all sort of recommendations HP, Dell, Toshiba, Sony .. etc . I started using laptops from 2000 & I only went for IBM since then , Had one from 2000 – 2005 and then bought another IBM (they call it Lenovo now) much better & still fully functional. it is heavy duty laptop with great options & endurance, but it lacks the great look. Go for Lenevo & work happily ever after 🙂
Hold off until OCT-14, the date of the reported new Macs
Mac all the way. Running Vista and OS10 on my Mac and love it. You’ll get used to the “strange” keyboard.
Right now I run a business dell with nvidia nvs gfxcard, 4gb mem etc.
Really the problem with vms as usual is the laptop hard drive. I would imagine everyone to more or less agree on that.
There are, in my personal opinion, 2 approaches that work to alleviate the I/O load.
1. get a laptop with shedloads of ram, use the ramdisk as provided by MS with the latest UBBs to initialize multiGB ramdisk and load your VM unto those. Startup time still sucks.
2. get a laptop with 2 internal HDD’s, and use external HDD’s for additional I/O.
Personally I run an Acer 9524wsmi something or other, with 2 internal HDD’s for VM’s, and I also use an external HDD. This allows me decent functionality.
So recommendation: look for a laptop with your min Reqs for memory, and if possible with 2 internal HDD’s.
Lenovo W700 would be good except for only 4gb ram.
Lenovo thinkpad T61p supports 8gb ram though.
HP pavilion dv7 (gaming laptop) 8Gb:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01509830&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en
Or the cheapo GB987ET from HP/Compaq, which supports 8192. I guess you could buy 3 of those for the price of 1 lenovo.
More unusual I guess would be the rock:
http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNotebook.php?pName=XTREME%20SL8*
Also a lot of Sony laptops come with 4gb standard, however they do not have any nice features that I’ve been able to find, to search on max ram.
Hope that helps a little.
The HP models interestingly enough are el cheapo with 8gb support, which in my experience (used to work at hp for quite a while), would indicate broader chipset support for 8gb on the way with most model refreshes. Call your local @hp guys, just the HP office, and ask for the PSG laptop sales manager. He/she can certainly tell you in less than 5 mins of applicable models.
My Lenovo T61p has treated me very well, despite being ugly as sin. Just make sure you do a good backup when you get it. Reinstalling all the drivers and Lenovo specific applications can be maddening.
tk