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Question

Suggestions for upgrade/replacement for a Dell Studio XPS

Aug 27, 2015 7:16AM PDT

Hi, just signed up to see if I could get some suggestions on buying a new (or second hand) laptop. (Long pointless story here, TL;DR below)
The situation I have is I've currently got a Dell Studio XPS 1640 which is my first and only laptop I've ever owned. It had never let me down, I was always careful that it didn't overheat, it played every game I wanted it to (Diablo 3, starcraft 2 and DotA 2), it was fast, the screen was bright and beautiful, the battery lasted hours etc etc.
Then my partner came along.. She got sick and had to pretty much be isolated for a week, so I let her borrow my beloved laptop to watch movies while she was stuck in bed. By the time I got it back, it had been cooked beyond belief (she sat it on the blankets to watch movies in bed). Somehow she didn't notice how hot it was getting, and all the metal edges started to lift and peel as it turns out it's all held together with glue and double sided tape. Then the screen started to go pink, but fixed itself if you jiggled it or got the angle right.
Then it would go pink, then slowly fade to black unless you got the angle right.
Now it turns on, skips the pink and goes straight to black. Like it's on for half a second then just fades out. Jiggling is worthless now.
Even this wasn't such a huge problem, I just used a wireless keyboard and mouse and hooked it up to the TV.
But now the battery has died. The moment it's unplugged, it's dead. So I thought I'd finally get around to fixing it, did some research and narrowed the screen problem down to the ribbon/wire that connects the screen to the base. Ordered one, finally replaced it today and no change whatsoever, so it looks like it's the screen itself.
The way I see it, to have it working again will be $120 for a screen and $55 for a battery, plus about $100-$200 for a new top cover and palm rest/keyboard to replace where all the metal has come up/off, and $275-$375 seems like quite a bit to get it back to its former glory, assuming I can replace all the parts without wrecking anything (I got some confidence today from replacing the screen ribbon today, but it wasn't easy and I think I got lucky not wrecking some of the wires)

TL;DR - Looking for a good replacement for a Dell Studio XPS 1640. It will see some gaming, probably store a lot of movies so I'd like 500G min, HD screen is a must, and decent processer. Probably looking to spend around $500 for brand new or $350-450 second hand. Id go check the shops or buy one online, but we bought my partner a toshiba satellite recently so she never has to touch mine again for the rest of her life, but I find the touch pad on that thing is awful and it just seems horrible to use (windows 8 could be mostly to blame) so I'd like to hear what people would recommend. Also size isnt a huge issue. Im not studying and only take it away when we go on holidays or to see family.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

Discussion is locked

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Answer
If you can find such for 350 to 500
Aug 27, 2015 7:34AM PDT

Then your market is very unlike the market here in the USA. It sounds like you have found your next laptop. The models here in the class you noted are closer to 1000.

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Argh
Aug 27, 2015 4:44PM PDT

That's what I'd figured, but the XPS had all this and cost me around $350, and that was a few years ago! It seems like they're not getting much better but the price is going up and up. I guess I'll have to look into repairing the XPS or possibly buying a desktop. Thanks!