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Hadlock posted:Anker is #1 in my book, would not hesitate to buy Aukey in an emergency That's reassuring - a few months ago I picked up an Aukey wireless power bank that seems really nice, but I avoid Amazon and was unaware of the review gaming. Anker in general I'm happy with - I own a bunch of different Anker stuff, from a flashlight to chargers to earbuds to a robovac, and it all seems well-made.
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Jun 29, 2022 19:22
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Lockback posted:Ideapad's are ok but I probably wouldn't spend $1000 on one. If its for school I would recommend something with touch capabilities, allows you to make annotations or notes right on the screen. If you do like that one, here's basically an equivalent from Lenovo direct on ebay for $500 I just picked up the Ryzen version of that HP Envy with a few lower specs for less than $500. Mine comes with 8GB of RAM but it looks pretty easy to upgrade, and if I really need more than a 256GB SSD in it then that seems replaceable, too. I figure I'll see how it feels with the lower RAM amount before committing to the upgrade, although knowing me I might pre-emptively order more RAM because I like having an excess (my desktop has 32GB).
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Jul 12, 2022 19:59
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mastershakeman posted:Is this the one you got? My wife has been limping along on a decade old laptop forever and needs to do work zoom calls next week, and would need to plug in an external mic to do so which is a problem since she uses the laptop while moving around 5 different rooms constantly. Nothing more taxing than zoom + office + web browser all at once Yeah, that's the one. It's supposed to be delivered tomorrow so I'll have a better idea then, but just going from the specs the machine should have absolutely no problem doing the Zoom/Office/browser combo.
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Jul 14, 2022 04:35
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CaptainSarcastic posted:Yeah, that's the one. It's supposed to be delivered tomorrow so I'll have a better idea then, but just going from the specs the machine should have absolutely no problem doing the Zoom/Office/browser combo. The thing arrived (HP Envy x360 linked above in the thread) and I was setting it up today, and it's a nice machine. I have ordered replacement RAM since I don't feel like 8GB in a 6-core/12-thread machine is enough. The Ryzen 5 5625U is snappy as hell, and the integrated Radeon processor seems okay and can probably handle older, less-demanding games. It does have 2x4GB memory installed, so I had to buy a 2x8GB kit to replace it which should arrive next week - I'd been hoping it did have an open slot, but they're both populated. I haven't had a chance to fully benchmark and try the machine out, but so far I'm happy with it.
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Jul 15, 2022 09:22
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CaptainSarcastic posted:The thing arrived (HP Envy x360 linked above in the thread) and I was setting it up today, and it's a nice machine. I have ordered replacement RAM since I don't feel like 8GB in a 6-core/12-thread machine is enough. The Ryzen 5 5625U is snappy as hell, and the integrated Radeon processor seems okay and can probably handle older, less-demanding games. It does have 2x4GB memory installed, so I had to buy a 2x8GB kit to replace it which should arrive next week - I'd been hoping it did have an open slot, but they're both populated. I haven't had a chance to fully benchmark and try the machine out, but so far I'm happy with it. As a follow on, I received and installed the 2x8GB kit yesterday and installed it, and aside from pulling up a rubber foot that apparently I didn't need to on this model (the instructions I followed were for one that had hidden screws under the foot, which this one doesn't have) the whole process was really fast and easy. Got the RAM in, memtest86 came back clean, and the machine is benching higher than it did before with the original RAM. I feel like I got a hell of a deal on this thing for $439 (it was $499 but I got $50 off for it being open box and another $10 by using Best Buy gift certificates I had built up) when it's now back up to $799: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-env...8&skuId=6502184
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Jul 22, 2022 19:00
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Cool Kids Club Soda posted:If I go the 2-in-1 route I'm not worried about getting a GPU. Just having something I can flip over and jot ideas or sketches down with a stylus seems like it'd be really useful, while still being powerful enough to run my DJ software and have an actual keyboard. I grew fond of the form-factor with my old 11" Acer Chromebook, and recently picked up an HP Envy 15.6" Windows 2-in-1 to replace it, and the main thing I'm realizing is that it is a little big to comfortably use as a tablet while sitting on the toilet and such. It's a beast otherwise, and I was playing AAA games on it while housesitting this week using GeForce Now since it doesn't have a very powerful iGPU. It was kind of trippy playing Far Cry 6 on it using an external monitor and getting really decent 1080p performance while the laptop itself remained completely silent.
