Buying a Laptop computer?

[ThomasDodd]

Sorry for the LONG post! I am passionate about processors... THIS is the computer I am buying myself for graduation...ordering it tomorrow, actually! Alienware Sentia (the Extreme, of course) :twisted:

Here's a system more to my liking, just not my budget. I haven't had time to check Linux compatibility yet though. It's probably similare the the Emachines Athlon64 notebooks though. I'm surprized more A64 notebooks aren't out there yet.

I prefer DLT for backup--it's very fast and very reliable. But I still have a few very ancient backups buried in a desk drawer that were done on DC600 tape. Heaven knows if I'll ever need any of that stuff--I hope not, but if I do, I know where to find it--and I still have the hardware for reading it.

Becarefull of those old tapes. You shoukd check the storage of the tapes and the drives. I've seen many cases of a tape/drive failing a few years after the fact. And you only find out when it's too late. Another fun situation I've seen, is you have the drive and the tape, but no way to use them. I've got an old MFM tape drive I cannot use. The interface card is is 8bit ISA. Try finding a system that support that now. No drivers for current OSes, and most motherboards no longer have ISA slots. Ive got some useless VLB interface cards too.

-Thomas

[Chuck(G)]

Becarefull of those old tapes. You shoukd check the storage of the tapes and the drives. I've seen many cases of a tape/drive failing a few years after the fact. And you only find out when it's too late. Another fun situation I've seen, is you have the drive and the tape, but no way to use them. I've got an old MFM tape drive I cannot use. The interface card is is 8bit ISA. Try finding a system that support that now. No drivers for current OSes, and most motherboards no longer have ISA slots. Ive got some useless VLB interface cards too.

We've always taken the high road on backup media--the large DC-xxx carts, followed by DLT. Always SCSI drives, so there's no interface problem. No floppy tapes, mini-DC-xxx, 4mm or 8mm (bad tape handling mechanisms), no proprietary media (e.g. 2.5mm micro tapes). I can still read backups I made 20 years ago.

But that's not quite fair--my firm deals in data recovery (this week, I'm working at recovering data from some hard-sectored diskettes written in 1979), so we do keep a lot of old hardware around and in good repair. We're called on at times to make recommendations regarding backup media and we warn against "pushing the technology". So high-capacity floppies (Zip, Superfloppies) are out, as are most cartridge-disk systems. DVD's look to be pretty safe, but I'd stay away from using an IDE hard drive as long-term storage; most are engineered for the lowest cost and highest possible capacity, not long-term reliability. Besides, if you drop one, it's often toast.

[Rick Denney]

DVD's look to be pretty safe, but I'd stay away from using an IDE hard drive as long-term storage; most are engineered for the lowest cost and highest possible capacity, not long-term reliability. Besides, if you drop one, it's often toast.

(I was wondering if you would identify your bona fides in this area, heh, heh. I almost did for you.)

I'm hoping that the USB interface of my external backup drive will provide some of the same interface durability as SCSI.

As to dropping them, yes, of course. As to having them wear out, I use them only when making the backup. Normally it is unplugged.

The problem with DVD's is that they just don't hold enough. It takes five DVD's to back up my image archive, and that makes it an all-day affair to make a backup. I can back up the whole lot with one command at the end of the day using an external hard drive.

So, I use the external USB drive for routine backups, and the DVD's for occasional permanent storage.

The backup method that gets used is far better than the one that doesn't.

Rick "who found that affordable tape technologies changed too often" Denney

[Rick Denney]

I bought the cheapest thing I could find and it wasn't six months before much better laptops with more bells and whistles were available for the same price.

That will be true no matter what you buy. Computer buyers just have to live with it. It's one reason I don't buy at the high end of the market--the steepest drop in price occurs there.

I would pick computers like tubas: Get one that has the features and performance you need. In the case of computers, needs may grow as fast as technology, so add in a growth factor. The price will be what it will be. If you spend less, you'll either get fewer features or lower quality (although spending more doesn't always insure against that). If you spend more, you may have spent too much. In a year, you'll have forgotten about the little extra you spend, but if your computer isn't meeting your needs, it will remind you of that every day.

Rick "who wishes his laptop had a DVD drive and a USB2 port" Denney

[Leland]

Oh yeah the viruses will come reguardless of what brand or how much you've spent.

Or just get a Mac...

(sorry, just had to say it! )

[finnbogi]

No, you don't have to be smart to operate a Mac. However, smart people tend to get along with Macs.

[Leland]

You'd be surprised by how little I know about mucking around in the depths of the OS. Yes, there's a command line terminal available, but I can't even remember the last time I used it, and everything still runs fine.

I have very little patience for computers that don't work.

