ZippZopp: Yeah TN panels suck. It may be worth checking if the Y50 has another panel option, sometimes with Lenovo laptops you can buy the upgraded panel which is usually IPS. Thats the way it was with my X220 at least.
Asus N550Jk, similar hardware specs to the Lenovo Y50, except it has an IPS screen, I'm picking mine up at the end of the week. It's a little heavier than the Y50, it's 6lbs.
let me know what you think of it once you get it. I may be leaning towards that or the asus ROG G550JK. i also found a decent deal on a HP envy 15t. only has a dual core in it, but it is also just under $800
let me know what you think of it once you get it. I may be leaning towards that or the asus ROG G550JK. i also found a decent deal on a HP envy 15t. only has a dual core in it, but it is also just under $800
You shouldn't be shelling out $800 for a laptop that only has a dual-core processor...
Also the problem with the ASUS ROG laptops is they all way 10+ lbs. You're literally carrying around a fat baby if you want to lug that thing around in a backpack.
You shouldn't be shelling out $800 for a laptop that only has a dual-core processor...
Hahaha, well, you don't even want to know what I paid for my dual core MBP13 after a few upgrades. :poly122:
But seriously though, I5s are quite capable. It really depends on what you are doing, most apps are not going to give you a linear performance boost by going from dual core to quad core. For instance, lightroom and photoshop both take advantage of more than 2 cores, but only with very demanding situations and really not efficiently at all. I did some testing with the I7 in my Sager and it was very, very difficult to max out all cores in most apps.
The exception here would be offline renderers, bakers like xnormal, video encoding, etc. If you do that sort of stuff a lot you'll see a difference there. But heck, even Maya is only singled threaded when baking normal maps.
So yeah, I would look into the apps you use and how efficiently they work with multiple cores before counting out an I5. The I5 in my MBP gives essentially the same performance as the I7 in my Sager for my use. In many apps (particularly poorly threaded ones) a dual core with a faster clock speed will outperform a quad core with a slower clock speed.
Saying all that, I have a 3770 i7 in my workstation, and I wouldn't build a workstation with anything less than that. So if this is your main system, a quad core i7 is probably a good idea.
my thought with going with a dual core is that most of the work I do is only single threaded, so having a quad core really doesn't give me much benefit. my desktop workstation is a quad core so most of my heavier rendering tasks would be handled by that when needed.
the hp does come with an i7 dual core @ 2ghz with a turbo up to 3.1. it has 8gbs of ram and a GTX 850M. so it generally has what I need just not top of the line.
also, the new Asus ROG laptop is actually a 15'' version that weighs about 6lbs. I'll probably make a decision in the next day or two
Well I canceled my Lenovo site order because the shipment date keeps going all over the place... there was a certified Lenovo dealer on Amazon that got one in stock, though, so I ordered it from there.
let me know what you think of it once you get it. I may be leaning towards that or the asus ROG G550JK. i also found a decent deal on a HP envy 15t. only has a dual core in it, but it is also just under $800
Just an update on this, had the laptop for just under a week now, done quite a bit of work on it, loving it, it's fully aluminium (panels - not solid cnc'd aluminium like a macbook, and having no heating issues so far, even with the CPU sitting at 3.5ghz while working, I didn't notice much heat - but then I was using indesign and photoshop mainly, so the GPU wasn't being fully utilised.
I got bumped up a model, so mine had the 4710MQ, instead of the 4700HQ, which i was happy about, and it didn't come with a touchscreen, also happy with that (I got the Asus N550Jk-CN359P - model before it which i was going to get was end of manufacture).
Very happy with the perfomance, will definitely get an SSD soon, the screen's colours are great, but the brightness could use a bit of a bump, my gfs macbook pro has better brightness, but the colours are equally good.
Keyboard is great and responsive, and the function keys are intelligently laid out.
I also don't find it too heavy, exactly the same weight of my gfs 2009 15" macbook pro, the asus is probably about an inch wider, as it does come with a numpad, which the macbook doesn't. I've carried it around, had it in my lap, it's comfortable, not too heavy, feels high quality :thumbup:.
Only complaint, windows 8.1 pro's scaling for high res screens is crap. Chrome is blurry, and photoshop seems to be ignored for the scaling, so the UI is very small regardless of my settings, same with a number of other Apps, I've since turned off scaling(to keep the scale consistent across all apps), and am using a global of 100% scale. So everything is a lot smaller, it being a FHD (1920x1080) res on a 15" screen - i can live with the tiny UI, because it's still legible, and very sharp.
I'd hate to see what UHD looks like in 8.1 without scaling, or if scaling works properly.
@Isaiah, did you get the Lenovo with the UHD? How are you finding it?
Alriiiiight, so I've been messing with it for the past few hours and now I am very happy.
There was some fussing with me trying to get it to display it at 1080p properly. I had to Google a bunch of stuff about resetting scaling when dropping the resolution down.
I also had to do some compatibility stuff with a few programs, which is super easy to do by going to Properties on the EXE.
The main issue was the ugly blurriness that was happening in some software... it was fucking ugly and I hated it. It made me very sad that I waited so long for this laptop and thought I wasn't going to be able to mend that.
However, messing with a few things and Google helped me solve my issues.
I now have my screen at 1080p and nothing is blurry, everything is nice and crisp as it should be, and I have a fancy IPS panel
The build quality is very, very nice. This thing looks and feels very badass and slick. I love the red backlit keyboard.
My only other issue was some of the nonsense from Windows 8, but I figured out how to disable some of the stupid crap and it's more or less like Windows 7 now!
I'm a happy camper
The site says this laptop weighs about 5.5 lbs, but damn it's light. It's even lighter than my wife's 15" MBP.
im looking for one for primarily 3d work, around about £700.
anyone know what would be the best option for this? ive been looking around but cant really find one that i like the look of, or with a better specs-price deal.
EDIT: so far ive found a few, but without reviews its hard to judge:
im looking for one for primarily 3d work, around about £700.
anyone know what would be the best option for this? ive been looking around but cant really find one that i like the look of, or with a better specs-price deal.
EDIT: so far ive found a few, but without reviews its hard to judge:
Sorry for the huge post here, but I just wanted to share the Bioshock Benchmark utility.
