What are people rocking for laptops these days?

[BigMass]

for laptops, at this point, I wouldn't waste money on anything without Pascal. Complete waste unless you're getting a massive discount on Maxwell

[ZenOps]

If you mostly watch Netflix or porn on battery, then the only thing that the faster stuff does is give you less runtime. Surprisingly a Celeron n3050 works wonders at 4K for 8-bit porn (but not 4K Netflix as it requires Kaby Lake 10-bit hardware decoder) As the hardware decoding functions have almost nothing to do with speed of the traditional CPU or GPU, its a matter of whether or not the silicon is there for hardware decodes.

Now, you could carry a battery bank around, like what people do for their cellphones - but for some people its nice to have it all in one piece.

The main reason to get a more expensive laptop is for gaming, which again - will always be subpar to a desktop. An expensive laptop as a desktop replacement is... Ok, but really you might be a whole lot happier buying a cheap laptop and getting a true desktop and using a USB thumbdrive to move files between them.

http://thepcenthusiast.com/7th-gen-i...ors-announced/

If you look at the modern Kaby Lake, you will immediately notice how small the CPU cores are now. Its because pretty much every chip now has dedicated hardware for media encoding and decoding, which is more often used by standard users. If they took out the GPU and decoders, they could easily fit an eight core CPU into the same area - but they don't because nearly no one would be able to make use of it.

[msommers]

Is pascal a big move up from sandy bridge?

[carson blocks]

Originally posted by ZenOps
The main reason to get a more expensive laptop is for gaming, which again - will always be subpar to a desktop. An expensive laptop as a desktop replacement is... Ok, but really you might be a whole lot happier buying a cheap laptop and getting a true desktop and using a USB thumbdrive to move files between them.

Using a gaming laptop as a desktop is a compromise, and that it's twice as much as a comparable desktop, but it's just so convenient to have your main PC/gaming rig able to live on the coffee table and surf while watching TV, or take with you to live in a hotel for a couple weeks, or to a job site or even in the RV. No more "oh it's on the other PC" or "damn this would work better on my main pc". Whether you're working or playing, you always have the power you need and a PC you're used to using with all the programs etc. set up the way you like. I'm a big fan of going to back to just one device. Plus, by the time you buy a nice desktop and decent laptop, you might as well just bite the bullet and buy one kickass laptop with power to spare.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by msommers
Is pascal a big move up from sandy bridge?

Sounds like you're mixing up GPU and CPU.

Pascal GPU architecture is a significant step up from Maxwell for games. Maxwell was better for things like Photoshop/editing, etc. Nvidia is trying to make more of a distinction between their GPU's for games and for graphics/design/editing work because often times the Titan cards with the huge RAM were cheaper and about as good as the more expensive Quadro cards.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by max_boost
you guys are ballers for laptops lol i just bought a cheap $500 asus f555l haha

Lol, me too. My mobile work load is pretty low, still rocking original Surface Pro I bought used from a fellow Beyonder.

I will upgrade if MS ever release another 10" Surface pro.

[BigMass]

Originally posted by msommers
Is pascal a big move up from sandy bridge?

Pascal is a big move up from Maxwell (Nvidia graphics chip's architecture). I don't stress much about CPUs as an old i5-2500 Sandy Bridge is still serviceable after almost 6 years

[killramos]

So i might just wait out CES on this front right now? I have a couple systems i can use in the time being even if not ideal so might as well?

Even if i end up picking up last gen 2016 stuff on a steal once the new systems are announced.

The big hope would be a XPS15 with a 1050 Ti inside and Kaby. As much as I like the MSI on paper the 2-3 hours usable battery life might not cut it for me.

[ExtraSlow]

Boxing day sales are coming killer. Have a look at those, might find you don't have to make the comprimise you are expecting.

[Mitsu3000gt]

A boxing day sale from Dell, Lenovo, or Memory Express (Asus) is probably going to be your best bet if you're looking for a deal. Don't expect much of a discount off the XPS stuff though. On Black Friday, Lenovo was the only company offering anything that resembled a deal.

CES usually isn't as big for computer stuff, but you never know what might show up. Also anything announced there likely won't be available for a while later.

[klumsy_tumbler]

I have the 2016 Razer Blade. I was a little iffy before making the purchase, because there have been a lot of horror stories about their reliability and customer service in the past, but it seems they've started to really buckle down to fix that bad rep. So far, everything works flawlessly and I absolutely love that little thing. If you buy through the Windows store, it apparently makes warranty and/or returns much easier than buying directly from Razer. I wish I would've known that earlier, but so far so good (knock on wood).

