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4GB is fine if you're not a power user or you still remember what the red X button does. I can't remember the last time I closed a window, I generally keep 40+ chrome tabs open and I'm rocking 4.95GB/8.00GB consumed at the moment. I'm sure if I closed 20 tabs or so I could get it under 4GB. 4GB isn't going to limit you from fragging n00bs or writing email, you just won't be able to do both while running folding@home and editing 4K video and doing a 3d render in maya/blender. If you can live with that kind of handicap, I guess you'd be ok with just 4GB of ram. TL;DR people who insist on 8GB of ram do so because they're power users who actually bump up against the 4GB limit on a regular basis
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Aug 27, 2013 04:08
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Goober Peas posted:RAM is soldered to the board, so it's not (realistically) replaceable. HDD is really an mSATA SSD and is replaceable. Thanks for that, it definitely makes the decision to pay for their RAM upgrade easier. Impressively they only charge 100 additional bucks to go from 128->256gb on the ssd though so that also solves that.
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Aug 27, 2013 04:09
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signalnoise posted:Thanks for that, it definitely makes the decision to pay for their RAM upgrade easier. Impressively they only charge 100 additional bucks to go from 128->256gb on the ssd though so that also solves that. Whee are you seeing that? The site says $300.
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Aug 27, 2013 04:16
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Aphrodite posted:Whee are you seeing that? The site says $300. 128GB mSATA Solid State Drive included in price 256GB mSATA Solid State Drive + Save $200 when you upgrade to a 256GB Samsung SSD This is the option you get when you actually go to configure it for purchase.
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Aug 27, 2013 04:50
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drat. If they had that offer a few weeks ago I would have taken it. A 240/256 mSATA SSD costs about $200. Edit: Though I did get $100 off the i7/8gb upgrade, so it actually works out the same. Aphrodite fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Aug 27, 2013 |
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Aug 27, 2013 04:54
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Viscardus posted:I guess ultimately what I'm trying to figure out is whether there's a sweet spot for performance before it starts to really become not worth it (more in terms of trade-offs like battery life than price, though obviously price matters too). I realize that there's been some related discussion on this very page in the thread, but I read that article Doctor rear end in a top hat linked and couldn't really find one that stood out to me. Maybe I'm being silly and the Y510p or Y410p would be a really good choice, though. That said: I always found I took better notes on paper. Maybe I'm a fogey but at least paper lies flat on the table, not blocking your view of the lecture, and it's way easier to put away than a computer is.
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Aug 27, 2013 05:09
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Hadlock posted:I can't remember the last time I closed a window, I generally keep 40+ chrome tabs open and I'm rocking 4.95GB/8.00GB consumed at the moment. On the linux side of things, free memory is wasted memory, so it tends to get "used" for caches and such, then immediately freed whenever something has a need for it. I'd imagine chrome/ff to follow a similar model but don't really know. But all that said, I'd probably still get 8GB for a new laptop, just to reduce the likelihood of theoretical problems in several years. And hey that extra memory means more blocks cached.
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Aug 27, 2013 05:12
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Superterranean posted:The y410p meets your power needs, for sure, but may fall slightly short on the battery life front. Especially if you put I through a lot of deep discharge/recharge cycles, battery life decreases; when you start out with (for the sake of argument) a 5-6-hour y410p, after a year or two that's realistically only 2-4 hours. Yeah, that's definitely something to consider. I'm pretty sure my current laptop has a battery life of well under half of what it originally did, probably in large part due to my bad habit of having it constantly plugged in even when fully charged. But that's also one reason I'm worried about the battery life of whatever laptop I get - realistically, I'll probably rarely need a battery life of more than three hours or so, but ending up two years down the road with something with a battery life of an hour would be incredibly annoying. The more I look at them, the more the Y510p and Y410p seem like solid options (the Y410p probably makes more sense, but I'm - probably irrationally - hesitant about the smaller screen/lower resolution). I'm still wary of the battery life though, and the fact that some of the reviews seem to be for different models within those designations confuses things a little, too. For example, most of the Y510p reviews I'm seeing seem to be for the version with SLI, which doesn't seem particularly necessary to me, especially if it has a significant impact on battery life. Does anyone know of other laptops that are comparable to the Y510p and Y410p (even slightly more expensive ones)? Superterranean posted:That said: I always found I took better notes on paper. Maybe I'm a fogey but at least paper lies flat on the table, not blocking your view of the lecture, and it's way easier to put away than a computer is. Haha, maybe you're right, but I've been taking notes on laptops for a long time. Regardless, I'll still need a laptop for school more generally, so I'm not sure how much difference taking notes on paper would make, besides making portability slightly less important.
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Aug 27, 2013 06:03
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So since the T440s isn't going to come with an optical drive, does that mean an ssh+hdd setup won't be possible?
