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Does anyone have good recommendations for general office laptops? My company bought about 10 Dell laptops and about half of them have a problem in which they ra

Does anyone have good recommendations for general office laptops? My company bought about 10 Dell laptops and about half of them have a problem in which they randomly shut off due to some thermal issue. Dell has given us a hard time with the problem and have replaced some of the laptops with new laptops that have had the same problem.

bityard 6y ago
Which Dell laptops did you buy? Dell manufactures the whole spectrum of laptop quality, from cheap Walmart garbage to high-end mobile workstations. If you buy their consumer-grade stuff, yeah, it's often junk. But their business- and professional-oriented laptops are usually decent quality. Latitude and Precision, for example. I have both of those and they've been workhorses for me. Mid-range Thinkpads would also be a fairly safe bet.
- tails4e 6y ago
  I've a precision 5530. On paper it's a lovely machine. In practice, lots of graphics issues, docking station issues where screens flicker, etc. It's such a shame for something so costly. It's a work laptop, I'd have returned it long ago if I'd purchased it myself.
  - dijit 6y ago
    I have a 5520, so, the generation before. Specced the heavens, max memory, ECC, Xeon. I also had issues with the dock, but it was exclusively the dock, the TB16 is a flaming hunk of garbage that has no business being on my desk. The issues mostly stem from the fact that the USB controller (which powers nearly everything in the dock) is shockingly terrible. But, regardless, there are more issues because the 5520 (and probably 5530) have only 2PCIe lanes to the thunderbolt port. I was surprised to learn that "thunderbolt3" != "thunderbolt3" in all cases. I have a 5k laptop that is a buggy pile of trash because someone tried to save a dollar on a USB controller. Honestly if I could lug this thing at Michael Dells' head I would do so I'm so frustrated. But anyway, the laptop by itself is fantastic, it does get toasty under full load but I tend to disable the GPU so it's bearable. I considered getting the new WD19 thunderbolt dock before I realised about the thunderbolt PCIe lanes.
  - jcims 6y ago
    It sucks when something good gets gutted for seemingly inconsequential cost savings. I bought a precision M6600 back in 2012. It went all over the world with me for work. I had it replaced with an M6700 in 2015 100% under warranty when the GPU let out the magic smoke. Since then the one I have has been rock solid. I just gifted it to my kiddo b/c it's overkill for my current role. I will miss all of the jokes about my space heater though. Nothing will unify a group of 30 of my colleagues more than jeering me as I draw that beat up 17" coffee table from my backpack like some kind of nerd excalibur. (Also more to the point I've experienced OP's issue a few times with it over the years.)
- jotm 6y ago
  They are f%%%ing overheating. Latitudes, Precisions, Alienwares, HPs ZBooks and Elitebooks, all of them have a barely good enough heatsink on the CPU, and often GPU. I dunno about Lenovos, tbf. Having those chips run at 95+ degrees most of the time (when doing serious work for which the laptops were designed) and depending on Intel's built in thermal throttling (A. Last. Resort. Measure!) is ridiculous. Dell has even been smartassing it with lower throttle thresholds, god forbid they use better cooling instead. But hey, they save £1 on every heatsink, so F U, buy a new laptop when this one breaks! Frankly I am sick of this. Just make proper heatsinks, I can personally come and shove a £2 coin up yours, thanks.
  - snazz 6y ago
