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Hace posted:If they want a low budget tell them to rethink the touchscreen part. HP's 13" Stream has a touchscreen version. Goes for about $300 I think.
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Apr 12, 2015 02:49
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MonkeyFit posted:$2837 + $165 2-day shipping. I personally would have gone with the Sager that uses the mobile i7 and 980m. The desktop CPU doesn't seem to provide a huge boost in gaming performance, and you lose optimus capability (even if the CPU has a built in IGP), so the GPU will always be powered up. I guess the main real world drawback being that the machine will be bigger and heavier, and instead of having bad battery life, you'll have terrible battery life. Also, even though the P750 has probably the most robust cooling setup you can find in a laptop, I'd make sure to keep it on a solid surface (or lap desk/cooling pad). These things might not matter a drat bit to you though, and it will probably be the most powerful laptop anyone on here has.
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Apr 12, 2015 03:17
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I don't feel like this is the correct thread to ask, but what's the opinion of something like a Surface Pro 2/ 256gb/ 8gb for purposes of school and extremely light gaming? I ask, because you can basically pick one up for $600 with keyboard most of the time and the ability to use the pen for notetaking is extremely appealing to me. Can also pick up a refurb powercover off amazon for $70, which helps shore up its average battery life to somewhere around 8 hours total. Thoughts?
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Apr 12, 2015 03:52
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Welp, so my laptop's hard drive choked and I lost pretty much everything. Time for a new laptop! Between the Lenovo T450S, a 13 inch Macbook Pro, and a 13 inch Macbook Air, what would people recommend? I mainly want speed, durability, lightness, and a good amount of storage space. In regards to stuff I do on a laptop, I watch a lot of movies and stuff on it in pretty high quality, also I play some video games (mostly PIllars of Eternity these days). I code sometimes as well. Also, I've never used a Mac, but I've heard good things about it. Any thoughts? Akarshi fucked around with this message at 07:07 on Apr 12, 2015 |
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Apr 12, 2015 06:13
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shyduck posted:What's the best docking option for running two external monitors on an X220? Is there anything that will allow me to run dual DisplayPort or do I have to do DP/VGA? I'm using this dock on my T430s and apparently it will work with the X220 too http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad_Dock_Series_3#ThinkPad_Mini_Dock_Plus_Series_3_-_90W Two DisplayPorts and should be available cheaply second hand (mine cost like $20)
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Apr 12, 2015 07:26
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Psyker posted:I don't feel like this is the correct thread to ask, but what's the opinion of something like a Surface Pro 2/ 256gb/ 8gb for purposes of school and extremely light gaming? I ask, because you can basically pick one up for $600 with keyboard most of the time and the ability to use the pen for notetaking is extremely appealing to me. Can also pick up a refurb powercover off amazon for $70, which helps shore up its average battery life to somewhere around 8 hours total. Thoughts? You might try asking in here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=192
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Apr 12, 2015 13:40
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teagone posted:HP's 13" Stream has a touchscreen version. Goes for about $300 I think. How about a refurbed Flex 2?
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Apr 12, 2015 14:40
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My current laptop -- a System 76 Gazelle P7 -- is three years old. In terms of system specs it holds up well, but physically it's showing its age, with case damage and a battery life measured in minutes. I find myself moving around the house and working in darkened rooms a lot more these days, which means that the inability to operate on battery and lack of keyboard backlighting are serious problems. So, I've started looking around for a replacement. This is basically a portable workstation that I use for everything that isn't gaming or video, including programming, so while it doesn't need much graphical beef, a 1920x1080 display, at least 8GB of memory, and a reasonably powerful processor (my current one is a four-core+HT i7) are necessary. Linux compatibility is also a must. My previous laptop (until the hinges shattered) was a Lenovo T-series, and my current work laptop is an X-series, and both have impressed me a lot more than the Gazelle, so the T540 or T550 are the obvious machines to look at. But I'm in Canada, which means there's a significant markup on top of the already high prices, the sales are rubbish, and Lenovo Outlet isn't an option here. Business does occasionally take me into the states, so I could perhaps buy something from Lenovo Outlet (once they have something -- it doesn't look like they have what I'm looking for right now anyways), get it shipped to HQ, and pick it up next time I'm there. But before I resort to that or dropping $1500-$2000 on a new laptop, I was wondering if there were obvious recommendations I'd missed outside Lenovo -- the OP is almost entirely Lenovo-focused. Summary of requirements: - 15" screen - 1920x1080 screen - at least 8GB RAM - backlit keyboard, preferably with numpad - linux compatible
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Apr 12, 2015 21:56
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How far are you from the border? Lots of places take deliveries for Canadians to avoid shipping fees and markups. There's usually a couple in every border town. You're still stuck with the godawful exchange rate right now but you'll still come out ahead.
