Shit. I need another computer.

"Tohru" (tohrurokuno) 11/11/2014 at 01:05 • Filed to: None

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I didn't want to do this. I sold the other one to be free of the damned thing.

But the netbook is too slow. I do work-related stuff on my PC since the old PC was faster than the Motorola work tablet. The netbook is slower than the tablet though.

I can't build a new desktop PC. I already know the dark road that will go down. It'll start easily enough, then 6 months from now I'll have a hulking beast with dual 1440p monitors and two graphics cards and a gauge on the side that shows how turgid I get when I look at it. That's no good at all.

I need a laptop. Something with monitor outputs. Hell, even if it's got a broken screen it'll do. It needs to be around 2GHz or more with at least 4 gigs of RAM - the netbook has 2 and Chrome's already crashed once because it ate all the RAM like the gluttonous slutbag it is. That was with just 5 tabs open. FIVE! On the old rig I'd have 30 or 40 open AND Photoshop open AND a video playing and it gave no fucks at all about it.

A 4 gig stick of DDR2 laptop RAM is $86. That would double the netbook's memory (only has one memory slot) and make it more usable, but still slow because of the Atom processor.

Or, I can drop $200-300 on a used laptop and get something with maybe an i3 or i5 processor and 4 gigs of RAM from the get-go.

OR I could take the spare LGA1150 motherboard I have in the garage and the spare power supply in my room, and with $200 in parts make a functional PC with no gaming capabilities.

Help me Oppo. You're my only hope.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 01:13

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Step 1, buy a used laptop with an i7 in it.

Step 2, Use laptop

Step 3, Find large cliff and throw netbook off of it

Alternative step 3, find large sledgehammer and smash netbook with said sledgehammer

Viggen9er3 > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 01:20

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I'm in IT for my day job. It sounds like you are on the right path with your needs and an i5 laptop with 4 gigs. That should do pretty much anything you need if its not too graphics intensive. There are many perks if you downsize from a desktop to a laptop, the main one is freeing you up from being tied down to a desk. The cheap route would be building the desktop with parts you mentioned.

Netbooks are under powered and possibly too small if you need to do some serious work on them for long hours. Adding ram will speed up the netbook slightly and allow for more tabs, but its really limited by the processor as its slow and creates bottlenecks. Nothing is going to solve that slow problem with them. Comparing the Netbook to an i5 laptop or decent desktop is going to be a night a day difference in performance between them.

As for chrome crashing, backup chrome and re-install it, more ram will allow for more tabs though.

Tohru > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man 11/11/2014 at 01:33

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I got the netbook as a Christmas present from my parents, I can't just destroy it.

At netbook stuff, it runs well - it just gets bogged down trying to do real computer stuff.

Tohru > Viggen9er3 11/11/2014 at 01:35

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I put a bid in on a lappy on eBay. Buyer had it listed as for parts, but it should be an easy fix to get it running. I'd say more but I don't want to sabotage myself. It's got 3 days left.

Viggen9er3 > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 01:41

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Going forward the laptop is probably the best choice. ;)

Viggen9er3 > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man 11/11/2014 at 01:44

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If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 03:05

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Thinkpads are made for business, the T series have enough juice to get your stuff done but not enough for serious gaming. You can pick up refurbished ones for around $300. If you want more you can spring for a W series which are dedicated mobile workstations meant for graphical work.

It also has a built in fingerprint reader that I can use to log on with instead of a password which I think is just beautiful.

There's also docks made for Thinkpads that add a ton of ports and give you desktop funcionality.

Tripper > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 08:12

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If you're savy, put linux on the netbook. Ubuntu and Mint are easy enough for a seasoned windows/mac user. Linux can do a lot with little system resources, if you really want to make it fast throw a cheap ssd in there.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 08:57

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I hear you. My mobile machine is a 4 year old netbook. Whatever you do get, buy a solid state drive and put it in. They aren't too expensive and make a world of difference.

uofime > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 10:08

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take that Mobo,

get this:

Intel Celeron G1820 Haswell Dual-Core 2.7GHz LGA 1150 54W Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80646G1820

for 50 bucks (newegg today)

8g ddr3 for 40 bucks

and the cheaperst monitor, key board and mouse you can scrounge

if you must have graphics is suggest an NVIDIA gt 730 for like 60 (newegg today)

I built a similar computer 4 years ago in college (E3300 Celeron, GT430, 4gb ddr2) and it still runs fine today, I use it as a NAS and HTPC and I have used it for Pro Engineer CAD and FEA and it worked amazingly well. I even played Skyrim on it at 720p and it did really well.

Don't get sucked into the spec war!

Tohru > uofime 11/11/2014 at 10:30

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I want to know what whitchcraft you are using to get DDR3 8GB for $40

Tohru > BaconSandwich is tasty. 11/11/2014 at 10:32

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New it came with a 160GB 5400rpm drive and 1GB of RAM. It now has a 60GB SATA II solid state drive and 2GB of RAM.

Tohru > Tripper 11/11/2014 at 10:33

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It already has a cheap SSD in there and I've upgraded the RAM once.

I know about Linux but I've always heard the wireless drivers are dogshit.

Tohru > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 11/11/2014 at 10:38

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I'll have to look into it.

uofime > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 11:26

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microcenter had a sale looks like now that would only get you 4gb... but black Friday is coming

Tohru > uofime 11/11/2014 at 11:37

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We don't have MicroCenter up here in da Great White Nort' doanchaknow dere hey.

uofime > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 11:41

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they ship, though you can't always get all their deals online, which is a bummer. Come on down to Chicago!

Tohru > uofime 11/11/2014 at 11:47

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If I come down to Chi-town I'll need to bring the truck and a few hundred bucks for a raid of the IKEA over in Schaumberg. We don't have any of those in the land of cheese either.

uofime > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 11:53

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only a few miles further south from Ikea down 355 is the fry's and microcenter

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 12:17

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Do eeeeet.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 14:58

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I did something similar with my netbook. I put in an 80 GB SSD and 2 GB of RAM and Windows 8, and it made it actually usable.

Tohru > BaconSandwich is tasty. 11/11/2014 at 15:19

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Yeah, it started with XP and now has 7 Home Premium on it.

Why the hell would you voluntarily install Windows 8?

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 16:05

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It works better with the SSD than 7 does. That, and I was doing some Windows Phone 8 development, which requires Windows 8.

Tohru > BaconSandwich is tasty. 11/11/2014 at 18:21

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The roommate has 8.1 on his computer and it makes me want to light his PC on fire any time I have to do anything with it.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Tohru 11/11/2014 at 18:25

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Understandable. There's some good, some bad.