I have a $250 Toshiba i use for chess ,and it works fine.
They use plasic for the power adapter on thoes sell it as soon as you notice its loose, unless you are too nice..
Whether your computer has a cheap build that's another matter entirely. Strictly from a processing point of view, even a $250-Toshiba will be more than enough to aid humans with chess analysis.
Well I'm far from being Jesus Christ; However I'll try to be perfect like Jesus Christ by trying to help others out. Chessmaster 10th Edition takes a lot of processing power and usually overheats the laptop unless the air conditioner is on. I have a dual core 2 ghz laptop. I've always been able to manage to make the laptop I've got work with Chessmaster 10th Edition. Windows XP 1ghz is a little slow and may lag when playing online chess. However if you could download videos to your harddrive it should be able to be tolerable. Only 1 person's opinion.
Chessmaster is pretty and intuitive, but outdated. Try any interface you like with Crafty or Stockfish, which are free and more powerful (both in ELO and processing power efficiency).
Satan is lord! Why use an outdated version when you could use Chessmaster 11th edition or even *gasp* chessbase?
Basically any new laptop will do. Don't go smaller than 15 inch.
Get a Lenovo as well.
And pick up a cheap Monitor to connect through the PC port on the Lenovo
than you will be able to put the "live" game on one screen and be able to do other things online while waiting for your opponent to move on the laptop screen
Just buy a computer. Its more reliable and it lasts longer than laptops. Laptops are usually changed every 4-5 years, while computer can last up to 12 years. If you are a chess fanatic, than get a computer. If you are not a chess enthusiast, then get a laptop.
I too use computer all the time..they are better than laptop. It's hard to play bullet in laptop as well.
Thanks for the help guys!
I talked about it with dad too, and he seemed mostly concerned with a risk of a virus on a windows, so we decided on a mac laptop.
I decided I don't need chessbase yet, but I can always use a virtual machine if I do later, dad knows how those work.
Macs aren't entirely immune to viruses. The combination of a good antivirus and using basic precautions when browsing online and transferring files sharply minimizes the risk from viruses on a Windows system. Also, running Windows inside of a virtual machine is not going to be as fast as running it as your main OS.
Thanks for the help guys!
I talked about it with dad too, and he seemed mostly concerned with a risk of a virus on a windows, so we decided on a mac laptop.
I decided I don't need chessbase yet, but I can always use a virtual machine if I do later, dad knows how those work.
Macs are just as prone to viruses as windows. You just need to be smart when youre online.
I think the coding is at least a little more secure, but you're right in that the vast majority of their purported safety is simply in the fact that there's very little in it for black hat hackers to bother exploiting. MacOS represents a pretty small share of the market and therefore very little comparatively in the way of money or sensitive data to gain.
This whole concept of desktop being better/more stable than a laptop is nonsense.
Especially for chess, laptops are just as good, if not better (portability, backup battery for power outages built-in) than desktops, and nowadays laptops are just as cheap as desktops for the most part. You pay a minimal premium for the huge portability advantage.
The only reason nowadays to go for the full-blown tower desktop is if you plan on doing intensive modern gaming which requires a dedicated 3D graphics card, or other graphics applications that require this level of power.
Chess does not fit into this category. My cell phone running Stockfish plays at like 3000 ELO - there's no way you'll need more power from your laptop to analyze chess than a basic cellphone equivalent.
External monitors are so cheap now that if you really want home setup, just attach an external monitor and keyboard/mouse to your laptop, and it'll be for all intents and purposes, a desktop.
Especially for chess, laptops are just as good, if not better (portability, backup battery for power outages built-in) than desktops, and nowadays laptops are just as cheap as desktops for the most part. You pay a minimal premium for the huge portability advantage.
Then why bother with a laptop altogether? Get yourself a cellphone.
I usually prefer desktops for chess because even though it's not portable, it's slightly more comfortable and has an open setup. If your laptop breaks, you need to count on support; if a desktop fails, you can simply replace any defective part yourself for much cheaper – or get yourself a much better part, if you have the money. Regular laptops simply can't count with this extra reliability.
Thanks for the help guys!
I talked about it with dad too, and he seemed mostly concerned with a risk of a virus on a windows, so we decided on a mac laptop.
I decided I don't need chessbase yet, but I can always use a virtual machine if I do later, dad knows how those work.
Yes, I use Virtual Machine on my Mac as well.
I go with Thinkpad refurbs for around $300. Today I bought a T430 with an i7 CPU, 8GB memory and 128GB SSD for $349.
Thinkpads are pretty rugged, though they have changed the keyboard with the T430 which I'm not sure about.
As to viruses, I use Anti-Malwarebytes if I suspect a virus. It's free and it works great.
Though I cut my teeth as a programmer on the Macintosh and still program the Mac, Apple software quality has dropped a lot since the eighties. I would say the Mac OS is less stable then Windows now.
Plus today's Mac OS is bolted on top of BSD Unix and for a surprising amount of stuff you have to pop open a terminal window and type in some Unix gibberish to get things done.
Then there's the whole being chained to Apple's whims for you as a user which I don't like.
Apple computers are nice but you are paying a premium for everything and they are not as well-engineered as people believe.
I bought a Mac Mini to develop for iPhone and it has been the worst experience of my career.
Jesus Christ! If you have decided on a Mac then make sure you purchase Windows Vista and Chessmaster 10th Edition for the PC. I decided to put it on the same computer and you are able to use Windows with Macs too. Just make sure you do not give your softwares away and such.
Satan is lord... lol why use outdated s#%^? 2006 called and it wants it's hardware and software back
Jesus Christ! I don't know I know a doctor who always buys Apple. The only problem I've ever encountered with my own is batter life drops from 10 hours to 3 after 7 years. Also I backup everyday so my DVD drive is worn out and not able to burn much anymore. However I got an external DVD writer and that works great.
There's Shredder. It should have a very nice database program available for Windows, Mac & Linux.
Mac Books are on sale at WalMart here for only $110.
Anything modern will be fine. No need to break the bank. I doubt they even sell laptops that don't have SSD drives these days. Those help with the overall speed of the computer and using endgame tablebases for engine analysis.
Indeed. Modern engines make use of several optimizations and heuristics strategies to cut on processing power. For example, I have a Samsung Galaxy Y 2 Pro with a 1 Ghz processor (1 core) and 512 MB RAM. That's a very crappy cellphone. Guess the ELO of Shredder here? 2500 ELO. This is comparable to a human grandmaster in performance. So, I suppose even a Pentium III, released in 1999, should give you good engine performance.
Since in practice you are not going to get a computer this old and probably want a modern operating system, I would suggest at least 2-core computer, so you can optimize your engine to run with one core and the operating system with another – that is, you will be able to distribute processing power evenly.