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BizarroAzrael
Apr 6, 2006

"That must weigh heavily on your soul. Let me purge it for you."
Im looking at cheaper laptops, £300-500, and I think my main concern is graphics. I'm not after a "gamer" laptop, but I've haf my desktop 5 or years and it would be nice if I wad getting something at least a little better. I want to be able to run Unity3D and do some 3D modelling, and to run games, not necessarily top end or at the highest settings, but maybe stuff like Team Fortress and Skyrim. How good Intel onboard graphics now, or are there good cards out there that are cheap and good value?

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Seamonster
Apr 30, 2007

IMMER SIEGREICH
Looks like the U430 Touch has the gimpiest GT730m: 64 bit DDR3. They take what should be a halfway decent chip for a thin and light and then utterly castrate it with the shittiest VRAM...

The Iron Rose
May 12, 2012

:minnie: Cat Army :minnie:
Welp, turns out that screen problem I was having with the Y410p? I definitely caused it. Probably when I popped the back of the computer off for the xteenth time to swap out the HD and the SSD again.


Also get the warranty for in house repairs because jesus loving christ they're terrible at callbacks. This is the second time they said they would call me and they've failed to do so.

I mean it's a fantastic computer when, y'know, it worked, but it's not right now and their support team is atrocious.

Gwaihir
Dec 8, 2009
Hair Elf

Bob Morales posted:

Just curve your hands uncomfortably to the left! Offset keyboards are loving stupid.

Exactly. Lenovooooo!!!! :argh:

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

BizarroAzrael posted:

Im looking at cheaper laptops, £300-500, and I think my main concern is graphics. I'm not after a "gamer" laptop, but I've haf my desktop 5 or years and it would be nice if I wad getting something at least a little better. I want to be able to run Unity3D and do some 3D modelling, and to run games, not necessarily top end or at the highest settings, but maybe stuff like Team Fortress and Skyrim. How good Intel onboard graphics now, or are there good cards out there that are cheap and good value?

I did [blender] modeling for kerbal space program [unity] rocket stuff connecting an external 1280x1024 screen using just my HD4000, it had zero problems. HD4000 was pretty much built to run TF2 and Skyrim @ 100fps and 40fps respectively.

Dohaeris
Mar 24, 2012

Often known as SniperGuy
Looking for a gaming laptop for a buddy of mine in the military. Doesn't want a desktop in case of deployment but wants something that can play current stuff like SR4/payday 2, mmos, etc. we were looking at the y510p Lenovo here: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/?sb=:000001C9:0000F3AF:
It's in his price range and seems to be powerful enough. Suggestions or thoughts?

edited with correct link to laptop.

Dohaeris fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Sep 10, 2013

Boner Slam
May 9, 2005

Hadlock posted:

HD4000 was pretty much built to run Skyrim @ 40fps

what?


certainly not
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-Graphics-4000.69168.0.html

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Dohaeris posted:

Looking for a gaming laptop for a buddy of mine in the military. Doesn't want a desktop in case of deployment but wants something that can play current stuff like SR4/payday 2, mmos, etc. we were looking at the y510p Lenovo here: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/?sb=:000001C9:0000F3AF:
It's in his price range and seems to be powerful enough. Suggestions or thoughts?

edited with correct link to laptop.

The Y510p/Y410p are generally pretty good cheap gaming laptops that a lot of people in this thread have purchased. Some suggestions:

A) Use the B&N link in the OP for an even better discount (probably; if not now, then wait a little bit, because these laptops are constantly going on sale)

B) The 1TB 5400 RPM + 24GB SSD is practically a waste of money, unless your friend wants to play a specific set of games over and over. The caching takes some time to get going. And even then, I'd suggest just buying a 250GB SSD instead because everything will be faster.

C) Has he considered getting the Y410p instead? It's 14" and 1600x900 maximum resolution, which is good for that screen size and will actually make games perform better because your GPU is outputting fewer pixels. Yes, it's not 1080, but it's still really good. It's also more portable (in case of deployment), and best of all it's cheaper. The cost savings of going with the Y410p and the 1TB drive (instead of 1TBHDD+24GBSSD) should be enough to cover the cost of a really nice SSD and then some. If he wants more space and is willing to forego the DVD drive, then he can put the 1TB drive in the ultrabay slot.

