 OT...My agency is springing for a laptop, Can ya give me some direction? |
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| Joe Bob |
 Apr 7 2004, 11:31 AM
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#1
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Retired admin, banned a few times  Group: Members Posts: 17,427 Joined: 24-December 02 From: Boulder CO Member No.: 5 Region Association: None  |
Never owned one....will be used for both digital still evidence storage, display of pics for supervisors, DA and review in the field, court room presentations...yada yada.....
Wireless capability, long lived battery life...etc.... I CAN use it for personal use so other bells and whistles like DVD/CD Burner...... Dell quoted 3800....my budget is 2500.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool_shades.gif) Don't want to have to come out of pocket...much.... |
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| Jeffs9146 |
Apr 7 2004, 11:48 AM
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#2
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Ski Bum Group: Members Posts: 4,062 Joined: 10-January 03 From: Discovery Bay, Ca Member No.: 128 |
Look at the warranty on the battery!! I bought a Sony and 35 days after I bought it the battery went bad. Sony only offers a 30 day warranty and the replacement battery (when I needed it) was $279! I felt cheated!
I have been told that Dell batteries are all interchangeable and run around $35 each. I could have bought 8 batteries for what I paid for the Sony battery!!! You have to decide what features you cant live without. Get alot of storage, RAM and the fastest processor you can afford. The CD Burner is a must now-a-days! I wish mine had the built in Wi-fi but it will be easier for me to upgrade to 802.11G when I want to! Jeff |
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| rhilgers |
Apr 7 2004, 11:57 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 75 Joined: 17-July 03 From: Santa Clara CA Member No.: 919 |
Look for a Centrino CPU...longer battery life..built in wireless. These types of laptops can play a full DVD without running out of battery.
Stay away from the Sony brand. Its for home use ONLY. They are not supported for upgrades/additions/changes...nada. If you want to change it out of the box its not supported. The HP site has a better configuration tool than Dell. HP does not try to hide upgrade fees in the config tool. DVD burners are still in thier first generation. Copying works fine but if you want to capture video and burn it to DVD it often takes overnight for the conversion to occur. There are two or three on-the-fly capture modules out now but I cant find a review on them yet. You will likely find doing a custom order a few hundred less than the prebuilt laptop. You have to wait up to 6 weeks though. |
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| Steve Thacker |
Apr 7 2004, 12:27 PM
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#4
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UMMMPH Yea Baby Yea ! UMMMPH Group: Members Posts: 1,089 Joined: 8-January 03 From: Pickerington, Ohio Member No.: 113 Region Association: Upper MidWest |
As a word of caution. RUN do not walk, away from any HP laptops. I have one now and it has been replaced once and had a tremendous amount of repairs. This has included the system board in both units, keyboard five times and the modem is now shot. I had to take another one via Best Buy because I had to choose a replacement from the same manufacturer. Take all this with a read and heed attitude. I'm a systems engineer and my laptop needs to be on the ball all the time. Right now I would love to do a Dave Darling floatation test on it. I will never buy another HP laptop again. This was a very expensive and time consuming lesson. Look into the Dell units is my personal advise.
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| dinomium |
Apr 7 2004, 12:43 PM
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#5
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Git on a chair son, all the good stuff is goin over yer head! Group: Benefactors Posts: 2,777 Joined: 2-January 03 From: Bremerton, WA Member No.: 74 Region Association: Pacific Northwest  |
We are an IBM (deployed PCs and Servers here) shop. The new T41 RAWKS!!!! WiFi, cetrinoM, big Harddrive... and a nice screen.
For around 2k you can get a screemer! Cnet and ZDnet like em too. Check with CDW.com They are pretty good and will match prices, so play them off the IBM site for the best deal! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif) laptop ninja dtd |
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| Scott Carlberg |
Apr 7 2004, 12:44 PM
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#6
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Porsche MOTORSPORTS Group: Members Posts: 1,595 Joined: 17-April 03 From: Modesto, Ca Member No.: 580 |
Mikey,
did you look at the laptops in the Outlet part of the Dell site? http://www1.us.dell.com/content/default.as...s=22&l=en&s=dfh Sc |
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| dinomium |
Apr 7 2004, 01:01 PM
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#7
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Git on a chair son, all the good stuff is goin over yer head! Group: Benefactors Posts: 2,777 Joined: 2-January 03 From: Bremerton, WA Member No.: 74 Region Association: Pacific Northwest |
Dells are ok. But anything in a close out bin isnt worth what they are charging IMHO. For biz or legal, you need something robust with a great warrenty.
