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WHERE MY HAT IS AT
Jan 7, 2011

CaladSigilon posted:

I am in the market for another laptop after my Sony is finally biting the dust after five long, hard years of work.

I'm looking for a laptop probably in the 13" range - light but sturdy is very important - and I think I'd like the power-savings of Haswell.

I've been eyeing the newest Sony's, and thinking of maybe waiting for the X Carbon to get Haswell in 2-3 months, but touch screens are just an annoyance to me (I don't use them and they gently caress up the picture), and I'm worried that everything in this size will have one. Is there any company that told Intel to go gently caress themselves re: the ultrabook spec? Should I just deal with it?

Any other suggestions?


Pretty much all of them are going to have touch screens. You're welcome to just ignore it and treat it like a regular laptop though, so I don't really see the problem :confused:

Edit: when you say they gently caress up the picture do you mean you see a difference even when you don't use the touch aspect? I don't think I've ever heard of that, but I also used lovely TN panels until like three months ago so don't go by me. You could look at a MBA?

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Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

Michael Scott posted:

Don't by Asus -- I bought a laptop from them like 5 years ago, and they stopped updating drivers to work with their custom onboard video/dedicated video card setup. Regular nVidia drivers cause the laptop to crash to a halt completely, and they stopped providing updated modified drivers in 2009. So my video drivers are from 2009, and I can't update.

It struggles with even brief HD content, and crashes nearly every time I try to watch a flash video over 5 minutes or so. :(

Wouldn't any computer that's 5 years old have trouble with modern video streaming?

butt dickus
Jul 7, 2007

top ten juiced up coaches
and the top ten juiced up players

WHERE MY HAT IS AT posted:

Pretty much all of them are going to have touch screens. You're welcome to just ignore it and treat it like a regular laptop though, so I don't really see the problem :confused:
I'm betting he means glossy vs. matte.

sourdough
Apr 30, 2012
Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus (great name ha) announced, 3200x1800, 12 hour battery, 1.4kg. I'm really hoping the battery life holds up; I was expecting new ultrabooks to be maybe 10 hours, given that the new Air is 12. Supposedly slightly better trackpad and keyboard than last gen Series 9, too.

fookolt
Mar 13, 2012

Where there is power
There is resistance

RVProfootballer posted:

Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus (great name ha) announced, 3200x1800, 12 hour battery, 1.4kg. I'm really hoping the battery life holds up; I was expecting new ultrabooks to be maybe 10 hours, given that the new Air is 12. Supposedly slightly better trackpad and keyboard than last gen Series 9, too.

drat, I love that everyone's finally moving to super high res screens. Hopefully Microsoft will actually implement something to improve the user experience with these screens.

It's a shame they don't mention the specific processor/GPU for the Plus.

bull3964
Nov 18, 2000

DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.


The real question is HD4400 or HD5000? If I can get an HD5000 GPU in there, I will be all over that.

butt dickus
Jul 7, 2007

top ten juiced up coaches
and the top ten juiced up players

RVProfootballer posted:

Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus (great name ha) announced, 3200x1800, 12 hour battery, 1.4kg. I'm really hoping the battery life holds up; I was expecting new ultrabooks to be maybe 10 hours, given that the new Air is 12. Supposedly slightly better trackpad and keyboard than last gen Series 9, too.
So 1366x768 is dying. Next up, kill 16:9.

I'll take a 2700x1800 Haswell Chromebook Pixel, please.

fookolt
Mar 13, 2012

Where there is power
There is resistance

Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:

So 1366x768 is dying. Next up, kill 16:9.

I'll take a 2700x1800 Haswell Chromebook Pixel, please.

Eh, I'm okay with 16:9 if we're talking 3200x1800. That's still more vertical than a 2560x1600 or 2560x1440.

bull3964 posted:

The real question is HD4400 or HD5000? If I can get an HD5000 GPU in there, I will be all over that.

Apparently, it's an HD4400 :smith:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/20/4449124/samsung-ativ-book-lite-notebook

fookolt fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Jun 20, 2013

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Michael Scott posted:

Don't by Asus -- I bought a laptop from them like 5 years ago,

You're basing your entire recommendation based off a single purchase 5 years ago?

