I like them small, and strong. Laptops, that is. And mine is not so strong anymore. I currently write this post from an Asus EEEPC that I bought in December 2009 for around $450. No, I don’t have a spreadsheet with the exact cost, I am a bad PF blogger, I know…
Anyway, I have been very happy with my little laptop who has endured about 18 months of traveling to over 30 countries, he was stored in the panniers of my motorcycle, taken out every day after miles of bumpy roads, and never complained. I thought it would die when we got to Reno and rented a room to a family with a virus on their wifi but their neighbor came to fix it and a few weeks later we ended up staying with an IT professional via Airbnb who added some RAM and gave it back to me like new.
Not it bears the Guatemalan sun, the humidity, but I feel it is about to die.
And this laptop is one of my most valued possessions. It is my office, my source of income, my phone, my entertainment system, my daily source of social interaction, the heart of this blog… I call my family, chat with friends, check my investments, transfer money to live, find out if my rents were paid, watch movies, read books, and much more.
If it suddenly dies tomorrow, I could go to the next town, buy an overpriced laptop and mainly have a choice between two or three laptops that fit my size and strength criteria. I can’t really spend more than a couple of days without a connection unexpectedly, my family has to be able to reach me unless I warn them beforehand that I will be out of reach for a week. The urgency of replacing the laptop would certainly lead to a bad rushed choice.
Or, I can buy a new laptop next month on my European/maybe US trip. Better quality, better price, free delivery probably, no import taxes on the way back. I hate waste, so would I use the old laptop until it dies, and then risk opening a brand new laptop to find it faulty after weeks in the humidity? I could keep using the old one to download movies (not good for your hard drive) and the new one for text and internet. Or have BF sell the old one to recoup my costs, he is really good at selling and bartering stuff.
Or, I hope that it doesn’t die so soon, and by the time it eventually passes, go and buy a new laptop from the nearby town. What if I am screaming wolf and it really has a year more to live? If that happens twelve months from now, I would save my cash from twelve months, and get a better laptop than I would right now. Those things change so fast. I have a 120Gb drive and I think the norm is 500Gb now. Maybe in a year it will be 750Gb.
Do I really need all that? Not really. Rare are the people who use their computers at capacity. I am pretty sure we could all have 10 year old laptops and be just fine, but we want bigger, faster all the time. And companies would have nothing to sell us if they admitted we don’t need half the stuff our computers can do.
Bearing that in mind, I could take my laptop to get a quick clean and fix at a local store. How much longer would that buy me, no idea. How good would the job be, another unknown parameter. It would be better to do it before a problem occurs, have a little spring cleaning and see how long it lasts performing fast.
I have a theory that the first generation of items is the best and sturdiest. Brands want a good, flawless image. My EEEPC is first generation and friends who bought a year after me have problems with theirs. Keeping it would make sense.
What would you do? Any brand you recommend if I buy a new laptop? Have you made a backup recently?
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I’d take advantage of your trip and pick one up.
I don’t currently have a laptop – have been putting off buying one as I have a work laptop _ ipad. Thinking we’ll get one in Kuala Lumpur, our first stop.
SE Asia is super cheap for electronics! but compare prices first so you have a range in mind, and check where the guarantee is valid
I feel the complete opposite about gen 1 products. Even if they are tested in house, there’s nothing like thousands of customers testing them in actual everyday use to figure out what goes wrong and fix it in the next batch.
Can you supplement your laptop with another device? That’s what we did with my computer, which was 7 years old by the time it was replaced. We supplemented it with a tablet since the video card on the old computer was old enough that it couldn’t do video, etc.
that is a good idea, but since I use a USB modem I need a USB plug for internet and I think tablets don’t have them. Will have to check, thanks for the idea.
I’ve been rocking the same macbook since 2006 and it is still going strong. Of course now it is basically an internet surfing device. I have thought about replacing it, but instead we got an ipad over xmas and that has been a lovely supliment and allows us to use facetime like everyone else in the family.
So basically I have no recommendation for a PC since I haven’t really used one for personal use since 2001 and that was because I couldn’t run the software I needed in my engineering classes on a mac.
I don’t really like Mac, have tried on my mother’s and I have an Ipod but I think I’ll stick with PC. The only tempting thing is they have less viruses.
I would personally take advantage of your upcoming trip and buy one then. That way you can take advantage of better selection and pricing. We would be in major trouble as well if we lost our laptops as we do almost everything but feed & change the kids on them. 😉
Hope you backup regularly!
