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teknetik
Jan 13, 2010

SO
JEWISH
Asus G75VW, for a budget gaming laptop, how well off would I be with this? Plan on playing essentially one game only (FFXIV).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231002

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signalnoise
Mar 7, 2008

i was told my old av was distracting
My father in law is a former OSHA inspector and works as a freelance inspector now that he's retired. He needs a new laptop, and his budget is 400 dollars. He only needs to show powerpoint presentations, do VERY light word processing, and access his email. Is a Chromebook with 3G an option for this guy? Is there some sort of huge upsetting drawback with them other than being really low power/utility? I am thinking this could be like the one time I've ever seen where I could tell someone get a Chromebook and they'll be fine, so long as they can use google drive.

surf rock
Aug 12, 2007

We need more women in STEM, and by that, I mean skateboarding, television, esports, and magic.

DrDork posted:

Unless you have some very specific requirement that you know would benefit from the i7's, no, there's no reason to spend that much. For general use and gaming purposes, the cheapest i5 is sufficient.

What are some use cases for an i7? It strikes me that ThinkPads are unlikely to break down conventionally, so most users replace them due to very obsolete hardware. Wouldn't going with an i7 processor stave that off for some amount of time (six months, a year)? It'll still become obsolete before long regardless, of course, but additional processing power would seem to delay the tipping point of becoming too obsolete.

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!

surf rock posted:

What are some use cases for an i7? It strikes me that ThinkPads are unlikely to break down conventionally, so most users replace them due to very obsolete hardware. Wouldn't going with an i7 processor stave that off for some amount of time (six months, a year)? It'll still become obsolete before long regardless, of course, but additional processing power would seem to delay the tipping point of becoming too obsolete.

A processor like the i7 might only buy you 10-15% overhead over an i5. Normally a laptop becomes 'obsolete' when it can't meet the minimum requirements to run an OS, or it's just too plain slow to do so. Laptops with older Intel integrated graphics can be painfully slow these days, and OS X has dropped support for them (Think pre-HD3000). Another example are Pentium M laptops which can't run 64-bit code. So you're stuck with a 32-bit OS (which really isn't the end of the world...). The next limiting factor is memory support. An older laptop that can only support 1GB or 2GB of RAM can be borderline unusable these days. Last, think about hard drives. Laptops that didn't come with SATA support require you to use the older style hard drives which are smaller, slower, and can be harder to find.

Besides that, newer laptops have much longer lasting batteries and things like nice big touchpads, plus things like USB 3.0, HDMI or DisplayPort output, have better integrated wireless, and better or higher-resolution screens, so it's worth upgrading because of one or more of those features.

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

surf rock posted:

What are some use cases for an i7? It strikes me that ThinkPads are unlikely to break down conventionally, so most users replace them due to very obsolete hardware. Wouldn't going with an i7 processor stave that off for some amount of time (six months, a year)? It'll still become obsolete before long regardless, of course, but additional processing power would seem to delay the tipping point of becoming too obsolete.
Mostly i7's are useful for people who are doing very computationally-heavy workloads. Things like compiling programs, certain types of graphics rendering, etc. They're all professional-end things, though, and pretty much if you fell into a category of people who were likely to ever need an i7 over an i5, you'd probably already know it.

For anyone who wants to do gaming with a laptop, whatever GPU you end up with will be what makes your laptop obsolete years before you ever worry about the CPU.

Naffer
Oct 26, 2004

Not a good chemist

Bob Morales posted:

Besides that, newer laptops have much longer lasting batteries and things like nice big touchpads, plus things like USB 3.0, HDMI or DisplayPort output, have better integrated wireless, and better or higher-resolution screens, so it's worth upgrading because of one or more of those features.

Also, lithium ion batteries age, so a 4 year old laptop often has abysmal battery life compared to when it was new.
4 years ago a decent laptop had a 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo with 2 to 4 GB of RAM. If you paid a lot more you might have picked up a 2.8 GHz core 2 duo. Even today, there isn't much that the latter more expensive option can handle that the cheaper one couldn't.

