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I'm going to be retiring my lovely-yet-faithful old Acer pretty soon, and I'd like some advice on what to replace it with. I'm looking for something durable, because I don't think I can stand having bits of my laptop break every month anymore. I'd also like it to have at least decent battery life, be lightweight enough for me to carry about at uni, and possibly be able to run games - I just bought Dishonored, and I'd like something that can at least get a decent frame rate out of it on low settings, but gaming isn't really a massive deal for me. My absolute budget (as in, "go over this and I will literally be unable to buy food") is £900, but ideally I'd like to spend a bit less if I can. I've got 2 possibilities already figured out, shown below, but I'm also open to suggestions. Ideapad u430 Touch - Intel Core i5-4200U, 8GB RAM, NVidia GT-730M graphics card, 1600x900 touchscreen, £799 Thinkpad T440 - Intel Core i3-4010U, 4GB RAM, Intel HD 4400 graphics, HD+ (so 1600x900, I think?) screen, £820-£835 depending on how much I upgrade the wireless card. The Ideapad seems to have disappeared from the UK online store over the past couple of weeks - you can view it, but you can't buy one. I'm not sure if they've decided to pull it or just sold out temporarily. The Thinkpad doesn't seem to be available with dedicated graphics over here, but I think the HD 4400 will at least be an upgrade over the Core 2 Duo T6500/GT 130M setup I'm running atm. Anyway, any advice at all on what I should get would be absolutely fantastic and greatly appreciated. It would also be brilliant if someone could give me some advice on discounts I could get - I know I can get a discount off of Apple and Dell for being a student, but I'm not sure how much. If it's good enough, I'll look at some of their stuff as well.
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Dec 28, 2013 03:23
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I've been doing a bit of looking around and reading this thread and kind of adjusted my expectations. I'd love for anyone's advice on what model laptop to buy. I'm replacing some lovely XPS15 build that was a lemon from day one and now can't go more than half a week without blue screening. I'll be using the thing mostly for note-taking, but it would please me mightily if I could get some 1080p video and mild gaming (Paradox games, Civ games, if it could run New Vegas or maybe Skyrim that'd be above and beyond.) So I figure for all that, I need a 1080p screen, hopefully IPS, and some kind of dedicated graphics card. I'm also the kind of jackass that would tab between a 1080p movie and my 100 open chrome tabs, so more RAM is nice, and since the thing will be used often for note taking I figure a SSD is a good idea too. I'm replacing a 15 inch screen and would probably go down to 14 if it seemed like the best machine, but I'm not really happy about shrinking the screen further (or expanding, 17 is ridiculous.) Other than all that my secondary concerns are portability, build quality, and battery life. I'm finding it surprisingly hard to find a decent 1080p screen, low-to-middle-level-high-end power, and any portability (low weight and/or sturdy build) whatsoever. Any suggestions? Digital Osmosis fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Dec 28, 2013 |
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Dec 28, 2013 14:45
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Just ordered an xps 12 for 699. http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/110...page=3#comments
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Dec 28, 2013 16:28
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Digital Osmosis posted:I've been doing a bit of looking around and reading this thread and kind of adjusted my expectations. I'd love for anyone's advice on what model laptop to buy. I'm replacing some lovely XPS15 build that was a lemon from day one and now can't go more than half a week without blue screening. I'll be using the thing mostly for note-taking, but it would please me mightily if I could get some 1080p video and mild gaming (Paradox games, Civ games, if it could run New Vegas or maybe Skyrim that'd be above and beyond.) ACER V7 14" with 4500u and 750m
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Dec 28, 2013 21:05
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snoozeallday posted:ACER V7 14" with 4500u and 750m http://www.digitaltrends.com/laptop-reviews/acer-aspire-v7-review/ Digital Trends said it got up to 117 degrees under load. Makes me a little concerned about overheating in the long term, but I'm not sure what the y410p clocks in at in comparison.
