Laptop Megathread: Your laptop doesn't have Haswell? More like Hasbeen~

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Laptop Megathread: Your laptop doesn't have Haswell? More like Hasbeen~

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TopherCStone: Feb 27, 2013; I am very important and deserve your attention

Funkmaster General posted:

I want a new laptop. I haven't bought any computer, laptop or otherwise, for quite a few years and want to make sure I'm not ripping myself off somehow.

I'm looking at a Thinkpad T450, straight from Lenovo, with the default everything except removing the camera since I'd never use it and I have 2-3 other cameras on me at all times in our weird dystopian present.

I'm MOSTLY going to use this for simple tasks such as internet browsing, and want it primarily because typing on my phone screen is slow and imprecise. I do, however, want to be able to play some games and specifically am interested in relatively low-end indie titles and older games, since big taxing AAA games I'll be playing on a console anyhow.

I figured the thinkpads are a good choice since they're well regarded here and, more impoortantly, they're nice and sturdy since even though I don't feel like I'm ever too harsh on them, my previous laptops have tended to last a year at best. I feel like I'm wasting time asking about it here since I read the OP and it basically already answered these questions, but I suppose a quick checkin with folks who know what they're talking about is wise before I drop an entire paycheck or more on something like this.

I think that's a Good Decision.

e: Wait, abort abort make sure to upgrade the screen, it's 2015 and 1366x768 has no place here

# ? Apr 30, 2015 21:45

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# ? May 12, 2024 17:18

AARP LARPer: Feb 19, 2005; THE DARK SIDE OF SCIENCE BREEDS A WEAPON OF WAR; Buglord

AARP LARPer fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Jan 22, 2016

# ? Apr 30, 2015 22:20

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

The downside to that HP Yoga is that it does not have the Lenovo Yoga hinges, and it looks like it's a new model so you're placing a bet on how long the hinges last. Lenovo Yogas don't seem to ever have problems with their hinges. But if HP is giving them away then either they have a lot of trust in their product or like the Pontiac G6 it's a real turd and they're hoping to bank on short term reputation.

Spatule posted:

I realized the main thing I care about in a laptop is the quality of the screen. I'm not doing anything intensive and average battery life is enough for my need.
My T540p is getting old and I'd like to get something cheapish that has a screen that does not suck like the Lenovo's. Is there such a combination ?

XPS 13 with either screen, or the new Macbook? What's your price ceiling?

# ? Apr 30, 2015 23:58

roomforthetuna: Mar 22, 2005; I don't need to know anything about virii! My CUSTOM PROGRAM keeps me protected! It's not like they'll try to come in through the Internet or something!

My Y50 gets pretty warm when playing Dishonored, and the fan doesn't audibly kick on (I can hear it and see the CPU temperature quickly go down if I tell it to run the fan cleaning process).

Is there a setting somewhere for making the fan go into heavy duty mode at a lower temperature? I'd like it to be blowing hard by about 75 degrees, not because I'm concerned about the CPU, I just don't like a hot laptop on my belly.

# ? May 1, 2015 01:04

Aphrodite: Jun 27, 2006

Do Not Resuscitate posted:

I bought one for my wife, so I haven't used it much myself, but it's fantastic. Light, but sturdy. Thin. Great screen. Good keyboard. Excellent double-width track pad. Folds over itself into a pad format if that's your thing. I don't know why it's not getting mentioned along with the Dell XPS. I'd take this over the Dell because of the touch/pad option.

It's just that people generally aren't looking for hybrids.

# ? May 1, 2015 02:17

berzerker: Aug 18, 2004; "If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."

Aphrodite posted:

It's just that people generally aren't looking for hybrids.

Which is a shame for those of us who actually have this use case. I use my hybrid for research - photograph documents in archives, make them PDFs, then annotate those PDFs in tablet mode. One of these years Apple will make one and it will be hyped and everyone else will jump in, though.

I'm definitely buying one of these, just a matter of trying to find some sort of coupon/deal. Also to decide which of the displays to get - fancy but more expensive, or still probably as good as I need plus better battery.

# ? May 1, 2015 02:28

Aphrodite: Jun 27, 2006

Well I mean people who want one can just say it when they post. You wouldn't recommend a hybrid by default because they're heavier and usually less durable.

QHD in Windows pretty much sucks, by the way. I would not go above 1080p.

# ? May 1, 2015 03:36

berzerker: Aug 18, 2004; "If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."

