New Computer

GreyFuss wrote:

Excellent Xmas gifts AlienBZ. Lots of adventuring for you into the new year.

Not until I save up enough $$ to build my new PC, GF - this will probably take me up until June or July 2011. Plus, I have other adventures shelved and waiting for the new PC - PR Immortals of Terra, Overclocked, Nikopol, MS Flight Simulator X Deluxe, I know some of these games are mac compatible, but I'd rather not play them on my mac b/c I'm afraid if I do, Mom will find out, she might question why I'll need a new PC if I can play them on my mac, and she and I'll get into an argument, and the biggest reason is b/c I want to do screenshot captures of my gameplay.

However, it looks like I can play both SF Tunguska and SF 2 on my old Dell Dimension 8200, and I can play Film Maker on my netbook.

Well, Pointers, I'm in the process of installing Darkstar on my MBP. And I've told Mom that some of these new games I got are mac/PC compatible, and I finally told her that I was afraid if she knew I was playing some games on my mac she might not allow me to build my new PC, and I asked her if I'd still be allowed to build my new PC anyway? and Mom said, "Try it." She wasn't feeling good as she had an upset stomach - might have gotten the belly-bug that I had since Dec. 26 (Sunday), but I'm getting better now, and besides, Mom knows very little about computers, she just knows how to do email, play Solitaire, and do Word Perfect.

So in case Mom won't allow me to build my new PC now that I'm about to kill the next several months playing some of my Christmas games on my mac, how do I convince her that yes, I'd be doing myself a favor (game-wise) by building myself a new PC (after I save up the money in July/Aug 2011)?

**Latest Update**

Realized that instead of building my new computer, I really wanted a laptop that I can carry in my backpack to places like Barnes & Noble, Panera Bread, and to my friends' houses with me and game there, and Nate found a nice gaming laptop on ebay and I just told Nate (live-in nephew) that I was ready to buy that laptop he found for me on ebay, so I have a question: how long do you guys think it'll be before the devs start making adventure games requiring CPU speeds in excess of the CPU speed (in GHz) of that laptop?

EDIT - Nate fetched me that ebay page, I bookmarked it, and yes, this laptop is an Intel Core i3 370M @ 2.4 GHz.

You were given that answer on gameboomers

Pointers, I finally got that new laptop!



I was thinking it'd be kind of heavy incl. the power cord, but it's really a light-weight for a 15 incher, in contrast to my old laptop (an HP Compaq Presario X6000) that was a 17 incher (turned out to be too bulky/clumsy to tote around) and weighed 10 pounds, the new laptop has a fast NVidia GPU, while the HP laptop had a low-end graphics card (which really was a chip built into the mobo rather than being a real graphics card).

Very nice ABZ. A pretty reliable brand too.

Um, it turns out that I'm not quite satisfied with this laptop. I'm hoping to return it so I can buy a different model. Please see my thread in Glitches over at GB about "how do I switch graphic cards in new laptop?" My name at GB is cruise02.

I'm not sure what your looking for here ABZ so just let me address a few points. As far as I could tell you were given an answer for everything. So let's start at the beginning of what I see as this problem. Quite a while back I told you that Alter Ego was problematic on some computers. It either wouldn't play at all or characters disappeared or portions of the characters disappeared. Now with that said I will reiterate what draclver said. Your laptop is very highly reviewed. It should play nearly every game thrown at it excluding Alter Ego. You shouldn't judge the computers playing ability on a game that has been problematic for so many players. The onboard graphics card is more than adequate for gaming needs. As far as wanting to get a refund from the seller, I believe jk gave you the best answer, it's called honesty. You went into laptop and changed things and possibly messed something up and voided your warranty. To not tell the seller is dishonest. As drac said never ever start tinkering on a brand new expensive computer, do your experimenting on a clunker. You were asked several times if you had tried another game to see if it would play. You didn't answer so I would urge you do so. You more than likely will not find a better laptop for gaming than the one you have without spending a whole lot of money. So once again I'm not sure just what it is you are wanting to know. I didn't see any problem that wasn't answered. If you just want to chat and brag about your new laptop that's ok. I just got a new laptop that I would be happy to chat about.

hatshepsut

Cool Ang when did you get your's. What kind is it? Ahh come to think of it you got it for your bday didn't you. How do you like it so far.

I got mine about two weeks ago. A compaq. I just love mine.

Ahh an ASUS I almost got an ASUS. I had an ASUS pc, I just loved that computer.

hatshepsut

hatshepsut wrote:

Quite a while back I told you that Alter Ego was problematic on some computers. It either wouldn't play at all or characters disappeared or portions of the characters disappeared.

Oh, Hat, I completely forgot about you telling me this. Perhaps I can just be glad Alter Ego plays in the first place without worrying about parts of character's bodies being cut off?

hatshepsut wrote:

Now with that said I will reiterate what draclver said. Your laptop is very highly reviewed.

Well, now I do believe that I'm going to keep my new laptop. I'll just tell the seller (whom I stated I'm not satisfied would like to return laptop) that I've changed my mind and want to keep the laptop?

EDIT - Just dispatched an email to the seller stating I changed my mind about returning the laptop, if I did return it I'd likely regret the decision, and that I want to keep the laptop.

ABZ yes I think that you will just have to accept the missing body parts and be thankful that the game plays. I recall that the problem with the game was the drm that took issue with some computers. I got my notice yesterday that my copy of Alter Ego is on its way to me. I've had to replace several parts on my computer so knock on wood that it will play on my pc or laptop.

