Laptop Question

[AntM1564]

I found two laptops that are duplicates of each other. Same specs, functions, etc. The only difference is price. One is $650 and the other is $499. The only difference is the more expensive one has a 512 GB SSD and the cheaper one has a 1TB HDD. Does the SSD justify the price? What would the difference between the two harddrives be?

 

[Cgkone]

Solid states are more expensive.....but some would argue not superior and overkill for the average user

 

[youngandfree]

You also need to see what kind of wifi adapter is in it. Don't buy an N series, then get pissed when your 150Mbps internet only goes to 50 on the laptop. I had this discussion with a customer bitching about their Internet being slow. I arrived, connected my Galaxy S5 to the router on the 5G network, not the 2.4. It pinged 160 up and down. Her laptop topped at about 55. It only had an N receiver. It cant even see the 5ghz network, let alone connect to it. She said it was fairly new, so I infored the husband what to look for next time. His 2 Samsung devices pinged at 150+.

Just a job related teaching point.
Just because it's a mustang, doesn't mean it has Shelby GT500 specs.

 

[AntM1564]

Thanks guys and I will check to see if it is a N series.

If is it not, is it really worth the extra $150? I would be using the computer for basic operations: grading, word processing, excel, internet, youtube, internet, etc. No gaming or making movies.

 

[justhere4comm]

Yes. Get the SSD.
Solid State Drives (SSD) are far more stable and last longer than Traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDD).

SSD = 65% Failure Rate, and are faster and more reliable.
HDD = 100% Failure Rate, and are the slowest part of your computer with less reliability.

Then be sure and load that pos PC with anti-virus; anti-keylogging; anti-malware crap-ware to keep your computer safe and slower.

Get a Mac.
In the long run it's cheaper. My MacBook Air 13" cost me $1,000 but it's going strong on 4 years with no signs of slowing, nor do I have to have any anti-virus. It has everything I need pre-installed.

 

[The Solution]

Yes. Get the SSD.
Solid State Drives (SSD) are far more stable and last longer than Traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDD).

SSD = 65% Failure Rate, and are faster and more reliable.
HDD = 100% Failure Rate, and are the slowest part of your computer with less reliability.

Then be sure and load that pos PC with anti-virus; anti-keylogging; anti-malware crap-ware to keep your computer safe and slower.

Get a Mac.
In the long run it's cheaper. My MacBook Air 13" cost me $1,000 but it's going strong on 4 years with no signs of slowing, nor do I have to have any anti-virus. It has everything I need pre-installed.

Had my macbook pro for 8+ Years, no problems at all. I ran it all the way through my student teaching and now afterwards.
I did all my computer programming, web design, marketing, and accounting work on it with ease. It could last all day in a classroom without the battery tanking.

Ant I don't know if you are partial to anything, but a Macbook is worth its weight in gold. Being a teacher you want something that is durable, long lasting, and gives you what you want. Not to mention you could customize something and then pick it up local at an apple store if you have one. You can call in or request one online. I asked to upgrade my RAM and processor speed and I have had nothing but success with my laptop.

 

[justhere4comm]

Had my macbook pro for 8+ Years, no problems at all. I ran it all the way through my student teaching and now afterwards.
I did all my computer programming, web design, marketing, and accounting work on it with ease. It could last all day in a classroom without the battery tanking.

Ant I don't know if you are partial to anything, but a Macbook is worth its weight in gold. Being a teacher you want something that is durable, long lasting, and gives you what you want. Not to mention you could customize something and then pick it up local at an apple store if you have one. You can call in or request one online. I asked to upgrade my RAM and processor speed and I have had nothing but success with my laptop.

Full disclosure.
I work for Apple.

 

[The Solution]

Full disclosure.
I work for Apple.

I don't, but their tablets and computers are the best things they produce
Iphone's on the other hand are pure garbage. Tech issue century. Androids are far superior in specs and durability.
Thats what you get for working in the cell phone industry

 

[youngandfree]

Thanks guys and I will check to see if it is a N series.

If is it not, is it really worth the extra $150? I would be using the computer for basic operations: grading, word processing, excel, internet, youtube, internet, etc. No gaming or making movies.

Yes it's worth it. What kind of Internet service do you have? Speeds are getting faster in many areas. You may move to an area with better service. Also what is the processor size in the 2 devices. Many times the cheaper units have slower processors. Again, there's a reason a V6 mustang costs less than a Shelby, even though they look the same.

 

[youngandfree]

Referring to the Macbooks, all the newest ones are built like a tablet, so to speak. You can't upgrade them and they have very few ports on them. Our church just bought one of the last versions that have all the ports in them. The new ones aren't upgradable, or repairable like all the previous ones have been. Many Mac repair shops are concerned about that, because it will affect the secondary market.

