Trying to decide on a new laptop

[Pete]

How about, "It'll be easier to notice that $50 in your wallet than in your CPU."

 

[Albuquerque]

Depends on what you're doing with it. I can imagine users craving the cache if they run some heavy CPU only transcoding of sorts where you can actually see performance benefits.

Well, the question then becomes if the cache improvement is worth the tradeoff in clockspeed. Most transcoding performance scales pretty linearly with clock, so if $300 doubles your cache (for maybe a 15% speed increase) would that offset the clock increase you'd get for the same price? (Say 2.4Ghz vs 3.0Ghz)

Probably not.

 

[mkillio]

Alright, I'm pretty close to biting the bullet on this one. I'm going to the sony store to make sure I like it in person. My question now is, Windows XP or 7 and why?

 

[Davros]

7 just because xp64 has poor driver support and win7 and 64bit is the future, dx11 ect
but to be honest i doubt it would make a huge difference either way, but if you have a choice might as well go with win7

 

[mkillio]

That's what I was leaning towards. The only apprehension I have now is whether or not wait and get a laptop that supports DX11. Again, this computer is not primarily meant for games but I do have a lot of gaming to catch up on, about 3-4 years. I have a ThinkPad T43 currently, so it's going to be a night and day difference anyways. I'm really only looking forward to HL2: Episode 3 currently.

 

[mkillio]

I feel like the most indecisive person ever. I went to the Sony store and really liked the SR but I also checked out the CW, it's the 14" equivalent. It's mostly the same except it's less attractive, $100 less, has DDR3, and the NVIDIA® GeForce GT230M GPU (512MB VRAM) and has a shorter battery life. I don't really care about the screen size difference, although the lightness of the SR is kind of nice.

 

[eastmen]

Asus UL80VT would be good at $850 its small adn thin and has a optical drive. It also has a gt 210.

I have the the dm3z from hp with the neo x2 and 4330 512meg switchable. It plays source games just fine even left 4 dead 2 its getting in the 20-40fps range at high with 2x fsaa. Same games like dragon age and it tanks getting 15-30fps with low to medium settings and no fsaa. But that game is cpu limited as nothing i do gets it above 30fps except over clocking my cpu.


Depends on what you want to spend. My dm3z cost me $660 out the door and I sitll have upgrades to do like dual channel 4 gig ram.

 

[UniversalTruth]

Hello guys,

Well, I am doing some research for a new laptop but unfortunately it is not that easy to find exactly what I need:

So, basically I wanna something with these specifications:

- not less than 17 inches matte display, IPS LED, with at least WQHD (2560 X 1440) or preferably something like QHD+ (3200 X 1800);
- Intel Quad core CPU;
- AMD videocard;
- 7200 rpm HDD, and relatively small SSD for Windows and other basic programs;
- Blu-ray optical drive;

I would really appreciate and be very thankful if you can give offers

 

[UniversalTruth]

This silence is really disturbing, did you guys lose your voices?

Anyways, if anyone is interested, I have managed to find a site with appropriate filters, so everyone can find exactly what he / she wants / needs:

http://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/ProductCategory/3751.html

 

[MfA]

Why didn't you start a new thread?

 

[Grall]

Not sure there IS anything that fits your (very specific!) needs, that's probably why you're not getting any suggestions... Don't quote me on this, but I don't think very large 17" lappies are that popular to begin with anymore, and WQHD or better screen rez - pretty much forget it, then mix in your drive specifications...whew. You're going to be looking forever for what you want and never find it is my bet.

Try a 15" retina Macbook Pro, that'll be close on some points, no optical drive of course and no mechanical HDD, smaller screen, not widescreen aspect, not AMD graphics I think, and yeah, not matte screen either! But you'll be looking until the end of days if you don't pick something that actually exists!

 

[UniversalTruth]

Why didn't you start a new thread?

Oh, why should I?
You do not think it would be much more convenient for everyone to have unified threads with main topics?

Not sure there IS anything that fits your (very specific!) needs, that's probably why you're not getting any suggestions... Don't quote me on this, but I don't think very large 17" lappies are that popular to begin with anymore, and WQHD or better screen rez - pretty much forget it, then mix in your drive specifications...whew. You're going to be looking forever for what you want and never find it is my bet.

