Built Quality of Certain Laptops and upgradabilty?

So do you own a G73? I know its a good laptop, it is one of my choices, tbh, every time some one suggest something, i change my mind. Do you have any benchmarks or anything that shows that the 673 can do anything i throw at it. and I like #1, 2 and 4 :laugh: game quietly hahah. does the g73 have any heating issues, how about batter life.

yeah i understood that. I'm not future proofing now. I just a need a laptop that will do what i want now which is:

And i want it to last around 4 years..because after my bachelors degree, i'll obviously buy a new one Thats why g73 is one of my best choices, following an m17x, HP 8740w

 

Sigh... Here we go again. What is it you want to do? Aerospace engineering? High energy physics? Astrophysics? They're all different things, and you need to pick one. Focus, kid, focus. Tell you what: Why don't you first figure out what you want to do in college before you agonize about what gaming laptop to buy. Once you have your priorities straight things will look more manageable.

Essentially, you're saying you'll be doing everything that can be done with a computer, using just about every high-end software package you have ever heard of. You know, if you want, I can give you another dozen names of software packages that cost thousands of dollars and sound really impressive, but what's the point of this nonsense? Get a laptop that does the kind of things you know something about, and don't try to dream up stuff you don't understand. Most of all, see above.

 

I like you sarcasm. I already accepted Aerospace engineering. I'm doing aerospace engineering and im specializing in propulsion research and HE Physics and research. (it exists) Also the things I listed, well thoese are teh things Im going to be doing. Thats why i asked here

 

"lasting for four years" and "obsolete in 18-24 months" and "not attempting to future-proof" are all contradictions that you appear to be clinging to.

 

Honey, you haven't even started college yet, and you're trying to tell me you know what you will be specializing in? Do you know what the percentage of students is that start but never finish their engineering degree? And you do understand, I hope, that high-energy physics is not part of any aerospace engineering curriculum, now, don't you? I should know, given that I happen to have a PhD in that field, and have worked in it for about twenty years now. My advice to you would be to try and do your best to get your first college degree. If/when that works out, you'll go from there.

Same with the "things [you] have listed". I am sorry, but that list comes out as a fairly naive smorgasbord of cool-sounding stuff that you quite obviously know next to nothing about. Why don't you forget this sh!t and get yourself a nice, generic laptop for college use. And if it's not really powerful enough for gaming, all the better. You need your time to work, as you'll find out soon enough.

 

Ahaha opps...18 to 24 months is like 2 to 3 years xd

Hey you, first of all i don't like to called honey by a guy (if ur a guy) :laugh: and secondly awesome that u have a PhD in that field, we need to keep in contact you can help me. Thirdly I believe aerospace engineering is also a science in itself so ti will give u research opportunities (hopefully). Fourthly i wanna specialized in propulsion of several reasons. Also I was "planning" to take a double major in physics and do HE Physics. and lastly i think your right, but there are so many lappy's to choose from, i asked here so I don't buy one a regret it. Also i wanted it to be kinda like a desktop replacement because my current desktop will be my sister.

 

well, I think we can close this thread. You've clearly decided to buy a max config machine.

 

which max config machine your talking about?

 

LOL. I'm certainly glad you're majoring in Aerospace and not any sort of language or literature classes, as your writing style isn't very serious at all. I'd say get an HP EliteBook 8740w or the ASUS G73 and be done with it. There are a multitude of high-end machines to choose from. Though picking out something like that is like trying on a suit. You want it to fit perfectly or not at all. Buy what fits your needs. Either of those I mentioned would probably be serious overkill ATM, but they would be slightly "future-proofed" due to the extreme high-end hardware in them.

 

ouch bro..that hurt

I'm very persuasive, but I chose not to be on a thread, when people try to help Also what do you mean by overkill? don't both of those lappys fit my price range of 800 to 2500?

 

Sorry. I just had maxillofacial surgery and I get blunt when I'm in pain.

Yes, overkill. That price range is so broad that it fits just about every notebook on the market though. What is THE SINGLE most important thing this machine will be doing? Build a notebook around that function that matters the most. Say some of your engineering software is GPGPU accelerated, then naturally you're going to want a beefy GPU, like the Nvidia Quadro in the HP, or the HD58xx in the G73. Then you have to thing about driver support, because Nvidia generally has the better drivers for GPGPU applications (CUDA). Your range is too broad, narrow it and the choices become less and less, until you find the exact machine for you.

