Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at around $2k?

Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by CoolGuySteve on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @09:43AM (#31096823)

I have a Lenovo X13 Gen 2 with a 16 thread Ryzen 5850U and 32GB of RAM. It’s about the most powerful you can get while still having a power efficient CPU under load. I spend all day compiling with all cores and battery is still around 8-9 hours with a 90% charging cap set in the bios to preserve battery longevity.

Linux works great on the AMD chipset but I had to replace the Wi-Fi card with an Intel AX220.

After buying the aftermarket Wi-Fi card and 2TB SSD, I spent about $1200. Build quality and dimensions are comparable but a little worse than the Carbon imo.

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Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by ho_schi on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @10:45AM (#31097715)

Using still a ThinkPad X220 with Linux and will switch likely this year to a X13 AMD Gen3. I personally prefer the X13 because it is solid, powerful and provide many connectors. I hope the next MediaTek WiFi-Chips are better this time, if not Intel-WiFi.

The X1 is slimmer, lightweight but scarifies a lot and is expensive. The X13 ARM is passively cooled which a major benefit, similar to the MacBook Air but due to ARMs and Qualcomm bad support of Linux not even an option. A passively cooled AMD variant would be more interesting.

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Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by anderspitman on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @01:36PM (#31100323)

I'm convinced laptops peaked with the X220. I have one sitting next to me now. It's not powerful enough for a daily driver anymore but I'm in the process of repurposing it for some self-hosting.

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Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by jpetso on Thursday April 21, 2022 @09:52AM (#31109411)

The T14s Gen 3 is apparently using Qualcomm wifi chips instead of MediaTek or Intel this time around, it seems likely that we'll see the same for the X13 Gen 3 as well.

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Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by ho_schi on Thursday April 21, 2022 @11:23AM (#31110663)

Interesting! If Qualcomm means actually WiFI chips from Atheros this could mean good WiFi and good Linux drivers. Atheros has a good reputation, it is just Qualcomms ARM and GPUs drivers which are problem.

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Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by kellogs_aran on Thursday April 21, 2022 @03:43PM (#31114291)

Hi. OP here. Thanks for the thorough review

> Linux works great on the AMD chipset but I had to replace the Wi-Fi card with an Intel AX220.

Curious to know why you switched out the Wi-Fi card? How easy was it to do?

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Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by mcpherrinm on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @10:16AM (#31097295)

I also have the same X13 gen2. The shipped Realtek wifi chipset works for me, but I needed to have a newer kernel. Fedora 34 was good enough.

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Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by mrek0 on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @05:19PM (#31103152)

Do you also experience significant battery drain during sleep? Asking since this is an issue with the T14 gen 1 with AMD.

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Re:Ask HN: What’s a good laptop for software development at ... by Darvon on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @01:23PM (#31100154)

x13 amd is just about perfect. linux or ltsc both work.

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