In the market for a new laptop

[Arles]

My wife need a new laptop for home and isn't much of a gamer. She wants one for storing pictures, working from home (Excel, payroll applications), browsing the net, and other fairly small tasks. She wants it to be lightweight and likes the idea of a 2-in-1. Best Buy has a nice price on this ASUS 2-in-1 (15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive) for $699:

asus-2-in-1-15-6-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black

Is there any better option out there? I haven't bought a laptop in years, but I've always heard good things about ASUS.

[INDalltheway]

I am loving the look of Dell's coming XPS 13. I have a 15 that is wonderful, but the nearly bezel-less display is beautiful.

[ISiddiqui]

Everyone is raving over it and its easy to see why. Looks like a fantastic screen on the two higher end models as well.

[cartman]

If anyone has picked up a Lenovo laptop/desktop recently, there was a massive security hole installed from the factory.

Lenovo preinstalls man-in-the-middle adware that hijacks HTTPS traffic on new PCs | PCWorld

[PurdueBrad]

Hey guys, probably should've checked here first but my wife was pushing me to buy myself a new laptop and so I ordered one. Here's what I got:

Toshiba Satellite S50-B (customized)
Intel I7-4510U
AMD Radeon R7 M260 2GB dedicated graphics
500 GB hard drive (don't do much w/ videos or music)
15.6" 1920x1080 TruBrite LED backlit LCD
8 GB (4gb x 2) 1600 Mhz DDR3L memory

Any thoughts on quality? Thanks for feedback.

[Dutch]

If you have a Lenovo, you can check this site to test if you have the Superfish thing.

https://filippo.io/Badfish/

[Edward64]

About to buy the XPS 13 for my daughter. She does homework and lite video editing. Plays minecraft on the desktop currently.

i5, 8GB memory, 256GB SSD. Figure this should be good for the next 3 years.

[INDalltheway]

Originally Posted by Edward64

About to buy the XPS 13 for my daughter. She does homework and lite video editing. Plays minecraft on the desktop currently.

i5, 8GB memory, 256GB SSD. Figure this should be good for the next 3 years.

I have that model. I love it. It's so light and portable, but packs enough of a punch.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by INDalltheway

I have that model. I love it. It's so light and portable, but packs enough of a punch.

Good to know. I'm a Lenovo guy but was swayed by the XPS. Great reviews and cheaper than a Thinkpad X or T series with equivalent config.

What type of games have you been able to play on it?

[INDalltheway]

I have played Civ V and all my text sims. I haven't pushed it too hard, but Civ runs very well.

[stevew]

Need some help finding something around $1000 that can play overwatch. No HPs plz

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by stevew

Need some help finding something around $1000 that can play overwatch. No HPs plz

How much do you care about the graphic settings? Is this the only game you'll really be playing? What other things are you using it for?

Something like this might work.

MSI GL62M 7RD-058 15.6" Intel Core i5 7th Gen 7300HQ (2.50 GHz) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 8 GB Memory 128 GB SSD 1 TB HDD Windows 10 Home 64-Bit Gaming Laptop -- "ONLY @ NEWEGG"-Newegg.com

The SSD it comes with is small so with the savings I'd recommend buying a beefier one (250gb or 500gb) with the difference. But a 1050 will play Overwatch on Ultra at a really nice FPS. Will struggle more with games that are more graphic intensive like Witcher 3 for instance but they are still playable.

Only knock on that one is it's not a true IPS monitor. But I feel that's overrated for most people.

[RainMaker]

Looking around a bit more I like this one too.

Amazon.com: Acer Aspire VX 15 Gaming Laptop, 7th Gen Intel Core i5, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, 15.6 Full HD, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, VX5-591G-5652: Computers & Accessories

Gives up a little bit in the CPU but has a true IPS display and bigger SSD already inside. Spend $50 on an 1TB HDD that you can put in for extra space (I believe you have to request a free bracket from them) and you're all set. The backlit keyboard is nice too.

Problem with Acer is bloatware. So I recommend immediately putting a fresh Windows install on the drive once you get it. It's pretty simple if you need help.

As for brands, I'm a big fan of MSI. Build quality is higher and they are more geared toward gaming (they know how to build laptops that disperse heat). Asus isn't bad either and Acer usually has good deals if you're looking to get the most bang for your buck.

If you have specific questions, let me know. I know way too much about this stuff. Just got done building a PC for myself too.

