Laptop Megathread: Your laptop doesn't have Haswell? More like Hasbeen~

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Laptop Megathread: Your laptop doesn't have Haswell? More like Hasbeen~

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Google Hangouts is awful and so is laptop cooling. Running full screen Hangouts video on my Thinkpad X201, the CPU hit 99C. After quitting Hangouts, the temp dropped to 50C after about 60 seconds.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2013 11:25

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 05:50

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

I have a Thinkpad X201 on loan which needs to be returned in August, so I was wondering whether now is a good time to buy a replacement since I can get a Haswell T440(s) for 25% off. I'd be open to other brands or waiting until summer, but I have a hard limit of $1000.

Good things about the X201: lightweight, powerful enough for my needs (office productivity, internetting, HD video playback), SSD

Bad things: 1280x800 resolution (really want 1600x900), speakers are too quiet, webcam sucks, so-so battery life

I specced out this T440s for $903
-Core i5 4200U (turbos to 2.6GHz)
-1600x900 display
-HD 4400 graphics
-4GB RAM
-500GB 7200rpm HD w/16GB SSD
-23.2WHr + 72WHr battery

For $798, I can get the T400 with the same specs but no fingerprint reader or SSD. Thoughts?

Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Jan 16, 2014

# ¿ Jan 16, 2014 11:46

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Tusen Takk posted:

I do know that I usually see them being replaced by college girls who don't know that they shouldn't leave their computer plugged in whenever they're not using it or if they happen to be near an outlet.

I thought this was debunked a while ago.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 16:37

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Aranan posted:

Are the deals that pop up on woot.com ever any good? I'm starting to get in the market for a pair of mid range laptops (play stuff like Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2 on max settings) and wondering where all I should start looking for deals.

My roommate bought a laptop on Woot and seems pretty happy with it.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2014 22:27

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Bum the Sad posted:

Dear Nerds. I'm going back to grad school with like a $1300 budget. I never used a laptop during my undergrad. Should I get a fancy Surface Pro 3 or a real laptop?

What kind of grad school?

# ¿ May 28, 2014 22:31

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

My Thinkpad X201 battery lasts about 75 minutes now. Are replacements off Ebay any good, like this thing? http://www.ebay.com/itm/360896897520

# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 15:01

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Calidus posted:

Third party battery and power supplies seem to very hit and miss in my experience. I would see if you can get a free one via the recall: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?DocID=HF004122

Not eligible.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2014 01:00

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

My Thinkpad X201 overheats and shuts down too easily and the battery is poo poo, so I'm thinking of replacing it with:

-Something in the 13" range: I like the size and weight of my X201
-IPS display: my X201 display has horrible off-angle vieweing
-8GB RAM: I seem to be okay with 4GB, but 8GB makes sense for something to last 5 years
-SSD: upgradable would be nice
-HDMI: single most annoying thing absent from my X201
-At least one USB 3.0 port: for portable hard drive, but more is better
-Decent webcam: doesn't have to be great but shouldn't be bad
-Great keyboard
-Good WiFi
-Excellent battery life

I don't need something with a crazy high resolution screen since that just seems like an waste of GPU power/battery, unless I'm just mistaken on that front. Budget is $1200 and I'm willing to wait for prices to come down a bit. It looks like the ASUS Zenbook, Acer S7, and Thinkpad X1 would all be good choices. Any others?

Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Dec 1, 2014

# ¿ Dec 1, 2014 17:34

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

B-Mac posted:

I went ahead and bought an ASUS UX303LA from Amazon and just recently got it. 1080p screen, i5-4210u, 128 gb SSD, 8 gb RAM. Was $850 when I bought it and appears to be $899 now. Had been looking for an ultrabook for school for a few months. Would anyone be interested in a small write up after I have used it for a bit?

This is the laptop currently on my Amazon wish list so I'd personally be interested in a review.

Also :justpost:

# ¿ Dec 23, 2014 10:41

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Is the Dell XPS 13 my best option for an ultrabook under $1000? I have a great dual-monitor desktop I use for gaming and consuming media, and I have an iPhone 6 for mobile use.

