Laptop with 2560 x 1440 native resolution that can run closed - recommendations? TY

[Chic Aeon]

Google is not being helpful and it is easy to get overwhelmed so thought some of you might have something like what I am looking for.  Basically I want to replace my desktop tower with a notebook and the notebook needs to be  able to run 2560 x 1440 for my curved monitor which works well for me.  Aside from the typical RAM  and SSD requirements I of course want a reasonable card. Currently have a 980 which does pretty much what I need it to do so something a bit better than that would be good.  I don't need a two thousand dollar card :D.   Want Nvidia.

 

Would like to be able to plug in my USB wireless things (keyboard, headset, mouse  and of course the monitor directly connecting).  Would like it to run closed so basically I just turn it on like you would a desktop.  Price doesn't matter all that much.  So any recommendations would be appreciated. 

 

I am HOPING my current computer has more life to it but some issues are ongoing. I am thinking they are NOT hardware issues and hoping the next Win10 update will fix what it seemingly broken ---  but if it up and dies I want to already know what to order LOL.    

 

Thanks for any help.   

Edited October 7, 2020 by Chic Aeon
typo

[Bree Giffen]

I'd suggest a Lenovo Thinkpad. They have gaming units with Nvidia. Pair that with a Lenovo docking station which supports 4K monitors. You plug everything into the dock. The Thinkpad connects by just a single usb cable to the dock so you can quickly detach it and go.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/d/gaming-laptops?sort=sortBy&currentResultsLayoutType=grid

[Chic Aeon]

6 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

I'd suggest a Lenovo Thinkpad. They have gaming units with Nvidia. Pair that with a Lenovo docking station which supports 4K monitors. You plug everything into the dock. The Thinkpad connects by just a single usb cable to the dock so you can quickly detach it and go.

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/d/gaming-laptops?sort=sortBy&currentResultsLayoutType=grid

Thanks. There don't seem to be any Thinkpads at that link though. A search for Thinkpad (a quick one ) didn't find a 2560 resolution monitor only smaller. But the docking station is a really good idea. I will do more research and maybe I can find what you were talking about.    I really don't want a 4K monitor as I have a bunch of programs that have WAY TO SMALL of text on them and the non-native resolution thing has not worked out well in the past.  

 

But really happy you mentioned the docking station. TY!!!!!!

 

I have a Lenovo notebook for reading and "emergencies"    

[Bree Giffen]

I think Lenovo calls their gaming laptops Legion. So the Lenovo Legion laptops are what you should look at. The Thinkpads are the regular non-gaming laptops. You can also look at Dell or Asus for something similar with a dock. I can't recommend HP. 

[Chaser Zaks]

Most laptops can run while closed. It is a system setting that detects when the screen is closed. You'd need to go into the system settings and it should be under "Power preferences", "Eco Power", or whatever it is called these days. Simply change the "Screen closed" option from "Standby" to "Stay on / Disable screen".

[Chic Aeon]

Looks like the Lenovos while that have some good specs in there are 1920 resolution and that looks horrible on my monitor :D.   I "think" I can do what I want to do but as typically happens I usually want something "rare" ^^.  But lots to think about. If someone knows of a  2560 x 1440 please let me know. Thanks. 

[Lyssa Greymoon]

17 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

Looks like the Lenovos while that have some good specs in there are 1920 resolution and that looks horrible on my monitor :D.   I "think" I can do what I want to do but as typically happens I usually want something "rare" ^^.  But lots to think about. If someone knows of a  2560 x 1440 please let me know. Thanks. 

The laptop’s screen doesn’t make a difference if you’re using an external monitor, does it? 

[Coffee Pancake]

2 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

Would like to be able to plug in my USB wireless things (keyboard, headset, mouse  and of course the monitor directly connecting).  Would like it to run closed so basically I just turn it on like you would a desktop.  Price doesn't matter all that much.  So any recommendations would be appreciated. 

I would think very carefully about this strategy, a laptop is a nested mess of compromises and rarely designed to be run in this configuration for extended periods, you wouldn't be the first person to end up with display glitches as the video ram dies from inadequate cooling.

If money is not an issue, I'd advise a desktop with a actual desktop class GPU and a separate laptop. Use something like parsec/steam in home/etc if you want to play SL/game on the laptop.

