Next Generation Of Computing.

[Nathan_M]

Hi, im still going on about what to buy and what not to buy and after deciding that the next generation games consoles are a bit wet and floppy, i begun searching for something to fulfill my geeky needs, what are your views on this?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/P1801-B100K-Transformer-Desktop-Processor-GeForce/dp/B00DM2MLZ0/ref=sr_1_10?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1388361603&sr=1-10&keywords=asus+all+in+one#productDetails

I see this as a genuine future of the desktop PC, laptops are all ULV CPU driven now and so suffer in terms of power and with the tablet boom they are all either tablets or hybrids, im wondering what you lot think, without everyone blasting build your own, i would be interested to know what people think of this particular machine.

[Incontro]

I would say its lacking in the GPU department - a GT730M is quite mediocre nowadays, even less powerful than last year's GT650M. And I can't say I am a fan of the overall concept.

And you can still find tonnes of ordinary 15" powerful notebooks (with non ULV CPU's), in fact I am typing from one now. Its a Lenovo Y580, 3rd gen i7, GTX 660M. And it's reasonably portable enough, and the battery life is half decent.

Trust me, just get one of the best multimedia notebooks out there at the time, and you won't need to upgrade for at least 4 years. (Plus a tablet on the side if you need one of course.) I cannot see myself upgrading in a long time, the beast is keeping up well with today's demands.

[Nathan_M]

I see what you mean i have changed direction a touch now, its a choice of 4 now,

• iMac either the 750m model or the iris pro with an upgraded fusion drive.
• Alienware 17 baseline i7, 765m 1600x900 display
• Asus ROG 17 inch laptop i7,765m,1600x900 display
• Alienware 14 i5, 750m,1366x768

now i would at some point get a bit of windows 8 going in bootcamp on the macs depending on how much software i miss out on, otherwise its hard to decide whether i want a rough and ready laptop blowing excruciatingly hot air at me or a cool as ice imac and that's non deniable, i know apple get a load of stick and i deal a majority of it but the more i look at the imac the more it grows on me both in beauty and value for money compared to most windows all in one's, i am not against a gaming laptop either but my issue is the heat and reliability of them i hear so many stories of people who have brought alienware laptops or ROG laptops and both sides seem to offer poor customer service and a weaker product, any personal experience with any of the above current gen or previous would be welcome as i am completely glued down, i like all of the products, the mac screams quality while the others scream for screaming sake. HELP!!!!!!!!

[BigD]

Do not talk to me about Bootcamp. I've attempted to set up Windows on my Mac on several occasions, and Bootcamp has imploded on itself every single time. Sometimes its on install, sometimes it happens after a couple of weeks. In the worst one, it took down the entire system and I had to reinstall the lot. And it's not just me. Googling Bootcamp will give you plenty of tales of woe.

If you want to run Windows, get a PC that was built to run it. Macs are not. Hell, half of them don't even run OSX without problems.

[Nathan_M]

That's a glowing review.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Ford OC mobile app

[b1g_dav3]

I have the ASUS but with the GTX780; it's an awesome computer to say the least and truly powerful.

The desktop is by no means the future. It's a laptop built as a tablet, put onto a stand and nothing more. The giveaway with the M on the graphics card.

The Alienware is alright but I don't personally like them due to the Dell build quality and flashy exterior. Just my preference, I'm not anti-Alienware as they're good pieces of kit, just not my cup of tea. That said if you want portability you can cross off the ASUS and the larger Alienware, they weigh a ton and good luck finding a bag for them.

iMac is a no go from me, unless you really like Mac's then I wouldn't go for one. They're not powerful, GT750M is not powerful by any means (very average). Plus they're Apple :P

The cooling on the ASUS G750's is great, my GTX780 gets slightly warm on hard use maxing out latest titles with a very high framerate still. On games a year old or more, it's cool to the touch, and on normal every day running there's no heat whatsoever. It has 2 sets of fans too, one for the GPU and one for the CPU. I couldn't recommend a laptop more really than a G750.

[Nathan_M]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00GKG1OUI/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers#productDetails

Is this one like yours?

I was thinking about getting the 750jw like i originally posted as it only has a 1600x900 display so the weaker gpu can cope better and buying a 120gb ssd with it, how easy is it to migrate the OS to the ssd? i haven't embarked on this kind of excitement before, i might as well put my A Level to use some time, and are Samsung ssd's well recommended here others seem to think they are the best of the best.

[b1g_dav3]

You sure on the 1600x900 display? I had a G750JW for a week and that had a 1920x1080 and I wasn't aware they did a lower resolution screen.

