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by KeplerBoy 1078 days ago
Why would you want a beefy GPU in anything except a gaming laptop or full blown workstation replacement?

Also on the bus ride. I certainly wouldn't want to unpack a 17" gaming laptop on a bus of all places. You couldn't use a external mouse anyways. There I'd want a steam deck or Nintendo switch.
1 comments
hospitalJail 1078 days ago
What is a better word for a laptop with good specs? "High end laptops" are usually garbage when I search for them. 19" monitor and a 3060 for $2000, RGB keyboard 512GB ram, 16gb Ram.

I just use the word gaming laptop because you can get high quality stuff for under $1000, or you can get ultra high quality for $3000 like a 4090.

I don't actually play games. Its a shortcut word.

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blacksmith_tb 1078 days ago
"Mobile Workstation" is what the PC industry generally calls big, heavy machines with discreet GPUs, but not all the leet stickers / RGB of a gaming laptop. They're pitched to people who CAD, for example.
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KeplerBoy 1078 days ago
Sure, i get that. I still don't think I'd want to travel or commute with that kind of laptop.

That's the kind of machine I'd want docked at my desk, connected to multiple displays and all other peripherals. At that power efficiency and battery life are of little concern.

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hospitalJail 1078 days ago
I kind of know what you mean. My bro had a gaming laptop that was gigantic and the fans sounded like a jet engine.

I snagged an Asus the other day with a 3060 + 16gb ram for $800 and its small/light weight. I don't think I've heard the fans on it, but I have kids hahaha

If battery life is a concern, how long do you need to remain on but not plugged in? I've used it in enough 2 hr meetings and I don't think I broke 50% battery. I'm doing CAD work/GPU work.

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rfoo 1078 days ago
> I'm doing CAD work/GPU work.

Then you have a good reason to go for a gaming laptop, because your GPU isn't one-ssh-away.

Gaming laptop also don't mean "high qualify", they just mean "high spec". Unless you really have need for higher spec (for example, you have, because of CAD work and needs GPU attached to a screen), it's better to allocate money to build quality, battery life, lower weight or even keyboard feeling.

That doesn't mean everyone else should do. Most of the software guys need "just enough" CPU power and close to zero GPU power on their laptop. When they need more compute their beefier desktop is 1-ssh away. (Or 1 aws ec2 run-instances away for even more power)

For now I'm equally pissed off because it seems like only Apple makes proper "just enough" laptops. And Apple isn't going to stop using aluminum any time soon so their laptop will be too heavy for me to consider.

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hospitalJail 1078 days ago
>it's better to allocate money to build quality, battery life, lower weight or even keyboard feeling.

I'm sure you are coming from something well intentioned, but those are specs as well. Not that I think they are worthwhile paying for, but these are still specs.

>Most of the software guys need "just enough" CPU power and close to zero GPU power on their laptop.

But if that was the case, I have a $100 craigslist laptop that has windows 7 on it from a long time ago. Heck, its good enough my kid can play minecraft on it, I'm sure it can SSH.

Seems like people really do want something nice, or they are okay with barebones. Somehow these low power CPUs are capturing a market that is overpaying or getting lower spec/$.

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rfoo 1078 days ago
> but those are specs as well

Well, sure, for weight. The other three I just can't tell until I try the thing for a week, it isn't spec if you can't tell anything after reading the spec.

> I'm sure it can SSH.

"just enough" means running a web browser, an IDE with a few background indexers for the code base I'm working on. That's a little bit too much for the $100 craigslist laptop, but yeah you are right, a $200 Chromebook works totally fine, except it had poor screen, poor keyboard and poor storage options. Want to know why I buy laptops with low power CPUs? They come with premium non-CPU parts and is both lighter and cheaper than ones with better CPUs.

Like, it's easy, anything >1.2kg is trash for me (which is equally arbitrary as your "non-low-power" constraint). Can you find me a nice <= 1.2kg laptop with so-called "non-low-power" CPUs? If so I'd be glad to try it, as it means maybe I can replace my laptop after 10 years instead of 5.

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