Man this new laptop is awesome

[steppinthrax]

Not really new, but new/used.

Bought a Dell e6520 off ebay. I specifically wanted one with a i7 and a SSD. I was coming from a Core2 duo laptop with a traditional HD (7200rpm).

This is running Windows 7 with 4 gigs of ram and a 128 gb ssd. Man this fucker is fast. It boots Windows 7 in about a minute or so. It brought me back to my good old days when I first bought my core 2 duo and it ran fast as hell.

Only negative is the ssd is 128 GB. Not sure if I will have space issues, but will use this for a development/business machine.

Visual Studio 2012
SQL express
Adobe Photoshop

I can imagine it maxing out.

Also it is running only 4gb of DDR3 1600 SODIMM. Thinking of going to 16 or 8. Not sure if it will make a whole lot of difference.

 

[Kaido]

The E6520 is on Neverware's compatibility list...if you have a spare USB stick, you should give it a try sometime:

http://www.neverware.com/freedownload

Turns your laptop into a Chromebook for free!

 

[purbeast0]

i went from an hp probook on an i5 with ssd 4gb of ram (running osx) to a mid-2015 macbook pro ssd with 16gb of ram and there is no way i could ever look back. granted, the price difference was about $1200, but after using it, the differences are so worth it.

 

[KeithTalent]

I hate to say this, but after recently buying a good laptop, I am actually considering getting rid of my desktop PC and just using that laptop 100% of the time for everything. It's big enough and powerful enough t do anything I need and takes up way less space doing it.

KT

 

[Sonikku]

My C2D laptop can barely run Vanilla WoW by way of private server. A laptop that can do everything but gaming vs a laptop that can do gaming is basically a gpu, even a very low end basic one of which seems to double the price of a laptop from $300 to $600.

 

[purbeast0]

I hate to say this, but after recently buying a good laptop, I am actually considering getting rid of my desktop PC and just using that laptop 100% of the time for everything. It's big enough and powerful enough t do anything I need and takes up way less space doing it.

KT

yeah i rarely use my desktop now a days. the one thing i used to use it for all the time was non-ios development simply due to more screen real estate and 2 monitors. but now that i got my macbook and can use multiple desktops and change them just as quick as i can turn my neck for multiple displays, i am just as efficient on my laptop as i was on my desktop with dual monitors. probably even more so since i have 4 desktops that i use which is double the screen real estate i got with 2 monitors.

 

[steppinthrax]

My C2D laptop can barely run Vanilla WoW by way of private server. A laptop that can do everything but gaming vs a laptop that can do gaming is basically a gpu, even a very low end basic one of which seems to double the price of a laptop from $300 to $600.

Yeah, see I have a wife family full time job and working on a budding business. Fuck games. Yeah, years ago I built game desktops with dual video cards etc.

 

[steppinthrax]

I hate to say this, but after recently buying a good laptop, I am actually considering getting rid of my desktop PC and just using that laptop 100% of the time for everything. It's big enough and powerful enough t do anything I need and takes up way less space doing it.

KT

God rid of my desktop years ago. Kept the wireless keyboard monitor and mouse. Likely I will get a docking station to connect this laptop with that.

 

[steppinthrax]

i went from an hp probook on an i5 with ssd 4gb of ram (running osx) to a mid-2015 macbook pro ssd with 16gb of ram and there is no way i could ever look back. granted, the price difference was about $1200, but after using it, the differences are so worth it.

Lol, fuck Apple. I spent 240 for this laptop!!

 

[purbeast0]

Lol, fuck Apple. I spent 240 for this laptop!!

i've been using mine primarily for ios and android development and the quickness of this machine is incredible compared to the old laptop. also the resolution is much higher so all around it's just a much better experience. the touchpads aren't even comparable, nor is the battery life (6 hours of real work vs about 45 minutes).

thankfully i'm not like 99.99% of the forum and use tools that are best to get the job done and don't have an irrational brand loyalty.

