Robbietalk

Thanks, as I said I’ve been struggling to get a feel for current specs so this is a lot of help.

Thanks for the build. Would that be targeting 60 FPS for AAA games? Btw, regarding the prebuilt, here in the UK the delivery is free but the main price in £750. I didn’t realise it would be so different for the US.

It's been a while since I've had a proper PC. I'm thinking about finally getting some kind of gaming setup in the near future, but I'm so out of the loop that I'm finding it hard to work out what I want to aim for. My brain is turning to spaghetti from all the reading I’ve been doing, hence why I decided to come and ask some questions even though I’m still uncertain of what I want. Sorry for not being as coherent as I’d like about what I’m asking! Obviously, ‘future proofing’ isn't always possible, but what kind of price (UK) & specs do you think it would take for a desktop that would (hopefully) have a reasonably easy time with 1080p gaming for a good 5 years? I don’t play AAA games all the time, but I’d like to be able to run them decently when I do feel like playing one. How much more would it take for a desktop that would cope similarly well with 1440p games? And also, how much worse value is it getting a prebuilt at the moment compared to building? I noticed some on Amazon that sound amazing value (https://www.amazon.co.uk/ADMI-Gaming-PC-3-6Ghz-Windows/dp/B07798R425/), but I’m guessing either I’ve misunderstood something about the specs or the rest of the parts are unreasonably low quality. Finally, since I have to deal with some pretty tight space constraints I’m also wondering how much more expensive a good quality laptop that would similarly do well for 5+ years would be? Thank you for taking the time to read this, it’s good of you to be helping people on here.

Thanks for letting me know about that, that makes me feel a lot better about Fat, as those SD cards really were awful. I’ve done some more research since reading your post, and based on the experiences I’ve read it actually doesn’t sound like there’s a huge difference in reliability between exFat and HSF+ (although most seem to agree that Window’s file system is better than both, and Linux’s is even better than that), the main downside with exFat that I came across is that it uses space inefficiently, but that isn’t such a worrying problem, so I guess I’ll just get the 250 GB SSD I’ve been looking at and slap exFat on it like a normal person.

Hello! My iPad is fairly low on storage, so I recently got a powered USB hub so I could use our external HDD with it, but after plugging it all in the drive still wouldn’t show up in Files. After spending a few minutes troubleshooting, I found out that the drive is in NTFS, and of course iPads don’t support that format. I’m now thinking of getting a new external HDD (probably a Western Digital) specifically to use with my iPad and any other iDevices that family members need photos backing up from. ExFat doesn’t sound like a great option for backups since it’s apparently a less reliable format, and I’ve had some bad experiences with SD cards (that I assume were Fat32) corrupting like crazy. However, I don’t have a Mac, so to format the drive to HSF+ I was thinking of using Paragon Partition Manager Community Edition (which I’ve heard can format to HSF+), and then if I ever need to read it from a Windows device I’m planning to try using HFSExplorer.... I’m not sure whether I’m overthinking this, so I thought I’d ask here whether I’m giving myself an unnecessary headache and should just go with ExFat, or would a better format actually be worth the hassle? Thanks for reading.

@hiitswilliam It's fine, my dislike of IOS doesn't change the fact that iPads are good value at the moment n_n. The info you guys have given me is really helpful, I don't keep up with tech news like I used to so it can be a little overwhelming trying to find a new device. I wasn't really expecting a tablet to have a notable camera, but that's a cool bonus to have, I don't really have anything for taking pictures at the moment. If you're wondering why I dislike the OS...I guess it would be fine if your iPad is just your secondary computer for when you're out and about, but it's so restrictive for a primary OS. I used to love building, fixing, and tweaking computers, so I find it pretty frustrating at times trying to use a computer that doesn't allow you an ounce of freedom, but on the other hand I don't really have time for that kind of stuff anymore, so maybe it's just as well that I get something like IOS. Anyway, I'll have good think about it. The hardware in the iPads sounds great, and longevity is pretty vital for me, so it'll probably be worth it for me to put up with the restrictions of the OS. Thanks again!

Alright, thanks for your help guys, that's useful to know about. I'll feel a bit sick if I do end up ordering a new iPad, but I guess I'll at least have a look at the options for them- good screens and longevity are both pretty important for me, so maybe it would be worth putting up with that hideous OS for another few years n_n

@hiitswilliam You clicked it? ...Are you ok? Anyway, thanks for your input. Why is it that you don't recommend Android? Is it the lack of power, or the actual software? I'm pretty hesitant to go for another iPad since I hate how heavily restricted ios is, but I do keep hearing good things about them, especially about the hardware... Hmh. Thanks again!

