

Ask HN: Which computer/laptop do you use? - justplay


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thiderman
I've been a Lenovo man for the longest time, and I am currently running a
T430s. I find it to be the best balance of physical size and computing power
there is to find.

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claudius
How do you find the keyboard? I'm not too concerned about the weird island
style, but only six rows slightly freak me out (currently using a T410s).

~~~
thiderman
I was afraid I wouldn't like it, but after using it for a couple of weeks I am
very pleased with it. I think the island style mainly was implemented to allow
for the keyboard backlight. That's a bonus for me since I work in low light
from time to time. Backlight really helps then. Also, the six rows things is
no issue for me. I rarely se the extra keys anyways. The PrtSc placement
perplexes me though.

~~~
JimmyL
With adding the keyboard backlight, did they get rid of the Thinklight at top
of the screen?

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blendergasket
I can't speak for the T430S but the T430 has 2 levels of backlighting and then
if I click function space 1 more time the backlighting goes off and the little
lamp at the top of the screen turns on.

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p0ppe
Macbook Air 13" (2011). All the power I need and small enough to carry
everywhere.

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jamesjguthrie
I've just today, finally relegated my T400 Lenovo to media server duties for
the bedroom. It was my desk computer, utilising the docking station and a
second screen.

I now have my 2012 i7 Mac Mini on my desk.

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huhtenberg
I used to have an Acer with an IR port at the front. So when I was demoting it
to the media server duties, I thought I'd try and piggy back on that IR port
to control it with the regular TV remote. It was a good hack and it actually
worked, but I forgot ... to test it from a distance. Apparently the IR
receiver, even with the decorative cover removed, wasn't sensitive enough to
pick up anything from farther than 1 feet away. Likely, by design too.

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truxs
Macbook Air 13" (2012). Powerful enough for webdev and easy to transport.

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tluyben2
Macbook 15 inch i7 2010. It's fast but worthless battery life. Recently got
the $249 Chromebook and i'm finding that besides creating actual ipa's and
apk's, I'm not touching the macbook anymore. I usually get 8+ hours out of the
ultra light thing and it's fast enough to do mostly anything I want on it
(including web dev, mobile dev and 2d game dev).

Manage to do quite a bit of work on an old Fuijitsu p1510, my Galaxy s2 and,
when in on the move, the openpandora.

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MetaCosm
Asus G75VX (laptop) with some aftermarket parts (x2 -- one for home, one for
work)

Intel HM77 Chipset with a i7 3630QM, 32GB of DDR3 1600 MHz (Crucial), 2x M500
960GB SSDs (Crucial), GeForce GTX 670MX with 3GB GDDR5, 17.3" screen
(1920x1080, amazing matte screen, my favorite feature).

Cons: Ugly as hell. Heavy as hell. Battery life is terrible. The chicklit
keyboard seems to require a breaking in period of about a month. Stupidly wide
bezzle around the 17.3" monitor (just because the rest of the laptop is to
big).

Pros: That ugly design creates the best cooled laptop I have ever worked with,
it is a joy to game on for hours, best matte screen I have used on any laptop,
tons of USB ports (USB3), and overall I would buy it again. Relatively clean
audio out for high end headphones (Shure SE530), but at home I still use a
external usb soundcard. Naturally spaced keyboard + numpad is awesome.

EDIT: I am also a bit of an Asus loyalist at this point, as it is the only
company that has built laptops that survive the way I treat them. Apple, Dell,
Acer, Sony (worst!) all fall apart on me. That said, I understand that the
Lenovos are built like tanks and have similar features.

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nawitus
Custom laptop by DevilTech. I don't recommend them because of bad customer
service (it takes long for them to answer to emails etc.), but the hardware
has been solid. Bought it 1.5 year ago, so it has an i5, 8GB ram and 128GB SSD
along with Nvidia's crappy Optimus technology. I'm pretty satisfied though, as
the laptop has a FullHD glare screen and everything I want in a laptop.

At work I use EliteBook and iMac.

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cdvonstinkpot
@ home an old single core Pentium 4 2.1GHz Compaq Evo D500 Small Form Factor
box w/ 3GB RAM from the late 90's.

On the go, a Dell Inspiron 1120 netbook from 2010.

Before too long I hope to install OpenStack to a dual quad core Xeon 3GHz
server I've got w/ 32GB RAM & rdp to a Windows 7 VM from the old Compaq box &
finally have some decent speed at home.

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jaryd
I find your setup intriguing. Clearly, you've got some spare cash for a beefy
virtualization server. Why did you stick it out with the Compaq for so long?

Is the plan to have multiple VMs for other users in the household? Do you like
the idea to be able to create/destroy machines if they start behaving oddly?

