Laptop Thread

[Big AppleDoom]

I'm looking for a new laptop.

I've been using my desktop for nearly four years now.
My current life status demands a portable computer. As I need it for school, it needs to be highly portable, but I'm going to make music, visual art (flash, photoshop...) and probably some gaming too with it while moving around.

I started the search with Asus G75WV.
It seems to have perfect quality&performance-price value, but is way too heavy, wide and has too short battery life to be carried around. It weighs nearly 5kg!

I checked many, many other notebooks and right now I'm the most interested about Asus Zenbook UX32VD.
The portability is perfect and it has a decent dedicated video card(620m). Battery life was satisfying.
I could install a proper SSD-drive into it and upgrade the memory. If I only could change the video card, it would be perfect (I've heard that 640m would offer 45% more performance significantly more efficiently than 620m). Only numpad would be missing.

Acer Aspire Timeline M3 (the most expensive model) would meet the ultrabook criteria too, but I've heard bad things about the build quality, ergonomy, speakers and screen. Otherwise it would offer very good performance, be slim and rather light and the price would be in between Zenbook and G75VW.


About gaming - I really wouldn't play Battlefield 3 on a laptop. From more demanding games maybe DIRT3, L.A Noire, Mass Effects, GTA EFLC. I guess that all Valve games and StarCraft 2 would work perfectly on any of those.


Or maybe I should wait for the next year and try to survive with my eight year old TravelMate 2354 with half an hour battery life and poor performance.


What about you? Any experiences of laptops in music production and gaming?

[StevenAD]

Do not buy a laptop from HP ever. Terrible fan placement means I have to keep a desk fan pointed at my computer at all times or it gets ridiculously hot, and even shuts off when playing more demanding games. Also, it was way overpriced.

[Unlimited Mana]

Are you sure about being able to upgrade the RAM and SSD? I got a Zenbook UX31 a while back and both are installed into the motherboard so they can't be replaced.

[Habanc]

I started the search with Asus G75WV.

Whoa... It's like we're looking at the same stuff. I'm also looking at a laptop for college next year (I still gotta save up enough money for it), and the Asus G75VW is at the top of my list. I need it too for music, gaming and running graphics programs for animation, which is complimented nicely by the efficient cooling system and large amounts of RAM the G75VW comes with.

Do not buy a laptop from HP ever. Terrible fan placement means I have to keep a desk fan pointed at my computer at all times or it gets ridiculously hot, and even shuts off when playing more demanding games. Also, it was way overpriced.

This is also true, carrying on. Right now, I own an HP Probook 6450b, and thank god I got it for free, because there's no way I'd pay $1,200 for this. As StevenAD said, the fan placement and cooling system is shit. I too find my computer overheating and shutting down during games/rendering/running too many plugins in FL Studio.

So, for me, the fact that the G75VW is heavy and has a short battery life is no real offset to the massive pros it has. I'll buy a specific backpack and carry it that way. Plus, the school I'm looking at has outlets everywhere (Yes, even outside, located on streetlamps and other fixtures), so the battery problem is slimmed down a bit... I've only used laptops for the past seven years so I'm willing to sacrifice mobility and battery life for the performance I've never known... (Seriously, I've never played a single game on high graphics... Ever)

Case in point: Go with what compliments your situation. Are you going to be solely using the laptop from now on, or do you need it just as a mobile workstation?

[Watashig]

Do not buy a laptop from HP ever.

oh my god this so hard

ASUS and ACER are really good at laptops. lenovo's are decent too. I remember MSI having some of the best top-end laptops though. But you can't really have that great performance if portability is a big issue. Don't spend too much money on a laptop; just get one that works "good enough" and focus your money on a self-built desktop instead. There's nothing wrong with having both.

[K3WRO]

Do not buy a laptop from HP ever.

oh my god this so hard

ASUS and ACER are really good at laptops. lenovo's are decent too. I remember MSI having some of the best top-end laptops though. But you can't really have that great performance if portability is a big issue. Don't spend too much money on a laptop; just get one that works "good enough" and focus your money on a self-built desktop instead. There's nothing wrong with having both.

