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sincx
Jul 13, 2012

furiously masturbating to anime titties
.

sincx fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Mar 23, 2021

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Naffer
Oct 26, 2004

Not a good chemist

sincx posted:

I gave away my Sandy Bridge Vostro V131 after two and a half years of heavy use in July, hoping I can pick up a lightweight 14" or 15" Haswell laptop soon, ideally with Iris 5100.

It's been 3 months and I was still waiting. The T440s is taking forever to come out, and prices for other 14"/15" Haswell laptops haven't come down at all. Iris 5100 isn't available ANYWHERE. Apparently I'm stuck with discrete, battery-sucking Nvidia graphics.

There is a single review of the Iris 5100-powered Zenbook that I linked to here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3552651&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=101#post420176525
It is only marginally faster than the 4400, which is almost certainly because it's limited by memory bandwidth (which is why the Iris 5200 is so much faster than it). Previously, people suspected that the HD5000 was TDP constrained but it looks like memory bandwidth caps the bigger Intel GPUs even when lifting the TDP from 17 to 28W. Long story short, you're probably not going to notice such a massive difference between the HD4400 and an HD5100 that it warrants waiting months for a laptop with Iris 5100 graphics. If the HD4400 is too slow for your needs it's unlikely the 5100 will be fast enough.

OXBALLS DOT COM
Sep 11, 2005

by FactsAreUseless
Young Orc

Klaus Kinski posted:

It does look like a fun toy for playing emulated games and stuff like that, if it was $650 or so cheaper.

UMPCs cratered horribly and they were selling for peanuts at the end. I remember buying one back in maybe 2007 for $200 or so.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Ur Getting Fatter posted:

Why would you not be able to use the 1TB + SSD as a normal drive? I think the worst case scenario is that the SSD caching won't work if you don't use it as your main drive.

I was referring to just the SSD part; it's not like having a 24 GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD where you can put files on both whenever you want, it's just a 1 TB HDD plus some cache space.

me your dad
Jul 25, 2006

So the OP says $600 is now the sweet spot for laptops. I'm fine with spending roughly that amount, but the OP failed to list any options in that price range.

I currently have a wonderful 13" Macbook Pro I got through work, but I'm leaving my company so I need a replacement. 99% of the time, my Macbook is plugged in, and sitting on the armrest of my recliner. I use it for the standard web stuff: forums bullshittery, Spotify streaming, video streaming, Skype, and so on.

I considered a Chromebook, but I read reviews that it's rather underpowered and audio stutters a bit when multitasking. Also it can't run Skype and we need it for our daughter to talk occasionally to her aunt and grandmother.

I don't really want a tablet because it won't be conducive to Professional Forums Activity and I like the setup of a laptop. I prefer Windows 7.

Can anyone tell me what my best bets are at, or below the $600 range? I want to avoid going over $700.

me your dad fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Oct 12, 2013

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

If you put Ubuntu on a Chromebook then it can supposedly run Skype, so that might still be an option. They are low-power machines though, so I wouldn't be surprised if a dozen tasks results in stuttering performance.

Vinlaen
Feb 19, 2008

These Chromebooks have me really interested...

I'm looking for something around 11" - 13" that is very light and will be used for surfing and playing old games probably using DOSBox or SCUMMVM, etc.

Here's what I'm hoping for:
  • 11" - 13"
  • Old PC games (SCUMMVM, DOSBOX, etc)
  • Video playback (1080p decoding)

The new Acer haswell chromebook sounds REALLY interesting as long as you can install Ubuntu, etc.

MikeJF
Dec 20, 2003




I believe ScummVM and Dosbox have NaCl ports, so you could run them natively in ChromeOS.

Automata 10 Pack
Jun 21, 2007

Ten games published by Automata, on one cassette
So what's the deal on those 280-380 dollar Dell Inspiron laptops? I've been hearing more and more people bringing them up as possibly better alternatives to Chromebooks, but I don't know if that's from actual experience or just that it's cheap as well and it has Windows 8.

