Ms. Spam Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 I had to buy a new computer tonight so I had the choice of a MacBook Air for 800$ that is a i5 processor, 4 GB Ram and I forget the storage that is 13 inches or a Toshiba Laptop - Tablet 2 in 1 with 8 GB Ram and 750 GB Storage and an i5 processor that is a 16 inch touch screen for 650$ (not really able to be used as a tablet but very functional). I chose the Toshiba simply because I could put my copy of Microsoft Office on. Chump or not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Depends on what you need a computer for. If you want the Internet, some word processing and something to do basic file keeping you did fine. If you plan to do any multimedia work a mac would have been better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burt Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Sounds like you have a way better computer than the Apple. Good choice, unless you're wanting to do the aforementioned multimedia stuff. I'm getting in the market soon, and just really really don't want to go through the hassle of choosing again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms. Spam Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 Depends on what you need a computer for. If you want the Internet, some word processing and something to do basic file keeping you did fine. If you plan to do any multimedia work a mac would have been better.I am still kicking myself - I guess - because if I wanted to dip into Apple that was a fantastic price with the specs offered. I basically punked out because I needed to do a lot of word processing in MS Office of which I had a free copy of. I figured it would be easier to work with the schools software stuff. I am not liking Windows 8. I love the Mac Air. The other issue was the screen size. I watch a ton of online stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms. Spam Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 Sounds like you have a way better computer than the Apple. Good choice, unless you're wanting to do the aforementioned multimedia stuff. I'm getting in the market soon, and just really really don't want to go through the hassle of choosing again.Oh yeah for sure I was not ready to chose. I had a great laptop but I tend to not pay attention to drinks around my cat and had replaced the MB once already. It had Windows 7 and an i7 processor. It was perfect in everyway. Great outside appearance and super speedy. That one got stolen recently and so I was using the school issue Dell. My cat tipped a whole mess of coffee on it this morning. And I needed a computer. So off to Best Buy. Because I wanted to get it that day. Not order it online. Both the Toshiba and the Mac Air had huge discounts (the toshiba was 150 bucks off). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 For the future-- all Macs come with iWork which has their version of word. Not as robust, but it can open and save DOC files so you're never out of the loop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Personally, to be honest Spam, I wouldn't have chosen either of those (I'm assuming this is what you went with), but if you were limited to those two options for whatever reason, and are only using your laptop for MS Office suite and doing work tasks and web browsing, then I would have to say the Toshiba was probably the better way to go for you, as long as you got a warranty. Hardware spec wise, that Toshiba will do everything you need it to do, so you aren't missing out on much with not buying the Macbook. Windows 8 is pretty lame, and it has a learning curve, but so does OSX, if most of your experience is in Windows, so you might have been just as frustrated with OSX as you are with Windows 8.1, had you bought the MacBook. But don't despair too much for having Windows 8, because you will be able to download Windows 10 for free when it comes out, since you have Windows 8.1. Windows 10 will be more like Windows 7/Windows 8 hybrid, with an easier to use and more intuitive metro interface. Rumor has it it will even have a classic view to resemble Windows 7. But really, after a week or so of playing with it, you will likely get used to Windows 8. Another thing to help is you can customize your metro interface to look more like Windows 7 Just my two cents: I personally dislike Toshiba's and find their hardware reliability very questionable. In my time, I have seen a LOT of Toshiba laptops cross my desk for hardware repairs, with hard drive replacements being the most common hardware failure with them. Toshiba brand hard drives, which most Toshiba laptops use, are pretty horrible in my experience,so make sure you back up your important files to a flash drive or external hard drive. That is not to scare you, just to give you a heads up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 For the future-- all Macs come with iWork which has their version of word. Not as robust, but it can open and save DOC files so you're never out of the loop.That is a good option, and so is Google docs, Open Office (for mac) or Libre Office (for mac), but if you work with MS office on a daily basis, you really need to get MS Office. Office 2013 should last you a good while, but if you ever need to upgrade or replace it, just keep in mind that a lot of school districts and state universities have agreements with Microsoft where education employees get Office at deep discounts, and sometimes even for free. Being a teacher, MS Spam, you should ask your IT department if they have a program for faculty discounts on MS Office and other software (IE Adobe products), for when you need to upgrade to the latest version in the future. The other option is Office 365 for educators, but I have heard mixed feedback on Office 365. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms. Spam Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 That was the one I got, Chalupa. I have never had issues with Toshiba that weren't caused by me or my cat. There were a couple of Levonos I looked at too but they were beyond my price range. The two options I narrowed it down to were the best options that were left that they had in stock. I really just wanted to spend 400 bucks but those options were vastly under powered. i played with it last night and like quite a lot about it but you are right about Windows 8.1 learning curve. i have also discovered that a writeable cd drive does not come with these new fangled 'puters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 That was the one I got, Chalupa. I have never had issues with Toshiba that weren't caused by me or my cat. There were a couple of Levonos I looked at too but they were beyond my price range. The two options I narrowed it down to were the best options that were left that they had in stock. I really just wanted to spend 400 bucks but those options were vastly under powered. i played with it last night and like quite a lot about it but you are right about Windows 8.1 learning curve. i have also discovered that a writeable cd drive does not come with these new fangled 'puters.Well hopefully your Toshiba