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> But advanced development machines of today are the entry level computers of tomorrow. I've been waiting for years for a cheap laptop with 4-8 GB RAM that's g

by Yhippa 9y ago

> But advanced development machines of today are the entry level computers of tomorrow. I've been waiting for years for a cheap laptop with 4-8 GB RAM that's got a quad-core processor for development and light gaming. It seems those machines are always north of $600. If anybody has suggestions of what to do without going used I'd love to hear them.

SwellJoe 9y ago
I got a refurb Dell gaming laptop from Dell Outlet with 16GB of RAM, an i7 CPU, a 4k 15.6" touchscreen display, and an nVidia GT960M GPU for about $695; that was with a 20% or 25% off coupon, but those come up pretty regularly. It's a beast and plays games well. Surely, you can find something reasonable for under $600, with spec requirements as modest as the ones you've listed. My Dell isn't a nice machine, by any means...it's a standard plastic job, but when I've bought higher end models in the past, they haven't lasted significantly longer than cheapo consumer models, so I just accept the cheap feel of the thing and save the $500+ that better builds cost. It runs Linux very well today, though it didn't when I bought it, but that was due to video drivers, which would have been true of any device with a 4k display and the GT960M GPU. And, on the subject of Electron, I started using Atom at the same time I got this new machine. It runs fine, alongside Firefox with a gazillion open tabs, Thunderbird with a hundred thousand emails in the inbox, and a Gnome terminal with a dozen or so tabs.
joe5150 9y ago
There are quite a few laptops meeting those specs on Amazon right now, and some of them don't look bad [1]. 1: https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_size_browse-bin_2?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A541966%2Ck%3Aquad-core+laptop%2Cp_n_feature_fourteen_browse-bin%3A2057441011%2Cp_36%3A-60000%2Cp_n_size_browse-bin%3A2423841011&keywords=quad-core+laptop&ie=UTF8 https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_size_browse-bin_2?f...

by Yhippa 9y ago

SwellJoe 9y ago

I got a refurb Dell gaming laptop from Dell Outlet with 16GB of RAM, an i7 CPU, a 4k 15.6" touchscreen display, and an nVidia GT960M GPU for about $695; that was with a 20% or 25% off coupon, but those come up pretty regularly. It's a beast and plays games well. Surely, you can find something reasonable for under $600, with spec requirements as modest as the ones you've listed. My Dell isn't a nice machine, by any means...it's a standard plastic job, but when I've bought higher end models in the past, they haven't lasted significantly longer than cheapo consumer models, so I just accept the cheap feel of the thing and save the $500+ that better builds cost. It runs Linux very well today, though it didn't when I bought it, but that was due to video drivers, which would have been true of any device with a 4k display and the GT960M GPU. And, on the subject of Electron, I started using Atom at the same time I got this new machine. It runs fine, alongside Firefox with a gazillion open tabs, Thunderbird with a hundred thousand emails in the inbox, and a Gnome terminal with a dozen or so tabs.

joe5150 9y ago

There are quite a few laptops meeting those specs on Amazon right now, and some of them don't look bad [1]. 1: https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_size_browse-bin_2?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A541966%2Ck%3Aquad-core+laptop%2Cp_n_feature_fourteen_browse-bin%3A2057441011%2Cp_36%3A-60000%2Cp_n_size_browse-bin%3A2423841011&keywords=quad-core+laptop&ie=UTF8 https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_size_browse-bin_2?f...