Buy new computer to get Win7?

[supton]

Am wondering if I should just buy a new, low(er) end laptop, to get Windows 7. I have a > 5 year old desktop, with Ubuntu. It works well enough for casual websurfing, which is what I do 99% of the time. I do have Wine on it, which seems to work. But my UPS overloaded the one time it was needed. Also, I play with ham radio, and it seems a good number of people develop on Win7, not Linux.

My > 3 year old Asus 1000 netbook has been great. Perfect traveling size, decent keyboard, screen size is good for carrying around. Except for the FF 3.something upgrade, which brought constant "hanging" after loading a page. It will hang for a second to 5 or more seconds after loading a page. It will also stop for a second or two (while typing on the web) every few minutes. I'm starting to think it's something to do with the SSD. Where it's Xandros I'm not sure what I can load onto it; I'm not even sure how to get Wine onto it. Not sure how Open Office runs (something of a pain IIRC, if only due to very small screen); I don't recall any issues but I generally *only* surf the web on it.

I work at a desktop at work, 8 hours a day, on a Win7 system, doing CAD stuff. I go home, and I'd prefer not to do system mantaince. I hate to say it, despite being an EE; but when home, I just don't want to do computer stuff. Turn it on, turn it off. [I do electronics, not programming.]

Can this netbook, with its lack of cd drive, have a new hard drive put in, and have Win7 put onto it? Or am I better off buying a new netbook--or a small laptop? With Win7 installed, of course. I am tempted to get a cheap tablet, for traveling; but I know that won't do any of the ham apps that I might like to use (logging, psk31).

 

[2004tdigls]

run the win 7 compatability checker before you decide to upgrade, some older hardware will not have drivers and will not work

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=20

if it compatible add add as much memory as you can then install win 7 32 bit (if memory is 4 gigs or less)

 

[SrDriver]

I would recommend a new Laptop as the cost of buying Windows 7 would help offset the price of the Laptop.

I saw a 15.6 inch Laptop with an I-5 processor and 500 gig hard drive at Best Buy yesterday for under $500 before tax.

 

[94astro]

Now before you go spending a lot of hard earned money on Windows 7, you may want to hold off for a while and take advantage of the upcoming release of Windows 8. I think it is due to release toward the end of the year & it is leaps and bounds above Win7. I have been testing it for a while now and still finding new bells and whistles. One major upgrade will be touch, if you have a touch screen you just move the tiles with a touch of your finger & navigate that simple way. Go here & read
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windo...amp;WT.search=1

 

[rg200amp]

Net books are nice for what they are.

But there are so many well priced 15 inch laptops out there with Win 7 and 4gb of RAM that will give you acceptable performance. Give a look in the Sunday paper for Best Buy's and HHGreg's weekly sales.

Like already stated, you may want to wait until Win 8 comes standard on new lap tops. . . .

 

[itguy08]

Being in IT and having experience with Windows, Linux and Macs, I'd wholeheartedly say spend the extra $$ and get the Macbook Air. Expensive, yes but inline with the new "Ultrabooks" (which are rip offs of the Air's design) and you get what you want - a reliable fuss free system. You can run a virtual instance of Win 7 or dual boot it for those apps that need Win 7.

I've got an Acer Aspire 1 netbook that I got as a knock around laptop (main machine is a Macbook 15") and it's horrible. It has a dual core AMD 1Ghz cpu, 2GB Ram, 250GB HD, etc. It is slow, even in casual surfing, and the keyboard is cramped, trackpad stinks, etc. But it does get great battery life. Win 7 is OK but OS X is laid out much better and works better for me.

I did try Mint Linux on it (I don't like the new Ubuntu UI) and it speeds it up a little bit. But it has some issues with the hardware in there and it locks up occasionally.

So I'd skip the netbook and get a decent laptop. My vote is for quality and that's why I said Macbook. My 15" is going on 3.5 years now strong. My wife's original Macbook is nearing 6 years and is only now starting to show its age.

Forget the mess that is Windows 8. Not only is the interface ***** but it's not intuitive at all. I have a feeling it's going to be another Vista flop.

 

[supton]

I see that Win8 is starting to come out; honestly I'm not that interested. I just got Win7 on my work computer (a laptop this time!) oh what was it, 6 months ago? I've been suitably impressed.

Ergonomics between my Asus 1000 and my work Dell 6410 though has me liking my Asus better: probably because I rarely use the Dell as a laptop on a daily basis (almost always in a docking station, with dual 22" monitors, but I work from home occasionally). Handy little bugger for wandering around with. That's why I haven't ruled out another netbook; size is right, it's just an external monitor away from a good sized screen, and I've never run anything more intensive than youtube (which my Asus struggles with).

