I got a great idea for smartphone and laptop makers, cut back on the RGB disco light craze and make them "proper thickness"" so cooling is very unlikely to be an issue I really hate the "modern" have to make thinner and thinner, more and more lights, and more and more glass approach pretty much all of them are doing lately.
I miss laptops from a dace back or so ago where they were actually thick enough to seriously injure someone if they were clubbed with it AND pretty much never had a chance of overheating because they used a good thickness cooling solution :(
I recently bought a used Dell Precision M6700 and upgraded the GPU to a 980M from AliExpress. Even under heavy gaming, the CPU and GPU staysin the mid 70's, and the fan noise is reasonable. It appears to beat a 1060 Max-Q in benchmarks and OC'd (still runs at reasonable temps) nips at the heels of a full 1060 laptop. For an all in cost of about half what a 1060 laptop costs new. No RGB, wonderful understated design, and heaps of cooling. It's a breath of fresh air.
That was a smart move, the Precision line are solid workstation laptops and it's easy to find parts for them as you've seen. I'd trust one of those over a "gaming" laptop for longevity and TCO.
Especially with the 1070 GPU I agree because at that TDP it's going to thermal throttle so hard. OTOH at the 1050 level I like the idea of a laptop that can pass as a normal PC but still has significantly more gaming capability than with just an IGP, on the infrequent times when I'd be gaming on it instead of a desktop it'd be louder than a thicker model but is still cool enough that performance shouldn't be badly hit. The 1060 I'm less sure about because its power it getting up there, has anyone done a good perf/thermals review of it in an ultra thin?
> I miss laptops from a dace back or so ago where they were actually thick enough to seriously injure someone if they were clubbed with it AND pretty much never had a chance of overheating because they used a good thickness cooling solution :(
On one hand I understand what you mean, but on the other find this summary a bit too rose-colored. The laptops from a decade back, unless they were from very specific (and expensive) series, were made from plastic, lasted a whopping 2–4 hours on battery on average (regardless of the load!), and were prone to overheating to the point of warping the keyboard. I've seen that many times in the 2000s. These days it's only the gaming laptops with extreme specs that actually get hot enough to keep on your lap under load. I miss the old keyboards—perhaps the most unduly degraded part of the laptop these days—but I would never go back to plastic bodies.
This is only slightly less true now than it was then (just look at an Inspiron 3000 machine: it's still plastic crap, while the higher end inspiron 5000 and 7000 have nice alu chassis). We're just a bit more insulated from it now because these days we have high-end consumer Windows laptops (and the market to support em), instead of the narrow choice of plastic consumer junk, good enterprise laptops and Apple like we did in the old days.
Dell buying Alienware, retargeting XPS, and the design study that was the Dell Adamo were by far the biggest influences on this shift if you ask me.
Inspiron 5000s are also plastic, they just LOOK like they're aluminum. I'm not sure about the 7000 series as I haven't seen the current one in person.
Dell has recently bought out a new line of gaming notebooks that fit in above their normal consumer line and below Alienware. For anyone who liked the old XPS systems, those are a good bet.
Some of the business-marketed notebooks are a little thicker and use the space for a decent keyboard. Thinkpads (except the really skinny ones), Dell Latitudes (once again, the thicker ones), etc.
It's always nice to see new products, but as someone in the market for a thin, light and capable laptop, this is a disappointment so far to me. I honestly get confused as to whom the target market is for this.
Currently, I'd rather sacrifice ~0.3mm thickness extra for a better keyboard and trackpad layout, plus a confirmed 94Wh battery with a Gigabyte laptop that has the same hardware specs.
> Currently, I'd rather sacrifice ~0.3mm thickness extra for a better keyboard and trackpad layout, plus a confirmed 94Wh battery with a Gigabyte laptop that has the same hardware specs.
This, very much. Hell, I'd give away a whole millimeter or two.
