hello, The girlfriends laptop has seen its day. usb ports work at random, the psu needs it cord bent at a 90 degree angle in the right place to work. and it can't even play minecraft. She wants a pc that is able to play Diablo 3 when it comes out. I want her to have a laptop that will last a long time. I was looking at this one: http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product...spx?path=30c13b658cd90ec1630cf97dcfaeef5cen02 i5 Mobile i5-2410M 4gb ddr3 NVIDIA Optimus GeForce GT525 14 inch screen 1366 x 768 It looked good at first but then I saw the cpu isn't much better than a q6600 (in a bench mark) the gpu is not that good either. I think at this point I am wondering if I should try to find a fast I5 from the previous generation that might cost less. Or do you think that this is a good laptop for what she wants? Thanks for any input. Oh and price range isn't much more than this one, 1100 cdn.
The CPU and GPU is good for a laptop. You have to remember that Laptops are YEARS behind desktop computer performance. Even the 6k Alienware 19inch laptop with SLI and all that... is like if the GPU is a Geforce GTX 250 or 260 depending on the model. Nothing impressive. ALSO, laptop.. good ones... the ones that doesn't burn your legs or your desk... throttle when getting hot.. so that is another thing that reduces performance. That is why laptop should NEVER be a desktop replacement (unless you just web surf or something like that very basic). The laptop is very expensive for what you get. The resolution is low, performance.. you can get more for your money, and higher quality. Check out the Alienware M11x and the M14x. Similar price... and a much faster GPU, Optimus included, backlit keyboard... and if it ever breaks.. well they send you a pre-paid shipping box... you don't pay anything. AND you can have (for more, of course), Next business day on site service.. so THEY come to you at the exact time you want, starting the next business day. Yes it's in your budget. The downside.. thicker and heavier (to accommodate the larger heatsink) but if the owner has a good back pack with a laptop pocket... no problem at all. Also note:CALL to order, as you can negotiate a price... (and I mean NEGOTIATE A PRICE.. not some 10-50$ BS.. I mean serious money and/or get free upgrade... unless you fall with a shrink or a new guy who doesn't know the system... in which case you don't buy it... and try again... and again if you have to). I STRONGLY suggest, for any laptop.... to get a 3 year warranty with THE MANUFACTURE. If it's not from the manufacture DIRECTLY, then forget it, as you'll C.R.A.P (I don't mean Canada Revenue Agency Policy, I mean welll...) Also when you call Dell, make sure you ask and PUSH for a OS Disk, and mention how critical it is. (even if you have to pay 15-20$ more... get it... it will make your life so much easier). I know a good Account Management at Dell... PM me if you are interested.. she will find you the best deal and offer (be sure to mention that you are flexible in the internal configuration... if they are are any free upgrades, you are interested in that as well, and ensure free shipping... as it's through Small Business.. they normally charge for shipping... but the sales rep usually give it to you for free, the moment you call). Oh and remember that Optimus consumes the system bus .. and only 1 thing can use the bus at a time.. so you lose CPU performance during GPU demanding things. A faster CPU won't help much.
my girlfriend is 5 foot nothing and 110 lbs. so a heavy laptop is kind of a bad thing. Also for her the look of the laptop is important as well and she isn't into the alienware look. She says that it is too "manish" So far looking at one of these three(but still looking): http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=59630&vpn=N73SV-A1&manufacture=ASUS http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=60528&vpn=LX.PUM02.143&manufacture=Acer http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=58104&vpn=N53SV-A1&manufacture=ASUS&promoid=1323 I like the third one for her myself as its a 15inch compared to the 17's. So is optimus something to avoid? is it a performance hit? I don't know much about it...
