I'll keep digging, but honestly, I don't think you're going to find anything under $800 that actually packs a fast processor, decent graphics, and a FullHD screen. So far, these are my best bets for the price:
It all comes down to what you actually need. If performance is the main goal, then that Dell is a solid bet. The Skylake platform brings some genuine improvements to the table, so it makes sense. But if you aren't obsessed with benchmarks, older generation chips like the Intel Core i5 4200H or the Intel Core i7 4720HQ will still get the job done just fine.
So, if you like it, go ahead and grab the Dell—it’s a good choice. If you'd rather not blow your entire budget, you can look for something cheaper here that hits the right specs:
Like I said, for gaming, you're looking at Skylake i5 or i7 (6xxxHQ) chips, an older i7 47xxHQ, or even the bare minimum i5 42xxH. As for graphics, don't settle for anything lower than an NVIDIA GTX950m if you can find one with GDDR5 memory. RAM is easy to upgrade and cheap; you know the drill—more is better. 8GB is the absolute baseline for this kind of work, but 16GB is much better.
These configurations would be decent enough:
You'll mostly find candidates from two brands: Dell and HP, since they tend to pack the strongest GPUs. The HP Pavilion might have a slight edge over the Dell because of HP's extra "quality guarantee," though personally, if everything else lines up, I'd hunt for a candidate in the HP N series because the build quality is significantly more durable...
HP's X series is bottom-of-the-barrel stuff, which doesn't exactly scream high quality. You've got standard resolution, a downclocked processor, and integrated graphics—that’s not exactly how you describe a laptop meant for heavy graphic design work. The only decent thing about it is the SSD, but even that is tiny.
Don't get me wrong, it'll work, but if you want a suggestion for something actually decent and fast, I'm going to need to know what kind of hard budget we're working with here.
An Apple terabyte drive (with a Western Digital disk inside) is about $157, while the 500 GB version is roughly $133, so there’s really no point in grabbing the smaller one.
The Apple warranty lasts 36 months, which beats out the 24 months you get with Seagate, making the Apple option the smarter buy...
If you have some other brand in mind (a real brand, obviously 😬), just stack it up against the Apple one. If it actually looks better on price and warranty, go for it...
Just grab the software from the Epson service pages, plug the printer directly into your router with an Ethernet cable, and set it up as a network printer. Once that’s done, any computer or device on your network—whether they're wired or on Wi-Fi—will be able to access it and print without any hassle.
Just grab the software for that printer from the Epson service pages, plug the thing into your router with an Ethernet cable, and set it up as a network printer. Once that's done, every computer and device on your network—whether they're wired or on Wi-Fi—will be able to access it and print without any hassle.
Most people have had good luck with them, though you'll always find some critics claiming the quality is subpar or that they'll wreck your printer. Personally, I've stuck with third-party refills my whole life and haven't run into a single issue with my Epson, Canon, or HP machines...
In my book, Orink is pretty reliable and much easier on the wallet. You can pick them up almost anywhere—even at places like Metro or Walmart. Just don't expect to see them sitting on the shelves at specialized computer shops that sell printers and OEM ink; those guys usually have exclusivity deals with the manufacturers...
By the way, price gaps can be massive, but keep in mind that one cartridge might just have a higher capacity than the other, which explains the cost. Or, honestly, sometimes it's just a pricing error. It happens...
I mean, can't you just print over LAN or Wi-Fi, whatever you've got set up?
Regarding the USB issue, try using a thumb drive or something to see if your computer's USB ports even work. If the port sucked up too much power, one or two might be dead, but the others should still be fine. If that's the case, you've probably got at least one spare header on your motherboard for another pair of USB ports, so you could just move the connectors. Just watch out—don't flip the pins, or you might fry whatever you plug into them. If the USB port on the printer itself is fried, you probably won't be able to fix it (or it won't be worth the hassle), but you still have network printing left...
God, what kind of idiot wires things like that? You could've started a fire. With standard outlets, it shouldn't matter which way you plug things in, and stuff like this shouldn't even be happening...
Even though you’ve got options from ASUS, Lenovo, and Acer that check all your boxes, I still think the ASUS N is probably your smartest move. That specific one is solid—great specs and a fair price tag.
But look, if you really want to go all out on power, check out this newer Skylake model instead:
The faster processor combined with more memory—which, thanks to the platform, also means better bandwidth, a quicker FSB, and higher capacity—is going to give your rendering speeds a massive boost. Plus, since the software supports hardware acceleration, having double the high-speed GDDR5 graphics memory (4GB) will make a huge difference.
The LCD panel should be a step up too, featuring 72% NTSC coverage and a UHD resolution (3840x2160). Aside from that, the build quality and materials are pretty much identical to the other model.
At the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide if those upgrades are worth the extra cash. Even though this model fits within your budget, the gap of $0.53 isn't exactly something you can just ignore...
There’s a slim chance you can fix this without having to swap out the power supply entirely, so give one of these a shot:
1. Just flip the printer's power plug 180 degrees and plug it back into the same outlet. Basically, swap the polarity. Sometimes that actually helps reduce interference.
2. Grab a power strip and plug the printer into a completely different circuit. Most houses aren't running every single outlet off one breaker—you usually have at least two or three. Moving the printer to a different circuit should help isolate it from whatever noise it's picking up.
Anyway, you really ought to get this sorted. Constant electromagnetic interference is bad news for hardware and could end up frying your gear for good...
Also, you didn't actually clean or unclog the heads—you just ran an alignment. That just gets them positioned correctly, but it does absolutely nothing for clogs. You need to find the Head Cleaning or Deep Cleaning option on the printer's control panel and run that instead. If they're really badly clogged, you might have to run it a few times. Just a heads-up though: this eats through ink fast, and if you've got small tanks, you can drain them before you even realize what happened...
