Laptop experts

sprague · 03-12-2018, 05:37 AM

So the question.
Ready to buy an upgraded laptop, currently have a simple Lenovo g50. All game speed was fine to this point

Given the new 3d graphics look great I want to fully enjoy them.
So those in the know
Big difference now between 4 gb ram or 8? Again because of the 3d
256 SSD would be the base min for memory I guess.

I like the portability of a 14 inch screen but that might be too small compared to the regular 15.6

Comments and suggestions appreciated. Buying Thursday to be ready for next week.
Thanks

r0nster · 03-12-2018, 05:53 AM

this is what I just bought over weekend

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-envy...?skuId=6081901

sprague · 03-12-2018, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by r0nster

this is what I just bought over weekend

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-envy...?skuId=6081901

I am just wondering if I am going to need that much memory

r0nster · 03-12-2018, 06:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sprague

I am just wondering if I am going to need that much memory

will depend on what you desire to do with laptop. In my case it will only be used for OOTP as I have another laptop as well that will be used for internet usage and other game I play. Although I could use the new laptop for the other game.

Orcin · 03-12-2018, 09:32 AM

You would appreciate the extra RAM for a relatively small additional investment. It is probably the most dollar-efficient way to boost performance on OOTP. You will be fine with a 256gb ssd as long as you don’t have a large collection of multimedia to store on it.

Reed · 03-12-2018, 10:49 AM

If you like Windows I would think the above HP Envy would be a very nice option if it’s in your price range. I have a 13” MacBook Pro and sometimes I wish it was a little bigger when I play OOTP. If I had a larger laptop though I would probably want a smaller one. At one time I use to lay in bed watching TV before going to sleep, now I lay in bed playing OOTP.

TwinsGuy11 · 03-12-2018, 01:27 PM

I mean, SSD is the way to go, but I bought this in September because there was an open box for $300. It's been great.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-17-3...?skuId=6113108

Giants44 · 03-13-2018, 07:01 PM

unfortunately we still dont have a 64bit version of OOTP only 32bit.

Because 32bit apps cant address more then 4Gb of RAM (and in many cases 2Gb) anything over 4 is a waste on OOTP.

However, no reason to buy a modern PC and not max out as much RAM as you can. Wont run OOTP much faster, but everything else should be better.

Also I am a person who has 99% good things to say about OOTP - but the 32 bit thing is a bit of a long term issue. My desktop has 32Gb of RAM, and a 500Gb SS hard drive that I ONLY run Windows and OOTP off with everything else on my secondary drive. When benchmarking this monster it is in the top 1% of all desktop hardware

All that and it runs OOTP maybe 5% faster then my 10 year old laptop with 4Gb of RAM and old slow laptop hard-drive.

IMO - OOTP has given me more joy then any other collection of 1's and 0's in my life. The one Achilles heal is it is still pretty slow even on monster hardware.

NoOne · 03-14-2018, 11:20 PM

i wouldn't get less than 6gb.. 4gb is more tha enough for ootp, btw.

8gb is a good low point.. things are about the explode, methinks. could be wrong, total guess, not reading up on tech stuff in couple years now.

If you want to maximize 3d viewing pleasure... get a non-intel video cared included... nvidia or amd... mostly equivalent, but double chekc current models... usually one is a bit better with laptops depending on the year, but really won't matter much.

size is upto you.. all about personal use and what you do with laptop, otherwise or in total.

hdmi port is nice to have.. can hook up to a big screen hd tv in family room, etc. any 1080p tv will work well. 4k, even better.

screens -- size and reso for a laptop is only 2/3rds of the info.. there are different types of panel technologies... affects angle of view, brightness etc etc even battery life(mostly reso/size i'd assume but ??). you'll need to look these up as you read them to compare to laptops. use a store like best buy to compare the types of panels in real life, even if you plan to buy online.. you'll find examples of each, almost assuredly.

resolution - get at least a 1080p screen(FHD is a common term for it), or if you will hook to a hd TV, who cares. if you don't use higher resos, or don't liek the smaller text due to 4k, don't waste money on something you'll never take advantage of.

