I'm between a rock and a hard place...

[JefferyD90]

So I have went and done the classic, buy something just to see something else come out, scenario.

 

Recently I purchased a Asus X550ZE notebook.  When I bought it, I knew the sacrifices I was making.  The pros and cons of the device.  I knew it wasn't going to have amazing battery life, I knew it was a little bigger, and that it didn't have a touch screen.  Now, here is where the situation is made a little worse.  The Asus X550ZE has broke 2 times, and I have RMA'ed it both times for it to be the exact same cause (failed motherboard).  I've had the X550ZE for about 6 weeks, and it has only been useable for about 10 days of that 6 weeks.

 

So I have a computer that is 95% exactly what I want, but has failed 2 times.  Even if it comes back and magically is more powerful, gets way better battery life, and so on...  it has proven to be a unreliable machine.  I don't know if I'll ever be able to trust the machine to go on a 5 day vacation and still be able to do my homework, or to put critical family pictures on (for even a few days), or anything like this where I depend on the machine.  But, I own the notebook.  I don't have to pay a single penny to own this notebook, it is mine for ever and ever.

 

Now, I have came across this new notebook, the Toshiba Satellite Radius 14.  It is, physically, the EXACT computer that I wanted to begin with.  I wanted a 14" notebook, that was a convertible, that has a touchscreen, that is thinner than a DVD drive, that gets at least 3 hours of battery life, that has the current generation AMD APU, backlit keyboard, and is actually sexy.  The only things I don't like about this notebook is that is made by Toshiba, it doesn't have (at least) a 1600 x 900 resolution screen, and it doesn't have a SSD.

 

I need to know if I need to sell my Asus X550ZE and just bite the finical bullet and get the Toshiba Satellite Radius 14, or should I just bite the bullet and deal with the Asus X550ZE for the next year or so and then go ahead and purchase a notebook (hopefully) is a God notebook.

 

Asus X550ZE: https://www.asus.com/Notebooks/X550ZE/

Toshiba Satellite Radius 14: http://www.toshiba.com/us/computers/laptops/satellite/Radius14/E45DW-C4210/gallery

[Infernal Burrito]

What do you use it for? Also, I would endorse getting a laptop with an SSD. You may have not experienced it, but having an SSD is amazing. For really any use, it makes it so much snappier and quicker than it would be with a mechanical drive. This is without mentioning the durability which is a must have for laptops.

[JefferyD90]

What do you use it for? Also, I would endorse getting a laptop with an SSD. You may have not experienced it, but having an SSD is amazing. For really any use, it makes it so much snappier and quicker than it would be with a mechanical drive. This is without mentioning the durability which is a must have for laptops.

I feel 100% comfortable upgrading my HDD to a SSD once I know the machine is worth upgrading.  I have 2 SSD's laying right here right now that I can do it with.  I NEED the computer for school work when I am away from my desktop at home.  Lately I am finding myself going 3-4 days a week without being at home.  I WANT to be able to play CS:GO whenever I feel like, or at least read a few articles when I have down time away from my computer.

 

I do understand the NEED for a SSD, but the reason why I'm not so concerned about it is simply because I will buy one, or use one that I have, and install it myself once I feel comfortable the machine isn't going to be a crapshoot.  End point: HDD is not a immediate concern.

[WolfDeville]

Never get a ToSHITa.

[Naeaes]

I worked in a PC service joint for years and all Asus X-series laptops were always well represented in the statistics. All sorts of random failures, often relating to some component integrated to the motherboard. All I have to say is, get rid of the thing as fast as you can, never even think of buying an Asus X- or K-series or laptop again and enjoy a long an beautiful life with something (anything) else. I hear A-series is the same thing as K-series, just a different region.

 

I gotta say, I do love Asus and trust most of their products but the cheap-o laptops they make are really cheap-o. The sad thing is, they ride on the good name of Asus overall and disappoint a lot of people doing so.

[Infernal Burrito]

I feel 100% comfortable upgrading my HDD to a SSD once I know the machine is worth upgrading.  I have 2 SSD's laying right here right now that I can do it with.  I NEED the computer for school work when I am away from my desktop at home.  Lately I am finding myself going 3-4 days a week without being at home.  I WANT to be able to play CS:GO whenever I feel like, or at least read a few articles when I have down time away from my computer.

 

I do understand the NEED for a SSD, but the reason why I'm not so concerned about it is simply because I will buy one, or use one that I have, and install it myself once I feel comfortable the machine isn't going to be a crapshoot.  End point: HDD is not a immediate concern.

Understandable. I was in a similar situation. What I ended up with is an Android tablet (Tab S 8.4) and a keyboard case. It may seem bizzare and it may not be right for you, but for me, it is great. I do my school work on the cloud so storage is a non-issue. I do not play video games on the go, I could never run what I want to play on any mobile device at a reasonable cost, so I am OK with no games. You may not be and that may be a major turn off. However, this option has several advantages: 1: No maintenance, (like the iSheep say) it just works. No faffing about with anything at all and no burdening up the system. 2: Cost effective, I spent less than what I would have on even the crappiest of laptops, keyboard case included. 3: Portable and versatile as f***. 

 

For CS:GO, most things should work as I am sure you are aware. However, anything more demanding and you are screwed. Those APU based laptops are crap for games (I know second hand but regardless). If you are going to play Skyrim, it will perform badly, games like the Witcher 2/3 won't even run, and games like BF4 won't be good at all. I am a big fan of tablets that also happen to work as laptops like the Surface 3/pro 1, 2, and 3. Because of this, I am inclined to recommend one of those, or an ASUS transformer. I know how slow those can be, but they are convenient and will more than suffice for schoolwork, albeit with equal or lesser performance to what you're currently using.

