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Every cheap garbage plastic consumer laptop comes with an HDMI port these days. Corporate grade (i.e. worth buying) usually have a DisplayPort or mini-DisplayPort instead which will work for HDMI with a cheap adaptor.
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Jun 9, 2015 04:31
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You should be able to find a used t430 below that $500 mark with an SSD. Bought a t430 with 1600x900 256 SSD and 8gb ram for $400 on eBay and a t430s with 1600x900 128 SSD and 8gb ram for under that as well. That is if you're ok with used.
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Jun 9, 2015 04:46
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Benson Cunningham posted:I looked at the OP. I also noticed it hasn't been updated since March. The laptop market doesn't change much anymore. Manufactures put out garbage laptops periodically throughout the year, but their good laptops might have a tiny mid year refresh at best.
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Jun 9, 2015 11:12
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Hadlock posted:The laptop market doesn't change much anymore. Manufactures put out garbage laptops periodically throughout the year, but their good laptops might have a tiny mid year refresh at best. I've been waiting for them, but aside from MSI, no one seems to be updating all their models.
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Jun 9, 2015 13:11
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teagone posted:Do you give a poo poo about the display? If not, go rock bottom and get either the Hisense or Haier Chromebook for $150. If you don't want to buy those lower-tier brands, pay the $20 premium and get the Asus Chromebook C201. All 3 will browse the web just fine. The C201 was an excellent choice, thanks.
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Jun 9, 2015 16:18
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I poked around the graphics settings on my new Thinkpad Yoga for the first time. Apparently this unit can switch between integrated graphics and "High performance Nvidia processor." Currently it auto-selects the processor (with a number of programs defaulting to integrated graphics), but I can choose a system-wide preference as well. Are there reasons not to just prefer the Nvidia? I'm assuming it's just a battery life thing? I'm not really sure what it bases the auto-selections on. A Quake sourceport was telling me that V-sync wasn't supported - turns out that Nvidia had auto-selected the integrated graphics for some reason. I changed that program's default to High Performance Nvidia and no long had the V sync problem. Minidust fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Jun 9, 2015 |
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Jun 9, 2015 17:13
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Minidust posted:I poked around the graphics settings on my new Thinkpad Yoga for the first time. Apparently this unit can switch between integrated graphics and "High performance Nvidia processor." Currently it auto-selects the processor (with a number of programs defaulting to integrated graphics), but I can choose a system-wide preference as well. Are there reasons not to just prefer the Nvidia? I'm assuming it's just a battery life thing? You don't want to be using the GPU if you're on battery power and don't actually need the graphics horsepower - like, say, if you're browsing the internet.
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Jun 9, 2015 17:18
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Benson Cunningham posted:I can do micro-hdmi too. Thanks for the suggestions. Above 500, the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is tempting (only 850 on the discount section of their student site), but I would really like to spend less than that. It's a standard 2.5 inch drive and should fit in most anything. I recommend buying a laptop with a plain old HDD for $400 and getting the 250 gig 850 EVO aftermarket. You can probably find a t430 on Ebay for that price, maybe even with 8 gb RAM and a 1600x900 screen too.
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Jun 9, 2015 17:23
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Cat Army 
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The Iron Rose posted:It's a standard 2.5 inch drive and should fit in most anything. Thank you! I'll take a look.
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Jun 9, 2015 17:50
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I am looking to buy a lightweight laptop to use during lunch breaks to browse the internet, apply for jobs etc. The heavy recommendation in this thread seems to be for the ASUS x205, but at the moment the ACER ES1-311 is on sale for almost the same price (£200.00 for the ACER, £180.00 for the ASUS) and seems to give a lot more value. Are there any reservations about the ACER Aspire E series? I have heard that they may have issues with their trackpad/touchpad, but is that an issue with most low end laptops?
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Jun 9, 2015 21:35
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I don't see how there is 'more value' there. What feature in particular do you value?
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Jun 10, 2015 00:41
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dissss posted:I don't see how there is 'more value' there. What feature in particular do you value?
