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Lenovo 480 vs. HP dv6-7000?

Hi everyone, I'll try to make my question as straight forward possible

I need a new laptop because my old Lenovo Thinkpad Edge just broke. I'm having a hard time justifying to my parents that I should buy another Lenovo because of this, even though my experience has been generally really good with it. I need to consider my parents because they are paying for part of it. Anyways, they don't seem to think Lenovo holds up to their reputation but I guess the quality varies across brands. That being said, how does Lenovo's ideapad line measure against HP in general and HP's dv6 series?

Now based off on these brand perceptions, which of the two systems below should be better? I basically had four criteria for an under $800 budget: a solid discrete graphics card (capable of playing modern games at medium level), a backlit keyboard, an 3rd gen i5 processor, and generally good multimedia experience.

HPdv6 for ~$704:

3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3210M Processor (2.5 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz)

Graphics card : NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 630M Graphics with 1GB of dedicated video memory

8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)

750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive

15.6-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366x768)

Backlit Keyboard with numeric keypad

Lenovo y480 for $793.94:

3rd generation Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor( 2.40GHz 6MB)

NVIDIA GeForce GT650M 2GB

8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz

14.0" HD Glare with integrated camera 1366x768

1TB 5400 rpm

I basically feel as if I'm choosing between superior graphics (Lenovo) and overall multimedia experience (HP with 15.6" build and good Beats speakers), but I'm not sure which is the better system. I would rather save money if these two are basically the same, but I'm not tech savvy enough to really know what is the case. I also want to consider the fact that both are at the 1366x768 resolution...I heard this is tolerable on a 14" like the Lenovo, but not on a 15.6" like the HPdv6. What do you guys think?

also, I've heard that Asus and Toshiba are good brands worth looking into. So far, I've gone towards a variety of outlet stores and Toshiba's direct websites but their customization options are really limited for under $800 and generally don't have great graphics cards--I saw a couple ASUS with Nivida GT610, but isn't that garbage.

Hi everyone,

I wanted some opinions about the NVIDA GeforcE GT 630M card. I'm currently configuring my HP computer to have these specs:

dv6t-7000

Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit edit

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3210M Processor (2.5 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz)

NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 630M Graphics with 1GB of dedicated video memory

8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)

750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive

15.6-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366x768)

SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support

People have told me that I could consider upgrading the resolution to 1920x1080, but I honestly don't have another $150 to throw at this system. I don't watch a lot of HD anyways, so people tell me that I should be able to tolerate it anyways if I'm not used to higher resolution. Will this affect gaming in any way?

Anyways, I've checked out the graphics card on notebotebookcheck.net and it tells me that I can play Mass Effct 3 and Skyrim on medium settings. Instead of just spitting out FPS though, can someone tell me generally what the performance is like this card?

I had been considering this Lenovo Y480 Thinkpad, but my parents put their foot down because they think Lenovo is a trash brand and I had to respect that since part of this will come out of their tab. Anyways, that system had a Geforce GT650M -- is that gfx better by any significant margin? What games would I be able to play with the 650M that I couldn't play with the 630M? I'm not tech savvy, so it's hard for me to match up everything that notebookcheck.net says.

Hi everyone,

I wanted some opinions about the NVIDA GeforcE GT 630M card. I'm currently configuring my HP computer to have these specs:

dv6t-7000

Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit edit

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3210M Processor (2.5 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz)

NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 630M Graphics with 1GB of dedicated video memory

8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)

750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive

15.6-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366x768)

SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support

People have told me that I could consider upgrading the resolution to 1920x1080, but I honestly don't have another $150 to throw at this system. I don't watch a lot of HD anyways, so people tell me that I should be able to tolerate it anyways if I'm not used to higher resolution. Will this affect gaming in any way?

Anyways, I've checked out the graphics card on notebotebookcheck.net and it tells me that I can play Mass Effct 3 and Skyrim on medium settings. Instead of just spitting out FPS though, can someone tell me generally what the performance is like this card?

