|
Pierson posted:I'm interested in this, it sounds like really good advice but the 7 looks a little small for me. The Nexus 7 (2013) has a 1920x1200 screen, it will display as much text as your eyes are good to read. The Nexus 10 is kind of expensive ($400), you're getting in to disposable laptop territory there. Google Drive is about 98% compatible with Word in my experience. I had some very fancy tab formatting going on with my resume a couple years ago and Google Drive ate it for lunch (I ended up print-saving it as a PDF to rescue the formatting), but that was back in 2009 or so, I'm sure it's better now. I have an office-issued personal copy of MS Office professional rotting in a drawer somewhere, there's nothing I've created with drive that people haven't been able to use. Then again 99.999% of my work is handled in email and/or plaintext so YMMV. mobby_6kl posted:It's certainly possible to get by without a laptop so it is kind of a luxury... but unless it's an unfordable luxury, I don't see why not get one. I found taking notes on a laptop preferable to Laptops can't be beat for taking notes, especially if the prof gives you the power point presentation in advance. Pretending to use it for "work" in between classes is wishful thinking at best for most people... Hadlock fucked around with this message at 11:02 on Nov 25, 2013 |
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 10:58
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 22, 2024 09:21 |
|
|
Finally bit the bullet for my new work machine (I'm an Office desk jockey, basically) and got the Yoga 2 Pro i5 4500U/256GB/8GB though Lenov's pre-Black Friday sale + the B&N link from the OP. With Office Home Professional, a screen protector and cover it was $1,506.00 shipped, pretty good for an ultrabook with those specs I think. The upgrade to the 4500U wasn't necessary but at $80 why not I guess, since I'm looking for something to last a good while. I'll find a cheap 23" monitor on sale this week to pair it with at the office. Any recommendations on USB port expanders or external USB CD/DVD drives? Thanks for the good thread which helped me choose, when I finally get it I'll be sure to post impressions. That will be in January, probably, based on the 4+ weeks ship date (hopefully 2014 and not 2015 given what I've read of Lenovo shipping adventures in this thread), but I'm not in a hurry. Someone mentioned the T100 earlier, I think I'm going to hold out for a Baytrail Surface for the productivity tablet. I love the T100 itself and the price is absolutely astounding considering it comes iwth Office, but I found the keyboard cheap and borderline unusable when I tried it a BB, not to mention the keyboard dock is large enough to make it somewhat thick for such as small "notebook" in in that configuration.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 14:50
|
|
|
Does anybody have any thoughts on the Dell XPS 12 (2012 model) for $679? (it's the convertible) It's last year's convertible 12.5" laptop from Dell and I love the mechanism for switching between tablet mode. I'm trying to find a convertible laptop for around $500 and this seems close enough... Any thoughts? (EDIT: I'm looking for something around 13" and convertible to be more specific...) Vinlaen fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Nov 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 16:56
|
|
|
mobby_6kl posted:After using it for a while, what would you say is the benefit over an x-series tablet? It seems that the simpler hinges might be a bit more solid but then it's probably a bit more awkward to switch modes as well.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 17:30
|
|
|
QuarkJets posted:A laptop in college is definitely just a luxury, especially if you already have an able desktop. The number of people who buy laptops for doing work between classes is staggering, but almost none of them actually use that laptop for that purpose. Save your money, do not buy anything. Yeah, a laptop is useless in college, except when you want to get some work done between classes, or when you have groupwork that requires the use of the laptop, or class activities that expect you to have a laptop, or when you want to get work done over Thanksgiving break, or when your roommate's being loud.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 18:25
|
|
|
shrughes posted:Yeah, a laptop is useless in college, except when you want to get some work done between classes, or when you have groupwork that requires the use of the laptop, or class activities that expect you to have a laptop, or when you want to get work done over Thanksgiving break, or when your roommate's being loud. These are the definitions of first world problems. I've never seen a class activity which requires a laptop. Or students who manage their time well "getting some work done between classes". If that means "I completely forgot about this deadline or procrastinated until the last minute and I need to go do something now", maybe. Getting work done over Thanksgiving break doesn't require a laptop unless you're spending Thanksgiving break in some part of the world which doesn't have any other computing resources, in which case you can use a book, because the chances of having no computer but internet access are low. It's ok to want a laptop so you can go "work" at a coffee shop, but it's not at all a requirement, and you're talking to a significant number of people who went through college before every student  needed an ultrabook for basic stuff.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 18:31
