|
I, too am moving away from the apple ecosystem now that I've finally learned Premiere. My mid-14 13" retina is actually a great little computer, and I like almost everything about it, except for the fact that Premiere is a tad iffy on the mac and boot camp sort of sucks. So: Uses: Premiere, mostly 1080p but would like to not completely choke trying to scrub 4k at 1/4 res. A bit of gaming might be nice, but I never do that with my current laptop anyway Web programming and sysadmin stuff Want: Good nvme storage, 512gb is fine but a second m.2 or 2.5" bay would be nice 16gb ram, or sodimm slots so I can add it. 960m or better A 1440p display. I really, really need better than 1080p resolution but would love to avoid the battery drain of a full 4k. Around 4 pounds and 15" max, preferably 14". Precision touchpad or at least a non-lovely one, I'm coming from a Mac. Decent key travel would be nice too but I'm slightly less picky there. Around $1000, preferably less. I also never buy new computers and prefer to do my own repairs, so I'm looking pretty exclusively at the used market. It looks like a used Razer Blade is pretty much ideal, is there anything else comparable that hits my checkboxes? Maybe an xps 15 9550?
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2017 00:14
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 21:41 |
|
|
The Bramble posted:So much for thin-and-light for gaming. I'm going back to Lenovo when this finally dies. Everyone uses the same battery technology, you're not going to avoid this issue by switching manufacturers. You should really replace it as soon as possible, and if you can afford to be without your laptop I would suggest taking it out until your replacement arrives. Swollen batteries are not really that dangerous by themselves, but they will wreck your case and likely everything else if you let it expand more. Dell may not sell the battery anymore but there are a ton on ebay around $80, and if you want to keep the laptop, you should really replace it asap.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 12, 2017 21:33
|
|
|
Rex-Goliath posted:If I demand a free extended warranty from either Razer or Microsoft is there a chance they'll give it to me? I've been on Apple for a long time now and for my first foray back into PCs this experience is giving me cold feet. I used to work in tech retail. If a sales person came up to me and said "I've got a customer with a DOA laptop who's demanding a free warranty", I would tell said customer, as kindly as humanly possible, to get lost. If they said "Hey I've got a customer who's new to PCs and his laptop crapped out two days after getting it home. I'm going to swap it within the return policy but he asked if we could give him a break on an extended warranty since he's a bit freaked out by the experience", I'd approve it immediately. Don't demand anything. Ask nicely and maybe. I hope it works out for you because I'm switching as well and the Blade looks like the perfect machine for me. Would love to hear your thoughts on it, especially if you're a Premiere user.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 13, 2017 19:40
|
|
|
Honestly, this is why I buy used and get squaretrade warranties. I've had a better time dealing with squaretrade than some of the manufacturers I've tried to get RMAs with, there's little chance of a lemon, and I save a bunch of cash. edit: of course I don't recommend this if you can't do your own minor repairs and/or don't have a backup machine, but that's sort of par for the course in general.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 14, 2017 17:34
|
|
|
Khorne posted:What the heck thunderbolt to hdmi adapter should I buy? I have a Lenovo T450S but it probably doesn't matter. There are a million with all kinds of mixed reviews. You don't need an active adapter for 1080p at 60hz. Your typical 10 dollar amazon special should work just fine as long as you're not going over 1920x1200@60.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 16, 2017 20:09
|
|
|
89 posted:Got a $200 giftcard for Amazon for my birthday. Can't figure out what to use it on. I don't think there are any laptops on Amazon worth owning for that price, but you can probably find a used Thinkpad x230 or 240 for something around there. Great little linux dev machine as long as you don't care about the somewhat lovely display.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2017 00:42
|
|
|
roomforthetuna posted:Agree with the Thinkpad recommendation, but you could get a Linux-capable chromebook in that price range too, if you find low weight and battery life more compelling that sturdiness. In my experience those things are great until you type "make" and then they slowly burn to death, but I haven't looked at them in a few years.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2017 03:20