I ran it at max settings at 1080p. You can see the average frame rate sits between 35-55fps.
It's awesome having a laptop that is more powerful than my desktop :P
I can't recommend this laptop enough.
During the benchmark I could hardly hear any fans turn on.
Per Scene Stats:
Scene Duration (seconds), Average FPS, Min FPS, Max FPS, Scene Name
32.41, 37.90, 18.53, 191.37, Welcome Center
7.12, 37.22, 8.80, 50.83, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
21.67, 39.24, 12.52, 52.29, Town Center
8.25, 38.72, 17.60, 96.55, Raffle
9.13, 53.90, 24.96, 70.38, Monument Island
3.06, 58.75, 56.44, 60.14, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
81.64, 40.87, 8.80, 191.37, Overall
Elapsed Time (seconds), Average FPS, Min FPS, Max FPS, Scene Name
0.00, 42.25, 19.57, 59.07, Welcome Center
0.52, 43.89, 43.68, 44.16, Welcome Center
1.02, 43.83, 43.49, 44.33, Welcome Center
1.52, 41.61, 21.11, 43.93, Welcome Center
2.05, 45.02, 42.74, 191.37, Welcome Center
2.56, 42.78, 41.39, 43.36, Welcome Center
3.08, 42.04, 36.37, 43.18, Welcome Center
3.60, 42.17, 40.88, 42.56, Welcome Center
4.12, 41.45, 38.10, 42.12, Welcome Center
4.63, 40.37, 35.98, 41.85, Welcome Center
5.15, 39.44, 37.07, 40.86, Welcome Center
5.66, 37.94, 35.84, 39.57, Welcome Center
6.18, 32.76, 30.64, 36.47, Welcome Center
6.70, 28.37, 25.90, 30.92, Welcome Center
7.23, 30.89, 27.82, 32.92, Welcome Center
7.75, 29.58, 27.17, 32.59, Welcome Center
8.26, 29.55, 28.31, 30.56, Welcome Center
8.76, 30.70, 29.72, 31.71, Welcome Center
9.29, 31.01, 28.61, 32.82, Welcome Center
9.80, 29.36, 27.86, 30.07, Welcome Center
10.31, 30.26, 18.53, 39.63, Welcome Center
10.84, 34.51, 30.55, 51.33, Welcome Center
11.36, 35.31, 34.53, 36.10, Welcome Center
11.87, 36.01, 34.85, 36.57, Welcome Center
12.40, 36.15, 34.79, 36.85, Welcome Center
12.93, 35.65, 33.94, 36.76, Welcome Center
13.43, 35.99, 35.38, 36.68, Welcome Center
13.93, 35.88, 35.05, 36.46, Welcome Center
14.43, 34.83, 33.19, 36.55, Welcome Center
14.95, 33.98, 32.30, 37.17, Welcome Center
15.45, 40.56, 37.40, 42.23, Welcome Center
15.97, 41.63, 39.88, 42.50, Welcome Center
16.47, 41.87, 39.98, 43.02, Welcome Center
16.97, 41.80, 40.74, 42.95, Welcome Center
17.48, 40.69, 37.17, 42.47, Welcome Center
17.99, 35.22, 20.77, 53.14, Welcome Center
18.50, 35.80, 34.77, 36.85, Welcome Center
19.01, 40.47, 36.68, 44.28, Welcome Center
19.52, 43.32, 41.49, 44.70, Welcome Center
20.03, 42.56, 21.60, 52.42, Welcome Center
20.55, 44.11, 42.99, 45.40, Welcome Center
21.07, 44.50, 42.40, 46.22, Welcome Center
21.59, 44.92, 42.97, 46.84, Welcome Center
22.10, 45.43, 42.48, 47.13, Welcome Center
22.61, 43.21, 35.31, 47.75, Welcome Center
23.11, 42.32, 40.92, 44.17, Welcome Center
23.63, 42.55, 38.13, 44.84, Welcome Center
24.15, 34.64, 33.06, 35.85, Welcome Center
24.67, 32.27, 20.67, 48.78, Welcome Center
25.20, 35.71, 33.56, 37.37, Welcome Center
25.70, 37.68, 35.92, 38.58, Welcome Center
26.21, 38.41, 37.16, 39.46, Welcome Center
26.73, 37.65, 33.36, 38.52, Welcome Center
27.23, 36.89, 36.24, 37.65, Welcome Center
27.75, 36.45, 36.01, 36.97, Welcome Center
28.27, 36.36, 35.81, 37.09, Welcome Center
28.79, 37.12, 36.33, 37.80, Welcome Center
29.30, 37.05, 36.50, 37.46, Welcome Center
29.82, 36.78, 35.52, 37.37, Welcome Center
30.33, 36.53, 35.44, 37.07, Welcome Center
30.85, 36.32, 34.59, 36.98, Welcome Center
31.38, 36.31, 34.78, 36.82, Welcome Center
31.90, 36.98, 36.41, 38.07, Welcome Center
32.41, 38.48, 38.25, 38.78, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
32.93, 38.55, 38.14, 39.12, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
33.45, 38.91, 38.51, 39.40, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
33.96, 39.28, 38.73, 39.83, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
34.47, 39.60, 39.38, 39.86, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
34.98, 39.66, 39.42, 40.10, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
35.48, 39.69, 39.24, 40.03, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
35.99, 39.65, 39.42, 40.06, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
36.49, 34.40, 23.19, 39.59, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
37.02, 37.98, 30.76, 39.47, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
37.52, 29.19, 8.80, 50.83, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
38.03, 34.00, 15.86, 48.74, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
38.53, 35.81, 34.03, 37.16, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
39.03, 35.90, 34.81, 36.50, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
39.53, 35.98, 35.67, 36.36, Town Center
40.03, 35.51, 24.91, 44.87, Town Center
40.54, 36.01, 34.23, 36.91, Town Center
41.07, 34.99, 32.21, 36.21, Town Center
41.58, 35.10, 32.63, 35.96, Town Center
42.10, 36.09, 35.69, 36.52, Town Center
42.62, 36.26, 34.98, 36.78, Town Center
43.15, 35.76, 33.38, 36.91, Town Center
43.65, 36.15, 34.67, 36.90, Town Center
44.17, 37.20, 35.86, 38.31, Town Center
44.69, 36.32, 35.52, 38.47, Town Center
45.21, 38.29, 36.11, 39.52, Town Center
45.73, 40.33, 39.56, 41.18, Town Center
46.25, 40.43, 39.28, 41.12, Town Center
