|
My girlfriend has a Chromebook, but she is looking for something cheap to do Microsoft Word on and convert her handwriting to a searchable format. Would the Surface 2 work for that purpose?
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2015 17:31
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 20:22 |
|
|
Thorpe posted:My mom has tasked me with finding her a laptop. She currently has no computer and only has access to her work computer which was a budget computer back when windows XP was released so her expectations on performance are not very high. Get a refurbished T420/t430 and add in a SSD aftermarket.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2015 19:20
|
|
Cat Army 
|
dhamster posted:My girlfriend has a Chromebook, but she is looking for something cheap to do Microsoft Word on and convert her handwriting to a searchable format. Would the Surface 2 work for that purpose? Word has Web now: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/word-online/fiombgjlkfpdpkbhfioofeeinbehmajg?hl=en-US I would suggest going to the local best buy and trying out a couple different tablets with OneNote. The Surface Pro 4 is rumored to lunch with Windows 10 at the end of July which might drive some prices down.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2015 20:02
|
|
|
I want a chomebook. What's a good chomebook under $200
|
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 05:39
|
|
|
.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 05:49
|
|
|
I'm looking for a laptop between about $600-700 for casual/academic/business use that I'd like to still be adequate for such use 4-6 years from now, and will most likely purchase from Amazon as they have a credit card deal where I can make minimum payments on any purchase over $599 for 12 months without interest. After some searching this Lenovo Flex seems to hit the sweet spot for my needs without going too far off in price: Processor i7-4510U (2.00GHz 1600 MHz 4MB) RAM 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM Hard Drive 500 GB + 8 GB SSD OS Windows 8.1 Weight 4.2 pounds Display 14.0" 1920x1080 TouchScreen Display GPU Intel HD Graphics 4400 Ports 1 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, HDMI-out, LAN port, 2-in-1 card reader(SD/MMC) Wireless 802.11bgn ----------------------------------------- While I comb over the fine print to make sure this 12-month deal isn't going to burn my rear end I wanted to see if any goons here had any thoughts on things like build quality for the price range. I apologize for any breach of etiquette. I read through the past few pages and OP and I hope I didn't miss an obvious formatting error. Thanks to any replies in advance.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 12:09
|
|
|
Yessss ....that should work. Who's going to be using it, and in what environment? Is it going to leave the desk more than once a month? You're buying a mobile device and expecting it to last for six years of continuous use? Have you looked at buying a Thinkpad from the Lenovo outlet store? I would buy a Thinkpad as A) replacement parts will still be available and B) it has a metal frame designed for that kind of use case The chances that your choice of a consumer grade laptop will survive that long are lower than if you buy a business grade laptop. Buying an i7 will help but the windows kernel (and it's minimum requirements) have stabilized over the last seven years, for business use that's going to be less of an issue. Having access to a replacement battery in four years time is going to be pretty hard for the laptop you've chosen.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 12:40
|
|
|
Hadlock posted:Yessss ....that should work. Who's going to be using it, and in what environment? Is it going to leave the desk more than once a month? Myself in a home, library, cafe, or office environment. Possible travel use. I'd give myself a realistic B- in terms of how well I'd care for the machine. quote:You're buying a mobile device and expecting it to last for six years of continuous use? Have you looked at buying a Thinkpad from the Lenovo outlet store? I would buy a Thinkpad as A) replacement parts will still be available and B) it has a metal frame designed for that kind of use case Yeah I know this. I've considered it but the hard fact is that I need a no-interest payment plan set-up because I'm poor as gently caress. That is why I'm looking exclusively at Amazon options. quote:Buying an i7 will help but the windows kernel (and it's minimum requirements) have stabilized over the last seven years, for business use that's going to be less of an issue. That's good to know. I'm not married to an i7 but in my limited experience wouldn't the processor be the biggest long-term bottleneck in terms of performance, and thus the element most worth considering? I'm not taken in by the idea that "i7>i5 because 7>5" but the benchmark website I used to cross-reference the CPU in various potential models seems to indicate that an i7 offers better basic marks. I would be happy to be wrong about this. quote:Having access to a replacement battery in four years time is going to be pretty hard for the laptop you've chosen. This I had no idea about. That is a very valid concern.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 12:56
|
|
|
Best Buy has the Toshiba Chromebook 2 (FHD IPS) on sale for $250. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/toshiba...8&skuId=8790147
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 15:12
|
|
|
mind the walrus posted:Myself in a home, library, cafe, or office environment. Possible travel use. I'd give myself a realistic B- in terms of how well I'd care for the machine. It is more realistic to use the computer for 3 years and then get a replacement. The hard drive is absolutely the bottleneck on that computer. Are you planning on upgrading that yourself?