[CrescentMoonie]

Grabbed this Lenovo a few weeks ago from Costco for $999 and used the Costco VISA to get 4 years warranty. It's great while it's running but it crashes (BSOD or black) every 24-48 hours. I've done all the driver updates, done a clean boot, and a clean install. Taking it back next week if I can't figure things out. Avoid at all costs.

https://www.costco.com/Lenovo-LEGION...100347159.html

[stevew]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

How much do you care about the graphic settings? Is this the only game you'll really be playing? What other things are you using it for?

Something like this might work.

MSI GL62M 7RD-058 15.6" Intel Core i5 7th Gen 7300HQ (2.50 GHz) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 8 GB Memory 128 GB SSD 1 TB HDD Windows 10 Home 64-Bit Gaming Laptop -- "ONLY @ NEWEGG"-Newegg.com

The SSD it comes with is small so with the savings I'd recommend buying a beefier one (250gb or 500gb) with the difference. But a 1050 will play Overwatch on Ultra at a really nice FPS. Will struggle more with games that are more graphic intensive like Witcher 3 for instance but they are still playable.

Only knock on that one is it's not a true IPS monitor. But I feel that's overrated for most people.

It's for my daughter for college This one does look promising though.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by stevew

It's for my daughter for college This one does look promising though.

If she's into aluminum more, this is nice as well. Buy a 256GB SSD M.2 and put the operating system and such on that. Leave the 1TB hard drive in as a backup for her files and other stuff.

MSI PE60 7RD-1042 15.6" Intel Core i7 7th Gen 7700HQ (2.80 GHz) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 8 GB Memory 1 TB HDD Windows 10 Home 64-Bit Gaming Laptop - Newegg.com

Should note that these gaming laptops don't have great battery life so if she is using this in class without being plugged in, it might not hold up well. That's the problem with gaming laptops.

Also I think having an SSD is going to be really important for someone in college. Don't have to wait a minute and a half to boot up your computer.

[stevew]

Ended up getting a solid deal(900)on a Dell Inspiron Gaming 15 7000 series with a 1GB hybrid drive, 8gb of ram, an i7, and a 1050ti card. I upgraded to the IPS monitor. My dad was paying for it so it was easier to sell a Dell than some Chinese brand.

[CrescentMoonie]

Originally Posted by stevew

Ended up getting a solid deal(900)on a Dell Inspiron Gaming 15 7000 series with a 1GB hybrid drive, 8gb of ram, an i7, and a 1050ti card. I upgraded to the IPS monitor. My dad was paying for it so it was easier to sell a Dell than some Chinese brand.

I'm returning my Lenovo and getting the 5000 series with a 6th gen i7 and the 960 card with everything else the same for $750 plus the 4 year warranty from Costco.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by stevew

Ended up getting a solid deal(900)on a Dell Inspiron Gaming 15 7000 series with a 1GB hybrid drive, 8gb of ram, an i7, and a 1050ti card. I upgraded to the IPS monitor. My dad was paying for it so it was easier to sell a Dell than some Chinese brand.

That's a good computer. The IPS is a nice upgrade. You can always upgrade to an SSD and make the other drive a backup one down the road too. Everything else should hold up for many years.

[stevew]

If the hybrid drive is at all similar to the one in my dad's 5K Imac, it should be really fast to boot.

And yeah, hopefully it lasts all 4 years.

[cartman]

I just got my HP Spectre x360 15 inch laptop delivered. Getting everything set up on it. The 4k screen is incredible, and the pen with Windows Ink works really well. It is the same screen size as my 4 year old HP Envy, but a whole lot lighter.

[Edward64]

Thinking about a new laptop this year. I'm a Thinkpad and XPS fan (its gotta look good also!).

I'm thinking about the 2018 XPS 15 (which isn't on sale yet in the US) because it'll have a big screen, good graphics for game playing (e.g. combining an Intel chip with a new RX Vega M GL).

Most of the 2018 Thinkpads have the Intel 620 but there are some with the MX150 which from my research isn't that great compared to RX Vega M. If the Thinkpads were magically paired with the RX Vega M (probably next year), I would jump on it.

Main concern is Dell had problems with throttling, overheating, coil whine etc. in 2017 XPS's. So I'll wait for the user reviews before buying.

[Kodos]

Any recommendations for a cheapish laptop for my soon to be teenager? He plays games like Minecraft and Roblox, in addition to watching YouTube and Netflix on his old laptop. $300 range, maybe a little higher.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Thinking (maybe) new laptop ... and so help me, it's to the point of overwhelming for me.