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Aug 27, 2013 06:18
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Viscardus posted:Yeah, that's definitely something to consider. I'm pretty sure my current laptop has a battery life of well under half of what it originally did, probably in large part due to my bad habit of having it constantly plugged in even when fully charged. It's interesting that you mention this. I was playing with a Vaio Pro 13 recently and noticed that you can set it to charge only to 80% capacity to extend the life of the battery. It seems like a good idea for people who are plugged in the vast majority of the time.
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Aug 27, 2013 06:21
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Brut posted:So since the T440s isn't going to come with an optical drive, does that mean an ssh+hdd setup won't be possible?
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Aug 27, 2013 06:45
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Viscardus posted:I should preface this by saying that while I read the OP and tried to do some research, I'm absolutely hopeless when it comes to understanding computer hardware, so I apologize in advance for that. You're already making bad decisions by going to law school, so this is your chance to start making good decisions by not buying a hardcore gaming laptop. It sounds like you're already on the right track on that front. The Y410p is definitely a sweet spot for price/performance/battery life/portability. I think that will change once we start setting more laptops with HD5000+ integrated graphics; suddenly battery life and portability won't come at a significant performance cost. The Y410p is solid, though Also, why can't you ship your desktop to school? Are you at least going to try to sell it?
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Aug 27, 2013 07:20
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People needing gaming laptops should pay a visit to the HTPC (home theatre PC) thread and see how compact a high-powered PC desktop enclosure can be. Some of them are barely bigger than two Sagers and basically as portable, depending on your backpack.
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Aug 27, 2013 07:32
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QuarkJets posted:You're already making bad decisions by going to law school, so this is your chance to start making good decisions by not buying a hardcore gaming laptop. It sounds like you're already on the right track on that front. I considered shipping it, but it seemed kind of risky based on the admittedly small amount of research I did. Plus I'm not going to be moving permanently - I'll be back home over Christmas and during (at least next) summer, when I'll probably end up getting at least as much use out of it as I would during the school year. If you want to make a case for why shipping it makes sense, though, I'd be glad to consider it. It does suck that I'm getting a lot less use out of it than I would otherwise, but I don't really see a great way around it. Besides, like I said, I need a new laptop anyway. I personally don't feel like I'm losing much by going with a midsize laptop capable of some gaming over a smaller, more mobile one.
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Aug 27, 2013 08:31
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Hadlock posted:4GB is fine if you're not a power user or you still remember what the red X button does. Pretty much; I never close anything and right now I'm at 15.3GB out of 24GB on my desktop. Dozens of tabs open in four browsers along with Ableton humming along for whenever musical inspiration strikes. 8GB is just simply the bare minimum of usability for me, but I also recognize that I'm the outlier 
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Aug 27, 2013 08:55
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My ASUS zenbook ux32vd laptop stopped working about 4 months after purchasing it. It would refuse to turn on, when it did turn on the wifi would not detect networks, and it was heating up to high temperatures for no apparent reason. Anyways, I called in to RMA it. Trip report in brief: a. I never registered the thing after buying it for warranty, this didn't matter they still accepted it; b. I RMA'ed it in the UK after purchasing in Canada, they said the warranty was international so no problem; c. Within 2 days a dude showed up at my house to collect it; d. 4 days later it was sent back to me in working order. It could have taken longer but the local repair contractor had a new main board in stock. All in all it was a reasonably smooth experience. Was surprised, I was expecting it to be much more difficult.
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Aug 27, 2013 10:58
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Viscardus posted:I considered shipping it, but it seemed kind of risky based on the admittedly small amount of research I did. Plus I'm not going to be moving permanently - I'll be back home over Christmas and during (at least next) summer, when I'll probably end up getting at least as much use out of it as I would during the school year. If you want to make a case for why shipping it makes sense, though, I'd be glad to consider it. It does suck that I'm getting a lot less use out of it than I would otherwise, but I don't really see a great way around it. If you anticipate not using the desktop much anyway, then just sell it. Dude, you're about to take on thousands of dollars in debt, sell that loving desktop if you're just going to be using a laptop anyway
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Aug 27, 2013 11:48
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agarjogger posted:People needing gaming laptops should pay a visit to the HTPC (home theatre PC) thread and see how compact a high-powered PC desktop enclosure can be. Some of them are barely bigger than two Sagers and basically as portable, depending on your backpack. Then just need a monitor and a keyboard and a mouse, and cables connecting them all in your dufflebag...how is this even remotely an option for the people (travellers/military/oil rigs) that might actually need portability?
