Looking for a new laptop

[BSUStormChase]

I'm looking for some advice.

I am in the market for a new laptop. I think I have found one or two I want to get.

When it comes to desktops, I can usually figure these things out. (I've built 3 of my own machines.) However, I need some help trying to figure out which laptop/processor to go with.

1) Intel Core 2 Duo (T5250) - 1GB RAM - 200GB HD - 15" screen

2) Intel Dual-Core (T2310) - 2GB RAM - 120GB HD - 14" screen

Machine number two is currently $200 less.

Screen size doesn't matter to me and the memory size isn't a huge concern as I could easily (and cheaply) make the first machine a 2GB machine.

I am looking for a machine to use as a portable machine. I want to access the internet, watch movies and watch internet video. I'd like to get 3 years (or more) life out of the machine. I'm also toying with making the machine a dual boot machine and try running a WRF model on it.

Is the Intel Core 2 Duo processor worth the extra money? Is having a 64 bit laptop better than having a 32 bit laptop? What about energy consumption? (Its portable, I'd like to use the battery.)

Thanks for any and all help!

[Nyquist]

If you want to run anything resembling a model, go for the Core2--up to a 30% performance gain in some cases.

As for the 64 vs 32-bit, most apps are still designed for 32-bit computers. However, the 32-bit computing age is reaching its twilight according to a few experts. I honestly think that by the time 64-bit becomes mainstream, you will be looking to purchase again.

My experience with the Core2 and Core Duo is somewhat short, but I did have a Core Duo for a while. Great processor with low power comsumption. The Core2 Duo is in my current laptop and is the best processor I've ever owned hands down.

[Bureau Chief]

Go with number 2, if you are going to use it in the car for chasing, the smaller the better. I bought a Toshiba Sat dualcore running XP and love it. Runs a long time on battery and runs Baron Threatnet, Delorme Maps and the Verizon broadband card software all at teh same time with minimal problems.

[WXFORECASTER]

Before you buy.. i would check out tigerdirect.com or newegg.com or pricewatch.com to see if you can find a better deal/computer!!

[south side of the sky]

We are looking at laptops as well. Who out there has a mac? I just think they are really cool and I like the pic/video/chat software that comes with it. Plus seems really easy to upload and edit photos and video. I guess the only downside is the lack of disk space. Not that I save a lot of files on my PC now. Any thoughts?

[baldingwxguy]

I bought a Dell back in August...a core2 duo with 2gb of ram. Very happy with it.

[BSUStormChase]

Thanks for the info folks!

I have been checking around online for the last month at newegg (which is where I buy most of my computer components), tigerdirect, dell, pricewatch, etc, etc. The best deal I have found is at BestBuy (by $100 or so).

[shadowfax]

if you go with the 1gb one you may as well go to www.crucial.com and get your 2nd gig before it even arrives. You're gonna need it because Vista is a horrible memory hog. In fact, the laptop I have on order is going to be wiped and reinstalled with XP because Vista sucks so bad, but that's another story ;)

Were I you, and didn't have a copy of XP lying around waiting to be installed, I'd get a dell with XP - -as far as I know they're the only ones still offering machines with XP instead of Vista.

Your processor speed isn't really vitally important. They're all within a few tenths of a gigahertz of each other (general range is 1.8 to 2.5). I'd rather see you look at memory and hard drive. A 5400 RPM non-SATA drive is going to be significantly slower than a 7200RPM SATA, for instance.

[MOCR]

Good info shadowfax! That was my question- what OS was going on said new laptop?

I'm still curious if anyone has made the death leap to Vista yet and what experiences good or bad came as a result.

I knew Dell was still offering XP as an option, but not sure how long that would last.

I've had a Dell latitude running XP for the last 2 years and my only requirement at the time was to get as many USB ports as possible for all of the extra gear I was using. I've had excellent results with it and have only had to replace one of the hinges after a rough and tumble it took in the car.

If I was in the market for a new laptop, I'd probably go with Dell again.

[Bureau Chief]

I would most certainly opt for XP if you can get it. Vista is a nightmare. And if you are one of those that sometimes gets illegal copies of software....(not that I would EVER do such a thing) Vista has the big brother feature...if it detects an unauthorized copy, it may very well delete it and send a messege off to Bill Gates about it. One of those little details that Microsquash forgot to put into the sales brochure.

[Nyquist]

I'm still curious if anyone has made the death leap to Vista yet and what experiences good or bad came as a result.
I have made the "death leap" and have had very few issues. I did upgrade my RAM to 2 GB from one. It was OK before that, but if I was running a ton of apps, things like Aero would slow it down. Now it is happy.