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Apr 12, 2015 22:17
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dissss posted:I'm using this dock on my T430s and apparently it will work with the X220 too
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Apr 12, 2015 22:59
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Aphrodite posted:How far are you from the border? Lots of places take deliveries for Canadians to avoid shipping fees and markups. There's usually a couple in every border town. About two hours, so that would actually be a possibility. Kind of irrelevant right now, anyways, since the Outlet has nothing in that screen size and the main site has no discounts on the T540 and T550 worth mentioning -- hence my asking for alternative recommendations. Maybe the Y50? I don't really need the "gaming" features, but it's cheaper than the T5x0 and the OP says it's decent. What about the Z50 or the G50? They don't get a mention in the OP.
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Apr 12, 2015 23:35
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ToxicFrog posted:About two hours, so that would actually be a possibility. They don't get mentioned because they are the equivalent to the Hewlett-Packard Tupperware sold in your local department store.
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Apr 13, 2015 01:55
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system protocol posted:They don't get mentioned because they are the equivalent to the Hewlett-Packard Tupperware sold in your local department store. Aah. The Y50 is actually looking increasingly tempting; I don't really need the dedicated GPU, but it's very steeply discounted right now, at least in Canada, and as far as I can tell it works fine in Linux.
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Apr 13, 2015 02:29
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MonkeyFit posted:$2837 + $165 2-day shipping. I would skip the desktop CPU, a 4710MQ or similar will be more than enough CPU for you unless you explicitly know otherwise (e.g. you exclusively play 64-player BF4 at low resolutions or something), and that's jacking the price way up I think. Sager/Clevo build quality isn't that great, and they're ugly even by desktop replacement standards. I would stick to an Asus ROG, MSI Dominator GT60/70 (or 80 if you're crazy) or maybe Alienware (gone downhill a bit, still good build quality). Alienwares are a little on the cramped side, if anything in our situation you want a fatter laptop because they'll stay cooler easier and are generally sturdier, and in your situation the optical drive might be important, which a lot of slimmer gaming laptops eliminate nowadays. Similarly, I'd stay away from the MSI Ghost series, if you're getting a laptop like this you probably don't give a gently caress about 2-3 extra pounds, let alone paying a premium for something flimsier. Long and short of it is you can get a new 17" Alienware 970M laptop for as low as ~$1350, just get your own SSD for it. Good 980M laptops (any of the three I said above) can be had for $2000 or just a tad more. MSI makes some crazy ~18.5" laptops if you feel like it. If you want to spend $3K then go ahead but at that price you should be looking at SLI 980Ms, or like SLI 970Ms and a pair of big SSDs, not desktop CPUs. If you get SLI 980Ms you might also want to try to find a screen higher than 1080p  I really feel bad for anybody who spent a ton of money on like a 780M or 880M, the 900-series is really amazing and obsoleted the previous two in a hurry, and should last quite a while by overpriced gaming laptop standards. I'm about to grab a very slightly used 17" MSI 980M for $1500 and at that price it doesn't feel too indulgent. With all the parts being stuck together as a system and upgrades nearly impossible, it makes sense to me to pay more in many cases - e.g. going from a $300 970 to a $600 980 desktop part might be stupid for nearly everyone, but in a laptop you're "only" bumping up the total price ~35% for 25% more performance for games, that's actually pretty reasonable if that's something you want. edit: if time is critical, I think Amazon has quite a few options, and their shipping is obviously super fast and reasonable - the price you're paying there for two-day shipping would get you a year of Prime and then one-day shipping on a laptop. Straker fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Apr 13, 2015 |
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Apr 13, 2015 02:54
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ToxicFrog posted:Aah. My girlfriend has a Y50. It is a good bargain and well built for what you pay for. If you can hold out until the summer you can probably snag a deal on a T450 etc.
