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Gary
04-23-2005, 10:08 PM
What are you guys doing for laptop computers? I'm at the end of my rope with my Dell and need to get something new.

Don't bother recomending Dell, I'm done with them.

roddymcg
04-23-2005, 10:24 PM
Thats how I feel about my Toshiba, thing started falling apart only a few months after I got it. The service center I took it too said that they saw Sony and Dell the least. So I got a Dell, but Sony is known for their quailty. I do not have much direct experience with the Sony, never heard anything bad for what that is worth to you.

AHEM
04-23-2005, 10:38 PM
I bought my first Dell back in 97 and at that time they had great service, but I've since heard many horror stories.

Everyone that I know that owns a Gateway has had it fail within the first year.

My current laptop is an HP Athlon XP2200 and the 256mb is barely enough to run even the most basic applications. It does the trick, but I've never been overly fond of the computer.

My previous laptop was an older IBM Thinkpad and I LOVED the little red track ball/mouse thingy. Those are the only laptops that I've ever used that didn't scream carpal tunnel at me after five minutes of use.

lonny
04-23-2005, 10:44 PM
I am a big can of the sony VIO. I am on one now and love it. Just very expensive. I am gonna be upgrading in 2 weeks. i was thinking dell or HP. THe SOny is way out of my budget now that i pay to pay for the comp. Before mom and dad did, the good days..

Lonny

Greg_C
04-23-2005, 11:48 PM
I've been happy with my Toshiba, used to have a compaq, I'll never get another.

kplummer
04-23-2005, 11:59 PM
In our office we have purchased 2 DeskNote (now Eurocom), a Dell and 3 HP laptops in the last couple years. While I have no problem with the DeskNotes they are a bit bulky and use desktop parts (hey I wanted 2ghz back when laptops were barely crossing 1). The Dell is a cheapy and you can tell. After that purchase and my father's Dell purchase, I dont see us buying another. We bought a bit higher end HP for one of our designers and then later bought 2 of the $599 special's for two of my coworkers. I like the HP, even the cheapy ones seem well put together...

Anonymous
04-24-2005, 12:54 AM
I use the cheap Dell Inspiron 1000 for job sites. I took my IBM Centrino based laptop with me once and brought it back to the office COVERED in saw dust. :( Figured for $600 if I get 2 years out of this cheapy it was worth it. I upgraded the memory from www.crucial.com because it is always well priced and always works. This seems to work pretty well for fine tuning. I try to do the bulk of my programming on a desktop, then transfer it to the laptop.

My first choice in laptops has always been an IBM. Check them out.

I always wipe a machine clean the day I get it to get rid of all the junk companies install that I don't need and so I can partition the hard drive. This also seems to make less running in the background (yes, I know I can kill start ups in msconfig).

Shadowman68
04-24-2005, 02:03 AM
after my initial crap out on my toshiba, I took it to the repair center, and everything has been great. I used to have an old IBM with the track ball too, it was a tank, never had a lick of trouble with it. battery lasted at least 4 1/2 to 5 hours. My Toshy lasts maybe 2. Still for what it does, the price, its features, I think if I had to I would get another one. My neighbor has a HP and swears by it, although he has reformated the Hard drive about 5 times in the last 6 months, He had a Dell before that and it crapped out monthly, he hates compaq. Another neighbor has an E-Machine, he likes it. It looks just like my toshy though.

PAAI
04-24-2005, 08:38 AM
Gary, My programming machine currently is a Dell C840. I use this lug with a stripped down MS 2000pro OS. Great Rs-232 port and okay battery life/screen ratio/speed. No email program or MS office stuff aboard. What I like about this Latitude model is I can easily get replacment parts, unlike the delllaptop special of the week Inspiron (sp?) models. I have used a Sager (MB died), Gateway and IBM.
I plan on getting a newer and smaller portable with a DVD drive for travel.
I am going to have two laptops, because eventually one will die.

I think the Toshiba Tecra series has a nice Platform, some toshiba users may add to this, bit I think they also have a standard motherboard/case that allows for easy parts replacement and upgrades.

tomciara
04-24-2005, 09:42 AM
Last time I needed a laptop I was on a budget so I looked on ebay and ended up with a used Dell. It has been absolutely trouble free.

Unlike my desktop which does a variety of apps, my laptop only does occasional word processing, occasional web browsing to download a URC update, discrete codes, and the like, but primarily remote control programming.

