Stereodude
Not really a
I'm not so sure about that. I believe they're mSATA drives. They skipped the standard 2.5" drive due to size constraints.
Haswell Laptops 14" and smaller with at least FHD screens
- Thread starter Stereodude
- Start date
ddrueding
Fixture
I'm still cool with that. Not a bad idea.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
It looks pretty decent, thanks for sharing. Do you know if the memory can be upgraded to 8GB and if it has a removable battery?
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Looks like the memory can be upgraded. http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/ASUS-memory/ASUS+Notebooks/ZENBOOK+UX32VD-upgrades.html
Any idea on the battery?
Any idea on the battery?
ddrueding
Fixture
Also interesting that they show a 2.5" SSD as an upgrade option? I thought it ran a pair of mSATAs?
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I pulled the trigger.
Stereodude
Not really a
That's my understanding.
Edit, found this:
"- Dual 128 GB SSDs, RAID 0. This is achieved by having an adapter card to allow 2 miniPCI-Express SSD cards to connect to the standard 2.5" SATA connection. This means that if a drive fails, the miniPCE-Express card could be replaced, or the entire module could be replaced with a standard SSD or 2.5" SATA drive
- DDR3 memory slot. There is 2 GB RAM soldered on the system board (non-replaceable) and 2 GB RAM stick for a total of 4 GB RAM. I replaced the 2 GB RAM stick with an 8 GB RAM stick (GSkill F3-1600C11S-8GSL) for 10 GB RAM"
ddrueding
Fixture
Good find Stereodude. That is a tempting little machine.
Stereodude
Not really a
I dove in on this HP instead.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
So HP's ok to buy? Other than Dell & Lenovo, which brands are ok?
ddrueding
Fixture
Many of the brands have a business-class line of PCs that aren't crap.
Lenovo: ThinkPad / ThinkStation
Dell: Latitude / Optiplex (not all) / Precision
HP: Elite whatever
I stick with Lenovo at this point, simply because I am now familiar with their range and their particular set of gotchas (they all have them).
Lenovo: ThinkPad / ThinkStation
Dell: Latitude / Optiplex (not all) / Precision
HP: Elite whatever
I stick with Lenovo at this point, simply because I am now familiar with their range and their particular set of gotchas (they all have them).
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Most employees here have an Elitebook laptop. Most people in the company aren't computer-savvy and at least half the laptops travel regularly on various construction yards. The lack of return and part replacement is quite impressive, given that we have more than 200 laptops out there. Since early July, I think I've replaced one hard drive and two optical drives. And the optical drives were because the employees spent a lot of time at an iron mining facility (iron dust is terrible for optical lenses).
Stereodude
Not really a
FWIW, I've heard that Elitebooks are solid. The features on the 840 G1 lined up more closely with what I wanted than the Lenovo T440s.
I wouldn't buy a low end HP mass market consumer laptop with expectations of it being robust. But the same goes for most other brands. Frankly, I'm not sure Dell belongs in your list. Maybe it's changed more recently, but some number of years ago their business class laptops were the same as their consumer grade laptops. Like the Inspiron E1505 and the Latitude 6400.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Thanks guys. I'm aware of the consumer / business lines most PC/laptop makers have. My question was for a family member who's price conscious, not tech savvy, but wants a reliable machine.
The laptop in my home is a 6 year old Lattitude D531 that my company allowed me to keep when I quit it a while ago. Still going strong. We bought a few when Dell had a buy one get the second for some giga% off. I believe all the others have died.
The laptop in my home is a 6 year old Lattitude D531 that my company allowed me to keep when I quit it a while ago. Still going strong. We bought a few when Dell had a buy one get the second for some giga% off. I believe all the others have died.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Toshiba's business line is called Tecra. And Apple's laptops are certainly good and well supported products even if the company is collectively synonymous with a container of fluids for the cleaning of body orifices.
HP Probooks are effectively Pavilions with business support, but Thinkpad Edges are basically Ideapads in much the same way. Dell Vostro products don't even have THAT pretense; they're supported by the consumer unit even though they're sold from the business sales part of its web site.
My Lenovo R61 14" dual core 2gb is about 6-7 years old and I still love it. Just got a new extended battery for it ($35) and will pull out the 30gb OCZ Vertex SSD that's been in it for a long time to replace it with a 64gb SanDisk and Win7 to breath new life into it. Will probably give it to my parents next year.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I received the ASUS Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DS72. I want to upgrade it to 8.1 before wrapping it up for my wife. From what I can tell, all updates need to be installed prior to upgrading. It has been updating for quite a long while now. The non-Metro windows update didn't look like it was doing anything, I let it run for 20 or 30 minutes and it just spun an endless progress bar and showed nothing being downloaded. I'm trying the Metro update now and it looks like it's doing something. I really dislike Windows.
The laptop does look and feel very nice.
The laptop does look and feel very nice.
Stereodude
Not really a
FWIW, that's not how service packs have worked in the past. My HP came with 7 Pro, so I don't have any experience with what you're trying to do.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
8.1 isn't considered a Service Pack but rather a new OS. Upgrading previous versions of Window has from time to time required specific updates be in place. Since most of the machines impacted will have the update delivered either by the Windows Store or a corporate update server, the only people who are really going to be inconvenienced are small builders and resellers.
Stereodude
Not really a
Yeah, that's what MS calls it, but it still more or less a service pack (with different requirements and a different name).
Stereodude
Not really a
So the Skylake refresh to the HP Elitebook 840 G1 notebook I have looks pretty nice.
HP Elitebook 840 G3
It looks like I can customize one for about $1k with the 3 year warranty, no OS, and the QHD display. Pull the 500 HDD, add a 500GB 850 EVO M.2 SSD, 16gB of DDR4 DIMM, an OS, and be off to the races. The RAM and the SSD would cost about $220 extra. Of course I totally don't need a new laptop, or even another laptop, but it's still nice to look at.
HP Elitebook 840 G3
It looks like I can customize one for about $1k with the 3 year warranty, no OS, and the QHD display. Pull the 500 HDD, add a 500GB 850 EVO M.2 SSD, 16gB of DDR4 DIMM, an OS, and be off to the races. The RAM and the SSD would cost about $220 extra. Of course I totally don't need a new laptop, or even another laptop, but it's still nice to look at.
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