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Cream_Filling posted:The screen in the T530 is a TN screen, however it is a very good TN screen with good color reproduction. The IPS in the Sony is alright, though lots of people complain about it having color issues with red-orange. Orangegate was fixed late autumn last year.
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Jun 13, 2013 23:37
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fookolt posted:And what's the max memory for it? Max memory is 32gb, however you can't buy SO-DIMMs larger than 8GB currently so you're physically limited to 16gb Swapping the drive is a single screw, then just slides out and the SSD slides in like an old NES cartridge
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Jun 14, 2013 02:17
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Wait . . . so the Ideapads have Haswell chips but not the Thinkpads? Also, is there a further faculty/student discount after the B&N link or is that B&N link the actual faculty/student discount? What I am wondering is if you can stack coupons here. Also: Is the IdeaPad Y510p Laptop THAT much worse than the ThinkPad W530? Getting the Quadro over the NVIDIA GeForce GT750M seems to be the big difference for me. However the Ideapad has MUCH more HD space (and SSD), the Haswell CPU, Blu ray with HDMI out, and a built in camera. The only reason I can see getting the W530 is that Quadro GPU and someone said the difference was negligable. sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Jun 14, 2013 |
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Jun 14, 2013 03:31
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So I went out and kind of impulsively bought a laptop, since I didn't have one. It's an Asus Vivobook, the U38DT - I can't really find much information about it that isn't in German, even though I bought this thing from Best Buy in Canada. It has: - AMD A8-4555M - 6GB DDR3 RAM - Switchable graphics (HD8550M 1GB dedicated, 7600M 512MB integrated) - 500GB Hard Drive I'm a little confused by the switchable graphics - I haven't really found a good way to tell which one is running at any given time. I paid $699 for it, and it's pretty thin and light, I also like the aluminum brushed finish. Overall, aesthetically, it's near perfect for what I want. I haven't had a modern laptop in quite awhile though, so it's kind of hard for me to gauge performance. I've still got a good 25 days left to bring this thing back no questions asked, and I'm wondering if I'm going to eventually regret going with the apparently underpowered AMD APU platform. Would a similarly priced Intel-based be that much better? Has anyone else even used the U38DT that can give me their opinion on it? it seems pretty new to North America from what I can tell.
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Jun 14, 2013 03:50
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A Haswell x230t with Windows 8 and SSD for $1000 would be swell. Maybe even a discrete GPU too. Pretty please?
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Jun 14, 2013 04:23
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sigma 6 posted:Wait . . . so the Ideapads have Haswell chips but not the Thinkpads? The discounts are almost all either/or deals, so if you've got a student discount you should compare and see which gives you the better price, but no they're not going to let you stack discounts like that. Unless their website fucks up, which it's known to do, so might as well give it a shot. The IdeaPad is worse than the ThinkPad in terms of reliability and durability, no question. The W530 is the type of laptop you can sit on a desk and then when your rear end in a top hat co-worker trips over the cord and it crashes to the floor, you can just pick back up and be reasonably confident nothing broke. The IdeaPad would probably crack in half. There is a reason that the USMC's secret computers (that we care about) are all ThinkPads, but the day-to-day poo poo machines are all Dell and HP junkers. But yes, right now, today, the IdeaPad packs the better internals pretty much all the way around. The real answer, of course, is to not get impatient--wait another week or two and see what the new ThinkPads look like. You can expect that the internals will be fairly similar to the Y510p, but with a build quality that can't be beat.
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Jun 14, 2013 06:16
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DrDork posted:Right this moment, yes, there are (some) Ideapads available with Haswell chips, while there are no Thinkpads (yet). This will change over the next few weeks as Lenovo fleshes out the rest of their lineup with upgraded machines. Arrgh. I was going to pull the trigger tonight. Sounds like I should wait one more pay period. Thank you for the prompt response. Leaning towards seeing what the W530 Haswell upgrade will look like. Just wish I knew how long I have to wait.
