ilikemacandpc

Cryorig H7 for similar performance, lower profile, less ram interference, and better aesthetics compared to the 212 Evo

Cryorig H7 for similar performance, lower profile, less ram interference, and better aesthetics compared to the 212 Evo

complete waste of EK's R&D money....

complete waste of EK's R&D money....

DDR4 is faster and allows for more bandwidth. 
 
Your motherboard and entire platform are wholly incompatible with ddr4. 

oops! yes. You're right. I'll fix it in my post. 

why i7? what is the use of the computer?

why i7? what is the use of the computer?

why i7? what is the use of the computer?

Even if shit hits the fan, they aren't spinning that fast so it won't get everywhere.

it's acceptable, but there are better ones for the price
 
and @STARK1
 
don't expect to overclock much. 
 
This might work: 
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-100w10600k3
 
Here's the jonnyguru review for the 500w version
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&file=print&reid=384

The Nexus 6 is definitely better than a zenfone 2, if only for the software. Timely updates are everything. 

Yes, what power supply do you have? Brand? Model?

No, don't waste your time on an AMD rig. It will be quite difficult to hackintosh. 
 
Here's a website with a TON of info on hackintoshes. 
http://www.tonymacx86.com/

Here's my review of the Lenovo X250. Be warned, it's fairly long. 
 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HPt4AQBLEhy64PEYWVdZjonO8Hc0ALdGdlVzTA3nNRU/edit?usp=sharing
 
I would really appreciate feedback. What's good? What's bad? What should I add in the future?
 
SEE THE GOOGLE DOC FOR THE PROPERLY FORMATTED REVIEW w/ PICTURES and BENCHMARK IMAGES
 
ilikemacandpc’s Lenovo Thinkpad X250 Review
September 2015
 
Image from lenovo.com
 
Introduction and Pertinent Notes
Lenovo’s Broadwell based Thinkpads are here, and with the imminent launch of Skylake, I thought it may be a good idea to take a look at the X250, the smaller sibling of the T450s, to give us an idea of how the hypothetical X260 and T460s will go.
 
Note 1: This is a personal computer that I bought for college. Let’s hope it lasts 4 years.
Note 2: Parts of this review were originally intended to be part of a first impressions post, but the details quickly spiraled out of control. My apologies if it sounds a bit disjointed at times.
tl;dr: The X250 is really good, and Skylake will only make it better. Wait for the X260.
 
Specifications of My Unit
Processor
12.5” IPS 1080p 400-nit display (non-touch)
Display
Intel Core i5 5200U with HD Graphics 5500
RAM
Storage
8GB of RAM - DDR3L 1600 - Self Installed - Came with 4GB of RAM from the factory
250GB Samsung 850 Evo - Self Installed - Came with 500GB HDD from the factory
Weight Battery
A bit under 3.5lbs
3 Cell + 6 Cell Battery (~95 Wh)
Size (WxDxH)
12.03" x 8.21" x 0.8"      or      305.6 x 209 x 20 mm
Software
Clean Install of Windows 10
Price
Approx 1100 USD including education discount and ALL upgrades
both factory and aftermarket
 
Hardware Analysis
The Intel Core i5 5200U is a good processor, but Lenovo should have equipped a 5300U by default. As Linus pointed out in his review of the X1 Carbon, both the 5200U and the 5300U have the same retail customer price (RCP) and the 5300U has business features like vPro. Lenovo is shortchanging customers by charging another 100 USD for the upgrade to the 5300U.  Shame on them.
 
 
 
Prices from Intel ARK as of Sept. 2015
 
At the moment, 8GB of memory seems to be enough for me. If an upgrade is necessary, 16GB soDIMMs are available, so this laptop could be outfitted with double the current amount of RAM, which is insane considering its footprint.
 
However, the main drawback is that the RAM is in single channel, causing a 15-25 percent dip compared to dual channel HD Graphics 5500. It’s roughly as fast as the last gen HD 4400 on Haswell processors with dual channel memory. Not terrible, but certainly not great. Then again, a gaming rig, this is not.   
 
SSD upgrades are quite expensive. I would like to see a PCIe M.2 option, so that we could put in drives like the Samsung SM951 series to have significantly better speeds.
 
Getting touch capabilities on the monitor is really expensive, so the 1080p non-touch display is at the sweet spot. Considering how much more keyboard and mouse friendly Windows 10 is than Windows 8/8.1, the lack of a touch screen is not an issue at all.
 
The Display
Starting off with the display, it’s excellent. With a decently high quality IPS panel, viewing angles are great. I also don’t notice any color banding even with large gradients.
 
There is the tiniest bit of backlight bleed at the lower right hand corner, but I only notice it when the screen is entirely pitch black. When watching a dark video in fullscreen, the bleeding is not noticeable. Only on a completely black frame is it noticeable. I’ll take this amount of backlight bleed over a TN panel every day of the week.
 