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Dec 28, 2013 21:17
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I imagine the V7 does get warmer than the wedge-shaped systems like the Y410p get, but it's the price you pay for portability. Gaming with it on your lap is warm but not going to set your clothes on fire or anything, and hypothetically you can set the temperature target lower, or prop it up slightly so the vents aren't blocked. This is less a function of overheating and more a function of less material between the GPU heatsink and yourself - I haven't seen the GPU get over 75 degrees.
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Dec 29, 2013 00:15
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Erdricks posted:http://www.digitaltrends.com/laptop-reviews/acer-aspire-v7-review/ There are a ton of people who are having zero problems with it. It'll get hot, cause its really thin and has a pretty powerful gpu in it, but its not going to break or anything. You'll be gaming on a table anyways, right?
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Dec 29, 2013 07:02
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Finally got around to turning on my Y410P and I already love it, aside from the very average screen. Interesting that it has room for an NGFF SSD but I already have an 840 Evo and caddy for the original drive and can't really imagine needing more drives in anything that isn't a desktop replacement. I don't know if this is typical for current Lenovo laptops, but the spinning drive it came with had SEVEN loving partitions on it and it fussed and wouldn't start when I imaged to the SSD and left out the two obviously unnecessary and huge third-party recovery partitions, and of course it couldn't repair itself without those partitions. I don't think it was the imaging or any change/loss of partition IDs or anything that broke it, since it works fine after imaging all 7 partitions despite resizing the crap out of several of them. Just have to get it up and running and then delete the unneeded partitions I guess, not a huge deal since those two are at the end of the drive so you can easily extend the OS partition after. Point being, if you're going to swap in an SSD or whatever just do a clean install or at least don't initially leave out any partitions when imaging. Kind of annoying that there are still at least a couple unnecessary ones I won't really be able to get rid of, but I resized them down to half a gig each so not a huge deal.
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Dec 29, 2013 09:52
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I have a Lenovo W510 with a dead motherboard. Would cost roughly 300 to repair. Should I just get another ThinkPad? I liked the screen size and resolution, power was decent too, but I think I want a ThinkPad with better build quality this time.
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Dec 29, 2013 17:31
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Today from Woot you can get an i5 T410 for $299: http://tech.woot.com/offers/lenovo-thinkpad-14-1-dual-core-i5-laptop-1
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Dec 29, 2013 17:58
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VulgarandStupid posted:Just ordered an xps 12 for 699. This deal is tempting, can't find a similar spec Ultrabook for the price. Yoga 2 Pro would be the other choice, but the B&N link carries a $200 premium for similar specs. Anyone have personal experience with this model, either Ivy or Haswell? Reports of touchpad issues are troubling.
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Dec 29, 2013 18:58
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doughboy1013 posted:This deal is tempting, can't find a similar spec Ultrabook for the price. Yoga 2 Pro would be the other choice, but the B&N link carries a $200 premium for similar specs. My coworker has the xps 12 and she loves it to death, but all she uses it for is MS office, Netflix, and Web scrabble / Facebook games.
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Dec 29, 2013 19:13
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doughboy1013 posted:This deal is tempting, can't find a similar spec Ultrabook for the price. Yoga 2 Pro would be the other choice, but the B&N link carries a $200 premium for similar specs. Only problem I've had with mine is Bluetooth turns itself off (Error in device manager) after waking from Sleep. Disable/enable fixes it, but it's a bit annoying.
