Which laptop/notebook?

Greg Bockelman

Greg Bockelman

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Greg Bockelman
I am going to be in the market for a new laptop soon. I have had problems with Dell customer service in the past and am not really interested in buying from them again. Unless they are the best in the market. Then I might.

I need something that is internet ready and can do some movie/video editing. DVD is a must, preferably writeable.

Not sure what else to add or look for.

Oh, and it has to be cheap. As in inexpensive, not poor quality. LOL

Thanks for the help.
 
Greg:
One consideration is if you might every use it in the cockpit. Seems most hard drives aren't designed for higher altitude. Some are. If you won't use it to fly, and if you did, if you stay below 12,000 feet, probably note a consideration.

Dave
 
Our corporate standard is IBM Thinkpads. Mine is a relatively new T42. I don't have to worry about service (internal organization handles that), but my consultant friends who have to buy their own laptops have made it clear that this is the one product where buying an extended warranty/service contract is not only a good idea, it's mandatory. It's like my zero deductable comprehensive insurance on my car - it's not insurance, it's an investment that WILL pay off.
 
We pretty much stick to IBM Thinkpads. We've had good luck with
them. You might want to look at CDW's web site. Virtually all
of our stuff comes through them and we've found them to have
good pricing and support for giving us advice on technical issues
and decisions. http://www.cdw.com

RT


Greg Bockelman said:
I am going to be in the market for a new laptop soon. I have had problems with Dell customer service in the past and am not really interested in buying from them again. Unless they are the best in the market. Then I might.

I need something that is internet ready and can do some movie/video editing. DVD is a must, preferably writeable.

Not sure what else to add or look for.

Oh, and it has to be cheap. As in inexpensive, not poor quality. LOL

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
 
Dave Siciliano said:
Greg:
One consideration is if you might every use it in the cockpit. Seems most hard drives aren't designed for higher altitude. Some are. If you won't use it to fly, and if you did, if you stay below 12,000 feet, probably note a consideration.

Dave
Click to expand...
Brings up a good point.

I'm not an expert on this or anything. BUT.

Most hard drives I've seen the manufacturer says they are good up to 10,000 ft. After this some problems develop.

Apperantly the head essentially flys above the platter. At higher altitudes this can stall and then hit the platter. This is called a head crash. It can also be caused by tempertures or humidity out of the manufactures specifications.


Many of Ipods have died a fatal death in small airplanes above 10,000 feet.
 
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jangell said:
Apperantly the head essentially flys above the platter. At higher altitudes this can stall and then hit the platter. This is called a head crash. It can also be caused by tempertures or humidity out of the manufactures specifications.
Click to expand...
Actually, what happens is that the air spinning off the platter causes the head to float above the platter (ie similar to ground effect). When the air pressure gets below a certain point, the head can no longer be held up and starts nicking the platter, causing bad sectors and damaging the head (typically referred to as a "head crash").
 
Brian Austin said:
Actually, what happens is that the air spinning off the platter causes the head to float above the platter (ie similar to ground effect). When the air pressure gets below a certain point, the head can no longer be held up and starts nicking the platter, causing bad sectors and damaging the head (typically referred to as a "head crash").
Click to expand...

Much better explanation.
 
If you're concerned about laptops at high altitudes, look at the specs for the ruggedized models. Some of those meet MIL specs for operation up to 16,000 or 17,000 feet. I have a ruggedized/MIL grade tablet PC that works just fine at altitude.
 
i couldn't imagine using a laptop in a small cockpit unless i was a passenger. what do you guys do up there with your laptops?

i have a dell 610 and i'm pretty happy with it. i've never had to use dell support though. i think most tech support is a waste of everyone's time anyway when something is really wrong with the system.
 
wsuffa said:
If you're concerned about laptops at high altitudes, look at the specs for the ruggedized models. Some of those meet MIL specs for operation up to 16,000 or 17,000 feet. I have a ruggedized/MIL grade tablet PC that works just fine at altitude.
Click to expand...

Would you mind telling what brand/model it is and if it can write DVDs ? Dimensions in inches ? Thanks.
 
I've always had good luck with Compaq laptops...though I've not bought or used one in some time. My last two company laptops and my current company laptop were IBM Think Pads that were leased. Lease ran 2 years...at about 20 months these machines always started to act up (screen went bad, hard drive went bad, power supply went bad, keyboard went bad). My current machine is 18 months old...I expect it to start flaking out any day now. The lease includes service but working with a machine that is acting up sure puts a crimp in my productivity.

Len
 
mmilano said:
i couldn't imagine using a laptop in a small cockpit unless i was a passenger. what do you guys do up there with your laptops?

i have a dell 610 and i'm pretty happy with it. i've never had to use dell support though. i think most tech support is a waste of everyone's time anyway when something is really wrong with the system.
Click to expand...

Mike:

Some of have flight planning software on there; charts can be displayed and printed; I save flight plans and weather brief in there to review in the air if need be. Some have inflight GPS attached and get weather on their laptop.

I fly a lot of long distance, cross country flights in Class A airspace. Sometimes look at some other things on the lap top enroute.

Dave
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
Would you mind telling what brand/model it is and if it can write DVDs ? Dimensions in inches ? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Dave, it's an Xplore industrial tablet PC Xi104. There is no built-in DVD or CD drive, I use an external USB drive with it.

It's about yea-wide by this-tall. ;)

Actually, its about 8.25 x 11 x 1.5 inches.
 
wsuffa said:
Dave, it's an Xplore industrial tablet PC Xi104. There is no built-in DVD or CD drive, I use an external USB drive with it.

It's about yea-wide by this-tall. ;)

Actually, its about 8.25 x 11 x 1.5 inches.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll check it out.
I've been thinking about one that's smaller (just for in planes and on the road) than the huge screen I have and like very much at the present.
 
*Cough* You could get one that's worm proof. :rolleyes:

http://www.apple.com/ibook/

And the (HD) movie editing software you want COMES WITH IT!..along with music creation, photo editing and management, (HD) DVD authoring, ...
 
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I just got a Toshiba Satellite M45 with a whole buncha cool stuff on it (not office however) but read/write DVDs etc... 1450 or so? with a rebate on top of that.
 
We have a Toshiba Satellite laptop and a Dell Inspiron laptop. They are indistinguishable except for:

The Dell, when on battery power only, dims to half wattage and is very hard to see. The Toshiba has no such problem. (this is not an option on the Dell, you are just stuck with it).

The key locations vary slightly, I prefer the Dell because the Ctrl key is right next to the arrow pad for some reason, but I like where the Toshiba has the Home/Pg up/Pg dn/End keys much better. If you make a lot of mistakes like me, you will appreciate the Dell's backspace key being bigger and more easily found.

The volume control on the Toshiba is a very nice thumbwheel on the right side, the Dell has a nasty multiple-button push thingy.

You can use a real electric switch to instantly disconnect from the internet on the Toshiba, not on the Dell. (marginally useful I admit but for control freaks like me...)

The Dell has a plug-in 802.11 card, which is susceptible to physical damage but I imagine you can get an internal card instead.
 
Pay attention to the model and the specifcations. Name brand means NOTHING.

I delt with on a daily basis for repair:

HP
Compaq
Toshiba
Sony
Emachines
Medion
Dell

..There wasn't one I'd say was better then the other. Honestly every manufacture will put out a model that is an absolute piece of crap. In the end not one is really better then the other.
 
I generally define the features i need, and buy the very cheapest name-brand device that rings all the bells. Laptops are limited-life commodities anyway, and are much more likely to be retired for physical damage than worn out. That said, I have found that the Toshibas are well-crafted, although I second Dave's observation above about the Control key (singular)- why not have one on the right, by the arrow and other stuff (esp. so I can do a one-handed ctl-enter). One thing I found with my latest Toshiba: it has built-in WiFi (not a card), and it has the best internal antenna of any laptop I have ever seen, gets a strong signal from the same access point that 'puters on cards have half signal or worse. My money-no-object choice is always IBM (now, Lenovo) Thinkpads, they are so nicely built and show design integrity. Rough-duty? I like the Panasonic Toughbooks. Edit: Why is the BB cramming all my paragraphs together, I wonder?
 
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What exactly is your mission for this laptop?

If you are are after battery life. Get a Centrino notebook. Every Centrino notebook is going to have integrated wireless. It's actually called Mini PCI and there is an Intel Pro wireless card plugged in. This is normally under one of the covers on the bottom of the notebook. The antennas are then built into the notebook.

If you are after something more along the lines of video editing or for raw power. Then I'd advise that you go more along the lines of an AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium. Of course your battery life is going to be.. Well...sad.

Either way. You are going to want memory over all else. It's all about memory. I've seen way too many people trade 512 of memory for an extra .2 ghz. You will want 1 gig of memory. If it doesn't come with it simply purchase and add it.


On my wishlist.. is:

index12inch20050920.jpg

*drools*
:yes:
 
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jangell said:
If you are after something more along the lines of video editing or for raw power. Then I'd advise that you go more along the lines of an AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium. Of course your battery life is going to be.. Well...sad.
Click to expand...

An Intel (r) centrino (tm) processor equipped laptop isn't too bad on performance, either. And battery life is much better than the others. My IBM T42 will actually run for a reasonable period of time on the battery (even with the WiFi transmitter turned on). Faster than my 1 GHz Pentium 4 based minitower system, that's for certain.
 
Ghery said:
An Intel (r) centrino (tm) processor equipped laptop isn't too bad on performance, either. And battery life is much better than the others. My IBM T42 will actually run for a reasonable period of time on the battery (even with the WiFi transmitter turned on). Faster than my 1 GHz Pentium 4 based minitower system, that's for certain.
Click to expand...
It depends on what you are doing. They aren't SLOW per say. but they are not going to run with a 3.2 ghz pentium finding aliens with Seti.

Their battery life isn't what they advertise. But they are quite a bit better.. then that same 3.2 ghz pentium.
 
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