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Jun 14, 2013 06:22
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sigma 6 posted:Arrgh. I was going to pull the trigger tonight. Sounds like I should wait one more pay period. Thank you for the prompt response. Leaning towards seeing what the W530 Haswell upgrade will look like. Just wish I knew how long I have to wait. You're telling me. I'm waiting to pull the trigger on a yoga 13, it's killing me
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Jun 14, 2013 06:27
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WHERE MY HAT IS AT posted:You're telling me. I'm waiting to pull the trigger on a yoga 13, it's killing me Wow. If that Yoga 13 came with a Haswell, Nvidia GPU and a Wacom digitizer, I would be all over that for digital illustration. A lot of people like the Microsoft Surface Pro for digital painting but I can't bring myself to buy a tablet just yet. A transformer on the other hand . . . hmm. Just ran a search and the Lenovo forums are saying September / October Not sure how accurate that is but the consensus is that it takes a couple of months for new chips to get integrated into the Thinkpads. sigma 6 fucked around with this message at 08:26 on Jun 14, 2013 |
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Jun 14, 2013 06:36
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shrughes posted:I haven't looked closely at the Vaio Fit 15E's reviews but I think it has a good or pretty good display for around <$600. That might not be true, maybe it merely has a decent 1920x1080 display. The screen is very good if you are able to look head on. Viewing angles are really pathetic but what can you do about TN screens on consumer-focused laptops? Taking this into account, its probably not the best screen for photo editing. Its also feels extremely heavy, more so than your typical 15" laptop, and I'm not entirely sure why this is the case. Talking about Vaios, I've also taken a look at the 13" Vaio Pro. I dunno what The Verge is talking about regarding the keyboard. The laptop itself is floppy if you intentionally look for flex but the keyboard is one of the better chiclet keyboards on the market and there isn't any noticeable flex under normal use. Key travel is good and there's actual tactile feedback too. The trackpad is definitely suffering from driver problems, though. jeffreyw fucked around with this message at 10:05 on Jun 14, 2013 |
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Jun 14, 2013 09:55
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My x230 arrived yesterday and overall I’m happy with it. The only thing I really dislike is the touchpad, it’s just not a good size or shape and is weirdly rattly. Not good, but not worth returning it and the nipple thing is fine. I started up my Sony E-series to see what applications I should stick on it and in comparison the whole machine is hilariously flexible. The screen on the sony is better though. I’ve just bought a SSD to stick in it and am wondering whether to just do a clean Windows install on it, ghost over the recovery partition and install from that, or just copy over the whole drive as is. There’s a whole load of preinstalled Lenovo software and it’s not really clear whether it’s useful or necessary. On previous machines I’ve been happy to let Windows do everything, but the Lenovo applications look relatively useful and this machine has the Ericsson WWAN card which I’d like to use. So can I ask the Thinkpad people here which of those preloaded applications you keep? I got about 110 services running on startup which isn’t making me very happy. For info the SSD is a Samsung 840 non-Pro 250GB. I was being cheap, don’t hate me.
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Jun 14, 2013 13:46
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knox_harrington posted:The screen on the sony is better though. knox_harrington posted:For info the SSD is a Samsung 840 non-Pro 250GB. I was being cheap, don’t hate me.
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Jun 14, 2013 14:04
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What's this thread's opinion on extended warranties? I basically treat my laptops like a desktop - my last one was actually moved only 5 or 6 times in as many years, not counting when I put it aside to dust around it - and handle the things like they're made of Faberge eggs and spider silk in any case. Is a warranty past the basic manufacturer's worth the expense given that kind of treatment?
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Jun 14, 2013 14:25
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For me it's based on cost of the laptop. If I'm getting a Thinkpad T430 for $650 I wouldn't bother with the extra warranty. I always get Applecare for my Macs though.
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Jun 14, 2013 14:27
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Bob Morales posted:No IPS on your X230? No it's just the standard non premium one. It's not terrible, and weirdly seemed to get sharper aftet I updated the drivers, which I don't understand. Vvv that's amazing! Not sure I really want to crack open my new laptop's screen case and start mucking about with it. knox_harrington fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Jun 14, 2013 |
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Jun 14, 2013 14:33
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knox_harrington posted:No it's just the standard non premium one. It's not terrible, and weirdly seemed to get sharper aftet I updated the drivers, which I don't understand.
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Jun 14, 2013 14:38
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Oxxidation posted:What's this thread's opinion on extended warranties? In the end, always remember that they wouldn't offer extended warranties if they didn't make money on them.
