Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler replacing an aging laptop

I lost my pretty good laptop to my 13 year old daughter. I got stuck with a really old Compaq Pentium unit that doesn't have enough power to run the OS let alone any apps. I need a new one.

I don't want to spend myself broke, but it makes little sense to underbuy. I saw a 17" HP i5-7200 that looks to have pretty decent specs for $700. For $900 there is an Acer 15.6" i7-8550 that has almost double the cpu power, but loses some of the bluetooth and usb features but a higher res screen, but bit more money.

Would it make more sense to buy up in power with the idea that I generally keep a laptop for 4-5 years. I am going to be using it for doing my podcasts, DJ parties, bit of surfing.

The thought that the 17" screen gives more real estate so my really bad eyesight might welcome that. The smaller screen however will be easier to lug around.

Also I do realize that laptops come up on sale all the time so it's not like i am getting a stellar great deal just because it is around boxing day.