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The Alienware AW13 is now apparently for sale. 13.3 inch screen, GTX 1060, 6700HQ, OLED QHD screen, under an inch thick. However, it has a bigger footprint than some 15 inch laptops with a width of 390mm. For example, the MSI GS63vr with a 15" screen has a width of 380mm. The Dell XPS15 with a 15" screen has a width of 357mm. http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/alienware-13-laptop Not really sure why some early reviews are calling this beast "compact". The screen is small, the laptop itself is big. Shrimp or Shrimps fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Nov 2, 2016 |
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Nov 2, 2016 01:41
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sweetmercifulcrap posted:Why does this thread seem to be against 2-in-1's? Not the detachable keyboard variety because I can understand not wanting that, but the 360 rotation ones? It just seems like the natural progression of laptops and you don't ever have to use it as a tablet if you don't want to. The original Yoga, and it's direct descendants are great laptops, and if that's what you want/need, I encourage you to get one. That said, besides the goofy Win 8.1 hype, total lack of touchscreen support from OSX/Apple, and mediocre support in Chrome (RIP Google Chromebook Pixel) most users don't use touch enough to justify the price premium If it's something you think you'd use, go for it. My buddy has a Thinkpad Yoga and as much as he talks about the touchscreen functionality, I've never seen him actually use it in tent or tablet mode in 3 years almost.
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Nov 2, 2016 02:12
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Shrimp or Shrimps posted:The Alienware AW13 is now apparently for sale. 13.3 inch screen, GTX 1060, 6700HQ, OLED QHD screen, under an inch thick. I saw the first option and thought "Wow, $1200, that's a cheap GTX 1060 6g laptop! Maybe this is a good thing." Then I saw "13.3 inch HD (1366 x 768) TN" and "180GB M.2 SATA 6Gb/s SSD".
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Nov 2, 2016 05:43
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why on earth would they ever put that screen on there?
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Nov 2, 2016 05:44
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So they can say "Starts at $1199.99!"
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Nov 2, 2016 05:46
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Actuarial Fables posted:I saw the first option and thought "Wow, $1200, that's a cheap GTX 1060 6g laptop! Maybe this is a good thing." You could, I suppose, run it to an external monitor at a higher resolution.  Also the SSD swap is an easy upgrade.
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Nov 2, 2016 06:17
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Hadlock posted:See if you can find a refurbished Thinkpad T430 with the 1600x900 screen for under $300 I'm looking for a laptop with a good keyboard and long battery life for learning R/Python plus word processing and basic internet stuff (already have a computer for everything else, it just tops out at ~2 hours of battery life. It sounds like a T430 would be great for this (and gets constantly recommended!). If I just get this computer: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T430-14-1-i5-2520M-2-5GHz-8GB-160GB-SSD-HD-1600-900-Win8-1-Pro-/112166517425#viTabs_0 and this battery: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085MPGDG/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me= does that look like it'd be just fine? As far as I could tell, I shouldn't get a T430SI (not sure what the suffix means) with that battery, but it doesn't look like that is one, and it looks like it has the right screen, an SSD and a decent amount of RAM. Before I commit, is there anything else I should consider? I wouldn't mind a 13" option, and looked at some of the chromebooks, but it didn't seem like there were any with similar quality keyboards, and having Windows for managing various weird programs that my classes sometimes require is appealing as well.
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Nov 2, 2016 06:22
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RIP ZEEZ
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Yes that looks fine, although there's a billion Thinkpad resellers on eBay, the one you linked only has 98.9% feedback, I would pick a similar one from someone who has at least 99.5% positive feedback. Good choice on going Lenovo official on the battery. If you want something smaller, there's always the X230 (that's what I own), but if you go that route, be aware it has a lower resolution screen, and be absolutely sure it has the IPS screen upgrade. The T430S is fine too, it's slightly more slim and lightweight model. It was a first attempt at building an Ultrabook in the 14" form factor Hadlock fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Nov 2, 2016 |
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Nov 2, 2016 06:41
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foutre posted:I'm looking for a laptop with a good keyboard and long battery life for learning R/Python plus word processing and basic internet stuff (already have a computer for everything else, it just tops out at ~2 hours of battery life. The T430 is probably fine for your needs. Intel CPUs have been great for a long time, although I generally don't recommend any system older than Ivy Bridge (3xxx) just because that's old enough as it is, and although performance should still be fine newer CPUs are more power efficient. Something like a 3427U, for example, has similar performance but half the TDP and you did mention battery life as a concern. Again, it sounds like it will work for all the basic stuff you mentioned though. You'd be spending $300+ already, but if you're not in a hurry you could wait for something around the same price but with perhaps a better CPU, such as the refurbs on Woot. As far as the Chromebooks are concerned, you can get excellent keyboards on the Toshiba CB 13, Dell CB 13, Thinkpad 11e, and Thinkpad 13, and that's without getting into the Pixel.