Vinlaen
Feb 19, 2008

MikeJF posted:

I believe ScummVM and Dosbox have NaCl ports, so you could run them natively in ChromeOS.
Hmmm, any idea how fast they run? (for example, Syndicate or maybe the original X-Com?)

Mutation posted:

So what's the deal on those 280-380 dollar Dell Inspiron laptops? I've been hearing more and more people bringing them up as possibly better alternatives to Chromebooks, but I don't know if that's from actual experience or just that it's cheap as well and it has Windows 8.
Huh, I didn't know they made laptops that cheap... I see a touchscreen Dell for only $379 and I think it's Haswell but I'm not sure. I'd be interested in learning more about Chromebook vs these cheap Dells as well!

I wonder if the Dell's can run a little bit more "advanced" Indie games like Papers Please and other light Indie games stuff...

Progressive JPEG
Feb 19, 2003

Vinlaen posted:

Hmmm, any idea how fast they run? (for example, Syndicate or maybe the original X-Com?)
Should be able to try it in a normal chrome install to at least see how well it works, though that may not be much help in seeing how good the performance would be on a chromebook.

MikeJF
Dec 20, 2003




Vinlaen posted:

Hmmm, any idea how fast they run? (for example, Syndicate or maybe the original X-Com?)

No idea. A NaCl webapp is just a native-code OpenGL program executing in a chrome-built sandbox, so they'd probably run the same speed as Ubuntu versions would run on the same Chromebook, though.

Although I don't know if the ports are well-maintained and updated or not.

MikeJF fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Oct 12, 2013

Ruttiger
Nov 3, 2004

The music itself is changing.

Socrates16 posted:

Officially entered the form on Lenovo to return my y510p. It now lays useless. Wifi will not work and my neighbor(who has the hardline) is asleep.

Had this problem. First solution on forum fixed it. Boot into safe mode, uninstall wireless card driver (and check delete) then restart and let Windows install the driver.

Reconnected to Wi-Fi then had an hour Skype call with no trouble. Try that before you send it

weavernaut
Sep 12, 2007

i'm so glad to have made such an interesting new friend
So while looking to buy a custom laptop, I came across these guys. Are they trustworthy or should I just suck it up and buy a Lenovo?

me your dad
Jul 25, 2006

Any known good deals regularly showing up on Woot?

I'm also considering waiting until Cyber Monday to get a good deal. I don't have to give up the Macbook until October 28th so it'd only be a month without recliner-style web browsing.

Butt Soup Barnes
Nov 25, 2008

Aphrodite posted:

It's all just rumors right now, but wait until at least the 22nd. That's the supposed date for Apple's iPad announcement, and some other places are saying they're going to announce anything else they have for this year then too.

Thanks, I'm hoping we will be surprised with a mid-year refresh on the MBA. If not I'll go ahead and purchase a Win8 Ultrabook.

I think it's pretty much a given that the Macbook Pros will be updated, and both Microcenter and Bestbuy have all of the Macbook Pros and Airs on sale, so maybe just maybe!

JustJeff88
Jan 15, 2008

I AM
CONSISTENTLY
ANNOYING
...
JUST TERRIBLE


THIS BADGE OF SHAME IS WORTH 0.45 DOUBLE DRAGON ADVANCES

:dogout:
of SA-Mart forever
Could anyone recommend me a good gaming laptop that isn't going to cost thousands? I used to be quite up on this sort of thing when I was a programmer, but I've been in a totally different profession for years and simply have not been able to keep up.

Yes, I realise fully that laptops are not designed for hard-core gamers, but I'm not hard-core by any stretch of the imagination. I just want a modestly sized machine that can play most games well enough when I am away from home. My gaming desktop is a very modest rig - 8 gigs of DDR2 ram, a single GeForce 560 card and a rather dated quad-core 2.66Ghz processor hooked into an old 1600X1200 monitor, and it does all that I ask of it. I would like a laptop that will give me slightly better performance than this one (as a sort of future-proofing) and would be willing to go into 4 digits for one. Multiple hard drives are nice as I like to keep my OS on one and everything else on another, but it's not necessary.

