Best desktop replacement laptop? Any advice appreciated

OK a bit off-topic but I want a laptop with the following constraints:

a workstation (I code using Visual Studio 2010 and need power)

price under $2k USD

Must be able to run Windows 7 (Azure requires this)

Weight and battery life _not_ a factor. this is a desktop replacement
laptop. Nor is a "big screen" (don't need it; 17" screen is fine).

Must not 'run hot' (some models do, especially some Dell models). I
will put a USB fan tray underneath the laptop when I am running it.

Thanks.

RL

RayLopez99 wrote:
OK a bit off-topic but I want a laptop with the following constraints:

a workstation (I code using Visual Studio 2010 and need power)

price under $2k USD

Must be able to run Windows 7 (Azure requires this)


This has nothing to do with com.os.linux.setup.

Pimp your goods elsewhere.

f/ups achp-h because I read that group

RayLopez99 wrote:
Newsgroups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,
microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware, comp.os.linux.setup

OK a bit off-topic but I want a laptop with the following constraints:

Why must you incessantly crosspost inappropriately.

In this case, your message is not ontopic for any of the groups. cols is
for linux setup. XP hardware isn't about Win7. PC homebuilt isn't about
buying a laptop.

Newbies crosspost inappropriately because they have no idea where is the
one best group to post their message. Is that /your/ problem?

--
Mike Easter

RayLopez99 wrote:
OK a bit off-topic but I want a laptop with the following constraints:

a workstation (I code using Visual Studio 2010 and need power)

price under $2k USD

Must be able to run Windows 7 (Azure requires this)

Weight and battery life _not_ a factor. this is a desktop replacement
laptop. Nor is a "big screen" (don't need it; 17" screen is fine).

Must not 'run hot' (some models do, especially some Dell models). I
will put a USB fan tray underneath the laptop when I am running it.

Thanks.

RL

I think the newsgroup lines in your USENET client must be broken.

You're supposed to fill them with appropriate selections of newsgroups.

For example, alt.windows7.general, for a Windows 7 question.
(Not available from Google. Use a real news server - details at www.aioe.org.
The nice thing about aioe.org - it prevents excessive crossposting :-) )

Why would someone in "comp.os.linux.setup" help you buy a Windows 7
laptop ? Mind boggling...

And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.
Just go to a web site that will accept your credit card, get
a computer with plenty of cores. Done. It's not like you have
a lot of choice in laptops. They're all "cut from the same
cloth".

If you want to live in luxury, install a 2.5" SSD in it.

Paul

Paul writes:

RayLopez99 wrote:
OK a bit off-topic but I want a laptop with the following constraints:

a workstation (I code using Visual Studio 2010 and need power)

price under $2k USD

Must be able to run Windows 7 (Azure requires this)

Weight and battery life _not_ a factor. this is a desktop replacement
laptop. Nor is a "big screen" (don't need it; 17" screen is fine).

Must not 'run hot' (some models do, especially some Dell models). I
will put a USB fan tray underneath the laptop when I am running it.

Thanks.

RL

I think the newsgroup lines in your USENET client must be broken.

You're supposed to fill them with appropriate selections of newsgroups.

For example, alt.windows7.general, for a Windows 7 question.
(Not available from Google. Use a real news server - details at www.aioe.org.
The nice thing about aioe.org - it prevents excessive crossposting :-) )

Why would someone in "comp.os.linux.setup" help you buy a Windows 7
laptop ? Mind boggling...

And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.
Just go to a web site that will accept your credit card, get
a computer with plenty of cores. Done. It's not like you have
a lot of choice in laptops. They're all "cut from the same
cloth".

If you want to live in luxury, install a 2.5" SSD in it.

Paul


Q: Why would he want a ssd?

Hadron wrote:
Paul

And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.
Just go to a web site that will accept your credit card, get
a computer with plenty of cores. Done. It's not like you have
a lot of choice in laptops. They're all "cut from the same
cloth".

If you want to live in luxury, install a 2.5" SSD in it.

Q: Why would he want a ssd?

And why would you crosspost that qx into 3 groups?

Paul reads and posts in achp-h and modifying/personalizing a LT is
(only) a homebuilt issue, not about XP or linux setup.

