F5F Stay Refreshed Hardware Notebooks Are you looking for a $1500 laptop suitable for a photographer, artist, and vintage gamer?

Are you looking for a $1500 laptop suitable for a photographer, artist, and vintage gamer?

Are you looking for a $1500 laptop suitable for a photographer, artist, and vintage gamer?

G
Ghostderf
Junior Member
Find
8
09-16-2021, 11:23 PM
#1
Hello! Eariler this year I had a
wonderful discussion over in the prebuilt forum
that was loads of help, and I've been doing research on my own as well, but I am still finding myself overwhelmed with all the new options available. With the Tennessee State Sales Tax holiday approaching (July 25-27) I'm hoping to nail down a better idea of what system to get my mom and I.
My brother recently bought a laptop from Dell (sadly I don't know the model, it has a touch screen and is 15 inches wide) which has me considering the option of a laptop.
For ease of reading... I'll restate what mom and I like to do on a computer, with some tweaks as I realized somethings have changed since we got a tablet.
Our main usage is as follows:
The
most important thing
for us though is our bi-weekly
Zoom
meetings with an average of around 30-50 participants. Occasionally we end up in a zoom meeting of 100+ (usually Memorials of friends, or family of friends).
The
second most important
thing to me is my favorite game. Its only game I play on the PC was released in 1999 called Petz 4... So needless to say the specs for it aren't much these days. (Even with the mods.)
Windows ‘95, Windows '98
Pentium 166 MHz or higher (Via Voice needs 150MHz, Petz needs 133 MHz)
256 color video card and monitor
32 mb RAM, 300 MB free hard disk space
SoundBlaster or compatible 16-bit sound card with DirectX
Direct X drivers, specifically Direct X 6.0. The game can only be successfully installed on computers with sound cards that are compatible with
Direct X drivers
.
The rest
of the things we do on a regular basis.
Discord.
Mom likes watching craft and cooking videos on YouTube.
LibreOffice. (Mainly Calc, and occasionally Writer)
I'm a traditional artist, I take my own photos for reference, and would like to store quite a bit of them on the laptop.
Sometimes I'll scan drawings to send to friends so they can see them, or for new backgrounds for Petz 4. Nothing bigger than a sheet of printer paper, no more than 300dpi.
Light image editing in Paint.net, or Rarely Gimp. I do pixel art, and web graphics for my vintage style site.
Sometimes I listen to Itunes, or Pandora.
Please note:
I'm less looking for a particular model, (although those are welcome) and more looking for guidelines as there's no way to know what's going to be on sale this far in advance. It is probably going to mostly be 'last years' models though from my experience.
Now on to the question list : -)
1. What is your budget?
$1500 budget is the maximum that a computer can cost, and take advantage of the sales tax holiday. So I'm shooting to stay under that number.
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
10 inches or bigger.
3. What screen resolution do you want?
My current monitor is an old HP x20 LED... It's native resolution is 1600 x 900 so nothing worse than that if possible.
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
My mom is in her 80s, and her health is starting to fade a bit. So I need something that will take me packing it in a backpack with other supplies to take to the hospital if that happens (snacks, change of clothes, etc), but it's mostly going to be used at home, in our living room.
5. How much battery life do you need?
I honestly don't know. Suggestions on figuring that out are welcome. My last notebook is (it still works) an MSI Wind U100 from the 2010s.
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Petz 4 (see above), and I may get Sims 2 at some point but that's a huge long shot.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
I mentioned that above.
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I'm a bit of a file horder so more is better most likely.
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I finally got mom comfortable with ordering from walmart online... So yay!
https://www.walmart.com
... There's an outside chance that I may can order from Newegg, but shipping
will
have to come out of the $1500 budget
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
The longer the better. I'm generally careful with my things. For example, I still have my orginal Nintendo DS from 2005.
I tend to keep anything we own until it dies, and is no longer able to be repaired.
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
I didn't think laptops still came with those? So an external XD
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
My brand preferences are 8 years out of date, so I'm better to keep mum about them XD
13. What country do you live in?
USA
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I'm looking for guidelines about what's working well, what to avoid and so on. Exact models are welcome as well, but not necessary.
Last years models are fine if needed for the price point... Those have had time to figure out the bugs.
Windows 11 compatibility is a must... I'd prefer it already onboard, but with the free upgrade that's not necessarily a requirement.
Also... If a laptop is going to be sitting in a safe spot, is it ok to leave it open, or will that cause the hinges to fail quicker? My eye doctor always recommends not folding our glasses closed to make the hinges last longer, for example.
Reply
Reply
G
Ghostderf
09-16-2021, 11:23 PM #1

