Posted on 04/24/2014 3:11:22 PM PDT by PatrioticRose
The old Dell Latitude e5500 appears to have reached the end of its useful life (Final report from tech due this afternoon)
I am loooking for advice on a replacement. I use it for photo, video and audio editing for YouTube, web sites and my radio program. It would have to be very mobile but have a big enough screen for video editing.
The Dell Alienware 14 has been suggested, but spec'd out, it runs $1.5K. That seems a little steep to me.
Advice?
The tech will do it,along with transferring my data files, included in the $350 he quoted. Unfortunately, he will not install my software (Can't blame him, I'm not looking forward to it either).
Plus ask for the cd so you do not need to create one yourself.
The Windows 7 files are on a hidden partition on the hard drive but if the drive goes then so does your ability to reinstall.
Get either a better hard drive that runs at 7200rpm or a solid state drive. Go with the 7200 drive as it is cheaper.
The standard laptop drive is just 5400rpm and upgrading to 7200 makes a big difference.
If Win7, then...
Since you are paying him to do it, make sure everything works. He should test it but might miss something.
The tricky thing with older computers is that there might not be a driver for all of the hardware — video card, wifi, usb ports, etc. etc.
I can second that, bought 160 lenovo laptops last year for work, (E531) solid machines. Out of those one was shipped with a bad battery (bent pins) that was promptly replaced by the vendor.
“If you really want a Windows based system, HP Elitebook with Windows-7.”
I use the 8470 with Windows 7 for work. Absolutely love it.
> I use the 8470 with Windows 7 for work. Absolutely love it.
Nice!
EliteBook has the smoothest, silkiest mousepad in the business.
win 8.x is not really any different then 7 and not that different then xp. most issues revolve around the user not wanting to learn the new short cuts. The start=> programs is different (metro tiles) and the small tiles are grouped differently, but once you think about it its fine. One downside is a mouse curser issue that can mostly be solved by changing settings(notice mostly). Its also lighter and faster then 7 or vista.
If you want to make your current rig feel faster and get better battery life don’t use a traditional hard drive a SSD will make your rig much faster. see if the sd card slot can take the new 128gb or 256gb cards, If so you can reduce the size of the SSD to the os and programs and use the sd card as storage and a usb dive for backup and longer term storage.
Since when did Alienware take over Dell???
That is the red-headed stepchild, there.
Toshibas are nice. I had one. I havve woned this lenovo for a while now, but it still runs quite nicely, sys7.
“...make sure it has Windows 7.”
YES! I got a great deal last January on a Toshiba lap top (typing on it now) from Staples. It is super light and it was the floor model so very much reduced.
The deciding factor was that it had windows 7, all the other models displayed had windows 8, so I said if I don’t buy this now I might now be able to find one without windows 8.
It really was an impulse buy, not at something I’d usually do, but it’s worked out very nicely I must say.
Try to find one with Windows 7, I go to Frys, and buy one of the $400-$600 range laptops with Win7 and install Linux immediately. If it has Windows8, it will also have secure boot and you cannot install ANY other operating system, regardless of what they say about bios settings. I took 2 back for that reason. Got a Gateway $500 at FRYS.
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