|
Validate my purchasing decisions SH/SC. I was back in the USA for 2 weeks and while I was there I decided to pick up computers because American consumer spending really does drive the economy unlike every other country I've lived in, and that's quite a few, making things unbelievably cheap I already built a decent desktop (Anniversary pentium, GTX 960, 8GB memory) ... in fact I don't want to leave it on all the time because of electric bills and I have a crappy 600kb/sec down DSL connection, eliminating most of its utility as a server. I also have a decent i5 work computer, but it only has a single video output; so I can't use dual monitors, which is something I'd really like because I use Indesign a lot for my job. I also have an iPad Air 2 and an iPhone 5. Last summer I did buy a Macbook Air, but I didn't like the low resolution of the screen, so I sold it to a goon. I'm also playing around with Raspberry Pis for various maker things. There are a few things I want to get into: CCNA/CCNP certification, Freenas, Plex, Owncloud, Kodi, virtualboxes, and maybe some home automation stuff. Last week Office Depot had the Acer CB3-111-C670 (n2830, 2gb of ram) Chromebook for $129.99, plus tax and while Target had it for cheaper a month or so ago, Chromebooks and Chromeboxes are impossible to find in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, let alone at that price, so I grabbed it. I bought it without checking how hard ubuntu would be to put on it. Looks like I've got to put the OS on an external USB, and I can't switch between ChromeOS and full linux, so that kinda sucks as I've really come to like Chrome. Is there a website out there that will realistically describe using a chromebook as a server, or perhaps I just need a guide to make it the best chromebook it'll ever be. Then Monday morning I was checking the deals sites and I came across a thread saying that Staples had a $100 off clearance PCs, so I went looking at the inventory at the local store and decided on a display model Toshiba S55-B5280 for $330 after tax, and I'm told I can get an additional $50 rebate on it as well. http://www.staples.com/Toshiba-Satellite-S55-B5280-156-Laptop-12GB-Memory-1TB-Hard-Drive-Intel/product_1064938 This isn't for gaming or for traveling, although I wish it had a dedicated card, but for the price I'm not too concerned. The screen is very budgety too (15.6 inch and only 13xx x 7xx). It's either going to sit next to my work PC, with another monitor attached maybe, or at home on a shelf doing it's sever job. Intel Core i7-4510U processor 12GB DDR3L memory (I think this is 4+8, so I may be able to put another 8 in down the road) 1TB 5400RPM Serial ATA Hard Disk Drive I figure the memory and hard drive are worth about ~$80 if I were upgrading one of the cheaper pcs The question I should have asked before I bought is, how good is that processor? I chose that model because it was an i7, had a lot of memory, and a decent hard drive. Did I get decent deal(s)? politicorific fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Aug 26, 2015 |
#
¿
Aug 26, 2015 22:54
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 03:28 |
|
|
Dr. Fishopolis posted:Those chinese macbook air clones keep getting better: Looks like this or a Xiaomi Air will be my future PC
|
|
#
¿
Feb 19, 2018 10:43
|
|
|
Dr. Fishopolis posted:Those chinese macbook air clones keep getting better: I know I already replied to this, but thanks again for posting this. I'm back in the United States visiting family - a trip I make every couple years. Each time I come back, I usually try to spend about $100-$150 in a retail store on a cheap computer but Amazon has destroyed that. My work laptop is a Thinkpad x240, but my personal laptop is from 2014 and it's 2 GB of ram is always maxed out. The heaviest thing I need to run is PyCharm for coding; although a part of me wants to get one of these just to see if living in Bash is possible using lynx and alpine. It looks like a Cherry Trail or Apollo Lake from Jumper or Teclast notebook would take care of me. Unfortunately I don't have enough time to wait for international shipping. Question: Am I crazy or does it seem like all these Cherry Trail Macbook knock offs are made in the same factory and stamped with a different logo, example: $109 + 27 shipping (as of posting) T-bao-Tbook-X7, 14 inch 2 GB: https://www.geekbuying.com/item/T-bao-Tbook-X7-2GB---32GB-Silver-380770.html $129 Direkt-Tek DTLAPC14-1-SL 14 inch, 4 GB - 1920 x 1080 https://www.walmart.com/ip/14-Ultra...roduct_interest $109 Direkt-Tek DTLAPC125-1-PK 12.5 inch, 4 GB - 1366 x 768 https://www.walmart.com/ip/12-5-Ult...0-hour/56123842 Bonus: This RCA Cambio also looks interesting, but it only has 2 GB of RAM. Installing Linux might be difficult according to what I read online. https://www.walmart.com/ip/RCA-Cambio-10-1-2-in-1-32GB-Tablet-with-Windows-10-Intel-Atom-Z8350-2GB-RAM-Includes-Keyboard/56134994
|
|
#
¿
Feb 22, 2018 00:07
|
|
|
I'm about to request a laptop refresh at work and I need some advice. Originally I was given an HP Elitebook 840 but later opted to get a 12 inch Lenovo x205 since I wanted to be more mobile, but my job role has changed significantly. I'm now creating a lot of training videos and coding. My system is slowing a crawl. Here's a rundown on what I do:
Some more facts:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've read and seen, there isn't any worthwhile GPU offload for After Effects/Premiere. Is there any other way I can dock into more power? Any suggestions or creative solutions?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 24, 2018 16:31
|
|
|
I would like to buy a small laptop for light computing. It'll be for light data entry, writing, and consuming both ebooks and video. I already have a good desktop for gaming, but I'd like to free myself from my desk. There's times when it'd be useful to have a PC at the kitchen table, sofa, and bed. Cheap n100-based laptops have caught my eye. The users Twerk from Home and mobby_6kl, posted about these around page 1085, but I'm wondering if anyone else has any experience or alternatives. Whatever I get, I'd like to put Linux on it. I have found myself on numerous business trips where using my phone hasn't scratched the itch for what I wanted to do and I don't want to have to carry around two laptops. The Chuwi Minibook X N100 https://store.chuwi.com/products/minibook-x-2024 is the one I've got my eye on. I'd also like to stay away from Android. It's unfortunate that there don't seem to be any cheap arm-based PC tablet offerings available which support Linux. I read that the Xiaomi Pad 5 can be hacked to install Linux, but driver support is lacking. I looked into Pine64's offerings, but I've read that they are very slow. I'd also rather not get an Apple m1 or iPad, because I don't want to go back to the Apple ecosystem. While Asahi Linux is a potential option, but I'm not in the USA, so Apple products are holding their resale value even higher. This also rules out Chromebooks because they are not readily available in my region. Basically, Taobao and Aliexpress I realize these are very opinionated requirements. Price is a very large factor. Ultimately, I don't want to buy something overpowered which won't get used.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 10, 2024 14:09
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 03:28 |
|
|
mobby_6kl posted:I hope someone has suggestions because I haven't seen anything new in this segment sadly. As far as repai/support - that sounds about par for the course; these Chinese manufacturers are eating western brands' lunch. For the price, I'm okay with things being a bit more DIY. Thank you for the thread on linux. I'll take a look at the release timelines to see if there are any 13th or 14th gen laptops coming down out soon.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 11, 2024 05:45
|
|