Hello! Eariler this year I had a
wonderful discussion over in the prebuilt forum
that was loads of help, and I've been doing research on my own as well, but I am still finding myself overwhelmed with all the new options available. With the Tennessee State Sales Tax holiday approaching (July 25-27) I'm hoping to nail down a better idea of what system to get my mom and I.
My brother recently bought a laptop from Dell (sadly I don't know the model, it has a touch screen and is 15 inches wide) which has me considering the option of a laptop.
For ease of reading... I'll restate what mom and I like to do on a computer, with some tweaks as I realized somethings have changed since we got a tablet.
Our main usage is as follows:
The
most important thing
for us though is our bi-weekly
Zoom
meetings with an average of around 30-50 participants. Occasionally we end up in a zoom meeting of 100+ (usually Memorials of friends, or family of friends).
The
second most important
thing to me is my favorite game. Its only game I play on the PC was released in 1999 called Petz 4... So needless to say the specs for it aren't much these days. (Even with the mods.)
Windows ‘95, Windows '98
Pentium 166 MHz or higher (Via Voice needs 150MHz, Petz needs 133 MHz)
256 color video card and monitor
32 mb RAM, 300 MB free hard disk space
SoundBlaster or compatible 16-bit sound card with DirectX
Direct X drivers, specifically Direct X 6.0. The game can only be successfully installed on computers with sound cards that are compatible with
Direct X drivers
.
The rest
of the things we do on a regular basis.
Discord.
Mom likes watching craft and cooking videos on YouTube.
LibreOffice. (Mainly Calc, and occasionally Writer)
I'm a traditional artist, I take my own photos for reference, and would like to store quite a bit of them on the laptop.
Sometimes I'll scan drawings to send to friends so they can see them, or for new backgrounds for Petz 4. Nothing bigger than a sheet of printer paper, no more than 300dpi.
Light image editing in Paint.net, or Rarely Gimp. I do pixel art, and web graphics for my vintage style site.
Sometimes I listen to Itunes, or Pandora.
Please note:
I'm less looking for a particular model, (although those are welcome) and more looking for guidelines as there's no way to know what's going to be on sale this far in advance. It is probably going to mostly be 'last years' models though from my experience.
Now on to the question list : -)
1. What is your budget?
$1500 budget is the maximum that a computer can cost, and take advantage of the sales tax holiday. So I'm shooting to stay under that number.
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
10 inches or bigger.
3. What screen resolution do you want?
My current monitor is an old HP x20 LED... It's native resolution is 1600 x 900 so nothing worse than that if possible.
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
My mom is in her 80s, and her health is starting to fade a bit. So I need something that will take me packing it in a backpack with other supplies to take to the hospital if that happens (snacks, change of clothes, etc), but it's mostly going to be used at home, in our living room.
5. How much battery life do you need?
I honestly don't know. Suggestions on figuring that out are welcome. My last notebook is (it still works) an MSI Wind U100 from the 2010s.
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Petz 4 (see above), and I may get Sims 2 at some point but that's a huge long shot.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
I mentioned that above.
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I'm a bit of a file horder so more is better most likely.
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I finally got mom comfortable with ordering from walmart online... So yay!
https://www.walmart.com
... There's an outside chance that I may can order from Newegg, but shipping
will
have to come out of the $1500 budget
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
The longer the better. I'm generally careful with my things. For example, I still have my orginal Nintendo DS from 2005.
I tend to keep anything we own until it dies, and is no longer able to be repaired.
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
I didn't think laptops still came with those? So an external XD
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
My brand preferences are 8 years out of date, so I'm better to keep mum about them XD
13. What country do you live in?
USA
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I'm looking for guidelines about what's working well, what to avoid and so on. Exact models are welcome as well, but not necessary.
Last years models are fine if needed for the price point... Those have had time to figure out the bugs.
Windows 11 compatibility is a must... I'd prefer it already onboard, but with the free upgrade that's not necessarily a requirement.
Also... If a laptop is going to be sitting in a safe spot, is it ok to leave it open, or will that cause the hinges to fail quicker? My eye doctor always recommends not folding our glasses closed to make the hinges last longer, for example.

