Cheap Laptops

[Vince53]

No, I'm not selling anything. I recently bought a cheap laptop (they cost about double in Mexico as they do in the US) and started reading the Acer Computer forums. I answered a few questions that were posted, and Acer made me a low-level question answerer.

Before buying any computer, before you put down any money, ask yourself "What do I want to use this machine for?" And the second most important question is "Do I want to play high-end games?"

If your answer is "Yes" to question 2, you should buy a desktop. If your answer is "No," I can give you some good free advice.

 

[Vince53]

Temperature is one of the great killers of laptops. Generally, the insides won't be destroyed until you hit 170F, but the parts will wear out faster at any high temperature. Merely placing some small object under the back of your laptop will raise the bottom off your desk, and that will drop the temperature about 10 degrees. You can buy a cooling fan that sits under your laptop--it will blow cooler air over the bottom, lowering the temperature about ten degrees. (Some critics point out that raising the laptop will accomplish just as much.)

With about 1/6 the inside space of a desktop, a laptop has to struggle to stay cool. Its one exhaust fan is smaller than the exhaust fans on a desktop. Its vents are smaller, and it has less surface area to radiate heat. Start playing high tech games, and you're heading for even more trouble.

But cheap laptops have an advantage over powerful ones. Their CPU (the computer chip) runs at a much lower temperature. With proper care, a cheap laptop can actually last you more than eight years.

 

[Vince53]

Besides temperature, another laptop killer is motion. People carry laptops around while they're still running. I've seen people put laptops down roughly, use them on bumpy bus and car trips, and pass them around at all angles. Yes, laptops are designed for this, but they wear out faster if you do it. Try to keep your laptop in one place. If you must move it, either shut it off or at least put it into Sleep mode.

 

[Vince53]

Years ago, when RAM was weak and expensive, we were advised to buy as much as we could afford. Today, when RAM is powerful and cheap, we don't need to do that. Only a few graphics-intensive programs (such as high-tech games) require more than 2 gigabytes of RAM. Buying more will not speed up your computer, although it will allow you to multi-task. Even then, it is unusual for a computer to need more than 4 gigs of RAM at the most.

 

[Vince53]

How long will a laptop last? Anything is possible, but if you treat your laptop the way most people do, it should last you three years. If you treat it the way I recommend (don't move it while it's on, don't play high-tech games, elevate it or use a cooling fan) it can last you eight years.

The incredible thing is that it doesn't matter how much you paid for the laptop. Cheap laptops last as long as expensive ones. Dell Computer (the only name brand that I recommend you never buy) is notorious for using parts that will wear out shortly after the warranty expires. Off-brands also wear out quickly. But the laptops from reputable companies all last about as long as each other.

The power of computers doubles about every eighteen months. And Windows comes out with a new operating system about every two years. And the cost of computers has been declining for decades. After three years, a cheap laptop is ready to be replaced.

 

[Vince53]

Nothing in the world drives people into a greater rage than warranties. So let me explain how laptop warranties work:

1) Warranties are written by legal experts to protect the company, not the buyer.
2) The company will do everything it can possibly do to get out of the warranty.
3) If the company CAN get out of the warranty, then the company IS out of the warranty.
4) If the company is out of the warranty, then it has no legal or moral obligation to help you.

When you buy a laptop, check on the store's return policy. If there is anything wrong with your new device, return it immediately, because getting the company to honor the warranty is going to be a very difficult experience.

 

[Vince53]

And now it's time to talk about money.

Back in the 1990's Windows Magazine advised its readers never to buy a top of the line computer. They advised that you buy a middle of the road machine, and eighteen months later, use the money you saved to buy another middle of the road machine. Your second computer would be more powerful than the top of the line model you had planned to buy. I have always seen this to be true. When you buy a top of the line computer, most software doesn't need it. By the time software catches up with you, your machine is obsolete.

About a year ago, another tech writer advised people not to buy laptops. Use the money to buy an equivalent desktop and a cheap netbook instead. Surprised, I looked at prices and found that he was right. Netbooks are hard to find these days, but cheap laptops are not. Rather than an expensive laptop, but a good desktop and a cheap laptop for the same amount of money.

 

[Vince53]

THE PROBLEM WITH MID-RANGE LAPTOPS

Loosely speaking, a mid-range laptop costs around $800. When people shell out that kind of money, they expect a laptop that does everything they want. They don't realize that at that price, a laptop can't possibly do everything they want, but the manufacturer can fake it.

