Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hey everyone,

Im useless with technology, so far ive owned 2 different netbooks, both have given me the shits since their well near unusable! Lag like mad, even using MS word .. very nice to carry overseas though lol.

I need a laptop that will be more than fast enough to run the basics, and a little bit of gaming - nothing hardcore but a decent range of games would be nice.

Ive been seeing some i5 systems with 4gb of ram go for pretty cheap lately, and thinking of getting that and adding more ram to a total of 8gb. But then I've been reading what other people are using, and it seems like there's more than one type of i5 and i7 etc?

I'm baffled - anybody got any suggestions as to what I need?

So far I'm leaning towards HP and Acer, they seem to be good value for money and I know others who have owned these for sometime and they have been reliable for long periods of time - unlike my netbooks

reliability is probably the key aspect of what I need, and good enough to play some games would be nice :D

Cheers!

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/
Share on other sites

to be honest im pretty sure the brand of laptop has about nothing to do with reliability. i would have seen models from just about every brand have it's share of problems over the years and if theres one pattern i've noticed its that every brand has it's crap laptops, and they always seem to be the cheap ones. if you aim higher up their model lineup the build quality in general just seems to be a bit more solid IMO. the components are all made by external sources, all the notebook company does is slap them together inside a case.

a lot of people like to drag acer through the dirt but i've had my acer since mid 2009 and it still works as perfectly as it did the day i got it.

regardless of what brand you get though i thoroughly recommend doing a blank install of your OS without all the branded add-on bloatware that the laptop comes pre-loaded with.

i choose my brand based on which laptop i like the layout of. some have weird keyboards that i cant seem to type properly with, and i like a full size numeric keypad. i also take note of where the usb's and power plug etc is to make sure things aren't going to be in annoying places where they will foul something else on my desk etc.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/#findComment-6153685
Share on other sites

thanks for the opinions everyone, I wish I could get a proper PC for gaming etc- im still using a dual core with 4gb of ram whistling.gif but I cant afford both a laptop and PC atm and a laptops more important right now, since I have my PS3 for most games.

I've yet to own a mac, I used them once in computer classes back in highschool, but I couldn't figure out the controls etc at all, and I'm quite slow to learn .. so i'll probably stick to windows for now

I had a good acer laptop for 3 years before these netbooks, worked well while it lasted, and their laptops seem to be good value for money, and i've known a few people with HP's that have lasted for quite some time and worked well.

My budgets around 900 - 1000, if I can't afford a local one I'm going overseas to Asia soon - I've gotten laptops cheaper there before :D, plus the currency helps out nicely, but ive seen i5s with 4GB of ram go for like 600-700 here (acer and hp - toshiba seems to be more pricey)

I think I'll just look for the best i5 with a faster hard drive and pump up the ram to 8gb?

Does anyone know what the numbers after the i5 mean? I've seen like i5 4500 and stuff like that - it baffles me - I assume higher number = better?

Oh and what kind of specs should I be looking for with the graphics card?

Cheers again!

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/#findComment-6153898
Share on other sites

even the best of laptops are still pretty shit for gaming on so i wouldn't get carried away being picky on something like graphics cards. as long as you avoid anything with "integrated graphics" and get something with a reasonable card it should be all good for just about any game your likely to play on it, as long as your not going to split hairs over it. still, cant hurt to get the card's model number from the prospective laptop and google it for some reviews or something. don't get too carried away with numbers on processors either. most i5's will comfortably handle any game you can throw at it, i7's are overkill in most cases. the graphics card is what does the bulk of the work to run games.

and yeah the more ram the better usually. 8gb might be overkill for most of what you get up to but at least it'll be a bit more futureproof.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/#findComment-6153948
Share on other sites

Last laptop i bought was a 13" Samsung. Its been the best laptop I've had so far. My last Toshiba laptop was pretty good, but so far the Samsung is performing better

advertised 7 hour battery life (although I can only get about 5hrs out of it, its still pretty good). I use it for tuning every so often and its a good size/peformer for that

Has a graphics card, but dont really remember the specs, didnt buy it for that anyway lol

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/#findComment-6154375
Share on other sites

