A new laptop

Well basically.. My laptop at my mums is genuinely shit. I need another one, it's just like unbelieveable but because we have a really good family computer and I have this piece of shit she thinks that there's no point in getting me another laptop because they will "Be out of date in a few years". So basically I need to like convince her that the laptop will still be ok and stuff. So yeah, what can I say to her?

I think this goes in technology..

 

Well, both arguments are correct and incorrect. Technology is ever evolving, and it cycles. Nuclear weapons are still fired with 1970's computers. But those same 1970's computers were powerful enough to land a team of astronauts on the moon.

If you want to convince her to get a new computer, she needs to better understand the emerging technologies and how they pull into a computer. Video streaming in 1920x1080 requires a good video card to process the hi-def videos. Games are becoming more and more complex, requiring tougher computers to run. Picture and video editing is becoming more and more complex.

But a computer from the late 90's can still run MS Word.

The real key to a new computer could lie with Windows 8. The home is becoming syncronized. Your Xbox can now send movies to your tablet, which can send pictures to your Windows 8 computer, which sends music to your Windows phone. Windows 8 uses a lot of processing power on the cheap, and can be built from mid range computers that still have enough juice to play games.

But you could also just optimize her computer using CCleaner and a bit of knowledge of msconfig. Just stop all her shit from starting at windows start, disable useless services, and it will be good as reformatted.

Every 2 years computing power doubles and prices halve. That's Moore's Law.

 

For what it's worth, nowadays laptops have become nearly completely user-upgradeable. Some laptops utilize NVIDIA's MXM tech, like mine.
For example, the mobile Geforce GTX 680MX is just around the corner... My current rig has the 675MX in it. If I want to, at any time, I can tear my laptop open and order the new MXM card when it comes out, and swap them out. all that is needed is a fresh reboot after that, and fresh drivers. good to go.
I can easily change my processor, upgrade my RAM, install SSD drives upgrade optical drives...whatever I want to do. The problem is that the upgrades are FAR more expensive than on desktops. I could easily take my 675mx card and sell it for 600. the current GTX 680M is 900, so the 680MX will probably tip over 1000$

what i'm getting at, is that no longer do you have to suffer with buying new laptops every year, if you buck up and spend the money on a laptop that supports MXM. MSI and Sager laptops support MXM, alienwares should aswell. I haven't seen any ASUS with it yet.