Laptop sales seem to be in decline and Dell has been dropping prices. I ordered a Dell Latitude E5430 tonight with the Intel 3rd gen i5-3230M Processor 2.6GHz, 3M cache, 4Gig DDR3-1600MHz-SDRAM (only 1 DIMM) I can add another later. 500GB 7200RPM hard drive and a 14 inch display 1600x900. After some debate I decided on a single channel wi-fi. I didn’t want to update my linksys wifi router right now to dual channel. I’ve worked on a lot of Dell Latitudes over the years and been impressed with how rugged they are compared to the Inspiron.
Had everything I needed except my firewire. That’s critical because my $2500 DV camera is firewire and a have a $400 Canopus ADVC300 firewire Digital Video Convertor for recording tv to my hard drive. I’ll have to order a Firewire Express card to add that capability to the new laptop. I made sure the Dell has a Express card expansion slot. Gotta have my Firewire.
I figured time was running out to get a Win 7 64 bit system. No way in hell was I ordering Win 8. Not that worthless POS.
This will almost certainly be the last laptop order for me. Who knows what kind of weird crap they’ll be selling in five or six years. That’s when I expect to need something new. I seriously doubt laptops as we know them today will even be on the market. Dell is already transitioning to weird bastardized laptop/tablet combos and only had a few standard laptops offered. They are offering touch screen laptops now. All kinds of weird shit. I wanted a laptop with a standard touchpad. Period.
I’ll still keep my Dell Latitude D520 (bought in 2007) and dedicate it for tv recording with my Firewire capture box. It’ll be nice not having to hook it up special just to record a tv show.
I’m a bit bummed out by this. My first laptop was a huge 16 lb brute we bought at my job in 1993. It was a intel Dx 486 chipset running Windows for Workgroups 3.1 with Word Perfect, Lotus, and a few other things. I’ve either owned or worked on laptops running all the versions of windows over the years. Watched them shrink and get so much lighter. I’m really sad to see them get replaced in the near future.
I’m not a gamer but still wanted good graphics for video editing and rendering video. A laptop can’t deliver desktop performance but it does a decent job.
I know how it is. I got a HP EliteBook because it is one of the few laptop still available with a FireWire connector. An Express card slot is fine, and it has one of those as well, but I’d really prefer to not have yet another thing to unplug when I have to put my laptop in a bag. And my reason is much the same as yours - a significant investment in a FireWire camera. My beloved Canon XH-A1 isn’t going to suddenly sprout a USB3 port just because that’s what the computer industry has moved to.
This thing has proven to be crazy rugged, with a magnesium alloy chassis. I’ve taken it all the way apart to modify it, drilling holes in the base to hang it from the tripod below my camera. I love how easy it is to get to the fan for cleaning. It’s not light, but for this ease of service, I’m willing to carry an extra pound or two.
I had to give up on FireWire for my audio interface and get a new USB one when I got a new music laptop. But I did get an i7 quad core, and may yet throw in some more memory. With a 32Gb flash stick as cache it works great. I modified a case for the laptop/interface/power supplies, so it is carry and go, as intended. And cheaper than many dedicated devices I could have chosen, with more flexibility. It is rugged enough for gigging as well as at home.
We’re also at a point where, if you know what you’re looking for, you can find insane deals on laptops with black magic level specs. I’m a designer and filmmaker that uses about 85% of Adobe’s software and I just got a gently used Dell M6500 from ebay with a quadcore i7 (hyperthreaded to 8), 12 gigs ram, and a Quadro 3800m graphics card (which Adobe has certified to work with their Mercury Playback Engine, so I can use the GPU to render instead of ram) for $500 dollars – free shipping, no taxes, etc. Was over $4k when new, 3 years ago, but it’s not like digital video has changed all that much.
Also, it allows mSata boot drives, so my plan is to get a 128 gb mSata drive for ~$100 for Windows/applications which leaves me TWO internal harddrive bays, so I may set up a 1 tb RAID array (which the BIOS allows).
And I can find spare parts all the time on eBay. This one didn’t have the “nice” screen (it was only a WXGA+ 100% color gamut whatever) but I can put in the WUXGA RGB LED screen for like… $100 dollars. They don’t even make WUXGA for laptops anymore!
I’ve also considered maxing out the RAM to 32gb and creating a 10 gig RAM disk to use for paging/temp files. You know, because I can.
But yea. For $600 to $700, that’s an absurd amount of power that you can lug around with you. Obviously desktops are faster/better/yadda yadda, but this thing I can put in a book bag. Shits crazy!
