Shopping for a laptop

Do it fast - discounts on non-Vista

Chad Pearson

>I just bought a new laptop at Best Buy. They are currently in the process of clearing out all their non-Vista machines. My BB had great deals..over a third off. Might be a bit late.

Re: Shopping for a laptop

JL

>Go for a "pro" or "professional" model. They are sturdier and have better cases.

Re: Shopping for a laptop

Miles

>My vote would go to Toshiba or IBM/lenovo.

Toshiba Tecra M2 is a good solid machine (what I have at work). pentiumM 1.6 GHz & 512M memory seems plenty for XP.

Even better, from a robustness point of view, are the IBM (now Lenovo) Thinkpads. T43p is very well regarded older model. R-series are cheaper, but an IT-guru friend of mine has an R60 and recommends it highly (he runs linux on it). Certainly seemed very solid when I looked at it, especially the screen frame.

If you want widescreen, Z61m is what I would buy. Be careful, there are several different configurations under each model number, with quite different specifications. Check carefully. There is a very comprehensive knowledegebase at www.thinkwiki.org where you can cross-reference all the various models and components.

Lenovo make some much cheaper models but I don't know if they have anything like the build quality of the Thinkpads.

Hope this helps

Miles

I dunno what the gurus think about...

Ellis Walentine

>...Acer, but they have very full-featured laptops at killer prices. My son did a lot of homework and bought one for his bro-in-law in Peru, so I know it runs on Third World current. You really do need a converter, though.

Ellis

Hijack - I'm staying clear of Vista for a while

Joe in a Cleveland suburb

>"Vista's legal fine print includes extensive provisions granting Microsoft the right to regularly check the legitimacy of the software and holds the prospect of deleting certain programs without the user's knowledge."

Read this story. I'm not saying it's all true or right or wrong, just think it's kind of interesting is all.

Joe

Re: Shopping for a laptop

Howard Norman-Prescott, AZ

>Lee, I am sitting here today using a Thinkpad. Good solid machines. If you are looking for a quality machine think Thinkpad IMHO.

Howard

Re: Thinkpads

Glenn Madsen near San Francisco

>Of the 10 or so laptops I've used in the last 15 or 20 years, 7 have been Thinkpads. Rock solid machines, they are, and well supported. The IBM versions were made by the Chinese before the ownership change, and most of those were really well done. One of my sons is a current IT guru (I'm in telecomm), and he's on his third Thinkpad.

At my current job, I was given a Dell. Giving it back didn't seem to be an option, but it's considered frequently. Due for replacement sometime this spring, we'll see how it goes.

The power requirement can be easily handled. Check for a multivoltage power brick. Ours traveled worldwide all of the time.

Re: I dunno what the gurus think about...

Andy in Raleigh

>Acer is, for all practical purposes, the new face of the old TI (Texas Instruments). They kind of faded in the race, but I think it was more from marketing, not for technical reasons. I have had good luck with Acers and TIs in the past, but haven't seen one recently.

Gurus wanted

Lee Grindinger

>It sounds like the Thinkpads and Toshiba are the only ones really getting votes here. I know there are a lot of computer guys at this forum and I'm hoping they weigh in on this.

Lee

Re: Shopping for a laptop

Donald Pierson

>I am on my second thinkpad and have no complaints. I am a touch typist and the pointing stick between the GHB keys means I don't have to move my hand to a mouse and I think the egronomics are better than a touchpad. I may upgrade to Vista in the next twelve months when the second generation Vista machines come out.

Head over to my "other site"

Mark Goodall - ATL - tooljunkie

>If you go to my outerlimitsconsulting.com website, click on support, then look for the article on buying computers. You may have already read it or heard me recite parts of it here. It's there for you if you want.

I'm supporting Vista on several clients computers. It's cool. But I still don't recommend it yet. Still quite a few gotcha's that need to be ironed out. Yes, the clients that I'm having to go out and help are those that didn't heed my recommendation and got new PC's with Vista. Vista is nice, and it works well, but it's not without some gotchas. I;m not recommending it for business (ie. earn a living with it) yet, but for home users who can stand being a guinea pig for the next 6 months, its fine. I actually like it.

If you get one without Vista, look for the free upgrade. You don't need to install it right now, but you can at least get it and hold off instlaling it until later so that you don't have to pay for it in 12 months.

The nicest ones out now have the built in WiFi, BlueTooth and WWAN (Cingular/Verizon) cellular internet.... very nice.

Remember, if you buy the latest greatest today, they will come out with something new in 6 months.

Good luck!

Happy Woodworking!

How about a MAC

Robin Corell in Atascadero, CA

>I have an older clam shell ibook, AKA as the 'toiled seat ibook'. I purchased it new in 2000 and at the time it was a discontinued floor model. Mine does not have a DVD drive. I travel with it regularly and it has been trouble free. the only problems I have had in 7 years are a worn out battery charger, the cord became frayed. and I am over due for a new battery.

Robin Corell

Re: Hijack - I'm staying clear of Vista for a whil

Ron in Drums PA

>XP has been doing that for a while.

I installed a special SCSI card for a high end scanner and XP SP1 (SP2 wasn't out yet) wouldn't start. I had to call a phone number on the screen to reactivate windows. Then I found out that word and excel where removed from my drive. I had to reinstall and reactivate the software. This was somewhere around 2002 or so, I forget the exact date.

