What is your favorite brand of computer?

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jdmlight
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What is your favorite brand of computer?

Post by jdmlight » Thu Mar 10, 2011 10:22 am

I suppose I should elaborate more on OSes. I use Mac OS X, Ubuntu, WinXP, Win7, and a Linux-based fileserver system almost daily. I'm fully of the opinion that you need to pick the right OS for what you're doing. I like Mac OS X for my boring daily stuff because it just gets out of my way. I use Ubuntu in a Virtualbox VM for my PHP/mySQL class because web development seems to work the best on Linux. XP is on the computers at school, and even though I wish they'd upgrade to 7, it's fine for logging on and working on schoolwork in Word/Firefox. I use Windows 7 on my gaming computer because it's the best for gaming IMO - it's as stable as XP but with DirectX 10, which is really pretty. I'm also quite a fan of the new taskbar. The Linux-based OS I use for my fileserver (unRAID if anyone was interested) is perfect because it just happily sits there serving stuff without complaint. Before I shut it down to add another hard drive, it was at an uptime approaching 6 months, which is phenomenal.

So yeah, different OSes for different purposes. If situations were different and I couldn't have afforded a MacBook Pro, I would be fine with using Windows 7 as my main OS. However a lot of the stuff I do for school is easier in a Unix-based OS because the CS department at NIU is very anti-Microsoft.

I'll agree with the brands of parts ketchup mentioned, adding that I've used Corsair power supplies and G-Skill RAM without complaints. My graphics card is a HIS, it runs quiet and cool, and in general is rock solid.

If you're reading this thread and you haven't built a desktop PC yet, you need to get in there.
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Re: What is your favorite brand of computer?

Post by Jongamer » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:27 pm

Macs are good, but I can get so much more from a PC laptop of the same price. Thanks to Valve, and Steam, they made Macs even more appealing, as more and more games are being released on Macs through Steam. As Long as I don't have to use Apple Branded Mice, I don't care, the Mice are the only thing I dread about Macs, but since most USB Mice these days will work with a Mac.

But I am 100% PC right now, no Linux, no OSX, no iOS. Hell even my smart phone runs Windows 6.5

I know I have mentioned it many times in the past here, but I pop in here on these forums every once in a great while, so no one prolly even remembers me.

I currently and running a T61p Thinkpad, thing runs pretty hot though, but that is Nvidias fault for the cruddy G84 GPU chips that overheat. thing hit easily 80c during gaming, and almost as high as 90c.

Lenovo is a great brand of laptop, and have fantastic Customer Service. (Will Overnight you a replacement battery when under warranty)
Though I prefer Lenovo's Thinkpad line, over their more traditional designed laptops. Nothing much more rugged than a Thinkpad, other than of course a Toughbook.

This things was $2k brand new in 2007 (And I got it free!!), so yeah. It still tramples like more than 50% (Wouldn't doubt if 75%) of the Laptop market in terms of features, screen resolution, and raw power.

How Many Laptops had Wireless-N in 2007? :P

1920x1200 screen, hells yes. Most consumer laptops these days would piss their pants with their wimpy 1366x768 screens. Hell I don't see many gaming laptops with Screen resolutions this high.

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Re: What is your favorite brand of computer?

Post by vskid » Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:24 pm

Jongamer wrote:I currently and running a T61p Thinkpad, thing runs pretty hot though, but that is Nvidias fault for the cruddy G84 GPU chips that overheat. thing hit easily 80c during gaming, and almost as high as 90c.
Lol, my ASUS G60VX has a GTX 260m and has hit 95C, it'll stay in the 80s all through a game. Until I enabled what I call "leafblower mode" by disconnecting the RPM line, which caused the fan to run at full speed all the time, and I took off the bottom panel so my cooling pad would blow directly on everything. That got me to stay below 80C even with a slight OC. I had to put the fan back to normal though, it was really annoying. I might put a switch on that line to have cold on demand.
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What is your favorite brand of computer?

Post by iHackedit » Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:57 pm

Lol, I didn't notice this, does it add to my thread count?
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Re: What is your favorite brand of computer?