46.77, 39.74, 35.41, 40.79, Town Center
47.27, 38.89, 38.05, 39.67, Town Center
47.79, 38.12, 37.23, 38.85, Town Center
48.31, 38.52, 38.01, 38.92, Town Center
48.83, 38.33, 29.52, 44.50, Town Center
49.35, 39.01, 37.52, 39.58, Town Center
49.87, 39.23, 37.26, 40.08, Town Center
50.38, 39.77, 34.74, 40.59, Town Center
50.88, 40.07, 37.28, 40.73, Town Center
51.40, 39.71, 36.47, 40.68, Town Center
51.91, 39.32, 35.65, 40.81, Town Center
52.42, 40.30, 35.93, 41.58, Town Center
52.94, 41.59, 30.28, 51.61, Town Center
53.44, 44.51, 43.05, 45.69, Town Center
53.96, 40.29, 12.52, 45.89, Town Center
54.53, 43.39, 36.09, 52.29, Town Center
55.04, 42.88, 41.24, 43.78, Town Center
55.55, 42.43, 37.81, 43.63, Town Center
56.07, 40.42, 21.73, 46.05, Town Center
56.59, 42.87, 41.10, 43.55, Town Center
57.10, 41.92, 28.82, 43.80, Town Center
57.60, 43.26, 40.75, 51.42, Town Center
58.11, 43.27, 42.25, 44.04, Town Center
58.62, 41.79, 40.60, 42.55, Town Center
59.12, 41.13, 38.37, 41.99, Town Center
59.63, 39.95, 37.96, 41.17, Town Center
60.16, 36.81, 33.84, 38.63, Town Center
60.67, 36.11, 33.87, 36.72, Town Center
61.20, 37.11, 31.84, 39.50, Raffle
61.71, 39.07, 31.64, 40.88, Raffle
62.22, 38.86, 37.09, 39.72, Raffle
62.74, 38.16, 36.13, 38.81, Raffle
63.26, 37.47, 30.09, 40.17, Raffle
63.77, 37.08, 35.55, 37.64, Raffle
64.28, 36.65, 36.02, 37.11, Raffle
64.80, 36.09, 35.27, 36.72, Raffle
65.33, 36.07, 35.08, 36.94, Raffle
65.85, 36.12, 29.17, 38.48, Raffle
66.38, 36.96, 34.31, 38.05, Raffle
66.89, 36.51, 21.31, 46.12, Raffle
67.41, 37.34, 17.60, 49.62, Raffle
67.92, 41.91, 37.96, 43.29, Raffle
68.42, 44.40, 38.13, 47.43, Raffle
68.94, 49.68, 30.86, 96.55, Raffle
69.45, 51.56, 46.26, 52.98, Monument Island
69.95, 50.39, 48.18, 52.44, Monument Island
70.47, 47.36, 45.00, 48.17, Monument Island
70.97, 46.70, 43.87, 47.90, Monument Island
71.49, 47.89, 36.09, 52.87, Monument Island
71.99, 47.59, 24.96, 63.23, Monument Island
72.49, 52.43, 49.86, 54.51, Monument Island
73.01, 54.52, 50.82, 56.12, Monument Island
73.52, 55.81, 52.86, 56.82, Monument Island
74.02, 55.08, 28.18, 70.38, Monument Island
74.53, 55.81, 31.13, 70.03, Monument Island
75.03, 57.70, 54.22, 58.51, Monument Island
75.53, 57.52, 54.44, 58.54, Monument Island
76.04, 57.90, 56.16, 58.82, Monument Island
76.54, 57.80, 54.10, 58.85, Monument Island
77.04, 57.90, 55.03, 58.90, Monument Island
77.54, 58.08, 56.72, 59.26, Monument Island
78.06, 58.17, 57.64, 58.65, Monument Island
78.57, 58.12, 56.44, 58.64, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
79.09, 58.29, 57.22, 59.04, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
79.61, 58.42, 57.57, 58.98, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
80.12, 58.80, 57.79, 59.72, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
80.63, 59.35, 57.93, 59.91, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
81.13, 59.51, 57.85, 60.14, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
i've still been looking around for one to buy, and have come up with a few options:
the y510p would be my prefered choice out of those, unfortunately that price is for Used, and i cant seem to find anywhere that does the model i want for the price im willing to pay.
budget is around £800, the custom build is attractive but doesnt come with an OS.
im also debating building my own from a barebones chassis, does anyone think this would be a viable option? ive built a PC before but not a laptop.
also, the laptop is mainly for use at university, im going to be doing an engineering course so it needs to be fairly beefy, if anyone has an recommendations it'd be awesome!
edit:
ive checked newegg, they have really great prices but dont seem to ship to the UK, which sucks can anyone confirm that newegg dont do any laptops for the UK?
I was potentially looking for the same thing as you woot for a similar price range - i found the cosmos 2 by pc-specialist when spec'd up to be the best value for money - https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosII/ and has ips !
I was potentially looking for the same thing as you woot for a similar price range - i found the cosmos 2 by pc-specialist when spec'd up to be the best value for money - https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosII/ and has ips !
thanks man, i hadnt checked that chassis when i was on the site before, its pretty good!
also, what is the advantage of having IPS, i personally havent heard of it much before.
however this one is much cheaper with an SSD than the other one i was looking at, good find man.
this with windows 8.1 for £793 seems like a good deal to me.
IPS means much better color accuracy and viewing angles. Many laptops have cheap TN panel screens which are simply awful, you move your head an inch or two and the colors shift entirely. How bad TN panels are tends to vary quite a bit, though they almost universally have terrible vertical viewing angles.
I've been down the custom build laptop road myself, and after a bunch of problems with Sager/Clevo I wouldn't recommend it. Not sure if the above links use the same kits as them though.