I had been considering this Lenovo Y480 Thinkpad, but my parents put their foot down because they think Lenovo is a trash brand and I had to respect that since part of this will come out of their tab. Anyways, that system had a Geforce GT550M -- is that gfx better by any significant margin? I'm not tech savvy, so it's hard for me to match up everything that notebookcheck.net says.

My Lenovo Thinkpad Edge just broke and I need a new laptop. So far I've narrowed it down to these two laptops:

Lenovo Y570: http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/we...

ASUS A53SD:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool...

I'm a senior in college and I would like a reliable computer for schoolwork, lots of video watching, some video editing, and some gaming capaibility (Skyrim would probably be the most taxing game I would ever play). Probably the biggest thing I want to look for is a decent discrete graphics card, but I don't have a $1000+ to spend on an Alienware.

My parents think that IBM/Lenovo is trash because my Edge died after 2 years of use, but I think I bought a relatively cheap model. I haven't heard much about ASUS, but I'm not sure if they have any reputation.

The ASUS has a nice i7 processor and 750GB hard drive, but I'm unsure if I need it. I think the Lenovo system has a better graphics card and I might want it based on that, but I've heard Lenovo has some issues on build quality and reliability outside of their Thinkpad line. I think ASUS builds really good gaming laptops, but I can't even find a buy option on their website. The system I'm looking at is sold through CompUSA and I haven't found any reviews yet. Does anybody have an opinion? Does anybody have any recommendations for this range? I want to spend ideally $700 at the most.

Does anybody have recommendations for the best book on the Crusades? I started reading Holy Warriors by Johnathan Phillips, but it's a shallow read without the kind of detail I want. At the same time, I don't want to read something too academic and long like God's War like Christopher Tyerman. Thomas Asbridge looks a little academic for my taste too, but apparently he's a good writer. I actually would prefer something that reads like a novel with serious research and analysis along with good character studies as well. I'm looking mostly into the Dream and the Tomb by Roberty Payne right now.

Hey everyone. I borrowed a camera from my college's AV center for a class in school... it's fancy and I don't really know anything about cameras, would love to learn. The main problem so far is that it uses a lens and I don't have much experience with lens -- I can shoot in P, Tv, AV, and M modes but whenever I press the "enter" button for automatic modes like Portrait and Landscape, the lens closes by itself and refuses to take pictures. I'm in AF mode, single shooting, everything default -- how do I fix this?!

I start my work shift at 5:00 PM CST and I'll probably get out at 8:30 PM CST -- how much of the SB do you think I'll be able to see at the tail end of things? Is the 4th quarter typically around 9:00ish CST?

I know I would need to compress the crap out of the original data but I'm not sure what program to use. I've already tried Movie Maker for compression and it didn't do it anything to the size. Most importantly, I don't care about any loss in quality. I just need to fit everything into one disc.

I only started watching football in the mid 2000s and I remembered how great Marvin Harrison was. Nobody seems to remember him being Peyton's guy for so many years -- but T.O. and Randy Moss still come up a little bit in conversation. So I was wondering if you guys could share some dominant players that have been forgotten.

Are there any "stall word" expressions in Chinese? For English, I would refer to things like "umm..." or 'let's see' or "well..." or just a useful word that you could use to say while thinking. My Chinese book says that "ne" can be used after a pause in speech, but do people actually use that colloquially?

Hi, I'm interested in learning Cantonese.

I've taken three college semesters of Mandarin and I think I'm okay at it. I grew up in a household that spoke Taishanese (rural variant of Cantonese, I've been told) -- I could never speak it, but I understand quite a bit of it. After taking Mandarian, I noticed many, many similarities in the vocabulary -- it's really helped that way even if the tones are way different. I could never understand those guys from Hong Kong though and I have an interest in learning Cantonese (for the sake of culture) -- what kind of advantages do you think I would have given my background?