|
|
|
evol262 posted:I've never seen a class activity which requires a laptop. I've seen plenty. evol262 posted:Or students who manage their time well "getting some work done between classes". I've seen plenty. evol262 posted:If that means "I completely forgot about this deadline or procrastinated until the last minute and I need to go do something now", maybe. That can count too. evol262 posted:Getting work done over Thanksgiving break doesn't require a laptop unless you're spending Thanksgiving break in some part of the world which doesn't have any other computing resources, in which case you can use a book, because the chances of having no computer but internet access are low. Sharing a computer with the family is not a good computing resource. Sorry you don't live in the first world.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 18:35
|
|
|
shrughes posted:I've seen plenty. shrughes posted:I've seen plenty. shrughes posted:That can count too. shrughes posted:Sharing a computer with the family is not a good computing resource. shrughes posted:Sorry you don't live in the first world.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 18:45
|
|
|
What a strange rant. Having a laptop is far from a luxury for technical majors, I started college in 07 and it was a requirement for several freshman level lab classes. A big dumb republic of gamers laptop is a luxury but an excel/MATLAB machine, hardly. Edit: snarky comment rescinded but I'd love to know what you did in college that didn't require a computer in class. Edit 2: http://admissions.rpi.edu/undergraduate/academics/mobile.html antiga fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Nov 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 18:49
|
|
|
evol262 posted:Are you, by chance, currently a student? I was in college from 2004 to 2007. I'm only factoring in usage of laptops I saw then. Didn't even count the Stanford and community college students I see doing groupwork or individual work in the cafes around the area. If you want to argue that it's technically possible to go without a laptop as a college student, I'm not disagreeing about whether that claim evaluates to "true" for some schools. That doesn't mean forgoing a laptop is a good idea. The cost of a laptop is far less than tuition and far less than the amount of time you're putting into schoolwork. That was true in 2004 when you'd pay four digits for a laptop. The productivity gains it can provide should easily outmatch the costs nowadays when you can get get a feature-complete new laptop for $220. The only way getting a laptop is not financially sensible in a first world country is if the education you're paying for plus the opportunity cost isn't sensible either. Edit: Also I find it kind of hilarious that the notion of getting work done between classes is so foreign to some of you people. shrughes fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Nov 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 19:01
|
|
|
I know this is a long shot but.. Is it possible to swap in a new, Haswell capable motherboard into an Asus G74S from 2011 that has an old 2nd generation i7 mobo? I know upgrading laptops so fundamentally it generally not done but is it possible in this case?
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 19:12
|
|
|
In the business school at the college I went to laptops were required. You actually had to buy one through the school. It was completely normal to see people working on school work between classes. I don't see how this is some strange phenomenon. Not to mention group projects that were going on in 2/3's of my classes. Working on your group presentation with your teammates without a computer? I agree that you can get by just fine if you have to without (if your particular major didn't require it). The notion that the majority of people use it to dick off and never actually do school work on them is asinine. edit: good point below, 2005-2010 schemie fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Nov 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 19:32
|
|
|
You shouldn't be allowed to talk about laptops and college without mentioning the years you went to school because that is extremely relevant.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 19:36
|
|
|
Holy cow laptop sales everywhere and I'm a cheapskate. I just want something I can write notes on, anything on sale anywhere for a nice deal?
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 19:38
|
|
|
antiga posted:Edit: snarky comment rescinded but I'd love to know what you did in college that didn't require a computer in class.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 20:14
|
|
|
evol262 posted:Computer science and mathematics. If we needed a computer, we were in a computer lab. 2002-2005. Hello, generational divide. You don't think it's a little bit unreasonable to chide someone for wanting a "luxury" based on your experience that was that long ago?