256gb will go a long way if oyu don't install ~10-20 games and 10-20apps etc.

i have games and apps totalling ~50gb and still 170gb open on a 256ssd with windows 7 installed... SSD operate best when a certain % is free space.. make sure you don't fell them up to 95% or anything. check specs or info on the drive/manufacturer. it's probably best not to go below ~30-50gb on a 256gb ssd. even at 30, you'll see maybe a lsight slowdown? never got that close.. been as low as 80gb free and no problems with an older/cheaper SSD.

if you have a "ton" of stuff, 512g might be a good idea. if you have a ton of movies or video, get a usb-attached external hdd for that crap.. absolutely no benefit for video or audio on a hdd. that media will never read at those speeds, ever. it's slow data when used. (xfer is still faster, obviously, but these files tend to sit in one place for long periods of time)

old hdd can be used as a portable drive with a dock - fyi.. plus all your old files still there.. can delet old windows etc.. or leave that old laptop/pc on in a hidden place and share it on wifi network for quasi NAS / Media server.

sprague · 03-15-2018, 02:36 AM

Want to thank everyone for the replies. Been very helpful.
Buying today or tomorrow. Will drop a note here and let you know what I purchased...
Onward to ootp 19. This should be fun!

jerryb1961 · 03-15-2018, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sprague

So the question.
Ready to buy an upgraded laptop, currently have a simple Lenovo g50. All game speed was fine to this point

Given the new 3d graphics look great I want to fully enjoy them.
So those in the know
Big difference now between 4 gb ram or 8? Again because of the 3d
256 SSD would be the base min for memory I guess.

I like the portability of a 14 inch screen but that might be too small compared to the regular 15.6

Comments and suggestions appreciated. Buying Thursday to be ready for next week.
Thanks

If you can afford it, more RAM is always good.

When you say 256 SSD you mean hard drive. These days 256GB is pretty much a minimum, and more storage isn't going to cost all that much more. I'd get at least 512GB, but then I'm a power user.

What you need depends on what you want to do with the machine. The 3D graphics in OOTP are not that taxing on hardware

Syd Thrift · 03-15-2018, 12:02 PM

Yeah, outside of having a large enough SSD to house your OS and your swap file, you're probably fine with having a relatively small SSD and then a larger "classic" hard drive you store all of your infos (including your OOTP game and saves) on. Note that for the latter you might need to reconfigure some things on your PC.

rudel.dietrich · 03-15-2018, 01:42 PM

4 GB of Ram in Windows 10 would make me nervous. I would not go with anything under 8 GB. In fact even budget laptops do not go below 6 GB of ram these days because 64 bit OS need a minimum of 2 GB but I would never go below 4 GB.
And OOTP may not make use of it but OOTP is one of those games I 'second screen'
I usually have it going while I have some internet tabs up and a music player and an Excel spreadsheet and also some virtual desktop running some simulations for work.
Each of those eat a few % of RAM.

An SSD for OOTP is a good investment because several years ago Markus stated that OOTP does a lot of reading and writing to the HDD.
I would have to find his exact quote but I believe he stated that it was more important to the speed of the simulation than even the CPU.

I have looked at CPU usage and disk usage while playing OOTP and he may very well be right especially if you play like I do and play in commish mode not controlling a team and sim a day at a time where the game had to read and write large amounts of data at once.

eriqjaffe · 03-15-2018, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Yeah, outside of having a large enough SSD to house your OS and your swap file, you're probably fine with having a relatively small SSD and then a larger "classic" hard drive you store all of your infos (including your OOTP game and saves) on. Note that for the latter you might need to reconfigure some things on your PC.

Of course, adding a second hard drive in a laptop is not always possible, unless you want to go external.

Syd Thrift · 03-16-2018, 02:13 AM

Most laptops I've seen today have the smaller SSD (which generally have a really small footprint) and a larger "classic" drive, but YMMV.

