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~

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

I just got the yoga 2 and everything is loving tiny on this 3200x1800 resolution screen. Am I going to have to just wait for developers to catch up and scale their uis?

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 01:07

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 01:24

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

But then how am I going to brag?? Duh. (Plus everything looks amazing otherwise)

Other thing I'm not digging: The home key is exactly where the backspace was on my zenbook, so I keep hitting it by accident. Otherwise I'd recommend it, if anyone's still on the fence.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 01:12

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

GrizzlyCow posted:

Did you try DPI scaling? Some programs scale like poo poo, but if you want to try, for Windows 8.x: right-click desktop, hit personalize, under see also on the sidebar is 'display',check "let me choose scaling", choose your scaling. 200% should be good.

That was actually perfect, thanks!

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 03:57

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

I installed classicshell right away after reading about it, and it's pretty much cleared up all the problems I had with 8 (except for the loud BINGING noise the system action prompt makes that I can't figure out how to disable). Also flipping the yoga open so the keyboard is a stand owns for watching movies and playing Hearthstone.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2014 01:59

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

I actually just went to the app store for the first time and poo poo, why is everything so expensive? I'm not going to pay $3.50 for angry birds.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2014 04:45

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

P.N.T.M. posted:

This comes up every time someone orders from Lenovo. Here's the deal:

You are ordering an electronic device from China. It will take a month. They will dick you around with the estimate 2 or 3 times. They will give you a conservative estimate, a "your lucky day" estimate and an estimate that isn't far from the actual day of arrival. I can't tell you what order those estimates will be given to you, just don't go crazy when they switch up the ETA on you.

Not if you just buy a refurb off of amazon like I did, then it just comes a day later. :smug:

# ¿ Jan 27, 2014 20:50

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Also gently caress, this is the first time that I've used the yoga on battery mode for an extended amount of time, and I just noticed that all of the smilies DO look like little puddles of mustard.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2014 20:51

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Peanut3141 posted:

I bought a 128/4 machine from Best Buy when they first dropped to $899. It's generally sufficient, though I have run into some low memory warnings and even drove Windows to shut a few apps down to reclaim memory at one point. I believe I had Canary open with 10-12 tabs and was playing State of Decay at the time.

I'm at 57% memory used right now, not doing much of anything. I've looked at running processes and disabled a few, but there's nothing begging to be killed, just a ton of processes using 20-50MB. Perhaps this is due to the fact my wife and I both use the machine and never log out, just change user. Not sure if that's paged to disk or kept in main memory.

The disk space has been zero problem, I have 65 GB free out of 101, though I do all my serious gaming and other activities on my desktop. The SSD also worries me less. It's user-replaceable if I decide it needs to be bigger, the memory is not.

Basically if you intend to use the Yoga 2 Pro as a travel machine or couch surfer while having a desktop for heavier work, the 128/4 should be fine. If this were my sole computer, I would definitely recommend springing for the 256/8 if you can at all afford it.

I didn't even see the 256/8 on the Lenovo site as an option when I was shopping around (but again I got mine off of the Amazon warehouse).

Also is anyone else annoyed by the keyboard? I keep hitting screenshot when I want to delete something, the home key when I want to backspace, closing all of my windows when I want to hit f5, etc.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2014 14:28

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Aren't Acers usually known to be universally terrible?

# ¿ Jan 31, 2014 21:13

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Is anyone else having the problem with Photoshop freezing after resuming from sleep/hibernate? Apparently it's caused by an incompatibility with the power saving feature, and restarting fixes it, but that's bullshit.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2014 16:35

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Is the display handled differently on the Yoga/ yoga 2 in tablet mode and in laptop mode? I could swear that it's a little blurrier in tablet mode but that might just be because I'm holding it closer to my face (running 1920x1080 if it matters).

# ¿ Feb 7, 2014 18:38

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Also Hearthstone, Minecraft has a touchscreen mode, etc etc.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2014 19:06

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

My 2018 XPS 13 9370 kind of sucks these days (partially my fault for buying refurbished and sticking with 8 GB of RAM to save a few bucks), but I'm pretty sure part of the issue is thermal throttling. Has anyone here tried taking theirs apart and cleaning + repasting before? I'm curious if that would make much of a difference.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2021 01:23

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Zero VGS posted:

Taking a plug-in air blower or canned air and getting all the lint out of it will likely help a lot more than repasting. If you repaste with something good like Cryonaut it might make a couple C difference but I find it usually isn't a big deal.

