Tockalosh

Couple of questions to those who know computers if I may.

4 years ago I bought a HP Presario V6000 laptop drunk on the way home in Abu Dhabi. It has run 24/7 pretty much every day since purchase. Besides the keypad being destroyed by the 2 year old, it still looks, sounds and operates pretty much as it did the day I woke up in bed with the box and no recollection of buying it.
Now I do have a Toshiba external hard drive connected so if it does die then hopefully it will have backed the important bits up

So anyone any idea how long a typical HP lap top running 24/7 will last before an uneconomical repair will arrise ?

I have been mooching around the duty frees as travelling a lot at the moment and as the wife is thinking about a laptop for herself then it may be time to get a new main laptop and she can have the HP.

I generally have a house full of Sony stuff, in fact everything in the house is Sony bar the HP laptop and scanner printer so perhaps a Sony laptop would be the logical choice?

Typical use as follows
Internet searching
uploading photos etc
Used for watching DVD's at bed time
Burning CD's and DVD's
Playing music (speaker quality not important as just treated myself to Bose Companion)
Will be used for gaming when my eldest son comes to stay
Decent (?) sized memory
Decent sized screen as eyeballs are buggered
Must look pleasing
Budget 6000 aed-ish
Must be a laptop by the way in case it needs to get thrown in the bag for a quick getaway.

Any simple replies as I am dim computer wise as the above email shows. If anyone could recommend a particular model from experience and within budget then even better as I dont get any sense from the duty free sales guys.

Millhouse

The one I'm posting this from has been going since 2006...

I reinstall and hoover it about every 6-12 months.

Tockalosh

Thanks MH, maybe a good hoovering may be a worthwhile investment of time.

spent an hour on the Sony website and ended up with something looking about right after some configuration at 1100 gbp

It may be better to just give the wife some more jobs to do during the day so she hasnt got time to go surfing the web or facebooking.

iamthestig

I've been running an Intel i3 based Sony E series Vaio with HD graphics for the past 9 months, hooked up via HDMI to a 32inch LED TV and it's been faultless, and more than adequate for what you are talking about, cost me about 4000 SAR.

Only thing I've changed (apart from getting rid of the Sony bloatware) is bumped up the RAM to 8GB, which only cost 300 SAR, 3 minutes to fit.

Unless you want to play games or do video editing, I wouldn't bother with anything more powerful.

Oyibopeppeh

I have a Vaio laptop (my company machine), which is good...but for everything else - including when I'm traveling for work - I take my MacBook Pro 13. It's just so much more user friendly!

Forget most of what you hear about software incompatibility, with the exception of some technical and design software, you can get everything you need for Mac.

norsk

Macs are top quality hardware, and the software incompatibility is definitely a myth. I have had quite a few Macs through the years and they can rarely be faulted. I do however have a love-hate relationship with them as OSX leaves a lot to be desired sometimes. Yes it may be user-friendly and has the ability to play around with core configuration through terminal, but it just is not as good as Windows 7.

Re Sony laptops they used to be over-priced, under-specced and sold well based on perceived quality (Sony has to be good right?).

HP has been the biggest seller of laptops for a few years and it shows in the range and quality. However it is possible to buy something specced too much on the light side due to them trying to reach all target markets.

So what would I buy? No idea to be honest, but I would stick with one of the big brands (and stay far far away from Dell). And don't expect the damn thing to last more than a couple of years, but if it does then count yourself lucky!

Tockalosh

Cheers Guys and much appreciated.

I was trying to avoid Macs purely because I would be buying it because they are so damned sexy from aesthetic and tactile points of view and other than that I know nothing of them.
On the other side I would be considering a Sony because everything else is Sony in my house and it must be good because its Sony (point taken Norsky and I am guilty as charged). Should have bought a Samsung TV instead of the Sony with hindsight

The F series I configured on Sonys uk website had 8 GB by the time I had finished so I must have guessed something right or was it that it was the biggest option I could fit ?

Will have another mooch around duty free at lunchtime today and have a letch over those Macs. Think it may be cheaper to configure and buy in the UK and ship over than buy here

Thanks again for the techy advice chaps, much appreciated

Oyibopeppeh

Tockalosh mate...I remember seeing an offer on Groupon for either a MBPro 13 or 15 which was a damn good offer. Worth having a look back to see if it's still vaild.

Tockalosh

Cheers mate,

all the duty free Sonys have small memories, 2 or 4 max so duty free not an option

shiva

Adding extra ram is dead easy and dirt cheap usually just a single screw to remove to get to the ram

iamthestig

Tockalosh

Thanks for the advice chaps, the HP died a couple of days ago and I picked up a Sony E series with an I5 processor. New model at 300 bud with a few goodies thrown in.

paca

all the crap they load on a new machine makes it run like a dog

de-install the crap right away

Tockalosh

As I am dim beyond belief when it comes to computers; just what programs should I remove from the laptop

scrubbedexpat141

Any thing called Vaio or Sony - should look under control panel>add remove programs