Notebook recommendation
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Hi there! I looking forward to buy my first notebook, so I like to hear what you guys use, like to use, recommend... I thinking about some model of Toshiba Tecra or IBM ThinkPad for now, but I just start looking. Like to have solid stable machine that I can carry around, no need for newest hw, but also do not like to think about upgrade after few months. And yes, reasonable price is welcome... Main use will be working on personal projects (.NET programming, like to have dual boot WinXP, Windows.NET server), and other general stuff (web surfing, emails, office, ...). So, what you thing would be better machine for me? many thanks, SlavoF "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." --Confucius
I bought a Compaq Presario about 8 months ago (yes, as a programmer I swore I'd never buy a Compaq, but Dell was backordered). It's running ME and has been stable, and was a competitive bang for the buck. My only bitch with it is the same with all computer manufacturers, the practice of giving you not the CDs of the OS and other programs you paid for, but rather a disk image that's an all or nothing install. But I suppose that's a topic for the Soapbox. So, thus far good marks for the Compaq. Chistopher Duncan Author - The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World (Apress)
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Do NOT get a ThinkPad. I've heard only good things about them in terms of magazine articles and such, but have seen only bad things. My best friend's had to be replaced immediately and the second one also had problems. I have two 570's and they both have been a major source of problems for the past two years. Cheers, Tom Archer Author - Inside C#, Visual C++.NET Bible
I have mixed feeling about ThinkPad. ThinkPads look very nice, it's pleasure to work with them. But I had to bring mine to service 4 or 5 times during 4 years I had it. I was lucky to live near our local IBM service office, and I must say they serviced it very quick (and mostly for free because of warranty period). Still, it's too bad to contact service so many times for a machine with a high price tag. When I buy my next notebook, I will seriously consider Dell. Vagif Abilov MCP (Visual C++) Oslo, Norway
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Do NOT get a ThinkPad. I've heard only good things about them in terms of magazine articles and such, but have seen only bad things. My best friend's had to be replaced immediately and the second one also had problems. I have two 570's and they both have been a major source of problems for the past two years. Cheers, Tom Archer Author - Inside C#, Visual C++.NET Bible
Tom Archer wrote: Do NOT get a ThinkPad Wow, and I was just going to suggest he get a thinkpad. I bought my thinkpad, model 390 with p2-266 & 128meg, over 3 years ago off of ebay no-less and have not had a problem. Okay, thats a lie .. I had one problem where about 6 months ago plugging the earphones into the jack failed to turn off the built in speakers .. so I popped open the case and used tissues to muffle the speakers .. problem solved :-) My two favorite things about the thinkpad are the keyboard, and the battery life .. I get 4 hours ( give or take ) per battery and I can swap out the cdrom/floppy to add a second battery
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Hi there! I looking forward to buy my first notebook, so I like to hear what you guys use, like to use, recommend... I thinking about some model of Toshiba Tecra or IBM ThinkPad for now, but I just start looking. Like to have solid stable machine that I can carry around, no need for newest hw, but also do not like to think about upgrade after few months. And yes, reasonable price is welcome... Main use will be working on personal projects (.NET programming, like to have dual boot WinXP, Windows.NET server), and other general stuff (web surfing, emails, office, ...). So, what you thing would be better machine for me? many thanks, SlavoF "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." --Confucius
My friend has a Tecra and he is happy with it.
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Hi there! I looking forward to buy my first notebook, so I like to hear what you guys use, like to use, recommend... I thinking about some model of Toshiba Tecra or IBM ThinkPad for now, but I just start looking. Like to have solid stable machine that I can carry around, no need for newest hw, but also do not like to think about upgrade after few months. And yes, reasonable price is welcome... Main use will be working on personal projects (.NET programming, like to have dual boot WinXP, Windows.NET server), and other general stuff (web surfing, emails, office, ...). So, what you thing would be better machine for me? many thanks, SlavoF "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." --Confucius
Hi, I have been using notebooks only for several years now and used various brands. I quite like DELL and they are reasonable priced. Pretty good value for money. My last one is an inspiron 8000 (about 1 year old now) and it came with Me. The machine itself is very good. The Me is a living nightmare. As you probably cannot get that any more it is not an issue but at all costs avoid Me.
