Laptop specs for streaming video?

[Oakie]

So Mrs Oakie has a moderate tax refund coming and is thinking about putting it towards a laptop. I'm a bit out of touch now so need a bit of advice on specs. Assuming the most she'll want to do is stream episodes of 'Grace and Frankie', what sort of specs would be reasonable? Separate graphics card? Celeron processor? RAM? Brands? (I like HP and Dell although the Acers we use at work seem pretty good). Anything to be particularly aware of? Go!

[johcar]

Dell and Acers for the consumer market are crap. So are many of the HPs. Asus and Toshiba have always been the top of the heap for me, with Lenovo following close behind - I have never had an Asus let me down. Current one is now nearly four years old and still does everything I throw at it. And I'm in IT. I have never bought a "cheap" machine. Always buy the best spec machine you can barely afford. It'll last longer. Lots of RAM and a separate graphics card will be a must for streaming.

[Gremlin]

"Streaming" is a hard question. I have a Raspberry Pi 3 as a Plex client receiving video from the Plex server (which does any required transcoding). While the Pi 3 is actually not a bad spec, I doubt it's as powerful as any regular laptop.

I do agree that consumer laptops are shite, from any brand. I do favour the HP ProBook range (entry business range), my work one is 4.5 years old and still going fine. Graphics have also come along a good way, and any Intel 5000+ etc is totally fine for regular usage (except gaming obviously). Your Internet connection (if using it) is probably going to be more of an issue unless you have fibre.

Personally I'd stay with Intel graphics, but I've supplied the odd one with AMD graphics... just think they require excessive fiddling sometimes.

[Akzle]

both intel and hp are jews from 'nam.

try a non-microsoft solution, because their os eats 50% of any resources you have. just cos. so fuck you.
also by running 10 you basically sign away everything you put on your computer and everything you do or say within microphone/video range.

sent from my 7 year old laptop that's mostly fucked but still runs linux good.

[Oakie]

both intel and hp are jews from 'nam.

try a non-microsoft solution, because their os eats 50% of any resources you have. just cos. so fuck you.
also by running 10 you basically sign away everything you put on your computer and everything you do or say within microphone/video range.

sent from my 7 year old laptop that's mostly fucked but still runs linux good.

Thanks Ax. I hear what you say about a non-MS solution but I just don't have time in my life to learn Linux. Interestingly though, I was talking to our brand new neighbour on ANZAC Day and it turns out he is a self employed IT guy ...

[Akzle]

Thanks Ax. I hear what you say about a non-MS solution but I just don't have time in my life to learn Linux. Interestingly though, I was talking to our brand new neighbour on ANZAC Day and it turns out he is a self employed IT guy ...

try ubuntu. it's reknowned for "just running" and with gnome2 (the default) has all the eyecandy most people have been taught to want.

you can do it right now without moking any changes to your computer.

there's SFA to learn if you don't want to.


of course, tell wifey to build an arch distro that runs.... you may get lucky and never see her again.



however, if you insist on not, then i'd be looking to a win7 native laptop (M$' most recent not-entirely-shit-os),
AVOID win 8.1 or 10. and most of them it's a fucken pain in the arse to get rid of 10 and upgrade to win7.
And it will run over 9000 times better, and being a few years old, be cheaper.

[Gremlin]

however, if you insist on not, then i'd be looking to a win7 native laptop (M$' most recent not-entirely-shit-os),
AVOID win 8.1 or 10. and most of them it's a fucken pain in the arse to get rid of 10 and upgrade to win7.
And it will run over 9000 times better, and being a few years old, be cheaper.
Odds are, any new machines now may not be able to run Win7. The latest generation of Intel CPUs (7) do not run Win7. 6xxx does, but we did have to mess around with custom slipstreamed OS installs on the H170 chipset.

[Moi]

Just before Mrs Oakie parts with her hard earnt tax refund, do a comparison between a Windows machine which would be a top contender and an Apple laptop...

I'll admit to a bias here... prefer Apple to Windows. Now, saying that is likely to open a slagging match as similar to that between those who prefer Falcon to a Commodore... :laugh:

[Oakie]

Thanks for all the input guys but the question is now moot. She's decided to upgrade her mobile phone instead. This works for me as I inherit her old phone which is a generation better than mine.

Useful exercise despite her changing her mind though as I've had to give myself a crash course in laptop specs so I feel up to date again now. Turns out the cheapest that ticked all the boxes for an adequate machine was $760 which was a couple hundy more than her refund.

[Akzle]

Just before Mrs Oakie parts with her hard earnt tax refund, do a comparison between a Windows machine which would be a top contender and an Apple laptop...

I'll admit to a bias here... prefer Apple to Windows. Now, saying that is likely to open a slagging match as similar to that between those who prefer Falcon to a Commodore... :laugh:

what are you even talking about??

everyone knows fords are shit.

[nzrobj]

what are you even talking about??

everyone knows fords are shit.

What are you even talking about??

everyone knows holdens are shit.

[Moi]

What are you even talking about??

everyone knows holdens are shit.

Akzle knows...


he drives a Magna!

[nzrobj]

Akzle knows...


he drives a Magna!

Aren't they whales?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Moi]

Aren't they whales?

The same could be said about many vehicles... :laugh:

But, Akzle knows!

[onearmedbandit]

Ford vs Holden? Different bucket, same shit.

[awa355]

Looking at laptops on t me, some outfits are advertising re-furbished business grade laptops as being better built than new consumer grade laptops.

Any grain of truth in this??

[Akzle]

Looking at laptops on t me, some outfits are advertising re-furbished business grade laptops as being better built than new consumer grade laptops.

Any grain of truth in this??

given that neither "business" or "consumer" grade are actually a defined specification.. go fish.

typically i would now associate "consumer grade" with netbooks and tablets and gayOSes (chrome, ms10)

while "business grade" are designed to be packed and travelled and used 10 hours a day without failing.

[Gremlin]

Looking at laptops on t me, some outfits are advertising re-furbished business grade laptops as being better built than new consumer grade laptops.

Any grain of truth in this??
The devil is in the details, but generally speaking, yes. I'd never touch the consumer range from any brand, including HP. They do silly things like putting smaller fans in, which make the machines run hotter so they don't last as long. As akzle says, business machines can be expected to work all day and travel a reasonable amount. Not nearly the same as sitting on a desk at home all day every day.

That said, it doesn't guarantee quality. I spent reasonably big on Lenovo X1 Carbons for directors... quality had fallen from IBM days. I spec a lot of HP ProBooks, EliteBooks etc.