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Canada16217 Posts
Those laptops seem like such a ripoff, dual core + no dgpu for $1200+, i guess you want the long battery life? but even then..
at least with this you get a quad core https://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154497
The one I linked gives you a 128gb ssd +1tb hdd, unlike those which you only get 500gb... $100 more for 4gb more of ram
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I'm planning on loading ubuntu on it and using it specifically for software development/IT stuff. No videogames or photoshop allowed.
Battery life and portability are more important to me than raw power in that instance.
To be frank, I would rather have integrated graphics as opposed to an actual mobile graphics card.
edit: I also was searching for laptops with 1366X768 res. 14 inches to 15.6 inches range.
edit edit: It's also why my initial question was so general.
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As for your main question: try to see if said laptop have a small plate in the back with HDD icon - for example, the ThinkPad X270 doesn't have anything like that so to install new HDD/SSD or RAM you'd need to open up whole laptop to get inside. Especially the new systems are like this, not always, but it's annoying when it happens. Budget Asus laptop for example have even battery "inside", doing anything hardware related to them means opening them up and sometimes even going as far as taking out motherboard.
Another take is too take it to Google/Youtube and see "<laptop-model-here> disassembly". Usually if HDD is easy to get to, it's one of the first thing you'll see in such videos.
So in short: depends on the model, really. Generally speaking I have seen almost every possible combination, including some old laptops from 90's to current hardware. And in every "era" there are some nice constructions that are pleasure to dig into and abominations.
Also personally I would take a quad core with SSD for development 
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Yeah, look at that. No plates at all in the back. Yuck! Sure, you don't have to change HDD/SSD/RAM too often, but when you do, you hate the people that designed that construction.
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Since Lenovo fucked me over on the warranty of an ideapad, I am boycotting their products.
I explicitly asked when I bought it whether it had global warranty and the salesman said "it will be under warranty everywhere it is for sale". Turns out that was a lie and warranty is local only, and they don't even accept it if I mail it: I would have to physically bring it into lenovo repair service in Singapore. And given that it's the mainboard that is broken, the whole notebook is bricked. Half a year after I bought it. So fuck them.
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Cheers for the feedback guys.
I was leaning towards an ultrabook, but might go for an actual laptop for a better processor/changeable SSD
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Always get it in writing.
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Canada13389 Posts
Twitch and OBS related question:
When I set my capture card to 1080p my laptop, ingesting the 1080 image uses 30 or 40% cpu when idling in obs.
When i set the capture card to 720p the laptop uses 5% of the cpu when idling in obs.
If I try to stream on my laptop with the 1080 downscaled to 720 in OBS I get terrible performance.
If I try to stream with the capture card downscaling the image to 720 before it gets to the laptop, I get much better performance.
For now, I am pretty happy running the downscaling on the cap card, but I'm curious if I'm just doing something wrong or if taking in a 1080 feed is just flatout THAT much more taxing for my laptop. It is running an i7-3610QM.
Also theres probably no difference in quality if its downscaled on the elgato vs on obs is there?
+ Show Spoiler +Example clip of current settings to enable vod review and play saving (720/60/5k bitrate/veryfast)
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Sounds more or less normal to me.
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Canada13389 Posts
On June 16 2017 08:24 Craton wrote:
Sounds more or less normal to me.
Great thanks buddy 
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I have an ASUS H87M-PRO mainboard. I have two questions:
1- Can I install an SSD onto my mainboard? Is it compatible? I've checked its specifications but I have no idea which one's which.
2- I have not updated its BIOS at all. Would this cause a problem?
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On June 18 2017 16:51 Bleak wrote:
I have an ASUS H87M-PRO mainboard. I have two questions:
1- Can I install an SSD onto my mainboard? Is it compatible? I've checked its specifications but I have no idea which one's which.
2- I have not updated its BIOS at all. Would this cause a problem?
1) Yes
2) Almost certainly not. Only ever update bios if you have problems.
SSDs use the same ports as an HDD, the SATA ports. From what i can tell about your mainboard, it has 3 of those, so unless you have 3 HDDs already, you don't have a problem. You will also need to attach the SSD to your Power supply, but that has nothing to do with your mainboard, and should also not be a problem, they usually have enough cables to do that easily.
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Yeah, SSDs are pretty old at this point. There's nothing special to do other than plug it in same as any HDD.
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United Kingdom20322 Posts
On June 19 2017 02:52 Craton wrote:
Yeah, SSDs are pretty old at this point. There's nothing special to do other than plug it in same as any HDD.
Last system that i had any trouble with was the first one that i used an SSD for, 2009 platform (x58 on lga1366)
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Hey guys,
I'm trying to update brood war to the new patch and it gets to 64% then says my hard drive is full. The game is installed on a HD that has 2 gigs available, so I think its talking about my C drive, which has 9 MB and I can't find anything else to delete (it's only 42 GB and I swear my OS must be taking all of it). I was wondering if there's a simple solution to this.
I've googled it to no success, and I've taken a peek around this thread as well and I couldn't find anything so sorry if I'm stupid and the solution is somewhere easy to find 
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I guess the simplest way would be to upgrade your HDD - unless you have one HDD and few partitions. Then we can do something. 42 GB is really not enough even for OS alone nowadays and having less than 10% of free space on C:\ is also not recommended.
What you could do is get a portable version of TreeSize: https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/ and scan you C:\ drive. You'll see what takes how much space and maybe you'll find something to delete.
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On June 19 2017 10:19 OsaX Nymloth wrote:I guess the simplest way would be to upgrade your HDD - unless you have one HDD and few partitions. Then we can do something. 42 GB is really not enough even for OS alone nowadays and having less than 10% of free space on C:\ is also not recommended. What you could do is get a portable version of TreeSize: https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/ and scan you C:\ drive. You'll see what takes how much space and maybe you'll find something to delete.
Thank you very much for that recommendation of TreeSize. Running that found hiberfile.sys, 6.0 GB large. I disabled hibernate mode (which I never use anyways) and it deleted the file, now I have 6 GB !!! Awesome.
1v1 msg ^.-
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Canada13389 Posts
Lets say I want to get an SSD.
How do I go about transferring my windows files and some games from the HDD to the SSD easily?
I would ideally put things like Overwatch/SC2/Windows on the SSD plus whatever current SP game I am running on there.
Is there a simple solution to this or am I stuck with simply reinstalling windows?
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You could try cloning your current OS drive/partition, save the image somewhere else (external HDD, LAN?) and then install fresh OS on SSD and run the program to "recreate" the old system. Macrium Reflect Free is simple tool I used in such cases.
OR
Install fresh OS on SSD, copy what you need from HDD. IMHO best solution, as you won't get any "trash" from old system. There are also useful tools for this like Fab's Autobackup, but you can copy everything - including web browser profiles - yourself without much trouble really.
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EPT
