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you can get subscription office (known as "365") or normal office (no subscription)

These are normal MS office 2013 (no subscription):
office home and student - (we sell it for) - $123 - (word,excel,powerpoint and onenote)
office home and business - $220 - (word,excel,powerpoint, onenote, outlook)
office pro (license key only) - $450 (word,excel,powerpoint, onenote, outlook, access and publisher)

Subscription based office "365":
Office 365 personal (1 user/ 1 year (pc, mac or tablet) - $62 (word,excel,powerpoint, onenote, outlook, access and publisher)
Office 365 home premium (5 users /1 year (pc,mac or tablet)- $85 (word,excel,powerpoint, onenote, outlook, access and publisher)
Office 365 university (this is a 4yr sub (i think 2 pcs) but need ID to activate) - $85 (word,excel,powerpoint, onenote, outlook, access and publisher)
 
My parents' old Dell machine seems to have gone kaput due to an apparent motherboard issue and I've volunteered to help organise them a new one.

Who are currently the best companies around in terms of ongoing support for their prebuilts? Anything that will reduce the amount of volunteer troubleshooting I'll have to do would be great. I'm tempted to go Dell again through laziness as they've been fairly good in the past in terms of communication and talking them through their troubleshooting steps. I am worried that all Dell's prebuilts have Windows 8 on them now and I probably won't be around when it arrives to play around it so it's more usable (ie. more like Windows 7) for them.
 
ZoBlitz said:
My parents' old Dell machine seems to have gone kaput due to an apparent motherboard issue and I've volunteered to help organise them a new one.

Who are currently the best companies around in terms of ongoing support for their prebuilts? Anything that will reduce the amount of volunteer troubleshooting I'll have to do would be great. I'm tempted to go Dell again through laziness as they've been fairly good in the past in terms of communication and talking them through their troubleshooting steps. I am worried that all Dell's prebuilts have Windows 8 on them now and I probably won't be around when it arrives to play around it so it's more usable (ie. more like Windows 7) for them.
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8.1 is pretty much like seven in my opinion, it's just the start menu is full screen. I'm only familiar with Dell through my monitor and my folks prebuilts over the years, but they seem to have much better support than HP (my laptop).

I've heard good things about Lenovo but I remember IBM service not being great years ago so I can't say for sure. Gateway is in Australia now too, but I'm not sure if they are any good at all and their reputation never struck me as being positive, but they are up there on a Global scale in regards to sales and you don't hear mewling about them like you do with HP.
 

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cheekyLionsFan said:
Hp lenovo both come with onsite warranty these days. What specs are looking for and what is your budget
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Looking at something that'll do simple word processing and net stuff so onboard graphics should be fine. I told them that it'll probably end up being a thousand as I get a feeling I'll need to buy a new version of office too.

Edit: also probably be a tower rather than a laptop. Not sure they'll actually use the portable aspect of it.
 
ZoBlitz said:
Looking at something that'll do simple word processing and net stuff so onboard graphics should be fine. I told them that it'll probably end up being a thousand as I get a feeling I'll need to buy a new version of office too.

Edit: also probably be a tower rather than a laptop. Not sure they'll actually use the portable aspect of it.
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Just get one of the all in one screens with the computer. Dell and HP have a few basic ones for around $500-$600 that will get the job done easily. 8.1 will be ok and 10 will be out shortly and a free upgrade which will hopefully be better.
 
I have a question about my wife's iPhone 5 which she got on a 24 month contract and expired about 3 months ago.It remains at $70 a month which seems a bit steep as she now owns it and doesn't use it all that much.I believe she likes the phone and doesn't really want to get an upgrade.Can she now use a new carrier and keep the same number- i.e will the phone now be unlocked? Any other options ?Cheers.
 
You probably have to go through a process with the telco to get it unlocked, but they should do so without any worries now that the contract is up. Once that's done, she can absolutely switch and keep the number.
 
Lace Out said:
I have a question about my wife's iPhone 5 which she got on a 24 month contract and expired about 3 months ago.It remains at $70 a month which seems a bit steep as she now owns it and doesn't use it all that much.I believe she likes the phone and doesn't really want to get an upgrade.Can she now use a new carrier and keep the same number- i.e will the phone now be unlocked? Any other options ?Cheers.
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You can port the number to anyone, I'm pretty sure all Optus iPhone are carrier unlocked if they are on iOS 7.0 or above so it shouldn't be an issue but best to double check with Optus... It's usually easier to say you are going overseas and want to put a prepaid from that country in then that you are looking to change providers to save yourself the sales pitches.
 

