Mobile workstation needed

[bikramjitkar]

1) What is your budget? (INR or USD) - upto 1.2 lakhs/ $2000


2) What size & weight consideration (if any) would you prefer?

At least 15 inch screen but lightweight

3) What are the primary tasks you will be performing with this notebook?
Will be used for software development using Visual Studio intensively and running a number of VMs. Will be dual booting Windows 7 and 8.1.

5) Any typical configuration in your mind you're eying for ?
Quad core i7 and minimum 8gb RAM. Screen HAS to be alt least 1080p, graphics card is not a priority as this will not be used for gaming. Touch screen will be good to have but not compulsory.

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: Lenovo ThinkPad (1st preference), HP, Dell, Apple
b. Dislike: Asus, Acer


6) Anything else you would like to say?
Screen resolution ( 768p (HD) / 900p / 1080p (Full HD) ) - minimum 1080p
Battery back up ( normal (3-4hrs) / extended (5-7hrs) ) - Higher the better
Purchase place ( Online (eg - flipkart, infibeam) / Local / Abroad (do mention the country) ) - no preference, wherever I can get it quickest.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Customise this: XOTIC PC | Sager NP8268-S (Clevo P150SM-A) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook

or this: XOTIC PC | Sager NP8651 (Clevo P650SE) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook

as per your need.

 

[bikramjitkar]

Customise this: XOTIC PC | Sager NP8268-S (Clevo P150SM-A) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook

or this: XOTIC PC | Sager NP8651 (Clevo P650SE) - 15.6" Gaming Notebook

as per your need.

Do they ship to India? Also, since this will be a work machine, ASS has to be good.

 

[seamon]

Do they ship to India? Also, since this will be a work machine, ASS has to be good.

count ASS out for Xotic. You won't get warranty in India. Go with Thinkpad if GPU is not required in your line of work.

 

[Siddhartht]

Thinkpad W series, W540 to be precise. Although it will be hard to get that one in India. At the same time, you can look for Thinkpad T series(T540p), you will not get Quadro, but then again, graphics is not your main concern.
For HP, you kinda have to wait, since they usually don't keep ZBooks in stock(Quad core models).
For Dell, you can have Latitude E6540 or the workstation moniker M2800 of same machine.

For VMs, as far as I can remember, you can pass through the graphic queues/calls natively through Quadro/Firepro drivers/GPUs. (Although I am pretty sure that you need vSphere or Xen)

 

[seamon]

However, if you need a desktop CPU in a laptop go for Origin EON 15 X. You can upgrade it with Intel Core i7 4790K Quad-Core 4.0GHz (4.4GHz TurboBoost). No ASS however.

 

[$hadow]

I like the latest refresh of Thinkpad series might get one for my DAD.

 

[bikramjitkar]

Only models that I can find locally are the Lenovo y50 and Alienware 14. The y50 has a crappy TN display and slow 5400rpm HDD while the Alienware is small and bulky. Flipkart has some MSI models too, but am not sure of their quality. Think I'll just get a good Thinkpad or Dell Precision from the US. No point paying a ton of cash for inferior stuff just for the warranty.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

Only models that I can find locally are the Lenovo y50 and Alienware 14. The y50 has a crappy TN display and slow 5400rpm HDD while the Alienware is small and bulky. Flipkart has some MSI models too, but am not sure of their quality. Think I'll just get a good Thinkpad or Dell Precision from the US. No point paying a ton of cash for inferior stuff just for the warranty.

If you don't care about warranty get any of the clevo models I mentioned. 2nd one has an option for 3k-4k display too instead of FHD one.

 

[bikramjitkar]

If you don't care about warranty get any of the clevo models I mentioned. 2nd one has an option for 3k-4k display too instead of FHD one.

Yeah, I'll look into those too. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[seamon]

Only models that I can find locally are the Lenovo y50 and Alienware 14. The y50 has a crappy TN display and slow 5400rpm HDD while the Alienware is small and bulky. Flipkart has some MSI models too, but am not sure of their quality. Think I'll just get a good Thinkpad or Dell Precision from the US. No point paying a ton of cash for inferior stuff just for the warranty.

If you're getting from USA, get EON 15X with desktop CPU.

 

[bikramjitkar]

If you're getting from USA, get EON 15X with desktop CPU.

I was checking that out too, but with a 4790k and 16 gigs of RAM, it is well exceeding the $2000 mark. This machine will be paid for by my company, so I will have a hard time justifying the extra cost. The Sager ones look good though.