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Dec 29, 2013 21:00
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Just in time for 2014, my Yoga 2 Pro arrived. Calling this screen gorgeous is underselling it, really. Hardware wise there is not a thing I'd change, other than them sadly sending me one with a bilingual keyboard - but, I figure I can always remap the keys if it turns out to be too big a deal. I wish software-wise it had a little more polish, though. I've had troubles with Bluetooth disconnecting my mouse & keyboard randomly - going to the generic Windows driver has fixed it mostly, but even then it disconnects for about thirty seconds at a time at unusual intervals. The keyboard & mouse work fine on my desktop and they both disconnect at once, so the probable point of failure is the laptop. I'd ideally like to keep the laptop at native resolution and rely on some kind of a program that can automatically magnify a particular app when it launches (such as SpiderOak) because it really is one pretty-rear end screen. Are there any options out there for that? Sadly, I'm still getting the yellow issue even after the software updates, BUT it only applies to the "Stable" mode in the Lenovo Energy Manager. Any other mode displays Big Bird just fine. How much battery life will keeping it at medium performance cost me? Finally: if worse comes to worse, will the reinstall-from-recovery-partition option allow me to reinstall Windows 8.1 fresh, or will I have to use some other method?
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Dec 29, 2013 21:49
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I have been building desktops for years but am about to buy my first laptop and want to check some things out before I buy with intent to tinker. I am set on a T440s and had originally thought I would install an SSD afterwards for booting. It seems that there is a third, free M.2 slot but there is not much information in the SSD thread about this type of connector. From what I can gather elsewhere things can get tricky and there is really only one option as far as current manufacturers. A few questions 1) Are you able to use other connector types with an M.2? It seems the answer is no. 2) What is the SSD running off in the factory option? It replaces the HDD and I'd rather have both if possible. I'm guessing it is not M.2. I assume the HDD can't just be moved to the free M.2 due to size if nothing else. 3) What is everyone else planning to do as far as boot disk, etc. is concerned? Also, is adding an extra four GB of RAM as easy as unscrewing the back and plugging in to an existing connector? The OP suggests upgrading the wifi - does this hold here? It would go from Thinkpad wireless 2x2 BGN to Intel Dual Band 7260AC with Bluetooth 4.0. Invicta{HOG}, M.D. fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Dec 29, 2013 |
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Dec 29, 2013 21:51
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Invicta{HOG}, M.D. posted:I have been building desktops for years but am about to buy my first laptop and want to check some things out before I buy with intent to tinker. I am set on a T440s and had originally thought I would install an SSD afterwards for booting. It seems that there is a third, free M.2 slot but there is not much information in the SSD thread about this type of connector. From what I can gather elsewhere things can get tricky and there is really only one option as far as current manufacturers. A few questions 1) Are you able to use other connector types with an M.2? It seems the answer is no. 2) What is the SSD running off in the factory option? It replaces the HDD and I'd rather have both if possible. I'm guessing it is not M.2. I assume the HDD can't just be moved to the free M.2 due to size if nothing else. 3) What is everyone else planning to do as far as boot disk, etc. is concerned? The third M.2 slot is ONLY present if you buy the T440s with the 500GB + 16GB caching SSD option so make sure you keep an eye on that. Otherwise, though, you still have one free M.2 slot (unless you bought a WWAN card). 1) Nope. M.2 is M.2. Technically you CAN get adapters to use it with a desktop system, but because of the tiny form factor there's really nothing you'll ever be able to do to to make a larger mSATA drive fit in there. 2) I'd assume that the SSD runs off SATA but don't quote me on that since I obviously don't have that setup. 3) I replaced the 500GB spinning disk with a 120GB SSD and I'm waiting for more manufacturers to release quality M.2 drives before I add one. 4) Yes and no. It is technically as easy as removing the back and plugging it into the spare slot, but removing the back is an exercise in "oh poo poo I am going to break this!". I've worked on two T440s systems and both of them were an absolute pain in the rear end to take the bottom cover off of (and I actually cracked mine). some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Dec 29, 2013 |
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Dec 29, 2013 21:55
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Martytoof posted:Cool stuff Thanks Marty! I added a question about upgrading the wifi - any thoughts on that?
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Dec 29, 2013 22:27
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Invicta{HOG}, M.D. posted:Thanks Marty! Hmm. No thoughts, but I think that's the card that came in my T440s (the 7260AC + BT, I mean). At any rate, be careful because Lenovos are notorious for having a wifi card whitelist in their BIOS so you'll only be able to use supported cards. Definitely do your research into the whitelist if you plan to upgrade after the fact. In all honesty I'd say just buy whatever the best is from Lenovo at the time.
