The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
"RAM: When it comes to memory, or RAM, even the cheapest notebooks have 4GB these days, so dont settle for less. If you can get a system with 8GB, youll be better prepared for high-end applications and lots of multitasking"
But it does not sound like that "RAM" also determines heat and fan noise or long session use necessarily.
I hook up my lenovo thinkpad yoga core i7 to several monitors and try streaming multiple videos. It cannot handle more than one video very well. The fan also gets much louder. I just want to go on the internet, open as many windows and tabs as my heart desires, download multiple files at once, stream multiple videos at once, maybe play some music. Just reckless and impatient kind of browsing without having to worry about overtaxing the machine.
I've been looking at some affordable ways to just get raw power, and I heard that the lenovo y50 has pretty good power, but I am almost certain I can get something with more power and more power/cost ratio. What are some directions you would look at? Little desktop box things? Old used gaming laptops? It's gotta fit in a big backpack. I don't have a good sense for which option is optimal given that I will typically use the machine connected to at least one external monitor, and will be as abusive and reckless with opening new windows/downloading as possible.
+1 to more RAM. I would go for at least 16GB given your workload. Faster CPU would help too, though not so much with the heat. Get a cooling pad maybe?
The absolute biggest contributor to your usage pattern is your Internet connection. I am assuming you want the best possible experience for your laptop provided the bottleneck isn't your internet speed?
RAM is a very important spec for a heavy multitasking machine, Google Chrome can easily eat up 4-5Gb with about 20 tabs open so 16gb is optimal for a smooth experience.
Handling video streams (again assuming the bottleneck isn't your internet) is the domain of the CPU and video decoder. Traditionally, the best CPUs for multitasking are the Quadcores, basically you'd want a Haswell i7 with the best cooling system you can get. However, the cooling is almost directly correlated to the laptop size and thickness. Fatter and bigger laptops tend to be better about to use i7s with minimal noise than more svelte machines. Btw, that Yoga machine of yours is a Dual Core i7 with limited thermal dissipation abilities (i.e. relatively unable to maintain high clockspeeds).
The final piece of the puzzle is that you need a fast SSD, this will greatly improve your experience, especially if you are impatient at loading.
As for machine recommendations, if you don't really game, then most machines with a full voltage quadcore i7 will suffice, the y50 is a fairly good machine for this purpose considering the price. If you want more of a punch with better cooling, consider the W230SS or the Gigabyte P34 V2.
If you want to have the most responsive multi-tasking system, then look to maximize/optimize the cpu+ram combo in addition to getting a system with an Intel AC7260 wireless card too.
An SSD will also smooth out any hiccups a HDD would throw up at the O/S - (480GB and above, 1TB recommended - remember about OP'ing... and consider only the SanDisk Extreme Pro or the Samsung 850 Pro at this time for maximum performance).
For the cpu; get an i7 QC (not a 'u' model) with 8 threads and as much L2 & L3 cache as possible.
For the RAM; a minimum of 16GB DDR3L 12800 spec'd RAM is recommended.
For the actual notebook; get the one with the best cooling (if the cpu is throttled in your use, doesn't matter if it is the highest spec'd model in 'theory').
Win8.1x64 Update 1 also highly recommended along with IE11 for most responsive, most RAM efficient and most robust browsing/downloading.
A good start (from what I've been told) as a base for your new system is something like this:
Should have excellent cooling, room for 32GB of RAM, an AC 2x2 wifi card for the best wireless connection possible and a good/great screen for when you're not connected to the external monitor you're considering.
after owning 4 ASUS laptops...I would never buy an ASUS laptop again...but if you had to choose between the above 2 the JZ no question
Never had an Alienware before because of its high price. I had 3 ASUS Gaming laptops, G73Sw, G75VW, and G750JX
After being frustrated with ASUS's bad driver support, and lack of official drivers for Windows 7, I sold my G750JX and got this Alienware.
