Will my Laptop last?

[deusex]

I have a Dell Laptop (2004) version, an Inspiron 8600, with a Pentium M CPU 1.5 Ghz, 512 DDR RAM, Nvidia geforce go5200 64MB GPU, 4200 rpm Ultra-ATA hard drive.

The hard drive crashed a few days ago, and the dilemna is right now that Should I get a new 50-60$ HD, or a new laptop altogether? - I am customizing a $1800 Desktop with an E6600, 7900 GT, 2GB DDR2 800 RAM, and the works, and Would also like a laptop around - I would do light gaming on the laptop, preferring to surf the web/listen to music/BT/watch movies instead - before it crashed, the Dell was acceptable for these things, however the gaming and CPU usage was not that good. My desktop I would do heavy work/gaming on, so, again, my question is, should I get a new laptop, or are the stats for my old one ok?
-going to run WinXP Pro on it.


If I do get a new one, my budget would be around 1300$, and keep for for about 2-3 years. - think the dell can last that long?

 

[haywood]

What is a better deal, $50 for a HD or $1300 for a new machine.

If you have the money to burn............

Personally, I would not replace an otherwise functional machine. Heck, you could always replace the HD and get a new laptop. Then you would have three toys.

 

[zenmaster]

Get the new HDD.

A few bucks for a HDD is nothing compared to the cost of the laptop.
If the lap gets you another year of acceptable use, you win.
Heck, if it gets you 6months you win.

 

[mesarectifier]

Get the new HD. That laptop is relatively similar to mine (1.5ghz, GFGo5200) and if it happened to mine I'd replace the hard drive fo' sho'.

 

[chenBrazil]

If your laptop usage is ok for you...get new HD ... upgrades can be done in a new laptop, as more RAM , better video...but may not impact your life seriously ... geting a core 2 duo notebook with go force 7900 GT video and 2 GB of ram could improve your gamming possibilities without any question... will be much better in video editing... but will be the same thing for your actual timing for internet , office programs and etc... so must check carefully your needs... I changed my Pentium M notebook for a core duo one... I got only better performance in photoshop editing and in video edition ... for me it does worthwhile... but for my wife which ocasionally use my laptop for her word files... this new toy is just like the previous one... so get a new HD...and check if you really need that power you mentioned... if you need a new toy...well that's another story...

 

[shadowduck]

I have a Dell Laptop (2004) version, an Inspiron 8600, with a Pentium M CPU 1.5 Ghz, 512 DDR RAM, Nvidia geforce go5200 64MB GPU, 4200 rpm Ultra-ATA hard drive.

The hard drive crashed a few days ago, and the dilemna is right now that Should I get a new 50-60$ HD, or a new laptop altogether? - I am customizing a $1800 Desktop with an E6600, 7900 GT, 2GB DDR2 800 RAM, and the works, and Would also like a laptop around - I would do light gaming on the laptop, preferring to surf the web/listen to music/BT/watch movies instead - before it crashed, the Dell was acceptable for these things, however the gaming and CPU usage was not that good. My desktop I would do heavy work/gaming on, so, again, my question is, should I get a new laptop, or are the stats for my old one ok?
-going to run WinXP Pro on it.


If I do get a new one, my budget would be around 1300$, and keep for for about 2-3 years. - think the dell can last that long?

I have the same laptop, except its 32MB video and 1.8GHz Pentium M. I am going to replace it before the year is out because it just struggles on some tasks that I handle with work. It mainly is a dog with SQL server which I must run for support purposes. (My company sells an application whose backend is SQL Server.)

If the machine still does everything you want to- I would upgrade the RAM to 1GB and replace the hard drive. You can probably get another few years out of it, and probably even run Vista if you wanted to.

 

[deusex]

OK - I most likely will get a new HD, and keep it for 6 months to a year, depending on how long it will last - also, If I get a new connector:

http://ecopc.ru/ecopc/special/pic/8600_1.gif

The hard drive is on the left side of the laptop, closest to the corner facing you, that rectangle with a speaker and a headphone port on it. If you see it, you get my problem? - the hard drive comes out with the edge with the ports attached to it, so if I get a new HD, wth? 0 to make things more complex, the connector is strange - only one line of needles, not 2 like ultra-ata regular...

 

[zenmaster]

Does Windows/Bios report it as IDE?

Try pulling the odd connector off the HDD.
I had a laptop (Toshiba) that placed an odd connector on the end that needed to be pulled off and put on the new HDD.

Actually, check the make model of the HDD.
This should help you confirm there is indeed an odd thing they added and not something really bizarre.

 

[Sean618]

Sorry nothing to do with the question.

If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG

General Motors responded to this comment by releasing the statement: "Yes, but would you want your car to crash twice a day?"

 

[angry_ducky]

Like others have said, get a new HDD. I'd go for a 60GB, 7200RPM HDD, unless they don't make them for ATA. Your graphics card is pretty weak for gaming, but it's far better than integrated gfx, and you can't upgrade it.

 

[rodney_ws]

As an owner of a Dell laptop (Inspiron E1505) I would like to point out an observation of mine... at work, we use ThinkPads exclusively and it's pretty clear they're built to higher standards. They're more drop resistant (they have an g-force detector that parks the HD when you drop it) and also have metal hinges connecting the LCD to the base of the laptop... this Dell feels considerably more fragile. That said... this is my personal property and I treat it as such... those ThinkPads at work do not belong to the individual employees and are likely subjected to more "rigorous" (for lack of a better word) use.

In summary... buy the Dell and be careful with it. If you're constantly dropping things, go with an IBM (err... Lenovo)

 

[deusex]

Haven't dropped it yet (for the 2 and a half years I've had it)