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I've got a DELL and while it's a little clunky I've never had a problem with it. It's got everything I need, was cheap, and comes in Tahoe Blue. What more could you want. cheers, Chris Maunder
Chris Maunder wrote: and comes in Tahoe Blue. Jeesh and Christian accuses me of being a girl posing as a guy. You know what tahoe blue is for petes sake! ;P Chris Maunder wrote: I've got a DELL A ring a ding dell, box full of possies... err.. *looks around sheepishly* Yes actually two of our salesmen have DELLs and they get the job done well. The only annoying thing is the network/modem cards that come with the DELL use that fiddly thin connector which always goes wrong after a few weeks use. Best to get the "proper" UTC cable connectors. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Brian Delahunty wrote: one of my boys on the inside instead of the outside benjymous wrote: All the male CP inhabitants cross their legs in unison
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I have mixed feeling about ThinkPad. ThinkPads look very nice, it's pleasure to work with them. But I had to bring mine to service 4 or 5 times during 4 years I had it. I was lucky to live near our local IBM service office, and I must say they serviced it very quick (and mostly for free because of warranty period). Still, it's too bad to contact service so many times for a machine with a high price tag. When I buy my next notebook, I will seriously consider Dell. Vagif Abilov MCP (Visual C++) Oslo, Norway
Vagif Abilov wrote: When I buy my next notebook, I will seriously consider Dell. Me too or maybe Toshiba. Cheers, Tom Archer Author - Inside C#, Visual C++.NET Bible
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Tom Archer wrote: Do NOT get a ThinkPad Wow, and I was just going to suggest he get a thinkpad. I bought my thinkpad, model 390 with p2-266 & 128meg, over 3 years ago off of ebay no-less and have not had a problem. Okay, thats a lie .. I had one problem where about 6 months ago plugging the earphones into the jack failed to turn off the built in speakers .. so I popped open the case and used tissues to muffle the speakers .. problem solved :-) My two favorite things about the thinkpad are the keyboard, and the battery life .. I get 4 hours ( give or take ) per battery and I can swap out the cdrom/floppy to add a second battery
That's pretty bad when the best thing a customer has to say about the product is that they had a problem, but solved it with stuffing tissues into the box! :omg: Seriously, I literally leave mine on 24/7 because I never know if the *$&*# thing is going to boot or not :( Cheers, Tom Archer Author - Inside C#, Visual C++.NET Bible
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Chris Maunder wrote: and comes in Tahoe Blue. Jeesh and Christian accuses me of being a girl posing as a guy. You know what tahoe blue is for petes sake! ;P Chris Maunder wrote: I've got a DELL A ring a ding dell, box full of possies... err.. *looks around sheepishly* Yes actually two of our salesmen have DELLs and they get the job done well. The only annoying thing is the network/modem cards that come with the DELL use that fiddly thin connector which always goes wrong after a few weeks use. Best to get the "proper" UTC cable connectors. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Brian Delahunty wrote: one of my boys on the inside instead of the outside benjymous wrote: All the male CP inhabitants cross their legs in unison
Paul Watson wrote: You know what tahoe blue is for petes sake! Purple - the colour of sexual frustration? :P Paul Watson wrote: The only annoying thing is the network/modem cards that come with the DELL use that fiddly thin connector which always goes wrong after a few weeks use Stuff that. I've got Xircom network/modem combo. cheers, Chris Maunder
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Hi there! I looking forward to buy my first notebook, so I like to hear what you guys use, like to use, recommend... I thinking about some model of Toshiba Tecra or IBM ThinkPad for now, but I just start looking. Like to have solid stable machine that I can carry around, no need for newest hw, but also do not like to think about upgrade after few months. And yes, reasonable price is welcome... Main use will be working on personal projects (.NET programming, like to have dual boot WinXP, Windows.NET server), and other general stuff (web surfing, emails, office, ...). So, what you thing would be better machine for me? many thanks, SlavoF "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." --Confucius
We just moved over to the HP Omnibook 6100 here at work. I have to say that not only does the notebook look really nice, it is also a great performer. According to our IT department, we have had relatively few problems with these notebooks. The entire company uses these now (instead of desktops), so to say that out of 250 people, only a few have had issues is saying a lot nowadays. By the way, we originally looked at IBM but the laptops we very poorly built. They would flex a little which made them seem like they were toys. Brigg Thorp Software Engineer Timex Corporation