Post by Jongamer » Thu Mar 24, 2011 8:54 am

vskid wrote:
Jongamer wrote:I currently and running a T61p Thinkpad, thing runs pretty hot though, but that is Nvidias fault for the cruddy G84 GPU chips that overheat. thing hit easily 80c during gaming, and almost as high as 90c.
Lol, my ASUS G60VX has a GTX 260m and has hit 95C, it'll stay in the 80s all through a game. Until I enabled what I call "leafblower mode" by disconnecting the RPM line, which caused the fan to run at full speed all the time, and I took off the bottom panel so my cooling pad would blow directly on everything. That got me to stay below 80C even with a slight OC. I had to put the fan back to normal though, it was really annoying. I might put a switch on that line to have cold on demand.
well I take it back, it easily hits 90c during gaming. Luckily I have a specialized fan application, made for Thinkpads, and in the manual speed box, and it also has a "Detached" fan speed on it. Though the damn Smart fan mode will decide to override the Manual setting during gaming, and smart mode wont use "Detached Fan Speed", and if I use the Bios fan speeds, my laptop will shut the fan off during gaming, which results in an immediate crash of the graphics drivers.

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Re: What is your favorite brand of computer?

Post by jdmlight » Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:18 am

Jongamer wrote:Macs are good, but I can get so much more from a PC laptop of the same price. Thanks to Valve, and Steam, they made Macs even more appealing, as more and more games are being released on Macs through Steam. As Long as I don't have to use Apple Branded Mice, I don't care, the Mice are the only thing I dread about Macs, but since most USB Mice these days will work with a Mac.
The gap in features between a Mac and a business-class PC laptop of the same price is smaller (than the difference in features when comparing to a consumer-class PC laptop), but still definitely there. And I have absolutely no idea why Apple can't make a good mouse to save their life. Logitech mice ftw!
Jongamer wrote: How Many Laptops had Wireless-N in 2007? :P
Mine did (well still does). :P
Jongamer wrote: 1920x1200 screen, hells yes. Most consumer laptops these days would piss their pants with their wimpy 1366x768 screens. Hell I don't see many gaming laptops with Screen resolutions this high.
That is a phenomenal screen resolution. In a 15"? Usually you can only get 1920x1200 in 17" laptops (or 24" monitors). That is an arguably better resolution than my desktop monitor (which is 2048x1152).
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Re: What is your favorite brand of computer?

Post by Jongamer » Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:16 pm

jdmlight wrote:
Jongamer wrote:Macs are good, but I can get so much more from a PC laptop of the same price. Thanks to Valve, and Steam, they made Macs even more appealing, as more and more games are being released on Macs through Steam. As Long as I don't have to use Apple Branded Mice, I don't care, the Mice are the only thing I dread about Macs, but since most USB Mice these days will work with a Mac.
The gap in features between a Mac and a business-class PC laptop of the same price is smaller (than the difference in features when comparing to a consumer-class PC laptop), but still definitely there. And I have absolutely no idea why Apple can't make a good mouse to save their life. Logitech mice ftw!
Jongamer wrote: How Many Laptops had Wireless-N in 2007? :P
Mine did (well still does). :P
Jongamer wrote: 1920x1200 screen, hells yes. Most consumer laptops these days would piss their pants with their wimpy 1366x768 screens. Hell I don't see many gaming laptops with Screen resolutions this high.
That is a phenomenal screen resolution. In a 15"? Usually you can only get 1920x1200 in 17" laptops (or 24" monitors). That is an arguably better resolution than my desktop monitor (which is 2048x1152).
yep 15.4 inch.

Lets compare Apples to PCS here. Consumer grade.

Standard Macbook $1k
2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo
250GB HDD 5400 RPM
only 2GB of DDR3 1066 (Upgradeable to 4GB)
Nvidia 320m with only 256MB of Dedicated Video memory
1280x800 LCD 13.3 Inch
USB 2.0

Consumer Grade PC Laptop of Similar Price
1.7Ghz i7
4GB of DDR3 1066 (upgradeable to 8GB)
320GB 7200RPM HDD
Nvidia 335m with 1GB of Dedicated Video Memory
USB 3.0 and 2.0
1366x768 14 inch LCD

Now the OS and my arguments against it, are whole different can of worms that we don't want to open.

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Re: What is your favorite brand of computer?

Post by humakabula1 » Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:12 pm

i use both windows and osx

i leik alienware, its the best value for money
Wedgix (custom linux distro): 20% complete

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