Advice for Purchasing laptop

Part 1 (2018)
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@Benudek I’d say unless you’re restricted to a Laptop, it’s better to get a ‘Rig’ Setup.
For 1000 Euros, you could go w a mid-slightly High GPU based rig.

The issue w the eGPU might be that your RAM/Processor might become a bottleneck given that you’re getting a fast GPU.

Also, you might face serious compatibility issues. mac runs os X. Os X doesn’t support CUDA/the latest.
Fast AI is cutting edge which = the latest of every library, that your mac may/may not support.

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Great point on compatibility vs cutting edge, that wouldn’t work indeed

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Update on my current situation:
I was supposed to get the new replacement laptop today.
I unboxed it and it was scratched all over. Clearly, it was a used piece. So I denied the piece.

I’ve requested for an actual replacement and now HP has mentioned that it might take a few more weeks/days.

I had paid 3400$ for the laptop on 26th April and since that I’ve been without a laptop.

I wouldn’t suggest HP to anyone for now.
(Sorry to be spamming the thread with these updates, but it has been really frustrating)

Sanyam.

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Another sad update:
I will have to wait at least until the 31st of May. (I had purchased the laptop on 26th April).

I will now strongly recommend everyone not to go with HP-if anything bad were to happen, the post-purchase service is really poor, you wouldn’t want sleepless nights like me :
I have essentially been without a primary computer for a month.

With the New Nvidia Cards around, By the time I get the laptop-if I get it, the price would have dropped by a cliff’s height.

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Post this on LinkedIn and tag all HP guys and the company itself…,
Let the world know what’s 3400$ worth’s?

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That’s really bad service on HP. Can you not return the defective laptop (since it’s only 30 days), get a mostly reliable Macbook and put the rest of the money to work in Paperspace? You might get GPU machine for next 2 years with it?

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Thanks for the suggestion.

Actually, My Father was getting some grant from his office so he had generously pitched in the amount for making the 3400$, We did pay the MRP but some amount was covered by the grant, so after much thought that seemed to be a better investment than going for Cloud vendors.
The seconday reason was that my internet is really slow at times so even SSH-ing doesn’t work (It caps out at 50Kbps-this is the best option available in my area-it’s an semi-rural area)

I still have been begging them for a refund-they’ve simply been raising the issues and putting it on priority.

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More importantly, any eGPU box provides just four PCIe3.0 lanes (providing more would have little sense, since the bandwidth would exceed thunderbolt 3 maximum bandwidth). You will bottleneck your GPU no matter how powerful your laptop could be.

More interesting would be building a custom eGPU external case using a PCIe 3.0 extension cable.

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A few more tips for (any) laptop Practitioners:

  • Using a laptop is like teaching a baby, it’s more fragile, less powerful and you will have to take care of it now and then.
    I experience temperatures of 70 deg Celsius at medium train loads and if you plan to keep the machine at optimum performance for a few years,

Here are some things that you might find helpful:

  • Repasting: Reapplying the Thermal paste helps keeping down the temperature down.
  • Vacuum fans: Vacuum fans are designed to suck away air and helps dip down the temperature by a bit. The areas around the laptop get concentrated with heat and add to the heating so the fans help.
  • UnderVolting: [Advanced] Changing the CPU voltages helps cut down the temp by a HUGE Factor.
  • Air Coditioning: I’m still suprised that this even makes a difference but I can experience a decent difference and almost no throttling when using the system in a decently cooled room.
  • Cooling Pads: These may/may not work for you. In my case, the vents are at strange angles so it doesn’t work for me, but these too help keep down the temperature.

If you apply all these things, first you’ll be able to hold the laptop in your lap without burning clothes. Secondly this will definitely keep the temperatures down by a factor of 5-10degrees (Celsius), keep down throttling and increase the lifespan.

Sanyam

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66

Razer also just unveiled their wicked cool GTX 1070 and 1080 Laptops
(Really portable compared with other contenders) These are around 2cm or so and very very light- 2kgs or so.
Most gaming laptops are around 5k+ or so.

  • Razer Blade
  • Nvme are solid
  • 8th Gen Processor
  • Max Q which means efficient cooling
  • A “Vapor” chamber cooling system=You probably don’t have to worry about heating issues
  • RAM is up-gradable.

Request: Could any admin please edit the original post as being a laptop suggestions thread (The Original body is a discussion of just my situation)?
Since I’ll keep updating this thread continuously with news and good options-given the overpriced warning and issues that come with laptops for anyone who might be forced to using a laptop.

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Another Fact:

Forget doing DL on the Move if you can’t find a socket to plug in.
The GPUs on laptops are limited when on Battery. There isn’t a work around this, the Battery in my case can’t handle the maximum requirements of the 1070. I’m not sure but in most cases it should be the same.

It indeed is better than using a CPU. But it doesn’t help with, “Hm let me train this huge model while I sip on my coffee before a lecture”. You could probably do the Mini-Experiments that @radek has mentioned Here.

