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We Need a Better PC

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Re: We Need a Better PC

#601

Post by tracker1 »

Hello71 wrote: post #456
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is about the details - sometimes you don't notice them until you really need them. Examples: - MBPs have the best wifi of any notebooks - to my knowledge, they still are the only ones to have 3 MIMO streams. Right now, my TX rate is 585 MBit/s. - Thunderbolt and I/O: we recently started to stream our tech meetups to Youtube. The two thunderbolt ports are processing two 1080p streams from BlackMagic Mini box…

- We just got Dell 4k/60Hz monitors. Most of our MBPs can drive them just fine via DisplayPort, others can only do it at 30Hz, if at all. Intel claims that the i5-5200U included in the Zenbook UX305LA is capable of driving 3840x2160@60Hz over DP.

I have an i3-5010U hooked up to a 4k display (spare pc), and it tends to stutter a bit in actual use... is the 5200U much better? been thinking of moving to an i7-6600U brix, but concerned that I'll still have trouble with driving the display.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#602

Post by randallsquared »

tracker1 wrote: post #600
jmilloy wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Aside, ticks me off to no end that Ubuntu removed the reverse-scrolling option (at least with a desktop) ... On windows, I use an autohotkey script to reverse the scrolling, and for media shortcuts (non-media kb). Ubuntu is the odd one out there for me now.

If you mean "natural scrolling", you can do it at a lower level in linux by remapping the "buttons" with xmodmap. Gnome ignores the system setting for this (or used to, at least; I don't use any Gnome stuff now, so maybe they've fixed it), but pretty much everything else in X will obey those settings.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#603

Post by soperj »

jahnu wrote: post #451
icebraining wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Thinkpad is the X201, and the HP was a DV2, an old model. They might have some small bottom vents, but they didn't have any problems cooling while sitting on my bed. Neither are probably comparable to an MBP 13, though.

Hmmm https://support.lenovo.com/at/de/documents/pd025709 Don't think I'd be comfortable blocking those for extended periods.

None of those are vents? What are you afraid of blocking the docking connector or the speakers?

Re: We Need a Better PC

#604

Post by Avshalom »

douche wrote: post #498
Avshalom wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, buying a prebuilt desktop is just as bad of an experience. Building one piece meal from Newegg shouldn't be as convenient as buying something from Dell, it's damn close some days though.

Building a desktop from parts is easier than some Lego sets these days. I think the only possibly tricky part is making sure you apply the thermal paste and install the heat-sink correctly. Everything else you just screw in, snap in, and plug in.

The hardest part, at least the fiddliest part, is getting all the little plugs right for the front panel: power buttons, usb, audio, etc.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#605

Post by digi_owl »

derefr wrote: post #83
SwellJoe wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"HP makes the elitebook, magnesium construction a la thinkpad." I've been burned so badly by an HP laptop, that I'm unlikely to ever buy another HP product in any category. It is horrifically bad. Damned near everything is wrong with it. It also had some crapware, and the system restore partition didn't work...so I had a dead laptop for two weeks waiting for physical restore media to arrive (that I paid $10+shipping…

HP's consumer and enterprise divisions are effectively separate companies (and, in fact, were acquired from separate sources.) The enterprise "workstation" laptops are some of the best-put-together, simplest-to-repair, most-natively-well-supported-without-needing-drivers, and otherwise most "obvious" in their design machines I've ever had the pleasure of refurbishing. The EliteBook line is the one laptop where seeing…

> HP's consumer and enterprise divisions are effectively separate companies

Bingo. This seems to be the pattern across the market. I have heard time and again that Acer laptops are crap. But at the same time i have seen at least one of their enterprise models survive basically decade of use with just the cooling fan needed replacing.

The only thing that makes Macbooks "special" is that they are effectively enterprise grade products sold to consumers.

That the article author balks at getting a Thinkpad because of the Superfish debacle shows a lack of research. No Thinkpad was found to have that installed, it was strictly limited to their Ideapad range.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#606

Post by sjwright »

tingol wrote: post #532
sjwright wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He might not "be everyone" but his priorities are relevant to more people than your priorities by a factor of perhaps 100:1 or more. I haven't met a single person that didn't immediately appreciate the benefits of HiDPI when they saw it.

Well you sure convinced me with your accurate statistics. You talk of benefits as if higher dpi cures cancer, it looks better and that's it. I really don't know what the big deal is, I have a HiDPI screen, works fine under linux as most of my work is done in terminals all I've had to "configure" was turning off hinting for my emulators and that was that. But they are waay more important things I would like from my ma…

You seriously think more than 1% of computer users care about some esoteric configuration flexibility of a Linux window manager? How insular is your view of the world?

Oh, and higher DPI cures cancer.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#607

Post by bdavisx »

ihartley wrote: post #145
ktRolster wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bonus points for calling apple website an icon of web design when it weights almost 100mb. Plus calling Amazon.com 'simple and utilitarian' is questionable. Does anyone really care a whole lot about the HP website?

It could really stand to suck a little less. Based on this thread I went to checkout the Elitebook line and the "View all notebook products" link from the Elitebook line page just goes to a promo for some new one that isn't available yet, and when you go to the shop it just takes you to search results with 217 results for "elitebook"

Yep, there's no way to filter on things that I really care about. 217 results, sure, I'll read each one, make notes and then choose.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#608

Post by askafriend »

tingol wrote: post #532
sjwright wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He might not "be everyone" but his priorities are relevant to more people than your priorities by a factor of perhaps 100:1 or more. I haven't met a single person that didn't immediately appreciate the benefits of HiDPI when they saw it.

Well you sure convinced me with your accurate statistics. You talk of benefits as if higher dpi cures cancer, it looks better and that's it. I really don't know what the big deal is, I have a HiDPI screen, works fine under linux as most of my work is done in terminals all I've had to "configure" was turning off hinting for my emulators and that was that. But they are waay more important things I would like from my ma…

I honestly don't care what "hinting for my emulators" means or why it matters that it's off.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. I just want to get work done in a sane way. Linux is insane to any normal human being.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#609

Post by kayoone »

agentultra wrote: post #571
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'll need an older Mac Pro then. There is quite a bit of proprietary hardware in the new ones that I'm pretty sure have no open source drivers (ie: SMC controller, force touch pad, etc). Not that the community couldn't find a way to reverse-engineer and build an open source version... but a straight up Ubuntu install on a current-generation Mac Pro is probably the fastest way to kill a battery, processor, flash dri…

I know that you know but i read this so often i might as well state it: You mean Macbook Pro, Mac Pro is a different product.

Re: We Need a Better PC

#610

Post by pmarreck »

viraptor wrote: post #110
pmarreck wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing says "my company shoots for Mediocre" more than featuring your own 3/5 star products on your own landing page Call me crazy but this is why Apple is even a thing

Sorry, I don't get this. Two companies sell basically the same thing. Both will give you all the usual marketing crap and slightly hidden actual specs. One will also give you actual opinions of people who aren't hired to take your money away. How is the other one better? I get the whole apple cult idea and buying a status symbol. But if anyone is going to compare the products, they'll just go to another site and see…

I think you misunderstood what I'm trying to say.

I don't have an issue with featuring third party reviews of your own product on your own page. But if you're going to show those, and they're only 3/5 star reviews, the assumed law of self-interestedness would seem to indicate that that was the best you could do... 3/5 stars. You're stating publicly that you can only satisfy your customers to 60%. Why are your standards so low, I would ask?

Store.apple.com ALSO shows reviews, but they're almost all at least 4 stars. That's something to be proud of.

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