Now I know why they cost an arm and a leg
1) much better build quality, it's like you bought a Mercedes as opposed to a honda civic
2) Warranty is much better, if the laptop spoils, they will come to your house and fix it at your home the next business day. When my G750JX stopped booting within 6 months of owning it, I had to drive to the service center which is very far, and it took them 7 days to replace the motherboard
3) I wanted a bigger screen and ASUS only have 17.3' screens. This 18.4' screen is a dream to play and surf on
4) I didn't ask for it, but I got a freebie dual GeForce GTX 770M so my performance has never been better
5) I love the lighting effects of Alienware
6) Their audio and KLIPSCH speakers blow the ASUS G750JX out of the water in terms of loudness and quality although both use a Realtek Chipset, but the speakers are better and the Alienware comes with the Dolby Home Theater which improves the audio quality by a great mile
7) All ASUS laptops has a problem with the left USB 3.0 Ports. You plug in a USB 3.0 HDD to the left top or left bottom ports and it will randomly keep disconnecting. That is for all G750 series, JX,JW,JH,JZ,JavaScript, you name it. don't believe me, just hang around on the ROG forums and see the jokes of problems they have. pathetic for the amount of money you pay. problems with screens,m auto dimming problem, contrast problem.
I wouldn't use an ASUS laptop anymore even if they gave it to me for free! cheap Taiwanese crap!
Did I forget to mention...
their implementation of Optimus is messed up...it is very tricky to force games to use your nVIDIA GPU unless you do a lot of settings and even then users on their forums complain that the freakin' games are using the Intel HD Graphics! LOL! horrible!
with Alienware, there are no such mishaps...you press FN + F5 and the laptop reboots activating the nVIDIA GPUs and it's stuck like that until you press FN + F5. no room for error of a gaming even seeing your Intel HD Graphics!
you want Testimony ? Please take the time to read this:
why ASUS? because people who buy ASUS cannot afford Alienware, no other reason on earth...that's a fact...I am one of them...
First laptop, 2 years ago..
G73Sw:
bought it and ran home like a little child wanting to see my lights in the chiclet keyboards....ooops...no lights...tried all driver updates..BIOS update...nope..
Called ASUS, they told me to bring it to the service center it's an easy fix!! whaaaat?? I buy a 2000 USD laptop and go to the service center next day? oh well..I did and they activated it with their BIOS tweak utility that they don't give to customers! great quality control Taiwanese Engineers! send out laptops for sale that don't work properly as advertised...
after 1 week...the screen started giving me fuzzy images...closing/opening the screen lid fixed the problem....wow!! what did I buy? a 1990 Toyotal Corolla or a brand new gaming laptop??
They said they need to replace my screen! wow!! the laptop can't last a week without being repaired! i fought for a refund and got it after a long hassle...
next laptop...
ASUS G75VW,
ASUS decided to remove their awesome creative sound blaster audio chipset and put some cheap VIA audio chipset which made the subwoofer act like a center speaker rather than a subwoofer..
also..I only had the option to get the matte screen...oh well...people say matte is good...right? NOPE! not on ASUS! the ASUS matte screens look as if someone spilled grease all over them. very grainy image especially if you look at a white screen such as these forums or Google..if you look close..you can see the pixels of colorful rainbows! again shocked in awe for this cheap crap!
So I called ASUS complaining about the quality of the screen, they offered to change it to the 3D screen not coz I want 3D, but only because that is the only screen they have that is Glossy..
took the laptop...2 days..I get a call...sorry sir, we changed your screen, but fried your motherboard....we have no spare motherboards...so if you pay $500 USD we can give you a G750JX instead or you can wait till god knows when till we get a motherboard from Taiwan...
so I got the G750JX...
very bad driver support....ASUS released the win 8.1 drivers after 6 months of win 8.1 was released...anyone who upgraded while having the old drivers either got a non booting laptop after the upgrade due to outdated bluetooth/wifi drivers or had horrible problems....
next comes the 2D performance of their GTX770M....there is something not right about it! 3D was fine and performed as it should...but 2D was glitchy and choppy...imagine even a simple game of solitaire..the motion of the cards wasn't fluid...I used to get jealouse when I see my friends' Intel HD Graphics perform so smoothly in the Windows environment while my brand new gaming laptop cries in 2D...opening tabs in firefox...wow..another plethora of jerkiness / slow motion
next...they put cheap Atheros WLAN chipsets which cannot connect above 72 MBPS!! wow! had to pay 50 USD and get a Bigfoot Wireless N-Killer from the US and pay customs just to have a laptop perform like a normal computer
next.... USB 3.0 problems..
basically, I had to connect my USB drives to the right ports and the left ones were kept for my mouse and printer? why? because ASUS cannot produce a piece of hardware that functions right! they claim all ports are USB 3.0 and they are all in blue color...BIG LIE! it wasn't only me, I posted this on the ROG forums and every single one of the members verified the same!