Whip Slagcheek
Sep 21, 2008

Finally
The Gasoline And Dynamite
Will Light The Sky
For The Night


Ordered the new XPS 12 with Haswell. Had a bunch of AMEX rewards points to burn up so it ended up being a pretty good deal. Will give a trip report when it arrives.

victrix
Oct 30, 2007


Is there any way to identify if a laptop has an IPS display? The 'tech specs' pages are borderline useless since they won't spell out if its IPS or TN.

shrughes
Oct 11, 2008

(call/cc call/cc)

victrix posted:

Is there any way to identify if a laptop has an IPS display? The 'tech specs' pages are borderline useless since they won't spell out if its IPS or TN.

Reviews. Ask us. What tech specs page?

victrix
Oct 30, 2007


shrughes posted:

Reviews. Ask us. What tech specs page?

I was looking at the various thinkpads on their homepage specifically, but more generally at any Haswell laptop I can find.

It's looking like price will dictate I should get an Ivybridge though, given how new the Haswell chips are.

In either case though, I definitely don't want a TN laptop, my last one was and it was quite awful :<

WHERE MY HAT IS AT
Jan 7, 2011
There's a pretty big variance in the quality of TN panels. IPS is generally better, but not every TN panel is godawful.

greazeball
Feb 4, 2003



Is anything still recommended from last year's ultrabooks? I'm finally ready to ditch my beloved ThinkPads for something more lightweight, but I'm also hoping to do it cheaply and stay on Windows 7. Lightweight, sturdy, long battery life are the main considerations for me. I'm not really interested in a touchscreen even if I do end up with Windows 8.

I've only just started looking, but the Acer Aspire S3-391-6046 and Toshiba Satellite U845t-S4165 seem OK. I know the Toshiba comes with the touchscreen, I guess I'm wondering if people think touchscreens will really last or if Microsoft is going to relent on their one-OS-for-all-devices strategy and make a more desktop-friendly version of Windows again in the future.

My use case will be mostly word processing (I'm a teacher/student), web browsing and some presentations so I guess VGA out and an Ethernet port will be good to have too.

dpkg chopra
Jun 9, 2007

Fast Food Fight

Grimey Drawer
So, I want to buy a laptop and I need it by or before September 30th.

I'd like it to be able to play videogames decently well. I don't care about running stuff at max settings and for 99% of the time I'll be playing games at 1440*900 or 720p. I'm trying to get rid of consoles, so ideally it will also be able to run emulators as far up as the Dolphin, but that's optional.

Videogaming will almost exclusively done when it's plugged in, so I'd like it to have a decent battery life when doing work stuff.

I'd like it to have an SSD (I'm ok with buying an SSD separately).

I'd like it to be relatively light. Not Macbook Air light, just light enough that I can carry it around from place to place in a backpack.

Ideally it would be quiet enough that I wouldn't hear it over the sound of whatever game/movie I'm currently playing/watching.

Would rather use Windows (will most likely end up installing Windows 7 even if it comes with 8). Don't care about touchscreens.

My budget is up to $1200.

Any recommendations?

Edit: for reference, I've been gaming with an Intel E8400, Radeon HD4850, 6GB DDR2 RAM system for the past 3-4 years and I've never felt it to be a problem, so as long as the notebook is better than that, performance wise, I'm happy.

dpkg chopra fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Aug 5, 2013

FISHMANPET
Mar 3, 2007

Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams
I really want to wait for an i5 Haswell for a laptop for my mom, but they're just soooo far away. Any word on when they're coming, or at least something more than "Q3 2013?"

Noah
May 31, 2011

Come at me baby bitch
Are the ThinkPad T440s going to drive down the 430s prices a lot? I want to pick up a new laptop for grad school in the fall, but I do have a working laptop right now, so it's not urgent, but this beast is 7.2lbs and I want something significantly lighter. The 430s seems to fit the bill pretty well, though if I had the extra cash I'd spring for the 431s.

Is the screen on the 430s really that terrible? Also I've been using a Dell Vostro 1400 for the last 7 years, so anything is gonna be an upgrade to its unpleasantness.

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!

Noah posted:

Are the ThinkPad T440s going to drive down the 430s prices a lot?
Not really - the 430s won't be built anymore. You might get lucky and get a closeout or refurb though.

quote:

Is the screen on the 430s really that terrible?
Yes

Noah
May 31, 2011

Come at me baby bitch
Do you have a recommendation for something in 3-4lbs range, under $900?