Fuck, I have a room full of HP Laptops

(I have a Pavilion dv6, great pc, but BAD, I mean TERRIBLE fans, you literally can cook eggs on this thing)

[KillerAmp]

(I have a Pavilion dv6, great pc, but BAD, I mean TERRIBLE fans, you literally can cook eggs on this thing)

I do ALL my music, gaming, and computing stuff on my HP Pavilion DV6 and i put 2 1/2 inch rubber studs on the back corners of it and the fan works better now! its not going to roast eggs, it still gets hot when gaming, but i can render a song and it doesn't try to burn my hand lol.

[vladnuke]

I use one of the higher end, i7 Sony Vaio laptops for music, and a giant rig for vidja gaems.

[K3WRO]

(I have a Pavilion dv6, great pc, but BAD, I mean TERRIBLE fans, you literally can cook eggs on this thing)

I do ALL my music, gaming, and computing stuff on my HP Pavilion DV6 and i put 2 1/2 inch rubber studs on the back corners of it and the fan works better now! its not going to roast eggs, it still gets hot when gaming, but i can render a song and it doesn't try to burn my hand lol.

I have the old model, with the XP, and it's like partially silver rather than the one we have now witch is like black-brown I think

[Dr_Dissonance]

Hmm, I use a HP Pavilion dv6 laptop for my musicking...seems to handle Cubase with 6GB total loaded samples without overheating...in fact it has never overheated ever and I'm really cruel to it!
But I don't game on it. This is mainly because it has one of those built in Intel HD3000 Graphics cards that EVERY game hates to work on...

So I have an ASUS G74S for that...really heavy, but does ALL the things!

If I was in the market for a new laptop, I'd go for an ASUS, or I'd take a look at Razer's new Blade Laptop. Heard nothing but good things about that!

[DJSheogowrath]

I have a Dell Inspiron 15r, 6 gigs of ram, i5 processer, Intel HD 4000 Graphics, 500 GB HDD.
I've had it for a month and I absolutely love it. The only kind of lag I've experienced so far with it is rendering stuff in After Effects, and I was rendering in the highest possible settings into an uncompressed .avi file.
As far as gaming goes, I haven't tried anything too intensive, but the few games I've played on it (TF2, L4D2) ran without a hitch (as expected) and looked great.
It's also pretty light, it weighs in around 6-ish pounds, when I take it to school I rarely feel weighted down. It's a pretty damn good machine if you ask me.

[Big AppleDoom]

Do not buy a laptop from HP ever. Terrible fan placement means I have to keep a desk fan pointed at my computer at all times or it gets ridiculously hot, and even shuts off when playing more demanding games. Also, it was way overpriced.

They haven't attracted me at all. Not any of their products.

Are you sure about being able to upgrade the RAM and SSD? I got a Zenbook UX31 a while back and both are installed into the motherboard so they can't be replaced.

With UX32VD it is possible....I've heard claims that even without voiding the 24 month warranty!

Just tried an UX31A today. I didn't quite like the trackpad and that the whole computer rocked on my lap if i pressed a mouse button.
Later I found an i5 model of UX32VD and I felt that some improvements have been made on the chassis.

I'm going to keep using my desktop too. That's why I'm more into the Ux32VD now. It just feels kinda bad that I could have such powerful thing as G75 for just a little more and that 620m can be found on €500 laptops too.
Oh well, I'd get a lot better gaming desktop for G75's price.

UX32VD would probably do fine on the most of the competitive games(SC2, TF2, Counter-Strike...) anyway. No need for Battlefield 3 Ultra.

Hmm, I use a HP Pavilion dv6 laptop for my musicking...seems to handle Cubase with 6GB total loaded samples without overheating...in fact it has never overheated ever and I'm really cruel to it!
But I don't game on it. This is mainly because it has one of those built in Intel HD3000 Graphics cards that EVERY game hates to work on...

So I have an ASUS G74S for that...really heavy, but does ALL the things!

If I was in the market for a new laptop, I'd go for an ASUS, or I'd take a look at Razer's new Blade Laptop. Heard nothing but good things about that!