Just kinda sorted out the whole i3 vs i5 vs i7 distinctions ... and then sorta realized that when it comes to gaming compatability apparently I have to worry about not only getting that part right but also the clocking as well. And that's before even trying to figure out whether a video card meets min specs and recommended specs (which isn't easy to me once you get into specs listed in one series/nomenclature but cards listed in a different line of the same manufacturer)

Somewhere along the way, this shit just passed me right on by. Probably doesn't matter, pretty clear that running games from the last year or two is likely to land well outside what I can justify spending anyway. But, seriously, fml on how complex this shit seems now.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Thinking (maybe) new laptop ... and so help me, it's to the point of overwhelming for me.

Just kinda sorted out the whole i3 vs i5 vs i7 distinctions ... and then sorta realized that when it comes to gaming compatability apparently I have to worry about not only getting that part right but also the clocking as well. And that's before even trying to figure out whether a video card meets min specs and recommended specs (which isn't easy to me once you get into specs listed in one series/nomenclature but cards listed in a different line of the same manufacturer)

Somewhere along the way, this shit just passed me right on by. Probably doesn't matter, pretty clear that running games from the last year or two is likely to land well outside what I can justify spending anyway. But, seriously, fml on how complex this shit seems now.

I'm in the same boat.

I need a new laptop, but it's like reading Chinese to me.

Anyone have a suggestion for a decent laptop that I can play mostly sim games, FM, Hearthstone, etc..on? I also stream a lot of sports to my laptop, MLB.tv, pokergo, stuff like that. I have zero interest in a MAC.

[JonInMiddleGA]

The other thing that I hope someone can offer some insight on is the issue of "refurbished".

I mean, from major branded outlets (Amazon, who has some theoretical standards for anything called refurbed, or even Best Buy)

The price difference seems to be around $100 (on stuff in the $350-$550 range) ... but I have no clue whether that's pennywise & pound foolish.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

The other thing that I hope someone can offer some insight on is the issue of "refurbished".

I mean, from major branded outlets (Amazon, who has some theoretical standards for anything called refurbed, or even Best Buy)

The price difference seems to be around $100 (on stuff in the $350-$550 range) ... but I have no clue whether that's pennywise & pound foolish.

I would personally stay with the big boys and order from them vs. buy from Amazon or BestBuy.

Dell has alot of refurbished stuff.

I have bought desktops but will not buy a laptop from them.

If you go into the forums/reddit, many people return laptops because of heat issues (and some have tried putting special paste on them), unsatisfactory keyboards or, most important to me, unsatisfactory monitors.

There is a higher chance that refurbished laptops have something messed up.

For desktops, I don't really care if there is a dent in the case.

One more thing: your son may be able to get you some student discounts from major manufacturers.

[tarcone]

This is right up my alley. What can I buy that meets the above standards for around $300?

[RainMaker]

What kind of games are you looking to run on it?

[tarcone]

Civ5 to CK2 and the ilk. Nothing major.

[RainMaker]

$300 is pretty tight when it comes to gaming. This would work for a little more. You could also upgrade the hard drive to an SSD down the road.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079TGL2BZ/

Basically you're looking at something with integrated graphics in that price range and the Intel HD Graphics 620 is solid on low settings.

[korme]

This thread I started is so old that I'm almost again the market for a new laptop

[Edward64]

Four years is a long time. It was before the really thin laptops came out.

Yeah, $300 is pretty tight.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Four years is a long time. It was before the really thin laptops came out.

Yeah, $300 is pretty tight.

Any suggestions for something in the 1K range? No high end gaming, just text sims, etc...

I stream a lot of sports so mostly looking for something that can handle streaming a ballgame while playing online poker or something.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Any suggestions for something in the 1K range? No high end gaming, just text sims, etc...

I stream a lot of sports so mostly looking for something that can handle streaming a ballgame while playing online poker or something.

You really don't need to come close to $1000 for what you're looking to do. It'd just be overkill.

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GL62M-7RD...dp/B071K1Q8TK/
MSI GL62M 7RDX-1408 15.6" IPS Intel Core i7 7th Gen 7700HQ (2.80 GHz) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 8 GB Memory 128 GB SSD 1 TB HDD Windows 10 Home 64-Bit Gaming Laptop - Newegg.com

That'd be solid. You want an SSD which this has. It's a solid display. Great keyboard, powerful processor for text sims, and a good enough graphics card that you could play games on high settings it if you want.