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Aug 26, 2022 21:32
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I got a stylus to go with my HP but haven't really played around with it yet. Adding another 8GB of RAM to the machine was surprisingly easy, and the only complaints I have are is it is indeed a bit big to use as a tablet most of the time, and it doesn't have a decent GPU, but I don't have very high demands for a laptop and this meets them well. I'm actually considering getting a cheapish tablet to do my bathroom reading on, since that old Chromebook has hit EOL with updates, but while it was supported it was a helluva nice little machine. I guess part of me is also considering just getting an updated version of the Chromebook as well - I got such a deal on this HP 2-in-1 that even adding the price of a middling Chromebook 2-in-1 that my overall out of pocket would be about the same as the list price for the HP. I use a desktop for my serious gaming, and as long as I am someplace with decent Internet and no data cap I can fall back on GeForce Now for gaming on my laptop.
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Aug 26, 2022 22:30
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bike tory posted:I think the people who really need lots of onboard SSD space know who they are and know exactly why they need that capacity. If you're looking at a new device and wondering whether you should fork out for more storage "just in case" then you're not one of those people and 512gb (or even 256gb) will be plenty. The one thing I would say to this is that modern games have gotten ridiculously huge. When single games consume more than 100GB of space then running out of disk space becomes easier to do.
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Sep 8, 2022 08:08
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Sometimes you can also do a like-for-like replacement where you take the screen off the same model laptop that has been killed by having soda spilled on it or something like that, simplifying the whole process. Dead laptop with good screen donates the screen to the live laptop with bad screen. You have to seat the cables and hinges and such, but avoid having to deal with deconstructing the display itself.
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Sep 16, 2022 08:54
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Ynglaur posted:The battery on my Alienware AW13R3 is well and truly unusable, and Dell doesn't sell batteries for this model any more. Are there any third-party battery makers who are safe and reliable? I don't recognize the names of any of them on Amazon or Newegg (US stores), and I don't really want to roll the dice with electrical devices that can start a fire. I haven't used them, but BatteriesPlus carries laptop batteries: https://www.batteriesplus.com/ It's been a few years, but I've ordered replacement laptop batteries online (I think from NewEgg) and never had a problem, but it's also possible I was lucky.
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Oct 1, 2022 21:17
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TITTIEKISSER69 posted:You could also try the drivers from Dell Command | Update Yeah, this isn't a bad idea. My work laptop is an Inspiron (no dGPU, just Intel) and it's installed a fair number of updates through that. It's also had what I would describe as an alarming number of BIOS updates over the last couple years, but since it's not my personal machine I haven't dug too thoroughly into exactly what it's doing - I just try to make sure I can confidently say I've been diligent about keeping it secure and up to date.
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Oct 28, 2022 20:40
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I mostly love USB as a standard, but there are definitely things I hate about it. Like I love that both my Windows laptop and my Chromebook charge over USB-C. What I hate is that finding cables capable of transferring 60w or better takes a little doing, and almost none of my USB-C cables are labeled in a way to indicate how much power they can carry. The aforementioned finickiness of USB3 ports is an occasional annoyance, too, as well as the wildly variable speed amongst even my newer thumb drives.
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Nov 4, 2022 05:46
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Oh, I've been stockpiling cables capable of 60w or better, and keeping them separate. I've also been paying attention to the wall warts and such I have for wireless chargers, and making sure I have adequate cables on those. I'm a big fan of redundancy, which is one reason I love USB-C for charging, outside the terrible labeling. I should probably do a cull of the crap cables I've accumulated that came with various devices - a lot of them are only capable of USB2 power levels and data transfer anyway. I already did a purge in the last year or so of old weak phone chargers and USB-micro cables, and it's getting close to me needing to do the same with USB-C.
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Nov 4, 2022 06:10
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Hadlock posted:Yeah I'm down to a handful of USB micro cables at home, they're all attached to 12w wireless charging pads I've had since forever, and then a single thumb-length one I keep on my airline travel kit for emergencies. Minus my b&n nook ebook circa 2011 my whole kit went USB-C ~2017 but occasionally I'll run across something that needs micro, like my wife's 6 year old book light that won't die I went to magnetic USB cables so the devices I commonly use just have a small dongle that lives in their charging port and I can use the same cable with all of them. Managing a collection of things with USB-micro, USB-C, and Lightning got a lot easier that way, as long as they are drawing like 3a or less. I've really been shifting over to wireless charging for my phones and earbuds and such, though.