But beware, you won’t have full Power access when on the Move.

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Hello everyone!

I found this threat as I am looking for the best option to buy a laptop for ML/DL.

I would prefer a desktop PC but it has to be a laptop due to portability and I want to be able to carry out proper experimentations before using the cloud.

My budget could get until around 2500$.

Thanks in advance!!!

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@frodesc One thing I’ve learnt and can say after talking to people with Laptops as their daily driver.
It's a portable CPU, much less of a laptop.

2500$ could get you a really good deal if you’re ordering from the US.

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@init_27 you mean that I should save some money for the cloud instead? Is something I was thinking about. Maybe 2500$ is too much.

By the way, I’m ordering from Spain. Sadly. Thanks!

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@frodesc there are many trade offs
Performance Vs Portability.
If you can get both then it would be more expensive.

I’m in the same boat as you. I bought a laptop for 2x because of country pricing.

You could go for 2 years with 2500$ when using a cloud instance.
But there is a comfort of having your own machine.

Could you share the prices of the laptops you’re looking at?
If you can get one with a 1070 or 1080, that could be great too.

It’s upto you to make a choice

  1. Laptop+Cloud
  2. Expensive gaming laptop.
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@init_27 Sure (The prices and specifications are from a different link in spanish):

These are the ones I was looking at as the best laptops but I might have gone too far and I should go for something cheaper and save money for the cloud or a future desktop PC. What do you think? Is 32Gb RAM a must?

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@frodesc
The Tensorbook and Aero have an okay reputation.

I believe an 8th gen processor would be a better choice.
I went with a 16Gb ram that can be upgraded later, allocated it 64gb SWAP to compensate that.
(I have an HP OMEN X Ap045-TX)

It’s up to you. This indeed is expensive and for this much amount you could assemble a PC with a 1080Ti+32 or 64GB RAM.
The thing about PCs are that you can always swap in and out components.
Need a new GPU? Just change it.
Need more RAM? Just put it in.

Cloud is generally slower. Paperspace and Vectordash are good options.

You could do a comparison.
Estimate your cloud usage bill (always keep a higher number).
If this bill<The price of the laptop for the duration you want to use the laptop and the cloud service is as good as the Laptop then you could go with that. Otherwise get a Laptop.

Sanyam

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You can also check this guide for best gaming laptops

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#1) EVGA SC17 1070 17.3" 4K Gaming Laptop (~$1400 brand new on eBay) original price ~$2800 on EVGA website

#2) Lenovo Flex 5 15 2-in-1 Touchscreen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - GeForce MX130 - 4K Ultra HD - Active Stylus (~$1000 on Costco after $200 off)

#3) Dell XPS 15 4K GTX (starting at $1000)

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Anyone had reviews about tensorbook ?
I am currently sourcing for a laptop for my work. I am looking at anything with at least a GTX 1070 and above and I am looking at a budget of lower then 3K USD if possible. I am trying to weigh the price vs my needs.

Budget: Below 3K USD, best is between 2000 - 2500 USD

My needs for work:

  • Mobile, as I will be meeting client
  • I have limited access to cloud resources
  • I do not have a physical office as the nature of the job is remote. (However, it might change in the future and the external GPU would definitely be the top of the list)

I need a laptop to at least allow me to deliver work that deals with images and text data. I expect to have a external storage to work off from there so in terms on storage requirement, its not that strict.

Preferable specs: gtx1070, 32ram, 1TB ssd, i7 8750 processor.

Here are some of my findings:

For the price point of $3081 USD (excluding shipping) for the premium option, its does seem to pack a serious punch with the preloaded DL libraries. However, I am still a little hesitant to go for this because the money I put in is just to ease my time with setting up the machine. I can easily get another laptop that cost less and do the settup myself.

Other alternative that is cheaper but require a little effort in setup is the MSI prestige series.
Specifically, MSI P65 Creator 8RF which cost around $2272.21 USD including shipping and the option to just upgrade the RAM and SSD yourself. Note P65 has 2 SSD slot in total. Similar model includes the MSI GS65 ($2509.32 USD). Another model from MSI is the GS75 which even have 3 SSD slot at the price of $2509.32 USD. However from my previous experience with MSI laptop, there build quality are sub par and I had visited the support centre several times to fix hardware issue (keyboard, screen, web cam connection etc). Plus, they dont come cheap with each repair. Upgrading hardware on my own is a little troublesome as the layout of the laptop hardware is not the best out there. (In my opinion, Dell has the best laptop layout for upgrades)

Looking at models from Dell, Asus and HP, I find that the GPU are usually packages with 16GB ram and 512GB ssd which might be good enough but at the same price point as MSI, u can get much more (32GB ram, 1TB ssd).

External GPU is an option

Right now I am a little bit lost on how to go ahead with this. Anyone with good suggestion that they had tried would be much appreciated.