Inspector_666
Oct 7, 2003

benny with the good hair

FISHMANPET posted:

I really want to wait for an i5 Haswell for a laptop for my mom, but they're just soooo far away. Any word on when they're coming, or at least something more than "Q3 2013?"

I'm figuring they'll be ready to go by Black Friday, but that's not actually based on anything concrete aside from the fact of the "holiday."

I read the OP and got all excited to go laptop shopping (my HP Mini 311 is great, but the Atom is really showing its lack of power nowadays) until I realized nothing using Haswell is actually out yet :(

turnways
Jun 22, 2004

Hey folks, I'm in the market for a laptop with some unique features that I could use some help on. I've done a bit of homework and come up with some solutions, but I was hoping there might be some other ones I'm missing I could possibly consider.

I'm a concept artist for a video game company, and right now I'm using a hodgepodge of a few different devices to do all my mobile work/play on. I've got an older tablet PC, an iPad with a Pogo Connect stylus, and my Cintiq with a full desktop at home. The iPad, while decent for sketching, doesn't really fit my workflow all that well, and my old tablet is sorely outdated for the type of images I'm creating these days (huge paintings, lot of layers, some 3d stuff mixed in). Ideally, I'd like to get a new tablet PC utilizing some of the latest stuff that's come out in order to do some work while on the go. My Cintiq setup is fantastic at home, but I'm finding myself having to do more work on the road. I'd also like to be able to play some games on it, mainly for reference for work.

Things I need:

-tablet/pc hybrid with a Wacom digitizer stylus
-able to run Photoshop with pressure sensitivity very well (core i5)
-4gb RAM minimum, preferably 8gb
-128-256gb SSD

Things I'd like:

-dedicated graphics card (like the nVidia 650M)
-core i7
-can play things like Dota 2, Payday 2, etc. on low-medium settings decently, as well as 2d games.

Systems out now kind of close to what I'm looking for:

Microsoft Surface Pro (ehhh...)
Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T
Fujitsu Lifebook T902

There are some new machines coming out that may fit the bill, but there's a ton of speculation in that area. Any advice?

turnways fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Aug 5, 2013

Dmaonk
Oct 15, 2007

Chinese Starcraft tomato ninja image
I'm in the market for a new laptop to replace my Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820TG-somethingsomething. I have been looking at an Acer Aspire V5-573G sporting a 1920x1080 IPS panel, a 4 GB DDR Geforce GT 750M, an i7 4500U and 8 GB of RAM. An alternative configuration has an i5 4200U, but 12 GB of RAM instead.

Now, I will primarily be using it for school and some gaming, but I prefer portable and affordable over powerful and durable.

My first question is: should I go for the i5 version or the i7?

My second question is: is there any way to know when Acer are planning to refresh the V5 line next?

My third question is: are there any obvious alternatives from other brands that I should be checking out?

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

Dmaonk posted:

Now, I will primarily be using it for school and some gaming, but I prefer portable and affordable over powerful and durable.
You're welcome to set your own standards, but the general consensus in this thread is that's a mistake.

Dmaonk posted:

My first question is: should I go for the i5 version or the i7?
Almost no one seriously needs an i7 laptop.

Dmaonk posted:

My second question is: is there any way to know when Acer are planning to refresh the V5 line next?
Like most laptop manufacturers, there's little to no warning before refreshes drop. At best you might see some promotional literature accidentally pop up on related websites (like people have been finding for the T440s), but generally no one knows what the gently caress until one day new laptops show up on the store pages.

Dmaonk posted:

My third question is: are there any obvious alternatives from other brands that I should be checking out?
Depends on how long you're willing to wait. The more weeks you wait, the more your options open up. Similarly, you mention gaming, but how serious are you about it? A simple HD4x00 will suffice for low-powered, older, or indy games. Wanting to run BF4 maxed out is something else entirely.

movax
Aug 30, 2008

T430s trip report: Got issued one from work and the keyboard layout is different enough from the T420 / older Thinkpads to wreck my muscle memory :( The Ivy Bridge is nice and the chiclet keys aren't quite as bad as I thought, but the layout, arrrgh.

I only wish the T440 was out around now so I could have gotten that :( Oh well, now I just need to requisition the bay battery.

Noah posted:

Is the screen on the 430s really that terrible? Also I've been using a Dell Vostro 1400 for the last 7 years, so anything is gonna be an upgrade to its unpleasantness.

