New Toy Wanted

[Mike Honcho]

Computer People,

I'm looking to spend $2000-$2500 on a new laptop next month. I'm tired of juggling files back and forth from my desktop, tablet, and external hard drive. I want a nice laptop with at least a 160 GB of hard drive space, 2 GB of RAM and a DVD burner for backing up movies or something.

I'm not a gamer, but I'd like at least a 17" widescreen display. I'm thinking of having a newer router and TV tuner card to play with included in that price.

I can get a free copy Vista Business from my school to upgrade from Home Premium or whatever is included, but should I consider Ultimate?

Suggestions?

[Andy]

Look at this (http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_e1705?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs), shop with this (http://www.gotapex.com/)

[Patonb]

A buisness model HP NX9400 series are smoken machines, but only 120G. They're about 2-2500 bucks.

[Foolish Old]

Look at this (http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_e1705?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs), shop with this (http://www.gotapex.com/)

Because of their shitty customer service, I am so over Dell!

[Andy]

Yeah, unless you enjoy calling India for issues, Dell is lacking in that regard. However, I've had 3 of their laptops so far and I'm not very gentle with them...no problems thus far. Considering that hardware for hardware they are the cheapest, seems like a good deal to me. Just make sure you pile on the coupon codes when buying, there is the 'list' price, then the 'coupon' price which ranges from 25-45% less. Nice to be able to spec out just what you want in the machine as well.

[Scott Pruett]

Alienware > Dell

however, Apple > *.*

:D

[Foolish Old]

Yeah, unless you enjoy calling India for issues, Dell is lacking in that regard. However, I've had 3 of their laptops so far and I'm not very gentle with them...no problems thus far. Considering that hardware for hardware they are the cheapest, seems like a good deal to me. Just make sure you pile on the coupon codes when buying, there is the 'list' price, then the 'coupon' price which ranges from 25-45% less. Nice to be able to spec out just what you want in the machine as well.

I'm not talking about our tech friends in Bombay or Manilla-that's another story. It's the rotten attitude of CUSTOMER SERVICE that lost me as a loyal Dell buyer. I had a part go bad right before hurricane Wilma. Other things took priority, and by the time I called Dell I was a week out of warranty. They pretty much told me TooFuxingBad. Except they weren't that nice. Different story before the sale.

[PN]

There is a compelling reason to select Vista Ultimate versus Home Premium, but I don't recall what it is. I have started to use Vista Home Premium on a new laptop that is made by Toshiba. It has 1 GB of RAM and a Core Duo processor. I would prefer a Core 2 Duo with 2 GB of RAM, but this computer seems just fine. I have no complaints. I believe Vista Ultimate comes with DreamScene along with BitLocker and I am sure there is something else for the enthusiast.

I like Dell laptops but I concur about their tech support. If you are sophisticated then this is not an issue, unless there is a hardware problem. I recently heard that the Chinese are not keeping up the quality on the Lenovo Laptops so I don't think I will be recommending them. Apple's MacBook Pro would make a good Windows computer, a la Apple's Boot Camp.

[Mike Honcho]

Scott, honestly, Hell will freeze over before I own an Apple. I see the grads who spend time in the Mac lab fighting over low paying jobs, while the networking and programming grads are getting to choose between 5-7 offers with high starting salaries 20% higher than they were just a few years ago. I get that artsy people like you love them, but they don't run the business world.

I'm getting some grant money from the school, so I'm considering this for going back and forth from home to campus:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m2010?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19

[Patonb]

That thing is HUGE. Your better off with a 15 or 17 and an external 21" monitor at home.

[Mike Honcho]

That thing is HUGE. Your better off with a 15 or 17 and an external 21" monitor at home.

I have 19" wide screens at home and in my office that I run dual display with all of the time.

[Scott Pruett]

Scott, honestly, Hell will freeze over before I own an Apple. I see the grads who spend time in the Mac lab fighting over low paying jobs, while the networking and programming grads are getting to choose between 5-7 offers with high starting salaries 20% higher than they were just a few years ago. I get that artsy people like you love them, but they don't run the business world. That's a moot point these days, but whatever works for you is cool. I use both platforms *daily* for work, on separate machines. I honestly don't love either, but Apple does make a superior product.

I'm getting some grant money from the school, so I'm considering this for going back and forth from home to campus:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m2010?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19 You'll regret it. That thing weighs close to 20lbs, which is ridiculous for a machine that you intend to tote back and forth.

[Mike Honcho]

How is it a moot point that the business world doesn't run on Apples? I teach in the college of Business and Information Systems. If they made a truly superior product for everybody, businesses would be rushing to adopt them.

Weight isn't a concern for me.

[Scott Pruett]

The business world has been running on Windows systems for much longer than the advent of OS X. Some businesses are changing over. Many aren't. So what?

It's a moot point b/c nowadays the majority of mainstream tasks can be done equally as well on both platforms. I'm not entering the mac/pc argument here. I own both, and have reasons for doing so. My statement about Apple having a superior product is based on experience, not bias.

Buy what you want. I still maintain that a 20lb "portable" computer isn't ideal.

[Mike Honcho]

Coming into a thread just to say Apple > *.* means you entered the debate.

Your personal experience doesn't make it a moot point. Your idea of "mainstream tasks" and mine differ. I'm not talking about modifying a photo or video, surfing the Internet, or making a simple change to a spreadsheet. I work with students that will be programmers, network admins, DBAs, etc.

Let me know when OS X becomes the superior platform for hosting mission critical apps, databases, email servers, network OS, etc.

