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New computer/laptop advice thread

Started by Barry Admin, January 18, 2020, 10:39:27 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Blue Jam

#120
Sorry for so many questions, but has anyone here bought from Box.co.uk? They seem to have some decent prices on open box, non-refurbished PCs.

Going spare here finding laptops on other sites with the right specs at a reasonable price only to see they're not in stock. Arrrggghh.

EDIT: fuckit just ordered from Box. They seem a great bunch of lads.

Wilbur

Quote from: Blue Jam on November 05, 2020, 08:49:26 PM
Also why are laptops, even refurbished ones, so fecking expensive right now? My last one was £200 and now it looks like I'll have to go way north of £300 to get the same specs, ie, still with 8Gb RAM..

The desktop and laptop market has been shrinking for years which has meant that at the start of the first lockdown there was very little stock in the UK to meet the very low demand. Demand went through the roof in March this year and pushed the price through the roof where it remains and is likely to until there are more machines in the market than they can shift. You could try a business refurb reseller such as pyramid who seem to still have a reasonable supply of HP elitebooks coming in for under £400 plus vat. Joys of the *free* market beloved by our overmasters I'm afraid.....

Blue Jam

Quote from: Blue Jam on November 05, 2020, 10:29:44 PM
EDIT: fuckit just ordered from Box. They seem a great bunch of lads.

UPDATE: Don't order from Box. They have good reviews on Trustpilot and my order was sent out really quickly but... they sent the wrong item and I had to return it for a refund. Not really what I needed with a deadline looming.

Quote from: Wilbur on November 06, 2020, 08:38:10 AM
The desktop and laptop market has been shrinking for years which has meant that at the start of the first lockdown there was very little stock in the UK to meet the very low demand. Demand went through the roof in March this year and pushed the price through the roof where it remains and is likely to until there are more machines in the market than they can shift. You could try a business refurb reseller such as pyramid who seem to still have a reasonable supply of HP elitebooks coming in for under £400 plus vat. Joys of the *free* market beloved by our overmasters I'm afraid.....

Cheers for the advice Wilbur. I did go for an HP in the end as it happens- HP 14dk0011na, AMD Ryzen 5 quad-core, 8mb RAM, 256Gb SSD, £480. I see Pyramid are cheaper but this one is a brand new "open box" deal where it seems the original buyer just returned it unused. Anyway, it's dead fast, barely heats up at all and practically silent. I'm dead happy with it so far. It's like this one here:

https://www.johnlewis.com/hp-14-14-dk0011na-laptop-amd-ryzen-5-processor-8gb-256gb-ssd-14-inch-full-hd-natural-silver/p4209353

After browsing loads of sites to find everything I liked the look and the price of was out of stock I eventually went with Laptops Direct and had no problems. I did also look at the Dell Outlet for ex-business machines only to find Dell are a lot more expensive than they used to be.

Will bookmark Pyramid for next time though, cheers!

Bence Fekete

I think my SSD just died?

10(ish) year old home-build, intel i5, with a SanDisk 250GB OS drive. It won't load windows, won't get past the bios screen where it freezes although it does post/beep. When I run windows repair on a USB it just says it can't (helpful). Can't reinstall windows on it using USB. When I try to format the drive manually through command pompt it says that the drive is corrupted. Should I take it at its word?

I've had the drive for a while (i think between 5-10 yrs),and installed plenty of stuff on it, so I'm sure it's possible - I've just never experienced it before. I've stripped it all down to just mb, cpu, ram and ssd. No change.

No big deal to replace with a £50 500GB upgrade but reinstalling everything will be arse so I wanted to check this sounds like the solution if anyone can confirm? Ta

Wilbur



popcorn

Has anyone ever returned a PC to Amazon?

I'm thinking of doing an incredibly jammy thing of buying a gaming PC, playing Half-Life Alyx on it, and then returning it a week later. Seemingly you can generally return things to Amazon if you just don't like them and if they're in good condition but I feel a bit nervous about trying this with a £1000 PC.

Blue Jam

That is very naughty. Do it... Nah, I'd be nervous about that too. They might resell it as an Amazon Warehouse deal or something but they also might not. Also imagine if you spilled a pint on it.

