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huggytree
03-07-2014, 09:22 PM
wifes computer died today...its been hot to the touch for years...now it wont turn on

Im looking at a Dell

Windows 7 or 8.1? which would you choose

touch or non touch?

4th generation I-5 or I-3?

im looking closely at the Inspiron 15 non touch for $429...or the touch version for $499

im thinking my kids would like the touch version

my wife uses it mainly for emailing/facebook and Word...and the kids for games....

thanks

Wozcreative
03-08-2014, 01:02 AM
It doesn't actually matter what you get.. you will be fine with the low end laptop/desktop. Just get one that has the right screen size for you, the right size keyboard and that has the amount of space you will need.
If your kids are going to run games on it.. you are going to have to get a better than just for email laptop because laptops are generally not meant to run games unless you get more ram and a good graphics card. Ofcourse, it depends on the type of game they play.

Brian Altenhofel
03-08-2014, 03:13 AM
laptops are generally not meant to run games unless you get more ram and a good graphics card

Yep.

And if you shop around, for a few hundred dollars more you might find high-end factory refurbs that just happen to also be a closeout model for the retailer.

huggytree
03-08-2014, 08:08 AM
Windows 7 vs Windows 8.1?????????????? & is the Touch part worth anything?

Freelancier
03-08-2014, 08:46 AM
I'd recommend Win7 if you're used to using Windows over the past 20 years or Win8.1 if you're a complete newbie to Windows. I personally hate the Win8 interface, because it's better designed for tablets and touch screens and I don't have or want one of those and most applications are not optimized to use touch anyway.

Really, wait for Windows 9 :p

huggytree
03-08-2014, 09:53 AM
I got her the I3 processor, windows 8.1 and the touch screen....I figured for $50 more why not get the touch and I also figured why not get the latest windows......$499....

I have the I5 w/ windows 7.....sounds like for what she and the kids are using it for there no difference between the I3 and I5

Wozcreative
03-08-2014, 10:04 AM
I never really understood the touch screen laptops.. I enjoy using the iPad because it has no interference of a keyboard in the way.. but also just prefer to use the stylus.

http://hacknmod.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/dell-studio-17-laptop-multi-touch-screen-fingers1.jpg
How ergonomic does this really feel? The screen is always going to be propped up.. and not cradled in your hand... Looks like your hands would get tired quickly. I think its a gimmick. Personally, I think that feature is not here to stay.

I'd spend the extra $ to get a better laptop so your kids can play "high performance" games on it :) ofcourse unless they just play apps.. then thats all they really need.

huggytree
03-08-2014, 10:46 AM
they mostly play free educational games....nothing special....I figured there would be some touch games for them....$50 wont kill me for the touch...it wouldn't have gotten me the I5 upgrade

billbenson
03-08-2014, 04:46 PM
I bought a much higher end laptop for my wife. She likes the latest and greatest. We lay in bed and stream video. It has a 17 inch screen which is great for that. I couldn't believe the clarity of the screen. But then it was a $1300 gaming computer which isn't what you need.

Wozcreative
03-08-2014, 04:51 PM
I bought a much higher end laptop for my wife. She likes the latest and greatest. We lay in bed and stream video. It has a 17 inch screen which is great for that. I couldn't believe the clarity of the screen. But then it was a $1300 gaming computer which isn't what you need.

Sounds like you could have just gotten an internet capable TV for the bedroom. I have one of those and it's also hooked up to Apple TV. I also have a Minix box for my living room so I can stream anything I want. Regarding using a laptop in the bedroom.. my mom uses a laptop and uses it in the bedroom but unfortunately keeps it on the covers/pillows/mattress which overheat it and the fan makes a crazy noise now. I hope you are using one of those lap desks or on a sturdy surface to preserve its internal parts better.

Patrysha
03-09-2014, 03:14 PM
The old laptop I'm using was constantly overheating and shutting down (praying that it lasts long enough till I can replace it with the computer on my wish list). We bought a fan pad from staples that plugs into the USB and that keeps the computer cool enough that I don't have shut-downs now.

Harold Mansfield
03-09-2014, 04:45 PM
I never really understood the touch screen laptops..

Neither do I because I'm using the keyboard and a mouse. I don't need my laptop to act like a tablet unless it's a convertible that disconnects from the keyboard,.

