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Bum the Sad posted:What about the W540 or the Yoga 2 Pro? The W540 is enormous so unless you need what it offers then you're better off looking elsewhere. The Yoga is pretty well regarded but I still see it's form factor as a complete gimmick and high DPI displays still being issues on Windows.
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May 28, 2014 22:05
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Bum the Sad posted:Dear Nerds. I'm going back to grad school with like a $1300 budget. I never used a laptop during my undergrad. Should I get a fancy Surface Pro 3 or a real laptop?
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May 28, 2014 22:31
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Josh Lyman posted:What kind of grad school?
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May 28, 2014 22:33
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Um... With the gaming rigs, it just seems like the build quality varies from generation to generation, and I would really like to know whether, for instance, an Asus G750 with a GTX 860m in it is a better overall machine than the equivalent MSI model with the same graphics card, or the equivalent Sager/Clevo model. I kinda knew a bit about this 3 years go, but I feel in the dark here... Or if Alienware is so much better than the competition in terms of build quality (which I think was the case at one point) that it is worth it to spend the extra couple hundred for their 17 inch model.
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May 28, 2014 22:48
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Bum the Sad posted:Nurse Anesthesia. Surface Pro may be a good option (I would at least look at it) but as a full time computing device that you're using to study you might want to tear your eyeballs out after six months of intensive studying. I'm guessing at least some of your reference texts are digital these days. 10.5" screen is really tiny. My ex got through vet school using mostly her (9.7") iPad + bluetooth keyboard though, so I guess it's possible. She still had a full size laptop for "real work" though. Yoga 2 Pro has an even higher resolution which you can scale down for a happy medium of high resolution and also text large enough you don't need reading glasses for Samsung AITV+ (one of their models, the Ultra(?)) has the same screen as the Yoga but a more traditional hinge, might be 5-10% more durable as well W530 is too big/heavy to take to class, and way over powered for what you want to do unless you are simulating molecular bonds of anesthesia and nerve cells en masse, on the go. If you want a thinkpad you might look at the T440p or the T440s, there's also the 12.5" Thinkpad x240 with the 1080p touchscreen, it clocks in at about $1300. I would rank the x240 1080p touch up there with the Yoga 2 and AITV+, you just don't see much discussion about it here because most people's budgets are < $800. Hadlock fucked around with this message at 23:12 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 23:09
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Hadlock posted:Surface Pro may be a good option (I would at least look at it) but as a full time computing device that you're using to study you might want to tear your eyeballs out after six months of intensive studying. I'm guessing at least some of your reference texts are digital these days. 10.5" screen is really tiny. My ex got through vet school using mostly her (9.7") iPad + bluetooth keyboard though, so I guess it's possible. She still had a full size laptop for "real work" though. quote:If you want a thinkpad you might look at the T440p or the T440s, there's also the 12.5" Thinkpad x240 with the 1080p touchscreen, it clocks in at about $1300. I would rank the x240 1080p touch up there with the Yoga 2 and AITV+, you just don't see much discussion about it here because most people's budgets are < $800. So Samsungs look slick but expensive. I think it's a toss up between the Yoga 2 Pro and the New 12" Surface Pro 3. They both seem pretty slick. Edit: What's up with this fancy Dell XPS 12 thing? Bum the Sad fucked around with this message at 23:45 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 23:37
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I really think the Thinkpad x240 and the Yoga 2 Pro can't be compared in terms of build quality. Yeah, you get a nice screen with the Y2P, but it's glossy and the build quality stinks. The x240 can have great battery life, is much more solid, and the screen is semi matte plus 1920x1080 doesn't have the scaling issues that you'll get on the Y2P. Then there's also the trackpoint and better touchpad on the x240 which is a pretty nice perk.
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May 28, 2014 23:58
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I think I am just a sucker for the convertible features. Maybe I should get something cheaper and just upgrade my iPad 2 to an air.
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May 29, 2014 00:08
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fwiw I had to use a Surface Pro the other day and if I had to spend more than 5 minutes typing on it I'd murder someone
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May 29, 2014 00:18
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As a counterpoint, I have a surface pro 2 and absolutely love the thing. Its a dream to carry around with me since I can just slip it in my purse like I used to with my ipad. The new one having a bigger screen, better keyboard (and useable trackpad), not to mention being barely heavier than an OG ipad would make it that much sweeter for portable use. That and it can serve double duty beyond laptop use and has already completely replaced my ipad for everything I used that for around the house, or in bed, or on the train.
