I need help from computer geeks

Pacific_Loner

Pacific_Loner

Pirate from the North Pole
Ok I have to buy a laptop, preferably today or tomorrow. Online. I don't know anything about computers. All I know is I need something good enough to watch movies and do video montage (filmmaking). Ideally good enough to use Autocad as well.

I'm told I should get intel instead of AMD. I'm told I should go for i5 or i7.

I'm also told I should get SSD harddrive.

Now I have no intention to spend more than 800$ on this laptop so I need to make choices.

Here are my options so far

i7/8GB/1TB-RPM
i5/8GB/500GB-SSHD
i7/4GB/500GB-SSHD

Last one is cheaper... I don't know

Any advice is very welcome
 
Pacific_Loner

Pacific_Loner

Pirate from the North Pole
As I said I'm a bit clueless computer-wise, but I think the answer to your question is yes, SSHD is a new hybrid technology similar to SSD. Or something like that. I find 500GB not enough space as well, but I've been told the era of the Huge hard drive is over, now you have to get an external hard-drive.......
 
worrywort

worrywort

Well-known member
I'm not a super expert, but I watch movies, make movies and use autocad, and my system has an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB ram, and 1TB space. So CPU-wise and RAM-wise, I'd say i5 and 4GB should be plenty. 500GB would probably be plenty too, but I must admit I use up the space surprisingly fast. I also have a 2TB external drive, and a full up 500GB external drive too. It depends on the types of movies you make. Mine are often animated so there's loads of large JPG files taking up space. If you were gonna buy an external drive too, then 500GB is plenty for your main system to run on I'd say. Don't know much about this hybrid technology though so can't comment on that.
 
Argentum

Argentum

Well-known member
You need SSD and quad core to watch movies and edit film like you need a rocket to get to the office downtown. If it's cheap go for it, but otherwise don't worry about a laptop with those things when you don't intend to so much as play games on it.

I'm not familiar with your film software or AutoCAD, but I'm going to assume they're about as heavy as something like Windows Movie Maker and say you'd be fine with all those. You should be able to check system requirements, too.
 
Last edited:
Pacific_Loner

Pacific_Loner

Pirate from the North Pole
Yeah I was wondering if i7 was too much for my use, but the price difference between i5 and i7 is not that much (around 30$) so I wonder. I tend to keep my stuff for a long time before I get rid of it, so if my pc can still be fast in 5 years because I bought a i7 instead of i5... it's worth 30$... Then again I'm not completely sure that's how things work in the pc world o_O Looking into Lenovo right now
 
Argentum

Argentum

Well-known member
Pacific_Loner said:
Yeah I was wondering if i7 was too much for my use, but the price difference between i5 and i7 is not that much (around 30$) so I wonder. I tend to keep my stuff for a long time before I get rid of it, so if my pc can still be fast in 5 years because I bought a i7 instead of i5... it's worth 30$... Then again I'm not completely sure that's how things work in the pc world o_O Looking into Lenovo right now
Click to expand...

Go for it. Just don't stretch your budget because you're scared you won't be able to watch movies properly in a few years of all things. I know a guy with a PC that's 12 and still chugging along, though it definitely impacts his speed when browsing and we think it's going to kick the bucket before it finishes the decade.

I don't recommend Lenovo for laptops, personally.
 
Pacific_Loner

Pacific_Loner

Pirate from the North Pole
^Well I'm an impulsive person and I just bought it. Why don't you recommend it? don't be scared to drag me down, I'll live with it :p
 
Kiwong

Kiwong

Well-known member
I have a Toshiba i7, with AMD radeon graphics. Not sure of the specs, but the graphics display is better than the ASUS I had before that. For photo editing I use my PC with Creative Cloud 14. The laptop can run photoshop too, but I prefer to do my editing on the PC.
 
Pyrophosphate

Pyrophosphate

1
Argentum said:
They've had the most cooling problems in my experience.
Click to expand...

I think the cooling issues are symptoms of the industry-wide trend toward thinness, nothing specific to Lenovo. Read more at your hometown tech site. My Acer keeps the components nice and cool (~60C), but does so by using the keyboard and bottom panel as a heatsink and making tons of fan noise. Nothing that can't be fixed by using a box fan as a desk.

But it's only half an inch thick. That should make up for garbage cooling, right?

I think the Lenovo won't have any particular issue that wouldn't be difficult to avoid, regardless of who makes it.
 
Argentum

Argentum

Well-known member
Pyrophosphate said:
I think the cooling issues are symptoms of the industry-wide trend toward thinness, nothing specific to Lenovo. Read more at your hometown tech site. My Acer keeps the components nice and cool (~60C), but does so by using the keyboard and bottom panel as a heatsink and making tons of fan noise. Nothing that can't be fixed by using a box fan as a desk.

But it's only half an inch thick. That should make up for garbage cooling, right?

I think the Lenovo won't have any particular issue that wouldn't be difficult to avoid, regardless of who makes it.
Click to expand...

I'm ambivalent as to how much blame lies where. I wouldn't make any hard arguments, but still lean away from Lenovo for something that's likely to occasionally be sitting in the sun or taken along to bed.

On an off-topic note, the "moronic drive to fashion" was inevitable from the day personal computers became affordable and it stopped taking three hours to do anything online. Mainstream tastes aren't efficient, and neither is mainstream novelty or mainstream perception of status. In the year 5512, we will have impractical, novelty personal spaceships that you can punch a foot through if you aren't careful. And nobody will care.
 
Pyrophosphate

Pyrophosphate

1
Argentum said:
On an off-topic note, the "moronic drive to fashion" was inevitable from the day personal computers became affordable and it stopped taking three hours to do anything online. Mainstream tastes aren't efficient, and neither is mainstream novelty or mainstream perception of status. In the year 5512, we will have impractical, novelty personal spaceships that you can punch a foot through if you aren't careful. And nobody will care.
Click to expand...

And now I'm depressed.:sad:
 
Pyrophosphate

Pyrophosphate

1
Argentum said:
Don't be sad. Just imagine all those thin-walled ships bouncing off each other like metallic balloons during the evening rush hour. A 6-vehicle pile-up would be hilarious.
Click to expand...

Is it called a pile-up if it's in space? :question: And I was more depressed because I have a crappy laptop and it's everybody else's fault.

I'm done dragging this thread off course now, I think.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top