When I wrote back to the seller to tell him that it had arrived in working order, I asked how his white dog was doing. He was surprised that I knew, until he saw the photograph of the felt pad that had built up on the cooling fins.

I am very thankful for the various sites over the years which have published disassembly instructions for laptops.

This is not rocket science. Maintenance seems to be lacking in so much technical hardware engineering. Is the throw-away attitude really so prevalent that they can expect to sell units that cannot be _cleaned_???

For as the Master Programmer said, “Be your program only one line long, some day it will have to be maintained.”

I have found over the years that I have owned computers that how much dust/fuzz etc…accumulates in/near fans, heat sinks etc… depends greatly on your location (near gravel roads/alley ways that are heacily traveled is the worst), number of pets (if any) etc. I have seen a friend’s new computer power supply fan become so clogged with dust in only a year that it was not able to run.

All in all the IBM/Lenovo computers that I have owned have been easy to take apart and maintain, and very reliable.

When I shop for reliable laptops, I am more concerned about the GPU, and the hinge. Beyond that I look at the CPU and the HDD.

Until recently, Nvidia GPUs were notorious for overheating. I have just bought my first Nvidia in half a decade (last one 9800gt, new one Geforce 635M) after owning five AMD graphics only machines (ending in a Sapphire 7850 PCIe for a desktop).

The hinge is critical because it is where the wires from the laptop bend every time that the lid is opened and closed. IBM developed a cool spiral which bends 90 degrees, but like a spring, each bit barely moves. Asus hinges were so tight that they used to crack the plastic case on a regular basis. Compaq and HP used to have a simple bundle of wires which just wear out. Oddly enough, I have never opened a Dell to replace the hinge wiring, so they must be doing something right.

At the moment, Intel CPUs, such as the i5 have more bang for the buck than AMD. I own both types and use phoronix and CPU benchmarks to help me figure out which I will purchase next. My two top end machines are a Intel Corei5 and an AMD FX 8 Core Black. To be honest though, I could not tell the difference without a benchmark program.

Lastly, the HDD. On a laptop purchase an SSD. Don’t worry about the lower capacity. If you need two terabytes, get an external drive. The SSD produces no sound, little heat, and uses very little electricity. Your battery life will be greatly extended, and the computer will boot insanely fast.

Two of my colleagues approached me within the last month looking for a new laptop. I guided them to a Lenovo G780 metal. Deterred by the price, they went with HP’s from Best Buy. Within a week, each was complaining, and wanted to bring their machines in for servicing. Outside of installing Classic Shell, I had to tell them that they got what they paid for. Keep that in mind.

In September 2011 I bought for a family member the Toshiba model mentioned in my blog post, and, so far it has functioned well.

Personally I intend to never again buy an Acer laptop: since 2003 I bought four in total (two for me and two for my family) and they all ended up having hardware problems. Ironically the two more expensive models were unrepairable after about five years of use and had to be scrapped. The other two, purchased in 2008 and 2009, work well with Sabayon Linux for home use but I don’t know how long they will last as the Aspire 5536 runs hot and the Aspire 5920 has an intermittent problem with a flickering screen. A relative of mine bought three Acer laptops for his family at around the same time, and has also had trouble with them, again due to their design.

I have had very reliable performance from my current Compal NBLB2 which gets very heavy use. When it is time to replace it, I shall again be looking for an OEM/ODM model rather one of the brand names that are more expensive for the same specification. I’ll probably buy either another Compal or a Clevo. And I will be able to buy it without Windows installed.