Replacement laptop.

[wadman]

13 hours ago, Danolo said:

Thanks for your feedback, @wadman  what is the issue with it? 

The Ryzen 3000 series CPUs were released at the same time as Intel i3-i5-i7 generation 9 CPUs (Intel is at generation 11 now), i.e. 2 years ago. The 3000 series were pretty sorry efforts from AMD, I would equate them to Intel gen 8 CPUs at best. It's the Ryzen 4000 series that outperform contemporary Intel CPUs, that's when AMD made the leap. 

That Ryzen 3000 CPU will almost certainly be sufficient now, but will it be in 5 or 6 years? 

Interestingly enough at such a low price, that system does include a discrete GPU. That GPU is about 3 years old to though, so expect to do light gaming (probably with lower graphics settings). 

[Danolo]

3 hours ago, roger buttmore said:

Second Life relies on so many things beyond that of your laptop or PC. Even with cutting edge gear (which I don't have) it can feel like wading through treacle. User preferences and settings with reasonable expectations can make a world of difference. Hope she uses Firestorm viewer and not the standard.

Yup, she uses Firestorm, and has been doing so for years on her existing machine, so if we can get it performing better with a good cleaning, that would work for us.

 

3 hours ago, roger buttmore said:

Whether an upgrade or new I would highly recommend an SSD. Coming from an HDD the user experience will be night and day. A one-way street which you will never wish to go back, particularly for the system OS.

Yup... when I have it cleaned out I'll see if the techie guy will install a SSD I have here.

[Danolo]

Well, I got it cleaned. $50.00 !

Now we try it and see if it is ok.

 

 

[Roadglide]

Give her your old one...Apple just announced new macPro laptops with the M1Pro and M1Max chips

[Danolo]

Excuuuuuse me Sir? Are you suggesting I sully my hands with an Apple product? 

Actually, my wife would be pissed if I bought myself a neat Apple and she didn't get one.

But we are pretty much locked into PC and Android.

[Soi7]

10 hours ago, Danolo said:

One thing I did notice is it has only 2 USB ports, so we may have to use a hub.

Buy a powered hub so the connections you make due not depend on power from the laptop as in some cases they may not get enough power and not function. They are not very expensive. 

[Fired Up Paul]

5 hours ago, Danolo said:

Actually, my wife would be pissed if I bought myself a neat Apple and she didn't get one.

Wife needs to go.
Keep the laptop.

[vivid2]

6 hours ago, Roadglide said:

Give her your old one...Apple just announced new macPro laptops with the M1Pro and M1Max chips

All of my economics classes demonstrated how cutting-edge technology and innovation combined with mass production would bring us far better products at way lower prices.

The laptop with the M1Max chip starts at $3500.  (117,000 Thai Baht)

I guess nobody at Apple took that class.  555

[wadman]

6 hours ago, Soi7 said:

Buy a powered hub so the connections you make due not depend on power from the laptop as in some cases they may not get enough power and not function. They are not very expensive. 

The laptop in the link has a lot more than 2 USB ports. 2 USB A on 1 side.  1 USB A + 1 USB C + HDMI + SD card slot on the other side. 

[CyberPro]

On 17/10/2021 at 13:54, Sloracer said:

I'd get a new one. If you upgrade it will still be a 10yo laptop with a dodgy mouse and potential overheating. Mechanical part like keyboard will go next. So you may waste the money upgrading and still have to buy a new one.

Valid points. I'm preparing 4 nine year old laptops to send to students and call center workers in training in developing countries. They all work fine, excepting one needing a keyboard w/ trackpad and battery which I have here ready to install. They are Lenovo business grade laptops so worth keeping. One, which was a bit slow just got upgraded to a 500 GB SSD internal drive which fixed most of the slowness. 

When my mid towers overheat the CPU heat sink is usually in need of vacumming. Below is a link with info on causes of laptop overheating with a recommendation for software to monitor temperatures inside a laptop. 

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fix-overheating-laptop/

Edited October 19, 2021 by CyberPro

[Danolo]

Well, my wife's laptop continues to over heat.  I had a trusted techie guy blow it out with no improvement.

I'm going to take it back to him to see what he suggests.

I think the reason it overheats is because of the software she runs.  She plays Second Life which is a resource hog.  She's playing this game on this computer for six years with no problem,, but the authors keep releasing new versions (Firestorm) and I suspect with new versions use more resources.

She has also noticed slowdowns , stutters, when she multi tasks.

BUT in addition:

The USB ports are wonky and have been for a while.

This is not easily fixed, so I think its time for a new computer. New wife is not an option.

If any of you computer guys have any suggestions?????  

 

Edited October 20, 2021 by Danolo

[Danolo]

On 19/10/2021 at 00:12, wadman said:

The laptop in the link has a lot more than 2 USB ports. 2 USB A on 1 side.  1 USB A + 1 USB C + HDMI + SD card slot on the other side. 