Thank you in advance for your input.

Yudo
May 15, 2003

I'm having some trouble finding a laptop to meet my needs. The suggestion to do work remotely from a netbook is good but for me not flexible enough.

Does anyone have feedback regarding the Lenovo U430? (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-...5&skuId=9130047)?

From my perspective:

Pro's:
Good battery life
Good keyboard
Screen resolution above dog poo poo
Seems built well
2 year warranty

Con's:
Bigger and heavier than ideal
Silly track pad
Gets hot
Unnecessarily thin form factor

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

me your dad posted:

Any known good deals regularly showing up on Woot?

I'm also considering waiting until Cyber Monday to get a good deal. I don't have to give up the Macbook until October 28th so it'd only be a month without recliner-style web browsing.

Laptop deals on Woot are very hit or miss and not very regular. They're usually refurbished models that you could have bought directly anyway, and generally they're not good deals unless you just want *any* laptop

JustJeff88 posted:

Could anyone recommend me a good gaming laptop that isn't going to cost thousands? I used to be quite up on this sort of thing when I was a programmer, but I've been in a totally different profession for years and simply have not been able to keep up.

Yes, I realise fully that laptops are not designed for hard-core gamers, but I'm not hard-core by any stretch of the imagination. I just want a modestly sized machine that can play most games well enough when I am away from home. My gaming desktop is a very modest rig - 8 gigs of DDR2 ram, a single GeForce 560 card and a rather dated quad-core 2.66Ghz processor hooked into an old 1600X1200 monitor, and it does all that I ask of it. I would like a laptop that will give me slightly better performance than this one (as a sort of future-proofing) and would be willing to go into 4 digits for one. Multiple hard drives are nice as I like to keep my OS on one and everything else on another, but it's not necessary.

Thank you in advance for your input.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y410p is the gold standard right now for cheap gaming laptops. It's powerful, well-built (aside from the subpar screen and touchpad), and cheap. You can buy an SSD and move the 1 TB HDD to the optical slot and have 1 TB in storage + 240 GB (or whatever) in fast SSD space. Battery life is on par with other gaming laptops, about 4 hours for moderate activity. Even with buying a high-end SSD and a nice mouse you're looking at less than a thousand dollars. A lot of people in the thread bought one of these and really enjoy it. That's what I did, and I can attest that it's pretty great for the price I paid.

If you go this route, do upgrade to the 1600x900 screen (or 1920x1080 if you get the Y510p instead), do not upgrade to the 1TB+24GB HDD (because the 24GB is just cache space and not that useful, just buy an SSD instead), and DO NOT upgrade to the SLI graphics option. And do use the B&N link in the OP, the discounts through that link are slightly better than what you see on Lenovo's site.

QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Oct 12, 2013

JustJeff88
Jan 15, 2008

I AM
CONSISTENTLY
ANNOYING
...
JUST TERRIBLE


THIS BADGE OF SHAME IS WORTH 0.45 DOUBLE DRAGON ADVANCES

:dogout:
of SA-Mart forever

QuarkJets posted:

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y410p is the gold standard right now for cheap gaming laptops. It's powerful, well-built (aside from the subpar screen and touchpad), and cheap. You can buy an SSD and move the 1 TB HDD to the optical slot and have 1 TB in storage + 240 GB (or whatever) in fast SSD space. Battery life is on par with other gaming laptops, about 4 hours for moderate activity. Even with buying a high-end SSD and a nice mouse you're looking at less than a thousand dollars. A lot of people in the thread bought one of these and really enjoy it. That's what I did, and I can attest that it's pretty great for the price I paid.

