Microsoft thread

[PC]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/04/satya-nadella-microsoft_n_4722980.html?utm_hp_ref=technology&utm_hp_ref=technology

http://windowsitpro.com/windows/satya-nadellas-first-interview-ceo-microsoft

[imref]

very surprised he came from the business side of the house versus the consumer business.

[PC]

The newly rebranded SkyDrive as OneDrive.com and Office Web Apps as Office.com came online this week.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

PC - can you recommend a low end laptop / portable that can websurf and handle word processing.  A windows 7 machine.  I'm not editing videos or any of the huge memory hogs, but I have to replace my XP machine.  Acer?

[HalfSmokes]

We have an Acer Aspire for my wife- mostly remoting into her work computer- and I'm going to bite the bullet and get her a macbook air for her birthday in a couple of months. The acer's guts are fine (purchased may 2012) and it's snappy running windows 7, but if you move your leg wrong, bump the power cable, or in any way annoy the machine, it restarts without warning. If you want a computer to put on your lap while watching TV, I'd look for better build quality

[PC]

PC - can you recommend a low end laptop / portable that can websurf and handle word processing.  A windows 7 machine.  I'm not editing videos or any of the huge memory hogs, but I have to replace my XP machine.  Acer?

What do you currently have and aprox how much do you want to spend?

[imref]

We have an Acer Aspire for my wife- mostly remoting into her work computer- and I'm going to bite the bullet and get her a macbook air for her birthday in a couple of months. The acer's guts are fine (purchased may 2012) and it's snappy running windows 7, but if you move your leg wrong, bump the power cable, or in any way annoy the machine, it restarts without warning. If you want a computer to put on your lap while watching TV, I'd look for better build quality

i've been looking into getting a cheap laptop for that kind of reason - we've been looking at 15.6" models with 4GB or RAM, 500 GBHD for about $350-400 at Walmart and similar places.  The Acer Aspire E1-521 is at the top of our list.

[HalfSmokes]

i've been looking into getting a cheap laptop for that kind of reason - we've been looking at 15.6" models with 4GB or RAM, 500 GBHD for about $350-400 at Walmart and similar places.  The Acer Aspire E1-521 is at the top of our list.

play with it if you can. They may have fixed it, but the power button is insanely sensitive (otherwise great computer) 

[Nathan]

Lenovo seems to make quality machines, I found my cousin a deal on a 15" with a core i7 + 8GB RAM + 1TB HDD for something like $579.

[Terpfan76]

http://westmd.craigslist.org/sys/4294616707.html

Any suggestions? Is this a good price? Good computer? How much would you offer?

$465.00
CPU: i5
RAM: 8GB
HARD DRIVE: 1TB
MOTHERBOARD: ASRock Z77E-ITX
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GTX 260
BLURAY PLAYER
LIAN LI PC-Q08B COMPUTER CASE

Computer has windows 8.1 Pro installed. Comes with 20" hp widescreen monitor and Wireless keyboard and mouse.

[Squab]

http://westmd.craigslist.org/sys/4294616707.html

Any suggestions? Is this a good price? Good computer? How much would you offer?

That is a good price, that's probably just about the price of the components.

[Terpfan76]

That is a good price, that's probably just about the price of the components.

As far as an all purpose PC, good deal? How would it fair gaming wise?

[Squab]

As far as an all purpose PC, good deal? How would it fair gaming wise?

It'd do alright. It was high end like four or five years ago IIRC.

[Terpfan76]

It'd do alright. It was high end like four or five years ago IIRC.

Thanks. I'm out of the loop on that stuff and I'd like to get a decent computer. I'd like a laptop but it seems hard to find a good deal on one that would be solid for gaming but not break the bank.

[Nathan]

As far as an all purpose PC, good deal? How would it fair gaming wise?

The GTX 260 is old, so not very well.  Low-medium maybe on newer demanding titles, maybe some settings on high.  But an Ivy Bridge i5 and 8 GB RAM is a good starting point.  If it has a PSU that can power a GTX 260, it will be able to power a new card, and you'd be able to crank up the settings on pretty much anything out right now.

