Author Topic: Time for a new laptop (Read 1711 times)

Lady Fitzgerald · « **Reply #30 on:** July 18, 2012, 08:35:54 PM »

Quote from: Tin man on July 18, 2012, 05:35:06 PM

Ned

I have worked with computers since the Commador 64. If my knowledge of computers was dynamite I don't think I could blow my nose...

My first computer was Commodore C64c; I still have it and it probably still works.

Quote from: Tin man on July 18, 2012, 05:35:06 PM

...Buy quality stay away from ACER.

You got that right!

Molaker · « **Reply #31 on:** July 18, 2012, 11:20:47 PM »

Quote from: Lady Fitzgerald on July 18, 2012, 08:35:54 PM

My first computer was Commodore C64c; I still have it and it probably still works.

Mine was a Vic 20. I eventually upgraded to a Commodore 64...then a Commodore 128. Ah, those were the good old days.

RoyM · « **Reply #32 on:** July 18, 2012, 11:25:12 PM »

Karen was a mortgage broker in a previous life and is hard on anything mechanical, in spite of all that her Acer laptop stood up remarkably well until she spilled coffee on the keyboard

We are replacing it and my eight year old tower tomorrow, the new pc is supposed to have 4 gig RAM and 750 gig hard drive. Should blow the doors off what I am using now.

SargeW · « **Reply #33 on:** July 18, 2012, 11:50:54 PM »

For a long time I was a hardcore HP user. Computers, printers, fax machines, everything. Then in the last few years I have had 3 different HP laptops die of different critical failures, usually mother board related. When Diane's last laptop failed (a $1000 17" "gamers" machine with 4 USB ports and tons of memory) we were on the road. We went to WalMart and bought a display model Compaq laptop for about $350 OTD. She has had it about 6 months and it is starting to "glitch" when running normal processes. After this I am done with HP.

I was thinking of going to DELL. Any thoughts on their machines?

Ned · « **Reply #34 on:** July 19, 2012, 06:31:35 AM »

My experiences with Dell have not been good. Their market is the large enterprise where when one computer breaks they just swap it for another from stock. Dell has used a lot of proprietary hardware requiring Dell specific drivers which means you are stuck with whatever OS version comes with the computer and may not be able to update it with later versions. But they can be price competitive, especially if you shop for their refurbished systems.

jeffbrown · « **Reply #35 on:** July 19, 2012, 08:20:50 AM »

Like Ned I have a lot of experience with Dell also from the corperate end of it. I have the same problems with them that he does especially with laptops. Dell manufacutures everything they can to save money, in a typical Dell computer the Processor, and hard drive are often the only things they didn't build themselves and they dont make drivers for earlier or newer OSs than the intended PC comes installed with.

I'm not a fan of upgrading OSs though, because even in a fast turn around you're talking about putting something that the latest hardware might have trouble running on something that is 2 years old. Not a recipe for success in my book. I just bought a PC for the house and it came with an upgrade to Windows 8 in the deal, I'm not planning to use that. I might on a lark just to get a look at it, but preferably on a VM.

Jeff

scottydl · « **Reply #36 on:** July 19, 2012, 08:44:30 AM »

Well it sounds about like computers and RV's go together... there are lemons and cherries in every bunch. For every person that's said they will never buy another Acer/Dell/HP, there's someone else that says their Acer/Dell/HP is absolutely fabulous.

As it stands for now, we're going to buy a barely-used laptop from some family friends of ours. It's a ~3 year old Fujitsu, which nobody here has mentioned yet and Walmart doesn't sell! But hey, the price is right ($75) and I'll try just about anything for that amount. If it doesn't last, then I'll be back here shopping again.

Feel free to keep the thread going in the meantime.

Ned · « **Reply #37 on:** July 19, 2012, 09:54:22 AM »

Fujitsu isn't a well known brand but I've heard or read nothing bad about their computers. I'm inclined to shop for factory re-manufactured hardware as it save quite a bit of money and it more likely to be in good working order out of the box.

SargeW · « **Reply #38 on:** July 19, 2012, 01:25:49 PM »

I didn't realize that about Dell, thanks for the heads up. Sometimes proprietary stuff is better, sometimes not.

Tin man · « **Reply #39 on:** July 19, 2012, 01:36:14 PM »

Some trivia, the Commadore 64 was more powerful as the computer in the LEM Lunar Module. Talk about technology advancements..

I swear about SONY, and some people hate them..

Keep the computer away from heat, liquid, and abuse. Than it should last for a long time.

Jim Godward · « **Reply #40 on:** July 19, 2012, 02:19:11 PM »

It was probably more powerful than the one in the early minuteman missles. I know it was more powerful than the desk version of the Minutman computer I had in my office in 1968.