My current laptop is a Thinkpad X201. The screen size and resolution are a little too small, so it seems I should be looking for 13" 1080p. Light gaming like CS: GO or Starcraft 2 would be nice for long trips, but my actual use concerns are battery life, productivity (MS Office + VPN), and media consumption/internetting.

I assume I want the 8GB RAM model? My desktop has 16GB RAM so it's not something I normally think about, and I'm okay with just 120GB SSD.

My Thinkpad is still working so I'm not in a huge hurry. When would be the best time to get the XPS 13?

Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 13:03 on Nov 11, 2015

# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 13:01

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Bob Morales posted:

Another option (at 12.5" would be the Thinkpad X240/X250)

Hard to go wrong with the XPS 13 though.

Hadlock posted:

This is good advice. That Zenbook is a good option too if you need to save a few bucks but it will be a mild step down after using that Thinkpad for all these years.

Surely I should I wait for the Skylake refresh and/or buy the Broadwell edition on discount, right?

Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Nov 14, 2015

# ¿ Nov 14, 2015 00:11

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Volcott posted:

I have 900 American dollars set aside to spend on a laptop on Black Friday, my old one is falling apart.

15 inches, enough pep under the hood to play 1080p video and maybe the odd game of Civilization 5. A backlit keyboard would be nice, but it's not essential.

What would you recommend?

FWIW, Black Friday deals tend to be super cheap laptops. You might encounter a sale from Dell or Lenovo over the next 2 weeks, but the actual BF deals won't be of interest to you.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2015 18:12

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Josh Lyman posted:

Surely I should I wait for the Skylake refresh and/or buy the Broadwell edition on discount, right?

This was a stupid question. Skylake refresh happened last month. The updated XPS 13 has a better touchpad, quieter fan, slightly bigger battery, Thunderbolt 3, NVMe SSD, and better integrated graphics, but it'll be $1100 vs $800 for the Broadwell version on Dell Outlet.

Decisions, decisions...

# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 03:52

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

slidebite posted:

I agree, but a $300 premium on an $800 laptop is a pretty serious increase though so it would have to be miles better or the older one be especially terrible.

Speaking of things that might be especially terrible, HP has a 13" 2-in-1 with 1080p, i5 Skylake, 8GB RAM, and 128GB SSD for $560 right now: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014X4UAUI/

I ordered one instead of an XPS 13. :negative:

I don't care about the tablet stuff, but the specs are too good to turn down.

edit: Welp, the same Slickdeals thread that alerted me to the deal subsequently convinced me to cancel my order. Apparently the laptop sells for $615 normally on Amazon.

Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Nov 16, 2015

# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 18:19

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

bigmandan posted:

I got the QHD+ with touch and it's really good. The glare can be slightly annoying sometimes but, for me, not that big of a deal. Having that high of a resolution on that size of screen makes most text looks amazing. The default configuration is too have the scaling set 250%, which was a bit much for me and 200% worked out much better.

It kills battery life though, no?

# ¿ Nov 17, 2015 21:16

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

bigmandan posted:

The battery does drain a bit faster, but is manageable with bringing the screen brightness down to about 50% or so. Depending on what I'm doing, I can usually get up to 5 or 6 hours.

6 hours of web surfing seems very :negative:

# ¿ Nov 17, 2015 21:30

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Aphrodite posted:

Size, materials, and battery life.

The Inspiron is absolutely more powerful, but that's not usually what people are looking for in a laptop and so it isn't a significant factor in reviews.

Yeah, a 17" Alienware could outspec anything else on the market but that doesn't mean it's a good laptop.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2015 18:04

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

I'm at the Microsoft Store right now working on the new Dell XPS 13 9350 and I really like it. The keyboard is alright, not as good as the one on my Thinkpad X201 of course. My main complaint is that the travel is rather short, and as a piano player I have little issue adjusting to the travel of different keyboards.

I can't really complain too much about the touchpad, which I know has been a point of contention for PCs. The 2 finger scrolling in Edge is decent but probably the biggest thing I can complain about. The inertia of the scrolling isn't super great.

edit: I take it back, the touchpad doesn't do great with ignoring stray touches.

Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Dec 2, 2015

# ¿ Dec 2, 2015 21:02

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

On the Windows side, isn't it basically Dell XPS 13/15 or bust?

# ¿ Dec 20, 2015 05:18

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

CommieGIR posted:

I want a new W700DS

I remember wanting this laptop so badly.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2016 07:39

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Mu Zeta posted:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/3/10706482/new-lenovo-x1-carbon-ultrabook-announced-ces-2016

You can get Thinkpads with OLED screens now.

Don't OLED screens degrade over time?

# ¿ Jan 4, 2016 18:02

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

I wish the Dell XPS 13 had a Thinkpad-quality keyboard and not retarded webcam placement.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2016 19:33

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Seeing as Kaby Lake isn't coming out for a while, should I just resign myself about getting an XPS 13 with a better keyboard or X series Thinkpad with a 13" screen?

# ¿ Mar 24, 2016 18:40

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

sarehu posted:

What the Christ.

I mean, if you have to stick a VGA port somewhere on a business laptop, the back pretty much the ideal location.

Edit: gently caress obviously it's a serial port, turning in my nerd card.

Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 07:45 on Mar 29, 2016

# ¿ Mar 28, 2016 21:25

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Is it USB to parallel adapters that aren't true port replicators?

# ¿ Mar 29, 2016 07:47

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

When I was still an ECE grad student, one of the reasons I got a Dell Latitude was because it had a serial port. Working with embedded systems and all that.

That was back in 2007 though.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2016 01:32

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 and Lattitude D830 that are literally sitting in the corner. Is my best option to just trade them into Best Buy for $50 gift cards?

# ¿ Apr 1, 2016 09:31

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

RoyalScion posted:

Is there an ultra book ish form factor laptop with a 35w/45w TDP processor? The XPS 15 is a bit large for me screen size; I'd like something around 13 inches.

Currently I'm using a laptop with an i5-5200U processor and I've been unimpressed with its computing performance.

It's quite possible that 13" chassis aren't able to dissipate 35W from the CPU, and even if it's physically possible, there aren't any products in 2016 that will since 13" = ultrabook.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2016 16:24

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Goddammit, stop trying to shave mm's and give me 18 hour battery life and non-terrible keyboards! http://www.engadget.com/2016/05/30/asus-zenbook-3/

# ¿ May 30, 2016 15:21

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

I have a Thinkpad X201 from 2010 that literally sits in a file cabinet and I only use for backing up my iPhone. It has a first gen Core i7 620M which should still be good enough for web browsing and MS Office work, but it's painfully slow despite having an SSD. This is probably because it only has 4GB of DDR3. If I were to upgrade to the maximum of 8GB, would the system be usable, or is it not even worth the effort at this point? It's running Win10x64.

Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 08:24 on Jun 15, 2020

# ¿ Jun 15, 2020 08:16

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

excellent bird guy posted:

Welp, driving across the United States at the moment. When I pass through Denver I am going to stop at the Apple store and buy a Macbook Pro 13" with at least 16gig of ram. I don't care about the SSD size. I hope it is at least Coffee Lake, or Ice Lake?

Sometimes I am impulsive.

Why Denver? Colorado still has a 2.9% sales tax.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2020 14:36

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

I�ve had good luck with Anker replacement batteries. At least they aren�t pretending to be OEM.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2020 22:53

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

Statutory Ape posted:

I know that historically there are a few people ITT that have advised on laptop bags, but most of the people that ask that question have like a 12-14 inch PC

The products I have personal experience with to recommend are not designed to work with your laptop and your laptop size is not a size most people own in 2020. Most of the time if I take anything bigger than the xps 13 it goes in a larger bag than you're looking for.

In general I've had good luck just following basic purchasing logic at amazon when buying these things.

one thing I could maybe recommend is compare the dimensions of your computer to the various apple models and finding something advertised to work with whichever is closest. thats how i picked bags for my xps 13 and 15 mostly.