Try a 15" retina Macbook Pro, that'll be close on some points, no optical drive of course and no mechanical HDD, smaller screen, not widescreen aspect, not AMD graphics I think, and yeah, not matte screen either! But you'll be looking until the end of days if you don't pick something that actually exists!

You are laughing to the point of ridiculing me? Yeah, your post is definitely very funny haha

My bet is that I will just wait 2-3 years in the worst case until those goodie IPS LED 4K matte displays become so mainstream that even the goodie size of 17 inches will use them...
About the HDD - you simply misunderstood - it is not a problem for me to put a 7200 rpm additional HDD...

And meanwhile- fluck you, you stupid manufacturers who promote ultrabooks with 4K! So stupid that it doesn't make sense!

Edit:

By the way, if you apply all the appropriate filters you will get this:

http://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich...4675-848109-848113-914100-914108-1039484.html

http://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/OffersOfProduct/3948184_-vaio-sv-e1713y1e-b-sony.html

With Sony Vaio SVE1713Y1EB as the result with following specifications:

- 43.8 cm (17.3 ") Full HD VAIO Display Plus, matt (1920x1080)
- Intel Core i7-3632QM 2.20GHz (6MB Cache, Intel Turbo Boost up to 3.20GHz)
- 8GB DDR3 RAM
- 1 TB SATA hard drive 5400 rpm / min
- 2 GB AMD Radeon HD 7650M
- BluRay burner
- Wireless LAN 802.11 b / g / n
- 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
- Bluetooth 4.0 + HS
- HD "Exmor" webcam and internal microphone
- xLOUD sound system with stereo speakers
- 4 -in-1 card reader (SD / SDHC / SDXC / MSD)
- backlit QWERTY keyboard with numeric keypad
- Li-Ion battery
- Weight: 3.20 kg
- Microsoft Windows 8 64bit
- 2 years warranty Manufacturer no.: SVE1713Y1EB.G4 Availability: IN STOCK

Price: 1038.00 EUR

I guess even this is good enough but still, hope is that things will further improve in coming months

 

[homerdog]

Mythlogic has some good options in that range.

 

[UniversalTruth]

Mythlogic has some good options in that range.

Good, thanks

https://www.mythlogic.com/configure.php?id=138

Who produces these matte 1920 X 1080 displays in Mythlogic's offers, and also found in the Sony VAIO?
Do they plan to evolve the 17.3 with better resolutions?

 

[homerdog]

I dunno. I've been craving a Callisto 1413 with Iris Pro and happened upon their higher end options which at least on paper and in reviews look pretty good for that sort of thing.

 

[tuna]

And meanwhile- fluck you, you stupid manufacturers who promote ultrabooks with 4K! So stupid that it doesn't make sense!

Have you actually seen those screens?

 

[Grall]

You are laughing to the point of ridiculing me? Yeah, your post is definitely very funny haha

I'm NOT ridiculing you - I'm just pointing out that it's going to be very hard to find something that fits the specs you gave!

I googled real quick, and the lappys with WQHD screens are 13(.3)" units, not 17, for example.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Not sure there IS anything that fits your (very specific!) needs, that's probably why you're not getting any suggestions... Don't quote me on this, but I don't think very large 17" lappies are that popular to begin with anymore, and WQHD or better screen rez - pretty much forget it, then mix in your drive specifications...whew. You're going to be looking forever for what you want and never find it is my bet.

I would say that yes, 17" laptops (and sometimes bigger) are popular. Most laptops live permanently at home and are simply lugged between a small desk in a bedroom, a couch, a table etc.
So, many people get a 17" as the screen is simply bigger, to watch movies and videos or for general usage, and it's easier to type on. But tons of them are low end ones. There are many ones at 300 to 400 euros, with Pentium etc. (slightly slower dual core i3/i7 without hyperthreading) or even 9 watt AMD CPUs.

One significant benefit is you get 1600x900 or 1080p instead of 1366x768, if you don't want low res and still get a cheap laptop 17" is your only option.