My son started out on the Vic - 20, progressed through the C64 and 128 and got his first IBM PC type in HS. He is now in IT and plays with all sorts of stuff.

Lady Fitzgerald · « **Reply #41 on:** July 19, 2012, 03:08:47 PM »

Quote from: Ned on July 19, 2012, 09:54:22 AM

Fujitsu isn't a well known brand but I've heard or read nothing bad about their computers. I'm inclined to shop for factory re-manufactured hardware as it save quite a bit of money and it more likely to be in good working order out of the box.

The only Fujitsu product I own is a ScanSnap S1500 high speed ADF scanner that I have been more than happy with. Fujitsu's customer service was excellent for me.

Gord Nelson · « **Reply #42 on:** July 19, 2012, 05:48:58 PM »

Hey Scottydl:

That 3 yr old Fujitsu probably runs Windows XP and is a 32 bit OS. Probably came with 2 gigs of Ram, but could likely be upgraded to 4 gigs. One of the costs of upgrades on "older laptops is that if it came with 2 gigs of Ram, it usually was 2 stick of 1 gig each. Upgrading that requires throwing away both 1 meg chips and replacing with 2 x 2 gig chips. The ram is super cheap but since XP will only "really" address 3.6 gigs, you could replace only 1 stick of ram with a 2 gig strip and get 3 gigs. Overall cost would be less and believe me, this is something you can do yourself.

Similarly, Ned's comment about replacing the hard drive with an SSD on a newer computer, yours might not have a chip which can handle an SSD. One fairly cheap alternative is to replace the current (likely 5400 rpm) hard drive with a 7200 rpm HD of a higher capacity, say 350 or 500 gigs. This will give you much higher application storage, photo storage, etc. The real benefit will come from having the higher rpm harddrive when the processor has to have caching space to overcome the lower RAM capacity. (Like Ned was saying, "the more ram the faster the machine, due to more caching ability at a higher speed") but I think he would agree that having the fastest possible Harddrive in a 'limited RAM machine' would also keep you running at a pretty good clip. You can also do this yourself. Buy the 2.5 inch Laptop drive and look at the Fujitsu User Manual for how to do it. (normally it is only two screws on the back and a couple holding it in once you lift the access flap.)

Use one of the free disk imaging programs, (like Macrium Reflect Free) to image your old drive, to an external drive or second computer. Then restore the image to the new laptop drive.

Remember. Google is your friend! "Ask and ye shall receive." Tons of advice out there and helpful articles. Not all of it is good, or even accurate but for the most part, it is.

There seems to be good sources on this forum as well.
Good Luck if you choose to do some upgrades. If not the Fujitsu should serve you just fine as it is.

Gord

Ned · « **Reply #43 on:** July 19, 2012, 06:22:05 PM »

My comment about the SSD drive was aimed at those systems that offer it as an option. Many older computers can't handle the SSD drives, but most newer systems with SATA controllers can.

Gord Nelson · « **Reply #44 on:** July 19, 2012, 06:31:03 PM »

Yep Ned.

Knew that when you posted. Just didn't want to the OP to assume he could use an SSD. Lots of three year old machines are still useing IDE. SSDs are certainly the way to go however. Just about to put one in a Toshiba to see the the difference.

Gord

Marc L · « **Reply #45 on:** July 19, 2012, 09:19:45 PM »

SSD made me have a flashback to SSA drives on RS6000. Different animal though.

scottydl · « **Reply #46 on:** July 20, 2012, 12:44:21 AM »

Good info all ... luckily this is just the kids' computer, so no special hardware or performance requirements really exist. I have two different styles of laptop RAM from two older machines, so I'll upgrade that if I can in the Fujitsu once it arrives. Otherwise, a few game discs loaded on there + internet access, and the kids will be happy. No major photo/video storage will be needed for this one. All that is on our bigger HP laptop, and I backup-image that system (through Windows 7) every month onto my 2tb external USB hard drive.

tnthub · « **Reply #47 on:** July 20, 2012, 05:44:22 PM »

I know I am brand new on this board so I have zero credibility, but I do computer support for my day job. I am here because my wife just bought a 1998 Winnebago 32Q which we will pick up the end of next week.

Anyway, from my experience (after reading this thread) I will comment and you guys feel free to shoot down my opinions (no hard feelings).

4G of ram, 500G drive, Win7, a USB powered "cooler", and a dual or quad core CPU (Intel or AMD). Consumer notebooks have bottom barrel components and horrible warranty service regardless of who makes them. Go for either open office or MS Office for horizontal productivity software, Avast is a good free product for anti-virus and the modules can be tweaked to not slow down the computer too much. Remove all the bloatware and install Chrome and/or firefox in addition to Internet Explorer.

