Best lab environment laptop?

[berderder]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm setting up a lab environment at home to mess around with networking and other things. I think it would also be nice to get a robust laptop that I can do Virtual Machines to mess around with other OS's. Any recommendations? I basically want to implement as much of a lab environment as possible with this laptop.

 

Thanks. 

[berderder]

6 minutes ago, Abyssal Radon said:

Budget?

Probably less than $1000

[imreloadin]

31 minutes ago, berderder said:

Hi everyone,

 

I'm setting up a lab environment at home to mess around with networking and other things. I think it would also be nice to get a robust laptop that I can do Virtual Machines to mess around with other OS's. Any recommendations? I basically want to implement as much of a lab environment as possible with this laptop.

 

Thanks. 

Any reason why you're wanting to do this with a laptop instead of a desktop?

You'd be able to get a setup that is much more powerful for VMs if you didn't get a laptop with a low power CPU.

[TurtleTrain]

Hey,

Will this laptop have other uses or will it only be used in the Lab environment?

[berderder]

2 minutes ago, imreloadin said:

Any reason why you're wanting to do this with a laptop instead of a desktop?

You'd be able to get a setup that is much more powerful for VMs if you didn't get a laptop with a low power CPU.

I wanted the laptop as a business expense that I could take on the road and use for other work too 

 

i do however have a home pc I could use for the VMs. The pc in my signature

[berderder]

2 minutes ago, TurtleTrain said:

Hey,

Will this laptop have other uses or will it only be used in the Lab environment?

The lab environment and probably on the road for work (creating bootable flash drives, word processing, browser, etc)

[TurtleTrain]

3 minutes ago, berderder said:

The lab environment and probably on the road for work (creating bootable flash drives, word processing, browser, etc)

Hey,

Not sure that I can really help with this one, I know of some robust laptops but don't have much experience with what you want to do so I'm not sure I could give the best recomendations

 

Sorry I couldn't help

[berderder]

Just now, TurtleTrain said:

Hey,

Not sure that I can really help with this one, I know of some robust laptops but don't have much experience with what you want to do so I'm not sure I could give the best recomendations

 

Sorry I couldn't help

Thank you regardless 

[imreloadin]

12 minutes ago, berderder said:

Thank you regardless 

For running VMs in a "lab environment" you'll want to have a decent amount of RAM and a strong CPU if you want to have multiple VMs running simultaneously.

The reason I suggested a Desktop is because most of the i7 CPUs out there in laptops now are of the U sku which means you'll only get a 2 core/4 thread CPU.

 

This is what I'd suggest getting if you want to go the laptop route as it'll give you an actual 4c/8t CPU:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015PYZ0J6/?tag=pcpapi-20

 

and then upgrade the RAM to 16GB with this kit:

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3L-12800-204-Pin-SODIMM-CT2KIT102464BF160B/dp/B007B5S52C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488062888&sr=8-1&keywords=CT2KIT102464BF160B

 

Total price would be $907.98 if you have Amazon Prime and then you get free 2 day shipping.

[berderder]

2 minutes ago, imreloadin said:

For running VMs in a "lab environment" you'll want to have a decent amount of RAM and a strong CPU if you want to have multiple VMs running simultaneously.

The reason I suggested a Desktop is because most of the i7 CPUs out there in laptops now are of the U sku which means you'll only get a 2 core/4 thread CPU.

 

This is what I'd suggest getting if you want to go the laptop route as it'll give you an actual 4c/8t CPU:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015PYZ0J6/?tag=pcpapi-20

 

and then upgrade the RAM to 16GB with this kit:

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-PC3L-12800-204-Pin-SODIMM-CT2KIT102464BF160B/dp/B007B5S52C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488062888&sr=8-1&keywords=CT2KIT102464BF160B

 

Total price would be $907.98 if you have Amazon Prime and then you get free 2 day shipping.

What do you think of this one?

 

https://smile.amazon.com/X3-Plus-v5-CF2-i7-6700HQ-Notebook/dp/B01D16H0RA/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1488062847&sr=1-5&keywords=laptop&refinements=p_n_operating_system_browse-bin%3A12035945011%2Cp_n_feature_fourteen_browse-bin%3A2057441011%2Cp_n_size_browse-bin%3A3545275011

 

I've never even heard of Aorus

[imreloadin]

1 minute ago, berderder said:

What do you think of this one?

 

https://smile.amazon.com/X3-Plus-v5-CF2-i7-6700HQ-Notebook/dp/B01D16H0RA/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1488062847&sr=1-5&keywords=laptop&refinements=p_n_operating_system_browse-bin%3A12035945011%2Cp_n_feature_fourteen_browse-bin%3A2057441011%2Cp_n_size_browse-bin%3A3545275011

 

I've never even heard of Aorus

Aorus is what Gigabyte calls their "luxury" brand so the OEM of the products are Gigabyte.

That laptop would work as well but it looks like you can only get it used and all of the people "selling" it are people who don't have any feedback so I wouldn't trust them.

[berderder]

1 minute ago, imreloadin said:

Aorus is what Gigabyte calls their "luxury" brand so the OEM of the products are Gigabyte.

That laptop would work as well but it looks like you can only get it used and all of the people "selling" it are people who don't have any feedback so I wouldn't trust them.

Yeah the sellers look sketchy