"OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars" (jakeauern)
04/27/2020 at 12:50 • Filed to: None
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"OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars" (jakeauern)
04/27/2020 at 12:50 • Filed to: None | 0
| 12 |
The wife and I have two laptops at home right now. A mid-2012 Mac and a mid 2012 Asus. They are both old but at least the Mac mostly works. The wife got into Duke for her Masters of Nursing Program and will be attending online but has to go to North Carolina enough. As for me, I am definitely not a gamer but want something I can play some games on occasionally (i.e. some Minecraft for destressing).
Requirements
- Durable/Reliable
- Easy to transport
- Decent Camera
- Decent enough for games(separate Graphics card, not a mobile graphics card maybe?)
- a few different prices range so we can compare and contrast the benefits and see what would work
I might be asking for too much in one package get it but that’s why I am asking you all. We really don’t have space for a desktop setup right now and it’s not my cup of tea quite yet.
Oppo hivemind - Go!
Mid Engine
> OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
04/27/2020 at 13:12 |
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Wife has a Surface Pro and I rea lly like it, far more versatile than my MacBook. They’re not cheap but I do think they offer excellent value.
facw
> OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
04/27/2020 at 13:16 |
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I don’t have great advice regarding laptops, especially gaming laptops (I’m all about ultraportables) but I would advise you to at the very least avoid the super cheap crap. Specifically don’t get less than:
8GB of RAM
256GB SSD (try to go for a 512GB if you are thinking you might play things more demanding than Minecraft. Under no circumstances should you buy a laptop with a conventional, or even a hybrid HDD)
1080p screen (there’s still so much 1366x768 garbage out there, and you really don’t want it)
Don’t really know enough about the choices to make a recommendation for graphics.
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JMordu becoming “savethemilanos”
> OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
04/27/2020 at 13:23 |
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What’s the budget? $500 laptops are very different than $1500 or even $5000 (yes, its possible to spend that much, but really stupid!)
Also, couldn’t tell, do you want another mac? Are you keeping the macbook and replacing the old Asus? You can of course use any mac laptop as a PC, but much harder to do the reverse . But it’s kind of hard for a lifetime mac user like me to recommend current apple laptops, I went with a used 2013 MacBook Pro and a Refurb 2018 iPad Pro on my last upgrade cycle and use the iPad a lot more.
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OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
> JMordu becoming “savethemilanos”
04/27/2020 at 13:32 |
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I don’t think my wife is set, I ‘m thinking for school the PC will be easier. 500-1000 I would guess.
gin-san - shitpost specialist
> OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
04/27/2020 at 13:44 |
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I believe all laptops use mobile GPUs instead of desktop ones apart from some higher-end or niche products. That said, mobile GPUs can still be good as long as they are discrete graphics (a separate GPU from the CPU).
facw’s advice is solid in that these are fundamentals you want on any PC or notebook. Notebook graphics are going to be slow for modern games if you want to play with a higher level of detail, but for games like Minecraft or older games a mobile GPU should perform OK as long as you’re willing to compromise on the detail level.
Something like this is nearly perfect for a reasonably price, jack-of-all-trades kind of laptop:
https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/dell-laptops/dell-g3-15-gaming-laptop/spd/g-series-15-3590-laptop
The only part I’d want to upgrade would be replacing the 1TB hybrid hard drive with an SSD.
BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind
> OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
04/27/2020 at 13:48 |
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Any reputable brand $4-500 laptop will be fine. Definitely don’t get a chrome book for online classes. More RAM the better.
Eric @ opposite-lock.com
> OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
04/27/2020 at 13:58 |
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Full disclosure: I work for a major tech company, so my opinion should be taken with a truckload of salt.
First of all, cheap laptops don’t last anymore. They never did, but they’re practically disposable now. Any laptop under about $15 00 is designed to be recycled/discarded after 1-2 years. Business-focused ones are usually a bit better, but you need to move into higher end business stuff if you want to do another 7- 8 years with a laptop.
