Was looking at new laptops

Stopped by best buy the other day looking at new laptops, they had some starting at $99 a few a around $200, I was thinking I could get that and do some work on it resking etc, then I noticed the hard drive was not even a hard drive but a flash memory card at 32 to 64 gig of space depending on what model. I was that cant be right, you could not install about anything in the room left over with what windows uses. About the only thing I would think you could use it for was checking your mail, and just going online. Could not even use it as a DVD player as there was no drive. I cant belive there is a market for them, and that people buy them. Any thoughts?

fourteen said:

Stopped by best buy the other day looking at new laptops, they had some starting at $99 a few a around $200, I was thinking I could get that and do some work on it resking etc, then I noticed the hard drive was not even a hard drive but a flash memory card at 32 to 64 gig of space depending on what model. I was that cant be right, you could not install about anything in the room left over with what windows uses. About the only thing I would think you could use it for was checking your mail, and just going online. Could not even use it as a DVD player as there was no drive. I cant belive there is a market for them, and that people buy them. Any thoughts?

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It's so easy to be 'taken-in' by cheap offers; but remember, you get what you pay for.

Save your money, do a little research and if you are into Trainz for the long haul, select something that is powerful enough with a top of the range video driver and at least 16GB RAM.

When you have the right equipment, you get the best entertainment and enjoyment. Good luck.

Roy

I'd personally say if you can, try and build your own machine if you have a job/decent income. Custom builds can be expensive though but very much worth it. I'd check this site out. https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/category/gaming-pcs/ They have a small, simple gaming tower thats 595 bucks, It sounds a little pricey but if you can afford something like that or maybe even buy things 1 or 2 parts at a time, its well worth it.

https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Syber-C-Core-100

fourteen said:

Stopped by best buy the other day looking at new laptops, they had some starting at $99 a few a around $200

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Add 0's onto end of each of those prices

Most of the new laptops do not have a CD/DVD drive.

Dell refurbished off lease www.dellrefurbished.com $300 E6430 will run TANE just about if you are very selective about what you run. Middleton for laps will run on it and so will a canal route with barges. The E6430 is better quality machine than the E5430. Check the processor is HD series 4000 or above. These days an external DVD drives costs about $25 if the laptop doesn't have one.

A i5-5200U has series 5500 HD intel integrated graphics which is much nicer but those with 16 gigs of memory are nearer $700.

Cheerio John

fourteen said:

Stopped by best buy the other day looking at new laptops, they had some starting at $99 a few a around $200, I was thinking I could get that and do some work on it resking etc, then I noticed the hard drive was not even a hard drive but a flash memory card at 32 to 64 gig of space depending on what model. I was that cant be right, you could not install about anything in the room left over with what windows uses. About the only thing I would think you could use it for was checking your mail, and just going online. Could not even use it as a DVD player as there was no drive. I cant belive there is a market for them, and that people buy them. Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

You've been looking at NetBooks. I bought two of them as they are perfect for what I need - they weigh 1 - 1.2kg, the batteries last 6-9 hours and there is plenty of space to install most things. You use cloud storage for stuff you don't need locally and they are perfect for content creation using Blender and GIMP. One one of them I can even run T:ANE, but of course only to check if the models are OK in game - obviously they are no good for actually playing Trainz.

So long as you know what you want to use it for a NetBook can be fine. You can certainly do a hell of a lot more than just checking your mail.

Paul

Is it true:

That you need a dedicated video card of at least 1060, or preferably 1070 (unless you have an extra $900 to just add the 1080 video card)

And that mounted on Motherboard GPU chips are not for Trainz

And that a Windows I7 with an Intel CPU is preferred, over AMD

And T:ANE needs a 64 bit PC

And more than 2GB RAM (preferably 8GB RAM)

And a CPU speed of 3.2Gz or greater

And a quality, fast laptop will cost you @ $2500 or greater, and a desktop @ $1200 or greater

And while a lower end $1200 laptop PC may run Trainz for a while ... It will eventually fry and melt itself ?

And that a $529-$700 laptop from a BigBox store laptop is not fit for gaming at all

And a laptop will eventually clog and overheat from clothing dust, and that a desktop is more repairable/retrofitable than a laptop

And most desktops PC's will outperform, and outlast a laptop PC

Not worried about running Tane on it as I have Trainz 2012, I just wanted a cheaper one to do some reskining and such on it while not at home. Also to use it as a DVD player for my son when we go up to visit my daughter in the car. My current laptop has a broken screen so it is not much use right now.

My other laptop is a 486 running at 50 MHz, and a 20 mb hard drive.

fourteen said:

Not worried about running Tane on it as I have Trainz 2012, I just wanted a cheaper one to do some reskining and such on it while not at home. Also to use it as a DVD player for my son when we go up to visit my daughter in the car. My current laptop has a broken screen so it is not much use right now.

My other laptop is a 486 running at 50 MHz, and a 20 mb hard drive.

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You can get new screens. Try ebay and you-tube for installation instructions. It can be done I'd done it but it can be a bit frustrating at times.

Cheerio John

Also my daughter when she was younger pulled about 1/2 the keys off the keyboard, that and the bad screen not really worth fixing. Could use a external keyboard if at home, but would be hard in a car etc.