Hi Grizzly!



 grizzlycoder:

I am looking to buy a new laptop.
I currently use Colab to run most of my machine learning projects mostly because of the free GPU, but as I’m starting to take on bigger projects


I don’t have a specific recommendation, but if you insist on getting a
laptop, I would suggest that you consider getting a “gaming” laptop.
Look for the biggest, fastest (nvidia, pytorch-compatible) gpu that you
are comfortable spending the money on.
However, there is a lot to be said for setting up a comparatively
inexpensive workstation / server.  You could, for example, buy (or
get as a hand-me-down) a second-hand box to which you add the
biggest, fastest gpu that fits your budget (and maybe some more
cpu memory).  Put linux on it, set it up with ssh, and run your jobs
“remotely” on it.
As you tackle more realistic projects (big data sets, big models, long
run times) any laptop you get (again, think gaming) is really more
likely to be a so-called “desktop replacement” – heavy, power-hungry,
runs hot – and not really conducive to shlepping to class.  You won’t
be able to run real jobs off battery, so what’s the point of a laptop if
you have to leave it plugged in all the time?  Real training on big gpu
is a major power-suck and source of heat.  You’ll be better off running
your days-long training jobs on your server at home, while you run off
to class with a slick, portable laptop.
Best.
K. Frank