Is there a preferred wired keyboard/mouse combo? Thinking an illuminated keyboard would be nice...

looking to buy a good all around, durable and light laptop that i can connect to my 24" samsung monitor

So far i'm inbetween a Refurbished macbook or an alienware laptop.
Both were recommended by non-poker friends. Also both of my friends are fanboys of these companies so i'm feeling i can find a better deal.
Is there a better option for 1300$ that is my budget?

** i've read that the downside of macs is the limited options in poker software but i only use PT4 so that won't be a problem.

I'm not going to research laptops for you, but in 2011 I got my Viao for $800 that is still good enough to play new video games. Unless the computer you are buying has an SSD installed on purchase you just absolutely don't need to spend that much on a system.

Ok let me put this that way. I'm not looking for a cheaper laptop than these two but one that with the same money is going to be better (good all around, durable and light as i said is what i look for)

highly doubt that either mac or alienware is anywhere near the best value. just look around on any site and compare, not too hard

Requirements for a good Poker grinding laptop.

1) a real SSD
2) 1080+ screen
3) 8gb ram
4) a video card/ports capable of running any secondary screens.

There you go. If you want to know about the company making the laptop or any specific model you should use google and look for user reviews.

why ssd is so important for poker?

Databases that run PT4 and HM2 run terribly on normal hard drives.

More like optimally

You'll see overall performance increase with SSDs. Replaced some HDDs with SSDs in older computers and things boot up so much faster now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j84eEjP-RL4

and this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv5dCXiXFaw

i'm going for a late 2012 macbook pro. How to make sure that im gonna be able to use it with my 24" samsung monitor?

You already are ignoring my only real advice!

display port or mini display port for macs.

I am planning to put together an assembled desktop for grind... What i am thinking of is
8g ram
1tb hd
1gb graphics

shd i get an intel processor or amd? which is better for multitasking as a lot of tables/hud software/skype/chrome adds to a lot of tasks on processor.
128 gb ssd should be enough? we need to just load pt4/hem on the ssd right?

i doubt a good cpu of either brand will be the bottleneck on a computer these days.

how many hands does 128gb hold? you'd want OS on there too, but thats like 8gb

128gb is probably enough but I'd still get 240+. Its great to have everyone you commonly use on the SSD. I like Intel but it really doesn't matter.

Looking to purchase a desktop to grind on. I am terrible with computers and all the different components so have just been looking at gaming computers but feel that I will be overpaying, I will be grinding multiple sites and running HEM2 at the same time but feel a normal desktop should be able to manage this but not sure how much I should be paying for a decent poker desktop that will last me a few years. Would like a desktop the has the option of adding more then 1 monitor in the future. Any advise would be appreciated as im kinda stuck atm.

i got 128gb in my latest custom laptop which works well but i still wish i went for the 256gb

Looking into a new laptop for grinding. I have always used 17 inch screens but I cant seem to find one that I like. I am currently looking into Lenovo 15.6 machines and think I found a winner.

Thought on this (The 899 one) with a SSD and video card seems like a great deal
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops...-series/y510p/

My only concern is the 15.6 inch screen. I have never tried grinding on one before. Right now I usually run about 4-8 tables tops across 2-3 networks. I have access to dual monitors but rarely use them as I dont operate in that room much.


For comparison purposes this is what I have now

Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor AMD A4-4300M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics 5.5 4.8
Determined by lowest subscore

Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB 5.9
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 7420G 4.8
Gaming graphics 2033 MB Total available graphics memory 6.1
Primary hard disk 337GB Free (440GB Total) 5.9
Windows 8

System
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
Model HP Pavilion g7 Notebook PC
Total amount of system memory 4.00 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 2

Storage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total size of hard disk(s) 465 GB
Disk partition (C 337 GB Free (440 GB Total)
Disk partition (D 3 GB Free (25 GB Total)
Media drive (E CD/DVD

Graphics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Display adapter type AMD Radeon HD 7420G
Total available graphics memory 2033 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 512 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 1521 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.982.10.6000
Primary monitor resolution 1600x900
DirectX version DirectX 11 or better

It should be fine unless you are blind and don't have glasses/contacts.

That 899 system doesn't have an SSD, it has a hybrid drive.

Just noticed it's a hybrid drive. Never dealt with those before. Probably still worth the upgrade from what im using

they only really help on booting. 4bg ram might be a problem depending on what else you use it for. if its just tables, its fine, but if you browse and hem/pt while you play, not sure how well it'll do

are those windows experience scores on the top section?

They are the scores on my current machine

the $899 laptop he's looking at has 8gb ram I believe.

Yeah the one I'm looking into has 8gb my current machine has 4gb and kinda chugs along with PT 4