I debated over getting a dual core or quad. My desktop is a quad core that I built in 2011. I finally decided dual core was ok for what the laptop will be used for. My really serious video rendering is done on the desktop computer. I will add another 4gig DIMM to the laptop next year. Hopefully the prices will drop by then.
I didn’t realize anyone sold a laptop with firewire. I would have seriously considered the HP EliteBook if I had known it came with it.
Hate to break it to you, but the Dell m6600 has the 6 pin Mac version of firewire. Oh, and at the Dell outlet, they’re offering something like 30% off all m6600’s through the weekend. I know this because I was debating getting one, but they were still like twice as much as the m6500 I found. But for ~$1k you get a Sandy Bridge i7 with 8 gb Ram and a Quadro 4000m card.
ETA: Thought you got something else in the OP. My bad. Something like the m6600 is waaaaaaaaaaaaay over kill if you already have a desktop!
I would have loved getting a Dell Precision M6700. But they are a bit pricey for me. As you said, they are a quality mobile workstation in a laptop. Solid state hard drives. very nice.
Nitpick: That’s the bog standard 6 pin FireWire. It’s only the “Mac version” in that the technology was created by Apple in the first place. The four pin version is actually the Sony version, which they originally called i.Link. The 6 pin original style carries power, the 4 pin variant doesn’t.
<hijack=slight>
The US Government is the largest purchaser of IT products and services in the world. No way smartphones and tablets will completely replace desktops and laptops in the near future, even if Snowden never came along. Too many federal politicians and federal IT decision-makers remain IT Luddites. Laptops will be around for a while.
</hijack>
I can’t imagine the laptop form factor will ever disappear. I have multiple desktops, laptops and tablets, and each serves their own purpose. Right new, my best laptop is more powerful than my best desktop, but I prefer the desktop - if only for the multiple large screens.
“X will disappear” is just the sort of nonsense that computer columnists generate to get page views.
Amusingly, virtually everyone who uses a tablet exclusively puts it in a case, and has a keyboard, turning it into an underpowered laptop with a very small screen. If that’s your goal, a Chromebook is a hell of a lot cheaper.
I hope you guys are right. What made me concerned was the bastardized units that Dell is already selling. Weird hybrid notebooks/tablets and touch screens. I don’t blame Dell. I’ve read their sales have been down and they got to do whatever is necessary to sell product. http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-12-9q33/pd?oc=dncwi16b&model_id=xps-12-9q33
Hopefully a standard laptop will still be available when I’m ready for my next one in five or six years. I’m curious to see what Microsoft does with Windows. I think they realize Win 8 was a massive mistake. They already made changes with the latest service pack. It’ll be interesting to see what they do with Win 9.
I’ll agree that a lot of people use cases to protect their tablets, but to say that “virtually everyone” that uses a tablet has a keyboard for it is a real stretch IMO. Several co-workers, friends, and family members have tablets – mainly iPads – and I can’t think of a single one offhand that uses a keyboard.
I also don’t see laptops going away all that quickly.
For me, the reasoning has to do with the size of a device that is still usable. Phones are good if you only need a 5" screen, but you can’t keep scaling that up indefinitely and have it still fit in your pocket, like we want from a phone. Tablets are good at the 7-10" range, but too much bigger and you lose the ability to hold it in one hand, or even to cradle it in one arm (maybe 12" for most people). Once you want to put the thing down, you’re back to a laptop, which will still be the best solution in the 15" and larger sizes.
And anytime you want a weight over 10 lbs, you’re looking at a desktop. They may become increasingly rare and specialized, but I don’t see those going away anytime soon either.
New laptop came in. Already got the wireless key entered and did a windows update. Installed Firefox, Flash, No Squint (a FF plugin), and java.
Was pleasantly suprised to see it has a ESATAp jack. I ordered aneSATA+USB Combo-Port to SATA (Data+Power) Cable. I’ll be able to pull out my old laptop’s SATA and plug it directly in to transfer my music and video. Probably about 75 Gig worth. ESATA is triple the speed of USB.
Only drawback I see so far is access to the new laptop’s drive. My old laptop has a slot on the side. Three screws and it slides out. I’m not sure where the drive is in my new laptop. There’s no slots for it anywhere on the sides or back. Same thing with the memory. It doesn’t have a slotted cover on the bottom for the memory. I guess that means pulling off the entire case. bummer. I’ll have to check Dell’s website and find out how to access the memory and drive.
Already got the wireless key entered and did a windows update. Installed Firefox, Flash, No Squint (a FF plugin), and java.