laptop vs Pc

don`t fret Freelancer... i`m using mostly the same laptop as yours especially when playing SFGC and general surfing daily... lol...

but of course, there are 2 more at home that i`ll use on important tasks and wifey won`t bother to disturb me when she needs to use it... too bad she doesn`t play games such D.O.W. online, IF not i`ll beat her backside online and offline... lmao... :P

anyway, with the prices of laptop are getting cheaper nowadays, one day, laptop might come with disposable in the future... lol...

the only thing i`m still drooling is at the cost of SSD at the moment... sigh...

I spent 8 hours of my Day working on my laptop.
Researching, reading and download select software to wipe the laptop hard drive clean cause well it hasnt been cleaned in forever and it had 30 GBs of its 38 GBs taken up. kinda of tells you how old my laptop is lol, plus it doesnt support USB booting either. So i had to install windows from a CD drive and though a LAN connection to transfer over the i386 folder i made 2 years ago. Just to fix my own laptop it took me 8 hours and all my knowledge and some researrch on this stuff to fix my laptop. My desktop only takes me 45 minutes and im back online in under and hour. laptop i havent even installed all of its software to even use wireless or the graphics card.

btw... sometime with old laptop, perhaps more than 3 yrs (or even less), some problems are related to the batteries... few times i had to take out the batteries and pull the power cord off too for few minutes to "reset" it...

this also can be considered a trick to do when your laptop is acting a bit weird... however, IF your laptop is still acting weirdly after doing the trick few times, it is time to send to the pro or get a new one... :P

That Gateway you got can probably be fixed up possibly.
As for the HP pavilion screen blacking out, i read a little on that, its a sad problem. You might want to investigate it some more, it might be fixable problem or you guys might have to replace the screen, by replace it doesnt mean you order the same screen unless there is only 1 type that fits your laptop. I`ve taken my HP apart and removing the screen isnt that hard.

Well GL with whatever you get. Also if anyone gots windows 7 or Vista and your having program problems, like you got a program you love but windows wont open or it comes up with an error. You can download something called VMware, VM stands for Virtual Machine. Think of it as a game emulator, im sure alot of us have used those. Well this VMware emulators other operation systems, so in other words you can emulator an older operating system like Windows XP or windows 2000 or whatever you prefer. It would only require between 2-30 GB`s worth of spacing depending on the operating system size and depending on how many programs and other stuff you installed onto an emulated operating system.

If your old computer freezes you may just need to clean the air outlet on the computer. My computer tends to collect dirt, and I dismantle my copmuter from time to time and clean it, when it starts overheating. The freezing is probably related to the overheating too.

About the computer you found. The graphics card is too bad IMO. Its not even last generation - but older. One thing I learned for myself is that the chipset matters a lot more than the amount of RAM on the card.

Make a pros and cons list, then flip a coin.

I bought a laptop, but I stood outside on black Friday because I didn`t want to pay very much. Even though I got it at less than half price I still could have gotten a PC for the same price that is much better. I just like the mobility, I don`t care about the battery because I just plug it in everywhere (I`m not going to use my laptop in the woods) and it works well if you are going to school like me.

I think you should consider carefully what the purpose of the computer you need is.

For school related purposes you dont need graphics processesing capabilities. All you need then is a medium fast processor like a dual core 2-2.3 GHz and 4Gb of ram IMO. I would go for laptop with a newer processor - like the penryn as it uses less power and thus gets gets less hot and makes less noise. For the same reasone the graphics card should not be too powerful. I would prefer the 5xxx graphics over the 4xxx graphics cards from ATI for the same reason (I dunno much about NVIDIA chipsets). In general its my experience that a large graphics card can make quite some noise. I am sure you would enjoy SSD too - but its probaby a bit expensive to have. My general advice will be to go for something less powerfull, but with new components that consumes less power, to increase the battery time and reduce noise.

In case you like the laptop to be a gamer PC, expect something noisy that gets relatively hot and less than 2-3 hours battery time. I got a PC like this. Though I am not sure I would make this choice today. You will never get a Laptop that gets near the performance of a decent stationary PC.

