AWKWARD ZOMBIE

I don't torrent anything more than like once a month, but I never seed because I am a heartless asshole or whatever the torrenting community would call me.
I have Steam, but my games library is hilariously small and 95% low-intensive indie bullshit from various humble bundles, so if they do update it's a 382kb bugfix. Never to the ridiculous degree that would cause the usage spike.

What do you use as virus protection? I know some anti virus programs have it set to where they'll auto update any programs that are outdated that can cause virus problems.

I use malwarebytes for the occasional full system scan and avira for general securityness.

Edit: sometimes I have avira, apparently. I had it on my old computer but apparently not on this one (which is pushing 2 years now). My infrequent Malwarebytes scans never turn up any issues and I only update it when I scan (so from version 6.08408.3934 to version 988.98245.3895249.01 like every time I swear they update SO MUCH). I generally have no issues because I am the most internet-sensible person in the family. Installing avira now.

Hmm, I'm not sure what it could have been then. Maybe someone was using netflix or something and left it on?

Also, you don't browse imgur do you? Someone made a post on there a while back ago saying that the imgur app used a lot of their data while running in the background, and that could possibly be it if you use it.

I don't 'browse' imgur. I use it occasionally to upload pictures, and whatever people post on reddit.

been running an Avira scan for 20 minutes now, nothing detected so far. :/

Thanks for the help, btw. I'll have to hijack my brother's computer and run the scan on there as well. He always downloads the same stupid crap (gotta get them desktop Syndicate backgrounds) and always gets the same stupid viruses and adware.

You're welcome. Sorry I'm not much help. It's just there are a lot of different things that could have caused it and it's hard to say for sure what it was. More than likely just something in the background.

Sorry to double post, but I'd like an opinion on what to buy.

So, for college I need to buy a tablet, or a laptop capable of touch settings. I can either buy a Surface Pro 2 for ~$800, a Surface Pro 3 (or equivalent tablet) for ~$1,000, or I was thinking about buying this laptop and this pen tablet to go with it for ~$650.

The thing is, I don't know a lot about laptops and other mobile devices, so I'm not sure if there's something crappy about that laptop or not since it kinda seems too good to be true (dedicated GPU and an 8 GB SSD boot drive) for just $500.

Plus, I've heard it takes a while to get used to using a pen tablet, and getting an actual tablet would be a lot more simple.

I really hate not getting my cheddar's worth when I buy something though so I'm really iffy on paying 800 dollars for a tablet when I can get a laptop with better specs for less.

Uh, does Windows 8 even fit on an 8GB SSD? Doesn't seem like it does from Microsoft's specs. Dunno how that works then since the laptop seems to come with it pre-installed.

I looked into it, and it turns out the SSD is for cached files, not the OS. It should still make it a bit faster overall than just a hard drive though.

EDIT: Here's information about it.

Have you considered a Surface Pro 1? It's a bit slower than the equivalent 2 and 3 models (which are identical, in terms of processor and ram) but has the same pen and screen as the 2. It's mostly only available used, but I've heard nothing but good things about durability and reputable sellers have it for less than the laptop you're looking at.

A laptop with an external tablet will work, but it won't give you anywhere near the same experience. My SP3 has completely replaced my sketchbook, paper notebooks, and textbooks in every class save art. (I'm majoring in Computer Science and Visual Arts, so there's a broad range of classes included in this statement) I've owned Wacom tablets before and unless you drop $1000 on a Cintiq, it's nowhere near as useful as a Surface would be for school purposes. The difference is so extreme that I'd even value the $1000 SP3 above any laptop/Wacom setup, personally.

Alternatively, you might want to look at some Thinkpads. A few of those have pen-enabled screens, but I haven't priced them out since months before I got my Surface.

None of the Surface Pro 1 models I've found have had 8 GB of RAM, which is required. And most of the thinkpads I've found that meet the requirements cost about the same as a tablet. This one isn't too bad, but I still think I'd rather have the laptop because my current laptop is actually starting to act up and stuff and I'll need one to replace it with soon I think.

A tablet would be a lot simpler to use, but based on the emails I've sent to my school's engineering department, the touch feature is only needed for some program called DyKnow.

It all depends on how much cheddar I have left after paying for tuition and stuff. I've added it up based on estimates and I should have roughly 1200 to spend on the laptop/tablet. If that's the case, then I'll probably get the Thinkpad I linked above or a Surface Pro 2, but if I end up with less cheddar than that, then I'm going to get the laptop so that I'll still have a little cheddar to spare in case of an emergency or something.

Wow, holy shit. I wouldn't attend a school that uses monitoring software like DyKnow. Regardless, some poking around indicates that it doesn't really need touch at all? Or at least in most cases.

1: fuck your school's engineering department's administration
2: buy the laptop
3: don't even bother buy the pen tablet at all until it becomes necessary

If DyKnow is really the only reason they want you to have tablet, then they want you to spend $1000~ for the sole purpose of being able to hand-write notes to your teacher while in class. You'll be fine with the laptop and if you want to spend even less, I can point you in the direction of some very cheap USB pen tablets to save cheddar compared to a Wacom.

((Though I would still argue that a Surface Pro of some sort would be the better device just in general, so KEEP IT IN MIND OKAY))

EDIT: while I'm here, a question. On the subject of schools having stupid computer requirements, I need a MacBook for my visual arts major. Since I'd do basically anything to avoid spending the $1700 minimum for the required model, I've been looking around at Hackintosh resources. I've seen indications that this laptop is pretty good as a Hackintosh - only the wifi doesn't work, and I can just tether my phone via USB for Internet.
All I need this computer to do is run Final Cut Pro well enough for school projects and project submission. Everything else will be done on my Surface or my desktop. Does anyone here have enough experience with Hackintoshes to tell me if it's feasible to get any work done on one? I'm having a hard time finding info on how well Hackintosh machines actually run.

Yea, I was kinda rustled once I found out what DyKnow was. I'm hoping they don't really use it that much. I've heard that the professor I've got for my ENGR 101 class doesn't actually use technology much in his class at all, so he might not really use it. I don't really know how the software works, I should be able to disable it outside of class, right? It'd be really fucked if they could monitor all my laptop usage.

And alright, I'll probably just get the laptop then, and yea I'd like a recommendation for a cheap pen tablet. And I'll keep the Surface Pro in mind just in case. I'll probably wait until after my first week of classes before ordering anything just so I can see just how much we'll be using everything.

Thanks for the help! I don't know much about Hackintosh, so I'm no help there. Sorry.

Yo are you sure that you need 8GB ram? I was looking through the thread to see if I had already posted the link to the tablets, and I see that in your original post about needing a tablet/laptop you only said you needed 4. Has the requirement changed?

Anyway, here are the tablets. Aside from my general trust of Monoprice's products, I have a few friends who are pop flyin' with them.

Yea, I made a post a pretty long while ago that said 4, but that ended up being the requirements for last year. They updated it this year to 8 GB. I probably could get by with just 4, but I'd rather actually meet their requirements. Here's the page for the requirements, and on the side there's a link to that says "purchase companion device" which talks about buying a pen tablet if you get a laptop instead.

And alright, I'll probably get one of those pen tablets.