Looking for a laptop suggestion for mobile repair

[clayton006]

So I do computer repair for my church (volunteer) and as a side job. I do most of my work on the go. I'm looking to get a laptop towards the end of this year that would be able store a lot of data for temporary purposes (backing up someone's hard drive), carrying a lot of tools, ISOs, things that would be needed for computer repair. Given that time frame a LOT will change with CPUs and just the mobile department anyway, so current hardware suggestions are what I'm looking for.

I'm probably going to look for something large. Probably that can store at least 4 storage devices internally (some of these can be m.2 drives, but I'd like some 2.5" drives as well).

I've looked at Clevo laptops as the most probable. Some models house a full desktop CPU with a 980m GPU and seem to hold a lot of storage. I could supplement the storage with large external hard drives but I'd rather not carry too many of those around if I can help it.

So what I'm looking for is:

Lots of USB 3.0 (thunderbolt optional) connectivity
Fast CPU
Lots of memory
Lots of internal storage (at least two 2.5" bays)
Size isn't as much of a issue
Battery Life isn't as much of an issue
Weight isn't as much of an issue

 

[clayton006]

Now that I think of it. I wonder if lugging a mini ITX system with monitor in tow is a better option.

 

[mi7chy]

Unless you need laptop portability and ability to run off of battery SFF is more powerful, cheaper and much more options.

 

[Erasmus354]

I think you are going about this wrong. You can get large 3.5" portable hard drives that are powered from the USB port. Carrying 10 of these (waaaay more than you need) and a nice portable ultrabook is probably still significantly less bulk and weight than the type of machines you are currently looking at.

My suggestion:

Ultrabook, something like the XPS13 FHD because it has freaking amazing battery life. Thing will run all day easy, so you don't have to worry about bringing a power supply with you. Use the storage of the machine to store all of your tools.

Then add on as many portable hard drives as you need. They run less than $100 for 2TB drives.

This will be more than enough machine for any computer repair task. It will be significantly more portable than anything you are looking at, and it very well may be cheaper too.


Now if you need this for something other than computer repair that might change what you are looking at a bit.

 

[clayton006]

Thanks for the advice. I ended up going back to another mac. I picked up a retina MacbookPro 13" / 8 GB / 256 GB. I had a few drives for it laying around already (2 - 1 TB Seagate Thunderbolt Drives) plus a large Seagate 3 TB thunderbolt drive. I also pack in with me some tools and a Seagate 5 TB drive (USB 3.0) just in case. The only thing that I get concerned about is only having 8 GB of ram, but I think that is going to be okay even with my VMs loaded.