39 replies to this topic

[christhegasman]

ewwww laptops serious question, is there anything actually wrong with your PC?

  its 10 years old. Its slow. It takes up too much space (hence I want a laptop) It runs XP, which isn't compatible with my iphone and itunes anymore (they didn't mention that when I got a new iphone so I can't sync it and get my music onto my phone)

I still use my old tower with xp to sync and update my I tunes stuff on my 6plus

[muckyman]

Doesn't work with the iPhone SE with XP unfortunately

[christhegasman]

Doesn't work with the iPhone SE with XP unfortunately

ahh odd didn't realise it was any different in operation to the 6 ?

[muckyman]

Nor did I, until after I bought it and found it didn't sync. Google confirmed it, as did apple

[Andrew aka Stuwy]

Making things small costs. A £200 desktop will always outperform a £200 laptop. Batteries also cost money, as does a screen, keyboard etc. Which is all factored into the cost of a laptop. So if you don't NEED a laptop (assuming you already have a keyboard, mouse, screen etc from your old PC) consider a cheap / used desktop. Just bear in mind a sub £200 laptop will be built to fit a market need. I.E. people that want a sub £200 PC. So just be aware it will be built with the cheapest components available. Don't expect it to stay "fast" for very long or the battery to last (hold a good enough to charge to use it unplugged) very long.

that's the what I meant, just a bit more explained then "ewwwwwwwww" A laptops shelf life is far shorter then a PC, unless you know how to rebuild it? However maintenance or preventative maintenance does not seem like something you want to do. Laptops are good and serve a purpose but unless you keep on top of it, will become slower then your current PC. Have you considered just getting some upgrades to your current PC? It might be out the question if you cant get that generation of components. I don't know what your mobo is compatible with. But a few more RAMs and a fresh install on a SSD will speed up the PC beyond recognition

[SteveA]

Laptops are good and serve a purpose but unless you keep on top of it, will become slower then your current PC.

 

Really, can you explain how?  

[KurtVerbose]

 

Laptops are good and serve a purpose but unless you keep on top of it, will become slower then your current PC.

 

Really, can you explain how?  

 

 

The processor gets tired as it gets older and also the RAM forgets stuff.

[Andrew aka Stuwy]

Laptops are good and serve a purpose but unless you keep on top of it, will become slower then your current PC.

  Really, can you explain how?

Applications and system process' use computer resources and the more you use it the more there will inevitably be. Hard disks slow over time and bad sectors appear and the way things are saved ununiformed, I don't know why it does that. PCs usually have more resources so you not notice the slow down as much.. All computers need preventative maintenance but more so laptops. Also laptops unless mega expensive have cheaper components and wont last as long.. IMO since smart phones and powerful tablets come out there has been little to no need for laptops.

[SteveA]

His current PC is 10 years old, any new laptop will have much higher resources (plus it will be 64bit)

 

In my experience a laptop needs no more maintenance than a desktop PC. (my experience is 20 years in the I.T. industry )

 

Your comment that a less powerful laptop will suffer more than a more powerful desktop is of course true but that has nothing to do with the architecture and everything to do with resources.

Edited by SteveA, 15 December 2016 - 01:44 PM.

[SteveA]

To answer the question of data uniformity. Data is split into blocks (4k blocks is the default size for NTFS) and is generally written to spinning disk sequentially, so a 32k file will take up 8 blocks. As data is deleted over time spaces become available and these spaces are indexed by a file allocation table. When the next item of data is to be written it is assigned empty space (it's not technically empty but that is another topic), the new file maybe 36K so it will use the 32k of free space and then find the next available space to write the rest. When a read of this data is requested it is not sequential so takes slightly longer to access, this is called fragmentation. Windows has tools that take these fragmented files and places their blocks sequentially again for faster read times.

Edited by SteveA, 15 December 2016 - 01:55 PM.

[Andrew aka Stuwy]

I have no idea why your arguing with me, or what point your trying to make? That a laptop is better then a PC? and yes I know about fragmentation, that's why I brought it up, did not know why it did it so thanks for the info. I have been building PCs since I was 14 and it is more of a part time hobby, I am not claiming to know more then you (or much of anything). If its you day job then good for you. I dropped the 3 IT courses I was doing at collage because I got a job in Insurance and it is a saturated market. for £200 a PC will out live a laptop by 5 years at least. on the same specification a laptop will perform the same as a PC but it will cost significantly more for the same thing.

