My brother is interested in a laptop so he can play Overwatch on a PC, though he needs more mobility than a desktop can provide. Are there any good ones on sale?
What size is he looking at? There are a bunch that would be good in the 14-inch or higher range. Can put in the component filters over at xoticpc.com and go with whatever would work well. Personally, I use an old(er) Sager laptop with an i7-4720 and Geforce 980...but I'm sure they have newer stuff up there these days.
Erlkönig on
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My brother is interested in a laptop so he can play Overwatch on a PC, though he needs more mobility than a desktop can provide. Are there any good ones on sale?
What size is he looking at? There are a bunch that would be good in the 14-inch or higher range. Can put in the component filters over at xoticpc.com and go with whatever would work well. Personally, I use an old(er) Sager laptop with an i7-4720 and Geforce 980...but I'm sure they have newer stuff up there these days.
He's looking at this 15.6 inch one. It will be his first gaming PC/laptop device in 15 years. It seems impressive enough that I might buy it since my PC is destroyed. Does anything about it strike out as a problem?
He has never known SSD. My only warning to him would be that a day will come when Overwatch doesn't fit on the SSD and he has to move to the regular drive.
The dell laptops of late have been pretty on point. That looks good to me. I think those laptops have a secondary hard drive bay, so you should be able to grab a 1 or 2 TB laptop drive and expand the storage that way without many issues (assuming you're comfortable opening it up).
I would make sure you check it out in person. Should be easy at a Best Buy. I was surprised by how much I cared about the physical aspects of my laptop when I got a new one a couple months ago. Key placement, bevel size, overall weight/formfactor, screen quality etc. all mattered more to me than I thought they did going into it.
So I went on xotic and...got a little out of control :biggrin:
1 x Intel® Core™ i5-7600K (3.8GHz - 4.2GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) QUAD Core CPU Processor - Unlocked $79.00
1 x 250GB XOTIC PC Certified M.2 Solid State Drive [Spring Closeout Special] $30.00
I also requested they overclock the GPU (a GTX 1060)
EDIT - I just realized this laptop means I can go to BYOC events without destroying my joints and spine!
My brother is interested in a laptop so he can play Overwatch on a PC, though he needs more mobility than a desktop can provide. Are there any good ones on sale?
What size is he looking at? There are a bunch that would be good in the 14-inch or higher range. Can put in the component filters over at xoticpc.com and go with whatever would work well. Personally, I use an old(er) Sager laptop with an i7-4720 and Geforce 980...but I'm sure they have newer stuff up there these days.
He's looking at this 15.6 inch one. It will be his first gaming PC/laptop device in 15 years. It seems impressive enough that I might buy it since my PC is destroyed. Does anything about it strike out as a problem?
He has never known SSD. My only warning to him would be that a day will come when Overwatch doesn't fit on the SSD and he has to move to the regular drive.
Make no mistake, I might go all out on xoticpc
Other than the hinge causing an unnatural tick, there's nothing that really jumps out as "bad." (I prefer having two hinges on either end of the display vs. one large, central one; though I'll concede it's also there to hide cables)
Again, personal preference, but I would tell you to wipe the drives when you get them and install fresh Win10 using the OEM key, just so you can get rid of bullshit software at the beginning. You should be able to easily install drivers and "utilities" from Dell's support site, if there are any you're missing.
Question re: undervolting. I just got a Gigabyte Aero 15x and am undervolting the CPU to try and make it not quite so bakey (mainly I just want to keep it out of the 90s). So far, I am sitting at -0.165V and have not run into issues with it crashing, and that seems a bit low to me, so I'm wondering if I'm not doing this right. I'm basically adjusting the core voltage offset through XTU in -0.005 increments, and then running AIDA64 for 10 minutes to max the CPU out and seeing if the system crashes. If it does, I would be backing off an increment and then running a longer stress test (though not sure what to run for this, maybe FireStrike?) for a couple of hours and see if the system stays stable. Does that sound correct?
I figure at -0.165 I would have started seeing errors come up, so I'm worried I'm not pushing the CPU hard enough at each increment.
