Up-to-date hardware (laptop) recommendations?

[Roman Ovseitsev]

If you need 3 external monitors on top of the internal, without discrete
GPU the only option is a Skylake based laptop. It can pull off up to 5
monitors through HDMI/DP according to the spec. AFAIK older architectures
support only 3 monitors.
However since it just got released only a couple months back, there
probably not that many laptops to choose from yet. If any at all. Mobile
CPUs with better GPU are still not released so most vendors probably
waiting for them.
As far as Linux support for Skylake there are still some issue which you
might want to be aware of if you decide to go down that road:
ACPI doesn't work with some motherboards. Not an issue though if you don't
mind disabling it in the kernel. Graphics drivers work properly only
starting with 4.3 kernel.

As for the laptop, I've been using ThinkPad T 14" line for years and
overall the build quality, Linux support, repairability, and port selection
are rather good. Although I think the latest models have eSATA port removed
and come with only 3 USB ports, but I haven't checked.


On Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 11:05 AM, Omer Zak <w1 at zak.co.il> wrote:

> After long time of not looking for hardware recommendations, I am again
> looking for up-to-date hardware recommendations.
>
> This time, I'd like to buy a laptop which will serve as my main
> workhorse PC at home and outside of it.
>
> As things look like, I would like it to have:
> - 16GB RAM.
> - Ability to connect 2-3 external displays (possibly via a docking
> station).
> - External SATA interface, with which I can connect an external hard
> disk and work with it at full speed. This is in addition to internal
> hard disk (500GB or more, capacity not critical).
> - Battery time is not critical, as I expect to work near electricity
> anyway.
> - Several USB sockets
> - WiFi
> - Wired Ethernet socket
> - Full Linux compatibility
>
> So far someone recommended Macbook Pro with 13" display size.
>
> Any recommended brands, models, off-brands?
> Any brands to keep away from?
> Any specs to ask for?
> Any of the above specs NOT to ask for and why?
>
> --- Omer
>
>
> --
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