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Nov 4, 2022 06:33
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NotNut posted:I've got a Thinkpad L530 and even though it's a decade old my only problem with it is that it's 801.11b/g/n so it can't access 5ghz wifi networks. Is there a way to upgrade its card and/or antenna, or do I need to buy a new laptop? I don't know for sure, but a quick search suggests the BIOS is set up with a whitelist for hardware and just upgrading the wireless card might not work. If you just want to do something quick and relatively cheap you might just want to disable the onboard wireless and use a USB dongle of some sort instead. Depending on what you use the machine for, though, it certainly is old enough to merit replacement with a newer laptop. Take this with a grain of salt - a lot of people in this thread are going to be way more familiar with Thinkpads than I am.
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Nov 5, 2022 21:53
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Cross-posting from the Chromebook thread just because this is a great value that might not be around much longer. I've bought 2 of these - one for me, one for my partner - when it was on sale at this price earlier in the month. I'm not sure if this is ASUS or Best Buy dumping stock on hand, but $179 is remarkably low for a better-than-Celeron CPU, 8GB of RAM, 2-in-1 with a (comparatively) huge screen:CaptainSarcastic posted:Hey, it looks like the Best Buy deal on that ASUS Chromebook is up again.
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Nov 13, 2022 03:06
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theHUNGERian posted:I just recently replaced a 10-year-old laptop, and USB-C and USB 3 are completely new to me. Can anyone recommend me a USB hub for my prehistoric USB 2 devices? I have a j5 create that is connected to a USB-C port, and I see a disturbing amount of lag when I have the mouse receiver connected to it. I can plug the mouse receiver into an unused USB3 port, but that seems silly. Is there a hub that can handle ethernet, keyboard, mouse, SD cards, and an external screen without making GBS threads its pants? What is this thread's favorite external keyboard/mouse combo that only needs one USB receiver? I currently have a MS 800 and a Logitech MX master, and while I like them, I feel silly having to use two USB ports. I use Logitech K375s keyboards and M720 Triathlon mice, personally. Both run off the Unifying dongle, or can use Bluetooth, and can each pair to three different devices with a button to flip between which it is paired with at a given time. I have 3 complete sets of these - one for my main personal machine, one for my work laptop, and one at my mom's house on a desktop I leave over for the times I housesit for them or otherwise am spending time at their place.
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Nov 13, 2022 22:40
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Lockback posted:There's....not much right now at that price range that's TB compatible. Acer Aspire from a few places including Costco for $465 but I really, really don't like telling people to get Acer laptops. They have pretty bad QC generally. I'd probably suggest a refurb/used from somewhere at that price point, but it's probably worthwhile to hunker down and see if anything comes out in the next couple weeks. Not to be contradictory just to be contradictory, but I've good experiences with Acer laptops, and if there's a major brand I look at askance it's HP. That said, the options on the ground do seem to be thin. Doing a targeted search on Newegg turned up a lot of refurbs in the $500 price range, but going new was more than double that amount.
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Nov 14, 2022 00:23
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Ynglaur posted:Greeeeeat. My company is moving from Dell to HP. My HP 2-in-1 seems fine, but my partner's 17 inch HP laptop broke a hinge inside a year of light use. I'm sure they make some decent models, but the hinge thing soured me on them. They also seem more aggro about including more marketing crap in with their bloatware, and it seems less well thought out than Dell. The Dell support application that checks for drivers and such is pretty slick, the comparable HP app(s) wants to sell you stuff and is much more opaque in terms of usability.
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Nov 14, 2022 00:29
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Cream-of-Plenty posted:My favorite thing is when I see a laptop with McAfee preinstalled, as well as an app that nags you about activating the 12-month Norton membership that came bundled with your laptop. I recently rolled back my install due to being dumb and not checking for a hardware problem first, and the first order of business was going through and uninstalling McAfee, along with a bunch of other crap. No competing Norton, but more than one McAfee "security" thing I had to rip out.
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Nov 14, 2022 06:43
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sirbeefalot posted:I don't know if this is best in this thread or in one of the Windows threads. My wife received a new laptop for remote work, a Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 9. 11th gen Intel, can't recall if its an i5 or one of the i7 options. Iris Xe iGPU either way. Calling Lenovo is certainly not a bad idea, as Hadlock suggested. One suggestion I have is to check the connection between the laptop and the monitor. How are you connecting them? Using an HDMI cable? Have you tried a different cable? Have you tried DisplayLink (USB to HDMI)? HDR is 10 bit color, so uses more bandwidth than SDR, which is 8 bit. If your HDMI cable is old or worn out it could potentially be choking on the higher amount of data that the LG is trying to pull.