Edit: aaaaaand just as I stop the AIDA benchmark at -0.165 the system reboots. So looks like I bottomed out.
Anyone got any advice on Noble laptop locks? Dell, in their infinite wisdom, have gone in that direction leaving my old Kensington lock useless because it doesn't fit the Noble port.
I never realized thermal paste/grease was such Serious Business until I got that laptop.
Thermal interface really doesn't make much of a difference until you are at the bleeding edge of what is possible with a chip - it typically comes out in comparative tests that the difference between the best and worst brands is at maximum 2 degrees at full load. People have used stuff like toothpaste and peanut butter and have only gained a few degrees, all the interface is really there to do is exclude any air from the gap - as properly applied paste leaves a layer so thin that the thermal properties of the interface itself are a distant third to the application of the paste and clamp-down job you do on the heatsink.
Anyone got any advice on Noble laptop locks? Dell, in their infinite wisdom, have gone in that direction leaving my old Kensington lock useless because it doesn't fit the Noble port.
Anyone got any advice on Noble laptop locks? Dell, in their infinite wisdom, have gone in that direction leaving my old Kensington lock useless because it doesn't fit the Noble port.
Is there an adapter of some kind?
(it's dongles all the way down)
So many dongles... wait.
No adapter I've seen as such; you'd think that might be a good solution, but if they exist I can't find them. Kensington themselves do a thing called Clicksafe where there's an anchor semi-permanently attached to the slot (when it's not locked, I think it's an allen key job to get it off again), and you sort of clip the (proprietary) cable onto that, and it supports the Noble slot. But it's an ugly and seemingly expensive solution.
The actual Noble locks themselves seem unnecessarily hard to track down, and I've seen reviews that suggest they simply don't work, but I guess that's also possibly a user error problem. Might have to bite the bullet on one and make sure I can return it if it doesn't work.
Apparently they came into being as the increasing slim-ness of modern portables made the traditional Kensington T-bar space requirements too big. While that makes sense for some models, I find it supremely ironic that it's on my particular hulk of a laptop - thin and light it ain't
ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
Girlfriend and I were laptop shopping yesterday and she got her heart set on a $900 LG gram that's available on clearance. Fry's ran out of them but Amazon has some left but when looking I came across this listing:
It's the upgrade to the model she was going to get which normally retails at like $1600 but the details on how it's "certified refurbished" are pretty murky. The seller has mostly positive reviews but when browsing their feedback I came across a lot of stricken through comments with a message from Amazon saying "This item was fulfilled by Amazon, and we take responsibility for this fulfillment experience" which I don't totally understand what that means. Am I right to think this is deal could be too good to be true or do Amazon's fulfillment guarantees make this worth the risk? If the worst possible outcome is she still gets her money back an extra $50 for a touch screen, double the ram, and an i7 CPU sure seems worth a shot.
ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
Can you or anyone offer a good alternative? It's for basic computing (web browsing, MS office, multi-tasking, etc.), she emphasizes good battery life (that LG boasts 17 hours and weighs less than 3 lbs), and I insist on an SSD. In my experience Win 10 runs like shit on mechanical drives especially the cheap-ass 5400rpm one's manufacturers inexplicably still keep putting in laptops these days.
I'll look around and see if I can find one. I agree with you on the SSD part, but it's worthwhile to keep in mind that you can buy a 500 gig ssd for $150 so that doesn't have to be a deal breaker if the laptop is cheap enough.
As for multitasking, you'll want to be getting a quad core cpu, and that LG you linked is only dual core (which is one of the reasons I don't think the laptop is worth it's price).
The version I linked is an updated version that includes a ssd as well as a mechanical drive for extra storage. The included SSD is a bit on the small side, but at $500 you can get one of these to upgrade it (or just buy the slightly cheaper version that comes without one if you know you want to upgrade the ssd size; it has the same M2 port but it's empty).
