Laptop advice

Mathew Voth

Hey all,

I am thinking of purchasing a Sony Vaio Laptop (16.4") with the following specs:

Intel® Core™ Quad i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz)

8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-SDRAM-1333

500 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive [7200 rpm]

16.4" VAIO Premium Display (1920x1080) Full HD

NVIDIA® GeForce® 330M GPU Graphics Card

Basically I am using an Acer that is a couple years old, and every time I try to run a search in L4 the screen goes black for a while, so I am looking to get a laptop that runs L4 fast, and without all the freezing etc.

Hoping you guys can let me know if you think this will be good. Open to any suggestions! Thanks so much, Blessings, Matt

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Comments

Rosie Perera

Looks awesome!

Mathew Voth

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/143598#Comment_143598

I should mention, this will cost around $1400 Canadian..

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/143606#Comment_143606

I should mention, this will cost around $1400 Canadian..

Not surprising, for such a zippy machine. They always advertise these ridiculously low prices ($600 to $900) for laptops but then when you look at the specs and realize it's pitiful and start customizing it, before you know it it's in the ballpark you're talking about. At least that's still less than half of what the higher end laptops used to sell for a few years ago.

Is this going to be your main workhorse machine? Nowadays I find 500 GB too small for my needs for my main computer, but that's because I do a lot of photography so I've got thousands of multi-megabyte files. You might not need as much space. That should be quite ample for Logos (my Logos4 folder is 22 GB, and I've got a pretty hefty Library: Portfolio plus a bunch of add-ons, total of 3380 resources). Anyway I'm not sure with the Vaio you can get a larger HD that's 7200 RPM (and I wouldn't go slower than that). So it sounds like you've maxed out that puppy, and it's gonna be pretty nice. Enjoy!

Mathew Voth

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/143608#Comment_143608

Thanks for your responses Rosie,

Yeah it will be my main computer, though I keep my Itunes and photos on an older desktop. I can't seem to add more memory unless I go to the 640 GB, but then it is only 5400 rpm, which some people on here have said is not the way to go for L4.

One question I have is whether I should go for the Intel® Core™ Quad i7-720QM processor (1.60GHz) or the Intel® Core™ Quad i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz), there is no price difference...I pretty much just assumed the bigger number was better! Any ideas?

Now to put the finishing touches on convincing my wife !!!

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/143612#Comment_143612

Yup, if it's bigger numbers all around for the same price, seems like a no-brainer. Sometimes you'll see an i5 with higher GHz than an i7 and that's where I'm not sure how to tell which is better. I don't know the specifics of processors, but speed is speed. Someone else here who has more experience with the heat issue in laptops might be able to give you some advice on that front. I'm not sure if the higher GHz means it will run hotter or cooler at higher speeds. I've heard from others that you can mitigate the overheating problem by directing a household fan at the machine while Logos is indexing, but I think that's such a kludge. I'd rather have a reliable machine that isn't going to overheat no matter what intensive jobs I throw at it.

Mathew Voth

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/143618#Comment_143618

Anyone else out there able to clarify the difference between these processors? I really want all the advice I can get before going ahead with this..

Mathew Voth

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/143732#Comment_143732

Whoops..there is a bit of a price difference, not too bad though. Still wondering which to go for, and if it makes much of a difference...

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/143743#Comment_143743

See http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i7-740QM-Notebook-Processor.31146.0.html

Basically, it will be faster than the 720QM but I doubt if it would be worth paying more than 10% the price of the 720QM.

nicky crane

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/143618#Comment_143618

I have an A4 sized apparatus with a fan that you can put under your laptop to cool it down. I confess, having bought it, I haven't yet tried it....

Dave Jones

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/143618#Comment_143618

You also want to remember that Logos 4 has the ability to float windows, especially a window for Cited By searching, so having a 2nd monitor will enable you to simultaneously search sub-collections. I heard one user using as many as 4 monitors.