To upgrade or replace?

mikester

mikester

mikester

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
1,006
Location
Edinburgh
Fishing for a bit of advice here. I've (somehow still) got a Dell Inspiron 2200 which I bought nearly four years ago. It works alright despite have been dragged halfway across the globe twice, beaten, dropped, Red Bull treatment, and a few electrical shorts. I've just installed Windows 7 and it's working just fine after a few driver tweaks.

My question is simply this: should I bother spending fifty quid to remedy the only two outstanding issues with this laptop, namely the battery and the RAM? Or should I spring for an HP 311c for two hundred, or a used netbook for less than that? I have one year left in school, and after that I will (finally) have a decent job wherein I can purchase a shiny new system.

Is it worth it?

Thx
 
Battery and Ram upgrade for £50 will see you through for more than a year after which you will have a job and could get the best one you can find. So, I'd say go for it than spending more on something that you intend to keep for just a year.
 
After a bit of research, the total cost should cost to approximately £114 including shipping. I would max out my hard drive (replacing old 60GB drive with a 120GB IEDE 2.5 inch WD 8MB 5400rpm), memory (adding a standard 1GB PC2700 stick for a motherboard maximum of 1.2GB) and battery (8-cell Li-ion 14.8V) to breathe some new life into this four-year old laptop.

It still strikes me that I could spend a few extra quid and find a used laptop with far better specs, mind you.

Still on the fence.
 
The question lies in what a new laptop would cost you. If its above £600-800, then £114 stop gap upgrade might be worth it.

Personally i'd put the money aside for a new laptop. I'm saying this on a 7 year laptop which I spent £100 on two years for exactly the same upgrade - HD and battery. I dont regret it, but the laptop isnt even worth £100! I will eventually buy a new laptop... but for surfing the web, music and movies this works fine (for the moment!)
 
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