My computer is dying

[ríomhaire]

So I figure there must be a couple of computer nerds on this forum and I could do with some advice about getting a new laptop.


My laptop is on the way out and it's getting slower and things are freezing and crashing more often. It all started when I dropped it and I had some serious trouble getting it working again. I eventually did get it going again but it's been getting steadily worse since then and I think if it dies again I could probably format and restart it again, but I'm not sure how long more that would buy me. I think there's something physically wrong with the hard disc and in any case it's three years old now which I think is pretty much as long as I hoped for it to last.


My current laptop (a Samsung) breaks my back when I'm carrying it around all day in college, but it's so damn useful. So I want to get a smaller and lighter one and I'm looking for advice on brands. Originally I was looking for a PC capable of playing games well, because that's something I rather miss since I went to college and was cut off from my home desktop, but I've decided it'd be a waste. A real powerful laptop would destroy my spine and one with a balance of power and weight is probably out of my price range (and I suspect vulnerable to overheating). Besides, I might be able to get a half-decent laptop but it'd just make it so that it'd take longer for me to save up to get a really powerful PC.


So what I'm looking for is a reliable, light, robust small laptop/netbook. Games would be a bonus, but I have plenty of games like Oddworld and Deus Ex that'll run on any piece of junk so I'm just looking for something to run Open Office, Firefox, vlc and other normal applications and perhaps the odd programming application. I've heard wonderful things about Asus but are they overpriced?


My budget is probably up as far as €500. Anything much over that would be quite awkward for me to acquire (I'm looking to take out a loan to get this).

 

[Escaep]

Well first I would start backing up all your stuff if you haven't already done so.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

For TF2 and Portal 2 (on medium settings or around there) you could get yourself a nice laptop which would be able to run most games well. I wouldn't expect the highest of settings or Crysis 2 / BF3 kind of games to be particularly comfortable though. The OB is pretty forgiving and can run on most decent laptops with a Core 2 Duo / i3 /i5 and an actual graphics card (not just intel chips). So a decent laptop is definitely feasible.

Alternatively building your own is a good idea, but I wouldn't really recommend moving it about all the time (especially since you dropped your laptop already!). Also I don't know if you have a screen, which is extra cost...and it's not worth building a decent PC to use a non-widescreen 15" CRT or LCD. Ask taviow how much you're wasting your money. In which case you could try buy a pre-built PC with all the trimmings + the lowest end netbooks available for just doing work on in the library.

Brands...well the best is going to price you out, but I've had good feedback from friends who opted for mid-range gaming capable Asus laptops. The unfortunate thing is that €600 is just under the bracket for a laptop with a decent graphics chip. You will be getting a Intel GMA HD chip around that range...but as soon as you move to €700 the Nvidia 310M chips in that range with the better ones steadily going up from there. My friend plays L4D2 on a laptop with a 310M and gets about 40 FPS on medium settings which is a good enough figure to estimate other Source games around. Perhaps something like this - http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=K52JC-EX352V

Generally shop around but look for something with an i5, 310M (minimum), 4GB memory, 64bit windows 7, good amount of HDD space etc. I would agree it would be best to get a decent laptop but don't invest in something which will only do half the jobs you want it to do.

Oh and with your dying laptop - buy a replacement HDD, they are simple to fit, probably just one panel to unscrew on the back of the casing. Click the new one in and reinstall windows. Dropping the laptop might have screwed it up and I would imagine HDDs from an older laptop like that aren't more than £30ish. Very simple installation, probably guides on youtube.

 

[Dinnesch]

My friend plays L4D2 on a laptop with a 310M and gets about 40 FPS on medium settings which is a good enough figure to estimate other Source games around.

Doesn't count for TF2 though, while my older Pentium 4 PC runs L4D2 fine at 30+ FPS minimum settings, TF2 is unplayable often dropping to single digit framerates.

Like I told yesterday on Steam chat riom, I can really recommend this one for portable gaming. Don't have one myself, but judging from what I've read on the internet it seems like pretty much the best balance between portability and performance you can get.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Yet that one is a GMA HD chip which benchmarks lower than that 310M?

 

[ríomhaire]

Dinn it sounds good but Acer have a really bad reputation and the case is badly designed. All the ports are on the sides and it says pushing pressure on a certain point stops the fan. If the outside is badly designed I don't hold out much hope for the inside.

 

[ríomhaire]

Any opinion on the year old XPS for 600?

 

[Dinnesch]

Yet that one is a GMA HD chip which benchmarks lower than that 310M?

No, it has a 5650 mobility and switches to the Intel card in 2d mode.

Dinn it sounds good but Acer have a really bad reputation and the case is badly designed. All the ports are on the sides and it says pushing pressure on a certain point stops the fan. If the outside is badly designed I don't hold out much hope for the inside.

Yeah I understand that being a problem if you carry it around a lot.. although if you transport it carefully I don't think there is a lot that can go wrong(most gaming laptops that die early die because of high temps, which this Acer doesn't have)

If you give the XPS laptops' model it would be easier to judge.

Notebookcheck always has very complete reviews, maybe you want to take a look there. They also judge laptops on their intended use(desktop replacement, bussiness, netbook, lightweight, etc..)

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Ridiculous price for a second hand machine? Also any specs?

Anyway, I gave you some general specs for the laptop you would be looking for, it doesn't necessarily need to be an Acer or that model. Looking back I wrote a lot of advice but if you're not interested in reading it please let me know and I'll go back and delete my posts from this thread.

@Dinnesch - oh yes I see it. Well I'm sure there are other laptops which aren't Acers he could look at. My Vaio has a graphics card switch too so there should be other options out there.

 

[ríomhaire]

Sorry for not replaying Glenn. I did actually read it all. Thanks. It's a lot to think about and I think your advice is quite sound. Didn't mean to offend.

 

[ríomhaire]

So after much though on the subject I have decided that you are not orcs.

Actually I've decided to forgo the idea of a laptop I can play TF2 on. I realise that a laptop with somewhat decent specs would cost all the money I could reasonably muster and in the end just make it more difficult for me to afford a real powerful computer in the future. So I've shifted my focus to a robust, light, reliable laptop that will be able to run normal crap. Sorry for wasting your time lads.