Laptops

[The Knize]

Anyone have any thoughts on available lap top computers? Mostly for office use at my desk but I also carry it home every night and it seems to be on all the time. Heavy use in other word.

I would want a 15 inch or slightly larger screen. Not sure what resolution yet. I will take any ideas on that. I am not a gamer.

The hard drives seem to be getting larger than even I really need and I collect tons of stuff on my computer. Might consider solid state hard drive if I could cram what I use all the time onto one that was not stunningly expensive. Anyone have any experience? Is it a hassle to use and carry around an external drive for the over flow from, say, a 128 gig SSD?

Any idea what the sweet spot is for processors? How much speed difference to they really make among the fairly new ones?

I have pretty much used Dells in the past, I think mostly because I buy the top maintenence service, and that seems to work out. Although I am starting to think that some laptops are so inexpensive that it makes more sense just to buy a new one rather than pay a big support contract. The Dells seem to get a lot of different kinds of reviews, but my impression is they are not as reliable as, say, Lenovo. Although Lenovo support does not seem to be as next day at one's office as Dell.

I do not know much about, say, HP, Toshiba, Asus, Sony, or the multitude of others. Some of the pricing seems excellent. But what about service. Maybe I do not need service. Like I say, just toss it if it goes bad, if it in inecpensive enough. Are there doiwnsides to these that I am not seeing? I assume one can add memory and HDD space easily if one wanted to. Any fish hooks?

Have been thinking Dell 15z or Lenovo T520. Neither exactly inexpensive. Other models from both are less expensive. The former looks state of the art and has gotten some excellent and some not quite excellent reviews. The latter seems to push durability/reliability, which might be a big plus for me, since I lug the thing around to home and back every day.

Finally, anything thoughts as to whether it is worth upgrading from MS Office 2007 to MS Office 2010? I am running Windows 7 Pro.

Many thanks. I hate trying to sort out these kinds of things from the published materials. This is something I will probably use every day a lot for the next 3 years, though, so I want to get something that will do the job without blowing the bank account.

I have had my phone (a Droid 1) for about 2.5 years now. It seemed like it would be great, but I pretty much hate it! I do not want to go that way with a laptop!

One more, anyone really liking or not liking their antivirus software? I have been using Vipre and I am suspecting that it is causing lots of problems, including slowness and crashes. Maybe not, but I want to try something else!


Many thanks!

 

[Edcculus]

I had a IBM (Lenovo) laptop which I bout in 2004 and is still going strong, other than the battery being totally useless at this point. Over the years, I upgraded RAM, and had to replace the fan/heatsink in 2008. My brother got a newer Lenovo last year, and its very thin and light. I think he got a SSD, which he is pretty happy with. A little less space, but no moving parts is a plus.

I only have experience with Dell laptops through my old job. The sales people all had them and they were absolute junk. Dell's customer support is pretty bad too unless you are a business user, or pay for the top tier.

I haven't used HPs a lot, but one of the IT consultants at my last job had one and loved it.

 

[The Knize]

Thanks, E. I have had all sorts of problems with Dells in the past, but the service contracts, which were the top tier ones--I would hesitate to go with anything less than the very top Dell service agreement--made any problem pretty easy to resolve. And this one, a D830 Latitude has given me far less trouble than previous models. It is long off the service agreement. Although I admit that this is a used one I just bought to replace one that I was afraid had gone south. Seemed to be trashing power blocks, which I had never heard of and at least had one bad DIMM socket. Seemed easier to just grab a used one at a fairly low price than, say, buy a motherboard off EBay and replace that.

I am thinking that durability might be a big decision point, but that is a hard factor to get at. For the T and similar business-type series computers, Lenovo seems to make a point of being durable. The business models, especially the T520, do not seem very thin, although they are decently light, and the battery power lengths of time seem pretty good.

Wish I knew more about the HPs, etc. Would probably be easier to pick up a new one of those if problems developed.

 

[Phog Allen]

I hope you get some good feedback in this thread. My wife and I are at crossroads. We need a new pc but don't know whether to go with a desktop or laptop. We are not power users and have no intention of spending a couple of thousand dollars on a machine of any kind. These things are fully in the appliance column now and pretty much disposable. There are so many budget laptops between 400-600 dollars anymore unless you are power business user it doesn't make any sense to buy something top end. We are looking for something with the I3 to I5 processor or equivalent that has hdmi output and can handle PlayonTv media server. I like the idea of dedicated media pc for the Playon and a/v editing(very mild stuff. No massive recoding and compression work) and a laptop for most daily things.

Cheers, Todd

 

[The Knize]

when you say at work do you mean it will be on a network? if it's going on a network (wired or wireless) you may want to consult your IT folks to see what their min requirements are. ASUS would be a good way to go. They supply a lot of the parts for other companies and a lot of the roll you own guys use a lots of their parts. I think SSD is overkill unless you have true reason for wanting it. for less money you could buy a standalone HDD of 1t or more. I also have a Lenovo t61 which has taken a beating over the last few years and keeps on ticking.

It will be on a network at work. Reasonable question to ask our IT guy. I have done that before and there did not seem to be any special requirements. I expect to be running Windows 7 Pro anyway, which may address networking issues. We are a small shop and I seem to have lots of flexibility re what computer I get and what I run on it, thank goodness.

The reason to go with SSD would be both speed and reliability. I just do not see that I need a huge amount of hard drive space on one internal harddrive, but I am nto sure I can cram it down to say 128 gig. Maybe the thing to do is to buy an aftermarket SSD drive. Prices will keeping coming down.

