Input on choosing a laptop

[Camikaze]

Thanks for the advice!

I had a look at the S430, and yeah, it looks good. i7-3520M processor, 1600x900, and even an SSD as standard (although I wouldn't necessarily pay hundreds extra to get one, I'll take it if it's standard, and use external hard drives when I'm using it as a desktop). And all this for $925 (supposedly 'valued' at $2130).

Two concerns though are the graphics (apparently not quite as good, but should still be passable on low and medium settings for most things), and the apparently horrendous battery life. The latter could almost be a deal-breaker. But I guess some sort of portable charger would compensate to an extent?

I was also looking at the T430, which is heavier, I think, but good quality, with slightly better graphics, slightly worse processor, HDD instead of SSD, but then fantastic battery life (up to 3 or 4 times the S430). But unfortunately, although it's supposedly valued less than the S430, it'd cost $1500 (due to non-uniform discounts). The big differences are the battery and storage space, but it's hard to justify almost $600 for that.

To give an idea of Australian pricing, the T430 configured identically is valued at $1941.01 ($US1993) here, and $US1229 on the US site. A comment I read that seemed pretty accurate, given the massive discounts that seem to be on offer, is that Lenovo's business strategy is to mark up the price by 100% for Australia, then apply a 40% discount to make it look cheap.

So at the moment I'm leaning towards the S430 on the basis of price, but it'll be necessary to compensate for the lack of storage space and battery life, which are two of my 'must haves'.

 

[tokala]

After looking up the review for the S430 I should probably take back my recommendation.
It seems that under heavy 3D load the cooling solution turns out to be insufficient, with the chip clocking down to performance levels about as "good" as intel integrated graphics.
And we know that Civ5 is very good in putting heavy load on modern graphics chips.

The T series has a reputation for rock solid quality, but if you can't get a special offer, is usually horrendously expensive. Same here in Germany, so it isn't just you Aussis getting screwed .

Compared to those, the "Edge" models are "Thinkpad light"


If the Samsung isn't available in Australia, you might want to have a look at the Dell 14" XPS:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-XPS-14-Ultrabook.79716.0.html

But ultimately, you probably will not be able to get a notebook that completely matches your requirements, and will have to compromise somewhere.
For a notebook, the biggest hurdle is usually the gaming power/portability conflict, so if you could get by with Civ4 and older/less demanding games for a while, you will get a whole lot more choices, and probably for much less money.

 

[Zack]

And we know that Civ5 is very good in putting heavy load on modern graphics chips.

That's not true. I ran Civ5 without a problem on an integrated graphics chip on my old laptop. Civ5 is CPU-intensive, but not at all straining on the graphics card. XCOM is a different story.

For travelling, a 15.6" model is much more inconvenient than a 14" model.

15.6" laptops are usually around 6 lbs, which isn't heavy to carry around in a backpack at all, regardless of your physique.

 

[Zelig]

I think it's in large part a matter of what you're used to.

My regular traveling laptop is the retina 15.4" macbook pro, which felt huge and heavy compared to the macbook air I replaced with it - it's thinner and lighter than most 15" laptops, but it's still bigger/heavier than I'd really like - I think my ideal travel laptop would be ~13". (My 10.6" tablet is awesome for content consumption while traveling, but not much use for any real work.)

 

[tokala]

That's not true. I ran Civ5 without a problem on an integrated graphics chip on my old laptop. Civ5 is CPU-intensive, but not at all straining on the graphics card.

Putting a heavy load on the computation units does not necessarily means it won't run somehow on less powerful chips.
It means Civ5 (in DX10/11 mode, and backed by a powerful CPU) is stressing modern chips closer to their theoretical limit than most games, i.e. they run hotter.
A good example are the reports on 8800/9800GTs overheating or even dying under Civ5, while nominally more demanding games ran fine beforehand.

But good point about the older chips, in DX9 mode it will stress a modern chip much less, and likely won't cause thermal issues.

 

[Camikaze]

So if I got a kinda crappy graphics card, it'd probably be best to stick with DX9 for Civ5? That would be fine. I mean, I've never played higher than DX9/medium settings anyway. Higher than that would certainly be nice, but that's something I can compromise away.

I doubt I'd be using the laptop for anything other than web browsing, skype and doing basic stuff with photos (i.e. storing them) when travelling, so the gaming is just for when I'm using it as a desktop. Would heat be easier to manage then?

In terms of portability, I don't think 15.6" is really feasible for the type of travelling I'll be doing. Lots of airlines have strict carry on baggage limits. For instance, if I'm on an easyjet flight, I can take one bag no bigger than a certain size. If I'm only going somewhere for several days, I won't want to pay for checked baggage, so have to fit a couple of changes of clothes in my bag (or attempt bagception), as well as the laptop and its sleeve. Some airlines also have a weight limit for carry on, so being lighter does make a difference. Then when I'm staying in hostels, unless there's a safe available, which is commonly not the case, I'll be carrying around my laptop all day with my 2L of water, guidebook and camera. A little less weight/space will go a long way there as well. For pure travel I'd definitely go smaller than 14", but then my other requirements demand that as a minimum.

 

[tokala]

I doubt I'd be using the laptop for anything other than web browsing, skype and doing basic stuff with photos (i.e. storing them) when travelling, so the gaming is just for when I'm using it as a desktop. Would heat be easier to manage then?

Ambient temperature will probably be lower indoors, and on a hard surface the cooling system might work better.
Biggest difference for stationary use would make an external cooling pad, but that's rather inconvenient for travelling.

Anything other than gaming won't be a problem.

 

[Camikaze]

So I ended up getting a Thinkpad T430:

• i5-3360M
• Windows 7
• 14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display
• NVIDIA NVS 5400M Graphics with Optimus Technology, 1GB DDR3 Memory
• 8 GB DDR3
• 500GB HDD
• 9 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70++ battery
• Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN

The graphics apparently should be able to cope with most games on low or medium settings. I might buy a spare battery at some stage. I could've upgraded from the i5-3360M processor to an i7-3520M for $370, but apparently there's not that much difference between them. It also would've been $80 more to get the RAM as 1 DIMM rather than 2, which seems a bit of a rip off. I passed on an 180GB SSD that would've been $215 more (plus whatever else I would've had to spend on an external HDD). I could've put a 1TB HDD in the Ultrabay, but I wanted the DVD, and that'd be another $215 on top of the SSD.

It might be a bit weighty, but then I'll be using it as a desktop for longer than I'll be travelling, and then as a regular laptop after that, so quality is more important than portability, though 15.6" would've been too much.

All up the cost was about $1380. There was a 15% off sale on the weekend. Lenovo said it ended on Sunday, but another website (ozbargain.com) said it would actually end today (Tuesday). The discount coupon was still active yesterday, so I figured it would still be available today, as ozbargain suggested. Alas, it wasn't, but I called up Lenovo and though I had to pay the full student price up front ($1620), I'll be refunded the difference. So even with that discount on top of the regular student discount, it's more expensive than in the US, but not so much more expensive as to justify a grey import. Without the 15% I probably wouldn't have bought it.

 

[Maniacal]

nvm wrong thread