Macs are actually really good machines for running windows. The problem with Macs is the high purchase price, the Apple mentality of "you can only purchase our accessories", the lack of drivers for some of their hardware when running windows and the lack of support for OS X when it comes to running more specialised programs like finance-related programs.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/#findComment-6154388
Share on other sites

even the best of laptops are still pretty shit for gaming on so i wouldn't get carried away being picky on something like graphics cards. as long as you avoid anything with "integrated graphics" and get something with a reasonable card it should be all good for just about any game your likely to play on it, as long as your not going to split hairs over it. still, cant hurt to get the card's model number from the prospective laptop and google it for some reviews or something. don't get too carried away with numbers on processors either. most i5's will comfortably handle any game you can throw at it, i7's are overkill in most cases. the graphics card is what does the bulk of the work to run games.

and yeah the more ram the better usually. 8gb might be overkill for most of what you get up to but at least it'll be a bit more futureproof.

thanks for that mate, cleared up most of my questions!

Unfortunately most laptops will not be the best for gaming as I have previously experienced, but for now I can't afford a brand new PC :(

Thanks for your help everyone! I think I have a rough idea of what to look out for now :)

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/#findComment-6155363
Share on other sites

If you can afford it, macs are the best laptops available. For serious gaming not so much, but they'll play most things fine at lower settings.

All people who have not owned a mac laptop be silent from here on :P

until they break, or overheat excessively. Unfortunately I have to support a small number of them.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/#findComment-6158333
Share on other sites

If you can afford it, macs are the best laptops available. For serious gaming not so much, but they'll play most things fine at lower settings.

All people who have not owned a mac laptop be silent from here on :P

until they overheat excessively and die.

DW about graphics card and i7, i5 + SSD is what you want. Unfortunately it can be hard to spec a laptop with one at a reasonable price

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/#findComment-6158339
Share on other sites

trying to spread the gay? they are the epitome of aesthetics over practical design, having to support a small number of them in our work fleet makes me loathe them and OSX users more and more.

Would not touch an ACER / Compaq / HP laptop again because most i've seen are cheaply made pieces of shit, same goes for the cheap Toshiba's, I had a HP DV2000 go through 3 hard drives due to inadequate cooling, also crappy Atheros wireless chipsets that refuse to work with Cisco AP's properly.

Have also found Dell to have the best warranty support, ESPECIALLY Pro Support.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/#findComment-6158650
Share on other sites

hah, after being in a 70% mac environment (210-odd machines) for 3 years, i f**king HATE fixing PCs now, at least for other people (my own problems are ok, because I've caused them and it's not some finnicky bullshit thing like Endnote being stupid).

But you're right, Dell support is frigging brilliant, they're the only PC manufacturer we'll go with.

edit: hooray unknown errors on forum

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/#findComment-6158724
Share on other sites

trying to spread the gay? they are the epitome of aesthetics over practical design, having to support a small number of them in our work fleet makes me loathe them and OSX users more and more.

Would not touch an ACER / Compaq / HP laptop again because most i've seen are cheaply made pieces of shit, same goes for the cheap Toshiba's, I had a HP DV2000 go through 3 hard drives due to inadequate cooling, also crappy Atheros wireless chipsets that refuse to work with Cisco AP's properly.

Have also found Dell to have the best warranty support, ESPECIALLY Pro Support.

i've found the ones that i would describe as "cheaply made pieces of shit" all seem to be the ones in the bottom half of the price range of any given brand's lineup. thats why i say buy the best one you can afford, because you get what you pay for. usually anything in the middle-upper half of the range is built a lot better and dont seem to have the strange issues that the cheapo's develop, from what i've seen over the years anyway.

from what i've seen, this is true for pretty much every brand there is.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/#findComment-6158728
Share on other sites

Would not touch an ACER / Compaq / HP laptop again because most i've seen are cheaply made pieces of shit

oops - i was mainly considering HP or Acer lol :(

I dont think I could afford a mac :\ with the budget at about 900 ish?

I'm too old fashioned anyway :)

Don't think I could afford a SSD At that price range either :\ I'll settle for the highest speed hard drive I can find

More importantly though it seems I should probably find something in the middle ranges of the i5's that whatever company I end up with make?