Edit: yes "cosmos" in this case is the same as Sager/Clevo. Just an update, Mine is currently back to Sager for the second time to fix the SAME screen defect. They replaced the screen the first time and within a week the new screen developed the same problem, needless to say this is really, really disappointing. Sure, maybe you will get a Sager/Clevo/Cosmos without any quality control issues, but I would say its a bit of a lottery. It will seem like an amazing deal, but it comes at a cost, sub-par build and components.
What I would say is, buy the laptop you actually want. Don't settle for something else just because its cheaper. I've done this many times and I'm always disapointed and end up buying something different, sooner than I otherwise would have if I simply would have spent the money to buy the thing I wanted in the first place. So get the y510p if thats what you actually want, you may just save money in the long term, and try to get it with an IPS screen as I think they offer both tn and ips.
I bought mine direct from Sager, its a different model though (NP7330), I have no experience with that particular model. Of course, my opinion is an extremely small sample size, but these sort of custom laptops are just ridiculously cheaper than name brand laptops with similar specs, and the cost reduction has to come from somewhere.
This is the problem I initially had with the panel, after about 8 months it looked like this (gradually got worse over time):
Then the replaced it for free under warranty, and after a week (I powered it on twice for about 5 minutes each as I had already purchased a replacement) it looked like this:
The panel is from a cheap noname chinese company. Most quality panels come from LG or Samsung. This is just one example of one model using crappy parts with known issues. Maybe all the other models are totally fine, maybe the price actually is too good to be true.
In addition to the screen issue, the hinge broke under normal use, and the heat managment is very, very poor, with a fan that sounds like a plane taking off that kicks on straight to full blast, randomly, and then off, and on, and off again for no apparent reason. Battery life is also shit.
I say generally in life, you get what you pay for.
Now to be totally fair, I've had issues with other laptops as well. My Lenovo X220 had a couple problems, mainly the casings on 2/3 usb jacks came off, and my model had a problem where it would shut of randomly if not plugged in to a power supply (needed a new mobo). Though probably a dumb move to buy a refurbed one in the first place (again with the gettings and paying for things).
seems pretty sturdy from what ive both read about and seen in a few reviews, and ive not seen any complaints about the screen. maybe its just that other model of screen?
either way, most reviews seem to say its good. ill look into it further.
ok, recieved the Cosmos II yesterday, and a few thoughts.
first off, specs:
15.6 inch 1920x1080 IPS screen.
120gb samsung evo 840 SSD
1tb HDD (dont remember the brand)
i7 4710MQ @ 2.5ghz
geforce gtx 850m
8gb RAM
seems sturdy enough, nice weight and size from it. screen is gorgoeus, good colour, resolution etc. keyboad is nice, although the spacebar is a little bit small for my liking, taking some getting used to. 3dsmax 2015 boots easily and quickly due to the SSD, and runs fantastically well for my needs. seems decent for gaming, running stuff at low and medium settings at 1080p at good framerates.
windows 8.1 is taking some getting used to, but seems fine, liking the amount of apps and such.
ive only had one major issue so far, and that is the wifi card. it simply wont recognise networks, even when sat 2 foot away from the router. and if it does connect (very rare) then it connects at insanely low speeds compared to my home PC using an external USB wifi stick thing. i did ring PCspecialist about this, and was told to uninstall and update my drivers. this did not work. Rang them again today, and a different rep told me it could be to do with the construction of the laptop, as maybe the wifi card is not fitted properly. the laptop is being returned and hopefully this issue will be fixed, as it seems pretty good overall.
will update when i return and it gets fixed.
kinda with the issue as i got a few emails before i recieved it saying it went through rigorous testing. (clearly it hasnt really)
I sent mine back to sager twice, first time I received a new screen that showed the same defect explained above after a week, third screen had a bunch of dead pixels, I cut my losses and sold it on eBay (while explaining the defect of course).
So yeah, poor quality control and an inability to actually fix problems was my experience with Sager, hopefully yours is better.
Replies
Sadly they had a parts delay so I won't get it until the first week of August :S
let me know what you think of it once you get it. I may be leaning towards that or the asus ROG G550JK. i also found a decent deal on a HP envy 15t. only has a dual core in it, but it is also just under $800
You shouldn't be shelling out $800 for a laptop that only has a dual-core processor...
Hahaha, well, you don't even want to know what I paid for my dual core MBP13 after a few upgrades. :poly122:
But seriously though, I5s are quite capable. It really depends on what you are doing, most apps are not going to give you a linear performance boost by going from dual core to quad core. For instance, lightroom and photoshop both take advantage of more than 2 cores, but only with very demanding situations and really not efficiently at all. I did some testing with the I7 in my Sager and it was very, very difficult to max out all cores in most apps.
The exception here would be offline renderers, bakers like xnormal, video encoding, etc. If you do that sort of stuff a lot you'll see a difference there. But heck, even Maya is only singled threaded when baking normal maps.
So yeah, I would look into the apps you use and how efficiently they work with multiple cores before counting out an I5. The I5 in my MBP gives essentially the same performance as the I7 in my Sager for my use. In many apps (particularly poorly threaded ones) a dual core with a faster clock speed will outperform a quad core with a slower clock speed.
Saying all that, I have a 3770 i7 in my workstation, and I wouldn't build a workstation with anything less than that. So if this is your main system, a quad core i7 is probably a good idea.
the hp does come with an i7 dual core @ 2ghz with a turbo up to 3.1. it has 8gbs of ram and a GTX 850M. so it generally has what I need just not top of the line.
also, the new Asus ROG laptop is actually a 15'' version that weighs about 6lbs. I'll probably make a decision in the next day or two
Should be here within the week!
Just an update on this, had the laptop for just under a week now, done quite a bit of work on it, loving it, it's fully aluminium (panels - not solid cnc'd aluminium like a macbook, and having no heating issues so far, even with the CPU sitting at 3.5ghz while working, I didn't notice much heat - but then I was using indesign and photoshop mainly, so the GPU wasn't being fully utilised.
I got bumped up a model, so mine had the 4710MQ, instead of the 4700HQ, which i was happy about, and it didn't come with a touchscreen, also happy with that (I got the Asus N550Jk-CN359P - model before it which i was going to get was end of manufacture).