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Dec 29, 2013 22:45
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Welp, I guess M.2 is out now, which I guess is unofficially shorthand for MSATA 2. That would explain why msata drives are getting harder to find. PC Part Picker only lists a few anymore. 
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Dec 29, 2013 22:50
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mSATA 840 EVOs are launching in a week.
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Dec 29, 2013 23:28
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How is it that no PC laptop manufacturers can come up with a power brick that doesn't just absolutely blow for cable management? Seriously, am I being too picky or what? The Lenovo power brick that came with my T440s is nice and small, but it's impossible to keep tidy. Why wouldn't they give you a second velcro strap so you can keep BOTH parts of the brick tied up nicely? Dell managed to do an okay job by giving you a brick with a giant gently caress-off rubber strap around it that basically wrapped everything up in one bundle. Not pretty but functional at least. Apple power adapters are okay because they have that flip-out wrap mechanism. But it's Apple so I guess you'd expect them to do a good job.
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Dec 29, 2013 23:56
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Martytoof posted:Seriously, am I being too picky or what? The Lenovo power brick that came with my T440s is nice and small, but it's impossible to keep tidy. Why wouldn't they give you a second velcro strap so you can keep BOTH parts of the brick tied up nicely? The velcro on my Lenovo adapter (and indeed all the HPs at work) will go around the body of the brick and both cables just fine.
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Dec 30, 2013 00:01
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Intel is selling their 180GB 530 M.2 at Amazon and NewEgg. They seem to be OEM only, and I don't know how they perform. But they exist.
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Dec 30, 2013 01:10
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What issues are you having, exactly?
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Dec 30, 2013 01:20
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Srebrenica Surprise posted:mSATA 840 EVOs are launching in a week. Oh cool. I haven't gotten around to upgrading my XPS12's. I assume the actual memory is the same and there's no need to wait for feedback, right?
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Dec 30, 2013 01:27
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Hadlock posted:What issues are you having, exactly?   I guess in the end my gripe is about the whole velcro strap thing in general. So inelegant and annoying, even when done right. I think I'm going to try to find some retractable kensington piece of poo poo once they come out with the new Lenovo square adapters just so I don't have to deal with cables in my bag.
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Dec 30, 2013 01:30
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I'm almost certain that's a manufacturing defect. You must have gotten one made out of what was left on the spool or something.
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Dec 30, 2013 01:34
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Invicta{HOG}, M.D. posted:Thanks Marty! Buy the best WiFi you can from the OEM, especially because your chassis may have to have specific antennas installed to support it, which is really hard to add aftermarket.
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Dec 30, 2013 01:35
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Hadlock posted:I'm almost certain that's a manufacturing defect. You must have gotten one made out of what was left on the spool or something. Nope. The other T440s I worked on for a client also had this  of a strap.
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Dec 30, 2013 01:50
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I've been waiting for the Yoga 2 Pro i7/8gb ram version to become available again, and I'm having second thoughts. I don't see myself having that much use for a tablet that a laptop won't fill, and my next phone is going to be one of those huge ones that I should be able to use as an e-reader. There will be more than a few games out I'll want to play, it looks like. The Acer Aspire S7 seemed like a decent choice, but I've been reading bad things about its cooling and keyboard. The Gigabyte P34G is also looking pretty decent.
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Dec 30, 2013 02:04
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LogicNinja posted:I've been waiting for the Yoga 2 Pro i7/8gb ram version to become available again, and I'm having second thoughts. I don't see myself having that much use for a tablet that a laptop won't fill, and my next phone is going to be one of those huge ones that I should be able to use as an e-reader. There will be more than a few games out I'll want to play, it looks like. If you want to play games, something like the Y410p would be a better fit. But if you just want an ultrabook, the Yoga 2 Pro is probably the best option, especially with how cheap the 8/256 model is, $1150-1200, compared to its high end competitors. Macbook Air with i7/8/256 is $1550, Samsung Ativ Book 9+ is $1400 with i5/4/128, Asus Zenbook UX301 looks like it is $1600 for i5/8/256.