 

[steppinthrax]

i've been using mine primarily for ios and android development and the quickness of this machine is incredible compared to the old laptop. also the resolution is much higher so all around it's just a much better experience. the touchpads aren't even comparable, nor is the battery life (6 hours of real work vs about 45 minutes).

thankfully i'm not like 99.99% of the forum and use tools that are best to get the job done and don't have an irrational brand loyalty.

Many people I know who are Apple users will spend 2400 on a Apple laptop, just because. For the most part (bang for your buck), you get better value for your money with anything else.

I just can't justify the extra you pay, just because it has a Apple logo on it (and it makes you feel special).

Sorry, not to get into a Apple debate here.

 

[purbeast0]

Many people I know who are Apple users will spend 2400 on a Apple laptop, just because. For the most part (bang for your buck), you get better value for your money with anything else.

I just can't justify the extra you pay, just because it has a Apple logo on it (and it makes you feel special).

Sorry, not to get into a Apple debate here.

well if you think you're paying extra for just an apple logo you're just ignorant. there's really no other explanation. well or you are an anti-apple fanboy.

"getting better value for your money" is completely subjective as well. as i mentioned, the touchpad, battery life, multiple desktops (which works in tandem with the touchpad) are things that may be worth $0 to some people but worth $1000+ to others.

i literally had no "real need" to upgrade, as in, i could use my hackintosh just fine. however i started working on a serious side project and decided to splurge and got a laptop for $1800 brand new.

i didn't need to spend $3000+ for the up to date one because the difference between $1800 and $3000 was way not worth it for the little gains. it would be like .2ghz faster, have force touchpad (dont care about that), and better graphics card (dont care bout that).

but the faster cpu, more ram, and screen resolution alone was worth it for me to upgrade. then after using it and seeing the battery life, touchpad, form factor, on top of the initial things i wanted, it was completely worth it.

oh and it had to be apple because it's for ios development. prior to this, i did all of my android development on my desktop, but now i do it on this laptop too since android studio is on osx now.

 

[John Connor]

Man this fucker is fast. It boots Windows 7 in about a minute or so.

LOL! I use right now a Dell Precision M6300 that is a dual core with a SSD and guess what? Windows 7 boots up in about 40 seconds.

 

[purbeast0]

booting win7 in 1 minute is fast or is that just being sarcastic? my 6+ year old desktop (with an ssd though) boots windows 7 up in about 20-25 seconds, including the bios post.

my laptop on the other hand boots up in about 11 seconds from power on to all 3 desktops loaded up with all my previous apps open and ready for use.

 

[Sonikku]

"A minute or so" isn't really fast in my opinion. My PC goes from a cool boot to desktop in just under 30 seconds.

 

[jlee]

booting win7 in 1 minute is fast or is that just being sarcastic? my 6+ year old desktop (with an ssd though) boots windows 7 up in about 20-25 seconds, including the bios post.

my laptop on the other hand boots up in about 11 seconds from power on to all 3 desktops loaded up with all my previous apps open and ready for use.

lol I noticed that too. My Win10 desktop (i5 3570k/SSD) boots in...I dunno, 8 seconds or so. I haven't timed my laptop, but it's not too bad either (i3 2370M/SSD).

 

[reallyscrued]

Good for a laptop of that price, no doubt. But my newest workstation build has me giddy.

AMD Kaveri 7700k + UEFI motherboard
Windows 8.1
Kingston SSD

Cold boot to desktop in 10 seconds. Sh*t you not. The BIOS post is not even there, the windows circular pattern turns about halfway over, then I hit my wallpaper.

Whole build was like $250 thanks to Microcenter AMD Processor bundles (seriously, how do they even make any money on these?)

My desktop is here to stay. Tri-monitor, 8 GB RAM development system for under $250, Yes please.

