Developers, developers, developers, developers

[blue]

Need some advice, I'm planning on buying a new Laptop and I'm quite set on getting an Apple Mac. I know the price tag for these things are very steep but I assume that's for the sole reason is because the performance is outstanding, does anybody own a Mac Book that would recommend buying one? My prioritized use would be for gaming, and there is another reasonably similar priced Laptop that is more tailored to gaming specifically which is this one. Any recommendations from personal experience with either Laptops? I wouldn't be too bothered but with such a high price tag I wanna make sure I'm getting the most out of my money. ;3

 

[Legendary Silke]

Need some advice, I'm planning on buying a new Laptop and I'm quite set on getting an Apple Mac. I know the price tag for these things are very steep but I assume that's for the sole reason is because the performance is outstanding, does anybody own a Mac Book that would recommend buying one? My prioritized use would be for gaming, and there is another reasonably similar priced Laptop that is more tailored to gaming specifically which is this one. Any recommendations from personal experience with either Laptops? I wouldn't be too bothered but with such a high price tag I wanna make sure I'm getting the most out of my money. ;3

Don't get a Mac for gaming.

Stick with Windows laptops - you'll save a lot in terms of both hardware and OS prices. (Games are still Windows territory.)

Many laptop manufacturers make gaming laptops and/or high-performance multimedia laptops. (Take Toshiba, for example - a Satellite P-series (high-performance standard multimedia) or a Qosmio (gaming) would do for them. Most other manufacturers have similar line-ups.)

What settings do you intend to target (in terms of quality and resolution)? What will you be playing? I would strongly suggest that you look at laptops from at least three brands. Do you want to factor in portability?

Keep in mind of this: price, graphics performance, portability. Pick two.

 

[donavannj]

Hardware-wise, the Lenovo IdeaPad you're looking at is dramatically better than the MacBook Pro, just looking at raw specs. Even with BootCamp, the IdeaPad is probably going to be dramatically more cost-effective for gaming power. You get 8GB right out of the box with the IdeaPad you're looking at for $1200 USD, while you have to pay $1500 to get up to that amount with a dramatically smaller display and still only have 1/4 the storage space of the Lenovo (granted, the cheapest MBP with 8GB of RAM is using an SSD). It's also worth nothing that a Windows install itself takes up between 20 GB and 40 GB of hard drive space, so you won't have much space for anything at all on the cheapest MBP option if you have both OSes installed.

Here's the US Lenovo page for a comparison of the options for each potential option of the Y510P out of the box:
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/

Here's the US Apple page for the MBP for the comparison of each specs available:
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/

Some other questions that may influence my recommendation:
Are you a Mac user or a Windows user? Would you be comfortable learning Windows 8 on the fly? Do you mind a 13 inch display? Is a 15 inch too big of a display (most laptops of the past decade have used 15 inch displays, for reference)?

Displays are measured by the diagonal distance between opposite corners if you need some means of getting perspective on how big the displays will be.

Also, like Twiggy said, look at more than just Lenovo and Apple if this is going to be your primary gaming rig.

 

[Legendary Silke]

Also, I think it would be wise to remind that almost every Intel CPU (aside from CPUs based on Bay Trail, but I'm sure you're not looking at below Core i5 series, right?) out there is fast enough for anything but Company of Heroes 2 (ULV processors cry at that). (If you're looking for gaming laptops, make that fast enough for anything, period.)

The more important part is the GPU - you want as much GPU as possible, but don't neglect the existence of an integrated Intel GPU, too - you want to have Optimus, if only to prevent the battery from behaving more like a glorified UPS that can't protect against unstable AC power supply.

If you intend to game, it'd be also wise to have at least one HDD in the laptop you're going to buy. Games take up a lot of space, and some tiny SSDs might leave you up and cold if you factor in Windows, system files, and common applications. (If I were you, I'd set things up so that any discrete SSD that's less than 120 GB large is configured as a cache. You won't have to shuffle items if need be.)

There are also certain things that you can't check by looking at the specifications - display brightness, display colour temperature (not as important, as it's easily fixed in software), display colour gamut, keyboard feel, touchpad feel, speaker quality, and noise. I would suggest that you demo a laptop if you're able to.

 

[Tsutarja]

I didn't demo my laptop when I got it, but luckily for the price I got it for, it has good speakers and a decent built-in microphone, unlike my previous laptop, which had a confirmed hardware flaw with its built-in microphone, and it was acknowledged by HP as well.

 

[Brane]

Need some advice, I'm planning on buying a new Laptop and I'm quite set on getting an Apple Mac. I know the price tag for these things are very steep but I assume that's for the sole reason is because the performance is outstanding, does anybody own a Mac Book that would recommend buying one? My prioritized use would be for gaming, and there is another reasonably similar priced Laptop that is more tailored to gaming specifically which is this one. Any recommendations from personal experience with either Laptops? I wouldn't be too bothered but with such a high price tag I wanna make sure I'm getting the most out of my money. ;3

Alright well here's where we're going to need a bit more info.

As far as laptops go, MacBooks may not have the raw specs of some other companies but the build, battery life and portability is why they're definitely some of the best going around even if they're slightly overpriced. I've got one of the new MacBook Pros as a support device for my PC and I couldn't be happier with it.

Windows Laptops generally have better specs, but in my experience they aren't as finetuned as Apple's portable devices are, but great nonetheless. But if you're going to look at any, make sure to check out ASUS, Dell and Acer as well.

