So, I just bought a new laptop recently and I didn't notice a computer thread (I'm sure there's one buried somewhere). The point isn't really to show off your computer, but to talk about what kind of upgrades are worthwhile/realistic, which I think is a good subject overall My new computer - $780 HP dv6t 15.6" (1366x768) 2.5 Ghz i5 3rd gen Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics/Nvidia Geforce GT 650M 2GB dedicated graphics 6GB RAM 640GB 5400RPM HDD Xbox 360S 4GB As a computer systems engineer, I had to pick out my parts to make the computer I wanted, even though I'm sure I could have gotten a better overall deal anywhere other than the HP website, but whatever. The 650M is ridiculous, runs every game full settings without any lag whatsoever. I get roughly 100fps in League of Legends on full settings, and a more than nice amount on Ultra settings in Skyrim. To buy this, I sold my Macbook Pro 13" for $700, bought this computer for $880, and sold my old Xbox for $100. This gave me a brand new, better computer, and a new Slim Xbox for a total of $80. I also had to spend about $10 on a hard drive enclosure for the Slim (to pop my old 120GB Xbox HDD in with all of my classic Halo maps) and the Torx 6/10 screw bits to open the old enclosure. So, $90 for a brand new computer and Xbox. Not half bad. Here's some upgrades I've been considering: -Change screen to an HD one. I really wanted this when I got it, but it was $150, and I couldn't afford it at the time. I'm not sure how possible this upgrade would be, but the high res would be so nice. -Add an SSD HDD, or a combo HDD. I was very close to buying a 64GB SSD for a decent price, but recently I've come across these split HDD/SSDs that automagically put the things you use the most into the SSD using it's own cache. It's an awesome idea, but I'm not sure how the speed would compare to a HDD or SSD. Some things do run a little slow (opening programs particularly seems to slow down my computer) -Add RAM. I think 6GB is enough for now, but if 8GB would give me a nice boost, it's an easy upgrade
I wouldn't spend money upgrading a laptop. Set it aside for a desktop down the road. I built a new computer a month or two ago, and I'll post specs if anyone is curious about a good build for just under 1k.
Insane... HP computer? One of us... One of us... I actually just bought myself a new computer as well. Building it of course; i7-3770k @ 3.5GHz GeForce GTX 670 8GB RAM 128GB SSD with the PSU, etc. came up to about $1300. I'm re-using my HDDs I currently have and I honestly don't see the point in buying new peripherals or monitors if the ones I have are still good. Eventually though I'll be getting a new keyboard though. I need them backlights. Still waiting on the case for my build though. I'd agree. Laptops are good for mobility, not really upgradability. If what you have right now can do everything and more than what you need it to, it will be good for a long time. I couldn't see myself gaming or doing high intensity things on a laptop for long periods of time. I mean, if it can run word and an internet browser, the laptop is pretty good for the next 5 years.
Insane, what kind of HP is that? I've heard nothing but bad things about the long term build quality of their consumer models, even the really high end ones, particularly the hinges going.
dv6t laptop, should be fine from what I've heard, but maybe I'm wrong. Overall, I need a laptop, not a desktop. I do the vast majority of my work out of my dorm, and I'm a student. I don't plan on getting a desktop until I'm out of school and I have a permanent place (~2 years)
Your laptop seems decent enough to not need any updates but cant hurt to get some polished hardware, I use a laptop and the main problem i have is storage so if you get a external hardrive you should be set indefinitely.
Yeah, that's what I've been thinking, but I'm not sure what to get first, or at all, I might just wait on it. A new screen is some $75, a 4GB laptop RAM card can be like $25, SSD drives will be over $100, and a hybrid drive will be like $70. So, there's a lot of options, but I'm not sure what to go with, if I even want to upgrade, or upgrade yet
I think an SSD for your boot drive will do wonders, your boot times and app load times will be the most noticeable difference, and really those are the things that matter most. The time taken to copy/paste media files etc. is, to my mind, largely inconsequential in the great scheme of things. I don't really know about hybrid drives, but based on what you're saying I'm guessing it's just like a regular HDD but with a huge SS cache that can hold files even when powered down. Is that about right? If so, how big is the SS section? If it's big enough to hold your OS files and the apps you use most often, and it's smart enough to keep those files in the SS section, then you may well see roughly the same benefit without forking out loads of money/settling for a tiny drive. As for externals, factor in that you can keep using your current HDD if you replace it. Just buy a caddy for it make your own external drive, rather than wasting a perfectly good drive.
What Peg said. SSDs are good to load the OS onto as they don't need to go and find the data mechanically, it's all done in nanoseconds with digital paths and such. It also leaves you with more storage space for files on your regular HDD. I can see SSDs becoming more and more popular over then next few years, maybe even replacing HDDs. I've got all the parts for my PC decided, I just need to order it all. Ivy Intel i7 3.5 GHz, Asus Radeon HD 7770 1GB, 1TB HDD, 8GB RAM. The best part is the sexy case:
MSI 970 Motherboard AMD Bulldozer Hexacore 3.6 GHZ (overclocked at 4.0) AMD Radeon 7970 3GB (Dual GPU) 16GB DDR3 2TB HDD 280 GB SSD
My friend has a top-of-the-line cyberpower computer. It's about the size of a water cooler. I have an infected, laggy laptop from 2007 that gives me about 5 seconds per frame when playing minecraft on the worst settings.
Lol, I'm jealous of you guys. Either way, I know my computer parts pretty damn well (especially after my computer architecture & design classes), and I've been building computers since I was a little kid (usually bits and pieces I found in computers people were throwing out), but I'm not sure how the actual speed would compare. Theoretically, pumping up extra RAM would result in a faster speed boost than an SSD drive, but I don't think that would actually happen with Windows' programming. It's also true that this computer will probably run games fine for the next two years given it's current performance, so maybe I'm better off not buying anything... but it's so appealing
Actually they got bought by AMD a while back and they scrapped the ATI name altogether in (I think) 2010. Radeon cards are now AMD branded. ER1C0, that's not a Retina model is it? I've got a 2011 13" MBP and love it. I also just bought a new Mac Pro today, 2x 2.8GHz Quad Core Xeon beast. Gonna have to upgrade the RAM, which is a ***** cause it's DDR2 server RAM so super expensive, and then I need to what a 5770 so I can play games at a decent level. Taco, that sounds pretty creamworthy, what kinda stuff do you play on it and how insanely good does it look?
I plan on buying a retina macbook pro within the next couple of years. Still have my 2008 macbook pro that I got in '09, very solid computer.
Please don't, they're one of the most evil pieces of hardware ever conceived by man. Soldered RAM. Soldered. RAM.
Sky, just looking at your build, what are you using it for? Because if you are editing, go straight for a GTX 550ti, or even 560it if you can push it (CUDA support) and if gaming, bump down your processor to a 3570k and/or bump up your graphics card. A radeon 7770 will only get you about 25-35 FPS on BF3 on ultra with the VFX layers disabled. A 550ti gets 30-40 and the 560ti about 35-65.
I have my xbox for BF3. I suck at FPS on PC. It's mainly being used for game creation (coding) and maybe some basic 3D modelling. I'll only probably play smaller games on it as I prefer the simplicity of console games as I play a lot of driving games, which suck on PC unless you have a wheel. Which one do I get then? http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/gpu-nvidia/geforce-gtx-560-ti-pci-e-(384-cores)