 

[Harrod]

^ I had a laptop with one of those Amd APU's, it was a A-10 something. It really was pretty cool for what it was, it would run skyrim at low settings pretty well. I ended up selling it to my sister, because I needed something that would run some VMware stuff I was messing with at the time.

 

[Gunbuster]

Yeah "New" from 2011. Just imagine how fast current laptops are...

 

[TheGardener]

My 5 yo HP laptop with Windows 7 takes 5-8 seconds to get the sign in page. Another 5-8 seconds before most everything is installed. Only 4 gig of RAM. It was upgrading to an SSD that did the trick of speeding it up. Best PC upgrade I ever made. If your 128 gig is too small, then spend a bit to get a bigger one. I have 170 gig of 240 still available, so I bought the optimum size for me. I keep music, pictures and videos pretty much on a 500 gig WD hard drive that I also use for backups. Looking forward to another 5 years before I buy a new device to replace the laptop.

 

[MrSquished]

just built a new desktop (i56600K w 16gb of RAM w 500gb SSD). boots up to windows 10 in 22-23 seconds. still gotta oc it.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I hate to say this, but after recently buying a good laptop, I am actually considering getting rid of my desktop PC and just using that laptop 100% of the time for everything. It's big enough and powerful enough t do anything I need and takes up way less space doing it.

KT

I just did this for my wife. We are shit-canning her desktop and just using a docking station for her work space at home. This way she can just take her computer with her if she goes in to the office or when we go away on vacation.

 

[tcsenter]

There are some awesome deals on pre-owned refurbed 2nd Gen and 3rd Gen Core machines that when adding SSD and enough RAM end-up being pretty sweet values, more than adequate for a lot of computing uses.

 

[Markbnj]

but now that i got my macbook and can use multiple desktops and change them just as quick as i can turn my neck for multiple displays

That just doesn't work for me as a developer. I have two monitors and use multiple desktops and I still wish I had more space. I have one environment, my ubuntu box, where I am constrained to a single 24" monitor because I use a remote desktop to access it, and so I have to flip desktops exclusively on that machine. There are times when I need my editor open on one screen and other tools/references open on the other. A single screen just doesn't cut it.

I wouldn't mind moving to a laptop exclusively... I am planning to replace the Ubuntu tower with one soon. For my main windows machine it would need to drive both monitors, have enough GPU for the latest games, and support 5.1 sound. I don't know if there is one that can do all that now, but even if there is once I go that direction I am pretty locked in to getting a new one in 2-4 years. My current tower case is 10 years old and has had its entire guts replaced four or five times .

 

[purbeast0]

That just doesn't work for me as a developer. I have two monitors and use multiple desktops and I still wish I had more space. I have one environment, my ubuntu box, where I am constrained to a single 24" monitor because I use a remote desktop to access it, and so I have to flip desktops exclusively on that machine. There are times when I need my editor open on one screen and other tools/references open on the other. A single screen just doesn't cut it.

I wouldn't mind moving to a laptop exclusively... I am planning to replace the Ubuntu tower with one soon. For my main windows machine it would need to drive both monitors, have enough GPU for the latest games, and support 5.1 sound. I don't know if there is one that can do all that now, but even if there is once I go that direction I am pretty locked in to getting a new one in 2-4 years. My current tower case is 10 years old and has had its entire guts replaced four or five times .

how to you swap desktops on that machine with 1 monitor? i ALWAYS felt handicapped developing on my laptop the past 5 or so years running OSX on a dell or HP laptop.

i never really used multiple desktops (tried on my old laptop) until it was so easy to switch between them like it is on the macbooks. i tried on the other laptops but the touchpads sucked so you couldn't swipe to new desktops, i had to use keyboard shortcuts which just didn't work.

but switchiing between them with the touchpad on macbooks is so easy and works just as easily as turning your head. okay well having 3 monitors would definitely be nicer, but i really don't feel hindered at all developing on this like i used to on my old one.