The Laptop Guide - Post here for questions, deals, etc.

[Julian]

I got my UL80VT Friday and I'm loving it so far. The battery life on this thing is just insane. The construction of the laptop seems good, but there is a little bit of keyboard flex. It's not much and I hardly even notice it. There's something I keep wondering about though: how do I keep the GeForce 210M running all the time?

Just hit the key on the top left until its in dedicated graphics, or set your power settings to high performance.

[ferigor]

I was able to dualbox pretty respectably with my Dell Vostro 1500 for $700:
1.8ghz core2duo, nvidia 8400 gs 128mb, 2gb of ram; 1024x768 resolution, (probably 512x512 background)

Nothing fancy like 2x in dynamis, but for regular events, limbus, camping NMs, salvage, it worked out well with the right drivers.

Thanks. That's pretty much exactly I want to do.

[fishstix]

What's key to look for is a video card, preferably not integrated (but mine actually is), and a decent cpu which is pretty standard these days. I upgraded my laptop to 4gb of ram 2 years after buying, was pretty cheap.

There's exceptions to the rules, depending on what games are played, but here's a general list of mobile GPUs sorted by performance http://www.notebookcheck.net/Compari...rds.130.0.html

[gaira]

what kind of laptop video card is required for ffxi? i'm in the market for a new (but cheap) laptop, on which the only game i would really play other than old emulators would be ffxi. is integrated ok in most cases since ffxi is so cpu-intensive?

[Cephius]

what kind of laptop video card is required for ffxi? i'm in the market for a new (but cheap) laptop, on which the only game i would really play other than old emulators would be ffxi. is integrated ok in most cases since ffxi is so cpu-intensive?

No, you're going to want to get some kind of standalone card. Integrated graphics are garbage for playing games, they make it almost entirely dependent on the CPU to render the engine. Any kind of ATI or Nvidia card should be enough to run FFXI these days.

[njitjk68]

http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g73jha1-order-p-2731.html

Coming later this month with following base specs for $1645:
* Model: Asus G73JH-A1
* Display: 17.3" FHD Glossy (1920x1080)
* CPU: Intel® Mobile Core i7 720QM
* RAM: 6144 MB DDR3 1066MHz
* HDD: 1,000GB (1TB) 7200RPM (Dual 500GB 7200RPM)
* CD: Blu-Ray Reader + Super Multi DVD±R/RW / CDRW
* Wireless: Built In WIFI & Bluetooth

[Tyche]

I'm looking to buy a laptop, budget of $500. I want a dual-core processor and I'd prefer non-integrated video card. MOstly be using it for a few resource heavy applications. Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. I won't do much, if any, gaming on it. The non-integrated card may not even be necessary for my needs. I came across this one

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+...&skuId=9548643

any other suggestions?

[Stiker]

I'm looking to replace my personal dinosaur laptop in the near future. It will primarily be used as a secondary gaming machine that will allow me to be able to play a game at respectable settings without hogging up my TV that my main rig is connected to. I'm sure what I've selected will run something like FFXI just fine; however, I am thinking of the future and being able to handle future games as well if I wish.

I was shooting for under a grand, Windows 7, and ATI dedicated card. This is what I found: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834157046

From user reviews, it seems the only real knock on it is battery life when gaming; however, if I'm going to game, I'll have it plugged in so I don't see that as an issue. Seems to be pretty good bang for the buck and I don't have a problem getting rid of the HP bloatware on my own.

Thoughts?

[gaira]

is this thing really worth 6 grand?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...251&CatId=4940

never even heard of visionman before, looks nice but wow.

[Johyo]

is this thing really worth 6 grand?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...251&CatId=4940

never even heard of visionman before, looks nice but wow.

It is probably close to 6k, when you factor in cost of those parts + profit.

Its got SSD + 2 Nvidia cards running SLI in a laptop...

I dont know why anyone buy a laptop like that though, just get a desktop.

[Vendeen]

What's a simple way of removing bloatware? Bought a Sony Vaio FWsomethingsomething that should get here today. I know re-formatting would be simple, any other alternatives?

[The Stig]

Identify all possible useless bloatware and remove them via the Control Panel --> Add/Remove Programs (if XP) or the Vista equivalent (forgot the name now, haven't touched it for so long)

That should get rid of most.

Then you clear up the rest via Msconfig -> Startup and disable things you think you don't need, take care not to disable essential features tho (i.e. some laptops have touchbuttons that need some software to be running at the same time)

[Stiker]

For bloatware I also use CCleaner as it gives you uninstall, registry fixes, and startup options all in one convenient place. If you seem to run into a stubborn program that isn't quite uninstalling correctly, hit it with the Windows Install Clean Up tool.