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, Lyssa Greymoon said:

The laptop’s screen doesn’t make a difference if you’re using an external monitor, does it? 

As far as I know, yes (and I found some comments which is what got me thinking ). Not all cards will run all resolutions.   And I also know that when you switch from the native resolution (the default for that particular computer) to another resolution it looks really bad -- at least to picky artist me.   

 

I found a few folks trying to run a 2560 monitors with a 1980 screen notebook and it wouldn't work - the 2560 option wasn't available. Running my 30 = 31 inch monitor at 1980 is not a choice (for me).  I did find ONE notebook that was 1980 but apparently with the ability to run a 2560 external monitor but it had several "no go" things I wouldn't like so it was out. I can't believe there is only one == but maybe.    

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, CoffeeDujour said:

I would think very carefully about this strategy, a laptop is a nested mess of compromises and rarely designed to be run in this configuration for extended periods, you wouldn't be the first person to end up with display glitches as the video ram dies from inadequate cooling.

If money is not an issue, I'd advise a desktop with a actual desktop class GPU and a separate laptop. Use something like parsec/steam in home/etc if you want to play SL/game on the laptop.

That is why I am specifically looking for something MADE to do this. I realize you are a tech person, but a couple of tech people actually suggested this -- but again  for a system MADE to do what I want it to do.

 

I have a fairly high powered desktop right now and a separate laptop. That isn't an issue.   

If I find the answer I will post it back here.  I know there ARE some out there as I have seen them advertised (now I am remembering) BUT then (of course) I wasn't looking for a change.    

Thanks for your comment. 

 

[Lyssa Greymoon]

8 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

As far as I know, yes (and I found some comments which is what got me thinking ). Not all cards will run all resolutions.   And I also know that when you switch from the native resolution (the default for that particular computer) to another resolution it looks really bad -- at least to picky artist me.   

 

I found a few folks trying to run a 2560 monitors with a 1980 screen notebook and it wouldn't work - the 2560 option wasn't available. Running my 30 = 31 inch monitor at 1980 is not a choice (for me).  I did find ONE notebook that was 1980 but apparently with the ability to run a 2560 external monitor but it had several "no go" things I wouldn't like so it was out. I can't believe there is only one == but maybe.    

There's a link to a full specs PDF on the tech specs section of the Lenovos Bree linked to, and the ones I looked at all indicated they were capable of driving external monitors at resolutions higher than 2560x1440. I don't use external monitors with laptops very often, but as long as I'm not trying to mirror the laptop's display, the laptop will usually let me use anything the monitor is capable of.

[Chic Aeon]

3 hours ago, Lyssa Greymoon said:

There's a link to a full specs PDF on the tech specs section of the Lenovos Bree linked to, and the ones I looked at all indicated they were capable of driving external monitors at resolutions higher than 2560x1440. I don't use external monitors with laptops very often, but as long as I'm not trying to mirror the laptop's display, the laptop will usually let me use anything the monitor is capable of.

Thanks. 

 

 I did more research and also found a super cute "lunchbox" desktop mini. The problem seems to be that Lenovo (and I have a Lenovo notebook but mostly only READ on it) puts in power supplies WAY less than the manufacturer's specs for the cards that come with the computer -- at least on the ones I was interested in.  I had that "not strong enough power supply thing" happen before and lost my motherboard along with the power supply (expensive) so not going there again.   

 

Definitely a quandary.  Appreciate the help.   I have always thought buying a new computer was more difficult than buying a new car.  

 

 

Edited October 7, 2020 by Chic Aeon
adding info

[Jennifer Boyle]

Have you considered, since price isn't too important, going to a custom gaming laptop builder?

[Wulfie Reanimator]

On 10/7/2020 at 7:55 AM, Chic Aeon said:

And I also know that when you switch from the native resolution (the default for that particular computer) to another resolution it looks really bad -- at least to picky artist me.   

"Native resolution" is the one that matches the physical hardware. While the laptop screen's "native resolution" might be (for example) 1080p, if you connect a 2K screen to it, then 2K is the native resolution. The reason 1080p on a 2K monitor looks bad is because the lower-resolution image is being stretched in a way that doesn't match the available pixels.

To illustrate non-matching (not native) resolutions:

On 10/7/2020 at 7:55 AM, Chic Aeon said:

I found a few folks trying to run a 2560 monitors with a 1980 screen notebook and it wouldn't work - the 2560 option wasn't available.