The i5 included in that laptop is an 8th gen 4 core with hyperthreading. I don't have exact quotes on the battery life, but searching through user reviews on amazon it's described as 'all day'.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
Another request for help please I'm seeking a laptop that I can use for both gaming (generally plugged in with a monitor/mouse/etc.) and music production (hence the laptop part - it needs to be portable for live use). I've got a bunch of specs in mind, but figuring out the right actual machine seems to be tricky - I'm very leery of fan noise and am fine with an external GPU accordingly (live music doesn't need a GTX) but it seems like most specs with high end other bits have high end internal GPUs already - there's nothing purpose built to be amazing *except* the graphics that I can find. So, goals:
- Six core processor (8750H or better)
- 16gb memory minimum, ideally expandable to 32
- Thunderbolt 3 that's independent of charging (so I can plug it into a Thunderbolt 3 audio interface and charge it at the same time)
- Either a killer inbuilt graphics card or support for an eGPU through the Thunderbolt 3
- Not too crazy crazy fan noise
The last feels like a killer for the Zephyrus M or the new Razer Blade 15.6" either of which would be quite appealing otherwise, unless you have a sense that they're not as bad as I gather. Larger and heavier is fine, but those tend to go even farther up the price and performance ladder (especially with inbuilt graphics) when what I'd really be after with size would be quiet.
Nice to haves:
- Won't bake my lap for actual lap use
- Not terrible battery life (not a priority)
Price is fine - I'm prepared to spend $2.5-4k on this but obviously want to then make sure I'm getting good value.
So - thoughts very welcome, and much appreciated in advance!
Another request for help please I'm seeking a laptop that I can use for both gaming (generally plugged in with a monitor/mouse/etc.) and music production (hence the laptop part - it needs to be portable for live use). I've got a bunch of specs in mind, but figuring out the right actual machine seems to be tricky - I'm very leery of fan noise and am fine with an external GPU accordingly (live music doesn't need a GTX) but it seems like most specs with high end other bits have high end internal GPUs already - there's nothing purpose built to be amazing *except* the graphics that I can find. So, goals:
- Six core processor (8750H or better)
- 16gb memory minimum, ideally expandable to 32
- Thunderbolt 3 that's independent of charging (so I can plug it into a Thunderbolt 3 audio interface and charge it at the same time)
- Either a killer inbuilt graphics card or support for an eGPU through the Thunderbolt 3
- Not too crazy crazy fan noise
The last feels like a killer for the Zephyrus M or the new Razer Blade 15.6" either of which would be quite appealing otherwise, unless you have a sense that they're not as bad as I gather. Larger and heavier is fine, but those tend to go even farther up the price and performance ladder (especially with inbuilt graphics) when what I'd really be after with size would be quiet.
Nice to haves:
- Won't bake my lap for actual lap use
- Not terrible battery life (not a priority)
Price is fine - I'm prepared to spend $2.5-4k on this but obviously want to then make sure I'm getting good value.
So - thoughts very welcome, and much appreciated in advance!
-Henry
I'm not very familiar with audio production, so I am not well versed in your needs in that department. I will say that I would recommend an internal gpu over an external one, the external gpu tech is still very new and internal gpus are very very good right now (the laptop versions of a card are the same performance as their desktop counterparts, and internal cards have the benefit of stuff like Optimus).
There are a few priorities that are a bit at-odds. A beefy gpu and cpu are at odds with higher battery life. You want crazy crazy fans if you don't want to cook your junk. You want beefy fans in general for gaming (although audio production won't be stressing the machine so it shouldn't be an issue) because the #1 performance killer for mobile is thermal throttling of the GPU. It's hard to keep something small, that is producing that much heat, cool enough for full speed operation without some fans.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
The ssd-less $500 version is in stock though, if you're comfortable installing a M2 ssd.
Would the Windows 10 license be transferable? If I'm going to do that I'd rather do it from scratch than try and clone a drive with McAfee and recovery partitions and all that shit.
The ssd-less $500 version is in stock though, if you're comfortable installing a M2 ssd.
Would the Windows 10 license be transferable? If I'm going to do that I'd rather do it from scratch than try and clone a drive with McAfee and recovery partitions and all that shit.
Yes. The license is tied to the computer itself, not the hard drive.
