Sharon Kiellach wrote:
> Hello- We are contemplating purchasing a laptop. I currently have a
> Gateway 500 PC from 1998 and it's getting tired and ornery. It's
> been doing some funky things lately and we're afraid it's days are
> numbered.
:)
> Since my husband and I are planning to retire shortly and do some
> traveling, we're opting to replace the PC with the laptop. A Dell
> Inspiron 1505 has been recommended. We would like to upgrade to Vista
> eventually (is Microsoft the way to go?). We do e-mailing, word
> processing, and have many pictures that we are currently storing.
> We'd like to transfer them to CDs, a capability that we now lack. In
> retirement, we may expand our usage of computer capabilities. My
> husband is slowly increasing his gaming expertise.
Most laptops can be purchased with a CD-RW drive or a DVD+/-RW drive.
Alternately, you can hookup an external USB (sometimes Firewire)
DVD-writer.
For laptops (and even desktops), I consider having external hard drives
as essential. You can make backups to them, or create images of your
system that can be used later on to rebuild a broken system. More
cautious folks (like me) use at least 3 external drives for backup and
rotate them weekly. Including storing one offsite a few miles away in a
safe-deposit box. Figure on spending $120 for an external drive.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about upgrading to Vista. There's no "must
have" features in it that you can't get today in WinXP. You may even
want to seriously consider a switch to OS X.
Gaming is always going to be a sub-par experience on a laptop.
> Also, Dell wants to sell me a program for $56 that supposedly
> facilitates transfer of data from my old PC to the new laptop. Is
> there a more efficient, less expensive way to do that?
Network cable, external hard drive (USB/Firewire), e-mail can all be
used to move the data from one system to another. Program configuration
and program settings are more difficult to migrate. And since you'll be
switching from Win98 to something newer, you'll want to re-install only
the important software.
> Any specifications I should absolutely have? I'm not looking for
> minimum components. We'd like this to be something that will adapt to
> the fast-changing computer world in as much as one can predict today.
> On the other hand, we don't want to be getting frills that we'll
> never use.
Fortunately, the computer world is not changing anywhere near as fast as
it used to. Long gone are the days when clock speeds were doubling
every year. Now we're lucky if performance doubles every 3-4 years.
The new dual-core and quad-core chips are changing that slightly, but
systems from 2002 are still viable machines today.
(Such as this old and crusty 2002 Tecra 9100 that I'm using.
Fortunately, I have 1GB of RAM which is barely enough. The hard drive
has been upgraded along the way and the keyboard replaced. I'll be
replacing the backlight within the next year because it's only about
half as bright as a brand new one.)
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Sharon K.
Okay, all that being said. If you want a laptop that will take a
bit of a beating and last 6-8 years, go with a business level laptop
instead of a consumer level laptop. You won't get the extra thrills
like widescreen displays, super-fast video cards, or other frills but
you will get something that should last.
I'd put the price point at around $2000-$2500 for a system of this
class. Which is better then the $3500-$3700 that a capable system cost
back in 2000-2001.
Minimum requirements should be:
- dual-core (Core Duo) CPU unit
- 1GB minimum with upgrade to 2GB down the road of RAM
- 80GB hard drive (or 100GB), you can upgrade this later
- display resolution greater then 1024x768
Currently at work, we have the following machines earmarked as automatic
buys. These are configurations that we feel will last 5+ years and that
we don't have to spend extra time agonizing over whether it's a good
purchase. (We basically tell the user: Pick any of the ones on this
list. And this gives me a chance to upgrade my cheat sheet and prices.)
Lenovo (used to be IBM) Thinkpad T60 -- $1701
http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/t-series/tseries_byo_t60.html
- Upgrade to the 1.8GHz Core Duo
- Upgrade to the 14" 1400x1050 SXGA+ display
- Upgrade to 1GB RAM
- Upgrade to 80GB Hard Drive
- Upgrade to the DVD recordable drive
- Go to the next page
- Optional upgrade to 1.5GB or 2GB
- Go down to "Extended Service Contract", add a 3 year contract
Lenovo (used to be IBM) Thinkpad T60p -- $2300
http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/t-series/tseries_byo_t60p.html
- More of a gaming oriented laptop with a better video chip
- Upgrade to 1GB RAM
- Upgrade to 80GB Hard Drive
- Upgrade to the DVD recordable drive
- Go to the next page
- Optional upgrade to 1.5GB or 2GB
- Go down to "Extended Service Contract", add a 3 year contract
Toshiba Tecra M5 (M5-ST1412) -- $1889
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/home.to
- upgrade to 1024MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz SDRAM (1024MBx1)
- upgrade to 14.1" TFT SXGA+ (1400x1050)
- Upgrade to NVIDIAŽ QuadroŽ NVS 110M
- Upgrade to 80GB hard drive
- Upgrade to DVD burner
- Add BlueTooth
- Add 3 year warranty
Apple 13" MacBook 1.8GHz White -- $1897
- Upgrade to 2 x 1GB SO-DIMM (total of 2GB)
- I'd recommend 2x512MB, but that uses up both slots
- Or you could upgrade the memory later (1GB is really a minimum)
- Optionally add iWork '06 for $79
- Add the USB Apple Modem
- Add the AppleCare 3-year Protection plan
Apple 15" MacBook Pro 2GHz White -- $2897
- Upgrade to 2GB (2x1)
- Optionally add iWork '06 for $79
- Add the USB Apple Modem
- Add the AppleCare 3-year Protection plan
The 13" MacBook is a pretty decent unit. We ordered one for an
executive a few months ago and he's pleased with it. (Other then
getting used to OS X instead of Windows XP. There's a great book for
$25 called "Switching to the Mac Tiger Edition" ISBN 0-596-00660-8 which
I strongly recommend.)
Again, that list is what I would purchase for a business user. But
since I use my laptop about 80 hours a week for the past 4.5 years, I'm
very partial to my Tecra 9100.
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