| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 115636 | 2011-01-27 17:23:00 | Need to get a new laptop for school, any advice? | Question (15792) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1173115 | 2011-01-27 17:23:00 | Im in Singapore and should(if everything goes well) be heading off to Auckland University for studies in less than a month. So im taking a look a laptops, in particular this one : Asus X42JR29 -$1298 i7-740QM Free upgrade to 6GB ram 500GB Sata HDD 5470 ATI Radeon 1GB delicated Graphics 3Years International Warranty 14"inch with R/W Drive Any advice on whether this is a good laptop? A search of the model name reveals that no site seems to have done a review on it. Ive been out of touch with hardware for a while so im not sure just how good the i7-740QM is...i understand its a quad core and clocks from 1.6 ghz to 2.8 though. How effective is this "variable clock"? Any thoughts on the 5470 card? The HDD is likely to be 5400rpm, which worries me...is there a big performance decrease between 5400 and 7200? In general, how is Asus quality like? |
Question (15792) | ||
| 1173116 | 2011-01-27 18:41:00 | Asus usually have excellent quality, the CPU seems good as does everything else in my opinion | gary67 (56) | ||
| 1173117 | 2011-01-27 20:15:00 | What are the important features to you - weight? battery life? performance? does it need to play games reasonably well or just uni-related apps? All the i7's are decent CPUs, and the 5470 is "ok" for basic gaming - you won't run the latest FPS at 1080p on max settings, but it should be able to play most semi-recent stuff on lower settings. And I believe there is a definite difference between 5400 and 7200rpm drives in anything even vaguely HDD-intensive. | inphinity (7274) | ||
| 1173118 | 2011-01-27 20:17:00 | It's easy enough to get a faster HDD later on and ghost your existing one to it. | 8ftmetalhaed (14526) | ||
| 1173119 | 2011-01-27 23:28:00 | It's easy enough to get a faster HDD later on and ghost your existing one to it. True, but this would incur additional cost and would probably void warranty. I remember once when i replaced the HDD for an old laptop, the guy doing it suddenly called me to say he would have to charge me extra to run "tests" on it(which was probably just diskchk...), and i somehow got sweet talked into it. Whats important for me...well as im going to be overseas for 3 years or longer, i would like it to run basic games at least. Wouldn't want one that is too heavy though, used to get backpains carrying a heavy laptop throughout school. I understand the I7-740QM is not a sandy bridge processor though. Are you guys aware of any that are in the market yet? Also heard that quad core processors kill battery life fast, and dual cores might be better for most applications. Any truth to that? |
Question (15792) | ||
| 1173120 | 2011-01-28 02:29:00 | If it was a desktop i7, yeah it probably would eat your battery. But a mobile i7? I doubt it. As for adding ram and harddrives, I also doubt that would void a warranty. They're designed to be easily accessible. Although that said, merely opening an OEM desktop's case can void the warranty so hmm. As for gaming - If you're getting it to take with you when you go overseas, go first, then get one where you end up. You'll find a $2000 laptop in NZ costs free or next to it (not quite but we get shafted something serious). And no on the sandy bridge processors. |
8ftmetalhaed (14526) | ||
| 1173121 | 2011-01-28 03:37:00 | Uhhh what do you mean a $2000 laptop in NZ costs free? Found a sandy bridge processor laptop, $1,500 : Lenovo IdeaPad™ Y460P Processors1 Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM Processor (2.20GHz up to 3.3GHz with Turbo Boost, 6MB L3 Cache) Operating system12 Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium Chipset Intel® HM65 Express Chipset Memory8 4GB DDR3 SDRAM Hard disk4 750GB SATA HDD Optical device5 DVD Super Multi Double Layer Drive (DVD-RW) Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 6550 1GB Display 14" WXGA LED Display 1366*768 pixel resolution Battery 6-cell Li-ion Battery Warranty 1-year Warranty* Special Features · JBL Branded Speakers · OneKey™ Theatre · Desktop Navigator · VeriFace Face Recognition Technology · OneKey™ Rescue System · Ambient Light Senor · Dolby® Home Theater™ 2 Certification |
Question (15792) | ||
| 1173122 | 2011-01-29 15:08:00 | bump | Question (15792) | ||
| 1173123 | 2011-01-29 20:26:00 | My recommendation is to stay with your first choice of manufacturer. Or look at a Toshiba (Qosmio X500-Q930S?). But if you want a Sandy Bridge, you'll be paying top dollar... |
johcar (6283) | ||
| 1173124 | 2011-01-29 20:35:00 | True, but this would incur additional cost and would probably void warranty. I remember once when i replaced the HDD for an old laptop, the guy doing it suddenly called me to say he would have to charge me extra to run "tests" on it(which was probably just diskchk...), and i somehow got sweet talked into it. Whats important for me...well as im going to be overseas for 3 years or longer, i would like it to run basic games at least. Wouldn't want one that is too heavy though, used to get backpains carrying a heavy laptop throughout school. I understand the I7-740QM is not a sandy bridge processor though. Are you guys aware of any that are in the market yet? Also heard that quad core processors kill battery life fast, and dual cores might be better for most applications. Any truth to that? Replacing the battery will NOT viod the warranty....I dont know if OEM SB mobile chips are available yet, not hat much difference that you would notice from bloomfield chips. As for battery life, im quite sure unused core switch off to enable faster dual core processing. Older quad cores maybe! |
SolMiester (139) | ||
| 1 2 | |||||