Looking for laptop for number crushing

[tlink]

A friend of mine needs a laptop that can crush numbers very well while staying mobile for his pentest company. i helped him do some research into laptops and we came out with 3 main competitors. 

 

requirements:

gtx 1070

i7 skylake or higher

less than 3.5 kg (you can suggest over that but eh)

less than 16"

gigabit lan port

wlan (2,4ghz and 5ghz)

16gb ram (has to be upgradable)

thunderbolt 3 would be a huge bonus.
Serviceability is a huge bonus since these things need to be maintained for 3 years and stay relevant, this is also why we want thunderbolt 3 so we could use an external gpu if it outdates fast.

here are the top 3 competitors i found

MSI GT62VR 7RE or 6RE

skylake: € 2.099

kabylake: € 2.149

Spoiler

 

CPU : skylake i7 HQ(6th gen) or kabylake i7 (7th gen)

GPU : GeForce® GTX 1070 8gb GDDR5

RAM : DDR4-2400, 4 Slots, Max 64GB

STORAGE : 1x M.2 SSD Combo (NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 / SATA ) 1x 2.5" SATA HDD

NETWORKING : Killer Gb LAN (1x RJ45) Killer ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth v4.1

SCREEN : 15.6" FHD (1920x1080), IPS-Level

USB : 1x Type-C USB3.1 Gen2 (10GB/S) 3x Type-A USB3.0 1x Type-A USB2.0

SD READER : 1x SD (SDXC/SDHC) 

DISPLAY OUT : 1x HDMI (4K @ 60Hz) 1x Mini-DisplayPort

BATTERY : 8-Cell , 75 Whr

PHYSICAL SPECS : 2,94KG 390 x 266 x 39.8 mm

LOOKS : MSI logo with some red and a programmable RGB keyboard, half gamery, half serious.

SERVICABILITY : Underside has big acces panel for whole logicboard, few screws with warranty stickers.

PRICE : skylake: € 2.099 kabylake: € 2.149

 

 

Gigabyte P35XV6

€ 2.128,30

Spoiler

 

CPU : skylake i7 HQ(6th gen)

GPU : GeForce® GTX 1070 8gb GDDR5

RAM : DDR4-2133/DDR4-2400 8GB/16GB, 2 Slots, Max 32GB

STORAGE : 2x m.2 SSD Combo (NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 / SATA) 1x 2.5" SATA HDD 1x Swappable Bay (Supports Quad-Storage System)

NETWORKING : 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet, 802.11 ac (a/b/g/n compatible), Bluetooth V4.1+ LE

SCREEN : 15.6" Full HD 1920x1080 IPS Anti-Glare Display LCD

USB : 1x Type-C USB3.1 Gen2 (10GB/S) 3x Type-A USB3.0

SD READER : 1x SD (SDXC/SDHC)

DISPLAY OUT : 1x HDMI 2.0 1x Mini-DisplayPort 1x D-Sub

BATTERY : 75.81Wh Li-Polymer 11.1V

PHYSICAL SPECS : ~2,3KG (w/ Li-polymer Battery) ~2,4KG (w/ ODD and Li-polymer Battery)385 x 270 x 20.9 mm LOOKS : Very proffesional, no gamer look. Very flat, looks like full metal chasis.

SERVICABILITY : Probably not great due to its thinness, CD bay can be used for extra drive. Access panel for what looks like RAM and possibly m.2 storage/wifi card. performance is slightly less due to thinness.

