[Discuss] My HP Pavilion's HD bit the dust and it is 13 years old, so instead of replacing the disk again, I would like a new laptop. But I would like to pay <$300. I do not expect the best or the biggest. I have been told that some computers do not l

[Robert Krawitz]

On Sun, 31 May 2015 17:12:19 -0400, Bill Ricker wrote:
>>> Is it my imagination, or are 8 year old laptops much more physically
>>> robust than their modern counterparts?
>
>> My ThinkPad T43 (IBM-logo'd, but references it was manufactured by Lenovo on
>> the bottom) is still going. Its BIOS is from 2005 and is happily running
>> Fedora today.
>
> Yeah.  T61 here.  Just bought a second cheap (no battery, honestly missing).

Can't speak for other brands, but I've owned a succession of Dell
Inspiron (8000, 8200, 9400) and Precision (M6500) laptops, all of
which feel solidly built.  The M6500 probably feels the sturdiest
(it's certainly the heaviest).  Other than replacing the keyboard a
few times, most likely because of my rather abusive habits of letting
food crumbs too close to it, and the latch breaking (a known weak
spot), I've had no trouble with it over the (almost) 4 years I've
owned it (I bought it used).  The lid has been fine, which wasn't the
case with the 8000 and 8200 (had to replace various parts multiple
times).  Historically I've kept laptops an average of 3-4 years; I
spent more on the M6500 with the intent of keeping it longer, and so
far so good.  I'm not sure what I'd replace it with, since the newer
ones have HD screens rather than WUXGA, but hopefully that won't come
up for a while.

I haven't heard such good things about lower end Dells, but I've never
owned one.
-- 
Robert Krawitz                                     <rlk at alum.mit.edu>

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