I don't think the seller will mind at all that you changed your mind and want to keep the laptop.

I think that in the long run you would regret it if you didn't keep your present laptop. Give it some time to get use to it. Keep in mind that every pc and laptop is different and it takes time to get used to them. I believe you said your laptop had windows 7 ? Keep in mind that windows7 is very different from winxp. It's taking me awhile to get used to it.

I think that you just need to slow down and get familiar with your laptop and OS. And remember that sometimes you run into a game that no matter what you do or what computer you have the game just won't play.

Enjoy your laptop ABZ

hatshepsut

Listen to Hat, ABZ. There is much wisdom in what she says.

Thanks jk

Love the St Pattys penguin, he's a real cutie

hatshepsut

hatshepsut wrote:

I don't think the seller will mind at all that you changed your mind and want to keep the laptop.

I think that in the long run you would regret it if you didn't keep your present laptop.

I suspected this late last night, Hat - that's why I dispatched an email telling the seller I changed my mind about returning the laptop and that I wanted to keep it.

Just now I got an email from the ebay seller saying he's glad everything worked out for me (regarding changing my mind about returning the laptop and wanting to keep it).

Ang I don't use my laptop as much as I use my desktop either. My desktop has XP on it which I just love. But I did play Lost Horizon on the laptop and it played just beautifully.

I think you will be happy with your decision ABZ

hatshepsut

Congrats AlienBZ and Ang on your new laptops!

Ang, I'm having a serious case of "Laptop Envy!" That is a beautiful thing - lucky girl!

I've stayed out of this thread because ABZ has had her questions answered over and over and over at GB. None of the answers and recommendations have been followed through on, so there didn't seem to be much point in wasting my breath here too.

So, what Compaq did you get, Hats?

Hi Draclver

I got the Compaq Presario CQ56. It's my first laptop and so far I am just loving it. he Windows 7 is taking a little getting used to. It plays games beautifully

hatshepsut

Just googled the reviews on Ang's new laptop. I see it has an ATI Mobility Radeon GPU, 2 500 GB hard drives (my new Acer laptop has only 1 500 GB hard drive) and Win 7 Ultimate, while my Acer has Win 7 Home Premium. Also I see that Ang's laptop cost a lot (about 3X times as mine cost).

ABZ yes I knew that. It really isn't good forum policy to talk about people from other forums by name when they aren't a member.

hatshepsut

Hat, I have to ask you a very important question. But first, let me say this, please - first of all, when I ordered my Acer (current) laptop from ebay, I knew absolutely nothing about Optimus technology. I thought it was just a fancy name that was tacked onto the NVidia graphics card. But, when I found out that optimus technology means that the Acer laptop's NVidia card acts as a secondary graphics card that rides piggy-back on top of the Intel HD graphics (this acts as the primary graphics card) card, this means that the NVidia 3D card kind of takes a back seat to the Intel HD card,

second, after I installed XP (to play certain games - btw I'm an XP fan-alien) in the Acer, Windows XP would not even recognize the Nvidia 3D card, also there are no XP drivers for Nvidia optimus technology,

third, there is no way in the BIOS (or anyway that I can find by googling/on the laptop itself) to switch from the laptop's using the Intel HD card as primary to make the laptop use the NVidia card as primary, so -

I'm RMA-ing the Acer laptop for a refund, and after I get my refund, I'm going to look for a Intel Core 2 Duo laptop (2009 model) that has a 512 MB NVidia GeForce 9600M 3D graphics card, is a 15-incher (screen), and if it comes with a <500 GB hard drive, I'll just upgrade its HDD with a 500 GB HDD.

That said, here's my question, Hat:

hatshepsut wrote:

I think that in the long run you would regret it if you didn't keep your present laptop.

Why do you think I'd regret not keeping the Acer laptop?

I'll let Hats throw in her 2 cents worth, but in my opinion, the reason you will regret not keeping this computer is that it is an absolutely great laptop which is very highly rated by gamers. It readily uses the Nvidia graphics for high demand FPS and RPG games. It will also handily play all the new adventure games and the vast majority of older games. Just because you can't force it to conform to your very strange ideas of what it should do, doesn't mean you didn't make an excellent buy - especially for the price you paid. You can't RMA a laptop that is functioning perfectly - you can only RMA something that is broken. At this point in time, the Ebay seller would be crazy to take this machine back from you - it's been over 2 months plus you admitted to voiding the warranty. How do you expect him to sell this laptop to someone else? I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole knowing what you've done to it! I assume he's an honest seller, so he can't lie about it to another buyer. He'd have to sell it as used and would probably lose a LOT of money.

We're all XP fans - it has served us well. I just built an inexpensive desktop to house my old XP hard drive. But as I said elsewhere, it's a 10 year-old operating system and is showing its age - it's time to move on. You are already 2 operating systems behind the times. If you are wanting to be some kind of computer tech, you will never be able to do anything unless you learn to use the new technology along with the old. Maybe you should use this great new laptop to get yourself completely familiar with Windows 7 and the Optimus technology. It may not operate the way YOU think it should, but gamers who have this laptop love it. How can you expect to become a computer tech when you refuse to learn new things? If you insist on staying 10 years behind the times, no one will want you to work on computers you know nothing about.