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Sagebrush
Feb 26, 2012

What's a decent lightweight convertible (or tablet, I guess) right now that has a Wacom digitizer? I'm basically looking for a digital sketchbook and those capacitive pen things won't do. The only ones I can find are the Thinkpad Yoga and the Surface Pro 2, and of the two I'm leaning more towards the Thinkpad. Is that the best solution right now? What else is out there?

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QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

SSH IT ZOMBIE posted:

I'm looking for a solidly built, 14 inches or larger screen. Decent resolution, at least 1440x900 if not 1080p or better. Intel 5000\Iris Pro or discrete GPU, ok battery life (>4 hrs?), probably 8 gigs of ram at least, backlit keyboard, SSD, suppose I could add that after the fact.
Was halfway looking at Samsung book 6,8, and 9 plus.

I'm disenfranchised with Lenovo. Since Thinkpads broke off from IBM I just...I don't know. We have a lot of 520s and 510s at work, they are so so. The X1 Carbons seem fragile. I personally have a T61 with the Nvidia GPU that still works.

I always come back to looking at Macbook pros. My work laptop is a 2009 Macbook Pro. Very solidly built, still works fast, but I think the hard drive is dying. Debating weather or not to order an SSD kit for it or ask for a new laptop or buy my own.

I don't see Samsung mentioned here often. Are they OK?

I know that you said that you're disenfranchised with Lenovo because of the IBM thing, but the Y410p is basically everything that you want in a very affordable package.

HalloKitty
Sep 30, 2005

Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

Wasting posted:

Apologies in advance for not scouring the whole thread.

The OP mentions that there is no need for a gaming laptop unless you work on an oilrig, but I basically do, except I move around a lot more than someone on an oilrig would. I quite literally live in hotels, trailers, taxis, planes, and on trains, and my current (about 5 years old) laptop can no longer support even my modest gaming habit.

I'd like to get something that will last, again, in terms of performance rather than durability. I don't need something I can run over in my truck -- a little care and a decent case has gone a long way.

And I'm really not concerned with price, though I'd like to not overpay.

Thanks!

If someone where to ask me what "gaming" laptop they'd get, I'd probably say Gigabyte P34G, but that's because it has it all: decent size and weight, along with very fast components such as a quad core i7, Geforce 760M, 8GiB RAM, and a 1TB HDD and 128GB mSATA SSD for the OS. Newegg.

There are no doubt cheaper options available, but I don't really keep track of fat and plasticy laptops with low res screens.

HalloKitty fucked around with this message at 10:01 on Dec 19, 2013

dissss
Nov 10, 2007

I'm a terrible forums poster with terrible opinions.

Here's a cat fucking a squid.

SSH IT ZOMBIE posted:

I don't see Samsung mentioned here often. Are they OK?

If you don't like the build quality of the X1 then you are really going to hate anything Samsung.

Tom Guycot
Oct 15, 2008

Chief of Governors


Sagebrush posted:

What's a decent lightweight convertible (or tablet, I guess) right now that has a Wacom digitizer? I'm basically looking for a digital sketchbook and those capacitive pen things won't do. The only ones I can find are the Thinkpad Yoga and the Surface Pro 2, and of the two I'm leaning more towards the Thinkpad. Is that the best solution right now? What else is out there?

I'm biased since I own a surface pro 2, but it is a really fantastic machine. I've been nothing but pleased with mine, and its small and light enough to easily slip in my purse and pull out on the train or wherever, as opposed to something like the thinkpad yoga which is a good pound and a half heavier (of course, it also has a bigger drawing surface). It really depends on your needs and requirements I guess. Heck if its not going to be doing photoshop work at 4k with 100 layers, ASUS is launching a 8" windows tablet with a wacom digitizer early January, or end of this month for $300, that might be just the thing.

me your dad
Jul 25, 2006

I need a convertible laptop which has the potential to last three years. I have a budget of about $800.

I'm considering either the Yoga 11s or Surface Pro (128gb). My concern is the 4gb of RAM but I don't think I'm going to get much better than that for the money. I've considered the popular Y410p but I really like the optional tablet form factor.

It'll be used for lightweight work task, like Office 2013 and web-based applications.

