Laptop advice needed

[Scott Douglas]

My daughter just started a new job and was looking into updating her old laptop. It's an HP Pavilion dv6000 running Win XP. She's found out she can't even download the service pack any more since XP isn't supported now.

My questions for the computer guru's here are these:

1) Can her present machine run Win 7 or 8.1?

2) If she upgrades to a Win 7 64 machine will she be able to run her old Photoshop program (not sure which version she has) or will it need to be upgraded to a 64 version?

3) What laptop would you recommend with a $1k to $2k budget in mind?

Thanks for any help as I've been out of the laptop scene for at least 10 yrs now so it's all new to me too.

[nynor]

1) her present machine will run win7. the main limitation will be the RAM, it tops out at 2GB. but, it should do fine for most things.

2) almost certainly she will be able to run her photoshop program. i've had nearly zero issues getting 32 bit games and such to run on win7.

3) i could do some research, but i'd need to know the main function(s) that she is using the computer for. BUT, you can get a lot of computer for $2K right now.

d.

[nynor]

Windows 7 Upgrade Guide for dv6000/dv9000 models - HP Support Forum - 179816

the above link makes updating to windows 7 seem very difficult. i'd bet that it is pretty darn simple.

one last thought: if the laptop is doing what she needs it to do in its current configuration, i'd leave it as is.

[Scott Douglas]

Seems like Win 7 machines come with 4GB RAM as a minimum now days.
She's working as an accountant now but I'm not sure her interests are limited to just that as far as the computer use goes.
I like to see what the PC Mag guys are giving their Editor's Choice to as they usually have pretty good advice for the common use types like me. That Lenovo W540 is quite a machine.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Windows 8 is TERRIBLE. Do everything you can to avoid it. Worst OS I have ever used on any computer or device. It still floors me that this made it into the marketplace. I purchased software to make it work more like Windows 7, which makes it tolerable.

[nynor]

this is what i am talking about, re. a lot of machine:

MSI GE Series GE70 Apache Pro-012 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4700HQ (2.40GHz) 12GB Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2GB 17.3" Windows 8.1 64-Bit - Newegg.com

$1300. that is pretty amazing, IMO.

[stomachmonkey]

$1k gets a lot of computer these days.

$2k for a laptop is high end.

[nynor]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Windows 8 is TERRIBLE. Do everything you can to avoid it. Worst OS I have ever used on any computer or device. It still floors me that this made it into the marketplace. I purchased software to make it work more like Windows 7, which makes it tolerable.

this.

if i got a machine with Win8, my first order of business would be to wipe the hard drive and install Win7 on it.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by nynor

this is what i am talking about, re. a lot of machine:

MSI GE Series GE70 Apache Pro-012 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4700HQ (2.40GHz) 12GB Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2GB 17.3" Windows 8.1 64-Bit - Newegg.com

$1300. that is pretty amazing, IMO.

Great price for a good machine but "gaming" laptops tend to be cumbersome beasts and have poor battery performance.

[nynor]

i was just using that as an example.

[Scott Douglas]

You guys are talking to someone who went from a nicely running Vista 64 machine to a Win 8.1 64. I know of what you speak.

[Scott Douglas]

I forgot about them. I must be slipping, that's where I got my desktop...

[Scott Douglas]

So I guess the consensus is we should be looking for a Win 7 Pro machine rather than a Win 8 one, correct?

[id10t]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

So I guess the consensus is we should be looking for a Win 7 Pro machine rather than a Win 8 one, correct?

Yup. But, MS stopped selling home licenses for Win 7 a few weeks ago. However, you can still buy it as "corporate/enterprise".

I'd go to Dell's website (love their next business day on site warranty) and act like you are a business and pick one that way...

[Vipergrün]

How about a Macbook pro and run a Windows virtual machine or bootcamp? Best of both worlds.

[flipper35]

We have some machines here that were upgraded to Win7 from XP with only 1GB of RAM. They work reasonable for what they get used for, but any of the newer better laptops will have a new battery with good battery life if that is important.

Newegg has some Win 7 units left as of last week as well.

[island911]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

My daughter just started a new job and was looking into updating her old laptop. It's an HP Pavilion dv6000 running Win XP. She's found out she can't even download the service pack any more since XP isn't supported now.

My questions for the computer guru's here are these:

1) Can her present machine run Win 7 or 8.1?

2) If she upgrades to a Win 7 64 machine will she be able to run her old Photoshop program (not sure which version she has) or will it need to be upgraded to a 64 version?

3) What laptop would you recommend with a $1k to $2k budget in mind?

Thanks for any help as I've been out of the laptop scene for at least 10 yrs now so it's all new to me too.

1) yes, either. ... 8.1 will run faster than 7
2) yes
3) Surface Pro 2 or 3

IMO, she should keep her working stable XP computer, and add to it, learning the newer at her own pace.

[island911]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

So I guess the consensus is we should be looking for a Win 7 Pro machine rather than a Win 8 one, correct?

Win 8 handles resources much more efficiently. That is, if you get a new machine it will likely have a solid-state drive. Startup and shutdowns are very fast under Windows8. It handles the solid-state drives very well.

The biggest complaint people seem to have is about the user interface being so different from what they're accustomed to. There is no doubt that Windows8 has some user interface weirdness. This is because it is attempting to transition people from the windows interface of the past to something less busy.

[speeder]

Is she stuck with using a PC?

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by island911

Win 8 handles resources much more efficiently. That is, if you get a new machine it will likely have a solid-state drive. Startup and shutdowns are very fast under Windows8. It handles the solid-state drives very well.

The biggest complaint people seem to have is about the user interface being so different from what they're accustomed to. There is no doubt that Windows8 has some user interface weirdness. This is because it is attempting to transition people from the windows interface of the past to something less busy.

Win 7 and Mac OS both handle SSD very well also. Biggest performance boost available but they draw as much power at idle as a spinny disk.