Laptop Upgrades revisited

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

RD wants a replacement laptop whereas I want a D630 to replace my Inspiron 6400. Sorry, but I hate plastic! Prefer Mg alloy from a D630...

me too come to think of it.

[stevo1210]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

RD wants a replacement laptop whereas I want a D630 to replace my Inspiron 6400. Sorry, but I hate plastic! Prefer Mg alloy from a D630...

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

PWL is not exactly the same as wear leveling in SSD's... not sure if that's what you were thinking.

It was a listed feature.

[dood]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

PWL is not exactly the same as wear leveling in SSD's... not sure if that's what you were thinking.

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

2.5", but you have to watch the height of the drive. And, heat concerns. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822236367

It'll be nice when SSD prices drop down to VelociRaptor levels...

Another option is SSD for OS and mechanical for data, but that typically requires you go to a 17" laptop to get the 2nd HDD bay.

Yeah, and for multiboots that's still a bit out there... I'd have to run separate home partitions, something I personally don't like doing.

BTW, that drive has wear leveling. No thanks.

[dood]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

2.5", but you have to watch the height of the drive. And, heat concerns. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822236367

It'll be nice when SSD prices drop down to VelociRaptor levels...

Another option is SSD for OS and mechanical for data, but that typically requires you go to a 17" laptop to get the 2nd HDD bay.

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

why stop at 7200rpm? - stick a velociraptor in there (10k rpm)

Given how hard I have known to be with laptops... that wouldn't work. And the power draw/heat...

But if they actually made a 2.5" raptor, I would so have to buy a Dell precision and do that to it . Or a laptop that could RAID and do some dualies

[Elysarian]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

why stop at 7200rpm? - stick a velociraptor in there (10k rpm)

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

SSD isn't in the cards... mainly because I triple boot... for what I'm doing my 250GB is about right. Looking at the costs of an SSD with the kind of space I'd need, it gets kinda cost prohibative.

I noticed the college is having a computer sale with $130 Dell laptops... No idea what, probably college surplus. May see if that has any promise.

[dood]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

As I've stated before, my work laptop is a D630 as well. I use it pretty extensively, but just for Outlook, web surfing, VPN/RDC access to work, etc. Pretty light usage for the most part.

It has the C2D T7250 (2.0ghz), 4gb of RAM, and a Samsung 840 series SSD. Probably the best improvement to performance that I had was moving from my old 250gb WD Black drive to the SSD.

I'd like to bump up to an E series with the Core i series, but I don't think it's in the budget right now.

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

Why would you buy a laptop from Best Buy lol?

What, you're going to get geek squad support too?

Ahhh, so solely for the employee discount, etc, etc.

lol @ "Kaboom" following me around - and formatting like this.

^I guess the concept of (paragraphs) is alien to you.

Guess what? For violating Topcat's "no more bullshit from you" ruling, you just got permabanned.

I'm still partial to the Dell Latitude series. Mainly because that's our standard at work, and I can get 3 year old units for dirt cheap. I know their reliability, and parts can be had easily on ebay.

One of the best buys (no pun intended) out there on the used market. I consider laptops a lot like cars, if you cna stand one thats a couple years old, buying used saves a ton of $.

If the 630 was too heavy, you won't like the weight of the 6500. The 4300 is lighter, smaller screen though.

I was actually thinking along the lines of a used dell latitude. I never said I wanted to buy new! Just DDR3 based.

I like the latitudes... very solid. Heavy too, but I can put up with that. Yeah, the D630 is a slug, but it's also a form of weight training...

I'm less keen on the 4xxx latitudes... if they're like the later D4xx ones, they have crappy 1.8" hdds and no opticals (or some chunky base that attaches to the dock port).