Here I'm very happy with my HP laptop so far. Been using it for graphics stuff and big microscopy image files and it's fast and smooth AF. Also the keyboard is really nice, a minor joy to type with. My only complaint is that my pasty face has a bit of a nuclear glow on Zoom calls but I think that's just my crap genes rather than the camera.

Not too much bloatware/crapware with it either and I've managed to get Windows 10 nice and streamlined, smol start menu and not too many notifications. Also dark theme and lots of black. Goth laptop ftw.

seepage

Thought I'd build a NAS to replace very noisy full tower backup PC that's stuck in the same room as my main PC. Told if it went in dining room it must be white (even though there's various black boxes there already). Should have gone for a Silverstone Grandia case that takes a full-size ATX motherboard, but they only come in black. Must be <450mm deep and hold at least four 3.5 inch HDDs so only choice seemed to be the 'Node 304'. Black Friday = 30 quid off. Go for it. Arrghh - it's mini-ITX!!! Looks OK but cheap finish - needed forceps to undo the [non-retentive] thumbscrews, and to screw in the mb standoffs. Cable management - never heard of it mate. Supposed to take a full-length graphics card but God knows how. Got the shroud back on with a mallet, it boots, and is as quiet as cheese, but that was really unenjoyable. Have to watch some YouTube vids again to see how it's meant to be done.   

lipsink

#129
Hey, I have a question. My Mac just updated to macOS Big Sur and now when I try to open an App on it (Audio Hijack) it's asking me to open System Preferences and click 'Allow' to allow it to load. If I do this however it asks me for my Username and Password. It keeps saying the password is wrong through and I've seriously tried every single password I can think of. It's definitely not the same one as I use to open my Mac. Anyone know what I can do as there's no option for me retrieve my password.

Long story short: I need to retrieve my Apple ID password but it gives me no option to.

NoSleep

It isn't your apple ID password. It's your system password which allows you access as admin to the computer to change permissions, etc. The name of the system account will be the name of your home folder.

Just a thought. Perhaps you didn't enter a system password (i.e. your password is no characters). So that will mean try just clicking enter. I know a lot of people set their macs up to do that, which is OK for most things you need to do.

NoSleep

If you go into System Preferences/Users and Groups/ and select "Change Password..." you may see that you left a hint for yourself as to what your password is.

paruses

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on May 05, 2020, 05:03:25 PM
They're about a ton less than that now. I've had one for years and it's been great.

I had a look and you can go a few generations newer than the x230 now. I'd go for the current gen -1 or 2 if I was buying now.

Dunno how easy they are to hackintosh though if that's your bag.

The 'trick' I think is to get one with a hdd and swap it for an ssd rather than buying the ssd model. When I did this an SK Hyinx ssd cost the best part of a ton, but now you can get a cheap ssd that is about as performant for about 20 quid, and on a thinkpad it's just a case of sliding a tray out to swap them.

Sebastian - do you have a link to where you bought yours from? I did look at one you posted a while back.

Overnight I am now in need of replacing a Lenovo netbook affair that's been going for a few years and is only used for the internet, light Excel, and a bit of Word. Had a very quick look at replacing it with a price of about £170 in mind off Amazon for the convenience but it seems I am out of touch with things.

I looked at these Thinkpads a couple of years ago when I thought I would have to replace my work computer but in the end didn't need to. Was thinking of getting one of these and embiggening the SSD as that seems to push the price up disproportionately to what I can get off someone like Crucial.

Windows 10 Pro, 120gb SSD, 16gb of RAM and i5 processor comes in at about £260 on the first Ebay link I clicked.

The Culture Bunker

I'll be looking to get a new laptop myself soon, if anyone has any pointers for current best places to look.

Don't need anything flash - just use it for browsing the net and my work, mainly. I've been using my current one five years, and it's started showing it's age. Doubt I'll ever play games on it much, bar the odd something from gog.com and maybe Football Manager.  In other words, a generic laptop that'll last me a few years.

I think I'm right in saying new ones don't come with CD-ROMs anymore, which is a shame, as I do still buy CDs and use the laptop to convert them so I can put them on my MP3 player.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: paruses on December 27, 2020, 11:47:31 AM
Sebastian - do you have a link to where you bought yours from? I did look at one you posted a while back.