GoonyMcGoonface
Sep 11, 2001

Friends don't left friends do ECB
Dinosaur Gum

Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:

I'm betting he means glossy vs. matte.

Ding, ding.

Bob Morales
Aug 18, 2006


Just wear the fucking mask, Bob

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:

So 1366x768 is dying. Next up, kill 16:9.

I'll take a 2700x1800 Haswell Chromebook Pixel, please.

With upgradeable RAM and HD of course.

Sultry Fungus
Oct 29, 2006

Phallic Fungus make me happy.
Lenovo just announced their refreshed IdeaPad lineup: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/20/lenovo-u330-touch-u440-touch-y410p-s200-touch-s400-touch

WHERE MY HAT IS AT
Jan 7, 2011
Just came to post this.
That SLI 750s has to be a misprint, right? That would be some sweet gaming power in a small form factor if it's not.

But no yoga. God drat it.

Sultry Fungus
Oct 29, 2006

Phallic Fungus make me happy.

WHERE MY HAT IS AT posted:

Just came to post this.
That SLI 750s has to be a misprint, right? That would be some sweet gaming power in a small form factor if it's not.

But no yoga. God drat it.

A haswell yoga is what I'm waiting on too, hopefully soon!

Gnomedolf
Jun 9, 2013

Freelance Gynecologist
Everyone praises the high resolution screens on Windows laptops....until you lose your sight from squinting so much.

precedence
Jun 28, 2010

WHERE MY HAT IS AT posted:

Just came to post this.
That SLI 750s has to be a misprint, right? That would be some sweet gaming power in a small form factor if it's not.

But no yoga. God drat it.

wow, that's crazy. it would *sorta* make sense, the y500 has SLI 650m's. The new razer blade is 14 inches and super thin, so maybe that's where things are headed?

shrughes
Oct 11, 2008

(call/cc call/cc)

WHERE MY HAT IS AT posted:

Just came to post this.
That SLI 750s has to be a misprint, right? That would be some sweet gaming power in a small form factor if it's not.

The second 750M replaces the optical drive in the ultrabay.

Edit: You can get SLI in the Y510p, but not the Y410p.

InstantInfidel
Jan 9, 2010

BEST :10bux: I EVER SPENT

WHERE MY HAT IS AT posted:

Just came to post this.
That SLI 750s has to be a misprint, right? That would be some sweet gaming power in a small form factor if it's not.

But no yoga. God drat it.


precedence posted:

wow, that's crazy. it would *sorta* make sense, the y500 has SLI 650m's. The new razer blade is 14 inches and super thin, so maybe that's where things are headed?

A lot of theoretical power that's pretty constrained by a tiny thermal envelope that results in throttling and the (admittedly much improved) drawbacks of SLI, including microstuttering. It makes a lot more sense to either get a single 750M or get a better GPU altogether.

Seamonster
Apr 30, 2007

IMMER SIEGREICH
Yeah I believe the proper course of action is: replace hdd with ssd and move hdd to ultrabay using some caddy.

Sendo
Jul 26, 2011

That new Samsung with the dumb name seems pretty good but I bet they are going to gently caress up the price.

mewse
May 2, 2006

Yeah if it succeeds at being a macbook air that isn't a pretentious piece of poo poo then it might be pretty successful

sourdough
Apr 30, 2012

Sendo posted:

That new Samsung with the dumb name seems pretty good but I bet they are going to gently caress up the price.

Well, what price should it be? It's the thing everyone has wanted, a Macbook Air with a super high res screen. It'll be at least whatever a 13" rMBP costs, yeah? Probably a bit more.

DrDork
Dec 29, 2003
commanding officer of the Army of Dorkness

InstantInfidel posted:

A lot of theoretical power that's pretty constrained by a tiny thermal envelope that results in throttling and the (admittedly much improved) drawbacks of SLI, including microstuttering. It makes a lot more sense to either get a single 750M or get a better GPU altogether.
More like constrained by a 1600x900 max resolution screen. Who needs SLI for that?

