Paladin
11-10-2008, 11:32 PM
Hi. I've owned a Tecra M4 for years now, but it's finally about time to put it out to pasture.
I realized that my M4 wasn't really capable of playing the newest games anymore (I'd been using it as my only computer), but sadly no one had ever really built a tablet with a better 3D card. So I decided to fix up my old desktop instead, and my tablet was kept mostly for artwork and to have a computer on the occasional trip.
Unfortunately, it's picked up a number of mechanical problems. The hinge broke (Don't they all?), the screen housing is scratched, the backlight is about to give up the ghost, and the system fan sounds like it's had a bearing wear out.
I took it to the local repair shop, and they quoted me almost $500 to fix it.
I figure I can probably get a decent older model for close to that price, and since I really don't need a do-everything desktop replacement anymore, perhaps it would make sense to get a lighter/thinner model (Which is like... All of them ;) ).
Ideally I'd like to have a decent sized screen, and a decent processor to handle photoshop, painter, opencanvas, and so on. I'm open to a slate this time, since I'd be using almost entirely for drawing.
The big constraint is budget. I absolutely can't pay more than $1000. So I'm looking for a refurb of an old model, a used tablet in really good condition, or something like that. Anyone have any ideas? I haven't followed tablet PCs in a long time because I was happy with mine, so I have no idea what's out there now...
I realized that my M4 wasn't really capable of playing the newest games anymore (I'd been using it as my only computer), but sadly no one had ever really built a tablet with a better 3D card. So I decided to fix up my old desktop instead, and my tablet was kept mostly for artwork and to have a computer on the occasional trip.
Unfortunately, it's picked up a number of mechanical problems. The hinge broke (Don't they all?), the screen housing is scratched, the backlight is about to give up the ghost, and the system fan sounds like it's had a bearing wear out.
I took it to the local repair shop, and they quoted me almost $500 to fix it.
I figure I can probably get a decent older model for close to that price, and since I really don't need a do-everything desktop replacement anymore, perhaps it would make sense to get a lighter/thinner model (Which is like... All of them ;) ).
Ideally I'd like to have a decent sized screen, and a decent processor to handle photoshop, painter, opencanvas, and so on. I'm open to a slate this time, since I'd be using almost entirely for drawing.
The big constraint is budget. I absolutely can't pay more than $1000. So I'm looking for a refurb of an old model, a used tablet in really good condition, or something like that. Anyone have any ideas? I haven't followed tablet PCs in a long time because I was happy with mine, so I have no idea what's out there now...