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EAT THE EGGS RICOLA posted:This obviously doesn't apply to you if you're going to just pay it all back immediately. Pretty much this. 99% of people who use credit cards lose money on them. People like you who use them to farm airline miles are loss leaders who do free advertising for them to people who can't afford your lifestyle. Credit cards exist because most people use them to buy poo poo they can't afford. This is a fact and the reason why all american CC companies are headquartered in SD http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/borrowers/sioux-falls-town-credit-built NPR economics radio show posted:But banks could only charge around 10 percent interest on loans and credit cards. That's because most states had strict usury laws that capped interest rates. With inflation higher than interest rates, banks were losing money every time they made a loan. tl;dr the federal credit card interest rate limit is a reasonable 10%, credit card companies live in South Dakota to charge you 29.99% APR
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Jun 26, 2013 01:28
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z16bitsega posted:So which does the X230 use, 2.5 or mSATA? Both, it has one of each, although the mSATA is SATA1 and the 2.5" drive uses SATA2
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Jun 26, 2013 04:30
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Mega Comrade posted:Got my x230 yesterday. sadly it comes with the TN display and not the premium IPS one but as far as they go it's a pretty good one. You can pick up an original OEM IPS display online for $74.99 and swap it out in under half an hour https://www.laptopscreen.com/English/model/IBM-Lenovo/THINKPAD~X230~2320-2ZU/
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Jun 27, 2013 15:26
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This is an old chart for desktops (bf3 in particular) but is there data similar to this for laptops somewhere? I'd like to put one in the OP
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Jun 27, 2013 23:50
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Thanks, I have this in the OP now
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Jun 28, 2013 00:47
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It's listed in the OP
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Jun 28, 2013 01:19
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T430 with a 6 cell battery + 9 cell Slice Battery + ultra bay battery? That should give you 12 hrs on the road when you need it. What's your price range, whats your line of work (programs, etc), how much do you travel? Are you concerned about the graphics primarily for games or for 3d CAD stuff? http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/product-and-parts/detail.page?&DocID=PD024286 
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Jun 28, 2013 03:35
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i3 - mostly all the same i5 - much faster than i3 and mostly all the same except: i5 3320 and above - same general performance, but with vt-D suport for 50-100% faster VM speeds i7 - only the quad core is worth it, and generally not avalible in a "slim" formfactor due to heat (are you crazy?) i3 does not have "turbo boost" which is code for "will self overclock to ~3.3ghz as long as it's not clogged with cat hair" and gives you about 15% more performance graphics differences are covered in post #3 or #4 of the thread
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Jun 28, 2013 18:45
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InstantInfidel posted:Next: That is a 17.3" laptop. If you ignore every other word I say, do not get a 17.3" laptop for school. They're loving massive and unwieldy. This, a thousand times. Unless you just want something to watch netflix on from across the room and are 100% sure it will never leave your desk/dorm room. 7-10" tablet or a 13" laptop is what you want for taking to class for notes. Dragging your 17" gaming laptop with  lights every day to class will not win you any points with your classmates of prof.
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Jun 29, 2013 07:28
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17" laptops are mainly marketed at people who don't know what they want and figure "bigger is better!!!" despite the fact that a modern laptop class haswell i5 is roughly four times the power of a top of the line early 1990's supercomputer. The last great 17" class laptop was the 17" macbook pro in 2011. The remaining products in this class are junky poo poo sold to people who want a portable TV or man children who "need" a "gaming laptop" and will overlook any glaring flaws to get it.
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Jun 29, 2013 19:07
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WHERE MY HAT IS AT posted:you could just as easily get like a $250 chrome book to take notes on and watch youtube videos and spend $1250 and build/buy a gaming desktop that will blow literally any gaming laptop on the market completely out of the water Hell, for note taking you can pick up a 7" android tablet and a $30 bluetooth keyboard for $100 shipped these days. Or if you have a 5" phone just use that. An 8lb laptop weighs about as much as a newborn baby. And is about as fragile as one. If you're planning on taking a TV to school, just plug your computer in to that, they both use HDMI. The only remotely fragile thing in a desktop these days is the 3 lb video card + heatsink, and you can pack that separate for the trip. Rotational hard drives are rated to 80 Gs (yes, eighty) when the heads are parked and powered off. Intel CPU sockets have a dynamic load rating of 170lbs.
