Laptop advice

[Mike Graham]

I start a new job on Monday.
Yay!
That job will require staying in a hotel for the first 6 weeks.
Oy.
So I need some entertainment. I thought I'd buy a laptop so I can keep up with the forum and watch my vast and varied collection of pre-recorded programming. I'm thinking that a reasonably big screen is mandatory, but horsepower isn't a big deal. The prices have really dropped lately. I'm surprised how little you can spend to get a laptop these days. So does anyone have any strong opinions regarding brands or AMD vs. Intel or anything like that? I have to buy the thing by Friday, so it has to be an off-the-shelf item.

[Glenn in Caledon]

For the most part I've avoided Acer and AMD generally on the groudn of poor performance, not to say there arent exceptions. Havent had anything HP or Intel die on me yet.

[willr]

Originally Posted by Mike Graham

I start a new job on Monday.
Yay!
That job will require staying in a hotel for the first 6 weeks.
Oy.
So I need some entertainment. I thought I'd buy a laptop so I can keep up with the forum and watch my vast and varied collection of pre-recorded programming. I'm thinking that a reasonably big screen is mandatory, but horsepower isn't a big deal. The prices have really dropped lately. I'm surprised how little you can spend to get a laptop these days. So does anyone have any strong opinions regarding brands or AMD vs. Intel or anything like that? I have to buy the thing by Friday, so it has to be an off-the-shelf item.

Costco in Newmarket had a good selection. Acer, HP, Compaq etc.


Just pay attention to the video, get the fastes video you can get.Get a dual processor at least with 3GB -- hard drive capacity to taste. 250GB or better. $400 - $1500 -- ithink some were under $400.

The newer packages had Vista 64 bit Home premium.

Core 2 DUO for Intel
AMD X2 or better.

The new Intel chips are faster -- typically the AMD chips run software of all types with less fuss.

It's getting rough to get a really bad laptop...

It takes a lot more horsepower to run a high resolution (larger) screen -- they cost more for that reason as the graphics chips must be better quality.

[Mark in Ottawa]

I like my HP laptop - It's been bombproof.

Mark

[willr]

Originally Posted by Glenn in Caledon

For the most part I've avoided Acer and AMD generally on the groudn of poor performance, not to say there arent exceptions. Havent had anything HP or Intel die on me yet.

All our Current laptops are Acer -- good performance all -- the best performance is from the AMD chips.

Depends on how much money you spend.

[Bill MacDonald, Toronto]

There's lots of used ones around as well Mike. I bought an older Toshiba from the guy at the hole-in-the-wall repair shop near me. It runs Windows XP and connects to the internet, which is all I want it to do. Price was about $200, with a case and charger.

[Lost in the Woods]

I've always preferred Intel processors. Don't buy a house brand laptop, I did that mistake once. When it came time for a new battery, I was S.O.L.

When I was buying my last one, I compared 3 models side by side with features being equal and in the same price range (within $500) on a $3000 machine, and the Sony VAIO won by a country mile, for viewing quality, as well as angled viewing ability.

Don't buy Dell. They still make overpriced moderate quality stuff. Their customer service from what I've heard in the last year is at an historical rock bottom.

Almost forgot....Yipee!!! You got a job!!!! Congrats Mike!

[Blaine in Kitchener]

The first thing I thought when I saw your post was GREAT, MIKE'S GOT A NEW JOB!!!.
Second, I've used IBM Thinkpads for over 10 years at work and when they are no longer covered by warranty I take 'em home and use them until they die. Don't know when that is yet since none of them have died.
I've also got a HP Pavilion Slimline Desktop that is essentially a laptop in a desktop format. It hasn't given me any problems in over two years now.

Blaine

[Rick in Oakville]

I have no advice on the laptop, but congrats on the new job! I hope to see you again at one of Darrell's get togethers.

Rick in Oakville

[Mike Graham]

Thanks for the congrats on the job. I had left resumes at this company several times, and never got a call. Today I happened to run into the president and found out that the primary reason why I hadn't gotten a call was because of a mistake that I made in how I did up the resume. In my work experience I had left out jobs that didn't apply to what I do now. I figured nobody would care that I had been a banker or a cook when I was applying for a job as a millwright. Well, that gap was 7 years, and it turns out that that is a very common term for a prison sentence. It was suggested that this gap might have sunk me at many other companies, as well. I was surprised. I mean, I had the last ten years on there, plus all *applicable* education and experience, so...? Anyway, I got it all sorted out and I start on Monday. Woo hoo!

My primary computer is my desktop computer at home. Lots of horsepower and memory and whatnot. I don't need serious horsepower in my laptop - just something to keep me occupied in the hotel room. I'll take a stack of DVDs and books and hope for the best.

[aussie]

Like I said when you called, congrats on the job. The wife's HP takes a lot of abuse and just keeps on running. I think I've said before that the very fisrt thing we did with it was to "upgrade" back to XP and with the proper software it's run smoothly since then.
See you Saturday.