 

 

 

Asus ROG-GL502VS
skylake: € 1.749

kabylake: € 1.999

Spoiler

 

CPU : skylake i7 HQ(6th gen) or kabylake i7 HQ(7th gen)

GPU : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5

RAM : DDR4-2133, 2 Slots, Max 32GB

STORAGE : 1x m.2 SSD Combo (NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 / SATA) 1x 2.5" SATA HDD NETWORKING : Gb LAN (RJ45), 802.11b/g/n/AC, bluetooth v4.0

SCREEN : 15.6" (16:9) LED backlit FHD (1920x1080) 60Hz Anti-Glare Panel with 72% NTSC with G-Sync With WideView Technology

USB : 1x Type-C USB3.1 Gen2 (10GB/S) 3x Type-A USB3.0

SD READER : 1x SD (SDXC/SDHC/MMC)

DISPLAY OUT : 1x HDMI 1x Mini-DisplayPort

BATTERY : 4 Cells 62 Whrs Battery

PHYSICAL SPECS : 2,34KG (w/ Battery) 390 x 266 x 30.1 mm

LOOKS : Looks gamery, red accents and "republic of gamers" visable on lid, metal top plastic bottom. red accents in keyboard, trackpad and logo under keyboard. mix betweena aggresive gamer and proffesional.

SERVICABILITY : No screws visable from the underside, does have some kind of access panel that covers the logic board completely except for the sides. access to wifi card is probably just about possible trough that. Full underside can be took off with 10 screws.

 

 

[The Sloth]

https://us.msi.com/Laptop/GT83VR-TITAN-SLI-6th-Gen-GTX-1080-SLI.html#hero-overview

[tlink]

7 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

https://us.msi.com/Laptop/GT83VR-TITAN-SLI-6th-Gen-GTX-1080-SLI.html#hero-overview

plz its 18" and weights 4.6kg thats not doable

[UTnick]

I would research more into which one of those would give you grief using an external thunderbolt GPU housing. I believe some will give a warning about compatibility that you can ignore, but not sure if all of them are the same in that regard. And I believe MSI sells to other system integrators so you could find another "MSI" laptop that is essentially the same with a different badge.

 

You might find some options with: iBUYPOWER, Origin, CyberPowerPC.

 

And have you considered the Razer Blade Pro or is the screen size too large?

 

https://www.originpc.com/configurator/l/l1.aspx?SYSTEMID=44

[RadiatingLight]

This maybe?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834233186

 

any of these would work honestly:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?N=100157995 601206490&IsNodeId=1&Submit=ENE

[tlink]

23 minutes ago, UTnick said:

I would research more into which one of those would give you grief using an external thunderbolt GPU housing. I believe some will give a warning about compatibility that you can ignore, but not sure if all of them are the same in that regard. And I believe MSI sells to other system integrators so you could find another "MSI" laptop that is essentially the same with a different badge.

 

You might find some options with: iBUYPOWER, Origin, CyberPowerPC.

 

https://www.originpc.com/configurator/l/l1.aspx?SYSTEMID=44

Origin pc subtotal would be well into the 2.500, ill look into the others later

[RadiatingLight]

This one looks really nice if you trust the brand

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAATJ58H5738&cm_re=Clevo_GTX_1070_Laptop-_-9SIAATJ58H5738-_-Product

[RadiatingLight]

Just now, tlink said:

Origin pc subtotal would be well into the 2.500, ill look into the others later

 

24 minutes ago, UTnick said:

I would research more into which one of those would give you grief using an external thunderbolt GPU housing. I believe some will give a warning about compatibility that you can ignore, but not sure if all of them are the same in that regard. And I believe MSI sells to other system integrators so you could find another "MSI" laptop that is essentially the same with a different badge.

 

You might find some options with: iBUYPOWER, Origin, CyberPowerPC.

 

https://www.originpc.com/configurator/l/l1.aspx?SYSTEMID=44

 

Origin PC and CyberpowerPC, and others really rip you off. (they literally charge $650 for a blower style GTX 1080 in their desktop builds.)

[UTnick]

Just now, tlink said:

Origin pc subtotal would be well into the 2.500, ill look into the others later

I think you'll find there to be two schools of laptops that fall into what you're looking for. Those with HQ CPUs and those with desktop CPUs. Does it matter which one? The desktop CPUs of course being higher clock, but also more expensive.

[UTnick]

1 minute ago, RadiatingLight said:

 

 

Origin PC and CyberpowerPC, and others really rip you off. (they literally charge $650 for a blower style GTX 1080 in their desktop builds.)