Check out this link: http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/s...egoryId=2072541 Right now they are even offering a free upgrade to 512MB of ram. Of course because it is IBM, you will have to hunt around the world's worse e commerse site! dtd |
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| Dave Bell |
Apr 7 2004, 01:29 PM
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#8
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Member Group: Members Posts: 234 Joined: 27-November 03 From: Santa Clarita, CA Member No.: 1,398 Region Association: None |
Look at another laptop from Dell... you can get a decent configuration in your price range... we buy 100s' of them around here for windows laptops now. I am on my second one and never had a problem.. this one has even been dropped to the pavement and come out O.K. Screen resolution and clarity are fantastic.
I ditched the floppy drive in favor of a second battery for added lifetime away from the plug. You don't need a floppy these days with wireless connections and the USB memory stick "hard drives". |
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| GaroldShaffer |
Apr 7 2004, 01:53 PM
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#9
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You bought another 914? Group: Benefactors Posts: 7,622 Joined: 27-June 03 From: Portage, IN Member No.: 865 Region Association: None
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Mike I am not expert but I am using a Dell latitude 4000. Comes with a external CD drive but you can get internal also. I am sure Motorola gets a discount from Dell since they buy in volume but for the laptop with docking station it came to $2300 (I signed the PO for it).
We just got a home computer and I have have the Dell catalog here and they show a Inspiron XPS with Pentium 4, 512MB DDR SDRAM, 60GB hard drive, 15.4" screen, 24x CD burner/DVD combo drive for $2599. You can get a wireless card for another $49. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) I sure wish I knew what all that means. - Garold |
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| Downunderman |
Apr 7 2004, 01:54 PM
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#10
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 852 Joined: 31-May 03 From: Sydney, Australia Member No.: 766 Region Association: Australia and New Zealand |
Whatever you decide on make sure you run it on the shop bench with a few processes going to see how noisy the fan is. I had an issue with my NEC which I use at work and cart around with me. It was a bit noisy after it heated up but fortunately there was a bios upgrade that pretty much fixed it.
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| TimMartin |
Apr 7 2004, 02:20 PM
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#11
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 45 Joined: 16-January 03 From: Morgan Hill, CA Member No.: 157 Region Association: None |
Dude. Apple makes the best laptops hands down. Even if you use a Windows box for everything else having an Apple laptop is a great solution. I've had my iBook (1200 bucks) for about 3 years, and now i have a new Aluminum PowerBook. They rock.
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| dinomium |
Apr 7 2004, 02:21 PM
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#12
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Git on a chair son, all the good stuff is goin over yer head! Group: Benefactors Posts: 2,777 Joined: 2-January 03 From: Bremerton, WA Member No.: 74 Region Association: Pacific Northwest |
I repair PCs and adminstrate a LAN for a living. For what you get for the $$$, IBM is unbeatable right now. Side by Side, the new Thinkpads blow everybody away on RETAIL price, performance, configurations, warrenty, and even fan noise.
Dell wins in the desktop, but for 2grand, you get one hell of a laptop from IBM. |
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| Jeffs9146 |
Apr 7 2004, 02:28 PM
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#13
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Ski Bum Group: Members Posts: 4,062 Joined: 10-January 03 From: Discovery Bay, Ca Member No.: 128 |
The Apple option will cost you more to get Word/Excel capability and you may still have conflicts with others using PC's software. My mom is sold on Mac but getting anything on a Mac for less money is tough to do! The Mac's do appear to have less "issues" out of the box!
Jeff |
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| Pnambic |
Apr 7 2004, 02:31 PM
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#14
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Honk if you like obscene gestures! Group: Members Posts: 914 Joined: 9-April 03 From: Atlanta, GA Member No.: 546 Region Association: South East States |
Laptop Comparison from PC World.
