Trying to buy a Laptop
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Topic: Trying to buy a Laptop
Posted By: Amateur
Subject: Trying to buy a Laptop
Date Posted: 15 September 2005 at 6:01am
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Hi, I am looking for some advice. I am in the process of purchasing a laptop and trying to decide which one suits me best. I have planned to purchase a Dell. Firstly I will describe my requirements. I am a college student who needs a laptop for wireless internet access, word processing, sql server, PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, email and a lot of project work. I also do some web design on the side, primarily .NET so will probably be using Visual studio. I would like the laptop to help me in final year and also be set up correctly for when I enter the business world. Some personal wishes (hopes) include lightweight, powerful (Pentium or centrino processor), medium to large sized screens, fast, medium sized storage (30 – 40MB +), Bluetooth enabled, XP Professional, DVD rewriter, USB 2.0 etc. I understand that I will have to perform a trade-off in my requirements but was hoping to get as many as possible in my laptop. I was looking at the latitude and inspiron series and have wondered the benefits of each. Also what is the norm widescreen or other and what does the future hold? A major issue I have is that my laptop would be future compatible and be aimed for the future and be able to adapt with changes in technology. Could somebody give me a hand choosing a laptop or advice on what I should look out for, and which Dell may complement my needs best. I would appreciate it a great deal. Thanks, Niall |
Replies:
Posted By: tacomaforums
Date Posted: 15 September 2005 at 12:03pm
| XPS Gen II all the way. Dell makes a very good laptop. I have used an XPS Gen II and if you like gaming thats to laptop to get. |
Posted By: Gullanian
Date Posted: 15 September 2005 at 12:17pm
| Remember for SQL Server it's recommended you have 1gig of ram. |
Posted By: Amateur
Date Posted: 16 September 2005 at 6:20am
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Thanks very much for yer replies. XPS Gen II is fairly expensive and gaming would not be a major passion of mine.
Does anyone have any experience of the latitude range?
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Posted By: the boss
Date Posted: 17 September 2005 at 3:54am
well i have ran sql server on 256MB ram and it did fine with database enough to serve my purpose for next 10 years  ------------- http://www.web2messenger.com/theboss"> 
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Posted By: Amateur
Date Posted: 04 October 2005 at 10:38am
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Could someone have a look at the following links and give me any pointers, what i should look out for etc. Even if you could give me your opinion of which you would go for it would be brilliant.
Main interest in this link is the 9300 and 6000
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx?c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&id=inspn&l=en&s=bsd#tn3 - http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx?c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&id=inspn&l=en&am p;am p;s=bsd#tn3 http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/latit?c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&l=en&s=bsd -
Main interest in the next link is the X1, D810 and D610
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/latit?c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&l=en&s=bsd - http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/latit?c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&l=en&s=bsd
Thanks
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Posted By: michael
Date Posted: 05 October 2005 at 11:09am
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I have the D810 here at work and am very happy with it. I opted for the better screen, 1GB of RAM and the 80GB Hard Drive.The screen can run 1920x1200 which makes text pretty small but great for graphics, dvd watching etc. Overall I think this laptop beats the xpgen because of the price. The software that comes with it is crap so if you don't have nero or so to burn cd's buy it seperately. On my 9-block battery it runs a true 4:20 without DVD usage and about 2:20 when I watch a movie on battery. ------------- http://baumannphoto.com" rel="nofollow - Blog | http://mpgtracker.com" rel="nofollow - MPG Tracker |
Posted By: Amateur
Date Posted: 06 October 2005 at 5:26am
Thanks for your help michael. I am very interested int the D810 alright. I have a couple concerns though and a question you might help me with. Question: What is the advantage of choosing a Latiitude over a Inspiron? Concerns: the weight/size of the laptop, is it very large? Thanks very your help. |
michael wrote:Posted By: Bluefrog
Date Posted: 06 October 2005 at 11:19am
There's a big difference between a box you run for yourself and one that runs in a production environment. Tom is referring to requirements for a server, but I don't think that's really important for the laptop. 512 MB with XP should be lots for typical stuff with MSDE. I've found that with well written code that avoids grossly oversized datasets that CPU is the most important. But that's just the nature of what I'm writing too, so take that with a grain of salt. ------------- http://renegademinds.com/" rel="nofollow - Renegade Minds - Guitar Software http://renegademinds.com/Default.aspx?tabid=65" rel="nofollow - Slow Down Music |
Posted By: michael
Date Posted: 06 October 2005 at 2:52pm
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I think the Inspiron are more for Home Use, so they may have better speakers, graphics card etc but trade off somewhere else. The Inspirons are more solid and I believe most have a larger CPU capability.
Large? Well it isn't small for the Widescreen Monitor alone. It's not the right machine if you are a Road Warrior put if you travel occasionally and want a desktop replacement I would recommend it. And for 150 or so you can get a Docking station that will put the Monitor piece much higher and comes with wireless kb and mouse. ------------- http://baumannphoto.com" rel="nofollow - Blog | http://mpgtracker.com" rel="nofollow - MPG Tracker |
Posted By: Amateur
Date Posted: 20 October 2005 at 2:42pm
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Thanks very much for your help. I have put together a excel file of all the laptops that would interest me. I was wondering if anyone would give there opinion on it for me please. |
Posted By: michael
Date Posted: 20 October 2005 at 6:08pm
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sure, send it along if you want to 'micxba' on googles email system ------------- http://baumannphoto.com" rel="nofollow - Blog | http://mpgtracker.com" rel="nofollow - MPG Tracker |