Yes it's a piece of poo poo, the screen quality ruins an otherwise excellent generation of Thinkpads.

shrughes
Oct 11, 2008

(call/cc call/cc)

DrDork posted:

At best you might see some promotional literature accidentally pop up on related websites (like people have been finding for the T440s)

:airquote: accidentally :airquote:

SoggyGravy
Jul 14, 2008

MAXIMUM
OVERGOON
So I have to say, really positive experience with Mythlogic. I had a laptop melt on me from heat sitting in my car and was left laptopless while waiting for my Chaos 1313 (cringeworthy name but its the clevo w230ST). I e-mailed them just asking if they can expedite in any way and BAM some nice guy named Charlie came to the rescue and gave me some options to speed up delivery of my laptop by 2 business days for no additional charge. I don't expect that but just knowing that I get someone who is from the US and such who is knowledgable in his product is more than most of my laptop purchasing experiences in the past.

I'll let you guys know how the I7 4702 low voltage ram 765m gtx laptop handles in the upcoming week!

Gophermaster
Mar 5, 2005

Bring the Ruckas
I've had a Lenovo Y410p for a few weeks now and I thought I'd do a user review.

I bought it as a gaming desktop replacement since I travel a lot for work, and it works admirably at that. I have a pretty big steam library and it's managed to play everything I have at native resolution (1600x900) with med~high settings. This includes DOTA 2, the Witcher 2, Far Cry 3, Metro Last light etc. It gets hotter when playing games for awhile, but doesn't throttle or bluescreen or any other weirdness.

The display is fine, contrast is pretty good and viewing angles are decent, but it won't blow you away.

The battery life is shorter than the market average, I get about 4 hours unplugged if I'm surfing the internet or watching netflix. I haven't bothered trying to play games away from an outlet, but I would imagine the 750m would eat the battery. You might stretch the battery further if you used a lower brightness, but I run it pretty bright all the time.

I use an HP elitebook for work and that has a nice case, all metal frame with solid hinges. The y410p is plastic. The quality isn't crap, like an MSI or the entire sub $500 market, but it's a far cry from the business class notebooks out there.

The weight doesn't bother me, I carry it in the same bag I carry my work laptop in when I travel. I also lift weights as a hobby so take this with a grain of salt. It seems to be about as heavy as the HP Elitebook.

Overall I like the Y410p, it plays games well and is reasonably priced.

WarpZealot
Nov 25, 2005
Yes, I've played Starcraft.
I've had a Thinkpad X40 for 6 years now and I've grown quite attached to it. I'm planning on upgrading to the X230 for heavy travel use (two week trip to Europe and another two week trip to India), but should I look at the X1 Carbon even though it looks overpriced as heck? Do you guys have any specific suggested upgrades for the X230?

Processor: I have no idea what processor I want. I play computer games quite a bit, but as long as it can run Dota 2, I guess I'm fine. I'm guessing the slowest processor that offers HD4000 is good enough? Am I better off with a faster processor?

OS: I'm probably going to go with Windows 7 Pro

Screen: Premium HD screen (does this make it an IPS?), as recommended in the thread but 2x2 or 3x3 antenna? The Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN can only be used with the 3x3 antenna, but I won't be able to get a built in webcam.

HDD: I was warned that certain sized SSD's won't fit. Is it easy to stick a Samsung 840 240gb SSD in there? 350$ seems like a pretty steep upgrade for a 256gb SSD so I'd rather do it my self.

RAM: I want to upgrade the ram myself as well. Probably just getting one more 4GB stick for a total of 8, unless 2x8GB is cheap enough.

BATTERY: 9 cell because I had the large one on my X40 and don't mind the extra bulk.

WIFI: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN as recommended by the OP (oops, if I select the 2x2 antenna, I have to get the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN)

Accessories: Do I need anything special for the power cord for use in the EU and India? The USB REI travel thing in the OP only shows US/AUS, UK, and EU. Holy crap the USB port charger on this is awesome.

WarpZealot fucked around with this message at 07:44 on Aug 6, 2013

shrughes
Oct 11, 2008

(call/cc call/cc)

WarpZealot posted:

I've had a Thinkpad X40 for 6 years now and I've grown quite attached to it. I'm planning on upgrading to the X230 for heavy travel use (two week trip to Europe and another two week trip to India), but should I look at the X1 Carbon even though it looks overpriced as heck? Do you guys have any specific suggested upgrades for the X230?