I can't find my thread that I started, but here are 2 examples I quickly grabbed:
Asus G750 USB 3.0 Ports not working with some things
and
Is it normal that the top left USB port is very slow?
ASUS? HELLL NO!!
Worst case scenario, save some money and wait, then get a real gaming laptop from Alienware and be happy for life! rather than bite your fingers after you buy your ASUS
As I mentioned, I don't use this type of machine myself (simply repeating the satisfaction from some of my clients). More importantly; we're not talking gaming here either.
If a 32GB RAM capable, properly cooled systems with as little cash as possible is needed: I'm sure it is more than enough.
And almost certainly not worth spending double on for the tasks outlined in the first post.
Make no mistake: buying a Mercedes can be more economical in the long run than buying a few Accords... - but only if you need and use the extras that a Mercedes may offer.
For the workload here (heavy mult-tasking, browsing, downloading, etc.) spec'ing an Alienware is simply adding more chocolate, whipped cream and pistachios to a banana split simply because you can. But it doesn't mean you should.
The Asus computers I've used personally have been very dependable - with their best features being the ability to swap components (like wifi modules) without being worried about white/black lists in the BIOS and also their great battery life (not just in hours per day, but also when compared over the years too).
When I had my G750JX I never played a single game, was too busy getting that thing to work properly. Yes ,it has awesome cooling, never gets hot, but the left USB ports not functioning properly (only @ USB 3.0 speeds) and that's not just my unit, I confirmed it is a flaw in all G750JX on their forums, added to that the poor quality screens (unless you get the glossy one it's fine ASUS matte screens are utter rubbish), add to that a high failure rate, me and a few forum members on the ASUS ROG forums had a problem where after a few months the laptop simply wouldn't boot with a black screen and only the NUM LOCK and CAPS LOCK lights on in the laptop, had to get the motherboard replaced under warranty by ASUS which took 7 days.
That in my book is not a machine I would recommend to anyone
just my 2 cents worth bro
A quick Google search on the G750JX presents exactly what I experienced! I've probably formatted that laptop over 200 times twice daily just trying to make it work but every time some quirk happens...
Well my internet speed will be whatever my school's ethernet speed is. I don't know how to find out how fast that is, but it seems pretty decent and better than wifi. How would I determine if it is really the internet and not the machine causing the two simultaneous streaming videos to become more choppy when played in tandem? In general how does one test to see what the bottlenecks are if they don't have multiple devices lying around?
"As for machine recommendations, if you don't really game, then most machines with a full voltage quadcore i7 will suffice, the y50 is a fairly good machine for this purpose considering the price. If you want more of a punch with better cooling, consider the W230SS or the Gigabyte P34 V2."
Check your CPU usage (overall and individual threads) in Task Manager with simultaneous streams running. If it's maxed out, your CPU is the bottleneck. Otherwise it's your network throughput.
You can test if it's an internet bandwidth problem by looking at networking in Task Manager when you begin running multiple streams. If you have a bandwidth problem, the network use will rise to a certain point and then stay there, pegged at a certain percentage no matter how many more streams you start. If it's a processor problem, then you'll see your CPU usage spike up to near 100% and stay there. Basically, look for what's spiking. As an example, I just started 3 Youtube videos and a show on Netflix, and my CPU usage is between 20-30% and my network usage went to around 10% and hovered there. If I was getting any slowdowns (which I wasn't), then I would blame my connection speed because the network speed plateaued but my processor usage did not.
I just ran a test. I streamed two youtube videos at 1080p. Also note that this laptop has 6GB of DDR3-1333 memory and only a 2.53Ghz Core 2 Duo. Playback was flawless and CPU usage was ~80% while playing both videos simultaneously. You don't need anything faster than 802.11g to simultaneously stream two 1080p videos from youtube and you certainly don't need a quad core i7 either. I have two routers I can connect to. One is an old 802.11g and the other is a 450 Mbps capable 802.11n. I really can't tell the difference between them. The internet connection is Verizon Fios at 75 Mbps.
