Team-BHP - The Laptop Thread: Configs, deals & questions

Quote:

Originally Posted by poloman (Post 5094878)

I had given some rave reviews on the Mac air which I got 1.5 years back. Looks like I had spoken too soon. The laptop is having multiple issues with the display. First got marks on the screen from the keyboard. Now there are dead pixels..

A simple search on google informs you that these are pretty common issues in Apple laptops and they are doing nothing about it. So much for the unbeatable HW and Apple QA.

I have attached the picture of my 6 year old mid 2012 macbook pro, which happens to be my workshorse. Its been upgraded to match the current gen missions with 16 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD + 512 GB 7200 rpm hard disk.

Coming to the point, my macbook comes with a lip at the bezel, mean the bezel is extended by a mm or so to avoid the problems like key marks on the screen.
Does the air do not have this lip? In that case, can you use a good clean cloth between the screen and keyboard whenever you are closing the lid and see whether you can avoid this?
Second option may be to stick a sticker or something to the corners to keep the lid from pressing on the keys?

Apple claims the keypads never touch the display with lid closed, but surely that is not the case at least in some devices. Not sure whether this is a tolerance issue.
Also these marks are very hard to see when screen is on since this is not on the glass but on screen coating.
You will have to turn the display off and shine a bright light.

Both these issues does not affect any functionality, but the tall quality claims made by Apple is suspect.

I need to get a new laptop for home use.

My home use:
1. Morning 8AM to 1 PM everyday my son would use it for his online school on MS Teams with always on camera, hence a good battery and high brightness.
2. I will use it for my evening project which would need some hardware virtualization etc. I am looking at 11th gen i5 only. Peace flag: my current Ryzen 5 2500U was unable to handle few software' virtualization requirement due to compatibility issues.
3. 16gb RAM is good, but I can manage with 8gb as long as it is dual channel and works on 3200 MHz (hence 11 gen).
4. NVMe SSD is must, minimum 512gb.
5. I need a compact one, 14 inch or less. My son can not carry my current 15.6" 1.8 kg stone block.
6. Good service and build quality to last at-least 3 years.
7. Budget around 60k is comfortable for me.

For my work, I am using work provided EliteBook 840.
My current outgoing home machine is also a HP 15 series with Ryzen 5, but the crap HDD killing the entire thing. The cheap model doesn't even has an extra M2 port to keep a bootable 1st gen SSD.

I am at this moment looking at
1. HP Pavilion 14 : I loved the high configuration of HP, but HP display and battery are always crap.
2. Acer Swift 3: Impressed with the small compact and light weight machine, but bit skeptical about narrow keyboard area.
3. Asus VivoBook S14 (s433): Very confusing models with so many options.

Am I missing something? Suggestions are welcome.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PetrolRider (Post 5101515)

I am at this moment looking at
1. HP Pavilion 14 : I loved the high configuration of HP, but HP display and battery are always crap.

Am I missing something? Suggestions are welcome.

HP batteries are total crap I agree. My 1.5 year old work laptop, HP Elitebook battery bulged out cracking open the chassis. Got it replaced from IT with out any issue. If some one had got this as their personal laptop, would have lost a small fortune on the battery, just 6 months after warranty period.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530 (Post 5094004)

I have a HP Envy X360 bought for my daughter's online classes last June from Chroma. It is just out of warranty. It is a convertible model with touchscreen.
My concern is why there is no availability of parts for a new premium laptop. Especially since it was launched only on 17.04.2020, about 15 months back. I don't mind waiting, but the vibe I'm getting is that HP no longer supports this model, though it is on sale on their official website.

The Quotation from 3rd party vendor is about 30K. :Shockked:
Should I get this repaired? Anyway I can procure the screen from elsewhere?

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530 (Post 5103087)

The Quotation from 3rd party vendor is about 30K. :Shockked:
Should I get this repaired? Anyway I can procure the screen from elsewhere?