But everyone has different wants and needs. I like gadgety stuff, but when it came to purchasing a laptop later last year, I wanted less gadgets and more guts. More RAM. More Processor. Optical drive. Number pad. Enough USB ports and so on. I found that I could get more machine for the same or less cost than pretty much any touch screen model that had lower specs.

What's better? A 15.6" machine with a touch screen, and 4G of RAM 1.8 GHz processor for $699?
Or [the same size] machine with 6G Ram (expandable to 16GB) , a 2.4 GHz processor, and no touch screen for $499?

To me the RAM and processor is far more important than the touch screen. Also a number pad. It's amazing how many $600+ laptops out there don't have a number pad. For someone else they want the touch screen and don't care about a number pad.

That's why it's so hard to make recommendations to people. Everyone has a different way that they envision themselves using it.

billbenson
03-09-2014, 05:09 PM
Sounds like you could have just gotten an internet capable TV for the bedroom. I have one of those and it's also hooked up to Apple TV. I also have a Minix box for my living room so I can stream anything I want. Regarding using a laptop in the bedroom.. my mom uses a laptop and uses it in the bedroom but unfortunately keeps it on the covers/pillows/mattress which overheat it and the fan makes a crazy noise now. I hope you are using one of those lap desks or on a sturdy surface to preserve its internal parts better.

My wife does a lot of surfing, image editing etc. Her last laptop died. It's also something I could use in an emergency although I liked it well enough to buy a similar one for myself.

Additionally, the most important thing is 'she wanted it'. That pretty much ended the discussion.

Thanks for the overheating warning. I hadn't though about that.

billbenson
03-09-2014, 05:25 PM
Neither do I because I'm using the keyboard and a mouse. I don't need my laptop to act like a tablet unless it's a convertible that disconnects from the keyboard,.

But everyone has different wants and needs. I like gadgety stuff, but when it came to purchasing a laptop later last year, I wanted less gadgets and more guts. More RAM. More Processor. Optical drive. Number pad. Enough USB ports and so on. I found that I could get more machine for the same or less cost than pretty much any touch screen model that had lower specs.

What's better? A 15.6" machine with a touch screen, and 4G of RAM 1.8 GHz processor for $699?
Or [the same size] machine with 6G Ram (expandable to 16GB) , a 2.4 GHz processor, and no touch screen for $499?

To me the RAM and processor is far more important than the touch screen. Also a number pad. It's amazing how many $600+ laptops out there don't have a number pad. For someone else they want the touch screen and don't care about a number pad.

That's why it's so hard to make recommendations to people. Everyone has a different way that they envision themselves using it.

And let's not forget the road warriors flying all over the place. Size and weight would be a big issue to them. In my case, I have a wireless keyboard and mouse. They are cheap these days and even on a small machine they can give you a full keyboard. I actually use them on all my pc's.

Harold Mansfield
03-09-2014, 05:38 PM
Sounds like you could have just gotten an internet capable TV for the bedroom..

Or Blue ray player. $150 for a Panasonic WiFi enabled Blue ray player with VIERA Smart TV. I think they are even less than that now.

Also, a Chromecast streaming adapter is $35.
The new Roku streaming adapter is $50.

huggytree
03-09-2014, 08:30 PM
the computer my wide had was an Acer....ive owned 2 and been disappointed....ive been really happy with my Dell, that's why I bought a 2nd one for the wife

Freelancier
03-09-2014, 09:30 PM
the computer my wide had

I've found it best not to call my wife that....

GarethS
03-11-2014, 10:34 AM
We normally recommend i3, 4GB+ memory for a home laptop that's looking to do the basics so you should get a number of happy years with a laptop of that spec.

Tablets are also becoming more of a recommendation recently as some people are just looking for web and email usage.

Business Attorney
03-11-2014, 11:04 PM
Additionally, the most important thing is 'she wanted it'. That pretty much ended the discussion

Happy wife, happy life. Good decision.

huggytree
03-12-2014, 07:35 PM
finally shipped today...im excited to see the new windows and try the touch screen

Dell must make them for you? (no stock) or are they just that slow to process the order?

Harold Mansfield
03-12-2014, 07:54 PM
finally shipped today...im excited to see the new windows and try the touch screen

Dell must make them for you? (no stock) or are they just that slow to process the order?
Dell PC's are made to order. So it could have been made and come from Austin, Texas; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; Eldorado du Sol, Brazil; Penang, Malazia; Xiamen, China; or Limerick, Ireland.