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 20:26
|
|
|
On day one of my Computational Linguistics course at UMass Amherst (a state school) LING-409 in Fall 2013, we were told "you are required to bring a laptop to class, if you don't have a laptop then there are programs available through the university to get you one. You will not be able to do the coursework without one." And it was also written on the syllabus. Also this semester, in my Intro to CogSci course at the private liberal arts college I attend (I was taking the UMass course through consortium) we met in a room without desks. The professor told us "I'm just gonna put these lecture slides online anyway, so you can just read them on your computers, so don't bother taking notes." In fact, this semester I have not had any textbooks, because for all of my classes the readings get put on a course website. I write my papers and submit them digitally. When my 7yo laptop broke, I tried to get everything done on library computers, including google docs for essays, but managing everything on the cloud was cumbersome and running python files for my copmutational linguistics class was impossible, plus I couldn't do in-class work on my paper notebook since I couldn't run the code. Also at least at my college, you are expected to put at least 6 hours of work into each course per week, and also to put 40 hours into non-course academic work per division (such as an internship, running a student group, working as a research assistant etc.). So doing work between classes is absolutely necessary. The college has programs for provided computer type devices to any student without one such as those on a scholarhsip program, because it is recognized as necessary in the modern age, especially when it comes to reducing paper. UMass Amherst is paper-free now, in fact.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 20:30
|
|
|
antiga posted:You don't think it's a little bit unreasonable to chide someone for wanting a "luxury" based on your experience that was that long ago? I should note that I'm currently in school again so I can go teach history at some point. It's no more a requirement in 2013 than it was in 2005, unless your school makes it one (RPI clearly outlines their laptop requirement). This is slowly happening. Even Carnegie Mellon's requires one for CS majors. But that's new, and it's the exception, not the rule. Edit: Edit2: Forget it. Not going to argue the point and derail further. evol262 fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Nov 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 20:31
|
|
|
evol262 posted:Computer science and mathematics. If we needed a computer, we were in a computer lab. 2002-2005. Hello, generational divide. 2002-2006 We had sparc stations if you needed to do anything unixy with x11 otherwise you'd just ssh in to the student mainframe. Linux was a novelty at the time for most students (if they even knew what it was)  The argument was that you would need your laptop to do coursework inbetween classes during the day, which is fairly invalid. I don't think anyone disputes that laptops are useful in class.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 23:08
|
|
|
evol262 posted:Computer science and mathematics. If we needed a computer, we were in a computer lab. 2002-2005. Hello, generational divide. Maybe regional as well - I also studied computer science around that time period and I always had a laptop to use (a cheap 14" Acer model with a Celeron), as did most of my classmates. I guess I could have got by without one, but it was certainly more convenient than walking to the labs and I found it much easier to get work done in quieter areas. e. The department ran mostly on NetBSD with some Windows. dissss fucked around with this message at 23:40 on Nov 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 23:38
|
|
|
Hadlock posted:2002-2006 If they even knew what it was? Ubuntu was coming out in the middle of your run, damnit. What kind of CS student didn't at least know of it by then.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 23:48
|
|
|
The Engineering and CS(E) colleges were equally as large as the Liberal Arts, Education, Nursing and Business colleges. I'd say one in ten of my teaching friends is capable of installing Office... I  IMO Ubuntu wasn't really ready for prime time until 6.06 and I didn't even use it until 8.x. *the cool titanium one, not that cheap aluminum crap you guys have these days 
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2013 23:58
|
|
|
Hadlock posted:*the cool titanium one, not that cheap aluminum crap you guys have these days Enjoy your keyboard imprint on the screen?
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:26
|
|
|
Edit: ffff
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 00:26
|
|
|
Last week part of the frame around the screen on my Asus U30JC broke and I can't open or close the laptop anymore without more of it cracking even more, which, while it's still a decent computer, makes it pretty useless as a laptop. I'm looking for a new laptop, $1100-$1200 Canadian before taxes is probably my budget. I really like the U30JC, since it had good battery life and was lighter compared to a lot of machines that people were buying for 1st year university. The way the thread is going, I'm a bit terrified to say it but it'll mostly be for school work: nothing too demanding (Excel, MATLAB, just working on my senior design project). It'll be travelling with me almost every day so durability is something I'd like after how a plastic piece is the only thing wrong with the Asus. I'll also be streaming lots of hockey in hd. It would be nice if I can play some stuff