Laptop Advice

[d'Art Lefou]

Full up confession: I'm shit with computers. I can figure out what's wrong with one, eventually, but when it comes to hardware and specs, I only have a vague idea of what's good and what isn't.

My current laptop's a good two and a half years old, and it wasn't top of the line to start with. It's got a real problem with overheating (to the point of eventually just turning itself off, especially in the summer), and about the best thing it can run is the Sims 2 (somewhat sluggishly nowadays), and Photoshop 7.

So, I figure it's time to bite the bullet and replace the poor thing before it fries itself completely. I don't have a huge budget - £800's my absolute limit, but I'd much rather stick to £700 or lower - but I'm not looking for anything top of the line, either. Just something that'll let me work in Photoshop while listening to music without having a fit, and let me play couple-year-old games on relatively decent graphics settings. Something that will last me a good couple of years.

Any suggestions? :D

[Morgan Evanar]

O hai. I'm assuming from your use of £ that you are in an area that uses that currency. As such, I will locate something for you in your country of origin! Do you have a screen size preference? Do you have a specific size or weight target? Do you want to play games on it?

[d'Art Lefou]

Nah, I just thought I'd be fancy with the £. :P Yep, sittin' here in the UK. xD

You're a star. :D I'd like to use it for occasional gaming, but I'm not usually quick with buying PC games - like I said, so long as it'll run something like Sims 3 (don't laugh) at decent graphic settings, then I'm happy. When it comes to screensize, I'm happy with anything 15.6" and higher.

In terms of weight and such, I'm not fussy. I lack a desk or table, tend to just use my laptop... well, on my lap. I have a netbook that gets me through the train rides. :)

[Morgan Evanar]

Acer Aspire AS5750G-2414G50Mnkk ( LX.RAZ02.097 )
http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/model/LX.RAZ02.097

Dell Inspirion 15R
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=n00q1544&c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&model_id=inspiron-15r-n5110

Toshiba Satellite L750-171
http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/innovation/product/Satellite-L750-171/1114514/toshibaShop/false/

The Acer is far and away the best deal and also has the best graphics card of the lot, which is super important for games.

[d'Art Lefou]

Wow, that Acer's about identical to some of the ones I was looking at but nearly £200 less. :lol

Now's the challenge of finding it to actually buy in the UK. x_x

[Morgan Evanar]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-7750G-17-3-Notebook/dp/B006UCO15M/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1326151017&sr=1-2

Here's a bigger Acer.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-G770-17-3-inch-Notebook/dp/B005TPRVSK/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1326151100&sr=1-1

also a big Lenovo, which is a better deal IMO.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Here's a laptop question - if mine is four years old and my husband complains that it's slow when he tries to use it, then am I well within my rights to remind him that it is like 40 years old in Computer Years? And that a replacement might be something we should think about? Something with, like Windows 7?

[Morgan Evanar]

More like 80 in computer years.

If it has XP on it it would probably run better with 7.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

No it doesn't have XP. It has that other one. Vista.

[d'Art Lefou]

What version of Vista?

My last laptop had Vista Home Basic, which was a messy, cut down version that Microsoft tossed onto a lot of laptops that couldn't handle the full version of Vista... and couldn't really handle the HB version either. Mostly what it did was act like XP, but a heck of a lot slower.

[Morgan Evanar]

Vista isn't anywhere near as slow as people make it out to be. That is unless you have 2 GB of RAM or less. Then it's slow. If you have 3 or 4 you'll be fine.

7 is Vista but better. It too likes 3+ GB of RAM. RAM is cheap right now (like $30 a 4GB stick) so upgrading would likely make it seem like a new machine. I know my cruddy laptop needed it.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

So, when money appears I could make it disappear by buying more RAM and upgrading to Win7. Sounds like a plan!

[Morgan Evanar]

You might not even need 7. Try RAM first.