[metropolis]

Hello team,

Looking for a external hard disk drive in size of 1-1.5 TB.

Please advise which one would be best the option?

Thanks.

[JMaruru]

Originally Posted by metropolis

Looking for a external hard disk drive in size of 1-1.5 TB.

Please advise which one would be best the option?.

I have been happy with 'Western Digital' external HDDs. I have more than 5+ of them of various sizes dating past from last 10+ years. All of them have been working well. Touchwood!

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by metropolis

Hello team,

Looking for a external hard disk drive in size of 1-1.5 TB.

Please advise which one would be best the option?

Thanks.

I use Western Digital. Get a 2TB or even better 4TB. The larger sizes are better value for money per TB, and with ever increasing file sizes a 4TB will fill up soon.

https://www.amazon.in/Passport-Porta...IVE_OR_STORAGE

https://www.amazon.in/Elements-Porta...%2C317&sr=8-19

The prices are very reasonable and with Amazon festival you get a lot of discounts over and above the price quoted.

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

https://www.amazon.in/ASUS-Dash-F15-...dp/B09CCXCF7S/

This one seems pretty good and price is 1 L. You might get some money for old laptop in exchange.

What about this one sir?

acer Predator Helios 300.

I am not sure how bad Acer service is in India (Bengaluru specific though). Does anyone have any experience with them?

[Samfromindia]

Originally Posted by JithinR

What about this one sir?

acer Predator Helios 300.

I am not sure how bad Acer service is in India (Bengaluru specific though). Does anyone have any experience with them?

I am having the 2019 model which was picked up in BBD sale two yrs back. Had no issues so far. Upgraded the ram from 16GB to 32GB for dual channel and added a 1TB SSD with the existing 256GB + 1TB HDD. More details on this thread:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadge...ml#post4787439 (The Computer setup show-off thread. Let's see your rigs!)

The RTX 3060 in the current helios will last for years to come. A must buy at 1L with card discounts.

[TrackDay]

Not sure if this is the right place. If not, kindly direct me to the correct thread. I am looking to get the battery of my laptop replaced and this is a first for me as usually all my previous laptops were replaced at the 4 year mark. My current HP lap is running fine, except for the battery which has gone bad. From what it seems, think I need to get the 'HS04' battery (correct me if I am wrong), and that seems to be out of stock on the HP site. Can generic batteries be used ? Is it fine to get them from the shopping sites (Amazon etc. ) ? If any online links are present kindly direct them to me.


On the bottom of the laptop model number is shown 15-ay103ne and this was purchased around Q1 2017 in the Middle East.

[Leoshashi]

Originally Posted by TrackDay

Not sure if this is the right place. If not, kindly direct me to the correct thread. I am looking to get the battery of my laptop replaced and this is a first for me as usually all my previous laptops were replaced at the 4 year mark. My current HP lap is running fine, except for the battery which has gone bad. From what it seems, think I need to get the 'HS04' battery (correct me if I am wrong), and that seems to be out of stock on the HP site. Can generic batteries be used ? Is it fine to get them from the shopping sites (Amazon etc. ) ? If any online links are present kindly direct them to me.


On the bottom of the laptop model number is shown 15-ay103ne and this was purchased around Q1 2017 in the Middle East.

Attachment 2215575

Attachment 2215576

While Generic batteries or from brands like Lapcare etc work fine for most people, I consider them a bit of hit or miss. Have seen cases where they last without issues while in some cases they have exploded causing a hazard.

HS04 is easily available on Amazon, TPS is an authorized HP retailer. Link: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0111M7SD2/...ing=UTF8&psc=1

Regards,
Shashi

[TrackDay]

Originally Posted by Leoshashi

While Generic batteries or from brands like Lapcare etc work fine for most people, I consider them a bit of hit or miss. Have seen cases where they last without issues while in some cases they have exploded ........

Thank you for your reply. I was in luck today. Had to visit a mall today around noon time and chanced upon an exclusive HP World store that has just opened up. They had the original HP HS04 battery in stock and it is a May 2021 manufactured piece. However the box is not the usual blue/white theme of HP products. Instead it is a brown carton box with HP stickering on it. Anyway since this is a genuine HP World store (also listed in HP site), I purchased it right away. Set me back about INR 3500 and they said the battery comes with one year warranty. Anyways hoping to get at least 2 years of good performance.

[W.A.G.7]

The Acer Nitro 5

What I liked...

• Blazing fast boot-up speed and response times
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
• 11th Gen Intel Core i5 Processor (11400H)
• "Hybrid model" disk - has an SSD and a 7200 rpm HDD
• 4 cooling ports
• Good price for an entry-level gaming machine!! (I got it for 78k after exchange)
• Good tactile feel for the keys

What I did not...

• Chassis has a plasticky feel to it and is a big fingerprint magnet
• Absolutely crazy placement of some of the keys (I will come to that in a while)
• Has some bloatware, but still manageable
• Light and fan regulation gimmicks
• When nitroSense and CoolBoost are switched on, fans make a loud noise
• Battery drains quite fast, even when fully charged it lasts a maximum time of about 3.5-4.5 hours or so.

As I had mentioned in an earlier post 2-3 pages back, I was looking for a speedier machine. The Lenovo IdeaPad 330S became crap and was just not up to the mark; neither in response times nor in disk utilization. Plus the screen was small at 13.3 inches. This made me shop for a better machine.