I don't feel bad about keeping it in the truck all the time because it's not a high ticket item.

Funny how everyone has or knows of someone with one of those brands that has been a real pile.

For me, the Dell has been a champ. I'd not be afraid to get another.

vwpower44
04-24-2005, 11:59 AM
Dell Inspirion was been a work horse. The display went bad and within a week I had it fixed and returned to me. Great service from what I have experienced. We use Dell for all of our office computers and have had excellent results.

Sony laptop was unreliable (2 cd-rom failures causing it not even boot), toshiba had horrible service, Compaq was crap. We had a fujitsu laptop that was great. Worked for 6 years with no problems, then got stolen.

Mike

ejfiii
04-24-2005, 12:02 PM
Hey Gary, take this for what it is.

I have owned/used them all: Sony, Dell, Compaq, HP, Toshiba. My last 3 have been ultraportable - I take mine everywhere and appreciate the dimunitive size of this class and you can now get them powerful enough for day to day chores. Sony 505 fell apart and was returned 3 times in 18 months for fixing. IBM ultra was good, but not standout.

So, my current is a Panasonic Toughboox W2. I have had it since they came out a year ago and it has been love affair since day one. Not a single problem. LCD and HD encased in gel for the rough treatment on site. Very small for day to day lugging. Best part - only ultra that I know of with built in CDRW drive. Plus, built in G & B, although I think more have G built in now. Oh, and the form factor oozes sexiness. Did I mention the honest 5.5 hours of battery life I get from the stock year old standard battery with wireless on? Insane.

Does it cost more? Yes. Is it worth it, it was for me.

Good luck.

fletch999
04-25-2005, 08:31 AM
I have been using an Acer TravelMate Tablet PC for about two years and it has been everywhere with me. It is small and pretty light, easy to move around on jobsites and the tablet features are great for me. I use it all the time for almost everything. I write on on it to take notes, (MS OneNote and Journal, MindManager) It is a convertible type tablet. Flip the screen one way it is a laptop, flip iut around and it is a slate type.

It feels a little flimsy and doesn't really look too tough, but it has been fine for two years. Had one incident where I shorted the mother board. Totally my fault and it was sent in, replaced, and back in my hands with no data loss in four days allcovered under warranty, I didn't even pay shipping.

I really like the tablet features and wouldn't go back to a standard laptop again.

OEX
04-25-2005, 09:08 PM
I'd skip the New Delli too. Get it? New Delhi. Anyway, I got a Toshiba Tecra and I love it. I did spring for the PCMCIA serial to usb card - its worth it. compatible with Sonance, URC, Pronto, etc.

The8thst
04-25-2005, 09:32 PM
I use an IBM thinkpad T40 every day and I have only one complaint with it, there is no serial port. There are plenty of solutions for this all too common drawback, but I would still prefer a built in serial port.

If the laptop had that, I would have found the perfect laptop. It has the little red dot (which I used solely on laptops in the past) and a touch pad. The touch pad is about the same texture as a smooth piece of paper and is a ton easier to use than the Dells I have looked at, add to that the great IBM keyboard, LED keyboard light, and USB ports on the side instead of the back, and you have a winner.

Battery life is about 3 hours with standard battery, 4.5 with extended battery and 9 hours or so with the smartbay battery (although it takes the place of the optical drive).

Robert
05-05-2005, 03:33 PM
Panasonic Toughbooks. We use the plain old CF-xx series. We just got a CF-51 and I think that's what's current. Three year warranty. Not sexy just has everything you need. Built in serial port, ethernet, wireless. We have have a couple of times a bad Lutron panel had 115v on the serial port. Panasonic fixed at no charge. We have six now with the oldest about 4 years old. All still work great. We do up the memory to 512mb. I think we get them from PC Mall.

Gary
05-05-2005, 04:13 PM
Panasonic Toughbooks. We use the plain old CF-xx series. We just got a CF-51 and I think that's what's current. Three year warranty. Not sexy just has everything you need. Built in serial port, ethernet, wireless. We have have a couple of times a bad Lutron panel had 115v on the serial port. Panasonic fixed at no charge. We have six now with the oldest about 4 years old. All still work great. We do up the memory to 512mb. I think we get them from PC Mall.

How much $$$?