If you go this route, do upgrade to the 1600x900 screen (or 1920x1080 if you get the Y510p instead), do not upgrade to the 1TB+24GB HDD (because the 24GB is just cache space and not that useful, just buy an SSD instead), and DO NOT upgrade to the SLI graphics option. And do use the B&N link in the OP, the discounts through that link are slightly better than what you see on Lenovo's site.

Thank you for the reference - I love the look of that thing. I will keep all of your advice in mind, though I wouldn't mind seeing a few more suggestions as well. Don't worry, though... I learned my lesson with my giant old gaming laptop that SLI is kind of shite. I never use a laptop touch pad if I can avoid it, but what's so bad about the screen? Is that why you recommend upgrading? Frankly, I wouldn't mind stopping at 1600 by 900, but if it's a quality issue I don't mind upgrading. This machine is not going to see a huge amount of use, so I can live with just one non-SSD hard drive. Those things are still too expensive for me and I don't mind waiting for things to boot up. This desktop takes ages to boot and it's never really bothered me.

Edit: Which one amongst the 410 models is the higher resolution? 1300 by 768 or whatever it is is kind of piddly by modern standards, but the specs that I see through the B&N site in the OP don't list the screen resolutions for the 410. 510 yes, but not 410.

Edit 2: Never mind the previous edit - I am a blind imbecile.

JustJeff88 fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Oct 13, 2013

sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

QuarkJets posted:

and DO NOT upgrade to the SLI graphics option.

Why not? Newegg only sells those, it seems. And I might have to use Newegg. And I'm strongly considering the y510p.

mugrim
Mar 2, 2007

The same eye cannot both look up to heaven and down to earth.

DNova posted:

Why not? Newegg only sells those, it seems. And I might have to use Newegg. And I'm strongly considering the y510p.

It begins throttling pretty shortly into your gaming session, and the graphics card individually is good enough to play almost any new game on max settings (especially if you do 1600 x 900 and not 1080p).

Edit: also many games don't utilize sli.

sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

mugrim posted:

It begins throttling pretty shortly into your gaming session, and the graphics card individually is good enough to play almost any new game on max settings (especially if you do 1600 x 900 and not 1080p).

Edit: also many games don't utilize sli.

Because of heat? Why would that happen? I'm not much of a gamer but I wouldn't mind having the option to check out some new-ish games. I'd rather have the ultrabay free for a second hard drive, though, so if what you're saying about one card by itself is true, that's actually pretty nice.

JustJeff88
Jan 15, 2008

I AM
CONSISTENTLY
ANNOYING
...
JUST TERRIBLE


THIS BADGE OF SHAME IS WORTH 0.45 DOUBLE DRAGON ADVANCES

:dogout:
of SA-Mart forever

DNova posted:

Because of heat? Why would that happen? I'm not much of a gamer but I wouldn't mind having the option to check out some new-ish games. I'd rather have the ultrabay free for a second hard drive, though, so if what you're saying about one card by itself is true, that's actually pretty nice.

You're not half right. This thing with even one card blows away the SLI dinosaur that I bought in 2008 for WAY too much, and would make my "gaming" desktop look like a bitch. I think that I might look at the 510s, though, because I would really like a 9-key. 15.6 isn't that big to me, but 17 is enormous.

Ruttiger
Nov 3, 2004

The music itself is changing.
Okay I received my y510p and I fixed the wifi problem, now I need to know what kind of carry bag to get for it! I live in New Zealand so I can't get anything from the lenovo website unless it's something for another computer that would fit the Y510 P. Can anyone give me some recommendations of a good bag for a laptop this size?

Ruttiger fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Oct 13, 2013

JustJeff88
Jan 15, 2008

I AM
CONSISTENTLY
ANNOYING
...
JUST TERRIBLE


THIS BADGE OF SHAME IS WORTH 0.45 DOUBLE DRAGON ADVANCES

:dogout:
of SA-Mart forever
Those Lenovo Y series look really great, just frustrating because I can't get the exact configuration that I want. I would kind of like to have a Blu-Ray player but I don't want the SSD because I couldn't even put my OS on it. Am I missing something and it's actually possible to do a more custom build?