They take like a month to arrive after ordering, so that's another thing to consider (in case he wants something yesterday)

Jean Eric Burn
Nov 10, 2007

Also 16gb ram is a waste of money unless you are maybe going to multi-box some MMO I guess.

Dohaeris
Mar 24, 2012

Often known as SniperGuy

Jean Eric Burn posted:

Also 16gb ram is a waste of money unless you are maybe going to multi-box some MMO I guess.

I tried to tell him that but it was like 50 bucks more for the double the ram and he was all "I'm spending this much, 50 bucks more won't kill me"
I'll pass that info along QuarkJets, thanks for the help. He doesn't actually deploy for several months, but his PC right now sucks some serious poo poo, so hopefully it'll ship sooner rather than later.

Arnold of Soissons
Mar 4, 2011

by XyloJW
I did see it in the opening posts, are there any good EU websites for ordering a laptop?

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Dohaeris posted:

I tried to tell him that but it was like 50 bucks more for the double the ram and he was all "I'm spending this much, 50 bucks more won't kill me"
I'll pass that info along QuarkJets, thanks for the help. He doesn't actually deploy for several months, but his PC right now sucks some serious poo poo, so hopefully it'll ship sooner rather than later.

That's a good way to end up with some $3000 piece of poo poo, it's the little incremental costs that get you.

And if he says that an SSD is too expensive but he still wants the extra RAM, start hitting him until he relents. An SSD is a massive boost in performance. The RAM won't impact his performance at all.

Arnold of Soissons
Mar 4, 2011

by XyloJW
I want to do school work (accounting kind of stuff) and play Skyrim. My old laptop was ancient and I played Saints Row 3 at like 24fps and pretended it was Ok. If Im reading correctly it looks like the cheapest i3 with Intel 4000 is going to be an improvement, right?

It looks like I can get a 15" Toshiba Satellite i5 3230 2.6 with 8G ram and an Nvidea GT740M or a Samsung ATIV 4 with everything the same including the price but half the RAM.

Does the Satellite look solid? Any warnings? Is it crazy overkill and I can buy something cheaper?

e: my old laptop died yesterday and I went from not needing a computer two days before school starts, so I don't really have access to the most ideal shopping options

Arnold of Soissons fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Sep 10, 2013

Mat Cauthon
Jan 2, 2006

The more tragic things get,
the more I feel like laughing.



QuarkJets posted:

C) Has he considered getting the Y410p instead? It's 14" and 1600x900 maximum resolution, which is good for that screen size and will actually make games perform better because your GPU is outputting fewer pixels. Yes, it's not 1080, but it's still really good. It's also more portable (in case of deployment), and best of all it's cheaper. The cost savings of going with the Y410p and the 1TB drive (instead of 1TBHDD+24GBSSD) should be enough to cover the cost of a really nice SSD and then some. If he wants more space and is willing to forego the DVD drive, then he can put the 1TB drive in the ultrabay slot.

They take like a month to arrive after ordering, so that's another thing to consider (in case he wants something yesterday)

How hard is it to swap out a SSD on the Y410p? I'm not tech savvy at all, but I can follow basic instructions, so just curious how intricate the process is and if there are any tutorials for it.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHhLejv6kp4

PiCroft
Jun 11, 2010

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

So I just heard that the new Haswell refresh of the rMBP is out today. Glad I had second thoughts about that MBA.

Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

I don't see any announcements. Today is about the new iPhone.

Naffer
Oct 26, 2004

Not a good chemist
HP announced their new ZBooks today. They're mobile workstations comparable to the Dell Precision series. http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/zbook-15.html
Of note: The 15" variant comes with thunderbolt and reportedly an 3,200 x 1,800 display option.

PiCroft
Jun 11, 2010

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

I might have bee wrong, on further googling I can only find one source : http://www.latinpost.com/articles/2046/20130910/macbook-pro-retina-display-release-date-september-2013-event-start.htm

And I don't see any reason to consider it a definitive source. Sorry bout the false alarm.