Depends on what JumpDrives wants to do with his machine! If he wants to renderize architectural interiors with Maxwell or if he wants to just play solitaire...

all netbooks come without optical drives such as cd/dvd/rw... the screen mostly are smaller than 10"... most of them come with windows 7 starter or win xp... the rest of the specs are not much different than notebook/laptop...

anyway, personally... IF you can afford, get a laptop or netbook first then pc... it`s nice to use it while mobile or hanging out at Starbuck and heavy duty tasks on pc when at home... the rest, up to each individual`s imagination... :D

JumpDrive no laptop battery will last forever, it depends on your usage of the laptop.

One of the most important things for any electronic no one tells you, never use use something that is currently recharging, it cuts battery life down faster than anything.

Macs notebooks are good classroom computers. IDK what a netbook is, maybe it gots other builtin hardware.

Another major thing to consider when buying a laptop is how long do you plan to have it.
My ( HP Pavilion ) will be going on 10 years old, still in good shape and hasnt broken yet after being dropped, handled daily over a good 5 years, only glitch there is i got a model with the default power jack plug that wears out over time with all that movement. Now that Laptop is plugged into the TV and i remotely control it from my PC to play movies or TV shows on the big screen.

Acer & my girlfriends Mac Notebook would of broken under the same conditions my HP went though, but i got one of those old brick HP laptops, now in days they are all made so thin and way more easier to break. Unless ur getting one of those ArchAng3l was talking about.

This is a Survey Test for laptops - http://www.itp.net/578466-asus-and-toshiba-most-reliable-laptop-brands
This is if you were thinking about buying from best buy - http://consumerist.com/2010/01/consumerist-investigation-best-buy-optimization-is-a-big-not-smart-annoying-waste-of-money.html

I read a problem for your Acer Aspire 5534-5410, you have to spend 0-60 minutes of your timing updating it cause of a screen flicker problem found in this product, related to windows 7.

I found an extremely useful site if you did buy this product --- http://www.laptopdrivers.net/specs/acer_aspire_5534_laptop.htm

My small experience with acer is their laptop lifespan is 2-3 years and have like anything cheap it will have problems.

I use a netbook - nb205, upgraded with an extra gig of memory and windows 7, and I plug it into a 20` monitor at my desk. I love it.

I have a Gateway FX as well, so kudos to MetaStable! They seem to be a good compromise between mobile functionality and graphical horsepower. `Gaming laptops` so called are so close to PC`s in terms of cost and bulkiness that they are really impractical, so I like that the FX provides a graphical kick without a bunch of useless bells and whistles tacked on.

there is desktop replacement laptop out there. it`s usually bulky and expensive. and laptop gaming will wear out the laptop lifespan pretty fast. if u are pc gamer, go for desktop. if you need mobile computing, there is always a cheap netbook for you :)

Jump, I`d buy depending on your needs.

I myself bought a PC recently over a laptop. I have a marginally functional laptop right now, but it has several problems wrong with it, that would cost about what it`s worth to fix. In my experience, they break down a lot faster than desktops, since they do get moved around a lot, and the parts aren`t really designed for that kind of abuse.

I spent over $1200, but my computer can play anything, and since I built my computer, I also have the ability to upgrade it as games improve, and my monitor/keyboard/mouse are awesome. It also has a stable connection since I`m always hooked up, instead of attempting to connect to whatever connection I can find.

My laptop however allows me to take notes in my university classes, and check things online without having to go all the way home to look, which is bloody useful.

Overall though, it`s much better to have a desktop for gaming, and overall use, and a laptop for business like things such as notes. Using a laptop for gaming can work, but generally, it`s not worth the price. Especially if you want to save yourself from yourself, don`t put games on a laptop that you use for school :P personal experience.

I have a 1 year or so old Gateway FX series laptop and It`s been my best purchase. I used to be a hardcore Aion player and it plays that game almost flawlessly. Just some specs on it
CPU: INTEL Core 2 duo 2.26 gz
RAM: 4gb
GPU: 9800m GTS 1gb edition

mind you this is an older model I`m sure the newer models are even more up to the task of playing games and crunching numbers. Also its a 17incher so it`s a hefty beast.