Nobody cares about my computer questions

[Essence Lumin]

Sometimes I don't want to start a new thread to ask some computer question, so I'm making this one for when someone has any sort of computer questions such as what pc or graphics card to get, how to get linux running under windows or whatever might come to mind.

In my case today, I am looking for a new laptop. I don't want to bust my budget but am looking for a laptop that can play modern games reasonably well. I am not looking to play them on maxed out settings or anything. Most of its use however is just doing day to day stuff like browsing the web. I have had bad luck with the last couple of laptops with them only lasting a year or two. I ran across this laptop.

HP Omen 16 with 16 GB ram $960
GTX 1650 4 GB
16.1" diagonal screen
512 GB SSD
HP 3 Year warranty w/ accidental damage $247

For a total of $1207.

Does this seem like a good choice?

 

[Clara D.]

1650 is a good card, though for only an extra $130, consider the 3050.

4.2Ghz Ryzen 5 is good.

16G of ram is good.

Considering the whackiness lately, I'd even consider that a fair price.

 

[Noodles]

You have already jumped ocer the biggest hurdle for gaming on a laptop by having a discrete GPU. Anything else will just be gravy, or whatever.

 

[Khamon]

DO NOT POUR GRAVY INTO YOUR LAPTOP1

 

[Noodles]

DO NOT POUR GRAVY INTO YOUR LAPTOP1

What if Inam using mashed potatoes as a heat sink to help with cooling and I need something to fill in the air gaps?

 

[Essence Lumin]

What if Inam using mashed potatoes as a heat sink to help with cooling and I need something to fill in the air gaps?

This woman made a computer mouse out of mashed potatoes.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

This woman made a computer mouse out of mashed potatoes.

Moused potatoes.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

This woman made a computer mouse out of mashed potatoes.

Can you pour gravy on it?

 

[Essence Lumin]

Can you pour gravy on it?

Sure! With that mouse. More generally, Quora has an answer.

Why is my mouse always covered with gunk and dried up gunk molds?

Answer (1 of 2): If you take a step back and think of where the gunk actually came from, it will probably make sense. It all depends on what the mouse has been in contact with. Grime and gunk on the top side of the mouse comes from your hand, plain and simple. Any dirt on the underside comes fro...

www.quora.com

 

[Noodles]

My mice tend to not have gunk, but I also wash my hands pretty frequently.

 

[Essence Lumin]

There are two things I particularly dislike about Windows 11. One is how they screwed the sound/wifi/bluetooth widgets in the taskbar. The other how they screwed up the right context menu in file explorer, making you have to go to a second menu most of the time. This article shows how to fix the right context menu problem!

7 Frustrating New Features in Windows 11 (and How to Fix Them)

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

The Geforce 1650 is a three year old low end entry level GPU. It will run okay-ish in full HD, but don't expect it to run the newest graphics orgasms in all the gory details or having much fun with SL ultra mode in well populated places. This is not what it has been made for, but since this is not your intention, it is fine for your intended use case.

Furthermore most gamers would just pay the additional 30 bucks to have the 144 Hz display. Then again a 1650 is way too underpowered to drive such a display properly, because in most games it surely not be able to have 144+ FPS.

8 gigs of RAM is not enough in a laptop, especially for some games or when just using SL alone. My SL sometimes eats up to 8 gigs of RAM alone in crowded places. 16 gigs of RAM is definitely a must.

 

[Essence Lumin]

The Geforce 1650 is a three year old low end entry level GPU. It will run okay-ish in full HD, but don't expect it to run the newest graphics orgasms in all the gory details or having much fun with SL ultra mode in well populated places. This is not what it has been made for, but since this is not your intention, it is fine for your intended use case.

Furthermore most gamers would just pay the additional 30 bucks to have the 144 Hz display. Then again a 1650 is way too underpowered to drive such a display properly, because in most games it surely not be able to have 144+ FPS.

8 gigs of RAM is not enough in a laptop, especially for some games or when just using SL alone. My SL sometimes eats up to 8 gigs of RAM alone in crowded places. 16 gigs of RAM is definitely a must.

My configuration with 16 (not 8) gigs of RAM was $1206 (including 3 year accidental damage warranty) when I posted. I was indecisive and and now it's $200 more. Well crap, that's too much. My alternative idea was to forget gaming and just get a solid laptop. 1920 x 1280, 15" screen, Ryzen 5 or I5, 16 gig RAM. Even that looks like it would be $600 or $700. I don't know that I want to spend that much money for that either.

Laptop prices have sure gone up a lot in the last two or three years. It's depressing.

 

[Essence Lumin]

Since my old computer died I needed a replacement. I decided to go the cheap route. There is a non profit organization called Free Geek here that refurbishes donated computers and gives them to people who need them. They also sell a few. They put linux on them. So I got this Asus Q550LF made around 2013 from them for $200. It was a very nice computer back then and is built like a tank so maybe it will last a while. It even has a touchscreen which I don't use.

I got the free Windows 10 iso from Microsoft and put it on. I was expecting nag screens for a product key but to my surprise there aren't any. Maybe they don't care about Windows 10 anymore because they seem to have gotten rid of them completely.