I see the Nextbook 7 Premium, and I might buy that first, to see if I like/dislike. Cheap tablet that might do something for me. No plans for a smartphone, so a tablet might do something for me (more portable, yet easier to use than an iTouch). And keep my eye open on netbooks/laptops.

 

[Hirev]

I would say get a NEW laptop with Win 7 64 bit with a min of 4gb of RAM. Have Win 7 64 bit on two computers at home, It works really well.

 

[rg200amp]

Originally Posted By: itguy08
Being in IT and having experience with Windows, Linux and Macs, I'd wholeheartedly say spend the extra $$ and get the Macbook Air. Expensive, yes but inline with the new "Ultrabooks" (which are rip offs of the Air's design) and you get what you want - a reliable fuss free system. You can run a virtual instance of Win 7 or dual boot it for those apps that need Win 7.

I've got an Acer Aspire 1 netbook that I got as a knock around laptop (main machine is a Macbook 15") and it's horrible. It has a dual core AMD 1Ghz cpu, 2GB Ram, 250GB HD, etc. It is slow, even in casual surfing, and the keyboard is cramped, trackpad stinks, etc. But it does get great battery life. Win 7 is OK but OS X is laid out much better and works better for me.

I did try Mint Linux on it (I don't like the new Ubuntu UI) and it speeds it up a little bit. But it has some issues with the hardware in there and it locks up occasionally.

So I'd skip the netbook and get a decent laptop. My vote is for quality and that's why I said Macbook. My 15" is going on 3.5 years now strong. My wife's original Macbook is nearing 6 years and is only now starting to show its age.

Forget the mess that is Windows 8. Not only is the interface ***** but it's not intuitive at all. I have a feeling it's going to be another Vista flop.


While I agree with the Mac book air, (I have and swear by my 27inch iMac quad core i5 with 12gb of RAM) the OP seems to be looking for a low cost solution.

A value laptop with Win 7 is what would serve him best I think.

As for Win 8, it can't be another Vista flop. Apple is grabbing more of the market share by the hour. Windows knows it cannot drop the ball in this kind of market.

I think Win 8 is going to be good.

Not that it can pry me from my Mac, but it should be fine.

 

[supton]

Yeah, I didn't state that, did I? Yeah, not looking to spend much money. I mean, I could spend $400, get a couple years; spend $600, get 3 years: but if I spend $1k will I really get 8 years? I'm such a non-power user at home that I get buy on old equipment rather easily. Don't play games, don't make vidoes. Just your basic youtube, email, reading forums. My only reason to replace my desktop is a) Windows ease of use, and b) if I go laptop then it's portable with a built-in UPS.

But I get really irked by slow response time, or slow boot times. When the system slows down is when I start wanting something else.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

I ran an Asus netbook with an SSD drive in it. Better than with a standard hard drive, but still, nothing fast nor rewarding to use.

If you're willing to roll-your-own laptop by purchasing an SSD drive, then reinstall everything, the market is your playground.

Any i-series Intel CPU will provide excellent performance. AMD's quad-cores are nice, surprisingly nice, too. With either of these options, slap the SSD of your choice in there, a clean install of Win7, you'll be amazed at how well the unit performs for you.

My 4.5 year old Dell with Intel Core2Duo and an Intel 80GB SSD is plenty fast. Any MS Office 2010 app opens in 1 second or less, Chrome flies, etc.

Step up to the i3 or i5 processors (i3 to keep cost lower) and an SSD, preferably 8GB of RAM, sit back & enjoy! No need for a Macbook at all, you'll spend around $600 total and have a laptop that screams with Win7x64, I've built & rebuilt many of these this way. You'll be plenty satisfied with performance and the cash you keep in your pocket, you can buy an iPad 3 with.

 

[rg200amp]

Originally Posted By: supton
I mean, I could spend $400, get a couple years; spend $600, get 3 years: but if I spend $1k will I really get 8 years? I'm such a non-power user at home that I get buy on old equipment rather easily. Don't play games, don't make vidoes. Just your basic youtube, email, reading forums. My only reason to replace my desktop is a) Windows ease of use, and b) if I go laptop then it's portable with a built-in UPS.


Spending more does not always mean better product or longer life span.

For what your looking to do, 4gb of RAM is really all you need.

Apple's laptops are very well built. Can an Apple laptop last 8+ years? Sure.

However, a half the price Toshiba, HP, ect. . . can as well.

It is of my personal opinion that some of today's Apple computers are built second to none. That's not to say other brands don't hold water.

 

[SrDriver]

Why learn another operating system when you are already using Windows 7 on another computer.

There could be software related issues too.

