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Galaxy Nexus Watering Hole

HanSolo said:
My friend let me borrow the first season, and I'm not sure what he encoded them from, but they're .mkv files. And they're definitely HD.

I did a bit of research online and found out that the first season isn't available until January 2012 on blu-ray.

I think it's best that I don't ask how he got them. :p
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Okay, makes sense. I thought you were encoding them from hbo go.
 
Okay, so I pulled the trigger on an HP quad core laptop. I read the reviews for it from PC Mag and others, and it seems really solid graphics-wise.

I'm excited to finally have something other than a dinosaur. Plus, it's work-related so I can either write it off for this year still (just ordered it!), or I can have my work reimburse me.

Can someone tell me how "turbo core" works on a laptop? When does the turbo in GHz happen?
 
HanSolo said:
As far as graphics on a laptop is concerned, is this good?

The only games I'm interested in playing is Skyrim and The Old Republic (also Sith Lords, the 2nd game in that series, that I wasn't able to run on my crappy laptop).


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I know it's not up to optimum gaming standards, but will I be able to get by on it?
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Hey Han -

Hope it's not too late - two problems I can see with the lappy you were looking at -

The disk drive is too slow, easy fix.

The screen res is too low for almost anything...

How much did you spend on it?
 
sgrinavi said:
Hey Han -

Hope it's not too late - two problems I can see with the lappy you were looking at -

The disk drive is too slow, easy fix.

The screen res is too low for almost anything...

How much did you spend on it?
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It was $500, which is what I wanted to spend. Disc drive doesn't matter too much to me, but screen res does. Is there anything else that is good for games and has a higher res at around the same price?
 
HanSolo said:
As far as graphics on a laptop is concerned, is this good?

The only games I'm interested in playing is Skyrim and The Old Republic (also Sith Lords, the 2nd game in that series, that I wasn't able to run on my crappy laptop).


[/LIST]
I know it's not up to optimum gaming standards, but will I be able to get by on it?
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Skyrim and The Old Republic, those are both time intensive games. I've been playing skyrim alot and I feel like I'm getting nowhere.

I would say good choice on the HP. I have an HP Pavilion dv8. They don't sell it anymore.
 
Since I'm getting some help on the laptop issue, can you guys check these out, and tell me which is best for gaming? I know laptops aren't the best choice for gaming in the first place, but I'm not going to be gaming on it a lot. But when I do, I'd like to have a passable time.

HP - Factory-Refurbished Pavilion Laptop - Pewter - g7-1255dx

HP - Factory-Refurbished Pavilion Laptop - Steel Gray - dv7-6154nr

Hewlett Packard - Pavilion g7-1150us LW320UAR 17.3" LED Notebook - Refurbished - Intel Core i3 i3-370M 2.40 GHz - Charcoal Gray - g7-1150us LW320UAR

And the one I chose:

HP - Factory-Refurbished Pavilion Laptop / AMD A-Series Processor / 15.6" Display - Dark Umber - dv6-6145dx

I just don't know what all the graphics/processor info means.

Edit: I usually try to buy refurbished, because they're well tested and my credit card adds a 1 year warranty to them.
 
HanSolo said:
It was $500, which is what I wanted to spend. Disc drive doesn't matter too much to me, but screen res does. Is there anything else that is good for games and has a higher res at around the same price?
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IMO I would wait for a Dell Outlet coupon, they come pretty regularly and I would expect that right after the first of the year they'll have a surplus with the xmas returns. It's hard to beat the bang/buck on those systems.

You're going to want to step up to 1920 x 1080 on a 15" display for almost everything you do these days. Websites don't even fit on the 768 screens very well anymore.

You are on the right track with the discrete graphics, I'm not sure where the one that you selected ranks, but checkout Notebook Check's benchmarks for a good idea of where it stands in relationship to what you have now and/or other systems.

