Compaq Armada E500 (161607-001) PC Notebook

They certainly don't build laptops like they used to. After 10 years my Dell Inspiron 3500 finally bit the dust, so I had to re-enter the market to purchase a new laptop.
The Dell died in December 2006 - so just before the launch of Microsoft Vista.

The question was - do I wait and get a new laptop with Vista or jump in with XP and load Vista once the bugs were all worked out. I decided to jump right in with XP and purchased a ACER Aspire with AMD Turion dual Core for $760 at Future Shop. They told me that it wouldn't be powerful enough to do basic video editing with only 512 MB DRAM, but I had 15 days to try it out - If I wasn't happy I could return it for an exchange or refund. They were right, on my second short video (45 second clip) I ran out of Virtual memory. The laptop also started crashing on me every 10 minutes or so. So I returned it after 10 days.

My second attempt was to purchase a Dell Inspiron 640M online. Had Dual Core 1 mb DRAM, for $899. Great before sales service; the laptop arrived in 1 week. So I started creating my short animation clips once again. Seemed to be working great - no problems with virtual memory using XP movie creation software. I had some problems with the Internet - locking up - but figured it was my Internet provider. Then after about 2 weeks the touchpad started doing funny things. The cursor was jumping around and could not be controlled. I contacted Dell and was re-directed to some place in India. The Dell Rep suggested we re-store the original system - so we tried that - after about an hour we rebooted - and the problem was still there. He agreed I probably had a hardware problem and could return the computer for an exchange or refund. So I did. I asked for a refund since I didn't want to go through this again.

So after 2 new laptops I was about ready to give up -or buy an Apple. But I didn't want to spend $2000. I was also working with a Compaq Armada E500 from work and was very happy with how stable the system (and hardware) was. So I started to search for another for home use. Luckily I found a store around the corner from where I work that was selling refurbished laptops for $300 Cdn. They also had a website www.refurbcomputers.ca so I could track their stock. After several visits they finally had received 2 Compaq Armada E500's - (Original Industry Camada Leased computers) The 1st one sold quickly so I jumped on the 2nd one. I was a little nervous with only a 30 day warranty - but for $300 thought I'd give it a try - and really give it a good work out for the 1st month. It was a Pentium 3 with Windows 2000, 256 MB DRAM, 30 Gig hardrive.

After loading up all of my favourite software and using AOL9.0 (to update the Explorer browser, and spyware/Popup protection)- I found that the Armada laptop was flying. I'm not sure what the problem is with new superfast laptops (probably all the unecesarry software) but the 7 year old Armada E500 could run circles around them. It takes less than 30 seconds to boot up. I downloaded my stop-motion software and a video editing software (in place of XP) and was able to create all the animations and videos I wanted - and no problems with virtual memory or crashing. The system is incredibly stable - no lock-ups or other problems.

The other big difference is the general feel of the Armada. Yes it's heavier than the new laptops - but because it is built to stand some abuse. Both the Acer and the Dell felt like they would snap in half if opened too quickly. It's been almost 2 months now with the Armada E500 and I have decided that as far as laptops go - I'll always buy a refurbished machine. Save about $2000 and prevent more plastic and electronics from going to the landfill - I will update this review as time goes on. Stay tuned!