clueless on buying a laptop for camming
im sooo lost. my one great cam regular is giving me 450 towards a new laptop. my price range is around 450-650. id liek at least a 15 inch screen, built in cam, and preferably 4 gb of ram. i only need about 350 gb really so 500 would be too much.
im currently looking at toshiba satalites and acer aspires.
any help? i dont know anything about processors i just know i need something fast and that can multitask.
thanks!
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
desktops are getting so tiny that the biggest thing would be the screen. I haven't cammed but I'm looking into it and comparing what I can get for putting together various bits for a desktop with an awesome big screen, HD cam, and other stuff including blu-ray burner (but my budgets probably going to be 1200 or less), a person can get a really awesome desktop (even in your pricerange) or a so-so laptop that's probably already obsolete. The nice part is that if something goes wrong with your desktop, you can fix that piece in most cases. With a laptop...not so much. So, you can buy a desktop tower that's the size of a shoebox, and have to move that and the screen and re-hook everything when you want to move the computer for kitchen shots and what not-- which is a pain, but you'll get better quality-- unless there's the ability (and the camgirls would have a better idea of this) to get a so-so laptop, and add HD camming capabilities and whatever speed is needed to potentially run several camming programs.
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
Quote:
Originally Posted by
crispy
im sooo lost. my one great cam regular is giving me 450 towards a new laptop. my price range is around 450-650. id liek at least a 15 inch screen, built in cam, and preferably 4 gb of ram. i only need about 350 gb really so 500 would be too much.
im currently looking at toshiba satalites and acer aspires.
any help? i dont know anything about processors i just know i need something fast and that can multitask.
thanks!
I purchased recently from best buy a Toshia Satelite c650 I love it omg its amazing
450$ you can get a decent machine and if you keep care of it it can last you abotu 3 to 7 years.
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
yea i have this dilemma too..
i want a laptop,
and a desktop..
i think for now i'll settle on a heavy duty laptop,
you can definately get good ones these days -pretty affordable nowadays, and they have good gaming ones..
you know what you are doing girl! :) go get it :D
i LOVE newegg.com-- i use it for all of my techy needs :) AWESOME DEALS LADIES
bbbbut i think soon i will build my own computer, it's just that buying a laptop is more affordable right now
yea they are preferable to a laptop, BUT the LCD itself is a couple hundred (for a decent sized one) and then you have to get good parts, it's a few hundred if you want the good parts
and like i said before, you can get good laptops these days, and for a good price if you look
<3 goodluck have fun!
ps i wouldn't rely on a built in webcam- those usually suck, def get an external one if you don't have one- they are pretty cheap too nowadays (and well worth the investment!!)
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
Amazon recently had one with an i3 processor, 6 gb ram for 450.
You really don't want to use any laptops built in cam though, FYI. They're doody.
You ALSO don't want a shoebox sized desktop because they like to have integrated motherboards that make them just as hard to upgrade and fix as a laptop.
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
We bought a ASUS and it has everything we need and more. This model is in the 600 range and then we bought a HD cam and Mic. We have had no issues quality is great. Just remember the better processors will make every program run faster and smother. We got Ours at Bestbuy and got the extra warranty for a couple years. Just in case.
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
Ok, I know computers, but hubby knows them even better, so I have him sitting in to add stuff as needed.
When you buy a computer, the first thing is to consider EVERYTHING you will use it for, and give EXTRA points to your work/business. In our case that's webcamming obviously which is entirely computer dependent. Next ask yourself, will you do any gaming? Is it your only computer? Do you produce content? Video edit? Photoshop? Etc.
Now, as far as webcamming goes. A desktop is NOT a good idea. A desktop stops every shower show you will ever do...A desktop keeps you in one place, and the bigger your wonderful flatscreen monitor is, the harder it will even be to go from your pole in the living room to the big king sized bed with built in soft-cuffs. The other HUGE reason to stay with a laptop is that if you get a decent one, it will have the output for HDMI and a bunch of USBs and so you can hook up a Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse, and guess what? It's a desktop...with TWO screens.
Now, personally my laptop is a 17 inch, because I don't mind lugging a slightly heavier one to get that gorgeous screen. But I also do video and photoshop on it quite a bit. As has been said, NO built in webcams, forget them...if it has one you'll just turn it off, so don;t worry if it is there, just don't consider it a big plus...
For power, HONESTLY, webcam doesn't take much power at all as far as CPU, Memory, and Hard-drive size. Even HD webcam is VERY do-able on LAST generation laptops. 1.4Ghz 512meg 100G Harddrive would do webcam very well, so this is not much concern. But if you want to edit your vids and do other cool stuff, or if you want to GAME, all those numbers should be as big as possible and the CPU should have as many cores as humanly possible.
Ok, so now we go shopping...Sorry ladies, but the WORST place to go shopping for laptops...is....BestBuy...You will Almost ALWAYS get 25%-35% more laptop for the money at either TigerDirect/CompUsa or NewEgg. They have sales pretty much every week and most times their laptop sales make BestBuy look like a bad joke. Now, if that ALWAYS true? No...just ALMOST always. BestBuy sometimes has a great sale, but it's definitely much more likely to get a better laptop for cheaper online.
Once you have that laptop, get a really great camera (HD quality, even if you don;t use it, because the picture WILL be better). Now, if you're webcamming is not utterly perfect, there is one reason and one reason only...the absolute most overlooked and important part of webcamming. Your UPLOAD speed. It doesn't matter if you have 50Megabit internet, if you upload is 256kbit. I would easily take 2Megabit Internet, if it came with 2Mbit UPLOAD. So CALL your local companies and ASK them what cam be done to get your UPLOAD speed as FAST as possible, because you upload files to your work. If you're on Cable, it's likely they will say nothing or make you raise your WHOLE package, but if you're on DSL and especially if you have a good responsive company, you can often get them to even do Symmetric (5mdown and 5m-up) and then you are a goddess.