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Hi there! I looking forward to buy my first notebook, so I like to hear what you guys use, like to use, recommend... I thinking about some model of Toshiba Tecra or IBM ThinkPad for now, but I just start looking. Like to have solid stable machine that I can carry around, no need for newest hw, but also do not like to think about upgrade after few months. And yes, reasonable price is welcome... Main use will be working on personal projects (.NET programming, like to have dual boot WinXP, Windows.NET server), and other general stuff (web surfing, emails, office, ...). So, what you thing would be better machine for me? many thanks, SlavoF "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." --Confucius
I have a Dell Insprion 7500 that has worked great for +2 years now and would definitely buy another one! However, when buying a laptop, I realized that it really pays to visit your local computer store and check out the ergonomics of the thing. Do you like the mouse--touchpad or thumb-thingy. Some come with both. Keyboard layout is really important. I used my Dell as my main work computer for two years and I couldn't stand the cursor key locations. I have an older generic laptop (from Fry's) that had a much better layout. The screen is the next thing. Don't go low cost. There are still cheaper laptops out there that use older LCD technology. I have a Toshiba too (I don't really like it, don't ask)--every time I move the mouse it disappears. I like big screens too--1400x1280 or better. If you're mail ordering, you might consider waiting for a holiday--speaking of which... I saved $300 on S&H once by getting free shipping from Dell. They often offer free upgrades of memory, disk, and screen sizes. Speaking of memory: get at least 256MB. And have them put XP Professional on it. XP Home Edition sucks. On a couple desktop units, I had to reboot XP Home every day--it started sucking up tons of memory when left alone and crashed. Every day. Marc
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Vagif Abilov wrote: When I buy my next notebook, I will seriously consider Dell. Me too or maybe Toshiba. Cheers, Tom Archer Author - Inside C#, Visual C++.NET Bible
I've been looking at those Toshiba's and I'd definitely like one. Thin and light, but I'm not too sure about the keyboard and pointing device (I love the Dell's dual pad/joystick) cheers, Chris Maunder
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Chris Maunder wrote: and comes in Tahoe Blue. Jeesh and Christian accuses me of being a girl posing as a guy. You know what tahoe blue is for petes sake! ;P Chris Maunder wrote: I've got a DELL A ring a ding dell, box full of possies... err.. *looks around sheepishly* Yes actually two of our salesmen have DELLs and they get the job done well. The only annoying thing is the network/modem cards that come with the DELL use that fiddly thin connector which always goes wrong after a few weeks use. Best to get the "proper" UTC cable connectors. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Brian Delahunty wrote: one of my boys on the inside instead of the outside benjymous wrote: All the male CP inhabitants cross their legs in unison
Paul Watson wrote: The only annoying thing is the network/modem cards that come with the DELL use that fiddly thin connector which always goes wrong after a few weeks use I had that problem on my first Dell laptop. For the second one, I got one with built in Network and Modem. No more messing about with PCMCIA cards. Michael :-) Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority. - The Doctor
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Chris Maunder wrote: and comes in Tahoe Blue. Jeesh and Christian accuses me of being a girl posing as a guy. You know what tahoe blue is for petes sake! ;P Chris Maunder wrote: I've got a DELL A ring a ding dell, box full of possies... err.. *looks around sheepishly* Yes actually two of our salesmen have DELLs and they get the job done well. The only annoying thing is the network/modem cards that come with the DELL use that fiddly thin connector which always goes wrong after a few weeks use. Best to get the "proper" UTC cable connectors. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge Brian Delahunty wrote: one of my boys on the inside instead of the outside benjymous wrote: All the male CP inhabitants cross their legs in unison
Paul Watson wrote: You know what tahoe blue is for petes sake It's the color of a lake located a bit north of here - ironically called Lake Tahoe. There are three types of people in the world: Those who make things happen; those who watch things happen; those who wonder what happened.