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 18:31
|
|
|
Is it ever worth shelling out the extra cash (~$35) for a dead pixel replacement policy? I bought my last laptop without one and it came in just fine, but now that the time rolls around again to get a new laptop the paranoia is building up. It seems cheap enough but I don't want to waste money as I am led to believe that dead pixels are a very rare occurrence.
Zodack fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jun 29, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 22:59
|
|
|
The answer depends on the cost of the laptop, your financial situation, the "standard" stuck pixel / dead pixel policy, the likelihood of a bad screen on the laptop you're getting, whether the screen's a piece of poo poo anyway, the resolution of the screen, standard return policy, etc.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 23:55
|
|
|
mind the walrus posted:Myself in a home, library, cafe, or office environment. Possible travel use. I'd give myself a realistic B- in terms of how well I'd care for the machine. I'm sure you'll go elsewhere if you want financial advice, but if you have to get a new credit card, then put your entire laptop purchase on said credit card, you can't afford a new laptop and should look at something used. Have you considered a $250 refurb T430 from Ebay? i7 historically (going back to Sandy Bridge, so 2012) is like buying a whole extra generation worth of CPU over the i5, which is about one extra year. But even an i3 mostly sits idle, and with an SSD modern computers are generally faster than you can think at all tasks. We're at the point where people are recommending $200 chromebooks to people with your needs and you're buying a top of the line laptop that you can't (or so it appears) really afford. It's going to be a judgement call on your part to decide if you really need the i7 vs i5, but if you get a chance, wander in to a computer store, open up task manager and watch the CPU graph as you browse the web, open applicaitons, etc, and take note of how rarely it goes above 10%. I have an i5 from 2010 with 20 chrome windows (and probably 10 tabs each, so 100 tabs) plus a couple RDP, SSH sessions going, steam and some other apps running in the background, and i'm barely cracking 20% CPU usage on this 5, almost 6 year old computer. TL;DR that's not a bad laptop except for the lack of replacement battery and is perhaps overpowered/overpriced for your needs/budget Make absolutely sure whatever laptop you buy has an SSD, or plan on installing one upon reciept.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2015 23:59
|
|
|
A low voltage i7 like the one you've chosen is not a good choice if you want high performance. It's not the case that forall x in i7, forall y in i5, x > y.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 00:12
|
|
|
sarehu posted:The answer depends on the cost of the laptop, your financial situation, the "standard" stuck pixel / dead pixel policy, the likelihood of a bad screen on the laptop you're getting, whether the screen's a piece of poo poo anyway, the resolution of the screen, standard return policy, etc. Laptop in question in an MSI GE62 Apache Pro at $1499. Dead pixel policy is from XoticPC at $35. I can afford the policy but if it is not needed that saves me the money to spend on other things. Display is listed as 15.6" Full HD (1920x1080) Samsung PLS Wide Viewing Angle Matte LCD. MSI has no "standard" dead pixel policy based on the information I looked up, so if one pops up I'm out of luck. MSI's return policy is 15 days, but of course you have to pay shipping which is more than the dead pixel policy.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 00:22
|
|
|
Oh gently caress XoticPC, do not order from them. Don't get the policy anyway. And gently caress XoticPC.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 00:27
|
|
|
They're that bad? I don't know a lot about laptop resellers but MSI doesn't have their own group and someone in the thread mentioned XoticPC, so I checked them out. My old man likes PowerNotebooks and XoticPC seemed essentially the same but minus a lot of weird ranting about PayPal. XoticPC was offering a free mouse and some other poo poo on purchase so I just figured I'd check them out. I guess I can always looks at Newegg or something.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 00:38