Blade's far beyond my budget but I am waiting for second generation model.

I've seen many potentially great laptops(like MacBook Air), but they only have Intel's own graphic card.
I think I'll stick with my ancient TravelMate for the rest of this year and see what the Intel Haswell platform brings next year.

[Unlimited Mana]

With UX32VD it is possible.

Ah good just checkin.

[Mundius]

I use HP, they've gotten a lot better. Except that it has a fuckton of dust in it now, so it's hard to run it overclocked without overheating now. Or even Valve games at times. Go ASUS and buy something cheap now. Get a good laptop a year later, because that's when they should upgrade (got this one for $400, laptops did not upgrade one bit after I got it, as they tend to every 2 years).

[Captain Ironhelm]

I use an Asus n55 SL. The n55sf model might be compatible with a couple more programs (I have to disable and re-enable my graphics card to boot skype, the sf model doesn't have the problem, it's wierd).

8 gb of ram and an i7, and 2gb of graphics memory. It runs my games great, and it's rather set up for musicing, but it's not real cheap.

[Sinn Ick]

Alienware m15x here! If you have the extra cash, its worth it.

[Watashig]

No, not really. The performance/price ratio is rather low.

[thatguyzeke]

I have an HP Dv7
i7 2.0 quad core 2.7 turbo boost
AMD 6770m Chip
8 gigs of RAM with a slot for expansion i think?

The cooling system isn't bad at all really, I've never had it overheat even in the dead heat of summer playing a demanding game. I would say it was defiantly worth the money overall.

[Deathsongx3]

My dad has this laptop by acer. About 6 Years Old. It's got 1GB of Ram, a Centrino processor which is about 1.7Ghz if i'm not mistaken. It can barely play any games.
It can however, play songs perfectly.

Problem is, It cant handle ableton. As soon as you open it the whole laptop crashes.

My dad says the program sucks and his laptop is the best. @_@ I never get his logic.

[Big AppleDoom]

http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... e-p850-30p

This seems great.
Right now it's on bargain for 869€ = 1087.8142$

Can't find any reviews, though. Still seems to pack insanely good value.

[Acsii]

<-- Apple Macbook Pro 13" 2.9Ghz one

[xadobex]

right now i'm using a toshiba satellite s855, and it's fairly portable, and has an i7 processor @ 2.3GHz

it doesn't have the best battery life, and the graphics are integrated, but they are intel hd-4000 instead of the 3000.
i do like my laptop, and it was only i think $650.

edit: it also has 8gb of ram.

[Habanc]

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fi&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=fi&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gigantti.fi%2Fproduct%2Ftietokoneet%2Fkannettavat-tietokoneet%2FSATP85030P%2Ftoshiba-15-6-kannettava-satellite-p850-30p

This seems great.
Right now it's on bargain for 869€ = 1087.8142$

Can't find any reviews, though. Still seems to pack insanely good value.

I'd say do it. Since you just need it as a mobile workstation, it's not going to be under a full workload. It's a great price for what it has inside, and you might be able to find more reviews on the P850 series as a whole. From what I've read it has good specs and all, but the ergonomics are cramped and the screen feels flex-y. Also, if you're not using a USB/wireless mouse, I've heard the trackpad can be annoying.

But, these cons and pros are for you to weigh.

[Big AppleDoom]

Round Two (or three)!

Asus N65VZ - vs - Lenovo IdeaPad Y580

Both cost just a little more than the Toshiba, yet have much better build quality, GPU:s and Full-HD-screens available - without sacrificing in mass or battery life.

Both have very similar specs except...
Y580 has better GPU, doesn't have useless Band & Olufsen branding and that subwoofer-can and looks better, but isn't available on retail in Finland.


The level of competition increases week by week...

[Watashig]

ASUS

+Bigger screen
+Better build quality
+Available in retail

Lenovo

+Lighter (half the weight I think?)
+Stronger GPU--much better for gaming. Although I don't see why you can't just have a good desktop at yo dorm...

You should have good headphones, so speakers shouldn't really matter, and I don't think branding is that much of a concern...