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May 29, 2014 00:38
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Bum the Sad posted:I think I am just a sucker for the convertible features. Maybe I should get something cheaper and just upgrade my iPad 2 to an air. I really like the convertible features too, but between the heat vents, weight, flimsy build, low battery, rotation issues, and fingerprint prone screen I did not enjoy using the Y2P in convertible mode. Given how cheap tablets are these days I'd rather have a dedicated tablet for when I want to do that. That said, the Thinkpad Yoga despite some flaws feels a whole lot better, and with the stylus I imagine it's quite nice to use. AriTheDog fucked around with this message at 01:11 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 01:03
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How much would I suffer by going with a 7200rpm drive vs a Solid State?
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May 29, 2014 01:57
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Bum the Sad posted:How much would I suffer by going with a 7200rpm drive vs a Solid State? I think that if you're asking this question, you're probably going to get an SSD in the end, it's just a matter of whether it's going to cost you less to buy it afterwards and do a swap, or if, by some small miracle, it's cheaper to get it from them.
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May 29, 2014 02:00
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Update on the laptop hunt. This Sony Vaio Flip looks pretty drat cool. They have a 13.3" with a full HD screen, core i5, 8gb Ram, and a 128gb SSD for $1249. If I could call them and get them to upgrade it to a 256 that looks like it'd be the ideal machine, strong sleek lap top with a really cool convertable feature. It's got a fancy pressure sensitive pen too. http://store.sony.com/vaio-flip-pc-zid27-SVF13N23CX//cat-27-catid-All-13-Ultrabook-Flip?vva_ColorCode=E2E3DE&_t=pfm%3Dcategory Bum the Sad fucked around with this message at 05:19 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 02:12
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Bum the Sad posted:How much would I suffer by going with a 7200rpm drive vs a Solid State? If you don't get a SSD, make sure you never ever test drive one with an SSD, you won't be able to go back. Sonys here get a bad rep for lack of driver support and only average build quality, and models change so frequently that spare parts are difficult-to-impossible to find three months after they go out of production. The "fancy XPS 12 thing" is pretty fancy, it's like the Sony Flip but has high build quality, good parts availability and seem to be deep discount on Amazon lately if you go with an Ivy Bridge model. It's a Good Laptop, A+ in my book. Between my x230 and the XPS 12 I would get the XPS 12, I only went with the x230 because it was $400 cheaper at the time. Hadlock fucked around with this message at 02:28 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 02:26
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Bum the Sad posted:What about the W540 or the Yoga 2 Pro? just got theYoga 2 pro 11.5 inch on Monday because of this thread. So far so good. The size is much smaller than I am used to but it actually has me thinking of taking it places versus just using it on the couch.
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May 29, 2014 04:03
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Suspect I may get a better answer from here than another, general, notebook-centric community. Anyone here with a Dell ever received their OS install media on a flash drive? Is this thing entirely self-contained, or is it stupid, and require the recovery partition on the hard drive to be worth a drat, as was this case with many pre-built systems in the 90s?
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May 29, 2014 04:42
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Don't worry about problems with sony driver support -- it's not like the thing has a discrete GPU, and if a device is working then there is no point in desiring driver updates. That warning just isn't logical.
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May 29, 2014 05:03
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Um... I guess I am being kind of ignored here, I just really wish I had something to go on here. I feel totally lost in the wilderness and just have *no* clue where to go with this. I used to post a lot in this thread and would help others with their questions when I was actually familiar with the models and the hardware, but now all the model names and hardware are different and I have *no* idea what is and is not a quality product vis-a-vis what I am looking for, a 17-inch panel laptop with a GTX 860m or a GPU of comparable strength, since that seems to be the standard. But I still have no clue. The last nvidia GPU I had was a freaking 460m and I just.. don't even know if I need something that powerful, I am just thinking of future-proofing and that I've found its better to aim for a more powerful GPU than you think you need. Should I order from xoticpc? Is there a better site people use? Please, sincerely, help. I am on a time limit of sorts here too 
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May 29, 2014 05:10
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You're in the vast minority as a repeat owner of a 17" gaming laptop, which is probably why people aren't climbing out of the woodwork here to suggest models Like you said build quality on gaming laptops varies wildly from generation to generation, and reviews on gaming sites are going to be unreliable at best due to their reliance on a very narrow slice of advertising revenue The new Razor models get good reviews, the MSIs and Gigabyte models have reputation for burning your balls off Do you have a specific price range?