|
|
|
Zodack posted:They're that bad? I don't know a lot about laptop resellers but MSI doesn't have their own group and someone in the thread mentioned XoticPC, so I checked them out. My old man likes PowerNotebooks and XoticPC seemed essentially the same but minus a lot of weird ranting about PayPal. XoticPC was offering a free mouse and some other poo poo on purchase so I just figured I'd check them out. My wife uses a giant MSI laptop from powernotebooks.com with a color changing keyboard and a power cable the size of a brick. I would really reconsider getting a huge gaming computer unless you are working on an oil rig or deploying overseas. We went with them because of the Canadian warranty support and good reviews and support. All of these computers are impractical to use, have loud fans, very short battery life, and weigh a ton. If you really need a computer like this and want to customize it powernotebooks.com is pretty good.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 01:08
|
|
|
Awful customer service, price changes after you place the order, shipping laptops with obvious stuck pixels in the middle of the screen that you'll RMA anyway that a technician calibrating the display and benchmarking the system mysteriously never saw, months-long delays, yadda yadda yadda.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 01:12
|
|
|
lampey posted:All of these computers are impractical to use, have loud fans, very short battery life, and weigh a ton. If you really need a computer like this and want to customize it powernotebooks.com is pretty good. I've been read the riot act on "gaming" laptops before but the one I currently have I bought four years ago when I was much dumber (it's an Alienware) and it has served me very well for the last four years while I was in college. Granted it had an HDMI Input port as well as an output which was very convenient for particular things. It's a love hate relationship but the thing is almost done. It's good to know Powernotebooks is a reliable site. Buying from Alienware directly last time was surprisingly okay (again, I was very dumb and am the laughingstock of the internet). If I wasn't in school I definitely would 100% get a desktop. The graduate school I'm headed to has some interesting requirements on laptop specs and a) I don't want to try and figure out what small laptop / big desktop combo I want and b) I like having just one portable device for gaming and play that is moderately powerful given that I do comp. sci. sarehu posted:Awful customer service, price changes after you place the order, shipping laptops with obvious stuck pixels in the middle of the screen that you'll RMA anyway that a technician calibrating the display and benchmarking the system mysteriously never saw, months-long delays, yadda yadda yadda. Thanks for the heads up. Sounds like a nightmare.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 03:04
|
|
|
Zodack posted:I've been read the riot act on "gaming" laptops before but the one I currently have I bought four years ago when I was much dumber (it's an Alienware) and it has served me very well for the last four years while I was in college. Granted it had an HDMI Input port as well as an output which was very convenient for particular things. It's a love hate relationship but the thing is almost done. For grad school could you get a workstation like a Dell precision or lenovo W series? Do you need a large video card or just a quad core cpu and 16+gb of ram?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 03:34
|
|
|
sarehu posted:Awful customer service, price changes after you place the order, shipping laptops with obvious stuck pixels in the middle of the screen that you'll RMA anyway that a technician calibrating the display and benchmarking the system mysteriously never saw, months-long delays, yadda yadda yadda. this is like the exact opposite of my experience
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 04:42
|
|
|