Of those two, which would you pick? Or am I missing another viable option?

snoozeallday
Sep 9, 2010

tell him all your problems . . . he's fucking awesome with listening

LogicNinja posted:

All right, thanks, good to know. So the question really becomes "do I get a laptop with a graphics card, or a convertible/tablet-hybrid"?

I think the Yoga Pro 2 is as good as it gets in terms of hybrids. Any suggestions for what I'm looking at in terms of a compromise between GPU and weight/battery life?

e: I guess I'll see what my options are in terms of game-capable hardware and see if I really think I'm going to spend enough time gaming for it to be worth it. As good as B:I and Black Flag look, it just doesn't seem likely--but I'm not super invested in the idea of a convertible either.

Check out the Acer V7. You can get it with the i7 4500u and a 750M GPU and 12GB ram for a drat good price.

Srebrenica Surprise
Aug 23, 2008

"L-O-V-E's just another word I never learned to pronounce."
If you're not going to spend much time gaming a 730M system is probably a better choice, although I've noticed with the desktop thread that it's very common for a low-end capability to hook people into wanting to do more.

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

snoozeallday posted:

Check out the Acer V7. You can get it with the i7 4500u and a 750M GPU and 12GB ram for a drat good price.

Thanks, checking that out. Current top prospects are the Lenovo Y510p and U530.

Srebrenica Surprise posted:

If you're not going to spend much time gaming a 730M system is probably a better choice, although I've noticed with the desktop thread that it's very common for a low-end capability to hook people into wanting to do more.
Can you explain a little? I don't know a 7xxM from a hole in the ground.

I suppose part of the point of getting one of these is to get to play more top-end games, but because most FPSes (i.e. the most common kind) don't really interest me I expect the supply of top-end games I want to play to stay on the low end.

e: One thing I've noticed is that most of the non-convertibles I'm looking at don't have SSDs, or have an SSD cache at most. Ick.

son of e: Warranties are another thing that's important that I haven't discussed--extended full-replacement warranties hae historically been a great deal for me, I'm not really gentle with my stuff.

LogicNinja fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Dec 19, 2013

Straker
Nov 10, 2005

LogicNinja posted:

Can you explain a little? I don't know a 7xxM from a hole in the ground.
From his wording I think I can identify with a similar phenomenon... I've spent probably 20 hours doing research the past several days, QuarkJets had a great suggestion in getting a y410p with a 755M and 900p display to help games run a little better. But then I poke around and see I can get a Sager with a 770M (GPU that's like twice as fast) for $1300, well that's a little steep, what about a y510p, for only $100 more than the 410 I can get a 15.6" 1080p screen, but then it won't run games as well with the same GPU as the y410p, and SLI is kind of stupid... but Toshiba sells a laptop with a 770M for $999, that's only another couple hundred bucks even if build quality isn't quite as good... but then I'd want to upgrade the CPU for another $100. And on and on and on. I also realized that unless I spend way way more, none of these mobile GPUs are going to be good enough to let me bump up settings a whole lot or anything, just give a few more fps at the same settings.

I ended up biting on the y410p this morning, for $800 it's going to cost 50% more to get anything significantly better and my desktop is pretty goddamn amazing and I'm not even going to use this laptop this often and the y410p looks pretty great all around. If I don't like it, $800 is way less risk than spending double that on a desktop replacement/proper gaming laptop that I might also hate for different reasons :)

Srebrenica Surprise
Aug 23, 2008

"L-O-V-E's just another word I never learned to pronounce."
It's best to go to notebookcheck and go look at benchmarks for the GPUs, people tend to have wildly different expectations of what's acceptable and unacceptable. I'll post my thoughts on the V7 soon, but the 750M does get pretty hot and might be overkill (or lock you out of other good choices with lower-end cards) if you don't plan on playing many AAA games and don't care about settings that much. I don't see much point in going for the Y510p unless there's some difference I don't know about besides the ridiculously inefficient SLI thing and the screen that's vastly inferior to the V7's anyway - it's just pointlessly big for what you get.

e: I guess I'd say something like the P645 is a much better fit, although the V7 might be a good competitor depending on what you think of the relative benchmarks. I wouldn't factor in an SSD, with any of these you have room in budget to drop $200 on a 256GB SSD of your choice.

e2: this was a reply to LogicNinja's post btw

Srebrenica Surprise fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Dec 19, 2013

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

Straker posted:

