IPAD as a laptop substitute?

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jakesully

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I'l be assembling this build within the next month (shippin is like 2 weeks here) and in order to fund it (pay issues at work) I've been thinking about selling my laptop that I currently use for everything, skyrim, borderlands, cubeworld and such.

I have the ipad 3/4? with a lighting charger. My question to you lovely people is if it would be adequate for writing essays and notes away from home with a bluetooth keyboard (I'll still use the tower as my go to).

You guys have any experience with this? problems? possible issues/concerns? how is the excel for the ipad?

Side note: are mechanical keyboards THAT great? worth the extra dough? clicky mx blue sounds the coolest.
 
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schau314

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I used an ipad for school for a full year. The year before I was using a laptop.

The ipad has some good apps and features. IT isn't the best or the worst, but it can be used effectively. The technical change hurdle takes a while to understand. The biggest annoyance with the keyboard is the home screen button being right next to the backspace.

I would personally see if you can find a usb to thunderbolt converter for your keyboard if at home. The ipad keyboards are allright, A couple paragraphs is fine, but long essays are tough.
 
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jakesully

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Thanks guys for the quick responses, any good recomendations? Backlit would be nice. Someone near me is selling a used solar-powered keyboard for ten bucks ($57 on amazon), worth it?
 
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schau314

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10 dollars is not much to lose. I think you could grab that for the go and see how it works.

Also could we give you some advice for your desktop build. There a couple easy ways to reduce that cost and keep that i7 performance.
 
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jakesully

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Really?! I thought I just about had it, cheapest mobo, ram, and... well everything really for what I hope to be doing. What did you have in mind?
 
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jakesully

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I'll be getting the Qnix 27" 1440p ips panel, and eventually yes, I will be running a second 780 once it becomes outdated, hopefully with a gsync monitor :)
 
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schau314

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"2GB SLi 670 owner chiming in here. Performance at 1440p is a dream, and I haven't noticed any issues with the VRam so far (not that you should take anecdotal information as fact, I just haven't seen any benchmarks that don't back up my own experiences).

I'd really like a solid explanation (or attempt) at why more VRam would/could make a difference for higher resolutions. Higher bandwidth, sure (which is why AMD excel at higher resolution -- something to consider if you're not too loyal to nVidia, though a lack of blower coolers isn't great for multi-GPU), but why higher VRam? It's obviously not the case now, so why would it change so drastically in the next couple of generations (yes consoles will have quite a bit of VRam, but that's shared with the actual RAM too -- and I wouldn't want to base my purchasing decision of pure speculation like that anyway). Are the texture files bigger? I don't think so, right? Is the frame-buffer any more than a couple MBs larger?

I'd go for the 770 if it were me. Even if VRam ever became an issue, I'd imagine the 2GB 770 would still be faster than a 4GB 760. It wouldn't become an issue over-night either. It's not like you're going to wake up one morning and 2GB is suddenly causing 30 FPS in all your games... The amount of VRam might slowly creep up as next gen console games become more developed, but like I said it's not going to be an instantaneous process (unless every game get's re-written all at once), and as such I really don't think it should be a problem within the lifetime of a 770 (again, speculation, but based on benchmarks rather than what we imagine games will be like in the future).

If you're planning on SLi, I'd recommend going with blower style (EVGA) coolers. This prevents the top card from becoming a furnace."


Here's my build. No overclocking or gtx 780
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BbJQcf
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BbJQcf/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($247.98 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($118.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($162.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: PNY Optima 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($92.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 770 2GB Dual Superclocked ACX Video Card ($296.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($95.98 @ OutletPC)
Keyboard: AZIO KB506 Wired Standard Keyboard ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Other: Qnix 27" ($289.99)
Total: $1605.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-25 09:13 EDT-0400

You might want to go for sli gtx 760 or 770 instead of that 780.

 
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schau314

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2GB is adequate for 1440p. I wouldn't pay the $30+ for the extra VRAM or sacrifice GPU performance for it. 4k is when it gets serious.

I'm running a MSI GTX 670 PE with just the factory overclock. I don't need AA with 1440p, although it can do it just fine, and nothing of this newest generation of games really pushes it. There's plenty of room for the future especially if I actually OC it. The 770 does even better than that.

I really don't think you need the 780. IF you want it sure, but it isn't needed. Just like that expensive monitor.
 
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jakesully

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Hey, sorry I haven't responded over the weekend, and Wow, that's a lot of info. While I am aware that vram on the 770 does not begin to choke until 4k, I actually intend to be playing metro last light (just as a milestone I guess), which I hope to be maxxing out at 1440p, that's the goal here (I know I won't get amazing frames though). The benchmakrs comparing the 770 to the 780 showed I think about a 24% increase in performance(probably not ram related) if I remember right, correct me if I'm wrong. That performance gap was particularly prominent when running at 1440p.

So instead of going sli now (which I initially intended to do), I'll stick with the single higher end card, and add a second one in a few years.

You mentioned evga having superior cooling? Could you give me a brief rundown of the benefit of this? Don't quite understand how that works. Do the stock coolers vent air directly out of the case? Wouldn't that not be an issue with the h440's airflow?

One more question (too many I know), I have not for the life of me been able to find any information comparing third party models performance. One guys posted the temps of the 780's lighting, asus, and classified, but
i can't find that now. So how does manual overclocking the better dcu2 cooling compare to the already overclocked versions. Is the asus cooler when manually overclocked compared to the factory ones?

Sorry for the long post, thanks for the response though.
 
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schau314

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Sorry I copied that from another user, but evga is known for its superior cooling. The fact of the matter is that the gtx 780 is 500, the 770 is 300. That means you will pay an extra 200 dollars for 25 percent. Since there is a huge price gap for this increase the 770 is more efficient, The reason I bring this up is to allow you to have extra money to keep the laptop.

Although here is a link to a similar thread. This guy may be more helpful. Private message him since he knows more about this situation.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1702094/1440p-gtx-770-2gb.html
"

I have a 1440p monitor and 2gb 770gtx. I run Metro Last Light at 1440p at all settings maxed (except SSAO, which is off). Game runs lag free. SSAO won't really make much of a noticeable difference at 1440p."



 
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