lampey posted:For grad school could you get a workstation like a Dell precision or lenovo W series? Do you need a large video card or just a quad core cpu and 16+gb of ram? Gaming is a big hobby of mine and there are several games coming out in 2016 - 2017 that I'd like to be able to run smoothly. I also need a laptop with a long battery life, a good processor and yeah, ideally I'd like 16 GB of RAM but I can go 8 (not really a big price difference). Through my undergraduate career my stupid giant Alienware laptop worked like a charm and was never inconvenient or loud. It was dumb and heavy and that's it. Now it's outdated and several things have broken or been replaced, and it's time for a new computer and I have $1500. So yeah, if I can find some magic solution to getting a good college laptop that I can run code on as well as a good gaming desktop I would do that. It's just twice the hassle and pretty much everyone says to build your own desktop and I'm not going to do that, so I generally default to the happy medium of a gaming laptop. Everyone is opinionated enough about laptops and roll their eyes at "gaming" laptops, and the bias seems even greater when it comes to desktops so it's a can of worms I don't like to get into but inevitably do. go3 posted:this is like the exact opposite of my experience To each their own I guess, a lot of people talk poo poo about Dell customer service and my experience with them was really pleasant.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 05:52
|
|
|
Zodack posted:gaming laptops. I read back a page and I think i understand your situation. Seger lets you customize their laptops with desktop cpus as well as the 980m which, as said by others in this thread, is roughly equivalent to a desktop 970. It would be a little bit more expensive than your 1500 budget, but I don't think anybody would look down on someone who really wants a gaming laptop getting a seger. They are also relatively cheap considering what you are getting, I guess its roughly double the price of an equivalent desktop PC. Personally I think gaming laptops will become a lot more mainstream once that whole "plug in an external gpu through thunderbolt 3" thing matures and is worth waiting for but that whole external thunderbolt gpu thing has been a huge maybe for years, it's just that now it has been mentioned as being officially supported by the upcoming thunderbolt revision. (doesnt mean manufacturers will support it i guess?) edit: regarding below: I just meant by the italics part that I understand your usage case specifically benefits from a desktop-replacement laptop and to recommend a good well known brand that, imo, makes some of the best gaming laptops. I also think you can build a good seger for 1500 but it would probably require dialing some part back a few notches. If i were in your situation i wouldn't want *really good desktop* along with a *crippled, useless laptop* either, i'd probably just go for a gaming laptop as well. edit2: you probably could not buy a okay laptop and a good desktop within your budget, I built an i5-4690k/gtx970 (i guess this would be considered a midrange gaming computer) desktop and it cost around 900 dollars (and i had things already like storage, cooling, and a case), that would leave you with 600 to buy a laptop that can compile software, and do database things, and that probably would not be much fun on a 600 dollar laptop. Incomplete Fish fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Jun 30, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 06:06
|
|
|
Incomplete Fish posted:I read back a page and I think i understand your situation. Seger lets you customize their laptops with desktop cpus as well as the 980m which, as said by others in this thread, is roughly equivalent to a desktop 970. It would be a little bit more expensive than your 1500 budget, but I don't think anybody would look down on someone who really wants a gaming laptop getting a seger. They are also relatively cheap considering what you are getting, I guess its roughly double the price of an equivalent desktop PC. Personally I think gaming laptops will become a lot more mainstream once that whole "plug in an external gpu through thunderbolt 3" thing matures and is worth waiting for but that whole external thunderbolt gpu thing has been a huge maybe for years, it's just that now it has been mentioned as being officially supported by the upcoming thunderbolt revision. (doesnt mean manufacturers will support it i guess?) I would say it's less that I really want a gaming laptop and more that I have essentially next to no knowledge about gaming desktops and how to purchase/build/buy one that would be a better choice while at the same time staying under budget and getting a decent laptop that I can use for my schoolwork (databases + software engineering).
