I have a maxed out 14 MPB, 64/8TB. Unfortunately I still work with a lot with x86_64 virtual machines, and I just can't do that on ARM Macbook. I tried really weird solutions, like pocket PC connecting over WIfi or Surface Pro etc. Qemu is slow , too slow. After a year, I feel defeated. I give up. That's it. My laptop of choice for x86_64 compatibility - Acer 300 SE. Yes, Acer. Not Asus. Not Razer. ( have right now the 2021 iteration, but tomorrow will get the 2022 model, OLED, 32 GB, and I should be able to put 8TB in it, like in 2021 model). This machine doesn't get enough of coverage in mainstream media outlets, so just FYI, there is a really nice 14 inch Windows laptop.
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MBP 14 alternative
- Thread starter Thysanoptera
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I'm glad I don't have to deal with all that and can stick with Apple Silicon for everything except gaming. How's the battery life on the Acer?
It's a windows laptop lol, you wouldn't catch me without a power brick while using it. Like 4-5 hours of office type usage. The one I have now, with 11375H is using 30W to stream a twitch video through HDMI out (so Nvidia 3060 is in use). The 12th gen is supposed to be better.
I bought CrossOver lifetime license; I consider this a donation into improving gaming on a mac. Skyrim and Witcher 3 works really nice on M1.
I found a review on it and the guy didn’t seem very impressed but it could’ve just been that one review. It looks like a nice laptop and he was comparing it to larger 15” models so I think expecting too much.
It’s the same with the old Intel MacBooks when it comes to battery. They were pretty good but not great if you were doing a lot of stuff
I want to try that crossover thing. I’m not even sure how it works but I think it would be cool for my Air.
I was looking specifically for 14 inch. It's a perfect size for me, fits in a small bag that I can put it vertically under a set on a plane leaving enough room for feet, it's light and doesn't require giant power brick. I absolutely love MBP 14, it's the best computing device I've ever had. On windows side you have G14, Alienware X14, Razer 14 and that Acer that nobody knows about - but I really like. I had Razer and G14 - got rid of them for various reasons. X14 is too big, leaving the poor Acer on the battlefield.
The Crossover guys (Codewavers) are behind the whole wine project, they contribute the most to it. They already did amazing things, but support for individual games/apps is still a hit or miss. 64 bit games Dx11 and below work reasonably well. They hacked the heck out of limited environment that Apple presented, I'm a big fan of them.
Yeah I’ve always preferred smaller laptops. I had a 15” MBP (2015?) and it just didn’t feel as personal. I may consider the 14” MBP when the refresh comes out.
I think cloud gaming and computing is the future. I know that would probably make some RGB loving gamers sad but it’s inevitable. Just like we have “internet“ that we pay for monthly in the future we’ll have “computer“. You’ll just have a monitor and keyboard with a basic SOC
You can still get 14 MPB M1 Pro / 16 / 512 for $1600 at BestBuy. That is a damn good deal and looking at M2 Air I doubt M2 14 will make a lot of difference.
I had the A300 SE OLED for the long weekend. It's good. It's everything I was hoping for. Screen is awesome, 3k, close to 14 MBP, Windows seems to get pretty good at scaling high res screens. The fans are loud though, but you can manually bring them down. Acer seems really skittish about CPU temps, I don't need them to be in the 30's, I can make manually the fans not audible at cost of temps in the 50's. That's fine. At complete idle CPU package is at 2W! I have never seen something like that outside of M1. I have to say I thought Adler Lake was a gimmick, but it seems they did make it work. It's nowhere as seamless as Apple's M1 of course, but streaming Twitch at 1080P/60 takes 6W of CPU package. 8TB double sided SSD fits just fine.
The OLED model doesn't have a MUX switch!!! Oh well, I don't play competitive games anyway, but I was really looking forward to it. I like it. It will be my travel laptop for when I have to use x86 VM's. Now just need to remove the goddamn stickers.
Lenovo 7i 14” is a good 14” laptop. You can find them on sale at BestBuy every so often.
Build quality and 4 speaker system is great.