More than anything, make sure you don't have a ton of tabs or rogue processes that are cooking your CPU for no reason. I had a fresh install of Windows 10 and had the CPU always at 85C, I tried booting on an Ubuntu Live USB and the laptop run like that at 50C for a solid without crashing or heating up.

Oh well. I only have the bog-standard Arctic stuff on hand so I'll probably blow it out and do a fresh install of windows minus Steam or anything else that runs background processes. I'm not really gaming on it much nowadays anyway.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2021 02:40

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

My GF has been waffling on getting a new laptop for a while (literally an entire year) and it 1) had to be able to play BG3, 2) had to be 15" (preferably without a numpad), 3) had to be thin and light, and 4) had to cost less than $650. We finally pulled the trigger on a refurbished 2020 AMD Omen 15 with a 1660ti for $570 as that seemed to satisfy every requirement apart from weight. Unfortunately it looks like HP stopped pushing out model-specific graphics drivers for it, and using Nvidia's stock drivers disables automatic switching between the iGPU and dedicated graphics to maximize battery life.

Is she leaving a ton of performance on the table by using older, less optimized drivers or is it not worth worrying about?

# ¿ Dec 24, 2023 05:24

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Lockback posted:

BG3 in particular might care. Give it a try with each and see. With an older GPU like that it's hard to tell if driver tweaks apply at all or not.

She just ignored the out-of-date driver warning and everything seems to be running just fine at 1080p high, not going to gently caress with it and A/B test drivers at this point unless I have to

change my name fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Dec 26, 2023

# ¿ Dec 26, 2023 22:37

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

change my name posted:

My GF has been waffling on getting a new laptop for a while (literally an entire year) and it 1) had to be able to play BG3, 2) had to be 15" (preferably without a numpad), 3) had to be thin and light, and 4) had to cost less than $650. We finally pulled the trigger on a refurbished 2020 AMD Omen 15 with a 1660ti for $570 as that seemed to satisfy every requirement apart from weight. Unfortunately it looks like HP stopped pushing out model-specific graphics drivers for it, and using Nvidia's stock drivers disables automatic switching between the iGPU and dedicated graphics to maximize battery life.

Is she leaving a ton of performance on the table by using older, less optimized drivers or is it not worth worrying about?

Update on this, I went in and with everything set up, games run perfectly fine. BG3 seems pegged at 50-60 FPS with everything on high and FSR 2.2 set to ultra quality. I'm pretty surprised at the fit and finish of everything, especially for the price (she ended up with a 144Hz model with the larger 70whr battery with 100% battery health, and I measured the laptop weight at 4.5 pounds. I noticed this in the reviews I've read for this model too so I'm not sure why some are lighter than the 5.5-pound HP spec). The keyboard also feels pretty nice to type on too. If anyone's interested, there are still a few units left on Amazon Warehouse: https://www.amazon.com/HP-15-EN0023DX-GeForce-Backlit-Keyboard/dp/B08QCR5JHC/

# ¿ Dec 28, 2023 22:49

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Check out Best Buy's clearance section on the regular, there are some amazing deals there

# ¿ Jan 3, 2024 16:41

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

I just came here to say that the new XPS 14 and 16 look absolutely sick but the keyboard layout and giant trackpad/wrist rest combo thing make me wanna barf

# ¿ Jan 4, 2024 16:12

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

tehinternet posted:

My buddy got a $3500 allowance for a new laptop, no restrictions that I�m aware of. What�s the most dope thing he can get that doesn�t look like a RGB nightmare?

I�m technically literate but am a desktop person. Pitfalls to avoid and lines to look at are appreciated � TIA everyone.

Do they want to play games or what? The aforementioned Dell XPS 16 with an OLED screen and 4070 might be the move if so

# ¿ Jan 4, 2024 21:12

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Lockback posted:

So great pick but a little overpriced. The 4070 is barely faster than the 4060. The 32GB won't help you with BG3 at all, though maybe help you with AI.

I'd suggest:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3048601488...23216ece0cb0INT

And use the extra money on potentially a bigger SSD and then the rest on a cloud account for better AI results.

But if you really do like that $1500 one its a very solid machine. I can't find a better 4070 deal but honestly the 4070 is not that much faster than the 4060 and for BG3 the 4060 will do fine. The 4080 is the next big jump on laptops.

That one is sold out but a similarly specc'ed Omen 16 is available new at Best Buy for $1,199: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-ome...p?skuId=6536973

# ¿ Jan 10, 2024 04:09

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Lockback posted:

??

I don't think any of the major laptop brands are using brand specific drivers anymore. Asus, Lenovo, HP, MSI, etc all just use the bog standard drivers from Nvidia and have for years.

