Strategery question

[Discuss Thrower]

So the circa 2010 Alienware laptop is dying on me. The battery no longer holds a charge, I have to prop it on a stand with an external fan to keep it from overheating and the keyboard is missing.. well, keys.

Ideally, I want something that can play Star Citizen down the line. Obviously a lapper doesn't make sense for that but I need something to tide me over until that day comes as I'll be in graduate school for another two years. I've loved what the AW has done for me in 5.5 years, namely holding just about every media file I may need, but the thing is too tiny and I never actually got full use of it (shocker).

So what's a decent laptop of roughly ~14i-16in in screen size that won't have a lot of bloat or Chinese spyware on it and can it be acquired from a certain website that's not Amazon or Newegg for a decent value?

Or should I just get a cheap netbook/chromebook thingy for portable use and just start on assembling a capable desktop.. though I'm short on time and am too scared to home build a PC on my own?

<3

[kccrow]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

I had a professor that was quite pleased with his choice of an ASUS laptop capable of doing multimedia editing and WoW and I've noticed their MoBos are used in custom systems.

I know they have an i5 2.2 GHz with 8GB ram version of that same comp I pointed you to for around $580 that would step you up into moderate gaming if you want it, but I think I'd save the $280 for your desktop build if it is in the near future plans and sink that extra cash into a kick ass video card.

[Frosty]

We bought both of our boys Asus laptops when they went to college. The oldest's is about 3 years old now and the other's is about a year old. Each laptop was around $350 on Amazon and has done everything they need, including some gaming. Despite using them constantly, they haven't had any problems with them except my oldest broke his screen last year. It cost $50 for a new panel and it was super easy to replace.

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by kccrow

Don't know about their PCs, but they are the only brand of motherboard I buy. Absolutely bulletproof. Depends on who you ask, but ASUS is generally regarded as the best motherboard producer in the world. After motherboard and the Intel processor, everything else is probably the same as any other pre-built - a bunch of Japanese whatever stuffed in there.

I've heard some really good things about them and I recall seeing they have a low "malfunction" rate. Only knock I've heard is their tech support isn't always that great unless you chat online with them, but I haven't ever had to use it.

I bought the one you suggested. Nice screen, sound quality is all right. Very light considering the size.

Seems like Windows 10 is barely capable on the unit because I'll have nothing open and CPU usage spikes to 100% for more than a few moments. I tried to get rid of the obvious bloatware but I might not have done that to the fullest extent.

The keyboard aggravates me greatly. I feel like I have to donkey punch the keys in order for it to register. Also, MS Office is either resource intensive to the point that character inputs lag the system or there's a nice little graphical "feature" delaying characters appearing on the screen.

The laptop also has a proclivity to being waylaid by advertisements on webpages; one embedded video ad grinds the system to a halt and Edge isn't supported by AdBlock.

[kccrow]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

I bought the one you suggested. Nice screen, sound quality is all right. Very light considering the size.

Seems like Windows 10 is barely capable on the unit because I'll have nothing open and CPU usage spikes to 100% for more than a few moments. I tried to get rid of the obvious bloatware but I might not have done that to the fullest extent.

The keyboard aggravates me greatly. I feel like I have to donkey punch the keys in order for it to register. Also, MS Office is either resource intensive to the point that character inputs lag the system or there's a nice little graphical "feature" delaying characters appearing on the screen.

The laptop also has a proclivity to being waylaid by advertisements on webpages; one embedded video ad grinds the system to a halt and Edge isn't supported by AdBlock.

Hmm. Shouldn't run like that. That thing should run Windows 10 easily. i3's are dual threaded dual core, giving you 4 threads. I run Win 10 on a laptop with a 2.2 GHz Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo (2 cores, single threaded) and 4 GB DDR3 with no hiccups. You have a cooler running, faster processor with better graphics chip than I do. I can stream Netflix, run MS Office 2007, and surf the net no problem.

Firefox is the least system resource needy browser and supports ABP. I will say I've never had issues running Edge on my laptop, but I don't really use it because it is very CPU intensive if you have multiple tabs open simultaneously.

Something is telling me you have either an out-of-the-box hardware issue, like a loose heatsink, or there is post-factory software issue. Did you install an AntiVirus? Have you checked the resources its using if so? Some can be real hogs. Other anti-malware programs like Spybot Search & Destroy can be insane resource hogs too that have terrible background processes. I dunno what you put on there though so I'm just throwing shit at the wall right now.

I guess, what have you done to the machine since it arrived?

How did it seem to run out of the box?

Have you ran core temp on it to see if there is a heat issue?

As for the keyboard, most are stiff new and loosen up after a bit of use. I can't speak with certainties on the keyboard being perfect for you individually though. The registration issue probably has nothing to do with the keyboard itself. I think that's something to do with whatever the primary issue is going on.

If this one was running this shitty straight out of the box, RMA it.

[kccrow]

Any luck DT?