I’ll be starting school again in September, and am thinking of picking up a laptop. I have a very good desktop system – running Office 2K and plenty games I won’t have time to play. But I’m starting to think (based on several recommendations and a bit of previous experience) that I’d like a laptop to use when on campus or traveling. But as much as I know about desktop systems and what the appropriate hardware minimums are, I am not familiar with what makes a good laptop.
As far as I know, the only thing I will be using the laptop for will be word processing. Maybe a little database design (though most of it will be done on the desktop) or spreadsheet work, but I can’t conceive of any other applications I’ll be using on the laptop. I still have my Office 97 CDs (and since the HD they were on no longer exists, I believe I am free to install them on a new machine) and an extra Windows 98 operating system. Between the two I should be all set.
Since that is 'bout all I am working with, does the processor really need to be faster than a PII 266? Most laptops seem to come standard with 64 meg of RAM. While this would be prohibitively small for a good desktop machine, given my limited use will this be enough? New laptops are running well over a grand- and seem to come with much more power than I’ll want at this point. Laptops on Ebay start much lower, but I don’t know how bare-bones of a system to get. Any HOs?
You’re right that you don’t need much power to meet your needs, but that just for now. I think it’s unwise to spend hundreds for something that just barely suits your requirements, when spending a bit more gets you a machine you’ll be able to use longer, with greater versatility. Besides, new notebooks are sweeeeeeet.
Sounds like you’ll be carrying your laptop around a lot, in which case weight is a primary concern. Mine weighs about 5 pounds, battery, CD, and all, which is fine for me. Lots of the latest models strip out just about everything to achieve sub-4 pound weights (for the part you carry around with you), which would be great for you. Plus, if you really don’t want stuff like the DVD-ROM drive, you just don’t buy the desk docking station part, which saves you cash.
Afraid I don’t have enough personal experience with current PC laptops to give you advice on specific models, but there’s some general thoughts for you.
Well, I’m not sure on specs, really, but I just wanted to relate my anecdote about laptop comp’s and college.
Me, I had a P120 for my first 3 years of college ('96-'99), with a dual scan screen. Underpowered to be sure, but sufficient for all my schoolwork until my senior year when I started taking multimedia classes and I needed to do some web editing.
Personally, I didn’t mind its lack of power, since I would’ve procrastinated myself to death if I had anything I could play “real” games on. As it is, it was fast enough to play Worms and, to a certain degree, Starcraft. So, yes, a P2 266 seems like plenty to me. Shop around enough and you should be able to get one for really cheap.
I am putting my reply before I am looking at other responses so as not to taint my post. I would say for your limited purposes win 98 and office 97 would run fine (along w/ internet) on a p2 266 - 64 ram. Somewhat slow but no biggie. You might consider backing up to win 95 for a little more omph and stay away from 98se.
I currently have a 1ghz 256 ram system that I use most of the time but I also use a 266 k6-2 notbook w/ 96 ram and though noticable slower it gets the job done.
Basically if this notebook is going to be for occational use they it’s fine - if this is going to be your main computer and you will be using it inplace of a desktop then try to go for something faster (400-500) and w/ 128 ram as a min - youwill be much happier.
As far as installing office from cd’s that were used on a computer that no longer exists - that’s fine for now but they are working to do away with that (read about windows xp and office xp for more info).
You will, of course, want it to run MacOS and MacOS X, yes?
(well, it would certainly top my list of minimum requirements!)
Multiple monitor support. The laptop screen should be nice in its own right, with support for many resolutions and maxing out 1280 x 1024 or higher at 32 bit color, but you also want to be able to run a second monitor (as an extended desktop, not just mirroring).
512 MB RAM out of the box, with room to add more over the years.
Nice large fast hard drive. You want to be able to upgrade to a larger one later, but it’s nice to feel you won’t have to for a little while. Extra credit for internal space for a second hard drive.
Some means of attaching and utilizing PCI cards when you’re deploying it as a desktop. Three slots would be really nice.
Ports. Built-in or available at a reasonable price as add-ons: Video-out to TV; video-in to digitization; sound in @ CD quality or higher; sound out; MIDI in and out; parallel and serial; USB / USB-2; FireWire; SCSI; internal / external ATA bus / connectors; TV and radio tuners.
Networking. Fast analog or digital modem, 100-base-T Ethernet or better, Infrared, and a good wireless networking protocol hardware without eating up any PC-card slots.
Upgradeable CPU, preferably on card or board capable of supporting multiple processors. Initial speed 700 MHz to 1 GHz for Mac (PowerPC G4 or better), 1.2-2.0 GHz for PC (Athlon or better) with 1 MB or better L2 cache at 1:1 or at least 3:2 of CPU clock.