Is the plan to just play around with administering a VDI deployment (however
small)? If so, did you consider any other hypervisors?

Sorry to probe... I just think it's interesting :)

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cdvonstinkpot
The server was only $600 on eBay, part of a prototype project for me to learn
on since I'm working on deploying an OpenStack based dedicated server company
on other, much faster hardware in the coming year.

There's no one else in the household- just me, and I considered using
ProxmoxVE for the VM backend because the guys behind the distro offer single
instance support tickets, but for now I'm sticking with OpenStack since it's
feature rich & offers additional functionality I need.

The Compaq stays around because it was my Mom's before she died- just for
sentimental value really. I'm looking forward to repurposing it as an rdp
client station.

The laptop's going to be part of the OpenStack cluster, too. So I'll be able
to migrate my Win7 VM to it when I go out & just reach it through a KDE4
desktop installed to the OpenStack running on it.

I have lofty plans, and alot to learn to implement it. I just got the server &
it took me a week to figure out how to use the arcane RAID interface in its
BIOS. I have an OpenStack install guide bookmarked, but haven't taken the time
to go through & do it yet. I had been working on my website, which I just
finished, and was sidetracking me. I'll get to it eventually.

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blendergasket
I use a Thinkpad T430, which I love. I especially love the extra battery I can
put in. I get about 8-12 hours of battery life out of it so I can jet around
cafes and not worry about having to sit near an outlet. Also, on the days I go
into the office I don't have to worry if I forget my cord. It seems really
sturdy so far too.

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nikkisnow
At home, I'm running a MacBook Air 13" (2011) but with Fedora 18 installed
directory on it (no VM or Bootcamp). Love the hardware of Mac but not
particularly fond of their OS. Absolutely love it.

At work, I've got a Dell Latitude something-or-other running Fedora 18 as
well.

Linux is yummy goodness.

~~~
rosser
How are you finding running Linux on that machine? I use the 4,2 Air as well,
but I've seen reports of incompatibilities, as well as reduced battery life,
when running Linux.

~~~
nikkisnow
It's pretty good. I did have some issues installing Fedora the first few
times. I'm not sure if it's something I did but the very first time I
installed Fedora, I thought I bricked the MBA. Couldn't get anywhere past the
Disk Utility. But, I reformatted the drive twice, let it sit for an hour, and
then attempted the install again. The second time is when I couldn't get the
wireless working so I tried one more time and it went successfully. I actually
installed Fedora 17 because that was the latest at the time. However,
everything is running very smoothly now. Fedora is wicked fast on the SSD. As
for battery life, it's very comparable to the native OS; I've gone just over 4
hours before needing to worry; I think the longest I've gone is around 5
hours. The weird thing is that I have double battery indicators in the tray
when unplugged from the power cord. I've got it hooked up to an external
monitor and that works; closing the lid puts the laptop to sleep. I've also
encrypted my hard drive and the only issue I noticed there is that if you
don't type in your password relatively soon after boot, the OS will fail to
load so you have to force the shut down and restart. Feel free to email me any
specific questions if you want.

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latitude
Thinkpad W520 w/ RAID.

It must be a laptop. Can't really take a desktop on a vacation, can I now? :)

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ejpastorino
13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display (late 2012). 256GB SSD. 2.5GHz i5. 8GB
RAM.

I was about to buy a Macbook Air with similar hardware, but the Retina Display
got me and made me spend a few bucks more. Totally worth it!

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zachlatta
At home: self-built Linux box

On the go: 13" MacBook Pro (mid 2009). It's been a great machine, but is
finally starting to show some age. I'm looking into upgrading to something new
soon.