 

oh...i'll see if i can...but i think i kinda did narrow it

Also hope u get better, its a good thing u took the surgery

 

I'd say get something like the HP with a 17' screen and an Nvidia QuadroFX 3800m or an ATI FirePro M7820. That would serve your purposes quite well, I believe. And thanks! I have had corrective surgery for TMJ twice now, and they still haven't gotten it right.

 

oh really, i wonder why they keep getting it wrong? is it there need for u to pay them more? Anyway so pretty much an HP workstation? like the elitebook 8740w? but really the price is like ..too much me thinks.

 

No i don't but i'm planning to get one.. i've done my research and nothing beats it for the price..

I'm doing Aeronautical engineering.. Masters.. doing exams now.

I wouldn't get the hp.. its really expensive and although screen is good , the M17x with a RGBLED screen would be a better alternative..

 

Yes Bro...Aeornautical engineering ftw

But really, i looked at some reivewi the G73 has bad built quality..plastic and they say that the ATI HD 5850 on the g73 is bottleneckd, so it doesn't perform like the legit version..its modified :S

 

1. Case is quite solid and acutally quite good.. only thing is it is a little flashy... but allright... and not plain like sager.
2. The 5870 isn't bottlenecked.. it can be oced easily to more and it is stock speed..

3. I don't get the legit part...

 

1). I heard it was made out of cheap materials, and can bend, has weak spots.

2). Yeah the stock speed on the HD 5870 is not the same as the original HD 5870 made by ATI

3). Legit as in, the hardware on the G73 is modified

Please note that i never owned a laptop, this stuff i heard from a poster on one of the threads on NBR

 

Well, the mobile version is ALWAYS going to be gimped compared to the desktop version, but the HD5870 for notebooks comfortably bests anything but the new fermi Nvidia parts, and even then they are both in close competition with each other. Also, the Mobility HD5870 is going to be somewhat more power efficient than anything Fermi.

 

The OP is making value judgments on hardware he has never touched on how well he thinks it might run software he has never used to solve problems he has never seen.......

Not enough data to encourage him to spend up to $2500 of someone elses money on a machine that may or may not be what he needs.

 

I know..lol. I'm just regurgitating information.

 

Ahh i get it.

And newsposter, that's why im asking here.

Also what do you mean by problems i've never seen..im confused? All i want is a laptop that can do what my desktop can do. I want to be able to multitask and also be able to play the newest games, do my won research and also be able to do anything my university assignments want me to do. I've just simplified it a bit

 

1. Those are rumors by Alienware and Clevo fanatics.. no such thing like that.. if u doubt it , go to a Canadian best buy or somewhere and have a look at it.
2. The stock speed for HD 5870M is correct on the Asus and in fact in even clevo and alienware.. u are obviously not going to get the same as a desktop card.. u'll burn ur laptop.

3. It isn't modified.. You just get a free OC under Asus and its in their warranty.

4. I would suggest that u decide getting it ASAP.. the more u try to understand the more u'll get confused.

 

oh wow..my bad...I wonder why there is so many haters

Bro i gotta study for exam...finish uni aplications and worry about a laptop at the same time...i do not think I can buy it this instant

 

This is terrible advice. Just because the more you try to understand something, the more confused you get, doesn't mean any one else will. Never rush to buy something that you're going to be using often and spending a couple thousand dollars on.

 

I would also add that build quality is overrated. Before you start saying which notebook is plastic and which metal, you have to ask yourself, does it really matter? Do you absolutely need the metal casing? And it's not like metal means more durable if they are still consumer grade, if you smash a AW or Envy or Macbook on the floor, it will break just like any other plastic notebook.
Honestly, consumer grade metal notebooks are a novelty.

Same thing with cameras, you can have 5-6k worth of Canon DSLR that still use plastic casing, their metal cameras are more expensive, not because they just change the plastic to metal casing, but their adjusted their internals as well to be more durable and rugged, because those are for professional photographers that need a durable camera to bring to the wilderness etc. Consumer metal casing notebooks are just like simply changing the casing of a cheap camera to metal, it's not going to have any practical purpose accept to make yourself feel better holding metal.

Before you ask about build quality, ask yourself whether do you really need that build quality, build quality after some point just becomes a non-practical novelty that only serves to make you feel better psychologically.

Edit: Change the "need" to "want", I realise that "need" is a bit of irony for notebooks which is a "want" in the first place.

