Tom,
Thanks for your thoughts. My comments are inserted below.
I like the "eraser" mouse I have on my work ThinkPad. I do not like
the touchpad mouses; my hands and fingers are quite large and I
struggle with it. If you are going to work on it for extended periods
at a desk or table, I would buy a good portable wireless mouse.
At work I've got a Dell D620 which has both the eraser/pointing stick and
touchpad. I used to like the stick but over the years have become more
adept with the touchpad. On my work Dell I've configured the stick to act
as a scroll wheel rather than controlling the pointer on the screen. I
will say that if you're driving down the road and trying to use Microsoft
Streets and Trips a touchpad is more forgiving of bumps in the road. You
can also roll your finger across the pad for a short movement. I do have
a wireless mouse for travel so that the wires won't get tangled up in my
bag.
Core/Non-Core & AMD/Intel are effectively religious discussions. I
will bet there are hundreds of sites with rabid zealots debating the
differences an nauseum. I also bet that you will get good comments
from those on the list more informed than I am about it. Good luck
figuring it out!
Generally, I like to buy one level down from the max performance
offered at the time. I don't go too much lower in performance because
I want the device to last.
I can believe that there are camps of those who stick with their favorite.
Whenever I build a desktop PC I have typically gone with an Intel CPU. In
this case I'm not out to determine which manufacturer is better, just how
the speeds compare. Even within Intel, how does a 2.0GHz dual core
compare with a 3.0GHz single core, etc.?
I don't like the shiny screens, but that is personal preference. My
wife's laptop has one, and I am getting used to it. I am not sure it
would be a deal breaker for me.
Are you going to use the laptop often enough in the car to make that a
consideration?
It might be a deal breaker for me. It's not so much an issue for the car
but when I sit down and want to think about something that I'm working on.
I just don't want to be distracted by any reflections. I've been using
anti-glare screens for years and have gotten used to no reflections. For
desktop monitors I've typically had the choice and now that I want to buy
a laptop the choice seems to have been taken away. Now I'm trying to
figure out why and if there's any manufacturers left that might still have
an option for people like me. If I can't find a laptop with a non-glare
screen I will still buy a laptop of some kind. It's a lot of money so I
want to get what I like if I can.
I wouldn't get Vista, unless you want to be programming for it.
Why is that? In the past I've usually held off moving to the next version
of Windows until it had been out for at least 6-9 months so that bugs
could be identified, fixed, and the first service pack was well underway.
Eventually, Microsoft stops supporting the older versions in favor of the
newer ones (except maybe for Windows ME). I like XP but realized that
it's not going to be around forever. I know of only one person who has a
PC with Vista. I've heard that adoption has been slow and manufacturers
like Dell have re-introduced XP as an option. From what I've seen in the
stores it doesn't look drastically different. That's also a big reason
that I feel no compelling need to upgrade my home PC's.
The memory decision is mostly about money. My preference is to get
the most I can afford, because upgrading later is frequently
troublesome.
Agreed. In the past each new version of Windows has had greater system
requirements. I just want to confirm that 2GB is sufficient for Vista or
if going straight to 4 would be best in the long run.
Yes, webcams are toys, but I doubt they will be in a few years. Macs
are toys too, which explains why they have webcams. I wouldn't pay
extra for a built in one when USB ones can be had for very little $
when you want one.
Talk about religious wars. You might start one with comments like that.
To each their own. My father-in-law got a Mac for my wife for Christmas.
Now I have to support it. Maybe it's not so easy after all for the
uninitiated. It's got some fun applications but they aren't enough to
sell me on the hardware/OS.
That said, if videoconferencing or another application is expected to take
off so that the cams are more essential then I would prefer to have it
built in. Like the wireless mouse, I don't want to have the cables
tangled up in my bag.
Also, if the thing is going to be moving around, get a second power
brick. I hate climbing under my desk to plug it in when I get home.
Good idea. I've got a second one that resides in the bag for my work
laptop for that very reason. I hadn't thought of it for my own, though.
I wouldn't write off Dell. My 15 year old daughter has a 3+ year old
Dell that has worked great. She got the Accidental Damage warranty
upgrade and has used it twice, both times with relative ease. She is
now shopping for a replacement, because she has the money and it is
getting slow.
I haven't written them off entirely but my recent experience pushed them
down to the bottom. My D620 has pretty much everything that I'm looking
for. If it blew a motherboard after six months what will it do after it's
no longer under warranty? Mine might be an isolated case but it was
enough to make me think twice.
Dave Parnin
midrange.com