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Jun 10, 2015 01:10
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That's exactly my thought. I think the only draw back is battery life but I doubt I'd ever use it for more than 5 hours off of a power outlet. I wasn't really expecting people to have the same model. I was mainly wondering about Asus vs Acer when it comes to low end machine quality, like the trackpad for example. I'm looking for deal breakers I guess.
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Jun 10, 2015 08:39
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I'm looking to buy a laptop for my niece. she's 16 still in school and shes going to college. I would like to get her a laptop for which she can make documents. do homework, research stuff and last her for like at best her whole school career. and watch netflix and stuff. Ideally it's light. so she can take it to school. Also watch netflix and stuff. I've read the op. and i myself am thinking about getting her a lenovo T450. Do you guys recommend something else? more bang for my buck
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Jun 10, 2015 09:00
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Sefal posted:I'm looking to buy a laptop for my niece. ASUS ux305 might be right up your alley if she won't be doing anything really taxing.
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Jun 10, 2015 11:59
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I'm looking to buy a barebones machine that will run PowerPoint, play videos, and do web browsing without slowing to a crawl. I'd like to keep things cheap as I really have no need anything beyond the basics, but I also remember the horror days of single-core netbooks that really couldn't pull their weight. Handling memory hungry PPTs and video is important. Is there a low cost machine that will do the basics and has enough power to do them quickly? The OP said spend $600 or go home, but that's a bit outside my budget right now. I've got a big international move to China coming up and I'm going to be upgrading phones for both my wife and I when we land in our new country. I'll be behind the great firewall so Chromebooks are an absolute no-go, but some of the super cheap Windows 8 laptops look tempting, but they only have 2 gigs of ram. I've got two gigs on my slowass machine at work right now and that gets the job done but just barely. Oh, and if there's a Chinese brand that will fit the bill all the better. That way I don't have to waste paying duty on shipping something from the US. Let us English fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Jun 10, 2015 |
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Jun 10, 2015 12:00
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Is picking a refurb/outlet T440 (not S) up for £510 a good plan? I basically want to use it as a dev machine (with a couple VMs) and some super light gaming - LoL/DotA 2/TF2 on ultra-low, that sort of thing. I'd like the keyboard and trackpad to both be quite nice, since the vast majority seem awful these days. - i5-4300U - 14" 1600x900 - Intel HD Graphics 4400 - 8 GB RAM - 180 GB SSD I'd like to have 1080p, but I'm not sure that's feasible at this sort of price. EDIT: The other option really is just sucking it up and grabbing an SSD for my MSI CX640MX. Would the processor/RAM jumps be worth spending the extra just doing that? Surprise T Rex fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Jun 10, 2015 |
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Jun 10, 2015 14:35
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What if you drop the SSD? Does that make the price more reasonable for 1080p? You can upgrade the storage very easily enough later on.
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Jun 10, 2015 14:55
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I suppose that's probably not a bad idea, but since people harp on about how much an SSD improves everything I figured that dropping that would have the most impact in terms of how much faster it is than my old laptop. Then again, at least an SSD is easily replaceable, unlike RAM/Graphics/Processor in a lot of models. EDIT: Actually, looking at Dell's site I found something I must have glossed over earlier. An Inspiron 14 E5450 for about £520. i5-5300U Intel Integrated HD Graphics 5500 8 GB 128 GB SSD 14.0" 1920x1080 I'm gonna keep my eye out for a laptop at this sort of spec with an old-school HDD though, just to keep it cheaper initially since I'd probably need to buy a new SSD at some point. 128 is a little small for my liking. Surprise T Rex fucked around with this message at 15:32 on Jun 10, 2015 |
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Jun 10, 2015 15:10
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evilweasel posted:You don't want to be using the GPU if you're on battery power and don't actually need the graphics horsepower - like, say, if you're browsing the internet. Speaking of power - can a modern laptop be safely plugged into just about anything? My previous laptop had a pretty heavy-duty plug with a grounding prong, while my new one has a fairly lightweight cord with a standard 2-prong plug. Could I just plug it in one of those 16 AWG cube tap extension cords, and share outlets with like a lamp and a clock? Or should I be sticking to dedicated extension cords or surge protectors.