What you can do is boot the laptop before the SSD upgrade to make sure windows is activated (make sure it gets online, and associate it with a microsoft account if you can). Download the windows media creation tool straight from microsoft here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
And put the installer on a thumb drive. Install the M2 SSD and use the thumb drive to install windows onto it. I recommend removing the platter drive before you do the installation to make sure the boot loader is stored on the SSD, but once the installation is complete you can reinstall and format the old hard drive and use it as storage space for documents and such. You might need to change the default boot order in the BIOS to make sure you're booting into the right disk.
Kyle at Bitwit showed off a MSI (I think GS35 but I probably have the model wrong) connected to external peripherals via a Thunderbolt dock. Check that out. I'm at a softball game so I can't dig up the video right away.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
The ssd-less $500 version is in stock though, if you're comfortable installing a M2 ssd.
Would the Windows 10 license be transferable? If I'm going to do that I'd rather do it from scratch than try and clone a drive with McAfee and recovery partitions and all that shit.
Yes. The license is tied to the computer itself, not the hard drive.
What you can do is boot the laptop before the SSD upgrade to make sure windows is activated (make sure it gets online, and associate it with a microsoft account if you can). Download the windows media creation tool straight from microsoft here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
And put the installer on a thumb drive. Install the M2 SSD and use the thumb drive to install windows onto it. I recommend removing the platter drive before you do the installation to make sure the boot loader is stored on the SSD, but once the installation is complete you can reinstall and format the old hard drive and use it as storage space for documents and such. You might need to change the default boot order in the BIOS to make sure you're booting into the right disk.
Thanks! I can definitely handle the boot order stuff and agree entirely on waiting until the install is up and good on the SSD before wiping the old one.
The ssd-less $500 version is in stock though, if you're comfortable installing a M2 ssd.
Would the Windows 10 license be transferable? If I'm going to do that I'd rather do it from scratch than try and clone a drive with McAfee and recovery partitions and all that shit.
Yes. The license is tied to the computer itself, not the hard drive.
What you can do is boot the laptop before the SSD upgrade to make sure windows is activated (make sure it gets online, and associate it with a microsoft account if you can). Download the windows media creation tool straight from microsoft here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
And put the installer on a thumb drive. Install the M2 SSD and use the thumb drive to install windows onto it. I recommend removing the platter drive before you do the installation to make sure the boot loader is stored on the SSD, but once the installation is complete you can reinstall and format the old hard drive and use it as storage space for documents and such. You might need to change the default boot order in the BIOS to make sure you're booting into the right disk.
Thanks! I can definitely handle the boot order stuff and agree entirely on waiting until the install is up and good on the SSD before wiping the old one.
You're welcome, and I'm happy to help. If you need anything later on, feel free to @ me.
Been shopping around for an affordable laptop to do some labwork on as a dedicated Linux box. Came across this and I'm digging it. Anyone see any problems?
TBH, I would recommend the asus laptop I posted above for $500. The laptop you linked is only dual core, is using an outdated cpu, and is refurbished (ironically exactly the same issues I had with the one Butters posted).
As far as linux compatibility goes, the zenbooks have historically had good linux compatibility.
TBH, I would recommend the asus laptop I posted above for $500. The laptop you linked is only dual core, is using an outdated cpu, and is refurbished (ironically exactly the same issues I had with the one Butters posted).
As far as linux compatibility goes, the zenbooks have historically had good linux compatibility.
Hmm. That's got an i5 (though a faster chip), half the RAM, and half the SSD space. I don't really need the 1TB platter. Trying to figure out what chip it has, since the one I'm looking at is a Haswell which may mean patching it up for meltdown will hit it hard.
TBH, I would recommend the asus laptop I posted above for $500. The laptop you linked is only dual core, is using an outdated cpu, and is refurbished (ironically exactly the same issues I had with the one Butters posted).
As far as linux compatibility goes, the zenbooks have historically had good linux compatibility.
Hmm. That's got an i5 (though a faster chip), half the RAM, and half the SSD space. I don't really need the 1TB platter. Trying to figure out what chip it has, since the one I'm looking at is a Haswell which may mean patching it up for meltdown will hit it hard.