I really like the aluminum case (although I put a skin on the top lid to prevent scratches) and the keyboard is FANTASTIC. Mine runs dead quiet, but I haven't tried anything from the Adobe CS other than Photoshop. I have also ended up using the touchscreen more than I was expecting...

Yes, this laptop may be overkill for someone who is only surfing the net, BUT it's nice to know that I'm not going to run into issues down the road when I feel like trying a game on PC, or when I have to render some 4k video.

Like others have said, if you can possibly wait for Boxing Day sales or after CES, you can probably pick up the "last year" stuff for an absolute steal.

[msommers]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt


Sounds like you're mixing up GPU and CPU.

Pascal GPU architecture is a significant step up from Maxwell for games. Maxwell was better for things like Photoshop/editing, etc. Nvidia is trying to make more of a distinction between their GPU's for games and for graphics/design/editing work because often times the Titan cards with the huge RAM were cheaper and about as good as the more expensive Quadro cards.

Originally posted by BigMass


Pascal is a big move up from Maxwell (Nvidia graphics chip's architecture). I don't stress much about CPUs as an old i5-2500 Sandy Bridge is still serviceable after almost 6 years

My noobness is showing

Thanks for clearing things up for me.

[Gman.45]

I have a cheap "chucker" laptop I cart around in my truck - It's a used Panasonic Toughbook, you can find them used for very good deals, mine is about 4 years old (i5) and was only about 400 hundred USD when I bought it last year. Very tough and I use it for my shooting/ballistics programs as well as it's just nice to have a computer in my vehicle which I don't need to worry about. Stands up to cold weather well too.

[ExtraSlow]

Not really what the OP is looking for, but thought I'd pass along that the City of Calgary surplus dept is running 20% off on surplus computers today only.
I just picked up an i5 650 Lenovo M90 desktop for our web surfing machine for $120. Fresh install of Win7. (they are out of the all otehr desktops today)
For laptops, they have a nice looking Lenovo T410 i5 540 laptop with SSD for $240. Fresh Win7 install.
They are out of the more expensive toshiba laptops right now.

https://surplus.calgary.ca/Public/About.aspx#computers

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Not really what the OP is looking for, but thought I'd pass along that the City of Calgary surplus dept is running 20% off on surplus computers today only.
I just picked up an i5 650 Lenovo M90 desktop for our web surfing machine for $120. Fresh install of Win7. (they are out of the all otehr desktops today)
For laptops, they have a nice looking Lenovo T410 i5 540 laptop with SSD for $240. Fresh Win7 install.
They are out of the more expensive toshiba laptops right now.

https://surplus.calgary.ca/Public/About.aspx#computers

If those SSD (age wise) running under Win7 without TRIM, they are not long for this world.

[Sentry]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Not really what the OP is looking for, but thought I'd pass along that the City of Calgary surplus dept is running 20% off on surplus computers today only.
I just picked up an i5 650 Lenovo M90 desktop for our web surfing machine for $120. Fresh install of Win7. (they are out of the all otehr desktops today)
For laptops, they have a nice looking Lenovo T410 i5 540 laptop with SSD for $240. Fresh Win7 install.
They are out of the more expensive toshiba laptops right now.

https://surplus.calgary.ca/Public/About.aspx#computers

Picked up a Lenovo T520 for 200 bucks! Thanks for the heads up.

[ExtraSlow]

Originally posted by Sentry

Picked up a Lenovo T520 for 200 bucks! Thanks for the heads up.

[AllGoNoShow]

Running an MSI Demo unit here, M/E had it for ~$1900 retailed and grabbed it for just under $1100 if I recall. Been solid for 6 months, wicked quick, good sound for laptop speakers, good color for movies/videos, haven't gamed on it yet.

[ExtraSlow]

A couple of interesting deals at Memex today for laptops and SSDs.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/BDL_MM00000874
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX55510
Buy this laptop (bunded with office) and this SSD and you have a pretty nice system, and keep the original hard drive around in case the SSD ever crashes.


Some cheaper options too that look worth checking as well.

[nzwasp]

Just upgraded my 2011 macbook pro (A1278) from 4gig to 16 gig and a 500 gb SSD - made a huge difference, basically feels like a brand new pc now. I also upgraded mac os to el capitan and redid bootcamp with windows 10.

Prior to this I was using mac os 10.6.8 and windows 7 32 bit.