I posted about this a few pages ago but my gf's 2020 Omen 15 needs to run outdated HP graphics drivers or it won't switch between the DGPU and iGPU automatically

# ¿ Jan 12, 2024 00:51

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Lord Ludikrous posted:

I�m helping my parents have a clear out before they move home and I found my gaming laptop from 2004.

Behold the chonk.

I�ve got the power brick (and it really is a brick) but I need to get one of those three prong power cables before I can see if it still works.

My wife is somewhat confused as to why I�m taking it back with me but I can�t just toss this away.

Hell yeah, this brings back memories of saving up money from my high school job to buy a fat brown Inspiron 1520 that would overheat and show corrupted textures in Crysis, Fallout 3, Kane and Lynch etc etc etc if you played for longer than 20 minutes at a time

change my name fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Feb 5, 2024

# ¿ Feb 5, 2024 16:06

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

UncleGuito posted:

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) model is on sale for $699 currently.

https://shop.asus.com/us/90nr09u1-m00ec0-rog-zephyrus-g14-2022.html

This appears to be dead but the model with a 6800HS CPU and mobile 6800 GPU (stupid naming convention...) is still up for $799, that's a hell of a deal: https://shop.asus.com/us/90nr09u3-m00hl0-rog-zephyrus-g14-2022.html

# ¿ Mar 27, 2024 04:22

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

shrike82 posted:

Bought a 14" M3 Pro MBP recently for vacation travel and while I love the battery and speed on it, I've also realized I actually like the Asus Zephyrus G14 I bought last year more.

The latter being loaded with a 4090 makes for great gaming but the more surprising thing was I actually prefer the trackpad and keyboard on the Zephyrus.

The only thing keeping me on the MBP is the battery life - it's pretty unfortunate that even with the more power efficient AMD chips, x86 Windows laptops struggle to get half of the battery life of Macs.

The new 2024 G14 supposedly gets 12+ hours of battery life but tops out at a 4070

# ¿ Apr 1, 2024 03:05

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

I'm borrowing an XPS 14 for work and drat I would totally buy one if I could afford it

# ¿ Apr 12, 2024 14:56

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Annath posted:

After browsing Amazon a bit, I'm beginning to realize that the fact that the last time I owned a laptop was long enough ago that my expectations on price are outdated.

Even completely discarding the keyboard, weight, and battery life, just getting one with a good display, a good gfx card, and halfway decent storage is going to run me closer to $2K than $1K.

By the time I've saved up that much (my budget doesn't allow for much "disposable income" each month) the latest and greatest on the market will have changed

You can get a Lenovo Legion Slim 5 or 2023 Zephyrus G14 with a 4060 in it for like $1,000 (or less open box) at Best Buy but they don't have numpads

# ¿ Apr 12, 2024 17:46

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Lockback posted:

I think $1,000 to $1,500 is a very reasonable price for your wants, but yes, you will need to comprimise on a couple things.

That gigabyte is ok, but a little overpriced. The 4050 is nice but I like it more at the $700 level.

This is a decent example of a lower priced option, 4060 and 16GB $1000
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-ome...black/6571057.p

This slim gives you OLED, lots of power, super light. No numpad $1,050. probably what I'd get right now. Note the RAM is not upgradable.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo...-grey/6559123.p

This meets your criteria for everything but OLED (but it does have a nice screen and 32GB or RAM). $1,179
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1745674-REG/lenovo_82wk0082us_16_legion_pro_5i.html

The Slim 5 in the middle has outstanding battery life FWIW

# ¿ Apr 12, 2024 21:17

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Prescription Combs posted:

Someone please talk me out of this: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lenovo-L...00&from=/search

That's a pretty dang good deal!

# ¿ Apr 17, 2024 16:17

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

I charge my Switch and Steam deck with my Macbook charger and it's totally fine

# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 02:14

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Lockback posted:

The Lenovo LOQ is significantly different than the other Lenovo lines, it's the lowest end and uses signficantly different parts. So I don't know if you'll find "common" solutions as your is not a common model line.

That said, if its ONLY happening in steam, I'd guess steam overlay is the most likely culprit so it should be disabled, followed by updating mainboard/keyboard drivers off lenovo's website. Probably worth doing both of those first.

This, try disabling the controller input overlay in one of the problematic games and see if that fixes anything

# ¿ May 2, 2024 15:08

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 01:24

change my name: Aug 27, 2007; Legends die but anime is forever.

RIP The Lost Otakus.

Yeah the LOQ is the entry-level tier like the HP Victus, Acer Nitro, or ASUS Tuf line. Fine, just fat

# ¿ May 2, 2024 20:32

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