It has an i5, but that i5 has hyperthreading, so it has twice the physical cores and twice the logical cores. It does have less ram, but it has enough for the kinds of workloads a laptop like that is going to be doing (even moreso as a linux machine). The ssd version is out of stock, but the platter only version has an open m2 sata slot and is compatible with the m2 drive I linked earlier if you were interested in upgrading.
LD50, after crunching numbers and looking it over you're obviously right. Unfortunately, I'd also want to throw an SDD and another memory module in it (from looking, I think it has one 8 stick and an extra slot). That means adding another two hundred to the build cost, though, so I may hold off and think it over some more.
Edit: I'm specifically planning to run docker on it and run at least two nix VM's at all times on it, each carrying some load, so I'm thinking about memory.
I may need to rethink my overall plan, too. A budget laptop that can hit my goals doesn't really exist, it's a 1k buy in zone.
My brother is interested in a laptop so he can play Overwatch on a PC, though he needs more mobility than a desktop can provide. Are there any good ones on sale?
What size is he looking at? There are a bunch that would be good in the 14-inch or higher range. Can put in the component filters over at xoticpc.com and go with whatever would work well. Personally, I use an old(er) Sager laptop with an i7-4720 and Geforce 980...but I'm sure they have newer stuff up there these days.
He's looking at this 15.6 inch one. It will be his first gaming PC/laptop device in 15 years. It seems impressive enough that I might buy it since my PC is destroyed. Does anything about it strike out as a problem?
He has never known SSD. My only warning to him would be that a day will come when Overwatch doesn't fit on the SSD and he has to move to the regular drive.
Make no mistake, I might go all out on xoticpc
I have the older version with the 1050 Ti. Outside of the lack of a DP/thunderbolt 3 port, I really like it. It doesn't compare to my desktop with a 1070, but it works well, has a great battery, and is far easier to lug around than the old ASUS ROG 670M 17" laptop it replaced when I bought it. I do kinda wish I had gone for a 1060 model though.
My brother is interested in a laptop so he can play Overwatch on a PC, though he needs more mobility than a desktop can provide. Are there any good ones on sale?
What size is he looking at? There are a bunch that would be good in the 14-inch or higher range. Can put in the component filters over at xoticpc.com and go with whatever would work well. Personally, I use an old(er) Sager laptop with an i7-4720 and Geforce 980...but I'm sure they have newer stuff up there these days.
He's looking at this 15.6 inch one. It will be his first gaming PC/laptop device in 15 years. It seems impressive enough that I might buy it since my PC is destroyed. Does anything about it strike out as a problem?
He has never known SSD. My only warning to him would be that a day will come when Overwatch doesn't fit on the SSD and he has to move to the regular drive.
Make no mistake, I might go all out on xoticpc
I have the older version with the 1050 Ti. Outside of the lack of a DP/thunderbolt 3 port, I really like it. It doesn't compare to my desktop with a 1070, but it works well, has a great battery, and is far easier to lug around than the old ASUS ROG 670M 17" laptop it replaced when I bought it. I do kinda wish I had gone for a 1060 model though.
He ended up going with a similar one, but with a a 512 SSD for rapid boot and Overwatching.
I'm still waiting for my XOTICPC laptop because my repaired PC is still acting wonky. Overwatch crashes occasionally and specifically at the start of Round 2 in matches.
Cantido on
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
The ssd-less $500 version is in stock though, if you're comfortable installing a M2 ssd.
Would the Windows 10 license be transferable? If I'm going to do that I'd rather do it from scratch than try and clone a drive with McAfee and recovery partitions and all that shit.
Yes. The license is tied to the computer itself, not the hard drive.
What you can do is boot the laptop before the SSD upgrade to make sure windows is activated (make sure it gets online, and associate it with a microsoft account if you can). Download the windows media creation tool straight from microsoft here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
And put the installer on a thumb drive. Install the M2 SSD and use the thumb drive to install windows onto it. I recommend removing the platter drive before you do the installation to make sure the boot loader is stored on the SSD, but once the installation is complete you can reinstall and format the old hard drive and use it as storage space for documents and such. You might need to change the default boot order in the BIOS to make sure you're booting into the right disk.
Thanks! I can definitely handle the boot order stuff and agree entirely on waiting until the install is up and good on the SSD before wiping the old one.
