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Computery Things General

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Post by bomaye Sat Sep 24, 2016 4:27 am

So my 11-12 year old desktop PC that still runs Windows XP is starting to die (or maybe the video card is just degrading really noticeably now). I thiiiiiink I have enough to buy a new one (I have around $1000ish) just in case it does die but then I started looking at how to buy modern PCs and thing seem to have changed in the interim (High definition? WHOA, fancy new technology)

I'm just gonna toss out a few things that I've read that may or may not be true and if you have experience with any of these things or buying new things, please share, maybe it'll help others when they want to buy something.

- Desktop vs Laptop: I have my desktop PC (tower) on 24/7 or at least most of the time, probably can't do that with laptops because it would burn out?
- Physically replacing parts: I've never built my own PC but I have opened it up and replaced parts inside of a desktop PC before, so this stuff doesn't worry me too much (google and a screwdriver, basically). It sounds like doing that with a laptop is more difficult and would void the warranty.
- Building vs buying: So back in the day I'd always hear about how it was cheaper to build your own PC instead of buying new, but apparently that's only really true for high-end PCs these days?
- One thing I'm not clear on, when you buy something from a store and it comes with Windows 10, that's just them installing Windows 10 and not giving you a flash drive with it if you wanted to reformat yourself?
- Apparently when it comes to refurbished PCs, buying factory-refurbished or big-box-store type refurbished isn't a bad deal because the vast majority are just returned (buyers remorse/bumped when being shipped etc) and anything that's defective has a lower chance of failure than buying because it's been actually been stress-tested?
- I still have a VGA monitor that works Uh-oh and I don't really want to get rid of it until it doesn't work anymore, but I'm assuming newer graphics cards and things just use HDMI now? There's cable converters I guess

More if I think of it
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Post by Guest Sat Sep 24, 2016 7:03 am

bomaye wrote:
- Desktop vs Laptop: I have my desktop PC (tower) on 24/7 or at least most of the time, probably can't do that with laptops because it would burn out?
You can leave a laptop on 'Sleep' mode, which is functionally a low-power state while still being 'On'. This is how I leave my laptop most of the time.

bomaye wrote:- Physically replacing parts: I've never built my own PC but I have opened it up and replaced parts inside of a desktop PC before, so this stuff doesn't worry me too much (google and a screwdriver, basically). It sounds like doing that with a laptop is more difficult and would void the warranty.
I would think so since the anatomy of a laptop is very different to that of a desktop CPU. I could in theory open up my laptop to add more RAM, but as a layperson I actually stand to more damage to it. And yes, tampering with a laptop's hardware specs would void it's warranty.

bomaye wrote:- Building vs buying: So back in the day I'd always hear about how it was cheaper to build your own PC instead of buying new, but apparently that's only really true for high-end PCs these days?
This really depends on what kind of PC you're looking for. I'd assume that it's still cheaper to build your own as long as your furnishing a milquetoast PC.  

bomaye wrote:- One thing I'm not clear on, when you buy something from a store and it comes with Windows 10, that's just them installing Windows 10 and not giving you a flash drive with it if you wanted to reformat yourself?
I'm pretty sure most PCs/Laptops come with the newest iteration of Windows pre-installed. So if you wanted to reformat your PC to to say, Windows XP, and later decided that you'd rather have Windows 10 installed instead, you'd need the installation disc for the OS that you want (My laptop came with Windows 8, but later I had the option of downloading Windows 10 for free online).

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Post by bomaye Sat Sep 24, 2016 7:35 am

HermitTheToad wrote:
I'm pretty sure most PCs/Laptops come with the newest iteration of Windows pre-installed. So if you wanted to reformat your PC to to say, Windows XP, and later decided that you'd rather have Windows 10 installed instead, you'd need the installation disc for the OS that you want (My laptop came with Windows 8, but later I had the option of downloading Windows 10 for free online).

Like when we bought our computers way back when, it came with the Windows XP discs, but when my mom and sister bought their laptops, they didn't get a Windows 8 disc/flash drive/whatever the cool kids are using these days, and they were forcibly upgraded to Windows 10. If they wanted to reset or something went wrong and they had to reinstall Windows 10, how would they do this, because they don't have a physical version of it
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Post by Enail Sat Sep 24, 2016 12:57 pm

I've never had any problems with refurbished stuff.

