TCP Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 With a heavy heart I have to announce that my early 2011 MacBook Pro is slowly dying on me. When I bought it, I was still living at my parent's place, with more disposable income than I knew what to do with. These days I'm a home owner and it's harder to justify the price of a MacBook, so I'm considering..... getting a PC laptop. While I love the superior Apple OSX and overall build of their devices, the PC, in addition to being cheaper does have some advantages, mainly in gaming and some customization. So what I'm looking for is a laptop mainly for internetting but also some gaming, mainly for indie games like Stardew Valley, Starbound, Minecraft, that sort of stuff, definitely no AAA gaming.Advice for someone who hasn't used a PC since September 2007????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 If you're just playing indie titles then I'd imagine pretty much any laptop that isn't the cheapest of the cheap will do you, both AMD n Intel chips have the combo CPU-GPU thing going on. Alas I can't offer much more help than that given I don't bother with Macs or laptops. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 Surface Pro 4! I'm kidding, that's almost certainly beyond your price range, though they are sexy as hell. But yeah, what dean said, any midrange laptop from a good manufacturer should do you well. I've always had good experiences with Dell, although it's been a number of years since I've bought one. I've also heard good things about Lenovo. You might try looking at Amazon and Newegg just to see if there are certain brands that are consistently rated well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 From laptop brands family n friends have used over the years, my dad has a Lenevo and it's a rather nice looking laptop, runs pretty dang well n he can do occasional CAD on it too (he's a desktop mainly set up for it). My sister has/had a Sony Vaio that ran well for ages. Acer is a bit of a shit laptop, might have improved since but everyone I know with one has had the power bust up on it. Dad used to have a dell, which is still around and now the kids laptop for school work (and me installing some of my HIB stuff on for them to play ) and I guess they're cheap and run stuff, but it came with a bunch of Dell shit like a rocketdock knock off and also it felt plasticy as hell, the hinge/screen was very flexible/wobbly. Avoid "Gamer" laptops in any shape and form as they're normally both extremely garish, and also an excessive cost added on for the hell of it (though I guess as a macbook owner you'd be used to that ). Lenevo are quite "businessey" but the parts under the hood are much the same as any other type of laptop, and they're built in such a way to be a bit of a workhorse too cos that's what businesses demand (it's worth noting Dell do business laptops too, though I think they're business section is only around for like bulk orders for businesses n schools n such). This Lenevo Yoga seems pretty decent, nice specs and does the whole tablet/touchscreen stylings too: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/lenovo-yoga-500-14-2-in-1-white-10137561-pdt.html (obviously need to find Canadian equivalent) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. GOH! Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 I'm surprised you just don't take out another mortgage to buy more Apple products. It's the sort of thing Apple fans do all the time. But, seriously, what's your price range? In loonies or quatloos or seal hides whatever the hell you use for money up in Canada. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCP Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 (edited) Honestly I'd probably just save up for the Apple but my house needs a new roof sometime soon and that shit is gonna cost me 6Gs. Can I get something decent in the 400-600 dollar range? Any brands I should avoid? I've been seriously ignorant of anything PC related in the past decade. Windows 9? 10? Vista?! Edited June 6, 2016 by The Cowboy Poet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleven Posted June 6, 2016 Report Share Posted June 6, 2016 $400-$600? I don't think that would even get you the laptops with good intel integrated chips (Iris pro or whatever it's called). Especially not in CAD I would think IMO the MBPs aren't really that expensive, it costs roughly the same with a comparable Windows laptop. I don't know about the Air or the new Macbook lineup, I think those ones might be expensive for the amount of power they have. But MBPs are pretty competitive if you have use for those specs. My Lenovo laptop is $500 (rounded up). i3, Windows 10, touch screen 15", Intel HD 5200. I put in my own SSD and it's pretty good for everyday stuff. No gaming whatsoever though, unless I imagine it's 8-bit indie games, but I can't really say I haven't even bothered to try. I wanted a 13" MBP, but since I'm not going to game on it or do video editing, then I couldn't justify it. The 5200 is a sucky graphics chip. I would say avoid Dell, because in my experience they kind of suck quality-wise (and that's the reputation they have). I'd stick with Lenovo. Probably their Yoga (consumer) or their Thinkpad line (for corporate use). Get Windows 10. For one, you don't have to deal with constant nagging to upgrade to Windows 10. And secondly, it's pretty good anyway, just gets a bad rap. Or build a Sager laptop with xoticpc... It'll probably cost you the same amount as an MBP though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielpholt Posted June 19, 2016 Report Share Posted June 19, 2016 Is there an easier way of getting screenshots out of my PC than having to manually edit/upload. Thinking something along the lines of If this then that. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted June 19, 2016 Report Share Posted June 19, 2016 http://getgreenshot.org/ Assuming I'm understanding your request this should do. I don't personally use it but one of web dev friends likes it. Can auto-share your screenshots to Dropbox/Imgur/etc if that's what you're wanting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleven Posted June 19, 2016 Report Share Posted June 19, 2016 Yeah Dropbox can capture your printscreens. If it's in game screenshots which create jpg files automatically, I would just choose a dropbox folder as the location. If you can't pick a folder, I'd use Belvedere (search Belvedere Lifehacker) to automatically move images from a folder to another folder. You can then probably use IFTTT from dropbox to move it to imgur or another image host. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted July 3, 2016 Report Share Posted July 3, 2016 Yay. Fixed my laptop overheating today. Think I mentioned a while back my laptop was getting nearly too hot to touch within about 5 mins of turning on, and the fan would be full blast within seconds of pressing the power button so I'd basically stopped using it. I bought some thermal paste and had to take it to bits - the video I followed and several IT pros in the comments said my laptop has some of the worst access to the cooling system of any laptop they've repaired - you have to remove the LCD screen, top plate with the touchpad, keyboard, RAM, HDDs, wireless card etc. - basically everything that's not soldered on. I've never used thermal paste before, but the old paste was all splodged out the sides, covering all sorts of connectors so I can't imagine I've done a worse job than that. It seems to have done the job so far, so fingers crossed. Guess this is all bread and butter for you guys but I hate this sort of thing so am feeling quite pleased with myself. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted July 3, 2016 Report Share Posted July 3, 2016 Wooh! Yeah I'd probably have just called the laptop a lost cause myself. And yeah, splodging all over the place isn't a good sign. In new CPUs it's normally sort of printed on so certainly weird. But yeah, wooh. Personally it's not a common task, but yeah it's pretty simple to do now n then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbassman39 Posted July 21, 2016 Report Share Posted July 21, 2016 So I am running into a new problem. I played overwatch with a friend last night and at the end of the night turned the computer off. Now I came home from work, turned the computer on and it sits on the bios screen for a long time then blank. Nothing. I don't know what to do after this. Anyone have an idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 21, 2016 Report Share Posted July 21, 2016 (edited) Is there a USB storage device of any kind plugged in? If so unplug it. If not, or if that doesn't fix it, the next step is to go into the bios and look at the boot order and make sure the correct hard drive is at the top of the list. *Edit - "USB storage device" can even include stuff like a gaming keyboard if it has onboard memory for storing profiles. Edited July 21, 2016 by TheMightyEthan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbassman39 Posted July 21, 2016 Report Share Posted July 21, 2016 I unplugged all USB devices and nothing. It seems like I can't do anything with the BIOS it's just frozen. I'll try again this afternoon and update Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 21, 2016 Report Share Posted July 21, 2016 If it won't even load the bios then my guess is you're probably going to need a new motherboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbassman39 Posted July 21, 2016 Report Share Posted July 21, 2016 Thats what I'm starting to think. Almost two years ago I had a power surge that was caused by a faulty light switch that ended up frying my hard drive. I'm now on my 4th hard drive that keeps having issues here or there and now I'm starting to think it is my mobo. I mean of all the things that I need to replace thats not so bad, but man does it suck right as I want to get my free copy of windows 10 before its too late. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbassman39 Posted July 22, 2016 Report Share Posted July 22, 2016 Update: I took out my 970 and it said there is a damaged bios and it reset the bios and worked just fine. I replaced the 970 and it runs fine unless its through the HDMI on the 970 or the DVI. I'm lost as to how to fix this, but at least my computer is running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 22, 2016 Report Share Posted July 22, 2016 Do any of the outputs on the 970 work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saturnine Tenshi Posted July 22, 2016 Report Share Posted July 22, 2016 I replaced the 970 and it runs fine unless its through the HDMI on the 970 or the DVI. What are you using if not the HDMI or DVI? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbassman39 Posted July 22, 2016 Report Share Posted July 22, 2016 Nothing happens when the output comes out of the 970 for some reason, but if I use my onboard HDMI on my mobo it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted July 22, 2016 Report Share Posted July 22, 2016 Sounds like the problem is the 970 then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saturnine Tenshi Posted July 23, 2016 Report Share Posted July 23, 2016 Yeah, or some driver issues. Try updating your drivers. Otherwise, I'd RMA it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbassman39 Posted July 23, 2016 Report Share Posted July 23, 2016 (edited) This would be the second time I've rma my GPU. I worry it might be something causing it UPDATE: It started working for no seemingly good reason. I uninstalled and re-installed the drivers and then plugged everything back in and now it works. This is why I hate computers, because somedays they decide its not a good day for them. Edited July 28, 2016 by madbassman39 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted July 25, 2016 Report Share Posted July 25, 2016 Last week Windows update hung after it restarted on a plain colour screen with the busy dots spinning In a circle, but no writing. It started in safe mode fine but using a restore point it just got to the same screen. I reset Windows and it worked fine but it's just updated again and I've got the exact same problem. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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