Cretin90
Apr 10, 2006
Toyed with the idea of a gaming desktop awhile back, priced it out around $900 and was set to pull the trigger, but suffered a crisis. Realized I don't value face-melting performance as much as mobility and being able to move easily around the house with my laptop, and I don't count a ~7 lb laptop as too heavy. With that in mind, I am willing to pay more for a laptop than a desktop PC, and am willing to accept significantly lower performance. Disclaimers done.

What do you think of this laptop? My goal here is to get the top performance possible for my dollar without reaching the zone of diminishing returns (over $1,200 by the OP's description). Specific games include Path of Exile, Borderlands 2, Guild Wars 2.

    Sager NP8230 (Clevo P151SM1)
    15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080)
    i7-4700MQ (2.4 GHz)
    Nvidia GeForce GTX 770M 3GB
    8GB RAM @ 1,600MHz
    750GB HDD @ 7200 RPM (note: do not require or even overly desire SSD)
    1 year warranty

Runs about $1,165 without an OS.

Questions:
  • More RAM? Main uses are just gaming, "multimedia," multitasking. No compiling or video editing. 12GB runs $35, and 16GB $49. Would like to stream music while playing games, and things like that.
  • Do 15.6" laptops with this kind of hardware experience heat dispersion problems? Should I be looking into a 17.3" laptop instead?
  • Is this a good screen (in terms of panel type) or should I be aiming for something more for my money? (I hear a lot about IPS in this thread, but I have no idea how to check if it is just a TFT. Complete, buzz-word laden text: "15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Matte Type Sager Screen.")
  • Good deal? Yeah, it's a subjective question, but I'd like some opinions on this.

Anyway, forgive my ignorance, I tried to do my research but am not so hot on computers.

Sendo
Jul 26, 2011

RVProfootballer posted:

Well, what price should it be? It's the thing everyone has wanted, a Macbook Air with a super high res screen. It'll be at least whatever a 13" rMBP costs, yeah? Probably a bit more.

Yeah that's a good point I didn't really consider it as a rMBP competitor, although those will probably get refreshed with a HD5000. However if it's priced in that area would it really be worth paying $400+ extra over the MBA/Sony Vaio Pro 13" when it's only real advantage is it's resolution (which isn't a huge selling point running Windows)

Cretin90 posted:

What do you think of this laptop?
The Clevo machines are almost impossible to beat for performace/price but it comes at the expense of weight/size and battery life, if you're only going to be using it as a replacement desktop that gets moved occasionally then these things are not that much of a concern.

quote:

750GB HDD @ 7200 RPM (note: do not require or even overly desire SSD)
Assuming this is customisable like most Clevo resellers are you should be able to keep this drive and add a msata SSD, which you should definitely be considering.

quote:

More RAM? Main uses are just gaming, "multimedia," multitasking. No compiling or video editing. 12GB runs $35, and 16GB $49. Would like to stream music while playing games, and things like that.
No 8GB is fine, you can always upgrade it later easily enough.

quote:

Do 15.6" laptops with this kind of hardware experience heat dispersion problems? Should I be looking into a 17.3" laptop instead?
These things are as thick as they are because of the extra cooling required, a friend has an Ivy Bridge version of a similar Clevo and hasn't had an issue.

quote:

Is this a good screen (in terms of panel type)
It's not an IPS, the one I used seemed decent though at least I couldn't really notice anything wrong with it.

It is overkill for those games though, if they have one based off the Clevo W650SR with Haswell that might be worth a look as it's much lighter/thinner and would still play those games easily.

Vinlaen
Feb 19, 2008

Are most laptop fans extremely loud?

I've purchased a new Macbook Air and when playing games the fan is very, very loud.

modig
Aug 20, 2002
I'm trying to help my brother pick out a laptop for college, and ever since getting my MBA I can't recommend buying a computer without an ssd in it. If given the option between a hybrid drive, or a cache ssd using Intel Smart Response Technology, which performs better?

Twerk from Home
Jan 17, 2009

This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.

modig posted:

I'm trying to help my brother pick out a laptop for college, and ever since getting my MBA I can't recommend buying a computer without an ssd in it. If given the option between a hybrid drive, or a cache ssd using Intel Smart Response Technology, which performs better?

