blonde poker forum

Although im quite happy with my toshy laptop at the moment, in the next 2 or 3 months will want an upgrade and will be looking to buy new 1. but i have had 2 laptops now and was thinking of going back to a PC.

What does everyone think? ;goodvevil;

 Ks KingPoker  Ks

Laptop everytime for me.

I'm not a fan of laptops really, unless you have a real need for portability then they do a great job.

I like my Laptop for poker it's fine and that's really all I use it for. If I need to do more then it's a PC every time. and if you already have two laptops then it is more then likely a PC will do you more good then another laptop.

Got to agree with Bongo here. I have a laptop, but that's only because I'm moving places every two months or so, and portability is important to me. If you'll only use your computer at home, then it's got to be a desktop. Much better value for money, bigger screen, better cooling, cheaper+faster CPU, more memory, easier to upgrade &c &c &c.

its just i think a psychological fault with the laptop (or more likey me!) is that when you play poker on a laptop (on your lap) its harder to focus where as if i was sat at a desk with the pc on it i would concentrate harder!  ;grr;

make sense?

It does make sense.

However, on a laptop, you can play in any room of the house - or even in the garden when it's nice.  That would be more problematic with a desktop.  This means I get to play more - as I don't feel like I'm neglecting the wife by being stuck away in another room playing poker for hours on end.  Sometimes when I'm on my desktop, I feel like I have to limit the length of a poker session, so I can devote some of my time to the missus.  When I play on the laptop, I can do that in the living room sitting next to her - or like last night - play whilst I'm in bed!

Too much information?

divorce her

Just about enough yeh. But i see what you mean. For insance played in the pokerplayer freeroll last night on my missus's laptop next to her on the bed while she did some work. They are great for things like that but after 2 years of being with me she has learnt that while im playing poker it allows her to watch all types of Sh*t! For example last night.

7:30 til 8:00- Coronation Street
8:00 til 8:30- Eastenders
8:30 til 9 - Coronation Street- AGAIN!!!!!!!!
9:00 til 10- Celebrity Big Brother!

A whole night of absolute tat!

 Ks KingPoker  Ks

Put the desktop in the living room.

They love that.

;D  We've actually come to a mutually acceptable solution.  I'm putting a small desk in the living room, getting another TFT screen, and will use my laptop in there.

In all seriousness though, playing when you are conscious of the amount of time your session is running on for isn't conducive to playing your A game.  Well, it's not for me anyway.

PC's are history.

Just buy a Laptop and an external Hard drive and a Nice HD ready laptop compatible TV bluetooth enabled.

If i was to buy a desktop what make/model is best and what sort of money are we talking?   Also what makes should i stay away from?

Thanks.

good Q's. i would like to know the answers to this aswell.

It depends what you want it for.  If you are only using it for Poker, Internet, Home Office etc and not games you don't really need a super fast PC.  If it is mainly for Poker spend the extra money on a single large flat screen monitor (say 20" and capible of 1600 x 1200 resolution) or go for 2 flat 17" monitors.

What sort of money are you looking at spending ?

dunno bout jim but im looking to use it for poker more than anything else. saying that though i do use it for downloading music and videos. around 1k budget i guess. would just love to have a super fast computer.

 Ks KingPoker  Ks

Would mainly be for poker but i do browse the web alot while playing and also like the idea of having a seperate monitor for DVD's and things,  Im sure i read somewhere that it works out cheaper to get one built from scratch would this be right?

From Dell:

Dimension 9200 for £987 inc VAT and delivery:
PROCESSOR Intel® Viiv™ Core™ 2 Duo E6300 Processor (1.86GHz, 1066MHz, 2MB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 (Incl Operating System Re-installation CD) - English edit
VISTA UPGRADE  MCE to Vista Premium Upgrade on: www.dellvistaupgrade.productorder.com before 03/31/07  edit
SUPPORT SERVICES Collect & Return, 1 Year Service only edit
MONITOR Dell™ 20" UltraSharp™ Digital Flat Panel (2007FP) - UK/Irish edit
MEMORY 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x1024] Memory edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB Serial ATA RAID 0 Stripe [2x250GB 7200rpm drives with DataBurst™ cache] edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 16x DVD +/- RW Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD 256MB nVidia® GeForce® 7900GS graphics card

I don't like RAID 0 however as if 1 hard drive goes you loose everything.