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Jun 29, 2013 19:39
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QuarkJets posted:What's worst about gaming laptops is that Haswell's integrated graphics are so good that you could easily get by with just that and claim to have a "gaming" machine in something light and thin. You just don't get to have the pretentious joy of being able to play AAA titles at 60 fps at max quality, you have to scale back a bunch of settings instead. This is truth, and one very large difference between this thread and Crackbone's desktop thread is that he will swear up and down that you cannot game on anything less than a 700 series GTX desktop card, while this thread will point out that Skyrim and Mass Effect 2 play just fine on an HD4000 @ 1366x768. Unless your use case is Crysis 3/BF3 all the time on High @ 1080p, you'll find that most games are designed to run just fine @ 720p on medium, and the HD4000 will happily purr along at 30-60fps in most any game at those settings. There are very few games on Steam that won't run @ 30fps on an i5 Sandy Bridge laptop with integrated graphics. Laptops are mobile and full of compromises to meet this requirement, mainly for battery life and heat. If you want a zero compromise gaming laptop, what you really want is a desktop.
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Jun 29, 2013 20:12
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Mutation posted:Point is, I want to future proof my laptop to play entertaining future games at reasonably ugly settings. Nope. Not going to happen. The closest thing you can do to "future proof" your laptop is to buy a high end laptop 2-3 years after a major console release, i.e. 2008 or 2016, when mobile hardware catches up to the current generation of console hardware. Buying a "gaming laptop" six months before they release a new generation of console hardware (which pegs the system requirements for 6-8 years) is pretty much the absolute worst time to buy in to a non-upgradable mobile gaming platform. At the absolute minimum, if you have to, limp along your existing device at least until next summer, or get a tablet until then. TL;DR right now-this winter is the absolute lowest point on the price/gaming longevity value curve
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Jun 30, 2013 17:43
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agarjogger posted:What the hell, not only does the god-forsaken x230 trackpad sort of work after uninstalling the Ultranav driver, the titmouse even feels way smoother and sharper. I bet if I filed each and every one of these dimples down to nothing, the trackpad would be almost as good as that of some crappy HP. Now scrolling is dogshit though, so I'm torn. Can you walk me through how you did this? I've tried uninstalling the drivers but my trackpad just stops working.
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Jul 2, 2013 01:44
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sports posted:
The ultranav drivers don't use a standard implementation of the middle mouse button, so it doesn't work with cross platform apps in windows like the steam client and kerbal space program. That's my main motivation to get rid of it. TenementFunster posted:edit: yes I need a "gaming laptop" and I need it by the end of the month, so any other recommendations would need to be available within a few weeks. I guess I'll be seeing you at quakecon?
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Jul 2, 2013 18:16
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Revol posted:I hate to keep bringing up the same model time after time, but it's what I've been researching for myself: the XPS 12 refresh may fit what you're looking for, if you're willing a minor sacrifice on weight. The XPS 12 is a baller laptop, it's only drawback is the price, however it's made of loving carbon fiber, materials design and build quality dictate the (well deserved) price. If you were looking for a touchscreen 13" macbook air and wanted apple build quality, this is a correct avenue to look down. Best Buy had them in stores at one point earlier this spring, they still might. I don't normally recommend Dells, but this one is a real class-act.
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Jul 3, 2013 04:00
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You can get a T430 shipped for $638.78 and will last your student all four years of college. Parts, screens, batteries, keyboards are super cheap and plentiful if they ever need a replacement. Total cost of one $640 laptop vs two $500 laptops is about $350. The edge has no metal frame Lenovo support is as equally awful as their competitors, Thinkpad support is through IBM and generally noted as best in industry
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Jul 3, 2013 06:42
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FogOgg posted:I'm looking for a laptop I can use for: Make sure you get an i5-3320 or better, it has vt-d enabled which will improve VM performance considerably The screen really is that much better. Current gen will meet your needs. If you need a bigger battery google "x230 slice battery"
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Jul 3, 2013 17:49
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Or a Nexus 7/Nexus 10 tablet with a "keyboard dock" Chromebook is a great option but won't have nearly the app library. Both options cost about $250. I added Chromebook to the OP, not sure how I forgot that. Hadlock fucked around with this message at 02:48 on Jul 4, 2013 |
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Jul 4, 2013 02:45
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Jul 4, 2013 02:47
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How many months do you need your investment to last you? It's just to watch TV in bed and facebook during commercial breaks? If it's never going to leave the house you can safely wander down to Best Buy and pickup whichever model you want. They had a 15" Lenovo B series for $399 last time I was in there (July 2012).