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Jun 10, 2015 15:11
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My mom wants a 17" laptop (vision isn't great, wants big screen) with a nice and spaced out keyboard (she wants to use it for writing). She wants it to be Windows. I want it to have an SDD. Any recommendations? Price isn't a big issue.
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Jun 10, 2015 17:33
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Hello, I'm looking to buy new laptop, the screen no longer turns on on my old Gateway NV53A, and it can't even play a 1080p youtube video without stuttering when it ran. It had a 15.6" 1366 x 768 screen, so I'd like to stay around that size as it was comfortable. I don't think I quite grasp the difference between newer screens such as IPS, FHD, QHD, etc. OR gloss/matte. I'd like for the new laptop to have 8 gigs of RAM to start, a discrete graphics unit to play semi-recent games on medium at an okay framerate. I'd like an HDMI port so I can connect it to a TV or monitor. I plan to swap out any disc drive for a SSD. The old laptop had pretty poor battery life, and I'd like for a new one to be better. But I'm not super mobile or constantly traveling. The old one weighed 2.4kg/5.3 lbs- but I'd be willing to use a machine heavier than that. If a much sturdier plastic or -even better- metal body was available I'd be interested. Occasionally in this thread, people will talk about aiming for a Broadwell or Haswell chip, and I'm not very familiar with those. Should I be using that to more fine-tune my search? Are there options available in the sub-$1000 range? Is the Y50 in the OP still recommended? How does it compare versus similarly priced Thinkpads or Yoga? Lots of Lenovo love I'm seeing. Sorry for the vomit, I'm finding this all a bit overwhelming. Ashrik fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Jun 10, 2015 |
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Jun 10, 2015 18:54
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evilweasel posted:The C201 was an excellent choice, thanks. Glad it worked out! 
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Jun 10, 2015 18:56
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I haven't gotten a new computer in 4 years and so am unfamiliar with how upgrading from hard drives to SSDs work. I'm looking at potentially getting the t550 for a longterm work/everday computer and was wondering what the point of the 16GB SSD is. If it can't even hold Windows on it then is there any reason to really use it? I'm not super interested in the speed increase since I have not really encountered a problem using a hard drive. I guess more importantly, if I opt to not get it now then can I later switch out for an SSD if I need it later? I would prefer to save the 40$ by not getting the installed 16GB one and buy a replacement later, but would be happy to spend the money if, by not getting it, I preclude myself from upgrading later.
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Jun 10, 2015 20:31
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OrangeOrbit posted:what the point of the 16GB SSD is. If it can't even hold Windows on it then is there any reason to really use it? OrangeOrbit posted:I'm not super interested in the speed increase since I have not really encountered a problem using a hard drive. I guess more importantly, if I opt to not get it now then can I later switch out for an SSD if I need it later?
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Jun 10, 2015 20:59
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OrangeOrbit posted:I haven't gotten a new computer in 4 years and so am unfamiliar with how upgrading from hard drives to SSDs work. I'm looking at potentially getting the t550 for a longterm work/everday computer and was wondering what the point of the 16GB SSD is. If it can't even hold Windows on it then is there any reason to really use it? It ships with special drivers to use the 16GB SSD as a persistent block cache. Basically a homebrew version of the SSHD hybrid drives that were all the rage a few years ago. If you're not planning to use Windows you could probably fit a Linux install on it, but if you want an M.2 drive you're honestly better of getting off the computer without it and buying one separately; for $80 or $140 you can get a 128 or 256GB one. You can also just get it without one and replace the HDD entirely with a 2.5" SSD. My T550 should actually be arrive sometime this week, I can post my experiences with RAM and M.2 upgrades once it arrives if you like.
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Jun 10, 2015 21:04
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ToxicFrog posted:It ships with special drivers to use the 16GB SSD as a persistent block cache. Basically a homebrew version of the SSHD hybrid drives that were all the rage a few years ago. Great, thanks to you and Bob. I think that I will just end up replacing the hard drive completely it at some point because the hybrid seems unnecessary to me now. I am probably going to go ahead and get it today/soon because the price with the corporate code (FLEN*2V) is $625 without the SSD and everything else base from the lenovo site. It has dropped $50 since I checked Sunday and it seems like a great deal that I don't want to miss out on. I would be very interested to hear about your upgrading experience when you get around to doing it though! I imagine that I will be upgrading it down the road too.