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Apr 13, 2015 04:20
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My mother's laptop finally bit the dust - it was a crappy older model Compaq when I won it as a literal door prize in 2008 so I'm honestly shocked it lasted this long. I have been tasked with finding her a new one. She mostly uses it for web browsing and email, with basic office software stuff like spreadsheets and such on occasion. She'd like an optical drive (she keeps photos on CD-RWs) but that's certainly optional since she can get a drat flash drive for cheap to store those like I've been telling her for years. Her last laptop was 15" screen which she says is a good size. Battery life isn't a factor, since she almost always uses it plugged in. I'd like to get her something with decent build quality so hopefully it'll last as long as possible. She was interested in the touch screen models we looked at, since she thinks that and Windows 8's app environment will help her get used to the idea of using a smartphone. She's looking to spend not more than $600. Chromebooks are out, she doesn't trust online storage for anything (she won't shop online at all). How much does processor generation matter? That is to say, is an older i7 better than a newer i5? What brands or lines are "avoid at all costs"? I see Lenovos are pretty well thought of, but is that just the ThinkPad or is any Lenovo probably okay for what you're getting?
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Apr 13, 2015 06:25
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There are a plethora of touch-enabled 15.6in laptops for sale on Amazon for less than $600. HP, Dell, Toshiba, Acer...take your pick. They'll have 720p displays, Haswell based processors, dvdrw drives, 500-1000GB hard drives, and 4 to 8GB of ram. Pick the nicest looking one and maybe throw in an extended warranty. This is basically the "Mom Machine" that will spend most of its life on an end/dining table and couch warrior. I bought my mother a 500 dollar Costco special HP-something 3 years ago and she has had no problems with it. My grandmother; a cheapy Toshiba that has also worked fine for 2 years in a low stress environment.
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Apr 13, 2015 06:58
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Lemniscate Blue posted:She mostly uses it for web browsing and email, with basic office software stuff like spreadsheets and such on occasion. She'd like an optical drive (she keeps photos on CD-RWs) but that's certainly optional since she can get a drat flash drive for cheap to store those like I've been telling her for years. Her last laptop was 15" screen which she says is a good size. Battery life isn't a factor, since she almost always uses it plugged in. I'd like to get her something with decent build quality so hopefully it'll last as long as possible. Some thoughts: - Flash drives are useful for transferring files, but should not be relied on for storage - Touchscreens in cheap laptops, especially large ones are asking for trouble - you end up with a cheap very flexible plastic lid and a thin piece of glass that will crack if you even look at it funny - Forget about getting an i7 - it's not worth it for that type of usage (and even if you have the need for power only the quad cores really make sense over just grabbing an i5). For the past few generations development has been focused on power consumption and graphics rather than CPU performance - anything from Sandybridge onwards should be fine - In the Windows world there are no good brands - everyone makes terrible cheap poo poo at the low end
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Apr 13, 2015 07:32
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What the gently caress, Lenovo  So apparently the Y50 you get in the US and the one you get in Canada are not actually the same laptop. Notably, the US version has an IPS screen, among other improvements. I guess it recently got a hardware refresh, but only in the states? This brings me back to the "buy from the US site, collect in person" plan - I'll be down there for a business trip later this month anyways.
