New computer ideas

[madcow]

So, my cat decided to kill my computer in a case of cold blooded murder, and while I'll take it to a tech, I don't have much hope for it.

I've always had a Mac, but I'm open to other possibilities and I was curious what ideas people might have on the non-Mac front.  I prefer laptops, as I like being able to sit on a sofa rather than a desk, but I'll look into desktop options as well. If I get a desktop it would almost certainly be a pc.

So if anybody has any suggestions or ideas, lay them on me please!  Jut keep ideas to PC only please - either desktop or laptop.  I've a good idea on the Mac options already.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

If you want to game on it, desktops have unrivaled power and capability compared to laptops. Plus, bigger screen and whatnot. But I'm not sure who the good gaming desktop makers are atm as I've built my last two desktops myself. If your wanting a laptop though, HP seems to be the good brand right now. Or, at least, the ones with least amount of troubles.

[Oralordos]

I don't know about in general, but my hp laptop, in the 3 years I've had it, has needed to be opened up with a screwdriver and have parts replaced 3 times now.

[zespri]

Alienware looks decent. I do have overheating problem with my one, but I hope that this is just this copy defect and not something common in all of them.

[Aklyon]

Alienware is really expensive compared to other laptops, though the overheating is less a problem and more 'this is what you get for trying to put a desktop into a laptop case without a fan under it'. Desktops have big fans for good reason, and laptop cases do not have the room for enough of them. They look pretty cool though.

ASUS has done my friend pretty well, as far as laptops go.

[keith.lamothe]

Make sure you install an anti-feline-shield-generator in this one

[zespri]

though the overheating is less a problem and more 'this is what you get for trying to put a desktop into a laptop case without a fan under it'.

Well mine hangs under load because of overheating. This IS a problem.

[madcow]

Make sure you install an anti-feline-shield-generator in this one

Unfortunately, cats tend to be unaffected by force field generators and their ilk!

What do you all think of SSDs compared to regular drives?  Are they good enough to consider given the price and small size of them?

[Aklyon]

SSDs are useful for small/medium things you plan on using quite a lot and think is worth the cost of a second hard drive for. Like the OS.

Otherwise, they're rather expensive for much less space, and should not be defragmented like a normal HDD.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I have a SSD as my primary boot drive with all my games (except GOG ones) on it. It boots incredibly fast and games have very little loading times. However, I got lucky and got a 250GB SSD on sale, normally they're pretty expensive. If you can get a 100+GB one, those are worth it. You'll just have to offload the majority of your stuff (movies, music and bulky games) onto other drives.

[Echo35]

A full desktop will be more powerful and MUCH less expensive than a gaming laptop. I've got a gaming laptop myself, and while the hardware power gap is closing, it's still there. They do have the advantage of being portable however (Which is why I got this one, since I travel a lot and would like to play all my games wherever I go. As I said however, price the main difference here. Sure my laptop can play Planetside and Shogun 2, but it gost me $2,000, while a similarly specced PC would have been half that much). If you go with a PC, I'd suggest building it yourself since that is always the cheapest option, and as far as laptops go, avoid the big labels like Alienware and HP, they kinda universally suck. I got mine from System76, but Origin PC, Malibal, and Schenker are all rather good as well. Most of them sell the same laptops (Clevos and other varieties) so shop around to see who has the best deals and configurations at the moment.

[Diazo]

The other thing is define what you want.

If you want a gaming computer then you will need to be pickier about specifications and comfort.

If you are looking for something to use while on the couch to surf the net, check email and play flash games on, you are looking for a very different computer.

I'm assuming that you do want a gaming computer due to the forum you are posting on, so how bleeding edge do you want to be (and how long do you expect it to be able to run the latest games)?

I built myself a bleeding edge desktop over 2 years ago now. I paid a premium for it being bleeding edge at the time but I grabbed Rage (a FPS) on sale a couple months ago and it runs smooth at max settings at 1920x1200 so I'm saving at this end by not having to upgrade.

I've also had nothing fail in it either, so I've gotten lucky that way.

Perhaps a list of games (or type of games) you want to be able to play on it?

On SSD: If you install your operating system onto an SSD you will notice a huge speed increase. However you do not want to be using an SSD for storage so you will want a platter drive in the computer also for that.

Prices around here are 3 terabytes for $100 on a platter drive or $350 for a 500GB SSD.

So, what are looking to be able to do with this computer?

D.

[Mánagarmr]

I've never seen a laptop run anything beyond normal desktop software and NOT be plagued by overheating issues. They're simply not designed for heavy lifting, and that goes for so called "Gaming laptops" (lol) as well. They ARE overheating prone and it will progressively worse due to their cramped construction and complete unwillingness to be easily taken apart for cleaning.

So undervolting is usually very good idea to save on heat issues, but that also of course leads to underperformance. So laptop = Pay more, get less

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, I have a pretty beefy desktop and a "craptop".  The latter can't run much AND it overheats quickly (though not to the point of instability, it's had precisely one hardware crash in something like a year and a half).  But it's good enough to write code and it's very portable (and it only cost about $400).  Mobility is hard to resist.

[madcow]

Yeah. I'm thinking I'll get a laptop just for mobility and light games.  That'll give me time to worry about and shop around for a good heavy lifting one.

 Honestly most games I play aren't too intensive - lately my big game had been awesomenauts. About the hardest on my old computer was crusader kings 2 (which admittedly destroyed it heh).  I'm sure that if I had the computer to handle it, I would be loading up the likes of dead space, witcher 2, and the like though.