Your belief in 'honoring' the OP RL's original inappropriate collection
of crossposted groups is misguided.


--
Mike Easter

Mike Easter writes:

Hadron wrote:
Paul

And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.
Just go to a web site that will accept your credit card, get
a computer with plenty of cores. Done. It's not like you have
a lot of choice in laptops. They're all "cut from the same
cloth".

If you want to live in luxury, install a 2.5" SSD in it.

Q: Why would he want a ssd?

And why would you crosspost that qx into 3 groups?

Paul reads and posts in achp-h and modifying/personalizing a LT is
(only) a homebuilt issue, not about XP or linux setup.

Your belief in 'honoring' the OP RL's original inappropriate collection
of crossposted groups is misguided.

When you understand how and why crossposts exist you may comment. Until
then, be gone.

Hint : not everyone that has something to contribute reads only
"homebuilt".

You are a great example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.

Crossposting is NOT the same as multi posting which is evil.

Now grow up and stop butting in with your silly net nannying when it has
been proven to be incorrect by numerous people.

Hadron wrote:
Mike Easter writes:

Hadron wrote:
Paul
And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.
Just go to a web site that will accept your credit card, get
a computer with plenty of cores. Done. It's not like you have
a lot of choice in laptops. They're all "cut from the same
cloth".

If you want to live in luxury, install a 2.5" SSD in it.
Q: Why would he want a ssd?
And why would you crosspost that qx into 3 groups?

Paul reads and posts in achp-h and modifying/personalizing a LT is
(only) a homebuilt issue, not about XP or linux setup.

Your belief in 'honoring' the OP RL's original inappropriate collection
of crossposted groups is misguided.

When you understand how and why crossposts exist you may comment. Until
then, be gone.

Hint : not everyone that has something to contribute reads only
"homebuilt".

You are a great example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.

Crossposting is NOT the same as multi posting which is evil.

Now grow up and stop butting in with your silly net nannying when it has
been proven to be incorrect by numerous people.

You (Hadron) could try to increase your social skills.
They stink.

On Thursday 09 December 2010 13:46 in comp.os.linux.setup, somebody
identifying as Paul wrote...

RayLopez99 wrote:

OK a bit off-topic [...

A bit? You don't say?

(No need to reply. You've been in my killfile for a long time already
and you know why.)

...] but I want a laptop with the following constraints:

a workstation (I code using Visual Studio 2010 and need power)

That's not coding.

[...] Must be able to run Windows 7 [...]

I think the newsgroup lines in your USENET client must be broken.

I'm afraid it's RayLopez99 himself who is broken. And beyond repair for
that matter.

You're supposed to fill them with appropriate selections of
newsgroups.

He's not bright enough for that, I'm afraid. And he's also a troll,
both acknowledged by reputation and self-proclaimed.

[...]
Why would someone in "comp.os.linux.setup" help you buy a Windows 7
laptop ? Mind boggling...

That's the *one* group of the crosspost which he did not include by way
of stupidity, but by way of deliberately annoying the people there, as
he has been doing persistently across various threads in the last three
weeks.

Like I said, he's a well-known troll. I'm actually surprised that he
hasn't included comp.os.linux.advocacy, because that's what he usually
does. (By his own admission, he resides there to annoy the GNU/Linux
advocates.)

And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.

Ehhh... That's not /entirely/ correct... He knows how to push the
power button and click on an icon, and that's about it.

--
*Aragorn*
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)

Aragorn aragorn chatfactory.invalid wrote:

Like I said, he's a well-known troll.

Instead of playing with your imaginary kill file friend that
causes you to jump into and waddle around in garbage like this,
use the filter of filters (ignore-thread-branch, ignore subthread)
and save everyone the annoyance. You seriously need to ignore not
only the people you think are trolls, but any replies to them, so
that the rest of us do not have to wade through your anti-troll
rants.

Ignore subthread is the most elegant and effective filter. And
until nym-shifting is impossible, it is the best filter. Playing
with an imaginary kill file friend is pointless, it tends to come
and go at will, and it does not protect you against replies to
your allegedly kill-filed authors.