From his wording I think I can identify with a similar phenomenon... I've spent probably 20 hours doing research the past several days, QuarkJets had a great suggestion in getting a y410p with a 755M and 900p display to help games run a little better. But then I poke around and see I can get a Sager with a 770M (GPU that's like twice as fast) for $1300, well that's a little steep, what about a y510p, for only $100 more than the 410 I can get a 15.6" 1080p screen, but then it won't run games as well with the same GPU as the y410p, and SLI is kind of stupid... but Toshiba sells a laptop with a 770M for $999, that's only another couple hundred bucks even if build quality isn't quite as good... but then I'd want to upgrade the CPU for another $100. And on and on and on. I also realized that unless I spend way way more, none of these mobile GPUs are going to be good enough to let me bump up settings a whole lot or anything, just give a few more fps at the same settings.

I ended up biting on the y410p this morning, for $800 it's going to cost 50% more to get anything significantly better and my desktop is pretty goddamn amazing and I'm not even going to use this laptop this often and the y410p looks pretty great all around. If I don't like it, $800 is way less risk than spending double that on a desktop replacement/proper gaming laptop that I might also hate for different reasons :)

Yeah, that's basically what I've been doing--figuring out if I really want a GPU over a convertible and if a better graphics card is worth a heavier laptop and on and on. Right now I'm leaning towards something lighter that'll run these games on normal.


e: compiling stuff here.

Acer Aspire v7:
-A less-good screen, according to The Internet. (Lower resolution?)
-8 GB DDR3L SDRAM
-NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M (DDR3)
-4.4 pounds

Lenovo IdeaPad U530 touch:
-1920x1080 display
-NVIDIA Geforce GT 730M (DDR3)
-8GB DDR3L SDRAM
-5.07 pounds

Lenovo IdeaPad Y410P:
-1600x900 display, something called a "TN panel" which is apparently bad
-NVIDIA GeForce GT755M (DDR5)
-8GB DDR3L SDRAM
-5.5 lbs

Lenovo IdeaPad Y520 (touch):
-1920x1090 display
-NVIDIA GeForce GT755M (DDR5)
-8GB DDR3L SDRAM
-5.95 lbs

LogicNinja fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Dec 19, 2013

Straker
Nov 10, 2005

Srebrenica Surprise posted:

people tend to have wildly different expectations of what's acceptable and unacceptable

750M does get pretty hot and might be overkill (or lock you out of other good choices with lower-end cards)
Case in point, I just upgraded my desktop from a 7990 to a pair of 290s and so I can't help but see the 755M as marginally acceptable, instead of thinking of it as "so much better than the 740M that I might have accidentally dismissed a bunch of perfectly good even cheaper laptops" or whatever :)

And even if I think it sucks, I don't have to play BF4 all the time, I still have basically every game from every humble bundle/other recent good bundle to play through still.

LogicNinja posted:

Yeah, that's basically what I've been doing--figuring out if I really want a GPU over a convertible and if a better graphics card is worth a heavier laptop and on and on. Right now I'm leaning towards something lighter that'll run these games on normal. The lack of an SSD on any of these things is honestly the biggest deal.
I see it as a good thing, the markup on stuff like memory/hard drives when customizing through an OEM isn't as obscene as it used to be but you're still just as well getting your own and putting it in there. I already ordered an ultrabay hard drive caddy and have a 250GB 840 Evo on the way (they've gone as low as $140 lately), plan on putting the original drive in the ultrabay.

Srebrenica Surprise
Aug 23, 2008

"L-O-V-E's just another word I never learned to pronounce."

Straker posted:

Case in point, I just upgraded my desktop from a 7990 to a pair of 290s and so I can't help but see the 755M as marginally acceptable, instead of thinking of it as "so much better than the 740M that I might have accidentally dismissed a bunch of perfectly good even cheaper laptops" or whatever :)

And even if I think it sucks, I don't have to play BF4 all the time, I still have basically every game from every humble bundle/other recent good bundle to play through still.
I will say though that driving games at 1080p is probably better suited for the 755M's GDDR5, which makes the fact "1080p screen" and "755M" are mutually exclusive kind of suck (outside of the Y510p, which has huge portability drawbacks). I'm going to be doing a little memory-speed-only light overclocking like Anandtech did to try to alleviate this. The pixel difference does mean more settings sacrifices than I'd think I'd have to make, but like you I have high expectations based on desktop gaming. In my case I've actually done less and less gaming recently, but the times I do it, I want it to be fluid and look good and work right. It's so much more difficult to decide with this stuff on mobile than it is on the desktop - lower end GPUs are plentiful but nearing obsolescence, midrange GPUs perform like budget desktop cards and age quickly, and high-end GPUs age even faster in certain ways and have huge mobility drawbacks. I may think the V7 is the best combination for me, but it's a lot more personal and subjective than it would be because of the form factor.

