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Open Bar: Arguments About Turtles, All the Way Down

Started by Cain, August 09, 2014, 07:29:35 AM

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Suu

Don't knock it until you try it. Solo traveling can be so much fun!
Sovereign Episkopos-Princess Kaousuu; Esq., Battle Nun, Bene Gesserit.
Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion; 1st Church of Discordia

"Add a dab of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you're laughing at it."

Freeky

Quote from: Cain on September 02, 2014, 08:34:26 AM
Quote from: Freeky Queen of DERP on September 01, 2014, 10:43:57 PM
I am looking for a new laptop for school.  There are too many options, and I can't even anymore.

Some suggestions would be appreciated.  I need Microsoft Office to run on it, it needs to be hard-wearing, and multiple CPU eating tasks have to run on it at the same time without it going HRRGRK.

Anything by Samsung or Toshiba.  Ideally you want 4 gig of RAM, at least an intel core i5 processor and, if your preferences run that way, Windows 7 as opposed to Windows 8.

You should be able to score a fairly cheap laptop with those specs, which will work exceptionally well as an all purpose web browser and word processing laptop. 

Mine is similar to that (slightly more RAM, two rather than one integrated graphics card, Samsung, Windows 7) and I can run Windows Media Player, have 20 tabs open on Firefox, have Word open, have uTorrent open, have Microsoft Security, Steam and Origin running in the background, and have no discernible notice on the laptop itself.

All Samsung PCs were $350+ (which would have totalled like $740), and Toshiba was even more.  I got a HP Pavillion 15 with 4 gig RAM, Windows 8.1 (because they don't sell 7 anymore) and AMD E1-6010 APU processor, which means fuck all to me, I just copied it from the system specs thing.


Cain

Well, that processor is not the most powerful thing on earth.  Only 1.35 GHz and a dual core...it should probably handle Office and a browser at the same time, but I wouldn't bet on it taking much more.  I'm running a processor with 2.3 GHz, which is probably around what you should be looking for in a current laptop model (remember, mine is now 2 years old).

Also, I'm wary of HP because their laptop models generally have weak hinges and external casing.  By the end of my last HP laptop's life, I was literally holding the screen up with one hand while typing with the other.  It was terrible.  By contrast, I've had two Toshiba and one Samsung laptop since then (and had flatmates with Samsung laptops) and all are in full working condition, even three years later.

But of course, you can only buy what you can afford.  Maybe keep those models in mind for the future?

ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞

Quote from: Cain on September 03, 2014, 08:15:37 AM
Well, that processor is not the most powerful thing on earth.  Only 1.35 GHz and a dual core...it should probably handle Office and a browser at the same time, but I wouldn't bet on it taking much more.  I'm running a processor with 2.3 GHz, which is probably around what you should be looking for in a current laptop model (remember, mine is now 2 years old).

Also, I'm wary of HP because their laptop models generally have weak hinges and external casing.  By the end of my last HP laptop's life, I was literally holding the screen up with one hand while typing with the other.  It was terrible.  By contrast, I've had two Toshiba and one Samsung laptop since then (and had flatmates with Samsung laptops) and all are in full working condition, even three years later.

But of course, you can only buy what you can afford.  Maybe keep those models in mind for the future?

I'll definitely keep your recommendations in mind, so your efforts aren't entirely wasted.

I'm still chugging along on a 7 year old laptop, which can handle Adobe Creative Suite, multiple browsers with a shit-ton of open tabs, Open Office, Skype, and iTunes, all on 2 gb of RAM. It's not particularly fast, but it still eventually does everything I ask it to. Though to be fair, it was a gift, I'm decidedly not a gamer, has a dual core 2.4 GHz processor, and costed about 2 grand when it was new. If it lasts even a few more years, it's only about $200 per year. That said, I'm expecting it to die on me at any moment, so I've been doing backups on the regular. It also crashes on me more than it used to, though I have to say that Apple handles said crashes with aplomb—it saves your stuff for the most part even when it does eat shit.

Apple has some downsides, but nowadays they actually tend to run dual boot Windows OS just as well as most PCs. The software to set this up is even baked into the Mac OS. Since I'm kind of locked into the Apple ecosystem (major downside) I'm waiting for the next Mac Mini or a suitable dual boot hackintosh/PC. It's just the craftsmanship of Macs is pretty damn good, they don't fall apart even after being lugged around in an overstuffed backpack by bike on pothole riddled roads for years on end. I've even been able to boot a lot of Linux distros, though mostly for shits and giggles.

I also may have just lucked out that CPU advancements have slowed over the past 7 years (thanks to a huge diversion in focus on low power consumption CPUs thanks to the tablet market), so it's not necessarily an indicator of how things will progress over the next decade.
P E R   A S P E R A   A D   A S T R A

Cain

That's a pretty decent processor for a machine that old.  No wonder it's lasted so long.