[tjonp]

OK, a Mac is one of those kind that you have to be smart to operate, am I correct?

The original Mac in 1984 was designed to be the most user-friendly system on the market (considering its biggest competition was DOS, there wasn't much of a contest). Unfortunately, two decades of living in a Windoze-dominated world has made most people intimidated by Macs. They're still far easier to use then peecees, however.

[ken k]

My wife uses Macs at her college and she would like to get a notebook computer to use. We have PCs at my school and the kids have PCs at their schools so we got a PC at home. Does anyone know where you might be able to buy a used Mac notebook? New they are pretty expensive. They start at like $1400 or so. Having just purchased a new car and living room furniture we can't really afford a new computer too.

ken k

[Leland]

Brand-new G4 iBooks -- perfectly capable computers themselves (I've got two, a year-old G3 "iceBook" and a five-year-old original blueberry model running OS X.2 "Jaguar") -- start at $1099 for a 12" that's barely bigger than some spiral-bound notebooks (the paper ones, that is).

Or, check out sites like http://www.macprices.com for the latest deals. Amazon is selling the previous-version 800 MHz G4 12" iBook for under 900 bucks.

[Adam C.]

Keep in mind the vast majority of computer users are using Windows based PC's. If you just want to buck the trend, go all the way and build a Linux machine.

All this talk about reliability and crashing... my Windows XP machine has not "crashed" once in 2-3 years. I can leave the damn thing on for MONTHS without a reboot. The days of Win95/98/ME are gone people.

If you think you'll ever play real games on your computer, don't get a Mac.

If you might be simultaneously dealing with things on both your home computer and your work computer that is probably a PC, don't get a Mac.


In my opinion, Alienware is overpriced. They're generally hot rod machines built for gaming.

I think Dell has a good business; for a normal user you can't go wrong with them.

[tubacdk]

All this talk about reliability and crashing... my Windows XP machine has not "crashed" once in 2-3 years. I can leave the damn thing on for MONTHS without a reboot. The days of Win95/98/ME are gone people.

If you think you'll ever play real games on your computer, don't get a Mac.

If you might be simultaneously dealing with things on both your home computer and your work computer that is probably a PC, don't get a Mac.

I think Dell has a good business; for a normal user you can't go wrong with them.

I'm using WinXP at work, and it's definitely a much better OS than the previous versions. But, Mac OSX is worlds better. I use an iBook at home and even though the processor is technically less than half the speed of my machine at work, it runs quicker and is just more stable. I haven't had any issues with taking stuff to/from work - the MS Office documents are all transferrable even if you don't have Office on the Mac, cuz Appleworks can convert the files.

If there are any PC only apps that you use, then that would decide it. The gaming thing, sure, there are a lot of games that aren't available for Mac. But, with Mac OSX, there are a lot of games that are coming out for both platforms. Apple has made it a lot easier for people to develop programs for OSX. And speed isn't a problem - the new G5 is as fast as anything that you can build that's Windoze based.

btw, I use a Dell at work, and it's crap. I have had so many weird weird problems with that machine... I've had the OS reinstalled twice and I still have issues that aren't resolved.

[Leland]

Unfortunately my iPod has to be a PC machine, since my mp3s are all on there. That's where Apple could improve, an iPod that can cross-platform!

Use one of the freeware iPod-browsing apps out there. That's how I got some mp3's off a friend's iPod that he was using on a Windows computer.

Then, once you're done transferring the music, wipe the iPod and use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable clone of your new Powerbook. I've got my entire iBook, plus backups of large files like games, on my 40 gig iPod.

I use other hardware for games (usually Nintendo), although occasionally I pull Medal Of Honor, The Sims, or Ghost Recon off my iPod.

[TheTuba]

Well, I have a Dell inspire, and it's pretty good
+1 for dell
The" don't know what's the point of bumping this thread"Tuba

[hup_d_dup]

Somewhat interesting reading through these 14 year old posts. I recently bought a 9 year old MacBook Pro, 5 years newer and much more powerful than the computers mentioned in the thread.

I already own the same model and it has served me reliably since I bought it new in 2009. It did occur to me that it could fail at any time (the battery has already been replaced). It has lots of software that would have to be replaced if I buy a new computer with a current operating system. Plus, some of the software, like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc. now has to be purchased on a lease basis, whereas the old software I own outright.

So I looked around and found the same model MacBook Pro, manufactured the same year I bought mine, and bought it for the impossibly low price of $330, about 15% of what I paid for mine originally. Everything is mirrored on the two machines. They are both running flawlessly, but if either one fails, I'm covered by the other.

These are great laptops and do everything I need on a computer. I hope that they will outlast me.

Hup