The GTX765m can cope nicely with gaming, I managed to get Skyrim with 70+ mods on top settings with an EMB running, at 60+ fps with no problems at all, and will run things like Tomb Raider on high settings, Far Cry 3 on medium and Bioshock Infinite on Ultra. That's at 60+ fps, if you're willing to drop to 40 then you can turn things up and it'll be fine.

My advice is buy the best you can, the 770 is a noticeable upgrade I've heard. Then there's the 780, which can be overclocked nicely along with the CPU as there's better cooling in the GTX780 version. All other's can be overclocked too, but to a lower extent.

Migrating is a major pain compared to Win7 as you can't clone, but you can make a recovery on a USB, and then use the recovery to migrate to the SSD. The computer has 2 hard drive bays, if you choose a 1TB option then you get 2 7200RPM 500GB HDD's, otherwise generally there'll be one or two 5200RPM 750GB HDD's. So, there's plenty of room to go with an SSD and a HDD, I have 2 500GB Samsung SSD's in Raid 0 (which is very easy to set up). Samsung's generally are the best.

If you get 8GB RAM then you'll have 2 sticks of 4GB ram that can be replaced if you want to disassemble half the laptop, but then there are 2 slots empty that can be easily got to by removing a panel. This means you can have 16GB ram nice and easily, and if you have Windows 8/8.1 pro then 32GB once you replace the 2 harder to get to sticks.

As for the OS, Windows 8 works nicely, and 8.1 even nicer.

As for feel, the keyboard is completely made of Aluminium and is really cool, never gets warm at all under the palm rest at all, and the trackpad is large and responsive. Then you have the 2 separate mouse keys which are a big bonus. Keys are nice too, it's a joy to type on (my laptop is my work horse for Uni work so gets a good amount of use :P).

However if you need portability, you might want to consider picking up a tablet for this. I ended up getting a little transforming tablet with 8.1 loaded on it for £350 which is a nice companion.

[Nathan_M]

I'm all sorted for portability with my little note 8.0, I find android does a better job of here and now windows is more of a sit down and play type thing, after all the help you have given me I feel bad for saying I may be a little more inclined to go for an alienware x51 desktop for tv use, after looking I to it I have near the same power at half the price, although not so powerful cpu wise the gpu's are desktop style and I would probably only use the thing as a console anyway making it a perfect fit for me then perhaps I would get a imac for general computing and media creation later on, I must go to bed now, I shall have a look after work tommorow and decide, I will be sure to post up when I do finally decide.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Ford OC mobile app

[b1g_dav3]

CPU strength isn't the first and foremost thing to look at, an i3 is pretty decent though I'd recommend going with an i5 if you can. The GPU is probably going to be a good deal better, as the laptop GPU's are generally built into the motherboard and cannot be replaced, and are made to use a lot less power, which means the output of them is going to be a good deal less. Plus they cost a lot less.

One big thing though, the X51 is very limited on upgradability, the power supply is quite low spec at 330W I believe, which means you won't be able to upgrade the GPU in the future if that was something you'd thought of doing, if this is the case either go custom or go larger case wise. I don't know how good the GTX 645 is though, it looks like it's made for a tight place and only has a small cooler on it. I'd recommend the upgrade to the AMD card if budget allows. You're not exactly going to get a duffer though if you go for the GTX 645, but the R270 is a new card and double the memory.

May be worth considering 2 other options also;

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/category/intel_pc these guys do pretty good machines at good prices.

Also, Steam Machines are to be released this year I believe, it may be worth waiting for those as it's been rumoured the top spec ones are going to be around £900 - £1000, for a PC that if you were to build would be £1,200 - £1,500. Only drawback is they're Linux based and are purely games consoles. Depends what you want from the machine really.

I agree, Android is better for quick bits and bobs, but I do use my tablet for heavier use; I do all of my work on it at University with another keyboard and it lasts 16 hours on a charge :P

[FOCA]

I would say its lacking in the GPU department - a GT730M is quite mediocre nowadays, even less powerful than last year's GT650M. And I can't say I am a fan of the overall concept.

And you can still find tonnes of ordinary 15" powerful notebooks (with non ULV CPU's), in fact I am typing from one now. Its a Lenovo Y580, 3rd gen i7, GTX 660M. And it's reasonably portable enough, and the battery life is half decent.

Trust me, just get one of the best multimedia notebooks out there at the time, and you won't need to upgrade for at least 4 years. (Plus a tablet on the side if you need one of course.) I cannot see myself upgrading in a long time, the beast is keeping up well with today's demands.

+1 - Agreed - looks a bit of a gimmick (style over substance)- and overpriced too, IOM - like a "lifestyle" HI-FI