Hey,

I'm a guy who has longer hair... it's about halfway to my shoulders and it gets really poofy and frizzy. I have a cheaper straightener ($50) that I use to get rid of my naturally waviness, but my hair still looks really dry and poofy. Some parts of my hair look much straighter than natural, but it still looks really thick. I have cheaper condition (Pantene) as well.... am I not spending enough? are there cost effective solutions to getting rid of the poofiness? is my straightener not working properly or something?

How fast would somebody have to be going to hit a parking lot divider and crack a corner light? I borrowed a friend's car and the corner light is cracked.. I wasn't very alert, I was tired, and it was poorly lit and I managed to bump into a mall parking lot cement island at a somewhat high speed (maybe 30?). Do you think the bumper could have been hit and cracked the light or does that sound rather ridiculous? How difficult and expensive would it be to repair this myself? The light is totally fine, but the cover has been cracked and dislodged.

I was driving my mom's car - a 1999 Subaru outback. I was dropping off my friend at 4AM and I wasn't entirely awake at the time, really dangerous, I know. But I was really out of it and I basically ran up a parking lot divider (the tires were up on the cement island) at the mall. I wasn't sure if I damaged anything at the time, but I later noticed a crack in the plastic cover of one of the headlights. The headlight is fine, but the crack is kind of noticeable. My mom is gone for the week, so that's why I have the car. I don't want to ask my mom if it was already there because on the off chance that it was because of me, I will get hell for it. I'd rather just order the part on my own and get my auto tech friend to help me repair it. Does it sound plausible that I broke the cover by running into the divider? I think the Subaru's headlight is placed pretty high and the divider wasn't that tall.

This is the year and model of the Subaru in question: http://www.hardrive.com/reviews/Image4.gif

And this is a rough idea of how tall the divider was: http://www.irrigationrepair.com/images/drips/Parki...

Do you think I could have cracked it? I'm sort of against going back to the mall and checking because it was about an hour and a half out from where I live.

Question.

Hey guys,

I really don't know much about camcorders, but I'm a student whose primary computer is a laptop without a Firewire/1394 port. I always have to go to my AV center, upload it to a Mac, and take the video out via external hard drive. It's always a hassle. I asked the AV center people if they have any camcorders that use USB cables to export video to a computer (such as my laptop). And then, the lady told me that it is not possible to use USB ports to do that (apparently it's not fast enough?). Like I said, I don't know much about computers/camcorders but I want to fact check on that. Is this true?

Hey, I'm a guy with frizzy hair and I want to straighten my hair. I'm willing to spend like $40 to $70 for a solid straightener. I know it's not a huge investment, but my hair is not that long anyways and I'm not looking for quality things like shine - I just want it to work and for it to work for a while. Not having to do it everyday would be nice. Do you think this deal below would get the job done? Or is too cheap?

http://www.amazon.com/Remington-S9951-Humidity-Res...

Hey, I'm a guy with frizzy hair and I want to straighten my hair. I'm willing to spend like $40 to $70 for a solid straightener. I know it's not a huge investment, but my hair is not that long anyways and I'm not looking for quality things like shine - I just want it to work and for it to work for a while. Not having to do it everyday would be nice. Do you think this deal below would get the job done? Or is too cheap?

http://www.amazon.com/Remington-S9951-Humidity-Res...

Hey guys. I'm a guy with medium length hair (for a guy), but I plan to grow it out but it looks terrible unless I use a straightener. I'm willing to spend $50-70 on one but I also want a straightener that will make the hair last. I'm less concerned about the quality of how straight it gets and more that it just works fine and won't break easily. I was looking up on Amazon and I found these two straighteners.

http://www.amazon.com/Farouk-CHI-Inch-Ceramic-Hair...

http://www.amazon.com/Remington-S9951-Humidity-Res...

I've heard Chi is the best, but the Remington comes with free shipping because of Amazon Prime membership. In general, what kind of quality can I expect from something that costs like $40-50? I'm also a little suspicious that this CHI is so cheap... is this a cheap knockoff? I've heard most cost well over $100. Feedback would be appreciated, I'll give some points!