NoOne · 03-16-2018, 07:40 PM

how much ram does win10 use?

i run at ~1.2gb on win7 after boot-up. i can reduce that to ~750MB with a smaller system cache size or w/e it's called through an easy registry edit - 3 sizes, i use largest, currently to reduce any potential swapping problems.

ootp only uses 1.2gb of ram? if it stretches to 2gb iwth a large leageu.. possibly? still nothign to be concerened about plus os stuff in ram.

so, even if win 10 uses 2GB and 2gb for ootp (exagerrated #s to avoid any problems) is still way under any concern with 6gb. 5gb used would be ok and safe, no worries.

extended use - like hours of heavy and "full" use - figure 75% of total RAM is safe optimum efficiency to use with even the junkiest RAM brand names (can use more than that for a shorter while, but heat may build up etc.. lots of caching and swapping from page file, etc etc)

it's good to have extra... BUT, extra does nothign for you but sit unused. no benefit is derived from empty RAM beside 10-20% open for basic functional use. (google for real % you should leave free as best practice, may not even be a deal outside of heat).

so, if a pc/laptop has everythign you want at the price you want, but it's 6gb instead of 8... you shouldn't worry too much.

most likely, you never get above 4gb of used RAM at anytime. 6 is plenty for 99% of computer users.

real life example of somethgn you'd need to do to require 8gb of ram or more: It involves ~6 open 3d games with mich higher graphic requirements and resource requirements than ootp (smaller ram footprint due to settings of 5 (totals ~3gb), 1 is ~1.2gb = ootp... then i usually hav ea movie or firefox oopen etc.. ~5-6gb in use with 2-3gb to spare and no heat problems from hours of use).

1 ootp program and you OS is fine with 6gb. even run a movie and firefox too.

rhino7170 · 03-16-2018, 09:48 PM

I am running windows 10 and have a couple tabs opened in the Chrome browser, have AVG anti-virus program running, and a couple load up programs (GoPro, and Itunes) load on startup and am using 8 gigs of RAM out of my 16 right now. I would highly suggest 8 gigs as a minimum and would urge to go to 12 or above if possible if running Windows 10.

brewers22 · 03-16-2018, 10:03 PM

I do virtually everything on a laptop now. But I like my laptops to be as versatile as possible This is the one I just bought:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-in...?skuId=5872507

I increased the memory to 16gb, didn't need to but it was a cheap upgrade.
I also added a 1TB SSD. I will never own a computer again without a SSD, the speed difference is unbelievable.

If you are looking at a system with a 256gb SSD chances are it is a NVMe drive, which is kind of like a hard drive on a small board about the size of a memory board. If it is like this one, there will also be an empty slot for a hard drive, standard or SSD. So, I have the 256gb drive that holds Windows and user files, and a 1TB SSD for all other games and files.

r0nster · 03-16-2018, 10:11 PM

@ Sprague What did you end up getting ???

Mariner and Giants Fan · 03-17-2018, 02:36 PM

What about this?
http://https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba0dfVYBsfInr_B20ApwVkid0RjbKi9_7bui0A0/?taken-by=blazertrek60

03-12-2018, 05:37 AM	#1
sprague All Star Starter Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 1,921	Laptop experts So the question. Ready to buy an upgraded laptop, currently have a simple Lenovo g50. All game speed was fine to this point Given the new 3d graphics look great I want to fully enjoy them. So those in the know Big difference now between 4 gb ram or 8? Again because of the 3d 256 SSD would be the base min for memory I guess. I like the portability of a 14 inch screen but that might be too small compared to the regular 15.6 Comments and suggestions appreciated. Buying Thursday to be ready for next week. Thanks

03-13-2018, 07:01 PM	#8
Giants44 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: San Francisco Bay Area Posts: 2,408	unfortunately we still dont have a 64bit version of OOTP only 32bit. Because 32bit apps cant address more then 4Gb of RAM (and in many cases 2Gb) anything over 4 is a waste on OOTP. However, no reason to buy a modern PC and not max out as much RAM as you can. Wont run OOTP much faster, but everything else should be better. Also I am a person who has 99% good things to say about OOTP - but the 32 bit thing is a bit of a long term issue. My desktop has 32Gb of RAM, and a 500Gb SS hard drive that I ONLY run Windows and OOTP off with everything else on my secondary drive. When benchmarking this monster it is in the top 1% of all desktop hardware All that and it runs OOTP maybe 5% faster then my 10 year old laptop with 4Gb of RAM and old slow laptop hard-drive. IMO - OOTP has given me more joy then any other collection of 1's and 0's in my life. The one Achilles heal is it is still pretty slow even on monster hardware. __________________ "In a text sim - Immersion is everything" -Me "Judge a man not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character" -Martin Luther King "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." -Einstein "The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life." -Muhammad Ali "Baseball statistics are like a girl in a bikini. They show a lot, but not everything." -Toby Harrah

