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My Dell Inspiron (E1505) is almost 3 years old, which I have learned is about the lifespan of a laptop - it is literally falling apart. My job gives us $750/year for "professional development" which can be used for computers, and we get this money by the calendar year... so come January, I think it's time to go laptop shopping! We get special city-employee discounts through Dell, so I'm tempted but hesitant to get another one. Here's what I am looking for:
- I can put in some of my own money, so let's set my budget at $1000.
- Lightweight but not TOO tiny (15" screen minimum; maximum weight of 5-6 lbs)
- Game-capable; I'm not a hardcore or RPG game player, but do play a lot of memory-heavy games (Sims, for example); must have fast enough processor, decent video card & enough memory to handle these.
- Windows/PC
- Internal wireless adapter (pretty standard these days, I'm guessing)
- Built-in SD card reader
- DVD-R/CD-R drive
What else?? Basically I'm just looking for a good laptop under $1000, which doesn't weigh a ton since I travel a lot... and I don't really use a desktop at home anymore, so this has to be sufficient as a primary computer. TIA for any advice!
Personally, I like the Dell Latitude line. Where I work, we have many of these that are over 5 years old and still work fine and look nearly new. In my experience, the ThinkPad machines have not fared nearly as well. We used to use HP machines and had few problems with those laptops also.
I would go to Dell's web site and customize one until I had what I wanted, keeping in mind lots of memory and allowing for a spare battery, extra charger, maybe a car charger, and check out what options they have that fit in the modular drive bay. Some of them have a modular bay battery available and some have a hard disk enclosure; both handy items to have.
It's a nice bronze color. Runs like a bat even with the Vista x64.
She's very pleased.
Trying to figure out the advantage on Vista 32 bit vs. 64 bit. Seems theirs a number of current soft ware add on that are having trouble with 64 bit....
I also here Microsoft is scraping Vista in about 12-18 months and going with a new and improved program call "SEVEN".. and Intel is suppose to have a 4 core processor that's close to a Terra Bite.....some where 2011-13
Wife has only had one problem - with Flash. She just uses the 32 bit version of IE and things are fine.
Keep in mind that just because you're running 64 bit you aren't required to run 64 bit apps. 32 bit runs just fine... Those add ons will catch up or go bye-bye as people move to 64 bit.
The new Windows "whatever they decide to call it" is nothing more than a different version of Vista, and if they do as good a job as they did with "improving" XP I'll stay with XP and Vista. In addition I don't find waiting for a new OS from Microslop to be a valid reason to put off buying a needed computer for a year or more.
Quad cores are nice. They're actually worth the money if you have applications that will use them. Those would be filed under "few and far between". Duo cores are fast as all get out and cost a lot less. If you're building a gaming PC spend the money on a graphics card, not the CPU.
I agree..... All depends on what your doing with your lap top/desk top.... I here many people say they don't like Vista... and will buy a lower price system to get XP. Not ever seeing Vista and what it's about I cannot comment. I know I use XP and so far have had little trouble with it or the system ( Dell Desk Top) it's 5 years old. Time for a new one........ once I move.
Most of the problems with Vista have settled out. Updates, new equipment drivers, RAM is cheap, faster CPUs, all has added to the functionality.
I know you read that you have to have a brand-spanking new, super fast computer with blah, blah, to run Vista.
Well, I took one of my old PC's out of the closet (circa 2002) added a NIC card (driver problem), some RAM (512MB wasn't going to cut it), and a $125.00 graphics card. This was last year.
Thing runs like a top and is plenty fast. Considering all the horror stories I think it's telling that I only needed one change from the old mobo because of the built-in NIC. The graphics card was barely acceptable for XP so I wasn't surprised it need updating.
That's the same thing I do.... If it ain't broke don't fix it. Simple is all ways better.... I've all was wonder if I could put a system together from scratch,and would it be cheaper in the long run......
Not sure about cheaper - the Big Guys get real good prices, but you can put what YOU want into it.
There are sites on the Internet that will walk you through the process step by step.
Yes, you can do it.
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My job gives us $750/year for "professional development" which can be used for computers, and we get this money by the calendar year... so come January, I think it's time to go laptop shopping! We get special city-employee discounts through Dell, so I'm tempted but hesitant to get another one. Here's what I am looking for:
HP dv5-1160us