And of course it should make breakfast for you when you wake up and place your order, utilizing state-of-the-art voice recognition in conjunction with the built-in condenser microphone and the house automation system that you’ve plugged into the FireWire port…
…and it should weigh 14 ounces…
…and come with a 3-year standard warranty…
::sighs, then goes back to typing away on the trusty WallStreet PowerBook::
I know that’s the first requirement on my list. “1. Does not run any !@%!@%? version of Windows.”
And you absolutely need a Firewire port, just for the ability to do video editing wherever you go. And a DVD drive, so you can watch something nifty while you’re en route from one place to another. A 22" screen would be nice if you can afford it…
Heh… sorry, but it is sooo close to rat-bastard. But truth be told, I used to have a Powerbook. Few years back in college, a two semester long course in environmental science was to rely heavily on the net for pulling down data series. My beat up, old 286 couldn’t run Netscape, so they loaned me (and several other computer-deprived students) Mactops to use for the semester. Ah, the freedom. That is the main source of my desire to have a laptop of my own for the coming school years.
I appreciate the votes for Apple, but I don’t even want the suggestion of compatibility problems moving files between the desktop and the laptop. Word should never encounter a problem, but Access?
Good suggestion backing down to Win95. I hope I can find the CDs- they should be buried somewhere around here. My only consideration is the aforementioned compatibility problems. Saving down to older versions seems like I am asking for trouble. Forget once, and I could be screwed.
Max is rearing the ugly ‘just get by’ vs. ‘get enough’ debate. Hard to say- the whole “new ones are so sweeeeet” is a powerful argument. But I think since the difference is more than a few hundred dollars (a $500 slower machine compared with a $1,200 modest one) I might be better off with what is ostensibly a portable word processor. I am, after all, 'bout to go back to being a dirt-poor student. What else will I use it for while I am in school? Any net-based activity (though if I can get a NIC and Netscape to run, I’ll be OK with that machine, sans graphics), image or sound manipulation I can do from my desktop. But then again, I am facing a half hour walk to and from campus. I’ve done enough backpacking to know that a four-pound difference can feel enormous, especially with law books heaped up on my back.
Thanks for the suggestions. Seems that I can get by with a PII, but will suffer from laptop-envy.
Oh, one last thing- I’ll second the Pricewatch.com suggestion for anyone else in the market. Great site, makes it very easy to find fantastic prices.
Ah, those Mac kids. So much technical prowess, so unable to comprehend the word “minimum.”
And, Rhythm, don’t suffer from laptop envy, do like I did and suffer from desktop envy. I mean, hey, if you shop around $1,200 will fund at least a dual 1.2 GHz Athlon setup. Or a an 800 MHz laptop. Depressing, ain’t it?
Yes, how dare those Mac users interrupt us with their tales of productivity and fun (gasp!) while we’re here trying to rebuild the registry, get Plug 'n Play to actually work, or re-re-re-reinstall Windows for the fourteenth time this week?
I do too comprehend “minimum”! You figure out what you can afford and add 35%!
(Then theoretically you’re supposed to stick to that figure and not let great deals on additional RAM and excellent cool peripherals lure you into accepting another line of credit and ordering them as well even though you know you want it and a good computer will get you through poverty better than money will make up for an insufficient computer and you can’t take it with you anyway and besides they might stop making them if you wait).
How dare you imply that we aren’t frugal and sensible! Hmmph!
Just buy an iBook, and end all your worries. They’re so inexpensive (and sooo not cheap, meaning that it will probably outlive you) that it’s the only sucker you’ll need. Look at the laptops college kids bought 4 years ago and the condition they’re in today. Then look at tests that MacWorld has done with the older model iBook. They threw it like a frisbee across a football field, just to see what would happen! (hint: it still worked) And, since they’re low-cost enough, you could get two and send one my way! Huh? Huh? Oh, nevermind.
If you just need to take notes and write essays on it, you might look into a WindowsCE palmtop. Most have battery life of 8 hours or more, which is enough for a whole day’s worth of note taking and library work. I have an HP Jornada 820, and really wish I had one in college. The battery easily lasts 10 hours, it has a bright 640x480 color display, and the keyboard is big enough that I can type at normal speed. The IBM Workpad Z50 is a similar computer, probably with an even better keyboard. Both are now discontinued, but you can probably get a used one for under $300. I use mine for taking notes on all-day meetings - it’s nice to not have to fight for the AC outlet. After I get back to the office I connect it to my main computer and it synchronizes all the documents. I also wrote most of my Master’s thesis on it - I carried it around everywhere so I could work on the thesis any time.
