Replacement for Thinkpad E560

Hi Guys,

My current E560 is giving error messages on boot which tell me I need a new mother board. I am going to a repair shop later today but also looking into getting a new laptop given Black Friday is coming up.

I've seen the Inspiron 14 5000. It seems decent but much cheaper than Lenovo alternatives?

I've put the questions below, thanks so much for help!

Sam

General Questions

1) What is your budget? 1000 AUD

2) What size notebook would you prefer?
c. Thin and Light; 13" - 14" screen
d. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen

3) Which country will you buying this notebook? Australia

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like? No
5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed? Probably

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook? Browsing, tinkering with my raspberry pi, Office, streaming. I used to play games but havent done so in year so could probably forget this (although I do have Cities: Skylines waiting to go)

7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both? Mostly at home

8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? I think not. Maybe FM or Cities but seems unlikely

9) How many hours of battery life do you need? Any

10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK? Online is fine

11) What OS do you prefer? Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Chrome OS, etc. Windows

Screen Specifics

12) What screen resolution(s) would you prefer? (See further below for explanations.) 1920 x 1080

13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen? (See further below for explanations.) Dont mind

Build Quality and Design

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you? Not really

Notebook Components

15) How much hard drive space do you need? 256+, prefer 512.

Timing, Warranty and Longevity

16) When are you buying this laptop? Sooooon

17) How long do you expect to use this laptop? A few years

18) How long could you afford to do without your laptop if it were to fail? A short time.

19) Would you be willing to pay significantly extra for on-site warranty, or would it be acceptable to you to have to ship the laptop to the vendor for repair with perhaps a week or more outage? No

 

Which would be? If you've grown accustomed to the stick, nothing else is really going to scratch that itch. I've gathered in my time here notebooks are expensive down under, so what else is available there you like and can afford?

 

It gives 0187 every time and will probably only get past that 50% of the time. Then it gives 2200, 2201 sometimes and occasionally an error regarding mousepad or keyboard. In these instances the mousepad doesn't work or random keys will be stuck down. The Wifi has always stopped, it's no longer possible to turn it on.

Accustomed to the stick? I'm not sure I understand what you mean? I can also afford a Vostro 14 5000 and ThinkPad E14 but they are quite a bit more than the Inspiron and I couldn't work out why?

 

From a cost perspective, it might be worth investigating replacing the board if you're happy with the E560 otherwise and you have the skills, though a new machine with a quad core will offer significant performance bump. I haven't seen the Inspiron 14, so I can't really say much about it, but if you like it, you might want poke around the Dell forum to see what its owners have to say about it.

The stick is the little red nubbin in the middle of the keyboard that can be used to move the cursor. A lot of ThinkPadders swear by them and in my experience, other brands are inferior, so if you've grown accustomed to ThinkPad version of it, you'll probably be let down by trying another.

 

Ah okay, thanks ZaZ. I never actually use the little stick so I'm not wedded to that at all. I'll look at the forum as you suggest.

I am concerned having it repaired may turn out to be a false economy. Will it last longer than say a year?

 

Life is not a risk free proposition. Might last 10 years, might last 10 weeks, but no one here can say. You can go either way and be right. The E560 is still a good daily driver as long as you don't expect top performance. Whether it's worth the extra money to get better performance is hard for me to say for you.