Hardware and Software Discussion, For bragging about your PC, or if your 'puter is misbehaving. Options

[King Coin]

Office can do .odt files. Open Office is pretty good, but when I used it I found it to be a resource hog on my computer. It took a little longer to login with it on my computer.

[Kazaera]

Yeah, I use OpenOffice on my other laptop (can't say I've noticed a resource problem? strange), but my Mac came with Word and I couldn't be bothered installing OO because for work I only use LaTeX anyway and so don't actually need any text editors other than TeX-specific ones... except that now I've been doing some ficwriting during the breaks and it gets pretty annoying when Word does the keyboard switch *and* it can't open the files I've worked on on my home comp because they're .odt. And although I suppose I could write fic in LaTeX I'm not sure my readers would be too enthusiastic at me presenting each installment in downloadable-PDF format.

[King Coin]

What version of Word do you have? I just opened a .odt that I had left over from when I used OO.

lol I think many of your readers wouldn't be happy about a PDF.

EDIT: for clarity

This post has been edited by King Coin: Sep 6 2011, 02:34 PM

[Jacki Dice]

So I'm getting ready to buy my first new computer. The only thing is I'm a little confused about memory. The last computer I had had very, very little. I don't know how much but I do know it was a Windows 98 tower :/ The one I'm planning to get will need to be able to play videos (the last one couldn't) and hold a couple thousand songs on itunes and maybe (hopefully!) be able to play Sims

Here's what I might be getting:

Operating system Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium [64-bit]
Processor Intel® Pentium® dual-core processor G620 [2.6GHz, 3MB cache]
Memory 6GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM [2 DIMMs]
Hard drive 500GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
Office software SAVE $40 on Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010
Security software No additional security software
Graphics card Integrated graphics - Intel® HD graphics [DVI, VGA]
Primary optical drive SuperMulti DVD Burner
Networking Integrated Ethernet port, No wireless LAN
Productivity ports 2 USB, front audio ports
Sound Card Integrated sound

Does that sound like enough for what I need? Or do I need less?

This post has been edited by Jacki Dice: Sep 16 2011, 09:54 PM

[King Coin]

Well, which Sims?

The processor is weak but should be ok. You do not have a graphics card though. That will hold you back on any new games.

[Jacki Dice]

Well, which Sims?

The processor is weak but should be ok. You do not have a graphics card though. That will hold you back on any new games.

Sims 2 or 3. Its not a must though and I figured I can always get a graphics card later (I'm not really a big PC gamer)

[King Coin]

Well you should have plenty of memory for what you want to do.

The hard drive should be alright too. I have a 500GB and I'm using just over 300GB. For some people a 500GB won't be enough but for you I think it will.

I think you will need a graphics card for the Sims 2 or 3, but if you already own the games you could try installing and playing them once and see if it works or not.

[grif11]

I'm wanting to buy a new laptop soon and was wondering what a good model would be.

I need it to be able to run most games on at least low graphics, but don't want my pockets to be TOO light. Any ideas?

[Feralikazam]

Hey guys I want to know if my new laptop can run oblivion at a decent framerate and graphics. Heres my specs.

Processor: Intel® Core ™2 CPU T5500 @1.66GHz

Memory: 1.99 GB

I've got over 80 gigs on my harddrive so I'm sure thats enough to hold it. I'm tired of having to use my ps3 as I HATE having to restart if I catch vampirism. So can I run it at decent graphics and framerate?

[King Coin]

Nope, sorry. Your laptop has the specs of a netbook.

[The Solo Rollo]

Guys, how does my new laptop sound? Do you think I could run oblivion? (Yeah, seems to be the big question here)

Oh, and I'm going to be taking advantage of steams "midweek madness" and get oblivion for £4! is it possible to transfer it over to the new laptop when I get it, or is it stuck on the laptop I download it to? Please answer quick!

This post has been edited by The Solo Rollo: Nov 17 2011, 06:39 PM

[jack cloudy]

Well, it sounds better than mine in all aspects, and my laptop could run Oblivion on the medium settings with reasonable fps. (then the dvd drive broke ) Anyway, the one thing that definitely needs to be checked is the graphics card. I couldn't find it on the quick amazon summary.

As for Steam, I think you can redownload games that have been bought. I don't use Steam though, so read the faq first. The answer is probably in there somewhere.

Edit: I'm replying to Solo's toshiba. Yeah, the one with the intel-core is probably underpowered. Intel graphics cards aren't all that hot either.

This post has been edited by jack cloudy: Nov 17 2011, 07:51 PM

[Thomas Kaira]

Any game you have licensed to your Steam account can be re-downloaded infinitely from your Steam profile, whether or not you purchased a digital copy or bought the hard copy.

And no, don't buy a computer with an Intel graphics chip if you intend to play games on it. Ever.

[The Solo Rollo]

Well, thanks for the info on steam, but one of my mates is going to give me GOTY anyway!

Oh, the graphics card is ATI Radeon HD 4250.

I love the processor name! Turion II X2 Dual Core P520 = Awesome!

[Thomas Kaira]

My new card is in!

nVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti.

This completes a long computer overhaul, as my last major component has now gone up to modern hardware.

Before I was on an aging 8800 GT. Now, I'm back with the times.

But before I do anything other than benchmark (and I did get a nice performance boost in Skyrim), I have Christmas dinner to worry about.

[SubRosa]

Congrats! That is a serious card. You can crank up the AA and anisotropic settings to max. I have them set to x32 and x16 for Morrowind.

And now you are ready for DX11 games. Which I don't think exist because everyone is making their games for 5 year old consoles.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Dec 25 2011, 08:11 PM

[King Coin]

Nice card TK! That's the one I wanted... Ended up with a weaker card, but I'm happy with it. Right now I'm thinking of getting a SSD next for my computer. Maybe in a few months.

My gift this year is a Acer laptop. AMD A8 quad core, HD 6620G (still trying to figure out how good that card is), 4GB RAM.

[The Solo Rollo]

I'm now posting from the brand new laptop I got for Christmas!

it's not the L650 I thought I would get, but a much better model. the Toshiba Satellite C660-2EL

Here's the quick important stuff:

CPU - Intel Core i3-370M Processor

Graphics - Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD

RAM - 4GB (DDR3)

HDD - 640GB

Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium (64 - Bit)

[King Coin]

That processor looks decent. Dual core with threading.

My A8 3500M is what AMD is calling an APU that contains both the CPU and GPU in a single chip. It seems to deliver pretty good performance and Skyrim autodetected High graphics settings on it. I haven't had a chance to actually play Skyrim on it yet, but I'll try that in a few days here and see how it runs.

EDIT: Looks like the processor will only get up to 1500 MHz. Those of us with an i7 know that it idles faster than the A8 3500M can work at full speed. lol.
Oh, and no threading either.

This post has been edited by King Coin: Dec 27 2011, 08:40 PM

[Thomas Kaira]

I'm now posting from the brand new laptop I got for Christmas!

it's not the L650 I thought I would get, but a much better model. the Toshiba Satellite C660-2EL

Here's the quick important stuff:

CPU - Intel Core i3-370M Processor

Graphics - Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD

RAM - 4GB (DDR3)

HDD - 640GB

Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium (64 - Bit)

Looks like a very nice all-purpose laptop there! Not good for gaming, but I'm fairly sure that was not why you bought it.

Should be great for long trips.