Reply
Reply
T
theHesh
Member
Find
159
09-18-2021, 11:12 AM
#2
I tend to keep more files on hand, so having extra space would be ideal.
External storage seems like a smart choice.
I wasn’t sure laptops still included those features, so an external one would be helpful.
They don’t seem to be included anymore; laptop manufacturers moved away from them to make room for better internal components and a thinner design.
For the older games you’re interested in, you can run the game’s executable or installer in compatibility mode.
Right-click the installer, select Properties, then go to the Compatibility tab, and choose the appropriate Windows version from the dropdown.
You might want to check this link:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-ROG...6-...4203473672
The HX SKU indicates you can undervolt both the CPU and GPU.
For a 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-13650HX ROG Strix G16, undervolting is possible.
Anyone with a similar laptop would appreciate this—recently I got an ROG Strix G16 (2023) with a 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-13650HX at 2.60 GHz.
I reduced CPU core, P cache, and E cache without much change in temperature, though it still reached around 90°C.
I only managed to lower...
www.techpowerup.com
to help reduce heat buildup and extend the laptop’s lifespan.
The machine also features another M.2 slot, which means you can add a drive later, but it doesn’t include a mechanical HDD.
Reply
Reply
T
theHesh
09-18-2021, 11:12 AM #2

I tend to keep more files on hand, so having extra space would be ideal.
External storage seems like a smart choice.
I wasn’t sure laptops still included those features, so an external one would be helpful.
They don’t seem to be included anymore; laptop manufacturers moved away from them to make room for better internal components and a thinner design.
For the older games you’re interested in, you can run the game’s executable or installer in compatibility mode.
Right-click the installer, select Properties, then go to the Compatibility tab, and choose the appropriate Windows version from the dropdown.
You might want to check this link:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-ROG...6-...4203473672
The HX SKU indicates you can undervolt both the CPU and GPU.
For a 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-13650HX ROG Strix G16, undervolting is possible.
Anyone with a similar laptop would appreciate this—recently I got an ROG Strix G16 (2023) with a 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-13650HX at 2.60 GHz.
I reduced CPU core, P cache, and E cache without much change in temperature, though it still reached around 90°C.
I only managed to lower...
www.techpowerup.com
to help reduce heat buildup and extend the laptop’s lifespan.
The machine also features another M.2 slot, which means you can add a drive later, but it doesn’t include a mechanical HDD.

Reply
Reply
X
xImFizzy
Member
Find
213
09-18-2021, 08:10 PM
#3
On my wishlist! I've been looking for an external hard drive for a long time. Right now I'm keeping everything backed up on my old MSI Wind. 🤷‍♀️
I have a few old mechanical drives around and I'm torn between buying a new shell for one of them or getting something fresh?
I could live without the slimmer design, but that just means I'll need to buy an external drive if necessary.
I'm really happy it was left behind. When Microsoft released 11, I was concerned they'd remove it and Petz wouldn't work.
After checking out the one you showed... I started browsing, and this one caught my eye. It's a newer model and a bit more affordable.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-ROG...RA...2103957626
To further my learning.
Why choose the first one over the second? Is the NVIDIA 4060 significantly better than the 4050, especially since I don't play newer games?
I'm fine with SSD-only drives. Are there any downsides to that?
Reply
Reply
X
xImFizzy
09-18-2021, 08:10 PM #3

On my wishlist! I've been looking for an external hard drive for a long time. Right now I'm keeping everything backed up on my old MSI Wind. 🤷‍♀️
I have a few old mechanical drives around and I'm torn between buying a new shell for one of them or getting something fresh?
I could live without the slimmer design, but that just means I'll need to buy an external drive if necessary.
I'm really happy it was left behind. When Microsoft released 11, I was concerned they'd remove it and Petz wouldn't work.
After checking out the one you showed... I started browsing, and this one caught my eye. It's a newer model and a bit more affordable.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-ROG...RA...2103957626
To further my learning.
Why choose the first one over the second? Is the NVIDIA 4060 significantly better than the 4050, especially since I don't play newer games?
I'm fine with SSD-only drives. Are there any downsides to that?

Reply
Reply