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May 29, 2014 05:20
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Hadlock posted:You're in the vast minority as a repeat owner of a 17" gaming laptop, which is probably why people aren't climbing out of the woodwork here to suggest models Yeah, I'm sort of maxing out around $1300-$1400. The new Razor laptops are like at least $2000, even though I'd love to spec one out. I'm leaning toward an Asus g750 model of one sort at the moment, mostly because it has excellent cooling based on my experience of their past models from like 4 or 5 years ago, and what I've read seems to indicate it has improved even more on this front. I was looking at this model on newegg that seems decent: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231630 Only big drawback of that is the HDD - a 5400 RPM HDD is totally unacceptable and I was just planning on just sticking an SSD in there to run the OS and major programs. I think, though, that I can get the same laptop for the same approximate price (maybe slightly less) on xoticpc and that comes with at least a 7200RPM drive. I just don't know if I want to go through them. But yeah, MSI/Gigabyte all had a repudiation for being gaudy toasters that were underpriced for a reason back in the day, so that at least has not changed. kaworu fucked around with this message at 06:02 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 05:56
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It looks like the 1080p Samsung Chromebook2 is finally shipping. $400, 1080p linux box, not bad, waiting to see if it gets full "crouton" support
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May 29, 2014 09:09
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kaworu posted:But yeah, MSI/Gigabyte all had a repudiation for being gaudy toasters that were underpriced for a reason back in the day, so that at least has not changed. I've heard the MSI GS series gets rather hot, but I chalked that up to the thinness. Is this true of the larger ones as well? I'm in a similar boat--want something I can play games on that won't fill up my apartment, and I really want at least one SSD. XoticPC has a ton of options, I just don't know anything about most models' build quality.
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May 29, 2014 12:19
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kaworu posted:Yeah, I'm sort of maxing out around $1300-$1400. The new Razor laptops are like at least $2000, even though I'd love to spec one out. I'm leaning toward an Asus g750 model of one sort at the moment, mostly because it has excellent cooling based on my experience of their past models from like 4 or 5 years ago, and what I've read seems to indicate it has improved even more on this front. I believe the laptop you linked is part of the newer generation in which they changed the screens they were using to have a lower brightness and contrast (to save cost). It's not a really major thing but it definitely isn't as bright as previous generations and doesn't do that well outdoors. MechaFrogzilla posted:I've heard the MSI GS series gets rather hot, but I chalked that up to the thinness. Is this true of the larger ones as well? I'm in a similar boat--want something I can play games on that won't fill up my apartment, and I really want at least one SSD. XoticPC has a ton of options, I just don't know anything about most models' build quality. The newer MSI laptops are lacking in fans so they do get warmer. The one fan they do have is extremely loud when under load. They also don't have a proper power adapter so they drain the battery even while plugged in under load. I'm really not too happy with any of the reasonably priced new generation of 17.3 laptops. They all have really great hardware but each of them have a pretty major flaw that really detracts from them: Asus has the less good screen/processor and cleaning the fans is a hassle again; MSI has the very, very loud fan; Gigabyte is still gigabyte. I'd like to get a new 17.3 laptop since I'm on the road so much these days but I can't find one that I don't have a major issue with. As for XoticPC, I know quite a few people who have had serious customer service issue with them and had to repeatedly return what they ordered. YMMV. Saltpowered fucked around with this message at 15:50 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 15:48
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This might just be me but this Gigabyte doesn't seem loud at all--so far I've played Diablo 3, Landmark, and Sunless Sea and it hasn't gotten louder than my predecessor (a pretty normal laptop) ever got.
