Personal computing discussed
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Krogoth wrote:Care to enlightenment me?
grantmeaname wrote:Nope. I'd argue a Precision isn't either.
Althernai wrote:What would you suggest instead?
Krogoth wrote:Care to enlightenment me?
grantmeaname wrote:... and its glossy screen. I don't know if that's a factor for the OP, but it's a non-negotiable instant fail for me.If you're comfortable with a consumer laptop, that is...
UberGerbil wrote:I'd suggest the Lenovo 520s as an alternative, but I imagine it'll end up being even more expensive priced out with equivalent options.
grantmeaname wrote:The Latitude E5520 can be had with the a 1920*1080 panel, a 9-cell, and Sandy Bridge processor for around $900, especially if you're willing to buy RAM somewhere else. Unfortunately, you're stuck with the Sandy IGP. Its slightly better-built big brother the E6520 can be had for a couple hundred more with decent graphics. Best of all in my opinion would be the XPS 15... take the base model (i5-2410M, 500GB, 4GB DDR3), throw in a GT 540M and a 1920*1080 panel, and it's only $1050. If you're comfortable with a consumer laptop, that is... The biggest difference I'd be concerned with is if you need GPU acceleration for any scientific computing- would it be locked to workstation class cards only?
UberGerbil wrote:I guess I should get the model right: it's the T520 (for some reason the equivalent 14" is the T420s, but they don't use the "s" suffix for the upgradeable-screen version at 15")
potatochobit wrote:the average user cannot tell the difference in regards to color accuracy between most monitors
actually, I take that back
the average user will choose the over saturated screen over a color accurate screen since the accurate one will always look duller
FireGryphon wrote:As others have said, though, why a Dell Precision? Lenovo is among the best. I wouldn't buy any other brand (unless I was buying Apple).
Krogoth wrote:Care to enlightenment me?
Althernai wrote:
I'm still going to wait for reviews of both the Precision and the EliteBook (I'm not buying anything with a bad keyboard), but the graphical options on the Lenovo don't seem to be as good.
lonleyppl wrote:Althernai wrote:
I'm still going to wait for reviews of both the Precision and the EliteBook (I'm not buying anything with a bad keyboard), but the graphical options on the Lenovo don't seem to be as good.
You should look up some more reviews of the Lenovo screens then. Anandtech consistently rates them among the best they've seen, up there with the Dell RGB-LED screens and almost as high as the HP DreamColor screens. It may not be IPS, but it's a high quality screen. I can understand wanting a NumPad, but that wasn't something I was looking for when I made my decision.
Edit: Coulda sworn I found it on Anandtech, but haven't been able to find it again. And really the only decent Lenovo screens are the 1080p ones.
cphite wrote:
One major point against Lenovo in my opinion is all of the crap-ware that gets preinstalled. My wife got one about two years ago, and it came with an entire suite of useless applications, toolbars, and so forth. Most of the applications just replicate stuff that the OS already does, only not as effectively. We had an issue where her network adapter would randomly shut down - finally fixed that by removing ReadyComm (a very common fix on their forums for network issues is to remove this program).
UberGerbil wrote:Well, there are "gamer" laptops with better GPUs -- the ASUS G53JW-A1 "Republic of Gamers" one has a GTX 460M, for example, and a (glossy) full HD screen -- but yes, you're dealing with "consumer" products and all that entails.
lonleyppl wrote:You should look up some more reviews of the Lenovo screens then. Anandtech consistently rates them among the best they've seen, up there with the Dell RGB-LED screens and almost as high as the HP DreamColor screens. It may not be IPS, but it's a high quality screen. I can understand wanting a NumPad, but that wasn't something I was looking for when I made my decision.
Edit: Coulda sworn I found it on Anandtech, but haven't been able to find it again. And really the only decent Lenovo screens are the 1080p ones.
grantmeaname wrote:I think he meant GPUs.
Althernai wrote:The second one costs $370 more than the first one despite both being LED displays with the same resolution.
Althernai wrote:I also heard that Nvidia's Optimus doesn't play nice with Linux.
UberGerbil wrote:I guess I should get the model right: it's the T520 (for some reason the equivalent 14" is the T420s, but they don't use the "s" suffix for the upgradeable-screen version at 15")
Althernai wrote:Yes, I meant the GPU. The Lenovo displays are said to be very good (here is a W520 review), but the graphics card is not really meant for gaming.