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~

MaxxBot: Oct 6, 2003; you could have clapped

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GuyCastle posted:

I'm starting a bachelor in Java development and I have a daily commute of about 4 hours. I was looking at the new xps 13 and wondering if the 8gb ram would be sufficient? From what I've read, most people seem to recommend 16gb (which isn't an option for the xps 13), but it often seems to stem from a "more is always better" perspective rather than actual need.

I do have a high end desktop with 16gb at home and there are similar desktops available on location, so I'd mostly be using the laptop for taking notes during class or for homework on the train. The xps seems like a good fit, portable, decent specs and battery life. Opinions?

I work as an electrical engineer and embedded programmer and even I would never really run into a situation where I would need more than 8GB of RAM, you will be fine. The only way you'd really ever need more than 8GB is if you were doing serious photo/video editing or running several VMs at once.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2015 07:25

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 09:25

MaxxBot: Oct 6, 2003; you could have clapped

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Apok posted:

Overall I'm happy with my purchase so far. I'll start raging if things go bad but Dell seems to have made a solid piece of equipment.

Thanks for the writeup, I just ordered the exact same config as you have a few days ago but I have to wait over 2 weeks for it to arrive :negative:

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 18:01

MaxxBot: Oct 6, 2003; you could have clapped

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Gzuz-Kriced posted:

I currently have an Ideapad P580 that I bought probably 2-3 years ago and upgraded the to an SSD about 6 months ago. While I'm able to play most of the games I want, it still has poor performance on many others and the low resolution (1366x768) and crappy screen overall has started to annoy me.

However, when I tried to look at various newer laptops in the range I want to pay (max about $750), it didn't seem like there was a big increase in power according to the various benchmarks I looked at. Mostly I compared processors, so maybe there's just other bottlenecks, but most of the "big" upgrades I saw were in laptops that were over $1k.

Hopefully I'm just being stupid, but can someone who knows more comment on how much faster of a laptop I could reasonably get? I don't do anything that needs the increased power outside of gaming, other than some hefty excel sheets for work.

On a non laptop specific note - does anyone know if you can transfer a Microsoft Office license between computers? I might be able to get my work to give me a new one, but I'm not certain.

There has been a lot more progress in laptop GPUs and that's a lot more important for gaming than the CPU is, so that's what you'd want to compare.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2015 02:43

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rapeface posted:

I'm about to pull the trigger on a new 13" Macbook Pro with Retina to replace my old Core 2 Duo MBP. Is there anything nutty about the new MBP I should know? Still fine to dual-boot windows? Probably going to go with the midrange one with extra RAM and get gouged on extra SSD space unless there's some easy way of upgrading the SSD myself?

What's the best way of getting my old files into my new computer? Airdrop for Mac files? Anything for Windows?

I just got the midrange model with the 256GB SSD, I've been pretty happy with it so far. You can upgrade the SSD yourself but I chose to just pay extra for the 256GB model because it has one of the best performing SSDs out there. I'm dual booting with Windows 10 technical preview and I've had surprisingly few issues, just trouble running some games but that's probably to be expected.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2015 22:56

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Optiquest posted:

Is the touchscreen on the xps 13 better than the non touch? Anyone find themselves utilizing the touch screen or do you forget its there? Hows the keyboard? Looking for something lighter than my T420 with better battery that I can carry around school all day.

The non-touch version with the 1080p screen has significantly better battery life, which sounds like something that would be useful for you.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2015 12:30

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Twerk from Home posted:

I know it's trendy to be too good for TN, but I'm going to play devils advocate and suggest that on productivity laptops that aren't doing graphical content creation, IPS is a luxury and not a necessity. Panel quality is more important for watching movies or looking at photos than it is getting work done. TN panels don't have to be bad either, the Macbook Air still uses a TN panel and it gets recommended around here like crazy.

Edit: Am I missing something? Can someone explain to me how TN panels hurt your eyes? Have you guys just tried turning down the brightness?

I don't think someone with a $1500 budget in 2015 should ever have to settle for anything less than 1080p IPS, nor would they ever really have to.

Jewce posted:

Thanks for the feedback on helping my brother pick out a laptop. I appreciate the input on the screen resolution, that was a good bit of advice.

In terms of rMBP, I talked to him more about it and he basically wants to just get a "cheap" laptop (I told him $1500 isn't a cheap laptop, but anyways) to use until the new 15" ones come out in the Fall. Am I correct in telling him that he could by an rMBP and then resell it for only a few hundred below what he paid when the new ones come out? Basically, the 15" model he wants is $2500 so he considers spending $1000 less right now a good option, but I feel like he would actually get a better return on something like a macbook than one some Acer or whatever.

The new 15" rMBP with Broadwell is coming this summer, and the Skylake version probably won't arrive until like Q1 2016. I would just tell him to wait a bit and get the Broadwell model, it shouldn't be that far off.

MaxxBot fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Apr 7, 2015

# ¿ Apr 7, 2015 07:07

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What are good options for a cheap used laptop? I don't need good battery life or portability I just want something with a decent CPU that I can throw an SSD in and have a passable experience.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2018 20:48

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Reek posted:

Was thinking I would get it and then just look into upgrading to 16gb of RAM when I saw this one on the website:

https://www.costco.com/lenovo-flex-5-14%22-2-in-1-touchscreen-laptop---amd-ryzen-7-4700u---1080p.product.100579313.html

Seems like this Lenovo has better stats all around and is $50 cheaper. I don't know much about the brand but they seem to be solid. Any thoughts?

I just ordered this one, seems like a pretty good deal for what you get.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2020 16:53

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Vital Signs posted:

Thanks for the input on the Acer. I'll take take a look at the X250's on eBay.

This also seems pretty good:
https://slickdeals.net/f/14130212-lenovo-ideapad-5-laptop-ryzen-5-4500u-15-6-1080p-8gb-ddr4-256gb-ssd-500-free-shipping?src=catpagev2

There is even one at my local store and I could arrange curbside pickup... hmm.

Yeah the Ryzen 4500U laptops are a killer value as far as performance per dollar goes.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2020 22:07

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Yeah I basically just want an XPS 13 with a 4800U

# ¿ Jun 18, 2020 00:02

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# ¿ Jun 19, 2020 18:37

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Quixzlizx posted:

It's weird that he reviewed the 5i instead of the 5 when the 5 is cheaper and he just had a review last week titled "Razer Blade Stealth 2020 - Cursed by Intel"

Yeah I thought it was weird how he mentioned the AMD models for one second then just totally glossed over them.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2020 18:38

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The Iron Rose posted:

Geekbench does not a real world comparison make. For the vast majority of consumers, sandy bridge is just fine for email Facebook and netflix. IPCs have only gone up by about 3-5% per year. There�s just nothing new or special or interesting from generation to generation. After 4-5 generations and the better part of a decade it gets noticeable, but even then older systems are still more than good enough for most people.

That's mostly because of Intel 10nm woes making them use 14nm Skylake for years. Tiger Lake and Zen 3 from AMD later on are going to be a much larger IPC jump than 3-5% but yeah if you only do web browsing and email any laptop works.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2020 06:14

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 09:25

MaxxBot: Oct 6, 2003; you could have clapped

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Clevo made a loving 11900k laptop with dual 280W power bricks, the ultimate meme machine.

https://twitter.com/JarrodsTech/status/1387946871906201600?s=20

# ¿ May 2, 2021 04:27

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