 

[Cgkone]

Solid state was suppose to be the next big thing.....just like curved tv's

 

[Driven2lift]

IMO solid state is worth it, I'm running dual 512's RAID-0

As was said... you only "need" it if speed will be a priority to you

 

[justhere4comm]

SSD is more reliable and faster.
There is no down side to investing in the long term benefits of the only real bottleneck in your computer system, no matter what Operating System you run. I've run them all on my Mac. Several flavors of Linux; Sun Solaris; Windows; OS X on multiple boot partitions with a custom boot loader.

I'm running 4gb of ram doing things nobody thinks you should be able to do with a 4 year old MacBook Air.

 

[rascal14]

I wish I could have a Mac. The college requires Windows for all of our programs and I didn't feel like setting up a Windows side on a Mac.

 

[justhere4comm]

I wish I could have a Mac. The college requires Windows for all of our programs and I didn't feel like setting up a Windows side on a Mac.

That's what my University tried to tell me. I can run Windows on a Mac better than any other computer, especially with a virtual environment and using Bootcamp simultaneously. You wouldn't regret it. Getting the best of OS X and using what programs you need? I wish I could come there and set it up for you. (I know you could do it).

You've gotta do what you gotta do. No hater here my man.
I respect that.

One thing about SSDs, on most systems you cannot secure delete information. I tried to shred some data to test this, and was able to recover the data really easily. That can be good and bad, depending on the volatility of the information being it private or financial, etc. One way to prevent this from being used, is to build secure disk images and then delete them. They can be recovered, but without passwords, nobody is breaking them with 256 bit AES encryption and a plus 28 digit password that surpasses FIPS 181 compliance.

 

[youngandfree]

We run a mac desktop at our church with bootcamp, and use Windows 10 for our slide program Easy Worship. Works pretty good after we turned off auto updates to Windows. It updated once, and took a dump about 30min before service started. We were scrambling bad to get it started on time.

 

[justhere4comm]

We run a mac desktop at our church with bootcamp, and use Windows 10 for our slide program Easy Worship. Works pretty good after we turned off auto updates to Windows. It updated once, and took a dump about 30min before service started. We were scrambling bad to get it started on time.

Easy Worship isn't as good as some others I have seen that are cross-platform.
I think Pro Presenter is better and more scalable. That's what I have been told by pretty much every church IT people I have spoken to.

 

[youngandfree]

Easy Worship isn't as good as some others I have seen that are cross-platform.
I think Pro Presenter is better and more scalable. That's what I have been told by pretty much every church IT people I have spoken to.

You are dead on with that statement. We've had Easy Worship for a long time, and they don't want to spend the money to go to Pro Presenter. Plus we just started streaming, and the guy that would be responsible for the Pro Presenter learning curve, is eyeball deep into the new video camera and streaming software. Luckily he is retired and has time to learn the stuff while I'm at work.

 

[AntM1564]

I ended up going with the SSD. I will post a link to the laptop I got. The major reason for my decision was speed and the brand. I have never own a Lenovo. I have only had a Sony, that lasted 8 or 9 years and a crappy Asus that last 1.5 years. My school gives teachers Lenovos to use and we have Lenovo chromebooks. I like how the laptop runs, for an older computer, and it is quite durable as well. I got this for $640 shipped, the seller updated the price, it was a sale during the weekend.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/142290964616

 

[ChocolateClen]

If you carry your laptop around you want a SSD. If you don't have one and it's not turned off and you drop it or bang it on something you could ruin the hard drive. SSDs are far superior in terms of wear and tear

 

[AntM1564]

Laptop came in Tuesday. I was able to get all of the bloatware and apps off of it. I hate all the apps and that was a pain to disable all of them

I must say, I have never seen a computer boot up so quickly in my life. As soon as I press the power button, the log on screen is there. I'm assuming this is due to the SSD since nothing need to spin to get going.

 

[ChocolateClen]

Yup pretty much

 

[AntM1564]

One thing I need to add is good lord. How have I been without a backlight keyboard? It is great when it gets a little dark out.

The finish is a black matte. What can I do to get rid of the shiny spots, from my hands/fingers?

 

[ChocolateClen]

Just use water, like a damp but not dripping paper towel for the outside should work. Could add a little soap to help lift the oil from your skin off the surfaces

 

[youngandfree]

Wear latex gloves whenever you handle it.

 

[ChocolateClen]

Alcohol prep pads clean well too

 

[bighulksmash]

Im the only one booting linux from flash on a 98 dell deaktop huh :lol:

 

[Jay Cutler]

Better to buy now only with SSD - modern OS (operation systems) working better and 2-4Х faster! Tested on my macbook and PC. However you can't recover data from SSD instead of HDD drive))