|
|
|
Shrimp or Shrimps posted:Wow I like the idea of that HP Envy 13 with an MX150. Perfect for when you're on the road and just want to play a light or older game. I imagine it'd smash, say, the original Mass Effect's no problem at 768 or even 1080p. What the gently caress is happening in the universe that I'm genuinely excited about the new HP Envy? That line has produced some of the worst computers I've ever seen in my life.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2017 16:53
|
|
|
Seamonster posted:And then there's going full retard with the MX150: Ah yes. For the gamer who wants a quad core CPU but a potato for a graphics card. If they just called it a content creation machine they could probably sell a few, but I don't think MSI actually does any market research at all.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2017 21:27
|
|
|
What's your use case and budget, if you don't mind me asking?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 26, 2017 05:37
|
|
|
NewFatMike posted:If there are other detachables/tablets/what-have-yous that fit, this is totally out of my knowledge range. I usually just kinda keep up with more powerful stuff and have a few not-awful Chromebooks in my back pocket to recommend to folks. Good gracious yes. You can easily score a used Surface 3 or 4 for that budget. Check out MobileTechReview on youtube. There's a whole world of wonderful (and lovely) windows tablets and convertibles. Dr. Fishopolis fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Jul 27, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Jul 27, 2017 07:55
|
|
|
I didn't even know there was a dual core XPS 15. I hope nobody ever buys that.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 30, 2017 00:45
|
|
|
Mikojan posted:Ive been digging around and came tot he conclusion that laptops have gotten a lot more expensive since last time I bought one. I would not pay that much for a Y-series tablet when you can get a used Surface Pro 4 for half as much money. It looks nice enough but good luck finding one or getting support for it. What exactly do you need in a laptop?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 30, 2017 00:48
|
|
|
Dubplate Fire posted:This thing is perfect for making music. That's sort of fair, but the low end XPS 15 is a huge compromise. You're giving up the GPU, you only get a 500gb hybrid spinner for a drive, and you're losing HALF your battery for the privilege. Yeah, it's a $340 bump to the next model, but for that money you get a GTX 1050, an nvme SSD, a quad core cpu and a 97WHr battery. If you don't care about battery life, it sounds nice to get that 2.5mm drive bay, but after you buy an m.2 boot drive and a reasonably sized HDD, you just spent around $250 and you still have a dual core processor and no GPU. It's just a straight up bad deal and nobody should buy it. If you want a dual core 15" machine for around a grand, get an LG Gram, or a Zenbook, or find a deal on a 15" spectre 360. Don't get a computer designed around a quad core and a dgpu and then order it without those things. edit: or just get a properly configured xps 15 and rejoice because you can run twice as many VSTs. Dr. Fishopolis fucked around with this message at 18:23 on Aug 3, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2017 18:18
|
|
|
Calico Heart posted:... however, when I choose to play a game with the High Performance NVIDIA processor, it is slow and the game doesn't perform remotely as smooth as when I choose to run using integrated graphics. Surely there's something wrong here, right? The NVIDIA can't even handle the original Dark Souls (which after a few seconds of play quits due to low frame rate) whilst the integrated graphics run it flawlessly. Even the indie game INSIDE runs laggy and ugly using the NVIDIA. There's definitely something wrong, but you didn't mention what laptop you have.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2017 20:44
|
|
|
Depends what you do with your computer.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 9, 2017 19:18
|
|
|
I'm like 99% certain I'm gonna go with a 15" Samsung Notebook 9 Pro to replace my 2014 retina 13". The only real downside I can see is that it's only sold through Best Buy and I refuse to give them my money, so I have to track one down on eBay. Other than that, it seems perfect as far as I can tell. About the same weight but with a bigger display, great Wacom AES digitizer, does the flippy floppy thing and apparently the RX 540 in there is about equivalent to an MX150 from what I can tell, which is fine by me and a big upgrade from the Haswell IGPU I'm coming from. The only thing I wish it had was a QHD or better display, but I can learn to live with it since it's at least color-accurate. So who wants to dash my hopes? It's going for around a grand with student discounts which seems too good to be true, but that might just be due to the fact that the last time I bought a laptop there was basically no competition for the MBP. Dr. Fishopolis fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Aug 12, 2017 |
