My computer broke
 

Remember this summer when my computer broke and I couldn't get on the interbutt for a few weeks?
Yeah, it did it again tonight.
I did some googling and I guess it's really common for owners of my computer (Gateway MT3422) to go through four or five motherboards in a year. Fuck that shit. I'm probably gonna take out my harddrive and just slap er in a new computer.

That being said, what laptops do you guys recommend that are relatively cheap and last longer than a year without crapping out? NOTE: I REFUSE TO BUY APPLE. Thanks for any and all feedback and info.

So you're posting with a broken computer? Sounds adventurous, like returning to port win a damaged ship.

I am posting this on a Macbook running windows XP.

I'm on my dad's computer at the moment, which is a little backed up with viruses and porn.

PS a macbook running XP... that is amazing. Should I do the same?

Intel Macs come with Boot Camp which let you partition the hard drive (making two hard drives of one, kinda) and installing windows. So really I have both Windows XP (for games) and Mac OS X (for everything else) on this one computer.

Meh.
What I was thinking is I'd just take my harddrive from the broken computer and put it in the mac instead.
I really don't want to go through all the trouble of reinstalling and re-downloading everything and still having all my old crap that I really need (photos, music, logs, etc) on my other harddrives.

as much as i hate how mac is just expensive because they can, i am probably mac for life now... its been 2 years now, and i don't think i can go back to pc/windows

Mac's integrated design does allow for swapping the hard drive. But you could get a mac, pull out your hard drive, get a usb hard drive adapter, and just load all that shit onto the mac drive.

Real men (read: nerds) use linux.

Awesome.
But what I'm aiming for is I won't have to pay for a new harddrive, and the price of one will be taken out of the general cost of a brand new (maybe used?) macbook.
See what I mean?
I just really really REALLY want to make sure that when I get a new faptop it won't crap out like my current one, and macs seem to be fairly stable in that area. Plus I hate mac OSX so there's another plus.

i r not nerd enough

I'm buying a dell in a couple months.. It'll do me fine for the next year and won't break the bank. I love macs but i'd never buy a mac laptop, way too much for what you get. Plus, all our software is pc based, and tbh the last thini i'd be wanting to do if i was running a mac, would be to use xp or vista. Ideally i'd have leopard on a pc. Mac os > windows

this won't work, you have all the drivers for the old hardware on that hhd+os, you'd be better off buying a cheap external enclosure, buy a new laptop (which should come with an already ready to run OS, and lots of other unnecessary crappy applications), save the data on it, format the ext hd and make another backup copy of your data on that to keep it safe.

= yay.

glad you got the pins!

Computers are a bitch. I've had the same computer for, uh, 7 years I believe. It still has ME on it. It's crashed "for good" twice but somehow I still have everything on it from years ago. Not sure how. On the other hand, my mom's brand new computer, my best friend's two computers (one really new, one reformatted about a year ago), my grandpa's three computers he's bought in the past few years (he keeps buying 'em and sending 'em back because he's never satisfied), my OTHER best friend's computer, and my girlfriend's family's computer and her laptop....... have all crashed in that time period. My mom's computer has crashed and had to be reformatted THREE times...

So, my computer really is blessed.. or something.

I'd still like to get a laptop, I'd get a sony VAIO or whatever.

I've had my budget model for 4 years. I contracted some nasty spyware this weekend though. I'm pissed. I'm having a hard time wiping it.

Do you have malwarebytes antimalware, noisereductions? That always helps me get rid of that shit...

That's what the program's called? Malwarebytes Antimalware? No. Is it freeware? I need to get something.

That program is free and super easy.

XP isn't THAT! bad but Vista is god awful. I have 4gigs of ram and 250 HDD and 64 bit processor and right now it runs like shit.

That program is free and super easy.

Thanks dudes.

Ugh, I wish I had a working computer to call my own :(

tc - is your mobile phone still playing up?

Adam, I got that malware program. It seems to be doing the job. It detected way more shiz than my previous antivirus program did. I think I may have schooled this spyware for good. (fingers crossed)

asus and toshiba are known for their build quality.
the macbooks everybody praises are made by asus, for example.

but you should be safe buying hp/dell/sony/fujitsu/benq/acer etc. etc. they all make good products.

just keep in mind that usually "you get what you pay for".

it magically fixed itself the other day, at least I'm assuming it did seeing as I got like 948579834539855 texts at the same time and my phone had a seizure.

█████████: yeah, I realize that. I just didn't figure it'd crap out numerous times after only a year.
I'll probably do the macbook thing.

mostly anything will survive a year. grab something at walrats.

if you're looking for longer term use and something that will survive a lot of carrying about, go for a business class machine like a lenovo thinkpad t series, a dell precision, or...

ok, look, there are different types of laptops just like theres different cars, think pontiac vibe vs. audi rs4.

people in this board except maybe for jico (orangebar) and glice (who works in tech support) know little about computers--

so i'd say read up a bit:
http://www.pcmag.com/category2/0,2806,9,00.asp

i subscribe to that shit sporadically and it's decent.

Yeah, no, I know a decent amount about computers.
Mine ran perfectly and rarely crashed up until a few months ago, then they put in an entirely new motherboard.
And I guess the new one crapped out too.
Fuck that.

I really want a lenovo but that's aiming a bit high.

acers are cheaper and if jico sez they are decent i'd trust him.

here's a suppa-cheap: $348.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...ct_id=10575193

i dont know what that's capable of doing, but at that price, who cares? it does lots more than the best ipod touch for less money.

I will never buy an acer.
My dad had one and it was a piece of shit.
I want something that will last.

you said just live for a year!

if you can't do lenovo, try the dell business laptops-- precision or latitude.

ok here's how:

how much money do you wanna spend?

What? No, I said I wanted something that would last longer than a year.

I don't know about money, I don't know how much my parents are willing to spend on one seeing as I'm broke, don't have a job, and don't have any money.

then a $348 computer sounds good until you can get a yob & buy a better one :)

My gateway was only $500... so I feel like getting anything less than that is just getting another piece of shit.

And I can't donate any of my own money, seeing as I'm financing myself to get to NYC for xmas.

ALTERNATIVELY you could buy refurbished.

lenovo t60 for $800:

http://www.laptopbroker.com/ibm_lenovo

etc.

Yeah! I was thinking of getting a used faptop.

fap! yeah, that's what we use it for.

http://www.overstock.com/Electronics...33/subcat.html

i'm going to get one those for me soon, they're great and cheap and i can just throw them in my backpack without giving a fuck.
i leave the serious computing for desktops.
i don't know if netbooks is what she's looking for, though.

and acer...
in my the build quality is much better than what it used to be, but that's just my opinion.
plus acer supports linux, and i'm usually biased towards companies that give freedom of choice to their costumers.

but yes, if build quality is what you're looking for, thinkpads are probably the best choice, i just omitted them because most people tend to run away from them.