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Dec 30, 2013 02:32
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Martytoof posted:Nope. The other T440s I worked on for a client also had this The charger for my TP Yoga is also like this.
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Dec 30, 2013 02:34
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GrizzlyCow posted:Intel is selling their 180GB 530 M.2 at Amazon and NewEgg. They seem to be OEM only, and I don't know how they perform. But they exist. Should be similar to the regular 530 - 180GB will probably fall between the 120 and 240 gig versions, performance wise
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Dec 30, 2013 02:42
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Martytoof posted:How is it that no PC laptop manufacturers can come up with a power brick that doesn't just absolutely blow for cable management? 
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Dec 30, 2013 06:11
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RVProfootballer posted:If you want to play games, something like the Y410p would be a better fit. But if you just want an ultrabook, the Yoga 2 Pro is probably the best option, especially with how cheap the 8/256 model is, $1150-1200, compared to its high end competitors. Macbook Air with i7/8/256 is $1550, Samsung Ativ Book 9+ is $1400 with i5/4/128, Asus Zenbook UX301 looks like it is $1600 for i5/8/256. I'm figuring out whether I want "current games" or "portable + tablet convertible", and that's something I gotta figure out for myself. The Y410P is one of the ones I was looking at, but the red glowing keys bug me, as does the weight. The appeal of the Acer Aspire S7 and the Gigabyte Whatsit is that they're reasonably light and portable in addition to being able to handle games.
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Dec 30, 2013 11:55
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LogicNinja posted:The Gigabyte P34G is also looking pretty decent. That said, you also have to understand that it's 4lbs and has a 760m: there are some compromises. Mostly in terms of battery life (3-4hrs at best) and noise (if you let the fans do what they want, they'll happily spin up during simple video playback. Changing some settings keeps it quiet during normal use, but the heat from a fully-loaded 760m has to go somewhere, though thankfully the answer isn't "right up through the god-damned keyboard into your fingers"--it stays cool the entire time). If you're planning on using headphones, the noise'll never be an issue, and if you were planning on playing AAA games on battery for hours on end, well that's just not going to happen.
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Dec 30, 2013 17:03
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Hopefully this is a pretty good deal (since I just bought one)... Dell XPS12 for $699 at the Microsoft Store: http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Dell-XPS-12-XPSU12-4668CRBFB-Touchscreen-2-in-1-Core-i5/productID.288325100 12.5-inch Full HD touchscreen Intel Core i5-4200U (Haswell) 4 GB memory/128 GB SSD Over 8.5 hours battery life
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Dec 30, 2013 17:59
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LogicNinja posted:I'm figuring out whether I want "current games" or "portable + tablet convertible", and that's something I gotta figure out for myself. The Y410P keyboard backlighting can be turned off, the toggle is actually a keyboard shortcut even
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Dec 30, 2013 18:29
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Vinlaen posted:Hopefully this is a pretty good deal (since I just bought one)... I grabbed that as well, on Saturday. It has better battery life than the yoga, a "worse" screen and is $200 cheaper. I don't really need a laptop with a higher resolution than my 27" monitor, which I already think is too high at 2560x1440.
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Dec 30, 2013 18:48
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VulgarandStupid posted:I grabbed that as well, on Saturday. It has better battery life than the yoga, a "worse" screen and is $200 cheaper. I don't really need a laptop with a higher resolution than my 27" monitor, which I already think is too high at 2560x1440. Scaling works fine in most cases. I doubt you'll be using a 1920x1080 12.5" screen with no scaling, right? But yeah, definitely a good deal and I've only reqd good things about the XPS 12.
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Dec 30, 2013 18:54
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