Computers are Weird... :P

[Bastrophian]

Ok...so i ended up getting a laptop from BestBuy (Portability and what not, i just felt it was the best thing right now for school)... i got two infact. The first one was supposed to be superior to the second according to its specs. It was a TOSHIBA (my favorite brand until today) AMD a8, 750 hard drive, 8 GB expandable to 16 GB, windows 8.1 and it was in my price range....i felt like it really was too good to be true....i should have listend to my feelings ... :,< . First it was sooooooo slow....just installing Avast took almost an hour, and then it needed SOoooo many updates that it took another hour, it couldent run ANY of my games not Skyrim (obviously), not Fallout, not even Terraria...it LAGGED with a VX Game! And GIMP didint work right for some reason on it! But WORST of all, when ever i tried to watch a youtube vid or went to a certain website or did something that involved Flash, 9 times out of 10 IT WOULD BLUE SCREEN!! T_T ....guess what my schools website uses?..uh,huh Flash....blue screened, right in the middle of homework....T_T . So i took that puppy back and got a refund....well, store credit.... and so had to get another laptop.

The only other one they had in my price ranges with only some of the desired specs i had in mind was "this".... HP, 6GB, 1TB HD, Intel Core i3, thats now windows 10.........O_O IT FREAKING RUNS SKYRIM LIKE BUTTER!!!.....on low .  And Fallout NV on ULTRA! AND Terraria! AND Minecraft AND......sigh.....i give up....computers are weird......i dont know what to believe.....one guy says intel core, or HP is crap....im told AMD is supposed to be really good because its solid state or something like that, and i just dont get it, and i dont think i ever will :< .     

 

[Andar]

The problem is that computers have a lot of parts, and the way everything comes together is extremely important.


If even one part is less optimal, it reduces the entire system to its "bottleneck" - a computer where everything is at let's say 80% is a lot faster than a computer that has many components at 90% but one at 60%.


Additionally, especially with laptops, it depends on what the computer is optimized for. It could very well be that the first computer was optimized for long battery capacity (high-end-graphic cards require a lot of power), while your second one was optimized for high-end work at the expanse of battery capacity and a few other things.

 

[Bastrophian]

Additionally, especially with laptops, it depends on what the computer is optimized for. It could very well be that the first computer was optimized for long battery capacity (high-end-graphic cards require a lot of power), while your second one was optimized for high-end work at the expanse of battery capacity and a few other things.

I didint think about that. Actually, i dont think i ever would have thought about that. lol ....but i was looking up some things about the blue screen error i was getting, and it looks like alot of people who got that model were having the same problem !  

So, maybe it could have been a bug with the model?

 

[Shaz]

ANY computer you buy is going to need a truckload of updates as soon as you turn it on. That's just the way it is.


And the slooooow starting up could be partly due to all the crap that comes pre-installed on them. Again, just the way it is.


First thing I do when I get a new computer is get rid of any trial/demo software and anything preinstalled by the manufacturer and/or distributor. Then get the OS and all the drivers up to date. Go through and remove anything from Startup that you don't need. Download and install all software that you DO need (being VERY careful to read all the windows and make sure I'm not inadvertently downloading tool/search bars or other software that "comes along for the ride"). And finally getting all the data over and setting up applications like email and stuff.


I set aside at least a full weekend whenever I switch to a new computer.


And Toshiba don't have great laptops in my experience. Dell don't have great anything. My little ASUS laptop ($1000AU so less $USD) is awesome!

 

[Bastrophian]

First thing I do when I get a new computer is get rid of any trial/demo software and anything preinstalled by the manufacturer and/or distributor. Then get the OS and all the drivers up to date. Go through and remove anything from Startup that you don't need. Download and install all software that you DO need (being VERY careful to read all the windows and make sure I'm not inadvertently downloading tool/search bars or other software that "comes along for the ride"). And finally getting all the data over and setting up applications like email and stuff.