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Apr 13, 2015 14:10
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ToxicFrog posted:What the gently caress, Lenovo Yeah, I asked about that a few pages back. It looks like we get the last generation of the Y50. No IPS screen, and no GTX 960. I never make it down to the US, so I think my only option would be a freight forwarding service. I've never used one of those before, anyone else in Canada have any recommendations?
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Apr 13, 2015 18:57
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Son of a Vondruke! posted:Yeah, I asked about that a few pages back. It looks like we get the last generation of the Y50. No IPS screen, and no GTX 960. I never make it down to the US, so I think my only option would be a freight forwarding service. I've never used one of those before, anyone else in Canada have any recommendations? I'll be flying up to Toronto May 1st weekend if that helps, and again May 22nd weekend. You could have it shipped to me in Chicago and I'll bring it up in my bag.
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Apr 13, 2015 19:40
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After investigating some more, it looks like I could get a Y50 for $900, or a T550 with the 1080p screen for $1100 (from the US site). Both are within my budget. So that brings the question down to whether the T550's more robust construction and (claimed) completely insane battery life are worth an extra $200 and a downgrade in screen, CPU, and GPU relative to the Y50. Compared to my current laptop, the T550 would be about on par. The Y50 would be a noticeable upgrade, but if the battery craps out in a year or two that doesn't really matter. Argh.
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Apr 13, 2015 19:52
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ToxicFrog posted:After investigating some more, it looks like I could get a Y50 for $900, or a T550 with the 1080p screen for $1100 (from the US site). Both are within my budget. I've had a Y50 for about 8 months-ish now IIRC, and the battery usually lasts around 2 hours on max brightness while having a shitton of tabs and word open. I'd go for the y50 honestly, and if you really need battery life get that HP stream 11 or a chromebook or something.
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Apr 13, 2015 20:01
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The Iron Rose posted:I've had a Y50 for about 8 months-ish now IIRC, and the battery usually lasts around 2 hours on max brightness while having a shitton of tabs and word open. I'd go for the y50 honestly, and if you really need battery life get that HP stream 11 or a chromebook or something. Chromebook is a complete no-go, I use this primarily for programming, IRC, and light gaming in that order. Unless I want to gently caress around with installing linux on it. 2 hours is acceptable but not great; my work laptop gets more like 6 and I've gotten pretty used to that. But the real question isn't whether it can run for two hours, but whether it'll still be able to do that three or four years from now. E: so it turns out that all of this is irrelevant anyways, because no matter which one I order it won't make it to Mountain View in time for my visit next week, and I don't need a new laptop urgently enough to set up a Rube Goldberg machine to get it to me. And the Y50 isn't available in Canada with those specs, and the T550 costs 30% more. 
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Apr 13, 2015 22:06
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Straker posted:Based on the rush order and poo poo this might be too late, but that's really overpriced in my opinion, and I don't even mean "that's too much money to spend", just "you can do way better for your money". I haven't ordered it yet. But when I do order it, it needs to get here fast because I am leaving soon. I'm really looking for a beast that can handle anything for a while and I have the income to throw at it. When I get back from deployment, I intend to build a proper gaming PC, but I wanted something that would handle anything I threw at it and could fit in the rack pan. And as far as the CPU goes, I'll look at some of the other models with a lesser CPU, but I also enjoy playing horribly optimized RTS games that allow too many units at once, like Supreme Commander. However, I do appreciate the input. I've never owned a gaming laptop so it's nice to have feedback before purchasing. Any Comments about the Asus G751? MonkeyFit fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Apr 14, 2015 |
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Apr 14, 2015 04:20
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Wilford Cutlery posted:I'll be flying up to Toronto May 1st weekend if that helps, and again May 22nd weekend. You could have it shipped to me in Chicago and I'll bring it up in my bag. Thanks for the offer, but I don't live anywhere near Toronto.