As for drivers, my six-year-old printer was an issue, but there are work-arounds using Vista's pre-installed drivers. I have nearly full functionality sans access to the memory card reader which is a non-issue since my Dell laptop has one built-in.

For those of you that are upgrading to Vista or currently have it, I would recommend going through your process listings to see what is running the background. When I got my Dell, I had 70+ processes running in the background at start-up. I was able to cut it to 56 at start-up by turning off a lot of the auto-updating clients and uninstalling worthless bloatware, and it flies now. Word opens in less than 3 seconds with six other apps running including GR2Analyst while pulling in data and 90+ shapefiles and placefiles loaded. Running msconfig is a great way to do edit your start-up processes.

You can modify your file indexing if you want to as well. I left that alone so that all my file searches take less than 5 seconds even with multiple partitions to search. :)

If you have Vista Business or Ultimate, do some checking into the shadow back-up functions. If that is left to constantly run and create temp files for possible restoration later, that will take a big chunk of resources. I set my system to back up once/week at 1 am on Sunday night in addition to the normal System Restore function.

My main gripe about it is that they made it nearly too user-friendly. Accessing some of the advanced menues for network configuration are a bit of a pain, but manageable.

The User Account Control is a new necessary evil to protect the computer, but a lot of people get annoyed by it. If you've used Linux for a while, you are used to limited permissions. With Vista, even Admins need special permission to do stuff if it is set-up that way.

Service pack 1 is probably due out in the next 6-8 months, so things should get better with that as well. I've installed some patches from it for performance fixes, and they helped quite a bit with large file transfers.

I sound a bit like a MS salesperson here--I'm not--but I am very happy with Vista. It's like an old car though. You just gotta tune it a little bit, and then she purrs. :rockon:

[WXFORECASTER]

I agree with everyone else. XP XP XP!!!! It is pretty stable and Vista still has a lot of work to be done before it is stable. Plus Vista uses way too much of your resources!

[Hard_reign2004]

Thanks for the info folks!

I have been checking around online for the last month at newegg (which is where I buy most of my computer components), tigerdirect, dell, pricewatch, etc, etc. The best deal I have found is at BestBuy (by $100 or so).

Don't forget to look into refurbished stuff! I would hope either way you are getting the service warranty so try a place like secondact.biz They are wonderful and have a great selection of current lap tops and digital tvs.... I will stand behind them...

[Hard_reign2004]

I've also made the death leap and have had no problems. I think the vista fear is a lil rubbish if you ask me. It has been very stable. Takes a bit longer to boot up though...

[MOCR]

Rubbish or not my fear of Vista is justified. Aside from being the latest OS from M$ to spend more money on, I've yet to see a rational reason why I need to "upgrade" to it.

I didn't mean to hijack this thread into a "Vista vs ____" topic, but I do recall that a big issue with new laptops was what flavor of OS it shipped with, which may or may not be germaine to the discussion.

For me the time/benefit for Vista has yet to manifest itself. If that makes me a skeptic so be it. Perhaps a new thread touting the benefits/detriments of various OS platforms may be better...

[Bandit]

Hard Reign and Nyquist are the first two people in my personal and professional life I've heard say nice things about Vista.

[Golfball_Size_Hail]

I've got the vista. Came with my new laptop. To me, I don't see anymore ease of operation than xp. Basically, just changed a few things around. Maybe it's because I don't do more in depth work. Basically just internet. I bought a tiger woods game and was dissapointed I couldn't get it to work. Not a good enough video card I guess. I got the HP laptop, it's got the centrino duo, 2gb memory, I think you need the 2g for vista to get it going quicker. I'm happy with it so far. For a while though, Vista or Norton wasn't letting me on a few webpages, like this one and google, then it fixed itself I guess.

Anyways, haven't had any problems with vista, other than many programs not having a driver ready for it yet, which can be a little bit of a pain. But, I don't see the big upside of vista either.

[BSUStormChase]

My plan was to go with whatever OS the computer comes with. I'd like to give Vista a try on a "fresh" computer and see what its like. If I don't like it, I'll wipe the machine and just install XP. I've already checked and all the drivers for the laptop are available for XP. I just need to make sure that I can access WorldNow's manage sites.

Like I said earlier, I will probably make the machine a dual boot machine and install Ubuntu or some other flavor of Linux so I can attempt to run a weather model.

By the way, can I mention how much I don't like the glossy screens all the laptops come with now?!?!

[Nyquist]

You will have no issues with WorldNow's manage sites I can assure you of that as long as you don't try to use Firefox. That was something I asked about a while back and got very harsh words in return.

[BSUStormChase]

Yeah, I knew that I needed to use IE to access WorldNow due to the ActiveX controls. I can live with that. That is the only time I use IE anymore.