Check your local Freecycle list to see if you can get yourself a free monitor upgrade, people often give away perfectly good old monitors when they want a bigger one. There are Freecycle groups in a lot of smaller places.

Windows 10 apparently comes with a built-in option to reinstall without needing a disk, and you can make a recovery disk as well, but if you have to completely reformat your computer I'm not sure what you do.
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Post by Guest Sat Sep 24, 2016 11:39 pm

I'm on mobile, so Imma try to answer most of your questions.

bomaye wrote:So my 11-12 year old desktop PC that still runs Windows XP is starting to die (or maybe the video card is just degrading really noticeably now). I thiiiiiink I have enough to buy a new one (I have around $1000ish) just in case it does die but then I started looking at how to buy modern PCs and thing seem to have changed in the interim (High definition? WHOA, fancy new technology)

My question to you is, what do you plan on doing with it? Because you can spend less than $1000 on a new PC it just won't have the processing balls of a $1000 PC. That and you won't be able to play the latest and greatest vidya games, that's the only downside. eBay would be your best bet for budget GPUs and whatnot.

bomaye wrote:I'm just gonna toss out a few things that I've read that may or may not be true and if you have experience with any of these things or buying new things, please share, maybe it'll help others when they want to buy something.

- Desktop vs Laptop: I have my desktop PC (tower) on 24/7 or at least most of the time, probably can't do that with laptops because it would burn out?

Most laptops have a max life of about 2 to 3 years, so I don't think it's out of the question that a laptop will crap out at one point. From personal experience, I had bought an HP laptop in 2010 and in the summer of 2012 the laptop's motherboard got fried. My desktop on the other hand is 3 years old now and still going strong.

bomaye wrote:
- Physically replacing parts: I've never built my own PC but I have opened it up and replaced parts inside of a desktop PC before, so this stuff doesn't worry me too much (google and a screwdriver, basically). It sounds like doing that with a laptop is more difficult and would void the warranty.

It's pretty easy to put together a PC with a guide and external help, just keep the new motherboards manual handy somewhere so you know where all the power plugs are. And yes, you're right about doing surgery on a laptop, it's definitely a little more rigorous since a lot of the laptops guts are under the keyboard.

bomaye wrote:
- Building vs buying: So back in the day I'd always hear about how it was cheaper to build your own PC instead of buying new, but apparently that's only really true for high-end PCs these days?
- One thing I'm not clear on, when you buy something from a store and it comes with Windows 10, that's just them installing Windows 10 and not giving you a flash drive with it if you wanted to reformat yourself?
- Apparently when it comes to refurbished PCs, buying factory-refurbished or big-box-store type refurbished isn't a bad deal because the vast majority are just returned (buyers remorse/bumped when being shipped etc) and anything that's defective has a lower chance of failure than buying because it's been actually been stress-tested?
- I still have a VGA monitor that works Uh-oh and I don't really want to get rid of it until it doesn't work anymore, but I'm assuming newer graphics cards and things just use HDMI now? There's cable converters I guess

More if I think of it

-Ehh, sorta. Like I said, prices vary depending on what you want to do with it. If you're doing some hardcore gaming, then yes, you're gonna need some heavy duty hardware that can process a lot shit quickly and efficiently. If you're video editing, maybe not so much and so on, depends greatly on what you want to do with said PC.
-Depends on the store you buy it from and the manufacturer I think. Like if you buy it from Walmart or Best Buy, I don't think it'll come with a back OS. Maybe it'll have a "Recovery Disc", but I don't know. Drawback to buying one of those storebought PCs is they're LOADED with bloatware. My advice regarding bloatware, once you've turned on the PC, is to do a clean install of Windows. However there are sites that built the PC for you for an additional fee. And that does infact come with either a DVD or USB of the OS. Most likely Windows 10, yes. Razz
-Dunno about buying refurbished stuff, so buyer beware.
-Most modern GPUs/Graphics Cards have either DVI, HDMI (or mini HDMI), Thunderbolt (found mostly on Macs) or DisplayPort (or Mini DisplayPort). However, it should come with some sort of adapter or two hopefully, check the GPU's listing online I guess. I was fortunate enough to get a GPU that had a VGA-to-DVI adapter and a HDMI-to-MiniHDMI. Obviously HDMI, DVI and DidplayPort are better, but if VGA's all you got that's fine too.

