Looking for a laptop for the wife.

My wife is looking to replace her Toshiba laptop (mostly because it’s kinda broken and the repair cost is nearly what a new one would cost). My sister got a HP G72-C55DX for Christmas and she likes it a lot. Only thing is I was reading some reviews and read that the HP G72-C55DX has only Up to 1696MB memory is allocated to graphics and should not expect good 3D gaming. Do you think that comment is in reference to those online shoot ‘em up war games or any 3D type game. My wife likes those graphic heavy picture search games, you know, find the hidden butterfly and baseball bat type puzzles. When you click on the hidden item they sparkle, glow or rotate. This one should be OK for that, don’t ya think?

https://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/reviews/hp-g72-c55dx-review.asp

Sister got hers at Best Buy but I hate dealing with their Geeks, always wanting to sell you add-ons and other programs and then charge an arm and a leg to transfer files.

I have a G72 with 1696mb video and it has done everything that I have ever asked it to. Those games like your wife plays are nothing compared to some of the stuff out there for the hard core gamer market, which is most likely what they are referring to.

Gamer computers are more into how fast they can reload the entire page and how many times as fast as they can. Just looking at a still picture will not need as much as running through a gauntlet with scenery changing constantly. Hardcore game game computers try to redraw the the whole scene over and over and it stresses the system more. The saying goes "Buy as much as you can afford or your budget allows because you will need it in the future".

What about an iPad?

BaitCaster said:

What about an iPad?

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I was thinking the same thing.

KRS

ipad - no

I would definitely suggest considering a refurbished unit - by the sound of it, almost any newer machine will probably do all that your wife needs. She definitely won't need any high tech gaming machine, so I'd pretty much ignore what the reviews say about gaming. KMixson hit it right on the head about what it means when they refer to gaming machines and buying as much as your budget can afford.

As for where to buy it, buy online, you can definitely find substantially better units and a lot more refurbs....www.tigerdirect.com or www.newegg.com offer pretty good deals (I'm partial to tigerdirect). I bought an HP Pavilion dv7 from them that was refurbished and it's been great over the past 4 years....so great that I bought them for my sister for Christmas and my mother for her birthday recently...

OK, it's just me, but I will not buy a refurbished electronic device. Just like I hate to buy a used car. And I'm regretting the Ford I have now. Have to find where the airbag sensor is so I can clean the connections and hope that is what is causing my airbag idiot light to flash a 24 code.

Be careful with that airbag stuff. Any glitch while messing with them can set those things off.

Quackrstackr said:

Be careful with that airbag stuff. Any glitch while messing with them can set those things off.

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You got that right. Some will go off by just tapping the front bumper very lightly it seems and others will take a major collision to set them off.

They are located in different places for different vehicles, but a common place for them are front bumpers, grills, front fenders and some in the airbag control module themselves. It all depends on the vehicle.

It's a 2003 Ford Explorer Sport. I started a thread on an Explorer owner's forum, waiting on an answer.

Popeye said:

It's a 2003 Ford Explorer Sport. I started a thread on an Explorer owner's forum, waiting on an answer.

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Just a shot in the dark, but try this site also, even though it's mainly for Explorer Sport Trac's, I'm thinkin' they might/maybe have the answer for you.

https://www.mysporttrac.com/mysporttrac/

Popeye said:

OK, it's just me, but I will not buy a refurbished electronic device. Just like I hate to buy a used car. And I'm regretting the Ford I have now. Have to find where the airbag sensor is so I can clean the connections and hope that is what is causing my airbag idiot light to flash a 24 code.

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There's a huge difference between a refurbished device and a used one....refurbished may mean something as simple as it was purchased in a store and returned...those items are generally RGA'd to the manufacturer, diagnostics are tested to ensure nothing is wrong with it and it can no longer be considered new. I would never buy a used electronic device, but based on my experiences with refurbs, I'd definitely buy them again and recommend buying them to anyone.

Like I said, it's just me. I am not comfortable with buying a refurb electronic device. 99% of them will work like new and last just as long. I will get the 1% that dies after the 90 warranty is up. To me I would rather pay a bit more for the comfort factor, especially when this is for my wife who is living 1400 miles away from me.

I understand paying the difference for the piece of mind, you can't put a price on it!

That said, I felt it necessary to try and educate about refurbished electronics because I personally feel that a lot of people are needlessly skeptical. I'm a bit of a techie and I can fix most problems I'd encounter with electronics, so I don't worry about these things, but I definitely respect and understand why people wouldn't buy refurbished.

Not to force the tablet idea....but just wanted to say that the people I know that have a tablet say that they rarely use their desktop/laptop anymore. I will find out soon when I get either the iPad 2 or the Blackberry Playbook!

KRS

I'm baffled and befuddled by the newer technology. Not even sure what the benefit of ipads or Blackberry Playbook would be. Screen is too small, gotta buy apps (?). Seems like an expensive price to buy an unknown product. With a laptop, I pretty much know what we're getting. I suppose, in all honesty, if I held one and tried it, it might make more sense and have more appeal. I hate change.

Also, don't you need to be a Verison or AT&t customer to use the ipad connectivity? We're Sprint and staying Sprint.

KRS62 said:

Not to force the tablet idea....but just wanted to say that the people I know that have a tablet say that they rarely use their desktop/laptop anymore. I will find out soon when I get either the iPad 2 or the Blackberry Playbook!

KRS

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I may end up getting one just to keep up with the times. I hear restaurants are going to start handing you an iPad instead of a menu in the not too distant future. I would hate to show up and not know how to order the special of the day.

KMixson said:

I hear restaurants are going to start handing you an iPad instead of a menu in the not too distant future. I would hate to show up and not know how to order the special of the day.

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I heard about that too a while back on CNN Headline News. That happens to me, and I'm walking out. I much prefer the personal interaction with a waiter/waitress. How can you ask an ipad, "What's good today"?

Being the apple "admin" i.e. the apple guy for a hospital, I do not recommend bying an iPad or pad of any variety. There is no way to upgrade or repair these and I have one that is failing right here next to me. These are great secondary toys, they are specifically large ipod touches. For someone with little experience with these proprietary devices, getting your pictures and files stored on a desktop or backup drive might as well be magic.

I take these iPads and implement a configuration profile that removes all the icons from its desktop, increase security settings, and I drop a Citrix reciever icon there so that users can reach my EMR system via my citrix infrastructure. In my opinion that is their only secure business implementation for these.

If you do get one of these devices, be sure to keep up with your updates, there are thousands of vulnerabilities on the base OS.