Let me show you how it's done, I will now ignore your post and all
posts that follow (including mine). Very easy.
--


















I'm actually surprised that he
hasn't included comp.os.linux.advocacy, because that's what he usually
does. (By his own admission, he resides there to annoy the GNU/Linux
advocates.)

And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.

Ehhh... That's not /entirely/ correct... He knows how to push the
power button and click on an icon, and that's about it.

--
*Aragorn*
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)



Path: news.astraweb.com!border1.newsrouter.astraweb.com! nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!news.unit0.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Aragorn aragorn chatfactory.invalid
Newsgroups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware,comp .os.linux.setup
Subject: Best desktop replacement laptop? Any advice appreciated
Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2010 21:29:58 +0100
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 53
Message-ID: idre87$gon$14 news.eternal-september.org
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On Dec 9, 2:46*pm, Paul wrote:


I think the newsgroup lines in your USENET client must be broken.

You're supposed to fill them with appropriate selections of newsgroups.

For example, alt.windows7.general, for a Windows 7 question.
(Not available from Google. Use a real news server - details at *www.aioe.org.
The nice thing about aioe.org - it prevents excessive crossposting :-) *)

Right. I only use Google, not a "real news server" so
"alt.windows7.general" is not available.


Why would someone in "comp.os.linux.setup" help you buy a Windows 7
laptop ? Mind boggling...

Well that presupposes that Linux OS is so radically different than
Windows7 that it requires special hardware. Even I, a Linux basher,
am not prepared to go that far! :-)


And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.
Just go to a web site that will accept your credit card, get
a computer with plenty of cores. Done. It's not like you have
a lot of choice in laptops. They're all "cut from the same
cloth".

Two issues: so you like "plenty of cores", eh? But my experience is
that two cores vs a quad core is not that big a step, yet you pay a
premium. Second, "cut from the same cloth" meaning Dell = Intel =
Acer because they are all made by the same OEM, namely one of these
five? "In the ODM world, the top five manufacturers of 2006 were
Quanta, Compal, Wistron, Inventec and Asus, whose total shipments
accounted for 86.6 percent of the total market for laptops". Well
that was news to me! If that's what you mean, I learned something.


If you want to live in luxury, install a 2.5" SSD in it.

No I heard that Windows 7 likes to "bip" the HD with a 1 second burst
"log file" and these excessive writes will wear out your SSD. Some
dual traditional mechanical HD + SSD try and get around this problem
by having the trad. HD handle these "bips", but it's still
experimental. SSD is still 2 to 5 years away from being mainstream.

Thanks Paul.

RL

RayLopez99 wrote:
On Dec 9, 2:46 pm, Paul wrote:

I think the newsgroup lines in your USENET client must be broken.

You're supposed to fill them with appropriate selections of newsgroups.

For example, alt.windows7.general, for a Windows 7 question.
(Not available from Google. Use a real news server - details at www.aioe.org.
The nice thing about aioe.org - it prevents excessive crossposting :-) )

Right. I only use Google, not a "real news server" so
"alt.windows7.general" is not available.


why am I not surprised.

You don't know very much about computers do you?

Why would someone in "comp.os.linux.setup" help you buy a Windows 7
laptop ? Mind boggling...

Well that presupposes that Linux OS is so radically different than
Windows7 that it requires special hardware. Even I, a Linux basher,
am not prepared to go that far! :-)


But you keep telling us how you have real problems putting linux on
anything and windows 'just works;' so obviously any piece of old ****
you can get will run brilliantly with windows.

I dont see why you need to ask.

RayLopez99 raylopez88 gmail.com wrote:

Paul wrote:

Why would someone in "comp.os.linux.setup" help you buy a
Windows 7 laptop ? Mind boggling...

Well that presupposes that Linux OS is so radically different
than Windows7 that it requires special hardware. Even I, a
Linux basher, am not prepared to go that far! :-)

That's a good troll, Ray, but (maybe intentionally) it misses the
point.

On 10/12/2010 01:21, RayLopez99 wrote:
On Dec 9, 2:46 pm, wrote:


Why would someone in "comp.os.linux.setup" help you buy a Windows 7
laptop ? Mind boggling...