    While the MacBook Pro thermals are not frequently lauded for many of the same reasons, the metal unibody does make an effective heatsink. I'm not sure why that isn't standard with every expensive-ish laptop, given that most of the advantages of ThinkPad-style plastic are gone these days (since modern laptops aren't user-serviceable anyway).
    - ben-schaaf 6y ago
      > I'm not sure why that isn't standard with every expensive-ish laptop I don't know about you, but I prefer my laptop to stay cool enough to stay on my lap and be able to type on. Plastic is a good enough insulator to keep the heat away from me, and it's pretty easy to find laptops with adequate heatsinks.
graton 6y ago
Many people, including myself, like Thinkpad laptops. And by Thinkpad I mean Thinkpad, not any laptop from Lenovo. I have personally purchased three generations of the Thinkpad X1 Carbon over the years. I know the Thinkpad T4?? are popular also.
- dijit 6y ago
  Thinkpad are not what they used to be, they're not "terrible" but the Latitude series runs circles around them in terms of upgradability, build quality and software support. I would rather buy a new HP Elitebook or Dell Latitude than anything from Lenovo at this point.
  - snazz 6y ago
    Software support meaning Linux?
    - dijit 6y ago
      Not just linux, OpenBSD/FreeBSD too. But yes, they support Windows well enough. There's also the whole Superfish incident, injecting malware to the OS from the BIOS is scary- and while it did not affect the Thinkpad line specifically I am increasingly wary of the company because of it. And since the hardware is so hard to service these days, and (soldered components, plastic clips) and it isn't very special either there's not enough "appeal" to suade my opinion in their favour.
      - ekianjo 6y ago
        Lenovo laptops are still way more serviceable than the alternatives. Its getting worse, granted, over time.
        dijit 6y ago
        My point was that it’s not actually more serviceable than a Dell Latitude or HP Elitebook. iFixit regularly rate those devices 10: https://www.ifixit.com/laptop-repairability https://www.ifixit.com/laptop-repairability
cyann 6y ago
We use thousands of Dell pro laptops (Latitude, Precision). They often release BIOS updates to fix these types of issues, which also include the latest remediation for Intel vulnerabilities. They've got a tool to automatically download and update their drivers stack: https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln311129/dell-command-update https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln311129/dell-co...
TwoBit 6y ago
IT people supposedly historically have had the best luck with Lenovo, in particular with respect to frequency of problems and handling of problems when they do occur. I just bought a Lenovo Yoga as my first Lenovo laptop and it's my favorite I've ever owned and the only one I like over my last MacBook Pro and Air.
raghava 6y ago
Off late (since 2018) Dell Latitude has been pretty troublesome. https://www.dell.com/community/Latitude/Major-Latitude-7390-problems/m-p/6099762#M4250 https://www.dell.com/community/Latitude/Major-Latitude-7390-... https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/8wbhhv/high_failure_rate_on_dell_latitude_7390/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/8wbhhv/high_failu... https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/ar1mas/the_latitude_7390_is_a_piece_of_garbage/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/ar1mas/the_latitude_7...
robotnikman 6y ago
My workplace mainly uses HP equipment. The HP Probook line seems pretty solid from whats I've seen so far. Also they are the only manufacturer so far IIRC which include a 'Pre-boot DMA Protection' option in the BIOS which helps mitigate the Thunderbolt 3 DMA attack

