mllelaurel | (no subject)

(no subject)

So. My laptop is a piece of shit. It won't play DVDs anymore. It freezes up when faced with anything more challenging than a pageful of plain text. It won't defrag completely.

Conclusion? I need to buy a new computer stat, before I can't access the internet anymore and thus am rendered incapable of buying said new computer.

Discuss.

Basically, I need to know what laptops qualify as non-shitty. My bare qualifications are: DVD player/burner; able to connect to the internet; more harddrive space than my current 55 gigs.

I'm none-too-fond of the Mac interface, but if I'm given assurances that Macs are less likely to break the hell down, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Cheap would be nice, as I need an external harddrive and/or an ipod to move all my junk onto. I can't think of another way to transfer it from one harddrive to another, but then I'm no expert.

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Mm...let me see. I'm a bit biased when it comes to OS's, so I won't go into that one. The Mac interface isn't hard to get used to, though -- I wasn't too fond when I first started using one either, but it's so, so worth it.

What's your price range? If you want to buy something that works now, and then get another computer in a couple years, it might worthwhile to try to find something used. Does Bennington have any specific networking requirements?

I actually might be selling my laptop in the near future -- the non-abundance of cross-platform graphic and game engines would make thesis-ing really hard without being able to boot to Windows at least sometimes. It's a PowerBook G4 with a 12"-inch monitor and a DVD player. No burner, but it's reliable and I've never actually lost data or serious functionality. It's also named Nanami and has enough sentimental value that I'd like to see it in good hands. :p (And yes, I do call it "her" sometimes! She's tiny and the screen hurts my eyes sometimes, but inside, she's got a lot going for her.) However, this depends on a lot of factors, and I'm probably going to hold off on it for a while. :(

An external HD (or iPod) is a very useful thing to have. Backups (especially if you've purchased anything in a purely electronic form) are great to have, and you're much less likely to miss something that way than if you spend time backing things up to CDs/DVDs.

Good luck!

I'd prefer to buy something that lasts. But if it costs over $2000 - or over $1500, really, I simply won't have that option.

I'm not sure. Considering half the student body have Macs and there are Macs in the computer lab, it shouldn't be a huge problem. In theory, anyway.

Awww, your computer sounds adorable!

I'm going to have a lot of discussions with my parents, who'd have to help me finance this endeavour, so taking time is a good thing.

I'll definitely be getting an iPod. External hard drive may have to wait. I just googled the price of the things and oi...

Thank you!

We got our external harddrive for 60.00 at Wal-mart. What are you googling?

My google search was "external harddrive". It came up with prices like $350. Those were the recommended brands, but still.

Are you interested? It sounded like you needed one right now, but if you're willing to wait, having someone I can sell the old one to would go a long way towards acquiring the new one. I'll need to get a way to appraise it, but it certainly won't cost as much as a new one and should last for some time if you're primarily using it for movies/writing/Internet. I just can't guarantee anything yet, but it's a possibility.

I might even be bringing it over on Sunday so I can use the bus ride to study.

If you get an iPod (and they come big), you shouldn't need an external HD at all. :) (You should still CD-backup up movies, TV episodes, and other files you're not going to actually edit -- external HD's can crash too. Use them for things like documents, pictures, and things you'll need to access frequently and edit.)

There's no gigantic emergency - just annoyance. I've talked to my mom, and plan to do more talking, but for now she's pretty adamant about getting a brand new computer.

Most of the stuff on my harddrive is movies, episodes and the like. Downloading is my happy shiny friend. I'm trying to burn off as much as I can.

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