Overnight I am now in need of replacing a Lenovo netbook affair that's been going for a few years and is only used for the internet, light Excel, and a bit of Word. Had a very quick look at replacing it with a price of about £170 in mind off Amazon for the convenience but it seems I am out of touch with things.

I looked at these Thinkpads a couple of years ago when I thought I would have to replace my work computer but in the end didn't need to. Was thinking of getting one of these and embiggening the SSD as that seems to push the price up disproportionately to what I can get off someone like Crucial.

Windows 10 Pro, 120gb SSD, 16gb of RAM and i5 processor comes in at about £260 on the first Ebay link I clicked.

I got both of mine from private ebay sellers. You can tell some people are selling them wholesale. I got a bit of a discount on the one I bought this year (Lenovo x260) because it had a crack in the case that doesn't seem to have gotten any worse. The price you listed seems a bit steep, when I looked this year the 260 seemed a sweet spot in terms of age/cost (basically a couple of generations back).

paruses

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on December 27, 2020, 05:14:44 PM
I got both of mine from private ebay sellers. You can tell some people are selling them wholesale. I got a bit of a discount on the one I bought this year (Lenovo x260) because it had a crack in the case that doesn't seem to have gotten any worse. The price you listed seems a bit steep, when I looked this year the 260 seemed a sweet spot in terms of age/cost (basically a couple of generations back).

Thanks SC- just stuck x260 into Refurbished Laptops and that comes up at 309+VAT which is more than I want to pay. As mentioned upthread though there's probably a bit of a price hike for basic supply and demand reasons going on at the moment.

I will probably go with one of the sites that advertises itself as a refurb outlet for the yea's warranty but I know what you mean about some sellers obvs being wholesalers to some degree.

Had the ThinkPads as company laptops in the past and liked their workhorse styling so will have a look at that x260 sort of area. I found an x226 x220 for 230 with a 120gb ssd. That might do if prices are up at the moment - the thing doesn't have to do a huge amount.

Also doesn't help that the model numbers are very close to the prices.

Sebastian Cobb

I had the 230 before, it's a good machine and it put up with a good few years of abuse, I don't think there's too much difference in performance with the later models. Replacing the SSD is piss easy on the 230 (unscrew plastic cover and slide out, no removing the back or owt) and 250gb ssd's can be had for as little as 25 quid these days if you shop around, so it might be worth comparing the price of one with a hdd and replacing it yourself.

The main reason I upgraded to a 260 was because it has a secondary internal battery so gives a bit more battery life. Otherwise they're pretty comparable, the 260 has modern styling and is a bit thinner but there's not a lot in it.

TrenterPercenter

Just to throw this in there (as just put it in another thread but might be useful to someone else) the new MacBook Air base model is excellent and whilst is going to cost you 1k it is worth much more!  If you can stretch the extra cash and you were wondering about apple then now is the time to jump in.  You'll likely have seen all the reviews and might be wondering if they are all legit as they are so fan boyish but I can attest it is genuinely incredible - I really think apple have messed up here (well for there shareholders) as despite the high entry price entry point you are probably looking at machine that will cost you double the price for an equivalent.  Surely the prices will go back up with whatever they put out next but the cheapest one really is that good unless you are running a bitcoin farm or whatever it will do everything you need.

imitationleather

Just popping in to say that I got a new MacBook Air yesterday and agree that it is great.

Dex Sawash

Are there any turds in the Lenovo 2xx series? Daughter needs a semi-durable laptop, been looking at 230/40/60 refurbs but prices are all over the place and I hate researching things I dgaf about.

canadagoose

This is kind of reverse advice, but I've not long since bought an HP ProDesk 400 G4 mini PC (due to the heat-trapping qualities of my room, and due to my poor little Pi 4 getting overloaded by my usage) and it's very impressive. An 8th gen Core i3, 16GB DDR4 RAM and a 256GB M.2 SSD for £224.99 including postage. Plays 2160p60[nb]4k @ 60fps, just to clarify[/nb] video on YouTube no bother, while outputting to two monitors. Sure, you need a monitor, keyboard, mouse and Wi-Fi adapter (and Bluetooth adapter if you're that way inclined) but it's great value. Do a quick search on eBay if you're interested. You might need to reboot the computer when you first start it up though - the screen was garbled at first, and then I had to install drivers from HP's website, but it worked great after that.