 

I have the G73JH-A1. I am very happy with it. It feels solid and in fact the materials are nice. I like the dull rubberized shell. I have picked it up open with one hand from the front and I do not feel flex. It gets about 1/4" in the front. On the GPU stock clocks are what NBC lists, and it OC to 850/1100 with out issue.

 

true +1

Yeah good edit there, anyway your right, build quality is just an extra...I just want a laptop that can take anything i through at it, won't slow down easily and serve well for what I want to do

oh so OC is fine then. Yeah the Asus looks fine, not that shiny...or flashy...so it won't attract theives. Will it actually be able to do the things I want without a slow down and without hurting my pocket that much

 

No, you don't, as is evident from the fact that you still can't let this go.

Uhmm, didn't you claim that you were already accepted into an aerospace program? And didn't you say that you were starting college this fall? If either of those is true, you can't be writing "uni aplications" now. Something does not compute here... Methinks you're a troll.

 

wait wait..Uni application as in getting the student ID cards finalized, OSAP and such. Also I was wondering, alot of people say go for a netbook and take your desktop so you can do your stuff :confused2:

Here is a quote from my desktop post:

So will that desktop be enough...really will a QUAD CORE REALLY HELP? I thought core 2 quads were out dated :laugh: im such a noob

 

I don't know why I'm bothering at this point, but let me make a vain attempt to drive this point home.

When we suggested a netbook, we were suggesting a netbook, not a slim laptop (and those aren't even ultraportables).
(Also, we were suggesting *buying a new desktop* because you can get one that's better than the best laptops for half the price. Very easy, and you leave your dad with the one he's using now. Hardware Revolution is a good place to find good desktop builds for a large variety of budgets, and advice on customizing any of them. If you actually read some of the build articles, the CPU review and the gcard review, you will also learn a LOT, including detailed answers to virtually every question you've asked here.)

An actual netbook will get you extreme portability AND excellent battery life (try 14 hours with minimal load, or 8.5 with full-load constant video playback despite having a small battery and being under 3 pounds) due to power-conscious hardware design. Plus the base price points is in the $300-$500 range for a very nice one, giving you lots more spare cash to make a powerful desktop (allowing you to do things like go with nVidia despite the superior performance/price ratio for ATI at the vast majority of price points). Also gives you room to choose an SSD for the netbook, which will give you two things: no moving parts to fail & no head-locking, so you can use the thing on the move and sling it around without worrying about damage . . . AND sub-20-second boot times with an appropriate OS, without even needing to tweak (which could get you sub-10).

(Which, let me tell you, is tremendously convenient - even if my machine is off, I can whip it out, boot it up, and check something online in the time it takes some people to get the search done on their tiny smartphone keyboard and screen [it takes a bit longer if I have to um, obtain *cough* keys for a wireless network, but since the thing can get a wireless signal from a block away, there's generally an open one in range]).

The small form factor is not only convenient, it also makes it non-distracting when taking notes (or using it as a reference) in class -- professors who would be annoyed at a 15" screen are not only OK with it, but sometimes ask me to look stuff up real quick during discussions.

Also, my netbook with integrated Intel graphics and an Atom processor can still run a sexy 3D composited desktop environment with various bells and whistles while playing videos at double speed with real-time automatic pitch shifting. Power not an issue for stuff you want to do on it.

(Actually, a number of systems are shipping with a usually-Linux-based "instant on" second OS that boots in 10-20 seconds, and Android (also something well-suited to a netbook) has a one-second-boot feature (really just a hibernation resume). Since I can get my now-old machine booted into a full environment, connected to wireless and running whatever program I want in about 30, I don't feel the need to bother.)

 

Yeah im looking at desktop build threads. Really I'll go with an ATI HD 5870. And i might go form the AMD 6-core instead of the intel. Also Which netbook would you recommend? I'm set my brother

 

I have been very happy with my Asus Eee 1000 (old model, 10-inch screen, 91% keyboard). There are a lot of options in various sizes @ the Asus site, check it out and see what you like. (There are other brands, but I only have experience with Asus Eee PCs, and I like their stuff; I know a number of people who really like their Acer Aspire Ones. You could look at reviews around here, there are lots.)

I recommend getting one with an SSD, but that's your call - you get a lot less disk space, but it generally will speed up boot and motion won't bother it. And you're not gonna need tons of space on the netbook, that's what the desktop is for.