What if you wanted a touchscreen and good power and power/cost ratio?
The thing that worries me about the lenovo y50 touch is there is only one hdmi. So does that mean it that it can only connect to one monitor or have to use displaylink USB monitors for more?
I heard that using USB monitors is slower than connecting regularly.
I have found it so nice to be able to have one monitor mirror my thinkpad yoga and then use pinch to zoom on my thinkpad yoga's screen to browse images without having to use ctrl ++ and then later figure out how to get back to default text size. pinch to zoom is much nicer for viewing images both ones i have downloaded and ones I am viewing on chrome.
Youtube. And some other websites you stream videos on. I'll let you use your imagination, but I'm not talking about dailymotion. Usually 720 p or lower. I'd set them both on maximum size if that matters. But I immediatly noticed regardless of the video quality that if I put two videos on, they would both become choppy.
If the problem is not my computer processing power, and I don't appear on surface to have viruses, what are the next go to things? I have tried disk defrag, virus scan, and will be trying ccleaner.
The laptop at least slightly slower then when I got it a few weeks ago.
I have a thinkpad yoga 1.8 GHz core i7 if that helps.
I use plugable's usb 3 dock to connect the monitors. I tried swapping one monitor of the 3 total with a regular hdmi cable directly to laptop and it did not seem to improve things.
I haven't checked. But I imagine based on what people have told me that basically if I don't want this to happen, then I need a more powerful laptop. So I've given up trying to make this thinkpad yoga be a multimedia machine.
Something else bugging me was that a possible bottleneck in the future if I get a faster laptop could also be the monitors themselves or how I connect to them. Currently, I connect to my monitors via a USB plugable dock.
If you want a touch screen laptop with 16 gigs of RAM at very least 2.2 GHz and also to connect it to multiple monitors, how do most people do it? Maybe there are better optins than the lenovo y70. If the laptop like the y70 only has one HDMI then won't using USB adapters to get the other screens result in slow screen performance?
Sites=location where I tend to use my computer? or sites=the websites that I am going on use up too much of the internet connection? or the specific websites I go on use too much of my processing power?
Connections meaning just internet connection? Or also things like use of the plugable dock (USB 3.0 dock) and/or the HDMI dock as opposed to a bunch of display ports?
The problem is that despite having a good download speed there are still some traffic bottlenecks
To which is one of the reasons I cited where I did the test
For example you may not be aware that several ISPs allocate slower transfer speeds for some sites that hog the bandwidth, aka how much cars can pass through a road, a classic example is YouTube another is Netflix.
Those sites pay for the ISP so that they don't get choppy connections but sometimes during burst periods they will get throttled.
Specially if you are doing a download in the meantime. It looks like you are trying to jam a 1000 cars into a road that supports 500
again Im saying this not because your supposedly good connection, but rather because they may well be applying filters to you.
Example at home I just have a 10mbps connection, that however should be enough for a 1080p video from youtube to be streamed without any hiccups. Most of the time its a breeze, sometimes... I just pause and wait for a portion of it to download. And I know for a fact that google pays some ISPs to not cap the connection, not that it actually works, specially in my case. On those times I can just go and start a download and I would reach the maximum speed of my internet, constantly.
So in the end, what you have to determine for yourself is how much load your pc can handle, and regarding what you told us, its enough.
One thing to be aware of, my uni usually caps youtube connections, because they aren't that needed, on the other hand downloads of apps from certain sites are completely unrestricted on some others they cap the bandwidth to just a mere 10mbps, despite my college being a T3 node.
With a 95Mbps isp connection it doesn't seem that it is your internet that is slowing you down. Unless you're connecting wirelessly. If you're connecting wired, then the isp 'issue', should be a non-issue.
If you're able to connect your own router to the schools' isp, I would recommend you try an Asus RT-N66U, RT-AC68U or an RT-AC87U if you can. Most likely though; this is not allowed by the school.
With USB connected monitors; yeah - I think we found your problem. Especially with 3 monitors total (3 off of the USB hub, or including the built-in notebook monitor?).
I wanna say that connection to a speedtest.net server or some such thing does NOT mean you get the same bandwidth or stability to *ANYWHERE* but that speedtest.net server. I highly suggest using that as a basic guide.
