That smaller display means it\u2019s compact too. It comes in under an inch thick, and weighs 1.72kg, even lighter than the Dell above (although that one does have a bigger display). How much you like the look of this laptop will depend on how much you like the Aorus logo. It\u2019s front and center on the lid, and it\u2019s on the trackpad too. The extra little bit of plastic at the back makes it look even more like a beak when the laptop is opening and closing as well, so if you like the bird theme, this could be the one for you. The HP Omen is a slightly more affordable option that still gives you the luxury of an okay sized SSD and a dedicated graphics card. The Intel Core i7-4720HQ is a nice, yet aging processor, and you\u2019ll also get 8GB RAM (although it\u2019s only DDR3L), and a GeForce 960M graphics card, which will get the job done. The screen is a 15.6-inch IPS touchscreen at 1920x1080 resolution, so you can find better elsewhere, but you\u2019ll be paying a lot more. It\u2019s also got 4 USB 3.0 ports, which is more than most of the other laptops on this list. That\u2019s a bonus, because you\u2019ll probably be using two of them more often than not for a headset and mouse.<\/p>\r\n
The Omen is the thinnest laptop on this list, at somehow just 0.6-inches thick. It\u2019s 15.1 inches wide, and 9.7 inches long, so it\u2019s small, but it does weigh 2.13kg thanks to the size of the display. Black and red is apparently \u201cin\u201d at the moment, but you won\u2019t really notice it until you open the lid, as the red is mainly on the keyboard and down the sides. The Dell Inspiron 15 gets into cheaper territory because of its lower end CPU, but it\u2019s not terrible, and offers good value against its competitors. The Intel i5-6300HQ is still a 2.3GHz quad core processor with 6M Cache, it just doesn\u2019t put out quite the same performance numbers as the i7-6700HQ. This Dell has a GTX 960M, which we\u2019ve talked about before, and 8GB of DDR3L RAM. As for the display, you\u2019ve got a wide-angle 15.6-inch full HD IPS panel.<\/p>\r\n
We\u2019re still on the black and red theme, although there\u2019s barely a splash of crimson here. For the most part, this looks like a pretty normal, bland laptop. It\u2019s quite hefty too, weighing 2.57kg, but it\u2019s nice and thin, measuring 15.1 x 10.4 x 1 inches. Asus makes some good gaming laptops, and the RoG G752VT is one of the best of the bunch. It\u2019s got a Skylake Intel Core i7-6700HQ, much like many of the other laptops on this list, but it also houses an impressive 24GB DDR4 RAM. The graphics card is a GeForce 970M, so not top of the line, but it\u2019ll give you good performance on the 17.3-inch IPS GSync display with its 1920 x 1080 resolution. People are going to know this is a gaming machine when they see it. It\u2019s got a shiny, metallic finish, and plenty of color on the back (orange this time, a refreshing departure from red). It\u2019s got a nice keyboard too, backlit and ergonomically designed. It\u2019s a big old machine though, weighing just about 4kg and measuring 16.4 x 12.7 x 1.5 inches.
A security researcher has discovered a nasty flaw that he originally thought only affected Lenovo laptops, but it turns out that's not the case. The critical security vulnerability also affects at least one HP laptop and a handful of Gigabyte motherboards aimed at gamers, including the GA-Z77X-UD5H, GA-Z68-UD3H, GA-Z87MX-D3H, and GA-Z97-D3H.<\/p>\r\n
Dmytro \"Cr4sh\" Oleksiuk published an exploit for the vulnerability called ThinkPwn without first sharing his findings with Lenovo, PCWorld reports. The exploit can be used to sidestep security features built into Windows and allow an attacker to execute malicious code in the CPU's privileged System Management Mode (SMM).This is low-level access that could pave a path for a rootkit in a PC's Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), and also to disable things like Secure Boot, Virtual Secure Mode, and other Windows security features.According to Lenovo, the vulnerable code came from a UEFI package sent to it by one of its independent BIOS vendors (IBVs), which are companies that customize reference UEFI code for PC makers.\"The package of code with the SMM vulnerability was developed on top of a common code base provided to the IBV by Intel. Importantly, because Lenovo did not develop the vulnerable SMM code and is still in the process of determining the identity of the original author, it does not know its originally intended purpose,\" Lenovo states in a security advisory. \"But, as part of the ongoing investigation, Lenovo is engaging all of its IBVs as well as Intel to identify or rule out any additional instances of the vulnerability's presence in the BIOS provided to Lenovo by other IBVs, as well as the original purpose of the vulnerable code.\"<\/p>\r\n
Oleksiuk surmises that the vulnerability was present in Intel's reference code for its 8-series chipsets. Intel fixed the flaw two years ago, but since there was never any public advisories, IBVs and PC makers might have continued using the old and vulnerable reference code unaware that a patch existed.That would explain why Lenovo isn't the only one affected, as originally thought. Another security researcher, Alex James, discovered the same vulnerability on an HP Pavilion dv7-4087cl laptop, along with the aforementioned Gigabyte motherboards. It's also possible that the vulnerability is present on other products, so keep an eye out for a firmware update no matter what machine or motherboard you own.
