

Ask HN: What computer setup do you use? - sagargv


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partisan
MacBook Pro retina with i7 haswell, 16gb ram, and 512gb ssd. I use fusion to
run windows 7 and Ubuntu. I am really happy with it after 6 months and have
grown to avoid hitting certain key combinations in windows or Linux that kick
me back to OS X.

Strong points: Performance is really exceptional. No problems running visual
studio and SQL server. Battery life is great as well. I get a days worth of
usage out of it. Bought it refurbished from Apple so I saved some money.

Weak points: Some annoyances with slow wake up and connecting to wifi after
wake. If that is the trade off for getting incredible battery life then it is
OK.

~~~
avinassh
Can you actually use the MBP keeping on your lap? I heard MBPs heat a lot and
usual CPU working temps are always 60C+. How true is that? Are these
comfortable to use on lap with all those high temptretures?

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brudgers
My main machine is the black beast, a Dell Precision T7400 with dual E5405,
12gigs 667mhz ECC, (2) 256G and a 500G mirrored pair. Video is Nvida Quadro FX
1700 driving a 20" @ 1600x900 and a 22" @ 1920 x 1080. Microsoft Natural
Ergonomic Keyboard and a Logitech M510 mouse.

I've had it for almost 7 years. It doesn't choke on anything since I bumped
the RAM from 4 to 12G - I was having issues with running virtual machines.

Operating System wise it's got a 50 meg FreeDos partition at the front of the
bootloader for when I screw things up. There's Windows XP Professional X64
edition and CentOS 6 on one of the 250G, the other 250G has Ubuntu Studio
14.04. The 500G has Windows 8 that was upgraded over a Windows 7 installation.
By default Grub2 boots to Ubuntu Studio (without the low-latency kernel). By
default the system will boot to FreeDos if I've hosed Grub.

I wound up with two different size monitors because there was only one 22" in
stock and on sale when the old 24" died. It turns out that the 20" rocks
because of it's lower DPI/larger pixels. I can kick a window to it and read it
from further away - i.e. leaning back in my chair with the keyboard on my lap
(the MS NE4000 is designed to sit in your lap, ergonomically no less).

Away from the desk, I use my Android phablet - an LG Optimus Pro. Now that
I've got a Logitech K410 keyboard for it's even more useful. There's also an
old Vostro in the house and my ancient Toshiba Satellite 1805-S203 with Wary
Puppy (the video connector to the display has become dodgy, unfortunately).

Printers are my current focus. The Brother MFC-5405 crapped out on Tuesday.
The refurbished Citizen GSX-145 from ebay arrived yesterday ($5 buy it now
plus $20 shipping). Waiting on the right cable from MonoPrice - I stupidly
ordered the IEEE 1284 the first time because it sounded better and I had
overwritten the Centronics and Serial cable brain cells. I put the HP LaserJet
2605DN up for sale on Craigslist. The Epson Workforce 1100 will go down to the
family room. The Satellite may wind up a wireless print server. [1] I'll
probably get a bespoke scanner at some point. But I will soon be tractor fed
impact ribbon reliable for when I want to print.

If you've read this far, there's probably something wrong with you. But
obviously not as wrong as what's wrong with me.

[1] I stuck a Broadcom wireless G daughter card out of an HP laptop with a
cracked screen in it.

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avinassh
I have Dell XPS L501x, which have upgraded with SSDs and RAM. It's i7 740QM,
8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 2GB nVidia GT 435M graphics. I have dual booted with
Yosemite and Windows 8.1. Works for me!

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buzzlightyear
Just a macbook pro retina with 256GB SSD - i5 - 8GB Ram. Is really nice for
travelling and working all over my house.

~~~
l0f
+1.

btw, are you having some laggy (high load avg) using yosemite?

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_random_
Most important stuff (no brands): SSD, two screens, mechanical tenkeyless
keyboard.