Low brightness is rather low, and maximum brightness is headache-inducingly bright. You should be able to use this display outside due to the obscene amount of light coming through the panel and due to the anti-glare coating. My anecdotal experience supports this claim.
 
Chassis, Ports, and Build Quality
It’s a mixed bag, though mostly positive. It comes down to the battle of plastic versus aluminum and the pros and cons both materials afford. Lenovo claims to have a metal roll cage inside of the X250 to improve durability, and that the plastic is carbon-fiber infused, but for all intents and purposes, this is regular plastic, albeit high quality.
 
Lenovo is sticking to the black rectangle, which is good. Instead of changing up the perception of what a laptop should be, Lenovo keeps the Thinkpad identity physically the same. As a result, this is not a particularly thin laptop, or curved, or majestic in any unique way. This is a business laptop, and it fulfills the job well.
 
There is one advantage that this somewhat chunky build affords; in terms of ports, the X250 is loaded compared to the competition.
 
Category
Ports
Commentary
Inputs
2x USB 3.0 - one with sleep and charge
Ethernet (YELL YEAH!)
SD Card
SIM Card
Lenovo should have added a 3rd USB port for power like on some of its other laptops.
Display Outputs
VGA (in 2015 lol)
mini DisplayPort
Two connections is fine. mDP is preferred over HDMI
Other
Power Input
Kensington Lock
Thinkpad Docking Port
Docking Accessories are quite expensive.
 
Yet again, Lenovo displays a feature that makes it stand out compared to all of the competition. Not one other manufacturer comes close.
 
In terms of weight, this is freaking magically light. I often get worried that I didn’t put my laptop in my backpack because my bag feels so darn light. Especially without the additional six cell battery, the laptop reaches a stupendously light weight. A single decently sized hardcover book is heavier than this laptop.  
 
However, being able to open this laptop up is a godsend. The end user (or I) could save a ton of money by buying an SSD and RAM upgrade outside of the Lenovo laptop configurator.  
 
The Trackpad and Keyboard
The Trackpad not made from glass. Or at least it doesn’t feel like it’s made of glass. This year, Lenovo corrected the cardinal wrong from the Xx40 series - the lack of dedicated buttons for the trackpoint.
 
The problem is that if your hands are even the slightest bit sweaty or oily, the trackpad gets very hard to use. There is a significant amount of friction between the hand and the trackpad, making it very uncomfortable to use.  
 
However, I do have to give high points to the Trackpoint (nub). It works well and is rather precise. I think that I’ll try and use it for a while because I just don’t like the trackpad.
 
On the other hand, the keyboard is almost flawless. What needs to be mentioned is the huge amount of key travel on the X250, a major advantage over its competitors. Lenovo achieves this via a slightly chunky build and surprisingly thin keycaps. I hope it will not affect durability.
 
The only thing I would change about the keyboard would be to add more granular control of the backlight. It only has 3 levels: off, bright, and super freaking bright. When it’s pitch black in the morning in my room and I’m trying to use the laptop without waking up my roommate, the keyboard backlight almost feels brighter than the screen itself at minimum brightness. This is one detail that Apple got right - giving many levels of brightness for their keyboards.
 
Performance and Thermal Throttling
It’s what you’ve all been waiting for: the benchmarks.
 
The X250 performs as you would expect from a laptop of such specs. No thermal throttling was observed even after several runs of Cinebench R15 which is promising.
 
Geekbench 32-bit and HTML5 Test :
 
 
 
 
Cinebench R15  and Crystal Disk Mark:
 
 
However, there is a big problem; This laptop cannot smoothly stream 4K video in Chrome, Firefox, IE (shudder), and Vivaldi.
 
BUT, in Microsoft Edge, 4K streaming works beautifully. WTF Google?! YouTube doesn’t work well on your own browser? The higher quality playback at lower CPU usage is the only reason I (or anyone else for that matter) would use Edge. It is a shame that other browsers with more power user features lack the performance of Microsoft’s own browser. Even with the improvements in Chrome 45, Microsoft has the edge (pun intended).
 
During a stress test in AIDA64 of CPU Integer performance alone, the laptop held steady at around 65 degrees Celsius in a 21.1 degrees Celsius room. Though the fans did spin up a bit, I would rather the notebook be a bit lounder than thermally throttle. Max all core turbo seems to be just shy of 2.5 GHz, in line with Intel’s specifications. Generally, under light to moderate load, the fans are unnoticeable.
 
The Elephant in the Room - Windows 10 Scaling
Ahh Microsoft. You make excellent products (most of the time) and you had a chance with Windows 10 to fix some serious errors that you had. Alas no. Display scaling, tested at 125 percent, is still bad, even on a laptop that doesn’t have a super high DPI display. Most installers I use seem to have scaling issues, showing blurry text. Normally, however, the application launches fine and crispy.
 
However, I do HAVE to call out Skype for not only the installer being blurry, but the application itself. And it is a Microsoft owned application.
 