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Apr 14, 2015 08:54
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My work laptop bit the dust today. Our outsourced IT can get me a replacement next week, but I leave the country in 3 days for a spell. Looking for amazon/local options. No Frys or Microcenter options locally. Would be Best Buy or Costco for local. Primary needs are data processing / modelling of 3D geophysical data. 8 gigs of ram and decent processor. I am not sure what graphical requirements are. My xps 15 had a 540m in it that overheated regularly. Travels a lot, so prefer small and light over nice screen. None of our internal software has been cleared to be compatible with anything newer than Win7. I've never tried Windows 8. Normal budget rules don't matter as I need for a replacement asap. Recommendations greatly appreciated.no
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Apr 14, 2015 17:32
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I don't think you'll find anything at retail with 7 that isn't something old being cleared out.
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Apr 14, 2015 18:02
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rebounded posted:My work laptop bit the dust today. Our outsourced IT can get me a replacement next week, but I leave the country in 3 days for a spell. 15" Retina Macbook Pro would be perfect for that. Just install Win7 Pro on it via bootcamp or VMWare. Edit: Actually, didn't I read something about Apple dropping Win7 drivers for new computers? You might be in a kinda tough place trying to find a high end Windows 7 machine.
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Apr 14, 2015 18:02
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Aphrodite posted:I don't think you'll find anything at retail with 7 that isn't something old being cleared out. I was afraid of that. One of our coders said the internal stuff should work in Win8; or will soon, anyway. I might just be the company guinea pig for Win 8.
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Apr 14, 2015 18:13
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Like every business class laptop has the option to come with win7
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Apr 14, 2015 18:16
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Omelette du Fromage posted:Like every business class laptop has the option to come with win7 But can you get those at Bestbuy?
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Apr 14, 2015 18:20
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MonkeyFit posted:Any Comments about the Asus G751? I think they're great, I've been doing more reading and it kinda looks like that might be the best thing you can get for your money right now - bigger and thus quieter than an Alienware or Aorus, and some people seem to think it has a better screen than the equivalent MSI Dominator, not that I've seen either in person, let alone both. I didn't even look at this review until now and it's not like any stupid magazine's review means a whole lot any more, but it's interesting that it's the only bulky gaming laptop that made the editor's choice list at PC mag: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2476307,00.asp Someone bought that slightly used laptop I mentioned earlier so I'm waffling between some good barely-used deals and this specific G751 myself: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232199 but I'll probably wait until I go to Alberta in a couple months and buy it there, looks like I can get it a couple hundred bucks cheaper with the exchange rate being so screwy. edit: I was torn between that G751 for ~$1670US (once I adjust for RAM/SSD between different models) vs. an SLI 970M Aorus for about $200 more, but here is the problem with thin gaming laptops (Aorus, Alienware, etc) quote:Many buyers of the X7 Pro will find themselves thinking: "And just when you think that was the limit, a new fan level pops up somewhere." The 17-inch laptop belongs to one of the loudest devices that we have ever tested under load. 52 - 58 dB(A) in 3D mode will be too much for sensitive ears. The cooling is extremely present and almost sounds like a blow dryer even when using headphones or turned up speakers. That's got to be annoying as poo poo for other people if you're playing in close quarters, I think I'll keep watching for an Asus ROG myself! Straker fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Apr 14, 2015 |
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Apr 14, 2015 20:18
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I'm looking for a new laptop for class. I'm mostly interested in battery life and portability because I'm a weak nerd with noodle arms. I currently have some random 300$ acer notebook but the battery can't even last through 3 hours of class at minimal screen brightness, so something that can last longer would be great. I'd like to keep the price as low as possible, the absolute highest that I'm willing to go is $1000 but I'd prefer more in the 600-700 range. Any suggestions?