I would just buy a new Laptop with Windows 7.

 

[GMZ]

This is worth what you paid for it.

If I got anything else but a MacBook Pro 13", it would be a Lenovo with Ubuntu.

 

[PandaBear]

Do you use a lot of those special key on your keyboard? Like Printscreen Home, End, Page Up / Down, etc? If so I would recommend you NOT get a Mac Book or you will be having a lot of good time searching combos running Windows 7 (since you mention you are buying this computer just to get Windows). Also you have to buy a copy of windows to use if you buy a Mac, so the price is not included in the already high price and IMO not making any sense financially.

Between Netbook and a real laptop, it really depends on whether you are spending a lot of time on it. The biggest problem IMO of netbook is the screen and keyboard size, and not worth the cost and weight saving if you are using it more than a couple hours a day. It is good if you travel with it and worry about losing it. A $200 Netbook will be a much smaller lost than a $500 laptop.

 

[supton]

Special keys: page up/down, yes; home/end, on occasion. Otherwise, nope. A good responsive trackpad goes a long ways.

Yeah, the netbook has a small screen. I noticed that on my 1024x600 screen. I have a work laptop which is, err, something; and it's too small too. Whatever a nominal 15" laptop comes with. Honestly, I'd rather have the netbook for portability; and an external display for when I want to view multiple things at once. Once you go dual monitor it's hard to go back.

But for simple websurfing, the 1024x600 wasn't that bad. I bought a tablet with 800x400 size (a cheap 7" tablet) and that has a truly small display! Too small for any real websurfing.

But eh, will probably wait at least several more months before I do anything. Maybe I'll luck out and figure out how to fix up my current netbook. Just trying to weigh my options before I make any big decisions.

 

[Volvohead]

A year or so back, MS offered a W7 upgrade "family pack", that broke down to about $30-40/license. I don't know if it is still available, but we took advantage of it on several older lappys that ran W7 fine. If you could get a license at that price point plus a modest SSD, I'd go for that route on an older system.

Otherwise, I wouldn't invest full retail on a W7 license on any older equipment, especially not on a portable system. You're better off going new.

For the best of all W7 portable worlds, nothing beats a Lenovo X220 with an SSD. Compact like a netbook, but very powerful and sturdy. Better than a Macbook in my experience. Not cheap by any means. But there's a big sale on them right now. Otherwise, wait and pick something when the right deal comes alone.

I wouldn't wait around for W8. MS is rarely on time with now OSes, and it sometimes is a bumpy ride until SP1 comes out. W7 is a solid, dependable OS.

 

[supton]

Would a new SSD for my netbook make sense? It is an Asus 1000; not the 1000H or 1000HA. This was the Linux version; it had some sort of 8GB/32GB dual SSD drive. The 8GB was faster, 32GB was slower; not sure if it was one drive or two separate ones. Atom 1.6GHz processor, and video was Intel GMA 950 (which was complained to be "slow" when it was brand new!). 1G of RAM. From what I can see, it can be upgraded to 2GB of RAM.

I'm thinking it's a bit too low tech.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: supton
Would a new SSD for my netbook make sense? It is an Asus 1000; not the 1000H or 1000HA. This was the Linux version; it had some sort of 8GB/32GB dual SSD drive. The 8GB was faster, 32GB was slower; not sure if it was one drive or two separate ones. Atom 1.6GHz processor, and video was Intel GMA 950 (which was complained to be "slow" when it was brand new!). 1G of RAM. From what I can see, it can be upgraded to 2GB of RAM.

I'm thinking it's a bit too low tech.


I'd not waste money on an SSD for something like this.

 

[Volvohead]

I'll disagree with PB on this one.

It depends on the architecture. If the bus and SB are current enough, an SSD can make a huge difference on a portable, even an older one. Dog slow HDDs on some lappies are the absolute worst bottlenecks. There are regular deals on smaller capacity SSDs. They're not $250+ power user luxuries anymore.

We dropped a "daily deal" Kingston SSD into an older T61 (admittedly once a $1k laptop and rock solid build) last year with an upgrade from XP to W7. The owner would go get a cup of java and hit the ladies room waiting for it to churn through boot up on the OEM HDD. Nonstop hourglasses thereafter. Her jaw just about hit the floor when we pressed the power button and boot time was slashed to ten seconds and battery run time nearly doubled. Apps now opened in a flash and it was not far off from a new system in overall responsiveness. And the system runs a LOT cooler. All for about $140. We gave her the OEM HDD back in a free USB enclosure (from Kingston) to store her data. She's still thrilled to the present.

I don't know too much about your Asus. But if this one supports SATAII and is running an HDD, I'd definitely take a look at a small SSD.