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Aug 27, 2013 14:45
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DoesNotCompute posted:Then just need a monitor and a keyboard and a mouse, and cables connecting them all in your dufflebag...how is this even remotely an option for the people (travellers/military/oil rigs) that might actually need portability? For someone shopping for a single portable computer, it's not of course. But it's a nice thing to take advantage of if one were to break up their computer purchase into a compact notebook and a desktop PC. I think a lot of people stay away from desktops nowadays to avoid big black ugly towers that are a pain in the rear end to move.
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Aug 27, 2013 15:02
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DrDork posted:Should still be fine. The descriptions of it all are a little murky, but it sounds like a normal HDD + mSATA SSD should be fine. The T440s and similar models are moving to the M.2 next gen form factor for SSDs. Which is fine, I guess, except basically nobody makes them yet.
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Aug 27, 2013 15:18
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Cream_Filling posted:The T440s and similar models are moving to the M.2 next gen form factor for SSDs. Which is fine, I guess, except basically nobody makes them yet. Annoyingly the T440s only has space for a 40mm M.2 drive, which are meant for caching and currently cap out at 64GB
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Aug 27, 2013 15:25
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The T440s is apparently for sale in Germany at Campuspointe.de. Someone on another forum reported they are available in 2-3 days. Whether that means shipping time or actual go on sale time, I'm not sure. Any idea what this means for the U.S. market? Edit: Translates to ready for shipment within 2-3 business days.
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Aug 27, 2013 15:26
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Hadlock posted:4GB is fine if you're not a power user or you still remember what the red X button does. A lot of people need more than 4GB but don't quite need 8GB. 4GB is a pretty good amount of RAM, but if you're buying something hoping for it to last 3-4 years, at least make sure it has the ability to upgrade to 8GB. It'd be unfortunate to get an ultrabook or something with RAM soldered on and only have 4GB. SSD's help a bit with swapping but it's still not a substitute for another gig or two of RAM
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Aug 27, 2013 15:39
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Dell announced their new latitude line yesterday. http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/26/dell-latitude-7000-5000-3000/ The Latitude 5000 sounds like it might be a close competitor to the y510p and y410p as it offers similar features and discrete graphics (though they don't mention which discrete chip it's using yet) and you can get it with a four, six, or nine-cell battery.
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Aug 27, 2013 15:42
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bull3964 posted:Dell announced their new latitude line yesterday. The Latitude 7440 looks really nice but isn't going to come cheap. I priced one out with an i5-4200U, 128GB SSD, 1920*1080 screen and 8GB RAM on my premier site and it was ~$1400. That's pretty similar to an X1 Carbon with similar specs, but the Latitude weighs an extra half pound and comes with a 3 year warranty.
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Aug 27, 2013 15:56
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bull3964 posted:Dell announced their new latitude line yesterday. I've got the current 5430 and want to snap it in half it's such a miserable pig of a laptop, the changes here look pretty nice. I feel like my experiences with Latitude laptops is entirely skewed by hulking encyrption software that my company puts on all of them though. It'd be interesting to run one with just a clean Win 7 install. It looks like they really improved the bezel and general aesthetic of the 5000 range this time too. The last two generations since they stopped being thinkpad ripoffs have been really ugly.
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Aug 27, 2013 16:09
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I just picked up an Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A yesterday for $500 off which seemed like a pretty good deal. Only drawbacks are that it has 4 GB of RAM and a 3rd gen i7, seeing as how I was comparing it to the Sony VAIO Pro which had a Haswell i5 and 8GB (and light as gently caress carbon fibre body). But I figured the 256 GB SSD instead of 128 was a bigger draw and I still use my desktop regularly for gaming/video editing and such. Overall, it was slightly cheaper than the Sony. Was this the right decision? Aside from the occasionally finnicky touchpad (is there any way to adjust it), I'm enjoying the device.
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Aug 27, 2013 16:10
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Cacator posted:I just picked up an Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A yesterday for $500 off which seemed like a pretty good deal. Only drawbacks are that it has 4 GB of RAM and a 3rd gen i7, seeing as how I was comparing it to the Sony VAIO Pro which had a Haswell i5 and 8GB (and light as gently caress carbon fibre body). But I figured the 256 GB SSD instead of 128 was a bigger draw and I still use my desktop regularly for gaming/video editing and such. Overall, it was slightly cheaper than the Sony. Was this the right decision? Aside from the occasionally finnicky touchpad (is there any way to adjust it), I'm enjoying the device. Asus has a few different drivers for the touchpad. I'm using Windows 8 and the accompanying driver and it is usually decent. Back when I still used Windows 7, I remember some of the driver versions were significantly worse than others, so it's something to try at least.