If you can wait until maybe the end of August, maybe late September or October, the T440s looks like a good alternative choice to the X1 Carbon. Generally speaking, waiting is good, the longer you wait, the better chance a Haswell update to some Thinkpads will happen. This improves the battery life, and in the X230's case the touchpad.

WarpZealot posted:

Processor: I have no idea what processor I want. I play computer games quite a bit, but as long as it can run Dota 2, I guess I'm fine. I'm guessing the slowest processor that offers HD4000 is good enough? Am I better off with a faster processor?

The slowest i5 is a good choice. The i3 that supports HD4000 is fine. The i5 is significantly faster. After that, the benefit is marginal.

WarpZealot posted:

OS: I'm probably going to go with Windows 7 Pro

Presumably there's a reason to get Win 7 Pro and not Home Premium.

WarpZealot posted:

Screen: Premium HD screen (does this make it an IPS?), as recommended in the thread but 2x2 or 3x3 antenna? The Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN can only be used with the 3x3 antenna, but I won't be able to get a built in webcam.

The premium HD screen is IPS, yes, and it's definitely the choice to make. A 3x3 antenna is mainly useful for improving reception range on college campuses or other tricky situations (maybe some hotels?), and Wireless-N 2230 or Advanced-N is still good, more than acceptable for using wifi in a cafe, and other things of that nature. If you want the webcam, get the webcam.

WarpZealot posted:

HDD: I was warned that certain sized SSD's won't fit. Is it easy to stick a Samsung 840 240gb SSD in there?

The 840 Pro would fit, I don't specifically know about the 840. Is it 7 mm? Or is it 9.5 mm? The X230 will fit 7 mm. (Even if it could fit 9.5 mm, it might ship with a 7 mm HDD and rubber bumpers that fit around 7mm.

You could always get an mSATA SSD instead, unless you're getting a WiMAX card.

WarpZealot posted:

RAM: I want to upgrade the ram myself as well. Probably just getting one more 4GB stick for a total of 8, unless 2x8GB is cheap enough.

Great!

WarpZealot posted:

BATTERY: 9 cell because I had the large one on my X40 and don't mind the extra bulk.

Okay.

WarpZealot posted:

WIFI: Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN as recommended by the OP (oops, if I select the 2x2 antenna, I have to get the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN)

Either's fine as mentioned. IF you want the webcam, get the webcam.

WarpZealot posted:

Accessories: Do I need anything special for the power cord for use in the EU and India? The USB REI travel thing in the OP only shows US/AUS, UK, and EU. Holy crap the USB port charger on this is awesome.

I don't know. Note that the always-on USB port charger will only work after you enable it in the BIOS. Or maybe it'll work when plugged in to an outlet, but not on battery, and you can configure it. Anyway, be sure to look in the BIOS and see what your options are.

Prepare to be disappointed by the 16:9 screen ratio, and the short height of the display.

shrughes fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Aug 6, 2013

agarjogger
May 16, 2011

WarpZealot posted:

I've had a Thinkpad X40 for 6 years now and I've grown quite attached to it. I'm planning on upgrading to the X230 for heavy travel use (two week trip to Europe and another two week trip to India), but should I look at the X1 Carbon even though it looks overpriced as heck? Do you guys have any specific suggested upgrades for the X230?

In six months of use in every possible setting, I've found the 2x2 nothing special, and rarely did it find a network that my T61's ThinkPad a/b/g wouldn't have . I would have done much better with the 6300 3x3. Thread pros will remember that I spent many a post trying to justify my choice of the webcam, but I've come to regret it since an external wireless card is so much dumber than an external camera, and I find myself needing one if I want to keep streaming internet radio with the lid closed.

I get by just fine on the 4GB RAM, 8GB would be cool too. When I popped a stick in from another x230, I didn't notice a difference. Buy some on your own and search for Hadlock's post w/photos on installing it.
I also have the Samsung 840 Pro, and it slides right on in on the same rubber bumpers that come with the stock HDD. I'd second your choice of Windows 7, because with 8 you'll lose a lot of ThinkVantage tools whose 8 drivers have not been written. Anecdotally, the Gobi 3000 mobile broadband card works much, much better on x230 w/ Windows 7 than it does on Windows 8. I have licenses of both and downgraded to make the WWAN card stop sucking so much, probably due to contradicting power management schemes and a perma-beta driver. If they offer you this card in one of the configs, take it because it kicks rear end, has a GPS chip, and connects to pretty much every possible network. They'll send it with an AT&T SIM, which you can activate in an emergency at emergency-pricing.