like Civ or Kerbal Space Program but that's not too important. Things that I'd really like: - Probably 13in or 14in screen and preferably under 2kg or so - A screen that isn't 1366x768, I'd love to have more space to work with - Haswell, for the longer battery life - An ssd, at least for the OS - Something that's available fairly quickly. I'd like to have it before Christmas break for sure, so some of the 4+ week waits I've seen are terrifying. - Keyboard without a number pad, having the off-center trackpad really bothers me - HDMI out for hooking it up to the tv or projector I've mostly looked at Lenovo stuff so far since the thread seems to love them and they sound durable. The Yoga 2 Pro looks awesome, and I've used a friend's Yoga from last year and enjoyed it. I'm a bit worried that the 3200x1800 is a bit too big as some reviews have said apps have trouble scaling. Only having a 128gb drive worries me a bit too, even though I have an external I can use when I'm home. The X1 Carbon also looks like the kind of thing I'd like but doesn't have Haswell + only has a 128gb ssd like the Yoga 2. I'm definitely open to looking at stuff from other manufacturers though. A touchscreen would be nice but definitely isn't required! Any recommendations on what I should be looking at would be great. e: If I did go for something with a 128gb ssd, how much space would I have free after Windows 8 is installed? Would having a 64gb sd card work for keeping my music with me without eating into the small amount of space? Black Hole Bowser fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Nov 26, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 02:00
|
|
|
Does MSI really make decent laptops? I'm seeing them recommended on PC Mag and I can't argue with the prices, especially for the hardware I'm seeing.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 02:21
|
|
|
The Dave posted:You shouldn't be allowed to talk about laptops and college without mentioning the years you went to school because that is extremely relevant. This is so true. I was in school from 2005 until 2010. In my first college course, there were maybe 3 people with laptops. I was incredibly envious. He was on AIM! IN CLASS!!.. During my last semester, laptops were in front of 90% of my classmates.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 05:21
|
|
|
I have an aging tower that I keep upgrading (Core2Duo E6750, 8GB DDR2, GeForce GTS 450). The machine is used for both work; Adobe Creative Suite, and moderate gaming; Tekkit, XCom, Civ5, hopefully Titanfall when it comes out. Having a laptop, and having two machines so I have a backup, would be great for work. I'm hoping to kill two birds with one stone, and get a laptop that's powerful enough to replace the tower as my main gaming machine as well. Regardless of what resolution it came with, I'd be plugging it into a 1920x1080 monitor when gaming and when working at home. The sticking point is the graphics card of course, but from what I've been able to find online, a GeForce GT750M is somewhere between slightly better and moderately better than my tower's GTS 450, and an i7 would eclipse my old Core2Duo. My budget is $750. I know I'm not going to get a crazy powerful machine for that, but my goal is a portable laptop (i.e. not a 17" brick) that can run games on an secondary monitor reasonably better than my current machine can. I've been looking at something like this ASUS N550JV-DB71 Intel Core i7, assuming I get really lucky on black friday and find something similar in my budget, or the IdeaPad Y410p 59392473 (second one) from the barnesnoblegold link in the OP. Is my goal reasonable, or am I just expecting too much from a laptop in that price range?
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 08:09
|
|
|
counterfeitsaint posted:I have an aging tower that I keep upgrading (Core2Duo E6750, 8GB DDR2, GeForce GTS 450). A 2012 era i5 laptop is as fast, if not faster than a first gen (2010 era) i5 desktop. Just get an i5 whatever, the Y410 or Y510 will blow your six year old desktop out of the water in terms of raw computing power, and probably have a 10-15% boost in framerate simply because your games won't be bottlenecked by an ancient CPU. TL;DR buy an i5, i7 is mostly marketing these days (unless you get the quad core) and generally a waste of money.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 08:28
|
|
|
I've been doing some more looking around for something that'll fit my needs but haven't been able to find much of use. Turns out my regular supplier can't get me a Y410p(Apparently not available in Europe) or a Y510p, so I'll have to look for something else. What I'm mainly looking for is a durable machine that'll last me for long enough and has at least some upgradability. Gaming's not really a requirement outside of Source games and mainly older stuff I still have around that I like to fire up from time to time. I've mainly been looking for stuff in the 14" range, but a lot of what I can find seems stuck at 1366x768 which makes it an automatic "no" for me. 15.6" should not be a problem for me generally. I'm also going to be using the touchpad quite a bit. I can deal with an offset touchpad or numeric keypad, and the latter would be nice to have considering what I'm going to be doing with it. How's the build quality of Asus? I've been checking out their N550 range because it seems to hit most of what I want in terms of specs. Due to past experiences I'm staying away from Acer, Toshiba and Sony, for build quality and price-related reasons. I'm also seeing a lot of MSI stuff, and used to have an MSI Wind which seemed nice but had some build quality issues. Has that improved over the past few years?