Aphrodite posted:

Well I mean people who want one can just say it when they post. You wouldn't recommend a hybrid by default because they're heavier and usually less durable.

QHD in Windows pretty much sucks, by the way. I would not go above 1080p.

Even if you ignore the convertible aspect entirely, though, the difference between the Spectre and the XPS (based on the reviews I've read) is basically that the Spectre is slightly heavier, but much better battery (with the 1080 monitor anyway) and benchmarks, possibly a slightly worse monitor (?), for similar prices. Seems to be plenty to recommend it if you don't care about 3.3lb vs. 2.8lb.

Of course, I have no idea how the monitors of the two really compare, having never seen either in person, but the differences don't seem that great even without the hybrid stuff.

# ? May 1, 2015 04:12

Lafarg: Jul 23, 2012

Funkmaster General posted:

I want a new laptop. I haven't bought any computer, laptop or otherwise, for quite a few years and want to make sure I'm not ripping myself off somehow.

I'm looking at a Thinkpad T450, straight from Lenovo, with the default everything except removing the camera since I'd never use it and I have 2-3 other cameras on me at all times in our weird dystopian present.

I'm MOSTLY going to use this for simple tasks such as internet browsing, and want it primarily because typing on my phone screen is slow and imprecise. I do, however, want to be able to play some games and specifically am interested in relatively low-end indie titles and older games, since big taxing AAA games I'll be playing on a console anyhow.

I figured the thinkpads are a good choice since they're well regarded here and, more impoortantly, they're nice and sturdy since even though I don't feel like I'm ever too harsh on them, my previous laptops have tended to last a year at best. I feel like I'm wasting time asking about it here since I read the OP and it basically already answered these questions, but I suppose a quick checkin with folks who know what they're talking about is wise before I drop an entire paycheck or more on something like this.

The default recommendation still hasn't changed. Though a lot of people I talk to move up to the T450s. You will not go wrong with either choice.

# ? May 1, 2015 05:15

Melian Dialogue: Jan 9, 2015; NOT A RACIST

Canadian here. Looking at a new laptop. I currently have a 5 year old Lenovo SL510, thats completely gotten bogged down and stalls at basic functionality like web browsing and MS Office.I need a laptop that can be used for Excel spreadsheets, SPSS and web browsing smoothly

. I'm looking at the refurbished Lenovo route from something like Newegg.ca or ncix. I would like it to have a 14-15in screen, a preferrably a SSD harddrive (though I can always just buy a seperate SSD and swap it in). As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, that there is a good market out there for refurb Lenovo T440s and other T-series. But I can only find a refurb T410 on newegg. Any other Canadian sites I should look to, or American sites with decent shipping? My price range is $500-700

# ? May 1, 2015 18:32

ToxicFrog: Apr 26, 2008

I've had good results with refurb laptops from Tiger Direct and Canada Computers in the past, but their Lenovo selection is really weak right now.

# ? May 1, 2015 18:52

GeauxSteve: Feb 26, 2004; Nubzilla

Melian Dialogue posted:

Canadian here. Looking at a new laptop. I currently have a 5 year old Lenovo SL510, thats completely gotten bogged down and stalls at basic functionality like web browsing and MS Office.I need a laptop that can be used for Excel spreadsheets, SPSS and web browsing smoothly

. I'm looking at the refurbished Lenovo route from something like Newegg.ca or ncix. I would like it to have a 14-15in screen, a preferrably a SSD harddrive (though I can always just buy a seperate SSD and swap it in). As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, that there is a good market out there for refurb Lenovo T440s and other T-series. But I can only find a refurb T410 on newegg. Any other Canadian sites I should look to, or American sites with decent shipping? My price range is $500-700

Ebay seems to be a good bet. You've just got to keep your eye out

# ? May 1, 2015 19:15

Fetus Tree: Feb 2, 2003; Can't post for 2 years!

ToxicFrog posted:

I've had good results with refurb laptops from Tiger Direct and Canada Computers in the past, but their Lenovo selection is really weak right now.

Has Tiger Direct cleaned up it's act? I bought a desktop from them ~12 years ago with a 250 rebate that they never honored because of some bullshit regarding some company going out of business, but the computer was even branded Tiger Direct so i don't have any clue.

I was 16 and don't remember all the details but that was the last time I dealt with them.

E: I think it was a Systemaxx or some poo poo. Either way, it had a tiger direct logo on the front of the chassis.

