Hi everyone,
I'm looking to replace my Asus Z96J, which I bought three years ago and has been slowly falling apart ever since. At this point, there are weird horizontal lines that run up and down the screen, the left-click button doesn't work, the battery is dead, the CD/DVD drive is dead, it runs so hot under load that I sometimes seriously fear it will catch on fire, and - worst of all - the tab key is gone. If it wasn't for that, it'd be great, so I'd like to get something similar, but whereas this cost $1600 three years ago, I'm limited at this point by whether or not the place I buy from offers interest-free financing. Pretty much, I'm living paycheck to paycheck, but I work from home so I need to get something before the Asus conks out completely.
I used to be pretty knowledgeable about computer hardware but in the past few years I haven't kept up with developments at all. So, I really have no idea where to start and am a little overwhelmed. So, here are the details - and thank you so, so much ahead of time for reading all of this and for any help y'all can offer.
From the FAQ:
1. Budget: About $1000, but realistically, I can't get anything at all if I can't buy something that offers financing.
2. Screen size: Right now I have a 15.5" screen and that's about what I'd like to get again.
3. Screen resolution: Currently I have 1680x1050, and that'd be nice to keep, but I don't think with my budget that that's likely. So, not terribly worse, I suppose, but this is flexible.
4. Portable or desktop replacement: In between. I've been carrying around this 7 pound thing for three years and it's been fine, so I'm thinking 5-6 pounds would still be fine.
5. Battery life: Doesn't matter.
6. Games: I do, but this is also flexible, because it's very much an aspirational thing - I haven't played games for a couple of years since I started working, so I don't even know much about what's out there. Just something I'd like to get back into.
7. Other tasks: Mostly, I want to use this for watching movies, since it'll be my DVD player replacement. Also need to be able to burn DVDs, use it for mid-level Photoshop work (from photo editing to tablet drawing, etc), and a lot of web work.
8. Storage amount: Not really important.
9. Right now I'm most strongly considering the Sony Vaio VPCEB190X customized with ATI HD 5470 and an i5-520M 2.40GHz. It would be $1000 including tax and, most importantly, offers financing for $30 a month - I'm not sure what other places offer financing like that, which is why it's my #1 at the moment. But I certainly have no loyalties to Sony.
10. How long do I want it to last: I got a sorry three years out of this thing, so it'd be nice to have at least that.
11. Optical drive: CD/DVD burner.
12. I have no brand preference, but I want to stay away from Asus (this thing just fell right apart), Apple (cannot stand these things), and Dell (I'm sure their reputation hasn't improved since the last time I checked).
13. Country: USA.
14. Additional info: The one other thing I want is to make sure it has a VGA output, which I mention because I'm not sure if that's such an old concept that some laptops might not even have it anymore.
Thank you!
Rebecca
I'm looking to replace my Asus Z96J, which I bought three years ago and has been slowly falling apart ever since. At this point, there are weird horizontal lines that run up and down the screen, the left-click button doesn't work, the battery is dead, the CD/DVD drive is dead, it runs so hot under load that I sometimes seriously fear it will catch on fire, and - worst of all - the tab key is gone. If it wasn't for that, it'd be great, so I'd like to get something similar, but whereas this cost $1600 three years ago, I'm limited at this point by whether or not the place I buy from offers interest-free financing. Pretty much, I'm living paycheck to paycheck, but I work from home so I need to get something before the Asus conks out completely.
I used to be pretty knowledgeable about computer hardware but in the past few years I haven't kept up with developments at all. So, I really have no idea where to start and am a little overwhelmed. So, here are the details - and thank you so, so much ahead of time for reading all of this and for any help y'all can offer.
From the FAQ:
1. Budget: About $1000, but realistically, I can't get anything at all if I can't buy something that offers financing.
2. Screen size: Right now I have a 15.5" screen and that's about what I'd like to get again.
3. Screen resolution: Currently I have 1680x1050, and that'd be nice to keep, but I don't think with my budget that that's likely. So, not terribly worse, I suppose, but this is flexible.
4. Portable or desktop replacement: In between. I've been carrying around this 7 pound thing for three years and it's been fine, so I'm thinking 5-6 pounds would still be fine.
5. Battery life: Doesn't matter.
6. Games: I do, but this is also flexible, because it's very much an aspirational thing - I haven't played games for a couple of years since I started working, so I don't even know much about what's out there. Just something I'd like to get back into.
7. Other tasks: Mostly, I want to use this for watching movies, since it'll be my DVD player replacement. Also need to be able to burn DVDs, use it for mid-level Photoshop work (from photo editing to tablet drawing, etc), and a lot of web work.
8. Storage amount: Not really important.
9. Right now I'm most strongly considering the Sony Vaio VPCEB190X customized with ATI HD 5470 and an i5-520M 2.40GHz. It would be $1000 including tax and, most importantly, offers financing for $30 a month - I'm not sure what other places offer financing like that, which is why it's my #1 at the moment. But I certainly have no loyalties to Sony.
10. How long do I want it to last: I got a sorry three years out of this thing, so it'd be nice to have at least that.
11. Optical drive: CD/DVD burner.
12. I have no brand preference, but I want to stay away from Asus (this thing just fell right apart), Apple (cannot stand these things), and Dell (I'm sure their reputation hasn't improved since the last time I checked).
13. Country: USA.
14. Additional info: The one other thing I want is to make sure it has a VGA output, which I mention because I'm not sure if that's such an old concept that some laptops might not even have it anymore.
Thank you!
Rebecca
/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114803
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