Next, if you're on wireless and your connection is 3/5 bars or higher and not constantly dropping below this, you should be more than fine. Only if you fluctuate between 0 to 2 bars should you really be worried about interruption of data etc. This is coming from a livestreamer who uses wireless exclusively and does not have issues with wireless.
Thirdly, I only read past the first page and some of the second here. I'm gonna break down what does what on your system. Click "show" to see the text, as I'm writing a lot and will use spoiler tags.
CPU:
This is required to process all the data that's available on the sites. If you have a load of data coming in and your CPU cannot process it, you will slow down and your system can halt until it's done most of the processing, considering a load-based processing is done. For example: Logitech's website page for the G502 proteus core mouse that came out recently is not viewable by me on this old HP I'm using till I get back the laptop in my sig, because it eats up my CPU to 100% straight and the whole system lags. It lagged out for almost 5 minutes before I closed the web page, bringing performance levels back up to normal. Please note, this is an EXCEEDINGLY old CPU, but it serves as a good point of reference for what I am saying. CPU is also required to decode video and such from the web, such as watching twitch.tv livestreams. If your CPU cannot keep up, the quality will suffer, and other browsing will falter. On the other hand, leaving video playing in the background (so it is not actively drawn) will reduce the load on your CPU/GPU as it isn't exactly being "rendered" to you per-se.
RAM:
Web pages and ads all add to your RAM total. Adblock will actually severely cut down on used RAM from certain websites; though 8-16GB should be more than enough. If you are out of RAM, your system will chug and slow down and putter until it can flush/compress the rest of the data being taken up so it can focus on what you're actually doing at the time. If you run out of RAM while web browsing in chrome for example, and something gets compressed and you click back to its tab, the page may be white for a few seconds, or you simply may not be able to interact with it for a few seconds until it fills its data in RAM once again. Also, things like buffering videos on youtube or other video streaming sites take up RAM as long as they are left up. The same happens with loading a lot of data on one webpage without moving to a different page; such as scrolling through a whole lot of tweets/twitter pictures on someone's twitter or continually scrolling down and hitting "load more" on someone's instagram page. Those websites can use up to and over 1GB of RAM if you keep racking up the data on the page. So for multitasking I always recommend 8GB as a minimum, and 16GB to be safe. Depends on the user though.
Internet connection:
This has to do with how fast you can load the pages/incoming data. If it's weak, things will be slow, but as long as the rest of the system operates optimally, you would not have a problem. Of course if your internet is so slow and bad that you cannot so much as watch a 480p youtube video without buffering a lot, you may need to take it up with your ISP =D.
Your GPU has a slight hand in things as well, though you'd find it impossible to buy a laptop today without enough GPU power to do the tasks you require, since it's mainly multitasking with web browsing.
All of the above being said, most quadcores or the i3/i5 dual core plus hyperthreading chips we have selling today should be fine as far as CPU goes, as long as it isn't a ultra low voltage model. RAM is your bigger concern for keeping multiple tabs etc open, but once you hit 8GB you should be well in the clear. At that, your internet would be your more limiting factor for how MUCH you could download, but not really how many tabs you could leave open since most tabs load their data then sit waiting for input, like a very patient Johnny 5.
I connect two monitors to my thinkpad yoga through plugable's USB 3 dock. I also plug in one more screen through my laptop's HDMI port.
So maybe to prevent this I need to get a laptop with more ports naturally built into it? I was thinking of getting a macbook pro but now I am wondering that perhaps I should get a laptop with ports naturally built into it like with a VGA and an HDMI. What makes the screens run faster- VGA and HDMI, a single daisy chained display port, or a boatload of display ports? How would I notice when?
I really just want to be able to run two videos smoothly. When they are both streaming videos i have problems. Often its fine if one is a video on my laptop and one is a youtube video.
Technically, either daisy-chained DisplayPorts or multiple DisplayPorts will provide the fastest bandwidth and greatest capacity. However, with your use, you just need to make sure all your monitors are connected with any video ports. VGA, HDMI, DispayPort doesn't matter as long as they're designed for graphics transfer.
And if you want to get a Macbook Pro, you can. They come with 2 Thunderbolt ports, which are mini DisplayPorts with extra power and bandwidth. So daisy chain one for 2 of your external monitors, and use the second port for your third monitor, and you're set.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