For your wife, you’re looking at a Surface Book 2 (or wait for Book 3) , Surface Laptop 3 for Business (my wife’s next laptop, mostly because it’s the better 15" option and she wants a larger laptop ) , Dell “ New XPS 13" (the old one is just XPS 13, I have no clue how else to differentiate them, and the 15" variants suck in my opinion, especially when compared to a 13 ), or ThinkPad X1. Also, unless you really want a tablet , I’d avoid the Surface Pro, even though they’re popular. The form factor just makes them less handy for heavy use. If you want a convertible, you need to play with the Surface Book - the hinge is an engineering marvel.
For you: Get a desktop. Desktops that can play most typical 3D games are tiny these days. My current desktop, after the old one I built went to my wife, is a ThinkStation P330 Tiny with a Quadro P1000. As configured, this one is ~$ 1400 today. You can’t even touch that in a laptop at that price point. You could build one about 3-4x the volume of mine (still tiny) for around $1000 that would play nearly anything and be much faster than any true laptop. I gave up on laptop gaming around 2013 because it’s just too compromised - I want something sturdy, small/portable , and workable for work in a laptop (has enough interfaces built in to be practical ) and a better desktop for everything else...
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OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
> gin-san - shitpost specialist
04/27/2020 at 14:05 |
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I’ve been chatting with someone from oppo viaq text and the Dell XPS is looking like a good option too. Basically the G3 but not gaming ware. Looks good.
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JMordu becoming “savethemilanos”
> OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
04/27/2020 at 14:05 |
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Well, $500-1000 locks out anything but a used apple laptop, I wouldn’t buy any configurations they sell for less than about $2500, honestly.
Less up to date on PC laptop options in that price range, but hearing good things about ryzen 4000 series that is just coming out. And Nvidia says that they will have RTX 2060 graphics (very good for a laptop) in $999 machines soon.
Sub $1000 “gaming” laptops I’d look at right now:
1) From walmart, house brand I think. But very well reviewd. Downside is it has been cheaper in the past (Black friday, etc.)
2) Not out yet. Very upper end of the budget. But uses an excellent AMD CPU. Downside is AMD graphics with only 4gb VRAM . But still a discrete card and one of their newest designs. (the Walmart one likely has 6gb vram, but haven’t seen that confirmed anywhere)
Those are both very much designed for gaming, so probably large and heavy for school use. Can look around a bit later for better compromises. Most of the things I’d recommend off the top of my head are more in the $1200-$1500 range, and I’m trying to be sure you get specs that will last a a long time, 16gb ram, 512gb or more SSD, 4 cores/8 threads minimum, etc. Anything less will be a pain to use now and obsolete itself very quickly.
avalonian
> OpposResidentLexusGuy - USE20, XF20, XU30 and Press Cars
04/27/2020 at 14:28 |
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You can get the new macbook air for like 928 at microcenter and alot of stores. When you use student discount or anything tbh, that what my sister got and she really enjoys it. And I like the aesthetic, plus if you are already in the apple ecosystem via phone, they do all kinds of cool stuff.
404 - User No Longer Available
> Mid Engine
04/27/2020 at 15:57 |
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Surface Pro won’t meet the requirement of a discrete GPU. Unless it’s a Surface Book 2 .
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JMordu becoming “savethemilanos”
> avalonian
04/27/2020 at 19:07 |
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I love apple, have used Macs since I was born and iPhones since 2007 but I struggle to recommend low spec Mac laptops in 2020, they’re significantly underpowered and Apple is going to start the switch from Intel to homegrown ARM chips in low end Macs next year so they have yet another pressure making them quickly obsolete dead ends .
On top of that, I’m doubly cautious for anyone who thinks they might game. Apple’s best low end laptop and best overall games machine is an iPad Pro. Get that instead (especially a ln Apple refurbished 2018 model!) and keep the old MacBook for the few tasks that don’t work well on iPad.