|
#
¿
Aug 12, 2017 05:08
|
|
|
I went and picked up a Samsung Notebook 9 Pro after quite a bit of hemming and hawing, and I'm completely blown away. This is my first Windows laptop in many years and it completely surpasses my expectations for the price. The keyboard is fantastic, the touchpad is a step above adequate, the build is solid, the battery life is great. Also, the bottom plate comes off with regular philips screws and the battery is not glued in, which is a huge step up from the painful topcase replacements I've had to do with Apple machines once the battery inevitably gives up. The RAM is soldered, but it's 16gb of DDR4 in dual channel so I'm not complaining. The SSD is SATA3, but apparently it will support an NVME drive if you want to swap. It's very good for a SATA drive though, and unless I'm really hammering it I can't tell the difference between it and the 960 evo nvme drive on my desktop machine. The pen is a wee toothpick thing, but writing with it is very responsive and feels like paper. It's Wacom EMR, which I'm told is a very good thing. Coming from an MBP, I haven't really gotten used to it yet but it's super handy for Photoshop. I love that it slides into the case. I have a little Atom based Surface 3, but I honestly don't use the pen since there's nowhere to put it when I'm carrying it around. The RX540 gpu is actually great, and significantly better than the usual 940MX you find in this form factor. Overwatch at 1080p on medium/high settings and AA turned off is very playable and didn't dip below 40fps. I can't seem to get it to work for OpenCL in Premiere, but I suspect that's Adobe being Adobe since it works in everything else, including Photoshop. The CPU is quite stable with a fairly aggressive undervolt and the fans never get beyond "vaguely noticeable". Temps sit in the high 70s for both the CPU and GPU when gaming, which is frankly amazing. I usually repaste laptops as soon as I get them, but there's little point with this one. The one thing I desperately wish it had was a 1440p or better display, but at least it's color accurate after calibration. For a 15 inch machine, it feels like a 14" and fits in the bags and sleeves I have for 13" laptops. It's well under 4 pounds, and I don't notice it much in my bag. Also, the charger is quite small Anyway, this thing rules. I hope Samsung stops loving with the form factor and sticks with this for a while, because if they refresh it with Coffee Lake and a QHD or better display, it will be the perfect laptop for me. I paid around $1100, you might find an open box one for a bit less.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2017 18:33
|
|
|
Annath posted:I was wondering, if I use Window's 10s built in system restore utility, will it just give me the bloatware back? I don't have a USB drive to hand, but if absolutely needed I can go out and buy one. Usually yes, but sometimes no. It can't hurt to try it and see what happens, but it's probably worth springing $5 for a USB drive so you can use the proper Windows installer.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2017 18:42
|
|
|
Atomizer posted:The thing that concerns me most about the Surface line is the difficulty of performing upgrades/repairs. When most/all of your components are soldered on and the thing is glued together that really turns me off. I'd rather have a bigger/bulkier device. Yeah, honestly the Surface Book with the 965m in it is probably my ideal laptop but gently caress spending that kind of money if you have to throw it away in 3 years when the battery poops out. It's bad enough for cell phones, but everyone should consider it a dealbreaker for laptops.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2017 18:57
|
|
|
If fiddling with it makes it work / not work, it's probably the LVDS cable. They often fail at the point where they go through the hinge to the display, I would look for fraying / shorting there and see if you can put some kapton or thin electrical tape to insulate it, assuming the wires aren't broken. It can also help to tape down the connector where it plugs into the motherboard. If the cable is too damaged, you could replace it but you'll need the specific cable for that model computer which can be a challenge to track down. Also, you'll have to disassemble the whole display assembly which can be a big challenge if you're not experienced with laptop repair.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2017 21:21
