What laptop/computer should I purchase for deep learning? How much will it cost?
You will not be able to use just a laptop for efficiently training deep neural networks.However, if you want to train lots of small networks, or do some basic training before deploying your training script on a heavy machine, and are hell bent on buying a laptop for training, I’d suggest you buy a gaming laptop.Asus and Acer have good options here. You can run Linux on it like a pro.These have decent GPUs, and give you good performance for training small networks.This is more convenient than setting up an external GPU on another laptop.See this for Macs: Macs are now compatible with Nvidia's Pascal graphics, starting with the Titan XpBut then, I don’t think you should invest in a laptop for doing heavy machine learning.Build your own customised heavy duty machine. Here is an article I have shared multiple times about this topic: Build a Deep Learning Rig for $800 – Towards Data Science – MediumThere are various other good articles on Quora and elsewhere about setting up your own machine for doing deep learning.I believe that in today’s day and age, when GPUs are being upgraded so often, you don’t want to be left behind because you invested heavily in an older piece of hardware.Rent a suitable AWS instance. I have used this and find it one of the easiest services to configure and use.Rent a Google Cloud Platform instance. Have used it a little. Personally, I find the configuration and interface of this to be more complicated than than of AWS. But if Google churns out its TPUs (Tensor Processing Units) soon, I suspect that Google Cloud Platform will be the only service to host these devices for some time before other players in the industry can develop similar processors.Rent a Microsoft Azure instance. Don’t have experience in this area, so can’t say much.You only need a decent/average laptop now. You can develop your models on it, do a mock training on it, and then deploy it on the remote server.This is what I myself do to train neural nets. I design them on my MacBook Air, and then train it on an AWS instance. For guidance on how to do this, see this article which I wrote recently: Semantic Segmentation of Urban Street Scenes in Mathematica.
Should I purchase a no name MagSafe MacBook Laptop 85W adapter from ebay?
I need a new power adapter for my MacBook Pro but don't want to pay the $80 for the official Apple brand. Would purchasing a non-apple brand be a bad idea, similar to this one found on eBay? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260286792146&ssPageName=MERCOSI_VI_ROSI_PR4_PCN_BIX_Stores&refitem=260284769209&itemcount=4&refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&refwidgettype=osi_widget&_trksid=p284.m185&_trkparms=algo%3DSI%26its%3DI%252BIA%26itu%3DIA%252BUCI%26otn%3D4%26ps%3D42 Thanks for any advise.
Is HP going out of business? Should I purchase an HP laptop, yes or no?
No, HP as a company is NOT going out of business. HP will be getting out of the tablet and cell phone business because they were losing money hand over fist in those categories. The WebOS operating system that HP spent millions developing turned out to be a huge disaster for the company... there was just not enough interest in their tablets and the WebOS to ever turn a profit. There are some rumors that HP is looking to sell off its PC hardware division, much like IBM did with their PC hardware division a few years ago (which they sold to Lenovo.) HP is still making money on PC hardware sales, so all of this is mere speculation at this point. Odds are that HP will be making computers for the foreseeable future, and if they do sell off the PC division, the company that purchases the assets will most likely provide continued support for existing equipment, much like Lenovo did for IBM. Of course, the electronics industry as a whole is unpredictable... you never know who is going to come along and try to buy out some other company. So if that fear is what prevents you from purchasing the laptop you want, you'd probably NEVER want to purchase any piece of hardware. However, if the HP rumors make you nervous, you can look to other companies, such as Asus, Dell, Acer, etc... for laptop alternatives to HP. Good luck with your purchase!
Which laptop should I purchase? (HP vs. Lenovo)?
Wouldn't you agree that the performance of laptop is more important than its looks? Well, performance are determined by 2 parts Processor & Graphic Card. EliteBook 6930p comes with a dated Core 2 Duo processor, which are slower than the Core i3. Its also comes with another dated HD 3450 which is slower than Intel HD graphics. Avoid this old machine. ThinkPad T410 comes with Core i5, much better. I'm assuming you're getting the nvidia NVS 3100m, which is of course better than the Intel HD graphics. However, NVS 3100m speed is merely equivalent to GeForce G210M, the GeForce 310M is faster than it. If you're serious in CAD programs, you should consider the Quadro FX series, not the Quadro NVS series, their slow & aren't much help. A suggestion, take a look at the 13.3" ASUS with i5-430M & 310M (with optimus technology) http://www.xoticpc.com/product_info.php?... On top of the total price there is an additional -$50 rebate, register at http://asus.4myrebate.com , promotion runs until end of month. 2 yrs warranty, others only provide 1yr.
Should I buy a demo laptop?
It's half the price of a brand new one. It comes with two years' warranty, so at least I can get two years of use out of it. But it's been on display for one and a half year.
Should I buy a laptop from Dubai?
Depends on whether you seek a bargain and/or an Arabic letter printed keyboardDubai has the Dubai Shopping Festival as well as multiple sales including GITEX through the year. So you’re likely to get a deal at some point. However I found relatively better bargains on latest electronic products to be had in Hong Kong.Another factor is for all locally retailed laptops, I found the Arabic characters imprinted on the keyboard. If you need this feature, then just go ahead and buy the product here. If not, consider other options.Last but not the least, depending on your requirements, you should consider a configuration that works for you. Then check its availability in Dubai. For example, if you’re a heavy gamer and need heavy duty graphics chips separate from the core processor, a true 1080p display, multiple USB 2 and C ports, larger battery and additional memory to be present in your preferred configuration then it may not be so easily available in the market.
Should I buy a gaming laptop?
Get an ASUS G Series instead. More of your painstakingly saved money will go towards design, testing, build quality and component value instead of Razer’s well-paid marketing executives.G Series Gaming NotebooksI have purchased three and worked with two others (purchased by friends). None of the five current owners of these machines have anything negative to say at all. They all remain their primary machines. All 5 still operate like new, including the oldest at 6 years.The durability, power and longevity comes with the price of being heavy-duty. Physical size allows for much better thermodynamics, which are *extremely* important to the proper long-term functioning of notebook systems.