Skylake is (almost) here

[Umfriend]

I am very excited about this as I am hoping to replace my i7-2670QM laptop soon. What I hope for is a great package that offers:
1. Less weight (2.8Kg for a 15.6" currently)
2. 4 cores / 8 threads, 32GB support
3. Two (or better three) external display support, each up to 2560 x 1600 at the least.
3. Some sort of faster SSD support, like M.2/PCIe (I am not yet up to speed on these new interfaces) and support for an additional SSD (which may be SATA-3)
4. Underclocking and undervolting support

That last thing is really important to me. I want to be able to have it run cool on 8-threads at low speed unless I explicitly tell it to run full-out (ideally, if certain programs demand a lot but that'll be hard to accomplish).

Funny that I have been comfortable with skipping three generations and feel I miss little performance wise. In raw power, IMHO, differences are simply far smaller then they used to be in the Pentium-I to Pentium-4 era.

http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2015/09/01/introducing-6th-generation-intel-core-intels-best-processor-ever

http://anandtech.com/show/9582/intel-skylake-mobile-desktop-launch-architecture-analysis

[UtwigMU]

The problem with 15,6 laptops is they are big and heavy and screen on my 12" X61 Tablet is nearly as tall as 15,6 T540p.

New Skylake build is tempting to me as it doesn't cost much more than X99/Haswell. But desktop will have to wait a bit.

[Umfriend]

Well, mine is at 2.7Kg and surely there are alternatives over 0.5Kg lighter. But indeed, I could go for a smaller size machine as well. It is hard however to find those with 4C/8T CPUs and room for two SSDs. Also, I'll die before I buy a 1366x768 screen, even if I mainly use it as a portable workstation and attach real screens to it. One thing I would also like is for it to not have discrete graphics, saves on cost, weight and power consumption. With Skylake supporting 3 4K screens, who needs it given that it is for business use only.

I am also somewhat limited to certain brands in that I will not buy HP or Acer and am reluctant to buy MSI and Dell. Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba are more likely.

[dZeus]

Well, mine is at 2.7Kg and surely there are alternatives over 0.5Kg lighter. But indeed, I could go for a smaller size machine as well. It is hard however to find those with 4C/8T CPUs and room for two SSDs. Also, I'll die before I buy a 1366x768 screen, even if I mainly use it as a portable workstation and attach real screens to it. One thing I would also like is for it to not have discrete graphics, saves on cost, weight and power consumption. With Skylake supporting 3 4K screens, who needs it given that it is for business use only.

I am also somewhat limited to certain brands in that I will not buy HP or Acer and am reluctant to buy MSI and Dell. Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba are more likely.

just be sure to double-check how 4K screens are supported.

I've read many times that some solutions only support 4K through DisplayPort MST (Multi-Stream Transport), which is a kind of hack that combines multiple streams, and is prone to problems when I read the reviews on 4K monitors. Supposedly a single stream DisplayPort (seems to require DisplayPort 1.3 or higher ???) is a much better solution.

Unfortunately, I have no idea which 4K monitors and which cpu/video chipsets support DisplayPort 1.3 for single stream 4K.

The current MST situation and relatively higher price of 4K monitors are the main reason why I went for a 2560x1440 NEC EA274WMi monitor, to try and avoid this head-ache...

[Umfriend]

Well, all I _think_ I reall want is two 2560x1600 (but, as there are no panels with that res I'll take the godforsaken 2560x1440 16:9 ratio :grr outputs, either through HDMI or DP (or one of both).

I had a Dell U2714HM or somesuch but simply found them to wide. I now have a U2515H and would not mind a second in portrait mode. My, badly worded, point was that the iGPU should pack enough punch for me to forego discrete graphics.

[UtwigMU]

I want triple head again. I want to play Il2 Sturmovik, which I used to play across 3 19" CRTs seing wingtip to wingtip and more than 1 meter in between.

Otherwise I have 2880x1620 on the Thinkpad. Also as I type this a 27" Dell 2560x1440 is free to use as a 2nd display at work.

[Umfriend]

Well, I would not say no to triple head but I do not think the HD530 would power Il2 at 7680x1440...So I'll take two external screens as well.

[UtwigMU]

The hit with laptops is external GPU now. You get adapter for express card PCIe and put PCIe card in external enclosure.

