Looking for a new computer

I’ve been thinking for a while now that I need a new computer. I’m still using a Windows 7 laptop which is increasingly unsupported by modern software; a while back, Word stopped working for me and I had to switch to the free LibreOffice software. Also, my laptop has gotten very slow and seems to have inadequate memory to run more than a few programs at once. And sometimes it overheats when I watch videos and shuts down to avoid damage. This is pretty rare, and happens less since I got a cooling-fan platform, but it happened last Friday while I was watching the new Ultraman Blazar episode livestreaming on YouTube, only the second time it’s happened on that site. (Something to do with the livestream, I would guess, though it’s never happened with Ultraman before.)

So I started looking around online for new laptops, but the ones available these days don’t seem to have many port types available. I hook my current laptop into my desktop keyboard, monitor, etc., and it takes several USB ports, a VGA port for the monitor, and an ethernet cable to my modem as a backup in case the wifi fails. I’m also reluctant to give up having a DVD-RW drive.

But yesterday it occurred to me — if laptops don’t have what I want, do they still make desktop computers? So I looked into that, and I found there are a lot of very small ones these days that would easily fit on the rack where I keep my laptop now. The ones that include DVD drives are much bigger, too big for the rack, but I looked into outboard DVD drives, and they’re actually quite inexpensive.

I think this option makes sense. I used to have both a small form factor desktop PC and a laptop. (The wire rack I have was set up specifically to give ventilation to the desktop, which ran pretty hot.) This was for the sake of redundancy in case one computer failed, and I used the laptop mainly for writing at places other than my desk — other parts of the apartment, my balcony, one of the libraries or buildings on the nearby campus. I found it helpful to write in different places because it helped stimulate my creativity and made it easier to avoid the distractions of browsing. When my desktop PC failed, I couldn’t afford the luxury of two computers anymore, so I adopted my current practice of using my laptop as a desktop unit — which means I rarely use the laptop anywhere else anymore, because of the hassle of unplugging everything. And I feel that’s impeded my creative output.

I mean, granted, ideally I could use a better laptop than this one. But as long as it still works, it makes sense to keep it and use it mainly for writing, while getting a new desktop PC as my main device. Despite my initial problems with defective hard drives, the laptop has been mostly reliable for the past six years, so I might as well keep it around.

I’ve found a mini-PC that looks reasonably good. Amazon describes it as a “Mini PC Intel 11th Gen N5105(Up to 2.9GHz) Intel UHD Graphics Mini Office Computer, 16GB RAM DDR4 512GB NVMe SSD Windows 11 Pro Micro Desktop pc, 2xHDMI and USB-C Triple 4K@60Hz Outputs.” I’m not sure what all that means, but that’s four times as much RAM as I currently have, and more than twice the hard drive size. My current laptop is 2.4 GHz, and both computers have 64-bit operating systems, so I guess it’s at least as good? Ironically, this desktop computer is much smaller than my laptop, less than 5 inches on a side.

I understand that an SSD is a solid-state hard drive using flash memory, which I gather is much faster and more stable than the old-style spinning hard disk my laptop has. I’ve been wanting to upgrade to one of those. Although I’m a bit confused, because the specs on Amazon mention “Hard Drive Rotational Speed: 2500.” But all the reviews confirm it’s an SSD, which has no moving parts. Maybe that entry is just a leftover line in the template that someone forgot to delete?

The reviews are not numerous, but they’re all 5-star, saying it’s powerful, fast, and quiet, doesn’t overheat, and can “play 4K media without issues.” It seems very good for my needs, and it’s relatively inexpensive (there’s even a coupon). I would need to buy a VGA adapter to hook up my monitor, though; it looks like I could get adapters for either HDMI or USB, and I’m wondering which is better.

My main concern is compatibility. I use a lot of older programs, and one of the reviews suggests that Windows 11 Pro might not be able to run them all. I’m wondering what my options are if that happens. Is there some kind of emulator program for older operating systems?