Last I wrote, I made the decision to update, rather than replace, my old IBM x61 laptop. An extra 2 gigs of RAM, replacing the 10rpm hard drive with a nice snazzy SSD, and updating to Windows 7 thanks to the day gig, and wow – this thing is snappier than most new laptops.
They say buying quality is never a bad idea, and in this case – buying the $1500 laptop instead of the $300 Netbook – has proved to be true to the saying. Folks, if you have a good but old laptop, just upgrade it. Find the slow part of the system and attack it. How? This is possibly the first and only time I’ve ever paid attention to the Windows Experience Index. Before? The hard drive and ram were limitations. Now, my graphics subsystem is the slow part. But as I don’t play games on the laptop (that’s what the other ignored electronics at home are for!), the system is in my mind fully optimized.
I still haven’t replaced the battery, but that has to be done soon – on my latest trip to the Philippines, the low battery yellow blinky light started coming on all the time. I get about 10 minutes of battery time before it gives up. Woops – think it’s now 100% ready for the upgrade 