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Aug 27, 2013 16:15
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DoesNotCompute posted:I've got the current 5430 and want to snap it in half it's such a miserable pig of a laptop, the changes here look pretty nice. I feel like my experiences with Latitude laptops is entirely skewed by hulking encyrption software that my company puts on all of them though. It'd be interesting to run one with just a clean Win 7 install. I currently use a Latitude E5530 at work and it's been bulletproof for me. Not the lightest thing in the world, but great battery life and performance on the 9 cell battery. Actually the only real issue I have with it is I sprung for the upgraded wireless (Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN) and our WAP hates it and drops constantly. People who have notebooks with the default option don't have issues.
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Aug 27, 2013 16:15
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A 7000 series Latitude in a 15" screen would be the bees knees. I like that Dell doesn't include the numpad!
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Aug 27, 2013 16:27
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QuarkJets posted:If you anticipate not using the desktop much anyway, then just sell it. Dude, you're about to take on thousands of dollars in debt, sell that loving desktop if you're just going to be using a laptop anyway Look, I appreciate the advice, but please don't make assumptions about my personal situation. I'm not taking on any debt. I'm not American, either, if that's what your understanding of the wisdom of law school is based on. It looks like the Y410p is probably the best choice for me, so I'll keep looking into that for now. Thanks, everyone.
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Aug 27, 2013 16:49
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If Chromebooks get a refresh, when would it likely happen? Next year?
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Aug 27, 2013 17:19
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Cacator posted:I just picked up an Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A yesterday for $500 off which seemed like a pretty good deal. Only drawbacks are that it has 4 GB of RAM and a 3rd gen i7, seeing as how I was comparing it to the Sony VAIO Pro which had a Haswell i5 and 8GB (and light as gently caress carbon fibre body). But I figured the 256 GB SSD instead of 128 was a bigger draw and I still use my desktop regularly for gaming/video editing and such. Overall, it was slightly cheaper than the Sony. Was this the right decision? Aside from the occasionally finnicky touchpad (is there any way to adjust it), I'm enjoying the device. you can install an 8 gig CL 11 chip into it. It will take it up to 10 gigs. The chipset should dual channel the first 2 gigs or so and the remaining 8 will be single channel but still better than just 4. Installing the RAM is fairly easy if you have a Torx T5 screwdriver.
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Aug 27, 2013 17:36
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Anti-Derivative posted:you can install an 8 gig CL 11 chip into it. It will take it up to 10 gigs. The chipset should dual channel the first 2 gigs or so and the remaining 8 will be single channel but still better than just 4. Installing the RAM is fairly easy if you have a Torx T5 screwdriver. I don't think this is right. The UX32VD has a ram slot, the UX31A does not.
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Aug 27, 2013 18:01
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I'm thinking about getting a new laptop that can handle 3D modeling. Here's what I've setup for a W530 so far:  I plan to buy an SSD and put it in the optical bay. Would I be able/allowed to move my Windows installation to that SSD (since it might be an OEM installation)? Also would I be able to boot from that optical drive bay once I put the SSD in or will I have to swap its place with the built in HDD's location? Also, does anyone happen to know how I'd be able to get rid of the backlight on the keyboard, the fingerprint reader, and the default DVD drive in the optical bay? I don't want any of them, and my brother tells me you used to be able to mess with the web interface to remove them, but right now they are radio buttons defaulted to checked, so I think they fixed that. But getting rid of them would be nice and would probably save me $150. e: Also how many cores would this processor have? My brother says 8, but he's iffy about that. obstipator fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Aug 27, 2013 |
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Aug 27, 2013 18:32
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It's an i7 QM so you're looking at quad core, plus hyperthreading so that's 4 times 2 which is 8
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Aug 27, 2013 19:02
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RVProfootballer posted:I don't think this is right. The UX32VD has a ram slot, the UX31A does not. oh wierd. I was going by this: http://www.crucial.com/uk/upgrade/ASUS-memory/ASUS+Notebooks/ZENBOOK+UX32A-upgrades.html which offers a guarantee, but ASUS' site says up to 4... EDIT: oh that's the 32A. I wish model numbers were a bit more conspicuous. There hasn't been 32 zenbook iterations.
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Aug 27, 2013 19:24
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Well 4 physical cores, 8 virtual cores. Isn't their a Haswell W series yet?
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Aug 27, 2013 19:26
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Buried in the SSD megethread are some well written how-tos on how to move your windows install to the SSD Decoder ring for intel procs iX 3...QM iX = 3/5/7 3xxx = 2: sandy bridge, 3: ivy bridge 4: haswell. The Q = quad M = mobile
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Aug 27, 2013 19:26
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So, a buddy of mine has a five year old Inspirion 1525 that he's willing to sell to me for 150 bucks. I'd have to get a replacement battery but everything else is stock. Should I be worried about any issues of failure? The amazon reviews are comically bad: http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron...nDateDescending but he's a heavy user and the only shot part of the computer is the battery, which is to be expected at this point. It would be a wife computer for watching videos and facebook only.
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Aug 27, 2013 19:41
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