Hi guys,

As some of you know my laptop backlight went funky and so sent it off under the house insurance. The repairers got intouch with me today and as I guessed its un repairable. Soooo....

They offered me a 15" laptop with 1 gb RAM and core 2 duo processor, 128 graphics card and vista. Didnt like that one as I would prefer more RAM.

Other offer was a 17" laptop with 2 gb of ram and an AMD processor (slower than my old laptop though) so again I declined that.

I then told the guy, "Does any of these have the TV tuner, as that is what mine had and replacement must be like for like", he said no and then offered me one which does,

A Sony AR31M,

17" 1440 x 900 WXGA +

Core 2 due 1.83GHz

Wifi & bluetooth

2 GB DDR II SDRAM - 667MHz

Card Reader

160GB Sata hard drive

DVD+/- (+-DL (DUEL LAYER??) / DVD RAM

NVIDIA GeForce 7600 - 128 GPU

DVB-T intergrated tuner

Intergrated camera

Vista Home Premium

TV out, firewire etc

TV remote

I think its a good swap but what do you guys think?

Is it good enough to play HL2, C&C 3 etc?

My old one (that this one is replacing) has the following specs

15.4" screen

1.73MHz processor (single core)

Wifi, no bluetooth

1GB ram

Card reader

DVD+/- etc but not duel layer

ATI X700 mobility graphics

TV intergrated tuner

Windows Media center

TV out, firewire etc

TV remote

Cheers everyone

(ps, asked to get the harddrive back off the old one).

I think you could safely say thats a result!!!

I think you could safely say thats a result!!!

Aye, just as long as it does everything the old one did. Need to phone them back in 2hrs so if anyone can tell me if it will play the latest games that would be great (plus I might go and purchase C&C3 while Im waiting for the new one to be delivered!

That shouldn't have too much trouble playing games

Should be here Wednesday:thumbup:

Old hard drive could arrive with it, although might be a bit later

Good result!

You should put that dual core power to good use and install folding on it

Good result!

You should put that dual core power to good use and install folding on it

Will do!

Am I right in thinking that the 2.5" hard drive (SATA) off my buggered laptop can be put into a desktop with the right cables?

Otherwise I can just get a case and turn it into a external hard drive I suppose.

The connectors on the SATA 2.5" drives look similar to the 3.5" drives so it may just connect straight up, I've not actually seen one in the flesh to say for sure though.

If not then there will be some kind of adapter that or as you say get an external bay, mine are powered from the USB so ideal for use with laptops

The connectors on the SATA 2.5" drives look similar to the 3.5" drives so it may just connect straight up, I've not actually seen one in the flesh to say for sure though.

If not then there will be some kind of adapter that or as you say get an external bay, mine are powered from the USB so ideal for use with laptops

Was going to swap it for the one in the car if I put a USB adapter on it (