My computer ascended to Valhalla. I need a new one. Advice?

My computer is pretty much toast, hence my not being around lately. It's issues would be costly enough to repair for a 5 year old computer that I'm considering just getting a new one instead. I think my max budget is probably going to be $1500ish. I'd like to spend less and still get something that will last awhile, and not be obscenely outdated in a year though if I can. I spent around $1200 on my last one and after 5 years I'm relatively happy with that purchase, so I guess around $1000 to $1500 is what I'm thinking. Any opinions/recommendations on where I should go as far as brands or specs?

My last computer was an HP, which I've got both good and bad things to say about. The computer itself was great. Didn't have too many serious problems until now, and 2 weeks ago when it was still functioning properly I was playing some games from this gen smoothly without upgrading hardware at all. My big issue is that evidently finding parts for HP laptops, or maybe for the specific HP laptop I bought, has been a big drawn out frustrating affair. According to the guy I bring my computers to for repairs they manufacture a lot of their components to only function with other HP products and then don't maintain much of a stock of those components, making them difficult to find some replacement parts for. That's my issue right now. I need a few parts that have proven to be both extremely elusive and pricey. I'd prefer to not make that an issue for myself again. I've also been told that they're notorious for not being put together well in their factories, which makes sense considering every problem I've had with mine has been a hardware problem. Things like wire connections coming loose, or not having been connected correctly to begin with. I've just been looking at Toshiba's, and finding some things I liked. Was thinking about maybe checking out some Sony laptops too. I don't know much about them, but I like my PS3 so why not right?

I'm also not terribly interested in macs. Most of what I do with a computer is more easily compatible with a PC from what I understand.

Depends what you want to use it for really. 1500 would get a decent enough laptop. If you're just using it to use the net, watch movies, download stuff etc you'd get a basic lappy for half if not a 3rd of that price. If you want to game a bit on it, 1500 would get you a pretty decent gaming laptop.

I do some lightish gaming on my old PC, and I'd like to be upgrading at least a little if I'm going to be buying a new computer. I definitely don't need mission control, because I have consoles for that, but it'd be nice to be able to handle stuff that's released at the end of this console generation at the very least. My old computer ran earlier games from it, and I'd think if that was 5 years old that it wouldn't be a problem with a new computer relatively cheaply. I think I was running 6 gigs of ram. Maybe 8? I can't remember. As well as what was the top of the line Nvidia card when I bought it, and a 16 inch HD display with a blue ray drive. I'm getting it back from the shop tomorrow and it still works if I connect it to an external display so I'll double check my specs then. I did some research tonight and it looks like I could get what seems like a pretty decent Toshiba for around $1200 with 12 gigs of ram, full HD and blue ray, and an Nvidia that's the prior series to the ones being put in the new Alienware computers. I'm assuming that means it must be at least decent. All those video card series numbers aren't really a language I speak so I'd have to look into that one a bit more. It also comes with a terabyte of HD space. Makes me feel all warm inside that a HD with a TB of space is the factory norm now. Does anyone have any experience with Toshiba computers? I don't personally, but I'm seeing alright reviews. I'm thinking about asking the guy who runs the computer repair place I use what the easiest brand is to find replacement parts for.

Acer\Asus would be the guys to go for as they pretty much build PC\laptops for the other main companies, so a lot of hardware would fit their stuff. To be honest 12 gigs of ram is overkill, not unless you're doing some heavyass video encoding. 1TB is good but with the price and sizes of USB drives, space shouldn't be an issue any more.

I built my PC for 700$ I already had a monitor but at current I can run Metro Last Light max settings with 80 FPS so really I would recommend an intel motherboard an I3 processor, Ninvidia 8400 card,  corsair vengeance 4gb ram, and a corsair power supply the rest you can just use your old computer for

nsane32 wrote:I built my PC for 700$ I already had a monitor but at current I can run Metro Last Light max settings with 80 FPS so really I would recommend an intel motherboard an I3 processor, Ninvidia 8400 card,  corsair vengeance 4gb ram, and a corsair power supply the rest you can just use your old computer for

 You cannot possibly have the Nvidia GeForce 8400 running that game at 80FPS,it wouldn't even do that on minimum settings.That is a very old card and no better than integrated graphics.I don't believe there even is a card that runs Metro games at 80FPS on max unless you use a dual card setup.I call shenanigans.

KrazykevS10 wrote:

nsane32 wrote:I built my PC for 700$ I already had a monitor but at current I can run Metro Last Light max settings with 80 FPS so really I would recommend an intel motherboard an I3 processor, Ninvidia 8400 card,  corsair vengeance 4gb ram, and a corsair power supply the rest you can just use your old computer for

 You cannot possibly have the Nvidia GeForce 8400 running that game at 80FPS,it wouldn't even do that on minimum settings.That is a very old card and no better than integrated graphics.I don't believe there even is a card that runs Metro games at 80FPS on max unless you use a dual card setup.I call shenanigans.

