Lappy thoughts

Message

Directive · #1 Post by **Directive** » Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:31 pm

Wan't a new laptop. "Lappy 486" is in need of being replaced and so does my wife's desktop. Would like something that she can plug a monitor and speakers into and use as a desktop, then dismount and use in the family room. Needs to have an optical drive and video and audio outputs. Quad-core would be great too. About 15" is OK. So far I price them at about $800, is that right?

I7Iz490N · #2 Post by **I7Iz490N** » Mon Oct 20, 2014 9:56 pm

#3 Post by **palmboy5** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 1:05 am

Can confirm. Happened when I read that laptops apparently still have optical drives and that said drives are "need"ed.

Source: am dead

OK more seriously, what is the laptop going to be used for? What is the justification for a quad-core CPU? Not only that, are ULV model CPUs (< 2GHz) out of the question for any reason?

"Plug a monitor" with what port? HDMI is pretty common nowadays, but are you looking for something that still has VGA?

Quick search lands me on this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834317607

Directive · #4 Post by **Directive** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 6:19 pm

I7Iz490N wrote:PB is going to have a heart attack.

Maybe I should add "Giver of heart attacks" to my sig.

Directive · #5 Post by **Directive** » Tue Oct 21, 2014 6:22 pm

OK, Ill start off with what we have.
Desktop is HP Pavilion Slimline s5730y
Laptop is Toshiba SATELLITE L735D-S3102

I want the new lappy to replace both computers. Both are slow compared to my desktop. So when she is in the Den she can plug her monitor and speakers in and use as desktop. HDMI is fine, I have an HDMI to and from DVI adapters. Then she can unplug monitor and speakers and use in the family room if she likes. It will also be our travel computer, not that we do a lot of traveling. optical drive is because she still has CD's that she likes to listen to. I can just tell her they don't make them with optical drives cheap anymore.
Yea, so just better then both of them. Doesn't have to be as fast as mine but a decent 2.0 GHz quad should be OK.

#6 Post by **palmboy5** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:33 am

The thing is, I think a quad core CPU would be a waste in an $800 laptop. Besides, that low power Core i5 dual core outperforms your X4 630 (at stock) just barely:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php ... cmp[]=2259

But it will feel faster because it has much faster single-threaded performance. Websites, for example, are single-threaded (to my dismay) and practically don't benefit at all from having more cores. I imagine most of your use of the laptop (and any other computer, really) will be web browsing, so a dual core is plenty.

Here's another laptop, from the same series, that is closer to your stated budget:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834317609

It has a faster processor and my minimum standard for RAM (8GB). In either model it has an IPS display, which is good. I just recommend upgrading it with an SSD afterward.

That's really about as far as I can go. Just judging by specs on paper can only take you so far. If you remember my arguments for why a MacBook is better, it's that a laptop that looks good on paper doesn't really say much for user experience. You can't tell how buggy the touchpad is (hint: for PCs, it will be), or how the keyboard feels, or how noisy the cooling fans are, or what level of polish their software has, etc.

Directive · #7 Post by **Directive** » Wed Oct 22, 2014 7:29 pm

I just want it to perform better then the two computers she has. Looks like the one you posted should do the trick. Personally I hate all mouse-pads. Touchscreen is fine and I can always use a wireless mouse and keyboard. She will be the primary user and she has a wireless set and doesn't mind using the touch-pad. Great suggestion and thank you. I have tried windows and mac's when they started. I had Windows 3.11 and DOS 6.22 and I tried an Apple PET. I liked windows better so I stuck with them ever since. I don't personally have anything against MAC's, I just hate proprietary, arrogant, status symbol OS's.

#8 Post by **palmboy5** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 3:28 am

Directive wrote:I don't personally have anything against MAC's, I just hate proprietary, arrogant, status symbol OS's.

The "I'm not racist, but..." of the computer world

I think a coworker has a Lenovo Flex something something, I'll ask him about it.

EDIT: He has that same thing, a Flex 2.
"touch driver randomly turns off
well, not random, but sometimes dont work
after extended keyboard usage, possibly a feature?"

By "touch driver" he means touchscreen, not touchpad.

Directive · #9 Post by **Directive** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 6:09 pm

palmboy5 wrote:
Directive wrote:I don't personally have anything against MAC's, I just hate proprietary, arrogant, status symbol OS's.
The "I'm not racist, but..." of the computer world

I know, I know. Kinda like me and using NVidea over Radeon.

palmboy5 wrote:I think a coworker has a Lenovo Flex something something, I'll ask him about it.
EDIT: He has that same thing, a Flex 2.
"touch driver randomly turns off
well, not random, but sometimes dont work
after extended keyboard usage, possibly a feature?"
By "touch driver" he means touchscreen, not touchpad.

It will be a little while before we actually purchase anything. I'll do some more research and keep the forum updated. I have noticed the chatter in here has diminished over the past year. I guess no gnews is good gnews with Gary gnew

Thanx Palm, you gave me a few things to consider.

#10 Post by **palmboy5** » Thu Oct 23, 2014 10:08 pm

Directive wrote:I know, I know. Kinda like me and using NVidea over Radeon.

TBH, I've been having driver-related issues (in both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1) with the Radeon R9 270x I upgraded to and decided that my next card will be a GeForce again. That isn't to say my 560 Ti was problem-free, but I can more easily believe that it was becoming less stable due to old-age, and not an inherent issue of continually bad drivers.

Directive wrote:It will be a little while before we actually purchase anything. I'll do some more research and keep the forum updated. I have noticed the chatter in here has diminished over the past year. I guess no gnews is good gnews with Gary gnew Thanx Palm, you gave me a few things to consider.

*shrug* I have work stuff, and now that I moved back to my "hometown" where most of my friends are my free time has been spent elsewhere as well.

I7Iz490N · #11 Post by **I7Iz490N** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 12:38 am

#12 Post by **palmboy5** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 6:35 pm

You're an online friend, which makes you location-agnostic and not a factor in the effects of my relocation.

2005 · #13 Post by **2005** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 12:20 pm

I'd honestly say go with a lenovo thinkpad. I got a used Thinkpad T410 on ebay that came with a corei5 and 8GB of memory.

Even with an old platter hard drive, it runs very fast. I imagine if I threw an SSD in there it would scream. I only have about $250
total in the laptop. I imagine if I put a samsung 840 PRO and 16GB of memory in it that I'd have no problems for a long time.

It's the cheapest laptop I've ever bought, and it's really fast. I kinda like the 14" screen, and if your going to be hooking it to an
external monitor anyways then it's not too big of a deal.

The 15.6" version is roughly $100 more money on ebay as well.

Directive · #14 Post by **Directive** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 7:39 pm

Yea, we looked at some 15" at Best Buy and they are a bit big. Looking like 13.5 - 14.

#15 Post by **palmboy5** » Sat Nov 01, 2014 5:01 am

13.x" laptops are a solid size IMO

But the prices go up the smaller you go (if you try to keep the specs the same).

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