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Nov 2, 2016 06:41
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EVIL NOONER posted:why on earth would they ever put that screen on there? It's VR ready so if that's really what you want to do... you don't really need a good screen... Actually, I'm kind of curious how long a 1060 would last at that resolution. I imagine you can blow games out to max settings for a good long while when the res is that low.
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Nov 2, 2016 07:13
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Atomizer posted:good advice Hadlock posted:more good advice Ok, cool. Time isn't really a concern, and I didn't think to check how recent the CPUs were on the various computers I looked at, only checked for an SSD and 1600x900 screen. I think I'd prefer higher resolution over a slightly smaller computer, so I I'll stick with the T430 over the X230 for the Windows option. Before I commit to Windows though I'll also putz around with running stuff on linux a bit to see how easy/difficult it would be for me to manage a chromebook, a lot of the ones you listed seem pretty appealing from a size/price/battery life standpoint. Just to recap, when I'm looking through Woot listings/higher rated Ebay sellers for a T430 would a good checklist would be: a 1600 x 900 screen an SSD an Ivy Bridge or later CPU (so 3xxx +) 4 gb plus of RAM? Thanks for your help, y'all are so much more helpful than googling around/looking at a million "Top 10 Laptops for Business" lists or what have you.
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Nov 2, 2016 07:19
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If the laptop doesn't have 8gb ram, you're certainly going to want to upgrade to it asap. Upgrading is easy, literally a Philips head screwdriver and 90 seconds of effort. I'd say 60% of thinkpads already have 8gb installed. And yeah you want Ivy Bridge or better. It's the perfect blend of acceptable battery life, modern cpu power, and low price on the refurb market. As you get newer the battery life and power improve, but the price goes up too.
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Nov 2, 2016 10:12
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Does anyone know if the Kaby Lake XPS 13 supports external GPUs over thunderbolt?
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Nov 2, 2016 13:19
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For anyone looking for a gaming laptop, I just picked up an MSI GT62VR for $1399 at microcenter. http://www.microcenter.com/product/470690/GT62VR_Dominator_Pro-087_156_Gaming_Laptop_Computer_-_Aluminum_Black The laptop is pretty thick, but weight is definitely manageable. 1070 is overkill for most things, but this laptop definitely runs cool enough to use on the lap while gaming (at least civ 6 and starcraft 2) and the fans don't run on turbo mode all the time. I would recommend pretty highly if size isn't too much of a bother.
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Nov 2, 2016 16:05
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Is there anything wrong with the base model XPS 13? Dell is offering 10% off as well http://www.dell.com/en-us/member/shop/productdetails/xps-13-9360-laptop/dncwt5128h Only 4 gigs of ram, but I'm wondering if I can upgrade it myself?
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Nov 2, 2016 17:38
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4g of ram would be regrettable in that machine imo.
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Nov 2, 2016 17:40
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Russian Bear posted:Is there anything wrong with the base model XPS 13? Dell is offering 10% off as well Nope, XPS 13 ram is soldered to the board.
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Nov 2, 2016 17:51
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.Z. posted:Nope, XPS 13 ram is soldered to the board. In what ways would 4gb suck for daily use? Looks like the 8gig version is $200 more which sounds worthwhile.
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Nov 2, 2016 18:18
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Russian Bear posted:In what ways would 4gb suck for daily use? It's really easy to use 4 gigabytes of RAM just having Chrome open and doing other basic stuff I would get a computer with 4 gigabytes of RAM if it was a Chromebook or some other cheap computer but not a Dell XPS
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Nov 2, 2016 18:22
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Will there be a big difference between Skylake and Kaby Lake chips besides a little more battery life?