I recently started a new job and the new work laptop is a 15.6� workstation while the old laptop was a 12.5� Latitude (actually quite powerful, I really liked it). This means my trusty medium Timbuk2 won�t fit the new laptop. I have a couple months to find a new bag before telework ends but I wasn�t looking forward to spending $200.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2020 12:04

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

I. M. Gei posted:

I�m looking for a laptop carrying bag/case that will fit a new Dell XPS 17.

You and I have almost identical requirements. I need something to carry a 15.6" workstation laptop to/from work on the subway, but since it's bigger than most 15", it's probably safer to get something that fits a 17" laptop. I also want the bag to be big enough to fit a toiletry bag and other stuff for when I travel, but I suppose anything that fits a 17" will probably be big enough. I also have a $200 budget that could stretch for something amazing. Specifically:
-Messenger/briefcase style
-Trolley strap on back to attach to rollaboard
-Laptop compartment should have padding on the bottom which many bags exclude because they're designed by morons
-Water resistant obviously otherwise you're not protecting the laptop or documents
-External side pocket for water bottle

I currently have an old Timbuk 2 that I'd just keep using but it only holds a 13" laptop. I'd also prefer something that looks a bit more professional, but that probably means leather which also means it's out of my price range.

The Commute 2.0 in large comes close but I don't like how it looks and it seems way smaller than the previous Commute. Of course, the previous one is no longer available.

In the likely event I can't find anything I love, I may just keep using my old bag since my work laptop fits in the main compartment, just not in the laptop sleeve. It'll be padded from the back due to the sleeve, and fortunately it's padded from the bottom since entire bottom of the bag has padding, not just the laptop sleeve. It won't be padded from the sides or front but I can always place it in the bag with the screen facing the padded back. Probably good enough for a work laptop.

Hadlock posted:

Then with a mil-spec 17" laptop, you can just worry about finding a sleeve and a regular bag.

I like the idea of the flexibility of a sleeve + regular bag setup, especially since the regular bag can be used to carry stuff for a weekend outing without the bulk of the laptop sleeve and it's easier to wash if there's no absorbent fabric/padding inside. However, it seems bags without a laptop sleeve are an afterthought these days and poorly designed.

Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 11:01 on Jul 1, 2020

# ¿ Jul 1, 2020 09:46

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

FCKGW posted:

Thinkpad X13 Ryzen laptops now available. Starts at $630 for a crappy config (don't buy this one)
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/epp_cocacola/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-x/ThinkPad-X13-amd/p/22TPX13X3A2

The Ryzen 5 config for $1100 looks hella sexy, though I don't know if the $900 instant savings is always there. Lack of built-in ethernet port kinda sucks.

Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 03:07 on Jul 2, 2020

# ¿ Jul 2, 2020 03:01

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 05:50

Josh Lyman: May 24, 2009

I have a Latitude 7490, i5 8250U (4c/8t), 8GB onboard RAM. It also has a SO-DIMM slot. I use this laptop for basic office productivity and internetting since it has an iGPU.

For the past 2 years, I've borrowed a 16GB SO-DIMM from another machine and my laptop has been fine even though the memory is mismatched (SK Hynix onboard, Micron SO-DIMM).

I now have to return the SO-DIMM, so the question is whether to replace it with an 8GB or 16GB stick. My understanding is you should have RAM in pairs for dual channel operation, but CPU-Z reports the memory is running dual-channel anyway? The reason I'm even contemplating a 16GB stick is because I plan to have this laptop for 5+ years since the CPU is capable, and I'm concerned I might reach a point where 16GB total will be insufficient and DDR4 will be expensive and/or hard to find.

It seems like a question of (maybe) better performance with 8+8 (which I don't really need) vs. more capacity with 8+16 (which I may not need). Thoughts?

edit: It appears Intel has had a "Flex" mode since 2004 for mixed RAM sizes. If I got a 16GB SO-DIMM, the first 8+8 will run in dual channel mode and the stick's additional 8GB will be single channel, which is ideal. Looks like I'll go with that.

Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Jan 19, 2023

# ¿ Jan 17, 2023 17:08

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