But at the same time I their more expensive price tag gives you a desktop CPU that you might be able to upgrade later. I would have to check on that.

[tlink]

Just now, UTnick said:

I think you'll find there to be two schools of laptops that fall into what you're looking for. Those with HQ CPUs and those with desktop CPUs. Does it matter which one? The desktop CPUs of course being higher clock, but also more expensive.

The load is gpu bount mainly so the cpu power is less relevant, gpu usage would be at 100% so they both would throttle like hell anyways so I don't really think its worth it.

[UTnick]

4 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

This one looks really nice if you trust the brand

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAATJ58H5738&cm_re=Clevo_GTX_1070_Laptop-_-9SIAATJ58H5738-_-Product

This might be a re-branded MSI so if the price fits . . . 

[UTnick]

4 minutes ago, tlink said:

The load is gpu bount mainly so the cpu power is less relevant, gpu usage would be at 100% so they both would throttle like hell anyways so I don't really think its worth it.

Then I would do your best to find the large form factor and hope for better cooling. Also, HQ throttling can somewhat be solved with the Throttlestop software, however, your desktop CPUs are going to be much more customizable as they are built on OC capable boards.

[RadiatingLight]

2 minutes ago, UTnick said:

This might be a re-branded MSI so if the price fits . . . 

Doesn't look like a re-branded MSI, but the brand seems fine, and it uses a Kaby lake CPU, and it's pretty cheap.

[RadiatingLight]

Just now, UTnick said:

your desktop CPUs are going to be much more customizable as they are built on OC capable boards.

Where does it say that?

most likely not unless the desktop CPU itself is a K sku, which is very unlikely

[UTnick]

6 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

Where does it say that?

most likely not unless the desktop CPU itself is a K sku, which is very unlikely

Sorry some of the ones I was looking at, like the Origin, are K skus with z170 chipsets. Those are also in beefier chasis.

[tlink]

9 minutes ago, UTnick said:

Then I would do your best to find the large form factor and hope for better cooling. Also, HQ throttling can somewhat be solved with the Throttlestop software, however, your desktop CPUs are going to be much more customizable as they are built on OC capable boards.

It has to be somewhat compact since they have to do physical pentesting too. carry the laptop around a lot to check lan ports and networks etc. Its not really doable to cary a 17 inch 4kg laptop around easily like that. A 3.5kg laptop is seriously pushing that limit.

[UTnick]

17 minutes ago, tlink said:

It has to be somewhat compact since they have to do physical pentesting too. carry the laptop around a lot to check lan ports and networks etc. Its not really doable to cary a 17 inch 4kg laptop around easily like that. A 3.5kg laptop is seriously pushing that limit.

Yeah that Origin is 15.6" but 3.4 kg. And also more expensive like you said. However, it comes with a lifetime support and labor. Though how that works if you're across the pond I am not sure.

 

The funny thing is I have to convert my dollars to your pounds and my pounds to your kilograms. Good fun.

[Pendragon]

1 hour ago, tlink said:

A friend of mine needs a laptop that can crush numbers very well while staying mobile for his pentest company. i helped him do some research into laptops and we came out with 3 main competitors. 

2

absolutely none of them. Refer to my quote here. 

8 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

I dont even know how to you come with that price. Did you shit it out of a brick? So for the base in which I would use is 1365E. 

 

Lets make do some math to bring it to a reasonable level. 

Add Ram (134E): https://www.amazon.de/Kingston-HX421S13IBK2-16-Arbeitsspeicher/dp/B014R8JRRW/ref=sr_1_13?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1489539678&sr=1-13&keywords=ddr4+sodimm

Add Storage (172E): https://www.amazon.de/Samsung-MZ-75E500B-EU-interne-schwarz/dp/B00P73B1E4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1489539589&sr=8-2&keywords=850+evo

 

1365+134+172 = 1671

 

For comparison, lets take a look at your loved GL502VS (1699E): https://www.amazon.de/GL502VS-FY045T-Notebook-i7-6700HQ-GeForce-schwarz/dp/B01KJMUHMY/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1489540025&sr=1-2&keywords=gl502vs

 

Literally worse in every way.