Roll your own laptops? Interesting!

I do not know anything about Playon, but I would think that nearly any inexpensive laptop would do for home use. I have not had a desktop for a decade and do not really see the use of them. A full-size keyboard and mouse make m wrists hurt!

 

[Stubblefield]

Finally, anything thoughts as to whether it is worth upgrading from MS Office 2007 to MS Office 2010? I am running Windows 7 Pro.

Don't do it. The new ribbon interface (or whatever they call it) is a PITA. I hate office 2010 with a passion, but am forced to use it at work. It is perhaps the least intuitive interface on a program I have ever used, and doing simple tasks seems to now require more steps.

 

[brianw]

Send me a PM Robbie

 

[Wishoot]

ASUS would be a good way to go.

Agreed.

I'm using an Asus at this very moment. I've had it for about 2 years and it's been a 100% reliable workhorse.

 

[Pensacola Tiger]

I have an ancient (5 year old) IBM/Lenovo ThihkPad that is still going strong. IDK about the newer Lenovo laptops. I have three friends who have Asus laptops, and so far, no problems (19, 13 and 4 months old). I'd probably go with Asus if I needed a new laptop based on their experience.

Whatever you wind up getting, invest in an external drive and backup the hard drive daily. Laptop hard drives are their Achilles heel.

 

[bkfist]

As far as processors go, the Intel Core series are generally going to be faster than the fastest AMD processors. Over the years I've also found that the chipsets used on AMD compatible motherboards tend to go bad about 4-5X more often than motherboards with the Intel chipset. (I services hundreds of PC's a year, and if a motherboard has gone bad, it is almost *always* and AMD machine, various brands of motherboards - I think since AMD is the "value" CPU nearly every board manufacturer is cutting corners to make the motherboard "match" the CPU as a "good bargain", and cut quality with things like capacitors & power regulators.)

As far as the I7 I5 I3 processors are concerned the 7 is faster than a 5 which is faster than a 3 at the same clock rate, primarily due to larger cache RAM on the 7 than the 5 than the 3. The I3 series are the mobile processors and can usually go into a lower clock/power state than the other two processors, giving increased battery life.

the I5 are generally a decent middle-ground for battery life and speed. If you are ever going to want to run a virtual machine (Windows on Linux, Linux on windows, etc.) stick with an I7 processor.

If you are not gaming, the Intel Graphics Accelerator built into the Intel chip sets is plenty for business and even full-screen video playback, windows (or Linux) 3D effects etc. Another advantage of not getting a "high performance" video card is the Intel drivers are almost always "rock solid", which can not always be said for Nvidia drivers, and can *rarely* be said for AMD's video card drivers.

As far as Office is concerned, any new W7 install will come with Office 2010 starter Edition. If you are doing basic spreadsheet and office documents, you may find that this is all you need. It's free and "advertisement" supported by a rather small ad that appears in the lower right corner of your windows/excel... no pop-ups, or anything particularly obnoxious.

If you need full macro support in word/excel, you can upgrade to the home & small office edition online or purchase it later. If you need Access etc, you'll have to go for one of the more expensive options that include it.

WiFi - if it's got an Intel wireless chipset for the N/G/B Wifi, consider yourself lucky - again, the driver stability and efficiency is top-notch.

 

[The Pontificator]

I read an article that listed laptops in order of customer satisfaction from best to worst and the list went something like this:

Apple (predictable)

followed by

ASUS
MSI
TOSHIBA
SAMSUNG
LENOVO/DELL BUSINESS
HP BUSINESS
GATEWAY
DELL - CONSUMER
HP - CONSUMER

People that I know who own Lenovo laptops say they're solid (they were built like tanks when IBM made them). Toshiba is a brand that generates both supporters and critics.
I would not buy an HP or Dell.

 

[wimbouman]

I have a built to spec Dell Precision. Quite expensive but due to pure quality in components, keyboard, screen, resolution worth every penny.
Absolutely love it. A powerful and well built laptop, with a perfect screen.
It was built to my requirements and Dell Small Business did just a great great job.

That said, if I were to buy a laptop now I'd consider an Apple Mac Air or the new Asus tablet with a keyboard.
It's the opposite, but that could work also.

 

[bkfist]

The problem with the "consumer reports" stuff is that they lump the $300 dells/hp etc. into the same group as the higher-quality products from the same manufacturer.... and to top it off, I'm guessing that the majority of the people responding to those kind of things are buying the sub $400 laptops, NOT the $1000 + products.

HP and Dell are the two companies who, while making some quality models, are also the ones who also put their products into the "lowest of the low" markets also.

When your local "computer box store" has a sale on $250 laptops, regularly $399, and at the same time has a sale on $1000 laptops, regularly $1300, which ones are going out the door at the highest rate?

When ALL of your laptops are in the $1000+ range (apple) you have a distinct advantage when it comes to these kinds of "generalizations".

I'd like to see all of these "reports" re-done by model series - for example the Dell Precision, macbook air, Lenovo X series etc. There would be some definite shakeup in the reliability of the manufacturers. (Not saying apple's products aren't reliable, not at all, just saying it would be a much more legitimate comparison at that point.)

 

[Gunney]

My mother has a Toshiba, she has literally taken it outside into all conditions to smoke, and it still works dandy. Granted a few keys dont work. I personally don't have much experience with em, since I am a desktop person, due to the fact I do alot of high intensity processing on mine...