Mentally I was prepared for an Acer machine. The other laptop that my wife uses is an Acer Aspire 3 series from August 2013. Although it has only 4GB of RAM and a 1TB 5400 RPM HDD; it is still a very solid machine. It survived a fall from the table and came out with only a cracked screen. The screen was replaced for INR 4500/- and that is the only amount that I have spent on repairing the machine (touch wood!). It is still the beater laptop of the house and is going strong and we plan to keep it as long as it runs.

The other good machine that I was offered was a Dell G15 for INR 74k after the exchange (at the Notebook Hub, Tilak road). But frankly, a Ryzen 5/16GB RAM/512GB SSD+1TB HDD and NVidia GeForce RTX 3050/60 is an overkill for me. In fact, even this Nitro 5 is a bit more than I could possibly use for.

I might have settled up for an Acer Aspire 7 which came with an almost similar configuration (save for a 512GB SSD and an Nvidia GeForce GTX card) would have sufficed my needs, but the urge to splurge took over and I ended up buying this machine from the Acer Mall on Tilak road. They took back the IdeaPad 330S for INR 9,000 and thus I got the exchange price for this laptop as INR 78,000/-. No freebies were offered except for an Acer bag and an HP wired mouse.

Overall I am satisfied with the purchase. The processor, graphics card, and SSD combo blaze away at any task that is thrown at them. It doesn't lag even one bit. Time will tell as I install more software (Gimp, Anaconda Python IDE, probably something else also) but I believe it can take that up without any complaints. Firefox was installed on it by default, so I never installed Chrome on it.

I have managed to open around 7-8 tabs in Ms. Edge and 5-6 tabs in Firefox simultaneously along with IntelliJ Idea running and it still runs very well without breaking a sweat.

I am no game freak although I am thinking of downloading and trying some games on this laptop. I am pretty sure that it will do quite well in this department. If you are looking for a good budget gaming laptop, then do try this one, it will not disappoint. I will share some pictures here of the points that I have mentioned.

Just look at the fingerprints! It's just like the piano black finish which is a fingerprint magnet.


The charger unit is a brick and almost weighs a kilo!


The odd placement of the charging socket in the middle of the backside.


Two vents on either side and two vents on the back



The absolutely crazy placement of the keys... You think you have pressed a zero, but you end up moving the cursor to the extreme right. Likewise, you press the num lock but actually end up pressing the NitroSense button. At the extreme right corner, you think you have pressed the End button, but you end up with the laptop going to sleep after pressing the power button!


A full-size keyboard helps and the overall design of the laptop is quite good. I wish they had provided a metal body instead of a full plastic one.


Backlighting is fine, but to do it in rainbow colors is something else!! Although it can be changed, I got it in rainbow color by default.


The laptop information that shows up. Intel Core i5 - 11th gen processor.

[Guite]

I recently bought an Hp Envy x360. It came with Ryzen 5 5500U having integrated Radeon graphics. Now I realise I need a faster GPU. How do I install or connect an external graphics card for 3D rendering? I don't play games, requirement is purely for 3D rendering.

The laptop has HDMI, USB A and USB C ports but no Thunderbolt port.

[agambhandari]

Originally Posted by Guite

I recently bought an Hp Envy x360. It came with Ryzen 5 5500U having integrated Radeon graphics. Now I realise I need a faster GPU. How do I install or connect an external graphics card for 3D rendering? I don't play games, requirement is purely for 3D rendering.

The laptop has HDMI, USB A and USB C ports but no Thunderbolt port.

There are "jugaad" solutions but no reliable solution for adding an eGPU if your laptop doesn't have a thunderbolt port.

[NPV]

A school teacher is looking for a simple, inexpensive product to make (by hand) review/marking/corrections on PDFs - students will be submitting scanned versions of their hand written documents like assignments and test paper answer sheets that will then need to be edited by the teacher.

Any idea about this product ?
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07P4MSJZ8/...ing=UTF8&psc=1

Or this ?
https://www.amazon.in/PEN-Star-G960S...ix=xp+p&sr=8-5

Any other recommendations ?

[pravarag]

Originally Posted by NPV

A school teacher is looking for a simple, inexpensive product to make (by hand) review/marking/corrections on PDFs - students will be submitting scanned versions of their hand written documents like assignments and test paper answer sheets that will then need to be edited by the teacher.

Any idea about this product ?
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B07P4MSJZ8/...ing=UTF8&psc=1

Or this ?
https://www.amazon.in/PEN-Star-G960S...ix=xp+p&sr=8-5

Any other recommendations ?

Not sure if you have considered any available Wacom model like this one, https://www.amazon.in/Wacom-CTL-472-...xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

Wacom has been one of the forefathers of these tablets and I've seen one of my graphic designer friend using one from last 7 years almost. You can check that as well.

[motorworks]

Sorry to post a query here, not sure if this is the right thread.

I have a personal laptop, a HP Pavilion, which is mostly used by my son for his online classes.
This morning when I switched on the laptop, it’s showing some re-boot kind of a screen, stating, fixing c, stage-1 and it’s showing some 7-8 hours for the update to get over! I had absolutely no problems yesterday when I was using the laptop.

[NPV]

Any recommendations for an inexpensive tab (instead of a laptop) ?
Main usage will be for browsing, attending online classes, so a decent camera is required and also a sim card slot for internet and the ocassional call.
*iPads will probably be out of budget though!