Re: Shopping for a laptop

Tom

>Mark had good advice on Vista. Try and find one with an upgrade coupon, and then don't use it. You may run into incompatible software and/or drivers. Possible, but not likely. What is more likely is a decrease in appreciable performance. When XP first came out the minimum requirements were 128mb ram and something like a 500mhz cpu. I pity anybody trying to run XP on 128mb. Vista's minimum is 512mb ram. I had the 'pleasure' of buying and working on my first Vista machine over the weekend. The cpu was a celeron 3.3 and it had 512mb of ram. It is/was a dog, even after turning off and tweaking as much as I could. And this was for the Home Basic edition. I've built several XP machines with the same ram and slower celerons (nothing wrong with the newer celerons) that would run circles around this pos.

Long story short, I'd get a Lenovo/IBM if durability is essential, Acer if money is more of a concern. I'd try real hard to find a loaded one too, in case you ever upgrade to Vista. Loaded means a minimum of 1gb ram (preferably 2), a Core 2 Duo 6300 or 6400 level cpu and video with 256mb dedicated memory.

Another recommendation for a Mac laptop *LINK*

wilbur

>Music, pictures, video as well as internet. $1300 budget. Needs to travel.

A MacBook would be perfect. 1 GB, 80 GB hard drive, 2.0 GHz processor, DVD/CD burner, wireless internet, weighs only 5.2 pounds, all for $1299. Plus the best software out there for dealing with music, photos, and internet. The power adapter does 110/240V out of the box. And you can have a secure, hacker-resistant computer with much less work than you would need with Windows.

Plus, if you have some programs that only run on Windows, you can run Windows on a Mac. BUt I think that for your purposes, there will be very good equivalent Mac software.

If you can find a store that sells Apple computers near you, go check one out. I think you'll be very surprised at how good they are.


MacBook web page

Re: Shopping for a laptop *LINK*

Jeff Mackay

>Hi Lee,

Here's my two cents worth. Look at the specs when you're buying. Get as much memory as you can afford (up to 2G), then look at disk space and display, processor speed is less important. Dual core processors, however, are pretty nice.

In my opinion, if you buy one of the top brands (Dell, HP, Gateway, Toshiba, Sony), you'll get a decent machcine. Sony tends to have better displays than its competition, but they're all pretty close.

Look at reviews. A good site to get reviews is www.computers.com. All of the vendors have ups and downs in terms of support. But I wouldn't pay extra for a support plan.

For $1300, you can get a fairly decent machine. Expect the machine to last for about 3 years, maybe 4 before you'd need to replace it. Don't pay extra for features you don't think you need.

Jeff


C/Net Reviews

Re: Do it fast - discounts on non-Vista

Kirk (KC) Constable

>The backlight on my older laptop died a couple weeks ago. I decided to get a monitor for it and use it for my 'desktop'. I got a new 'previously ordered new' laptop from the Dell Outlet site beacause it did NOT have Vista on it. I know everything I have will run on XP, and I hate change. I'm not sure you can even order a new Dell without Vista.

KC

Toshiba's, Lenovo's, HP's and Dell's

Mark Goodall - ATL - tooljunkie

>I find that they are all fairly comparable. Each has their consumer class machines and their business class machines, each have their more reliable models and there less reliable models.

Depending on the features you want, you may need to go with one manufacture over another. For example a couple of months ago, if you wanted a 15" screen and the builtin Verizon/Cingular (WWAN) wireless, you couldn't get a ThinkPad because they couldn't get tha parts. Yuo could only get a 14" with the WWAN in a ThinkPad, but yuor could get that combination in an HP.

Happy Woodworking!

Bricks

Mark Goodall - ATL - tooljunkie

>Yes, you're right.... All the power bricks I've seen in the last 15 years are 110-240V so they work worldwide. That's why they come with two parts... the brick and the cord. Instead of carry around two bricks, I carried the one brick and two crods, one cord with a US plug and the other with the European 220V plug. You can buy the European plug that fits your brick very easily. I like that better than carrying around those little adpaters all the time.

Happy Woodworking!

Yikes! Don't you hate stuff like that?

Joe in a Cleveland suburb

>

You've got me leaning

Lee Grindinger

>How do Word documents do on a Mac with the Mac software? Really, the only programs I've purchased that I need are Word and a website editor like HotMetal.

Lee

Vista

Lee Grindinger

>I'm a bit concerned about this new OS. It sounds like it's so hungry for memory it turns decent computers into dogs. Even Gates himself said in an interview that this would probably be the last of the large OS's, the next being much smaller.

What's your take on this, Mark? I know an Apple would avoid the issue altogether, the question is- Can a PC avoid Vista or is it inevitable that all of them will eventually have to run it?

Lee

Apple Vs. PC- Pros and Cons

Lee Grindinger

>I'd like to hear from those with opinions on this issue. I know these can be emotional arguments but if I'm going to change over now would be the time. I deal in political circles ans social circles that use mostly PCs so would this be a problem?

Thanks to all for your valued input.

Lee

Re: You've got me leaning

wilbur

>Hi Lee,

If the only additional software you need is Word and a website editor, you'll be covered on a Mac. Microsoft Office has a Mac OS X version, so you would have to add the cost of that to your budget. I don't do webpage design, but there is a free html editor called Taco HTML Edit (www.tacosw.com) out there. You'll have to decide if it compares well with Hotmetal.

My day job is being a pediatric oncologist. The laptop I was using for work was an old Dell that was in use for 6 years until I recently replaced it with MacBook Pro. I also had to buy MS Office for Mac OS X. I was able to take 6 years' worth of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents and transfer them over to my new Mac laptop, and they all open in their respective programs without any problems.