 

As for your presented option, I would personally not go with it. I despise the fact that it is big, bulky, and yet does not have the power that that would suggest. If I were to make an alternate suggestion, the Y40 from Lenovo is currently on sale ranging from 670 to just over 1000 USD. It is 14 inch, less than the satellite (in cost), with nicer specs, a thinner body, a higher res screen, and much more over it. It also has a backlit keyboard and looks pretty good to me aesthetically. 

 

TL;DR: I prefer tablets personally and use an Android tablet with a keyboard for similar things. I dislike the Satellite. I recommend the Y40 instead.

[JefferyD90]

Never get a ToSHITa.

Trust me, I'm not excited about Toshiba being the manufacture.  I think their website is pretty awful and generally think their build quality is avearge at best.

[JefferyD90]

I worked in a PC service joint for years and all Asus X-series laptops were always well represented in the statistics. All sorts of random failures, often relating to some component integrated to the motherboard. All I have to say is, get rid of the thing as fast as you can, never even think of buying an Asus X- or K-series or laptop again and enjoy a long an beautiful life with something (anything) else. I hear A-series is the same thing as K-series, just a different region.

 

I gotta say, I do love Asus and trust most of their products but the cheap-o laptops they make are really cheap-o. The sad thing is, they ride on the good name of Asus overall and disappoint a lot of people doing so.

I do like the feel of the notebook, but maybe it isnt meant to stand up to the test of time.  Asus on the other hand has been helpful.

[JefferyD90]

Understandable. I was in a similar situation. What I ended up with is an Android tablet (Tab S 8.4) and a keyboard case. It may seem bizzare and it may not be right for you, but for me, it is great. I do my school work on the cloud so storage is a non-issue. I do not play video games on the go, I could never run what I want to play on any mobile device at a reasonable cost, so I am OK with no games. You may not be and that may be a major turn off. However, this option has several advantages: 1: No maintenance, (like the iSheep say) it just works. No faffing about with anything at all and no burdening up the system. 2: Cost effective, I spent less than what I would have on even the crappiest of laptops, keyboard case included. 3: Portable and versatile as f***. 

 

For CS:GO, most things should work as I am sure you are aware. However, anything more demanding and you are screwed. Those APU based laptops are crap for games (I know second hand but regardless). If you are going to play Skyrim, it will perform badly, games like the Witcher 2/3 won't even run, and games like BF4 won't be good at all. I am a big fan of tablets that also happen to work as laptops like the Surface 3/pro 1, 2, and 3. Because of this, I am inclined to recommend one of those, or an ASUS transformer. I know how slow those can be, but they are convenient and will more than suffice for schoolwork, albeit with equal or lesser performance to what you're currently using.

 

As for your presented option, I would personally not go with it. I despise the fact that it is big, bulky, and yet does not have the power that that would suggest. If I were to make an alternate suggestion, the Y40 from Lenovo is currently on sale ranging from 670 to just over 1000 USD. It is 14 inch, less than the satellite (in cost), with nicer specs, a thinner body, a higher res screen, and much more over it. It also has a backlit keyboard and looks pretty good to me aesthetically. 

 

TL;DR: I prefer tablets personally and use an Android tablet with a keyboard for similar things. I dislike the Satellite. I recommend the Y40 instead.

I dislike Google with every fiber in my being, so I wont be getting a Android based tablet.  I have a PERFECTLY fine desktop for running Skyrim (the only game that you named that I even care about), and the FX-8800 is more than capable of running Skyrim and that screen resolution.

 

As far as the current computer goes, it isn't bulky at all I dont know where you got that.  As a matter of fact, it is so thin that the LAN jack is the thickest part of the machine.  And it has plenty of power, this machine has a mid ranged moble GPU with the highest powered APU of its generation.  And the Y40 is not the machine I am looking for at all.

 

While I know your intent was good, and I did give a good look to your suggestions, none of them fit me in the least.

[Naeaes]

I do like the feel of the notebook, but maybe it isnt meant to stand up to the test of time.  Asus on the other hand has been helpful.

Absolutely! Their customer service is awesome. Asus doesn't  have their own service here in Finland so we had to ship a lot of units to Sweden the very least, which takes precious time. But it's not only once or twice when Asus customer support went then extra mile and shipped spare parts to me or helped otherwise.

[QueenDemetria]

Toshiba, ehhh at least they figured out the overheating problems that used to plague their older notebooks. Their build quality is still very flimsy to say the least, but like Acer it shouldn't be a problem. If I knew what killed your motherboards and the actions Asus has taken to prevent that then I could give a recommendation, but sadly I don't. If I were you, I would use your Asus hard and try to make it fail. If it fails then ditch it, but if it doesn't then I would assume its fixed.

[JefferyD90]

Toshiba, ehhh at least they figured out the overheating problems that used to plague their older notebooks. Their build quality is still very flimsy to say the least, but like Acer it shouldn't be a problem. If I knew what killed your motherboards and the actions Asus has taken to prevent that then I could give a recommendation, but sadly I don't. If I were you, I would use your Asus hard and try to make it fail. If it fails then ditch it, but if it doesn't then I would assume its fixed.

It is a reasonably thin notebook considering it has a high end AMD APU and a discrete GPU.  I think it is dying due to heat related issues.  The fan never really spins up, and it has died both times almost exactly the same time, about 1.5 hours into continuous use.

 

When I get the machine next, I'm just going to run Prime 95 for about 12 hours to just put it through its paces...