[Terpfan76]

The GTX 260 is old, so not very well.  Low-medium maybe on newer demanding titles, maybe some settings on high.  But an Ivy Bridge i5 and 8 GB RAM is a good starting point.  If it has a PSU that can power a GTX 260, it will be able to power a new card, and you'd be able to crank up the settings on pretty much anything out right now.

It's still for sale and I offered the guy $400. What card would you buy if it were you? I'm not a big MMO player or anything, but I like the idea of being able to if I decided to. Things like Skyrim and such are my bag.

[Nathan]

Maybe I should rephrase that - I'm a bit spoiled and want my games running with high-ultra settings, anti-aliasing cranked up decently, and never dip below 60 FPS.  What kinds of games are you planing on playing, and if they're demanding, are you ok with medium or even a mix of medium and low settings, turned down AA or even AA turned off, and playing at 30+ fps instead of 60+?

You'd be fine playing things on high if you're talking something like Diablo 3 or World of Warcraft, but Arma III or something like that, you'd have to have things turned down a bit.  Something like the upcoming Star Citizen?  Might not even be playable, that thing is supposed to have some seriously demanding requirements

The GTX 260 is less powerful than my current card - a Radeon HD 5850, and I'm starting to run into issues playing on high settings with acceptable framerates on some titles and looking to upgrade soon to something like a GTX 770 or one of the new Maxwell cards if the GTX 870 comes out soon.  I'd stick to AMD and get an R9 280X if the cryptocurrency miners hadn't put such high demand on them that the price is like $500 now instead of the $300 it used to go for.

[Nathan]

It's still for sale and I offered the guy $400. What card would you buy if it were you? I'm not a big MMO player or anything, but I like the idea of being able to if I decided to. Things like Skyrim and such are my bag.

MMOs tend to be less intensive on the GPU than other titles.  Right now the only sane option for buying a GPU is going nvidia.  All the AMD cards are stupidly overpriced due to demand.  Depends on your budget, but the the X60 models on nvidia are the upper-midrange cards and the X70 models are the high end.  X80 is the very high end stuff.  So right now the 760 is ~$250 and the 770 is ~$330.

[Terpfan76]

Like I said, I'm into crap like Skyrim and would probably get into some other games too. Would it be a pretty solid running machine with say the GTX 770? At roughly $700 all included, would that end up being a good deal or would I be better off to invest $700 elsewhere in a laptop or something.

[Nathan]

That'd be a pretty high end gaming rig.  It wouldn't compete with some of the crazy stuff out there like an overclocked 4770k and 2 780ti's in SLI, but that's also a $3,000+ pc

You can always play with the 260 and see how it suits you, and swap the GPU out later.  Maybe wait for the Maxwell GPUs to come out a little later this year.

You're never going to get a laptop with similar performance at anywhere NEAR the price of a desktop PC.

[Terpfan76]

That'd be a pretty high end gaming rig.  It wouldn't compete with some of the crazy stuff out there like an overclocked 4770k and 2 780ti's in SLI, but that's also a $3,000+ pc

You can always play with the 260 and see how it suits you, and swap the GPU out later.

You're never going to get a laptop with similar performance at anywhere NEAR the price of a desktop PC.

Thank you kindly sir. It's located in Hagersburg so I may end up driving down tomorrow if a deal can be worked out.

[Nathan]

Thank you kindly sir. It's located in Hagersburg so I may end up driving down tomorrow if a deal can be worked out.

Ask the seller what kind of PSU it has and what wattage, just to make sure it's not some crappy thing with barely enough power to run everything.

[Terpfan76]

Ask the seller what kind of PSU it has and what wattage, just to make sure it's not some crappy thing with barely enough power to run everything.

I will sir. I have to see if he responds to my $400 offer first

[Slateman]

http://westmd.craigslist.org/sys/4294616707.html

Any suggestions? Is this a good price? Good computer? How much would you offer?

What do you want to do with it?

[Terpfan76]

Ask the seller what kind of PSU it has and what wattage, just to make sure it's not some crappy thing with barely enough power to run everything.

500watt PSU. Will sell for $400 with standard dvd drive as opposed to Bluray.