ASUS one (both of them) looks good to me. See in getting 3 year warranty. Especially if the system is to carried everyday. Avoid Acer, eMachine, Gateway, HP if you want a system that last more than a year. Business class HP systems are fine, and SELECT HP high-end home system are also fine. As for Optimus... it's up and down. Up, you save battery life, and the GPU only engages for games and programs that uses the GPU. Down: If a program uses the GPU, and it doesn't at the moment, the GPU is still powered (obviously not full speed). And it uses the bus as it darws each frame and put it to the Intel GPU memory (the system RAM reserved area), and what basically happens, is that for each frame the Intel GPU goes "Hey look, I guess I did draw it... hun... let me display it then." Which is perfectly fine, as Nvidia provides you with special drivers which includes Intel GPU drivers so that it all works fine. The problem is to access the system memory to place each frame, it requires access to the system bus... you only have 1 system bus. And only 1 can use the bus at each bus cycle. So the CPU has to wait for it to be free., so that it access the RAM to do it's job.. process instructions. I believe you can disable Optimus in the Nvidia Control Panel... don't ask me how.. and don't take that as a: "for sure" thing. I don't know, as I don't have it. Every energy system for GPU's has a downside, as the GPU doesn't know what you are doing.. is it a game? is it just Aero? Is it just a program? Is it a small task or a big one? For a CPU is easy.. as it can see the whole program, it knows what you are doing. The GPU can draw a stationary menu icon, like it can a full CUDA or OpenCL based simulation. So, the downside of the normal system which is what every GPU has from Nvidia (desktop and laptop) and AMD/ATi, is an algorithm that guesses what you are doing with the system. So the result. Either you get poor performance for a few seconds with Aero or a game, because the GPU thinks it's a small super short job, but ends up more, OR Just by moving a window, as you computer was idle and your didn't do anything for a while, boost the GPU at full speed for a moment because it thinks you are about to play a game or something. Apple GPU power system, has the OS decide, based on OpenGL commands... the problem with this, is that just the fact of playing a video SD quality, can make the GPU go full speed and stay there... as the OS thinks you are playing a game, while the GPU could have perfectly handle the task at it's minimum speed.
cool, thanks for the info goodbytes. And after almost a full day of reading reviews and searching the net. she decides to wait a month to see what else is coming out. women!
Hey Hey N53SV: http://techinstyle.tv/products/n53sv-power-style-sound-sonicmaster-laptop-preview/ http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/laptops/1284340/asus-n53s Ahem Optimus is great on laptops. Nvidia has consistently improved the profiles for it in the last two years, plus you can always add your own or turn it off in the Control Panel. It's crazy AMD hasn't come up with a competitive tech yet. SB quad cores are better than the previous gen because they have better Turbo Boost, and buying with SB more often than not gives you this generation's Nvidia GF11x tech, which also give better battery life (mixed transistors = lower power). Obviously all these laptops is that they are heavier, desktop replacements because it all still requires meaty heatsinks inside. I'd read as many reviews as you can
Acer is usually crap, but there is one exception - TimelineX. If you are willing to live with few limitations, then it is a very ok choice too. I mean : http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=58434&vpn=LX.RAC02.041&manufacture=Acer What limitations : 1) it doesn't have internal DVD drive, that means you need a USB drive. Instead of it has separate cooling for GPU and CPU (which is very silent and effective, considering the whole thing is 1.14" high at the read and only 0.86" at front! Under heavy load the fans do spin up, but still it is more silent than most laptops with dedicated GPU) 2) no USB3, no SATA3, no ExpressCard. 3) previous generation CPU (Core i5-480M) 4) HD5650/HD6550 is good for gaming (you can play even BC2 on high with it, see http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6550M.41143.0.html ). The only drawback is that it doesn't have automated switching from IGP to dedicated graphics hard, so you have to switch them manually via desktop menu. 5) display isn't that great and it's small (but one should expect that from 13.3" ). You can use external display via D-SUB or HDMI. Don't forget that with IGP it can run for hours (officialy 8, in reality it is going to be around 6 hours or more). And it's under 2kg. Plus it has aluminum top to side . http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-3820TG-Timeline-X-Notebook.30294.0.html