The Windows backup and restore is fairly useless. I install Symantec System Recovery on all client machines. Why mess around with re-installing the operating system, updates and patches for hours, and then re-installing your programs only to pull the hundred or two hundred files out of a backup that you want when you could have the entire computer restored in about an hour by using a reliable image based backup system? There are other products out there that do the same thing, maybe even for less money, but I prefer to work with a product I know how to use because I am already frustrated when something breaks or fails.

Forget Windows 8 unless you are looking at a tablet or a smart phone. I have installed it in a virtual machine and without a touch keyboard it is simply not usable for most computer tasks.

Why do we have so much ram in computers today? The operating system pre-loads services as do many installed programs. Just run MSCONFIG from a command line and see how many programs are loading at startup, plus all the cached information that is utilized on a temporary basis and pulled up time and time again adds to the overhead. Blame it on Microsoft all you want, but this is what happens in a regular computer configured by the manufacturer and not maintained on an ongoing basis by someone who knows what they are doing (and I'm not sending anyone to the Geek Squad).

Consumer laptop hard drives have slow rotational speeds but the lower priced SSDs have a shorter shelf life and not as much space to store movies and pictures.

I have an ancient Dell laptop, duo core with 4G of ram for my service work. Windows 7 Ultimate for the operating system and VMWare work station for an XP machine for legacy support. It runs MS Office 2010 Professional Plus, Project 2010, Visio 2010, MS Expressionweb, and I can log in remotely with Team viewer while doing other things. That said, it is properly configured and well maintained and I have a full backup every night and receive email notification of its success when I wake up.

My advise is to simply buy the right product based upon the intnded purpose of use. You can easily get six to eight years out of a PC if is is properly purchased in regards to components. However the discount stuff at Walmart (for example) I would not touch because the prices are not that good, the specifications are old, and the equipment is often buggy and it almost always comes with terrible support.

Lady Fitzgerald · « **Reply #48 on:** July 20, 2012, 08:59:09 PM »

Quote from: tnthub on July 20, 2012, 05:44:22 PM

...Avast is a good free product for anti-virus and the modules can be tweaked to not slow down the computer too much...

I agree that Avast Free is good but, when I got my new notebook a month back, I put Microsoft Security Essentials on it because avast was becoming a bit top heavy. What do you tweak to keep Avast from slowing the computer down too much?

tnthub · « **Reply #49 on:** July 21, 2012, 12:17:03 PM »

For my use all I install of the free Avast is the AV/AS. It seems to be the web checker that takes so much overhead. I will also typically exclude certain files from real time scanning during the day but have those exclusions scanned nightly. Examples of typical exclusions might be the swap file and hibernation files, any proprietary program directories, and some extensions like ISO, V2i, QBW... If you check the technical details for anti-virus exclusions on the Quickbooks site you will see files recommended to be excluded from real time scanning (for example).

Lady Fitzgerald · « **Reply #50 on:** July 21, 2012, 03:05:52 PM »

How does the web checker in Avast compare to WOT (Web of Trust) for eating overhead?

tnthub · « **Reply #51 on:** July 22, 2012, 10:38:09 AM »

I have heard of WOT but have not used it so I cannot intelligently compare the products.

Most of my clients, and myself, generally do not go to unfamiliar sites. If if I checking out "new" web addresses I do so initially from a separate computer (or virtual), and I use Goggle Chrome or Comodo for a browser. I always clear cookies and passwords first and after I go surfing in unfamiliar waters, and use Ccleaner before and after to remove lingering temp files (making sure to uncheck the box under advanced settings to allow Ccleaner to remove temp files within the current 24 hour window.

I also make sure all operating systems are up to date with patches and updates, and run a manual (or in my case I have it automated) search for updates the third day after the second Tuesday of every month. Microsoft schedules patch releases for the second Tuuesday of each month and I wait three days before I apply patches in case there is a problem with their initial launch.

I also update Malwarebytes prior to surfing any new sites.

If I receive a warning message about a site I do the following:
Close the browser immediately. If it will not close I force it to close.
I then run Ccleaner.
I then run malwarebytes (quick scan).
I then run a quick AV scan.
Then I reboot.

So far (fingers crossed) I have not had an infection on my equipment for over 15 years...

At client sites, because actual data is backed up to a server, in case of infection I can re-image from their automated backup (which happens every night at a minimum) from a date prior to their infection. Usually this process takes about an hour and a half and they are running again.

News:

Author Topic: Time for a new laptop (Read 1711 times)