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Gnamra posted:I will be playing World of Warcraft, and probably some more demanding games. I will be using my laptop in class, yes. However I will be using and developing quite resource intensive programs in school, I want a powerful laptop because I'm a bit stingy when it comes to FPS in games. I'll be traveling a bit and I don't want to have drag my stationary pc across Norway each time, spending the extra money on a powerful laptop is worth the trouble it saves me. WoW is much more dependent on the cpu than gpu. I don't know what other 'more demanding games' you're looking at but HD5000 would be way more than enough I imagine.
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# ? Jun 30, 2013 22:01 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 03:16 |
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Omelette du Fromage posted:WoW is much more dependent on the cpu than gpu. I don't know what other 'more demanding games' you're looking at but HD5000 would be way more than enough I imagine. I know, but I'll be playing a wide variety of games. Can anyone recommend me a powerful and durable laptop? I've checked the ones in the first post, but they're expensive as gently caress in Norway for some reason.
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# ? Jun 30, 2013 22:24 |
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Gnamra posted:I know, but I'll be playing a wide variety of games. Can anyone recommend me a powerful and durable laptop? I've checked the ones in the first post, but they're expensive as gently caress in Norway for some reason. For whatever reason, almost everything is more expensive outside of North America, so a lot of our recommendations fall flat since they're way out of whack with the price:performance curve. A safe bet is to head to a local electronics store and try and find something you like. Alternatively, you could try a forwarding company (have the computer shipped to them in the US and then on to you). I'm not sure how customs/VAT would work with that, but it might still end up being cheaper than the same laptop from their Norwegian outfit. edit: Looking again, this Asus G55 is a pretty good choice. Keep in mind, the GPU is right around a 750M, but the build quality is quite a bit better than any Acer or MSI. It won't play AAA titles in the next few years, but it'll do alright. If you want benchmarks, find the 660M on NotebookCheck. InstantInfidel fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Jun 30, 2013 |
# ? Jun 30, 2013 23:02 |
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InstantInfidel posted:For whatever reason, almost everything is more expensive outside of North America, so a lot of our recommendations fall flat since they're way out of whack with the price:performance curve. A safe bet is to head to a local electronics store and try and find something you like. Alternatively, you could try a forwarding company (have the computer shipped to them in the US and then on to you). I'm not sure how customs/VAT would work with that, but it might still end up being cheaper than the same laptop from their Norwegian outfit. Weird that asus laptop isn't even available in the swedish version of that same store. And Sweden, Norway too I'm sure has quite a massive amount of sales tax. I just have to remind myself whenever I compare prices with the rest of the world that I attend university for free instead and whatnot.
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# ? Jun 30, 2013 23:45 |
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Torabi posted:Weird that asus laptop isn't even available in the swedish version of that same store. How did I think you were from Norway I know you said you won't eve buy an Asus again, but the G-series is pretty much the best "gaming" laptop you can get. Outside of that, I'd recommend waiting for an i7 with HD5100/5200 to become available.
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# ? Jun 30, 2013 23:53 |
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InstantInfidel posted:How did I think you were from Norway Well the countries are neighbors. A lot to of people have their own asus g series at uni and it does look quite sturdy. I'll never buy their cheaper models though. Only if I really can't find anything else. I'll have time to take a closer look on the g series. What is the hd5100? A GPU or am I being stupid again. Boar It fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Jun 30, 2013 |
# ? Jun 30, 2013 23:57 |
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Torabi posted:Well the countries are neighbors. The Intel HD5100 is an integrated GPU I think. I just checked out the asus g series, they're way to expensive, the cheapest one is 2050 usd. That's absolutely ridiculous, and they aren't really that much better than the MSI GE70 hardware wise, which is only 1500 usd. I'm guessing they're priced roughly the same in Sweden? Gnamra fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Jul 1, 2013 |