[Tornadocane]

All Vista is, is just an expensive service pack for XP . :) I have Vista and I like it, I haven't any problems with it. However, you can buy XP now and run it and then buy Vista later or buy Vista now...work through the qwirks and therefore prevent yourself from having to sink money into it years from now when XP will be old and boring. BTW, my fiancee and I argue a lot about computers..she's a Mac fan and Im PC guy..she has the iMac...and I built my own machine...I claim my machine is better, she claims her iMac is better....grr

[shadowfax]

I've also made the death leap and have had no problems. I think the vista fear is a lil rubbish if you ask me. It has been very stable. Takes a bit longer to boot up though...

Depends on your mission. I personally don't feel like paying 200-300 for a new operating system that then requires me to have twice the system resources available, all for a less-than-zero sum game. It's less-than-zero because if you get 2 identical computers, one running XP and one running Vista, the one running Vista will be slower. Significantly slower.

There aren't any truly new features in Vista with the exception of aeroglass, and that is implemented very poorly. Ubuntu with the Beryl plugin works the way Aeroglass should, and its free.

The gadets/widgets, whatever the hell they're calling them this week are stupid. A clock and a calendar, both of which are (and were) available in the lower righthand corner of the screen without taking up a buttload of system resources. Then there's, I believe, a system resource meter that itself takes up system resources. Brilliant.

And since it's so new, if you have any legacy hardware (joystick, steering wheel, scanner, printer, CAMERA) it might not work under Vista. Or if it does you might have to find a beta driver from the device manufacturer (if you're lucky enough that the manufacturer bothered to write one) and we all know how wildly fun beta drivers can be.

In short, Vista is not a good option at this time, just as XP was a lousy option when it was released. XP sucked until SP2 came out - wouldn't surprise me if Vista followed the same pattern.

[MOCR]

...you can...prevent yourself from having to sink money into it years from now when XP will be old and boring...

While I myself am described as old and boring, I don't expect my OS to hold my interest or keep me entertained- that's what video games are for.

And as for old and boring OS's, I still have 2 boxes at work running Win98, and another with Win2K. Gee, they seem to keep running despite being legacy systems now. And only 2 months ago, I pulled the plug on the OS2 box after 11 years of continuous 24/7 operation. And speaking of VERY old and VERY boring, the TI Basic on my TI99/4a still works...

:D:D:D

[tv4(mer)caster]

Any thoughts on this machine we bought?



Item Number Quantity Item Description

223-3754 1 Inspiron 1520, Intel Pentium Dure Core T2310 (1.46GHz 533Mhz, 1M L2 Cache)
313-5395 1 Jet Black Color with Matte Finish
311-7213 1 1GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
320-5460 1 15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA LCDTrueLife
320-5457 1 Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
341-4768 1 120G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
420-4766 1 Microsoft Windows XP Home Service Pack 2, English, for Inspiron
313-5812 1 XP DELL RESOURCE ,BACK-UP DVD 1520
420-7024 1 Media Direct 3.3
310-8617 1 Thank you for choosing Dell
412-0689 1 Image Restore
420-4928 1 Windows Media Player 10
420-5769 1 Internet Search and Portal
420-6995 1 DELL SUPPORT 3.4,DIM/INSP
463-2282 1 Dell Owners Manual installed on your system,click on icon after system set-up to access
420-7244 1 Dell Support Center 1.0
420-5924 1 Icon Consolidation Application
430-0493 1 Integrated 10/100 Network Cardand Modem, for Inspiron
420-7468 1 ADOBE ACROBAT READER 8.1 DIM/INSP
313-5196 1 24X COMBO CD-RW/DVD
420-6464 1 Roxio Creator Basic
313-4783 1 Integrated High Definition Audio 2.0
430-2307 1 Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card
320-5692 1 NO WEBCAM OPTION
420-7701 1 Trend Micro PC-cillin InternetSecurity, English, 30-Days Subscription
312-0525 1 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Prim
461-3063 1 No ISP Requested
420-6590 1 Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business Edition
950-7447 1 4 Year Limited Warranty
412-0359 1 Soft Contracts - Qualxserve
900-9753 1 Warranty Support,3 Year Extended
987-7228 1 Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOnsite Service, Extended Year
980-3613 1 Type 15- Third Party At Home Service with Nights and Week ends, 24x7 Technical Support, 3 Year Extended
987-7227 1 Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOnsite Service, Initial Year
983-3080 1 Type 15- Third Party At HomeService with Nights and Weekends, 24x7 Technical Support,Initial Year
960-2780 1 Warranty Support,Initial Year
465-9556 1 $75 Dell Dollars Code. Dell Dollars will be sent automatically 4-6 weeks after your order ships
320-5841 1 Jet Black color w/o Camera
310-8624 1 You have chosen a Windows XP System
310-9752 1 Intel Pentium Dual Core Label
466-7698 1 Thank you for choosing Dell
412-0943 1 Basic digital Music,Photo and Game experience
420-7091 1 DataSafe Online Dim/Ins/XPS
420-7092 1 DataSafe Online Dim/Ins/XPS 1YR-FREE
987-4817 1 Insp Datasafe 3GB,1YR(Incl in price),DHS
988-0099 1 To activate your online backupaccount, go to Start, Programs, DataSafe Online
330-0171 1 S and P Drop-in-Box Marcom forDHS Notebooks
Subtotal: $993.00
Shipping and Handling: $0.00

