whiteface

Laptop hunting: Please opine!

As I tweeted, the screen on my current laptop finally gave out. It constitutes the final insult on a long list of hardware issues that I had been letting slide. It is time to put it out to pasture and get a new laptop for my VJ work and video editing.

I'm interested in your opinions. I am also writing this to keep track of my thoughts so far, but help would be appreciated. Also I'm not LJ-cutting this long post because it feels silly to cut the one post I'm likely to leave for the next 3 months or so.


STATE OF THE HUNT

Real-time video performance tends to be best crafted in computers marketed to the Gaming Community, So 'Gaming' rigs are mainly where I'm looking.

Looked into Alienware but they were bought by Dell and their prices are absolutely astounding. On my last purchase I paid too much for a Dell XPS M1710 which has been given great me performance but was built with moderately crappy parts. I don't want to buy from them again anyway.
I like what ASUS puts forward as a company. I'm strongly considering their line, Particularly the G73's Like so:

ASUS G73JH-A1



Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Display: 17.3-inch Full HD LED-backlit Widescreen (1920 x 1080)
CPU: Intel Core i7 processor 720QM (1.60GHz-2.8GHz Quad-Core)
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 VRAM
Memory: 8GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM, 4 x SODIMM (up to 8GB)
Storage: 1TB 7200RPM hard drive (500GB x 2) dual HDD
Dimensions: 12.56 x 16.38 x 2.25 ~ 0.08 –inches
Weight: 7.48 lbs. (with 8 cell battery and single HDD)


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod…

Another model I'm looking at similar to lower powered/priced ASUS systems is a Toshiba model. Something in this class might be a better bet overall.

Toshiba Qosmio x505



Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
CPU Type Intel Core i7 720QM(1.6GHz)
Screen 18.4"
Memory Size 4GB DDR3
Hard Disk 500GB
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M
Video Memory 1GB GDDR5
Dimensions 17.40" x 11.60" x 1.63"
Weight 9.70 lbs.

ASUS G51j


Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
CPU Type Intel Core i7 720QM(1.6GHz)
Screen 15.6"
Memory Size 6GB DDR3
Hard Disk 500GB
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M
Video Memory 1GB GDDR5 VRAM
Communication Gigabit LAN and WLAN
Dimensions 14.60" x 10.30" x 1.30" - 1.60"
Weight 7.26 lbs.


Please! If you have other recommendations, comment and link me to them!

***

misc questions

I am happy to have avoided Vista, runing XP all these years. But moving all my software up two generations to Windows 7 is a scary proposition.

I'm also reading a wide variety or reports on what consequences I'm likely to run into trying to install my shit on a 64 bit OS. Some reports say it should be a non issue except for old win 98 software. Others cry doomsday and say that nothing works on them? What should I believe on that score?

Lots of these same reports say the benefits to running 64 bit OS and 8 gb of RAM is limited by the fact that most software cannot utilize the extra capacity? Is that a load of bull? Am I mistaking this for a Dual-core processor thing?
whiteface

(no subject)

I'm older.

I rudely ditched out on more than one person's birthday party this weekend in order to enjoy a private mini-vacation of my own. If yours was one of them, I really apologize.

Life goes well all around. The present is solid and the future has multiple paths that could lead upwards.

I've let go of LJ almost entirely as a medium to communicate by... not only because I have little to say in this format but also because there are fewer and fewer people watching.

Facebook is just Myspace with web-design and privacy issues. I still refuse it and suggest that you, (yes - you personally) go right now and cancel your account there.

The world is on twitter now... If you feel like all of your internet friends have disappeared lately, you probably haven't looked there. If you're a person who justifies not having one by saying they don't "get" twitter then at least find a new reason. That's the phrase that old people use when they're too lazy and feeble to adapt to the most basic of advances in technology.

Trust me, I work with them for a living and thats all they'll say: "I don't GET email." "I don't GET this remote control for my DVR" "Can't it just work simpler like what I'm used to?" ---- Don't become what you hate. I also now work with twitter for a living and I can tell you this is a fundamental shift in the internet and the way we interact. If you haven't recently, look again.

End transmission.
whiteface

I love my car.

I'm beginning to think that my hatred for winter was, at least in part, driven by driving old shitty cars for much of my life. So far this year the Valkyrie (My Subaru wagon) has managed to entirely shrug off the effects of winter. It's literally as if I'm not even driving on or through snowy surfaces so far. Not that this winter has been all that heavy or cruel yet, but I'm still impressed.

So far I've only gotten her to fishtail once after making a rather large driver error. Otherwise my excessive worry about driving in the snow has been completely unfounded now that I'm driving a car made within the last five years. Having the right tools for life really does change your outlook in large ways.

If nothing else it gives me the confidence to go out in the world when I might not have dared otherwise. And that really can't be such a bad thing.