Laptop - upgrade or replace

Ive had my current Acer Laptop for the last 5 years now. Its an AMD Athlon 64 1.8GHZ with 512mb Ram. 15.4" Screen running XP.

Its not stylish but its functional. Its not let me down in the time I've had it.

Issues are:
Fan runs all of the time (thermal paste problem?)
DVD Burner now only burns CDs/Reads CDs
Internal HD is only 80gig

I have considered replacing the DVD drive for about £25, and upgrading the RAM to 2gb (about £50) as the machine struggles with the likes of Lightroom and Photoshop

So would you upgrade for about £75 and buy an external HD (about £65 for 1Tb) or would you just save up for a new one? I'm pretty out of touch with Laptop prices and specs these days but XP has served me well. I'm just unsure as to whether the latest Vista/Windows 7 has any benefits.

[pookie]

i would upgrade and get a later model with dual cores for the work you are doing. Also current laptops have good standard memory and a new battery. My guess after 5 yrs the battery may be knackered.
Hard drives are larger capacity. You could also sell your old laptop and put that against your new one.

The battery is pretty good to be honest, and i mainly use it powered anyway. I only have the laptop for being easy on space. It hardly ever leaves the house.

I would just get a new one mate. We bought our eldest lad a new one for starting uni. Infact that was an Acer too, nowt fancy but it was a half decent spec. The only thing it had to have was a webcam (so he could talk to his mam) which most do nowadays. £350.00 from Computer OrBit in Newcastle, bargain! He loves it too, it even put a smile on his face for about 30 seconds, so well worth the money in my book.

Yep! New one tbh.

Technology is moving so quick nowadays after 5 years its worth spending the money to get something all shiny and new!! You will get a lappie that is faster, more capacity and more added extras. Time to shop my friend lol

I've seen brand new laptops (including high-spec dual core models) for under £300. I don't think that it's worth repairing a dodgy one.

Definitely not worth repairing Rob. You'll only be throwing good money after bad.

u know you want a big new widescreen one Rob with all the bells and whistles- treat yourself matey- at least you will have a year guarantee minimum.. AND you can keep the old one as a back up hard drive, and have loads of time to transfer all your required pics/media across

check out the dell laptops, I cant remember the price but it came fully speced and was cheaper than i thought

Ouch, can't afford a new one just yet. Will have to just soldier on with this one as it is until then