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I have just done a terrible thing. I went out and bought a nice new i7 5930k cpu, and two gtx 980 gpu's... all the other stuff, fans, water cooling psu etc exists from the previous incarnation (that assisted in the manned Mars landing earlier this year). Why would you upgrade what is probably already the most powerful pc in the southern hemisphere? But that is not the question, the x99 chipset and the 6 core hyperthreaded cpu probably would be happier with triple SLI, am I skimping by only having dual SLI graphics? Yeah I'm a nerd... only game I really get into is sudoku.
 
Betty Noir said:
I have just done a terrible thing. I went out and bought a nice new i7 5930k cpu, and two gtx 980 gpu's... all the other stuff, fans, water cooling psu etc exists from the previous incarnation (that assisted in the manned Mars landing earlier this year). Why would you upgrade what is probably already the most powerful pc in the southern hemisphere? But that is not the question, the x99 chipset and the 6 core hyperthreaded cpu probably would be happier with triple SLI, am I skimping by only having dual SLI graphics? Yeah I'm a nerd... only game I really get into is sudoku.
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LOL, a single GPU would be overkill for Sudoku, let alone two or three.

Seems like you've overcapitalised somewhat for your needs :p
 
Tri sli scaling with Nvidia isn't worth it... I would have waited for 980ti stock though.
 
Caiphus said:
Tri sli scaling with Nvidia isn't worth it... I would have waited for 980ti stock though.
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The Ti's are awesome to be sure. Yeah I won't tri... I think the benefits are fairly minimal for what I do, (in fact for what anyone does!). Especially when you are playing sudoku, (mind you it can get pretty extreme, at least 3 fps). But I render video mostly, and my old rig which could seriously land a man on Mars would kill an hour of RAW in 10 - 15 minutes.... I can't imagine what this beast will do. I'll be streaming Lions wins, before they even occur! (Can talk about that because it is obviously a joke haha, I laughed) Strangely the 650ti boost is faster than the 750ti (more cuda cores and higher frequencies in some areas)... but the 750 supports dx12. I've had both in the past, I upgrade often, and usually pick the price/performance spot a couple from the top. In this case I thought what the hell... should keep me going till the end of the year. Forgot to mention 32 Gig of DDR4 RAM these x99 mobos are a thing of beauty, (if engineering is what excites you) and come with 8 DIMMS? Do you believe it, and M.2 slot....... heaven. FYI check this beast out

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/laptops/rev...80-review-the-fastest-gpu-on-the-block-635274

When I got into the business, my first PC in 1993 would render. If you could call it that. Like rendering lard. A 10 minute short would require pressing the button, and saying goodnight, drinking some beer, watching the telly, saying goodnight again, and then maybe you would have a product that still contained more frames than had been dropped. 20-30 hours later.
 
Betty Noir said:
The Ti's are awesome to be sure. Yeah I won't tri... I think the benefits are fairly minimal for what I do, (in fact for what anyone does!). Especially when you are playing sudoku, (mind you it can get pretty extreme, at least 3 fps). But I render video mostly, and my old rig which could seriously land a man on Mars would kill an hour of RAW in 10 - 15 minutes.... I can't imagine what this beast will do. I'll be streaming Lions wins, before they even occur! (Can talk about that because it is obviously a joke haha, I laughed) Strangely the 650ti boost is faster than the 750ti (more cuda cores and higher frequencies in some areas)... but the 750 supports dx12. I've had both in the past, I upgrade often, and usually pick the price/performance spot a couple from the top. In this case I thought what the hell... should keep me going till the end of the year. Forgot to mention 32 Gig of DDR4 RAM these x99 mobos are a thing of beauty, (if engineering is what excites you) and come with 8 DIMMS? Do you believe it, and M.2 slot....... heaven. FYI check this beast out

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/laptops/rev...80-review-the-fastest-gpu-on-the-block-635274

When I got into the business, my first PC in 1993 would render. If you could call it that. Like rendering lard. A 10 minute short would require pressing the button, and saying goodnight, drinking some beer, watching the telly, saying goodnight again, and then maybe you would have a product that still contained more frames than had been dropped. 20-30 hours later.
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You obviously still game if you aren't going full compute cards like quadros or firepros.

Its funny that just 18 months ago I would have to take one of my cards physically out of my box to use gpu rendering in premiere pro because the mercury engine didn't like SLI or even the presence of multiple GPUs.
 
Caiphus said:
You obviously still game if you aren't going full compute cards like quadros or firepros.