e: I made a post comparing similar systems, LogicNinja - the V7 has a vastly superior screen to most systems, as it's IPS (well, AHVA).

e2: the W230ST is also a decent contender against the V7 but is significantly chunkier and a little pricier, with some pretty bad battery life even if you aren't using the dGPU. The V7 puts up about 4-6hrs.

Srebrenica Surprise fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Dec 19, 2013

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...
Yeah, looking at that it's pretty solidly between the Lenovo Y510p and the Acer V7.

Acer Aspire v7:
-Good screen, apparently
-8 GB DDR3L SDRAM
-NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M (DDR3)
-4.4 pounds

Lenovo y510p:
-1920x1090 display
-NVIDIA GeForce GT755M (DDR5)
-8GB DDR3L SDRAM
-5.95 lbs

6 is a lot of pounds, that's marginally heavier than my old laptop. 4.4 is nicer, but still not "light".

When I carry my laptop around, it's usually in a laptop bag where a pound and a half won't make that much of a difference, but the ability to lift it easily in one hand via the corner is nice.

This choice ain't easy, even assuming that I don't say "gently caress this poo poo, I'll play a couple of games on my significant other's ps3 and just have a convertible". I've started leaning towards that, honestly; this is way too much in terms of trouble and tradeoffs for a capability that I won't use that often as far as I can tell.

If I do, then the choice is the Yoga Pro 2, I think, although the Surface pro 2 is also worth looking at--I'm not sure I like its weirdly long shape.

LogicNinja fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Dec 19, 2013

Shrimpy
May 18, 2004

Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.
As a heads up, for anyone thinking of saving some money and ordering the high end XPS 15 from Costco, I just got an e-mail saying that my laptop (purchased December 2nd) likely won't be delivered until January 6th.

Seamonster
Apr 30, 2007

IMMER SIEGREICH
Doesn't even seem to be on their site anymore.

MikeJF
Dec 20, 2003




Well, my Thinkpad Yoga just arrived, and so far my initial prognosis is this: I'm pretty sure I could beat a hobo to death with this thing without leaving a mark on it.

Fishbait
Apr 25, 2008
I'm trying to help my sister laptop shop, and I'm looking for good recs. My problem is that she had a nasty experience with Lenovo trying to order a machine and is flat out refusing to consider any Lenovos. She also is pretty much done for life with Apple after a long string of bad experiences.

The ideal machine would:
Cost below $1500 or so, but higher could be done if necessary
Be decent for multimedia uses, especially streaming video (good quality screen at a good resolution for HD)
Be between 13-16" in size
Have an optical drive mandatory, blu-ray optional
She doesn't care Windows 7 vs 8
500 GB of storage or more
6 GB of RAM at minimum

She was eyeballing the Asus N56VZ or N56DP as possible choices, but I'm finding mostly refurbished machines and I'm pretty sure she wants new. The Acer Aspire v3 looks nice, but is larger than she wants. Does anyone have any recommendations? As much as I wish she'd just accept a Lenovo, it seems that won't happen.

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...
Guys. Guys, I just realized. The Vaio 15a flip has both a tablet mode and a graphics card.

... So what's wrong with it?

I did go to a physical store and look at the yoga pro 2. Man, that thing feels really nice,except for the keys on the back thing. I did notice that the Sony tablet mode wasn't super awesomet feeling

Apollodorus
Feb 13, 2010

TEST YOUR MIGHT
:patriot:
So the Lenovo site linked in the OP has some pretty deep discounts. I am thinking of getting a Lenovo IdeaPad Z410, which they have for $379 for min spec and $583 for the highest (slightly better) version. What do you think?

This is for note taking, word processing, grad school internet research, internet time-wasting, video watching, etc. No serious gaming, no music- or video-editing - I don't have time for any of those anyway.