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| dinomium |
Apr 7 2004, 02:33 PM
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#15
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Git on a chair son, all the good stuff is goin over yer head! Group: Benefactors Posts: 2,777 Joined: 2-January 03 From: Bremerton, WA Member No.: 74 Region Association: Pacific Northwest |
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| anthony |
Apr 7 2004, 02:38 PM
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#16
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2270 club Group: Benefactors Posts: 3,107 Joined: 1-February 03 From: SF Bay Area, CA Member No.: 218 |
I also support computers for a living and I would also suggest an IBM T series laptop if you are going PC. If you can go Apple then the new Powerbooks are extremely nice.
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| Joe Bob |
Apr 7 2004, 02:44 PM
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#17
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Retired admin, banned a few times Group: Members Posts: 17,427 Joined: 24-December 02 From: Boulder CO Member No.: 5 Region Association: None |
Thanks.....went to PC Club at lunch.....shaved 1200 off the price....
Attached thumbnail(s) 
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| Joe Bob |
Apr 7 2004, 02:45 PM
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#18
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Retired admin, banned a few times Group: Members Posts: 17,427 Joined: 24-December 02 From: Boulder CO Member No.: 5 Region Association: None |
Think I can do better with an IBM?
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| Joe Bob |
Apr 7 2004, 02:49 PM
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#19
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Retired admin, banned a few times Group: Members Posts: 17,427 Joined: 24-December 02 From: Boulder CO Member No.: 5 Region Association: None |
Then....discountlaptop.com
DiscountLaptops.com 501 South Rancho Dr. Suite H-53 Las Vegas, NV 89106 888-726-8924 (Toll Free) 702-363-2842 (fax) Close Window Order #11139 Details [Placed on: 04/07/2004] - Estimate Shipping Address Billing Address Estimate Estimate , US Estimate Estimate , Ordered Items Qty. Part # Item & Description Price Ea. Total Price 1 Chem 2060 -V Chembook 2060 -V 15.1" SXGA+ (1400 x 1050) Active Matrix Display 1.7 GHz Intel Pentium M (Centrino) Processor (400 MHz FSB - 1024k L2 Cache) 64 MB Dedicated DDR Vram - ATi Mobility 9600 Pro (M10) 80 GB Hard Drive (4200 RPM) 1 GB (PC2700) DDR SDRAM (512 MB x 2) 2X DVD-R / 8X DVD / 24X CD / 16X CD-RW Combo Drive w/ Softwares Internal 56k Modem 10/100/1000 BaseT Ethernet LAN Port Internal IntelPRO 2200 Wireless Ethernet/Lan (802.11 b+g) Smart Lithium Ion Battery (5.0+ hours battery life) Built-in Flash Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro) AC Adapter w/ power cord Free Deluxe Carry Case FREE BONUS! Notebook Essentials Software (19 Titles) MS Windows XP-Professional Installed, CD Included 1 year parts / 3 year labor, life tech support $2,265.00 $2,265.00 1 Custom Ext Warr. Extended Warranty and Priority Support Programs 3 yr. additional on-site warranty w/ priority support from purchase date (EW3-T4) $120.00 $120.00 1 Optional LCD Protection 3 year LCD Damage Protection from purchase date (requires EW2-T3) $195.00 $195.00 1 MS Office Microsoft Office Software Suite Options MS Office XP 2003 Professional Edition $340.00 $340.00 Transaction Summary Sub Total: $2,920.00 Price Adjustments: $0.00 Payment Method: Credit Card Payment Method Adjustment: $74.87 Sales Tax: $0.00 Shipping: $30.00 - Ground Total Payments: $0.00 Grand Total: $3,024.87 Due Balance: $3,024.87 Close Window |
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| anthony |
Apr 7 2004, 02:50 PM
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#20
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2270 club Group: Benefactors Posts: 3,107 Joined: 1-February 03 From: SF Bay Area, CA Member No.: 218 |
Yes!
What's an ENP600? An IBM T series laptop is like a Porsche, all the others are just pretending. |
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