New laptop or not??

Darby_321

I currently have an acer aspire 6930g which is starting to show its wear, is it worth bringing it in too get it all repaired or should i get a new laptop. Current specs on acer is intel core 2 duo processors, 2.13 GHz, 1GB NVIDIA geforce 9600M GT TurboCache, 4 GB Ram, 320 GB HDD and 16 inch HD Acer CineCrystal LCD!!

Overheal

showing what signs of wear? What is it doing?

Specs wise its comparable to a new, but cheap laptop. Unless it's doing something really wrong, you can do some maintenance on it, such as reinstall the OS by performing a factory reset.

stevek93

Not at all a good reinstall of windows is all you need.

Torqay

Darby_321 wrote: »

intel core 2 duo processors, 2.13 GHz, 1GB NVIDIA geforce 9600M GT TurboCache, 4 GB Ram, 320 GB HDD and 16 inch HD Acer CineCrystal LCD!!

I just installed Windows 7 x64 on a similar machine (C2D 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM, GT 9600M). It is 6 years old and in top condition, the Windows Experience Index reported a total of 4.9 (Gaming: 6.2). No modern budget laptop can match this. So if your laptop is still in good shape, there is no reason to ditch it.

Darby_321

Torqay wrote: »

I just installed Windows 7 x64 on a similar machine (C2D 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM, GT 9600M). It is 6 years old and in top condition, the Windows Experience Index reported a total of 4.9 (Gaming: 6.2). No modern budget laptop can match this. So if your laptop is still in good shape, there is no reason to ditch it.

ya thats the same rating mine has.
at the moment the wifi is kinda dodgy on the laptop, keeps losing the connection after a while, think the screen connection is bit loose cas screen does flicker at times and think the charger port is bit loose or something because have to have wire kept in certain position to charge the laptop

Torqay

Darby_321 wrote: »

at the moment the wifi is kinda dodgy on the laptop, keeps losing the connection after a while

Most likely a software issue.

Darby_321 wrote: »

think the screen connection is bit loose cas screen does flicker at times

Re-seating the the connector might solve that.

Darby_321 wrote: »

think the charger port is bit loose or something because have to have wire kept in certain position to charge the laptop

Get a quote for a new DC jack to be soldered on the motherboard.

While they have it open, ask to get the dust and fluff blown out and have them re-seat the memory, WLAN adapter and display connector.

Shouldn't be too expensive and well worth it if you get another two or three years out of it.

Darby_321

ok thanks alot, ill do that so

ED E

Get a stress test done on the 9600m, they have a tendency to die.

Torqay

ED E wrote: »

they have a tendency to die.

Well, don't we all, Ed?

Anyway, I wouldn't spend more then a 100 yoyos. Anything in excess isn't really viable, considering the age.

Darby_321

Well just brought the laptop into a shop to get repaired and he said it not worth it and to get a new one, not what I wanted to hear but sure what can you do! Now time to start looking for new laptop, anyone any ideas? Need a pretty good laptop that will do me through four years of software design in college!

Torqay

Darby_321 wrote: »

Need a pretty good laptop that will do me through four years of software design in college!

Some preferred brand? Your requirements (graphics for gaming, display size, battery life)? And last but not least, your budget?

Overheal

Software design in education is almost exclusively x86 based; the higher-end Intel CPU you can afford, all the better. Graphics won't likely matter a damn. If you require it, your school will usually supply workstations with GPUs that fall well outside your budget anyway (our games Dev course, once you reached third year, had some ridiculously high end towers. I never got to fondle the specs but I new they were a couple grand a piece). For the earlier years if you deal in 3D at all, will usually be light stuff like OpenGL basic geometry. Anything can handle that. The big thing is the CPU, it will be crunching the compiler. RAM doesn't hurt, but you likely won't benefit too much from more than 6GB. Hard Drive space is handy too, and so is a NUM pad, but shouldn't make or break your final purchase decision. I don't reccomend anything larger than 15.6", your work flow won't benefit from it anyway. If, and when you need it, just buy an external monitor and work in dualscreen. It helps a lot. Especially if you buy a monitor that can orient in Portrait mode, it makes coding a breeze.

Darby_321

I don't have a preference for any brand or anything but overheal is right, we have some serious alienware computers in the college with 3D monitors and they will be used for any of the serious stuff we need to do! I just want a good laptop that can be used to play games occasionally and be able to run the software that we will be using. I am open to any suggestions, hoping to not spend over 650.

Jarren

You'd need a lot of processing power for your needs

My pick would go to this based on your budget

http://www.amazon.de/Pavilion-dv6-6c40eg-Notebook-Intel-2670QM/dp/B006OZILTC/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1346243787&sr=1-1

Grab extra Ram from http://www.crucial.com/uk/

It comes with German keyboard/soft but it can be changed if necessary.

Darby_321

This is a good one one of my friends showed me

http://www.expert.ie/Product/Samsung-NP355V5CA03UK-AMD-A8-8Gb-RAM-1Tb-155-inch-Laptop-Silver/298062/6.1

Darby_321

Or this one

http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90471898/fujitsu-lifebook-ah532.asp

Jarren

Darby_321 wrote: »

This is a good one one of my friends showed me

http://www.expert.ie/Product/Samsung-NP355V5CA03UK-AMD-A8-8Gb-RAM-1Tb-155-inch-Laptop-Silver/298062/6.1

Not good ^ , the cpu is just not up to the job I'd say

Darby_321 wrote: »

Or this one

http://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90471898/fujitsu-lifebook-ah532.asp

Very wise choice ^

Darby_321

Ino it's a serious laptop but I'd prefer not to have ta spend that much money

Overheal

Jarren wrote: »

Not good ^ , the cpu is just not up to the job I'd say

It'll compile, but it's definitely not the best fit for coding. There was a time when some AMDs couldnt even compile at all but it's not relevant to modern time, except to say AMD will typically lag behind an Intel on x86 performance.

Having said all this? I compiled my homework on an old-ass AMD :P in practical application it just takes a few moments longer to compile