The Official Technology Thread

[Frank E]

Thanks for your help guys and girl...the Dell Nik suggested is at $999 on bestbuy online, but no number keypad.  Seems like a deal though too.

The hf1 suggestion almost fits, but no touchscreen.

And the costco one I suggested just went down to $1009.  I'm tempted to pull the trigger there, but I think I'll still wait for boxing week.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

Thanks for your help guys and girl...the Dell Nik suggested is at $999 on bestbuy online, but no number keypad.  Seems like a deal though too.

The hf1 suggestion almost fits, but no touchscreen.

And the costco one I suggested just went down to $1009.  I'm tempted to pull the trigger there, but I think I'll still wait for boxing week.

Any tech savvy friends? You could build a rig twice as powerful for half the price if you assemble yourself.

 

[Kin]

Any tech savvy friends? You could build a rig twice as powerful for half the price if you assemble yourself.

Huh. I've heard of people doing that with desktops before but never with laptops.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

Any tech savvy friends? You could build a rig twice as powerful for half the price if you assemble yourself.

Huh. I've heard of people doing that with desktops before but never with laptops.

You're correct, my mistake.

EDIT: It is possible btw, just a much longer process requiring a lot more technical ability.

 

[Frank E]

Any tech savvy friends? You could build a rig twice as powerful for half the price if you assemble yourself.

Huh. I've heard of people doing that with desktops before but never with laptops.

You're correct, my mistake.

EDIT: It is possible btw, just a much longer process requiring a lot more technical ability.

Thanks for nothing WIGWAL.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

 

[herman]

Some companies used to provide barebones laptop shells and you just pick your own internals (RAM, CPU, Storage). Last time I did this was in university with an ASUS so I don't think they do this anymore.

Performance wise, pretty much anything out there with an i3+ is going to be more than enough for your usage.

Just find whatever meets your input/output and size/portability and battery needs, then sub out the hard drive with an SSD. They are usually cheaper after market (newegg, Canada computers, NCIX) rather than trying to find a higher capacity build. And then with a hard drive dock or enclosure, you've got another external storage option with the original drive.

All you need are a set of screwdrivers (probably smaller Torx) and a dock or enclosure that you can use to clone the hard drive onto the SSD.

 

[Frank E]

Some companies used to provide barebones laptop shells and you just pick your own internals (RAM, CPU, Storage). Last time I did this was in university with an ASUS so I don't think they do this anymore.

Performance wise, pretty much anything out there with an i3+ is going to be more than enough for your usage.

Just find whatever meets your input/output and size/portability and battery needs, then sub out the hard drive with an SSD. They are usually cheaper after market (newegg, Canada computers, NCIX) rather than trying to find a higher capacity build. And then with a hard drive dock or enclosure, you've got another external storage option with the original drive.

All you need are a set of screwdrivers (probably smaller Torx) and a dock or enclosure that you can use to clone the hard drive onto the SSD.

I like to think that I'm a pretty smart guy, successful, reasonable, knowledgeable, and stuff....i have no F'ing idea what those last 2 paragraphs are talking bout.

 

[herman]

Just find whatever meets your input/output and size/portability and battery needs, then sub out the hard drive with an SSD. They are usually cheaper after market (newegg, Canada computers, NCIX) rather than trying to find a higher capacity build. And then with a hard drive dock or enclosure, you've got another external storage option with the original drive.

All you need are a set of screwdrivers (probably smaller Torx) and a dock or enclosure that you can use to clone the hard drive onto the SSD.

I like to think that I'm a pretty smart guy, successful, reasonable, knowledgeable, and stuff....i have no F'ing idea what those last 2 paragraphs are talking bout.

I'm on a keyboard now, so I can elaborate a bit.

Pre-built laptop notebooks sold in stores will give you price tiers for various performance upgrades (CPU, RAM, Storage) per size model. In most laptops of the size you're looking for, RAM and Storage are upgradable, so they shouldn't be the things that rule good value options out. For example, vendors will place a price premium on RAM and SSD drives and ramp that up by size. It's a bit the same with any large investment purchase: there are some things that will be easily upgradable, while other things are your limiting factors.

RAM and SSD prices are fortunately usually lower when you buy them separately, so you can sort of save that way. If the laptop you purchase ends up being a hard disk, then you can pick up a Solid State Disk of the size you want that will take the place of the original disk.

All hard drives/SSDs are sold blank obviously, so you'd need to transfer the OS, drivers, and software and what have you onto the new disk, and the easiest way to do that is with a removable disk enclosure, or hard drive dock, or data cable (so that the original disk and the new disk can communicate), and then use (free) cloning software to copy the data over. The benefit will be you get SSD speeds on your computer, and your original drive can be reformatted as an additional storage.

tl:dr; if you didn't really understand that, it'll be easier to just buy what you want 

 

[Frank E]

Just find whatever meets your input/output and size/portability and battery needs, then sub out the hard drive with an SSD. They are usually cheaper after market (newegg, Canada computers, NCIX) rather than trying to find a higher capacity build. And then with a hard drive dock or enclosure, you've got another external storage option with the original drive.

All you need are a set of screwdrivers (probably smaller Torx) and a dock or enclosure that you can use to clone the hard drive onto the SSD.

I like to think that I'm a pretty smart guy, successful, reasonable, knowledgeable, and stuff....i have no F'ing idea what those last 2 paragraphs are talking bout.

I'm on a keyboard now, so I can elaborate a bit.

Pre-built laptop notebooks sold in stores will give you price tiers for various performance upgrades (CPU, RAM, Storage) per size model. In most laptops of the size you're looking for, RAM and Storage are upgradable, so they shouldn't be the things that rule good value options out. For example, vendors will place a price premium on RAM and SSD drives and ramp that up by size. It's a bit the same with any large investment purchase: there are some things that will be easily upgradable, while other things are your limiting factors.

