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I should preface this by saying that while I read the OP and tried to do some research, I'm absolutely hopeless when it comes to understanding computer hardware, so I apologize in advance for that. To make a long story short, I'm going to law school on the other side of the country and I figure it's about time to replace my 3-4 year old laptop. I recently built a desktop that I love but am sadly going to be leaving behind, meaning that I'd like to be able to play games on my new laptop. That said, I'm not foolish enough to want to get a really high-performance gaming laptop, and I certainly don't need to be able to play every new game on max settings (I don't play photo-realistic shooters and the like anyway), especially given that I'll have a pretty good desktop back home. I'd be using the laptop for school, too, so naturally portability is an issue (though personally I've never really minded carrying around larger laptops - battery life and durability are better measures of portability to me). I guess ultimately what I'm trying to figure out is whether there's a sweet spot for performance before it starts to really become not worth it (more in terms of trade-offs like battery life than price, though obviously price matters too). I realize that there's been some related discussion on this very page in the thread, but I read that article Doctor rear end in a top hat linked and couldn't really find one that stood out to me. Maybe I'm being silly and the Y510p or Y410p would be a really good choice, though.
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Aug 27, 2013 03:25
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Superterranean posted:The y410p meets your power needs, for sure, but may fall slightly short on the battery life front. Especially if you put I through a lot of deep discharge/recharge cycles, battery life decreases; when you start out with (for the sake of argument) a 5-6-hour y410p, after a year or two that's realistically only 2-4 hours. Yeah, that's definitely something to consider. I'm pretty sure my current laptop has a battery life of well under half of what it originally did, probably in large part due to my bad habit of having it constantly plugged in even when fully charged. But that's also one reason I'm worried about the battery life of whatever laptop I get - realistically, I'll probably rarely need a battery life of more than three hours or so, but ending up two years down the road with something with a battery life of an hour would be incredibly annoying. The more I look at them, the more the Y510p and Y410p seem like solid options (the Y410p probably makes more sense, but I'm - probably irrationally - hesitant about the smaller screen/lower resolution). I'm still wary of the battery life though, and the fact that some of the reviews seem to be for different models within those designations confuses things a little, too. For example, most of the Y510p reviews I'm seeing seem to be for the version with SLI, which doesn't seem particularly necessary to me, especially if it has a significant impact on battery life. Does anyone know of other laptops that are comparable to the Y510p and Y410p (even slightly more expensive ones)? Superterranean posted:That said: I always found I took better notes on paper. Maybe I'm a fogey but at least paper lies flat on the table, not blocking your view of the lecture, and it's way easier to put away than a computer is. Haha, maybe you're right, but I've been taking notes on laptops for a long time. Regardless, I'll still need a laptop for school more generally, so I'm not sure how much difference taking notes on paper would make, besides making portability slightly less important.
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Aug 27, 2013 06:03
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QuarkJets posted:You're already making bad decisions by going to law school, so this is your chance to start making good decisions by not buying a hardcore gaming laptop. It sounds like you're already on the right track on that front. I considered shipping it, but it seemed kind of risky based on the admittedly small amount of research I did. Plus I'm not going to be moving permanently - I'll be back home over Christmas and during (at least next) summer, when I'll probably end up getting at least as much use out of it as I would during the school year. If you want to make a case for why shipping it makes sense, though, I'd be glad to consider it. It does suck that I'm getting a lot less use out of it than I would otherwise, but I don't really see a great way around it. Besides, like I said, I need a new laptop anyway. I personally don't feel like I'm losing much by going with a midsize laptop capable of some gaming over a smaller, more mobile one.
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Aug 27, 2013 08:31
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QuarkJets posted:If you anticipate not using the desktop much anyway, then just sell it. Dude, you're about to take on thousands of dollars in debt, sell that loving desktop if you're just going to be using a laptop anyway Look, I appreciate the advice, but please don't make assumptions about my personal situation. I'm not taking on any debt. I'm not American, either, if that's what your understanding of the wisdom of law school is based on. It looks like the Y410p is probably the best choice for me, so I'll keep looking into that for now. Thanks, everyone.
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Aug 27, 2013 16:49
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