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Dragonstongue - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
I got a great idea for smartphone and laptop makers, cut back on the RGB disco light craze and make them "proper thickness"" so cooling is very unlikely to be an issue I really hate the "modern" have to make thinner and thinner, more and more lights, and more and more glass approach pretty much all of them are doing lately.I miss laptops from a dace back or so ago where they were actually thick enough to seriously injure someone if they were clubbed with it AND pretty much never had a chance of overheating because they used a good thickness cooling solution :(
rhx123 - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
I recently bought a used Dell Precision M6700 and upgraded the GPU to a 980M from AliExpress. Even under heavy gaming, the CPU and GPU staysin the mid 70's, and the fan noise is reasonable.It appears to beat a 1060 Max-Q in benchmarks and OC'd (still runs at reasonable temps) nips at the heels of a full 1060 laptop. For an all in cost of about half what a 1060 laptop costs new. No RGB, wonderful understated design, and heaps of cooling. It's a breath of fresh air.
kaidenshi - Saturday, August 18, 2018 - link
That was a smart move, the Precision line are solid workstation laptops and it's easy to find parts for them as you've seen. I'd trust one of those over a "gaming" laptop for longevity and TCO.DanNeely - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
Especially with the 1070 GPU I agree because at that TDP it's going to thermal throttle so hard. OTOH at the 1050 level I like the idea of a laptop that can pass as a normal PC but still has significantly more gaming capability than with just an IGP, on the infrequent times when I'd be gaming on it instead of a desktop it'd be louder than a thicker model but is still cool enough that performance shouldn't be badly hit. The 1060 I'm less sure about because its power it getting up there, has anyone done a good perf/thermals review of it in an ultra thin?moozooh - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
> I miss laptops from a dace back or so ago where they were actually thick enough to seriously injure someone if they were clubbed with it AND pretty much never had a chance of overheating because they used a good thickness cooling solution :(On one hand I understand what you mean, but on the other find this summary a bit too rose-colored. The laptops from a decade back, unless they were from very specific (and expensive) series, were made from plastic, lasted a whopping 2–4 hours on battery on average (regardless of the load!), and were prone to overheating to the point of warping the keyboard. I've seen that many times in the 2000s. These days it's only the gaming laptops with extreme specs that actually get hot enough to keep on your lap under load. I miss the old keyboards—perhaps the most unduly degraded part of the laptop these days—but I would never go back to plastic bodies.
ZeDestructor - Friday, August 17, 2018 - link
This is only slightly less true now than it was then (just look at an Inspiron 3000 machine: it's still plastic crap, while the higher end inspiron 5000 and 7000 have nice alu chassis). We're just a bit more insulated from it now because these days we have high-end consumer Windows laptops (and the market to support em), instead of the narrow choice of plastic consumer junk, good enterprise laptops and Apple like we did in the old days.Dell buying Alienware, retargeting XPS, and the design study that was the Dell Adamo were by far the biggest influences on this shift if you ask me.
Flunk - Tuesday, August 21, 2018 - link
Inspiron 5000s are also plastic, they just LOOK like they're aluminum. I'm not sure about the 7000 series as I haven't seen the current one in person.Dell has recently bought out a new line of gaming notebooks that fit in above their normal consumer line and below Alienware. For anyone who liked the old XPS systems, those are a good bet.
Flunk - Tuesday, August 21, 2018 - link
Some of the business-marketed notebooks are a little thicker and use the space for a decent keyboard. Thinkpads (except the really skinny ones), Dell Latitudes (once again, the thicker ones), etc.Diji1 - Friday, August 17, 2018 - link
I'm not really sure what you're talking about, there's plenty of massive laptops with jet engine cooling noise still.PeachNCream - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
Eh, no thanks. I'd prefer a thicker laptop with a simpler cooling system that doesn't have such a gaudy look.Flunk - Tuesday, August 21, 2018 - link
Me too, either that or something thin and light with NO GPU so it doesn't overheat. Thin systems with GPUs always throttle.CoD511 - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
It's always nice to see new products, but as someone in the market for a thin, light and capable laptop, this is a disappointment so far to me. I honestly get confused as to whom the target market is for this.Currently, I'd rather sacrifice ~0.3mm thickness extra for a better keyboard and trackpad layout, plus a confirmed 94Wh battery with a Gigabyte laptop that has the same hardware specs.
moozooh - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
> Currently, I'd rather sacrifice ~0.3mm thickness extra for a better keyboard and trackpad layout, plus a confirmed 94Wh battery with a Gigabyte laptop that has the same hardware specs.This, very much. Hell, I'd give away a whole millimeter or two.
Lord of the Bored - Sunday, August 19, 2018 - link
I'd give a full quarter-inch.