PC peeps....any good deals for around $400?

dante · Nov 28, 2012

An Ivy Bridge i3 (the 4 digit number after it starts with a "3" as opposed to the previous generation "2") could probably be had in that range. Keep an eye on slickdeals.net (or set up an alert for "desktop"?) and see what pops up, especially between now and Christmas. Staples had a Lenovo H430 for $379 for "Cyber Monday" that's almost identical to the one I picked up (and convinced my parents to buy) over the summer. 4gb dims of RAM are cheap (~$20), as are internal hard drives (sub $100), so if you need to modify it after you purchase it you can easily do so. There's still one very similar for $399 on their website.

Desktop processors are more powerful than their laptop equivalent, so a 2nd generation i3 desktop processor operates about the same as a 3rd generation i5 (better) laptop version. Basically don't feel bad about getting a slightly lower-range desktop processor since it'll perform similarly to the more modern, more expensive laptop ones.

Know how you feel about parents and slow computers.... My parents were still trying to make do with an ancient ~2.8ghz P4 (yay for 160x120 Skype!) and spent far more than they should have to try to keep it going. They finally had to get a new one when the old one died over the summer, and so I found a screaming deal on a desktop and basically said "BUY THIS. TODAY." Thankfully they did (I installed a second 4gb of RAM when I was home for Thanksgiving), and hopefully that should meet their needs for the next ~8-10 years.... I haven't seen any type of real processor-intensive programs (that someone like my parents would use) in years that would actually necessitate anything more powerful. The last one I saw was HD Skype, but even that would run on my ~2.5ghz p8700 laptop processor. Most new programs seem to be trending towards lighter "Apps" as opposed to intensive programs like Office...

Btw, CPUBenchmark is a pretty good site for comparing various processors.

jimmydean · Nov 28, 2012

I got the ex an i5 Asus Win7 15.5 laptop with 6G of memory (but a tiny 500G HD) for $350 off Best Buys site. They were blowing out anything with Win7 on it and after using Win8 for 3 days, I would have paid double for anything running Win7.

dante · Nov 28, 2012

I upgraded to W8 on the desktop and actually prefer it. Stable, boots fast, and uses fewer (or at worst the same) resources. All of the W7 programs are there (click the "desktop" icon), so even if you hate the Metro interface you can have it so that it's virtually identical to W7. About the only differences are:

Missing the Start button (big deal, you start typing the name of the program in the Metro interface and it pops up immediately).

The "corners" thing. Lower left hand corner brings access to the Metro UI, upper left allows you to switch between Apps (Desktop counts as an App), upper/lower right brings up your options.

Otherwise I honestly can tell a damn bit of difference between the two. If you like using Apps, fine, if not you don't have to. Same with "Snap". It comes complete with Windows Defender, incorporates anti-virus and a firewall and is overall more secure. Really don't get all the hate...

jimmydean · Nov 28, 2012

dante said:
Missing the Start button (big deal, you start typing the name of the program in the Metro interface and it pops up immediately).

Spent 20 minutes trying to find the control panel, gave up and haven't touched it since. Search had no idea what I was talking about.

I haven't spent much time on Win7 (was on my desktop at my last place, but that's it), but after getting pissed at Win8, I was happy to learn it.

Maybe my issue was Win8 didn't do well in a VM. It hardly responded to mouse gestures so the stupid dynamic menus didn't work 90% of the time. The tile interface is awful, but even bypassing that to the desktop didn't help the interface much.

As for apps, I had very little luck with app support with automation tools. They either ran poorly or not at all under Win8.

I have the same system resources allocated for both Win7 and Win8 VM's (virtualbox running on my MacBook Pro) and Win7 is much more responsive. Maybe it's a VM issue.

Bottom line? I would have paid $500 for the Win7 laptop vs. $450 for Win8.

Can you remove the "metro" interface entirely since it was simply in my way?

Disclaimer:
I am a software qa engineer who specializes in UI automation, workflow, continuity, and stability of server, desktop, and web applications. So I may not know what the hell I am talking about. Win8 might be the best thing evar.

<edit> Also in a VM, Win8 doesn't "boot fast" by any stretch. Again, maybe if I commit and install Win8 native...