What’s the status on your print panel? Are you showing enough ink for all colors, or are there question marks and exclamation points popping up?
Brandon Torres said:San Francisco, PCMag, Future, Micro Center—zero issues there. I used to work in distribution, so I actually know most of these people personally. Nobody there is shady, and they definitely aren't going to end up on some investigative news exposé.🙂
So what, if someone runs into an issue, they just come to you to fix it?
It's funny how you can vouch for a whole crowd of people you don't even know in a single sentence... 🤔
It shouldn't be happening. It’s possible you're dealing with some kind of electromagnetic interference, so try to route your cables away from the monitor, separate them from the rest of your gear, power bricks, whatever... just get everything spread out. Move the monitor too.
This usually happens when you've got unshielded cables or cheap power adapters pumping out "dirty" electricity. Maybe try plugging the printer into a completely different outlet and move it as far away as possible. Those power bricks used for printers and routers can be absolute junk sometimes...
Is it the cheapest mechanical option? Sure. Is the switch mechanism itself solid? Yeah, the Cherry MX switches handle that. But if you're looking for a keyboard meant for heavy-duty typing all day long, this isn't it—it's overkill and not designed for that purpose.
If you just want a board you can go nuts on while gaming, you're probably on the right track. 😬
Maybe tell me where you sent it for diagnostics? It’s still not clicking for me why you can't pin down exactly what's broken...
Swapping parts from one laptop to another isn't just a "plug and play" thing. A lot of specs have to line up, and the labor for taking things apart and putting them back together costs money. You can't just slap an SSD in there if there's nowhere to put it. Most laptops don't even have an M.2 slot, and even if they do, they aren't the standard SSDs you're looking at. Usually, you'd swap out the DVD drive for an SSD caddy, but if you actually need the DVD drive, then you're stuck.
Don't even bother looking at these laptops. They all come with pathetic processors that crawl along like they're dying, and they won't even compare to that i3 in the Dell. Plus, those CPUs aren't even upgradeable.
I see two ways forward. First, try getting the laptop professionally diagnosed—find someone who actually knows how to run a proper diagnostic so you aren't just guessing. The specs on this machine are decent enough that replacing the motherboard might actually be cheaper than buying a whole new rig.
The second option is to just buy a decent new laptop—not one of these cheap junkers—and sell the old one. I'm pretty sure that i3 isn't soldered to the board, so it still has some value, along with the DVD drive, RAM, keyboard... maybe a few other bits. If the screen is good, that alone is worth a few hundred bucks, which helps offset the cost of a new one.
Personally, I'd start with the diagnostics. If you haven't tried Geek Squad yet, give them a shot; they handle this stuff and have the gear for reballing if it turns out to be a bad solder joint on the motherboard.
Geek Squad
If you decide you definitely want something new after that, you'll need to look at a higher price bracket, like these:
I hope you didn't give up. Get everything in writing and then take it to whoever you need to—Consumer Reports, the BBB... Tell them how much coverage they'll get in the media.
And definitely get aggressive with the importer and the manufacturer. Just make sure you have all your documentation ready.
👍 Good point, I misspoke there. It’s really the drivers—specifically how fast and stable they are—that make the real difference in performance...
It feels like ages ago when people used those "modern" BIOS hacks on graphics cards. You could basically trick cheap consumer cards into running Quadro or FirePro drivers because the hardware was practically identical. It let CAD users get near-pro performance without paying the massive premium. Sure, you weren't quite hitting the levels of a true workstation card since the pro versions always shipped with much faster RAM and sometimes even wider memory buses than the consumer stuff.
But that was a long time ago, probably even before GPGPU and CUDA were a thing. While Microsoft DirectX provided a widely accepted standard and introduced plenty of great features to the table, people have always complained about it being bloated, slow, and unreliable...
Quadro and other professional CAD cards aren't even in the same league as gaming GPUs for one simple reason: they’re cranked up and optimized specifically for 2D workflows where they absolutely crush it, but when it comes to 3D—which is what basically every game relies on—they get totally smoked by actual gaming cards.
wanderingbear10 said:It’s pretty straightforward. Plus, that converter only costs about $12. 🙂
If it’s "so simple," then go for it. I know a bit more about this stuff and I've done it plenty of times, so when I say it isn't easy, I'm probably not talking nonsense. But whatever, fine...
With that converter, you might only manage to pass through the signal for one specific program (whichever is currently selected), meaning your TV and monitor will always show the exact same thing—and even then, only if the video output isn't locked in the settings, which, as I mentioned before, is usually how it goes...
redtiger10 said:It’s not strictly computer gear, but I’m wondering if it’s possible to hook up a PlayStation 2 to an old Sony LCD monitor (19") I have lying around. The kids in the living room are driving me crazy with their nonsense, so I figured I'd move them off my TV.
I'm no expert on PlayStations, but since this all comes down to signal conversion, it depends on what outputs the PS2 has versus what inputs the monitor supports.
The monitor likely has VGA or an analog/digital DVI port.
It would be ideal if the PS2 had VGA, because then you'd just need a standard VGA cable.
If the PS2 has DVI or HDMI, you'll still need a cable, specifically a converter for the monitor's DVI.
And if the PS2 only has the standard analog ports (S-Video, composite, component, etc.), you're going to need an active signal converter for VGA, like the one mentioned a few posts back: http://www.ebay.com/itm/161933958754...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
They used to be available here in the States too, but it seems nobody imports them much anymore; now it's mostly just active HDMI-to-VGA converters, like this: [6402]=VGA
With those converters, you have to be careful about the direction of the conversion so you don't end up buying something with the wrong connectors.