Strawberryland Forum

What's a good PC for online video calls? Earlier this year, I used a tablet for that out of necessity and the qualify on my end was terrible.

(11-11-2020, 10:39 PM)Stella Grapes Wrote: [ -> ]What's a good PC for online video calls?  Earlier this year, I used a tablet for that out of necessity and the qualify on my end was terrible.

Get the most capable one for your budget. You mentioned on Facebook that you do have a gaming laptop (only for it to be trashed by your pet cat) so I guess that'll do for now. David and I tend to lean towards those running off AMD Ryzen processors these days. Ryzen 7, preferably with a discrete GPU such as an RTX 2070 and lots of RAM for whatever you throw at it. I am not sure of the quality of ASUS laptops these days, but the ROG line seems to get great marks from what I've heard.

(11-11-2020, 10:39 PM)Stella Grapes Wrote: [ -> ]What's a good PC for online video calls?  Earlier this year, I used a tablet for that out of necessity and the qualify on my end was terrible.

As a recommendation from me, I would recommend a MacBook Air if you can afford one. The base model with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage starts at $999. It's not cheap, but it's the only official way to get a Mac-based computer these days. If you need an affordable PC instead, I would go with what Blake suggested. AMD Ryzen-based laptops can offer good performance for video calls for about half the price. Just stay away from anything with an Intel Celeron CPU or eMMC storage. Those tend to be the sub $300 laptops that are very akin to the Netbooks of the late 2000s. They offer very poor performance and are often saddled with an anemic 4GB RAM which won't be enough for browsing the web while doing video calls. And eMMC storage is slow compared to standard SSDs.

To be honest, I never was really much of a Mac user until earlier this year. I'm starting to get into the illustration community, and took note of just how many artists use Mac computers rather than PCs. It's personal preference, really, and you don't need one specific type of computer to make good art. But I was beginning to get tired of the annoyances with modern Windows such as how MS likes to stuff advertisements into the file explorer and Start menus and tries to force new software in your face, quite literally. A recent example is their new "Edge" browser. After a recent Windows update, you got greeted with a full screen pop-up advertising Edge, and it practically begged you to make it default browser. Many weren't happy about this. I would have gone to Linux, but hardware and software issues were a constant turn-off in the long run.

I decided to give Macs a second chance, knowing that I would lose the ability to do DIY upgrades and be locked into their ecosystem. It was something I was willing to accept just for a computer that works. And I'm really liking it so far. I started out with a sub $200 refurb iMac, which is my main art computer. I have since acquired two other inexpensive refurbs along with going all in with a 2020 MacBook Pro to replace my old Gateway laptop. Yeah, I bought the last 13'' Intel-based MacBook Pro, but I didn't mind.

I'm liking Mac OS so far, but you really need to be able to afford the experience. There is an unofficial way to run Mac OS on standard PC hardware, creating what is known as a "Hackintosh." Making a Hackintosh requires lots of technical knowledge to get it installed and working on any Intel-based PC, with laptops being most difficult to work with. And now, with Apple moving towards their M1 processors, Hackintoshes either will become impossible, or they will have to find a way to get Mac OS to run on standard ARM hardware like a Raspberry Pi.

Aw, I remember Hackintoshes. It's sad that they're becoming impossible. Macs are great, just expensive. If I could afford to use all Apple products, I would, but Androids and PCs are fine.

I figured out the website I was asking about. Had to download the app, though. I can't vote on alignments until I contribute more to the website, but I can vote on MBTI and Enneagram, and I can comment.

(11-12-2020, 05:29 AM)Stella Grapes Wrote: [ -> ]Aw, I remember Hackintoshes.  It's sad that they're becoming impossible.  Macs are great, just expensive.  If I could afford to use all Apple products, I would, but Androids and PCs are fine.

I figured out the website I was asking about.  Had to download the app, though.  I can't vote on alignments until I contribute more to the website, but I can vote on MBTI and Enneagram, and I can comment.

I considered hackintoshing my AMD rig lately, but decided not to do so knowing how Apple is going to wind down on x86 support in the near future. Shame that this would make their platform even more of a walled garden no thanks to their greed.

Getting BigSur won't be easy. Apple servers getting slammed. It's a 12.18GB update, and it will take a long time with my DSL. And right now, it's not even connecting to the servers after only 2.2GB downloaded.

(11-13-2020, 05:42 AM)cpd2009 Wrote: [ -> ]Getting BigSur won't be easy. Apple servers getting slammed. It's a 12.18GB update, and it will take a long time with my DSL. And right now, it's not even connecting to the servers after only 2.2GB downloaded.

Now tell me why the likes of Fitgirl are popular amongst gamers in developing countries.

Aaand... Apple just can't keep up with demand. Scores of users on the unofficial Apple subreddit along with a few on LowEndMac are getting the same "Installation Failed" message I'm getting whenever I try to restart the download.

You'd think with all that money, Apple would have invested in the infrastructure to handle massive loads like this. They know Big Sur would be.... um, big.

As for Fitgirl, I literally had to Google that since I've never heard of it.

(11-13-2020, 07:49 AM)cpd2009 Wrote: [ -> ]Aaand... Apple just can't keep up with demand. Scores of users on the unofficial Apple subreddit along with a few on LowEndMac are getting the same "Installation Failed" message I'm getting whenever I try to restart the download.

You'd think with all that money, Apple would have invested in the infrastructure to handle massive loads like this. They know Big Sur would be.... um, big.

As for Fitgirl, I literally had to Google that since I've never heard of it.

> Trillion-dollar company
> Couldn't fix their servers
> wtf

Fitgirl's some individual who gained notoriety for taking scene releases and compressing it losslessly for those with limited bandwidth. It's a shame that legitimate distribution platforms such as Steam haven't explored such options though I guess it's the matter of installation time and overhead association with highly-compressed game releases.

(11-13-2020, 10:59 AM)huckleberrypie Wrote: [ -> ]> Trillion-dollar company
> Couldn't fix their servers
> wtf

Fitgirl's some individual who gained notoriety for taking scene releases and compressing it losslessly for those with limited bandwidth. It's a shame that legitimate distribution platforms such as Steam haven't explored such options though I guess it's the matter of installation time and overhead association with highly-compressed game releases.

Apple could learn a thing from MS. Windows does have P2P abilities built into Windows Update which is supposed to help speed up the distribution of patches. My guess is Apple thinks all P2P technologies are insecure and prone to piracy. Or at least, go the Fitgirl route and losslessly compress the install files for easier downloading. Not everyone has blazing fast fiber internet.

Slowly, earlier this evening, people were able to retry downloading of Big Sur, including me. It's nearly done now. DSL makes this take nearly four to five hours in total. Installation itself will also take a while too. Maybe I'll get some screen grabs before the update prompts a reboot.