HermitTheToad wrote:
bomaye wrote:
- Desktop vs Laptop: I have my desktop PC (tower) on 24/7 or at least most of the time, probably can't do that with laptops because it would burn out?
You can leave a laptop on 'Sleep' mode, which is functionally a low-power state while still being 'On'. This is how I leave my laptop most of the time.

Sleep mode is good, just be aware that it can cause slowdowns unless you have tons of RAM or something along those lines. My old boss had told me sleepmode is a bad idea since it stores your entire session in memory and when you turn it on, there's a possibility of bad crap happening.

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Post by bomaye Sun Sep 25, 2016 3:38 am

The Mikey wrote:

My question to you is, what do you plan on doing with it? Because you can spend less than $1000 on a new PC it just won't have the processing balls of a $1000 PC. That and you won't be able to play the latest and greatest vidya games, that's the only downside. eBay would be your best bet for budget GPUs and whatnot.

At most, I'd want to play indie games or maybe something like WoW, I think. Modern game downloads are so big now that they'd take up a huge chunk of our monthly bandwidth just getting one.

It'd mostly just be a "watch/read/stream things" computer


It's pretty easy to put together a PC with a guide and external help, just keep the new motherboards manual handy somewhere so you know where all the power plugs are. And yes, you're right about doing surgery on a laptop, it's definitely a little more rigorous since a lot of the laptops guts are under the keyboard.

I know a person or two I might be able to get on a messenger while doing it if I had to but I wouldn't have someone IRL, I don't think


-Depends on the store you buy it from and the manufacturer I think. Like if you buy it from Walmart or Best Buy, I don't think it'll come with a back OS. Maybe it'll have a "Recovery Disc",  but I don't know. Drawback to buying one of those storebought PCs is they're LOADED with bloatware. My advice regarding bloatware, once you've turned on the PC, is to do a clean install of Windows. However there are sites that built the PC for you for an additional fee. And that does infact come with either a DVD or USB of the OS. Most likely Windows 10, yes. Razz

Like a reformat? What kinds of things would I be looking to leave out of a Windows 10?
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Post by Guest Sun Sep 25, 2016 11:33 am

bomaye wrote:

At most, I'd want to play indie games or maybe something like WoW, I think. Modern game downloads are so big now that they'd take up a huge chunk of our monthly bandwidth just getting one.

It'd mostly just be a "watch/read/stream things" computer

All righty, great, you shouldn't have to spend an exorbitant amount of money for that kinda PC. Just don't go super cheap on it. Razz


bomaye wrote:

I know a person or two I might be able to get on a messenger while doing it if I had to but I wouldn't have someone IRL, I don't think

All righty, that's good! Also make sure you're grounded when you're putting the PC together, as in discharge any static you may have built-up. So for the love of all things holy, don't build the PC on a carpet. Razz


bomaye wrote:
Like a reformat? What kinds of things would I be looking to leave out of a Windows 10?

Yes, a reformat with Windows. So, you re-install Windows and it nukes all the unnecessary software the PC should you choose to buy a PC from a manufacturer like HP or Lenovo and shit like that. PCWorld has a great article on that here. If you go to Office Depot or Best Buy and tinker with their PCs, you'll see what I'm talkin about. Razz


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Post by bomaye Sun Sep 25, 2016 6:26 pm

The Mikey wrote:
All righty, great, you shouldn't have to spend an exorbitant amount of money for that kinda PC. Just don't go super cheap on it. Razz

At most I make gifs with instagiffer and maybe just use windows movie maker to shrink the file sizes on things.

How many cores should I be aiming for or how expensive should this PC be to be okay?

(Also I wonder if this would directly translate to Canadian dollars or not)



All righty, that's good! Also make sure you're grounded when you're putting the PC together, as in discharge any static you may have built-up. So for the love of all things holy, don't build the PC on a carpet. Razz

Yeah, if I was going to put a PC together myself, I was planning on getting one of those wrist-strap things


bomaye wrote:
Like a reformat? What kinds of things would I be looking to leave out of a Windows 10?