|
|
|
puberty worked me over posted:Yeah it might be cool to have the extra 300 CPU Mark score but am I really going to notice the difference on a daily basis? At least this way I could buy a new laptop every time intel releases a new generation of processors that in theory will inevitably benchmark higher while keeping relatively the same TDP. Thanks again goons I would have never found this without your help! You may or may not notice the difference on a daily basis, but you will notice having to use a computer with a garbage 1366x786 TN panel, creaky plastic build and a fisher price keyboard and trackpad. 300 cpu mark bench points tells you absolutely nothing about a laptop.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 17, 2017 05:22
|
|
|
irlZaphod posted:What are the Celeron processors in the Acer Chromebooks like? I'm looking at this one: http://www.currys.ie/Product/acer-cb3431-14-full-hd-chromebook-gold/341668/401.0.2 Fine for chromebooky type stuff, but nothing exciting. Those Apollo Lake celerons are ubiquitous in Chinese devices, some of which run Windows 10 with reasonable performance. They're die-shrunk Atoms, they just don't call them Atom anymore for whatever reason.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 18, 2017 17:53
|
|
|
Microsoft definitely does not have enterprise hardware support like Dell or Lenovo do. The Surface line is meant to be a reference design for consumer stuff, they're really not ready for a primetime business deployment. Lenovo definitely used to suck balls, and they never managed to make a thinkpad as good as IBM used to, but they do have proper business support plans and their machines are a *lot* more durable than Dell. Outside of a couple models, the displays pretty much universally suck balls though, so if your field is creative / design / video / whatever you should just stick with Dell.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2017 20:23
|
|
|
HP is the single worst company I have ever dealt with for enterprise, ever, hands down. Never again. Run like hell. Anything else.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 23, 2017 01:40
|
|
|
Be somewhat handy and buy a display on ebay is pretty much the only answer. If they could just make an x270 with a consistent, high gamut 1440p display I would buy one instantly.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 25, 2017 20:30
|
|
|
You could just replace the wifi module with something better. It's socketed, a good intel one will cost you like 20 bux on amazon.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2017 00:01
|
|
|
Atomizer posted:That being said, on this subject, for you or anyone else interested, this would not be a terrible option for someone looking for a dirt-cheap Windows laptop. $260 gets you the one with the SSD and 8 GB of RAM, and the Haswell CPU's perfectly fine. No numpad, and it's not too clunky. The 14" display's only HD (FWXGA) resolution though. Honestly, that display should be a dealbreaker. For general computing and web stuff, I would rather have something with at least a 1080p IPS display but a cheapo Celeron with 4GB of ram and an eMMC drive than a faster computer with a dumpster display. There's no point getting a machine with the horsepower to run Photoshop, watch Netflix and open a dozen chrome tabs if you don't even have the real estate to see what the gently caress you're doing, let alone trust the colors on the screen.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2017 19:23
|
|
|
Try and find an off-lease Thinkpad X240 with a fat battery. Don't get the one with the TN display, get the IPS model, and if you find a Full HD one jump on it immediately. You should be able to do this for well under $400, and you'll end up with a pretty modern ultrabook that lasts for days and will survive a small armed conflict.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2017 23:59
|
|
|
Twerk from Home posted:Why would you ever use the touchpad on a Thinkpad? It's got the Trackpoint for your cursor controlling needs. Sure, but some people like it and the model below and above it have perfectly usable trackpads. I forgot how bad the x240 one was, dude was right to point it out. poo poo's awful, and the x250 is worth spending a little more for that reason.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2017 18:58
|
|
|
sout posted:For laptops with both an SSD and HDD, which tends to be the boot drive? The SSD is always the boot drive. If it isn't for some reason, switch it in the BIOS. Do you need a quad core cpu?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2017 21:37
|
|
|