I'd recommend the 9-cell as well. 6 hours is good, but 9 would own.

Dmaonk
Oct 15, 2007

Chinese Starcraft tomato ninja image

DrDork posted:

You're welcome to set your own standards, but the general consensus in this thread is that's a mistake.

Wait. The OP says to pick two of affordable, powerful, durable, portable. What did I get wrong?

quote:

Almost no one seriously needs an i7 laptop.

Alright, I'll take that choice out of the equation then.

quote:

Like most laptop manufacturers, there's little to no warning before refreshes drop. At best you might see some promotional literature accidentally pop up on related websites (like people have been finding for the T440s), but generally no one knows what the gently caress until one day new laptops show up on the store pages.

Depends on how long you're willing to wait. The more weeks you wait, the more your options open up. Similarly, you mention gaming, but how serious are you about it? A simple HD4x00 will suffice for low-powered, older, or indy games. Wanting to run BF4 maxed out is something else entirely.

I won't be buying it until the end of August, so I guess there is that. I am not looking to play BF4 maxed out, but neither am I only looking to play games from five years ago. As it stands now, I play XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Sins of a Solar Empire, Endless Space, Crusader Kings II and Planetside 2, to name a few. I figure a mid-range laptop like the Acer Aspire V5 that I mentioned above should be able to run those on high settings?

shrughes
Oct 11, 2008

(call/cc call/cc)
As for the CPUs: http://ark.intel.com/compare/75459,75460 .

knox_harrington
Feb 18, 2011

Running no point.

agarjogger posted:

In six months of use in every possible setting, I've found the 2x2 nothing special, and rarely did it find a network that my T61's ThinkPad a/b/g wouldn't have . I would have done much better with the 6300 3x3. Thread pros will remember that I spent many a post trying to justify my choice of the webcam, but I've come to regret it since an external wireless card is so much dumber than an external camera, and I find myself needing one if I want to keep streaming internet radio with the lid closed.

I get by just fine on the 4GB RAM, 8GB would be cool too. When I popped a stick in from another x230, I didn't notice a difference. Buy some on your own and search for Hadlock's post w/photos on installing it.
I also have the Samsung 840 Pro, and it slides right on in on the same rubber bumpers that come with the stock HDD. I'd second your choice of Windows 7, because with 8 you'll lose a lot of ThinkVantage tools whose 8 drivers have not been written. Anecdotally, the Gobi 3000 mobile broadband card works much, much better on x230 w/ Windows 7 than it does on Windows 8. I have licenses of both and downgraded to make the WWAN card stop sucking so much, probably due to contradicting power management schemes and a perma-beta driver. If they offer you this card in one of the configs, take it because it kicks rear end, has a GPS chip, and connects to pretty much every possible network. They'll send it with an AT&T SIM, which you can activate in an emergency at emergency-pricing.

I'd recommend the 9-cell as well. 6 hours is good, but 9 would own.

The Samsung 840 non-Pro fits in exactly the same way. I installed Windows 8 and haven't had any problems installing any of the Lenovo applications, though admittedly I didn't want all of them and ended up with just the power, network and update apps. No problems with the Ericsson WWAN and win 8 either.

The touchpad on the x230 really is very poo poo.

PiCroft
Jun 11, 2010

I'm sorry, did I break all your shit? I didn't know it was yours

I had a quick question regarding a possible lappy upgrade. My old Dell Studio 1550 (Can't remember the exact model no.) has an Intel i5 dual core with 4GB RAM and it feels extremely sluggish. Even when running a bare install of Windows 7, it feels so drat slow doing anything. I was wondering how much of an effect replacing its old HDD with an SSD would have for breathing some new life into it and if it would be worth it?

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!

PiCroft posted:

I had a quick question regarding a possible lappy upgrade. My old Dell Studio 1550 (Can't remember the exact model no.) has an Intel i5 dual core with 4GB RAM and it feels extremely sluggish. Even when running a bare install of Windows 7, it feels so drat slow doing anything. I was wondering how much of an effect replacing its old HDD with an SSD would have for breathing some new life into it and if it would be worth it?

