Budget Gaming PC

[Antwan]

Do you think the laptop is at fault?
I was just thinking to replace the faulty drive.
For some reason I don't picture it messing up any hard drive it is connected to.
Unfortunately I can't test this without a purchase but it would be cheaper than a new setup.
Pretty sure warranty will require some money aswell. It is implied in the documentation.
I've voided it aswell. The ram is not upgradable by user. Quite a mess haha.
I have a Mac purchase deep back in my head to compensate all this trouble but it's hard to get motivated to throw money at a purchase when you literally can't compensate for every new issue that may arise.
I may just start saving for the Mac. Average lifespan dudes?

[Hitmanx123]

Do you think the laptop is at fault?
I was just thinking to replace the faulty drive.
For some reason I don't picture it messing up any hard drive it is connected to.
Unfortunately I can't test this without a purchase but it would be cheaper than a new setup.
Pretty sure warranty will require some money aswell. It is implied in the documentation.
I've voided it aswell. The ram is not upgradable by user. Quite a mess haha.
I have a Mac purchase deep back in my head to compensate all this trouble but it's hard to get motivated to throw money at a purchase when you literally can't compensate for every new issue that may arise.
I may just start saving for the Mac. Average lifespan dudes?

average lifespan of a mac? well my 2005 model still runs if youre looking at longevity. usually because of the soddered parts and very limited customizability macs will last far more than a pc just becaus eof how well the parts fit together. other than ram and an external drive being the things you can change the most, id say itd be better to save up and purchase a laptop with a nvdia graphic card thats at least 700 or above with i5, 1 TB and 8 gbs or ram.

most graphic intesive games or games that have alot of "junk" running in the back will require 8 or more gbs of ram but id say for now youll be okay. ram is an easy price hike when it comes to buying parts.
my laptop ran me 1700 and i have 16gb, but thats because my work requires me to use Maya and other CAD type programs which really eat at your processor speeds and can heat up your computer.

idk what your budget is antwan but if you want something that is fairly good and you have the money for it id check out http://www.pro-star.com/ , they have a good range of prices. though dont expect anything 700 and down yanno. the parts that they use for the base models of every comp are really nice, AND if you feel like uping the price to get some extras you can, though i think with what you might be wanting you dont need it all right now, or at least in a laptop. better save that for tower. but yeah check them out if you feel like it and just browse around. most of the parts n stuff you could find on newegg but i found that looking all over, certain sites just bait you into paying more than what you want.

and also you dont have to throw in an OS if you alreayd have a windows 7 or 8 activation cd. just a way to save more $$

[Antwan]

Thanks hitman.
Haha, all my years around computers I've never learned about the hardware.
Just now starting that journey.
A bit overwhelming no lie.. No plans to game but I already know from experience that HD capturing uses juice from it all.
I look to the Mac because of its simple software (Music mainly) and know some people here have captured and edited with it. My end all be all is a setup that does those things and lasts a few years.
I've gotten close with some laptop setups.
My dad is heavy into building rigs but he just was never around when I needed the help.
Sent me a laptop one year that I made most of my full lengths on and even played high quality games on but it didn't last long enough. I don't know, maybe it's an unrealistic hope. The forever machine.
As for budget, eh, so low right now!
I can get there but in time.

[Hitmanx123]

Thanks hitman.
Haha, all my years around computers I've never learned about the hardware.
Just now starting that journey.
A bit overwhelming no lie.. No plans to game but I already know from experience that HD capturing uses juice from it all.
I look to the Mac because of its simple software (Music mainly) and know some people here have captured and edited with it. My end all be all is a setup that does those things and lasts a few years.
I've gotten close with some laptop setups.
My dad is heavy into building rigs but he just was never around when I needed the help.
Sent me a laptop one year that I made most of my full lengths on and even played high quality games on but it didn't last long enough. I don't know, maybe it's an unrealistic hope. The forever machine.
As for budget, eh, so low right now!
I can get there but in time.

yeah honestly man im still a Mac dude. i havent booted up my mac in like 3 months tho since getting my laptop. not that i dont enjoy it but my mac is very veyr very old lol so old my web browser doesnt start up normal. id defintley shell out 2000$ for an upgraded 27' imac so i can just do simple stuff and edit.

with windows its not too hard to learn if you listen and know what youre looking for and what you want to get out of your computer. theres a lot you can do with both mac and windows but it all depends on what you want to get out of it. for me i want to be able to control my file systems and get my capture devices in place. in fact, nvidia's card have a built in capture system to do that for you if you dont have one already.

[Antwan]

Ahh damn son!
An exciting morning for sure.
So I'm working on a theory here. This could potentially be a huge price range reducer if it pans out.
I can't boot from the hard drive I got in this laptop. Removed that shit.
Now it sees my bootable media.
There are 128GB USB drives out there maybe higher.
The idea is to partition the usb and use it as a replacement drive.
Here's the price reducer, 128GB USB is 30$.
Going to finish testing when I get home later. You might not need internals.. Damn that's wild.

[Antwan]

Still some troubleshooting to do but just wanted to tell you dudes I've successfully installed an OS on a USB Flash Drive.
With the HDD unplugged it reads an empty Fat32 USB as a replacement drive for your install.
There are some hang ups when running applications but I imagine I can solve for this.
Hard drive optional:

[Hitmanx123]

daamn getting extra tech with the usb, i would of never thought you could do that!
i could recommend formatting the usb again to a ntsf so you could put file sizes bigger than 4gb into it but if your planning on just using it for the OS then i think youll be good