 
 
 
Both the Google Chrome and Steam Installers are noticeably blurry. This is unacceptable.
Also, Steam is blurry! That’s unacceptable to me. Maybe I have some settings configured incorrectly, but Steam, of all applications, should support high DPI displays properly.
 
As of this moment, I’ve set the display to 100% scaling just to avoid these issues. Thankfully, my vision is good enough that seeing text isn’t hard, and the extra screen real estate is appreciated. At times though, small text can be tough to read. I’ve had to set the zoom in Chrome to 110% because below that is just annoying to read.
 
Battery Life and an Important Note about Charging
I have had some issues with the batteries not charging up to 100%. They’ll go to 97 or 99%. However, if I partially drain them, say to 50%, and then recharge them, they will go up to 100% full. Odd.
 
Either way, the battery life on this laptop is tremendous and easily best-in-class. The X250 lasted hours under AIDA64 CPU stress testing. There is likely no way I’ll ever drain the entire battery in one day. At the end of a long day, the battery is at just under 60 percent full. Only long periods of gaming and other CPU/GPU intensive activities will kill this laptop. However, the target audience for this laptop likely will not be doing those things, so battery life shall remain excellent in all normal scenarios.
 
Miscellaneous Thoughts
Using the X250 over the past couple of weeks has really made me want to to see the proliferation of Thunderbolt. Every day, when I get back from class, I plug in 5 cables into my laptop (Power, mDP, USB, Ethernet, Audio). It’s hugely annoying. Plugging in just one cable every time would be a godsend.
 
The fingerprint reader works 80 percent of the time the first time, 98 percent of the time the 2nd time, and 2 percent of the time it doesn’t work at all. It simply does not turn on at the lock screen which is strange. And despite my privacy concerns with Windows 10, the convenience of the fingerprint scanner cannot be overstated.
 
Random Oddities
By default, the auto-brightness is extremely aggressive and changes brightness even in constant light. Disabling adaptive brightness in the Intel HD graphics control center fixed the problem. Weird.
The traditional inversion of the Fn and Ctrl key on Thinkpads continues. Key remapping software can fix that easily.
Looking at the display housing, the panel seems to be the slightest bit crooked. Thankfully, no display is behind the bezel, but the gap is larger on the top than on the bottom. It does NOT affect the usability of the laptop, but the lack of fit and finish irks me.
Windows isn’t great at calculating remaining battery time. It can say that I have 5 hours left on a fully charged battery, which is simply not true.
Windows 10 still isn’t perfect. In one year, with a series of stability and glitch fixing updates, the OS will be much better. This is likely why Lenovo still only offers Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 from the factory.
 
Conclusions
This is a really good laptop. I really do wish I could have waited for Skylake to get the GPU gains, but I’m fine with this. If I wanted to game, a real desktop would do a significantly better job anyway.
 
Though I could have chosen between this, the Dell XPS 13, the HP Spectre X360, and the MBPr 13”, I chose this due to being able to take this laptop apart and due to the insane lightness and price of this laptop. Using the educational discount available, this laptop rapidly becomes much cheaper than any of the other aforementioned, and it has a significantly better selection of ports.
In the end, however, with the launch of the X260 almost here, any consumer should wait and see the benefits Lenovo will bring. Skylake will bring better battery life, more processing power, and better graphics, hopefully solving most of the issues with the X250. There are minor nitpicks, but no laptop is perfect, especially considering the price.

No, DDR3L is low voltage, typically 1.35V or below potentially. 
 
DDR3 standard 1.5V or 1.65V

I don't really care too much about the color scheme of other people, because if it dosent have one that's because the guy focused on price/ perf which is an entirely valid option.
 
Personally, on my builds I will sacrifice a bit of performance to get something that looks the way I want it to look like.

If you're at under 1080p, you're wasting your money. Why upgrade? Even with a 75 to 90 Hz refresh rate a GTX 970 is more than enough. 
 
Just keep on waiting until newer stuff is out. 

If you're at under 1080p, you're wasting your money. Why upgrade? Even with a 75 to 90 Hz refresh rate a GTX 970 is more than enough. 
 
Just keep on waiting until newer stuff is out. 

I'm so saddened to hear this.
But I'm sure it's nothing compared to what he and his family are going through fight now.
Hoping for the best.

So this is fairly interesting. By now we've all heard that the SD810 is the literal Mount Vesuvius of SoCs and almost every manufacturer has had to either deal with the heat or come up with hanky solutions (like throttling the chip) to make sure your experience isn't soured. 
 
Sony however? Showing their expertise in hardware design shoved a couple of heat pipes and thermal paste. Awesome. Overkill cooling solution but one that allows this phone to even record a reported 38 minutes of 4K video without throttling or otherwise crashing. 
 
Source
 

 
 
 

WAIT- Get the moto X Style when it comes out. Best of both. Big screen, still big battery, no invite system, support from motorola, still pretty cheap. 

Get a 4690k. Or even better, save up a bit more $$$ and get a 6600k and skylake if this is a new rig. 

Well m8 check this: 

going to georgia tech hopefully