Yes, a reformat with Windows. So, you re-install Windows and it nukes all the unnecessary software the PC should you choose to buy a PC from a manufacturer like HP or Lenovo and shit like that. PCWorld has a great article on that here. If you go to Office Depot or Best Buy and tinker with their PCs, you'll see what I'm talkin about. Razz
[/quote]

Cool stuff, we don't have Office Depot or Best Buy (Staples is probably the biggest chain store that sells computery type things that isn't Wal-Mart around here, I forget if that's a Canadian chain or not)
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Post by Enail Sun Sep 25, 2016 6:43 pm

We do have Best Buy in Canada, and there's also The Source for big box stores. Both do free shipping if you don't have a local branch.
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Post by bomaye Sun Sep 25, 2016 6:48 pm

We do have Best Buy, there just isn't one here

Oh, maybe London Drugs sells PCs too
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Post by Guest Sun Sep 25, 2016 7:17 pm

bomaye wrote:
At most I make gifs with instagiffer and maybe just use windows movie maker to shrink the file sizes on things.

How many cores should I be aiming for or how expensive should this PC be to be okay?

(Also I wonder if this would directly translate to Canadian dollars or not)

That's fine, your uses don't sound too intense, though you wanna get enough RAM to go with your CPU. It's not all about the CPU, it's the sum of its parts, ya know?

RE: cores/price of PC... I wanna say get a quad or a hexcore, which is more than enough. If you wanna stay ahead of the curve, go with a speedy hexcore @3.5GHz or something, it'll be more expensive but move quickly, especially if you opt out for an Intel CPU, those fuckers are expensive. Though your $1000 budget may also be more than enough to build a better PC than my own, just be prepared for your GPU and CPU to probably be the most expensive parts of your shiny new PC.

bomaye wrote:
Yeah, if I was going to put a PC together myself, I was planning on getting one of those wrist-strap things

I think one of my buddies didn't even bother with those but those wrist straps are a good idea. However, you can still discharge said static by touching any metal close by as well. YouTube I'm sure has tutorials for that kinda thing. Razz


bomaye wrote:
Cool stuff, we don't have Office Depot or Best Buy (Staples is probably the biggest chain store that sells computery type things that isn't Wal-Mart around here, I forget if that's a Canadian chain or not)

That's fine, the store doesn't really matter, what matters is if they have display models out and ready for you to use. When you do look at them, you'll notice right away what I'm talking about. They'll come pre-installed with stuff like McAfee (who in their right mind would install that garbage) or silly desktop icons that say "Play $game now!" You'll know it when you see it. Razz

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Post by bomaye Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:45 am

Ended up picking up this one. My other computer died about an hour ago <_<
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Post by Enail Mon Sep 26, 2016 10:55 am

Good timing! RIP old computer
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Post by Guest Mon Sep 26, 2016 11:26 am

bomaye wrote:Ended up picking up this one. My other computer died about an hour ago <_<
Oh wow, that is much, much cheaper than what I'd expect to pay for those kinds of specs. Good deal.

In contrast I paid about $1200 (roughly about US $917) for a laptop that has 1 TB, 4(?) GB RAM and an Intel Core i7 processor.

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Post by Guest Mon Sep 26, 2016 1:46 pm

bomaye wrote:Ended up picking up this one. My other computer died about an hour ago <_<

Let's have a look... all righty, most of it looks pretty good, damn near close to my own set up. Word of caution though, this new PC has an integrated graphics chip, meaning, the motherboard has a chip for all your graphics needs, which is great. However, it'll be competing for resources with the CPU. For your uses, I don't think you'll experience any real bad slow downs, just don't expect to run Battlefield 1 at 60fps or anything like that.

For now, you're good. However, I definitely recommend getting a video/graphics card at some point so your RAM doesn't have too many issues. One last thing, like I mentioned earlier, reformat the hard drive with a clean Windows 10 install or if you're not comfy with that, you can install "Should I Remove it?" and it'll tell you what to get rid of.

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Post by bomaye Mon Sep 26, 2016 6:50 pm

The Mikey wrote:
Let's have a look... all righty, most of it looks pretty good, damn near close to my own set up. Word of caution though, this new PC has an integrated graphics chip, meaning, the motherboard has a chip for all your graphics needs, which is great. However, it'll be competing for resources with the CPU. For your uses, I don't think you'll experience any real bad slow downs, just don't expect to run Battlefield 1 at 60fps or anything like that.

For now, you're good. However, I definitely recommend getting a video/graphics card at some point so your RAM doesn't have too many issues. One last thing, like I mentioned earlier, reformat the hard drive with a clean Windows 10 install or if you're not comfy with that, you can install "Should I Remove it?" and it'll tell you what to get rid of.