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Jun 14, 2013 17:33
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DrDork posted:Extended warranties are very much a personal preference and should be bounced off how reliable you expect the machine to be, and how much abuse you intend to put it through. A ThinkPad that stays on the desk all day? Probably wasted money. That ASUS you plan on backpacking through Europe with? Probably money well spent. That said, note that most of the warranties unless they explicitly state otherwise do not cover the battery wearing out, nor do they cover accidental damage. Battery warranties are almost all useless, as they usually cost as much (or more!) than just buying a new battery anyhow. Accidental damage plans are a decent idea if you expect to be banging the laptop around a lot. Perfect. That's a "no" on this system, then. I'd rivet my laptops to my desk if it didn't make them harder to clean.
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Jun 14, 2013 17:54
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Oxxidation posted:Perfect. That's a "no" on this system, then. I'd rivet my laptops to my desk if it didn't make them harder to clean. They call that a "desktop."
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Jun 14, 2013 18:12
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Oxxidation posted:Perfect. That's a "no" on this system, then. I'd rivet my laptops to my desk if it didn't make them harder to clean.
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Jun 14, 2013 18:19
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Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:Well if you want to upgrade in the future it looks like the IPS panel is $75 plus shipping. I'm guessing there's no proper HD screen for the X230 you can get?
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Jun 14, 2013 18:43
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Oxxidation posted:Perfect. That's a "no" on this system, then. I'd rivet my laptops to my desk if it didn't make them harder to clean. Mind if I ask why you don't just get a desktop? If you plan on never moving it you are pretty much throwing away money by buying a laptop.
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Jun 14, 2013 18:48
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Mega Comrade posted:Mind if I ask why you don't just get a desktop? If you plan on never moving it you are pretty much throwing away money by buying a laptop. Short story is that my living space doesn't really allow for it.
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Jun 14, 2013 19:09
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Oxxidation posted:Short story is that my living space doesn't really allow for it. http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/nuc.html e: there's also iMacs and other all-in-ones.
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Jun 14, 2013 19:12
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Mega Comrade posted:Mind if I ask why you don't just get a desktop? If you plan on never moving it you are pretty much throwing away money by buying a laptop. Not to say that people who can have desktops shouldn't, I'm just saying there certainly are those outside cases.
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Jun 14, 2013 19:15
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My grandmother has a 15" laptop. She uses it about an hour a week to write email. The rest of the time it lives closed leaned up against the couch in the living room. She's from a different era, my grandfather has a full office with a computer, while her "sewing room" has no flat surface to put a computer
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Jun 15, 2013 01:18
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Hadlock posted:My grandmother has a 15" laptop. She uses it about an hour a week to write email. The rest of the time it lives closed leaned up against the couch in the living room. She's from a different era, my grandfather has a full office with a computer, while her "sewing room" has no flat surface to put a computer My grandmother has a desktop in her sewing room still. Actually its well past time for replacement, next time around I think it will be a laptop (may as well keep the 19" 1280x1024 external monitor though - talk about huge text)
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Jun 15, 2013 02:21
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I have an x120e that I bought a couple of years ago. Power Manager says that the remaining capacity is 30.85 instead of the original 56.16Wh and that it's at a cycle count of 581. Does that seem reasonable? I was thinking of trying the battery gauge reset in the hope it might improve, but googling for it just seems to find a forum post of someone saying it killed his battery. Has anyone else used it? I'm asking here because I know lots of people here have had x120es, and if it doesn't improve I'll be buying whatever Haswell Thinkpad Lenovo come up with, maybe an updated x230.
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Jun 15, 2013 03:07
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I'm looking for a 13-15" Windows laptop that's cheap, reliable, and has good form factor. It's for my mom who doesn't lug it around every day, so weight + battery life are less of an issue. It will be mainly used for internet use (netflix, etc) and Word, but I'm leaning away from a Chromebook because I don't think she's up for learning a new way of using the computer. Haswell would be nice but certainly not necessary. Budget is <$700. T430 maybe?
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Jun 15, 2013 05:37
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knox_harrington posted:My x230 arrived yesterday and overall I’m happy with it. The only thing I really dislike is the touchpad, it’s just not a good size or shape and is weirdly rattly. Not good, but not worth returning it and the nipple thing is fine. I am quoting this in a couple of months when you tell us how you just can't live without a nipple mouse anymore.
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Jun 15, 2013 12:59
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knox_harrington posted:My x230 arrived yesterday and overall I’m happy with it. I've been hovering over the buy button on that laptop for a week or so now. It's above my planned budget but it's such a highly rated laptop and with such a huge discount I think I'll just spend the extra £100 for £500 extra worth of quality. You mentioned SSD, what size does it take? The standard 2.5 or the slightly thinner ones?
