Posts by Larry Ortiz5

Haha, man, why on earth would you need a 10-year warranty? It’s not like you're buying a car 😁😁

boldraven8 said:I was playing around with some PC builds, so I wanted to get your take on this.

http://assemblio.com/pc/WalPoNZfnx/2

I put this together myself—though I’m really not sure if it’s actually any good or if it can handle games like Grand Theft Auto V or Fallout 4. Please feel free to tweak things or let me know if I messed anything up!

Honestly, it’s not great. That graphics card is pretty outdated, you're looking at an i3 processor, and that 650W power supply is total overkill for this setup. Maybe wait until someone who builds PCs for a living can put together a proper configuration for you? What’s the absolute maximum you’re looking to spend?

I mean, nobody’s really going to bother with all that trouble when you can pick up an extra hour of flight time for less than $33 😁
.

And obviously, before you mount that brand-new cooler—just a quick heads-up—don't go slapping thermal paste straight onto the processor without cleaning off the old stuff with some isopropyl alcohol first.

darkmarlin16 said:So, I just inherited this absolute relic of a laptop, and man, it is painfully slow—like, watching paint dry would be a high-speed chase by comparison. There’s basically nothing on it, just running Windows 7, and even though I went through the whole ritual of cranking every single setting down to the bare minimum to save some juice, it’s still crawling along like it's stuck in molasses.

HP
Intel Celeron CPU 550
2.00 GHz
2GB RAM
Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family

It's running on a single-core processor—what exactly were you hoping for? Honestly, I wouldn't recommend installing Windows XP anymore either, since it's just too vulnerable to security risks these days. Maybe try grabbing Windows 7 Starter? It's probably the lightest version of Windows 7 out there. If you turn off all those visual effects and other unnecessary junk, you might actually see some improvement.

Look, $1000 it’s true—you might save a few hundred bucks here or there—but have you actually checked the specific motherboard model? It can be tricky. Honestly, if you still have your receipts, you should look at what you originally paid for all those components... after all, as time goes by, you basically have to factor in a 10% drop in value from the original invoice. If you know what I mean...

Peter Young5 said:Hey there,

Could anyone help me figure out what this used setup is worth? Also, what kind of gaming can I actually expect from it? Most of the parts are still under warranty too...
Thanks!

"Intel i5 4690k processor with integrated hd4600 graphics, 8GB of 2400MHz RAM, a 1TB hard drive, a new 550W 80+ certified power supply, a black Zalman Z3+ case I just picked up, and a dual-layer DVD drive that looks like a Samsung... the motherboard is a z87ah2—I think that's the model—which has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, so you can connect your phone wirelessly on macOS. It also comes with an original NOD32 antivirus valid for another two years, I think. Basically, everything is still covered by a warranty if anything goes wrong."

Look, the processor is decent enough, but without a dedicated graphics card, you aren't going to get much gaming done on this machine. You're really going to need a separate GPU—something in the ballpark of an rx 470/480 gtx 1060/1070—and then you could probably run pretty much any game you want at 1080p resolution...

As for the motherboard, I'm honestly not sure which one it is—I tried Googling it but couldn't find a match. Maybe try downloading Speccy to see the actual manufacturer? Regarding the RAM, it’s solid; 8GB is still plenty for gaming these days..

Exactly—honestly, it doesn't matter much which one you pick because, by today's standards, these laptops are pretty weak—especially if you're trying to do any video editing... But, hey, since you actually have a choice, I'd say just go with the first one.

From what I can see under the WLAN section, it shows up like this: Qualcomm Atheros Wireless Lan Driver and Application

And then there's the second item: Realtek Wireless Lan Driver and Application

Plus a third one: ASUS wireless radio Control (basically the driver used to toggle Airplane mode
)
The tricky thing about this laptop is that—as you can see—it actually has three different manufacturers' drivers listed for the WLAN card. So, if you tried the first one, the Qualcomm version, and it didn't do the trick, maybe give the Realtek one a shot? And if that doesn't work either, try the last one, the ASUS one. One of those three really should get you up and running... assuming the laptop model you mentioned is indeed 🙂

Both points are valid... Honestly, no matter which of those laptops you go with, they aren't exactly powerhouses—so regardless of your choice, you're probably going to be sitting around waiting quite a while for video processing to finish up.

The first one definitely packs a much better graphics card than the second, but you're getting a significantly stronger processor with the second option instead. 😁 From what I can tell, they both come with 4GB of RAM, and if you're mostly using the laptop for dedicated processing work—where you really need that CPU horsepower—I’d personally lean toward the second laptop, even if its graphics performance isn't quite as high as the first...

Peter Perez75 said:My Windows 7 isn't genuine—I was following this guide

It worked great for about a month—I actually managed to get it working about ten times already—but now it's telling me I've exceeded the limit. This keeps popping up:

https://postimg.org/image/e0l5gb6q7/

Can anyone help me out so I don't have to reinstall Windows all over again?

Oh man, just use a reloader to activate Windows and call it a day.

rustywalker55 said:Thanks so much!
And hey, when we say "I don't think the price will be low," what kind of numbers are we actually talking about? If it hits $667 or more, I might just start looking into a brand new laptop instead 😁

To be honest, I really haven't a clue—not even a rough ballpark figure... Your best bet would probably be to give them a call or just swing by the service center in person.

Personally, I’m all about Google Chrome—it’s easily the fastest browser out there. Just make sure you install uBlock along with it, thank God.

If those speakers happen to be soldered directly onto the laptop's motherboard, you might be looking at a pretty steep bill—not just for the parts, but because finding specific replacements for a three-year-old machine can be a real headache. Plus, there's the labor cost to factor in. Honestly? Just do some digging on CNN or Reuters, or check out some tech blogs. Each site usually has its own take on things, so maybe just give a local repair shop a call or drop the laptop off to get a real quote.

Try running a disk cleanup or CCleaner—and honestly, you should probably check how much space those system restore points are hogging up...

So, what kind of graphics card are you running these days?

Sure, you can crank up the resolution to something like 4K, but let's be real—that card is really built for 1080p. If you try pushing it to 4K, it’s probably going to stutter like crazy... though, of course, that always depends on which game you're playing and how high you've cranked the settings.

Honestly, if you want to keep things simple, just grab an ASUS GTX 1070. It’s newer, has more VRAM, and definitely outperforms the GTX 980—easy choice, right? Though, I'll admit, it kind of stings when you realize you're paying an extra $100 just because of the brand name. I've seen other GTX 1070 cards going for around $1233, yet this specific ASUS model is sitting at $450😁.

https://www.newegg.com/ASUS-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1070...8g-gaming/p/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-1070

Nathan Castillo16 said:Hey there,

Which one do you think is the better pick

between the ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1070 or
the ZOTAC GEFORCE® GTX 980 TI 6GB, AMP! Extreme

Roughly speaking, the GTX 1070 is a bit stronger—maybe just a few extra FPS depending on which game you're playing (I was checking out some benchmarks over at AnandTech lately)... Plus, since it's newer, I'd probably lean toward that one. Are you thinking about picking this up brand new at Best Buy or looking for something used?