[sleet10]

Have new Dell laptop with Vista, I have no issues with Vista, fairly easy to navigate. However, I do have a major problem with M$ with file sharing. My desktop of course is XP, laptop is Vista, no way to directly get files from desktop to laptop as of course XP does not recognize VISTA as XP is older of course. You would have thought that M$ would have solved this before issuing Vista, and Vista does not tell you how to file share with XP. Just maybe they will come up with a patch. Anyone know about this.

[baldingwxguy]

Have new Dell laptop with Vista, I have no issues with Vista, fairly easy to navigate. However, I do have a major problem with M$ with file sharing. My desktop of course is XP, laptop is Vista, no way to directly get files from desktop to laptop as of course XP does not recognize VISTA as XP is older of course. You would have thought that M$ would have solved this before issuing Vista, and Vista does not tell you how to file share with XP. Just maybe they will come up with a patch. Anyone know about this.

Uh, I have a new Dell laptop with Vista. Like Vista, but I'm not a hard-core computer guy either. I've got the 2G of ram, which I understand Vista (especially home premium and above since they use Aero) needs unless you like slow machines.

Sleet...i have an XP desktop and I can see the desktop from my Laptop, and grab files at will (provided those folders/files are set to share), but I can't see the laptop from the desktop. That could be an issue with McAfee's firewall, I'm still working on that.

[Tornadocane]

While I myself am described as old and boring, I don't expect my OS to hold my interest or keep me entertained- that's what video games are for.

And as for old and boring OS's, I still have 2 boxes at work running Win98, and another with Win2K. Gee, they seem to keep running despite being legacy systems now. And only 2 months ago, I pulled the plug on the OS2 box after 11 years of continuous 24/7 operation. And speaking of VERY old and VERY boring, the TI Basic on my TI99/4a still works...

:D:D:D

Ha, we had some O2 boxes that were running at work,...but we had em barely hanging on by a thread. We still have some Win95 operations at work...but, they just have the cloud desktop..and..I don't have flashy icons on them...don't worry, Im old and boring too...that's why I need a flashy graphics package to keep me entertained... lol :)

[shadowfax]

Ha, we had some O2 boxes that were running at work,...but we had em barely hanging on by a thread. We still have some Win95 operations at work...but, they just have the cloud desktop..and..I don't have flashy icons on them...don't worry, Im old and boring too...that's why I need a flashy graphics package to keep me entertained... lol :)

gotcha beat. 1982 Kaypro II, running CP/M. Still works. I still play Ladder on it from time to time ;)

And then there's the '81 Commodore Vic20 complete with audio-cassette drive. :D


Any thoughts on this machine we bought?


Not bad. Upgrade the ram by 1 gig and you should be good to go.

[baldingwxguy]

We are STILL running one O2 box in house. We're now all Dell except for SkyAlert. :confused:

[Nyquist]

For those of you that wish Windows were faster, PCWorld just recently posted a nice article on some of the hidden tools within XP and Vista to speed things up. Everything from driver installs, start-up programs, to application privileges is covered. The article is found at http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139784-page,1-c,vistalonghorn/article.html for your reading pleasure.

[wx or not]

[quote=shadowfax;321228]gotcha beat. 1982 Kaypro II, running CP/M. Still works. I still play Ladder on it from time to time ;)

quote]

I've still got my TRS-80. It still turns on, although I can't remember what for...:)

[BSUStormChase]

I still have my Atari 400. It still plays games from cartridge and audio tape. And if I ever so desired, I could program in basic. :)

[sleet10]

Balding: Thanks for the info. It could be mcAfee, I will check into it. I believe the desktop (XP) doesn't recognize the laptop (vista) of course is that XP is older, wouldn't they M$ need to do a patch of some kind so that XP recognized the newer Vista?

[TAFKA wacowx]

:cheers: I claim my machine is better, she claims her iMac is better....grr

She's right of course! :worship: