I see dead PC

[rich_jacko]

Gah! My computer appears to have suddenly died. (To be fair, it has served me pretty well for more than a decade and it was definitely getting slow in its old age.)

Can anyone recommend a decent, inexpensive laptop? I'm not fussed about playing games on it; I just want something that'll cope with the interwebs/Office/Photoshop/etc. With at least a 15" screen and a decent amount of disk space.

Also, I'm pretty sure (or hopeful, at least) that it's the motherboard that's gone rather than the hard drive. There's quite a bit of stuff on there I want to retrieve. What's the best way of doing so? Can you even connect desktop hard drives to a laptop?

Comments

[little_frank]

Cheapest option I found when looking around for a new computer was to use my existing monitor with a 'net-top' - similar spec to a netbook, but you're not paying for a screen so it's half the price.

But, if you decide on a laptop, it should have USB sockets, and depending on the type of hard drive you can either borrow a widget I have that plugs IDE into USB and powers old hard drive from plug socket, or buy something similar for £10-20 or so to get data off old hard drive and onto laptop (or even use old hard drive as an external backup drive, like I do - when I remember).

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

The widget sounds really useful. Where did you get it from?

I'm after a "proper" PC rather than a netbook-type machine. I want to be able to run full programs, copy/paste and drag/drop stuff with ease, and all the other things where my tablet is a bit limited.

[little_frank]

Probably from Aladdin's Cave at Leppings Lane tram stop (who are generally awesome and helpful), possibly from an internet shop, can't remember for sure.

My net-top (Acer Aspire) runs Firefox, Open Office, GIMP (linux equivalent to Photoshop) etc no problem - I wouldn't expect it to do well at graphics-intensive games, but it's more powerful than my old desktop (that admittedly I built about 15 years ago), and I used to run Mathematica on that! It came installed with Windows 8 and all the usual MS stuff, but I stupidly deleted the backup disk partion, which meant the Windows wouldn't run (of course they don't give you recovery disks these days either, the bastards).

[longhairedhippy.livejournal.com]

As Frank says, you should be able to find a USB adaptor for your hard drive. What connector is it on the drive? I would guess 3.5 inch IDE?

[sandra-lindsey.livejournal.com]

Have a look at Lenovo ThinkPads - that's what we went for when getting Tom a new machine for the business. They're pretty versatile, do-everything-you-expect, non-specialist machines and not too bad a price (due to timing we were able to take advantage of a black friday deal so got a higher spec than originally planned)

[grok-mctanys.livejournal.com]

Can't be sure, but I think I got my external HD enclosure that goes to USB from Eclipse Computers. (Which I will add to the list of similar widgets other people have offered to lend you.)

As for brands, I don't follow hardware that much, but if a local business with an office that you can take stuff back to if you have problems is a bonus to you, then Very PC, who I bought my last two computers from (and have had no problems with the first, which is still running nicely as my primary desktop 6-7 years later), do their own range of laptops.

[little_frank]

^ I think Grok's low-energy consumption computer based on laptop tech is fab by the way, so I second his recommendation.

[delanthear.livejournal.com]

That's my neighbours business before he went on to do http://www.iceotope.com/.