Brut
Aug 21, 2007

MatCauthon posted:

How hard is it to swap out a SSD on the Y410p? I'm not tech savvy at all, but I can follow basic instructions, so just curious how intricate the process is and if there are any tutorials for it.

Replacing the hard drive on pretty much any modern laptop (with a few exceptions due to the weird convertible/ultraportable stuff we've been seeing lately) involves about as much technical skill as washing the dishes.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

MatCauthon posted:

How hard is it to swap out a SSD on the Y410p? I'm not tech savvy at all, but I can follow basic instructions, so just curious how intricate the process is and if there are any tutorials for it.

If you can follow basic instructions then it will be very easy. Not as trivial as it is with some laptops, but still very easy. Several people have done it but I'm not aware of any tutorials written specifically for that laptop. Later this month there will probably be several

The X-man cometh
Nov 1, 2009
I was looking at this, but i know Ideapads are inconsistent. Is this a good buy? I can get it at $700.


http://shop.lenovo.com/eg/en/laptops/ideapad/u-series/u430-touch/index.html

The X-man cometh fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Sep 11, 2013

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

The X-man cometh posted:

I was looking at this, but i know Ideapads are inconsistent. Is this a good buy? I can get it at $700.


http://shop.lenovo.com/eg/en/laptops/ideapad/u-series/u430-touch/index.html

What do you want to do with it? You can pick up an Ivy Bridge Yoga from the outlet store for $500 if you're willing to login around dawn on monday morning (before it's picked clean).

Infinite Monkeys
Jul 18, 2010

If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.
How is this? Using it for lectures and light gaming.

The X-man cometh
Nov 1, 2009

Hadlock posted:

What do you want to do with it? You can pick up an Ivy Bridge Yoga from the outlet store for $500 if you're willing to login around dawn on monday morning (before it's picked clean).

My wife hates how the keyboard is just sitting there when you fold the yoga back to use it as a tablet.

We're mostly going to use it for word processing and streaming movies away from a power source, so battery life and lightness are the key worries.

Russian Bear
Dec 26, 2007


The X-man cometh posted:

My wife hates how the keyboard is just sitting there when you fold the yoga back to use it as a tablet.

We're mostly going to use it for word processing and streaming movies away from a power source, so battery life and lightness are the key worries.

Unless you're putting it on a filthy surface, the keyboard is recessed and deactivates when you fold it back.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

The keyboard only recesses in the Yoga 2.

It's a valid complaint, but most people get used to it within a day or two. That's enough time to lose a sale, which is probably why the yoga 2 does that.

Boner Slam
May 9, 2005

Look, I know it plays on Low with all things turns off in a low resolution. Same thing says my link.


However, your post said the H4000 was "made to play Skyrim" - right after you said you connected it to a x1024 pixel monitor.
If it was truly built to play Skyrim, it would certainly run it on decent settings on a respectable resolution.
That be disingenuous yo, as it stands you should say "The HD4000 can barely run Skyrm"

BizarroAzrael
Apr 6, 2006

"That must weigh heavily on your soul. Let me purge it for you."

Infinite Monkeys posted:

How is this? Using it for lectures and light gaming.

Looks good to me, as a laptop newbie, at least with thw cashback offer. Did you have any concerns?

dissss
Nov 10, 2007

I'm a terrible forums poster with terrible opinions.

Here's a cat fucking a squid.

Boner Slam posted:

Look, I know it plays on Low with all things turns off in a low resolution. Same thing says my link.


However, your post said the H4000 was "made to play Skyrim" - right after you said you connected it to a x1024 pixel monitor.
If it was truly built to play Skyrim, it would certainly run it on decent settings on a respectable resolution.
That be disingenuous yo, as it stands you should say "The HD4000 can barely run Skyrm"

Skyrim runs okay on the HD4000 at 1600x900 provided you bump some of the sliders down. Its an old game now, not particularly demanding

BizarroAzrael
Apr 6, 2006

"That must weigh heavily on your soul. Let me purge it for you."