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Nov 2, 2016 18:56
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Russian Bear posted:Will there be a big difference between Skylake and Kaby Lake chips besides a little more battery life? Mostly in video encoding/decoding. The major feature change in the Kaby Lake-U/Y media engine is the availability of full hardware acceleration for encode and decode of 4K HEVC Main10 profile videos. This is in contrast to Skylake, which can support HEVC Main10 decode up to 4Kp30, but does so using a “hybrid” process that spreads out the workload over the CPU, the GPU’s media processors, and the GPU’s shader cores. As a result, not only can Kaby Lake process more HEVC profiles in fixed function hardware than before, but it can do so at a fraction of the power and with much better throughput. Also along these lines, Kaby Lake has implemented full fixed function 8-bit encode and 8/10-bit decode support for Google’s VP9 codec. Skylake offered hybrid decode support for the codec, which is useful from a feature standpoint, but is a bit more problematic in real-world use since it’s not as power-efficient to use VP9 a codec implemented in fixed function hardware. Google has proven eager to serve up VP9 to its YouTube users, so they can now much more efficiently decode the codec. Meanwhile, on the encode side, brand-new to Kaby Lake is VP9 encoding support, to go with the aforementioned HEVC encode support. http://www.anandtech.com/show/10610/intel-announces-7th-gen-kaby-lake-14nm-plus-six-notebook-skus-desktop-coming-in-january/3
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Nov 2, 2016 19:07
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Just got the Blade in and it's absolutely fantastic so far, though, I see the 256GB being a pain in the rear end shortly.
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Nov 2, 2016 20:46
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Russian Bear posted:Will there be a big difference between Skylake and Kaby Lake chips besides a little more battery life? On-die Thunderbolt controller may be a big deal depending on ones views, I am rather hoping for Thunderbolt ubiquity and affordable gpu-equipped "docks" resulting. They have upped performance/watt slightly also, but beyond that it is mostly video hardware as a different as noted above.
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Nov 2, 2016 22:02
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foutre posted:Ok, cool. Time isn't really a concern, and I didn't think to check how recent the CPUs were on the various computers I looked at, only checked for an SSD and 1600x900 screen. I think I'd prefer higher resolution over a slightly smaller computer, so I I'll stick with the T430 over the X230 for the Windows option. Ivy Bridge at a minimum, anything newer is gravy. 4 GB of RAM is the minimum for any system on any OS as far as I'm concerned, and may be fine for a Windows system with the basic tasks you mentioned (just be wary of heavy multitasking) but 6-8 GB would be more "comfortable." It's often easy to upgrade the RAM, with the best case scenario being the ability to add another module to a free slot, and the next best option is having to replace the existing modules (so there's either some wasted components with the possibility of recouping something if you can resell the original modules or repurpose them to another system.) Some systems have hard-to-reach RAM slots, for example one I have lying around here has one slot under the bottom cover, and the other is on the opposite side of the board so you also have to remove the top of the chassis and the keyboard to reach it.  Worst-case scenario is soldered-on, non-replaceable RAM, which is often the case with Chromebooks.An SSD is a requirement as far as I'm concerned, but since it's an easy upgrade you could totally just buy a system (for some reasons new ones are still being built with HDDs as the sole storage medium) and swap in an SSD; the last time I checked there are decent 120 GB SSDs around $40 new. As far as the display resolution goes, 1600x900 is probably a decent minimum for any system, but I feel most comfortable recommending FHD for anyone, because you can always scale but if you regret having a higher res in the first place a display upgrade is often not economical/easy. If you keep an eye on Woot/Amazon/etc. you can probably find a system with a FHD display, Haswell/Broadwell, 4-8 GB RAM, and an easily-upgradeable HDD in the $400 range. I post good deals here as I see them. With regards to Windows/Linux/ChromeOS, keep in mind you can try out Linux on an existing system to see how that works for you, and alternately if you had a Chromebook you can use Chrome Remote Desktop to connect to your current Windows desktop or whatever when you have the need to run a Windows application. That's how I operate: I use a Chromebook for everything, I have a Windows desktop for gaming, and then I have a separate Windows box for my Plex server, which is headless. Any administration I have to do on the Plex box is done over CRD, and I can run Handbrake/MakeMKV/any random Windows program that way. Russian Bear posted:In what ways would 4gb suck for daily use? 4 GB of RAM is fine for simple, productivity stuff, but you'd regret it when you tried to heavily multitask. It's OK for an entry-level system ($300-500) but, like putting the OS on an HDD, is downright criminal for something like the XPS 13, a "premium" system. On the other hand, $200 for an extra 4 GB of RAM is absolutely   (For reference, you could get a single 8 GB SO-DIMM for around $40.) 
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Nov 2, 2016 22:48
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s.i.r.e. posted:Just got the Blade in and it's absolutely fantastic so far, though, I see the 256GB being a pain in the rear end shortly. How are your temps?
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Nov 2, 2016 23:07
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s.i.r.e. posted:Just got the Blade in and it's absolutely fantastic so far, though, I see the 256GB being a pain in the rear end shortly. I'm very interested in a small review if you have the time. What was your previous machine?