will hold up like your past ones. I'm just saying that's been my experience, and I've worked on literally dozens, if not hundreds of Toshibas. But your mileage will vary, and hopefully it will. As for optical drives, yeah, they are going the way of zip drives, I'm afraid. Plus, people value lighter, thinner laptops more these days, so the way to do that is by eliminating on board optical drives. But you can get external USB DVD drives cheap, now. http://www.newegg.com/External-CD-DVD-Blu-Ray-Drives/SubCategory/ID-420 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Chalup - is there a laptop you would recommend in that price range? I'm going to be in the market soonish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good God a Bear Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Strippers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Chalup - is there a laptop you would recommend in that price range? I'm going to be in the market soonish.In the $650 range? And I am assuming you are asking for a PC, rather than an Apple. If you go Apple, pricing is pretty universal, so you can go straight to the Apple site for that. Well, keep in mind I'm more in a business environment and we go with Dells, not because Dells are the best, but because Dells have better (best?) business warranties, and provide next day parts, are easy to work on, easy to upgrade (some laptops, like Apple make it almost impossible to upgrade and literally glue their iMacs and Macbooks together), etc. The Latitude line is the business line up for Dell, and has superior support to the Dell Inspiron (consumer line). If you want a Dell, I would recommend a Latitude. The E7440s are what I am most familiar with at the moment, but they start around a grand. I've not had to work on those very often at all, once I have them imaged. They are pretty nice, actually, but then again, you pay for it. However, the Latitude 14 3440s are similar, but start around $650, so they are worth considering. More plastic on their casing, though, so less sturdy than the E7440s. HP is another good option, and I have heard good things about the HP 350 and HP 355, which are comparable to the Latitudes, but no direct experience with them. ASUS is almost always a good brand to go with, as well. Lenovo and Samsung are generally good, too. The key is to do your homework and read reviews on sites like Tom's hardware or PC world on the specific model you are considering. In any of those configurations, you want at least an i3, but I recommend at least i5, and you want at least 4 gigs of ram bare minimum. Don't settle for the lower end CPUs, and i3 is as low as I would go, as far as cheap processors. But I say get as much processor as you can afford (I like i7s). If possible, I'd also say order your laptop with an SSD, rather than a mechanical drive, if you can afford it. However, if you are somewhat technically inclined (or can at least follow a youtube video...there are tons of vids on how to upgrade RAM and Hard Drives) and can reinstall an OS (or can clone a drive), you can order a laptop with a cheap mechanical drive, and upgrade to an SSD later. Another good tip to save money is check the model you are considering on Crucial to find out its max memory capacity (IE a Dell Latitude 3440 can have up to 16 GB RAM), but order it with the minimum amount, then upgrade the RAM later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 My son's $200 chromebook is possibly the best thing ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 There are many manufacturers of Chromebooks, even HP and ASUS make some, so there are some Chromebooks with solid hardware. I personally would not recommend one, because the Chrome OS is limited for business or academic settings. Also, beware: some people think they can buy a chromebook on the cheap, then upgrade to Windows, but the firmware prevents that! (Note: There are hacks for some Chromebooks that involve flashing the bios and other complicated steps, which if you do wrong, you brick your sh*t. And it depends on the make/model of Chromebook as to whether that is even possible, too). But, for basic web browsing and web gaming, eh, I guess Chromebooks are ok as an alternative to a tablet. But if I had $200-$300 to burn, I'd rather get a nice samsung tablet or iPad mini. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms. Spam Posted April 28, 2015 Author Share Posted April 28, 2015 I cry for my i7 processor. Although the i5 has not been bad i have in the new computer. HP gets low ratings in some catagories for screen quality and a few build quality issues. I hate hate hate Dells - the coffee catastrophe one was a Dell albeit an old one. The ones that Chalupa is talking about though are nice high quality Dells. At Best Buy they were sold out of that model. I don't need a lot of storage so I love love love SSD. SSD is sold state drive. Its basically the same drive that phones and mp3 players use and is much quicker than the old "Platter" drives but storage is limited. I was surprised and quite pleased that this something offered in 2 in 1s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Yeah, where people get bit with on HPs or Dells are their consumer lines. They really aren't designed to last more than 3-4 years. Apple is like the opposite....they intentionally obsolete their hardware through software (or lack thereof, unless one turns to linux), but the hardware itself will run for years. Business lines of Dell and HP are much better quality builds than their consumer lines. Plus the mid 2000s, Dell put out some crap laptops (Inspiron 5100s....there were class action lawsuits on that model) and still haven't shook the bad reputation with a lot of people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaycie Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 I really like ASUS myself, I've been working on a (i5, 4gb ram, two hdd) referb I got off of Newegg for about four plus years now. It gets REALLY heavy use since I work remote and have traveled a bit and I haven't had any hardware issues. My fan is a little loud atm but I probably need to open it up and do a good cleaning. I would never buy a Dell or HP personally but I've had poor experience with both in my history. Just last year we bought an HP printer/fax combo and it's already defective. We don't even use it that much, I use the scanner more than any part of it and that's only like once in a great while. My last desktop before my custom build was hp and I totally hated it, but I got a special deal on it cause Link worked for them at the time. Never again though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms. Spam Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 Hey guys! How do I get chrome as a tile option in Windows 8? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Go to your Start/Tile/Metro page.Hit the Window + S buttons* to bring up search.Search for "Chrome" and right click the Chrome icon (when Google Chrome comes up).Select Pin to Start on the pop-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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