Well, I guess it's really up to either builder-skill or manufactorer quality and, dare I say it, Luck. I mentioned the cd-drive because one of mine actually did break, and I'm pretty irritated about that.
I've had only a few systems, so you have more experience in that realm, as well as probably more experience with different manufactorers. I have a Toshiba laptop and a self-built desktop. At first, the desktop was a huge pain at first (curse you, power supply!), but after that it's been running great, without anything breaking until up to very recently (said cd-rom drive). The laptop's screen has been pretty wish-washy since at least a year ago, and a usb drive and a PC card slot broke, and there really isn't anything I can do about that, it being a laptop. I didn't actively break these items, but I'm pretty sure plenty of travel and unlucky landings must have contributed most. Ah, well.
So, I guess I should retract a lot of what I said. It's true that PCs shouldn't need maintenance, especially if they're built by a company that cares about its customers. You can get that same level of undimishing quality without buying from a manufactorer, but I guess that wasn't exactly the argument you were going for, and that's probably why I gave the not-so-nice post. That, and I was pissed off about that drive of mine. IWILL be buying a new cd-drive long before I purchase a new computer, however, since none of the other parts have anything wrong with them.
On another note, I've also been looking at those MacBooks, even though they would be the first Apple computer I've purchased... They look pretty snazzy! Was it a good buy?
-Egan
Hmm. What you seem to be suggesting is buying a computer and then, when things start to go downhill, do absolutely nothing about it, and instead just "deal" with it while the computer slows to a crawl and maybe a cd-drive stops working like it should. But instead of fixing it (that would be a waste of time, right?), we should wait until it becomes absolutely unbearable before buying a full computer again. We should also spend that extra $100 that's tacked on to the computer price that is Windows XP, which we probably either already had on the old computer or don't really want that operating system anyway.
It isn't about the joy of messing with things (though that is often a factor). It's about efficiency. A little work on computers can go a long way.
So that's our attitude, or mine anyway. Pretty cynical, huh?
It'd be appreciated if you didn't pretend the amazing improvements to the screens and battery life didn't exist. These, Ifeel, are much more important than the size change. Your comment is misleading if you mention a not-as-important (in my opinion) feature and ignore the best feature- the screens.
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Well, I guess it's really up to either builder-skill or manufactorer quality and, dare I say it, Luck. I mentioned the cd-drive because one of mine actually did break, and I'm pretty irritated about that. I've had only a few systems, so you have more experience in that realm, as well as probably more experience with different manufactorers. I have a Toshiba laptop and a self-built desktop. At first, the desktop was a huge pain at first (curse you, power supply!), but after that it's been running great, without anything breaking until up to very recently (said cd-rom drive). The laptop's screen has been pretty wish-washy since at least a year ago, and a usb drive and a PC card slot broke, and there really isn't anything I can do about that, it being a laptop. I didn't actively break these items, but I'm pretty sure plenty of travel and unlucky landings must have contributed most. Ah, well. So, I guess I should retract a lot of what I said. It's true that PCs shouldn't need maintenance, especially if they're built by a company that cares about its customers. You can get that same level of undimishing quality without buying from a manufactorer, but I guess that wasn't exactly the argument you were going for, and that's probably why I gave the not-so-nice post. That, and I was pissed off about that drive of mine. IWILL be buying a new cd-drive long before I purchase a new computer, however, since none of the other parts have anything wrong with them. On another note, I've also been looking at those MacBooks, even though they would be the first Apple computer I've purchased... They look pretty snazzy! Was it a good buy? -Egan
Hmm. What you seem to be suggesting is buying a computer and then, when things start to go downhill, do absolutely nothing about it, and instead just "deal" with it while the computer slows to a crawl and maybe a cd-drive stops working like it should. But instead of fixing it (that would be a waste of time, right?), we should wait until it becomes absolutely unbearable before buying a full computer again. We should also spend that extra $100 that's tacked on to the computer price that is Windows XP, which we probably either already had on the old computer or don't really want that operating system anyway. It isn't about the joy of messing with things (though that is often a factor). It's about efficiency. A little work on computers can go a long way. So that's our attitude, or mine anyway. Pretty cynical, huh?
It'd be appreciated if you didn't pretend the amazing improvements to the screens and battery life didn't exist. These, Ifeel, are much more important than the size change. Your comment is misleading if you mention a not-as-important (in my opinion) feature and ignore the best feature- the screens.