There you go! Have Fun...
B & Hubby
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
Any of these would be a fine choice
B
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
Gateway NV55C38u Notebook Intel Pentium dual-core
Memory 4GB
Max Memory Supported 8GB
HDD 500GB
HDD RPM 5400rpm
Processor Speed 2.13GHz
HP G62-140US NoteBook Intel Core i3 330M
Memory 4GB
Max Memory Supported 8GB
HDD 320GB
HDD RPM 7200rpm
Processor Speed 2.13GHz
HP G72-259WM NoteBook Intel Pentium dual-core
Memory 4GB
Max Memory Supported 8GB
HDD 320GB
HDD RPM 5400rpm
Processor Speed 2.30GHz
I have the first one, I like it. It has 500GB with dual core, then I like the last one the best.
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
thanks so much for all your input. i ended up getting this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satell...d=JZPVHGQA3E8U
i hope it will be suitable for camming. i dont game but i do want to do some photoediting (i prefer gimp to photoshop) and light video editing.
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
It'll work great for all of that...
B
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
The processor is very important for camming in special the level 2 cache.
To use the external encoders without problems, buy a laptop with processor dual core and 2MB of L2 cache or more.
Good one>
Good too>
Best here>
Happy buy :)
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
K, Laugh if you want, here is a little background on me, (newbie btw) I had a blackberry for over 5 years adn still never figured out all the dam FEATURES......so please respond as if you are speaking to a 5year old, and HUMOR me, lol......decided to get into camming, had a sony viao (8years old) lol..... anyway, ran out and bought a logitec c910.....tried to install it, you guessed it....too dated, also have an HP notebook with skype feature.....cant get the external cam to work because HOW DO YOU DOWNLOAD THE SOFTWARE?......YES I am a computer, techie IDIOT.....was going to run out and buy the Toshiba everyone seems to love until I clicked on it and it also is a NOTEBOOK......meaning no CD player, or whatever you call it to download the software.... ?? I need something that I can travel with that I can use.......I thought I could just find the software online and download but its not anywhere 2 b found.....assuming I have to get a laptop with a built in CD..... sorry if this is confusing.....uggggg
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
I have a Sony F series laptop now, but I also have an acer aspire- and I've got to tell you to stay as far away from Acer as you possibly can. Number one the computers suck- that's why they are so cheap. Number two, if you buy a warranty through acer.. you have to send your computer in to them and it takes them at least 3 weeks to fix it- and all of their 'support' is outsourced to India. I also have a Dell Inspiron 4gb, i3 processor, win 7, built in cam, etc.. that I purchased from Walmart for $595- this is not the first Dell Inspiron I've owned, so I already knew it was a good buy. Plus, Dell has awesome customer service, and if you get a warranty through dell (depending on where you live) they will send a tech out to your house to fix it. :) I really love Dell, and Sony. But stay away from Acer! Oh yea, the ASUS motherboards and laptops are really high end,.. so if you can get a good deal on an ASUS, you should take it! I have an Asus desktop that I absolutely love and have had it for about 4 years now (which is like 100 in computer years, lol) and it still is in great condition.
For LuciousLips:
Notebooks are laptops
NETbooks are what you want to stay away from (the ones without CD drives, etc) Netbooks are only good for surfing the web, if they are good for anything at all. You can download the logitech camera software from logitech.com... just select which camera it is that you have and download the software directly from logitech.com.. no CD installation needed.
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
exactly what I thought, got confused when everyone talking about the toshiba, clicked on a link and it was a notebook.....I guess they make a laptop as well, however I am sure that is well over 450, which everyone keeps saying on various threads....I know best buy is overpriced, but at least its down the street, and if something doesnt work it would be a lot less frustration than buying online
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
well, you gust said the notebooks were no good? And I looked on the logitech site and could not find a download.....will check again, but if that is the case I should be able to use this notebook, right?
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lusciouslips
well, you gust said the notebooks were no good? And I looked on the logitech site and could not find a download.....will check again, but if that is the case I should be able to use this notebook, right?
Here is the link for the download for the 910, click on the download link under the name of the camera (If u have a different model, change the model on the top of the screen):
NETbooks are what you want to stay away from, not notebooks- notebooks are regular laptops. Netbooks are like 'mini laptops' with limited capabilities.
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
I swear by the geek squad at best buy . They make me horny.
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CamWhore
I swear by the geek squad at best buy . They make me horny.
omg me too!! haha. *fist bump*
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
I picked up a Dell Inspiron 15R for about $900 (no tax, military discount). It has i5 intel core processor and a separate video card as opposed to an integrated one. There's a built in webam, but I don't use it, ever. But it's there just in case.
We have 2MB upload most of the time and good download, but even with that there are occasional issues, like when Charter has an outage somewhere. But for the most part it works pretty well.
I'm happy with the computer. I also have it sitting on cooling fan device (which was $50 I think from amazon)
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
Quote:
Originally Posted by CamWhore
I swear by the geek squad at best buy . They make me horny.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AngelCummings
omg me too!! haha. *fist bump*
<----- Is thinking about going to apply for a job!
Re: clueless on buying a laptop for camming
I was this close to buying this one - (drool)
Otherhalf managed to get it through to me I didn't need all that jazz and i'd just be throwing money away. So i bought this one instead
Waiting for it to arrive........ :D