RAM and SSD prices are fortunately usually lower when you buy them separately, so you can sort of save that way. If the laptop you purchase ends up being a hard disk, then you can pick up a Solid State Disk of the size you want that will take the place of the original disk.

All hard drives/SSDs are sold blank obviously, so you'd need to transfer the OS, drivers, and software and what have you onto the new disk, and the easiest way to do that is with a removable disk enclosure, or hard drive dock, or data cable (so that the original disk and the new disk can communicate), and then use (free) cloning software to copy the data over. The benefit will be you get SSD speeds on your computer, and your original drive can be reformatted as an additional storage.

tl:dr; if you didn't really understand that, it'll be easier to just buy what you want 

Thanks herman, that does make some sense.

 

[Bullfrog]

Thanks herman, that does make some sense.

Just buy what you need and live with the fact that you were too technically incompetent and lazy to waste two hours of your time trying to not f-up your new laptop.

 

[McGarnagle]

I can't remember the last time I saw a laptop with a number pad built in to the keyboard. I guess small and light is the selling feature, and this isn't real estate that's necessary any more.

I use one of these.
https://www.amazon.ca/Targus-AKP10US-Numeric-Keypad/dp/B002NURRL0

 

[Frank E]

Thanks herman, that does make some sense.

Just buy what you need and live with the fact that you were too technically incompetent and lazy to waste two hours of your time trying to not f-up your new laptop.

Thank you for your helpful advice.  I'd like to invite you to have romantic intercourse with yourself.

 

[Frank E]

I can't remember the last time I saw a laptop with a number pad built in to the keyboard. I guess small and light is the selling feature, and this isn't real estate that's necessary any more.

I use one of these.
https://www.amazon.ca/Targus-AKP10US-Numeric-Keypad/dp/B002NURRL0

Small and light is secondary to my being able to use it effectively, sir.  I don't want to carry around a stupid dumb accessory like that stupid thing you use like an idiot.

Thank you for your valuable input.

 

[Bates]

When I bought last year I think it was HP and ASUS who seemed to have a numeric keypad on most models.  As someone who travels and does accounting on a lap top the plug in jobbie is a pain in the butt.

 

[LuncheonMeat]

Thanks for your help guys and girl...the Dell Nik suggested is at $999 on bestbuy online, but no number keypad.  Seems like a deal though too.

The hf1 suggestion almost fits, but no touchscreen.

And the costco one I suggested just went down to $1009.  I'm tempted to pull the trigger there, but I think I'll still wait for boxing week.

More to what Nik suggested, a number of Dell machines actually have full keyboards with numeric keypad. Most of the Inspiron models have the full keyboard. I did a search for Inspiron 15 series with touch screen and numeric keyboard, so most of these should meet your needs. You just need to decide between Intel/AMD (this battle has raged for years). Click on the link for the base 15 series model (15" screen). Once you get there, click the green 'customize and buy' button and you can play around with the configuration and see an adjusting price as you go.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15-5567-laptop/pd?oc=cai155w10ph2397&model_id=inspiron-15-5567-laptop&l=en&s=bsd

Edit: no SSD available in the customization options, so if you're dead set on that you're out of look here. One thing to consider, if you're not gaming or using resource intense apps, you probably won't notice the performance difference with a SSD.

 

[Frank E]

Thanks LM, I'm told to go with the SSD because the storage I use would bog down a big regular drive.

Does that make sense to you?

 

[LuncheonMeat]

Thanks LM, I'm told to go with the SSD because the storage I use would bog down a big regular drive.

Does that make sense to you?

I suppose. I've always built my own machines (PC), and you can overcome those issues with more RAM, faster processor, etc. Your choices on laptops are much more limited, unless you want to drop a lot of $$ (a 1TB SSD is about $300 on its own). To add a SSD to a Dell laptop takes you out of the 15 series and into their more high-end products. Now you'll drop closer to $2K and probably not get your numeric keyboard.

I would probably go hit a big box store to see what's out there, and then narrow down the field with a little online research.

 

[Bullfrog]

Thanks LM, I'm told to go with the SSD because the storage I use would bog down a big regular drive.

Does that make sense to you?

Not really. The beauty of SSDs is that they start up and run programs much quicker. And cost is a factor. On my custom-built work stations in my office, I put in smaller SSDs (128 to 256GB) that have my operating system and software and all data is on a conventional HDD. Machines run fantastic.

No doubt, the future is SSD, but it's a cost trade-off in today's market. With an optical HDD, you should defrag it on occasion. No need to do so on an SSD.

 

[herman]

Not really. The beauty of SSDs is that they start up and run programs much quicker. And cost is a factor. On my custom-built work stations in my office, I put in smaller SSDs (128 to 256GB) that have my operating system and software and all data is on a conventional HDD. Machines run fantastic.

No doubt, the future is SSD, but it's a cost trade-off in today's market. With an optical HDD, you should defrag it on occasion. No need to do so on an SSD.

This is the way to go, but not quite possible on laptops unless you get an adapter subs out the CD/DVD drive. Seagate has a hybrid SSD/HDD drive out but manufacturers don't bother including those as options.

Bullfrog is absolutely correct in that SSDs $/GB is much higher than HDDs' in general at this time, but they can be had from wholesalers for less than the upgrade costs laptop companies charge (provided the machine you're looking at is upgradable).

Might be easiest to just get a separate keyboard (wired or wireless) that includes a number pad to go with whatever computer you think is the best deal with SSD, or something like this: http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/insignia-insignia-usb-numeric-keypad-ns-pnk6a01-c-ns-pnk6a01-c/10368936.aspx