Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The Search for Sp- I mean a New Computer

Alas, the time has come to retire my Acer Aspire Laptop (circa 2006); not that there is really anything wrong with it (it's survived being rained on - twice at least, several different liquids, up to and including milk, spilled over the keyboard, dropped, banged around...it's been abused, to put it mildly).  I mean, the wi-fi adaptor doesn't work anymore for some reason (the driver is corrupted?), but I have an external adaptor for that.

It quite capably runs Windows XP, but the slower hardware is starting to show its age.  I can't even watch Doctor Who over at http://www.spacecast.com/, because the video is too choppy!  And then there's also the sound recording/editing that I like to do - well, unfortunately the poor bugger suffers a little there, too.

I would add more RAM, but I can't seem to find any that's compatible with my specific laptop.  And I can't be bothered trying to put in a new Hard Drive - too much work!  So the solution is: buy a new laptop to last me another 5 years (if not longer).

The only thing is that I have no idea where to start.  All I know about what I want is this:
- Plenty of HD space - 500GB seems to be the average, but anything over 320GB for me is gravy...I have a lot less than that right now between my two computers
- Ample RAM.  I don't know what qualifies as ample though - consider the most I have right now is 512MB. Is 2GB okay?
- Should run Windows 7 (though I think that is standard these days, right?)
- Graphics / screen size are not a big concern. Basically I want a screen that is fairly large but I don't need the Largest Honkin' Screen On The Market
- Oh yeah, the important one: I don't want to spend too much money.

It seems that everywhere I've looked - for laptops at least - when you start paying less money, you also get less HD space and RAM.  I don't know where I can find something that sacrifices other things in place of HD space and memory.

I need help.  Does anyone want to help?

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