Hi all! I've been using an old iPad 2 out of necessity for the last couple of years, and unsurprisingly it's got to the point where I need to replace it before it crumbles to its inevitable destruction... I was initially planning to replace it with an Android tablet, being as my last Windows machine ran 7, and based on that I didn't think I could stand the hassle of Windows right now. However, a family member has been letting me use their dirt cheap Lenovo ideapad 100S for the last few days, and I'm really blown away by how much nicer Windows 10 is to use- it's such an improvement from 7, and it runs so nicely that it even fills me with (baseless) confidence that I could dust off my old steam account and get out a few games if I had a laptop like this! There's a couple of problems, though. The biggest is MY POOR EYES! ;_; The screen on this laptop is horrible. As well as the colours being fairly pathetic, it strains my eyes and leaves me feeling groggy. I'm a little uncertain on how to judge the screen by the specs list, since I don't really care very much about pixel density, I just want something with nice colours that doesn't burn my eyes out of my poor head! The second problem, which is slightly more nitpicky, is that it feels as if it needs a touchscreen. I love keyboards, but I think the computer would be SO much better with a detachable touchscreen. I'm hoping to pay £200 or under, but I can probably stretch to £300 if I have to. So far, the options I'm looking at are this Fusion5 tablet + its docking keyboard (4GB RAM, "Upgraded Intel Quadcore AtomTM x5-Z8350" - what? and "Intel HD Graphic(Gen7)"), the old Samsung Tab A 10.1 Android tablet, and the new Tab A 10.5. Also, I need to be able to get it from a company such as Amazon that is generally good with returns. I'm still fairly uncertain about whether Windows or Android would be best, so any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated - and thank you for reading! : D

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'd love to go down the second hand route (I've seen some really tempting refurbs), but for complex reasons I need something that's new :/. I'm going to have a look at some benchmarks and reviews again. That Dell that Wedsea posted looks like it might be a good option if I can't go over £280, I'll have to think about it. And I apologise again for putting your eyes through reading that awful spaghetti paragraphing

So, we need to get some kind of laptop, as we suffered from a disaster a while ago and lost all of our stuff, and my family needs something that's a little portable. I need some advice, though, as I've not been able to keep up with tech news recently....And I hate laptops. We're not 100% sure how much we can afford to pay for it yet, it might have to be about £280, or we might be able to stretch to £320. I'm somewhat perplexed as to what the most reliable and least bloated option might be, as from various reviews I came across, it was seeming like one of the Asus X555 laptops might be the best quality for my price range....and then I came across a bunch of Amazon reviews for the i3 5005U version, which were complaining about their laptops getting bricked. I also have often found that AMD have been the best value for what I want in the past, but I've noticed that some AMD laptops seem to have more complaints than similar Intel laptops. Ugh, I hate computer manufacturers, I wish I could just build it myself. Here's some of the laptops I've been looking at. (I'm writing this on someone else's iPad, and every time I save it in an email a different part of it turns a flamboyant colour. This is becoming quite entertaining to write) Asus X555 with Intel i3 4005U (£280), or with an AMD A6 7310 (£300). I'm also being irritated by this AMD A8 HP (£340) as it's just slightly above my price range...it might be possible to stretch to if it's really worth it, though. Anyway, I'd really appreciate some suggestions, as I'm kinda stumped right now. Thanks for taking time to read this. TL;DR: I hate laptops.

I'm actually surprised at the lack of quality there, a quick look on Amazon and it costs the same as the Zalman Z9 Plus did when I got one, and that's a really nice, spacious case with good airflow, the only thing I could flaw with it is that it only has USB 2 in the front ports, but then again, I'm yet to buy anything at all that uses USB 3, and I think that the rest of the case's quality rather makes up for the fact that you'll have to bend round the back of your case if you want to use USB 3. That said, if you get it for £20 I guess it's fine, but as that isn't the standard price I'd still have expected a little more from Zalman.

I'd complain about the value compared to AMD's cards, but then again, all of Nvidia's offerings are really bad value when compared to AMD's... Nice cooling feature, though. There's no way I would waste that much price/performance just for how quiet it'll be, but it's a nice feature.