Well that presupposes that Linux OS is so radically different than
Windows7 that it requires special hardware. Even I, a Linux basher,
am not prepared to go that far! :-)


I think the point is that Linux users are fond of looking at
alternatives, learning about what's available, and choosing the best
tool for the job. Windows-only users are fond of buying whatever they
are told, paying as much as is asked, and being thoroughly impressed
just because their purchase looks shiny.

There is therefore little doubt that one can get better quality
technical advice on computer purchases from a Linux newsgroup than from
a Windows newsgroup. Whether /Ray/ will get useful advice or not is a
different matter. And whether he can understand the advice or not is
yet another issue.


And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.
Just go to a web site that will accept your credit card, get
a computer with plenty of cores. Done. It's not like you have
a lot of choice in laptops. They're all "cut from the same
cloth".

Two issues: so you like "plenty of cores", eh? But my experience is
that two cores vs a quad core is not that big a step, yet you pay a

Windows doesn't do multitasking very well, and windows apps typically do
not make much use of multiple processors. Two cores are definitely
better than one, but most windows apps will not scale with more cores.
There are a few programs that /will/ benefit from more cores even on
windows - some games, some photo of video editors, etc.


If you want to live in luxury, install a 2.5" SSD in it.

No I heard that Windows 7 likes to "bip" the HD with a 1 second burst
"log file" and these excessive writes will wear out your SSD. Some
dual traditional mechanical HD + SSD try and get around this problem
by having the trad. HD handle these "bips", but it's still
experimental. SSD is still 2 to 5 years away from being mainstream.


I'm sure there must be some way to fix this fault in Win7. But it is
certainly true that Windows writes regularly to the disk in various
places, with little or no user control.

However, your "knowledge" about SSDs is several years outdated, and even
then applied only to low-quality SSDs. A decent SSD can be written to
continuously at full speed for years without failure - they are orders
of magnitude better than hard disks for reliability and endurance. And
they /are/ mainstream in every case where the price-per-GB is acceptable.

http://www.storagesearch.com/ssdmyths-endurance.html

Paul nospam needed.com wrote:

RayLopez99 wrote:

....

I think the newsgroup lines in your USENET client must be
broken.

lol

Do understand, Ray is a Google Groups user...

You're supposed to fill them with appropriate selections of
newsgroups.

And really, you're familiar with computers already. Not a noob.
Just go to a web site that will accept your credit card, get a
computer with plenty of cores. Done. It's not like you have a
lot of choice in laptops. They're all "cut from the same cloth".

The major difference is probably upgrades/service difficulties.
The simple answer is probably "the more you spend, the closer you
get to a desktop replacement".

Going further off topic, and getting smaller...

Currently, a handheld like the iPhone and others hardly even do
copy and paste. They are interesting though, if you don't mind
making payments for two years. Besides a mobile phone, they
function as various other handheld devices, with $2 software. For
example... A GPS (very useful here, with the iPhone's big display
screen). A radio scanner (plug your speaker minijack into the
earphone output, stream music from the Internet through your
wireless router, to save smartphone bandwith, and you have hi-fi
FM stereo radio). A barcode scanner (going to try that one soon,
like for comparing prices at the store by scanning the barcode and
then looking it up using the built-in Internet connectivity). A
television schedule. Some might find it very useful for Internet
messaging. Maybe a few other significant applications, and a dozen
lesser applications. It is growing on me. It is useful for doing
little computing stuff especially when my desktop computer is off.
And then there is the weather radar. Before I got a smart phone, I
was thinking how cool it would be to have weather radar,
especially for in-line street skating. I had noticed some fancy
car commercial that appeared to have five day forecast weather
displayed on the dashboard screen. Then I got the smart phone and
noticed it had weather applications. A recent application is
called WeatherScope (maybe USA only). You can get it for your PC
for free from Oklahoma University (it takes some configuring). And
they made a version for the iPhone. It is $10, but it rocks. When
you turn on the iPhone and tap the WeatherScope application icon,
using almost all of the screen, it downloads the most recent
rainfall radar frame/picture for the location you had last
displayed. Tap a single control button, and it downloads and
displays an animated view of the most recent rainfall for that
favorite location. I thought that technology was years away, not
realizing the availability and application of handheld Internet
connectivity.
--










If you want to live in luxury, install a 2.5" SSD in it.

Paul