Infinite Monkeys posted:

How is this? Using it for lectures and light gaming.

Seems that is out of stock with PC World, and the cashback offer ends today. I found this on Amazon and thought it looked really good for my price range, anyone want to chip in?

Conan the Librarian
Mar 1, 2006

I drink zee beer from zee glass but das boring, das boot? ew yeah das more like it keep pouring
I just want to double check my understanding here, if I get the Y410p with just the 1TB drive I can easily purchase a 256GB SSD and install it in the future? Would it replace the DVD drive (that I don't care about)?


Also, I can conceivably transfer the OS over as well for faster boot times?

Ruttiger
Nov 3, 2004

The music itself is changing.

Conan the Librarian posted:

I just want to double check my understanding here, if I get the Y410p with just the 1TB drive I can easily purchase a 256GB SSD and install it in the future? Would it replace the DVD drive (that I don't care about)?


Also, I can conceivably transfer the OS over as well for faster boot times?

As far as I understand the SSD replaces the MAIN HDD and the original HDD goes in where the DVD used to.. coreect me if I'm wrong. Don't see why you wouldn't be able to boot OS off SSD either.

Boner Slam
May 9, 2005
What's the deal/use on Dell's extended battery service?
Is it worth it?

WHERE MY HAT IS AT
Jan 7, 2011

Hadlock posted:

The keyboard only recesses in the Yoga 2.

It's a valid complaint, but most people get used to it within a day or two. That's enough time to lose a sale, which is probably why the yoga 2 does that.

The yoga 2 doesn't do that. The Thinkpad Yoga, however, does. In the yoga and yoga 2 (ideapad versions), the keyboard tray is always recessed a little into the body so that it doesn't hit a surface in stand mode. The keyboard thing is weird, but you honestly do get used to it really quickly.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

Yeah, you either get the 3200x1800 or the recessing keyboard.

Infinite Monkeys
Jul 18, 2010

If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.

BizarroAzrael posted:

Seems that is out of stock with PC World, and the cashback offer ends today. I found this on Amazon and thought it looked really good for my price range, anyone want to chip in?
A quick google turned up refurbished ones in stock even cheaper, which I'll probably end up getting.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

WHERE MY HAT IS AT posted:

The yoga 2 doesn't do that. The Thinkpad Yoga, however,

Lolwut

Someone in the marketing department at Lenovo needs to be shot. Is this really the case? Two different brands in the same company carry two different versions of the same model?

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

Won't somebody think of the starving hamsters in China?



Hadlock posted:

With that explanation out of the way, the T430 is the default recommendation of this thread, you can get a basic i5 equipped T430 for about $660 USD shipped to your door on most days.
Meanwhile, in Belgium...



:tipshat: Thanks, but no thanks, Lenovo.

Arnold of Soissons posted:

I did see it in the opening posts, are there any good EU websites for ordering a laptop?
There's no real EU-wide option due to keyboard, software and power plug localisations mostly.

Dutch websites are going to be your best option, due to them mostly using US International keyboards. They'll also have a wider choice of more recent and cheaper stuff than what you'd find in Belgium. Most bigger webshops will deliver here as well.

You could start at Tweakers Pricewatch to get at least some basis for comparison.

This tiny-rear end Antwerp shop offers a wide range of stuff because just about everything is ordered and never kept in stock. It's worth checking if you prefer local pickup (and/or keyb be/dutch software); sometimes the prices are reasonable.

Other than that, you can check out promo flyers of Makro, Carrefour and VandenBorre's website for special offers.

Expect the minimal $640 from the OP to be around €750-€800 in any case, though.

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Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

Hadlock posted:

Lolwut

Someone in the marketing department at Lenovo needs to be shot. Is this really the case? Two different brands in the same company carry two different versions of the same model?

Yep!

The Thinkpad Yoga with the recessing keyboard is 1080p, can have up to a 1TB HDD, has NFC, 2 USB 3.0 slots and mini-HDMI.
The Yoga 2 is 3200x1800, up to 512gb SSD, 1 USB 3 and 1 USB 2 (...why?), micro HDMI, and ~4 hours more claimed battery life.

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