canadagoose

Quote from: Dex Sawash on January 22, 2021, 12:39:48 PM
Are there any turds in the Lenovo 2xx series? Daughter needs a semi-durable laptop, been looking at 230/40/60 refurbs but prices are all over the place and I hate researching things I dgaf about.
Top tip: the 2nd digit indicates the generation of Core processor inside the machine, and therefore the approximate age. So X230s contain gen 3 Core i3/5/7s, which are from 2012-13, roughly. A T440 would be from 2013-14, and a T460 from 2015-16, etc.

Edit: Obviously this doesn't apply after x9x (2018-19). They renamed their ThinkPads after that to, for instance, ThinkPad T14 (for the 14" model) and you'll be told which generation of T14 it is in any reputable listing.

Sebastian Cobb

I didn't know that about the processor versions.

I had a 230 and now have a 260, both were great. I can't say there was much noticeable difference between the two (and someone on the thinkpad subreddit clamed the 230 may be slightly nippier based on how it delivers power to the processor - not sure about that). I think a good amount of ram and a decent SSD will make the differences negligible tbh. The 260 has an extra internal battery so battery life is better, for me that's worth it. Both machines are excellent value though.

canadagoose

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on January 28, 2021, 01:47:37 PM
I didn't know that about the processor versions.

I had a 230 and now have a 260, both were great. I can't say there was much noticeable difference between the two (and someone on the thinkpad subreddit clamed the 230 may be slightly nippier based on how it delivers power to the processor - not sure about that). I think a good amount of ram and a decent SSD will make the differences negligible tbh. The 260 has an extra internal battery so battery life is better, for me that's worth it. Both machines are excellent value though.
I had no idea about the X230 delivering power to the processor differently - did the person say what they meant? I also have an X230 which I use as a "bed-laptop", but the CMOS battery is dead, which is a pain in the neck. I put my own SSD in it and it works OK when it's on. It's fine for a spare PC.

Sebastian Cobb

They said:

Quotethe x230 is technically more powerful than the x260 if you exclude graphics because of the full voltage vs ULV.

Which would appear to be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-low-voltage_processor

They also said that you can get an ultrabase for the 230 to get more battery life but it looks very cumbersome.

Just remember I upped the ram on my 230 with a tenners worth of second hand memory from CEX. I figured at that price the worst that would happen is it wouldn't work.

Instead of a 'bed laptop' in the past I've just gone and got a 2nd psu that lives by my bed.

popcorn

Right, after a full year of procrastination I've decided I'm finally going to buy a gaming PC.

I only want it for one game - Half-Life Alyx.[nb]Actually I also want it for an indie VR game I'm helping with but have never been able to actually play yet, but anything that can run Alyx well will be able to run our game well too.[/nb] It doesn't need to be super cutting edge or future-proof because I'm unlikely to want to play anything else coming out for the next couple of years. I just want something that will run Alyx well. That's it.

I'm hoping not to spend more than a grand, and anything below that is a bonus obviously. There's a 2021 list of recommended gaming PCs on Gamesradar - will the cheaper options run Alyx like shit? There's one for £766 that the article says "will get you [to VR] on a shoestring: it's VR-ready right out of the box (just) and will be easy to upgrade when newer, more fancy headsets become more available."

Zetetic

The most obvious thing is that the £766 machine doesn't meet Alyx's minimum RAM requirements (though that's probably easily remedied).

popcorn

Quote from: Zetetic on February 07, 2021, 07:42:58 PM
The most obvious thing is that the £766 machine doesn't meet Alyx's minimum RAM requirements (though that's probably easily remedied).

Whoops.

Thanks for doing that bit of homework for me - I find comparing minimum requirements with advertised specs massively tedious, especially as things don't have the same names.

Zetetic

I empathise and I'm grateful for tools like this:
https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1660-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1060-6GB/4038vs3639

but you still can't entirely escape familiarising yourself with the revolting details of four different companies' naming conventions.

AsparagusTrevor

If it helps, I played through Half-Life Alyx on an old gaming laptop with a GTX 1060 6GB. I run it on medium to low settings which still looked pretty and played smoothly.