On another forum, there were several complaints about a laptop that literally could do everything for $800. The problem was that it was packed with cheap parts and quickly developed hardware problems. Do you want a laptop with a touchscreen? The rest of the machine is cheapened up to absorb the cost. In other words, for $800, something has to go, but then people won't buy the machine. So something has to be cheapened up.

The best mid-range laptops have poor battery life. By saving costs there, the laptop can have better, longer-lasting parts elsewhere. But since you lose mobility, why not buy a much more powerful desktop instead?

 

[Vince53]

People don't realize that most mid-range laptops are bought for students. Whether high school or college, they want to play high-end games on their machine. And so you're paying for the ability to play high-end games on a machine that shouldn't be doing that, because the high temperatures will wear it out sooner. The costly graphics card won't do much to improve your web-surfing, but the manufacturer cheapened up other hardware to make up for the cost.

 

[Vince53]

In order to do everything that people expect for $800, laptops have to sacrifice something. Often, they use cheap parts to hold their costs down. On another forum, an upset poster told about his desktop replacement laptop (a laptop with a large screen). It was a $500 laptop with a 17.3" screen and four gigs of RAM. Professional reviewers marvelled at how they had fit so much into a low-cost machine. They mentioned that the screen was only mediocre quality, the cheap graphics card couldn't play high-tech games, and it was slow. And then the customer reviews came pouring in. One enraged purchaser after another described different parts that broke down a few months after purchase.

How did the manufacturer do so much for such a low price? He used cheap parts.

 

[Vince53]

How about a touchscreen for your mid-range laptop? A few months ago, that would add about $200 to the cost. Today you can buy VERY low-quality tablets for around $100 that have touchscreens. They can only connect to the internet by wireless (no DSL or cables), they have no keyboard, and they cannot use Windows. They only have one screen, and it is fully integrated with the entire tablet. But a laptop touchscreen is different.

Times might have changed, but a touchscreen laptop has two screens. The touchscreen is on top of the regular screen. And the software for the touchscreen is part of the Windows operating system, NOT THE MANUFACTURER'S SYSTEM. If the touchscreen fails, the warranty will not cover it, because it is a Microsoft problem. Microsoft will tell you to re-install Windows, and if that doesn't work, it is not their problem.

My advice? Because a laptop supports a real keyboard, you do not need a touchscreen. An $800 laptop with a touchscreen is a $600 laptop with unnecessary equipment.

 

[Vince53]

Despite my best efforts, I cannot define the price level of a high-end laptop. However, I can define the phrase itself. A high-end laptop does everything a laptop can do, plus it has high-quality parts. The rugged keyboard actually feels good, the powerful video card will still be above average years from now, the case is made of high-quality material, you can actually drop it (don't do it) without breaking it, its screen gives bright graphics so powerful that your eye can't see much of it, it has more RAM than it will ever use, and it goes on the internet at the highest possible speed. The more you spend, the more rugged the parts will be, but your computing experience will not improve much. However, the appearance will get steadily better if you spend more.

If you insist on buying such a machine (and I advise you not to), let me give you a word of advice: Get one with a separate installation DVD, and with a separate DVD that contains the drivers. Many desktops include these two DVDs, while many laptops have them on the hard drive. In the next few days, I'll explain why you want these on two separate DVDs.

 

[Vince53]

I had told people about folks who had bought a $5,000 XP laptop that is now less powerful than a cheap laptop. And then one owner wrote in on a forum. His $5,000, single-core, 32 bit XP machine only had two gigs of RAM, with a maximum of four. The screen was broken and the hard drive dead. He had sold it to someone and years later, after breaking it, they gave it back. But this monster of a bygone day could easily connect to a TV set. He installed a new hard drive with a copy of XP from another computer, connected it to a TV, and was enjoying internet videos.

Suddenly, a message from Microsoft appeared, telling him that his copy of XP was illegal, and they shut it down. He had no way to get the original key, and we couldn't help him. The best we could advise was for him to buy a legal copy of XP somewhere.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Suddenly, a message from Microsoft appeared, telling him that his copy of XP was illegal, and they shut it down. He had no way to get the original key, and we couldn't help him. The best we could advise was for him to buy a legal copy of XP somewhere.

His XP key should have been on a sticker on the underside of his laptop but of course it could have been removed. Also it is/was illegal to transfer an OEM copy of a Windows OS to another machine, in this case he could have rung MS and he may have got a free replacement - I've heard of this happening in cases of piracy.