[SteveA]

I'm not arguing, i just thought some of your comments could have been a bit misleading to the OP . I agree that a £200 PC will be better than a £200 laptop. I'm just saying that any new PC will be better than a 10 year old one.

 

 

The processor gets tired as it gets older and also the RAM forgets stuff.

 

Anthropomophism at its finest  

[sford]

To answer the question of data uniformity. Data is split into blocks (4k blocks is the default size for NTFS) and is generally written to spinning disk sequentially, so a 32k file will take up 8 blocks. As data is deleted over time spaces become available and these spaces are indexed by a file allocation table. When the next item of data is to be written it is assigned empty space (it's not technically empty but that is another topic), the new file maybe 36K so it will use the 32k of free space and then find the next available space to write the rest. When a read of this data is requested it is not sequential so takes slightly longer to access, this is called fragmentation. Windows has tools that take these fragmented files and places their blocks sequentially again for faster read times.

Or MFT in the case of NTFS? 

 

You may find that a reinstall every couple of years makes a difference if using Windows. 

[SteveA]

Not sure, there is some allocation table there but its been a long time since I've looked at NTFS. I'm more of a VMFS and UXFS person these days.

[muckyman]

Wow, lots of to-ing and fro-ing on this subject today.

All your advice has been appreciated.

 

I got a new laptop on Black Friday.

It was a cheapy (£110) and it does what I want, currently quicker than my old desktop did.

 

The things I wanted it for were (in no particular order)....

To be able to sync with my iPhone 5SE (which XP won't do anymore)

To get back the space taken up by a desktop, monitor and keyboard.

To very occasionally log on remotely to my work server.

 

This does all of these things, and it'll only be used once every few months or so - most of my at home surfing is either on the phone or PS4.

 

I'm happy enough with my choice. If it lasts, great - if not, no biggie.

 

cheers

Michael

[Mangham54]

I picked Mel up a HP Stream 11" n3060 from Currys during the Black Friday week for £129.99 (it was meant to be £149.99) and though it is no powerhorse it is quite usable. Compared to Mel's old laptop the screen quality is naff, but it loads in 30s (versus 20-50min) and the battery life is only a shade worse than my £1k MacBook Pro.

[GiGo]

The only argument I can see for a laptop being worse than a PC is the battery will degrade in time and will need replacing (if possible).

 

I currently have a Surface Pro 3 i7 paid a fortune for it and have never looked back since  It's companion is a Surface 3 I picked up of ebay for £150 notes (bargain as it was still under warranty and came with the keyboard!)

 

The problem I see nowadays with Laptops and PC's in the the Processor speeds and silly numbers etc... after each of them.

 

Quad Core 64bit Atom processor sounds fancy but is good for battery life (why I love my Surface 3) but the Quad Core Intel i7 64bit is 10 times more powerful which is why I love my Surface Pro 3 but runs hot and battery life is not so great.  The price difference is eye watering which is where most people will change there mind, about a £1000 difference when both were new!

 

If you want a lovely basic laptop then any sort of Atom will do the trick but may not be great on website with lots of HTML5/Flash or sites with lots of adverts.  The battery will be the first thing to go (unless you drop it and smash the screen lol).  So getting one with a replaceable battery is a good idea and will extend the life of your laptop.  I'm dreading my Surface Pro 3 when the battery becomes next to useless

 

What laptop did you buy muckyman? 

[muckyman]

Got a Lenovo Atom Processor Z3735F Ideapad 100S. 2GB RAM and a 32GB Hard Drive. Up to 8 hours battery life apparently. Already had a 500GB external hard drive so the storage limitations on it aren't a problem.

[GiGo]

Got a Lenovo Atom Processor Z3735F Ideapad 100S. 2GB RAM and a 32GB Hard Drive. Up to 8 hours battery life apparently. Already had a 500GB external hard drive so the storage limitations on it aren't a problem.

 

Not bad for the price mate!

[mitm]

Rather than start a new thread. I've lost my last 2 weeks work, about half a page, of my accounts. Nothing there at all...its on excel non-commercial use, the original book is there but I think the last thing I did was try to move/copy 2 pages on Thursday night then went out on the pi$$. So before I try to find somewhere, near Deepcut, to fix it can anyone tell where to look for them ss they saved a lot. Also please use terms a person of a certain age might understand...many thanks.