# ? May 1, 2015 19:54

Gumbel2Gumbel: Apr 28, 2010

Melian Dialogue posted:

Canadian here. Looking at a new laptop. I currently have a 5 year old Lenovo SL510, thats completely gotten bogged down and stalls at basic functionality like web browsing and MS Office.I need a laptop that can be used for Excel spreadsheets, SPSS and web browsing smoothly

. I'm looking at the refurbished Lenovo route from something like Newegg.ca or ncix. I would like it to have a 14-15in screen, a preferrably a SSD harddrive (though I can always just buy a seperate SSD and swap it in). As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, that there is a good market out there for refurb Lenovo T440s and other T-series. But I can only find a refurb T410 on newegg. Any other Canadian sites I should look to, or American sites with decent shipping? My price range is $500-700

I just got a new (not refurbished) T450s at the lenovo outlet to replace my SL510 for $809, you may want to wait for a deal. Going to a 14 inch screen is a bummer though.

# ? May 1, 2015 20:33

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

The ASUS C201 Chromebook with the new Rockchip processor is available on Amazon now. Says it has up to 13 hours of battery life, which is nice for a $169 laptop. http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Chromebook-C201PA-DS01-11-6-Inch-Laptop/dp/B00VQP3DNY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430509707&sr=8-1&keywords=ASUS+C201

The screen on the 2015 Dell Chromebook 11 I ordered is picked up is pretty bad, so hopefully some reviews for the C201 show up soon to compare.

# ? May 1, 2015 20:53

The Bramble: Mar 16, 2004

What laptop out there has the best integrated intel graphics?

# ? May 1, 2015 20:59

Twerk from Home: Jan 17, 2009; This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.

The Bramble posted:

What laptop out there has the best integrated intel graphics?

Generally, Macs. For some reason apple is far more likely to get the most powerful integrated GPU that can be had with each tier of CPU. Whenever the 15" rMBP refreshes, it should have the best iGPU that money can buy.

# ? May 1, 2015 21:11

The Iron Rose: May 12, 2012; Cat Army

Which still isn't going to give you much mind you.

# ? May 1, 2015 21:34

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

teagone posted:

The ASUS C201 Chromebook with the new Rockchip processor is available on Amazon now. Says it has up to 13 hours of battery life, which is nice for a $169 laptop. http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Chromebook-C201PA-DS01-11-6-Inch-Laptop/dp/B00VQP3DNY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430509707&sr=8-1&keywords=ASUS+C201

The screen on the 2015 Dell Chromebook 11 I ordered is picked up is pretty bad, so hopefully some reviews for the C201 show up soon to compare.

That rockchip chromebook is ARM powered, if it makes any difference to anyone. I think if you sideload chomebuntu on there that there's finally enough ARM support for precompiled binaries that it shouldn't be a problem, but you should still be aware.

Supposedly those rockchip CPUs have really impressive graphics performance. I'm really curious to see one in person soon. More than 10 hours battery life out of a $170 device is pretty interesting, at that price it's finally the disposable laptop you can take with you on a trip outside of the hotel and not worry about getting it wet.

Hadlock fucked around with this message at 23:00 on May 1, 2015

# ? May 1, 2015 22:50

Empress Brosephine: Mar 31, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Is flash supported on Chromebooks? I use a POS system that is entirely flash based

# ? May 2, 2015 00:42

Punkreas: May 13, 2013; *chews on head*; Lipstick Apathy

So I'm doing research for my sister who needs a cheap, sub-$300 laptop, and going by the OP the Asus X205 is a good choice at $200. However, the Microsoft Store offers two versions, the US01 and UH01:

X205TA-UH01 for $199 (without Office)

X205TA-US01 for $179

For the life of me I can't figure out what the noticeable difference between the two are. The $199 one you can tack on Office for another $80, where the $179 includes Office for a year.

Am I missing something?

# ? May 2, 2015 01:07

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

My guess is that the UH is Revision A and US is Revision B

Also, perhaps, UH has a 120-240v AC adapter and the US might only have a 120v adapter. There are some slight inconsistencies like UH claims BT 4.0 and "Realtek HD" audio while US only has "Bluetooth Yes" and "Realtek Sonic" or whatever.

Either way if your computer just exploded and you need something to limp home on until you can afford something better that is a great piece of hardware. If it's going to be your sister's primary laptop you should look at a refurbished Thinkpad from Ebay.

# ? May 2, 2015 01:43

Baxta: Feb 18, 2004; Needs More Pirate

So I finally got my MSI GE62.

First thoughts : It's bigger than I thought.

