Laptop Computers

Pasteton_sl said:

Im just about fed up at this point with my shitty acer laptop and its nvidia 540m, making it impossible to group in games with fairly dated graphics (path of exile, swtor, the list goes on).

What do you guys think of the Razer Blade?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwnqMtq259M
It's a bit pricey but i've never seen a gaming laptop look so thin and sleek - look at that ac adapter! For someone that games a lot while on the move, it seems like the only practical choice. Anyone know a similar setup for less?
Also, is that nvidia 660M going to be a significant boost in performance? I dont want to run into fps hiccups again for a long time

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Main thing is cooling for gaming laptops and I dont see how the Blade can compair to laptops like the Asus G series when it comes to that

xiel_sl said:

Question for those of you who have a Chromebook. My friend is thinking about getting one for her mother. All she does is shop, facebook, and play those damn facebook'ish games such as Candy Crush. I've read that games like Farmville 2 won't run on a Chromebook but what about the others? I know Candy Crush does but I'm more concerned about future games that crazy old ladies might get addicted to. I know these aren't powerhouse machines and it seems like a Chromebook is made for people like this but I know that some of these games can be real cpu/ram dependent.

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Chromebooks basically run the Chrome browser as its OS. It can only do what the browser is capable of.

Wolfen's laptop odyssey:

I've gone through a bunch of laptops recently in the search for the perfect laptop for me. I think that I have finally found it, but it has taken a great deal of ass pain to get here. So, here is my journey:

First laptop: Samsung Chromebook - thought that I would just use a laptop for browsing the web while sitting on the couch. The Chromebook is okay for what it is, but in the end, it was way too limiting for my needs. If you can't do it in the browser, you can't do it at all, on a Chromebook. Still, for $249, it's not a bad deal, so long as you know what you are getting.

Second laptop: Asus 11" Win8 laptop with touchscreen. $445. Nice little machine, but 1366x768 is a shit resolution, even for a screen that small. Also, in my opinion, a touchscreen on a laptop is next to worthless.

Third laptop: 13" Macbook Pro Retina. The best screen on a laptop. Period. No competition. Downsides to this model is crappy UI lag due to the gpu not being able to push all those pixels around. The bottom of it gets very hot, and it's a tad heavy for its size when compared to others.

Fourth laptop: Dell XPS 14 Ultrabook. I tried this one because I got an amazing deal on the Dell Outlet. $435. It looks just like a non-Retina Macbook Pro. About the same weight, too. The screen, however, is about as bad as it gets. Really sucky. Then the sound stopped working. Then the tiny cache SSD stopped working. Even so, if this model had a better screen, it would be damn near perfect.

Fifth laptop: The one I'm keeping. It's the Asus Zenbook Prime 13.3" UX32VD. It has an awesome 1920x1080 IPS matte screen, which at this screen size, is about as close to a Retina screen as you can get. It also has a dedicated video card, which is an Nvidia GT620m. Not mega fast, but kicks the HD4000's ass. Processor is an i7. It's thin, light, and looks great. Backlit keyboard. Not everything is perfect out of the box, however, as it comes with a 5400rpm drive mated with a cache SSD to help speed it up. The good thing with this model, however, is that you can upgrade the ram and hard drive, so I'm doing both, including an SSD. Price: I saw it on Adorama for $1050. It's usually around $1150.

Edit: The Zenbook also comes with a nice sleeve case, usb to ethernet and usb to vga adapters, screen cloth, and cable ties.

By the way, if you happen to use a high-res screen and find text too small on certain web pages, check out the Chrome extension called AutoZoom. It adds a button to your toolbar that, after you turn on the "page fixes" option, will zoom the text that's on the page and nothing else. It will also remember the zoom settings for each page.

Third laptop: 13" Macbook Pro Retina. The best screen on a laptop. Period. No competition. Downsides to this model is crappy UI lag due to the gpu not being able to push all those pixels around. The bottom of it gets very hot, and it's a tad heavy for its size when compared to others.

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It's actually the CPU that is bottlenecking performance on the Retina MBPs. Apple's retina scaling algorithm is incredibly inefficient and relies purely on single threaded CPU performance. Today's CPUs are simply unable to keep up. That's why the UI lag is significantly less on the 15" retina vs a 13" retina - the more powerful CPU in the 15" is able to handle the UI better.

Going forwards, we have two choices: wait for faster CPUs (which will take a good 2-3 years), or hope Apple improves their their retina implementation in future OSX updates.

Hey guys just looking into this thread and i wanted a bit of advice for my first laptop.
I was looking for a more gaming laptop that could play any current games on decent settings. But mostly ill probably be playing LoL and WoW (maybe)
But also was looking for tips into what i specs i should be looking for.
I dont need anything too pricey i was more just into convienience. Ive been looking through Slickdeals website but still not sure on whats good to compare
and im not so sure on getting a alienware laptop cus it seems real expensive. Any tips anyone?

The first question I would ask is, why do you want a laptop for gaming. Serious question, I am trying to get an idea about what your needs are.

Well honestly, my girlfriend lives about an hour away so i visit her on sundays and mondays but she works during the day on mondays. Theres literally like nothing to do at her house while shes gone so i usually drive home and back during the day, thats the main reason but also that id like it for convenience.
I dont need a super power rig but id like something decent that could play all/most games at a decent setting. I know that if im gaming i would have to plug it in just to play for a long period of time.

Simpeo_sl said:

Well honestly, my girlfriend lives about an hour away so i visit her on sundays and mondays but she works during the day on mondays. Theres literally like nothing to do at her house while shes gone so i usually drive home and back during the day, thats the main reason but also that id like it for convenience.
I dont need a super power rig but id like something decent that could play all/most games at a decent setting. I know that if im gaming i would have to plug it in just to play for a long period of time.

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Have you thought of a small form factor PC? A mini-itx gaming machine in an SG05 would be very portable, cost about half as much as the Asus G75VW (admittedly an awesome gaming laptop)and not have heat issues. With HDMI you could use a TV as a monitor or just leave one there. If you still wanted a laptop with the oney leftover you could buy a decent ultralight or transformer or something.

I just always found, that for the same price, most people are better off with an SFF PC + inexpensive laptop.

Ill look into it, thanks, and that G75VW is great, a bit pricy but i understand that its amazing

mkopec_sl said:

You wanna play current games on a laptop, you will pay, no way around this.

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The g75 for $1200 would be fine also, don't need to get the $1900 version

mkopec_sl said:

I am into the liking the answers you ask for the questions.

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Now you look like a crazy person with the bot posts removed=P

Can't beat the G-series (really any model) for gaming with the price. You'll pay way more for the Razer or Alienwares just to look cool, but the Asus is the champ. I still am rocking my G73JH. I had to do some repairs on it, but I've had it for like 3 years and it still plays current games fairly well. Little slowdown in SC2 4v4 with a bunch of maxed armies on the screen but not really noticeable.