Very happy with the perfomance, will definitely get an SSD soon, the screen's colours are great, but the brightness could use a bit of a bump, my gfs macbook pro has better brightness, but the colours are equally good.
Keyboard is great and responsive, and the function keys are intelligently laid out.
I also don't find it too heavy, exactly the same weight of my gfs 2009 15" macbook pro, the asus is probably about an inch wider, as it does come with a numpad, which the macbook doesn't. I've carried it around, had it in my lap, it's comfortable, not too heavy, feels high quality :thumbup:.
Only complaint, windows 8.1 pro's scaling for high res screens is crap. Chrome is blurry, and photoshop seems to be ignored for the scaling, so the UI is very small regardless of my settings, same with a number of other Apps, I've since turned off scaling(to keep the scale consistent across all apps), and am using a global of 100% scale. So everything is a lot smaller, it being a FHD (1920x1080) res on a 15" screen - i can live with the tiny UI, because it's still legible, and very sharp.
I'd hate to see what UHD looks like in 8.1 without scaling, or if scaling works properly.
@Isaiah, did you get the Lenovo with the UHD? How are you finding it?
1080p is exactly 1/4 the res of its native res, which is ideal.
I only bought the UHD one because it was the only Y50 laptop with an IPS panel. The others are TN.
Here is the IPS UHD panel version:
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y50-uhd/
I got the $1600 one.
It arrives tomorrow!
There was some fussing with me trying to get it to display it at 1080p properly. I had to Google a bunch of stuff about resetting scaling when dropping the resolution down.
I also had to do some compatibility stuff with a few programs, which is super easy to do by going to Properties on the EXE.
The main issue was the ugly blurriness that was happening in some software... it was fucking ugly and I hated it. It made me very sad that I waited so long for this laptop and thought I wasn't going to be able to mend that.
However, messing with a few things and Google helped me solve my issues.
I now have my screen at 1080p and nothing is blurry, everything is nice and crisp as it should be, and I have a fancy IPS panel
The build quality is very, very nice. This thing looks and feels very badass and slick. I love the red backlit keyboard.
My only other issue was some of the nonsense from Windows 8, but I figured out how to disable some of the stupid crap and it's more or less like Windows 7 now!
I'm a happy camper
The site says this laptop weighs about 5.5 lbs, but damn it's light. It's even lighter than my wife's 15" MBP.
anyone know what would be the best option for this? ive been looking around but cant really find one that i like the look of, or with a better specs-price deal.
EDIT: so far ive found a few, but without reviews its hard to judge:
[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-Z50-70-15-6-inch-Laptop-Silver/dp/B00LLE6S8M/ref=sr_1_49?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1405856725&sr=1-49"]Lenovo Z50-70 15.6-inch FHD Laptop (Silver) - (Intel Core i7-4510U 2.0 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD, NVIDIA GT840M 4 GB, HDMI, Webcam, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Windows 8.1): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories[/ame]
these 2 are a little more expensive, but better specs:
[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-P15F-V2-CF1-15-6-inch-Bluetooth/dp/B00K8QZGSC/ref=sr_1_12?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1405854404&sr=1-12"]Gigabyte P15F V2-CF1 15.6-inch Gaming Notebook (Intel Core i7 4710MQ 2.5GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, Nvidia GeForce GTX 850M 2GB Graphics Card, DVD-RW, USB 3.0, HDMI, VGA, eS-ATA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HD Webcam, Windows 8.1): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories[/ame]
[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00FSBEXEK/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers"]Lenovo Y510p 15.6-inch Laptop (Intel Core i7 4700MQ 2.4GHz Processor, 16 GB RAM, 1TB HDD, DVD-RW, LAN, WLAN, BT, Webcam, Nvidia Graphics, Windows 8 Home Premium) - Metal: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories[/ame]
core i7-4510U Dual Core
15.6 inch screen 1920x1080
8gb of memory
256gb ssd
windows 8.1
i'll report back on what I think once I get it
I highly reommend not going with the Gigabyte laptop. Do some Google searches on it for "fan noise" and watch videos.
It's insane how loud it is... louder than a desktop with tons of fans.
I ran it at max settings at 1080p. You can see the average frame rate sits between 35-55fps.
It's awesome having a laptop that is more powerful than my desktop :P
I can't recommend this laptop enough.
During the benchmark I could hardly hear any fans turn on.