sout posted:Is it important for anything outside of gaming? If you don't know why you would need a quad core, you don't need one. Current gen quad core laptop cpus give you a shitload more power for VMs, video editing, compiling and working in heavy (bloated) IDEs. The tradeoffs are price, weight, battery, fan noise and heat.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2017 23:47
|
|
|
dissss posted:If you don’t want to use the track point then the X240 was actually an improvement. Have you ever actually used the X240 trackpad? When we say "a quarter inch", we mean "a quarter inch". It's next to impossible to keep your finger on the thing you're trying to click on while pushing the assembly down that far. It's a torture device. edit: oh god and it wasn't levered like the older style Mac ones either, it just sort of floated around this vague point in the middle. the memories are flooding back, someone hold me
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2017 23:49
|
|
|
dissss posted:The new Intel ULV chips should address all those concerns. I personally wouldn’t buy anything expensive until systems with them become available They're still 15w tdp. They'll be faster, but nobody's magically turning U series chips into HQs.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2017 23:56
|
|
|
Ynglaur posted:The Razer Blade is pretty close to what you describe, albeit at high cost and poor QC. The Aero 14 also gets good reviews. I picked up a late 2016 Blade with a 970m in it for a little over a grand, you can find good used deals if you hunt around. Had to do a bunch of driver shenanigans to get everything working to my liking but I haven't experienced any hardware issues so far, there's no bloatware at all and after tweaking with throttlestop I get an easy 6 hours off the (remarkably small for 165w) charger. And it's got good Linux support. It's a Good Computer. That said, I think next year we'll start to see a lot of competition for it. If Coffee Lake gives us a 28w quad core chip, that with a Max-Q 1060 or 1050ti could mean machines well under 4 pounds with real performance and fewer compromises. Who knows, Apple might even step back into the ring after they see the sales figures from their garbage redesign.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 1, 2017 00:06
|
|
|
No, you can run an eGPU on things that have only 2 PCIe lanes for their thunderbolt connections. It'll just bottleneck more and isn't ideal.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 1, 2017 01:23
|
|
|
I'd say you're between the Razer Blade, the MSI GS63VR and the Aero 14 or 15. You do not want a 17" laptop. People like Dell just fine, I don't know what you're reading. The XPS 15 9560 is a great machine if you can live with a 1050. edit: the one with the big battery anyway, the 2.5" bay isn't worth having a 3 hour laptop.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 3, 2017 20:34
|
|
|
PSWII60 posted:The games I play are mostly 2D indie titles. You don't need a gaming laptop at all, then, unless you're some sort of Super Meat Boy speedrun grognard who can't live with display lag. I'm not sure what you mean by "the animation power", but for video editing with Premiere pretty much any dedicated GPU from the MX150 upward will perform about the same. You might want to wait a few months to see if someone puts out a system with an 8th gen ULV CPU with a 1050 in it, because that would cover your needs quite nicely and be much lighter and thinner than anything available right now.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 3, 2017 21:51
|
|
|
wolrah posted:Am I correct in thinking the Quadro M1200/M2200 are basically GeForce 850M level GPUs? 1. Yes, in fact they're practically the same silicon. The difference is driver validation. The 2200 is equivalent to a 950m. Great for CAD and light modelling (think phone cases), not great for anything heavier. 2. Yes, especially with a 45w HQ chip. Make sure the machine supports 4k/60hz externally if you need that though, not all of them do.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 3, 2017 22:22
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 21:41 |
|
|
codo27 posted:Posted a while back but still have this laptop here with a display problem I'm trying to diagnose. Thought it might have just been the cable but I dunno. If I flex the LCD it goes perfect, without touching it there are just faint lines on the screen. If I flex the other way I get a bunch of white bars across the screen, sometimes they flash if I'm not touching it too. Right now its fine just at rest but touching it causes the white flashing. Are there any sort of guidelines to help indicate if it might be the cable, the LCD itself or something on the board? Did you try the things I suggested the last time you asked?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 4, 2017 21:54
|
|