Can't cool itself: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ROG-Strix-GL502VS-Notebook-Review.171567.0.html

No MUX Switch: So battery life is garbage

6700HQ: Shit locked at 3.1ghz. Whereas the 6820HK can easily OC to 4.0ghz. Big difference in games. You can check benchmarks on that. 

180W adapter is shit. 1070 + 6820HK can pull near 210w+ even more on prema enabled clevos. So I added a 230w to my base config for more price.

 

So WTF are you saying??? People who don't know stuff commeting on things they don't know. All the above points are OBJECTIVELY worse. And there's nothing you can change about it. Yes, if you can find a GL502VS selling for 1400E then maybe it's worth considering, but at the market price of around a Clevo there is NO reason to EVER get. 

 

 

 

You should get a Clevo. 

[tlink]

1 hour ago, Pendragon said:

absolutely none of them. Refer to my quote here. 

 

You should get a Clevo. 

For this I actually do agree, he doesn't need the extra storage. I'm going to contact their support tommorow if he could possibly get a custom order that is bare bones (so we can choose own ram drives and possibly wifi cards if the ones they offer don't support monitor mode or packet injection). its going to run linux so it also is important to ask about what guarantees they give about compatability. And how their pick up and return warranty works outside UK. I'm also going to ask about possible thunderbolt support. Thanks this actually helps a lot if they can offer it to the requirements.

[Pendragon]

14 hours ago, tlink said:

if he could possibly get a custom order that is bare bones (so we can choose own ram drives and possibly wifi cards if the ones they offer don't support monitor mode or packet injection)

 

Yes he can. They allow for custom barebones orders.

 

14 hours ago, tlink said:

its going to run linux so it also is important to ask about what guarantees they give about compatability

100% works. there are linux only clevo retailers. https://system76.com/

 

14 hours ago, tlink said:

I'm also going to ask about possible thunderbolt support

Not for another several generations. TB3 costs money and on their mid range lineup Clevo sees no point in putting it in. (You need to move up to their DTR series before you get access to TB3). 

[tlink]

1 hour ago, Pendragon said:

Yes he can. They allow for custom barebones orders.

 

100% works. there are linux only clevo retailers. https://system76.com/

 

Not for another several generations. TB3 costs money and on their mid range lineup Clevo sees no point in putting it in. (You need to move up to their DTR series before you get access to TB3). 

eh if thats the case we will probably just end with a bulky big thing with thunderbolt support and a 1080. i also found out that the site you used sells at massive bulk discounts, i can't find a seller that gives the same parts for prices even close to it for ssd's. i was also wondering about this special vbios and bios everyone is raving about when doing a little google research into clevo, they said something along the lines of that its worth getting because it improves stability and such or something? do you know anything about that?

[K352]

https://www.amazon.com/X5-v6-PC3K3D-Notebook-i7-6820HK-GeForce/dp/B01KB8R2TC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489605479&sr=8-1&keywords=x5+v6    
I own this and I love it, though there is only 1 problem its rly noisy under load.

[tlink]

9 minutes ago, K352 said:

https://www.amazon.com/X5-v6-PC3K3D-Notebook-i7-6820HK-GeForce/dp/B01KB8R2TC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489605479&sr=8-1&keywords=x5+v6    
I own this and I love it, though there is only 1 problem its rly noisy under load.

can't get that one over here yet i think. razer is also completely unavailable (i just wanted to look at the specs but they simply are not for sale here)

[Pendragon]

1 hour ago, tlink said:

snip

Its nice if you know how to use it. For example, all Prema vbios machines cab sustain run about 2k or more Mhz on their core whereas everything else runs at like 1600mhz. Go on YouTube and search Prema bios.