Now, the problem at hand is there aren't higher-than-1080p 17" on the market yet, as far as I know. See the high PPI display thread to know if there are 2560, 4K and in-between displays to come..
Also, requesting an AMD GPU means you will have few options (perhaps Bonaire would be best?, with TruAudio and very high perf/watt). So, you have to wait and hope for the best. Kaveri would be an option if you don't want very high performance and really want an AMD GPU, too bad GDDR5M was canned.

PS: regarding the drives, they are what you decide them to be! At worst, immediately replace the default hard drive with an aftermaket one and you can use the slower hard drive in an external enclosure or a random desktop computer. To get SSD, hopefully ou have an M-SATA slot on the motherboard. This makes SSD + hard drive easy to get going on a laptop, and then you can have have SSD + dual hard drives (big high end laptops used to accept two 2.5" drives, no idea about current ones, but an option is to get a hard drive bay that replaces the optical drive)

 

[UniversalTruth]

Have you actually seen those screens?

Have no clue why exactly you are asking and what your point is... but yeah, kind of... definitely have a clue what a ultrabook is.

I'm NOT ridiculing you - I'm just pointing out that it's going to be very hard to find something that fits the specs you gave!

I googled real quick, and the lappys with WQHD screens are 13(.3)" units, not 17, for example.

Grall, you should have started with these... not afterwards when the "damage" is done, to deny or excuse your words...

I would say that yes, 17" laptops (and sometimes bigger) are popular. Most laptops live permanently at home and are simply lugged between a small desk in a bedroom, a couch, a table etc.

Absolutely true like in my case. My oldie Acer Aspire 7720-6395 very rarely goes outside the room where it lives, just from time to time goes into my backpack in order to travel with me where I live...

So, many people get a 17" as the screen is simply bigger, to watch movies and videos or for general usage, and it's easier to type on.

And not only these, but also physically, if the make is good, the 17 inch laptop would be very very slightly negligibly bigger in dimensions than most 15s... So, what's the point to torture your vision with something smaller!?

One significant benefit is you get 1600x900 or 1080p instead of 1366x768, if you don't want low res and still get a cheap laptop 17" is your only option.

Yes, mine is with 1600 X 900 and if I go slightly closer and already see the array of pixels and the overall quality is not very satisfactory.
That's why I need a big step in this regard - in order to upgrade, I need better resolution, not the same or slightly better (Full HD).

Now, the problem at hand is there aren't higher-than-1080p 17" on the market yet, as far as I know. See the high PPI display thread to know if there are 2560, 4K and in-between displays to come..

Yup, I will be waiting and hopefully someone sees this thread and what people hope for and expect to buy

Also, requesting an AMD GPU means you will have few options (perhaps Bonaire would be best?, with TruAudio and very high perf/watt). So, you have to wait and hope for the best. Kaveri would be an option if you don't want very high performance and really want an AMD GPU, too bad GDDR5M was canned.

PS: regarding the drives, they are what you decide them to be! At worst, immediately replace the default hard drive with an aftermaket one and you can use the slower hard drive in an external enclosure or a random desktop computer. To get SSD, hopefully ou have an M-SATA slot on the motherboard. This makes SSD + hard drive easy to get going on a laptop, and then you can have have SSD + dual hard drives (big high end laptops used to accept two 2.5" drives, no idea about current ones, but an option is to get a hard drive bay that replaces the optical drive)

Yes, this is the easier part, to put whatever I want HDD.

Thanks for the good explanation. Hope is more people will consider this very helpful because indeed 17 inch lappies are good and especially if you don't have a problem with the slightly bigger dimensions, then it is definitely 'to go' option

 

[homerdog]

Hookay, so after my little incident I find that my trusty Asus T100 has been completely destroyed

I'm trying to find something with a slightly bigger screen. Doesn't actually have to be a tablet like the T100, actually I would prefer a Thinkpad because I love the little red trackpoint in the middle of the keyboard. My budget is [strike]>$800[/strike] <$800. I can add an SSD but would prefer to find something with one. Performance is not important obviously coming from the T100, but battery life and weight is. [strike]>=4lbs[/strike] <=4lbs with >6hrs battery would be good. What do you guys think?

P.S. I don't need an OS either.