Another computer experiment
Dec. 15th, 2015 03:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psipsyGoing in the opposite direction of the PowerBook: Earlier this year (April) I bought a new laptop. i3 processor, 500GB HDD, 4GB RAM, for a bit over $300. As modern laptops go, the hardware is definitely on the lower end, but that's alright. Onboard video has made incredible progress in recent years, so this has more than enough to handle whatever video files I can throw at it. So for the purpose of taking it places, it's plenty. Well, except for the fact that it came with Windows 8.1. I never could get the hang of that. If it came with Windows 7, that would have been fine.
The option was there to just let the "Get Windows 10" update happen, but I hear the free update path had its own perils and pitfalls. The old "you get what you pay for" thing. I might as well do a full install of Windows 10. And as much as I didn't really care for 8.1, I felt it would have been a bit risky to just update over it in case I wanted to go back for whatever reason.
So! I had a 500GB SSD that I had for another project, and I figured I'd put it in the new laptop and put W10 on that, with the 8.1 drive on standby.
The laptop itself is the most difficult one I've ever worked on. For starters, the shell is held together by 18 screws and clips around the edge, and once the shell comes apart, there's just barely enough room to reach inside to get to the ribbon cables for the keyboard and touchpad. Then the hard drive cage is glued to another ribbon cable for the USB ports, so I found it was easier to remove that as a sub-assembly. It gets better!
Since I figured I was already over halfway done disemboweling this laptop, I might as well upgrade the RAM while I was there. To get to that, I had to remove the fan, disconnect the display and speakers, remove the wi-fi card, and flip the motherboard over. By then I wanted to really make this worth the effort, so I put a full 16GB in. Then I carefully put everything back together, and was mildly surprised that I didn't destroy anything in the process. In a moment of zen, I accepted that upgrading parts is an afterthought at best on $300 laptops. My W7 laptop, from the same company, has a panel on the bottom with easy access to RAM and HD. In 2010 it cost me $900, but it also came with a much more powerful processor, discrete video chip, and a BD drive.
After all that brain surgery, I put the install disc in and during the installation, un-checked all of the "we're going to send this info to MS" settings. That should slow the bleeding some, I guess.
Impressions: It's a lot more Windowsy than 8.1, what with a start menu, and an acceptance that not everything has a touch screen. There's more familiarity. Also a bit better-behaved. In 8.1, there was a dynamic contrast setting that would not shut off. Good for low power use, bad for watching video. There are a lot of other things that are tamed.
All told, if you have Windows 8.1 and can't stand it, it's worth it to make the jump to 10. If you have 7, stick with it for the time being.
That said, Windows 7 is the new XP.
The option was there to just let the "Get Windows 10" update happen, but I hear the free update path had its own perils and pitfalls. The old "you get what you pay for" thing. I might as well do a full install of Windows 10. And as much as I didn't really care for 8.1, I felt it would have been a bit risky to just update over it in case I wanted to go back for whatever reason.
So! I had a 500GB SSD that I had for another project, and I figured I'd put it in the new laptop and put W10 on that, with the 8.1 drive on standby.
The laptop itself is the most difficult one I've ever worked on. For starters, the shell is held together by 18 screws and clips around the edge, and once the shell comes apart, there's just barely enough room to reach inside to get to the ribbon cables for the keyboard and touchpad. Then the hard drive cage is glued to another ribbon cable for the USB ports, so I found it was easier to remove that as a sub-assembly. It gets better!
Since I figured I was already over halfway done disemboweling this laptop, I might as well upgrade the RAM while I was there. To get to that, I had to remove the fan, disconnect the display and speakers, remove the wi-fi card, and flip the motherboard over. By then I wanted to really make this worth the effort, so I put a full 16GB in. Then I carefully put everything back together, and was mildly surprised that I didn't destroy anything in the process. In a moment of zen, I accepted that upgrading parts is an afterthought at best on $300 laptops. My W7 laptop, from the same company, has a panel on the bottom with easy access to RAM and HD. In 2010 it cost me $900, but it also came with a much more powerful processor, discrete video chip, and a BD drive.
After all that brain surgery, I put the install disc in and during the installation, un-checked all of the "we're going to send this info to MS" settings. That should slow the bleeding some, I guess.
Impressions: It's a lot more Windowsy than 8.1, what with a start menu, and an acceptance that not everything has a touch screen. There's more familiarity. Also a bit better-behaved. In 8.1, there was a dynamic contrast setting that would not shut off. Good for low power use, bad for watching video. There are a lot of other things that are tamed.
All told, if you have Windows 8.1 and can't stand it, it's worth it to make the jump to 10. If you have 7, stick with it for the time being.
That said, Windows 7 is the new XP.
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no subject
Date: 2015-12-18 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-12-18 05:43 am (UTC)