Forum - View topicLaptop Help
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Bright_Spear
Posts: 340 |
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I just have horrible luck. The day my Steins;Gate game came in the mail, the hinge on my laptop breaks. The only way I can use it now is connecting it to my tv. It works well, but I'm looking into a new laptop. I have no idea what to look for thow.
My last two laptops I think I over paid for them, getting way over powered laptops for what I'm actually use them for. I'm look for a laptop to: Browse the internet. Download, music, audio books, movies, etc. Stream Writing and other office stuff. Play a couple VN's. If anyone has any recommendations it would be appreciated. And if I do get a new one, does anyone know how to get Windows 8 off and use windows 7. I've already used W8 and its horrible. Its the reason I was hoping my laptop would last a couple more years. |
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potatochobit
 Posts: 1373 Location: TEXAS |
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how much did you want to spend?
are you sure you will never use photoshop or play a new video game like bio shock or borderlands 2? have you used windows 8.1? it's not that bad now and a new 8.2 will be coming out very soon and the update is free so I would not worry about windows 7 anymore. are you sure u cannot replace the hinge? many laptop makers offer replacement screens if your laptop processor is worth keeping. |
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Bright_Spear
Posts: 340 |
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I spent $1000 on this one so maybe $500-$800
Nope, never used photoshop or any other pic/vid editing software. And I have a 360 if I want to play games.
I've used the most up to date version and its still crap. Windows 7 is great, but I would take XP or Vista over 8 if I had to.
I already called around some repair shops and the quote they gave me would be around $150-$200. And that's being generous in the work time and if the hinge is the only thing they have to fix. It didn't snap off. It broke somehow that if I open it the whole way it starts separating the whole thing down the seam. So if I have to spend that much I'd rather invest that money into a new one and use the old one as a Pc of sorts. |
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potatochobit
Posts: 1373 Location: TEXAS |
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what you want is an i5 computer
preferably 17" so it will have two hard drive bays also buy an SSD 120GB or higher and place the hard drive that comes with the computer into the 2nd bay for storage of music and videos you can install two hard drives in most 15" laptops but you will have to remove the CD drive and use a portable CD drive. acer has a refurbished ebay store you should check out aspire V3 is a good model, this one has a 1080p screen for watching anime newegg.com also sells refurbished laptops keep in mind, many refurbished laptops are brand new made of discontinued parts. if you go 17" you want a 900px or higher screen for 15", 768px is fine edit: you also want to make sure it has USB3.0 |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9835 Location: Virginia |
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I recently got an ad from HP stating they still were offering laptops and desk tops with Windows 7 installed. If they are other companies may be also. Windows 8 seems to be universally disliked.
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Pretty much any laptop (that isn't one of those tiny ones that are basically a small Android tablet with a keyboard) made in the past 5 years will easily suit your needs. All that stuff is rather low on the scale of resource requirements. Unless by "stream" you are referring to hosting your own stream (like on Justin.TV) as that is a lot more resource intensive than the other stuff). Personally, I have a Dell Inspiron which is over 10 years old that can do all of the above. Granted, my 5 year old HP DV6 can do it all better/faster. But yeah, people pretty much always overspend on laptops (computers in general I'd say really). For instance, there is no need to buy an "i5" like the above poster mentioned. An i3 will do you just fine if the list above is all you want to use it for. And an SSD is completely unnecessary. |
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One-Eye
 Posts: 2261 |
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I've seen HP a few months ago still selling Laptops with Win7 and I know that Dell does also. But they are getting tougher and tougher to find.
I don't think you need an i7 which would be overkill for what you are planning to use it for. An i3 or an i5 is plenty. Since you said you wont be gaming on it, then don't worry about a dedicated graphics card as that will definitely kick up the price. If you are going to be downloading a lot of movies and music then you are going to need a decent size drive. Plus I would suggest one with 7200rpm speed, because once it starts to get filled up it will slow down and anything slower will crawl. An SSD is generally too expensive at this time for decent capacity. Some companies are selling hybrid drives, which gives you faster boot times and overall better responsiveness but they are also a little more expensive than your regular standard hard drive. Also consider size. 17 inch or 15 or 13? This will affect your weight and how much of a pain in your back it is. I have family that only use ultra-portables because they don't like lugging around the added weight. If you mainly stay home with your laptop, then the size isn't as a big of a factor unless you're always in bed with it. You may want to check out some of the companies refurbished products as sometimes you can get pretty decent deals. Just make sure you get an extended warranty, especially with Laptops as they have a higher failure rate than a desktop. |
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potatochobit
Posts: 1373 Location: TEXAS |
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@megido
Yes, and you could roller skate to work. think about, my friend, you could save 3,000$ a year in gas money by roller skating to work; how much anime could you buy with that? you see there is something in this world called 'value'. do you wear paper shoes you need to replace every week? no, you do not. because they are a bad value and not practical. likewise, an i3 is a subpar value. yes, you can be cheap, but would that be an upgrade? If you read the first post you would see he already has a functioning laptop but he wants something better. there is absolutely no reason to ever buy an i3 when AMD is the same price and has better graphic performance, regardless if you play video games or not. If you could get an i5 laptop for 500$ why would you buy an i3 laptop for 500$? that is absurd. I think you will be hard pressed to find a 400$ i3 laptop with a 17" 1080p screen. Yes, there are valid reasons for getting smaller screens, but watching anime is not one. If you carry your laptop around to school each day, by all means get a smaller and lighter laptop. However, when people who buy anime say SSDs are useless it makes me chuckle. How often do you stick that 100$ puella magica blu-ray in your player, once a month? Most people turn their computer on every single day. An SSD provides a noticeable improvement and better quality experience that can be actively measured. If you believe the price vs performance is not justifiable, of course, you are welcome to your opinion and I appreciate that. if all you want to do is check emails, play videos and listen to music an iphone can do that. If you want a good laptop to last 3-5 years you need to buy a middle tier model, not the cheapest one available. HP makes great computers and I buy them from time to time. HP direct will build you a brand new laptop to your specs, but they do charge a small premium over OEMs sold at retail stores. It would be cheaper to buy a refurbished laptop and buying a new copy of windows 7 64bit and installing it yourself then to have them build you a new one from scratch as new components have a premium price over slightly older parts. |
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