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I’m Planning to buy a new laptop for server administration and general troubleshooting work . Will run Virtual Box , Vmware on it to run Windows server to make it as a Test Environment. 1st i decided to go with Alienware 14 as it’s one of the powerful laptop in the market plus they offer two hdd options . But after seeing the battery backup and heat generated from the laptop i had second thought about Mac book Pro ( 16gb with Nvidia Version ) . considering it’s lighter and faster. But the problem is I’m new to MAC environment and haven’t used b4, Plus can i use it for troubleshooting Windows Environment and how does it handle the virtual environment.

Is it worth investing so much money into mac book pro , will it be suitable for system administration work ?

@HP @Lenovo

5 Spice ups
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Personally I’d never voluntarily use a mac, especially for admin stuff your going to end up making yourself work harder going w a macbook.

2 Spice ups
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Why not put your test envritoment on a microserver and get a portable lighter laptop to trobleshoot/work with?

2 Spice ups
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Or just use a tablet of some flavor (imo either a high end android tablet, or a windows 8 pro tablet) to remote into said microserver.

2 Spice ups
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I want to practice myself at home through virtual environment with server and client and to check how things work so that I can implement new things in the production environment. So thought to buy a powerful laptop which can withstand this load.
So which one can I go for alienware or mac ?

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Personally I would go for a nice Lenovo. No alienware or Mac.

Unless you are doing a lot of graphics/rendering you shouldnt need standalone graphics.

Look for something with a good i7 and plenty of RAM.

3 Spice ups
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rafeeqahmed wrote:

I want to practice myself at home through virtual environment with server and client and to check how things work so that I can implement new things in the production environment. So thought to buy a powerful laptop which can withstand this load.
So which one can I go for alienware or mac ?

Neither, both are bad options.

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So which laptop do u suggest ?

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Whats wrong with a VPN and RDP?

Personally i wouldn’t go for either… alienware used to be good but gone down hill since dell, macs are just craps. Gaming Laptops - Laptop Computers for PC Gaming - Razer Blade💻 | Razer United States is meant to be amazing if your in the US.

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as a network administrator; having a reliable machine (that runs windows 7) is the way to go.

Should you need to configure any type of hardware that requires a serial port connection; obviously you will end up finding yourself using a USB to serial adapter. Although it always works best in Windows (native).

I’ve read that a lot can be done with Apple; however, then you will find yourself emulating windows (should you want two operating systems). unless you run windows as a separate partition (to boot up from).

If you want power; then the HP Elitebook is the way to go!

Here is one of the top of the line models.

F2Q24UT

http://shopping1.hp.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/WW-USSMBPublicStore-Site/en_US/-/USD/ViewProductDetail-Start?ProductUUID=h4kQ7EN5v30AAAFAsw8w0t3g&CatalogCategoryID=IZwQ7EN58yoAAAEuiS9CFgHD&JumpTo=OfferList

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Nope I can’t use VPN or RDP because to do so i need to get permission from many people and it;s not easy too. So i thought to buy my own laptop with powerful specs to try things out … I’m currently living in Bahrain … I did enquire about Razer Pro , Dell precision mobile workstation , people say they don’t have … Then i checked whats currently available . Then i ended with alienware and Macbook Pro.

I did check Lenevo w530 , but that too not available here . So don’t know which one to opt for ?

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What size screen would you like to have 14 or 15.6?

do you want a number pad so you can enter numbers easier? Or you don’t care (keeping the laptop smaller)?

Is weight important to you?? Heavier means more powerful components .

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15.6 or 14 im fine with it but not more than that … No need of number pad , Weight is fine but shouldnt be too much …

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For light weight, this is a great machine

http://www8.hp.com/sa/en/products/laptops/product-detail.html?oid=5293775#!tab=specs

For a system with a better video card

http://www8.hp.com/sa/en/products/laptops/product-detail.html?oid=5347441#!tab=features

And the best (heavier with keypad)

http://www8.hp.com/sa/en/products/laptops/product-detail.html?oid=5336248#!tab=features

The thing with HP, they don’t bundle the systems with the largest SSD hard drives.

If you want, you can get a system with a regular HDD drive, and upgrade to a larger size SSD (for space and performance)

Hope this helped

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Can you buy from Amazon and have it shipped?

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He is in the Middle East. He needs a local reseller so he can get service should there be any downtime.

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How about hp elitebook 8560w . Though it has 2nd generation i7 processor.
The specs which I saw was
I7 2640M 2.8ghz
500gb sata
15.6 led HD
1000M quadro graphics
8gb ddr3 1333mhz
I heard we can upgrade to 32gb ram But II’m not sure ram is available in market.

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That’s a great machine. What is the part number of the machine to confirm if it can handle more ram.

however what warranty would you have left? 1 year??

keep in mind the 4th generation chips are out.

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Yea , I know 4th Generation is already out … I’m not sure about the Part Number … Yea 1 Year warranty .

I did check the comparision about the 2nd , 3rd and 4th Genration processor … When comes to battery backup it last for 2 hrs only :frowning: but with 4th Genenration Power Comsuption is less …

So Still haven’t decided , i did enquire about Lenevo w530 and w540 still havent received any reply yet :frowning: … Wish i had been in US would have bough the laptop by now :slight_smile:

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i have an alienware laptop and it is a heat generator and build quality seems only slightly better than the consumer line. I have had to replace several keys as my kids have accidentally popped them off. Eventually the plastic clips on the enter key completely snapped into pieces. It only gets used about 3 hours a day. I would not buy another one unless it were 75%+ off!

I also run an OLD white 2008 macbook with a newer faster harddrive and 4GB of RAM. It is used for email, web, video editing and to run a couple of VMs. The VMs are not run except when i need them. I have successfully run WinXP, Server2003, Server2008, and (although slowly) Server2012. I often will run the XP and the 2008 simultaneously without significant slow down. It gets about 5-6 hours of use per day.

All said, if you have a need to run windows VMs continually, then get hardware that is more built for windows than a macbook pro.

If you are only considering those two and you are going to virtualize your workload anyway, then i would go with the mac.

If you are open to other windows laptops, i would suggest looking at the Lenovo Thinkpad T440 & W530.