You could always downgrade the processor a bit, dump the extra hard drive (which you could actually just use from your old laptop), and save more. Plus this one has a 256GB SSD vs 128GB.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16834154234

Whatever you buy, you want an SSD at your price point.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

You really don't need to come close to $1000 for what you're looking to do. It'd just be overkill.

Pretty much what I was thinking.

I will say however that checking the min specs on the text sims you have in mind would be a good idea. Some are surprisingly demanding while things that are graphicaly in nature are surprisingly forgiving (at least to hit min specs).

[henry296]

My biggest problem in the past with laptops is battery life. Any good suggestions for one that can give me 3-4 hours unplugged while playing games like FM/Civ6.

[Comey]

Originally Posted by henry296

My biggest problem in the past with laptops is battery life. Any good suggestions for one that can give me 3-4 hours unplugged while playing games like FM/Civ6.

I think many of them can do that pretty easily now.

The Best Battery Life Laptops of 2018 | PCMag.com

Laptops with the Longest Battery Life 2018 - Laptop Mag

These 12 laptops deliver the best battery life | ZDNet

[RainMaker]

I'm not a big expert on the battery life stuff but I do think you're going to have a hard time playing a game like Civ 6 for 4 hours. Basically the laptops that can handle the high end games usually have better monitors and dedicated video cards that suck energy.

I used to look at the battery numbers but they'd always tell me 8 hours or something and I'd never get close to that. Even messing with brightness and other factors.

[Dantooine98]

yup, mine too battery says 8 hours but it's empty after just 4 hours specially when playing games. maybe the 8 hours is just for web browsing or typing something on word

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I'm not a big expert on the battery life stuff but I do think you're going to have a hard time playing a game like Civ 6 for 4 hours. Basically the laptops that can handle the high end games usually have better monitors and dedicated video cards that suck energy.

I used to look at the battery numbers but they'd always tell me 8 hours or something and I'd never get close to that. Even messing with brightness and other factors.

[henry296]

That has been my experience and the other research I've been doing suggests that most laptops will just get 1-2 hours with any GPU intensive games. I even had issues with OOTP on my wife's MacBook which has a very good battery.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Round one of laptop purchase effort has been a pretty big bust.

(Please, try to restrain the computer snobbery stuff, I was making choices on a budget here)

My long-time warhorse desktop, 15 years and 3 necromances in, runs WinXP with an AMD Athlon Dual Core 4050e at 2.11ghz, with 4mb of RAM.

My new purchase (pending return) is a Win10 Dell Inspiron 15-3567, Intel Core i5-7200u, 8gig 2400 mhz ddr4, 1TB HDD, Intel HD 620 integrated graphics. List was around $600, pretty much everyone is/was selling it around $500, rollback pricing that seemed pretty much exclusive to Walmart was $415.

Now look, I know the downside of int. graphics, I knew there were limitations there.

First problem: the text of the item (from Walmart) listed an 8th gen i5, not a 7th. Testing info says that's a pretty big difference, anywhere from 33% to near 50% speed difference. So I got ripped a little bit right off the bat.

Second problem: So far, in 6 tries, with Steam games released between 2012 and 2016, I can successfully (i.e. without crashing after a short time) run ONE game that wouldn't run on the old machine. (the newest of the bunch, Darkest Dungeon. So far no consistent joy with Civ 5, HOI 3, nor even Battle Bros)

Speed for common tasks - like social media - feels pretty much identical.

The "upgrade" to Win10 seems to have created as many problems as it solved with regard to my lack of pc gaming ability, and "compatability mode" has yet to solve jack shit.

This has been, honestly, a near total bust for me & will probably be returned. But it's pretty f'n sad that I can't seem to get a meaningful improvement
over a 15 y/o Frankenputer without dropping at least $500 (and realistically, honestly, probably need to get up to near $700 to see a huge difference)

A week of this has done little for me aside from cause angina & sleep loss, not really what I was looking for out of $400+

[RainMaker]

That's disappointing to hear. The 620 should be able to handle those kind of games. Civ 5 for instance is just not that intensive.

Is there a chance this is an issue with DirectX? The crashing would make me think this is much more likely to be a software issue than a hardware one. I've seen people talking about this issue a lot with Civ 5.

Fix for Civilization V Windows 10 crash after launch - YouTube

Maybe it's a driver issue? I'd recommend downloading the 620 driver directly from Intel's site.