 

[seamon]

I was checking that out too, but with a 4790k and 16 gigs of RAM, it is well exceeding the $2000 mark. This machine will be paid for by my company, so I will have a hard time justifying the extra cost. The Sager ones look good though.

Origin EON 15 X is a laptop originally made by Clevo.

Clevo makes the barebones for custom laptops and retailers rebrand them as Clevo or Origin.

If you want it below 2k then buy directly from Sager(best retailer for Clevo notebooks).

 

[Jayanth.M.P]

I am planning on getting a Sager 9752 with 4K Sharp display (< $2000), in the next couple of weeks.
Waiting for a little feedback on it.

One thing to mind though, this will be a 3+ Kg laptop and will not have too long a battery life,but has AMAZING processing power.

Xotic PC is a good reseller in my opinion.

 

[kunalgujarathi]

Origin EON 15 X is a laptop originally made by Clevo.

Clevo makes the barebones for custom laptops and retailers rebrand them as Clevo or Origin.

If you want it below 2k then buy directly from Sager(best retailer for Clevo notebooks).

Xotic's Support is way way better than Sager itself.
Plus Xotic offers free laptop tracking guaranteed so that you never loose it.

 

[seamon]

Xotic's Support is way way better than Sager itself.
Plus Xotic offers free laptop tracking guaranteed so that you never loose it.

Xotic is just a reseller. They don't provide support. When I asked they said that if I wanted to claim warranty on a Sager laptop bought from them, I'd have to ship it to Sager. If I ship it to them, they'd ship it to Sager.

 

[bikramjitkar]

Origin EON 15 X is a laptop originally made by Clevo.

Clevo makes the barebones for custom laptops and retailers rebrand them as Clevo or Origin.

If you want it below 2k then buy directly from Sager(best retailer for Clevo notebooks).

That looks great on paper but I'm afraid using a desktop cpu in a notebook will increase the weight quite a bit and decrease battery life. Also, there may be thermal throttling. No reviews out on these things yet.

 

[seamon]

I am planning on getting a Sager 9752 with 4K Sharp display (< $2000), in the next couple of weeks.
Waiting for a little feedback on it.

One thing to mind though, this will be a 3+ Kg laptop and will not have too long a battery life,but has AMAZING processing power.

Xotic PC is a good reseller in my opinion.

Xotic PC is one of the best out there for customizations especially for Sager laptops. Sager laptops are the real deal. No BS crap, pure power.

Another good option for you is Aorus X5 from Xotic but it'll be expensive.

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That looks great on paper but I'm afraid using a desktop cpu in a notebook will increase the weight quite a bit and decrease battery life. Also, there may be thermal throttling. No reviews out on these things yet.

There's no point in using Sager laptops on battery. They are meant to be used on AC power. Yep, the battery life will be very poor. But don't expect much better battery life from mobile quad cores(core i7 4710MQ) either. Also, while on battery these processor(desktop and mobile quads) will not be able to perform at their full power due to power throttling. No battery will be able to provide enough juice for them.

Don't worry about Thermal Throttling on Sager laptops. It will never happen. Sager laptops run the coolest among competitors.


For a reference, a previous 18 incher had half an hour battery life with a Ivy Bridge Xtreme desktop proccy.

 

[bikramjitkar]

There's no point in using Sager laptops on battery. They are meant to be used on AC power. Yep, the battery life will be very poor. But don't expect much better battery life from mobile quad cores(core i7 4710MQ) either. Also, while on battery these processor(desktop and mobile quads) will not be able to perform at their full power due to power throttling. No battery will be able to provide enough juice for them.

Don't worry about Thermal Throttling on Sager laptops. It will never happen. Sager laptops run the coolest among competitors.


For a reference, a previous 18 incher had half an hour battery life with a Ivy Bridge Xtreme desktop proccy.

That makes sense, but I'm looking for a balance between portability and power as I may have to travel around with this thing. The MSI Ghost looks pretty good. Any opinions on that?

 

[seamon]

That makes sense, but I'm looking for a balance between portability and power as I may have to travel around with this thing. The MSI Ghost looks pretty good. Any opinions on that?

Go for MSI GS 30 Shadow. 13 incher with core i7 4870HQ. It's more powerful than any processor found in Sager(except desktop and extreme one). Also it does not have a dGPU. It's one of the lightest and thinnest laptop.
It also comes with a dock to house a desktop GPU(upto GTX TITAN Z SLI card---->compatible as told to me by Xotic guys) should you ever feel the need to play games.

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MSI GS 60 Ghost is pretty good too.