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title: Put the knife down and take a green herb, dude. |
descrip: One feller's views on the state of everyday computer science & its application (and now, OTHER STUFF) who isn't rich enough to shell out for www.myfreakinfirst-andlast-name.com Using 89% of the same design the blog had in 2001. |
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FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!!!
Back-up your data and, when you bike, always wear white. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate links in green. |
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| Thursday, April 28, 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I think I have a winner for the April 2016 MyFreakinName Programmer Laptop. I was looking for something that was relatively small -- the 14" class, so to speak -- and that had a reasonably powerful processor, as you may have guessed from my Programmer Laptop Shootout: Processors post. Also keep in mind that I've never spent a "lot"^ on a laptop. My ThinkPad T430 was about $1000-$1100, and I purchased it because it was sooooo much less expensive than a MacBook with similar specs. For the last three years, that's been a great choice. Which is just to set up the decision criteria...
I'm afraid my desktop's i7-4790K (11206/2529) has made me greedy. Wow, it's fast. Top CandidatesOld laptop (T430) CpuBenchmark: 3998 multi, 1626 single
The ThinkPad was my first choice for a long time (see below for when that changed). The MacBook Pro was too expensive and didn't have two of my criteria -- more than 8 gigs of RAM & a quad-core processor. You could fix the first, but then you're at $1270+. The Alienware was simply too expensive. The Razer Stealth was affordable ($1k), but had the same issues as the MacBook Pro: anemic processor and soldered RAM. Other manufacturers generally had their most attractive hardware in a 15 or 17" case. 15" would be okay, but then you're paying at least $100 over the ThinkPad and losing the thumbprint sensor and TrackPoint. I'd rather save the money and keep the ThinkPad keyboard. The Asus ROG GL552 (review here) is pretty tempting at about the same price. For $1000, it has USB-C, an i7 6700HQ, 16 gigs of RAM, GeForce GTX 960M, and even a num pad, maintenance hatch, & an optical drive. Reviews on Newegg aren't great, however. Doesn't seem to have the best build quality, but great specs for the price. So I'm back to the ThinkPad. Yet the ThinkPad is hampered a little in that, first, the i7 model still isn't for sale in the US and threatens to be several hundred bucks more expensive if you convert the Australian version's processor markup to $US. Second, the T460p throttles its processor's power from 45W to 35W to, as far as most reviewers and forum posters can figure, help with cooling. NotebookCheck claims that doesn't affect performance, but I don't see how it couldn't at times. Otherwise, the processor would be 35W. The bottom line is that the quad-core Skylake doesn't really like being pushed into a T460 chassis. It's also disappointing overall how little single thread performance seems to have increased since 2013. These are less than 10% gains in the CPU benchmark I'm tracking. Can that be accurate? Seems insane. If I wasn't getting a better screen too, I'd consider not upgrading. If money wasn't an object, I think a 15" MacBook Pro wins easily. Runs OS X and Windows, and has great processor options. The build quality is excellent, including the trackpad and keyboard, and I bet it gets a USB-C port in the next revision. I just can't justify $2000 on a laptop, I don't think. If it was going to last me six years, maybe, but that's a lot of coin. Still, I think it's the smart choice, even moreso after they're refreshed in a month or two, for, let's say, a company looking to treat their developers The Right Way. Enter the Darkhorse: $700 IdeaPad Y700-14ISKBut then, clicking around the Lenovo site and NotebookCheck.net, I bumped into Lenovo's 14" "gaming" laptop, the IdeaPad Y700. Great processor, the same that's in the second tier, $1250 Alienware 15 R2, and it only runs $700. I read through a few reviews of the Y700, but it was hard to find many for the 14" version. The most informative I could find was this one from laptopmag.com. There's also a pretty reasonable YouTube review here: Best quote? "For fake carbon fiber, I think they did a good job." There does appear to be a consensus on the laptop's cons.
Yet it has...
