Introduction
Why is it called "Project Laptop Server Deployment"?
Let's begin with a little bit of a backstory:
The backstory
Back in very early 2025 (around January or February), I decided one evening to download Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP1). Why? Because I wanted to install it on my old 2011 Dell Latitude E6320 laptop, so it was a very fitting operating system for it, next to Windows 7 SP1. As well as this, I was starting to have the feeling that I wanted to set up a server. And what better way to utilise an old, garbage laptop to do so!
So that's what I did, I decided to, on that late afternoon, download the ISO, throw it onto Rufus, flash my USB SSD with it and then boot into it with my laptop. And it just snowballed from there, I suppose.
By the end of the week (Sunday), I had a domain controller, DNS server and IIS all working (even one or two network shares). As I remember it, it was an absolute pain to set up the DC though. I ended up being knee-deep in Kerberos DNS records for some daft reason. Maybe that's a Server 2008 (or any old Server version) quirk, I don't know. Server 2016 and 2019 has been as easy as cake so far (more on that later).
Ever since, then I have been increasingly formalising this as a proper project (I saw potential as soon as I got Server 2008 working!)
Stepping up the game
Around May time, I decided to utilise my "famous" and well-developed Google Material Design (v1, my favourite version) PowerPoint template* to create a PowerPoint talking about this new project. However, this was before I chose my final device I was going to be using as my server...
The Plan
I searched all over the web for a powerful, heavy duty and a overall fantastic laptop for the job with great thermals and reliability. I kept to the premise that it should be a laptop for three reasons or so:
- Portable, in case I need to move it around or do physical maintenance on it easier.
- Low physical footprint (my parents are happy about that) compared to a rack-mounted proper server.
- Built in UPS (two in fact! More on that later).
I went through the following options, in this order:
- The current laptop (at the time): Dell Latitude E6320
- The best laptop overall of all time: Dell Precision M6800
- The last best overall Dell Latitude: Dell Latitude E6420
- Latitude E6420 and Precision M6800 again
- Dell Latitude E6320, the last Latitude to keep the old design fully
- All of them all over again
- Dell Precision M6700 (just a quick look)
- Dell Precision M6800 again
So, as it looks, I decided to stick with the Dell Precision M6800, and it took me quite a few months to get to that point. Since about September 2025, I think. I finally gave in and purchased one around New Year's 2026.
Well, two. Yeah... The reason why is because I bought a quite expensive one to start with, then as luck gives, A far cheaper one popped up (and it was in better condition in the end!) and the seller accepted my offer for £180 (£20 cheaper). So after a massive inspection of the two, I eventually returned the first one. Pictures are below (took me ages to find these haha)