I ordered an engraved iPod a couple of years ago, and yep...straight from China. But I didn't get any tracking information until it got to Washington state.

Wozcreative
03-12-2014, 08:06 PM
I got a custom iMac built and they said it would take 10 business days, but it took about 4 for them to ship it out to me. No idea where it came from though ;)

Brian Altenhofel
03-12-2014, 08:11 PM
It also depends on how you order. If you order a popular configuration, you could get half a 53' trailer delivered in 1-2 business days...

Gabe
03-13-2014, 02:56 AM
I went with the MacBook Air for my wife. She travels a lot, so she needs something compact. It also goes well with her iPhone (which I got her for similar reasons). When she had a Windows laptop there always seemed to be some issue. She finds the Apple products a lot easier to use, so it's worth it for me. Besides, they seem to last longer than Windows products and the battery like is substantially better (10-12hours). Probably the best thing is that when she's international we can still message/facetime instead of using Skype or paying a fortune for phone service.

Wozcreative
03-13-2014, 08:59 AM
I went with the MacBook Air for my wife. She travels a lot, so she needs something compact. It also goes well with her iPhone (which I got her for similar reasons). When she had a Windows laptop there always seemed to be some issue. She finds the Apple products a lot easier to use, so it's worth it for me. Besides, they seem to last longer than Windows products and the battery like is substantially better (10-12hours). Probably the best thing is that when she's international we can still message/facetime instead of using Skype or paying a fortune for phone service.

I have to agree with this... the software/compatibility of these things last a long time without having any issues.. this is because all of the software is approved by apple. If a game/software isn't compatible.. it will just not install and tell you.. When I had PC's it would install but all these glitches would happen. This may not be an issue with PC's anymore... but what is is malware/spyware and viruses. Yes a mac can get a virus/malware but in the 12 years that I've owned a mac (Black macbook, and two iMacs) it was never an issue.. never had to "format" anything.

If I had kids, or a wife that was not tech savvy.. I'd go with a macbook. Chances are the wife will be doing some online shopping and banking.. with all that spyware/viruses, it is unsafe. I also don't like how the anti viruses worked.. constantly "pinging" you and telling you you came across something... having to approve/deny it etc. It's definitely for someone who's more advanced and enjoys being able to control their computer the way they like it.

I personally just need it to work.

Brian Altenhofel
03-13-2014, 05:43 PM
never had to "format" anything.

Formatting is the catch-all solution for the unskilled technician. The goal of most call centers is to get you solution and get you off the phone (or at least to where the rep can multitask with another customer) as soon as possible, regardless of the necessity of the solution.

When I still fixed computers, that was my specialty. If you'd been told by everyone else that the only solution for recovery was to "format and reinstall", you could come to me and pay 3-5x the typical hourly rate. Basically, you had to decide if your potentially lost data was worth that much.

I personally find the Mac GUI to be unintuitive and confusing (such as the toolbar across the top not actually being associated with the window that you think you have in focus), even more so than Windows 8 (and I use a Mac a lot more than I use Windows). I personally run Linux. When the memory footprint of the GUI is <20MB, the computer can focus on doing the things that matter.

My biggest issue with Apple is the requirement that only their technicians can repair a problem. When I worked in IT support, I could replace a bad memory chip or power supply in a non-Apple PC in ~15 minutes including notification, diagnosis, repair, and verification. We weren't allowed to work on the school's Apple PCs, so that was a 4-6 week turnaround. And considering the number of non-Apple PCs versus Apple PCs, we had a significantly higher failure rate in the Apple side of things.

Wozcreative
03-13-2014, 05:47 PM
Formatting is the catch-all solution for the unskilled technician. The goal of most call centers is to get you solution and get you off the phone (or at least to where the rep can multitask with another customer) as soon as possible, regardless of the necessity of the solution.

When I still fixed computers, that was my specialty. If you'd been told by everyone else that the only solution for recovery was to "format and reinstall", you could come to me and pay 3-5x the typical hourly rate. Basically, you had to decide if your potentially lost data was worth that much.

I personally find the Mac GUI to be unintuitive and confusing (such as the toolbar across the top not actually being associated with the window that you think you have in focus), even more so than Windows 8 (and I use a Mac a lot more than I use Windows). I personally run Linux. When the memory footprint of the GUI is <20MB, the computer can focus on doing the things that matter.