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Jun 10, 2015 21:15
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I'm not sure if this is still true, but the 16GB SSD is a workaround for the Intel Ultrabook requirement of having an SSD. 16GB SSD these days is about $10 for manufacturers in bulk.
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Jun 10, 2015 21:36
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Hadlock posted:I'm not sure if this is still true, but the 16GB SSD is a workaround for the Intel Ultrabook requirement of having an SSD. 16GB SSD these days is about $10 for manufacturers in bulk. It's still about this. There's a big ugly warning on their site that the computer "Is no longer considered an ultrabook" if you remove the 16GB SSD.
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Jun 10, 2015 21:40
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OrangeOrbit posted:Great, thanks to you and Bob. I think that I will just end up replacing the hard drive completely it at some point because the hybrid seems unnecessary to me now. I am probably going to go ahead and get it today/soon because the price with the corporate code (FLEN*2V) is $625 without the SSD and everything else base from the lenovo site. It has dropped $50 since I checked Sunday and it seems like a great deal that I don't want to miss out on. I would be very interested to hear about your upgrading experience when you get around to doing it though! I imagine that I will be upgrading it down the road too. Holy gently caress, what configuration is that and where are you? It was $1700 for me with corporate discount, but that's with the 3K screen and upgraded processor. Still, drat.
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Jun 10, 2015 22:08
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Ashrik posted:I don't think I quite grasp the difference between newer screens such as IPS, FHD, QHD, etc. OR gloss/matte. FHD is Full HD. That means in practice that they've begun calling 1366x768 screens HD, because they have a vertical resolution over 720p. So if it says FHD, it'll be nine times out of ten a 1920x1080 screen. 1920x1200 might also qualify, but you're not going to see that anywhere, ever. This is just about the right resolution for a 15" screen to use without scaling. QHD means Quad HD. That means the screen is 2560x1440. That's four times the old 1366x768. This would be fantastic on a 15" screen if Windows didn't actually suck at scaling things up occasionally. Most UI elements will be god drat sharp and then you'll have some fuzzy programs and dialogs ruining the show. It's probably nicer and more useful to run natively on a 27" screen at this point. Not yet the must have. Glossy screens usually have prettier colors, but if you've got any light coming from behind you, you'll have annoying reflections on the screen. Matte screens have an anti glare coating that will blur those reflections. A lot of people here prefer that for productivity work at least. Ashrik posted:Occasionally in this thread, people will talk about aiming for a Broadwell or Haswell chip, and I'm not very familiar with those. Should I be using that to more fine-tune my search? If you want super sturdy, maybe the Y50 is not for you. Is the impression I've got from some posts in this thread at least. Flipperwaldt fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Jun 10, 2015 |
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Jun 10, 2015 22:12
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OrangeOrbit posted:Great, thanks to you and Bob. I think that I will just end up replacing the hard drive completely it at some point because the hybrid seems unnecessary to me now. I am probably going to go ahead and get it today/soon because the price with the corporate code (FLEN*2V) is $625 without the SSD and everything else base from the lenovo site. It has dropped $50 since I checked Sunday and it seems like a great deal that I don't want to miss out on. I would be very interested to hear about your upgrading experience when you get around to doing it though! I imagine that I will be upgrading it down the road too. You really might want to think about spending the money to upgrade the screen. The base screen on the T550 is garbage. The i5 may be worth the upgrade over an i3 also. If you're talking about a T550s and not a T550, let me know what magical tricks you used to get it to $625.