Cooling is pretty good. It comes bundled with MSI monitoring stuff so you can see temps etc. Haven't managed to get it above 50c by opening up apps everywhere.

Interesting thing is that the nvidia drivers are set up to not use the video card unless it has to. The power light goes orange when its using the vid card. You can force it to always use the video card instead of onboard but I dont see any reason to.

Opened it up. Pretty easy to get into apart from these 3 annoying screws under the CD drive.

Chucked a 250GB SSD into it. Another 8 GB ram for funsies.

Rebooted, allocated partitions etc. No problems. So far so good.

Ill post more updates when I image the SSD and throw GTA V on it (The 1TB now secondary, not the new 250).

EDIT: Also, it has 3 slots for m.2. Apparently it puts them in raid. Make of that what you will.

Baxta fucked around with this message at 03:24 on May 2, 2015

# ? May 2, 2015 02:31

Ogmius815: Aug 25, 2005; centrism is a hell of a drug

I need a new laptop but I haven't bought a computer since 2008. I looked at the t450s but I refuse to buy a laptop with onboard graphics ever. I don't even really play games anymore I just like to have the option. What's a good laptop I can get with a real gpu? Maybe $1200-1500.

# ? May 2, 2015 04:04

sarehu: Apr 20, 2007; (call/cc call/cc)

Ogmius815 posted:

I need a new laptop but I haven't bought a computer since 2008. I looked at the t450s but I refuse to buy a laptop with onboard graphics ever. I don't even really play games anymore I just like to have the option. What's a good laptop I can get with a real gpu? Maybe $1200-1500.

First question: Do you understand the changes in integrated graphics performance that have happened since 2008?

# ? May 2, 2015 04:07

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Integrated graphics stopped being a problem in 2012, it's 2015 you should be ok. But I understand your hesitation, they were loving awful for the longest time. That dark age is over now. You can play most B Steam titles (and some A titles! Battlefield 3 runs at almost 25fps if you turn everything to lowest settings on a 2012 era HD4000) on integrated graphics, including Skyrim, etc. This is a solved problem.

# ? May 2, 2015 04:16

Baxta: Feb 18, 2004; Needs More Pirate

Ogmius815 posted:

I need a new laptop but I haven't bought a computer since 2008. I looked at the t450s but I refuse to buy a laptop with onboard graphics ever. I don't even really play games anymore I just like to have the option. What's a good laptop I can get with a real gpu? Maybe $1200-1500.

MSI GE62 is what I just got.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152711 - $1,299.00

You can do what I just did as well and put an SSD in it and beef up the ram (but you probably dont have to)

My post above yours goes into more detail regarding integrated graphics etc (it has onboard and 2GB dedicated)

# ? May 2, 2015 04:37

Punkreas: May 13, 2013; *chews on head*; Lipstick Apathy

Hadlock posted:

My guess is that the UH is Revision A and US is Revision B

Also, perhaps, UH has a 120-240v AC adapter and the US might only have a 120v adapter. There are some slight inconsistencies like UH claims BT 4.0 and "Realtek HD" audio while US only has "Bluetooth Yes" and "Realtek Sonic" or whatever.

Either way if your computer just exploded and you need something to limp home on until you can afford something better that is a great piece of hardware. If it's going to be your sister's primary laptop you should look at a refurbished Thinkpad from Ebay.

Okay, thanks for the help and advice!

# ? May 2, 2015 06:00

IuniusBrutus: Jul 24, 2010

teagone posted:

The ASUS C201 Chromebook with the new Rockchip processor is available on Amazon now. Says it has up to 13 hours of battery life, which is nice for a $169 laptop. http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Chromebook-C201PA-DS01-11-6-Inch-Laptop/dp/B00VQP3DNY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430509707&sr=8-1&keywords=ASUS+C201

The screen on the 2015 Dell Chromebook 11 I ordered is picked up is pretty bad, so hopefully some reviews for the C201 show up soon to compare.

I wouldn't count on it; there have been exactly four Chromebooks with decent screens (the old HP11, the Toshiba 2 13", and both Pixels). Jury still seems to be out on the Acer 15.

Depending on how much you spend on the Dell, the Toshiba might only be another $50 or so, and is well worth it.

# ? May 2, 2015 08:36

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Abu Dave posted:

Is flash supported on Chromebooks? I use a POS system that is entirely flash based

Yes, it's full desktop chrome with flash support.

