[Strutz]

Thanks guys.

Lots of mixed feedback but that's ok.

A few things to consider for sure. I have already emailed him with one question and now I have a few more. Not much time left before I leave town though so I have to get this figured out next week. The fellow I know runs his own computer biz here locally and has done quite a bit for my workplace as well as he set up my current pc a few years ago (gives me a huge break on "labour" costs). He'll be doing my data transfers etc too at my place and I do trust his recommendations but I will definitely be addressing a few things.

Thanks again!

[Jonny_C]

commanderkai commanderkai:

To be honest, I wouldn't spend all that much on a laptop. It, of course, depends on what you want to use it for, but, yeah, my max budget for a laptop is generally $500 or less. The 14.1 inch monitor is rather tiny, so I'd recommend a 15.6 inch or bigger to save yourself eye strain, although the laptop might be slightly heavier for it, and you honestly do not need a SSD (solid state drive), which is probably kicking the price up for that laptop quite heavily.

I have, and enjoy my Acer, and Asus is a very good brand too.

I concur on all points, especially price and the SSD drive. You can get a 16 GB flash drive at Staples right now for $10 so having a built-in 24GB SSD seems quite unnecessary in most respects.

[Canadaka]

People saying you don't need an SSD drive obviously haven't used a laptop with an SSD, its a huge improvement and increases battery live. But I guess it does depend on how you use the PC and your budget. You certainly don't need one, but it improves a laptops user-experience considerable, especially given most cheaper laptops come with slower 5400RPM drives.

A USB flash drive is not a valid comparison to an internal SSD drive, very different usage and speed.

[commanderkai]

Canadaka Canadaka:

People saying you don't need an SSD drive obviously haven't used a laptop with an SSD, its a huge improvement and increases battery live. But I guess it does depend on how you use the PC and your budget. You certainly don't need one, but it improves a laptops user-experience considerable, especially given most cheaper laptops come with slower 5400RPM drives.

A USB flash drive is not a valid comparison to an internal SSD drive, very different usage and speed.

True enough, but, the sheer expense of an SSD drive at the moment is quite high, and in my view, not really worth the cost. I find laptops less reliable than desktops though, thus my aversion to spend any major amount of money on getting one. Plus, I'm a major PC gamer, which makes a desktop my main choice.

[Jonny_C]

Battery life could be a consideration if the standard of roughly 2 hours "full on" is not enough. As for speed, the average user might hardly notice the difference. It's a "bells and whistles" kind of thing - nice to have but marginally useful, IMO anyway.

I own a notebook and a netbook, but my main computer is a fast gaming desktop. I notice the lesser speed of the portables for some things, but it's not annoying. All depends on what you want and expect, I guess.

[saturn_656]

Never mind that a 24GB SSD isn't of any use, at all, as a standalone drive. It's really only any good as a cache for the HDD.

It's not an ideal setup. I don't like it for the same reason I don't like RAID 0.

On a side note, OCZ made a PCI-E 4x card with a laptop sized 1TB HDD attached to a 100GB SSD (SSD used as cache).

Feelings were "mixed".

[herbie]

still use an AspireOne with only an 8GB SSD sometimes.
And an ancient EEE 7" netbook with a 4GB SSD
And an HP netbook with a OCZ 32GB daily.

[saturn_656]

herbie herbie:

still use an AspireOne with only an 8GB SSD sometimes.
And an ancient EEE 7" netbook with a 4GB SSD
And an HP netbook with a OCZ 32GB daily.

I pulled out the 32GB Kingston SSD (now collecting dust) I put into my AspireOne and put the WD 250GB HDD back in. 32GB is enough to old the OS and a few programs and files but nothing else.

My old Dell Mini 9 had an mini PCI-E 16GB SSD. Just adequate for Windows XP or barebones Linux distro. Wouldn't dream of trying to put Windows 7/8 or Ubuntu on it.

[Zipperfish]

Apple guy. Macbook Air and I love it. No hard drive. 5 hours battery life. No virus issues. Made for computer dummies like me. I don't even understand half of what these guys are talking about. Not the cheapest though.

[herbie]

10Gb for Mint, the rest of the 32 for XP on my HP. I use it for work, setups and monitoring.Had to go back from Win7 to XP cuz 7 is too slow changing networks which I have to do several times on some setups.
Even at that half the time I rip my hair out in frustration and boot Mint.
Network problems? Don't waste time on cables, routers, shitting if you blew your NIC. ALWAYS blame Windows first, check with Linux. Saved DAYS of my worthless life with that approach. No shit.
Just like cable - 99% of the time its the end up on the roof out in the rain. Almost never the one inside the warm room, under the desk of the girl with the short skirt....

[saturn_656]

herbie herbie:

10Gb for Mint, the rest of the 32 for XP on my HP. I use it for work, setups and monitoring.Had to go back from Win7 to XP cuz 7 is too slow changing networks which I have to do several times on some setups.

I noticed that particular shortcoming, but it never bothered me too much as I only ever have two networks to deal with at most. Haven't checked to see if they resolved it with 8.

$1:

Just like cable - 99% of the time its the end up on the roof out in the rain. Almost never the one inside the warm room, under the desk of the girl with the short skirt....

I bet you check under the desk anyway.

[Curtman]

I hate my new laptop.



The entire experience with this thing has been horrible.

I've about 95% convinced myself to go exchange it for a Macbook Pro with Retina display.

[Thanos]

HP is always a mistake. I've never had a single one of their products that I've bought work properly. I'm convinced they deliberately put a curse on every item they build.

Curt, visit these guys in 'da 'Peg. Their custom and stock jobs are infinitely better than any of the HP shit the box stores want you to buy.

[BRAH]

For Apple a MacBook not the newer ones but a quality used one off Ebay or Kijji as I'm still running a 2007 Black MacBook and it's great. For laptops Thinkpads are the way to go, not the ones they sell at Bestbuy but the ones you have to order from Lenovo's website because they are a work horse and the only Laptops used on the ISS..

[Thanos]

That pic is fake. Any nerd with that many computers is going to have at least one each dedicated to nothing but gaming and porn.