Robert
05-05-2005, 04:22 PM
I'm not sure. I think it 1.8~2.0k. I'll find out tommorow and let you know. I'll also get a contact name at PC mall for you.

Robert
05-06-2005, 09:59 AM
Gary,
We paid about $1850 with the 256mb memory upgrade. (512 total) There are 2 flavors of the CF-51. This was the more basic one. We were quoted about $2400 for the faster one. The W2 ejfiii mentioned is much more sexy. Both are what Panasonic calls semi-rugged. This is the link. http://panasonic.com/business/toughbook/products.asp
Mark Kelch [mailto:MarkK@pcmall.com] is who we deal with at PC Mall.
Good luck!

avophile
05-11-2005, 07:45 PM
I also have an IBM: Thinkpad 600 with a Pentium II. I got it used for $350 when my girlfriend "lost" my first Thinkpad (Turns out she put it away in a closet and forgot ... she uses it now!). I was to pissed to buy a new one with all the whistles. I've never had a problem with either and they're plenty adequate for RC or AMX programming and the occassional download. I don't mind it getting dusty during pre-wire meetings when I want to update a wire list or show a brochure to a client.

I sometimes wish I could demand that the GC or owner provide internet access at the job site. Now that everybody has a cell phone, many sites don't even have fax or a phone. Has anybody used a cellular modem?

Gary
05-23-2005, 10:18 PM
Does anyone know what the difference is between the P4 and the Pentium M chip? Is there a way to compare them? Most of the laptops I've looked at have 1.8Ghz Pentium Ms, is this faster than my current 2.4Ghz P4? Is there a good reason not to go with a 3.3Ghz P4?

ejfiii
05-23-2005, 10:34 PM
Pretty sure the M stands for mobile is engineered for laptops only. Supposed to help control the CPU and other systems for better battery life and the like.

I think my last 3 laptops have all been the M chip and they have all be plenty fast.

If you are replacing a desktop to run D-Tools, Crestron and the like, then you may want to stick with a P4 though.

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/pentiumm/index.htm?iid=ipc+notebook_prodinfo_procmoverview&

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/mobilepentium4/index.htm?iid=ipc+notebook_prodinfo_p4htoverview&

HiFiGuy36
05-24-2005, 07:27 AM
Unfortunately, I've never gotten the chance to choose my laptop. Currently, I am using a Gateway 450ROG with a 1.6G Pentium M 1GB RAM. So far (about 4 months) I've not had any problems. My previous was an HP. Don't remember the specs but I did go through two hard drives in 8 months. I've also been happy with Dell, but my favorite was an older IBM Thinkpad. The build quality was very good on the IBM.

flcusat
05-27-2005, 10:08 PM
I just got a new laptop. For me the biggest requirement was a serial port. Even when you can use a usb to serial adapter my experience over the years is that sometimes some applications don't like that approach. After doing an extensive research I found that the only manufacturer carrying a serial port is Dell. This is my fourth laptop in about ten years. The first one was a Toshiba Satellite(don't remember the model #) which I have to replaced because some programs that I started to used required a better processor so I got a Compact Presario. Three year ago I got a DELL SmartStep 250N. A great machine, my only complaint was that runned a little bit to hot to have it in the lap. After three years the computer started to shut down specially when it was running applications that need a lot of resources. I replaced the memory but still was shutting down I suspected that the problem was the hard drive but at the same time noticed that the machine was running hotter than usual. The problem was really annoying because started to shut off frecuently. So I decided that was time to get a new one; again the main requirement was a serial port. I got a Dell Latitude D610 which I upgraded with a 60G Hard Drive, 2Ghz Processor Pentium M, 1G of memory, the best video card available for that model, CD/DVD writer, internal 802.11a/b/g wireless card, etc. It cost me around $1900. including shipping Nex Day Air and taxes. I'm sending the other one to be repaired to have it as a backup.

avdude
05-31-2005, 10:59 PM
toshiba

said it before, say it again

I have WORKED for a computer service company..we wer factory service authorized for Dell, Gateway, Sony, HP, Compaq, Sony and Toshiba..

I am on my third Toshiba, and won't switch any time soon!

Gary
05-31-2005, 11:07 PM
I picked up a Compaq over the weekend. It's in what I consider the disposable price range ($1500). I just couldn't make it another week without working USB, PCMCIA and WiFi.

Had a hell of a time finding a case that would hold a machine with a 17" monitor.