You're welcome, and I'm happy to help. If you need anything later on, feel free to @ me.
The windows installer to a new SSD was a cinch and the GF's new laptop runs like a dream! Thanks again for the suggestion @LD50
God this sort of shit is SO much easier than it used to be. Transferring Windows licenses from notebooks was damn near impossible in the XP days...
Hey y'all, I was just hoping I could run something by you before I buy: I'm thinking of getting an Alienware 13 R2 laptop with an eye toward getting their external graphics card enclosure for a 1080ti as well. Does anyone have any experience with the "Alienware Graphics Amplifier" or any other laptop + external graphics setup? Is there something I'm missing, another better priced combo maybe? Am I going to regret getting the R2, being held back in higher end games by the older cpu?
I sent a polite email to xoticpc that my order was sitting at Phase 1 of five for two weeks. While I'm not in a hurry now that my desktop PC is repaired, I was concerned. It is now jumped to Phase 4, building the thing.
Hey y'all, I was just hoping I could run something by you before I buy: I'm thinking of getting an Alienware 13 R2 laptop with an eye toward getting their external graphics card enclosure for a 1080ti as well. Does anyone have any experience with the "Alienware Graphics Amplifier" or any other laptop + external graphics setup? Is there something I'm missing, another better priced combo maybe? Am I going to regret getting the R2, being held back in higher end games by the older cpu?
Based on a recent LTT video, make sure it's got Thunderbolt 3 and 4 PCI-E lanes for the external enclosure. Otherwise it's a bottleneck. Bonus points if the Thunderbolt port connects straight to the CPU.
Yes it's largely game-centric, but most modern games will likely lean hard on the GPU so the laptop CPU shouldn't hold you back much.
I don't have experience with it, but you may need a cooling solution for the laptop depending on the voracity and length of your game sessions.
I sent a polite email to xoticpc that my order was sitting at Phase 1 of five for two weeks. While I'm not in a hurry now that my desktop PC is repaired, I was concerned. It is now jumped to Phase 4, building the thing.
Similar happened when I ordered from HIDEvolution. I placed the order and got a billing confirmation, and then it sat for a couple of weeks. If you ordered anything custom, it's usually a combination of getting parts in and other people being ahead of you in the build queue.
Posts
What size is he looking at? There are a bunch that would be good in the 14-inch or higher range. Can put in the component filters over at xoticpc.com and go with whatever would work well. Personally, I use an old(er) Sager laptop with an i7-4720 and Geforce 980...but I'm sure they have newer stuff up there these days.
He's looking at this 15.6 inch one. It will be his first gaming PC/laptop device in 15 years. It seems impressive enough that I might buy it since my PC is destroyed. Does anything about it strike out as a problem?
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-inspiron-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1060-1tb-hdd-256gb-ssd-matte-black/6162034.p?skuId=6162034
He has never known SSD. My only warning to him would be that a day will come when Overwatch doesn't fit on the SSD and he has to move to the regular drive.
Make no mistake, I might go all out on xoticpc
So I went on xotic and...got a little out of control :biggrin:
1 x Intel® Core™ i5-7600K (3.8GHz - 4.2GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) QUAD Core CPU Processor - Unlocked $79.00
1 x 250GB XOTIC PC Certified M.2 Solid State Drive [Spring Closeout Special] $30.00
I also requested they overclock the GPU (a GTX 1060)
EDIT - I just realized this laptop means I can go to BYOC events without destroying my joints and spine!
Other than the hinge causing an unnatural tick, there's nothing that really jumps out as "bad." (I prefer having two hinges on either end of the display vs. one large, central one; though I'll concede it's also there to hide cables)
Again, personal preference, but I would tell you to wipe the drives when you get them and install fresh Win10 using the OEM key, just so you can get rid of bullshit software at the beginning. You should be able to easily install drivers and "utilities" from Dell's support site, if there are any you're missing.
Grab the vidcard driver direct from Nvidia.
I figure at -0.165 I would have started seeing errors come up, so I'm worried I'm not pushing the CPU hard enough at each increment.