Or the Dimension E520 for £764 (less memory and cheaper graphics card but same CPU)
Intel® Viiv™ Core™ 2 Duo E6300 Processor (1.86GHz, 1066MHz, 2MB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 (Incl Operating System Re-installation CD) - English edit
VISTA UPGRADE  MCE to Vista Premium Upgrade on: www.dellvistaupgrade.productorder.com before 03/31/07  edit
SUPPORT SERVICES Collect & Return, 1 Year Service only edit
MONITOR Dell™ 20" UltraSharp™ Digital Flat Panel (2007FP) - UK/Irish edit
MEMORY 1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x512] Memory edit
HARD DRIVE 250GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 16x DVD +/- RW Drive edit
GRAPHICS CARD 256MB nVidia® GeForce® 7300 Turbocache graphics card

Both these have the 20" monitor giving 1600 x 1200 resolution which makes multi tabling easier.

Cheers Raindogs for the time your putting into this.

What is the RAM on the computer?

How easy is it to set up two monitors?

RAM (memory) on the first is 2GB and 1GB on the second.  1GB will be enough unless you plan to upgrade to Vista, which is by all accounts a beast for memory.

Most graphics cards have 2 monitor ports (unless it is on board graphics) and connecting up 2 monitors is simple.  Dell don't provide the option of a second monitor with these PC's but you could buy it from the site.

A better option for £528 is on the site below (code DEL9200/2):
http://www.sterlingxs.co.uk/scpages/cheapdelldimensionminitowers.html
DELL Dimension 9200 Minitower computer
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4Ghz) processor
1024MB DDR2 RAM (2x512MB)
250Gb SATA hard disk (7200RPM )
DVD+-RW drive x16
10/100 network on board
56k modem card fitted
256MB ATI Radeon X1 300 graphics card
8x USB 2.0 ports (2 on front)
UK keyboard &mouse
Windows XP Professional SP2 MS works, with COA & backup CDs
Dimensions (mm): H:445 W:180, D:457
As new & boxed (Dell factory outlet stock)
with one year Dell collect & return warranty until December 2007

This one has the faster Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4Ghz) processor
This site also do monitors:
http://www.sterlingxs.co.uk/scpages/cheapdellultrasharpmonitors.html
The 20" (code DELL2007FP) is £293 which would bring you up to £820 which is a great price for that spec (Dell charge an extra £188 for that CPU)
Or 2 17" (code DEL1706TFT) for £234, or 2 19" (code DELL19TFT) for £330.

I prefer 2 monitors as I find it easier to arrange stuff over 2 rather than try to overlay things on 1 large monitor.  I got one of my monitors from this crowd and had no problems with them.  Most of the stuff is new Dell cancelled orders.

£1000 is a ridiculus budget for a desktop PC these days, especially if you are not gaming on it.  £1000 is a good budget for a good laptop. For a desktop, £400 is plenty.

Personally, I'd go on ebuyer and get whatever PC is cheap there and has alright reviews. Then I'd stick 2 17" monitors that work in portrait mode. Reason: they have a 1280x1024 resolution, if you rotate it then you can fit 2 poker tables on top of each other fully. In landscape, you can't quite fit 2 tables on, they overlap a bit. So if you have 2 in portrait side by side you have enough room for 4 tables if you want that. Other option, is like what has been said, 1600x1200 screen, they are usually 20.1" or above. That fits 4 tables nicely. If you only play 1 table most of the time then a plasma tv in the lounge with a desktop PC next to it and one of these wireless keyboards will do the trick http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/106486 If you TV does PIP then you can have TV on one side and poker on the other.

I think a PC is the best choice, laptops are for on the move... but if its for poker, and you like playing all over the house, and your mainly a 1 table guy then something like the Samsung Q1 wud be a neat toy : http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/122632

Just looked up a couple of PCs, http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/120283 and http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/116050/rb/24377030122 you'll find these will out perform almost all laptops and yes, they are only £200. There are some more expensive PCs on there if you look, but personally, I'd sink the extra money into 1 massive screen or 2 17" in portrait, depending on your preference. I have a 1600x1200 and a 17" in portrait here, so that's 6 tables if I ever played that many. 4 is the usual, but I can sitck a movie or email on the 2nd screen at the same time.

Hope there's some useful stuff in here for you.

Thankyou for all your info guys,  Will have a good look at all options and soon hope to mad tabling very soon.