Again, that processor is the same as the $1250 tier of the Alienware 15 R2! Seems like a pretty good fit. I don't care about the graphics card; this is for work, and there even the M375 is much more than enough. Replace the hard drive and/or add an m.2 SSD, and you're off and running for around $800. The low battery life worries me a little, I'm worried build quality will be significantly under the ThinkPad, I wish it had an option for a better screen (the ThinkPad I spec'd includes $70 to step up to 2560x1440 /swoon), I'm going to need to find my USB-to-HDMI adapter for another screen, and, even though I'm usually pretty comfortable with unconventional looks, I don't know that I'd bring it to an interview. Might keep the T430 around just for that... ;^) Also wondering how bad the keyboard will be, as that's been one of the best parts of the ThinkPad. I actually got the ThinkPad USB keyboard in preparation for getting a MacBook so I could still have the TrackPoint handy, at least in the office. I wonder if the ThinkPad USB keyboard will fit over the Y700 keyboard with a right-angle micro type b cord, or if I'll end up trying the Bluetooth keyboard. This guy might be crazy, but I'm not convinced he's not crazy like a fox. A final con: No Windows 10 Pro option. Right now, that'd run $140-$200 to "correct". Not cool. The only thing I really need pro for is Hyper-V, however, and I'm doing a lot less of that recently. You know, I'm having my usual immediate buyer's remorse wondering if I shouldn't've shelled out another $200 for the USB-C on the Asus GL552, but I think I'm going to appreciate the Y700-14's portability. I mean, that's what you're really buying a laptop for anyhow, right? Anyhow, that's too cheap to pass up. I'm biting. Far and away the cheapest phat Skylake quad-core I can find in a portable laptop. Man, I hope that keyboard doesn't bite me back. ^ A "lot" of money for a laptop is pretty subjective. I bagged a Lenovo IdeaPad Y100 (?) for $150 a few weeks back, and though it doesn't have enough hard drive space for Visual Studio and the Win10 SDK, it's plenty to do web programming or console/Powershell work. You could actually make a living with it, and I keep it in the car for "emergencies" when I'm caught laptopless. But $1200 seems to be my comfortable max for a "personal" business laptop. * Again, as I said on my "Processor Shootout", that single-thread score for the i5-6440HQ doesn't jibe with expectations or its scores at Geekbench. I think it's wrong and/or not based on enough samples. Labels: alienware, hardware, indie, lenovo, macbook, razer, thinkpad posted by ruffin at 4/28/2016 10:06:00 AM |
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| Thursday, April 21, 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I've had my ThinkPad T440 for over three years now, and though I've been exceptionally happy with it, I'm looking to upgrade. Biggest want? A fast processor. Everything else seems pretty fungible from one computer to the next, including screen resolution (the other place my T440 lacks), with the possible exception of ports. But as long as I have a USB in and video out, I'm fine, honestly. I like the "always on" charging port on my T440, which lets me charge my phone anywhere, but that's about the only "want". Of course this means I'm wasting hours price comparing and processor spec studying. I'm also doing a really poor job putting all the info somewhere I can find it easily. So let's sum, just for me. Pro tip: Don't get hung up on the huge red number. Also compare the "Single Thread Rating! Processors (all scores from cpubenchmark.net)Current Desktop (to make me feel badly):
Current laptop (ThinkPad T440)
ThinkPad T460p (quad-core)Entry price is $935. i7 not available yet.
ThinkPad T460 (dual cores, 3 options)Entry prices by proc: $875, $922, and $1050.
Current MacBook Pro 13"Entry prices by processor are $1300, $1400, and $1600.
Current MacBook Pro 15"Worth remembering that these are, entry-price for each proc, $2000, $2100, and $2300
Alienware 15 r2Though prices change on a dime, right now it's $1200, $1250, and $2550
Razer Blade Stealth & QHD+$1000, $1800 (Pro is the same proc as QHD+, so not including it in "entry price" list)
MacBook 2016Just for fun. Looks like this is $1300-1600 entry. Wikipedia shows three proc options; I only see two on Apple's Buy site. This is the fastest proc listed on Wikipedia right now...
My quick take home (again, for my specific use case; it is my blog, after all! ;^D) is that the MacBook Pros are impressively spec'd, and that the T460p, my initial choice b/c of price and quad-core proc, has an excellent single thread on the i5, tempered by there only being 12 samples taken. I think the take-home is to wait on the new MacBook Pros this summer, to either get a deal on the old or to see if the new procs make sense. The real crux is whether I think I need mobile Mac hardware to write up some Xamarin apps for iOS. I have good but dated desktop Mac hardware, and can't figure out if $300-$500 is worth it to take a Mac on the road. I want to say yes, but with Xamarin Forms, it's not quite the deal breaker it used to be. And man, that T460p is cheap, relatively speaking. EDIT: One more quick addition -- my Mac mini 2012, bottom of the line, as I try to convince myself to get a Windows laptop and use the mini as a Xamarin iOS build server...
Labels: alienware, hardware, hats of money, lenovo, razer, thinkpad posted by ruffin at 4/21/2016 11:54:00 AM |
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| Sunday, November 16, 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I've had my ThinkPad T430 for just over a year and a half now, and I'm to the point that I can't use another laptop without reaching for this danged button a few times an hour. I'm not absolutely sure why I find it so useful -- I think I mainly use it when I'm honestly "laptopping", that is, when it's in my lap. It takes a lot less real estate to use it than the trackpad. But I suppose it's also more efficiently for small mouse adjustments, or, I've noticed, particularly when my "trackpad hand" (right) is "returning" and I want to move the cursor to the right. Strange the habits I pick up.
In any event, I didn't think I'd use it at all when I bought the laptop, and hoped it wouldn't be a nuisance. Now, I guess I'm addicted.
Image via wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick#mediaviewer/File:Mouse_pointing_stick.jpeg
posted by ruffin at 11/16/2014 12:47:00 PM |
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All posts can be accessed here: Just the last year o' posts: |
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