Yea thats the thing.. after some time i would become tired of the issue and format. No issue with my mac. However, I learned a lot more about computers on a PC because I played around with software when I was younger. For someone who's not too bright/has no time to fix stuff, the answer is a mac though.

Harold Mansfield
03-13-2014, 06:15 PM
My biggest issue with Apple is the requirement that only their technicians can repair a problem. When I worked in IT support, I could replace a bad memory chip or power supply in a non-Apple PC in ~15 minutes including notification, diagnosis, repair, and verification. We weren't allowed to work on the school's Apple PCs, so that was a 4-6 week turnaround. And considering the number of non-Apple PCs versus Apple PCs, we had a significantly higher failure rate in the Apple side of things.

I'm with you. I've NEVER had to take a PC in for repairs. By a decent brand, keep it clean, and run a scan every now and then and you'll never have a problem. I've always been able to fix any problems I've had with a PC.

Not only that, but you can get 3x's the PC for the price of a Mac.

I have nothing against MACs. I like them actually. But I just can't get past the cost vs. convenience factor. I can build a pretty powerful work station with a crap load of RAM, Processor, Memory, Graphics, and run Multiple monitors for the price of one middle of the road Mac.

The only Apple product I have is an iPod. And that's not even neccessary anymore. It's doubtful that I'll buy another one.

I do appreciate iTunes though. Couldn't live without it.

If having a Mac was the only way to access and listen to iTunes I'd buy a MAC tomorrow.

Wozcreative
03-13-2014, 07:46 PM
I'm with you. I've NEVER had to take a PC in for repairs. By a decent brand, keep it clean, and run a scan every now and then and you'll never have a problem. I've always been able to fix any problems I've had with a PC.

Not only that, but you can get 3x's the PC for the price of a Mac.

I have nothing against MACs. I like them actually. But I just can't get past the cost vs. convenience factor. I can build a pretty powerful work station with a crap load of RAM, Processor, Memory, Graphics, and run Multiple monitors for the price of one middle of the road Mac.

The only Apple product I have is an iPod. And that's not even neccessary anymore. It's doubtful that I'll buy another one.

I do appreciate iTunes though. Couldn't live without it.

If having a Mac was the only way to access and listen to iTunes I'd buy a MAC tomorrow.

Yea but you are tech savvy... I initially bought my mother a $600 laptop and really should have gone out and bought her something more dummy proof.. like a mac. I always had to fix things on it. Popups, bars, software glitches, virus, etc. etc. etc.... list went on. Macs are just dummy proof.. that's s'all I'm saying!

Actually I'll be even more honest and say she could have done fine with an iPad LOL... all she does is Skype and play games that "I" install.. and still she manages to efff the thing up!

Harold Mansfield
03-13-2014, 08:06 PM
Yep, that's a good point. I don't know what the Mac vulnerabilities are, but most people's PC problems are from doing, clicking, and downloading everything under the sun. And never doing any maintenance.

Those free movie sites, P2P and free music/free ringtone,, free games download sites will screw up a PC in seconds.

I'm with you on the Mom thing. Got mine a Windows tablet for Christmas and I get at least 3 calls a week from her for tech support and questions. But it's Mom, so you don't mind.

The only reason I didn't get her an iPad was because I didn't feel like explaining iTunes or what Mac and Apple are to her. And I didn't get her an Android because I'd have to explain Google accounts and all of that jazz.

I figured since she had a windows computer it would be easier. But alas, she still doesn't grasp that it's the same operating system as her desktop and it works the same way and does the same things. I was hoping to install Windows 9 on her desktop while I was home so both her tablet and desktop would be the same, but she wasn't ready for that yet.

But she does like it.

eina26
03-13-2014, 11:25 PM
I don't have anything against Mac but I don't think it's user-friendly. :D My mom is not techie, for me it's better for moms to have something like Samsung or Sony Vaio. I don't know, just a suggestion.

Jordan Miller
03-22-2014, 02:54 PM
whichever is best for your budget range in all honesty! I much prefer Windows 7 over Windows 8 though. Just my 2 cents.

michaelstark61
03-22-2014, 10:42 PM
Dell laptops are really good. Dell Vostro 3300 with i5 processor is best to use.