# ? Jul 1, 2013 00:04 |
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Torabi posted:Well the countries are neighbors. HD5100 refers to the Intel integrated GPU Gnamra posted:I will be playing World of Warcraft, and probably some more demanding games. I will be using my laptop in class, yes. However I will be using and developing quite resource intensive programs in school, I want a powerful laptop because I'm a bit stingy when it comes to FPS in games. I'll be traveling a bit and I don't want to have drag my stationary pc across Norway each time, spending the extra money on a powerful laptop is worth the trouble it saves me. A high-end GPU is not going to help you play World of Warcraft any better than the integrated graphics on a high-end Haswell would, nor will it help you with the resource-intensive programs that you're developing (unless you're doing something special and developing code that specifically uses GPUs, but the chance of that is low). A Haswell i7 would meet all of those demands without having to pay extra for a dedicated GPU Spending the extra money for a powerful gaming laptop often creates trouble rather than saving it. The only advantage that a gaming laptop brings is being able to play modern triple A titles (not WOW) at slightly better graphical settings in exchange for a bigger hole in your pocket.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 00:15 |
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Pretty much, yeah. Lenovo is also absurdly expensive unless you happen to know a company that has a deal with them, then it's pretty much US prices.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 00:18 |
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QuarkJets posted:HD5100 refers to the Intel integrated GPU I know WOW is more CPU intensive than GPU, WOW was just an example, I play other games aswell. I actually will be developing code that specifically uses GPUs like shaders, but I do doubt I'll develop anything that'll make the GPU break a sweat. In the first post, under the results in the Nvidia/AMD chart for BF3 @ med. 1366x768 medium 4xAF. The GT 750 is at 46 fps. At such a low resolution and only at medium settings that isn't really impressive at all.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 00:25 |
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Gnamra posted:The Intel HD5100 is an integrated GPU I think. Yeah, but the Asus can actually cool its GPU and CPU effectively, to a point where they aren't thermally throttled down to a level of performance well below last generation's equivalent parts. MSI gaming notebooks have always been a little slipshod but were cheap, so they weren't entirely without merit. Now they're cheap, poorly built, and literally robbing you of performance. The Asus is more expensive because it's not a steaming pile of poo poo, basically. edit: wait, I'm completely lost as to whom I was responding now. Regardless, avoid MSI like the plague, get an Asus G-series or a notebook with HD5100/HD5200 (47W i7's all have this, IIRC).
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 00:32 |
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Torabi posted:It's because I'm an idiot who wants a Haswell laptop and so far there are only gaming laptops with it so far. Dell has several laptops right now with Haswell. Inspiron, but I'm sure we're all going to skip over that. Like I mentioned earlier, the XPS 12 is getting a Haswell refresh in a week or two, which is what I am personally looking forward to. It will apparently come with an option for the i7-4650U, which will include the high-level Intel graphics. And if you want an i7 Haswell, Dell is already selling the Latitude E6540 at a discounted price.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 00:36 |
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Gnamra posted:The Intel HD5100 is an integrated GPU I think. Yeah it's around 2000 usd. For that price I'd rather get a new stationary pc. So much for MSI. Not touching them then. Guess I'll just wait for more Haswell laptops that are midrange to show up.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 00:50 |
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Torabi posted:So much for MSI. Not touching them then. Guess I'll just wait for more Haswell laptops that are midrange to show up.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 00:58 |
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DrDork posted:Yeah, I'd say 90% of this thread right now is "no, seriously, wait for the i5 Haswells," because that's the correct option for almost everyone. Why Intel is making everyone wait, I don't know. Bastards. Well, considering that there were still tons of new unsold ivy bridge computers available not too long ago, it's probably to try and kill off some of their excess sandy bridge inventory in the face of the recent massive slowdown in PC sales.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 01:34 |
Cream_Filling posted:Well, considering that there were still tons of new unsold ivy bridge computers available not too long ago, it's probably to try and kill off some of their excess sandy bridge inventory in the face of the recent massive slowdown in PC sales. They have a few sitting around, because Lenovo's answer to me complaining over webchat about them never sending me a mSATA cellular card was to offer me a new x230. I think they've already sent the order to China, I wonder if I can cancel it and try to squirm my way into a Haswell? I won't have any cash for an upgrade though, so it's only worth trying if the Haswell equivalent to a i5-3320M is a substantial difference. Would they even consider doing this, or is a new chip and board the same as a totally different computer?
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 02:51 |
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The biggest difference will be the battery life. It's not exactly linear from PC to OSX, but the 13" MBA went from an estimated 7 hours with IB to 12 hours with Haswell, so it's definitely a sizable increase.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 02:55 |
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An MBA 13 with Windows 8.1 "Please Forgive Us" on it would probably still beat out most windows laptops in battery life, regardless of the loss incurred. Windows 8.1 is really nice for some reason and I'm tempted to get it. Eventually, my Thinkpad should have OSX, Windows 8.1, Debian, and Debian GNU/kfreeBSD on it. Holy god will that be useless.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 05:28 |
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With all this talk of gaming laptops being an unnecessary expense, can anyone recommend a solid, middle of the road laptop? I am changing jobs my work laptop, which I have also been using as my personal one is being taken away from me (I knew this would bite me in the arse but I didn't have the cash to pony up for one of my own at the time). I'm currently using a HP Pavilion G6 which is quite nice but a little bland. I like the 8GB RAM and and the 1TB HD. It does have dedicated graphics but I'd be willing to sacrifice this in exchange for more battery life and maybe a bit more processing power? The computer is used for extensive PHP / MySQL / Apache development, a bit of Photoshop and general browsing / email / word processing gumpf. Nothing too taxing individually but there is potential to have many programs open at once. I also use it for Lovefilm / iPlayer / DVDs and run it through a monitor so the wife and I can watch films and such. I'm not too bothered about gaming, especially anything cutting edge. My budget is a maximum of about £400 (~$600). In the meantime I am using an old HP with Fedora installed on it. It does the trick but it sounds like a jet engine and runs so hot it feels like I may end up sterilised after using it for more than 5 minutes on my lap! Any advice is appreciated! I am in the UK if that wasn't obvious EDIT - I see there is a lot of love for the Thinkpad range, what are peoples thoughts on Ideapads? Are they worth looking at or are they just cheaper imitations? I can see this one: http://www.ebuyer.com/479749-lenovo-ideapad-z585-laptop-mad6buk which has the 8GB / 1TB combo I have come to love, is it worth it or should I hold out for a Thinkpad with lower specs such as this: http://www.ebuyer.com/429767-lenovo-thinkpad-edge-e530-laptop-nzy3ruk Gruffalo Soldier fucked around with this message at 12:52 on Jul 1, 2013 |
# ? Jul 1, 2013 09:52 |
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Have you read the thread at all? The IdeaPads are just consumer laptops and don't have much to do with Thinkpads. HP Pavillions are shitboxes. Go up to a ProBook or EliteBook, or get a Lenovo Thinkpad.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 13:13 |
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No, no didn't. Had I got further into the OP before mashing POST I would have probably seen the glaringly obvious 'Thinkpads have nothing to do with Ideapads' statement. What a dick. That said, I see that the thread recommends The T, W and X flavours of Thinkpad, does that mean that I should shy away from the E that I suggested earlier? I can't find any T430s for less than £500 so that's pretty much out of the question unfortunately, plus I have got used to a 15.6" screen as it's useful for the web designing when I don't have access to an external monitor. Are Probooks worth a look then? I checked out Elitebooks and Dell Latitude 6---'s but they both seem to start way above my price range. I did however see this guy on the HP website: http://h20386.www2.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=H5V74EA&opt=ABU&sel=PBNB - within budget and a comparable spec. Any thoughts?
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 13:50 |
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Thinkpad Edges are comparable spec to HP Business-class notebooks. I'd suggest going with your choice of an E-series thinkpad if only for the good customer support provided by IBM.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 14:39 |
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Would a new Macbook Air be suitable for some audio recording (Ableton, etc)? Would this be one of the scenarios where an i7 might be beneficial? I already have a good desktop gaming rig, so this would primarily be used for web browsing and the above when I need portability. I have about $500 in Best Buy gift cards to use, so I can potentially get one for a steal if it will fit my needs.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 16:23 |
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Rye Bread posted:Would a new Macbook Air be suitable for some audio recording (Ableton, etc)? Would this be one of the scenarios where an i7 might be beneficial? The i7 is only marginally better than the i5 and certainly not worth the bump in price. The RAM and SSD size upgrades, however, are.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 16:48 |
What the hell, not only does the god-forsaken x230 trackpad sort of work after uninstalling the Ultranav driver, the titmouse even feels way smoother and sharper. I bet if I filed each and every one of these dimples down to nothing, the trackpad would be almost as good as that of some crappy HP. Now scrolling is dogshit though, so I'm torn. Actually I have an update after attempting to click something with it: no it still sucks and is useless. Here's the crosswalk that convinced a real-life Lenovo exec that what trackpads were missing was more friction. His finger couldn't stay on the laptop! It kept sliding off! agarjogger fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Jul 1, 2013 |
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 17:37 |
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We need a Lenovo smiley, like a and hybrid. They get so close and then just gently caress it up.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 17:45 |
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Rye Bread posted:Would a new Macbook Air be suitable for some audio recording (Ableton, etc)? Would this be one of the scenarios where an i7 might be beneficial? That said, a lot of people in this thread have had fan noise issues with their Macbook Airs when doing anything CPU intensive. Generally, the thinner the laptop, the louder the fans. edit: Of course this is all assuming you're doing full-on audio production. If you're just doing multitrack recording with a few plugins here and there or something, then a MacBook Air would probably be fine. edit 2: VVV Yeah, 1/3 of Ivy Bridge i7s are dual core. I wish they'd be more clear about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Bridge_(microarchitecture)#Mobile_processors Midee fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Jul 1, 2013 |
# ? Jul 1, 2013 19:40 |
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Midee posted:i7 on mobile CPUs are worth it for audio, since they still have 4 real cores, whereas the i5s only have 2. I could swear that the Macbook Air i7 is a dual-core, though. Dual-core i5 vs dual-core i7 is mostly a wash, except for small hyperthreading gains. Aren't the majority of mobile i7 CPUs dual core? It has to have a Q in the CPU name, like you said.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 19:44 |
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I've got a sort of laptop offshoot request for recommendation I am hoping to get some feedback on. I've got an ibuypower Valkyrie CS17, and it's a monster. Great machine and all, but it's a fat sucker. Portability was not super high on my list when I bought it since I tend to just move between home office, work office. I'll never fly with it or travel further than in and out of my car. So that leads me to my quandary. I'm actually having trouble finding a bag that looks like it will reliably hold the sheer girth of this thing. I kind of prefer the look of a messenger bag, but I think I may need to go with a backpack because along with the laptop I carry a handful of other junk for work. I'm using a rickshaw messenger bag now that I got as a freebie from Adobe but it's so thin and cheap feeling, it doesn't fill me with confidence that it's not just going to disintegrate. Plus, there's no room left once the laptop goes in for other stuff. The brick alone is probably the size of my old thinkpad. Budget is under 150 bucks if I can help it. Dimension for the laptop are 16.9" x 11.3" x 2.2" Here's what I'm looking at... http://www.targus.com/us/productdetail.aspx?sku=txl617 But it looks like even the laptop sleeve/pocket area is not big enough. Thanks
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 19:55 |
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I have a t430 I purchased about 6 months ago. Can anyone recommend a good stick of ram for the 2nd slot? Or should I replace the stock one too?
