Ranting about Microsoft and Tech Support in India

Spacekiwi wrote:Definitely. Grabbing an SSD is one of the best things you can do for a pc. so much faster than a hard drive. SSD's are quite cheap now too, so a 60Gb or 120Gb drive will fit all your programs, and you can have a bigger hard drive for backups and non speed critical files, like word docs, photos and movies. 2ssds in raid will have you flying, and wondering why you stuck with hard drives for so long...


8 core AMD or Intel?
For that much ram and screens, I'm guessing you are using them for work?

also, a quick google shows that 4 5450's are weaker than 1 650ti or a 7750. But 4 cards driving 12 screens is a pretty impressive view.

Work yes, boot times don't matter as the hardware raid takes time to load up, don't need 3d acceleration. Raid 5 3 or 4 disks or SSD's. Speed of disks is not important, CPU is an AMD FX 8350 Black. I was going to use it on my gaming rig but that was 6 month ago, time to move up to a 4.7 - 5 GHz black.

I've been an AMD fanboy since my K6-2-300 days. Although all the work PC's I built were various Evil inside systems. And just about every notebook.

Nice cpu.

Im running an intel i5 2540m, and unfortunately, its hard to find any of the amd laptop cpus that are better than it here in nz. only the budget ones in smaller cheaper notebooks. theres a grand total of 4 laptops using a AMD that cost more than 600 NZ, and they are running an A8 4500m or A8 5550m. they are paired with weak graphics as well.

Im not a fan of any particular brand, just a fan of the best performance at the lowest price. which unfortunately for me in NZ is not that good performance, at a high price. ah well. hoping to upgrade in jan or feb, when I have some money, to a laptop with a gt730/740m, or a radeon 7750m or better, and hopefully a quad core, and 8gb of ram. That should allow my computer assignments for physics and such to finish that much faster, and i wont have to rely on my intel hd3000 if i want to play a game. 20 to 30 fps average on games that are 3 or more years old means flash games are about the only things i can play on this at the moment.


Hopefully in a few years i will be able to afford a desktop as well, but for now, that upgrade will have to last me until 2015/2016.

Lord Skimper wrote:
Work yes, boot times don't matter as the hardware raid takes time to load up, don't need 3d acceleration. Raid 5 3 or 4 disks or SSD's. Speed of disks is not important, CPU is an AMD FX 8350 Black. I was going to use it on my gaming rig but that was 6 month ago, time to move up to a 4.7 - 5 GHz black.

I've been an AMD fanboy since my K6-2-300 days. Although all the work PC's I built were various Evil inside systems. And just about every notebook.

The Bane of my existence computer running Windows 7 has the Anti Virus Security Pro Virus or Trojan. (This was done by family member opening an attachment in the Spam folder!)

I had to press F8 at startup and select safe mode with networking. Next, I opened internet explorer and under tools selected internet options. Then selected connections -> LAN Settings and selected automatic detection (unchecked the proxy server) (I use a cable connection!).

This allowed me to run my avast anti virus. It cleared the virus. I then selected boot anti virus and rebooted the computer. After reboot and running of anti virus during boot sequence, I decided to restore the computer from 1 week previously. Did that and ran another boot anti virus sequence upon startup. After running several anti virus and malware detector programs, the computer is cleaned and restored to new.

The solution is institute user accounts and privileges. My belief is that is not going to go well with the rest of the family. My biggest gripe is that decided to check their yahoo email on the family business computer. The particular individual has apologized but the individual has their own desktop, laptop, and smart phone that can be used to surf the internet and read & respond to emails. What really annoys me, I don't get paid for my work!

To those members of the forums in the US: I need help and advice. I want to buy a new laptop or notebook. Unfortunately, no one will sell me one with Windows Seven of any kind. I have my original disks (never been opened). I can't even buy one with just a DOS and nothing else. I no longer have the expertise or desire to build my own. All I want is a computer with a CD drive and enough software to watch online TV, attend this forum and do a little web surfing. What is the best way to find what I want in the US? I have talked to BestBuy, Walmart and a couple of local retail stores, but have found no help. Also, I do not want to buy someone else's second hand unit.

Do you want to gt it cheaper by not having an OS on it?

If not, just buy a laptop you like, take it home, and when you start it up, open the bios and disable boot from uefi, so it boots in legacy mode. then restart it with the install disk in the drive, and proceed as a normal fresh install from there, just ensuring you wipe all the partititions off first. just remember to use another computer to download all the drivers first though. install those once the install has finished. most/all the 8 drivers should work on 7.

KNick wrote:To those members of the forums in the US: I need help and advice. I want to buy a new laptop or notebook. Unfortunately, no one will sell me one with Windows Seven of any kind. I have my original disks (never been opened). I can't even buy one with just a DOS and nothing else. I no longer have the expertise or desire to build my own. All I want is a computer with a CD drive and enough software to watch online TV, attend this forum and do a little web surfing. What is the best way to find what I want in the US? I have talked to BestBuy, Walmart and a couple of local retail stores, but have found no help. Also, I do not want to buy someone else's second hand unit.

