01-05-2012, 12:18 PM
One massive problem with laptops.. there is no upgrade potential with them... add to that the way you will be forced into windows7 or vista (we call it fista.. with good reason, but it's too rude to explain in polite company.. rental.. not owned, and totally unreliable.. it breaks like everything since 3.1 every 6 months or so) and it's a deal breaker for me.
I used to swear by Dell, but in the last few years I have come to an understanding.. there is the right way to build a computer, and then there's the Dell way. Not quite as bizarre as Acer, but pretty close.
Take it from a pro.. DON'T buy a complete system off the shelf.. Buy the best bits you can afford and put it together yourself, (research research) along with your XP if you must use windows.. guess what.. modern hardware means you will have to find out how to build your XP disk as well to get the SATA drivers into the install. (I remove vista/7 and install XP for people on laptops.. it's a valuable skill). It won't cost any less, but it will have upgrade potential and you are going to know exactly how it all works just like your current beastie.
My desktop was "state of the art cutting edge" back in early 2005, and it's still a pretty good system these days. The only way to "futureproof" them is to go the homebrew route. Laptops are now the same as the latest phones.. use for a year and throw it away and buy a new one... they are built to die I think.. at least the dvd drives and operating systems are.
I can throw links to computer building discussions, but they seem to be mainly silly kids who want to play the latest games throwing money away by the bucket load every 6 months when the next new game comes out.. I'm happy with 7 year old technology, last years from the "build it yourself" stores should be more than adequate.
What do you want to do with it?.. thats the best way to start. If it's late 90's (same as this laptop) there are ways to give it a whole new lease of life without spending anything except a bit of time learning a different way of doing things... but it's never going to be quite up to speed in the way a 2006-9 desktop can be.
Don't fall for the advertising hype.. todays £699 laptop is 2 years from now my £60 junker.. I want some more ram in this.. but it's not worth spending £14.99 on. It's worth more as parts....
Desktop all the way.. they can be "repurposed" after their end of life in very meaningful ways. If you want a laptop keep checking freecycle for a vista laptop "blue screens on startup, shop wanted more than it's worth to fix it" and you will get one to play with (or a rack of 16 twin xeons).
I used to swear by Dell, but in the last few years I have come to an understanding.. there is the right way to build a computer, and then there's the Dell way. Not quite as bizarre as Acer, but pretty close.
Take it from a pro.. DON'T buy a complete system off the shelf.. Buy the best bits you can afford and put it together yourself, (research research) along with your XP if you must use windows.. guess what.. modern hardware means you will have to find out how to build your XP disk as well to get the SATA drivers into the install. (I remove vista/7 and install XP for people on laptops.. it's a valuable skill). It won't cost any less, but it will have upgrade potential and you are going to know exactly how it all works just like your current beastie.
My desktop was "state of the art cutting edge" back in early 2005, and it's still a pretty good system these days. The only way to "futureproof" them is to go the homebrew route. Laptops are now the same as the latest phones.. use for a year and throw it away and buy a new one... they are built to die I think.. at least the dvd drives and operating systems are.
I can throw links to computer building discussions, but they seem to be mainly silly kids who want to play the latest games throwing money away by the bucket load every 6 months when the next new game comes out.. I'm happy with 7 year old technology, last years from the "build it yourself" stores should be more than adequate.
What do you want to do with it?.. thats the best way to start. If it's late 90's (same as this laptop) there are ways to give it a whole new lease of life without spending anything except a bit of time learning a different way of doing things... but it's never going to be quite up to speed in the way a 2006-9 desktop can be.
Don't fall for the advertising hype.. todays £699 laptop is 2 years from now my £60 junker.. I want some more ram in this.. but it's not worth spending £14.99 on. It's worth more as parts....
Desktop all the way.. they can be "repurposed" after their end of life in very meaningful ways. If you want a laptop keep checking freecycle for a vista laptop "blue screens on startup, shop wanted more than it's worth to fix it" and you will get one to play with (or a rack of 16 twin xeons).