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Jul 4, 2013 03:40
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Kontradaz posted:When I am not in my room, which is most of the time, it will be in my backpack for class/library/work. The B-series is too heavy and ugly, I would prefer something 3 pounds or lighter as well as very thin. If it's going in a backpack and to school with you every day, you need something more durable. Let me introduce you to my friend the T430 The Yoga 13 is an awesome choice as well, it is a well built machine Yoga 13 really is best in it's class (convertable ultrabooks) nothing else really exists that matches it at it's price point. Go back and read the OP: 
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Jul 4, 2013 04:16
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W530 with 1080 screen. Awesome Linux support.
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Jul 4, 2013 20:07
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The off lease idea isn't a bad idea if you will never ever install Steam on it. A $200 R61 with $100 SSD and new $40 battery isn't a bad deal if you're a student. That's $350 for a six year old laptop. HD4000 and forward is a generational leap ahead of what existed before in the integrated graphics department, in terms of useful lifespan an Ivy Bridge (and now Haswell) laptop will have a useful lifespan of 4 years or so. I fully expect my x230 to last me until 2016. As pointed out, $500 for a refurb x230 is a pretty regular (if not screaming) deal if you're willing to put up with Lenovo's outlet site. A T410 can be found on ebay for pretty cheap ($300 shipped in most cases) and has a "modern" first gen i5 that Windows 8 supports with it's native Hypervisor VM technology. My buddy recently replaced his T400 with another T400 for $250 off of ebay and it's his primary work machine. It has a fancy nvidia chip in it though.
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Jul 5, 2013 16:28
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RVProfootballer posted:If you don't buy exclusively from Best Buy, you can find lots of well made stuff. Best Buy actually stocks their own "detuned" versions of regular models. For example the Lenovos found at Best Buy, if you look carefully at the -xxxx end of the model number is a specific Best Buy build, designed to minimize cost. Typically it's a lower quality screen, 2GB of ram (instead of 4) and a lower binned processor than the equivilent you can find through amazon or the manufacturer's website.
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Jul 5, 2013 21:29
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If he's doing graphic design work, he's probably plugging the laptop in to an external display, otherwise his primary graphic design clients must be ants or something.
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Jul 7, 2013 03:28
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fookolt posted:Hah, I feel like Samsung, Lenovo, and Asus are completely dragging their loving feet with their Haswell ultrabooks. All I've seen so far is plastic poo poo from Lenovo. It looks like Apple has an exclusivity deal with Intel for the i3/i5s, which gives them a big head start on the midrange ultrabook market, and leaves Samsung, Lenovo, and Asus fighting for leftover scraps of the market Apple already dominates (macbook air is drat sexy device)
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Jul 7, 2013 08:07
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I would imagine that they're putting the i7s that they have access to in to their "plastic poo poo" lines that corporations don't buy a whole lot of. From a sales perspective it's probably a lot easier to say "new thinkpad lineups are just around the corner" rather than "uhh, well they're just available with i7s for the moment, no, I can't sell you any haswell i5s, you'll just have to have Ivy Bridge i5s and Haswell i7s. I know that doesn't make a whole lot of sense... look -- let's chat in 2-3 months when I can tell you more about our i5s that I can't tell you about right now due to a NDA. No, wait, please don't go to dell, I'll do anything..." ninja edit: is Sony actually shipping their i5 haswell ultrabooks?
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Jul 7, 2013 08:45
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About 50%. If you use Wi-Fi at all you might want to consider waiting for a better model to come along in a few days. If you use the bn link in the op you can get a new t430 with advanced n for about $650
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Jul 8, 2013 22:59
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Moltke posted:I'm looking for a laptop in the $640-$800 range for word processing and general internet-ery that can also do a little light gaming (Civ 5 at the most graphically intense). Portability and long battery life are also important. x230 strike your fancy?