If you can, pop by Best Buy or some such and try out the feel of different size keyboards - that will probably set a lower limit on the size to buy.


I also recommend trying out a Linux distro to get the most out of your netbook - it'll boot faster, Linux desktops on moderate hardware look better than Windows OR Mac desktops on the best, and it'll keep everything automatically up to date and shiny, so you only need to worry about manual installs & updates, software cruft, and viruses on the desktop.
[Best way to do this is to buy whatever netbook you like and install afterward - machines that come with Linux often use poorly-designed or crippled custom versions.]

That last recommendation is the biggest leap, but if you try it I think you'll find it a lot easier than you may think.

 

interesting...i'll look into them...do all netbooks have intel HD graphics?

 

Most (if not all) do - the Intel graphics are actually quite decent and ridiculously power efficient. Some high-end laptops actually have Intel gfx along with the ATI/nVidia, sot they can switch out to save power in battery mode.

A netbook without Intel gfx is starting to veer away from a netbook - and seriously, you aren't going to want to do anything on the netbook screen that could make reasonable use of a stronger card, so it would be shooting yourself in the foot. The Intel cards are the best choice because they make the netbook better at what it's good at (being small, running cool, and having extreme battery life), and they cost less anyway!

(same thing with using a normal mobile processor - it takes away more than it adds: you want to go with an Atom or ARM (or the like).)

As I said, my *old* netbook with Intel gfx can play accelerated video in a 3d composited desktop environment - it's plenty powerful enough.

 

ahhh...so true i guess..yup looking into it bro...if that don't work i'll go with the W510

 

OMG , are u serious? u gonna get a crap thinkpad instead of a Asus G73 or Sager? I really have nothing to say now..

 

I'd take the Thinkpad over the Asus or Sager any day.

 

I know you didn't just call a ThinkPad crap. The question is... are YOU serious? lol

 

What

Are you serious Sean? How is thinkpad crap There IBM.....IBM makes supercomputers...so there technology is optimized for my needs (excluding gaming)...also the G73 has horrible battery life...so

 

Well, IBM isn't Lenovo... But Thinkpads are still very good notebooks.

 

what? :laugh:

I thought thinkpads were from IBM

 

IBM sold the thinkpad line to lenovo in 2005.

 

You thought wrong.

 

hmm, never knew that...thats pretty awsome to know now, was there a specific reason IMB did that? What did they replace the thinkpad with?

I guess so, meh i learned something new...nothing wrong with that right?

 

Yes i do. I've used thinkpads before and they look horrible and boxy and not to mention they're expensive and give nothing much.. Nver buying thinkpads now that its made by lenovo...

 

Looks are purely subjective so that point isn't really valid to everybody. Thinkpads were expensive but so were pretty much all other notebooks when IBM made them, but at least they were built like tanks and much better than most other mainstream notebook. Now, they're far cheaper and while quality isn't what it was before they're still among the top in terms of build quality for a mainstream notebook.

 

I really like the look of ThinkPads, for example.

Everyone in my family has always used them, and we never had one fail until my 6-year-old T42p suffered a backlight failure on the screen. That's a pretty solid record, 'specially considering that they took some rough treatment (mine survived a car accident that damaged the case).

The FlexView screens and the keyboards were both legendary; the latter are still often referred to as a reference point for judging current high-end models. The butterfly keyboard was a gorgeous and clever design that made for a compact notebook miles ahead of anything else when it came out.

The top end ones are also quite powerful, so they stayed useful for a long time - that and the build quality made really long replacement cycles entirely possible and reasonable.

I was a very sad puppy when IBM sold the line. They're still made by the same factories, iirc, and at least intially a lot of the management stayed on (IBM continues to support the transition until some time this year), but it's just not the same.

(And @ Sultan, they didn't replace it - they got out of the personal computer business to focus more on supercomputing, server, and consulting work, which was always their main business - they had a really strong brand and super name power in the business and IT worlds but I guess they felt it was too different from their core business, especially as Oracle was starting to pick up steam again.)

 

They didn't replace it with anything. IBM does not produce any consumer computers anymore. They sold that business unit to Lenovo. They are the ones making Thinkpads now.

Nope.

 

oh yeah SUPERCOMPUTER FTW... Im hearing the IBM is aiming for personal supercomputers? is that true ?

Also are the new fermi cards really worth getting? Also whats the different between ATI Firepro and NVIDIA QUADRO"S