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twp
MacBook Pro mid-2009 user here. 17" high-res screen awesome for coding.
Recently upgraded to 8GB RAM & 256GB SSD using off-the shelf components. Works
well, but suspect that four year old machine will need to be replaced in the
next two years. 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo starting to feel slow. Expect to change in
the next two years, but currently missing a compelling reason to do so.

~~~
zachlatta
How is the SSD? My biggest issue is with the 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU. CPU
usage goes up to 80% while using Google Hangouts.

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davismwfl
13" Macbook pro and a Toshiba Satellite 17" laptop. Toshiba's have been super
reliable for me, drawback is they always weigh a ton, but it is basically a
desktop in a laptop case.

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JimmyL
Lenovo X220 with 16Gb RAM, the long-life battery, and a few docking stations
(for work and mobile); IBM-era X60s Thinkpad moored to a docking station for
home.

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munin
does the X220 really take 16gb of RAM? crucial.com says it only takes 8, how
did you do that? The x230 takes 16gb...

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JimmyL
It doesn't "officially", but if you put in a pair of 8GB sticks with the
specifications that Crucial gives you for the recommended RAM, it works fine
(although it takes a pleasant while to come back up from full hibernation).

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taylodl
I just got a 15" MacBook Pro w/Retina display a couple of weeks ago. i7, 16Gb
RAM, 512Gb SSD. It's replacing a 7 year-old MacBook. I'm expecting to get 7
years out of this as well. I'm still at the "new machine" stage where
everything just "pops" - not even a hint of delay. The 15" screen is really
nice, highly recommend it over the 13", yet it's still portable and not as
crazy as some of my friends who have 17" MBPs.

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zachlatta
Would you say it's worth the money? I'm looking to upgrade and the 15" rMBP
looks awesome.

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bpodgursky
Thinkpad W530, 16Gb, i7-3820QM, 1920x1080 res.

Nvidia graphics, easily supports 4 external 1920x1080 monitors via docking
station. Pretty awesome.

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ojiikun
Desktop: i7-2600, radeon6870, 8GB 9-9-9-24, 128GB M4 SSD, 27" 1920x1200 IPS

Laptop: Acer AS1810T-8679

For actual code, though, everything happens on an EC2 instance (a medium size)
that I leave running and can ssh and gnuscreen into from anywhere at any time.
Probably the best perk of being a 100% curses / vim user. Also impossibly easy
to back up with snapshotting.

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jedbrown
Asus Zenbook UX-32VD, upgraded to 10GB of memory ($30) and swapped the disk
for a 256 GB SSD. It had a suspend issue at first (late 2012), but a kernel
upgrade fixed it. SSD helps battery life--up to 6 hours at low load. There is
some convenience in the 1920x1080 display matching my external display at
home, though I'd rather go higher res in both.

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rjzzleep
i was looking into that option for a while. didn't it have bleeding on the
screen, and a horrible touchpad? what are your experiences?

