Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending.

[kakster]

Re: Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending

i bought a factory refurbished Dell L400 last july. very compact and sturdy machine, no problems with it yet, apart from the keyboard feeling a bit "tired". Next one i want to get is the Panasonic Toughbook CF R1.

 

[GJW]

Re: Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending

I vote thumbs-down on Compaq's customer service.
What a horror story!

My coworker has a Sony Vaio and while it seems to have all of the other bells and whistles they seem to have really skimped on the video card. Lousy stats!
On a desktop it wouldn't matter so much but on a laptop the video card is a pretty major deal.

 

[Bushman]

Re: Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending

Ok I have narrowed it down to this Dell Inspiron 1100
http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/products/model_inspn_inspn_1100.htm

I plan on getting the free upgrade to 256MB ram and the DVD drive. I have decided that I can live without the Combo RW/DVD drive.

What do you think? It is about $862.94 out the door.

Here are my choices of specs. Is there anything that i need to consider upgrading? Processer, screen size?
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?CS=19&kc=6V772&oc=1100SAP

 

[Silviron]

Re: Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending

[ QUOTE ]
GJW said:
....My coworker has a Sony Vaio and while it seems to have all of the other bells and whistles they seem to have really skimped on the video card. Lousy stats!
On a desktop it wouldn't matter so much but on a laptop the video card is a pretty major deal.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm.

Mine has a 32meg Radeon 7500C. I'm amazed at the quality of the display, for photo editing and even DVD movie playback. Beats the heck out of the 32MB 3DFX VooDoo on my desktop.

I'm not a gamer though. It might be weaker in that area.

 

[GJW]

Re: Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending

[ QUOTE ]
Bushman said:
Here are my choices of specs. Is there anything that i need to consider upgrading? Processer, screen size?
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?CS=19&kc=6V772&oc=1100SAP

[/ QUOTE ]

If it were me I'd spend the $40 for the larger hard drive.
$40 now is a lot easier than trying to upgrade later.

And you did notice that that model has no floppy drive didn't you? Not a big deal to some but very big to others.

 

[GJW]

Re: Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending

[ QUOTE ]
Silviron said:
[ QUOTE ]
GJW said:
....My coworker has a Sony Vaio and while it seems to have all of the other bells and whistles they seem to have really skimped on the video card. Lousy stats!
On a desktop it wouldn't matter so much but on a laptop the video card is a pretty major deal.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm.

Mine has a 32meg Radeon 7500C. I'm amazed at the quality of the display, for photo editing and even DVD movie playback. Beats the heck out of the 32MB 3DFX VooDoo on my desktop.

I'm not a gamer though. It might be weaker in that area.

[/ QUOTE ]

He's gone for the day already so I can't tell you which model he has but it's about 3 years old and doesn't support either DirectX6 or Direct 3D.
For gamers those are absolutely essential but for others, even a lot of screensavers need DirectX.

 

[Saaby]

Re: Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending

My brother got married today. My uncle was at the reception. He had a new toy--12" Powerbook. I have found my Toshiba's replacement /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[iddibhai]

Re: Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending

those 12" pBs are SWEET. i like the ibm x30 and the like but the major appeal of the apples is they have optical drives BUILT IN even on the tiniest models.

 

[Bushman]

Re: Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending

How is the video card and all on this one that I am looking at? I don't know a thing about it...

 

[highlandsun]

Re: Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending

I've been using Sony VAIO laptops since '99. The key feature for me was built-in firewire. My old one (F190) has had the keyboard wear out, (replaced with a used one off eBay) the battery die (bought a new one from Sony on clearance, 50% off), and the backlight die (broken connection in power supply, resoldered). It was basically left on 24/7 as my do-everything machine. These days I only use it with to scan my car's OBDII engine computer. A year or so ago I replaced it with a GR300P, custom configured. The 1400x1050 display on this thing is gorgeous. Sometimes I wish it as 1600x1200, but my brother has one of those (16" display) and it is just too damn big to be portable. This 15" display is pretty much the ideal size in a desktop replacement. This laptop is also on 24/7. Two things I'm not keen on - the MagicGate MemoryStick slot that I will never use, and the trend to drop support for IR ports. RF wireless is convenient sometimes, but what security nightmare. There are many times when a short range line-of-sight connection is exactly what you want, and this option seems to be disappearing.

 

[Saaby]

Re: Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending

Ack! I can't reccomend a Compaq. The one I have borrowed from School (An Evo N1000c) has a fan on the back. The fan is thermostatically controlled so when I turn on the computer I get about 5 minutes of silent bliss. Then this fan kicks in. It's like the fan of an Apple G4 only worse. It makes a lowish pitched noise that isn't just one pitch, it changes pitches for about half a second every 2 seconds. I can only use the computer for abotu 10 minutes after the fan kicks in before I start getting a headache. No kidding.

Makes me want that fanless (SO I hear) 12" Powerbook even more.

 

[GeoffChan]

Re: Attention comp. guys, Laptop purchase pending

We have 2 sony VAIO laptops (XE17'S) that i hate with a passion, no network jacks in them. The only problems that I've found with the Apples is that staff members just use Ti PowerBook's to stroke their stupid egos. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

We have apple 12" and 15" Powerbooks & ibooks, Compaq E500's and evo's, IBM R31's and Acers.

Supportwise, I prefer the Compaqs, the Apples come close second.

Geoff