PC Tech Thread

guess what I am wondering is if a standard laptop is the best option, or would I be better off with a chromebook, or even a tablet

..well you will figure out your tinfoil hat situation, which will determine whether a Chromebook is an option.
Regarding standard laptop or tablet for me at least it comes down to usability, as in: if I would like to use the thing for more than very light browsing every once in a while I'd just get a laptop, with a proper keyboard etc. and if portability was a major factor I'd get a tablet basically.

Fair point. I was just thinking the amount people at our work who use their work issued laptops for everything. Half the people Ben carry theirs with them everywhere as if they were their personal laptops...

Didn’t think about your type of job... 😬 get a refurbished Dell and do that trick where you order and cancel so they call you to offer a discount? Not sure if it’d work with refurbished units. But folks were just talking about order and cancel and they got discount.

Otherwise, if it’s just for Internet, a friend bought a laptop for £199, it can’t do anything heavy obvs, but she seems happy enough using it to write, Internet and the odd bits of movies.

happy enough using it to write, Internet and the odd bits of movies.

Makes me think of my old Acer netbook. It was the 2nd gen after that super popular Linux one everyone had. Never ceased to amaze me how well it worked for a general personal computer, plus it was so small it was genuinely ultra portable.

Unfortunately it's pretty much redundant as a concept with cheap tablets and modern phones. Would be good for a kid I guess.

Until her boyfriend complaints that it can’t do Photoshop and it’s not a Mac. 🤦🏻‍♀️

https://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-ideapad-ideapad-s540-14api-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-processor-8gb-ram-256gb-ssd-14-full-hd-rose-gold/p4263655?s_afcid=af_47868&tmad=c&awc=1203_1581280954_af81524297647f6f5de569b228d8e69b&tmcampid=48

What do you think.

I'll have a dell chromebook 14 for sale once the xps 13 arrives.

I love the chromebook.

Chromebook is the obvious solution but obviously that, in part, depends on your thoughts on google.

Chromebook can still be an option even with the google issues. Three ways round it:

1. A lot of chromebooks allow you to install android apps so you can install browser, etc of your choice.
   
2. You can put the chromebook in developer mode and install Ubuntu. It's a bit of a ballache, I wouldn't bother.
   
3. Some chromebooks allow you to install linux apps. This tends to only be the high end ones though.
   
   

Personally if I wasn't going Chromebook I'd pick up a refurbed laptop from ebay for a couple of hundred quid (tops) and go with that.

Failing that, get something from the Dell outlet store.

.

Second hand Thinkpad T series with Debian xfce & backports. Should be good for at least a decade.

Best way to recycle really old useless laptops? Rip the hdd out and give them away?

You could also nuke the HDD and leave it in..

I stuck Neverwear on my mums old laptop. It's as ChromeOS system.

I just use it for a recipe database now but it brought a old MS XP laptop back to useful life.

MS XP

those were the days

Have not used Word in years. Would like to try it out (the latest, "Office 365" version), basically just because I need to work on some .docx documents that don't display correctly in Open Office.
Did try the free online version of Office 365 but this is very laggy, thus frustrating to use.

Has anyone tried the free one month offer of Office 365?
Does this really give you a fully working program?
Can you "order" this, using credit card info (cheeky fuckers), and cancel right away or does it then stop working right away?
Reading conflicting info on this.

Thanks.

.

Open Office

Try LibreOffice?

Dear hive mind.

You built my last computer for me (well, parted it. Care of @Sumo). I'm thinking of upgrading my PC. I use it for gaming and work (data analysis, often single core processes because of poor/lazy coding or library implementation, so clock speed is important).

Currently have:
AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6350 3.90Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor
GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) Motherboard
MSI Radeon R9 290 TWIN FROZR GAMING OC 4GB GDDR5

with 8 gigs of ram.

Is it worth upgrading at this point? Kits pushing 5+ years, but still playing current gen games with settings on low.

If I want to go Ryzen 3000 I'll need a new mobo I guess (socket AM4 or whatever). Suggestions for mobo/CPU/graphics card combo in terms of power to cost ratio? And am I fine with my 8 gigs? I rarely have issues as is.

Is it worth upgrading at this point?
I rarely have issues as is.

What's the actual problem?

I want to play RDR2 on the highest of settings.

But I'm really not sure the price point that will get me there. If it's a grand, I'll fuck it off. If it's a few hundred quid, I could be keen.

Then just buy the best video card you can afford, having checked benchmarks for the resolution you are likely to use.

I'm worried about bottlenecks elsewhere. Should I not be?

It's notoriously intensive. It'll be far more than a few hundred to get 1080p high at 60fps.

Edit:

A bit more ram maybe and better gpu.

I'm trying to synchronise tow folders on Windows. One is a Onedrive folder, the other Google Drive.

My initial thought was I'd create a symlink between the two but this throws up some weird stuff. Although the folders appear synchronised (as they're the same folder) they don't consistently upload (I assume because they don't fully exist in the cloud sync folder). This seems to happen whichever direction I make the link.

Any suggestions on the best way to synchronise the two folders. Space is no issue. I don't mind if I have two (or more) copies of the folder or if it is just one folder that's linked. I do want the changes to be synchronised as they happen (and a low overhead) though.

Anyone any bright ideas?