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We Need a Better PC

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Re: We Need a Better PC

#521

Post by pdimitar »

habosa wrote: post #113

Not disagreeing with the premise, but just want to plug a machine I am very happy with. I was a lifetime mac owner (since OS 9) and my 2010 Macbook Pro finally broke down this year. It made it that long because I doubled the RAM, replaced the battery, and replaced the HDD with a hybrid drive. Finally the battery puffed up and exploded. I brought it to the Apple Store and they were beyond useless. The new MBPs are not…

I was so very tempted by this laptop but there's one requirement I will never forego -- the backlit keyboard. If they make a second iteration of that model with a backlit keyboard I'll run to the nearest store and I WILL JUST BUY IT right there and then.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#522

Post by tetheno »

justaaron wrote: post #293

all these comments to debate what is actually still a standing point: name a non-mac laptop that' doesn't suck (is it injection molded plastic with a screen that will eventually flop flop flop? then it sucks!) then let's find a distro that doesn't suck! (does in include binary blob drivers? then it sucks! is it unity? then it sucks!)

Lenovo Thinkpad. HP Elitebook. Dell Precision/Latitude.

Also, most of those can be bough on Ebay for a fraction of the cost. I'm very happy with the value offered by 2 year old laptops.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#523

Post by soylentcola »

lmm wrote: post #420
emerongi wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the UX305LA. I had a clicky trackpad[1], so I opened it up and fixed it. It was too good in other aspects, so I couldn't bother sending it back. Battery is replaceable. Still though, with Asus you never know whether your laptop will be perfect out of the box or not. That's what sucks about PCs in general - if you want a hassle-free laptop, you either have to pay extra or invest a lot of time into research. I h…

One thing Apple does very well is simply not shipping crap products . It's forgivable from Asus since they started out as a budget brand, but the premium PC brands like Sony have really dropped the ball.

Yeah...I primarily use a desktop for anything demanding but at one point, I needed a laptop for occasional multimedia dj/vj stuff (nothing paid or professional, more personal or artistic endeavors) and I spent some time doing price comparisons.

There were a few things I specifically wanted: fast processor (preferably i7 due to the occasional 3d rendering stuff I was going to be doing), at least 16gb of RAM, a decent, discrete GPU, and minimum 1920x1080 resolution.

Other stuff wasn't as important. I could do without the latest "retina" screen since I was mostly just going to be looking at DJ/VJ software interfaces and hooking it up to projection. SSD wasn't absolutely necessary but I wouldn't mind one (this was a few years ago when they were considerably more expensive).

I had it down to an Asus (non-ultrabook) and a Macbook Pro. The Macbook had a nicer display, slightly more solid hardware (the Asus was only aluminum on top and on the top of the keyboard side, not the underside of the laptop), and may have offered a faster storage drive (can't remember the details now).

On the flip side, the GPU options were all lower-end than the Asus. Also, the MBP in a configuration closest to what I needed cost around $2499. The Asus was $999.

The Apple had some other features like early Thunderbolt support but those weren't relevant to my uses. As much as I liked the display on the Apple and the somewhat stronger build, I couldn't justify paying more than double the cost.

If this was going to be my sole/main computer then I would've weighted stuff like viewing angles and storage drive speed higher but as a secondary computer, I was mainly looking to get certain specs/features without spending too much dough.

So yeah, it's a "budget" brand to me. I could get the major specs and decent build for a lot less but I gave up some things that would've been a lot more important if it was my main computer. To this day, my only real beef with the Asus is that the display's viewing angles suck. It's not one of those awful 1366x768 displays that OEMs were slapping into cheap laptops for so long and it's not a glossy mess but you really need to look at it dead-on if you want a decent image. For techie art projects it's great but if I had to look at it every day for 8-12 hours I would go insane.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#524

Post by AndrewUnmuted »

superuser2 wrote: post #185
ekianjo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For developers OSX will almost always be worse than a Linux distro, if only because of package management.

As a developer I work with text all day, a task made thoroughly more pleasant with good font rendering and proper HiDPI support, neither of which are available on Linux. I'll take my 13 inches of Retina display over a pair of 27-inch externals any day. SSH and rsync for remote editing work just fine from an rMBP.

You should check out the Infinality[1] patch sets. Installation is extremely simple when using your distro's package manager. The improvement made on rendering text is astronomical.

[1]http://www.infinality.net/blog/

Re: We Need a Better PC

#525

Post by jwn »

craftkiller wrote: post #518
jwn wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to like this machine, but it comes stock with 8GB of RAM and only a 256GB drive for the high end model with no options to upgrade (at least on Dell's site).

Just wait a little longer. If you go to the project sputnik google+ page you'll see Barton George say they're clearing out the old stock before releasing the developer edition of the new skylake XPS 13s.

You may have just made my morning!

Re: We Need a Better PC

#526

Post by jmilloy »

randallsquared wrote: post #452
lmm wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Macbooks are great, and I wish I could find something as good to install Linux on. You can install Linux on a Macbook if that's what you want. Despite the marketing a Macbook these days is just an expensive, well-designed PC with particular software. > Most of the PC options are steel and plastic, so they're hot and heavy. They'll burn your legs, they have comparably poor battery life. The screen looks terrible if…

You can install Linux on a Macbook, but you'll fight with drivers and end up with less machine than you would using OS X.

I just put Ubuntu on my 2010 Air and gained battery life and a lot of responsiveness. No driver issues.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#527

Post by TallGuyShort »

wyclif wrote: post #438
tluyben2 wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah my bad; I read somewhere it was much much less. Maybe that's outdated information. But when people say 9 hours, basically I get 3-4 out of them... Usually.

What are you doing, compiling a kernel or rendering graphics?

Probably not an atypical use case on here :)

Re: We Need a Better PC

#528

Post by tetheno »

gcb0 wrote: post #189
SomeCallMeTim wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really happy with my Toshiba Tecra Z series. The article totally missed Toshiba, which is still a decent manufacturer. I get 5-6 hours of battery life with real usage, close to 10 hours in "green" mode, I've got a 15.6" screen, a keypad, 16Gb of RAM, an i7 processor, and a 1Tb SSD. And it's just over 4 pounds and pretty thin. I have NVIDIA graphics. The Tecra Z has an available 3K touch display, and its HDMI port…

the article misses everything. lenovo is not even relevant anymore. Their new keyboards (since 2009!) are complete garbage. his "research" was probably asking some guy at the water cooler "what's a good PC laptop" "lenovo" "thanks"

Lenovo is the #1 PC manufacturer in the world. Their new keyboards were released in 2011-2012 and they're not garbage at all.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#529

Post by jmilloy »

eosrei wrote: post #301
chjohasbrouck wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have both, and I find the things that Macs have that everything else is missing just aren't articulated on a spec sheet. The display on the Macbook Pro Retina is just flawless. The colors, the anti-glare, and the picture quality from all angles, it's just really well done. The brushed aluminum chassis makes it very cool and lightweight, great to travel with and keep on your lap. Excellent battery life. It's just a…

You seem to have only looked at the older PCs. Have you looked at the Dell XPS 13 or Microsoft Surface Book? They may dispel your complaints. You can even buy the XPS with Ubuntu.

My XPS 13 with Ubuntu (dual booted) is a nice machine but still has problems (track pad, wifi, kernel panic waking from sleep).
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