FYI: On my current labtop, I went to a local pawnshop and bought a labtop with windows 7 and microsoft office on it for $200 (it was $230 but I bought it a 15% markdown + tax).
The processor was dual core with 4 gigs of ram running it and the screen size is 15 inches. I don't play 3D games or online games on it. The computer suits my needs!

After buying the computer, I just used Lysol to disinfect the computer. Sorry but I am a bit of a germ-a-phobe.

smr wrote:FYI: On my current labtop, I went to a local pawnshop and bought a labtop with windows 7 and microsoft office on it for $200 (it was $230 but I bought it a 15% markdown + tax).
The processor was dual core with 4 gigs of ram running it and the screen size is 15 inches. I don't play 3D games or online games on it. The computer suits my needs!

After buying the computer, I just used Lysol to disinfect the computer. Sorry but I am a bit of a germ-a-phobe.

A UV wand would be better, lysol in the keyboard is not something you want.

smr wrote:FYI: On my current labtop, I went to a local pawnshop and bought a labtop with windows 7 and microsoft office on it for $200 (it was $230 but I bought it a 15% markdown + tax).
The processor was dual core with 4 gigs of ram running it and the screen size is 15 inches. I don't play 3D games or online games on it. The computer suits my needs!

After buying the computer, I just used Lysol to disinfect the computer. Sorry but I am a bit of a germ-a-phobe.

Isn't Lysol a mix of ethanol, water and other stuff? so you put water and flammables into electrical equipment.......

KNick- Sounds like you just want a basic laptop. For basic needs and if you're willing to wait on delivery, I recommend TigerDirect.com to a lot of people.

They carry some current hardware, but a lot of hardware that's six months or older. So their prices tend to be pretty good. Just select laptops, then hit your options: Windows 7 operating system, 8 GB RAM. Then pick which ever strikes your fancy. They're priced from about 550 and up.

For web surfing I bought a $230 Acer 10.1" Android 4.1.1 tablet, came with a 32 GB micro SD card. $20 for a fancy case / stand and $10 for a stylus, but realistically don't get the stylus. Don't go for a screen protector either but do get a screenwipe thing, looks like a lint brush.

Acer A210.

Works for surfing, wireless internet required, my cable modem is wireless.

Hadn't tried any games on it but I have game rigs...may buy a PS4.
Out soon, November?

Restaurants around here, including my local pub, have hot spots so I can surf all over. If you don't have hotspots and if your in need of a new smart phone you might like to look at the new Samsung Phablet the 6.3" screened Mega. $500 but it is a phone and works both WiFi or phone data plans. I surf the web a lot but limit my video watching to WiFi hook ups. I use without wifi less than 600mb of data a month with WiFi I'm down to 100 mb a month.

Just note android does not work easy with flash videos, unless your phone provider has specific channels.

For watching TV with flash either look at an iPad mini or iPad 2 or 2b or s or whatever they called it. New iPads are due in November, maybe. IPads don't have phones built in, yet. Although some do have cellular data plan options.

I just bought a windows 8 Sony Tap 20 super tablet, all in one computer. It is too big to carry places, possible but you don't want to go further than your car then into someone's house. Too heavy and bulky, it is a portable computer table, not really a tablet. It does have a battery for 2-3 hours of use and works great as a web TV. I watch 'the big bang theory" new episodes off the local TV channel website all the time.

Sony discontinued the tap 20 so it is available discounted in various places.
It has a 20" touch screen but comes with wireless keyboard and mouse. Just don't use internet exploder too damn buggy. I use chrome it runs great.

Plugged in the Tap 20 runs 50% faster, then on batteries. Windows 8 has some great puzzles, and you can make your own. I spent 2 hours this afternoon doing jigsaw puzzles I made. But if you want to take it with you get a cheap laptop. Remember almost all laptops are made by one of three VAR.

Kapok, Chicony and the other one merged, the VAR that makes Dell and other brands, can't remember their name and one other smaller ones. NEC and Fujitsu used to make there own. Everyone else uses the value added retailers.

I used to sell kapok systems. HP and Voodoo systems do or did too.

I have about 25 laptops and a box full of oses. Old ones. All different kinds.

Every Microsoft os from DOS to win 8. including the rare ones like NT5 work station and server. Which eventually became Windows 2000... OS2, DR DOS which was really good, all the commodore stuff but that was all hard wired in.

Etc....

For watching TV on the net get windows 8 on a cheap laptop. For games buy a play station and use your TV. For dvd's, if you dont have a tv, buy a
13.3" portable DVD player they are light and about $100. Even plugs into a tv.