Which 3rd gen i7 laptop for a multi-monitor setup would you choose?

[badvillain]

So it's time for me to update my current setup. And these are my requirements:

- 3rd gen i7 laptop
- Capability to expand ram to 16gb
- Two Digital video outputs. No Analog (If this isn't natively supported I will get a Lenovo Thinkpad USB 3.0 Docking Station)
- Preferably 14"-16" 1600 x 900 or larger resolution


My options I've found so far:

1. Asus - 14" Laptop - 8GB Memory - 750GB Hard Drive - Black
Pros: Expandable to 16gb
Cons: 1366 x 768 resolution, Have to use docking station for multi-monitor setup
Price: $729

2. Asus - 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - 8GB Memory - 750GB Hard Drive - Black
Pros: 1920 x 1080 resolution, Expandable to 16gb
Cons: Seems a little bulky/awkward, Have to use docking station for multi-monitor setup
Price: $849

3. Asus - N56-Series 15.6" Laptop - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Black
Pros: 1920 x 1080 resolution, Expandable to 16gb
Cons: Have to use docking station for multi-monitor setup
Price: $939

4. Dell XPS 15 Windows 8 Laptop
Pros: MiniDisplayport & HDMI out built in
Price: $1699

5. Lenovo - 15.6" Laptop - 16GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive + 16GB Solid State Drive
Pros: Already loaded with 16gb
Cons: Big and Bulky, Have to use docking station for multi-monitor setup
Price: $1,164.99

6. IdeaPad Z400 Touch
Pros: Stylish for a Lenovo
Cons: Have to use docking station for multi-monitor setup
Price: $849.00

I couldn't find much more. If anyone has any other links, please drop them below. I plan on using two Dell Ultrasharp monitors.

 

[Liquid]

It's all about budget. A better combo would be a $400-$500 laptop alongside with a $400 desktop if you are really trying to do work.

 

[badvillain]

It's all about budget. A better combo would be a $400-$500 laptop alongside with a $400 desktop if you are really trying to do work.

Budget isn't an issue. I've narrowed it down to the last three. I'm a contract web developer; go to meetings and jump from offices back to home office throughout the week. Would much rather have a solid performing piece of hardware that can replace the need for a desktop.

I am not a gamer, so this is not for gaming. I need the ram and fast processing because I am using runnning Photoshop, Illustrator, Chrome, Sublime Text, Ubuntu Virtualbox/Mac OSX Virtualbox usually simultaneously.

 

[Liquid]

The MacBook Pro retina is extremely useful because of all the real estate on the screen. What are the dell monitors using? DVI/HDMI/Display Port?

 

[badvillain]

Dell monitors are DVI/Displayport.

I'd rather stay away from Apple. Only fire up OSX when I have to debug on the iOS simulator.

 

[Ayo]

I'm a contract web developer;

My dependence on Textmate alone prevents me from using a Windows based laptop. And yes, I've tried every other IDE/text editor on the planet including Sublime 2. I couldn't imagine writing a piece of code/markup on anything else.

So I'm of no help. Good luck though.

 

[badvillain]

My dependence on Textmate alone prevents me from using a Windows based laptop. And yes, I've tried every other IDE/text editor on the planet including Sublime 2. I couldn't imagine writing a piece of code/markup on anything else.

So I'm of no help. Good luck though.

I love sublime, I specialize in frontend jquery and css; this is my favorite viewing mode:

 

[badvillain]

One bump for afternoon crew...I'm leaning towards the Lenovo Ideapad Z400

 

[badvillain]

One last bump for night crew; would love to hear if I missed something or if there any other better products that suit my needs.

 

[Liquid]

One bump for afternoon crew...I'm leaning towards the Lenovo Ideapad Z400

Why are you leaning towards that?

I would think the most real estate would be your best bet on the go, which is why I mentioned the MBP Retina.

 

[badvillain]

Why are you leaning towards that?

I would think the most real estate would be your best bet on the go, which is why I mentioned the MBP Retina.

I'm done with Mac products. As soon as they started soldering the ram and taking away the ethernet ports I was done. They want me to drop 2 to 3 stacks and never be able to upgrade my ram or surf the internet at fullspeed? fukk that.

And I hate how they break away from the openness of UNIX, control it, and limit you from doing what you want. If I was going to run UNIX I would pick Ubuntu; the only reason I don't have that as my base OS is because Adobe's greedy ass won't port Creative Suite to it. I do a lot of SSH and a little ruby development; that's when I boot up Ubuntu now. I only boot up OSX to run the iOS simulator. On top of that, the UI/UX in both iOS and OSX is atrocious. Skeumorphism and gradients are not what's hot.

The lenovo is small and portable which will give me more real estate for my dual monitors that I'll be adding. The 14" screen will be a glorified start screen and also the screen I keep thunderbird open with.

 

[Ayo]

I love sublime, I specialize in frontend jquery and css; this is my favorite viewing mode:

Nice.

I haven't given up on it yet. Using it right now actually. Just some simple HTML5, CSS, and Wordpress Codex stuff though.

 

[badvillain]

Nice.

I haven't given up on it yet. Using it right now actually. Just some simple HTML5, CSS, and Wordpress Codex stuff though.

And the one thing I love about it are all the add-ons. Check out these if you haven't:

SFTP/SVN: Sublime SFTP
Package Control: Sublime Package Control
Soda Theme: https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme/

Like I've stated in this thread already; I bounce from OS to OS, and Sublime is the only text editor that's consistent cross platform. I'm usually in an office where they supply a Mac; I bring my laptop in and use Synergy to connect a single mouse and keyboard to both: Synergy. It's important to have Windows for what we do because you always have to test out everything thoroughly on all versions of IE.

Oh and check out my Wordpress setup:

Custom Wordpress Backend Plugin dubbed "Admin Theming Plus", this is not even a candidate for alpha; it is what I use for small to medium clients and is dependent on the plugins "Menu Editor" and "Advanced Custom Fields". Over the next couple months as I have time I will turn this into an independent plugin and release a public beta.

Custom login theming, custom admin theming, retina/svg enabled and responsive.

 

[Ayo]

And the one thing I love about it are all the add-ons. Check out these if you haven't:

SFTP/SVN: Sublime SFTP
Package Control: Sublime Package Control
Soda Theme: https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme/

Like I've stated in this thread already; I bounce from OS to OS, and Sublime is the only text editor that's consistent cross platform. I'm usually in an office where they supply a Mac; I bring my laptop in and use Synergy to connect a single mouse and keyboard to both: Synergy. It's important to have Windows for what we do because you always have to test out everything thoroughly on all versions of IE.

My desktop is a Windows machine. I do some Active Directory / Exchange consulting so i have to stay sharp. 95% of my development gets done on a Mac though.

As far as add ons I'll give package control a shot. Right now I have SFTP and Emmet installed.

Whats the advantage of the SODA theme over just picking my own theme with dark colors? That's what I'm doing now.

 

[badvillain]

My desktop is a Windows machine. I do some Active Directory / Exchange consulting so i have to stay sharp. 95% of my development gets done on a Mac though.

As far as add ons I'll give package control a shot. Right now I have SFTP and Emmet installed.

Whats the advantage of the SODA theme over just picking my own theme with dark colors? That's what I'm doing now.

Just a fly color theme with all the syntax highlighting done.

There is also Sublime linter which checks for errors in code as you write, disable it for css though.