Laptop Alternatives For Series 7 Owners Who Refunded Their S7s

[alexyfoot]

Well the ASUS-es have better cooling (U46) - it isn't great as this is an ultrabook after all but definitely better than the MSI. You can upgrade to an i7, but these notebooks are not the best fit for it, so I wouldn't do it unless you absolutely need it. Or you can always go for XPS 14/15z or HP Envy 14/15...

[btn125]

Asus N55S ?
Bit bulky but otherwise seems the only reasonably priced option to me.

[dp3000]

Almost all laptops in the UK are rip-off (including Samsung). The only ones that are sold on OKish price are Dells and Lenovos.

HP deliberately sell cheaper specs at a high price. Take the new hp env 17, it comes with a 1600*900 and AMD radeon 6770M screen and it costs £1300. That is just bull. Other manufacturers are much more reasonable but due to our strong currency we will always be ripped off.

[dp3000]

Does MATlab and autocad use opengl? Also, if you don't need opengl then the series 7 is still a good laptop

[alexyfoot]

Yes they do, but I don't know if it causes problems on the Chronos. Maybe one of the owners can confirm this. It is a great laptop if you can live with its faults (OpenGL, weaker Wireless, etc)

[Luterin]

Yes they do, but I don't know if it causes problems on the Chronos. Maybe one of the owners can confirm this. It is a great laptop if you can live with its faults (OpenGL, weaker Wireless, etc)

I love my Chronus and it works great with everything I do with it, all from productivity (I use it for work) and also entertainment/gaming. I don't have any problems with it at all, not even the wifi issue some has. I do know that OpenGL is an issue, and that it sometimes can be worked around with the alternate drivers, but since I don't need OpenGL that is not an issue for me.

I don't know how much those programs would really benefit from using AMD OpenGL compared to the build in Intel HD one. Alot of application just support OpenGL as a way to get stuff onto the screen, and the actual performance is not an issue since any actual calculations is made on the CPU.

So, is the performance difference in those OpenGL applications really a big issue? Ofcourse in some programs it is, but far from all of them.

And I'm not talking about games now, but there are not many that require OpenGL these days. Rage being the only one that comes to mind, and wasn't it possible to play that one with the alternate drivers?

Oh and Minecraft also uses OpenGL if you are into that, not sure if that works under Leshcats drivers.

[alexyfoot]

It is quite useful for AutoCAD as it uses some serious GPU acceleration but will only be noticed in big projects - if you are just a student, don't worry. MATLAB, you can live with an integrated GPU even for relatively pro work, still an AMD would be better, but Intel HD would be sufficient.

Hoever, only someone with the laptop, can confirm whether they perform as expected.

[miniflyer]

I was looking at getting the Chronos 7 Series but obviously the switching graphics is a problem.

I live in the UK and the only alternative seems the Envy 15 and the 15z. The 15z is only dual core and the Envy 15 hasn't been released.

Does anyone know if the Envy 15 will be released in the UK and when?

[outl@w]

Envy have red/orange issue.

[John Ratsey]

It is quite useful for AutoCAD as it uses some serious GPU acceleration but will only be noticed in big projects - if you are just a student, don't worry.

I think that the GPU performance only matters in AutoCAD (or other CAD programs - I use Bricscad since it gives much more for the money) if the user is rendering sizeable 3D models. In my experience a lot of users only use AutoCAD as the modern alternative to a 2D drawing board. Don't forget that a lot of these software packages have been around since the days of dedicated GPUs having 1 /10th of the speed of the current Intel graphics and they still worked (but perhaps ran more slowly).

John