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 06:33
|
|
|
Zodack posted:I would say it's less that I really want a gaming laptop and more that I have essentially next to no knowledge about gaming desktops and how to purchase/build/buy one that would be a better choice while at the same time staying under budget and getting a decent laptop that I can use for my schoolwork (databases + software engineering). You'll be giving up battery life and portability over a normal laptop.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 07:42
|
|
|
Zodack posted:I would say it's less that I really want a gaming laptop and more that I have essentially next to no knowledge about gaming desktops and how to purchase/build/buy one that would be a better choice while at the same time staying under budget and getting a decent laptop that I can use for my schoolwork (databases + software engineering). I feel like the last few times I've contributed in this thread have all been the same thing, but wouldn't it be cheaper to get a cheap Chromebook, a separate desktop, and just remotely log in to the desktop whenever you need to do work from outside the house? If you're uncertain about building a desktop, read the OP of the desktop thread and ask in there if you still have questions. You might be surprised at how cheap and easy it can be, thread title aside. Seriously, that guy must have been working directly over an ancient Indian burial ground.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 14:11
|
|
|
dissss posted:You'll be giving up battery life and portability over a normal laptop. This is an understatement though. Any gaming laptop will have max of 2 hours of battery life even if you're doing extremely lightweight work. The batteries in these things are meant for the 2 minutes it takes to move from plug to plug. They're heavy and unable to be used on your lap / in a standard transportation seat because they're so big (even 15" because the bezels are so large). Non-gaming ultrabooks will have a minimum of 4 hours of battery life even if you're watching Netflix the entire time. They're comfortable to use in your lap (even 15" because they cut the bezels down, but I suggest 13" anyways). I've personally bought and used: 17" Sager (2006) 13" MacBook Air (Jan 2009) 15" Lenovo Y50 (2015) 13" Dell Latitude E7240 (2015) 5 Desktops (2001-2015) The Air/Latitude are the only ones that I'd consider portable. Took notes in class and in meetings with them. They're light like a paper notepad and powerful enough to handle huge excel documents, PowerPoint, and media websites. My y50 is beautiful and I love moving it around my house to watch Netflix while I cook or watch a movie on a couch with it sitting on a coffee table (its speakers are so good  ), but there's no way I open it on a bus or at a coffee shop. I play some games on it occasionally.The Sager literally didn't move. I mean, it was a desktop that I used in college with the pipe-dream that I could use it for "laptop" things; I was wrong. It also cost $2k and I feel horrible about it. Desktops are awesome and incredible cheap -- $500 can get you a machine (minus peripherals) that will run all current games and next years games on ultra/high with ease. $700 will get you a portable laptop that's light, huge battery life, and will run all productivity media for the next 2 years. $900 will make it sexy (XPS, Refurb Mac Air, Surface) and able to run non-blockbuster games adequately.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 15:23
|
|
|
DNK posted:Desktops are awesome and incredible cheap -- $500 can get you a machine (minus peripherals) that will run all current games and next years games on ultra/high with ease. No it won't.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 16:40
|
|
|
go3 posted:No it won't. Really? Why not? A friend of mine has a budget barnburner he built last October for about $480 all said and done and it's awesome. $99 Z97 + G3258, $220 R9-290, $161 everything else. The Haswell Pentium is super happy at 4.1GHz on the stock cooler and 290s may not be fast, but they're not exactly slow. Edit: I guess it won't run Dragon Age: Inquisition but it tears through Metro and pretty much any shooter you can throw at it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 16:56
|
|
|
DNK posted:Desktops are awesome and incredible cheap -- $500 can get you a machine (minus peripherals) that will run all current games and next years games on ultra/high with ease. Does the $220 GTX 970 needed to run Star Wars Battlefront on high count as a peripheral? I'm budgeting about $700 just to upgrade my cpu/motherboard, RAM and video card this fall when Skylake is released, and reusing my case/hard drive/power supply. Hadlock fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Jun 30, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 17:15