Per Scene Stats:
Scene Duration (seconds), Average FPS, Min FPS, Max FPS, Scene Name
32.41, 37.90, 18.53, 191.37, Welcome Center
7.12, 37.22, 8.80, 50.83, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
21.67, 39.24, 12.52, 52.29, Town Center
8.25, 38.72, 17.60, 96.55, Raffle
9.13, 53.90, 24.96, 70.38, Monument Island
3.06, 58.75, 56.44, 60.14, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
81.64, 40.87, 8.80, 191.37, Overall
Elapsed Time (seconds), Average FPS, Min FPS, Max FPS, Scene Name
0.00, 42.25, 19.57, 59.07, Welcome Center
0.52, 43.89, 43.68, 44.16, Welcome Center
1.02, 43.83, 43.49, 44.33, Welcome Center
1.52, 41.61, 21.11, 43.93, Welcome Center
2.05, 45.02, 42.74, 191.37, Welcome Center
2.56, 42.78, 41.39, 43.36, Welcome Center
3.08, 42.04, 36.37, 43.18, Welcome Center
3.60, 42.17, 40.88, 42.56, Welcome Center
4.12, 41.45, 38.10, 42.12, Welcome Center
4.63, 40.37, 35.98, 41.85, Welcome Center
5.15, 39.44, 37.07, 40.86, Welcome Center
5.66, 37.94, 35.84, 39.57, Welcome Center
6.18, 32.76, 30.64, 36.47, Welcome Center
6.70, 28.37, 25.90, 30.92, Welcome Center
7.23, 30.89, 27.82, 32.92, Welcome Center
7.75, 29.58, 27.17, 32.59, Welcome Center
8.26, 29.55, 28.31, 30.56, Welcome Center
8.76, 30.70, 29.72, 31.71, Welcome Center
9.29, 31.01, 28.61, 32.82, Welcome Center
9.80, 29.36, 27.86, 30.07, Welcome Center
10.31, 30.26, 18.53, 39.63, Welcome Center
10.84, 34.51, 30.55, 51.33, Welcome Center
11.36, 35.31, 34.53, 36.10, Welcome Center
11.87, 36.01, 34.85, 36.57, Welcome Center
12.40, 36.15, 34.79, 36.85, Welcome Center
12.93, 35.65, 33.94, 36.76, Welcome Center
13.43, 35.99, 35.38, 36.68, Welcome Center
13.93, 35.88, 35.05, 36.46, Welcome Center
14.43, 34.83, 33.19, 36.55, Welcome Center
14.95, 33.98, 32.30, 37.17, Welcome Center
15.45, 40.56, 37.40, 42.23, Welcome Center
15.97, 41.63, 39.88, 42.50, Welcome Center
16.47, 41.87, 39.98, 43.02, Welcome Center
16.97, 41.80, 40.74, 42.95, Welcome Center
17.48, 40.69, 37.17, 42.47, Welcome Center
17.99, 35.22, 20.77, 53.14, Welcome Center
18.50, 35.80, 34.77, 36.85, Welcome Center
19.01, 40.47, 36.68, 44.28, Welcome Center
19.52, 43.32, 41.49, 44.70, Welcome Center
20.03, 42.56, 21.60, 52.42, Welcome Center
20.55, 44.11, 42.99, 45.40, Welcome Center
21.07, 44.50, 42.40, 46.22, Welcome Center
21.59, 44.92, 42.97, 46.84, Welcome Center
22.10, 45.43, 42.48, 47.13, Welcome Center
22.61, 43.21, 35.31, 47.75, Welcome Center
23.11, 42.32, 40.92, 44.17, Welcome Center
23.63, 42.55, 38.13, 44.84, Welcome Center
24.15, 34.64, 33.06, 35.85, Welcome Center
24.67, 32.27, 20.67, 48.78, Welcome Center
25.20, 35.71, 33.56, 37.37, Welcome Center
25.70, 37.68, 35.92, 38.58, Welcome Center
26.21, 38.41, 37.16, 39.46, Welcome Center
26.73, 37.65, 33.36, 38.52, Welcome Center
27.23, 36.89, 36.24, 37.65, Welcome Center
27.75, 36.45, 36.01, 36.97, Welcome Center
28.27, 36.36, 35.81, 37.09, Welcome Center
28.79, 37.12, 36.33, 37.80, Welcome Center
29.30, 37.05, 36.50, 37.46, Welcome Center
29.82, 36.78, 35.52, 37.37, Welcome Center
30.33, 36.53, 35.44, 37.07, Welcome Center
30.85, 36.32, 34.59, 36.98, Welcome Center
31.38, 36.31, 34.78, 36.82, Welcome Center
31.90, 36.98, 36.41, 38.07, Welcome Center
32.41, 38.48, 38.25, 38.78, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
32.93, 38.55, 38.14, 39.12, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
33.45, 38.91, 38.51, 39.40, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
33.96, 39.28, 38.73, 39.83, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
34.47, 39.60, 39.38, 39.86, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
34.98, 39.66, 39.42, 40.10, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
35.48, 39.69, 39.24, 40.03, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
35.99, 39.65, 39.42, 40.06, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
36.49, 34.40, 23.19, 39.59, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
37.02, 37.98, 30.76, 39.47, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
37.52, 29.19, 8.80, 50.83, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
38.03, 34.00, 15.86, 48.74, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
38.53, 35.81, 34.03, 37.16, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
39.03, 35.90, 34.81, 36.50, Scene Change: Disregard Performance In This Section
39.53, 35.98, 35.67, 36.36, Town Center
40.03, 35.51, 24.91, 44.87, Town Center
40.54, 36.01, 34.23, 36.91, Town Center
41.07, 34.99, 32.21, 36.21, Town Center
41.58, 35.10, 32.63, 35.96, Town Center
42.10, 36.09, 35.69, 36.52, Town Center
42.62, 36.26, 34.98, 36.78, Town Center
43.15, 35.76, 33.38, 36.91, Town Center
43.65, 36.15, 34.67, 36.90, Town Center
44.17, 37.20, 35.86, 38.31, Town Center
44.69, 36.32, 35.52, 38.47, Town Center
45.21, 38.29, 36.11, 39.52, Town Center
45.73, 40.33, 39.56, 41.18, Town Center
46.25, 40.43, 39.28, 41.12, Town Center
46.77, 39.74, 35.41, 40.79, Town Center
47.27, 38.89, 38.05, 39.67, Town Center
47.79, 38.12, 37.23, 38.85, Town Center
48.31, 38.52, 38.01, 38.92, Town Center
48.83, 38.33, 29.52, 44.50, Town Center
49.35, 39.01, 37.52, 39.58, Town Center
49.87, 39.23, 37.26, 40.08, Town Center
50.38, 39.77, 34.74, 40.59, Town Center
50.88, 40.07, 37.28, 40.73, Town Center
51.40, 39.71, 36.47, 40.68, Town Center
51.91, 39.32, 35.65, 40.81, Town Center
52.42, 40.30, 35.93, 41.58, Town Center
52.94, 41.59, 30.28, 51.61, Town Center
53.44, 44.51, 43.05, 45.69, Town Center
53.96, 40.29, 12.52, 45.89, Town Center
54.53, 43.39, 36.09, 52.29, Town Center
55.04, 42.88, 41.24, 43.78, Town Center
55.55, 42.43, 37.81, 43.63, Town Center
56.07, 40.42, 21.73, 46.05, Town Center
56.59, 42.87, 41.10, 43.55, Town Center
57.10, 41.92, 28.82, 43.80, Town Center