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May 29, 2014 16:05
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I'd look at a Sager NP8278 through xoticpc.com
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May 29, 2014 16:06
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I'm in the market as well for a new laptop. The primary use of my current laptop is to surf the internet, usually with the laptop on my lap while I sit on the couch. Often I just want to do some quick searching, so a quick boot would be nice, so I'm thinking about an SSD. Also, every now and then I'd like to sit down and play a game. Nothing really heavy, mainly strategy games. Also, I really detest cheap, poor quality stuff, so I want something decent. I travel with my laptop every now and then, and I don't want it having issues after the first bump. Requirements: Max 14" resolution > 1366 x 768 SSD (or can be build in); 256 Gb is probably fine. Don't think I need an optical drive. HDMI port for playing stuff on the TV Decent specs to play some strategic games (Dwarf Fortress, Civilization, EU IV). Budget: I don't want to go higher than EUR 1500, but EUR 1000 is more the target.
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May 29, 2014 18:15
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Macbook Air
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May 29, 2014 21:09
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go3 posted:I'd look at a Sager NP8278 through xoticpc.com Very intriguing idea. I'm looking at the NP8268 (with a SSD added) for the smaller screen/lower weight. Anybody have personal experience with these? I'm curious about the quality, I see fewer reviews on Sager/Clevo stuff than with other brands.
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May 30, 2014 00:59
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MechaFrogzilla posted:Very intriguing idea. I'm looking at the NP8268 (with a SSD added) for the smaller screen/lower weight. Anybody have personal experience with these? I'm curious about the quality, I see fewer reviews on Sager/Clevo stuff than with other brands. I had a kinda dreadful experience with my Sager, and it made me swear never to buy another laptop by them again. It just started to fall apart right on cue when the warranty ran out, very frustrating experience. The build quality felt chintzy. That said, it is probably better than a lot of other options out there. In spite of the reported relative dimness of the screen (which seems to be the only major drawback if you're prepared for all the positives and negatives of a massive gaming beast) I am leaning toward the Asus I linked before. The last Asus ROG that I owned was a really superior machine and, I felt, had much better build quality and functionality than the Sager I owned. I mean, basically you get what you pay for. There's a reason why MSI and Gigabyte and to some extent Sager have such low base prices, and (in my opinion) with these massive gaming beasts how it deals with heat dissipation on a long-term basis is extremely important. One thing I have always loved about the Asus ROG laptops is the massive exhaust vents in the back and purposeful thickness. But we'll see. Hopefully it goes well, and I won't have to return it. I am looking forward to having a functional gaming laptop SO much. I have about 150 goddamn games on Steam and I haven't been able to touch them in months and months. Not to mention I deeply miss SC2, and have found out in the meantime that it is physically impossible for me to go back to playing a shooter with a normal controller. Going from aiming with your right hand on a mouse to your left thumb on a jerky analog stick is... Well, I sure as hell couldn't do it.
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May 30, 2014 01:20
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MechaFrogzilla posted:Very intriguing idea. I'm looking at the NP8268 (with a SSD added) for the smaller screen/lower weight. Anybody have personal experience with these? I'm curious about the quality, I see fewer reviews on Sager/Clevo stuff than with other brands. Here's my review of a Sager NP9150 I purchased in August 2012.
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May 30, 2014 02:52
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Anyone have experience working with Squaretrade and if it's worth buying a three year warranty?
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May 30, 2014 06:31
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Can anyone give me advice for a laptop around the £300 range. I dont really want a chromebook or anything and I dont care about it being touchscreen. 15' screen and enough power to play games like civ or Ck2 would be perfect. I've been looking at lenovo G500 and acer aspire v5-571 or perhaps a dell inspiron but really dont know enough about modern laptops to make an informed choice.
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May 30, 2014 12:35
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Welp, I ordered the Asus G750 from Amazon yesterday evening, and it is getting here by 3PM today. I freaking love Amazon Prime shipping - for something like this overnight shipping for $7.99 felt better than waiting until Monday for free. After waiting like a month for the last laptop I ordered from a boutique, I am honestly much happier to be getting a sealed box model that I can modify myself. Plus, there is something nice about clicking a button to order something like this and having it arrive less than 24 hours later. I am watching the door with baited breath! One thing I've not yet quite decided how to work out is the hard drive situation, and it's been troubling me. The Asus I am getting comes with two HDD storage bays, and one single 1TB/5400RPM HDD. My soon-to-be-previous laptop has an Intel 120GB SSD running the OS and key programs (which I believe works fine still but it's small and has a lot of miles on it after 2+ years of near-continuous use) and a 750GB/7200 HDD in the second bay that I use for storage, and is almost full. But those files are duplicated in my external hard drive that I use mainly to back stuff up. So anyway, I am not quite sure how to configure it all... I am leaning on keeping the 1TB in there for storage, and getting a newer, bigger SSD to run windows and games on - the 120GB is really too small, in addition to being *very* well-traveled. A 250GB Samsung 840 SSD currently has what appears to be a very very reasonable cost on Amazon (I was looking at this in particular) and that seems like a very worthwhile investment, to be honest... I'm a little uncomfortable continuing to use my current one, despite how reliable Intel SSDs are As I understand it, that's probably the most reliable and cost-efficient SSD on the marked at the moment, so it makes sense. That would be right direction to go in, no? Not to mention, the HDD is the one component that seems woefully underpowered when compared to the rest of the machine. An i7-4700HQ processor (probably stronger than I need) and a plenty-powerful GTX 860m GPU (which actually optimus which I didn't know), as well as more than enough RAM... And then you've got this 5400RPM HDD spinning around in there  At least it's easy to replace.