I forgot about dell!! From what I've seen they seem to be quite good value for money. - not quite the most important thing but I think they look pretty nice lol thumbsup.gif<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/385783-laptops/#findComment-6158771
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Latest Posts

    • Well, after the full circus this week (new gearbag, 14 psi actuator on, injectors and AFM upgraded, and.....turbo repair) the diagnosis on the wastegate is in. It was broken. It was broken in a really strange way. The weld that holds the lever arm onto the wastegate flapper shaft broke. Broke completely, but broke in such a way that it could go back together in the "correct" position, or it could rearrange itself somewhere else along the fracture plane and sit with the flapper not parallel to the lever. So, who knows how and when exactly what happened? No-one will ever know. Was it broken like this the first time it spat the circlip and wedged itself deep into the dump? Or was it only broken when I tried to pry it back into place? (I didn't try that hard, but who knows?). Or did it break first? Or did it break between the first and second event of wierdness? Meh. It doesn't matter now. It is welded back together. And it is now held closed by a 14 psi actuator, so...the car has been tuned with the supporting mods (and the order of operations there is that the supporting mods and dyno needed to be able to be done first before adding boost, because it was pinging on <<14 psi with the new turbo with only a 6 psi actuator). And then tuned up a bit, and with the boost controller turned off throughout that process. So it was only running WG pressure and so only hit about 15-16 psi. The turbo is still ever so slightly lazier than might be preferred - like it is still a bit on the big side for the engine. I haven't tested it on the road properly in any way - just driven it around in traffic for a half hour or so. But it is like chalk and cheese compared to what it was. Between dyno numbers and driving feedback: It makes 100 kW at 3k rpm, which is OK, could be better. That's stock 2JZ territory, or RB20 with G series 550. It actually starts building boost from 2k, which is certainly better than it did recently (with all the WG flapper bullshit). Although it's hard to remember what it was like prior to all that - it certainly seems much, much better. And that makes sense, given the WG was probably starting to blow open at anything above about 3 psi anyway (with the 6 psi actuator). It doesn't really get to "full boost" (say 16 psi) until >>4k rpm. I am hopeful that this is a feature of the lack of boost controller keeping boost pressure off the actuator, because it was turned off for the dyno and off for the drives afterward. There's more to be found here, I'm sure. It made 230 rwkW at not a lot more than 6k and held it to over 7k, so there seems to be plenty of potential to get it up to 250-260rwkW with 18 psi or so, which would be a decent effort, considering the stock sized turbo inlet pipework and AFM, and the return flow cooler. According to Tao, those things should definitely put a bit of a limit on it by that sort of number. I must stress that I have not opened the throttle 100% on the road yet - well, at least not 100% and allowed it to wind all the way up. It'll have to wait until some reasonable opportunity. I'm quite looking forward to that - it feels massively better than it has in a loooong time. It's back to its old self, plus about 20% extra powers over the best it ever did before. I'm going to get the boost controller set up to maximise spool and settle at no more than ~17 psi (for now) and then go back on the dyno to see what we can squeeze out of it. There is other interesting news too. I put together a replacement tube to fit the R35 AFM in the stock location. This is the first time the tuner has worked with one, because anyone else he has tuned for has gone from Z32 territory to aftermarket ECU. No-one has ever wanted to stay Nistuned and do what I've done. Anyway, his feedback is that the R35 AFM is super super super responsive. Tiny little changes in throttle position or load turn up immediately as a cell change on the maps. Way, way more responsive than any of the old skool AFMs. Makes it quite diffifult to tune as you have to stay right on top of that so you don't wander off the cell you wanted to tune. But it certainly seems to help with real world throttle response. That's hard to separate from all the other things that changed, but the "pedal feel" is certainly crisp.
    • I'm a bit confused by this post, so I'll address the bit I understand lol.  Use an air compressor and blow away the guide coat sanding residue. All the better if you have a moisture trap for your compressor. You'd want to do this a few times as you sand the area, you wouldn't for example sand the entire area till you think its perfect and then 'confirm' that is it by blowing away the guide coat residue.  Sand the area, blow away the guide coat residue, inspect the panel, back to sanding... rinse and repeat. 
    • The detail level is about right for the money they charge for the full kit... AU$21.00 each issue, 110 issues for a total of $2,300 (I mentioned $2.2K in the first post when the exchange rate was better). $20/week is doable... 😐
    • If planning on joining us for the day(s) please indicate by filling in this form. https://forms.gle/Ma8Nn4DzYVA8uDHg7
    • You put the driver's seat on the wrong side! Incredible detail on all of this. It looks like you could learn a lot about the car just from assembling the kit.
×
×
  • Create New...