57.60, 43.26, 40.75, 51.42, Town Center
58.11, 43.27, 42.25, 44.04, Town Center
58.62, 41.79, 40.60, 42.55, Town Center
59.12, 41.13, 38.37, 41.99, Town Center
59.63, 39.95, 37.96, 41.17, Town Center
60.16, 36.81, 33.84, 38.63, Town Center
60.67, 36.11, 33.87, 36.72, Town Center
61.20, 37.11, 31.84, 39.50, Raffle
61.71, 39.07, 31.64, 40.88, Raffle
62.22, 38.86, 37.09, 39.72, Raffle
62.74, 38.16, 36.13, 38.81, Raffle
63.26, 37.47, 30.09, 40.17, Raffle
63.77, 37.08, 35.55, 37.64, Raffle
64.28, 36.65, 36.02, 37.11, Raffle
64.80, 36.09, 35.27, 36.72, Raffle
65.33, 36.07, 35.08, 36.94, Raffle
65.85, 36.12, 29.17, 38.48, Raffle
66.38, 36.96, 34.31, 38.05, Raffle
66.89, 36.51, 21.31, 46.12, Raffle
67.41, 37.34, 17.60, 49.62, Raffle
67.92, 41.91, 37.96, 43.29, Raffle
68.42, 44.40, 38.13, 47.43, Raffle
68.94, 49.68, 30.86, 96.55, Raffle
69.45, 51.56, 46.26, 52.98, Monument Island
69.95, 50.39, 48.18, 52.44, Monument Island
70.47, 47.36, 45.00, 48.17, Monument Island
70.97, 46.70, 43.87, 47.90, Monument Island
71.49, 47.89, 36.09, 52.87, Monument Island
71.99, 47.59, 24.96, 63.23, Monument Island
72.49, 52.43, 49.86, 54.51, Monument Island
73.01, 54.52, 50.82, 56.12, Monument Island
73.52, 55.81, 52.86, 56.82, Monument Island
74.02, 55.08, 28.18, 70.38, Monument Island
74.53, 55.81, 31.13, 70.03, Monument Island
75.03, 57.70, 54.22, 58.51, Monument Island
75.53, 57.52, 54.44, 58.54, Monument Island
76.04, 57.90, 56.16, 58.82, Monument Island
76.54, 57.80, 54.10, 58.85, Monument Island
77.04, 57.90, 55.03, 58.90, Monument Island
77.54, 58.08, 56.72, 59.26, Monument Island
78.06, 58.17, 57.64, 58.65, Monument Island
78.57, 58.12, 56.44, 58.64, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
79.09, 58.29, 57.22, 59.04, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
79.61, 58.42, 57.57, 58.98, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
80.12, 58.80, 57.79, 59.72, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
80.63, 59.35, 57.93, 59.91, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
81.13, 59.51, 57.85, 60.14, Benchmark Finished: Disregard Performance In This Section
Version Info: 32Bit Exe - 1.0.1643565 3/16/2014 12:00:00 AM
Commandline Used: DefaultPCBenchmarkMap.xcmap -ForceCompatLevel=7 -resx=1920 -resy=1080 -nosound -norumble -noPauseOnLossOfFocus -fullscreen -runfrombenchmarkbat -DEFENGINEINI=..\..\XGame\Config\DefaultEngineSteamworks.ini
Settings Used:
[SystemSettings]
StaticDecals=true
DynamicDecals=true
UnbatchedDecals=true
DynamicShadows=true
DirectionalLightmaps=true
DepthOfField=true
DiffusionDepthOfField=true
Bloom=true
Distortion=true
FilteredDistortion=true
DropParticleDistortion=false
bAllowDownsampledTranslucency=true
bUseMaxQualityMode=false
OnlyStreamInTextures=false
LensFlares=true
OneFrameThreadLag=true
UseVsync=false
VsyncTo60WhenUnder30=false
UpscaleScreenPercentage=true
AllowD3D10=true
AllowD3D11=true
AllowRadialBlur=true
EnableSoftwareOcclusion=false
EnableGPUOcclusionQueries=true
EnableDepthPrePass=false
bAllowWholeSceneDominantShadows=true
bForceCPUAccessToGPUSkinVerts=false
bDisableSkeletalInstanceWeights=false
EnableScreenSpaceAmbientShadows=true
EnableSPUScreenSpaceAmbientShadows=true
UseHighQualityLightShaftRendering=true
EnableSM5ShadowSystem=true
EnableSM5ShadowBlur=true
EnableLightShafts=true
EnableFXAA=true
EnableSM5FXAA=false
EnableHDAO=true
HDAOHighQuality=true
DisableAOFiltering=false
UseLowPrecisionColorBuffer=false
UseHalfResAmbientShadows=false
UseComputeShaderAmbientShadows=true
bInitializeShadersOnDemand=false
bEnableParallelApexClothingFetch=false
SkeletalMeshLODBias=0
ParticleLODBias=0
DetailMode=2
ShadowFilterQualityBias=3
MaxAnisotropy=16
MinShadowResolution=64
MaxShadowResolution=2048
MaxPerObjectShadowResolution=2048
CullCastersSmallerThanTexels=0
ResX=1920
ResY=1080
UnbuiltNumWholeSceneDynamicShadowCascades=3
ShadowFadeResolution=128
LightFadeResolution=0
LightMinResolution=0
GraphicsQualityLevel=5
DisplayMode=1
MaxPrecachePrimitivesPerFrame=50
ApexDestructionMaxChunkIslandCount=2147483647
ApexDestructionMaxShapeCount=2147483647
ApexClothingAvgSimFrequencyWindow=60
ScreenPercentage=100.000
SceneCaptureStreamingMultiplier=1.000
ShadowTexelsPerPixel=1.273
ShadowDepthBias=0.012
ShadowDepthBiasWorstCase=0.003
CSMSplitSoftTransitionDistanceScale=4.000
CSMSplitDepthBiasScale=0.500
UnbuiltWholeSceneDynamicShadowRadius=20000.000
ShadowFadeExponent=0.700
LightFadeExponent=1.000
DecalCullDistanceScale=1.000
SM5ShadowSunWidth=0.100
SM5ShadowSunWidthWorstCase=50.000
NewShadowPenumbra=8.000
NewShadowSplitPenumbraScale=0.500
NewShadowFilterWidth=2.000
ShadowCascadeScale=1.000
NewCSMSoftTransitionDistance=600.000
NewNonCSMSoftTransitionDistance=60.000
MassiveLODDistanceBias=0.100
CullDistanceBias=0.100
StaticMeshLODDistanceBias=0.100
SkeletalMeshLODDistanceBias=0.100
ParticleSystemLODDistanceBias=0.100
DistortionFadeResolution=1.000
DistortionMinResolution=0.000
SM5DiffusionNearBlurScale=0.600
SM5DiffusionFarBlurScale=0.350
OverallTextureStreamingBias=1.500
ParticleCountHardLimitScaleFactor=10.000
MaxDistanceToApplyOcclusionRotationalScaling=5000.000
ApexLODResourceBudget=1000000020040877300000.000
ApexDestructionMaxChunkSeparationLOD=1.000
[MachineInfo]
OS: Windows 8
GraphicsVendor: 000010DE (NVIDIA)
DeviceID: 00001392
DeviceName: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M
IsDX11: 1
DriverVer: 9.18.13.3250
Physical Mem: 16296MB
CPUName: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4710HQ CPU @ 2.50GHz
Hyperthreaded: 1
NumProcessorsPerCPU: 1
NumLogicalProcessors: 8
NumPhysicalProcessors: 8
CoresPerProcessor: 8
the y510p would be my prefered choice out of those, unfortunately that price is for Used, and i cant seem to find anywhere that does the model i want for the price im willing to pay.