I set aside at least a full weekend whenever I switch to a new computer.

I think im gonna do that then, as soon as i get everything homework related battend down and i get a little time.... X_x ....been so long since ive been to school and had homework and strict deadlines!

EDIT: Also, my very first laptop was a toshiba, and it was wonderful! It ran RM VXAce, XP, gimp, and a few of my favorite games without much fuss. The only bad thing was midway during the time i had it, the hinges started to break .

 

[mlogan]

I'm going to try to laptop shop this weekend. This have been very helpful!

 

[Touchfuzzy]

And Toshiba don't have great laptops in my experience. Dell don't have great anything. My little ASUS laptop ($1000AU so less $USD) is awesome!

I've had great experience with ASUS, both the quality of their laptops (with the exception of budget laptops, but no budget laptop has a lot of quality), and the quality of their customer service.

I've been using a N61jq for over 5 years, and it is a solid solid laptop. Cost me $1k US back in 2010, and still runs solid now. I'm just now starting to think of replacing it, and that is only because I need a bit more power, not because it is breaking down.

Had one issue with it (had a lemon of a motherboard) when I first got it, but ASUS customer service RMAed it super fast, and the turnaround on their repairs was only a couple of weeks. Since then, it has run perfectly other than a few issues caused by my own modifications (I had an hdd die, but that was a hard drive I added in a caddy replacing the optical drive, not an original part).

 

[Hudell]

I'm having a great time with my Asus too, although I have nothing good to say about their customer service.

I Had an acer before that and I had to send it for repairs three times on the first year.

People around here buy only dell because they are the only one with a decent customer service in our country, but I've only had bad experiences with their computers.

 

[Ralpf]

I think there may have been something wrong with the first one you got. I have very similar Toshiba (less RAM) and it can run all of those things you couldn't. Except for VXAce games fullscreen for whatever reason.

 

[Clord]

I have ACER 4K monitor with expensive IPS panel. Not enough to judge if their products are crap in general. If you turn it off and back on during Windows is loaded, it starts to black out randomly.


I have found that Asus products generally work fine. Truly rock solid.

 

[Sharm]

FYI, Acer and Asus used to be the same company, just different takes on the same problem.  Acer was cheaper because of lower quality parts, Asus more expensive because of higher quality.  The split completely years ago, and recently Asus has been cutting corners too so it's not as good as it used to be.  I'm currently trying to find a new quality brand so I tried Lenovo but uuuugh, seems to be a high price for a shoddy product and worse customer service.  Two months and my hinge is broken, major touch screen issues, already have burned in image on my screen, got a BSOD the second day (fixed once I removed some bloatware), and the wireless has never worked right.  Battled hard for a refund, instead I get to send it in for 2 weeks to get the broken hinge fixed and a promise that if the hinge breaks again I'll get priority for trying for a refund then.

 

[Vox Novus]

I've heard good things about Asus; I have a lenovo laptop and I love it. I've never had any problems with it and it works for what I want it to do; I had someone in IT even tell me Lenovo was one of his top 3 brands for computers.

 

[Andar]

Calling all computers from a company "good" or "bad" is similiar to calling all humans "good" or "bad".

Every company has products that are good and products that didn't work as well. Additionally different people have different requirements (I know someone who calls all laptops with less than three or four hours of battery power "bad", because that person doesn't play but needs the laptop mobile), and sometimes the "bad" computers are simply single production failures (and most computers from the same series work).

Yes, a lot of people don't know enough of computers to make specific selections or read the component lists - but that is why you should ask people with better knowledge before you buy.

 

[9tkitsune]

I had a simillary odd experience with my new laptop(s).

When I ran RPGmaker VX Ace on my new Toshiba (OS win8) laptop, the music/sound would occasionally not start at all.

When I run RPGmaker VX Ace on the new HP (OS win8) laptop, the problem does not happen...