Computer Stuffs

[lunargryffin]

Soooo....for those of you that don't know, my laptop has been slowly deteriorating over the course of 5 years. It was actually a good model at the time I bought it, and had one of the newer processor models(at the time), but now I really need a new one.

It's falling apart. I literally had to TAPE the side of the stupid monitor together. I also repeatedly get these stupid white lines, static, and screen black-outs almost all the time for no apparent reason. Warranties also expired 2 years ago, and...yea. I'm still going to keep this one, but...yea. Need a new one.

I also have a Desktop, but that thing is around eight years old now, and lags a lot...it's also a desktop, and I kinda like the option of working on stuff from my room, where people are less likely to interrupt me and such.

First off, I'm on a budget with this, so I probably can't go over $400 USD. Now I'm fine with this seeing as A) some of those specs are better than my current computers and 2)I don't do anything processor-intensive anyway.

I also want Windows 7 on it, not XP. XP is a 10 year old OS at this point, and I have performance issues with it. My laptop can barely run XP at this point, and it takes forever to load. And while the Desktop runs it, it's slow and lags kinda bad. I blame XP on this, as I'm pretty sure that upgrading my Desktop to Windows 7 would magically fix most of its performance issues(yes, its hardware can support 7). Now I don't care which version of 7, so it would either be Starter(Netbook) or Home Premium(laptop) just to save money.

Which brings us to the netbook vs. laptop purchase debate. I'm seriously thinking about just getting a netbook instead, because I like the portability and small size(current laptop isn't too good for taking places). The limitations of Windows 7 Starter also don't bug me at all(half of those are things I wouldn't use anyway), so that's not an issue. Now I am a bit worried about the netbook having performance issues and being slow, since a laptop would have better specs, so that's the main reason why I'm not sure. All I really do on here anyway is use the internet, type, read borrowed library material on adobe digital editions, and draw stuff, and none of that is particularly processor-intensive. Also not sure about the reduced screen, but I'll probably figure that one out when we go look at them at Wal-Mart(yea...I'll prolly get it there because of the discount).

Yeah...so does anyone here either actually use a netbook and can give me feedback on those things? I know Durgon has one, but not sure over anyone else. I'm rather curious about those, since I never used one before. If not, anyone have some advice on purchasing this stuff, things to avoid, or things I should know about before getting one? We're still going to look around some before actually getting one, but yeah. Figured I'd ask here.

-L

[IcestarRiver]

I love my Dell Laptop and it almost never crashes, had it for 3 years.

Whenever I use Netbooks they're slow, but that's my opinion. I don't know how bad yours is.

[Kingmana]

Hmm...you know I can't randomly give you models of netbook/laptops at all, but I will try to help somehow

I use a laptop too, I have this one for like four years and it's working pretty well (not that well, but atleast it hasn't changed since the time I bought it), but you know, you have to choose a good netbook/laptop that can afrod the pass of time, you can't buy one that will get useless in two years because some parts get broken, so it will better if you could find comments/specifications of the things you are buying, that will help you a lot, and can evoid mistakes at the time of choose

Now for the netbook/laptop type well...you have to know exactly what are you looking, but I kinda guess you have that on mind, the netbook will be easier to take and so, but it has some limits you have to know (again, the specification thing). The laptop can be good too, if you buy one that you could take more easy, you can't take a heavy one like you want, that a problem you have to solve, but if you are using the computer for that, maybe you are right, a netbook could work better

And getting to a comment for the Windows thing because I fell like. I have XP too, and yeah, its takes a lot to load and it gets lagg sometime, but I blame the computer for that, not the hardward (since the concept if the ''form of use'' and not ''what do you use'') neverless, I know XP is kinda old, but I am not going to change to 7 until it really necessary. That would be three main reasons
1- The Windows 7 have some problem running some old program I use (like I had heard) so it will be a big problem for me if I can't use those programs I need
2- I don't really like the order for the Windows 7, I hate the main bar and so, it's completaly different from what I use with XP, so...
3- It's really difficult to me to get custom to ''changes'' (every type) so like the first 10 weeks I am going to fight with the computer only to open a new window on the IE or so, not getting to details, go figure

And that all I think, that the best I can do for help

[lunargryffin]

Replying to this after a week, mainly because I actually did more research and such.

About OS': XD. It's your choice, Kingmana. Nobody's forcing you to upgrade, so you can definitely keep XP on yours. The only thing is that Microsoft is ending extended support for Windows XP in 2014(3 years from now). You can still use it after that, but they won't support it or release bugfixes or anything, so that's a possible issue(though by now, you'd think most of it would be fixed with how old it is).
Windows 7 professional + higher has an XP Mode to support older programs just fine. However, the main issue with that(besides paying extra money for professional) is speed. It's basically virtualizing actual XP software like in vmware, except it integrates into 7. This means that unless your computer has awesome specs, it's going to be slow,laggy, & a pain to use. This is why I prefer dual-booting to running the 2nd OS by virtualization stuff.

Yea, I'm all for dual-booting Windows XP & Windows 7 on the same computer, because that's just awesome. (I know this is my topic, but just for anyone else that wants to know this stuff). I've done it before too, actually.

Netbook purchase won't happen til near the end of the month, so I have a few weeks to figure it out:

Processor: I want a halfway-decent processor, at least, but I really don't know too much over them. the atom 550 is a dual-core one like my laptop's current one, and while dual-core works awesome on my laptop, I'm not really sure how much a netbook would benefit from it(it's also only 1.5GHz). There's also some atom 450, 455, and amd v105's lying around with some of these, so yea. issues.

Memory: I'm actually fine with this, seeing as 1GB is how much my laptop has anyway, and my desktop is either 512MB or 1GB(forget which). Most of these are at least upgradeable to 2GB, though some of them have the memory slot in really inconvenient places like under the keyboard, which would involve either paying someone to install it, or practically taking the thing apart. So yea, I'd prefer a slot that's somewhat-easy to get to.

I'm also fine with Windows 7 Starter, seeing as the stuff it doesn't have are features I wouldn't use on this thing anyway. And I can always dual-boot it with another OS if I had to.

There was more I wanted to maybe put in here, but I forgot what. =/

[DDC]

I don't know much about this sort of thing, but don't get a Lenovo one, they are from Walmart. This one isn't a year old and the plug hole is wiggly, and it's to the point now that the plug has to be a certain way for it to pick up a charge. =/

[lunargryffin]

that's okay. But yea, really good to know about Leveno, considering I'll probably go to wal-mart, just because I want the discount. =/

though gee, I hate it when that happens to plugs.