A PDA is a nice addition to a laptop but doesn’t replace it. There is noting like having the real thing (full blown word) and the ability to print to any printer if you have the drivers. For taking notes in class the pda + keyboard is hard to beat.
Also win95 has no prob w/ office 97 which is fully compatable (no save as needed) w/ later versions with the exception of access. I’m sure MS will plug that hole pretty soon and force everyone to buy XP.
Well, if one were a PC user and WANTED to have XP, that’s one thing, but why would you feel forced to adopt it just because MS releases new Office apps?
Get Conversions Plus from DataViz. They are the same people who make MacLink Plus and I’ll vouch for the PC version. You can open Office word and spreadsheet documents without owning any version of Office. And work on them in Lotus or Corel (or WordStar or whatever), save them, convert them to MS format, and send them to your Offic-encumbered friends.
(Also good for converting to and from Macintosh formats).
Multiple monitor support=I presume the TiBook does since previous PowerBooks did. Pretty much any other notebook does if you use up a PC Card slot with a Margi Display-to-Go card. I still have a Road Rocket in my old WallStreet.
512 MB RAM out of the box, with room to add more over the years. The TiBook comes with 256 as of now, but I’m sure you can special-order your TiBook that way since you can go up to a gig.
Nice large fast hard drive. You want to be able to upgrade to a larger one later, but it’s nice to feel you won’t have to for a little while. Extra credit for internal space for a second hard drive. = I do with my WallStreet, using an expansion bay, but of course I use the bay for other things as well. Newer PowerBooks can’t do that
5. Some means of attaching and utilizing PCI cards when you’re deploying it as a desktop. Three slots would be really nice. = would you settle for two? Once again, it eats up a PC Card slot. If your laptop has most of the rest of this stuff built-in, though, you can use the PC Card slot for this.
Ports. Built-in or available at a reasonable price as add-ons: Video-out to TV [PowerBook has S-video out]; video-in to digitization [another PC Card. Or, if you’re using your card slot for your Magma board, how about a PCI card instead?]; sound in @ CD quality or higher [sound in on older PowerBoooks like mine; a USB or FireWire device for the TiBook]; sound out [got it]; MIDI in and out [USB device]; parallel [PowerPrint kit, includes drivers] and serial [oops. Not available for the newer PowerBooks]; USB [yes]/ USB-2 [requires a card]; FireWire [yes]; SCSI [built-in on older PowerBooks; FireWire adapter for the TiBook]; internal / external ATA bus / connectors [nope, sorry]; TV and radio tuners [PC Card or PCI card].
Networking. Fast analog [built-in] or digital [USB add-on] modem, 100-base-T Ethernet or better [gigabit built-in], Infrared [IRDA built-in], and a good wireless networking protocol [AirPort] hardware without eating up any PC-card slots.
Upgradeable CPU [yes], preferably on card or board capable of supporting multiple processors [we can hope]. Initial speed 700 MHz to 1 GHz for Mac [not yet :(] (PowerPC G4 or better), 1.2-2.0 GHz for PC (Athlon or better) with 1 MB or better L2 cache at 1:1 or at least 3:2 of CPU clock [don’t have that ratio yet either].
And of course it should make breakfast for you when you wake up and place your order, utilizing state-of-the-art voice recognition in conjunction with the built-in condenser microphone and the house automation system that you’ve plugged into the FireWire port…
…and it should weigh 14 ounces [not!]…
…and come with a 3-year standard warranty [we can dream!]…
Regardless of all other specs and options you buy for your laptop, DO NOT buy it without a docking station. The ability to slide the lt in and have it up and running with full sized keyboard/monitor/printer/etc (WITHOUT having to screw with hookin’ all this stuff up is well worth the small price.
Say it. “I WILL BUY A DOCKING STATION, I WILL BUY A DOCKING STATION…”
(Finding a docking station that is compatible with your selection of laptop just might be tough to find later down the road then you decide I had a good idea. You don’t need to buy all the extra junk at the same time; you just need the capability to do it later.)
To each his own I suppose but I’d really have to disagree with this. Modern notebooks are typically good enough to be true desktop replacements and do not need external mice, keyboards or monitors for maximum usefulness. With respect to printers many being sold now connect via USB which is simple plug in - plug out operation. Same with attaching CDRW’s. Except for highly technical applications where some special PCI card (or whatever) may be needed for some function, docking stations are, by and large, yesterday’s technology.
“1. Does not run any !@
