I require a laptop for documents and web access, and very light CAD work. So all I need is a basic laptop. Long term I may switch it from running Windows to Linux (with maybe 1 or 2 VMs), and learning more about the importance of ECC, it would be nice to have. Basically I don’t care if it is used, I just want ECC as cheaply as possible. Does anyone have any recommendations on reasonably current laptops that support ECC, preferably with strong or at least reparable hinges/backplates since that tends to be an issue for me.
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I remember some Dell Precision laptops used to ship with Xeons and ECC RAM. You could check out the new models and see what kind of specs they come with nowadays. Those were some awesome machines.
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I can second this. We get them for the engineers at my job, however, I highly recommend getting a longer warranty on them if you plan on using this for more than 3 years. We’ve had some models over the years start dying around the 4ish year mark with random part failures as well (keyboard, batteries, tpm, etc).
Lenovo P16 workstations are also worth checking out as well.
Edit: lenovo is now on the P16 put the P71 down as that was the last model I had experience with
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1 or 2 vms on a laptop, and ECC.
Are you sure you need ECC?
You can get a cheap laptop with a desktop with the same budget, and just remote desktop to that desktop.
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I remember Lenovo P-series (mobile workstation series) having mobile Xeons with ECC.
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gotchu bro
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alright I’m getting one of these. Walking in to break room with one of these just to see the reaction on people’s faces.
“Just running my Mycroft AI on my ZFS pool and teaching it cats”
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Interesting that there are no other options than this absurd (in a good or a bad way?) x600.
My company laptop, a dell precision 5570, funnily enough has a rtx A2000 with ECC VRAM and an i7 12800H with non-ECC ddr5. I don’t know who actually needs ECC VRAM more than ECC RAM…
There seems to be a long discussion on the framework community about ECC support. If even the HP/dell/etc. mobile workstations don’t have it, perhaps framework will be the one to do it (sadly currently not supported…)
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I got a Xeon Lenovo P-series that came with non-ECC memory, then I put ECC memory in after the fact. But, I struggled with compatibility. Some kits would not start at all, some would start only in single channel mode.
Next time I will try to find one that comes with ECC memory from the factory, even though they charge an arm and a leg for it.
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Give it up. This is a bit insane and not cost effective.
Just have a server at home/work or somewhere else and VNC/Remote desktop into it or use some similar technology.
If the latency is so bad, consider bringing your own “headless” ITX desktop with ECC RAM and an Nvidia GPU and use the Moonlight in any other device
Maybe you have the spare money to burn on solving this specific problem but the class of laptops you want are stupid expensive.
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