My Sister
Hardware: Acer Aspire 5517 laptop
1.6 GHz single-core AMD Athlon processor
ATI Radeon 3200 integrated graphics
2GB RAM
250GB hard drive
Primary use: Web browsing, music downloading and playing, movie watching, Microsoft Office work, keeping track of finances
Notes: This laptop was a relatively recent acquisition, and while it has some relatively modern hardware (the quite passable Radeon 3200 integrated graphics solution, the 2GB of RAM, the large hard drive) it was also very cheap (hence the slow-ish single-core processor).
The Good: Since this is a new and still-supported laptop model, I wasn’t worried about drivers. What I was worried about was the Quicken 2001 Basic software that she insists on using to keep track of her finances. Of course, said finances are usually too tight to actually pay for a new version…
I was almost sure this program wouldn’t install or run – back in 2001, compatibility with Windows XP was still sometimes uncertain – but, much to my surprise, it installed and ran without a single compatibility warning. I didn’t have to adjust the UAC settings or anything. I wondered how many more times I would get so lucky.
The Bad: Still not much to report here. The single-core processor limits somewhat this computer’s ability to multitask, but with Windows 7 having enough RAM and a roomy hard drive is more important to performance overall.