For a long time, many PC gamers scoffed at the idea of gaming laptops. After all, how could you fit all that power in such a small form factor?And even if you could somehow squeeze it in, it\u2019s got to be deafeningly loud or incredibly heavy, right? Well, the gaming notebook sector is advancing, and it\u2019s doing so by leaps and bounds. So much so that big gray box companies are taking notice. HP, for instance, is jumping back in with its Omen gaming notebook.<\/p>\r\n
Gone are the days when a modestly powerful gaming laptop had to be a back-breaker. Many aren\u2019t much thicker than some of the sleek Ultrabooks out there now. But what of performance? The gap between desktop and mobile GPU performance is narrowing faster than a teen\u2019s teeth with braces.So can a desktop-replacement laptop now truly live up to its name? There\u2019s only one way to find out, and that\u2019s by throwing them both into the Thunderdome. Let battle commence!Who\u2019s your money on? The heavyweight champ or the light-footed contender? Desktops and gaming laptops go eight rounds to see which is best Let\u2019s face facts. As powerful as gaming laptop GPUs have become, they will always be slower than their desktop counterparts. You can always cram more power into larger components; it\u2019s simple physics. But gaming laptop GPUs are narrowing the divide, and this has been the case with every passing generation of mobile GPUs. According to Nvidia, its Fermi-based 480M GPU only offered 40 percent of the performance of its 480 desktop equivalent back in 2010. Nvidia claims the gap narrowed to 60 percent with the Kepler-based 680M. Now Nvidia says the 980M is roughly 70\u201380 percent as fast as its current flagship GTX 980. From our internal testing, our numbers don\u2019t support those figures across the board, but they aren\u2019t terribly far off.<\/p>\r\n
But performance issues aside, a glancing blow to mobile GPUs is that you can\u2019t typically swap them out. The beauty of gaming on a desktop PC is that if a beefer card comes along, you can just pop it in. In addition, while there are some dual-GPU options in the gaming notebook space, they are few and far between. And four-way mobile GPU options? Fuggedaboutit.Just about all the high-end gaming laptops that arrive in our Lab come with quad-core i7 CPUs, but in all honesty, they hold a rinky-dink candle to their desktop counterparts. Comparing high-end mobile quadcore to high-end desktop quad-core, we\u2019re talking a delta of 40\u201350 percent. And that\u2019s not to mention the six- and eight-core CPUs desktops can offer.Sure, some crazy beast laptops such as AVADirect\u2019s Clevo P570WM squeeze hexa-core desktop CPUs into their monstrous chassis, but notebooks like that are rare. Plus, you can\u2019t watercool them, meaning you can\u2019t unleash the beast to its full potential. To avoid overheating, laptop CPUs typically throttle themselves, and if they don\u2019t, they tend to sound like shop vacs. Not great.<\/p>\r\n
But arguably the biggest win for the desktop column here is the modularity factor. You just can\u2019t beat swappable CPUs.Years ago, laptop speakers were weak pieces of crap. But these days, while they may not please the harshest audiophiles, most high-end gaming laptops now offer plenty of volume firepower. Hell, some even offer a 2.1 setup with a bass speaker underneath the chassis. And you don\u2019t have to spend a fortune to get good audio from a gaming notebook. Lenovo\u2019s Y500 gaming series, which retail around $1,000, offer great sounding speakers licensed by JBL.This should be an easy win for gaming laptops, right? Unfortunately, sound goes both ways, and fan noise is a major factor. A good laptop like the Asus ROG G751 will run near silent under load, but something that\u2019s too powerful for its britches, such as the AVADirect Clevo W230ST, can sound annoyingly loud.Laptops aren\u2019t known to be modular, but most of them allow you to swap out RAM. In fact, some will even let you plop in up to 32GB, which is more than enough for gaming and everyday tasks. In terms of pricing, both are pretty competitive, with the cost equalling roughly $10 per gig of DDR3 on either platform.<\/p>\r\n