Graphic Cards

Gaming Performance List

CPU's

For the disk drive - I hear you, but the difference between a 7200 RPM drive and a 5400 RPM drive is huge in terms of system response time. You don't realize how often the system goes to the drive for little bits of data. Of course an SSD is holy grail in that department - I won't run a system without it now, It's the single best upgrade that I have ever done to a PC (and that's with about 30 yrs of use)

The funny thing is that you may not need a quadcore CPU, most games don't make use of more than 2 cores.. 99% of the time gamers are better off getting a faster 2 core CPU than they are a quad.
 
sgrinavi said:
For the disk drive - I hear you, but the difference between a 7200 RPM drive and a 5400 RPM drive is huge in terms of system response time. You don't realize how often the system goes to the drive for little bits of data.
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Can you give me an example? Suppose I'm playing Old Republic or something. How often would I get lag or freeze ups because of the disk drive response time?
 
Considering installing AutoKiller Memory Optimizer. I know task killers on Android are useless, but this seems a little different. Anyone tried it?

EDIT: Here's a quick how-to guide. I'm still just not sure if this is necessary for ICS; I'd like a bit better battery life, but all the reviews I'm seeing are from pre-ICS devices.

EDIT2: Emailed the developer:
Hello, I hope you don't mind me dropping you an email, I just had a quick question. I have a Galaxy Nexus and was wondering if AutoKiller Memory Optimizer was compatible with Android 4.0, and also if it's necessary. I'd like to get a little better battery life, but if it's redundant to internal processes implemented for Android 4.0, it won't help. Could you let me know if this app would be good for me to download? Thanks.
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His reply:
Definitely, I also use that device as a daily driver. my app is fully compatible with ics.
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That HD is fine for what you do Han & you can easily upgrade it on your own if you ever need or want to.

Turbo is a tech from intel that allows the cpu to run at higher frequencies when it detects apps/processes not calling for all 4 cores. aka A single threaded process is detected by the cpu and the cpu cuts power to 3 cores and ramps up the frequency on the single core that is doing the work. If the app is multi-threaded and makes use of multiple cores that turbo frequency is applied respectively. Single core = highest frequency & All 4 cores = lowest

This is how I understand it :)
 
After the trying to install a "naughty" version of windows 7 and nearly bricking my PC I was saved by a buddy. He placed an installation of Ubuntu 11.10 on a flash drive for me. I had backed up all my files before the "naughtiness" so I wiped the computer clean and fresh installed Ubuntu on a single partition. I am done with Windows! Unlock and root........here I finally come!
 
jmartino5920 said:
After the trying to install a "naughty" version of windows 7 and nearly bricking my PC I was saved by a buddy. He placed an installation of Ubuntu 11.10 on a flash drive for me. I had backed up all my files before the "naughtiness" so I wiped the computer clean and fresh installed Ubuntu on a single partition. I am done with Windows! Unlock and root........here I finally come!
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haha! Glad it worked out :)

I've tried Linux, and tried to like it, but it just didn't do it for me. I learned computers hard and software on a PC. I see why there is hype for it though and hope it can get better in the future!
 
Does anyone know if The Old Republic is online multiplayer only?

I'm reading the reviews on amazon and I see a lot of reference to server ques, etc. Can I just buy the disc and play single player?
 
kokiangel said:
Has anyone ordered the multimedia dock yet?
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MobileCity still has it on pre-order, presumably with an arrival date of January 3rd (though it was delayed once and may be again). I put myself on stock alert so I will get an e-mail as soon as it's available... well, that's how it's supposed to work anyway :rolleyes:
 
HanSolo said:
My friend let me borrow the first season, and I'm not sure what he encoded them from, but they're .mkv files. And they're definitely HD.

I did a bit of research online and found out that the first season isn't available until January 2012 on blu-ray.

I think it's best that I don't ask how he got them. :p
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I was just in Bangkok and it's astounding what you can buy on the street there. I'm sure some of you (BB?) are thinking naughty thoughts, but I saw the HBO series "Game of Thrones" (IMO better than Boardwalk and I love Boardwalk) plus a couple of million other DVDs. I would never buy something like that, but I know someone who did who then encoded them and transferred them to his Nexus. The scoundrel also bought Cuban cigars while he was there. I'm embarrassed to know such people.

CaptainRon said:
Okay, makes sense. I thought you were encoding them from hbo go.
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HanSolo said:
Is that possible?
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I don't think so, which is why I was asking you. I do have an older TiVo that could record to DVDs. I guess I could burn a show to DVD then see if I could encode it for the Nexus.
 
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