Good Developer/Gaming Laptop?

drethon

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Jan 1, 2010
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I'm looking for a new developer/basic gaming laptop to replace my current laptop. I bought a thinkpad i7 laptop in 2013 that I was pretty happy with. I bought an i5 thinkpad flex in 2015 for something I could use as a tablet alternate while still having a development. I thought a newer i5 would be at least as good as a 2 year older i7, but the thinkpad flex was noticeably slower. Unfortunately the i7 machine broke down and I've been left with the flex for a while, now have money to look at an upgrade.

I'm looking for a developer laptop primarily and gamer laptop secondary. I tend to develop a lot for data crunching research or developing games. So I want a fair bit of processing capability, I assume i7 is pretty much minimum. I do want to balance this against cost, I'm willing to spend money on a good laptop, but not twice as much for a 10% faster machine. Like the Lenovo laptop with Xeon would be freaken cool, but probably not worth it when I could dump the job off to a desktop with a real processor.

Graphics wise, I'm not looking for ability to play a game with maxed out graphics, just something able to run lowish graphics smoothly. Could do embedded graphics but I think a fair stand alone card would be preferable. I do like high resolution though, not needed but better than 1080p would be nice. Somewhat(?) related, I do like my numberpad so I think a 15" is minimum but I had a 17" before, kick ass machine but the size gets annoying after a while.

I don't need much storage, I've got 256Gb SSD on my current machine and am only using about half of it. I do a lot of data processing, but don't store a lot of data. 16Gb minimum on the memory though

One nitpick is I would prefer a laptop that I can change the memory or drives when needed.

I'm thinking something like a Lenovo ThinkPad T series laptop but wondering what the best options might be these days.

Thanks!
 
Solution
You might look at the legion thinkpad essential Y520 unit available on the Lenovo outlet.
https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/outletus/lenovo-legion-y-series-laptops/Legion-Y520/p/80YY0060US
It includes a I7-7700HQ processor.
The big difference between the7700HQ and a I7-7600U is that the HQ has 8 threads vs. 4.

Check the notebook reviews on any unit you are considering.
You should be able to verify what ram/drive upgrades are available.
In my experience the thinkpad units are easy to upgrade.
My Y700 certainly was.

Lutfij

Splendid
Moderator
1| You didn't state a budget and your location of purchase or a preferred site for purchase.
2| You wont get a Xeon on a laptop's form factor unless you're looking at workstation class laptop which will quite frankly chop anyones head off.
3| You could look through these laptops listed in this article.
 

drethon

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Jan 1, 2010
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Budget is part of what I'm trying to figure out. Mostly looking at where the fastest machines are without pushing the price/performance curve too much. Initially I'm thinking it is probably in the $2,000-$2,500 range but wondering if anything fits at lower prices.
 

geofelt

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How much do you need portability?
You can likely build a much stronger machine for your money using a desktop.

Assuming you need a laptop. I really like the thinkpad units. They are solid with good keyboards.
I do not see any units with 8th gen processors and 17" screens yet.
They are likely coming.
 

geofelt

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You might look at the legion thinkpad essential Y520 unit available on the Lenovo outlet.
https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/outletus/lenovo-legion-y-series-laptops/Legion-Y520/p/80YY0060US
It includes a I7-7700HQ processor.
The big difference between the7700HQ and a I7-7600U is that the HQ has 8 threads vs. 4.

Check the notebook reviews on any unit you are considering.
You should be able to verify what ram/drive upgrades are available.
In my experience the thinkpad units are easy to upgrade.
My Y700 certainly was.

 
Solution