You can get the display at half the cost here

https://lapgadgets.in/products/hp-pa...xoCq30QAvD_BwE

Check a few youtube videos on how to change display on your laptop model and you can do it yourself. If not, you can get it replaced at a local laptop repair store for a 1000 bucks max.

A video guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9NXaUx-BsE

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530 (Post 5103087)

The Quotation from 3rd party vendor is about 30K. :Shockked:
Should I get this repaired? Anyway I can procure the screen from elsewhere?

I changed the display cable for my laptop. Check a youtube video and you can try. If you are not comfortable you can go to a nearby shop and ask them to change it. I sourced the parts from Amazon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PetrolRider (Post 5101515)

I need to get a new laptop for home use.

My home use:
1. Morning 8AM to 1 PM everyday my son would use it for his online school on MS Teams with always on camera, hence a good battery and high brightness.
for me.

For my work, I am using work provided EliteBook 840.
My current outgoing home machine is also a HP 15 series with Ryzen 5, but the crap HDD killing the entire thing. The cheap model doesn't even has an extra M2 port to keep a bootable 1st gen SSD.
: V

Am I missing something? Suggestions are welcome.

You can add a SSD the regular one not the nvme ones. It would be really make the system quite responsive.

If these are the only requirements then when a Pentium gold would support. Not really sure what are the other requirements. However just adding SSD would make a big difference.

If you have a cd/dvd rom in the laptop and don't really use you can remove it and add a caddy of you want HDD as well. However HDD is quite power hungry.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sukhoi (Post 5087971)

Hello,

Need help with laptop issue...

I would suggest go with option 1.

SATA HDDs would make a huge difference. As you have a 7th Gen you should be having the latest SATA 3 which will be supported by your laptop.

Barring the HDD you laptop seems to be in a good shape for your requirements.

Quote:

Originally Posted by anupamsinha (Post 5103396)

Thank you for the suggestion. A 2.5" SATA SSD, would cost me around 7K. Plus, I have the OS and MS Office on the old HDD, hence I need external adapter so that, I can boot form the old drive and copy the OS.
My current drive gives me a diskmark reading rate of 105ish where 2.5" SATA SSD would hardly give me 500ish. This would have been certainly an interesting DYI for me 15 years back, but not worth the time at this age:). Intel Optane 32 GB, would be much simpler and cost effective, if just HDD is the issue, unfortunately my current laptop skips on this tiny M2 port altogether.:Frustrati

My other requirement is the point mentioned above,

Quote:

2. I will use it for my evening project which would need some hardware virtualization

To be honest, my Ryzen 5 2500U is not making the cut here, Pentium gold even doesn't have that support.

Just checked, Amazon would be selling Fujitsu Uh-X series from next week, anybody has any experience of Fujitsu service in India? Their website drew a blank.
Also, Vaio has entered Indian market with Nexstgo. The config seems as appealing as old vaio, but Nexstgo if I remember was not exactly successful on their solo last time in India.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PetrolRider (Post 5103695)

These days systems store the windows key and other info in the UEFI. Chances are that if you did not get the cd key or restore media it would be there. You can download the ISO/image from Microsoft and install. There won't be any need to enter any key.

For MS office, you can register on Microsoft and then you can again download the installer and install it from there again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PetrolRider (Post 5103695)

My other requirement is the point mentioned above,
To be honest, my Ryzen 5 2500U is not making the cut here, Pentium gold even doesn't have that support.

I checked on Intel's website it lists pretty much lists all the current gen processors having visualization support.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us...urefilter.html

However I also prefer Intel. Have burnt my hands twice with AMD and now prefer Intel only.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PetrolRider (Post 5103695)

To be honest, my Ryzen 5 2500U is not making the cut here, Pentium gold even doesn't have that support.

Ryzen 5 2500U has virtualization support - the setting may be disabled in the BIOS/UEFI. I'd be really surprised if x86 processors did not support it - very old tech. Pentium you'd have to check.