O/T PC, Laptop or Mac Book

Reagulls · Aug 19, 2016

happypig said:
If you haven't already, back up all your data. Your disk might be about to fail.

One of the most important things of all I'd say, computers can be fixed, possible loss of data is an absolute nightmare!
We had a virus that had also made it onto an external drive which I used for back up, a rather unsettling hour or so which saw us looking at loosing 6 years of artworks. I felt sick.
My genius computer man fixed it and I now have an external back up drive in case the server fails and a back drive fitted at home in case the office burns down!

Hampster Gull · Aug 19, 2016

Macs for home, windows for work. Simple

wellquickwoody · Aug 19, 2016

Herr Tubthumper said:
Apple, obviously.

Are you Bozza, Are you Bozza, Are you Bozza in disguise?

Herr Tubthumper · Aug 19, 2016

wellquickwoody said:
Are you Bozza, Are you Bozza, Are you Bozza in disguise?

Nope. I use a HP Elitebook for work (I'm currently forced to use a client's PC but hopefully this will change soon) and I just find it so clunky and clumsy. All my home stuff is Apple which I find much smoother and easier.

beorhthelm · Aug 19, 2016

Dorset Seagull said:
After a day or so it had repaired 38 bad sectors so I decided to halt the process and see if it had fixed the problem. Sure enough I booted straight in and all is now well

not really, you may have a knackered drive and as noted may be about to fail completely.
run cmd (start, programs, Accessories, command prompt) as administrator. run "chkdsk" and see what it says about bad sectors. the fact that a repair fixed the stalling bootup would have me ordering a new drive.

Worthingite · Aug 19, 2016

Without wishing to hijack the thread, I'm after a new laptop for my radio shows. The biggest requirement I have is that it has separate audio and input sockets, and the faster the better. That said, a cursory look on the interweb and in PC world is making me realise that finding the first part is akin to finding rocking horse s***e. Anyone have any suggestions on a way round it? I'm also on a budget - about £400-500 as a maximum. Reason for a laptop is that I'm incredibly tight on space, and have everything easy enough to pack away in a cupboard, so a standalone PC is a massive ball ache. Macbooks as well are out, as most of the software is Windows (plus virtually all of my music is holed up in an enormous SQL server database!!!)

Any help anyone can offer would be excellent

Thank you!!!

Shropshire Seagull · Aug 19, 2016

The best of both and all round good kit is the Windows Surface Pro

I bought a WSP3 early last year and it is without doubt the best bit of kit I've used and I've work in IT for over 20 years.
It's not cheap, but £ for grunt is cheaper than Apple and with the flexibility to dock at base, use as a laptop of tablet will tick everyone's boxes [except the Apple die-hards of course]
The build is strong and even the entry level machine is quick enough for all home / business apps [gaming aside]

SULLY COULDNT SHOOT · Aug 19, 2016

Company HP laptop is absolute crap so I use my own macbook pro. Can do just about everything I want on it. However I agree that if I spent as much on a pc as on my macbook i might have been great. However, Ive not heard a response to apple's lasting longer.

And then there is the virus issue...

Badger · Aug 19, 2016

Worthingite said:
Without wishing to hijack the thread, I'm after a new laptop for my radio shows. The biggest requirement I have is that it has separate audio and input sockets, and the faster the better. That said, a cursory look on the interweb and in PC world is making me realise that finding the first part is akin to finding rocking horse s***e. Anyone have any suggestions on a way round it? I'm also on a budget - about £400-500 as a maximum. Reason for a laptop is that I'm incredibly tight on space, and have everything easy enough to pack away in a cupboard, so a standalone PC is a massive ball ache. Macbooks as well are out, as most of the software is Windows (plus virtually all of my music is holed up in an enormous SQL server database!!!)

Any help anyone can offer would be excellent Thank you!!!

As I mentioned earlier, Asus do some pretty decent laptops. I'd recommend them from personal experience. As for the sound issue, an external USB sound card should do the trick. Something like:

http://www.staples.ca/en/StarTechco...DIF-Digital-Audio/product_223354_2-CA_1_20001

Dorset Seagull · Aug 19, 2016

beorhthelm said:
not really, you may have a knackered drive and as noted may be about to fail completely.
run cmd (start, programs, Accessories, command prompt) as administrator. run "chkdsk" and see what it says about bad sectors. the fact that a repair fixed the stalling bootup would have me ordering a new drive.

I had already set it up to do chkdsk when it rebooted and it did find errors it corrected. Do you still think its on its way out?? If so would a replacement currently at c£50 cure any problems or could there be a bit more going on??

