Upgrading to SkyLake Laptop

[itsjinx]

I am hoping to get some input as to the right type of laptop to buy to replace my dinosaur Sony Vaio. My Sony Vaio VPCF127FX consists of:
- Windows 7 64bit
- Intel i7 CPU (740QM @1.73GHz)
- 8 GB RAM (full capacity)
- 500GB SSD Samsumg EVO(upgraded from original HDD)
- 16.4" screen size

The price range that I have been looking into is from $1,200 to $1,800. I do not do any gaming, but I use RAM-heavy programs like photoshop, camtasia, etc. These are some of the candidates that I would like some opinions on if anyone is willing to help:

1. $1,299 ASUS ROG GL552VW Laptop | Intel Core i7 | 4GB Graphics | 4K Ultra HD | 1 Year Accidental Damage Protection
   http://www.costco.com/ASUS-ROG-GL55...ntal-Damage-Protection.product.100248155.html
2. $1,299 Acer V17 Nitro Laptop | Intel Core i7 | 4GB Graphics | 4k Ultra HD
   http://www.costco.com/Acer-V17-Nitr...Graphics-|-4k-Ultra-HD.product.100278270.html
3. $1,149 Lenovo Ideapad Y700 Laptop | Intel Core i7 | 4GB Graphics | 1080p
   http://www.costco.com/Lenovo-Ideapa...|-4GB-Graphics-|-1080p.product.100246549.html

My confusion/questions about those 3 laptops are:

1. They all say Intel i7-6700HQ Processor 2.6GHz. Does that mean they are skylake?
2. The first two laptops show that they have 2 hard drives: 1TB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive
   Does that mean that the main operating drive is NOT SSD? If so, wouldn't that be slower than my existing SSD drive? I like how fast windows boots and restarts with my new SSD and fear a non-SSD drive would suck. Also why would they do that for new laptops?
3. Does anyone have suggestions on other laptops?

I greatly appreciate anyones input and hope to get some advice from all you experts. Thanks!

 

[nerp]

Don't even consider a laptop without an SDD.

For your price range, consider a Thinkpad or a Dell XPS.

 

[blankslate]

I am hoping to get some input as to the right type of laptop to buy to replace my dinosaur Sony Vaio. My Sony Vaio VPCF127FX consists of:
- Windows 7 64bit
- Intel i7 CPU (740QM @1.73GHz)
- 8 GB RAM (full capacity)
- 500GB SSD Samsumg EVO(upgraded from original HDD)
- 16.4" screen size

The price range that I have been looking into is from $1,200 to $1,800. I do not do any gaming, but I use RAM-heavy programs like photoshop, camtasia, etc. These are some of the candidates that I would like some opinions on if anyone is willing to help:

1. $1,299 ASUS ROG GL552VW Laptop | Intel Core i7 | 4GB Graphics | 4K Ultra HD | 1 Year Accidental Damage Protection
   http://www.costco.com/ASUS-ROG-GL55...ntal-Damage-Protection.product.100248155.html
2. $1,299 Acer V17 Nitro Laptop | Intel Core i7 | 4GB Graphics | 4k Ultra HD
   http://www.costco.com/Acer-V17-Nitr...Graphics-|-4k-Ultra-HD.product.100278270.html
3. $1,149 Lenovo Ideapad Y700 Laptop | Intel Core i7 | 4GB Graphics | 1080p
   http://www.costco.com/Lenovo-Ideapa...|-4GB-Graphics-|-1080p.product.100246549.html

My confusion/questions about those 3 laptops are:

1. They all say Intel i7-6700HQ Processor 2.6GHz. Does that mean they are skylake?
2. The first two laptops show that they have 2 hard drives: 1TB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive + 256GB Solid State Drive
   Does that mean that the main operating drive is NOT SSD? If so, wouldn't that be slower than my existing SSD drive? I like how fast windows boots and restarts with my new SSD and fear a non-SSD drive would suck. Also why would they do that for new laptops?
3. Does anyone have suggestions on other laptops?

I greatly appreciate anyones input and hope to get some advice from all you experts. Thanks!

Yes the i7-6700hq is a skylake processor. I can tell you this about an i-7 Skylake processor that is backed up by at least 16gb of RAM. You could run a CPU intensive game. Have two browsers with 10+ tabs open in the background and you'd be using 50% cpu cycles at most.

Usually the SSD has the OS on it. And if the laptop company decided to troll you by putting the OS on the HDD you could find a freeware cloning utility to clone the HDD to the SSD then set the SSD as the boot drive.
I seriously doubt you'd have to do that though.

In addition to the Dell and Thinkpad look at the latest MSI laptop offerings. Then choose the one that gives you the most for your money.


___________

 

[itsjinx]

Yes the i7-6700hq is a skylake processor. I can tell you this about an i-7 Skylake processor that is backed up by at least 16gb of RAM. You could run a CPU intensive game. Have two browsers with 10+ tabs open in the background and you'd be using 50% cpu cycles at most.

Usually the SSD has the OS on it. And if the laptop company decided to troll you by putting the OS on the HDD you could find a freeware cloning utility to clone the HDD to the SSD then set the SSD as the boot drive.
I seriously doubt you'd have to do that though.

In addition to the Dell and Thinkpad look at the latest MSI laptop offerings. Then choose the one that gives you the most for your money.


___________

thank you for the reply it is very helpful. Is there any benefit for me waiting until the end of the year instead? Someone mentioned that there is a better version of skylake or the new replacement chip that is much better?

 

[blankslate]

Is there any benefit for me waiting until the end of the year instead? Someone mentioned that there is a better version of skylake or the new replacement chip that is much better?

I really don't know. I can tell you this I usually play MMO's which are among the most cpu intensive games while having 2 browsers (both with around 10 tabs open) and I rarely see the cpu usage (on an i7-6700hq) go above 25%

The memory usage is around 8GB

I'd say that for the near future with a mobile skylake processor your bottleneck will not be the processor (it will probably be the GPU, mass storage, or memory depending on how your laptop is configured).

If better skylake processors are available later in the year I doubt you will notice them performing better than the current releases unless you benchmark them side by side.
IMO, the only reason to wait would be to future-proof your laptop a bit more or to perhaps save a bit on the current skylake releases when the latest and greatest are available later in the year (or perhaps to get better options for other components such as the GPU).


___________

 

[paperwastage]

if you aren't getting a discrete card, might be worth waiting for skylake + Iris Pro integrated to show up on the market

(eg i7 6870HQ iris pro instead of i7 6820HQ non-iris-pro)
http://ark.intel.com/compare/93340,88970

better integrated GPU performance (3x the GPU units, and has some separate eDRAM)
(maybe 50-100% faster? dunno, not much benchmarks/reviews yet)

no battery loss from a second discrete card. not sure if you have any photoshop/video apps that do GPU-acceleration

(of course, manufacturers might skip skylake+iris pro)

 

[jaydee]

Thinkpad P50 series. Lots of ports, RAM, HDDs are accessible, battery is replaceable, etc. Four SO-DIMM slots, so up to 64GB of RAM.