[Barry in London]

At work we only deal with Lenovo (former IBM). For the most part they hold up really well and our problem rate is very, very low. We rarely have a problem with them working with any software we throw at it, either off the shelf or built in-house. However, they command a premium price. I wouldn't pay it. I work with a lot of techie people and the general consensus seems to be HP as being almost bulletproof. One of the guys I work with (he's a PHD in computer science) will only buy HP equipment. He says it's the best bang for the buck. Very soon you'll see a flood of Lenovo T42 and T43 laptops hit the used stores (somewhere in the 5000 to 8000 unit area). We're refreshing all our units. Many of them are upwards of 5 years old and going strong. We're only replacing them as our software requires more memory than they have without upgrading. Also we try to refresh our units every 3 - 4 years but the past economic problems slowed us down. And before anyone asks, no, I can't buy any. All our units are bought by Lenovo for dirt cheap. They refurbish them (ie - clean them) and resell them to the used PC market. Some go overseas to China and other south east Asia nations but most, from what I understand, stay here in Canada.

[Jim in Burlington]

I have been using Tecra laptops by Toshiba for approx 10 years. Yet to have one die on me. They have gotten really really dirty and still keep on ticking. Good news on the job front. I also look for breaks in work history and wonder why skilled people would be out of work.

[jim in Halifax]

Originally Posted by Lost in the Woods

I've always preferred Intel processors. Don't buy a house brand laptop, I did that mistake once. When it came time for a new battery, I was S.O.L.

When I was buying my last one, I compared 3 models side by side with features being equal and in the same price range (within $500) on a $3000 machine, and the Sony VAIO won by a country mile, for viewing quality, as well as angled viewing ability.

Don't buy Dell. They still make overpriced moderate quality stuff. Their customer service from what I've heard in the last year is at an historical rock bottom.

Almost forgot....Yipee!!! You got a job!!!! Congrats Mike!

I purchased a DELL desk top and a Dell Lap Top early this year and I would not trade them for any other make!!!!!! Tech support is excellent...Grand daughter got a dell LT in Jan and triped over the ac cord and broke it off at the mother board....Dell sent an empty box via puralotor to return it to TO and had it back from to in 5 business days...NO CHARGE!!!!. Same thing happened to my neighbours daughter's LT.....Sent it back to HP thru Staples and 6 weeks later got it back...$50.00 later!!!!

[mreza]

Congrat's on the new job Mike! glad to hear that.

Oh about the laptop: times have gone since I knew about computers;
at 33 I feel too old for the new technology

[LarryCanary]

Congrats on the new job but why would you need to stay in a hotel for 6 weeks? Is the job that far from Orangeville?

[aussie]

Originally Posted by LarryCanary

Congrats on the new job but why would you need to stay in a hotel for 6 weeks? Is the job that far from Orangeville?

I think he mentioned something about staring at goats!

[Jim Shaver, Oakville Ont.]

No one has mentioned it, but I bought a Mac Book Pro over a year ago and I am sold, I am so tired of the PC based hell I had been living through at home and at work for the last 10 years, it's wonderful!

[Mike Graham]

Staring at goats?!? No, no! I had a pet goat. Named Katie. The Katie-goat. She was awesome. I would never use my Psychic Powers against goats. Just spiders. And politicians. And Australians who GET TOO CLOSE TO THE TRUTH....
But I digress.

For those interested, the job is with a field-based millwrighting company. They do jobs all over the world. They have crews currently in South America, the 'states, and the middle east. They also do jobs more locally. The first job I'm doing is actually within a 2 hour drive of my house, but they have hotel rooms for us to stay in, so I'll essentially be living out of town in a hotel for the next six weeks. I might come home on Sundays. Not sure yet. It's a major departure for me, in the sense that now I'll be doing field work so I can't take my one-ton oversized rolling tool cabinet with me, so I have to decide what I REALLY need. That will be tricky. I've gotten used to doing jobs in certain ways, and I'll have to adapt to a smaller tool-set. Learning is good. The market is currently flooded with young, out of work millwrights who will work for less than I need to keep afloat, so it was rough, but they wanted a millwright with a strong grounding in industrial electrical work (I'm working on my second ticket), so I squeaked in. Just barely, but I made it.

[tpwade]

Lots of opinions. Not much to add. Any laptop you get will be a lottery, just the odds of it breaking are different. I've recently had several very bad experiences with HP/Compaq, but I now have one of their business targetted laptops which seems better built (probably true of most brands).

What I will add is this. Try it out thoroughly first. Glossy screens are supposed to give better colors, but glare can be bad with non-ideal lighting. Try to push it hard in a relatively quiet place. How noisy are the fans / harddrive. My wife got a Toshiba with a non-standard keyboard (smaller enter and shift keys with other keys in between). It took a while to get used to, but now is fine. For a while (and maybe still) HP was selling laptops with the touchpad not centered on the keyboard so my right palm was constantly tapping the touchpad leading to all sorts of unpredictable results. Really annoying!