captain_amazing
Footballguy
I've heard this topic come up around here a few times and numerous times in my day-to-day life, so I figured I'd start a topic around it. I'm not a silver-bullet expert on builds, but do have some experience.
My latest project was a rebuild of my nearly 10-year old laptop. I bought it when I was a junior in college - I wasn't as experienced with builds and whatnot then, so I didn't really make the best choice in what I purchased. Within the past 2 years, I've barely used it, as the battery was toast, it overheats significantly, and the processor and HDD simply couldn't meet my expectations (which were at a much higher level, with my 2-year old desktop build). So, I've been toying around with the basic thought that many have: do I purchase a new laptop or do I upgrade the components?
With a laptop, these kinds of questions can be more difficult, as some of the core components (e.g. graphics card, mobo, etc.) cannot be upgraded (either at all or not easily). Likewise, other components are not the easiest to upgrade, unless you have experience disassembling and reassembling laptops.
My laptop is a HP Pavillion DV3t-2000 - it was running a 2.1 Duo Intel Centrino, 4G memory, 250 HDD, and a nvidia geforce 150m. I priced out a couple of refurbs that ha newer processors and SSDs, and compared that to upgrading the processor, storage drive, and battery. After some thought, I ended up going with the upgrade ($160 versus $400) and have been pleasantly surprise - a new 2.8 Duo Intel Centrino, a 250 SSD, and a new battery. It still has pretty bad overheating issues, which are related to the crapshoot GPU, but it's usability and performance have been through the roof. I think I've extended it's life by about 3-5 years or so, and will actually use it now.
If you have had thoughts about doing a rebuild or a new build, or have already done so, post it hear. If you need advice or can give advice (I'll attempt to), ask or post away.
My latest project was a rebuild of my nearly 10-year old laptop. I bought it when I was a junior in college - I wasn't as experienced with builds and whatnot then, so I didn't really make the best choice in what I purchased. Within the past 2 years, I've barely used it, as the battery was toast, it overheats significantly, and the processor and HDD simply couldn't meet my expectations (which were at a much higher level, with my 2-year old desktop build). So, I've been toying around with the basic thought that many have: do I purchase a new laptop or do I upgrade the components?
With a laptop, these kinds of questions can be more difficult, as some of the core components (e.g. graphics card, mobo, etc.) cannot be upgraded (either at all or not easily). Likewise, other components are not the easiest to upgrade, unless you have experience disassembling and reassembling laptops.
My laptop is a HP Pavillion DV3t-2000 - it was running a 2.1 Duo Intel Centrino, 4G memory, 250 HDD, and a nvidia geforce 150m. I priced out a couple of refurbs that ha newer processors and SSDs, and compared that to upgrading the processor, storage drive, and battery. After some thought, I ended up going with the upgrade ($160 versus $400) and have been pleasantly surprise - a new 2.8 Duo Intel Centrino, a 250 SSD, and a new battery. It still has pretty bad overheating issues, which are related to the crapshoot GPU, but it's usability and performance have been through the roof. I think I've extended it's life by about 3-5 years or so, and will actually use it now.
If you have had thoughts about doing a rebuild or a new build, or have already done so, post it hear. If you need advice or can give advice (I'll attempt to), ask or post away.
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