03-15-2018, 01:42 PM	#13
rudel.dietrich Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Zürich, Switzerland Posts: 8,608 Infractions: 1/0 (0)	4 GB of Ram in Windows 10 would make me nervous. I would not go with anything under 8 GB. In fact even budget laptops do not go below 6 GB of ram these days because 64 bit OS need a minimum of 2 GB but I would never go below 4 GB. And OOTP may not make use of it but OOTP is one of those games I 'second screen' I usually have it going while I have some internet tabs up and a music player and an Excel spreadsheet and also some virtual desktop running some simulations for work. Each of those eat a few % of RAM. An SSD for OOTP is a good investment because several years ago Markus stated that OOTP does a lot of reading and writing to the HDD. I would have to find his exact quote but I believe he stated that it was more important to the speed of the simulation than even the CPU. I have looked at CPU usage and disk usage while playing OOTP and he may very well be right especially if you play like I do and play in commish mode not controlling a team and sim a day at a time where the game had to read and write large amounts of data at once. Last edited by rudel.dietrich; 03-16-2018 at 10:26 AM.

03-16-2018, 07:40 PM	#16
NoOne Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 7,167	how much ram does win10 use? i run at ~1.2gb on win7 after boot-up. i can reduce that to ~750MB with a smaller system cache size or w/e it's called through an easy registry edit - 3 sizes, i use largest, currently to reduce any potential swapping problems. ootp only uses 1.2gb of ram? if it stretches to 2gb iwth a large leageu.. possibly? still nothign to be concerened about plus os stuff in ram. so, even if win 10 uses 2GB and 2gb for ootp (exagerrated #s to avoid any problems) is still way under any concern with 6gb. 5gb used would be ok and safe, no worries. extended use - like hours of heavy and "full" use - figure 75% of total RAM is safe optimum efficiency to use with even the junkiest RAM brand names (can use more than that for a shorter while, but heat may build up etc.. lots of caching and swapping from page file, etc etc) it's good to have extra... BUT, extra does nothign for you but sit unused. no benefit is derived from empty RAM beside 10-20% open for basic functional use. (google for real % you should leave free as best practice, may not even be a deal outside of heat). so, if a pc/laptop has everythign you want at the price you want, but it's 6gb instead of 8... you shouldn't worry too much. most likely, you never get above 4gb of used RAM at anytime. 6 is plenty for 99% of computer users. real life example of somethgn you'd need to do to require 8gb of ram or more: It involves ~6 open 3d games with mich higher graphic requirements and resource requirements than ootp (smaller ram footprint due to settings of 5 (totals ~3gb), 1 is ~1.2gb = ootp... then i usually hav ea movie or firefox oopen etc.. ~5-6gb in use with 2-3gb to spare and no heat problems from hours of use). 1 ootp program and you OS is fine with 6gb. even run a movie and firefox too. Last edited by NoOne; 03-16-2018 at 07:43 PM.

03-17-2018, 02:36 PM	#20
Mariner and Giants Fan All Star Starter Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Issaquah, WA. Posts: 1,126	Alienware FTW! What about this? http://https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba0dfVYBsfInr_B20ApwVkid0RjbKi9_7bui0A0/?taken-by=blazertrek60 __________________ Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" Last edited by Mariner and Giants Fan; 03-17-2018 at 02:39 PM.

03-12-2018, 05:53 AM	#2
r0nster Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2006 Location: Michigan Posts: 3,002	this is what I just bought over weekend https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-envy...?skuId=6081901

03-12-2018, 09:32 AM	#5
Orcin Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Indiana Posts: 9,798	You would appreciate the extra RAM for a relatively small additional investment. It is probably the most dollar-efficient way to boost performance on OOTP. You will be fine with a 256gb ssd as long as you don’t have a large collection of multimedia to store on it.

03-12-2018, 10:49 AM	#6
Reed All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2013 Posts: 1,947	If you like Windows I would think the above HP Envy would be a very nice option if it’s in your price range. I have a 13” MacBook Pro and sometimes I wish it was a little bigger when I play OOTP. If I had a larger laptop though I would probably want a smaller one. At one time I use to lay in bed watching TV before going to sleep, now I lay in bed playing OOTP.