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Jun 15, 2013 13:53
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Alright so I am receiving a new Macbook Pro soon with the new retina screen. Basically I want to from the very outset efficiently partition it to i) Play games on Windows and ii) Use Linux in a sort of maximum security/TOR/Cryptography optimising environment. Whats the best 3-4 step process I could do and incorporate any other tools/specific software do you think?
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Jun 15, 2013 14:35
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Mega Comrade posted:I've been hovering over the buy button on that laptop for a week or so now. It's above my planned budget but it's such a highly rated laptop and with such a huge discount I think I'll just spend the extra £100 for £500 extra worth of quality. It's a 7mm 2.5" drive, the same thickness as every SDD I have (Sandisk Extreme, samsung 830 and 840). When I looked earlier it's been reduced a bit more, £529 now. I noticed just now it doesn't have a webcam - but I think it only has the 2x2 antenna so I don't know what's going on there. I had a bit of difficulty copying the system over from the HDD to the new SSD, I tried copying the recovery partition with Ghost but couldn't then boot from it. I used a windows 7 pro iso image in the end, but it's apparently not activated and I need to call microsoft to sort it out :-|
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Jun 15, 2013 15:24
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Can anyone recommend a place to get the Asus Zenbook UX31a? Is Amazon fine? Do I need to shop around for laptop retailers or are they all competitive? I'm not in a rush to get it.
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Jun 15, 2013 16:40
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eXXon posted:A Haswell x230t with Windows 8 and SSD for $1000 would be swell. Maybe even a discrete GPU too. Pretty please? Isn't the X230t EOL'd? At least that's what our corporate IT purchaser says (I know, rumors and such). We deployed like 1000 X230t's in October 2012 and now our IT department is trying to figure out what we will use when things start to break and replacement machines are necessary.
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Jun 15, 2013 16:41
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Things... break on a Thinkpad? Well, to be fair, I'm not sure the card reader on my R500 worked for more than a few months, and the cable connecting the trackpad to the motherboard is close enough to the wristpad surface that if you press too hard, you can temporarily disable both the touchpad (whatever) and trackpoint (noooo).
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Jun 15, 2013 17:05
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knox_harrington posted:It's a 7mm 2.5" drive, the same thickness as every SDD I have (Sandisk Extreme, samsung 830 and 840). No webcam, hmm annoying but I can always just buy a £10 one and keep it in a draw for when I need it. Apart from the touchpad (I'm a nipple man myself so it doesn't bother me) are there any faults you would lay on it? How's the thickness and weight? Cheers in advance. Mega Comrade fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Jun 15, 2013 |
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Jun 15, 2013 17:14
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eXXon posted:Things... break on a Thinkpad? I've seen some come in with *tire tracks* on them. As in, yeah, that happened. If used properly, they will last a lifetime. When you run over it, not so much. Employees don't give a drat in general. It's not theirs...something wrong? Ship it back!
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Jun 15, 2013 17:39
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Mega Comrade posted:No webcam, hmm annoying but I can always just buy a £10 one and keep it in a draw for when I need it. To be honest there really isn't much to fault. The screen isn't very high resolution, it's 1366 x 768, which I thought would be the biggest problem but hasn't bothered me at all so far - I've only been surfing the web though, no work done on it yet. If I had a choice I'd have got a backlit keyboard but not a huge deal I guess. It barely weighs any more than my netbook, I guess it might look a little bit thick next to a macbook air or a new ultrabook, but it's still really small and light. Also because of the construction I wouldn't have a problem with chucking it in a bag where I'd be a bit precious with an Air. Overall I think it's great for the money.
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Jun 15, 2013 18:22
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knox_harrington posted:To be honest there really isn't much to fault. The screen isn't very high resolution, it's 1366 x 768, which I thought would be the biggest problem but hasn't bothered me at all so far - I've only been surfing the web though, no work done on it yet. If I had a choice I'd have got a backlit keyboard but not a huge deal I guess. It barely weighs any more than my netbook, I guess it might look a little bit thick next to a macbook air or a new ultrabook, but it's still really small and light. Also because of the construction I wouldn't have a problem with chucking it in a bag where I'd be a bit precious with an Air. Sounds excellent. Does it not have the keyboard light at the top of the lid? Most of the video reviews had it.
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Jun 15, 2013 18:28
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