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Nov 30, 2022 20:40
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Teeter posted:I'm looking to make sense of the world of 2-in-1 laptops and see if one is right for me. Budget is flexible - I'd like to spend $600-800 but can go higher if it's worthwhile I have an HP Envy x360 that's a 15" touchscreen laptop that takes styluses, but I haven't really messed around with drawing on it yet. I paid a lot less than $600 on it new, and it has been a competent machine for me. It even games well using GeForce Now, but doesn't have the GPU prowess to run any serious games locally. I assume you're wanting to run Windows? If they would meet your needs (the spreadsheet could be a concern if Office online wouldn't work for you) then a Chromebook might be a cheaper way to explore a 2-in-1, although I don't know how good the stylus/drawing support might be there.
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Dec 7, 2022 20:03
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El Grillo posted:Maybe not the right thread but it seems too specific to make a haus thread.. I'm not sure, but what you're describing sounds somewhat reminiscent of what I experienced when I had a loose stick of RAM in my HP laptop. I beat my head against the wall of troubleshooting Windows for a couple days before opening it, reseating the RAM, and everything was fine. I'd suggest trying that, but anything beyond is getting above my paygrade.
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Dec 20, 2022 01:37
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A lot of it is personal preference. My Boomer stepfather likes Macs, and has both an iMac and one of their laptops. My Boomer mom doesn't like using them and has a Windows laptop. Neither one of them are what I would call technologically proficient, but they still know what they like. They both use iPhones, though.
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Dec 23, 2022 07:19
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Ghost Leviathan posted:I just got a new laptop, and my dad also got a new laptop, only one of those being Christmas related. What's a good affordable wireless (or short-wired) mouse that I could get a pair of for myself and a present? Don't need anything fancy beyond two buttons and a wheel. I've grown really fond of the Logitech Triathlon mouse. Can pair to up 3 devices using either the included dongle or Bluetooth. The shape works well for my hand, too. https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/mice/m720-triathlon.910-004790.html
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Dec 24, 2022 22:47
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mobby_6kl posted:My Yoga came with a 65W charger. You'll probably be fine it just might charge slower when running at full power. Mine will even charge from a 20W charger, just very slowly. If it charges over USB-C then I highly recommend getting a decent USB-C charger and a decent cable, if you don't have one. I have a 100w charger and two 65w chargers I can use to charge anything I own. Also a 45w USB-C charger that came with my Chromebook. I only recently discovered my work Inspiron can charge either using the proprietary barrel connector or over USB-C, and it simplified my life a lot.
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Dec 27, 2022 04:31
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Aware posted:I think the closest would be 14" like the Razor Blade which comes in 3060 and 3070 flavours. Most 13" ranges have gone in the thin and light direction while you can still get chunky 14" laptops. Personally I prefer 14" in both cases. I might have to look into those. I like running an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse anyway, so if I could have a small laptop powerful enough for gaming then it being a small display ain't a big deal - I'd mostly be treating the laptop screen as a second display anyway. The 15.6" Viewsonic portable monitor I got has really sold me on the viability of this setup, but I don't travel enough for it to be a high priority for me.
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Jan 7, 2023 23:53
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Lockback posted:Not exactly budget but what you actually want is a macbook air with an M1, which you can find for $800. Battery life is 12+ hours in use, totally silent, USB-C charging and will be really fast for browsing and productivity stuff. I got one of those ASUS 2-in-1s on a similar or better deal last year, and it was so good I bought a second one for my partner. As long as you don't expect it to be a gaming machine or whatever it is an absolutely astounding deal.
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Feb 4, 2023 23:59
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mastershakeman posted:this thing already died on us, took it to BB for service, shipped to HP, and in 5 days they gave up and refunded me in the most useless way possible: store credit Can I ask how it died/what went wrong with it? I have that exact model from Best Buy, too, and the only real problem I've run into was a memory stick getting loose, which was probably at least partly my own fault since I had upgraded the RAM myself after purchase.
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Feb 17, 2023 00:47
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mastershakeman posted:Black screen, 5 long 3 short blinks on capslock, all white. cmos reset didn't fix it. I really liked it for a $500 laptop. Being able to just touch a setting over my wife's shoulder was a game changer I know it's too late now, but that does sound reminiscent of the behavior I got with a loose RAM stick. It's not a machine I use a lot, but I'm hoping the whole line isn't compromised since that's my travel machine and I have a conference coming up in May.
