Laptop for virtualizationstudies?

[MAn6e]

Hi everyone!

 

I am searching for some advice on a new laptop for my studies in server and virtualization. 

 

What im looking for is a laptop with:

1920x1080res

min 12GB RAM

i7 CPU

and a SSD with atleas 256GB storage.

 

I have looked at some laptops but i torn.

 

Since mobile i7 come in both 2 core and 4 core i also wonder if im going to benefit enough with 4 cores to justify the extra cost over a 2 core i7?

 

Im open for sugestions and i dont really have a set budget.

 

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Do you need a quad core.

 

Id personally get a dell e5470 or thinkpad t460/t460p. They cost more, but are normally much better built.

[manikyath]

if wherever you're working on this laptop will have some form of internet access, putting a desktop at home and remoting into it is a far superior solution.

 

and that's not some form of idealism or personal preference, that's a factual statement based on a sample size of 20-ish very lazy college students panicking at their ubuntu installs on boiling laptops while i had my feet kicked up remoted into my home box trough teamviewer while it's doing things by itself 

[MAn6e]

6 minutes ago, manikyath said:

if wherever you're working on this laptop will have some form of internet access, putting a desktop at home and remoting into it is a far superior solution.

 

and that's not some form of idealism or personal preference, that's a factual statement based on a sample size of 20-ish very lazy college students panicking at their ubuntu installs on boiling laptops while i had my feet kicked up remoted into my home box trough teamviewer while it's doing things by itself 

Yes i have thought about that, i actually have a Home server that i could use i just dont know how The internetconnection is going to be in The appartment Im moving to. 

[manikyath]

Just now, MAn6e said:

Yes i have thought about that, i actually have a Home server that i could use i just dont know how The internetconnection is going to be in The appartment Im moving to. 

i'll put it like this: the slower your connection is, the more remoting into a server is worth it, since for studies you'll most likely be downloading A LOT of ISO's

[MAn6e]

10 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Do you need a quad core.

 

Id personally get a dell e5470 or thinkpad t460/t460p. They cost more, but are normally much better built.

I dont know if i Do need a quad core. We are going to be working alot with Linux and Windows server and i dont rally have any idea How many vms is going to be running at The same time. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, MAn6e said:

I dont know if i Do need a quad core. We are going to be working alot with Linux and Windows server and i dont rally have any idea How many vms is going to be running at The same time. 

Are you running vm's on your laptop. If its just goin to be a console for a server, then get a dual core and enjoy the extra batterylife.

[MAn6e]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i'll put it like this: the slower your connection is, the more remoting into a server is worth it, since for studies you'll most likely be downloading A LOT of ISO's

True but The server is going to be at The appartment so it doesnt help alot

[manikyath]

Just now, MAn6e said:

True but The server is going to be at The appartment so it doesnt help alot

except heat, you can close your laptop or do something else while it's loading stuff, and you're not limited to a single hard drive

[MAn6e]

Just now, manikyath said:

except heat, you can close your laptop or do something else while it's loading stuff, and you're not limited to a single hard drive

Well How does it perform with using a graphical interface on The VM through RDP vs sitting at The actual host? Is it much slower or pretty much The same? Guess we are going to both be using GUI and console since its much more than just virtualzation Im going to studdy. 

[manikyath]

Just now, MAn6e said:

Well How does it perform with using a graphical interface on The VM through RDP vs sitting at The actual host? Is it much slower or pretty much The same? Guess we are going to both be using GUI and console since its much more than just virtualzation Im going to studdy. 

well, what i did was have teamviewer on the host, SSH on the non-desktop VMs, and teamviewer on the desktop VMs.

 

it worked surprisingly well, seeing my laptop was a piece of garbage that was actually disintegrating

[MAn6e]

Just now, manikyath said:

well, what i did was have teamviewer on the host, SSH on the non-desktop VMs, and teamviewer on the desktop VMs.

 

it worked surprisingly well, seeing my laptop was a piece of garbage that was actually disintegrating

I guess Im going to play around with RDP on to my server and using it for virtualization. If it works out i can put The extra money that i saved on a laptop to upgrade my server i supose

[manikyath]

Just now, MAn6e said:

I guess Im going to play around with RDP on to my server and using it for virtualization. If it works out i can put The extra money that i saved on a laptop to upgrade my server i supose

i look at it like this: a powerful laptop is such a price premium and inconvenience over a small laptop it's almost paying off the server even if you have to get a new laptop as well.

[MAn6e]

Just now, manikyath said:

i look at it like this: a powerful laptop is such a price premium and inconvenience over a small laptop it's almost paying off the server even if you have to get a new laptop as well.

Since Im only getting The laptop for studies and only using my desktop at Home it would be Nice to not have to pay alot for a premium laptop and just get a used one with Nice batterylife

[manikyath]

Just now, MAn6e said:

Since Im only getting The laptop for studies and only using my desktop at Home it would be Nice to not have to pay alot for a premium laptop and just get a used one with Nice batterylife

on top of that, a lightweight laptop is great in bed

[MAn6e]

18 hours ago, manikyath said:

on top of that, a lightweight laptop is great in bed

Also a good point  Im gonna talk to a teacher at school and discuss it, Dont think that he is going to be too thrilled to since the days im going to be at school im there from 8-17 so if my server goes down im not going to be able to do my work lol.

[Mark77]

If you intend to 'remote' into a virtualization server, you really should be looking at IPMI or Intel AMT capability.

 

Some laptops actually have such capability as well (ie: my Dell Latitude E6440 with Core i5 vPro), although outside of a highly managed IT environment, I see less of a point.