I Got A New Computer!

[JHDK]

yesterday my old sony viao died. like wouldn't boot up died. i know it could probably be salvaged but it was a cheap machine and it lasted around 5 years so i thought id skip the trouble of trying to revive it and just go get a new one.

before i left the house i decided i wasnt going to spend more than $400. i went to a few places and found this one:

HP 15.6" TouchScreen Laptop Intel Core i3 6GB Memory 1TB Hard Drive Black 15-ac121dx - Best Buy

of the stores i went to this one was the most powerful for the money. so far so good. im happy with it. it has a touch screen, which is not really necessary, but its nice for pausing movies in bed or whatever.

i know i could get a better deal online...but from what ive seen the deals are really not that much better. im a cheap, store bought computer guy. thats what ive been for my past 3 computers now and it seems to be serving me well.

 

[Evil_Ernie]

 

[HecticArt]

Dig.

I'm kind of the same about the touch screen so far.
My desktop died, and was old enough that it's not worth trying to fix, and I've been expecting my laptop to kick soon, so I decided to go big to replace them both and went with this one: HP ENVY 17.3" TouchScreen Laptop Intel Core i7 16GB Memory 1TB Hard Drive Silver m7-n101dx - Best Buy

Like you, I probably could have shopped some more and gotten a better deal, but I needed to get it done and move forward.

So far so good. I've not gotten completely moved in yet, but I'm getting there. Fortunately, I have all of my important files (I hope) backed up on my raid drive.

 

[semipenguin]

I'm glad you stuck to a cheap machine. No need going crazy on technology that's already outdated

 

[HecticArt]

Me or Koop?
I run some heavy programs. Photoshop is a hog with the images I take, and the music software I run bogs down without some horsepower. I haven't had to buy a computer in 8 or 9 years. I figure I'm overdue.
It's all outdated by the time it makes it to store shelves anyway, so what the hell.

 

[semipenguin]

Me or Koop?
I run some heavy programs. Photoshop is a hog with the images I take, and the music software I run bogs down without some horsepower. I haven't had to buy a computer in 8 or 9 years. I figure I'm overdue.
It's all outdated by the time it makes it to store shelves anyway, so what the hell.

Koop.

But you're due, too

 

[JHDK]

its been 2 weeks with my new computer now. this is the last day i can return it to best buy and im not going to do it. ive done a lot of looking around and this model really seems like the most powerful machine i can get for $400. i think i may be making this up but my one complaint is that i think the screen is a little less bright than my previous laptop. its nothing major but its something ive noticed. maybe that is due to the touchscreen? or maybe its not there at all and its all in my head.

now i have to decide next if i want to buy the malwarebytes premium or not. its only $25 for the year so ill probably go for it but just running the scan on my old laptop worked well for 4 years. do any of u have malwarebytes premium?

 

[semipenguin]

I had malwarebytes, but I let it expire.

I haven't used my laptop in about 6 months.

You buy premium, & you can put it on your mobile device. It kept jacking my phone, so I deleted it

 

[HecticArt]

I just use the free version.
It seems to do a decent job.
I still need to install it on my new laptop.

I've been using the MS Security Essentials too.

I need to uninstall the MacAfee that came pre-installed, and a few other bits of BS too, but it's been a great machine so far. I haven't taken advantage of the touch screen yet. I need to start tinkering with it.

 

[JHDK]

i figured out the brightness issue. after a bunch of playing around...i messed with the intel display settings and checked this active brightness thing windows 10 uses to no avail, then i saw some microsoft site talking about the display drivers. i followed the steps to update them and it has made a noticeable difference. im not really sure what drivers even are, and it seems odd that i would have to update them on a 2 week old machine but whatever, im not going to question what works.

and hectic, when u start using ur touchscreen let me know what u do with it. so far i have only used if for scrolling sites and hitting pause/play on video. and i rarely do that. its cool to have but not really worth much.