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 09:01
|
|
|
Hadlock posted:A 2012 era i5 laptop is as fast, if not faster than a first gen (2010 era) i5 desktop I don't think this is right. A 2500k is going to stomp on even Haswell mobile parts, let alone Ivy Bridge. Everything since Sandy has been power efficiency, not speed. 2500k was incredibly easy to OC as well, furthering the gap. Unless you were talking about his C2D, which is more like '07-'08, and probably would be beaten by a modern chip.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 09:10
|
|
|
Welp, no I meant Nehalem/Lynnfield, first Gen i5. I guess those came out in fall 2009, not 2010. The 2xxx i5 were real beasts and yeah they hold up quite well even today (so does my first gen i5-750)
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 09:24
|
|
|
shrughes posted:Yeah, a laptop is useless in college, except when you want to get some work done between classes, or when you have groupwork that requires the use of the laptop, or class activities that expect you to have a laptop, or when you want to get work done over Thanksgiving break, or when your roommate's being loud. I was in college just a few years ago, and we were never required to bring a laptop. Physics, BS 2003-2007, PhD 2007-2012. Yes, that does include several computational physics courses, but we were never required to bring a laptop in either undergrad or grad school; the computer lab was good enough. We would hold class in one of the campus or department computer labs, so a laptop wasn't necessary. And no matter how asinine some people may find this, when I was a TA most students used their laptops during class exclusively for goofing off, so I doubt that their time between class was significantly more productive. Do these schools with all of the mandatory laptop courses not have enough computer labs? That's the only way that I can make sense of this. Are you allowed to use a tablet? QueerPope posted:Also this semester, in my Intro to CogSci course at the private liberal arts college I attend (I was taking the UMass course through consortium) we met in a room without desks. The professor told us "I'm just gonna put these lecture slides online anyway, so you can just read them on your computers, so don't bother taking notes." Yeah yeah, the guy who asked the question already owns a desktop, and none of the points that I've quoted here require a laptop. There's nothing wrong with viewing slides, class readings, or the class syllabus on a home desktop. Despite their existence, I still think that it's weird that there are classes out there requiring laptops QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 10:08 on Nov 26, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 10:05
|
|
|
Hadlock posted:A 2012 era i5 laptop is as fast, if not faster than a first gen (2010 era) i5 desktop. Just get an i5 whatever, the Y410 or Y510 will blow your six year old desktop out of the water in terms of raw computing power, and probably have a 10-15% boost in framerate simply because your games won't be bottlenecked by an ancient CPU. Thanks for the heads up, that's really good to know. One question I forgot earlier, with the Y410s, that backlit keyboard can be toggled off right?
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 10:07
|
|
|
counterfeitsaint posted:Thanks for the heads up, that's really good to know. Yes, Fn + Spacebar toggles the keyboard backlighting
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 10:09
|
|
|
QuarkJets posted:
The labs at RPI were set up to accommodate the required laptop, so a tablet wouldn't have been a substitute for those classes. There were not many traditional computer labs with the exception of those needed for specialized tasks like media design. Apparently this isn't as widespread a policy as I thought, so YMMV I guess. I had a final exam where Maple was allowed/necessary and several that used minitab and excel. My grad classes at NYU have made extensive use of excel and I'd be surprised to hear about any MBA program that wasn't similar. antiga fucked around with this message at 18:22 on Nov 26, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 16:02
|
|
|
QuarkJets posted:I was in college just a few years ago, and we were never required to bring a laptop. Physics, BS 2003-2007, PhD 2007-2012. Yes, that does include several computational physics courses, but we were never required to bring a laptop in either undergrad or grad school; the computer lab was good enough. We would hold class in one of the campus or department computer labs, so a laptop wasn't necessary. And no matter how asinine some people may find this, when I was a TA most students used their laptops during class exclusively for goofing off, so I doubt that their time between class was significantly more productive. It's a lot easier to get work done out of class than trying to half pay attention to a lecture and half get work done. But you could do that too. At the school I went to, RPI, you'd see people getting work done between classes all the time. What do you do with a two hour gap between classes, just sit there and mope? Get some food and mope? Diddle around on your phone? Unless you're some broken individual it's perfectly possible to knock out an assignment. In the evening and afternoon you'd see plenty of people doing groupwork in the union or study lounges, with or without laptops, and if with, often merely to access the course website or display the homework assignment or I don't know, the internet. Are there not similar scenes in