Extremely off topic, but...

[Goldberg]

What the heck (this board has seen plenty off topic threads)...

I'm sort of interested in buying a laptop. First off, I can't really find much out about them and sort of want to compare a few different models, so I'm curious if any of you know any websites off the top of your head that could be helpful?

Next I'm wondering if any of you have any personal experience. I'm looking at the Sony VAIO right now but of course I'm open to other suggestions (or else I wouldn't be posting this strange thread). Ultimitely I would probably be sequencing on it-so I might as well say that I will. But for the most part it will be used for basics-word processing (sp?) and online stuff. Most desireable as always is reliability and stability (sort of same thing), and battery life. Oh yeah and cost should be closer to $1000 than $2000-blast, speaking of that I just forgot how much the VAIO costs...well anyway I'd like your personal opinions or experiences...oh and btw I would consider a Mac as well (what is their laptop-the Powerbook?).

[progfusion74]

Not a mac user, but the titanium running OSX would be very hard to resist if I had the money. On the PC side, I am not a big fan of Sony products, so I am biased against the Vaio. I'd look at the Dell latitude C840, which is a pretty powerful laptop.

 

The thinkpad A30 is a good one to look at too. Some people hate thinkpads, but others love them.

 

prog

[RABid]

I can tell you that I have been through a few brands and now buy quite a few Toshiba laptops for staff. Most of the time I stick to the $1500 price range. For that price you can get a P4 with a 20 gig drive, plenty of memory, CDRW and a 14 inch screen. If you do much music expect to add a decent sound card, otherwise it will handle most anything. For a $1000 more you can get the same thing but half the thickness. I consider the extra weight part of my exercise routine.

 

Robert

[Superbobus]

Ultimitely I would probably be sequencing on it-so I might as well say that I will.

Keep in mind that Apple just acquired Emagic. I think this Apple/Logic combi will be pretty much unbeatable. I feel sorry for all Windows users running Logic.

Mac laptops: iBook 12" and 14" (the white ones, not those cheezy fruity ones, they're out) and PowerBook Titanium 15".

On the PC side Dell seems pretty cool to me.

[SFOracle]

I work in the IT dept. of a large company with probably 20,000 laptops in circulation. Dell is our primary supplier of laptop and desktop computers. We have tried various other manufacturers (Compaq, HP, IBM, Gateway), but the Dell Latitude series are simply the best value, most reliable and best performers. I can't vouch for the "Inspiron" series laptops as they are geared for retail customers and we have always deemed them "not road worthy" for our very mobile workforce. Our current "standard" laptop is a Dell Latitude C610.

 

In the 6 years I have been with this company, I have had 3 Dells and a Thinkpad, and have seen lots of other brands. I am currently using a Dell Latitude C610 and my wife just bought an identical laptop. I'm running Win2K, my wife is running WinXP. Both are rock solid. After what I have seen of the Thinkpads, Gateway Solos, Compaq Persarios, and HP Omnibooks I would never buy one of these over a Dell.

 

The Thinkpad was unreliable - keyboard failed, hard drive failed in just 2 years. These failures were epedemic -we had many of them fail in exactly the same way. The Gateways were solid, but waaay heavy. The Compaqs were ugly, heavy and have a lot of proprietary on board peripherals (NIC, modem etc.) that require special drivers and when they become obsolete, they interfer with replacement PC Card peripherals. The HP Omnibooks looked nice - but suffered a lot from cracked plastics and mechanical issues.

 

Just my opinion - but get a Dell, you won't be sorry. If I were buying a new laptop right now it would be the Latitude C840.

[Llarion]

I'm an HP/Compaq Systems Engineer for a global computer distributor, so I'm a little biased towards Compaq, so I could recommend something based on your needs, but Compaq's commercial products are probably more pricey for a given level of performance and reliability.

 

About the cheapest in the commerical line would be an Evo N115, with an Athlon1200, 256MB, 20GB disk, DVD, and XPPro for about $1300ish. The Presario retail line will give you more bang for the buck, but not be as reliable or serviceable.

 

Dell's stuff is indeed pretty decent, selectively, as notd above, but our experience says their service and support network is lousy (it's oursourced to Unisys).

 

Personally, of the "other" major brand, I kinda like the Vaio, we have a new Vaio desktop in our house, and it runs quite well. Not was good as my SP750 workstation, mind you, but hey.. Toshiba's notebooks are sweet too.

 

There will be compelling opinions for and against all of the tier one brands. I urge you to test anything you're considering if at all possible. Make sure you decide which pointing device type you favor (touchpad vs erasertip).

[Goldberg]

Thanks for the advise. I'm kind of intrigued by the iBook, but of course I'd have to pay to upgrade to the 20gig hd and all of that. The Powerbook would be really nice, but it really is too expensive. Also I checked out the Dells and I really liked some of their stuff too. From the stories I've heard Dell makes a reliable product. I think you summed up the Compaq's well, llarion-I've had plenty of experience with their desktops and just don't like their unreliability-but they do have good features, so if it works, it's good!

The thing is right now I'm doing my sequencing on a desktop PC (made by HP). It's nice and is very reliable, but it is one of HP's lowest lines...can't remember what it is off the top of my head, but it's limited to a 10gb hd (I would settle for 20) and a P2 processor at I believe 400mhz. Simply put, it's not up to snuff. The portability would be nice to have as well from the laptop. The iBook seems like a good match, for the price, but I would have to buy a new sequencing program (I use Cakewalk) and get a CDRW and a sound card. So maybe the Dell would be a better choice...Sorry about the long post, just thinking to myself here.

[guestuserguestuser.com]

Originally posted by Superbobus:Keep in mind that Apple just acquired Emagic. I think this Apple/Logic combi will be pretty much unbeatable.

Do you mean 'is' or 'will be'? If it's 'will be', then I would say that in general, it's bad advice to buy anything based on what might happen in the future, because so often, it doesn't work out as planned/promised. Better to make a decision based on the way things are.

[Superbobus]

Do you mean 'is' or 'will be'?

Well, it is already working great on my and many other Macs under OS 9. The will be is standing for the fact that it's gonna be an app exclusively made for Mac, which means specialized in how a Mac works, which means efficiency. The will be does also mean that they have to make it a fantastic app, just because they're ditching all Windows users (35%!). To get them back you have to come up with something so good that they will switch platform and that's incredibly hard and madly idealistic.