Edit: aaaaaand just as I stop the AIDA benchmark at -0.165 the system reboots. So looks like I bottomed out.
I ordered it from HIDEvolution, and had them repaste it with Gelid Extreme.
The laptop runs stable at a .150 undervolt, and it’s helped some. It still occasionally spikes to 90 under load, but not as much as before.
Steam | XBL
Thermal interface really doesn't make much of a difference until you are at the bleeding edge of what is possible with a chip - it typically comes out in comparative tests that the difference between the best and worst brands is at maximum 2 degrees at full load. People have used stuff like toothpaste and peanut butter and have only gained a few degrees, all the interface is really there to do is exclude any air from the gap - as properly applied paste leaves a layer so thin that the thermal properties of the interface itself are a distant third to the application of the paste and clamp-down job you do on the heatsink.
Is there an adapter of some kind?
(it's dongles all the way down)
No adapter I've seen as such; you'd think that might be a good solution, but if they exist I can't find them. Kensington themselves do a thing called Clicksafe where there's an anchor semi-permanently attached to the slot (when it's not locked, I think it's an allen key job to get it off again), and you sort of clip the (proprietary) cable onto that, and it supports the Noble slot. But it's an ugly and seemingly expensive solution.
The actual Noble locks themselves seem unnecessarily hard to track down, and I've seen reviews that suggest they simply don't work, but I guess that's also possibly a user error problem. Might have to bite the bullet on one and make sure I can return it if it doesn't work.
Apparently they came into being as the increasing slim-ness of modern portables made the traditional Kensington T-bar space requirements too big. While that makes sense for some models, I find it supremely ironic that it's on my particular hulk of a laptop - thin and light it ain't
Steam | XBL
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CX49HS4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A230ZFNKXE1WUD&psc=1
It's the upgrade to the model she was going to get which normally retails at like $1600 but the details on how it's "certified refurbished" are pretty murky. The seller has mostly positive reviews but when browsing their feedback I came across a lot of stricken through comments with a message from Amazon saying "This item was fulfilled by Amazon, and we take responsibility for this fulfillment experience" which I don't totally understand what that means. Am I right to think this is deal could be too good to be true or do Amazon's fulfillment guarantees make this worth the risk? If the worst possible outcome is she still gets her money back an extra $50 for a touch screen, double the ram, and an i7 CPU sure seems worth a shot.
As for multitasking, you'll want to be getting a quad core cpu, and that LG you linked is only dual core (which is one of the reasons I don't think the laptop is worth it's price).
The version I linked is an updated version that includes a ssd as well as a mechanical drive for extra storage. The included SSD is a bit on the small side, but at $500 you can get one of these to upgrade it (or just buy the slightly cheaper version that comes without one if you know you want to upgrade the ssd size; it has the same M2 port but it's empty).
The i5 included in that laptop is an 8th gen 4 core with hyperthreading. I don't have exact quotes on the battery life, but searching through user reviews on amazon it's described as 'all day'.
The ssd-less $500 version is in stock though, if you're comfortable installing a M2 ssd.
Another request for help please
- Six core processor (8750H or better)
- 16gb memory minimum, ideally expandable to 32
- Thunderbolt 3 that's independent of charging (so I can plug it into a Thunderbolt 3 audio interface and charge it at the same time)
- Either a killer inbuilt graphics card or support for an eGPU through the Thunderbolt 3
- Not too crazy crazy fan noise
The last feels like a killer for the Zephyrus M or the new Razer Blade 15.6" either of which would be quite appealing otherwise, unless you have a sense that they're not as bad as I gather. Larger and heavier is fine, but those tend to go even farther up the price and performance ladder (especially with inbuilt graphics) when what I'd really be after with size would be quiet.
Nice to haves:
- Won't bake my lap for actual lap use
- Not terrible battery life (not a priority)
Price is fine - I'm prepared to spend $2.5-4k on this but obviously want to then make sure I'm getting good value.
So - thoughts very welcome, and much appreciated in advance!
-Henry
I'm not very familiar with audio production, so I am not well versed in your needs in that department. I will say that I would recommend an internal gpu over an external one, the external gpu tech is still very new and internal gpus are very very good right now (the laptop versions of a card are the same performance as their desktop counterparts, and internal cards have the benefit of stuff like Optimus).