Oh wait, I can't. Once you install Win8, you CAN'T go back. Thanks Micro$oft.

dante · Nov 28, 2012

I honestly have zero of your problems. Boots fast (faster than W7, probably ~15-20sec total from cold to fully logged in, and that's just using a normal 7200 RPM hard drive), I rarely use the gestures (the dragging down from the top in Apps is about the only one I've started using so far) but since W7 doesn't have them either, it's not a big deal, and since I upgraded from W7 Pro to W8 Pro I can go back any time I want. The Desktop "App" looks 100% identical to my previous W7 desktop (except no Start button), so I'm not sure what you mean by "The tile interface is awful, but even bypassing that to the desktop didn't help the interface much."

By the way, when you're in the Metro Interface start typing "Control Panel". I got through "cont" before being presented with 3 programs, including "Control Panel". I'm guessing you didn't RTFM?

edit: By the way, did this really take you 20min?

CBJ · Nov 28, 2012

Dante sounds good I should get my computer updated. I already have a sweet touch pad from Logitech which I really like. I already use the typing name in the search field in 7 which just works.

jimmydean · Nov 28, 2012

dante said:
I honestly have zero of your problems. Boots fast (faster than W7, probably ~15-20sec total from cold to fully logged in, and that's just using a normal 7200 RPM hard drive), I rarely use the gestures (the dragging down from the top in Apps is about the only one I've started using so far) but since W7 doesn't have them either, it's not a big deal, and since I upgraded from W7 Pro to W8 Pro I can go back any time I want. The Desktop "App" looks 100% identical to my previous W7 desktop (except no Start button), so I'm not sure what you mean by "The tile interface is awful, but even bypassing that to the desktop didn't help the interface much."

By the way, when you're in the Metro Interface start typing "Control Panel". I got through "cont" before being presented with 3 programs, including "Control Panel". I'm guessing you didn't RTFM?

edit: By the way, did this really take you 20min?

Hmm, maybe I just can't spell. I only used it for a few hours before restoring to factory defaults and boxing the laptop up for a return. The VM I dealt with a bit more, still have it on here, but I can't seem to get the graphics display settings to work within the VM correctly vs Win7 has no issue with resizing the window for more/less desktop.

I was also told that I couldn't install Win7 on the Win8 box because of how Win8 is installed. Maybe thats for OE installed only versions? Who knows, I was told by both Best Buy and Asus that a Win8 box can't be reverted or downgraded to Win7.

<edit>
I didn't try google, I was trying to use the OS to find OS related options. I should have known Google could find it before Windows could. :rofl:

jimmydean · Nov 28, 2012

That looks like a pretty good deal right there.

You can also "upgrade" to Win8 for only $30. :panic:

dante · Nov 28, 2012

jimmydean said:
That looks like a pretty good deal right there.

You can also "upgrade" to Win8 for only $30.

Or you could buy it and then upgrade via M$FT for only $15 (or is that deal dead now?), but you have to do it yourself.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/261170/windows_8_15_upgrade_offer_a_faq_for_recent_pc_buyers.html

Either of those deals you posted sound great, although I'd stick with the tower as opposed to the smaller form factor of the first one. Can't beat $430....

edit: Your last option would be to buy the upgrade for $15 and dual-boot your computer so you have the best of both worlds. I tried that but failed due to partition issues with Lenovo....

jimmydean · Nov 28, 2012

dante said:
Or you could buy it and then upgrade via M$FT for only $15 (or is that deal dead now?), but you have to do it yourself.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/261170/windows_8_15_upgrade_offer_a_faq_for_recent_pc_buyers.html

Either of those deals you posted sound great, although I'd stick with the tower as opposed to the smaller form factor of the first one. Can't beat $430....

edit: Your last option would be to buy the upgrade for $15 and dual-boot your computer so you have the best of both worlds. I tried that but failed due to partition issues with Lenovo....

I am using the 90 day dev trial of Win8. Maybe that's my issue. Either that or I jut prefer Linux. :confused:

Search

PC peeps....any good deals for around $400?

kazlx

Patches O'Houlihan

dante

Unabomber

kazlx

Patches O'Houlihan

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey

dante

Unabomber

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey

dante

Unabomber

CBJ

year old fart

kazlx

Patches O'Houlihan

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey

kazlx

Patches O'Houlihan

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey

dante

Unabomber

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey