Buying a new laptop/netbook.

I've decided it's time to replace my old laptop (Acer Aspire 5920) as in computing terms it's getting on a bit, it's six years old (My husband used it for three and then I've had it for three), the battery doesn't hold a charge anymore, I can hear the cooling fans even when I'm in a different room and if I run it on anything other than powersaving mode there's about a fifty-fifty chance it'll overheat and switch itself off. So I'm replacing before it dies on me.

Due to an old creditcard company refunding my PPI (Don't both with these refund companies, just write to the credit card company yourself. I've had two out of three pay me back now), I've decided to use some of it to buy a new (well reconditioned) netbook.

So (hopefully on Wednesday when it's supposed to arrive) I'll be the owner of an refurbished Asus N10J.

Better graphics card, much bigger hard drive (going from old 140GB to new 250GB), processor speed, memory and screen resolution are still the same, but it's going to be running Windows 7 Home Premium edition, rather than Vista Home.

Only real downsides are it's a single core processor rather than dual, but as I mostly use the laptop for being online or writing, I'm probably not going to notice too much. And the fact that it doesn't have an optical drive (so no playing dvd/cd etc)

Its big plus is that is has a system where you can switch off the battery eating graphics card, and it'll run with just something basic, to give you a lot more battery life. Okay you'll not be able to play games while it's switched off, but if you're out and want to write it's a plus.

So is the fact that it's a little 10 inch screen and only weights 3.5lb (It weighs a bit more if you get the battery upgrade - a 9 cell rather than a 6 cell, but it's still only about 4lb - the Acer is a 14 inch screen and about 7lb weight.)


So definitely looking forward to getting this.