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Feb 17, 2023 08:29
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Shaocaholica posted:Are all laptops mostly USB-c charge now? Will all USB-C chargers work across different laptops as long as its spec'd for the appropriate wattage? And even if lower than spec it will just charge slower assuming its not running full tilt on some top end CPU/GPU? My HP 2-in-1 will complain I'm not using an official USB charger with one of my 100w chargers, but not with the other. Both work just fine for it. I also make sure to only use cables rated for the appropriate wattage.
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Feb 19, 2023 04:10
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For my own laptop, I really like a combo of touchscreen and wireless mouse. I can use a trackpad fine, but even a cheapo Bluetooth mouse is so much better.
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Mar 31, 2023 02:35
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I pulled the trigger on this one today: ASUS TUF Gaming A16, Ryzen 7735HS, 16GB DDR5, and discrete Radeon 8GB RX7600S. Only comes with a 512GB SSD, but apparently has 2 m2 slots so I ordered a 2TB SN770 at the same time and it looks like access to the slot is way less painful than on a lot of laptops. I figure at $749.99 that's a pretty good deal, especially with a 16:10 screen. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-t...p?skuId=6535499 CaptainSarcastic fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Nov 25, 2023 |
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Nov 25, 2023 08:31
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tehinternet posted:So my sister in law got a stellar deal back in 2018 on a laptop with a 1070 in it (like $200ish). Assuming you're near a Bestbuy, this is close to the laptop I was considering as the other option when I landed on the ASUS mentioned above instead. Looks like the sale price is still in effect, but this one only has 8GB of DDR4 while the one that was on sale during Black Friday had 16GB of RAM. The ASUS I got was $50 cheaper, is from a better-known manufacturer, and had 16GB of DDR5. The build quality on the ASUS also looked better than the Gigabyte, but that was just judging from photos. Still, this one might be worth considering, especially if you don't mind upgrading the RAM and small SSD: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/gigaby...p?skuId=6537013 Edit: For reference, this is the Gigabyte laptop that was $799 during Black Friday that was the one I was referring to - it's a more competent machine than the one linked above, but pretty similar: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/gigaby...p?skuId=6554836 CaptainSarcastic fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Nov 26, 2023 |
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Nov 26, 2023 22:16
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Are laptop cooling stands worthwhile at all? I still haven't had much of a chance to really put it through its paces, but my new gaming laptop gets pretty loud just running the CP2077 benchmark. I mean, I know noise is going to be an issue regardless, but I figure it might be worth it if it does help manage heat if only for the health of the machine.
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Dec 5, 2023 03:41
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Thanks for the replies - I'm pretty diligent about maintaining airflow, but might consider a dedicated pad of some sort. I have a couple really hard particle board type things I use for the purpose sometimes, but a riser of some sort would actually be helpful. I only tend to use a laptop for gaming while traveling, which isn't super often, but if I could find something that would let me get the screen even a little closer to eye level it would be helpful, so maybe I'll expand my search to that. Like I said, the noise isn't a huge concern (I often game with earbuds or headphones, anyway), but now that I think about it something that would help with the ergonomics would be helpful.
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Dec 5, 2023 05:10
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Saukkis posted:I use a roll of scotch tape and a marker pen as risers. If you play games that don't need keyboard you could use tablet/laptop stand to raise the display a lot. Thanks - I generally use a wireless keyboard and mouse, and the display on this laptop is nice enough that my old practice of using a portable monitor makes less sense.
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Dec 5, 2023 08:59
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Thanks all - I think a folding stand is where I'm going to direct my attention. I'd seen one like that articulating one when I was shopping for laptop desks, but now I see the use-case for that style and it could definitely help when I travel. Thanks again!
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Dec 6, 2023 07:33
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The ASUS TUF A16 I got from BestBuy is currently $20 cheaper than what I paid ($749.99). I haven't spent that much time with it yet, and am going to upgrade the storage and RAM in the next few days, but it still strikes me as a good enough deal to share. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-t...p?skuId=6535499
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Dec 8, 2023 07:47
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slidebite posted:We are so close now, I just wait unit we get to the after xmas/boxing week sales at this point. I haven't dug into it yet, but could someone who knows more about it give me a primer an Armoury Crate? I was vaguely aware of it from the desktop space, and it mostly seems to be about  RGB with some fan controls and such? It was pre-installed on my laptop but I only activated it kind of on accident while doing something else, and didn't do more than a cursory look at it.
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Dec 8, 2023 19:39
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