No that wasnt my setup that was a suggested build, my card is a gtx 650 ti 2gb

I see,then I was mistaken and you are actually just recommending those specs with the bad graphics card so he can swap his old one in instead?

yea if hes just going use the internet the setup should be fine

AnCapaillMor wrote:Acer\Asus would be the guys to go for as they pretty much build PC\laptops for the other main companies, so a lot of hardware would fit their stuff. To be honest 12 gigs of ram is overkill, not unless you're doing some heavyass video encoding. 1TB is good but with the price and sizes of USB drives, space shouldn't be an issue any more.

Yeah I absolutely don't need specs that high, but it wasn't even that much extra on the builder on the Toshiba website. I think the difference between 8 and 12 gigs of ram was something like $90, and then the sizes of the internal hard drives they were offering I think were 750 gigs, then 1 tb, then 1.5 tb or something like that, and the price difference between 750 gb and 1 tb, were only like $30. I'd have to check back to get the exact numbers, but those were the ballpark numbers, and at those prices I'd say it's worth the money to get a little extra and have a computer that's still going to be a madman in 2 or 3 years.

That's actually a good frame of reference for what my old computer could run. I ran Bioshock 2 and League of Legends, which I'd guess are among the most complex, without any problems at all, but I got the second Metro game when it was free off Steam and didn't really have the power to run it smoothly. I could play it with no problems unless there was something big going on where a lot of enemies would be on screen at once, which would cause it to lag badly or just completely stop. So I was somewhere in between specs wise. I'd like to be improving from there at least. I'd think at least 8 gigs of ram and a newer series nvidia card would do it.

With regards to toshiba, I've heard their laptops are decent but can't speak from personal experience
Asus, I love. The build quality is good as they actually build them (unlike, say, Dell, where every different model is built by a different company)
Acer, I strongly dislike. They tend to be priced cheaply due to cheap build quality (from my experiences, although I have never owned one)
HP laptops are trash (in terms of build quality) as well imo

but as a whole laptops are iffy and if you really want something that will last for an ideal price why not build your own pc and then just upgrade pieces as needed? Idk I advocate for desktops where possible, easier to work on

I had a desktop for years and years, and I really loved it, but the way my life is right now it just wouldn't make sense. I'm a student now, which means I both move around a lot and need my computer outside of my house a lot. Plus I'm about to graduate which means I'm probably going to be moving around even more for a bit. It just makes the most sense for me to get a laptop. I also just got sick of having to deal with this big clunky machine. Just dealing with simple things like cleaning it could be a project.

I kinda feel the same way about Acer. My roommate was telling me I should look into them, because he's a satellite television/internet installer, and I guess a lot of his colleges use them for their work machines, but I personally feel like the reason for that is because they're cheap and can be banged around a little. A computer like that certainly serves some important purposes, just not my purposes.

I'm not at all familiar with Asus. I'll look into them.

So there's been some new developments. This whole things ended up being a bit of a sham. In a nutshell here's what's happened: I'd been having problems with my display that I thought were indicative of a loose connection, or possibly a bad inverter. My screen had been flickering colors for awhile, and if I jiggled the display gently they'd stop, then after a short while the screen started fading to black as if the computer had been put to sleep. The video card clearly wasn't the issue because I was able to connect it to an external display and it was still fine, and if I actually put it to sleep then woke it back up the screen would come back on, sometimes for minutes and sometimes for hours, before fading again, leading me to believe it could be the inverter. So I took it to my usual guy, who after a week called me and told me the entire display was shot, without being very thorough in his explanation of why. He said something about the back lights, and because that's something I don't know a ton about I just took his word for it. He wanted to order a whole new display, which would have cost me nearly $300, then after another week of looking told me it couldn't be found. That HP only made a couple hundred of that specific type of display and because of that it would be nearly impossible to track down and that I should just let him sell me a new computer. I can't really afford a new computer that I would consider acceptable right now, so basically I was just going to continue using my moms old one and wait until I could. So in the meantime I decided to take it to the newer smaller computer repair guys in town just to get a second opinion. They do free analysis so I figured it couldn't hurt. So that was a week ago, and I just got a call back from them to explain to me that they opened it up and it was immediately very obvious that there's a connection that's come loose, and that the inverter is going. They've ordered the parts for me already, at the sum total of $60 and my computer will be ready for me in a week. They explained the entire thing to me, in a step-by-step of what they did to come to that conclusion, and from the sound of it the original guy, the one I've gone to for years, didn't even open it up to look to see what the problem was. Instead he jumped to a conclusion based solely on what I told him, meanwhile keeping my computer for 2 weeks while he "analyzed the problem" and then tried to sell me either a $300 part that he said would be impossible to find, or a new computer, and made it seem like I had no other option. He's not getting a single dime from me. He wanted to charge me for labor after all that despite the fact that he didn't resolve the problem. Not only am I not going to pay him, but I'm also going to post about this on my facebook, where I know other customers of his will read it. Pretty ridiculous right? I'll have my computer back in a week, and the problem was exactly what I thought it was originally.

Evidently if the problem is back lights usually the display will start out bright then slowly get darker and darker until it completely fades to black as if the machine is off. That's not what was happening to mine at all. Mine was fading to black as if it were asleep, but the screen was clearly still on, almost like a television when you turn to a channel without programming being broadcast, like it was black but there was still a picture. It all means he just didn't check on the problem himself at all.

Lesson learned. Always get a second opinion kids.