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I have a Dell Insprion 7500 that has worked great for +2 years now and would definitely buy another one! However, when buying a laptop, I realized that it really pays to visit your local computer store and check out the ergonomics of the thing. Do you like the mouse--touchpad or thumb-thingy. Some come with both. Keyboard layout is really important. I used my Dell as my main work computer for two years and I couldn't stand the cursor key locations. I have an older generic laptop (from Fry's) that had a much better layout. The screen is the next thing. Don't go low cost. There are still cheaper laptops out there that use older LCD technology. I have a Toshiba too (I don't really like it, don't ask)--every time I move the mouse it disappears. I like big screens too--1400x1280 or better. If you're mail ordering, you might consider waiting for a holiday--speaking of which... I saved $300 on S&H once by getting free shipping from Dell. They often offer free upgrades of memory, disk, and screen sizes. Speaking of memory: get at least 256MB. And have them put XP Professional on it. XP Home Edition sucks. On a couple desktop units, I had to reboot XP Home every day--it started sucking up tons of memory when left alone and crashed. Every day. Marc
Hmm, totally oposite to popular opinion., in previous company I worked, we had lots of problem with Dell notebooks. On the workplace I'm using Compaq Armada (Pentium III - 700Mhz 256 MB RAM, with DVD) for almost two years, and it survived lots of abuse, five months of traveling from BC to Mexico, change of operating systems from NT 4, Win2K and finally I'm running XP on it. Not a single problem, although battery is good only for 2.5-3 hr, not for full 4 as specified. At home I have IBM Thinkpad, but while I agree that they have lots of problems, especially "three number series" (520, 750 etc.) mine is older I1400/420 (Celeron 433) and I haven't had any problems so far, except that is running better on Win2K than XP. Salesman and original documentation said that it could run only Win98, but I downloaded bios update from IBM site, and it worked well with any MS OS.
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We just moved over to the HP Omnibook 6100 here at work. I have to say that not only does the notebook look really nice, it is also a great performer. According to our IT department, we have had relatively few problems with these notebooks. The entire company uses these now (instead of desktops), so to say that out of 250 people, only a few have had issues is saying a lot nowadays. By the way, we originally looked at IBM but the laptops we very poorly built. They would flex a little which made them seem like they were toys. Brigg Thorp Software Engineer Timex Corporation
Brigg Thorp wrote: We just moved over to the HP Omnibook 6100 here at work I am now waiting for mine to arrive. Everyone here uses this model for work, (and that's a few thousands of them working together) but hey, it would seem logical to use that model in here, wouldn't it? :)
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That's pretty bad when the best thing a customer has to say about the product is that they had a problem, but solved it with stuffing tissues into the box! :omg: Seriously, I literally leave mine on 24/7 because I never know if the *$&*# thing is going to boot or not :( Cheers, Tom Archer Author - Inside C#, Visual C++.NET Bible
Tom Archer wrote: That's pretty bad when the best thing a customer has to say ... okay, well that was just plain not fair. It's a shame you do not read as well as you write :-). I actually stated that it was the ONLY problem I had, and that it was easily solved. I'll grant you, it was a humorous solution. Furthermore,I never said that was the BEST thing .. I do believe I lauded the notebook for its keyboard and even more importantly for it's battery life .. but of course I could go on about other things, such as it is one of the few notebooks that actually provides a tilt to the keyboard as compared to just leaving it flat .. which is an ergonomic no no that most people have just come to accept when using a notebook. The screen is perfect with no dead pixels. It comes with a built in fax modem hence less need to purchase secondary cards .. and the new ones come with built in wireless so I can even discard the only pcard I did have to buy. You do have my sympathies that your thinkpad experiences were so poor.. by no means is IBM a great company. Also to be fair though, your 570 I believe was a replacement for the 560 which means it is probably pretty thin especially compared to other laptops at the time so perhaps you are suffering the wrath of technology that was really not ready for prime time .. not that is your fault.
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Vagif Abilov wrote: When I buy my next notebook, I will seriously consider Dell. Me too or maybe Toshiba. Cheers, Tom Archer Author - Inside C#, Visual C++.NET Bible
The new Tecra's look Gorgeous - get me a Tecra 9100 any day. In fact, I might even buy one! -- Andrew.