Is there a reason you want a laptop? In all honesty if you're going to use it primarily for gaming, I would just go straight for a custom PC build and easily save yourself anywhere between 500-1000 dollars. Where if you're hell bent on a Laptop, like others have said it's best you get a hands on feel with something first, pictures online can be deceiving.

 

[donavannj]

If he's going to be gaming, though, the cheapest MacBook's SSD simply will not cut it in terms of disk capacity, like I said before. Heck, you'd be cutting it close on space with anything less than 500 GB of space. I remember basically filling up 160 GB of data with games and game mods even back in 2007, and that was on a Windows XP build!

 

[Brane]

Depends a lot on what games and how many games. My PC hasn't even been filled with 500GB of files, it is a lot of space. But if he is buying a lot of next gen games over a few he will be playing a lot (such as strategy or mmo's etc) then 500GB might get filled up. And a good MacBook will set you back a lot if you go the SSD route.

But at the same time I would definitely go for a PC build over a laptop for gaming unless a laptop is for some reason a necessity.

 

[Legendary Silke]

I'll just say that having an SSD and nothing else is asking for trouble if you're a gamer ;)

One thing about gaming laptops - they might be expensive, but they're also significantly more mobile than a desktop that's tethered to an AC power outlet.

 

[Brane]

I don't understand how. SSDs are much faster and generally more durable then a HDD, but a bit more expensive too haha.

Laptops do have the advantage of being mobile, but this comes at the cost of performance and functionality. If you're fine with gaming on a laptop props to you, but I honestly think you cannot get much of an experience out of one unless you aim for something high end. But at that stage you may as well invest in a PC.

As great as my laptop is, I will almost never play any regular games on it, maybe some indies but not much more. But that's just me, I simply believe the performance you get for your money is much better put into a PC.

 

[Omicron]

I have to agree with Brane. If you want a gaming station, a custom built PC is the best option by far. If you really want a laptop, then buy a Windows laptop. Macbooks aren't very game friendly. They are great in many aspects and niches, but gaming is definitely not one of them.

I have a custom built PC and couldn't be happier with it.

 

[Legendary Silke]

I don't understand how. SSDs are much faster and generally more durable then a HDD, but a bit more expensive too haha.

Games eat up space quickly, especially today's games that can come in up to 50 GB, and you'd wish you had an internal HDD.

Laptops do have the advantage of being mobile, but this comes at the cost of performance and functionality. If you're fine with gaming on a laptop props to you, but I honestly think you cannot get much of an experience out of one unless you aim for something high end. But at that stage you may as well invest in a PC.

As great as my laptop is, I will almost never play any regular games on it, maybe some indies but not much more. But that's just me, I simply believe the performance you get for your money is much better put into a PC.

You might have not realized it yet, but a PC is a PC, be it desktop, tablet, or laptop. When to comes to gaming, a desktop PC is the best option when it comes to performance-per-dollar, but I'd suspect that "good enough" is an option. One probably doesn't need to blow cash on the best if we know a target.

 

[Brane]

Yes I know, but you guys get my drift anyway :P. That's where it depends on what games he is playing. Even though games can run up to 50GB, it depends on whether they will even be playing those games. I have still yet to download a game over 10GB honestly.

Well it all has to fit within the budget. You don't need to spend 4k on the latest ultimate gaming rig, just as much as you currently see fit. For 1.5k you can easily build a PC that will run modern games very well. But as I was saying before if they're buying it solely for gaming the same amount you would spend on a laptop will get you much lower performance than a PC.

But yeah it all just comes down to budget and what you need.

 

[Tsutarja]

My recently-purchased Toshiba laptop isn't really meant for gaming (Intel i5 with 8GB DDR3 and mostly shared video memory), but with some lowered settings inside the games themselves, the games run flawless.

 

[Brane]

Well it's really up to preference I guess, if you don't mind gaming on a laptop then all the better haha.

Does anyone have any wireless hard drives? I'm looking into getting one that is kind of like a cheap server I can use as a work hub. I've only really heard of the SeaGate and Apple Airport but the Apple won't be interchangeable with my Windows desktop.

 

[Hiatus]

Games work in neither of my laptops, unfortunately. Regardless of what settings I have on them, they always seem to lag. Well, I guess some do work, actually, but not the ones I'd possibly be interested in. :(

 

[Legendary Silke]

Wireless hard disk drives?

Do you mean network-attached storage? They can be accessed over the network. (I prefer directly-connected external HDDs, if only because they're very speedy, and can be accessed with standard backup utilities.)

 

[Tsutarja]

My high school utilized NAT for the non-default student accounts and staff accounts inside their domain. Teachers had to be wired up to the network to access and sync their files between computers, and same with individual student logins as well.

 

[Legendary Silke]

My high school utilized NAT for the non-default student accounts and staff accounts inside their domain. Teachers had to be wired up to the network to access and sync their files between computers, and same with individual student logins as well.

NAT = network address translation. Think of it as "many computers in a local network sharing an external (to the Internet) IP address - stuff's managed by something else so packets go in and out to the right computers".

NAS = network-attached storage, which I've just described..

Synching files between computers can be achieved using various methods, and may involve none of the above ;)

 

[Tsutarja]

Whoops, I fumbled on the terminology there XD

All I can remember is that one time, one of my teachers from high school logged into the presentation computer in the classroom (the one that's hooked up to the projector), and it wasn't connected to the network (because you had to run a wire across the floor). The teacher tried accessing their My Documents folder, but couldn't, so that's how I figured out that the teacher accounts used network attached storage.