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Jul 8, 2013 23:40
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Srebrenica Surprise posted:Not sure if this has been linked but here's the T440s hardware maintenance manual. Looks like mSATA is out in favor of NGFF/M.2 and there's one memory slot. No aftermarket NGFF SSDs have made it to market, right? Interesting. Looks a lot like the T431s    
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Jul 12, 2013 07:56
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syzygy86 posted:There has been "p" models before, but the last one was the T61p. Thinkwiki has a good summary of past and current models. The "p" variants were always a higher spec than the normal model, so I always assumed it meant performance. Probably stands for sPace heater
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Jul 13, 2013 16:22
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GZA Genius posted:Looking at a t430 ...My first question is can anyone point me in the right direction of a SSD and RAM that will integrate just fine with this laptop? SSD thread is linked in the OP.. I am using this RAM in my x230 (they use the same ram) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233241 ...however I paid $23.99 for it on 10/18/2012 9 cell is awesome, get it, especially if you will be traveling Always get the Advanced or Ultimate wifi, it gives you anywhere between 50 and 300 additional feet of range, depending on the AP MSATA is just a smaller formfactor SSD, which allows you to squeeze in two additonal hard drives in to your t430 (msata port and ultrabay adapter) Hadlock fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Jul 14, 2013 |
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Jul 14, 2013 22:43
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Expresscard uses PCI-Express 2.0 starting with 2009 and forward http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express#PCI_Express_2.0 It's about 41% of a single thunderbolt channel, which is still plenty fast. Additional VRAM on the card probably would help in this situation to avoid a potential bandwidth bottleneck. Edit: Uncompressed 1080p video over HDMI is less than 3.96 Gbit/s (audio pushes it to almost 5, but games use a different port for audio) 
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Jul 16, 2013 00:45
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Other than aesthetics, the practical difference between a 0.7" thick laptop (typical 13" ultrabook) and a 1.2" thick laptop (typical T430) is that the thin laptop is always going to run hotter, and the fan louder. I have yet to run across a situation where I said to myself, "If only this laptop were 0.5" less thick, I could achieve X" Advantages of thicker laptop: Cooler Quieter Better Battery Life More User Servicable parts
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Jul 16, 2013 18:37
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Frankie! posted:I am midway through med school - I'll need to run around a lot since I have a number of different internships to do. So I need to be mobile. But I also need my viddy games... Buy a $700 thinkpad and a $400 console + $100 worth of accessories/controllers + 200 worth of game(s)/stop store credit
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Jul 18, 2013 00:20
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RAM prices skyrocketed sometime in the last six months. At one point Samsung was flooding the market with cheap ram to drive competitors out of business. Either Samsung ran out of money (unlikely) or they succeeded in their goal.shrughes posted:Today, today. 13" Vaio Pro, 13" Vaio Duo. Also the Clevo W230ST. As Revol pointed out - XPS 12 is 12" but I'd add this to the list. XPS 12 is pretty much the only Dell I'd be willing to recommend and stand behind as a solid product. If you want an X230 that's not fat and bulky and you're willing to pay $1250, it's the perfect device. Great linux support as well.
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Jul 18, 2013 22:47
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The previous owner was probably a corporate warehouse that realized they were shipped too many laptops and had the extras RMA'd to avoid paying for them. Or the employee left the company before the laptop they ordered for them arrived. This is mostly a corporate laptop, it's not a n HP Pavilion your aunt bought at Best Buy and returned after the dog knocked it off the coffee table.
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Jul 19, 2013 15:01
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There are a couple of Thinkpad x120's floating around in SA Mart on any given day. Generally under $450.
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Jul 22, 2013 04:53
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Bob Morales posted:It's a huge difference. 125+ ppi is about the point where people start to say "everything is too small", which is what 1080p on a 17" ends up being. 1366 is a comically large 92 ppi on a 17" screen. Here is my care-cat post from the last thread, I've also updated one of the OP posts with some more link spam and price history of thinkpads. At some point if I get bored at work I will graph Thinkpad price fluctuations over time. code:Hadlock fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Jul 23, 2013 |
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Jul 23, 2013 00:25
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