When Shopping For Laptops, Choose One For Ease Of Maintenance

Welcome to the inaugural issue of my new computer blog. It's unfortunate that, this being my first issue, few people will actually read this in time for the holiday shopping season. But as I considered topics for the blog, this one seemed very appropriate, considering the time of the year.

With Black Friday just around the corner, and Cyber Monday hot on its heals, many of you will consider buying a new laptop as a gift. And while there are may things to consider when buying any computer in terms of specs, look and feel, prices, etc., there is one issue many people completely overlook. I'm referring to ease of maintenance.

If you're the type of person who takes your PC to an expert to upgrade your RAM, then this doesn't really effect you. But if you (or the intended recipient or your gift PC) are the type of person who likes to do your own computer upgrades and upkeep, then the laptop you choose will make a huge difference in how much hair is left on your scalp after you replace your hard drive, or clean out the exhaust system, or re-solder that power connector that has come loose sooner than it should. So make life a little easier, and keep this in mind when you're out shopping for that shiny new notebook. Because it won't be shiny and new forever, but it can be a pleasure to work on if you pick the right one.

The good news is that you don't have to be an expert to determine if a laptop will be easy to fix or not. While the exact configuration of the internal components won't be know until you look inside the computer or a service manual, you can easily determine if the components you'll likely need to access at some point are easy to reach just by inspecting the underside of the PC. Take the following three laptops for instance. They're not new and shiny, but I have them on hand, and they're good examples of smart design, and really stupid design too; as far as accessibility of components is concerned.

Pretty much all laptops have access panels on their undersides for easily upgrading your RAM. Some have access panels for other things as well. This first one, a Compaq, has panels for RAM, hard disk drive and an internal WiFi card.

Compaq 

Compaq with panels removed

This is pretty typical, and even cheap laptops are likely to have most of these. But don't count on it! Always look, and make sure. Sometimes it pays to spend a little more for a computer that will give you better access to components. But sometimes you won't have to. Let's look at this Acer for example. It is also a cheap model, but you can see a key differences in how access to components has been arranged.

Acer

In addition to the panels seen on the bottom of the Compaq, notice that the Acer has a dedicated access panel for the CPU cooling fan assembly. This is crucially important, as laptop overheating is an extremely common problem. And even if you get lucky, and your laptop doesn't tend to overheat frequently, eventually you will have to clean out the exhaust system, as dust-bunnies accumulate in even the best computers.

Acer with panels removed

With this Acer, all you have to do is remove three screws, and you can access the entire cooling assembly. This makes it easy to clean out the exhaust vents and fan, as well as to apply new heat-sink compound, or even replace the cooling assembly if necessary. By contrast, with the Compaq there is no access panel at all, and to get at the cooling assembly, it s necessary to remove the battery, the optical drive, the hard drive, the keyboard, the keyboard cover, the power button panel, the display assembly, the touch-pad panel, the entire bottom of the laptop, part of the internal chassis, and finally the motherboard; just to properly clean out the cooling assembly. It's INSANE!!

Less important, but still worth considering, is how easily one can swap out the hard disk drive. While both the Compaq and the Acer offer reasonably easy access to their hard disk drives, neither make it practical to exchange one hard drive for another on a regular basis. Let's look at a third laptop, this one a Toshiba, which offers a better solution in that its HDD slides out of a slot on the side of the computer. This makes it possible to swap the hard drive much more easily.

Toshiba

Toshiba with panels removed

Acer HDD retaining/grounding screw

Some people (especially geeks like me :-) like to have multiple primary hard drives. There are many reasons why one might want to do this, but that's a discussion for another day. The fact remains that, the way the Compaq and Acer are designed, there is really no practical way to do this. In order to swap out the hard drive it is necessary to turn the computer upside down, unscrew the access panel, unscrew an internal grounding/retaining screw, and pop out the caddy.

Toshiba slide out HDD caddy

While this is not difficult to do, it is not something you want to do every day, or potentially several times a day. The Toshiba makes things a lot simpler in that the retaining screw is not a grounding screw, and it is not strictly speaking necessary. The caddy will stay securely in place without it, so you can remove that screw, and leave it out, allowing you to easily slide he HDD caddy out without the need for any tools. This means that, if you order an extra caddy, you can easily swap your hard drive for another as often as you like.


Note: I have used a Compaq, an Acer and a Toshiba as examples for this discussion. And while I point out some clear advantages and drawbacks on these models, this is not an endorsement of one brand over the other. This is a model specific, limited feature comparison; and features, both good and bad, vary from model to model under every brand on the market. I have no brand loyalty, and there truly is no best brand out there. All computer manufacturers make various models, some better than others. And while it is true that some have a better track record than others, any of these companies, large or small, are capable of making excellent computers, and also lemons. So my advices is to pick your laptops based on features, and specs and prices, not based on brands. And wile it is no guarantee, if the features of a laptop are well designed, it is a good indication that the manufacturer probably put some thought into the rest of the computer, and one can reasonably expect that the computer will be generally more reliable, and less of a headache than computers which are less well designed.

Well there you have it. One blog down. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If so, you can expect more on the way, albeit at irregular intervals.

All the best,

B.H. :-)