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Nov 2, 2016 23:30
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Interested in a review as well. A few questions from me;
Actuarial Fables fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Nov 3, 2016 |
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Nov 2, 2016 23:46
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Anybody have any experience with the X1 Carbon Thinkpads? More specific, I see the ivy bridge editions on ebay for about 300-400USD. I am going to use it for legal work, so I dont need monster specs. My current laptop is a Zenbook UX31a Touch with 4gb ram and 1080p IPS touchscreen, but the keyboard keeps falling apart from all the typing. I have a budget of about 1500USD, but I dont want to spend it all if I can help it. I have been looking at the Surfacebook (no localised keyboards), New Macbook Pro(non touchbar), XPS 13 and the current X1 Carbon (its about 1700USD here). In short I want: -Great keyboard -Good display (I really like the productivity screen ratios of the Mac and Surface series) -Sub 1.5kg -Decent batterylife -8gb ram Any recommendations?
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Nov 3, 2016 00:02
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Go for the X1. Guy at work had the Yoga for a few days, returned it and got the X1 and kept it.
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Nov 3, 2016 01:50
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Russian Bear posted:Is there anything wrong with the base model XPS 13? Dell is offering 10% off as well It's a little apples and oranges, but for about the same price you can get a refund Xps13 on the outlet with an i5 and 8gbs. Same warranty and free shipping.
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Nov 3, 2016 01:54
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1050ti for laptop testing done at: http://laptopmedia.com/highlights/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-laptop-specs-and-benchmarks/ Roughly 10% faster than the 970m at 75w TDP. These are synthetic benches of course (3DM, Unigen). For reference, something like 60% faster than the 960m which is the graphics card it'll be replacing (think Dell XPS 15, other "casual" gaming laptops.) For further reference, 10% faster than the 970m puts it at slightly over 7970HD / 280x / GTX 960 territory. (Which is not surprising if you followed the desktop launch / reviews).
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Nov 3, 2016 02:24
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Shrimp or Shrimps posted:The Alienware AW13 is now apparently for sale. 13.3 inch screen, GTX 1060, 6700HQ, OLED QHD screen, under an inch thick. I'm amused how similar, aside from performance, the new Alienware 13 is to my M14x. They're roughly the same size although the 13 is a little thinner and lighter and about the same tested battery life of 4 hours with the OLED screen on the 13. Even though the 13 is so much faster and better and my M14x's battery life has deteriorated to less than 90 minutes, I'm a little disappointed that the size, weight, and battery life are so similar. A Dell XPS 15 with a 1050ti is probably closer to what I'm look for with a relatively light weight, good battery life, and enough power to run games well at 1080p. However after all the software, driver, and BIOS issues it suffered early on, I'm a little wary of looking at the XPS lineup.
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Nov 3, 2016 03:09
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Ynglaur posted:How are your temps? I'll get temps tomorrow (with proper software) but to the touch, the center of the keyboard is pretty warm and near the top strip around the power button is uncomfortable. Fans ramp up fierce while gaming but with the sound all the way up I can't hear them really, they also seem to turn off or become inaudible shortly after a gaming session so it's not bad. I haven't spent too much time gaming though and mostly ran stuff to see how it looked. eames posted:I'm very interested in a small review if you have the time. What was your previous machine? I'll get more indepth later once I have more time with it but I spent most of today installing my usual poo poo, Steam/Origin/Guitar Rig/etc and getting everything up to snuff. I also ordered a Bluetooth mouse (Razer as well because I'm sad) but it won't come tomorrow so I didn't have a long gaming session, but I ran Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1 and Gears of War with the NVidia Experience "optimizing" everything to max settings (High or Ultra, when applicable) and some brief testing with them (first level of BF1 and TF2, benchmark for Gears 4) averaged 60fps. Though, these were short sessions so I don't know how much thermal throttling will factor in with hour+ gaming sessions. Getting this performance from a laptop is nutty, especially since my last gaming laptop was 5 years ago, was heavy and huge as poo poo and was running a 750m or what have you under the hood. My prior rig and the one I still have running is a 4790k, 16GB RAM and GTX 1070 desktop that I built, though, the plan was to replace it with the laptop if performance was good enough for my needs. Sadly, the 256GB drive ain't poo poo so far, read/write speeds are fine but with Gears 4, Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1, Guitar Rig and FL Studio... I have 19GB free. Fuuuuuck me. 