2.5k touchscreen. Intel i7 1255u, 16gb ddr5 ram, 512gb pci 4 ssd, all aluminum build.
I see you already got something but just in case you hadn’t settled on it.
Build quality and 4 speaker system is great.
2.5k touchscreen. Intel i7 1255u, 16gb ddr5 ram, 512gb pci 4 ssd, all aluminum build.
I see you already got something but just in case you hadn’t settled on it.
It's Lenovo, which means low profile M2 socket and only single sided SSD. I had gen 9 Carbon X, awesome machine, but being limited to 2TB storage when I really need 8TB made me give it to my mother-in-law. And she's like - "it doesn't have apple logo, must be crap". Are you kidding me, custom build, 32GB/2TB, 11th gen CPU, 16:10 bright screen. She took it anyway and gave it to her nephew, who, being in CS class, send me a long and heartwarming thank you note.
Got it. 8tb ssd. wow.
I have to agree about Alderlake. I thought Intel would fail with scorching temps aka Scalderlake. These chips still run hot but I agree battery life/wattage when doing nominal tasks is pretty good and the performance under load is really good as long as the cooling solution works.
I limited CPU to 25W and selected "Quiet" profile in Acer Predator Sense software, playing Mass Effect 1 (from the legendary edition), I had 25W on CPU and 30W on GPU and stable 60 fps at FHD. so that like 60W total power. I mean on battery that's like over 1 hour's total play time, but still, you can play it on a fairly cool laptop that doesn't sound like a vacuum cleaner.
Alder Lake can go in millisecond from 2W to 100W, I mean laptop chip. It's not bad. That's a good thing, to keep AMD and Apple on their toes.
I completely agree. AMD has better battery life generally but poorer single threaded performance and the 7000 series is not that impressive to me. If Intel can get on Intel 4/7nm later this year with 13th gen and get off 10nm after three gens I think with their new big little designs they could be really competitive. Whenever they switch over to 7nm process node combined with their big little they could have much better battery life while improving performance considerably.
I think because Intel has lagged behind in process and really pushed their chips with more cores and different architecture i.e. big little they have a lot more room for improvement than AMD. I mean to get 10nm chips competitive with M1 on 5nm is impressive no matter how you look at it. I didn't think it would be possible yet here we are.
They still have a ways to go in terms of thermals and battery but process node shrinks should help with that. I don't think there is much improvement to be had on 10nm though so I really hope 13th gen is not on Intel 7.
I think because Intel has lagged behind in process and really pushed their chips with more cores and different architecture i.e. big little they have a lot more room for improvement than AMD. I mean to get 10nm chips competitive with M1 on 5nm is impressive no matter how you look at it. I didn't think it would be possible yet here we are.
They still have a ways to go in terms of thermals and battery but process node shrinks should help with that. I don't think there is much improvement to be had on 10nm though so I really hope 13th gen is not on Intel 7.
I'll bet he did. That's quite a machine. My wife loves her 6th gen X1 Carbon.
lenovo slim 7 pro x 14.5
Is the only windows laptop I would get over anymacbook.
Seems almost perfect. Great price too.
Is the only windows laptop I would get over anymacbook.
Seems almost perfect. Great price too.
The 14" Razer is an interesting option, though heat and of course fan noise is a thing, given the high performance CPU/GPU, even during idle the fans can be heard. Also in this day and age, the ram/storage options are far too limiting, especially given the premium pricing for this machine.
I need a lot of storage, so the vast majority of current Lenovo lineup (and all of their thin/light models) is not for me.
Supposedly the 2022 model supports double sided ssds, the 2021 didn't for sure. But still, $3k for 16:9 screen and 16GB of RAM in 2022 is a stretch. I'm really disappointed they killed the Stealth, it was the only such machine on the market, instead they focused on 14 inch which competes with a bunch of models.
The problem with new Lenovo machines is they use low profile M.2 sockets, which limits max storage to 2TB due to only single sided SSDs physically fitting in it. I'm used to having 8TB, and like right now I'm already running short.