Also, do I really want to get a touch screen? Will it change my life? Right now I have an Asus with Win 8 and don't feel like I am missing out, but, I just don't know.

GrizzlyCow
May 30, 2011
Does NVIDIA Shadowplay work with mobile graphics cards as well as desktop?

MikeJF
Dec 20, 2003




LogicNinja posted:

I did go to a physical store and look at the yoga pro 2. Man, that thing feels really nice,except for the keys on the back thing.

Not a problem for my Thinkpad Yoga! :smug:

Although the clickable touch pad does catch you sometimes.

butt dickus
Jul 7, 2007

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

MikeJF posted:

Well, my Thinkpad Yoga just arrived, and so far my initial prognosis is this: I'm pretty sure I could beat a hobo to death with this thing without leaving a mark on it.
I'm very interested in this. What's the battery life like?

AARP LARPer
Feb 19, 2005

THE DARK SIDE OF SCIENCE BREEDS A WEAPON OF WAR

Buglord

AARP LARPer fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Jan 22, 2016

falcon2424
May 2, 2005

Dance The Mutation posted:

This is kind of silly but I want to buy a laptop for programming mainly. I plan to install Ubuntu on it. I'm a statistics/CS major and I do a lot of data analysis. I'm not like a PhD student so I doubt what I write is really that insane but I use C/C++, R, and Python extensively. Do I need to go for core i7 and cutting edge stuff? I was thinking that integrated graphics, core i5 or i7, and an SSD would be fine for me? It would be cool to have a dedicated GPU for other stuff like watching HD video and/or possibly doing CUDA stuff in the next year. What do you guys think?

I'm in a similar situation. I have a desktop, (and server for complex code), so I'm looking for a portable laptop, probably in the 12"-14" range.

Based on the recommendations given to Dance The Mutation, I'm probably looking at an i5.

My big problem is durability. The computer will live in my backpack and get taken to campus pretty much daily. The last couple laptops I've bought have been big, cheap, and lasted for about a year before their hinges gave out.

Should I look at something super-cheap and accept that I need to replace my machines annually? Are there laptops that will last longer? Should I consider some kind of mac?

A last consideration is that I pretty much need unix, so I'll reformat a windows machine as soon as I get it. Could any of the linux distributions take advantage of a touchscreen?

P.N.T.M.
Jan 14, 2006

tiny dinosaurs
Fun Shoe
Quick question: Does your bag have a laptop compartment, and if not, do you use a laptop sleeve?

There are two major product lines people here will suggest for their durability. Dell Latitude, and Lenovo ThinkPad. Someone chime in with more suggestions* if you have but...

Almost every laptop will crumble over time if thrown straight into a bag without basic cushioning.


What's your budget?


*Toughbooks of course, but let's keep the prices reasonable please.

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...
Okay, approaching decision point here. I don't plan to game enough to justify a top notch gaming laptop and it's downsides (weight, e.g.) and something that can handle today's games on medium will handle the day after tomorrow 's games on very low if at all.

I really liked the reel of the yoga pro 2. However, I can't find the 8gb ram version for less than 1800 online, best buy seems to be out.

Aside from size, what the hell is the difference between the yoga pro 2 and the think pad yoga? The latter comes in 8gb and is available on Newegg.

LogicNinja fucked around with this message at 07:53 on Dec 20, 2013

Rock Epidemic
Mar 17, 2001

MikeJF posted:

Not a problem for my Thinkpad Yoga! :smug:

Although the clickable touch pad does catch you sometimes.

Not to dogpile you with the others already asking as well, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the ThinkPad Yoga. Did you happen to get a unit with the active digitizer?

MikeJF
Dec 20, 2003




Doctor rear end in a top hat posted:

I'm very interested in this. What's the battery life like?

Haven't really had it long enough to assess.

Do Not Resuscitate posted:

I'm looking long and hard at this too. How is the clickpad in general on your Yoga?

I'd say the clickpad is the weakest point, to be honest. It clicks too deep and feels unstable, especially when click-dragging. And it's almost too big to comfortably do the edge-swipe gestures of Win8. And it seems a bit unreliable with the right mouse button or the three-button middle click. Past laptops I've been happy with the trackpad but for this I'm gonna pick up a wireless mouse.

Rock Epidemic posted:

Not to dogpile you with the others already asking as well, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the ThinkPad Yoga. Did you happen to get a unit with the active digitizer?