Of course, if he wished to not spend any extra money he could have turned to one of the many fine free OS replacements out there

 

[Vince53]

And now, having bought an expensive, $2,000, high-end laptop, here is the biography of your machine. I am projecting today's prices, without adjusting for inflation, into the future. A high-level laptop costs about $2,000. The top of the line models are about $3,000. Beyond that, the only improvements are custom designing.

18 months: The power of computers has doubled, and you are about as powerful as a mid-level machine that costs about 40% as much as you did.

2 years: It might be possible to install the new Windows Operating System. You have enough excess RAM to handle it, but you will have a problem with the drivers. They are very specific, and they might not work with a new OS.

3 years: The power of computers has quadrupled. You are in the range of bottom-level laptops that cost 1/10 what you paid. But your superior video card and abundance of RAM are keeping you in the ring.

4 years: You probably cannot install the newest version of Windows. But there are still enough older programs around for you to do anything except play the latest high-tech games. And for only $200, you can be replaced by a much-better laptop.

4 1/2 years: Computers are eight times more powerful than they were. But for slower internet usage and running legacy software, you're still a good rig. The newest RAM chips cannot be installed in your motherboard, but you have enough of the obsolete chips to get by.

5 years and beyond: With good care, you should last at least two more years. I have seen three operating laptops that are ten years old and are useful for charity work. Hopefully, they will donate you to an orphanage or some other charity.

 

[C-Man]

I don't think that's quite accurate. :3
A high-end computer made 18 months from now isn't within miles of being twice as fast as a high-end model made today. Hardware is beginning to hit a wall as to how fast a CPU can be made, or a RAM chip. A Haswell i7 isn't twice as fast as an Ivy Bridge i7 by a long shot. They're maybe 20% up on them. Maybe. Probably the last time you could get a CPU that was twice as fast as its immediate predecessor was when the faster 386 parts came out and made the 286 mostly obsolete. (Even then, they were expensive as heck. )

Chipsets have changed little in the past couple of years. Mostly they've just added support for new processors. (AMD has, anyway. Intel's still doing the same old switcheroo with sockets that they've always done).

2 years/4 years: I don't see how. I've installed Windows 7 on several old Athlon XP-based systems from 2001-2004 without a problem, and it worked out just fine. They can handle Aero and HD video with a decent video card.

4 1/2 years: Nope. DDR3's been around for that long, and it doesn't show signs of going anywhere. Remember fast-page mode RAM? That was the standard for years. Plus, good old DDR2 is more than fast enough even today. And DDR3 has its own drawbacks. They increased the clock speed a great deal, sure. But the latency also went through the roof. It's yet another sign of the physical limitations of silicon-based hardware we're starting to see.

My own prediction: A computer made five years from now will maybe be half again as fast as one made today. Either that, or they're going to start making what's called 3D hardware, which more or less amounts to physically larger hardware to compensate for the laws of physics and the limits of transistors.

 

[Vince53]

Glad to have you aboard, C-Man. I'm glad that somebody besides me is finally writing on this thread. All courteous, Christian comments (like C-Man's) are welcome, even if they disagree with me.

 

[Vince53]

Okay, time for some Mickey Mouse Diagnostics. Mickey doesn't have the brains to fix your laptop, but he can at least figure out what's wrong.

The next time you turn on your laptop, look at the blinking lights. Learn what they do when your laptop is working. Later, if your laptop won't start up, look at the blinking lights. If they flash normally, your Power On Button, power cord, and internal power supply are working.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Chipsets have changed little in the past couple of years. Mostly they've just added support for new processors. (AMD has, anyway. Intel's still doing the same old switcheroo with sockets that they've always done).

At least AMD CPU cores are actual cores, not the virtual hyper-threading type that Intel employ to bump up the numbers. Depending on the OS and software running, hyoer-threading can actually slow the system down.

 

[Vince53]

Sounds like someone has a chip on his shoulder (Joke, joke, it was only a joke! I couldn't resist.)

Mickey's back, with another diagnostic tool so simple that anyone can understand it. When you start up, the first thing you see on your monitor is the "splash screen." It often contains the company logo or a Windows advertisement. But it's actually a diagnostic tool.

Once your power supply has turned on the flashing lights, it turns on your CPU. The CPU then turns on your BIOS chip. This is actually a ROM (Read Only Memory) chip and IT IS INDEPENDENT OF YOUR WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM. The BIOS chip tells your computer how to operate. While your computer can turn it on or off, your rig cannot control the BIOS chip. Anyway, the CPU turns on your BIOS chip, and the BIOS chip turns on your monitor. It then sends the splash screen to the monitor. If the splash screen appears, then your CPU, BIOS chip, monitor cable, and monitor are working.