What problems are you having with your existing machine? If you are just worried about humidity, then you shouldn’t be. While specifications say keep it under 80% humidity, in reality, as long as you don’t have condensation, you shouldn’t have any problems. Any a new machine would have the same issue as well, unless you bought a ruggedized machine which are NOT light.
The most common points of failure in a laptop are the battery and hard drive. Batteries wear out, that is a simple fact of life, but a new battery is a lot cheaper than a new laptop. A hard drive can be replaced cheaply and easily as well and if you get one of the new solid state drives, those are almost immune to failure.
I have replaced the battery and it lasts a good 3 hours. I am afraid of overheating, the fan makes a lot of noise and the computer gets really hot. When I have a few tabs open or several programs, the programs lapse for anywhere from 10 sec to a couple of minutes and if that happens more and more it would slow me down quite a bit. Changing the hard drive could be an option too, thanks for the idea.
I would get it when you travel. You will have a better selection and price. Yes, you don’t know when your current one will bite the dust, but you should be prepared with a backup. I can’t recommend a brand because I have used many and they all work as advertised.
I’d look at a Samsung Chromebook or see if you can get one online?
I had a look, they are really neat, except for the disk space, 16Gb, I need to put movies, pictures, etc on that.
Just grab an external USB hard drive. Storage is really cheap now…
you’re right, probably a hard drive that doesn’t spin, don’t know how they call them, to avoid potential failures.
If you have a good laptop, keep it forever. KEEP IT GOING if you can.
The newer ones are just such crap today. The best of the worst are Macbook Pros because the body is sturdy and lasts beyond plastic covers and crap.
I had a Dell in the past, that died within 2 years.
Toshiba died within 2 years.
Sony died within 3 years — now it just won’t turn on for more than 2 hours.
The best one I had so far was a Dell Netbook that lasted quite long. I sold it, but it was the best computer I had out of all the laptops. Seems like the more you pay with PCs, the less quality you get.
If I needed another PC (which I will in the future once I get a contract, as my current one dies after an hour), I’d look into an Acer. It’d probably last just as long as the other “name brands”.
Right now though, I can’t say enough about how durable my Macbook Pro and my Macbook Air is. The cheaper Mac is crap (the white plastic frame).
If your laptop just seems to be running sluggish, I would recommend downloading CCleaner – you can use this clear any temporary files and cookies that may be stored on your computer, who knows what you might have saved!
Another tip is in the tab for ‘tools’ in CCleaner there is a section for the ‘startup’ – programs that launch when your computer starts. If you have a bunch of updaters that automatically launch, or programs that are not essential you can disable these so they don’t run in the background to slow your computer down. Just remember not to disable anything if you don’t know what it is, it could be something important!
I’m facing a similar situation. My take is to get a quick fix, but if the place of service is reliable. Extending the life of an existing machine for a low price, instead of buying a new one, can be a money-saving move!
The fact that you use your laptop for business/money-making activities, and that it’s your main connection to the rest of the world, and that you travel around the world…I’d say you can justify getting a nice new one 😉
My laptop is an el cheapo Acer. I actually won it in a raffle. I paid $20 for a ticket, so it was a super bargain. It’s over 2 years old, and while maybe not as pretty or fancy as my husband’s Toshiba, it works just fine and I’ve had no problems, knock on wood.
If you think your laptop is on it’s last legs use the opportunity while back home or in the US to score a good deal. The fact that you use it for your business, well everything means either you wait it out to see what happens and potentially have to pay more for one with less selection or you take the proactiv approach and upgrade now. Computers really do my head in though the way we can burn through them. Good luck with your decision.
I rely on my laptop for everything. I used my last one until it was more expensive to fix than to buy a new one. This laptop that I’m using now is not the best but I’m thinking it should last me for another year. It was purchased in 2009,but not used for a couple of years.
I just bought a new laptop and it was EXPENSIVE. Painfully so. But then I thought about the cost breakdown. I used my previous laptop every day for five years all around the world for several hours a day- for work, for play, for entertainment, for correspondence, for just about everything. My laptop is the single most utilized thing I own- it’s absolutely worth the cost.
You are right, on a cost per use basis it is pretty cheap. I am looking into the ones that have a stick hard drive instead of a disk because the disk can be damaged quickly if you travel a lot, while the memory stick is just one piece of hardware. Hope it lasts 5 years like yours!
I’d definitely just pick up a new laptop. Laptops are cheaper and more durable now than ever. And you could even just get one of those little netbooks if you just need to surf the web.