Personal computing discussed

Moderators: renee, David, mac_h8r1, Nelliesboo

 
SecretSquirrel
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Topic Author
Posts: 2726
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: North DFW suburb...
Contact:

Quick opinion on a laptop...

Sun Feb 24, 2013 2:34 pm

I am needing to update my daughter's rather old system to something a little more current. Her big usage is school work (word processing, web browsing, some flash stuff), iTunes/Pandora, and the occasional YouTube. To give you an idea of what she is coming from, it's an AMD Sempron 2600+ @ 1.83Ghz w/ 1GB of RAM. So I was surfing today and came across this: http://1saleaday.com/wireless. It's the Asus X401A-BHPDN37 which is Intel Dual-Core B980 2.4GHz w/ 4GB RAM. Unfortunately, it comes with Windows 8 on it instead of 7 but I'll work around that I suppose. The only thing she needs Windows for in iTunes and I may see about setting her up with a VM on my VM host for that.

Anyway, I'm pondering getting it for her (in pink of course). Thoughts?

--SS
 
JohnC
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1924
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:08 pm
Location: NY/NJ/FL

Re: Quick opinion on a laptop...

Sun Feb 24, 2013 2:42 pm

If you (or rather she) won't need an optical drive - get it... Just make sure Asus has necessary Win7 drivers for all built-in devices for this model. If not - there are always Start menu replacements to make Win8 a somewhat tolerable OS :wink:
Gifter of Nvidia Titans and countless Twitch donation extraordinaire, nothing makes me more happy in life than randomly helping random people
 
SecretSquirrel
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Topic Author
Posts: 2726
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: North DFW suburb...
Contact:

Re: Quick opinion on a laptop...

Sun Feb 24, 2013 2:46 pm

JohnC wrote:
If you (or rather she) won't need an optical drive - get it... Just make sure Asus has necessary Win7 drivers for all built-in devices for this model. If not - there are always Start menu replacements to make Win8 a somewhat tolerable OS :wink:


For the few times an optical drive might be needed, an external USB is fine. As far as the OS goes, it would likely get Linux put on it. Our house is slowly moving completely away from Windows. I left long ago and my wife's school laptop is about to become a MacBook which will remove her tie to Windows too.

--SS
 
JohnC
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1924
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:08 pm
Location: NY/NJ/FL

Re: Quick opinion on a laptop...

Sun Feb 24, 2013 2:56 pm

Well, your daughter may still need Win for some school-related programs (maybe not right now) and also for iTunes, so no need to overcomplicate anything with Loonix installs and VMs :wink:
Gifter of Nvidia Titans and countless Twitch donation extraordinaire, nothing makes me more happy in life than randomly helping random people
 
ludi
Lord High Gerbil
Posts: 8646
Joined: Fri Jun 21, 2002 10:47 pm
Location: Sunny Colorado front range

Re: Quick opinion on a laptop...

Sun Feb 24, 2013 6:41 pm

13x7 screen resolution, but it's hard to get away from that without spending a lot more money. If you can do an SSD swap as part of the upgrade, it should hold for 3 years easily.

The only alternate I might suggest, although it would cost more, is an 11.6" model like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-V5-17 ... 029&sr=1-8

Main reason being is that some of Acer's smaller models, including this one near as I can tell, use a rubber-isolated hinge assembly that is nearly indestructible.
Abacus Model 2.5 | Quad-Row FX with 256 Cherry Red Slider Beads | Applewood Frame | Water Cooling by Brita Filtration
 
SecretSquirrel
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Topic Author
Posts: 2726
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: North DFW suburb...
Contact:

Re: Quick opinion on a laptop...

Sun Feb 24, 2013 6:49 pm

ludi wrote:
13x7 screen resolution, but it's hard to get away from that without spending a lot more money. If you can do an SSD swap as part of the upgrade, it should hold for 3 years easily.

The only alternate I might suggest, although it would cost more, is an 11.6" model like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-V5-17 ... 029&sr=1-8

Main reason being is that some of Acer's smaller models, including this one near as I can tell, use a rubber-isolated hinge assembly that is nearly indestructible.


I would never buy the 13x7 screen for myself. Even my 1440x900 work laptop drives me nuts. However, for her, I don't think it will be an issue. Nor am I worried about the SSD upgrade either. It is a cheap upgrade that I hope will last her through high school. I'll be surprised if it ever leaves our house. Actually, I'll be surprised if it leaves her room. But, she likes the idea of a laptop and I can see a time in the future where having a portable machine could be useful.

I pulled the trigger on it a few minutes ago. The amazon reviews were generally positive and of the more negative ones, perhap 1/3-1/2 were complaints about Win 8. I verified that Asus has Win7 drivers for everything so I can go that route if needed. I'm really thinking about the Linux + Win XP VM though...

Thanks to those that chimed in. Next I have to replace my 9 year old Thinkpad that is the house laptop. Actually thinking about a MacBook Pro w/ a retina display. It seems to be one of the cheapest ways to get a high res laptop.

--SS
--SS

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
GZIP: On