every college campus in the country? It's really spooky to see people claim that there aren't -- at least there are at the other college campuses I've seen. My impression is that they're from some parallel reality where they and everybody they know are lazy retards. Now imagine how much worse life is if you don't have a laptop. Well, you can't work on that essay, because you'd need a machine to type it in on. A computer lab would be a big hassle -- you have to go there, you have to log in, it's some generic computer lab computer and you have to type in your passwords for everything, and you need to wash your hands afterward, and you can't have a group sit in whatever arrangement you want, and now probably some hacker's got your email account. I've used them. A laptop is way better. A barely sufficient laptop only costs $200. (A much better, completely sufficient laptop costs $250, used.) You're welcome to live a crippled existence without one but I don't see why anybody would want to. QuarkJets posted:Do these schools with all of the mandatory laptop courses not have enough computer labs? That's the only way that I can make sense of this. Are you allowed to use a tablet? If your school can assume that students have laptops because it requires them, then it can just set up classrooms with ethernet and power at all the desks. Classes such as comp sci labs, "Maple" labs (which I thought were kind of dumb), or intro to biology, or other stuff that requires a computer, can be held in such a room, or regular non-computer-using classes could be held in one (since the nice roomy desks are nice to have). I have no idea what the level of classroom computer use was in engineering classes, since I was math/CS. It was absent in almost all math classes (and very present in one) and not necessary but nice-to-have in many CS lectures of course, mandatory in CS labs/recitation. RPI still had some computer labs when I was there, including some never-used classroom with Sun machines, and a couple classrooms with Windows PCs, and an array of publicly accessible Windows PCs and Sun PCs (also never used) in the computing center, alongside some rows of tables for laptop users. I think there were around 15-20 Windows machines available for public use that weren't sometimes unavailable because the room they were in was used as a classroom. Almost every desk in the library has power/ethernet hookups. Non-PC tablets didn't exist when I went there, but if the class is actually expecting you to do something computer-specific I don't think it would work. In intro to biology we viewed 3D models of some molecules which probably wouldn't have the right plugin to render on a tablet (or on Linux for that matter), and there was some other usage of the machine in an interactive way that would be very annoying if you didn't have a keyboard. In CS labs you certainly needed a real computer. I don't know about the engineering classes. There is certainly groupwork I've done where it would be very uncomfortable not having a laptop in any kind of class, from philosophy to actual reality-based learning. At RPI it was generally expected that you'd be capable of doing a class presentation, so you'd be stuck if you didn't have a way to do presentations with a VGA port. (Maybe they've got HDMI hookups nowadays.) Also, if you wanted to use the wireless network, you had to use some kind of VPN software, but maybe they've got that set up for tablets too. edit: I guess antiga went to a school similar to RPI, this place called "Rensselaer", with similar laptop usage. (Is that nearby in Rensselaer county?) shrughes fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Nov 26, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 16:38
|
|
|
Anybody seen any good Black Friday deals? I just need something for sitting on the couch and doing simple tasks and playing light indie games. The MacBook Air is $150 off at BBY plus I have a $50 gift certificate but that's still $899 for the base model. I've seen a lot of PC ultrabooks on sale for $500 or $600. (I do like the smaller 13" screen though, and the Intel 5000 GPU on the MBA)
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 17:18
|
|
|
Vinlaen posted:The MacBook Air is $150 off at BBY plus I have a $50 gift certificate but that's still $899 for the base model. I've seen a lot of PC ultrabooks on sale for $500 or $600. (I do like the smaller 13" screen though, and the Intel 5000 GPU on the MBA) The battery life is the big kicker, not to mention the keyboard and touchpad aren't trash on the Air. Beware a lot (but not all) of the cheaper ultrabooks have a regular HD (sometimes with a small cache SSD) and not a full SSD.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 17:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 22, 2024 09:21 |
|
|
Does anyone have any experience with a Clevo W230ST based laptop? I had a Sager NP8667 that died a few months ago that I've been looking to replace. I believe that was Clevo based and I really liked it. There's a deal where you can get a Eurocom M3 for 10% off which makes the i5-4200m one $825 if you don't pick any additional upgrades. It looks like it has a much better screen than a y410p and a little more expandability should I want it in the future. One regular 2.5 drive bay and room for two mSATA drives (that support RAID). The y410p has the ultrabay which is nice but with two mSATA drives I'm not worried. Another big draw for me compared to similar laptops is the 1920x1080 IPS screen.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2013 17:21
|
|