[Vendeen]

Which of these is bloatware and which should I uninstall? I sux @ comps Q_Q

Spoiler: show

http://i46.tinypic.com/2visbyd.png

[Shibo]

Identify all possible useless bloatware and remove them via the Control Panel --> Add/Remove Programs (if XP) or the Vista equivalent (forgot the name now, haven't touched it for so long)

Under programs or programs and features in control panel, depends on which viewing style you have. (This applies to both vista and 7)

[Shibo]

It is probably close to 6k, when you factor in cost of those parts + profit.

Its got SSD + 2 Nvidia cards running SLI in a laptop...

I dont know why anyone buy a laptop like that though, just get a desktop.

Also the large screen, ddr3 memory (only 4gigs for 6k tho...), and quad core. I also see they were smart and didn't mention anything about the battery life as sli is prolly going to rape it with keeping it from overheating.

[Shibo]

I'm looking to replace my personal dinosaur laptop in the near future. It will primarily be used as a secondary gaming machine that will allow me to be able to play a game at respectable settings without hogging up my TV that my main rig is connected to. I'm sure what I've selected will run something like FFXI just fine; however, I am thinking of the future and being able to handle future games as well if I wish.

I was shooting for under a grand, Windows 7, and ATI dedicated card. This is what I found: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834157046

From user reviews, it seems the only real knock on it is battery life when gaming; however, if I'm going to game, I'll have it plugged in so I don't see that as an issue. Seems to be pretty good bang for the buck and I don't have a problem getting rid of the HP bloatware on my own.

Thoughts?

I bought an asus that is almost identical to this recently. The only difference is the dedicated card. Mine is geforce 220m (also 1gb dedicated).

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-ATI...0.13883.0.html

The review shows the card in yours as a little higher in comparison to mine. So far I have had no problems running anything on high settings.

I started playing aion not to long ago, and have almost all my graphics set to max or almost max and I have no lag except in very large pvp battles.

The review shows how yours should perform up against some shooters and other games.

It seems appropriately priced for what you are getting in my opinion, and newegg usually has cheaper prices then other online sites so you probably won't find it cheaper elsewhere unless it goes on sale or something.

Hope this helps.

[Shibo]

I'm looking to buy a laptop, budget of $500. I want a dual-core processor and I'd prefer non-integrated video card. MOstly be using it for a few resource heavy applications. Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. I won't do much, if any, gaming on it. The non-integrated card may not even be necessary for my needs. I came across this one

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+...&skuId=9548643

any other suggestions?

With a budget of $500 I highly doubt you will find something with a dedicated graphics card. The cheapest with a dedicated card is usually around 650, sometimes less depending on sales and stuff.

If you are looking for an addition option though, I found this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115654

Both are almost exactly the same, (btw the processor speed no listed on bestbuy is 2.1ghz, they both have same processor)

They are identical in almost every aspect except one is acer and one is gateway. The acer does weigh .7 lbs less though.

If you want more info on the graphics card that is has to see if its acceptable, just check out:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Rad...00.9591.0.html

[Stiker]

Which of these is bloatware and which should I uninstall? I sux @ comps Q_Q

Spoiler: show

http://i46.tinypic.com/2visbyd.png

TBH, that looks pretty good. I can't really recognize anything that looks glaringly non-essential. VAIO Support and Help could be rid of most likely, but if it isn't running at startup, you are likely fine.

Windows Live might be the other thing you can nuke if you don't use it. It's basically a Microsoft client for IM, photosharing and such (more info: http://home.live.com/). Same would be true of your bluetooth drivers as well.

It does look like that you use a mouse though instead of the touchpad. If you want you can get rid of that software as that likely loads at startup (Alps pointing device program); however keep in mind that will kill any use of the touchpad so I wouldn't recommend it unless you are certain you'll never use it.

For future reference though, bloatware is generally a name given to a program that is placed on a factory sold PC and is non-essential to having a system run. The definition can be extended to software that could be useful; however, you will personally have no use for it. Bloatware that runs automatically at startup should be your main concern. If the program doesn't run when you start Windows, you really don't need to worry about it.

For instance, on my old HP system Norton Security came preinstalled. Personally, I don't like Norton at all and would rather use a different security solution on my system. Since this will always run at startup, this is bloatware to me and I want it off. My system also came with some kind of WLAN assistant that really does nothing for me as I can set this up through the usual Windows menus. That also ran at the start and I didn't need it. HP also installed some kind of help center that was useless as well that I got rid of.

There are also programs that you might want, but just don't want to load at startup. IM clients are great examples of this. You might want them to load at the start, or you might want to just start it up yourself -- all a matter of preference.

So my suggestion is to take a look at what starts when you boot up your system (or take a look at startup in CCleaner). Google names of programs you are unaware of (I do this constantly), figure out what they control and ask yourself if you need them if they aren't directly tied to your system. If you don't need them, get rid of them.

Hope this helps!

[Vendeen]

Yea, thanks a lot, I already sniped things like norton etc and just had a few things I wasn't sure about.

Also, Kaspersky the best anti-virus software? I know AVG is probably more applicable because you can get it for free legally, but what's generally known as the best anti-virus software out there?