 

[HecticArt]

That's about all I've done so far too.
It doesn't fold all the way back like some laptops do to look like a tablet, (but it has tablet mode) so it's not a reflex to reach for the screen.

I think it might be handy editing photos in Photoshop and drawing stuff. I don't expect to have much time to look into it for a little while. It's nice to know it's there.

 

[blyons200]

Dig.

I'm kind of the same about the touch screen so far.
My desktop died, and was old enough that it's not worth trying to fix, and I've been expecting my laptop to kick soon, so I decided to go big to replace them both and went with this one: HP ENVY 17.3" TouchScreen Laptop Intel Core i7 16GB Memory 1TB Hard Drive Silver m7-n101dx - Best Buy

Like you, I probably could have shopped some more and gotten a better deal, but I needed to get it done and move forward.

So far so good. I've not gotten completely moved in yet, but I'm getting there. Fortunately, I have all of my important files (I hope) backed up on my raid drive.

Holy shit I just bought the exact same model (aside from being a year newer) at Best Buy last Saturday. Freaky. Does it log you in with facial recognition, this one does.

HP ENVY 17.3" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive Silver m7-n109dx - Best Buy

So far windows 10 seems pretty good. But I haven't had to run any specialty work software on it yet. Hope it still works like it did on Windows 7. I love this laptop though. It's fast as fuck and dead quiet too. My old laptop was fast but the fan noise drove me nuts (It ran hot too). This thing doesn't even feel warm, and zero fan noise. Oh and the speakers are great aren't they? Best sounding laptop I've ever seen. This is a really good midrange laptop.

 

[blyons200]

That's about all I've done so far too.
It doesn't fold all the way back like some laptops do to look like a tablet, (but it has tablet mode) so it's not a reflex to reach for the screen.

I think it might be handy editing photos in Photoshop and drawing stuff. I don't expect to have much time to look into it for a little while. It's nice to know it's there.

I haven't even tried the touchscreen yet. I'm happy with my wireless mouse.

 

[HecticArt]

I still dig it.
I don't use the recognition flarf, and still haven't gotten much use out of the touch screen yet, and I don't know why.

Gots to love the Bang!

 

[blyons200]

I still dig it.
I don't use the recognition flarf, and still haven't gotten much use out of the touch screen yet, and I don't know why.

Gots to love the Bang!

I don't really use the touch screen either, I don't really have a reason to I guess.
Another weird thing. I was at my office the other day and they just bought two laptops exactly like ours. Weird. Must be a popular laptop.

 

[JHDK]

my computer, and yours hectic, is now a year old. for a total of $420 i am very happy with it. i have had very few issues with the machine. i use it at least 5 hours per day, usually more because it is my tv, gamecube, N64, writing station and movie player along with all the screwing around i do on the internet. so it was well worth the $35 per month that it works out to have cost. even if it dies right now i would not be too pissed. if i can get another 2 years out of this thing i will think of it as a resounding success!

 

[HecticArt]

I'm still happy with mine too.
Still haven't gotten much use out of the touch screen. Still need to do that.

 

[blyons200]

I'm still happy with mine too.
Still haven't gotten much use out of the touch screen. Still need to do that.

Me neither, never use it

 

[JHDK]

Time for what has become my yearly computer update!

The Hectic and Koop machines are now 2 years old. Knock on wood, but I have had very few issues with my computer over the past year. It is very safe to say that I am totally satisfied with my low end computer purchase. At $420 (tax included) that works out to $17.50 per month. Considering that I use the machine at least 12 hours per day I am delighted with that price and how well it has held up. I run a Malwarebytes scan at least once a week, usually two or three times. That's really the only maintenance I do and so far it has worked like a charm. Historically, 3-4 years is about the lifespan of my big box store, bargain computers.

Here's to another issue free year with my HP!

 

[HecticArt]

Mine is still doing fine.
It did an update a while ago, and the touchscreen stopped, but I haven't gotten around to updating the driver yet.