I couldn't tell you what the cause of this might be off the top of my head (besides some sort of driver issue), but I'm sure it's fixable as long as the graphics card itself supports it. (And I can't imagine any modern GPUs not supporting 2K resolutions... my 1060 goes up to 8K although it's almost certainly not supposed to perform well there.)

Edited October 8, 2020 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Resi Pfeffer]

On 10/7/2020 at 4:03 AM, Chic Aeon said:

A search for Thinkpad (a quick one ) didn't find a 2560 resolution monitor only smaller.

I just searched and filtered through 1200 models for a decent QHD or WQHD laptop at one of germanys biggest online retailers, but even them just offer macbooks with that resolution.
The few other brands with that resolution, only offer business laptops with kinda lame Intel onboard graphic chips. Thats not what you want most likely.

Maybe stick to FHD or get an 4K alienware laptop and some magnifying glasses for your eyes  

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, Resi Pfeffer said:

Maybe stick to FHD or get an 4K alienware laptop and some magnifying glasses for your eyes  

 

Yes, 4K will just not work for some of my software (even NEW versions of the software).  There were some folks in Sansar with 4K screens that couldn't see some text in the viewer at all. My graphics program has a setting to make the TEXT bigger but not the drop down number boxes and those at 2560 are so very small that I can just BARELY tell what the numbers are.  Changing the screen resolution to make everything bigger just makes it blurry. Messy.

 

I  think my only option is to have something built to my specs in a tiny case. Luckily I live in a college town with a fair amount of high tech and the computer repair places are excellent.  I used to do the "build it online" type of thing but the last one from a top name company (that USED to be good) was complete junk and was put together so poorly some things weren't even connected. It broke i a few months so never buying from them again ^^.   

 

Thanks for all the hand holding. 

 

And for anyone else shopping for a computer be SURE and check that the power supply is up to the specs of the graphics card. I can't believe big name companies are shipping out prebuilts that are underpowered and doomed to fail if folks are GAMING on the "gaming computers" :D.  Sad.   

[Resi Pfeffer]

1 hour ago, Chic Aeon said:

Sad.   

Maybe not. There is some hope at least:
https://www.cnet.com/news/asus-rog-zephyrus-g14-gaming-laptop-debuts-1440p-screen-flashy-lid-at-ces-2020/

And here is an explanation about the lack of 1440p screens on laptops:
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3546295/why-you-cant-get-a-1440p-laptop-blame-4k-tvs.html

[Ardy Lay]

I blame television for everything, not just display size and resolution availability.

[Bree Giffen]

I have to warn you that a tiny case pc, cube pc, small form factor case,  will have heat problems. I had one and it worked until summer when it began to shut down from overheating. It had almost no airflow inside the case. In a way, it is worse than a laptop because you are using a full power CPU and GPU instead of the low voltage low heat mobile chips in a laptop. The Lenovo lunchbox seems to get around it by having an open air flow but I think the low power supply is to stop people from installing a powerful graphics card. A desktop replacement running a large monitor and 3D graphics would probably be best handled by another tower pc, maybe a mid tower or a mini tower.

[Chic Aeon]

24 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

The Lenovo lunchbox seems to get around it by having an open air flow but I think the low power supply is to stop people from installing a powerful graphics card.

I LOVED the look of that little lunchbox, but I checked several and THAT was the style that had a very sub-par power supply for the cards included by the manufacturer.  Now there might have been some models with lower end cards  and that same 500 watt power supply, but I wasn't looking at those. Hence my very "loud I hope" warning about checking to see if the power supply is up to manufacturers specs.  I don't understand WHY the manufacturers do this  - well, to save money most likely. Sure Lenovo isn't the only company that does ^^.    

EDIT: The lunchbox model that I was looking at had a 500 watt power supply and the card manufacturer wanted a 650 at minimum.  And I found another similar. So gave up on that idea.  AND a very complete review said that while it was "possible to upgrade the power supply it was going to be extremely difficult because of the physical size. 

 

I have learned  a lot researching and from various comments here.  Hopefully I won't need to make any decisions RIGHT away. Fingers crossed.  Hopefully this thread will help some others along the way. 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Chic Aeon
adding info