[Mike Honcho]

Using Andy's deals, I just priced this:

Inspiron 9400 Intel® Pentium® dual-core T2080(1MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic
LCD Panel 17 inch Wide Screen XGA+ Display
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS
160GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Optical Drive 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™HD Software Edition
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 Internal Wireless, Netgear 802.11g wireless router

That's for $1443. I can get Vista Business and Office 2007 from school. I can buy 3 of these for the same price as the other cool toy and not have to carry anything.

[Scott Pruett]

Coming into a thread just to say Apple > *.* means you entered the debate.

Your personal experience doesn't make it a moot point. Your idea of "mainstream tasks" and mine differ. I'm not talking about modifying a photo or video, surfing the Internet, or making a simple change to a spreadsheet. I work with students that will be programmers, network admins, DBAs, etc. whatever works. If needed software is PC-only, it's PC-only.

Let me know when OS X becomes the superior platform for hosting mission critical apps, databases, email servers, network OS, etc.
likewise, let me know if Windows ever becomes the superior platform for those. :D

[Mike Honcho]

whatever works. If needed software is PC-only, it's PC-only.


likewise, let me know if Windows ever becomes the superior platform for those. :D

Yeah, because no businesses run Windows Server 2003, Exchange or SQL Servers. They all run Apple hardware and some flavor of OS. Please. I was saying Windows was superior to your pretty little OS X on all of those.

[Andy]

, I just priced this:
.

(I'll use this as my email reply)

I looked over what Dell is selling now, looks like you got this from the Small Business side as you could spec out a "Pentium" cpu. I'm not sure what architecture that cpu is with all the name changes Intel is doing, but I suspect that it is the old "Pentium M" based technology. That said, get some sort of Core 2 Duo cpu for your machine, there is a very very big performance difference between the various flavors of Core 2 and the old cpu's...as in very worthwhile to spend the $$ for it. Even at slower speeds compared to the Pentium M, P4's, etc, the performance gains are remarkable.

Also, with a 17" screen, it might be an idea to go to a 1920x1200 screen. You will have to use large fonts, but for stuff like photos, it is nice. I have one on my 17" laptop, works pretty good if set to large fonts. Nothing like the squint-o-vision 1920x1200 15.4" screen I had.

Other than these two items, looks like you are going for a nicely loaded up machine, looks good. I also checked the gotapex site, not many coupon codes there, maybe check fatwallet.com or something for coupons. I think I remember last spring those kind of dried up also.


Oh yeah, no rotting fruit to be found at the biggest phone company either :)

[Mike Honcho]

I'm a idiot and copied and pasted that without the Core 2 Duo option. I'm an even number guy, so the 2.00 option looked good to me. Is it worth the extra $250? Is moving up to 2.16 more worth it?

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB) [add $250]
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7400 (2.16GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB) [add $425]
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5200 (1.60GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533 MHz FSB) [add $100]

[PN]

Is it worth the extra $250? Is moving up to 2.16 more worth it?
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB) [add $250]
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7400 (2.16GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB) [add $425]

I don't think so. 4 MB L2 Cache is good!

[Andy]

The 2.0 looks good, 4mb vs. 2 mb cache and 400 mhz faster. I'd say in the grand scheme of things...yeah, worthwhile having something that will chew though anything cpu intensive nicely. The 2.16...$175 for 160 mhz? Not much difference for a lot of money I think. I'd stick with the 2.0.

Also make sure if you get a 667 fsb cpu, you match it up with 667 memory, core 2's love memory bandwidth. I've noticed Dell offering 533 memory options, and that kinda drags the machine some having less memory bandwidth with the memory running slower (although it is probably the same memory part, just having a different SPD programmed into it making the machine run it slower. Well worth the $$, eh? :p )

[Mike Honcho]

With the 2.00 Core 2 duo, the upgraded screen, and the 2 gig of 667 memory, I'm still under 2k at $1832. I could get by with a lesser video card and screen, but I might as well.

Inspiron 9400 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic
LCD Panel 17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS
Hard Drive 160GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Optical Drive 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™HD Software Edition
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 Internal Wireless, Netgear 802.11g wireless router

[Andy]

Yep, that's about right for something that will make anything available at Best Buy look silly. You know, that thing will kill my super duper XPS M170 looking at those specs. Isnt technology grand...two years and what you thought was a marvel of technology is ho-hum. :D

One last suggestion...I am not too sure how much battery life is important to you, but bigger battery option=more time on battery. I think that thing should be better than my bigger battery XPS which when the battery was new would do maybe 1.25 hours for general computing, much less when gaming (same chassis, with fancy lights and (ex) cutting edge parts). I think that GS video card is less of a vampire than my 7800 GTX is. Fairly sure the Core 2 has better power management than my P-M too, not certain though. You'll like it.

[Andy]

And one more thing...check http://www.notebookforums.com/ to read up on notebooks. There is a nice sub-forum for Dell 17" machines there too.

[Kota]

That’s a lot of power, nice machine; you can't have enough power if you are running Vista. I use both Windows and Mac. I like them both. There is a ton of software available for Windows. I know some will argue with this next point, but in my opinion, you get more bang for your buck when it comes to hardware with a Windows machine. Windows and Mac both run office for the business types, Eclipse, MySQL and Tomcat … for the java developers. Mac’s crash less and have fewer problems with viruses. You can run Vista on a Mac. The networking students should stick with Windows because that is probably what they will be dealing with after they graduate. What exactly will you be using this machine for?

[Mike Honcho]

For work:
Visual Studio .NET 2005 (for both VC++ and VB)
Dev-C++
SQL Server
Office 2007
Office 2003 for backward compatibility
Project
Visio
SharePoint
Camtasia (to record my screen and audio)
3 virtual machines (XP Pro, Windows Server 2003, and Fedora)

Home use/Maybes:
Watch (when I'm away from my HDTV) and backup DVDs
I might try Dragon to increase my productivity
Apache so I can play with PHP and MySQL