So if I played a game on this, it'd cause problems for things, or I'd just have to shut everything off while doing it?
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Post by Werel Mon Sep 26, 2016 7:03 pm

Good timing indeed, congrats on new computer and not having to worry about imminent computer death!
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Post by bomaye Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:34 pm

Yeah! It's a huge technological leap forward going from a 11-12 year old computer on Windows XP Home to maybe something that was state-of-the-art in 2008 and runs Windows 10 <_<
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Post by Enail Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:44 pm

Sorry about the Windows 10 part Razz
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Post by Guest Tue Sep 27, 2016 12:16 am

bomaye wrote:

So if I played a game on this, it'd cause problems for things, or I'd just have to shut everything off while doing it?

Since it's shiny and new, you won't have much of an issue.

Though, I would advise closing out any program that doesn't need to be running just to be on the safe side. I try to close out Skype when I play games. However, like I said, with that kinda rig, don't expect to be playing something like Battlefield 1 in HD at 60FPS or anything like that. You can still play stuff, but you may have trouble with newer releases.

Problems for things? Ehh, unlikely since it's new, though it could slow down further in its life. Maybe with what you have left over from buying this PC you could invest in a better graphics card. Razz Again, you should be fine for the time being. Grin

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Post by bomaye Tue Sep 27, 2016 12:26 am

Enail wrote:Sorry about the Windows 10 part Razz

I've been having an okay time with it so far <_<


The Mikey wrote:
bomaye wrote:

So if I played a game on this, it'd cause problems for things, or I'd just have to shut everything off while doing it?

Since it's shiny and new, you won't have much of an issue.

Though, I would advise closing out any program that doesn't need to be running just to be on the safe side. I try to close out Skype when I play games. However, like I said, with that kinda rig, don't expect to be playing something like Battlefield 1 in HD at 60FPS or anything like that. You can still play stuff, but you may have trouble with newer releases.

Problems for things? Ehh, unlikely since it's new, though it could slow down further in its life. Maybe with what you have left over from buying this PC you could invest in a better graphics card. Razz Again, you should be fine for the time being. Grin

I was figuring on running things on minimum settings if I was playing anything anyways. And with our bandwidth caps (200 gb/month), I wasn't really looking to use it as a modern gaming rig, maybe just something to play an indie or a Blizzard game or maybe some older Japanese games (I can apparently play FFX Remaster Grin), but it's nice to know I could probably put a higher end gfx card in for stuff if I need to
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Post by Guest Tue Sep 27, 2016 1:53 pm

bomaye wrote:

I was figuring on running things on minimum settings if I was playing anything anyways. And with our bandwidth caps (200 gb/month), I wasn't really looking to use it as a modern gaming rig, maybe just something to play an indie or a Blizzard game or maybe some older Japanese games (I can apparently play FFX Remaster Grin), but it's nice to know I could probably put a higher end gfx card in for stuff if I need to

Yeah, you should be fine. Plus most PCs should have a free PCI-E slot or two you can drop a GPU into, just follow any install instructions that may be included. Shiny/thrilled

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Post by bomaye Fri Sep 30, 2016 7:17 am

... The model I bought went on sale a day or so ago, went back and price matches, got about $90 back <.<
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Post by Werel Fri Aug 04, 2017 8:16 pm

Necroing this thread because I also could use opinions on computer-buying!

I need a decent budget laptop to take on fieldwork with me this fall (not comfortable bringing my personal macbook, can't afford to replace it if broken or stolen). I'm looking in the under-$400 range, and it basically just needs to do the following:

  • Have a buttload of hard drive space (at least 256GB, ideally 1TB). Solid-state preferable, since it's going to get jostled a bunch, but not mandatory.
  • Run MS Office, and other software that's roughly as resource-intensive, without being suuuuper slow. I used to bring this HP netbook that was so slow it lagged at showing my typing in Word; it was so useless for me that I just left it in my fieldwork community Uh-oh
  • Good battery life is high priority
  • Needs to come with Windows
  • Needs a SDXC flash card reader slot
  • Ideally, can be remotely locked/wiped if stolen, but not mandatory
  • Don't care about graphics or audio cards

If anybody has good experiences with specific brands/models of budget laptops, or general tips for buying, it'd be much appreciated!
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