Are these really the only options? Your best bet would be getting a laptop you like and swapping in a 120GB or 240GB SSD.

Gunshow Poophole
Sep 14, 2008

OMBUDSMAN
POSTERS LOCAL 42069




Clapping Larry

Vinlaen posted:

Are most laptop fans extremely loud?

I've purchased a new Macbook Air and when playing games the fan is very, very loud.

The smaller the fan, the faster it has to run to move a decent volume of air, so yes. I have a 2011 samsung series 7 and it loving screams when anything heavier than web browsing is going on.

Probably looking at upgrading sometime soon to an ultrabook, that new Zenbook with the gorilla glass back looks sexy as hell.

hooah
Feb 6, 2006
WTF?
Along those lines how practical is it to reformat the small SSD that comes in some of the ThinkPads and install Windows on it?

modig
Aug 20, 2002

Weinertron posted:

Are these really the only options? Your best bet would be getting a laptop you like and swapping in a 120GB or 240GB SSD.

No not really but it costs a lot less and seems like it should get you like 80% of the way there if it is done well.

Macichne Leainig
Jul 26, 2012

by VG

modig posted:

No not really but it costs a lot less and seems like it should get you like 80% of the way there if it is done well.

For what it's worth, I swapped in a hybrid drive into my current laptop because like 80% of other sub-$400 laptops the hard drive it shipped with was slow as hell. It did make a good performance boost. Although I can't comment on how long they last, it is a decent inbetween traditional platter drives and SSD, especially where space is concerned.

I unfortunately have no idea how the cache SSDs affect performance, but I'd be wary of the hard drive it's paired with being a piece of poo poo.

OXBALLS DOT COM
Sep 11, 2005

by FactsAreUseless
Young Orc

hooah posted:

Along those lines how practical is it to reformat the small SSD that comes in some of the ThinkPads and install Windows on it?

Why would you do that? Just buy a regular one and install your own SSD.

hooah
Feb 6, 2006
WTF?

Cream_Filling posted:

Why would you do that? Just buy a regular one and install your own SSD.

Because some of them come with it already installed? Why pay for a hard drive twice (well, I guess like 1.5 times)?

butt dickus
Jul 7, 2007

top ten juiced up coaches
and the top ten juiced up players

hooah posted:

Because some of them come with it already installed? Why pay for a hard drive twice (well, I guess like 1.5 times)?
Because you can buy an SSD yourself for half the manufacturer's upgrade cost. Plus you still get the mechanical drive as a bonus.

Twerk from Home
Jan 17, 2009

This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.

hooah posted:

Because some of them come with it already installed? Why pay for a hard drive twice (well, I guess like 1.5 times)?

Put the old mechanical drive in a PS3 or sell it on craigslist or something.

Seamonster
Apr 30, 2007

IMMER SIEGREICH
Anybody have experience with the Lenovo U series?

http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/20/lenovo-u330-touch-u440-touch-y410p-s200-touch-s400-touch/

That 14 incher with 1080p and dedicated graphics looks tasty.

sports
Sep 1, 2012

RVProfootballer posted:

Samsung Ativ Book 9 Plus (great name ha) announced, 3200x1800, 12 hour battery, 1.4kg. I'm really hoping the battery life holds up; I was expecting new ultrabooks to be maybe 10 hours, given that the new Air is 12. Supposedly slightly better trackpad and keyboard than last gen Series 9, too.

Hopefully the touchpad isn't something awful. Too bad it has a touch panel.

a_pineapple
Dec 23, 2005


My boss wants a new laptop for MS Office, general web surfing, and a proprietary .net application. Can't be an Apple, unfortunately.
No real heavy lifting, and it will be plugged in most of its life on a desk.
I was thinking something like a refurbished Thinkpad T410. Anyone have any other recommendations under $600?
(I'm an Apple guy, so I don't really know what's out there these days!)

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hooah
Feb 6, 2006
WTF?

Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:

Because you can buy an SSD yourself for half the manufacturer's upgrade cost. Plus you still get the mechanical drive as a bonus.

We might not be talking about the same thing. Are you also talking about the SSD that's a secondary sort of cache drive, or are you only talking primary drive?

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