Dorset Seagull · Aug 19, 2016

Carbonite

Dorset Seagull · Aug 19, 2016

happypig said:
If you haven't already, back up all your data. Your disk might be about to fail.

Carbonite

Dick Swiveller · Aug 19, 2016

Seeing the amount of people recommending web/cloud solutions makes me shudder. Keeping your company data, presumably with some names and addresses thereby invoking data protection concerns, on a third party's servers - probably US based meaning the feds can get their sticky little paws on it whenever they like. What could possibly go wrong?

Personally speaking, I am happy keeping photos and non identifying documents on cloud storage but wouldn't want all of my company information stored elsewhere.

happypig · Aug 19, 2016

Worthingite said:
Without wishing to hijack the thread, I'm after a new laptop for my radio shows. The biggest requirement I have is that it has separate audio and input sockets, and the faster the better. That said, a cursory look on the interweb and in PC world is making me realise that finding the first part is akin to finding rocking horse s***e. Anyone have any suggestions on a way round it? I'm also on a budget - about £400-500 as a maximum. Reason for a laptop is that I'm incredibly tight on space, and have everything easy enough to pack away in a cupboard, so a standalone PC is a massive ball ache. Macbooks as well are out, as most of the software is Windows (plus virtually all of my music is holed up in an enormous SQL server database!!!)

Any help anyone can offer would be excellent Thank you!!!

You can get USB sound cards with separate input/output.

Argartu · Aug 19, 2016

SULLY COULDNT SHOOT said:
Company HP laptop is absolute crap so I use my own macbook pro. Can do just about everything I want on it. However I agree that if I spent as much on a pc as on my macbook i might have been great. However, Ive not heard a response to apple's lasting longer.

And then there is the virus issue...

The issue being that macs are just as likely to pick up a virus? Yes, ten years ago you were far less likely to pick up something nasty on a Mac, but crooks catch on to trends pretty quick.

clippedgull · Aug 19, 2016

Dick Swiveller said:
Seeing the amount of people recommending web/cloud solutions makes me shudder. Keeping your company data, presumably with some names and addresses thereby invoking data protection concerns, on a third party's servers - probably US based meaning the feds can get their sticky little paws on it whenever they like. What could possibly go wrong?

Personally speaking, I am happy keeping photos and non identifying documents on cloud storage but wouldn't want all of my company information stored elsewhere.

Agreed.

Local back ups are the way forward.

Why pay for cloud backups when a one off payment for an external hard drive is the longer term better value!

Bold Seagull · Aug 19, 2016

Argartu said:
The issue being that macs are just as likely to pick up a virus? Yes, ten years ago you were far less likely to pick up something nasty on a Mac, but crooks catch on to trends pretty quick.

Windows still accounts for over 90% of desktop operating systems used in the world. Windows is no less secure than Linux or MacOSX, in fact the system itself may actually be more secure, however 3rd party software, access to the root of the system gained through attachments and these applications is the main problem. MS internet explorer for example has over double the vulnerability of Chrome or Firefox. The sheer volume of potential breaches simply makes Windows malware far more likely (and attractive) than Mac or Linux. That infrequency for Mac/Linux also enables security updates to be issued faster and target potential threats.

beorhthelm · Aug 19, 2016

Bold Seagull said:
... Windows is no less secure than Linux or MacOSX, in fact the system itself may actually be more secure,

this is patent bollocks, its less secure because of the ways in which it allows 3rd party software access to system resources. yes they've got better, but still have fundemental flaws such as running privileged user as a default, allowing user applications tight integrated to OS internals, especially IE.

Worthingite · Aug 20, 2016

happypig said:
You can get USB sound cards with separate input/output.

Badger said:
As I mentioned earlier, Asus do some pretty decent laptops. I'd recommend them from personal experience. As for the sound issue, an external USB sound card should do the trick. Something like:

http://www.staples.ca/en/StarTechco...DIF-Digital-Audio/product_223354_2-CA_1_20001

Yeah, external sound cards are ok, but on the mixed input they can cause more hassle than they're worth. I've dabbled with a couple of usb sound cards and even the £50-75 ones aren't ideal for what I do

Will definitely revisit the asus website though!!!!

Arrid · Aug 20, 2016

StonehamPark said:
A Macbook Pro for around £1000 will last at least 5 years and won't break unless you throw it off a roof.
It won't really slow down.

Any other laptop will probably have severe issues within 5 years, will definitely slow down and will likely chuck itself of the roof just to end it all.

I have a Macbook Pro and in the 4 years the mouse pad has broken, cable to hard drive broke and wi-fi receiver developed a fault. We are not high users.

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