New shiny!
Since the old laptop died on me, I've been researching my options for a replacement. I wanted something that would run well with Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as the few PC games that I have (Sims, Warcraft III, Age of Kings and Dungeon Siege). The old laptop used to belong to my step-father so I'd acquired it as I needed something I could run Photoshop on for college. It was an Acer and was so full of bloatware that it really put me off them.
My own laptop that I bought in 2007 was a Dell and it was great, it's just about still running now though it's struggling a lot even though I've added more RAM to it. Dell was the first brand I checked for a new laptop, followed by HP, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba. The HP ones looked great but I had to pay an awful lot to get the same specs as from Dell which was a shame. I had to discount Lenovo as none of their laptops had a DVD/CD drive - I know most people stream stuff these days so it makes sense but I've got loads of stuff on disc so I'd rather want some way to access it all! I also had to discount Asus as their laptops only seem to have AMD processors and Photoshop/Illustrator work better with Intel from what I can gather. As for Toshiba, I just couldn't find anything decent. So Dell it was.
I spent a while trying to decide between two different models - one which was okay and well within my budget, or one which was only slightly better but £50 more. Then Dell decided to release an updated version of the okay model with way better specs for an additional £50. I was so tempted by that one but it was just a little more than I really wanted to pay. However, with computers I think it's a good idea to get the best one you can afford because it will last that bit longer. I tried ordering it online but the page wasn't loading properly so I had to phone them instead. Which actually worked out better because the bloke I spoke to said he could offer it to me for a reduced price! It was £25 cheaper so I was very happy with that. That included an offer to get a premium warranty for £0.82 rather than £65 and free delivery so definitely a good deal. The delivery date was estimated at the 17th November but I got a text on Friday saying that it was going to be delivered today instead!
So the new shiny laptop has a 7th generation Intel i5 processor (up to 3.1GHz), 8GB DDR4 RAM, Intel HD graphics card and 1TB storage. It's running Windows 10 which is going to be a massive learning curve because the old laptop had Vista and my old Dell that I'm currently using is running Ubuntu! And it looks like this:
They're not great pictures because they weren't taken in daylight and I was trying not to get any reflections in the lid or screen. I suppose I could have waited till tomorrow to take pictures but yeah, that wasn't going to happen! It's got a lovely blue case which is Bali blue apparently - it's quite a lot darker than I expected, it's sort of a purpley-blue which I'm fine with. The main body of the laptop looks like brushed metal rather than plastic which is very swish. Now I need to get it all up and running, and then try and think of a name for it! :)
My own laptop that I bought in 2007 was a Dell and it was great, it's just about still running now though it's struggling a lot even though I've added more RAM to it. Dell was the first brand I checked for a new laptop, followed by HP, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba. The HP ones looked great but I had to pay an awful lot to get the same specs as from Dell which was a shame. I had to discount Lenovo as none of their laptops had a DVD/CD drive - I know most people stream stuff these days so it makes sense but I've got loads of stuff on disc so I'd rather want some way to access it all! I also had to discount Asus as their laptops only seem to have AMD processors and Photoshop/Illustrator work better with Intel from what I can gather. As for Toshiba, I just couldn't find anything decent. So Dell it was.
I spent a while trying to decide between two different models - one which was okay and well within my budget, or one which was only slightly better but £50 more. Then Dell decided to release an updated version of the okay model with way better specs for an additional £50. I was so tempted by that one but it was just a little more than I really wanted to pay. However, with computers I think it's a good idea to get the best one you can afford because it will last that bit longer. I tried ordering it online but the page wasn't loading properly so I had to phone them instead. Which actually worked out better because the bloke I spoke to said he could offer it to me for a reduced price! It was £25 cheaper so I was very happy with that. That included an offer to get a premium warranty for £0.82 rather than £65 and free delivery so definitely a good deal. The delivery date was estimated at the 17th November but I got a text on Friday saying that it was going to be delivered today instead!
So the new shiny laptop has a 7th generation Intel i5 processor (up to 3.1GHz), 8GB DDR4 RAM, Intel HD graphics card and 1TB storage. It's running Windows 10 which is going to be a massive learning curve because the old laptop had Vista and my old Dell that I'm currently using is running Ubuntu! And it looks like this:
They're not great pictures because they weren't taken in daylight and I was trying not to get any reflections in the lid or screen. I suppose I could have waited till tomorrow to take pictures but yeah, that wasn't going to happen! It's got a lovely blue case which is Bali blue apparently - it's quite a lot darker than I expected, it's sort of a purpley-blue which I'm fine with. The main body of the laptop looks like brushed metal rather than plastic which is very swish. Now I need to get it all up and running, and then try and think of a name for it! :)