# ? May 2, 2015 19:53

The Iron Rose: May 12, 2012; Cat Army

Ogmius815 posted:

I need a new laptop but I haven't bought a computer since 2008. I looked at the t450s but I refuse to buy a laptop with onboard graphics ever. I don't even really play games anymore I just like to have the option. What's a good laptop I can get with a real gpu? Maybe $1200-1500.

Onboard graphics are better but not great for games by any stretch of the imagination. At that budget look for something with a 965m or better. Ideally get a laptop without a SSD since you can easily install one aftermarket and manufacturers gently caress you on SSD prices.

# ? May 2, 2015 20:22

Truga: May 4, 2014; Lipstick Apathy

The Iron Rose posted:

Onboard graphics are better but not great for games by any stretch of the imagination. At that budget look for something with a 965m or better. Ideally get a laptop without a SSD since you can easily install one aftermarket and manufacturers gently caress you on SSD prices.

This is a sound advice. And you get a portable hdd out of it.

# ? May 2, 2015 20:25

Peever: Nov 14, 2004; This shit's chess, it ain't checkers! Shit. They build jails 'cause of me.

Looking for a laptop that will primarily be used for photo editing. I would like to replace my mom's three year old cheap laptop with something new. She got into photography in the past few years and her laptop is slow and not up to the task. Right now I'm looking at the Dell XPS 13 and a Lenovo Yoga 14". The main things I'm looking for are good screen and cost of $1,500 or less. I've thought about a Mac but I've never used one and since I'm the family tech support that may cause me more headaches when trying to help her, but I'm still open to the idea of getting her a MacBook Pro. Any thoughts?

# ? May 2, 2015 21:35

hotsauce: Jan 14, 2007

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2015-DELL-XPS-13-Laptop-i5-5200U-QHD-3200x1800-INFINITY-TOUCH-8GB-256GB-SSD-/371317617423

drat. 46 very lucky people this Sunday Morning...I would have been all over that.

# ? May 3, 2015 17:51

Psyker: Jun 21, 2004; [Binge and] Purge the xenos!

hotsauce posted:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2015-DELL-XPS-13-Laptop-i5-5200U-QHD-3200x1800-INFINITY-TOUCH-8GB-256GB-SSD-/371317617423

drat. 46 very lucky people this Sunday Morning...I would have been all over that.

As would I

# ? May 3, 2015 23:52

madkapitolist: Feb 5, 2006

I hope this is the right place to ask this!

My Thinkpad T420S broke, can I buy another T420s on ebay and just put my hard drive in there and pick up where I left off?

# ? May 4, 2015 02:41

teagone: Jun 10, 2003; That was pretty intense, huh?

IuniusBrutus posted:

I wouldn't count on it; there have been exactly four Chromebooks with decent screens (the old HP11, the Toshiba 2 13", and both Pixels). Jury still seems to be out on the Acer 15.

Depending on how much you spend on the Dell, the Toshiba might only be another $50 or so, and is well worth it.

I got the Dell on sale for $190. I personally wouldn't spend over $300 on a Chromebook (the Pixel is the one exception). I also prefer the 11.6" size. If Toshiba made an 11.6" version of their Full HD Chromebook 2, I'd likely be all over that.

# ? May 4, 2015 03:05

sarehu: Apr 20, 2007; (call/cc call/cc)

madkapitolist posted:

I hope this is the right place to ask this!

My Thinkpad T420S broke, can I buy another T420s on ebay and just put my hard drive in there and pick up where I left off?

You might have to reactivate Windows, I think technically you need the same kind of Windows sticker for it to be legal -- at least don't go running Pro on a machine that came with Home Premium, because the license is tied to the machine(?). It'd work fine with Linux (modulo the same wifi concerns), and also, generally, even if the machine is completely different.

(If the other machine has a different wifi adapter you might need to run a Windows update or something.)

# ? May 4, 2015 04:01

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Amazon won't let me link directly to it but if you search for "Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit, System Builder OEM DVD 1 Pack (For Refurbished PC Installation)" for $67

Personally I would just suck it up and buy Win 8.1, with Classic Start installed there's no reason to stick around on 7 in 2015, you can reskin it to look like whatever and it runs just as fast as 7.

# ? May 4, 2015 04:13

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# ? May 12, 2024 17:18

sarehu: Apr 20, 2007; (call/cc call/cc)

Classic start sucks, unless you hunt and peck or something stupid like that, just use plain jane Windows 8.

# ? May 4, 2015 05:03

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Laptop Megathread: Your laptop doesn't have Haswell? More like Hasbeen~

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