New Laptop Time
September 6th, 2010 . by Tim Babb (TANcast's #1 Host/Editor Fan)
Day 6
I’ve just finished editing the new TANcast and I forgot to mention two things…
1) That I’m doing these blogs every day this month and
2) I’m finally getting a new laptop!
If you don’t know, my laptop suddenly died on me while at a show in Hollywood a month or so ago. (It was very sad) I Googled some stuff on my own and couldn’t get it to turn on. Then I took it to Noah who tried a few things and inspected it as best he could but he couldn’t get it to turn on either. So I finally decided to take it to the “Geek Squad” at Best Buy…my “Geek” barely touched the thing and told me he wasn’t sure what the problem was…probably needed a new mother board. (Really? You’re the “Geek” and my buddy Noah did more than you did to examine this thing. You suck.)
So basically, the old laptop is dead and gone. A sad situation made all the sadder by the fact that my wife’s iTunes library was on there. But also that was the laptop I used when on the road for things like graphic design, editing TANcast, editing videos..etc. I do have a “back up” laptop that a friend gave to us a few years back but it is sloooooooooow. I couldn’t even load PhotoShop on it. I have to boot it up, go for a drive to Kansas and back, and THEN it’s ready to use.
Now I finally have some cash to get a new laptop. I’m leaning towards an HP but that’s just because that’s what I’ve always had. Any suggestions? I need to be able to run PhotoShop, open office, Audacity, Skype, and the internet (duh). Anyone have a favorite laptop make and/or model they’d like to champion? One quick stipulation: If you’re going to say “Mac,” save your breath. I was born a right clicker and I will die a right clicker.
My name’s Tim, I’m a PC, and hating on Apple was my idea.
September 7th, 2010 at 6:28 am
Glad your upgrading ….but where is the new Tancast?
September 7th, 2010 at 6:29 am
oh there it is….
September 7th, 2010 at 6:30 am
Just went up 😉
September 7th, 2010 at 6:33 am
YAHOO i needed this when i drove to the Zoo in San Diego today (Monday)!
September 7th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
I used to be an HP person, but every single HP I’ve had has lost it’s display driver functions within a year. So after 3 HP’s (they were all replacements from customer support) I switched to Dell. I don’t have any idea what model it is because I know jack shit about computers but it works and I can still properly see the screen. And I haven’t had to call their customer support once.
September 7th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Brand is irrelevant as long as it’s something you recognize. Specs are what matter (I have an Acer, for example, even though I never had one before because it had the specs I wanted at the right price).
Here’s what I recommend for minimum specs if you want a laptop that will serve you well for several years: at least a 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB of RAM (especially if you get something that’s running Windows 7). Also, whatever you get, avoid anything with an integrated graphics card (in other words, make sure it’s got an ATI or nVidia card, not an Intel card).
September 7th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Not that I am an expert in all things computer, but I would imagine that there is a way to get things from the old computer to the new one. There are bays for hard drives that allow you to extract the data from external drives. It’s happened to me, on an old desk-top so I imagine it could be done for a laptop as well.
September 7th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
We have a Fujitsu Lifebook – love it. As for the iTunes library, same thing happened to me when our last laptop died. I looked around the Google and found how to load the library back to the new laptop using my iPod as the “hard drive”. Worked like a dream, though I was a little scared to try it.
September 11th, 2010 at 1:05 am
Yay for right-click. Yay for not paying extra for a fruit logo.
I have a Lenovo from work and have had no reason to complain about anything. It has withstood some fairly major shocks courtesy of my kids, and I have carried it from one room to another about seven times a day for three years, plus home, to other workplaces, to libraries and interstate/overseas – adds up to a lot of movement. I’d have to say that it’s coped well… though as a corporate buy they would have gone for a more rugged (=more$) model. I’m yet to find anything that I can’t run on it (Photoshop, Audacity, etc have zero lag), though I have only ever tried one 3D game on it (a relatively simple kids one when my son was stuck in hospital – it was fine).
September 21st, 2010 at 3:28 am
Ive got a gateway and its pretty good.