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May 30, 2014 14:12
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go3 posted:Here's my review of a Sager NP9150 I purchased in August 2012. Thanks all, this is probably what I'll go with. Looks like the right balance of speed, cost, and aesthetics for me. It also looks fairly easy to upgrade, so I can put a SSD in it for cheaper than what xoticpc charges.
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May 30, 2014 16:08
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kaworu posted:Welp, I ordered the Asus G750 from Amazon yesterday evening, and it is getting here by 3PM today. I freaking love Amazon Prime shipping - for something like this overnight shipping for $7.99 felt better than waiting until Monday for free. After waiting like a month for the last laptop I ordered from a boutique, I am honestly much happier to be getting a sealed box model that I can modify myself. Plus, there is something nice about clicking a button to order something like this and having it arrive less than 24 hours later. I am watching the door with baited breath! As long as you're running Windows or another OS with TRIM then the Samsung 840 EVO is going to be the best SSD for the money. If you use a lot of different OSes you might look into a Sandforce based disk like an Intel 530. The Samsung will be faster in general, however. Using it for the OS disk and the spinner for storage is a solid plan. If you need more information there's the SSD Megathread.
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May 30, 2014 18:30
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So I work as a photographer, and I'm getting to the point where using the back of the camera to judge exposure isn't cutting it. What I'm looking for is a netbook/ultrabook with a good 13-inch screen that can be calibrated. It's mainly going to be for travel and tethering to a camera on a photo shoot. I don't think I need a ton of processing power. Capture is not particularly resource-intensive unless it's processing and exporting photos which I do through my desktop. I've used PC's all my life, but Apple is the gold standard in the industry so I'm thinking I should just make the switch. My budget is around $650 per the OP, which puts me in 'used MBA from SA mart' territory. I've been on sets where the photographer uses an MBA with minimal chugging. My concern is compatibility; I would be transferring the Capture folder from the laptop to the PC desktop for final processing, and I'm worried about the PC not being able to read the files from a Mac even though Capture is proprietary. Is an MBA a bad idea? I'm probably going to go PC after all since I'm already invested in it. I think a 4 gig memory and 128 gig SSD should be enough, I also need an accurate, contrasty 13" screen. V: Thanks, My main computer and backup drives are all NTFS, so this could be a problem. I plan to use a WD Passport as a backup for the laptop, if that's formatted in exFAT can an NTFS PC read it? red19fire fucked around with this message at 03:50 on May 31, 2014 |
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May 31, 2014 03:24
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Macs can read and write to exFAT formatted drives, and so can Windows. As long as you format the external/USB drive to exFAT, it would solve any cross-platform problems you might run across. MBAs from 2012 and onward are generally great for light to medium workloads, and afaik MacOS lets you do calibration without the use of 3rd party programs. You might have to install a preset or two, but the calibration tool is part of the default utilities. Hope this helps.
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May 31, 2014 03:40
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Where is the best place to buy a Lenovo in Canada? Prices seem to vary hugely.
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May 31, 2014 05:26
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red19fire posted:So I work as a photographer, and I'm getting to the point where using the back of the camera to judge exposure isn't cutting it. What I'm looking for is a netbook/ultrabook with a good 13-inch screen that can be calibrated. It's mainly going to be for travel and tethering to a camera on a photo shoot. The screen on the Macbook Air isn't good enough to be useful for that so yes it would be a bad idea to buy one.
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May 31, 2014 07:48
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