If we had to give one platform the nod, it would have to go to the desktop. Some gaming laptops, most notably the really thin ones, make it difficult to access the RAM slots. Typically, the only way to do this is to completely unscrew the notebook\u2019s base, which usually voids the warranty.For a long time, smaller 2.5-inch laptop drives have generally been smaller and\/or pricier than traditional 3.5-inch HDDs. With SSDs coming down in price and increasing in storage capacity, however, laptops can now offer a decent amount of storage at a reasonable cost. And with m.sata SSDs being so tiny, you don\u2019t have to sacrifice thinness for storage space. Still, it\u2019s almost comical to even compare the advantages of a desktop when it comes to storage, where your biggest limiting factor is how many SATA ports you have. This means you aren\u2019t constrained to using just 2.5-inch laptop drives. Knowing you can expand your storage by 4TB simply by plugging in one SATA cable... that\u2019s a good feeling.We all love our mechanical keyboards, which have been a mainstay of gaming desktops for years, so you\u2019re probably thinking this is an easy win for the desktop column, right? But while most gaming laptop keyboards merely get the job done, they are also \u201cfree.\u201d In addition, you could always hook up a mechanical keyboard to your gaming laptop if you need to get your clickity-clackity fix. While you may scoff this off as awkward, it\u2019s actually fairly common at big national LAN events.<\/p>\r\n
Furthermore, some gaming laptops like MSI\u2019s GT80 will be shipping with integrated mechanical keyboards, though the jury is still out on how well they\u2019ll work.There\u2019s a lot of quality variance when it comes to laptop monitors. We\u2019re beginning to see a lot of UHD panels out there, and then there\u2019s also the IPS versus TN facet to consider. Most gaming laptop monitors come in the 60Hz variety, unless they support stereoscopic 3D, but those have been rare birds since stereoscopic 3D glasses failed to take off.But even if you\u2019ve got a crummy 1080p TN display, you could always plug a nice discrete monitor into the laptop. Like the keyboard category, free is better than not free, and you still get the discrete monitor.The one big downside is that laptop displays are smaller, and you can\u2019t raise their screens with a stand. Those quibbles aside, though, free monitor beats not-free monitor.Desktops may have the power and the modularity, but it\u2019s tough to beat the portability that a laptop offers. Even if you could get a powerful PC in a relatively small mini-ITX form factor, they\u2019re still bigger and heavier than the fattest gaming laptops out there. Plus, you\u2019ve got to lug around a monitor, keyboards, and cables galore. For situations like LAN parties, ain\u2019t nobody got time for that.<\/p>\r\n
With the freedom to easily swap out components, coupled with the power they offer, it\u2019s clear the desktop PC isn\u2019t going anywhere. Having said that, however, as good as the desktop platform is, you shouldn\u2019t dismiss gaming laptops too swiftly. They\u2019ve come a long way and are getting more powerful with each passing The rise of the SSD has meant big improvements for laptop storage. swiftly year. Believe it or not, the performance gap is narrowing (though it\u2019s unlikely to ever catch up completely). Furthermore, a lot of the other issues that have plagued gaming laptops, like size, weight, and noise, are slowly being ironed out.Fresh off of unveiling new memory options as part of its flagship Trident Z line for desktops, G.Skill today announced the world's fastest DDR4 laptop memory kits running at 3,200MHz.The new SO-DIMM kits are part of its Ripjaws series. There are two high capacity options available, 16GB (2x8GB) and 32GB (2x16GB). Both are built with Samsung DDR4 8Gb ICs, same as the aforementioned Trident Z additions, and require 1.35V.\"Tested and validated on the latest Intel platform featuring the latest 6th Gen Intel Core processors, these new DDR4-3200MHz SO-DIMM memory kits allow you to wield the power of a desktop system in a portable laptop or mini PC, perfect for casual gaming or working on-the-go,\" G.Skill says.<\/p>","type":"rich"}