I did, but I'm not an artist and haven't really used a digitiser before for comparison.

Shoryu Ken Masters
Feb 21, 2006

I've destroyed whole planets, so what chance has your club got?
What do you guys think about this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152409

I've been comparing it to different y410p and y510p models and it seems like I will get more bang for my buck with this, unless I am overlooking something.

falcon2424
May 2, 2005

P.N.T.M. posted:

Quick question: Does your bag have a laptop compartment, and if not, do you use a laptop sleeve?

There are two major product lines people here will suggest for their durability. Dell Latitude, and Lenovo ThinkPad. Someone chime in with more suggestions* if you have but...

Almost every laptop will crumble over time if thrown straight into a bag without basic cushioning.

What's your budget?

My bag has a laptop compartment and I use a laptop sleeve. I could do up to ~$1,000
, but I'm really looking at it as price/year, based on time until the thing breaks, or needs upgrading.

Both the latitude and the thinkpad look good. Do people have thoughts on this model: http://www.amazon.com/Latitude-E6410-Wireless-WideScreen-Professional/dp/B00ARIMKK8/ ?

e: Apparently, I don't know how to copy-paste

falcon2424 fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Dec 20, 2013

MikeJF
Dec 20, 2003




LogicNinja posted:

Aside from size, what the hell is the difference between the yoga pro 2 and the think pad yoga? The latter comes in 8gb and is available on Newegg.

The Thinkpad is smaller screen, noticeably thicker, quite a bit heavier, much more solid and durable with a metal framework, has a non-pentile but a bit dimmer screen, only a 1920x1080 resolution, can have a wacon pen. Also that neat keyboard-locking mechanism on flip.

MikeJF fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Dec 20, 2013

Flipperwaldt
Nov 11, 2011

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



falcon2424 posted:

Do people have thoughts on this model:
That's a link to some timesharing poo poo or something, dude.

falcon2424
May 2, 2005

Flipperwaldt posted:

That's a link to some timesharing poo poo or something, dude.

Sorry, I'm a moron, the (fixed) link was supposed to go to the Dell Latitude E6410. They're selling them with the i5 and 4gb of ram for $399.

That looks like a really good deal, and I'm worried if I'm missing something obvious, beyond my inability to copy-paste a url.

P.N.T.M.
Jan 14, 2006

tiny dinosaurs
Fun Shoe
Searching for that model led me to a Tiger Direct page with a few more specification details listed. For instance, the CPU is probably an i5-520m

The i5-520m vs i3-4010u vs i5-4200u vs i5-4300u


That i5 is almost on par with a modern i3, but will be missing modern features (which I don't know anything about, but I know exist). I've included the two most common modern mobile i5s up there as well in case you were wondering.


That Dell has either a 1440x900 or 1280x800 Anti-glare screen according to Dell's product page. The latter would be a little tight by most people's standards, and its got a smidge less pixels than the most common modern resolution, 1366x768.

Side Note: The 1440x900 would also be smaller than its modern day equivilent, 1600x900.


Oddly, it's listed on that Amazon page as having only 802.11abg wifi capability, but Dell lists only abgn cards with the model. It could be a clerical error on the seller's listing.


Windows 7 Doesn't matter


8GB DDR3: Awesome, very nice to have, very nice to not have to add in post-purchase.


Weight: 5lbs

This is pretty much the only thing you need to accept for this to be a good deal overall. Its processor is old, but any thing in the same price-range and modern will have a roughly equal CPU. It's HDD is big enough. Screen is going to probably be a TN panel (Bad viewing angles, not so great color reproduction, think traditional laptop screen) of reasonable resolution, the wifi card may or may not have N specification, and it will be a brick in your bag.

But you have a budget that is more than twice the price of this laptop. You could easily buy the Dell E6430 and get something that weights 1/2 a pound less, has a bit more modern of a CPU (the i3-3120) and also a sleeker profile. It only comes with 2GB of RAM though :(


You can also look at the

T440, $763 @ ~4lbs,

T440s, $935 @ ~3.5lbs,

and x240, $818 @ <3lbs ($880 with IPS Display (The better than TN panel option)

(Prices through B&N Store)

All of these use previously mentioned i3s or i5s which compare better to the one in the Amazon listed Dell. They all come with a base 4GB of RAM. They all come with a 500GB HDD. They are durable as well, and should stack up very well to any $400 POS with general use over years.

