General/Random Discussion Topic

[mtmerrick]

6 vs 8 GB of RAM will really only make a difference on higher end programs. If you're gaming, HD video editing, using Photoshop, ecru, get more ram. If you're not, won't make a difference. And 6 is plenty for even light gaming (portal, LU, and minecraft all run fine on 4 gb with my first Gen i3)

Most important specs to look at on a laptop are processor and graphics.

For graphics, you want a midrange or better (ask a techie) GPU by nvidia or ATI(aka AMD) if you're doing anything I listed above. If your just doing basic stuff, Intel onboard graphics will be fine. I don't know how AMD onboard graphics stack up. God graphics can dramatically increase the performance of your computer.
 
CPUs (processors) are the most important part of your computer. The stronger your CPU the longer your computer will live and the better performance it can have. In my (and most other people's) experience/opinion, Intel has far better CPUs than 'equivalant' AMD chips.
If you get yourself less than a sandy bridge (2000 series) i3 you're screwing yourself over.
Intel is coming out with new ivy bridge (3000 series) processors within the next few months. You may want to hold out for these - or at least the sandy bridge chips that will be significantly marked down because of the new products.

Other things you should look at are the screen (resolution and technology) the optical drive (CD, DVD, bluray, or none?) whether it has Bluetooth, and the biggest one most people forget:

BATTERY LIFE!!!!!!!

[Magical Girl Mimi]

^Unless you keep it plugged in. Then battery life doesn't matter. =P

Also, to shift discussion away; any idea why my arrow keys randomly repurposed themselves to make it their mission to annoy me by flipping my screen(EVERYTHING on it) around? It's quite annoying. -_-'

[mtmerrick]

......elaborate?

[The Host]

6 vs 8 GB of RAM will really only make a difference on higher end programs. If you're gaming, HD video editing, using Photoshop, ecru, get more ram. If you're not, won't make a difference. And 6 is plenty for even light gaming (portal, LU, and minecraft all run fine on 4 gb with my first Gen i3)

Most important specs to look at on a laptop are processor and graphics.

For graphics, you want a midrange or better (ask a techie) GPU by nvidia or ATI(aka AMD) if you're doing anything I listed above. If your just doing basic stuff, Intel onboard graphics will be fine. I don't know how AMD onboard graphics stack up. God graphics can dramatically increase the performance of your computer.
 
CPUs (processors) are the most important part of your computer. The stronger your CPU the longer your computer will live and the better performance it can have. In my (and most other people's) experience/opinion, Intel has far better CPUs than 'equivalant' AMD chips.
If you get yourself less than a sandy bridge (2000 series) i3 you're screwing yourself over.
Intel is coming out with new ivy bridge (3000 series) processors within the next few months. You may want to hold out for these - or at least the sandy bridge chips that will be significantly marked down because of the new products.

Other things you should look at are the screen (resolution and technology) the optical drive (CD, DVD, bluray, or none?) whether it has Bluetooth, and the biggest one most people forget:

BATTERY LIFE!!!!!!!

Thanks. In a few months I'll probably ask about this a bit more, as I'll be needing a good laptop for school. I'll keep this in mind.

^Unless you keep it plugged in. Then battery life doesn't matter. =P

Also, to shift discussion away; any idea why my arrow keys randomly repurposed themselves to make it their mission to annoy me by flipping my screen(EVERYTHING on it) around? It's quite annoying. -_-'

Umm, I've seen people do pranks like this at my school, but I have no idea why it does this or how to fix this.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

MTM: *Hits right arrow key* *The whole screen tilts to the right, with the taskbar usually at the bottom now on the left* *Hits left key* *Same thing, except flipped so that taskbar's on the right* *Hits down key* *The whole screen is upside down* *Hits up key* *Everything's normal* That's what I mean. >_> I went to edit something as I was typing as normal, and when I hit the left or right arrow key(I think I had just fixed the error); everything suddenly flipped, after the screen flashed black for a moment, like it does on XP when you change the resolution of the screen. I don't get what could've caused it though...

[The Host]

you might be stuck on stickey keys or hot keys or something... again, I don't know how to undo this as when I looked on the internet you can usually hold Ctrl + Alt + arrow key to change the orientation of the screen. One site I saw said to press Ctrl Alt F12 and unclick 'enable hot keys'. Not sure if this will help or not...


aaaaand if I actually read your entire post it seems like your problem is solved...

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Nope; that's what I used to check what happened. I only have it usable, because I pressed up. If I press any of the keys again, it does the same thing. Rather annoying, I use those a lot. >_>'

I'll check the sticky keys thing; this is getting rather annoying.

/EDIT: Hold on... I wonder; I didn't click 'cancel' the last few times I accidentally the shift key. So... ... Nope; still upside down. Rather interesting typing like that, however. Everything is literally upside down. It doesn't alter anything, so you still have to move your mouse downward, even though it's being moved up the screen. >_>

[mtmerrick]

Well host, ctrl+alt+arrows does nothing on XP......

[Magical Girl Mimi]

0_o Huh, must do something apparently; because that seems to have fixed my problem... 0_o

[The Host]

Ctrl Alt keys does something on whatever my school computers use...

is the problem fixed or not? I thought it was fixed about 4 posts ago, but then you next posts confused me...

[Magical Girl Mimi]

It's fixed now, but it hadn't been fixed before. =P

[mtmerrick]

bizzare

[Magical Girl Mimi]

You're telling me... But; with that said, that control alt thing works with the arrow keys on XP.

Maybe it's a desktop-only thing? *Shrugs* =/

[mtmerrick]

*typed that from a windows XP desktop*

a ZT box with a Core 2 Quad Q6600 @2.4GHz, 3 GB RAM, GeForce7050 nForce 601i GPU, with a HP 2010i monitor

(my PC at work)

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Odd then... It works on my comp. =/ Interesting computer specs. Even that blows my computer away. xD

[MsRowdyRedhead]

Cheer up, Blade.. maybe someone will steal yours... =P

[Magical Girl Mimi]

*Just seeing this*

Nah, have you ever seen that commercial that shows signs of when your computer is old?

They'd take everything but the computer. xD In fact, lemme try and find that... I'm intrigued now.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

Yes.. I thought of that commercial!

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Yeah. You have a point about them stealing anything, though, especially if they don't realize how bad off it is. =P

[Trijhak]

HOW TO GET RID OF AN OLD COMPUTER (NOT SERIOUS)


Step 1. Get both an old computer and a new computer.
Step 2. Switch the components around so that the components from the old computer are in the new computer and vice versa.
Step 3. Put the supposedly 'new computer (with old components)' in an obvious place.
Step 4. Hide the 'old computer' in a safe place.
Step 5. Wait for thieves.
Step 6. Feel the devious pleasure that comes with trolling.

I really have no idea if it works like that...

BUT

For extra measures, make the 'old computer' a cyborg so that it can attack others if they attempt to steal it. Make sure it's vicious, but before that check for any... misfortune that might have already happened.