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Nov 3, 2016 06:05
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Edward IV posted:I'm amused how similar, aside from performance, the new Alienware 13 is to my M14x. They're roughly the same size although the 13 is a little thinner and lighter and about the same tested battery life of 4 hours with the OLED screen on the 13. Even though the 13 is so much faster and better and my M14x's battery life has deteriorated to less than 90 minutes, I'm a little disappointed that the size, weight, and battery life are so similar. The size of it is definitely a little disappointing, and you do wonder why they couldn't just stick a 14-inch screen in there and trim down the bezels? I mean, it's wider than some 15-inch screen laptops which is a bit absurd to me. It seems to have very good cooling coming from that thick, long chassis, which is great. Dave2d reported no throttling after gaming, though he never mentioned how long he games for. The battery actually looks pretty big and seems to be about 4.5 hours of normal use which is pretty darn good for a gaming laptop. I think most others in the 14~15 inch class only get about 3~3.5. I like the XPS 15 refresh, too, but wouldn't be a first adopter guinea pig if I were to buy it. What pleases me most about the idea of an XPS15 w/ 1050ti is that it's a small 15-inch laptop footprint-wise, and it has enough power to match my current desktop for gaming, which I'm perfectly happy with at 1080p (HD7970/3570k). Edit: In fact, I think I would just part out my desktop if I got the refresh. The only concerning thing about the XPS15 is that the screen had a horrid response time, and was apparently very noticeable in fast-paced gaming. Hopefully they improve that. Edit2: Actually another thing I hope they improve is the cooling mechanism, because the 960m XPS15 throttled regularly on both CPU and GPU: http://laptopmedia.com/review/dell-xps-15-skylake-9550-review-every-designers-wet-dream/#temperatures Shrimp or Shrimps fucked around with this message at 06:31 on Nov 3, 2016 |
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Nov 3, 2016 06:20
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I'm a comp sci grad student looking for a laptop that can support software development and running virtual machines. My next priorities are portability and price. I have a nice workstation at home I do most of my work on. This is entirely a backup machine for taking to campus with me. Right now this is looking like a good deal based on the OP's recommendations: http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/itemdetails/20CL001LUS/445 Any advice?
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Nov 3, 2016 14:53
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1366x768 is tight for software development but if your main work is done on a monitor or workstation like you say, you should be okay. I would consider the higher res screen option
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Nov 3, 2016 15:06
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If you pay over $1k for a 1366x768 laptop in 2016 you have lost your goddamn mind, although at least alienware honored the horrible screen by maintaining a 2002 13" laptop form factor as well. It's like alienware is putting these small screens and huge bezels so they can advertise it as a "13" laptop" and people wanting a compact laptop just order it without looking at the actual dimensions, but alienware doesn't have to spend any money or effort on thermal design. Pretty cool that they put an OLED in the high end models, but still gently caress that bezel. Is the XPS 15 actually updated or are you guys just speculating? I've got the 15" 960m model and if they put the 1060 in it I am upgrading... if they go 1050ti, I will probably switch to another model which makes me sad because I love this loving laptop. I game fairly heavily on it and have only ever seen throttling when I was in a pretty hot room. The only bad thing about this laptop is the nasal cam (webcam on the bottom of the screen instead of the top) edit: oh, and yeah the 1080p xps 15 does have some pretty bad ghosting but I just got used to it after a while and dont notice anymore. I'm sure when I get some screaming OLED laptop with 120+hz I'm going to wonder how I managed, but its fine for now. greasyhands fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Nov 3, 2016 |
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Nov 3, 2016 17:56
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Shrimp or Shrimps posted:1050ti for laptop testing done at: http://laptopmedia.com/highlights/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-laptop-specs-and-benchmarks/ This is great info, thanks for the heads up That the mobile 1050 is on par with a desktop GTX960 (which is plenty fast for 1080p) is really good news for mobile gaming. I'll probably be getting a XPS 15 here sometime next year with more results like this. Pending TDP reports.
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Nov 3, 2016 18:30
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Hadlock posted:This is great info, thanks for the heads up yeah xps 15 with a 1050 is definitely on my radar, and its the most excited ive been for a product that hasnt even been announced yet in awhile btw: is there going to be something like a 1040? desktop or laptop, i dont care. the 1050ti (desktop) will run on a 300w power supply and i did a bunch of reading up on it and am excited af for that card at that price point. just curious if theyre doing anything lower than that. EVIL NOONER fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Nov 3, 2016 |
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Nov 3, 2016 18:33
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There's been some serious speculation about the 1040, which I guess would be a further cut down 1050 with even less RAM. If the XPS 15 comes with the 1040, I'd probably continue to hang on to my existing Thinkpad X230 indefinitely and continue to own my desktop. The XPS 15 with 1050 would be a true desktop replacement for most people, I would think.
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Nov 3, 2016 18:45
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