The computer has a couple of problems. It came without a battery. I got one for $30. Then I found out why they might have removed the battery completely. it does not like to go to sleep. If it does there is no way to wake it up except removing 13 screws and resetting the battery. So I turned off sleep in settings and don't let the battery run out.

For some odd reason the normal touchpad settings do not display in windows settings. There is an app from asus to control those settings but it doesn't allow you to turn off three finger gestures. So if I touch it the wrong way it displays the all the open apps on my desktop. That is mildly annoying. Some web page suggested the reason the Windows settings page didn't display was due to an out of date bios. It was 10 versions out of date so I decided to flash it. Oh no! It got to 100% verified saying restart in 2 seconds. It didn't. I reset the battery and it would go into bios setup. Exiting it just went right back in. There were no devices in the boot list. I figured I had bricked the thing till finally some page suggested I turn off secure boot and use CSM mode??? OK. That fixed it!

So I'll live with a quirky touchpad and the $1000 I didn't spend on a fancy modern laptop.

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

They put linux on them. So I got this Asus Q550LF made around 2013 from them for $200. It was a very nice computer back then and is built like a tank so maybe it will last a while. It even has a touchscreen which I don't use.

Should have kept Linux on it! You'll have to watch the RAM use if you run SL on it. SL is happier with 16GB.

So I'll live with a quirky touchpad and the $1000 I didn't spend on a fancy modern laptop.

It may not be fancy but it's not bad either, it even has a number pad! The GT745M even has it's own 2GB of video RAM. Plug in a mouse if you don't want to deal with the quirky touchpad and have the space for it.

 

[Soen Eber]

Or a trackball! LImited space here, and I swear the Logitech Marble Mouse is the best out there (because it doesn't care if you're a lefty or a righty).

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

The security on my Chromebook bricked it (there's a way to reset the secutiry involving turning it off and on every 30 seconds for half an hour but after an hour it still hadn't reset so fuck it), so I got a new one "like new except for this scratch" for 1/3 MSRP. With a touch screen. Very nice. Just in time for Google to drop app support in ChromeOS because they run Android apps now. The one app I want to run on it only runs in portrait mode in a little phone size window in the middle of the screen. It works fine on an Android tablet. Is there a way to make the Android emulator on ChromeOS to pretend to be a tablet instead of a phone?

 

[Casey Pelous]

JFC.

So it was a pretty profitable winter and I decided a new laptop -- on sale at Costco -- would be a fine thing to have.

What was I thinking? This thing came loaded with what I can only call the unspeakable horror that is Windoze 11.

First, it has been three freaking hours since I unboxed this infernal contraption and it is STILL totally unusable because its memory, hard drive, and network are all completely clogged with god-knows-what sorts of updates to let this idiot operating system fluff its pubic hair or something. It is, at the moment, approximately as constipated as a cow that ate an entire cheese wheel, though the reviews say it perks up AFTER A DAY OR TWO. Which explains why I am writing this on my ancient laptop with a CPU made of balsa wood, rather than my shiny new laptop with a CPU made of .... probably slightly better balsa wood.

Did you, by any chance, want to install TexStudio (LaTeX editor) WHERE YOU DO ABOUT 80% OF YOUR WORK, Casey? Windoze 11 KNOWS BETTER and has converted your downloaded install file to some unrunnable piece of crap with no guidance on how to make it run TO KEEP YOU SAFE YOU IGNORANT SLUT.

At least it let me install CCleaner so I could delete the preloaded McAfee (!!!!!!!!) Crapware (tm) which was preloaded. I did rather enjoy their "begging for its life as it mounts the scaffold" screens warning me that I would LOSE ALL PROTECTION if I deleted their junk. I filled in their "but WHY ARE YOU LEAVING US?" form .... "Because John McAfee was Satan and I don't want any of his brain's DNA in my PC, EVAR. Kill it now! Kill it with fire!!!" I think I was very civil, considering. I never once compared going without their precious warez to "raw-doggin' it", which I think was, on further consideration, overly polite.

Well, at least there's still the Start ...................................WHAT???? THEY DELETED THE START THING WHERE YOU TYPE IN THE PROGRAM YOU WANT TO START AND FIND IT? W T ever lovin' F?????????? 'Cause nobody used THAT, right??????

IF the thing ever figures out how to do anything but somnambulate, I must look into how to rid myself of this OS or find hacks to restore it to some semblance of functionality.

On the plus side, it is very thin .............................................................

 

[Essence Lumin]

IF the thing ever figures out how to do anything but somnambulate, I must look into how to rid myself of this OS or find hacks to restore it to some semblance of functionality.

On the plus side, it is very thin .............................................................

I've heard of people formatting the pc and reinstalling from a clean iso from MS to get rid of the crap. I'm not recommending that, just something I've heard.

 

[Monica Dream]

DO NOT POUR GRAVY INTO YOUR LAPTOP1

Also if the tech tips you're getting involve pouring liquids into electronics, you might want to consider getting advice from someplace that isn't 4chan.