Downloads for Intel® HD Graphics 620

I'd also recommend a clean install of Windows to get rid o Dell's bloatware if you haven't already. Might not solve the crashing issue but should help with performance ones.

From the looks of what you bought, you got a really good deal and that looks like a solid computer. I think it has to be more of a software issue.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

That's disappointing to hear. The 620 should be able to handle those kind of games. Civ 5 for instance is just not that intensive.

Is there a chance this is an issue with DirectX? The crashing would make me think this is much more likely to be a software issue than a hardware one. I've seen people talking about this issue a lot with Civ 5.

Fix for Civilization V Windows 10 crash after launch - YouTube

Maybe it's a driver issue? I'd recommend downloading the 620 driver directly from Intel's site.

Downloads for Intel® HD Graphics 620

I'd also recommend a clean install of Windows to get rid o Dell's bloatware if you haven't already. Might not solve the crashing issue but should help with performance ones.

From the looks of what you bought, you got a really good deal and that looks like a solid computer. I think it has to be more of a software issue.

Thanks. So far I've made a bit of an improvement to performance just by removing anything with the McAfee name (went to Avast for AV like I have for years now). That got it to "feels about the same as what I'm used to". Before that change, honestly, stuff like website response time felt worse.

as for DirX stuff, yeah, that's probably gonna be a thing in perpetuity. So far I've:

Chased down a missing .dll just to get HOI3 to run at all.
(speaking of which, that user-made file I finally got from the P'dox forums has at least gotten it to run for more than five mins without a crash ... we'll see whether it's actually playable later)

Installed DX9 (via ... civ5 I think it was)

Civ5 seems to be a graphic issue (crash got a brief "failed to render" error msg followed by a file name as it crashed on turn two). I'll check the drivers, as you suggest, I guess but good grief, ya know?

[RainMaker]

I would look at doing a clean install of Windows. It basically just puts Windows 10 on the computer and removes all the crap Dell added on. I always find this to provide a nice boost. If something screws up or you want to go back and use the old Dell software, you can use their recovery partition. In any case, if you go the clean install route, this should help guide you (there's also a ton of YouTube videos).

Start fresh with a clean installation of Windows 10

It does seem to be common for what it's worth (with Civ 5 at least). Just a quick Google search shows tons of threads about it. But man the fixes seem like a pain in the ass.

[JonInMiddleGA]

[quote=RainMaker;3210303]I would look at doing a clean install of Windows. It basically just puts Windows 10 on the computer and removes all the crap Dell added on. I always find this to provide a nice boost. If something screws up or you want to go back and use the old Dell software, you can use their recovery partition. In any case, if you go the clean install route, this should help guide you (there's also a ton of YouTube videos).

Start fresh with a clean installation of Windows 10

I was gonna say "how'n the hell do you do that without buying a full copy of Win10" .. and then I checked the link. While I feel like I've got things pretty well cleaned up (aside from the "Dell update" tool), I did not have the slightest idea this route to a clean install even existed. Kinda just commenting on that aspect so as to flag it for other people like me who didn't know that you could basically do that -- with Microsoft's blessing -- with a simple tool from MS.

It does seem to be common for what it's worth (with Civ 5 at least). Just a quick Google search shows tons of threads about it. But man the fixes seem like a pain in the ass.

It is very PITA. So far in the last 24 hours I've gotten Civ 5 to work with relative stability (2+ hours of game play on two different saves) but it took something like 2 hours of trial and error, start/crash/try again, playing with compatability modes, DirX version, resolutions, and so forth.

The issue becomes that process repeated for half the games I want to play.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I was gonna say "how'n the hell do you do that without buying a full copy of Win10" .. and then I checked the link. While I feel like I've got things pretty well cleaned up (aside from the "Dell update" tool), I did not have the slightest idea this route to a clean install even existed. Kinda just commenting on that aspect so as to flag it for other people like me who didn't know that you could basically do that -- with Microsoft's blessing -- with a simple tool from MS.
.

Yeah Microsoft started letting you do this a few years back. Once a computer has been activated, it saves a "digital ID" of your parts so that you can re-install Windows over and over on the computer without dealing with a key.

It's nice to have since some of these computer companies got a bit carried away with their bloatware. I remember buying an HP desktop like 10 years ago and there had to be 30 programs added to it.

[Lathum]

Anyone notice if there were any good Amazon Prime day deals on laptops?

[Lathum]

Can someone in the know tell me if this laptop is good for some basic games and streaming video? Usually MLB games.

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[Lathum]

or this one

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