Progressive JPEG
Feb 19, 2003

JustJeff88 posted:

I would kind of like to have a Blu-Ray player but I don't want the SSD [...]. Am I missing something and it's actually possible to do a more custom build?
FWIW I think you're the only person, online or offline, I've ever heard saying they wanted a Blu-ray drive in a laptop*. They might just not be that common beyond people who want the highest spec of everything, which would imply the SSD.

* But computer hardware isnt a frequent topic of discussion for me so maybe I'm just in a wonderful bubble here

Progressive JPEG fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Oct 13, 2013

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

JustJeff88 posted:

Thank you for the reference - I love the look of that thing. I will keep all of your advice in mind, though I wouldn't mind seeing a few more suggestions as well. Don't worry, though... I learned my lesson with my giant old gaming laptop that SLI is kind of shite. I never use a laptop touch pad if I can avoid it, but what's so bad about the screen? Is that why you recommend upgrading? Frankly, I wouldn't mind stopping at 1600 by 900, but if it's a quality issue I don't mind upgrading. This machine is not going to see a huge amount of use, so I can live with just one non-SSD hard drive. Those things are still too expensive for me and I don't mind waiting for things to boot up. This desktop takes ages to boot and it's never really bothered me.

Edit: Which one amongst the 410 models is the higher resolution? 1300 by 768 or whatever it is is kind of piddly by modern standards, but the specs that I see through the B&N site in the OP don't list the screen resolutions for the 410. 510 yes, but not 410.

Edit 2: Never mind the previous edit - I am a blind imbecile.

The screen is fine, it's just not incredible; there are some really nice laptop screens out there. There's nothing wrong with the Y410p screen

And get the 1600x900 resolution for the quality of life improvement; that's the best screen that's available on the Y410p. The Y510p is 1.5" bigger and supports 1080p screens, which is going to be pretty similar to a 900p screen on the Y410p (IE the pixel density will be about the same between the two)

DNova posted:

Why not? Newegg only sells those, it seems. And I might have to use Newegg. And I'm strongly considering the y510p.

SLI is a waste of money. Laptops do not exhaust heat fast enough to fully utilize an SLI setup, so you get a marginal improvement in graphical quality in exchange for a higher price tag and being unable to use your ultrabay slot for something else (like a dvd drive or a hard drive, as you noted).

If you don't mind me asking, why do you have to use Newegg?

JustJeff88 posted:

Those Lenovo Y series look really great, just frustrating because I can't get the exact configuration that I want. I would kind of like to have a Blu-Ray player but I don't want the SSD because I couldn't even put my OS on it. Am I missing something and it's actually possible to do a more custom build?

Are you talking about the 1TB HDD + 24GB SSD option? That's a trap; it's not actually 24GB of SSD that you can put stuff on, it's just cache space and is generally pretty useless. You should either stick to the 1 TB HDD or install a SSD yourself, which is pretty easy to do and really worth doing.

Installing your own blu-ray player is probably a good idea, too. Swapping out optical drives on these things is incredibly easy and doesn't even require a screwdriver

FISHMANPET
Mar 3, 2007

Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams
Since the second graphics card is in the Ultrabay spot, worst come worst you can buy the SLI model and take the second card out and throw it in the trash, if for some reason that's cheaper than getting the non-SLI model from Lenovo or you need it right now.

Also gonna add that I'm still in love with my Y500.

QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

FISHMANPET posted:

Since the second graphics card is in the Ultrabay spot, worst come worst you can buy the SLI model and take the second card out and throw it in the trash, if for some reason that's cheaper than getting the non-SLI model from Lenovo or you need it right now.

Also gonna add that I'm still in love with my Y500.