Lets put it this way - I can run Skyrim, with HD textures, on a machine with that much processing power.  Admittedly, I'd have to uninstall all my other mods and have no other problems running (2 gig bottleneck causes crashes to desktop), but it's certainly within the realms of possibility.  For a machine built in, lets see, 2007?  That's pretty good.


Suu

I joined my school's Taekwondo club. Apparently they have no qualms with out of shape black belt grad students who haven't been able to nail down a training schedule for 12 years and are looking forward to me showing up to practices. It will probably just be Sunday afternoons at first until I get my car, then I'll be able to get to the weeknight practices without carrying my gear on the bus and through my classes.
Sovereign Episkopos-Princess Kaousuu; Esq., Battle Nun, Bene Gesserit.
Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion; 1st Church of Discordia

"Add a dab of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you're laughing at it."

Cain

Well, this is new.  My uni finance department is refusing my payment.  Usually they have no problem taking vast amounts of money off me, whether I'm willing to give it to them or not.

Reginald Ret

Quote from: Cain on September 03, 2014, 12:19:56 PM
Well, this is new.  My uni finance department is refusing my payment.  Usually they have no problem taking vast amounts of money off me, whether I'm willing to give it to them or not.
What the hell?
Something very strange is going on, and strange situations make bureaucrats twitchy. You'd better get this sorted before they decide to blame it on you.
Lord Byron: "Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves."

Nigel saying the wisest words ever uttered: "It's just a suffix."

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Cainad (dec.)

Quote from: Cain on September 03, 2014, 12:19:56 PM
Well, this is new.  My uni finance department is refusing my payment.  Usually they have no problem taking vast amounts of money off me, whether I'm willing to give it to them or not.

Are... are they feeling ok?

Junkenstein

Quote from: Cain on September 03, 2014, 12:19:56 PM
Well, this is new.  My uni finance department is refusing my payment.  Usually they have no problem taking vast amounts of money off me, whether I'm willing to give it to them or not.

Double down. Send as many tiny payments as possible, send cheques if possible. Create administration costs far in excess of your outstanding debt.

You know it makes sense. 
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

Freeky

Quote from: Cain on September 03, 2014, 08:15:37 AM
Well, that processor is not the most powerful thing on earth.  Only 1.35 GHz and a dual core...it should probably handle Office and a browser at the same time, but I wouldn't bet on it taking much more.  I'm running a processor with 2.3 GHz, which is probably around what you should be looking for in a current laptop model (remember, mine is now 2 years old).

Also, I'm wary of HP because their laptop models generally have weak hinges and external casing.  By the end of my last HP laptop's life, I was literally holding the screen up with one hand while typing with the other.  It was terrible.  By contrast, I've had two Toshiba and one Samsung laptop since then (and had flatmates with Samsung laptops) and all are in full working condition, even three years later.

But of course, you can only buy what you can afford.  Maybe keep those models in mind for the future?

I will definitely keep this stuff in mind, thanks a bunch.

Freeky

Quote from: Cain on September 03, 2014, 12:19:56 PM
Well, this is new.  My uni finance department is refusing my payment.  Usually they have no problem taking vast amounts of money off me, whether I'm willing to give it to them or not.

Whaaaat the hell?

Freeky

Quote from: Junkenstein on September 03, 2014, 02:28:16 PM
Quote from: Cain on September 03, 2014, 12:19:56 PM
Well, this is new.  My uni finance department is refusing my payment.  Usually they have no problem taking vast amounts of money off me, whether I'm willing to give it to them or not.

Double down. Send as many tiny payments as possible, send cheques if possible. Create administration costs far in excess of your outstanding debt.

You know it makes sense.

:lulz:  It's the only way to be safe.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Quote from: Junkenstein on September 03, 2014, 02:28:16 PM
Quote from: Cain on September 03, 2014, 12:19:56 PM
Well, this is new.  My uni finance department is refusing my payment.  Usually they have no problem taking vast amounts of money off me, whether I'm willing to give it to them or not.

Double down. Send as many tiny payments as possible, send cheques if possible. Create administration costs far in excess of your outstanding debt.

You know it makes sense.

YES YES YES THIS.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Suu

Holy fucking fucks of fuck, I'm tired.

STUPID SEMESTER OFF HAS MADE ME WEAK!  :argh!:
Sovereign Episkopos-Princess Kaousuu; Esq., Battle Nun, Bene Gesserit.
Our Lady of Perpetual Confusion; 1st Church of Discordia

"Add a dab of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you're laughing at it."