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Jun 10, 2015 22:36
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Ashrik posted:Occasionally in this thread, people will talk about aiming for a Broadwell or Haswell chip, and I'm not very familiar with those. Should I be using that to more fine-tune my search? Generally you have four generations of chips, with corresponding numbers, each about one year apart Sandybridge (2xxx series) -> Ivy Bridge (3xxx series) -> Haswell (4xxx series) -> Broadwell (5xxx series) As you go from left to right the amount of CPU "power" only goes up by perhaps 10% over four years, but the power usage drops by almost half. There is a huge jump in battery life going from Ivy Bridge to Haswell, and a pretty big jump again to Broadwell (there are several broadwell-based laptops that use so little power they don't even have fans)
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Jun 10, 2015 23:01
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For what it's worth there is no noticeable battery life difference between the 820 G1 and G2s we use (4600u and 5600u respectively)
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Jun 10, 2015 23:11
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ToxicFrog posted:Holy gently caress, what configuration is that and where are you? I just got the base model without the SSD with these specs and with tax it was just under $700. It says that without the discount that the base price is $950 and even adding all of the extras on I am hitting around $1300. I'm in the US. T550 (Mine) Intel Core i5-5200U Processor (3MB Cache, up to 2.70GHz) Windows 8.1 64 15.6" HD (1366x768), With WWAN Intel HD Graphics 5500 4GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600MHz SODIMM 500GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm, 2.5" Twerk from Home posted:You really might want to think about spending the money to upgrade the screen. The base screen on the T550 is garbage. The i5 may be worth the upgrade over an i3 also. I think I have pretty much the same screen on my old Lenovo Ideapad Y560p, is the screen really that bad? I could probably call in and change the order and go the next level up which is the "15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080), with WWAN" for around $90 dollars if it is really worth. I am not interested in spending over $250 more for a screen for the IPS one since I have a desktop monitor that I can plug it into at home.
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Jun 10, 2015 23:30
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OrangeOrbit posted:T550 (Mine) It's an issue of resolution more than anything else. 768 vertical lines just isn't enough screen real estate for most people to work comfortably, and will also look ugly on a 15.6" screen. If it were me I'd get the 1080p screen.
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Jun 10, 2015 23:36
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OrangeOrbit posted:I could probably call in and change the order and go the next level up which is the "15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080), with WWAN" for around $90 dollars if it is really worth. I am not interested in spending over $250 more for a screen for the IPS one since I have a desktop monitor that I can plug it into at home. You should stop reading this right now and go order the 1080p screen. I'm not even joking.
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Jun 11, 2015 00:28
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So my daughter is going to college and we want to get her a laptop. She would prefer a desk top, because she enjoys gaming. (Sims/Elder Scrolls/etc.) I want to get her a laptop where she can do both, and my buddy is getting rid of his less than a year old Sony Vaio. I just want to make sure she'll be able to do whatever she needs on it. The specs on it are below. Intel i7 @ 2.1 ghz 6gb Ram 1080p 15" display Windows 8.1 Pro 2gb dedicated video card (GeForce GT 640M LE) 256 GB SSD drive I haven't been a gamer in years, so I have no idea what specs I should be looking for. Would she be able to play those games on that computer and not have it be a chore? If that computer wouldn't work, I'd love to get an idea on what type of specs I should be looking for on a gaming laptop. I don't mind paying for it if I have to, since it is a graduation gift, but if I can get a deal, I'd much rather do that.
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Jun 11, 2015 00:33
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Hadlock posted:You should stop reading this right now and go order the 1080p screen. I'm not even joking. Ok, based on all the advice I called up and changed the screen. I guess if I'm going to be looking at it for (hopefully!) 3-4 years then it should be pretty.
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Jun 11, 2015 00:42
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Sataere posted:So my daughter is going to college and we want to get her a laptop. She would prefer a desk top, because she enjoys gaming. (Sims/Elder Scrolls/etc.) The 640m LE is a pretty old chip (figuratively speaking, I think it came out in '11 or '12). It will have trouble playing modern games without keeping the resolution low and the details very low as well. A modern machine with mid range Maxwell based GPU (GT940/GTX950/GTX960) will smoke it, get better battery life, and be had for under $1000 which is probably the max you would ever want to spend on a laptop for a teen. But I'd you're getting that Sony for super cheap, it will be fine for school work and older, less demanding games. Mental Hospitality fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Jun 11, 2015 |
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Jun 11, 2015 00:50
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