That being said, Here's what I have to say about the lenovo P400:

-It's not too shabby. Appears to have a 4 core i7 (8 threads).
-Not sure on the eveness of the RAM... IIRC DDR3 is triple channel, so 8gb isn't even (unless it's run as dual on laptops)
-The GPU is meh. For what I do, it *should* work, however, in the long term, intel could pigf*ck it linux wise like they did the i915/i855 a few years ago (why I upgraded to my D630 in the first place).
-The HDD is also mixed. It's BIG, but also SLOW (5400 RPM). If I got it, an eventual 7200 upgrade would be tempting (and no, I wouldn't SSD)
-the Build quality seems decent... I've seen far worse... I've seen better too, most of which is buiness/military class though.
-win 8 sucked... I hated it. even with a touchscreen, it was BS.
-the keyboard is OK. Not very clicky... it's backlit, which bumps it up from "mediocre"
-The lack of 1394 (and expresscard) is a bit of a bummer. I'd have to kiss DV editing on the road goodbye (like I ever do that... my DV cam still sucks a bit, but it's what I have).
-the lack of touchstrip also sucks a bit, but for a really newer laptop, at that price I wouldn't expect it.

For my use, I'd give it a meh. It's not bad, but there's a lot of unknowns as well. Not quite what I was lookign for (too consumer-ish). Probably not for me.

---

How my employment works:

I work for a couple of Merchandising companies. We're contracted by vendors and stores to do work. I'm currently doing overnights at the local best buy as they're currently getting redone. In addition to overnights, I've also done store resets, furniture (shaped object) builds, general merch work, display construction, and one of my favorites, Best Buy warehouse work (I've done other stores besides them, such as walmart, walgreens, and home depot). We DO sometimes get employee discounts... and one happens to coincidentally be with lenovo (but nowhere near as nice as the best buy one, which I wish we did get).

[smason]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

I'm still partial to the Dell Latitude series. Mainly because that's our standard at work, and I can get 3 year old units for dirt cheap. I know their reliability, and parts can be had easily on ebay.

One of the best buys (no pun intended) out there on the used market. I consider laptops a lot like cars, if you cna stand one thats a couple years old, buying used saves a ton of $.

If the 630 was too heavy, you won't like the weight of the 6500. The 4300 is lighter, smaller screen though.

[smason]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

Now you're just playing "dumb and ignorant."

He's not playing.

[Elysarian]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

I have a Samsung laptop (R525) and while it's reliable enough (2 years without having to reinstall Windows is pretty damn good in my book!) the plastics on the case are less good.

I've had to epoxy one part near a lid hinge and there are no grilles left over the HSF in/out ports due to the plastic becoming brittle with the heat from the CPU/GPU.

I have only had it apart on one occasion (to clean the HSF and apply new compound after an overheating incident) and it was fairly straightforward but now the plastics are getting brittle I'm not sure I'd want to risk it again.

Also: I really don't trust Samsung HDD's, mine gets backed up to a WD external drive weekly!

[thesloc]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

lol @ "Kaboom" following me around - and formatting like this.

^I guess the concept of (paragraphs) is alien to you.

[kaboom]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

Ahhh, so solely for the employee discount, etc, etc.

"I just stopped over." Well... If we knew you was coming, we'd have baked a cake!

(slap) get outta here


^Three Stooges for those who don't know

Come on, Tray-Sloc, reply already! Just don't do so while "backpedaling" and using a mobile device at the same time, you could "hurt yo-self real bad."

[thesloc]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

Ahhh, so solely for the employee discount, etc, etc.

[shovenose]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

Why would you buy a laptop from Best Buy lol?

What, you're going to get geek squad support too?

he is considering buying it from me as I don't want mine - he works at best buy (well sort of not really but ask him about it if you care I don't want to explain lol) so it gave him a change to try it out.

[goontron]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

Why would you buy a laptop from Best Buy lol?

What, you're going to get geek squad support too?

backpeddle and backpedal and backpedal and......

[kaboom]

Re: Laptop Upgrades revisited

Why would you buy a laptop from Best Buy lol?

What, you're going to get geek squad support too?

You copy&pasted your own reply! Seriously, you posted the exact same thing a few threads ago.

Now you're just playing "dumb and ignorant." Everyone here has seen your "comments" that you still haven't replied to.

Keep backpeddling...