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Question

Is it worth my while to save for a Mac?

by Jul 5, 2015 9:20AM PDT

Hi all,

I'm new here, having finally lost my patience with all the different online reviews and advice so I figured it might help to get some specific answers to specific questions.

I'm currently writing this on a near 4-year old Sony Vaio laptop, which is beginning the slow crawl to its deathbed. I've been researching online reviews for ages (Best laptops for writers, best laptops for students, best brands, worst brands...) and time and time again, I get set to choose a laptop only to then see about twenty terrible reviews of it in succession. I've seen good things about Macs but they're out of my price range right now and saving for one means dealing with a dying laptop for another few months and then when I have that much money, I have a feeling I'll balk at handing it all away at once for a laptop (It'll probably be around Christmas when I have enough saved). I'm basically asking if I'd end up regretting it and if so, are there any other alternatives?

Bit more background:
I usually use my laptops for standard stuff; writing essays and stories (which means several documents could be open at once), browsing the internet (so several tabs open at once) and watching nextflix (I have a chromecast so I'd ideally like something compatible with that).

I'm not too bothered about webcams or learning how to work new operating systems. I can pick up those kinds of things quite quickly. I'm also not much of a gamer (the most advanced games I've ever played are those hidden object dealies and honestly, I can go without).

A big issue I'm currently dealing with is my fan overheating. I was trying to watch a standard 3-minute youtube clip the other night and I couldn't hear it (when my computer stopped freezing) over the sound of my fan going nuts. It's also very hot. I'm aware that my computer is a bit older now and this probably won't happen that much with a new one but it has become my biggest pet peeve.

The frontrunner at the moment, if I decide the Mac is too expensive, is the Lenovo Flex 2 14 (http://www.cnet.com/news/get-a-lenovo-flex-2-14-inch-convertible-for-599/) which I've seen lots of mixed reviews about but generally seems like a good model for the price. Does anyone have any experience with this model they can hit me with? I've mainly heard arguements against it all the bloatware Lenovo installs and the keyboard and trackpad being terribly wonky. That being said, any laptop I've seen with exclusively better reviews run around the same as a Mac so you know, I'm guessing I'll have to compromise somewhere.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Discussion is locked

2 Posts
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Clarification Request
About the slow crawl.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jul 5, 2015 12:41PM PDT

Did you do your monthly canned air cleaning? If not, start. (how is on the web, no need to get inside, just do the vents and if never, start doing it daily for a week, then weekly for a month and back to monthly) If you get a new laptop, now you know.

Next, sometimes it's the OS getting all banged up. Did you do a factory restore?

As to the Apple, I like them but the Lenovo y50 with i7 is more my speed.

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Answer
Choice is yours
by Jul 8, 2015 8:48AM PDT

What is the budget when you are buying this new laptop?

My best suggestion is to buy a chromebook which should be compatible with the chromecast.

Otherwise if you laptop is overheating, have you considered cleaning out the fans. If you are not tech savy, you can always buy compressed air and pump it through the air vents. Also you could buy a cooling pad which will help with the temps.

For software you could look into using less intense software.
Make sure that all the programs that you have are the same bit as the os, e.g. if you have a 32 bit system, then make sure that all programs are 32 bits. This way you know that the software is optimized for the os.

Second something I have learned is that if you use a local account in win 8.1 or 8, the laptop runs cooler. I have no idea why this is but it works.

Third, get rid of microsoft onedrive. It is a pain and hogs all the resources.

The rest is pretty simple, make sure that all programs that you use are the ones that you actually use and not bloatware. Make sure that all startup programs are programs that you want. Also uninstall any programs that are unnecessary.

Let me know if this helps..

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