~~~
jedbrown
I use 'synclient PalmDetect=1 PalmMinWidth=3', otherwise I bump it with my
palms. The touchpad works fine, though I still use an external mouse at home
and work. I've been pretty happy with the screen. I can see some edge-bleed on
early in the boot sequence in a dark room, but it mostly goes away. I normally
use a light background, but I've never noticed it after startup, except at
100% brightness with black background in a dark room. The screen gets pretty
bright so I don't go above 50% brightness unless I'm outside. The viewing
angle on the screen is quite good.

~~~
jcamachott
'synclient PalmDetect=1 PalmMinWidth=3'

Where do you enter these settings?

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r0s
Custom PC with triple monitor setup. Ivy Bridge i7 with a Vertex4 512GB SSD
and plenty of RAM. I love to build systems, and need a big workstation,
fullsized mechanical keyboard, large screen etc. All three screens are on
articulated wall mounts, so I can arrange in any configuration. Windows8 for
games, linux VMs or my VPS for development.

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chiph
15" 2011 MacBook Pro. I'll probably go back to a Thinkpad with Linux for the
next one, if Apple keeps tabletizing OS X.

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naranja
Dell Latitute E6430, i5-3340M, 12GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Docking with Linux Mint
14. Cheap & Blazingly fast. Love it!

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whitehat2k9
Laptop: HP Probook 4530s, upgraded to 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a 128GB Plextor M3
SSD. Windows 8 Pro + Ubuntu 12.10 in VMWare Workstation.

Desktop: Silverstone SG06BB, 8GB DDR3-1600, 256GB Crucial m4 SSD + 320GB
Samsung 2.5" HDD, EVGA GTX 650 Ti graphics. Windows 7 Ultimate + Ubuntu 12.04
LTS in VMWare Workstation.

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pfg
ThinkPad T420, 8GB of memory, 500GB Disk and 256GB SSD (mSATA)

(Actually the SSD just died, waiting for RMA.)

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jfasi
On the go: a Samsung Chromebook 550, so the old version of the $250 model. I
use this to SSH into my development server, which consists of a series two
Raspberry Pi.

I keep my old 15 inch MacBook pro around for TF2 and to run more involved
deployments on VMs.

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stevewillows
I'm using a Dell xps 1640 (1080 res, 8gb, 128gb ssd) for the past 4+ years.
With the SSD it's silent and runs cool for the most part.

I do graphic design.

For extra storage I use a DLink dns320 with a fan mod so it's cooler and also
silent.

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FredericJ
MacBook Pro 10.1 (Retina, 2.7Ghz, 16GB RAM, 751GB SSD) Only issue, battery
life

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ElliotH
Desktop, i7 3770, 6gb RAM, HD5970, RAID of 3 1tb drives and a 64gb SSD that I
run Linux off of when I need to get real work done.

Laptop is a ThinkPad x121e that desperately needs replacing.

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rdl
Notebook: MacBook Air 2011 13" i7 4/256GB.

Desk: MacBook Pro 2010 17" 8/512/750/3tb, with a 24" LCD

Desk: i7-970 24/512/2x2tb with 3x24" LCD. (Win 7 and Ubuntu)

iPad and iPhone.

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Splendor
At home I use a $249 Samsung Chromebook and RDP into either a Mac Mini or Dell
Windows PC.

If WWDC brings a Macbook Air with at least a 1080p display, I'll switch to
that.

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ruswick
I currently use an entry-level 2012 MacBook Pro, which is abysmal. My ideal
setup would be a Chromebook Pixel for home and a fully-maxed retina MBP with a
512gb drive.

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cypher543
I use a custom-built PC (AMD Phenom II X4 955, 8GB RAM, nVidia GeForce GTX 650
Ti) for working (and gaming) at home and a Google Nexus 10 for working on-the-
go.

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micro-ram
15" MacBook Pro Retina 16GB 512GB SSD + (2) 27" Thunderbolt displays rotated
to portrait on ergotron arms and Matias tactile pro keyboard on the desk.

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ISL
This machine, Asus Eee PC. 1015PX? Atom N570, 2 GB RAM.

Work: i5-3330, 8 GB RAM. No SSD, just spinning platters (~2 TB storage, much
of it unused)

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joshontheweb
MacBook Air 11" 8 gb ram plus Thunderbolt Display.

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carlyle4545
Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon (2012). Lightweight (rivals the MBA), best-in-class
keyboard, with an understated yet beautiful design

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binarydreams
Macbook Pro 15" Retina - good enough to be your primary workstation and I
think it is perfectly portable (carry anywhere).

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malyk
MacBook Air 11". The best computer I've used.

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yashg
Dell Inspiron 15R - i3, 4GB RAM, 500 HDD + Win 8. Tried using a second monitor
a while ago, didn't find any use for it.

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nextstep
13" MacBook Pro with Retina Display (2012)

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hdra
4 years old Asus K40AB with the performance of a 6 years old. Still saving up
for a new machine.

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andreiursan
Macbook Air 13" 2011, i7, 256GB SSD - perfect for programming, good enough for
playing Bastion.

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kh_hk
Thinkpad x60, I have yet to find a laptop that can live up to how these series
feels.

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htilford
@Home Acer Aspire S7 @Work Macbook Pro 15" retina @Both Chromebook Pixel

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edwinjm
15" MacBook Pro (early 2011) with 16GB and 512GB SSD. I'm satisfied :-)

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jsolson
Work: Chromebook Pixel

Hobby: 11" MacBook Air; Early 2011-ish?

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MetaCosm
Do you mainly use the Pixel in ChromeOS, or go developer mode and boot Linux?

~~~
jsolson
I use it exclusively in Chrome OS, but I'm sort of cheating :). If nothing
else, I work at Google (although nowhere near Chrome or Chrome OS), and a lot
of our non-coding workflows already favor browser-based tools.

The vast majority of my day is spent in the Chrome SSH client ssh'd into my
desktop Linux box where I've usually got a half dozen windows open in a
persistent tmux session. I've bound tmux to switch windows with alt+function
keys, so this is pretty comparable to working on a good old-fashioned text
terminal with much prettier type. My development life is largely writing C++
in vim. These days with a suitable set of plugins, vim can make for a really
solid development environment (with semantic completion, file navigation,
etc.).

For the rest, well, most of that happened in a browser already anyway. Reading
docs, writing docs, code reviews, code browsing, e-mail, calendaring.

Prior to Google I was definitely a Mac guy. At times a miss it, but not as
many as I was expecting, roughly two months into this little experiment.

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shocks
Custom built gaming desktop. No laptop/tablet. HTC Sensation.

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ababab
Lenovo ThinkPad T430s

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jcamachott
Asus Zenbook UX31A (on the go), Asus N56VJ (home/office)

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hollerith
Mac mini 2011, base model (the $599 one).

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jyothepro
Macbook Air 13" (2012) 8GB RAM 256 Flash

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FrejNorling
HP EliteBook 8540p 8GB ram

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geekam
Does anyone know if there is a laptop or desktop the parts of which are made
ethically?

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error
Macbook pro 15 Retina

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wunna
Dell XPS 16GB (W7)

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wilfra
17" Macbook Pro (2010) that I've spent way too much having upgraded because I
don't want a 15" screen. Dear Tim Cook. Please bring back the 17" MBP.

27" iMac (2012) - standard top end specs.

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helloamar
13inch Mac book pro, using it for past 1yr and its awesome.

