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Comment by virtualwhys | Hacker News Reader

> Are we left with only either apple laptops, or shoddy plastic jobs that need to be kept in bubble wrap at all times?

Dell Precision line is still kicking, beastly machines, there is no better (IMO of course ;-)).

They won't win any design awards and are a bit on the hefty side, but performance-wise hard to beat. Have 32GB RAM in mine, can have several VMs running, and do development work (compile to ram disk instead of thrashing SSD) on host OS (Fedora) with memory to spare.

Dual fans are also a nice-to-have with heat-generating i7 processor. Maybe not a huge deal for some but the BIOS is pretty ridiculous in terms of configurability/locking down the machine.

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Looks to me like the M3800 isn't quite up to spec with the MBP, and has a ways to go to catch System76.

Edit: The M4800 doesn't come with 32GB of RAM either - which one do you have?

> The M4800 doesn't come with 32GB of RAM either - which one do you have?

M4700, would be surprised (and disappointed) if they neutured the M4800 down to 16GB.

Thanks for the System76 ref, looks like Alienware style, 7.4 lbs. on the 15", a tank in disguise ;-) Impressive that they're running desktop CPU in there, must be really loud fan-wise -- do you own one?

Not yet - just noticed it when I went looking today. I'm looking forward to testing 2 M.2 drives + 2 1T ssds in a laptop though. I'll sacrifice mobility, but heat/noise is a concern.

Alienware seemed focused on LAN party gaming even before Dell bought them - not interested :)

Do you like the keyboard? It's probably the thing I'm most concerned with. If so, which model do you have? I'm trying to find business laptops with good keyboards, but so far the only things that I find acceptable seem to be Thinkpads.

I (not original poster) have a Dell Latitude E5430 with the upgraded backlit keyboard and I like that keyboard a lot (vastly better than the standard one on my old D620).

That is great to hear. I've been taking a look at the Latitudes as an alternative to the current Thinkpad that I have, and I was concerned about the keyboard. It looked like a good keyboard after looking at some images, but it's always nice to hear from people that do have the laptop. Thank you.

> Do you like the keyboard?

Sure, when I use it that is. It lives on a laptop stand alongside connected monitors (which, btw, is another bonus, 5 displays if you like ;-)). Use a compact Cherry mechanical keyboard for day-to-day, only touch laptop keyboard when traveling.

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