There are a few priorities that are a bit at-odds. A beefy gpu and cpu are at odds with higher battery life. You want crazy crazy fans if you don't want to cook your junk. You want beefy fans in general for gaming (although audio production won't be stressing the machine so it shouldn't be an issue) because the #1 performance killer for mobile is thermal throttling of the GPU. It's hard to keep something small, that is producing that much heat, cool enough for full speed operation without some fans.
Would the Windows 10 license be transferable? If I'm going to do that I'd rather do it from scratch than try and clone a drive with McAfee and recovery partitions and all that shit.
Yes. The license is tied to the computer itself, not the hard drive.
What you can do is boot the laptop before the SSD upgrade to make sure windows is activated (make sure it gets online, and associate it with a microsoft account if you can). Download the windows media creation tool straight from microsoft here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
And put the installer on a thumb drive. Install the M2 SSD and use the thumb drive to install windows onto it. I recommend removing the platter drive before you do the installation to make sure the boot loader is stored on the SSD, but once the installation is complete you can reinstall and format the old hard drive and use it as storage space for documents and such. You might need to change the default boot order in the BIOS to make sure you're booting into the right disk.
Thanks! I can definitely handle the boot order stuff and agree entirely on waiting until the install is up and good on the SSD before wiping the old one.
You're welcome, and I'm happy to help. If you need anything later on, feel free to @ me.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834269617
As far as linux compatibility goes, the zenbooks have historically had good linux compatibility.
Hmm. That's got an i5 (though a faster chip), half the RAM, and half the SSD space. I don't really need the 1TB platter. Trying to figure out what chip it has, since the one I'm looking at is a Haswell which may mean patching it up for meltdown will hit it hard.
It has an i5, but that i5 has hyperthreading, so it has twice the physical cores and twice the logical cores. It does have less ram, but it has enough for the kinds of workloads a laptop like that is going to be doing (even moreso as a linux machine). The ssd version is out of stock, but the platter only version has an open m2 sata slot and is compatible with the m2 drive I linked earlier if you were interested in upgrading.
Edit: the HP has a https://ark.intel.com/products/76616/Intel-Core-i7-4600U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz
the asus has a https://ark.intel.com/products/124967/Intel-Core-i5-8250U-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_40-GHz
Edit: I'm specifically planning to run docker on it and run at least two nix VM's at all times on it, each carrying some load, so I'm thinking about memory.
I may need to rethink my overall plan, too. A budget laptop that can hit my goals doesn't really exist, it's a 1k buy in zone.
I have the older version with the 1050 Ti. Outside of the lack of a DP/thunderbolt 3 port, I really like it. It doesn't compare to my desktop with a 1070, but it works well, has a great battery, and is far easier to lug around than the old ASUS ROG 670M 17" laptop it replaced when I bought it. I do kinda wish I had gone for a 1060 model though.
He ended up going with a similar one, but with a a 512 SSD for rapid boot and Overwatching.
I'm still waiting for my XOTICPC laptop because my repaired PC is still acting wonky. Overwatch crashes occasionally and specifically at the start of Round 2 in matches.
The windows installer to a new SSD was a cinch and the GF's new laptop runs like a dream! Thanks again for the suggestion @LD50
God this sort of shit is SO much easier than it used to be. Transferring Windows licenses from notebooks was damn near impossible in the XP days...
Based on a recent LTT video, make sure it's got Thunderbolt 3 and 4 PCI-E lanes for the external enclosure. Otherwise it's a bottleneck. Bonus points if the Thunderbolt port connects straight to the CPU.
Yes it's largely game-centric, but most modern games will likely lean hard on the GPU so the laptop CPU shouldn't hold you back much.
I don't have experience with it, but you may need a cooling solution for the laptop depending on the voracity and length of your game sessions.
Similar happened when I ordered from HIDEvolution. I placed the order and got a billing confirmation, and then it sat for a couple of weeks. If you ordered anything custom, it's usually a combination of getting parts in and other people being ahead of you in the build queue.