Its funny that just 18 months ago I would have to take one of my cards physically out of my box to use gpu rendering in premiere pro because the mercury engine didn't like SLI or even the presence of multiple GPUs.
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$5 - 15,000. There is only so much a man can do to justify these things. Business tool. Must have. 7 plus grand, I think not. And where I am I've got no tax break on this type of thing so in perspective, not possible... but maybe one day. Technically it is a sideline activity anyway, because I earn my living another way. I am the classic Prosumer, and enjoy doing my own work (film noir best describes it) and things for friends. Une chien andalou is up my alley. haha
 
Anyone have Chromecast?
I have a 'smart' TV (a couple of years old now) but I find the Youtube app cumbersome to use (mainly because I don't have a keyboard conncted in any form, and have to navigate the cursor with arrow buttons on my remote). It also doesn't have apps for cathup (FTA)TV, other than SBS & iView.
For some reason, even though the TV detects my laptop, it says "can't connect" except Youtube via the app (can't miracast my laptop screen). So I thought the simplest would be to use Chromecast, as I am happy to search and stream on my laptop as long as I can cast to the TV.
The blurbs I've read say you can cast anything from Chrome on your device, so that should mean watching catch up TV (on channel 10, 9, 7 etc) sites, as well as making navigation of Youtube easier. I do also wonder if live streams will cast. I connected youtube via the app the other weekend from my laptop, but it wouldn't allow the NEAFL live stream to play. I wonder if Chromecast will allow this?

Any tips or experiences would be appreciated.
 
Skoob said:
Anyone have Chromecast?
I have a 'smart' TV (a couple of years old now) but I find the Youtube app cumbersome to use (mainly because I don't have a keyboard conncted in any form, and have to navigate the cursor with arrow buttons on my remote). It also doesn't have apps for cathup (FTA)TV, other than SBS & iView.
For some reason, even though the TV detects my laptop, it says "can't connect" except Youtube via the app (can't miracast my laptop screen). So I thought the simplest would be to use Chromecast, as I am happy to search and stream on my laptop as long as I can cast to the TV.
The blurbs I've read say you can cast anything from Chrome on your device, so that should mean watching catch up TV (on channel 10, 9, 7 etc) sites, as well as making navigation of Youtube easier. I do also wonder if live streams will cast. I connected youtube via the app the other weekend from my laptop, but it wouldn't allow the NEAFL live stream to play. I wonder if Chromecast will allow this?

Any tips or experiences would be appreciated.
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Chromecast can mirror from chrome or even the screen of anything from an android device. I have never run into any drm problems. I mirrored the St kilda game in pre-season with no issues but I haven't tried things like the AFL live season pass or anything which theoretically prevent display on non-mobile devices.
 
Caiphus said:
Chromecast can mirror from chrome or even the screen of anything from an android device. I have never run into any drm problems. I mirrored the St kilda game in pre-season with no issues but I haven't tried things like the AFL live season pass or anything which theoretically prevent display on non-mobile devices.
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Thanks. So cheap too. Had considered getting a magic remote for the telly or just dowloading a phone app remote to make navigating easier, but that only addresses one or two of my needs/wants, whereas this seems almost perfect. I'll get around to getting one and give it a go.
 
Skoob said:
Thanks. So cheap too. Had considered getting a magic remote for the telly or just dowloading a phone app remote to make navigating easier, but that only addresses one or two of my needs/wants, whereas this seems almost perfect. I'll get around to getting one and give it a go.
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I use it in combination with the Plex app for android mostly, it's taken over from using the Windows media centre extender on xbox 360 considering it was baulking at some codecs/containers and was giving me the shits.

If you are streaming from your phone, the chromecast actually takes over the stream so it doesn't do the processing on your phone anymore and drain the battery.

If your smart TV does bluetooth keyboards I've found the Logitech k480 to be a really handy one. I have it set up so I can use it as a keyboard for my tablet if I feel like doing some writing from the couch without the extra bulk of my older laptop or I can flick a switch and use it on my PS4 if I need to do any typing. It's really inoffensive to type on as well for a membrane keyboard which is reasonable praise from me cos otherwise I'm a sucker for tactile clacky mechanical keyboards (much to the missus's annoyance as my keyboard with Cherry MX Blue switches is really quite loud.)
 
Caiphus said:
I use it in combination with the Plex app for android mostly, it's taken over from using the Windows media centre extender on xbox 360 considering it was baulking at some codecs/containers and was giving me the shits.

If you are streaming from your phone, the chromecast actually takes over the stream so it doesn't do the processing on your phone anymore and drain the battery.

If your smart TV does bluetooth keyboards I've found the Logitech k480 to be a really handy one. I have it set up so I can use it as a keyboard for my tablet if I feel like doing some writing from the couch without the extra bulk of my older laptop or I can flick a switch and use it on my PS4 if I need to do any typing. It's really inoffensive to type on as well for a membrane keyboard which is reasonable praise from me cos otherwise I'm a sucker for tactile clacky mechanical keyboards (much to the missus's annoyance as my keyboard with Cherry MX Blue switches is really quite loud.)
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Cheers. 90% of the time I'm in the living room, I have my laptop on, and often watching TV as I browse, so super convenient to just cast from an extra window, and from what I've read, you can flick around tabs without any confusion to the cast.:thumbsu:
 
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