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Apr 14, 2015 20:32
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Xun posted:I'm looking for a new laptop for class. I'm mostly interested in battery life and portability because I'm a weak nerd with noodle arms. I currently have some random 300$ acer notebook but the battery can't even last through 3 hours of class at minimal screen brightness, so something that can last longer would be great. I'd like to keep the price as low as possible, the absolute highest that I'm willing to go is $1000 but I'd prefer more in the 600-700 range. Any suggestions? I have sent you a PM
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Apr 14, 2015 21:57
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hey, for MonkeyFit or anyone else considering a huge penis extension laptop, NCIX is doing $200 off the same one I posted above (got a banner ad, it's like google is not only reading my mind but knows how I'll respond to any given inputs): http://www.ncixus.com/products/?sku=102954&promoid=1304 that's a really great deal for what you're getting, especially if you don't have to pay sales tax there, though you'd probably have to pay more for quick shipping. edit: just popped up on Amazon with a lower than usual price too, eligible for Prime: http://www.amazon.com/G751JY-DH73-CA-17-3-inch-i7-4710HQ-24GB-DDR3-GTX980M-4G/dp/B00OQYE94E edit 2: and if there were still any doubt about this laptop, it looks like (along with some other laptops, to be fair) you can force it to use g-sync, and likely even overclock its panel: http://1pcent.com/?p=558 http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Mobile-G-Sync-Confirmed-and-Tested-Leaked-Alpha-Driver  okay, it looks like some/many laptops that have displayport 1.2+ and do not have/support nvidia's Optimus (GPU virtualization/support for the integrated GPU) thing can do this!http://www.overclock.net/t/1538208/nvidia-g-sync-free-on-mobile-edp-monitors-with-980m/60#post_23476226 http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nvidia-g-sync-hack-it-works-on-every-display-supporting-displayport-1-2.770187/ Holy poo poo can't wait for my new toy Straker fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Apr 15, 2015 |
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Apr 14, 2015 23:19
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Straker posted:I think they're great... Thanks. After the reading I've done on them, I'm pretty Mich sold and will be ordering one tomorrow after I get off work tomorrow. Thanks everyone for your inputs. Soon I will have all the penis extension.
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Apr 15, 2015 03:59
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I just picked up a Lenovo Yoga 2 with an i5 in it. It's a huge upgrade from my four year old Asus EEEPC. I'm going to be using it for papers, forums, research, YouPorn, maybe some light games. I got it at Best Buy as an open box deal, meaning it was only $865 before tax. With a cool sleeve case out the door I paid $924, so I don't think I did too bad, did I?
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Apr 15, 2015 04:11
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Got my refurbished XPS 13 today. It's a fantastic machine. Stuff in windows was a little blurry at first, but I hosed around with the DPI settings and it seems to be better. The lag on the touch pad in chrome is definitely there, but installing the firmware update for it seems to have helped for the most part. Chrome, and some other applications still don't scroll as well as IE does though. Tried a few games out on there. Civ 5 works well on full resolution and low to medium settings. Europa Universalis IV works well if you turn down the resolution to 1600x900 and turn some graphics down. At 720p it's a solid 45 - 50 fps if you're willing to sacrifice some fidelity for better frame rates. I'm considering seeing what I can do to get steam in home streaming working better because this screen would work really nicely if I could offload the heavy processing to my desktop. The viewing angles on the IPS display are nice and the color seems rich and vibrant. I have the 1080p version and feel like the higher resolution version they were offering really wouldn't be worth it, especially with the dpi issues windows has. If it was more elegant about how it would blow stuff up at higher resolutions it might be worth it, but as is I think the better looking screen is probably going to be the 1080p one. Overall I'm very happy with my purchase. Now to see how long the battery will last after i've had it for a few weeks and I have a more normal usage pattern.
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Apr 15, 2015 04:32
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MonkeyFit posted:Thanks. After the reading I've done on them, I'm pretty Mich sold and will be ordering one tomorrow after I get off work tomorrow. Thanks everyone for your inputs. Soon I will have all the penis extension. If you wanted to dump some more money into the thing you could get another 8GB stick of RAM so it can properly use dual channel but not really necessary.Apparently this laptop is fairly quiet and cool under load too, I bought an infrared camera a couple weeks ago so I guess we'll find out! Straker fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Apr 15, 2015 |
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Apr 15, 2015 04:55
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