My opinion is: That Amazon Dell is an iron workhorse, and if you can get past that, it will certainly do what you need it to do. But any of the modern Latitude or Thinkpad stock is just as dependable, and has the modern edge that makes buying a new laptop/computer so enjoyable.

Good luck, I hope this all helps!

Chard
Aug 24, 2010




Current situation: desktop is dying and I need to Old Yeller it soon. I'll eventually replace it but I'm going to be moving states in the near future and want something more portable for the interim. I'm not a complete idiot but some help comparing the finer details would be appreciated.

Requirements: gaming at the level of Civ5 and X-COM, Netflix, maybe photoshopping butts onto birds and such. Being able to play new releases at top quality isn't a priority, but if those two are stable and decent-looking that's plenty. The laptop will be pretty stationary between moves so weight/bulk isn't a big concern, neither is power. I'll also be outputting to a larger TV so the screen quality is a secondary concern.

Right now I'm leaning towards this one:

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p (59388313) Intel Core i7 4700MQ(2.40GHz) 8GB Memory 1TB + 8GB SSHD Hybrid Drive 15.6" Notebook Windows 8 The price is right (basically the high end of what I'm looking to spend) and it seems like a quality machine. The OP says that IdeaPads are separate from ThinkPads but doesn't really explain the difference. I'm guessing they aren't "space-rated"? :shrug: I'll live if that's the only significant difference.

Then there was this one that was posted recently:

It's outside what I'd like to pay but can someone explain what justifies the price difference? My pick has 2x GT 750M (SLI), HalloKitty's has a GT 760M - perfromance wise how significant is that difference? They also seem to have different CPUs but both are 4700xx @ 2.4G.

Basically if anyone has a good reason for me not to buy the IdeaPad or a better suggestion that is what I am asking for.

E: if possible I'd like to pull the trigger on this today.

Chard fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Dec 20, 2013

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!

falcon2424 posted:

My bag has a laptop compartment and I use a laptop sleeve. I could do up to ~$1,000
, but I'm really looking at it as price/year, based on time until the thing breaks, or needs upgrading.

Both the latitude and the thinkpad look good. Do people have thoughts on this model: http://www.amazon.com/Latitude-E6410-Wireless-WideScreen-Professional/dp/B00ARIMKK8/ ?

e: Apparently, I don't know how to copy-paste

See if you can score a Lenovo T420 for that same price - it's a generation newer as far as the guts are concerned

sourdough
Apr 30, 2012

LogicNinja posted:

Okay, approaching decision point here. I don't plan to game enough to justify a top notch gaming laptop and it's downsides (weight, e.g.) and something that can handle today's games on medium will handle the day after tomorrow 's games on very low if at all.

I really liked the reel of the yoga pro 2. However, I can't find the 8gb ram version for less than 1800 online, best buy seems to be out.

Aside from size, what the hell is the difference between the yoga pro 2 and the think pad yoga? The latter comes in 8gb and is available on Newegg.

The Yoga 2 Pro definitely wins out against any ultrabook I've seen or considered. I'm pretty baffled about Lenovo removing the 8GB RAM option from their website, but if you see it back there or for around $1200 in any stores, I would absolutely recommend it. Easily worth the money. Not worth $1800 though :(

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QuarkJets
Sep 8, 2008

Shoryu Ken Masters posted:

What do you guys think about this?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152409

I've been comparing it to different y410p and y510p models and it seems like I will get more bang for my buck with this, unless I am overlooking something.

It looks like a good laptop, but I'd say that they're about the same value. You're paying $250 more than the Y410p for a bigger HDD and an incrementally better CPU and GPU. If you're going to replace the HDD with an SDD, then you're just getting the barely-better CPU and GPU for your extra money.

And that's assuming that you actually get $100 back from the rebate, which is not guaranteed

On the other hand, free 2-day shipping with newegg is practically priceless compared to Lenovo's slow-rear end shipping and delivery, and if you're going to keep the HDD then I'd suggest that you go with the MSI. It probably has a better trackpad, too. I know nothing about the build quality on the MSI that you picked out; the Y410p is solid but had a low-quality screen and low-quality trackpad, so if the MSI is better on these fronts then you should totally go for it.

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