budget is around £800, the custom build is attractive but doesnt come with an OS.
im also debating building my own from a barebones chassis, does anyone think this would be a viable option? ive built a PC before but not a laptop.
also, the laptop is mainly for use at university, im going to be doing an engineering course so it needs to be fairly beefy, if anyone has an recommendations it'd be awesome!
edit:
ive checked newegg, they have really great prices but dont seem to ship to the UK, which sucks
thanks man, i hadnt checked that chassis when i was on the site before, its pretty good!
also, what is the advantage of having IPS, i personally havent heard of it much before.
however this one is much cheaper with an SSD than the other one i was looking at, good find man.
this with windows 8.1 for £793 seems like a good deal to me.
I've been down the custom build laptop road myself, and after a bunch of problems with Sager/Clevo I wouldn't recommend it. Not sure if the above links use the same kits as them though.
Edit: yes "cosmos" in this case is the same as Sager/Clevo. Just an update, Mine is currently back to Sager for the second time to fix the SAME screen defect. They replaced the screen the first time and within a week the new screen developed the same problem, needless to say this is really, really disappointing. Sure, maybe you will get a Sager/Clevo/Cosmos without any quality control issues, but I would say its a bit of a lottery. It will seem like an amazing deal, but it comes at a cost, sub-par build and components.
What I would say is, buy the laptop you actually want. Don't settle for something else just because its cheaper. I've done this many times and I'm always disapointed and end up buying something different, sooner than I otherwise would have if I simply would have spent the money to buy the thing I wanted in the first place. So get the y510p if thats what you actually want, you may just save money in the long term, and try to get it with an IPS screen as I think they offer both tn and ips.
im using pcspecialist.com , and all the reviews of that laptop on their site dont say it has any malfunctions in the build quality.
This is the problem I initially had with the panel, after about 8 months it looked like this (gradually got worse over time):
Then the replaced it for free under warranty, and after a week (I powered it on twice for about 5 minutes each as I had already purchased a replacement) it looked like this:
This issue with the panel is common as well, you can see more people have the same problem here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo-reviews-owners-lounges/715556-official-clevo-w230st-sager-np7330-owners-lounge-56-print.html
The panel is from a cheap noname chinese company. Most quality panels come from LG or Samsung. This is just one example of one model using crappy parts with known issues. Maybe all the other models are totally fine, maybe the price actually is too good to be true.
In addition to the screen issue, the hinge broke under normal use, and the heat managment is very, very poor, with a fan that sounds like a plane taking off that kicks on straight to full blast, randomly, and then off, and on, and off again for no apparent reason. Battery life is also shit.
I say generally in life, you get what you pay for.
Now to be totally fair, I've had issues with other laptops as well. My Lenovo X220 had a couple problems, mainly the casings on 2/3 usb jacks came off, and my model had a problem where it would shut of randomly if not plugged in to a power supply (needed a new mobo). Though probably a dumb move to buy a refurbed one in the first place (again with the gettings and paying for things).
[ame="
and this one:
http://www.eteknix.com/pc-specialist-cosmos-ii-15-6-notebook-review/14/
seems pretty sturdy from what ive both read about and seen in a few reviews, and ive not seen any complaints about the screen. maybe its just that other model of screen?
either way, most reviews seem to say its good. ill look into it further.
first off, specs:
15.6 inch 1920x1080 IPS screen.
120gb samsung evo 840 SSD
1tb HDD (dont remember the brand)
i7 4710MQ @ 2.5ghz
geforce gtx 850m
8gb RAM
seems sturdy enough, nice weight and size from it. screen is gorgoeus, good colour, resolution etc. keyboad is nice, although the spacebar is a little bit small for my liking, taking some getting used to. 3dsmax 2015 boots easily and quickly due to the SSD, and runs fantastically well for my needs. seems decent for gaming, running stuff at low and medium settings at 1080p at good framerates.
windows 8.1 is taking some getting used to, but seems fine, liking the amount of apps and such.
ive only had one major issue so far, and that is the wifi card. it simply wont recognise networks, even when sat 2 foot away from the router. and if it does connect (very rare) then it connects at insanely low speeds compared to my home PC using an external USB wifi stick thing. i did ring PCspecialist about this, and was told to uninstall and update my drivers. this did not work. Rang them again today, and a different rep told me it could be to do with the construction of the laptop, as maybe the wifi card is not fitted properly. the laptop is being returned and hopefully this issue will be fixed, as it seems pretty good overall.
will update when i return and it gets fixed.
kinda
I sent mine back to sager twice, first time I received a new screen that showed the same defect explained above after a week, third screen had a bunch of dead pixels, I cut my losses and sold it on eBay (while explaining the defect of course).
So yeah, poor quality control and an inability to actually fix problems was my experience with Sager, hopefully yours is better.
http://www.eurocom.com/ec/configure%281,249,0%29ec
You want beefcake, you want a quadcore? You're gonna pay for it...