|
|
|
^^^ assuming the game you're playing is not a completely unoptimized resource hog... if your minimum is the current generation's best GPU series then of course it won't meet your expectations. The trick with cheap desktop internals is to go 2nd-best of last generation. You can get gnarly awesome mobo/CPU/GPU for like $100/$150/$100 and then throw in $70 of decent ram and a $80 PSU. That will destroy any modern game/application. Missing: SSD, Case, Mouse/Keyboard, Monitor, Software/OS -- but all of those are transferable from previous setups. DNK fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Jun 30, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 17:17
|
|
|
DNK posted:^^^ assuming the game you're playing is not a completely unoptimized resource hog... if your minimum is the current generation's best GPU series then of course it won't meet your expectations. Thing is, you said "most current games", and there's been a decent sized wave of games that refuse to run passably on anything under a GTX 970 / R9 290.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 17:22
|
|
|
DNK posted:
This is a terrible idea. RAM and PSUs aren't too bad but I'd budget a 6-700 minimum for a halfway decent PC gaming build. $800 makes it comfy, $1000 if you want the latest and greatest parts. On the other hand that $1000 desktop will outperform a $2000 laptop, though it's worth noting that the 970m and 980m are seriously great cards, and will come in close to the performance of desktop cards. At the higher ends gaming laptops are legitimately good value for the money for once, and that's only going to get better in the next five years.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 17:34
|
|
|
I have no interest in being "right" here. Ain't like I win a prize or something. It seems like the sentiment is that gaming laptops are reasonably priced for their performance -- I think this is debatable but I don't care to debate it. Furthermore, it seems like the sentiment is that only current-gen hardware will run current-gen games -- I think this is debatable but I don't care to debate it. I'm advocating for a functional separation between gaming and mobile computing to anyone who wants to both game and have a laptop, and I used the price examples to help with the justification: for the price of a single gaming laptop you can purchase a decent desktop and a decent laptop. There's some gray area there, sure, and maybe there's a perfect sweet spot of value sitting directly on $x in favor of laptop gaming, but my anecdotal experience is in favor of separating the two.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 17:44
|
|
|
Sure, you can build a decent PC for pretty cheap, however he specifically claimed you could play all of next year's AAA games on ultra. Presumably at 1080p, not 1366x768. For $500. That's one hell of a claim.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 17:47
|
|
|
Yeah, that won't work. You can play all next years games, on 1080p, probably for $500 or 600. But definitely not on ultra. You can't even play last years games on ultra with that. vvvv: Yeah, but then you can't run a bunch of games that insist on 4 cores I thought? Also, didn't know poo poo got that cheap, that's great. Truga fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Jun 30, 2015 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 17:51
|
|
|
Truga posted:Yeah, that won't work. You can play all next years games, on 1080p, probably for $500 or 600. You definitely can do a G3258, Z97 mobo, 8GB RAM, R9-290 for under $500 and that will easily do last years games on 2560x1440 @ ultra.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 17:53
|
|
|
Rakuten (formerly buy.com) is having sales on cheap refurb laptops. They're probably all 1366x768, but you get what you pay for and if you need a cheap machine, have a look: Dell E5420 $175: http://www.rakuten.com/prod/us-micro/259349664.html?sellerid=30994633&scid=em_Promotional_20150630Dedicated&adid=17581 Lenovo T420 $180: http://www.rakuten.com/prod/us-micro/238290788.html?sellerid=30994633&scid=em_Promotional_20150630Dedicated&adid=17581 Dell E6420 $250: http://www.rakuten.com/prod/us-micro/262647759.html?sellerid=30994633&scid=em_Promotional_20150630Dedicated&adid=17581 Lenovo T430 $300: http://www.rakuten.com/prod/us-micro/269880246.html?sellerid=30994633&scid=em_Promotional_20150630Dedicated&adid=17581
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 19:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 20:22 |
|
|
Wilford Cutlery posted:Dell E6420 $250: http://www.rakuten.com/prod/us-micro/262647759.html?sellerid=30994633&scid=em_Promotional_20150630Dedicated&adid=17581 8GB i7 
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2015 21:25
|
|
