WHO WANTS TO TALK COMPUTERS?
As a combination birthday/Christmas present this year, my parents agreed to help me purchase a new computer. My old computer is doing hilarious things, by which I mean that every time I boot it up it has a 50% chance of freezing, and it freezes over 80% of the time when returning from Standby mode, and when booting up it occasionally makes this horrendous noise like an airplane is taking off which causes me to run away in fear that it will simply explode. So yeah. New computer.
Note: I should mention that if my computer successfully turns on and does not freeze within the first 5 minutes, it works perfectly fine. (At least until I try to do something crazy, like turn it off, at which point it occasionally freezes.) But I don't want to become like my dad, who has a 10+ year old desktop held together by tape and angel tears and has completely crashed, requiring a complete reinstall, 3+ times within the past 2 years. And it currently can't connect to the internet. He has to use Mommy's laptop (which she bought out of desperation after the 2nd crash), but he hates laptop keyboards with a flaming passion. And yet he is STILL CONVINCED that the desktop can be saved. My mother has taken to bringing it up in conversation with everyone that she meets in hope that if enough people act horrified, he will agree to buy a new computer.
ANYWAY, I've decided to get a laptop of biggish size, but I haven't really decided much else. Since I haven't done computer shopping in the last 5+ years, I'm not even sure what I should get. I'm reading up and I'll be shopping around, but I thought I'd ask LJ, too!
I don't want/need top of the line, but I'll have enough of a budget for a mid-upper range laptop. I'm thinking an Intel i3/i5 processor (I'm currently running a slow-ish Pentium 4, so I'm sure that it will BLOW MY MIND), 4GB memory, and no preferences towards size, weight, battery life, or HD size. (This will essentially be a desktop substitute; I'm getting a laptop because the desktop really does take up room in my apartment and because there's a good chance that I will be moving at least once with this laptop.)
My biggest question is about the graphics card. Should I get a dedicated graphics card instead of just an Intel integrated thing? They're relatively hard to find in laptops, so it's probably the first thing that I need to decide. It's hard to tell when I look around at buying guides because I'm not a gamer or heavy-duty multimedia user, but I do use my video card. Like, I'm not really a PC gamer (I'm more of a console gamer), BUT I do enjoy the Civilization and Portal series. Which aren't particularly heavy-duty games, but they're not Flash, either. Or, for instance, I don't do crazy things like edit/record video, but I watch most of my English media either with TV episodes downloaded off of iTunes or DVDs, and I hook my computer up to my TV to watch. But I wouldn't watch HD like Blu-ray on my computer; I use my PS3 for that. So I'm heavier user than a general user, but I'm not a "gamer" either. It's hard to find a buyer's guide for someone in between who just wants to make sure that graphics won't start jumping if her Aztec army wants to conquer Paris. Know what I mean?
I'm leaning towards a dedicated graphics card, even though it makes me :( because it limits my selection and ups my price. But if I'm planning to keep this laptop around, I should invest, right?
Note: I should mention that if my computer successfully turns on and does not freeze within the first 5 minutes, it works perfectly fine. (At least until I try to do something crazy, like turn it off, at which point it occasionally freezes.) But I don't want to become like my dad, who has a 10+ year old desktop held together by tape and angel tears and has completely crashed, requiring a complete reinstall, 3+ times within the past 2 years. And it currently can't connect to the internet. He has to use Mommy's laptop (which she bought out of desperation after the 2nd crash), but he hates laptop keyboards with a flaming passion. And yet he is STILL CONVINCED that the desktop can be saved. My mother has taken to bringing it up in conversation with everyone that she meets in hope that if enough people act horrified, he will agree to buy a new computer.
ANYWAY, I've decided to get a laptop of biggish size, but I haven't really decided much else. Since I haven't done computer shopping in the last 5+ years, I'm not even sure what I should get. I'm reading up and I'll be shopping around, but I thought I'd ask LJ, too!
I don't want/need top of the line, but I'll have enough of a budget for a mid-upper range laptop. I'm thinking an Intel i3/i5 processor (I'm currently running a slow-ish Pentium 4, so I'm sure that it will BLOW MY MIND), 4GB memory, and no preferences towards size, weight, battery life, or HD size. (This will essentially be a desktop substitute; I'm getting a laptop because the desktop really does take up room in my apartment and because there's a good chance that I will be moving at least once with this laptop.)
My biggest question is about the graphics card. Should I get a dedicated graphics card instead of just an Intel integrated thing? They're relatively hard to find in laptops, so it's probably the first thing that I need to decide. It's hard to tell when I look around at buying guides because I'm not a gamer or heavy-duty multimedia user, but I do use my video card. Like, I'm not really a PC gamer (I'm more of a console gamer), BUT I do enjoy the Civilization and Portal series. Which aren't particularly heavy-duty games, but they're not Flash, either. Or, for instance, I don't do crazy things like edit/record video, but I watch most of my English media either with TV episodes downloaded off of iTunes or DVDs, and I hook my computer up to my TV to watch. But I wouldn't watch HD like Blu-ray on my computer; I use my PS3 for that. So I'm heavier user than a general user, but I'm not a "gamer" either. It's hard to find a buyer's guide for someone in between who just wants to make sure that graphics won't start jumping if her Aztec army wants to conquer Paris. Know what I mean?
I'm leaning towards a dedicated graphics card, even though it makes me :( because it limits my selection and ups my price. But if I'm planning to keep this laptop around, I should invest, right?