Keeping old laptop or buy a new one in the future?

Well, I have a question on my mind, I have a 1 year old laptop right now, and in 2 years, I'm going to go to college. When I go to college, should I keep using my old laptop or buy a new one?

My current laptop (Gateway MT6459) specs:
AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-56 90nm (Probably going to upgrade to Turion RM-70)
2048 MB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2 × 1024) (Max on Gateway Website, but works with 4gb, tested with friend's 4GB 667 MHz DDR2 RAM) (Going to upgrade to 4GB Ram)
160 GB 5400 RPM PATA hard drive (Probably going to upgrade to Samsung HM160HC)
Integrated ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150 (Can't upgrade -.-)
Realtek RTL8187 802.11g (Probably going to upgrade)

Operating System:
Windows Vista 64-bit

So should I keep this laptop for like 6 years? Or buy one within the 6 year period...

Plus, the battery life is just 2 hours, so the battery would probably die in the 6 year period -.-

On my laptop, I basically edit some home movies and movie clips that my friends and I make... I probably won't play games anymore... So I'll just watch movies, edit movies, some mild photoshop, browsing the internet, doing some homework, and that's it...

Plus, if I were to buy a new laptop, I would buy it in 2010. So, I'm just getting some ideas on what to do.

 

It depends. How good does your old one run right now? Do you do much on it, like play games, install large programs? Is it a well maintained computer?

1 years is not old for a computer, unless it has been un-maintained. You could always buy a new laptop when you go to college, I bought one when I started college, and bought a new one 3 years later, when I was close to graduating.

If you want a newer laptop for gaming and stuff like that, and to have a nice new laptop when you start school then yes, I would suggest buying a new one.

But if the one you have right now runs fine, and you don't plan on doing heavy things with it, then sticking with your old one should be fine.

 

I don't play that much games on it, probably Starcraft right now, because my friends play it. But I do download lots of music, photos, dramas, and animes. So it takes up lots of space, until I get my external hard drive. I guess it's well maintained, I have it defragged once a week (I think that's good...) using Defraggler, CCleaner like 5 to 6 times a day. I don't use an anti-virus. I use Windows Firewall and Windows Defender. That's pretty much it, I think it's "well-maintained".

Plus, for now, it runs at 65-75 degrees C, fan turns on at 75 degrees C. It's undervolted. I applied AS5 and cleaned out the vents, yet it's still so hot. I guess I need to get a cooler now, right?

 

Well you don't need to defrag it every week. Once every few month's is fine, once a week is a bit overkill IMO. Same with the CCleaner, once every few weeks, maybe once a month is good enough for that, 5-6 times a day is very extensive.

You should really look into getting an anti-virus. There are ALOT of free ones out there that are also very effective. Avast and Avira are very good. And COMODO is a very good firewall to use, all free to boot!

If there is nothing wrong with your laptop right now, like running slow, long boot up/shutdown, etc....then it should be good enough to use for more years. I try to be up-to-date with a new laptop every 3-5 years, but I do heavy gaming, and mess around with programs, etc etc.

 

Oh, alright... I guess I was too overprotective or something like that... I used to have KIS 2009, but that kind of lagged my internet connection and didn't detect much...
But what I'm worried about right now are my temperatures on my laptop.

 

I'm a big fan of AVG myself...

You've just gotta ask yourself "Is my current laptop doing what I want it to?"

If the answer's yes, then hold off until it changes.

If the answer's no, then ask yourself how much you're gonna have to spend to get the increase in performance you need... perhaps investigate upgrades for the one you have now?

 

Do you have any kind of temp monitoring system? I don't know much about CPU temps myself, but if you have a monitoring system, and they are above normal, it could be a certain program that is causing it, or something else entirely (not sure if a Virus could cause high temps).

Try running a anti-virus and see if you have any viruses. If so, and you remove them, see if your temps go back to normal. (Not sure what the temps should normally be at, Google can help you though).

 

Try HWmonitor. CPU temps <80C Hard drive <50C

But seriously, your computer isn't bad at all.. (you should see the piece of crap I'm running)

 

If your notebook is under heavy load that is normal for that Gateway. I have 6453 w/TL-52 and idle about 126F under load sure 75C/167F is normal.

I would not keep that notebook for 6 years but people have different priorities. 6 years is a very long time in notebook years.

 

Personally, I would upgrade in two years. Why not just get as much value as you can for the old one and put that toward a brand new rig for your college career?

 

Keep it till it dies, unless you have a money you dont care to spend.

 

I guess that would work, so far, it works very pleasantly...

The temps from 65-75 degrees C are when the computer is idle or mild browsing... under full load it goes from 70-80 degrees C.

I guess so, technology does grow fast in exponential rates. I mean like, my system could be like worth $50 dollars in 2 years. Who knows?