bityard 6y ago

Which Dell laptops did you buy? Dell manufactures the whole spectrum of laptop quality, from cheap Walmart garbage to high-end mobile workstations. If you buy their consumer-grade stuff, yeah, it's often junk. But their business- and professional-oriented laptops are usually decent quality. Latitude and Precision, for example. I have both of those and they've been workhorses for me. Mid-range Thinkpads would also be a fairly safe bet.

tails4e 6y ago
I've a precision 5530. On paper it's a lovely machine. In practice, lots of graphics issues, docking station issues where screens flicker, etc. It's such a shame for something so costly. It's a work laptop, I'd have returned it long ago if I'd purchased it myself.
- dijit 6y ago
  I have a 5520, so, the generation before. Specced the heavens, max memory, ECC, Xeon. I also had issues with the dock, but it was exclusively the dock, the TB16 is a flaming hunk of garbage that has no business being on my desk. The issues mostly stem from the fact that the USB controller (which powers nearly everything in the dock) is shockingly terrible. But, regardless, there are more issues because the 5520 (and probably 5530) have only 2PCIe lanes to the thunderbolt port. I was surprised to learn that "thunderbolt3" != "thunderbolt3" in all cases. I have a 5k laptop that is a buggy pile of trash because someone tried to save a dollar on a USB controller. Honestly if I could lug this thing at Michael Dells' head I would do so I'm so frustrated. But anyway, the laptop by itself is fantastic, it does get toasty under full load but I tend to disable the GPU so it's bearable. I considered getting the new WD19 thunderbolt dock before I realised about the thunderbolt PCIe lanes.
- jcims 6y ago
  It sucks when something good gets gutted for seemingly inconsequential cost savings. I bought a precision M6600 back in 2012. It went all over the world with me for work. I had it replaced with an M6700 in 2015 100% under warranty when the GPU let out the magic smoke. Since then the one I have has been rock solid. I just gifted it to my kiddo b/c it's overkill for my current role. I will miss all of the jokes about my space heater though. Nothing will unify a group of 30 of my colleagues more than jeering me as I draw that beat up 17" coffee table from my backpack like some kind of nerd excalibur. (Also more to the point I've experienced OP's issue a few times with it over the years.)
jotm 6y ago
They are f%%%ing overheating. Latitudes, Precisions, Alienwares, HPs ZBooks and Elitebooks, all of them have a barely good enough heatsink on the CPU, and often GPU. I dunno about Lenovos, tbf. Having those chips run at 95+ degrees most of the time (when doing serious work for which the laptops were designed) and depending on Intel's built in thermal throttling (A. Last. Resort. Measure!) is ridiculous. Dell has even been smartassing it with lower throttle thresholds, god forbid they use better cooling instead. But hey, they save £1 on every heatsink, so F U, buy a new laptop when this one breaks! Frankly I am sick of this. Just make proper heatsinks, I can personally come and shove a £2 coin up yours, thanks.
- snazz 6y ago
  While the MacBook Pro thermals are not frequently lauded for many of the same reasons, the metal unibody does make an effective heatsink. I'm not sure why that isn't standard with every expensive-ish laptop, given that most of the advantages of ThinkPad-style plastic are gone these days (since modern laptops aren't user-serviceable anyway).
  - ben-schaaf 6y ago
    > I'm not sure why that isn't standard with every expensive-ish laptop I don't know about you, but I prefer my laptop to stay cool enough to stay on my lap and be able to type on. Plastic is a good enough insulator to keep the heat away from me, and it's pretty easy to find laptops with adequate heatsinks.

graton 6y ago

Many people, including myself, like Thinkpad laptops. And by Thinkpad I mean Thinkpad, not any laptop from Lenovo. I have personally purchased three generations of the Thinkpad X1 Carbon over the years. I know the Thinkpad T4?? are popular also.

dijit 6y ago
Thinkpad are not what they used to be, they're not "terrible" but the Latitude series runs circles around them in terms of upgradability, build quality and software support. I would rather buy a new HP Elitebook or Dell Latitude than anything from Lenovo at this point.
- snazz 6y ago
  Software support meaning Linux?
  - dijit 6y ago
    Not just linux, OpenBSD/FreeBSD too. But yes, they support Windows well enough. There's also the whole Superfish incident, injecting malware to the OS from the BIOS is scary- and while it did not affect the Thinkpad line specifically I am increasingly wary of the company because of it. And since the hardware is so hard to service these days, and (soldered components, plastic clips) and it isn't very special either there's not enough "appeal" to suade my opinion in their favour.
    - ekianjo 6y ago
      Lenovo laptops are still way more serviceable than the alternatives. Its getting worse, granted, over time.
      - dijit 6y ago
        My point was that it’s not actually more serviceable than a Dell Latitude or HP Elitebook. iFixit regularly rate those devices 10: https://www.ifixit.com/laptop-repairability https://www.ifixit.com/laptop-repairability

cyann 6y ago

We use thousands of Dell pro laptops (Latitude, Precision). They often release BIOS updates to fix these types of issues, which also include the latest remediation for Intel vulnerabilities. They've got a tool to automatically download and update their drivers stack: https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln311129/dell-command-update https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln311129/dell-co...

TwoBit 6y ago

IT people supposedly historically have had the best luck with Lenovo, in particular with respect to frequency of problems and handling of problems when they do occur. I just bought a Lenovo Yoga as my first Lenovo laptop and it's my favorite I've ever owned and the only one I like over my last MacBook Pro and Air.

raghava 6y ago

Off late (since 2018) Dell Latitude has been pretty troublesome. https://www.dell.com/community/Latitude/Major-Latitude-7390-problems/m-p/6099762#M4250 https://www.dell.com/community/Latitude/Major-Latitude-7390-... https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/8wbhhv/high_failure_rate_on_dell_latitude_7390/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/8wbhhv/high_failu... https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/ar1mas/the_latitude_7390_is_a_piece_of_garbage/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/ar1mas/the_latitude_7...

robotnikman 6y ago

My workplace mainly uses HP equipment. The HP Probook line seems pretty solid from whats I've seen so far. Also they are the only manufacturer so far IIRC which include a 'Pre-boot DMA Protection' option in the BIOS which helps mitigate the Thunderbolt 3 DMA attack