Yes, an SSD would be a big jump up. My mom has some Acer with a Pentium Dual-Core P6100 and 3GB of RAM, one of those Office Depot $349 deals. I replaced the stock 250GB drive with a Corsair Force 120 SSD and it boots up about 30 seconds faster and Firefox loads about 10 seconds faster. It got to the point where she thought it had a virus or something was wrong with it because it was so drat slow, the SSD makes it feel like a new laptop.

PiCroft
Jun 11, 2010

I'm sorry, did I break all your shit? I didn't know it was yours

Bob Morales posted:

Yes, an SSD would be a big jump up. My mom has some Acer with a Pentium Dual-Core P6100 and 3GB of RAM, one of those Office Depot $349 deals. I replaced the stock 250GB drive with a Corsair Force 120 SSD and it boots up about 30 seconds faster and Firefox loads about 10 seconds faster. It got to the point where she thought it had a virus or something was wrong with it because it was so drat slow, the SSD makes it feel like a new laptop.

Great thanks! Replacing the hard drive would set me back ~£130 so compared to buying a new one at who knows how much more, it seems like a bargain.

Macichne Leainig
Jul 26, 2012

by VG
In my experience most laptops sub $500 comes with a legitimately terrible hard drive. For example, my $350 K53TA had a Seagate 7200RPM 500GB drive. I replaced it with an equivalent hybrid drive when the hard drive inevitably went out in a year and it's both insanely faster and has lasted the same amount of time without any slowdowns. (Maybe that's thanks to the SSD cache, though.)

It's probably not the case for every laptop, but the two places I see manufacturers cheap out that are the most obvious: hard drive and screen.

VulgarandStupid
Aug 5, 2003
I AM, AND ALWAYS WILL BE, UNFUCKABLE AND A TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT TO EVERYONE. DAE WANNA CUM PLAY WITH ME!?




SSDs will make almost any computer seem fast in anything that isn't being processor limited, and you've removed the bloatware. My dm1z has a Kingston SSD+ in it, which is not a particularly fast SSD and its been great.

Naffer
Oct 26, 2004

Not a good chemist

VulgarandStupid posted:

SSDs will make almost any computer seem fast in anything that isn't being processor limited, and you've removed the bloatware. My dm1z has a Kingston SSD+ in it, which is not a particularly fast SSD and its been great.

This is definitely true. A new SSD gave my 4 year old 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo laptop a new lease on life.

-Blackadder-
Jan 2, 2007

Game....Blouses.
Ha, I just came here to ask the same sort of question.

I have a thinkpad x120e, AMD E-350 1.6GHz, 2GB of RAM. I just use it for portable surfing, writing papers and stuff like that. It tends to chug a bit when I surf with multiple tabs and a document open so I'm trying to determine if I should get a new laptop or just upgrade this one with an SSD and 8GB of RAM.

This here seems like a good guide I just came across. He's only upgrading it to 4GB of Ram but I've seen other sites suggest as much as 8GB.

What do you guys think?

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!

-Blackadder- posted:

Ha, I just came here to ask the same sort of question.

I have a thinkpad x120e, AMD E-350 1.6GHz, 2GB of RAM. I just use it for portable surfing, writing papers and stuff like that. It tends to chug a bit when I surf with multiple tabs and a document open so I'm trying to determine if I should get a new laptop or just upgrade this one with an SSD and 8GB of RAM.

This here seems like a good guide I just came across. He's only upgrading it to 4GB of Ram but I've seen other sites suggest as much as 8GB.

What do you guys think?

2GB is crippling. I'd upgrade to 4GB in a heartbeat (or just add a single 4GB chip, and then you'd either have 2+4 or 1+4). Would not go to 8GB for your workload. SSD would be a big boost as well.

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-Blackadder-
Jan 2, 2007

Game....Blouses.

Bob Morales posted:

2GB is crippling. I'd upgrade to 4GB in a heartbeat (or just add a single 4GB chip, and then you'd either have 2+4 or 1+4). Would not go to 8GB for your workload. SSD would be a big boost as well.

Ok, cool, thanks. So would this and this be good choices?

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