[Umfriend]

All the more reason to keep the lappy itself rather spartan.

[UtwigMU]

You can go for M.2 + 2,5" SSD in a smaller form factor than 15,6. 13-14" machines now have FHD IPS. Just check whether RAM is soldered and if it is, whether there's enough of it.
I'm saddled with 15,6 2,5kg T540p which has higher volume than my A21p used to have and since it sometimes doesn't power on without pulling the battery I have to lug 90W charger as well. Unless your scenario is carry laptop to car, drive to office, carry laptop to desk or laptop sits mostly on single desk stay away from 15,6" lapzilla aircraft carriers.

Maybe Skylake Thinkpad X1 carbon will have 16GB of RAM soldered on motherboard. (gen 2 and 3 Ivy Bridge to Broadwell only have 8GB max). With QHD display this is a very tempting machine.

[dZeus]

You can go for M.2 + 2,5" SSD in a smaller form factor than 15,6. 13-14" machines now have FHD IPS. Just check whether RAM is soldered and if it is, whether there's enough of it.
I'm saddled with 15,6 2,5kg T540p which has higher volume than my A21p used to have and since it sometimes doesn't power on without pulling the battery I have to lug 90W charger as well. Unless your scenario is carry laptop to car, drive to office, carry laptop to desk or laptop sits mostly on single desk stay away from 15,6" lapzilla aircraft carriers.

Maybe Skylake Thinkpad X1 carbon will have 16GB of RAM soldered on motherboard. (gen 2 and 3 Ivy Bridge to Broadwell only have 8GB max). With QHD display this is a very tempting machine.

I find Lenovo's Haswell generation laptops extremely frustrating in this department... only 8GB RAM max on many models (including my X240)! and only single channel as well! what were they thinking? cheapskates....

Would love a skylake X1 or X2x0 series with 16 or 32GB RAM (virtualization eats RAM). Meanwhile, I'm condemned to a Macbook Pro 15.6 inch retina monster with 16GB RAM for work... (Office sucks for Mac OS X, and no Visio!).

[UtwigMU]

I just ordered T420s with classic keyboard, i7 and nVidia today. I also ordered FHD upgrade kit and once they arrive and work fine I will order FHD IPS screen. T420s is good for 16GB and with SSD should be no slouch.

I plan to run CentOS or new SUSE leap (based on SLEs, kind of SUSE LTS).

[Umfriend]

You can go for M.2 + 2,5" SSD in a smaller form factor than 15,6. 13-14" machines now have FHD IPS. Just check whether RAM is soldered and if it is, whether there's enough of it.
I'm saddled with 15,6 2,5kg T540p which has higher volume than my A21p used to have and since it sometimes doesn't power on without pulling the battery I have to lug 90W charger as well. Unless your scenario is carry laptop to car, drive to office, carry laptop to desk or laptop sits mostly on single desk stay away from 15,6" lapzilla aircraft carriers.

Maybe Skylake Thinkpad X1 carbon will have 16GB of RAM soldered on motherboard. (gen 2 and 3 Ivy Bridge to Broadwell only have 8GB max). With QHD display this is a very tempting machine.

Yes, even though it is mostly as a transportable workstation, a lighter package is very attractive. That T420 has discrete graphics and I really do not want that. I would be looking for a spartan machine: No discrete graphics, no numeric keyboard required, 2.0 audio is sufficnet (although I do not think that would save much in cost, space, weight and power consumption) but I really like two SSDs, lots of RAM (32GB) and a 4C/8T CPU that I can underclock and volt.

Probably too much to ask...

[UtwigMU]

T420 has Optimus and i5 model without nVidia can be ebayed for ~300€+shipping. I want discreete because X61 with integrated couldn't even run Civilization IV (not V) - slower than Parhelia . I like a light game now and then to unwind.

The German shop who I buy thinkpads from has Gen2 Ivy Bridge X1 Carbon with 8GB for 850€ 1,3kg only if anyone is interested.
X1 Carbon 3667U CPU fuer ca. 850 brutto mit I7 , 8 GB, 128 GB SSD ,Multitouch 1600x900 ohne UMTS internationale Tastatur

[Wulfman]

As a T430 user myself: where are you going to buy the screen? Upgrading it does sound quite tempting long term..