That's a good point; people on the internet want the SLI card for some reason, so you could probably even ebay it and make back some of that cash

fookolt
Mar 13, 2012

Where there is power
There is resistance
What are the good ultrabooks at the 11-12" screen size other than the MacBook Air? It's for my girlfriend; she wants a whole lot of battery life and portability and wants to check some other options before going with the MacBook Air.

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

Yoga 11s is an interesting one, there's a bunch of Chromebooks if she is OS agnostic, also make sure you're looking at Haswell processors (i5-4xxx), as they have superior battery life over Ivy Bridge (i5-3xxx)

fookolt
Mar 13, 2012

Where there is power
There is resistance

Hadlock posted:

Yoga 11s is an interesting one, there's a bunch of Chromebooks if she is OS agnostic, also make sure you're looking at Haswell processors (i5-4xxx), as they have superior battery life over Ivy Bridge (i5-3xxx)

Of course, it'll be Haswell :P She needs it for PhD work so she'll need Microsoft Office, SASS, and Stata (Chromebooks are out of the picture).

Murodese
Mar 6, 2007

Think you've got what it takes?
We're looking for fine Men & Women to help Protect the Australian Way of Life.

Become part of the Legend. Defence Jobs.
Did anyone ever make any other laptops using the 1080p RGBLED IPS panels that were very briefly on the Studio XPS? I loving love that panel, but the laptop is finally on its last legs and I want to replace it with something that has colour as good.

-Fish-
Oct 10, 2005

Glub glub.
Glub glub.

I've got a Samsung Chromebook arriving on Monday. Wanted something cheap that I could type on while sitting at the couch and run Google Hangouts, having a tablet wasn't really working out in that regard. Any particularly good apps or programs I'll want to get, aside from installing Ubuntu? Like most people I'm brand new to the whole ChromeOS thing.

massive spider
Dec 6, 2006

Can anyone help me with a laptop choose?

Things I care about:

Making music, but my old desktop never fell over from the usage I gave it so it won't be too taxing, especially since I'll be doing much of the processing externally anyway.

Playing the occasional game.

Screen quality, I spent an hour in the showrooms the other day feeling like I hated most of the screens and/or touchpads on display.

Price!

Things I don't care about:

Portability

Having top end graphics in my games, I always turn settings right down anyway.

Macs.

Currently thinking about the Dell inspiron 15 7000 but they don't seem to have shipped yet and I have no experience with Dell as a whole.

massive spider fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Oct 13, 2013

Hadlock
Nov 9, 2004

massive spider posted:

Can anyone help me with a laptop choose?

Screen quality,
Price!

Things I don't care about :
Portability
Macs.

Dell inspiron 15 7000

What is your price range? For screen, what is most important? Resolution, color gamut, brightness, size, viewing angle..?

massive spider
Dec 6, 2006

Price is tricky because I'm in the UK so I don't know how it translates. My original plan was to spend, £500 leaving money left over for warranty cover and music software, but when I couldn't find anything I wanted I thought to stretch to the inspiron 15 7000, which is £629, that's the highest I want to go.

Regarding screen this is going to mostly sit in my room to replace my dead desktop, so 15", and I suppose viewing angle doesent really matter, I couldn't put I finger on what I hated about the screens I saw but I suspect I just don't like 1366x768.

E; which it turns out the inspiron 15 is.

EE; the screens I saw I liked most where the VAIO ones.

massive spider fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Oct 13, 2013

sleepy gary
Jan 11, 2006

QuarkJets posted:

If you don't mind me asking, why do you have to use Newegg?

I don't have to specifically use Newegg, but I think I'm going to have to use a vendor from which I can buy both a laptop and a tablet on the same invoice. I like Lenovo's laptops but I don't like their tablets, so I can't order directly from Lenovo. It kind of blows then that Newegg's selection is dual graphics only.

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Tiny Timbs
Sep 6, 2008

Is there any way to get a replacement ultra bay cover for the y410p? I broke off one of the plastic tabs when trying to pry it off the DVD drive so now it sits a little funny on the hard drive I replaced it with.

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