Looking for a new laptop (new machine for consideration)

[thegayhare]

hello all

I'm afraid my Acer aspire 7739z is probably on it last legs,  Its battery for one is dead, and it putters and chokes trying to watch youtube videos from time to time and It cant even run pokemon uranuim.  I'm sure a number of the slow downs could be fixed with a factory reset but it is at least a 6 year old machine so I'm thinking of upgrading, and turning rabbithole, into a dedicated laptop for writing,and storage

I'm looking at a HP Pavilion 17-g199cy for just under 300 dollars on tiger direct and wanted your folks opinion on if it would be worth it.  I just had to buy a car for work (2009 smart fortwo if anyone is interested) so 300 is just about my budget

I do like that the hp ha a quad core rather then the duel core of my acer, and a terabyte hard drive but I get distracted by newer and shiny so what do you folks think?

here are the specs
http://www.cnet.com/products/hp-pavilion-17-f139ds-17-3-a-series-a4-6210-windows-8-1-64-bit-8-gb-ram-1-tb-hdd/specs/

[Darkmoon]

Well, you get what you pay for with 300$. That said, I'm not sure this is such a great deal. There will be people for an against AMD, but Intel usually has the better chipsets, so I'm hesitant to suggest this model at all just in that front. Plus, it only has Windows 8.1, and considering Microsoft stopped offering Win 10 last month, you'd have to pay another 120$ if you ever wanted to upgrade (which you should since who knows how long Microsoft is gonna support Win 8 -- they've been speeding up their deadlines for old systems, so it could be pretty soon where they're like "naw, man, Win 8 is trash.")

I'd recommend going to HP's site. They have a Pavillion lappy starting at 320$, comes with windows 10, and just about all the options you were looking for.

http://store.hp.com/us/en/NewConfiguratorView?catalogId=10051&urlLangId=&langId=-1&storeId=10151&catEntryId=1305655&quantity=1

[Tapewolf]

It looks to me like that machine maxes out at 8GB, some of which goes into the video memory.  That doesn't leave a lot for future expansion.

[thegayhare]

. Plus, it only has Windows 8.1, and considering Microsoft stopped offering Win 10 last month, you'd have to pay another 120$

actually Darkmoon the models tiger is selling are already upgraded to windows 10

but there seems to be a lot of bad blood arround this one

[thegayhare]

I have found some comparable asus quadcore laptops on anouther site with a similar price range

so many people feel that the HP facter alone deemed this machine a no go

downsides to the asus only a 500 gig hd and these ones do only have windows 8... but since my current machine still rubs on 7 I doubt that would kill me

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232355CVF

what do you think?

I know it says out of stock but they are liquidating them through there ebay shop

[Tapewolf]

downsides to the asus only a 500 gig hd and these ones do only have windows 8... but since my current machine still rubs on 7 I doubt that would kill me

Also it has Intel's graphics system.  It ships with 4GB of memory and maxes out at 8GB.  At work, 8GB is not enough and our systems run like molasses under the heavy weight of Eclipse and Tomcat.

What are you actually planning to do with this machine?  It should cope with web browsing, but I don't think it's going to be running Fallout 4.  Artwork with lots of layers will likewise bog it down considerably.

[Darkmoon]

To be fair, most 300$ machines aren't going to be running Fallout 4. If you're just using it for casual browsing, 8GB will be fine, but Tape is right -- anything more than that (anything a "power user" would do) won't work on a machine this cheap.

Get Windows 10. You need it for the security alone.

[thegayhare]

so it sounds like the HP is my best bet then

It does come with 10 has the increased hard drive and more memory

What I'm dooking for out of it Is something to surf the web, do video editing, maybe run source film maker and play recent ish games

After I posted the Asus specs I remembered a website I use called can you run it which scans your hardware, you then select a game or program and it tells you if your system can handle it.  It's not 100 percent accuret in that my current laptop is not rated to run some games like X-com or darkest dungeon but it still will play them.  It chugs and puts out alot of heat doing so but where they are turn based the chugging can be tolerated.   

I slapped the Asus specs in and for the most part the site told me it couldn't run much with the 4 gig memory and the intel chipset on that rig being underpowered

the hp on the other hand was listed as being able to run anything I threw at it, atleast on minimum specs including fallout 4,  no mans sky and the new doom I started plugging in graphics intensive games I'll never play just to see if the machine could run them.   

I think with my limited budget and causual needs the HP might be my bet bet.   The fact that it is a hp and I have been burned by them worries me a bit but I've delt with tiger before and they have done alright by me so I'm thinking I my risk it.  I'll sleep on it for a week or so first no real rush though.

oh and if anyone wants a laugh check out my new clown car   

[Tapewolf]

My bad, it looks like the HP tops out at 16GB so there is room for expansion.  Though I do notice that the model you linked is different to the one you said you were going to buy.
Either way the GPU doesn't look particularly great so I'm not sure how well modern games would run on it.

[thegayhare]

bugger it your right its a differnt model sorry

here are the actual specs
http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05049275#AbT0

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Be aware that an Intel is likely to chug less when processing video; AMD tends to work better (IME) for general day-to-day use, although it depends on how you use your system. I tend to jump back and forth between apps a lot, and AMD works better for that; if you're using one app mostly, you may find differently.

Other than that, it's a PC. They're fast enough that they're mostly similar enough to not matter too much, I find; it's more usually little niggles that bite, that you can't see ahead of time...

[thegayhare]

checking with the actual specs

the pavillian wont run fallout  four or no mans sky with out memory upgrades but itll still handle most of what I want to do

Be aware that an Intel is likely to chug less when processing video; AMD tends to work better (IME) for general day-to-day use, although it depends on how you use your system. I tend to jump back and forth between apps a lot, and AMD works better for that; if you're using one app mostly, you may find differently.

part of what I like to do is record game play for games that let me customise chars, like darkest dungeon and xcom.  I get a bunch of char kitted out like friends and run misions, recording it.  Editing it down to highlight reels and stories using that .   just for fun

anouther reason I was looking at the AMD since the muilticores are suposed to handle multiple programs running at once a little better

I might wait a month or two, build up some cash so I don't rely on my credit limit, do a factory reset on rabbit hole see how it runs and see if Tiger has anything new

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I should clarify my position by pointing out that I mostly use linux, so windows may behave differently.

Actually, of late - the last two or three years - I've been using MacOS almost exclusively, and linux via ssh, so my experience may be a little out of date. Huh. Surprising how time creeps up on you. -.-

Anyway - waiting until you're using less credit is never a bad idea. Zero is the best of all, but isn't always possible. Let us know how the reset works out; there may be some specific program that is making it chug, so watch when you reinstall and see if you can identify it.

[Darkmoon]

The biggest issue with Windows is that it gets "gunked" up over time from all the shit you regularly run (and patch, and install, and uninstall, etc. etc.). The best way to get a long life out of your Windows machine is just being willing to reformat anew once every year or so.