Laptop Woes!

[StrawberrySmiles]

Hello!

After my netbook became sluggishly slow, and my BF bought himself a new laptop, I started using his old one. Nowadays it's getting errors and has become slow - it cannot seem to catch up to the advanced updates needed for everything.

Since then, I've wiped the netbook completely clean and basically reset it to it's original state. I haven't really touched it since.

I'm already planning on buying a new laptop when finances get better around here. In the meantime, I'm wondering if I should go back to the Netbook now that it's basically clean of excess programs and files.

I've included the specs of both below.


Dell Inspiron Mini 10
Obtained: 2010
Windows 10
Processor: Intel® Atom™ CPU N450 @1.66GH 1.67 GHz
Memory (RAM): 2.00 GB
System Type: 32-bit OS

*Recently resetted to factory settings

Dell Studio 17
Obtained: 2009
Windows 7 Ultimate
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo CPU T6400 @2.00Hz 2.00 GHz
Memory (RAM): 4.00 GB
System Type: 64-bit OS

*Currently using

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Need:
* Paint.NET (pixel art)
* Paint Tool SAI (painting)
* Photoshop (design)
* RPG Maker MV (solo gamedev)
* Paper RPG Maker (team gamedev)
* Excel - or something that can read Excel files
* Word - or something that can read Word files
* Evernote (organized ideas)
* Steam (RPG Maker MV)
* Skype (Friends!)
* iTunes (Apple phone)
* Internet Browser
* Portable

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I've currently got my eyes on some laptops. They're quite expensive at 600+ USD. For all I know, they could be exceeding what I really need with extra stuff.

To be honest, I've only been following my BF's suggestions since he knows computer stuff more than I do. All I know is that I'd like to avoid Acer and Lenovo laptops.

Wishlist:
1) Asus - X Series (Intel graphics card) [$620]
Why: Space

2) Asus - X Series (NVIDIA graphics card) [$650]
Why: Space, gaming

3) Dell Inspiron 13 7000 [$660]
Why: Touchscreen, more space than previously used laptops

4) Asus Flip [$640]
Why: Touchscreen, more space than previously used laptops

5) Dell Inspiron [$465]
Why: Cheaper, more space than previously used laptops

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I am open to opinions and suggestions for laptops.

Thanks for your time!

 

[coyotecraft]

I dunno. I've been looking at laptops too, my main thing is the screen size and that's the biggest difference in price.

 

[Fayte]

I'm not too crazily versed in the world of laptops but I know a little bit of something. 4gb of RAM is like nothing. I just bought my girlfriend an extremely basic laptop for $200 USD (ASUS) and it came with 8gb of RAM which I'm pretty sure is the industry standard these days. I think for what you want to use your laptop for you don't need anything crazy. I'm about 83% sure you could get away with spending no more than $400USD on a laptop with all your desired programs and have it run smooth as a holeless button.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Laptops just get continually cheaper and better too as tech advances. Back when I first joined this forum laptops were SUPER HIGH CLASS ONLY EDUCATED SONSA BITCHES GET EM kinda things.

But now even I have a laptop, and a pretty decent one! (Was a Christmas gift from my family.)

And you lucky shits in the not-Australias don't even have the bullshit 40% tax on electronics that we do over here.

Also for literally all those programs I saw 'free' because .. well, y'know.

but you can take an educated guess im sure

 

[Xilef]

The Australian electronics tax makes a huge difference. Laptops are rather disposable here in the UK (£150 for a netbook).

I swore to myself to never get a PC laptop again because for me they'd always break or start blue-screening (blue-screening!) within 2 years, Apple laptops seem to last a good amount of time for me so I go for them, but recently I checked out the PC market and it seems that advances in the mobile sector has brought reliability into the PC laptop space - albeit with the ridiculous touch screens which desktop Windows clearly isn't designed for.

I still hold the belief that if you're getting a PC laptop, get one with a dedicated graphics chip for the extra GPU punch (especially for RPG Maker MV). Saves your CPU from strain, which surely adds some extra lifetime into the machine [EDIT: looks like I said this last time you had laptop woes as well]. 8GB RAM is standard these days, 2011 it was 4GB, prior to that 3GB. I also think it's wise to look for the latest possible CPU generation as the processing improvements for chips over the last 5 years really have been massive - power efficiency equates to better battery life and cooler temperatures -> better performance and life-time.


Actually, despite the security issues of yesteryear, I remember Lenovo laptops were probably one of the better brands when it comes to hardware. I think the story is they bought up some smaller laptop companies and ended up with a really solid hardware lineup. This knowledge goes back 2 years, Lenovo may be crap again, but it really did surprise a lot of us to see just how good Lenovo actually were for regular people. Just a shame about the major security fuck-up.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Just a shame about the major security fuck-up.

Well I mean Windows 10 had a keylogger and several spyware hooks attached for a while, lel.

My laptop is win10 but I've turned off most of MS's spying stuff, it's impossible to find a lappy with Win7 on it nowadays.

As for ram, 8 GB is the standard these days.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

40% tax on electronics in Australia? Why does your country put up with that?

I'm going to contradict Xilef regarding latest gen CPUs. Apple's 8th gen i9 laptops ran so hot, their emergency CPU throttling would kick in to prevent meltdown. You can't even get them up to advertised speed unless you keep your laptop in the freezer. Also, latest-gen laptops are expensive, as in most 8th gen i9's are $2000-$3000, and some quite a bit more. I think a good 7th gen i5 (CPU model number would be in the 7000's, like i5-7300 for example) should provide plenty of power for a laptop for $500-$600.

 

[Xilef]

40% tax on electronics in Australia? Why does your country put up with that?

I'm going to contradict Xilef regarding latest gen CPUs. Apple's 8th gen i9 laptops ran so hot, their emergency CPU throttling would kick in to prevent meltdown. You can't even get them up to advertised speed unless you keep your laptop in the freezer. Also, latest-gen laptops are expensive, as in most 8th gen i9's are $2000-$3000, and some quite a bit more. I think a good 7th gen i5 (CPU model number would be in the 7000's, like i5-7300 for example) should provide plenty of power for a laptop for $500-$600.

Yeah latest generation of Apple laptops are really shit. They fixed the overheating and throttling issue (was a temperature management thing), but ever since the "butterfly switches" Apple laptops have been crap.

Recently some ex-Apple engineers have been speaking about how with Steve Jobs they were able to voice their concerns about any aspect of an Apple product and Jobs would talk to the right people and make sure the concerns were addressed. Even if Jobs didn't understand the details, he trusted the Apple employees enough to understand that their concerns were important to sort out.

These are ex-Apple engineers because since Jobs died Apple changed to a more traditional company hierarchy and they were fired for inappropriate discussion in the work place (trying to voice their concerns to other departments - like what Steve Jobs used to do).

Apple hardware quality has dropped across the board. They are absolutely attacking independent repair shops now. They used to be "overpriced garbage" to anti-Apple folk, but now Apple is even higher priced, even more garbage.