03-12-2018, 01:27 PM	#7
TwinsGuy11 Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Feb 2015 Posts: 213	I mean, SSD is the way to go, but I bought this in September because there was an open box for $300. It's been great. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-17-3...?skuId=6113108

03-14-2018, 11:20 PM	#9
NoOne Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 7,167	i wouldn't get less than 6gb.. 4gb is more tha enough for ootp, btw. 8gb is a good low point.. things are about the explode, methinks. could be wrong, total guess, not reading up on tech stuff in couple years now. If you want to maximize 3d viewing pleasure... get a non-intel video cared included... nvidia or amd... mostly equivalent, but double chekc current models... usually one is a bit better with laptops depending on the year, but really won't matter much. size is upto you.. all about personal use and what you do with laptop, otherwise or in total. hdmi port is nice to have.. can hook up to a big screen hd tv in family room, etc. any 1080p tv will work well. 4k, even better. screens -- size and reso for a laptop is only 2/3rds of the info.. there are different types of panel technologies... affects angle of view, brightness etc etc even battery life(mostly reso/size i'd assume but ??). you'll need to look these up as you read them to compare to laptops. use a store like best buy to compare the types of panels in real life, even if you plan to buy online.. you'll find examples of each, almost assuredly. resolution - get at least a 1080p screen(FHD is a common term for it), or if you will hook to a hd TV, who cares. if you don't use higher resos, or don't liek the smaller text due to 4k, don't waste money on something you'll never take advantage of. 256gb will go a long way if oyu don't install ~10-20 games and 10-20apps etc. i have games and apps totalling ~50gb and still 170gb open on a 256ssd with windows 7 installed... SSD operate best when a certain % is free space.. make sure you don't fell them up to 95% or anything. check specs or info on the drive/manufacturer. it's probably best not to go below ~30-50gb on a 256gb ssd. even at 30, you'll see maybe a lsight slowdown? never got that close.. been as low as 80gb free and no problems with an older/cheaper SSD. if you have a "ton" of stuff, 512g might be a good idea. if you have a ton of movies or video, get a usb-attached external hdd for that crap.. absolutely no benefit for video or audio on a hdd. that media will never read at those speeds, ever. it's slow data when used. (xfer is still faster, obviously, but these files tend to sit in one place for long periods of time) old hdd can be used as a portable drive with a dock - fyi.. plus all your old files still there.. can delet old windows etc.. or leave that old laptop/pc on in a hidden place and share it on wifi network for quasi NAS / Media server.

03-15-2018, 02:36 AM	#10
sprague All Star Starter Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 1,921	Want to thank everyone for the replies. Been very helpful. Buying today or tomorrow. Will drop a note here and let you know what I purchased... Onward to ootp 19. This should be fun!

03-16-2018, 09:48 PM	#17
rhino7170 Bat Boy Join Date: Mar 2018 Posts: 1	I am running windows 10 and have a couple tabs opened in the Chrome browser, have AVG anti-virus program running, and a couple load up programs (GoPro, and Itunes) load on startup and am using 8 gigs of RAM out of my 16 right now. I would highly suggest 8 gigs as a minimum and would urge to go to 12 or above if possible if running Windows 10.

03-16-2018, 10:03 PM	#18
brewers22 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Land of Cheese and Beer Posts: 32	I do virtually everything on a laptop now. But I like my laptops to be as versatile as possible This is the one I just bought: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-in...?skuId=5872507 I increased the memory to 16gb, didn't need to but it was a cheap upgrade. I also added a 1TB SSD. I will never own a computer again without a SSD, the speed difference is unbelievable. If you are looking at a system with a 256gb SSD chances are it is a NVMe drive, which is kind of like a hard drive on a small board about the size of a memory board. If it is like this one, there will also be an empty slot for a hard drive, standard or SSD. So, I have the 256gb drive that holds Windows and user files, and a 1TB SSD for all other games and files.

03-16-2018, 10:11 PM	#19
r0nster Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2006 Location: Michigan Posts: 3,002	@ Sprague What did you end up getting ???