She will need 3 USB ports : external HD, mouse, headset. She's willing to give up the optical drive and plug in an external for the few times she needs to.

 

 

[Danolo]

So, I'll see what the techie guy says. But I think I'm gonna have to hurt my credit card for a replacement machine.

[Danolo]

@CyberPro , thanks for the link.

The dust has been blown out of it, the fan is working, and it sits on a flat surface.

I have seen other links about replacing the thermal paste.

Do you have experience with this?

How do we know if this is needed?

How effective is it?

 

[Fired Up Paul]

FWIW, I use a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to save on USB Ports - both work well but I am not a gamer.

Looking at manufacturers outlet sites is well worth it (they sell cancelled orders and refurbished etc) and it is always worth looking at deal sites such as redflag or waiting, if you can for Amazon Prime day or Black Friday or whatever.

[Danolo]

7 minutes ago, 1500B said:

FWIW, I use a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to save on USB Ports - both work well but I am not a gamer.

Looking at manufacturers outlet sites is well worth it (they sell cancelled orders and refurbished etc) and it is always worth looking at deal sites such as redflag or waiting, if you can for Amazon Prime day or Black Friday or whatever.

Yes, Bluetooth!  She plays this game, but she's not a gamer in the sense of needing  manual dexterity with a mouse. Her hands do not work well. So bluetooth mouse and keyboard might work well. Also I guess her ear buds could be bluetooth driven too.  Thanks for the idea.

And yes, I'm looking at refurbished and outlet deals. Yes redflag.

[Roadglide]

Well if you ar looking to replace that machine the first step is deciding on a Windows machine or an Apple.  I am a big fan of the Apple Refurbished program.  My MacMini M1 is a refurbished and if runs and looks just like a new one from a store would.

[wadman]

8 hours ago, Danolo said:

Yes, Bluetooth!  She plays this game, but she's not a gamer in the sense of needing  manual dexterity with a mouse. Her hands do not work well. So bluetooth mouse and keyboard might work well. Also I guess her ear buds could be bluetooth driven too.  Thanks for the idea.

And yes, I'm looking at refurbished and outlet deals. Yes redflag.

The problem with blue tooth devices is lag/latency. i.e. You move the mouse and 0.1 - 0.3 seconds later, the mouse pointer actually moves. If the game requires super quick reflexes, that lag will pretty much render you non-competitive.

Even watching a movie through blue tooth speakers, the lag in sound is just enough to annoy me a bit. 

[forcebwithu]

1 hour ago, wadman said:

Even watching a movie through blue tooth speakers, the lag in sound is just enough to annoy me a bit. 

When watching movies I set the audio track synchronization to -0.2 s. That setting pretty much eliminates the lag.

[wadman]

9 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

When watching movies I set the audio track synchronization to -0.2 s. That setting pretty much eliminates the lag.

Yes, that works with movies you play off your laptop.  Doesn't work with Youtube though 

[Danolo]

Good information on Bluetooth! Thanks!

So the delay in audio might be problematic, because she watches a lot of YouTube.

The game, Second Life, has background music, but little or no audio voice.

Similarly, the delay in mouse response would probably be annoying.

So, I'm not sure Bluetooth will work.

[Danolo]

11 hours ago, Roadglide said:

Well if you ar looking to replace that machine the first step is deciding on a Windows machine or an Apple.  I am a big fan of the Apple Refurbished program.  My MacMini M1 is a refurbished and if runs and looks just like a new one from a store would.

Thanks Roadglide.  I'm not sure she, or I, are willing to switch to Apple. We both have many years experience with Windoze. 

I also suspect the Apple products, even though refurbished will still be more expensive.

 

[Danolo]

So, narrowing down our wants and needs, so far it looks like this:

Needs:

 Laptop.  

Ports for external devices : headset, mouse, hard drive.

Enough power to run Second Life and YouTube, and to multitask.

 

Wants:

15" monitor

Enough power to launch the Space Shuttle.

 

Research, research...

[Garzan]

Also keep in mind something like a 'wireless mouse and keyboard combo' would likely have an RF dongle that was not Bluetooth, though many wireless mice are wired/wireless/Bluetooth--however you want to hook them up. My mouse is a rechargeable gaming mouse that I can connect USB, or wireless RF, or Bluetooth. Mostly I use it connected wirelessly, and I've never connected it via Bluetooth. If the battery gets low, I've got a USB cable on my desk to plug it into. When that happens I just can't be as expansive in my mouse movements. 🙂 

It's too bad you're not in Thailand already. I could gift you my used but good 24" Samsung FHD monitor. 

[Danolo]

2 hours ago, Garzan said:

It's too bad you're not in Thailand already. I could gift you my used but good 24" Samsung FHD monitor

That would be great, for ME!  My wife needs a laptop due to restricted desktop space. She does not have room for a 24". 

And yes, brother, "its too bad you're not in Thailand already" is very true.