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 19:57 |
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Weinertron posted:I could swear that the Macbook Air i7 is a dual-core, though. Dual-core i5 vs dual-core i7 is mostly a wash, except for small hyperthreading gains. Aren't the majority of mobile i7 CPUs dual core? It has to have a Q in the CPU name, like you said. The majority of laptop i7s are dual core, and most ultrabooks only use those ones. However, the poster above is correct that the Ivy bridge 3610QM+ and Haswell 4700HQ+ are true quad core but all the ultrabooks i've seen with those are big and ugly.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 20:01 |
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If the i7 has QM at the end of it's model number it's quad core, if it's just M it's dual core.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 21:31 |
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DrDork posted:Yeah, I'd say 90% of this thread right now is "no, seriously, wait for the i5 Haswells," because that's the correct option for almost everyone. Why Intel is making everyone wait, I don't know. Bastards. Unless you manage to pick up some of the deals floating about on Ivy Bridges! I'm honestly really disappointed by Haswell, it's not nearly the upgrade Intel hyped it up to be.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 21:44 |
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I'm not sure how 50%+ battery life increase could disappoint anyone.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 21:55 |
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I'm speaking partly (mostly) as a desktop owner. But you are right, I'm being dismissive of 50%+ more battery life. Be interesting to see what this is actually in real world, hopefully the reviews will start rolling in this month. Mega Comrade fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Jul 1, 2013 |
# ? Jul 1, 2013 21:58 |
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What were your expectations?
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 22:03 |
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My wife just got her PhD and took a post doc. On the downside, she has to turn her current laptop in (Dell Latitude E6500). She's looking for a new one and I know poo poo all about laptops (I'm pretty committed to desktops). Anyway, we've looked through the Lenovo store, but we're still a little lost. I'd love some recommendations. She is looking for the following: - Light weight (4 pounds or less) - Good battery life (8 hours would be great, but she'd go lower rather than adding a bigger battery - Dell Latitude E6500 has a 9 cell and weighs a poo poo ton) - She uses MATlab a lot and other things that involve database management and statistical models (so I assume processing power would be important) - She doesn't game or anything like that. It'll be primarily a work machine. - She's willing to consider a Mac if it's absolutely the best thing, but she would like to avoid it if there is an equivalent option. Price range is around $1200 (could be more), but if there's a great option for less that would be awesome as well.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 22:16 |
I was taking another look at x230s since my patience for Haswell is getting difficult to maintain when I noticed they seem to have increased their prices a little. Thank goodness for that Fourth of July discount!
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 22:16 |
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Mu Zeta posted:What were your expectations? Most of my disappointments stem from the desktop processors, such as the frequency for the top model staying at 3.5GHz, which it was in sandy, 4 cores staying as standard etc etc. They claimed it would be the biggest generation leap they have ever done. I understand why, the rise of the tablet and dwindling desktop sales has caused a huge shift in their business model and with both Ivy and Haswell they have shifted their focus to answer that demand. All of the biggest changes and improvements are geared towards the mobile processors and on-board graphics. But I'm swerving off topic now, Haswell is nothing but good news for those shopping for a laptop and unless you see some highly discounted deal you simply cannot pass up, is most likely worth waiting for. Mega Comrade fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Jul 1, 2013 |
# ? Jul 1, 2013 22:20 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 03:16 |
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Mega Comrade posted:I'm speaking partly (mostly) as a desktop owner. The Haswell Macbook Air reviews have shows huge improvements in medium and heavy use scenarios compared to Ivy/Sandy.
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# ? Jul 1, 2013 23:42 |