Need a new Laptop

[Digital M@]

OK, I have a new job and have to buy my own laptop for it. Due tot he nature of my work, it should be Windows based. My old work laptop was a Dell and I have to admit, i was not overly impressed, but it was not crap either.

I will run Excel, power point, well MS Office, internet. Since it is a personal laptop, I could put a light game or two on it and store music, pics etc. I will not be using CAD and have not ever edited video.


Any suggestions or warnings about what I should look for in features and brand?

Thanks

 

[XCorvis]

Personally, I do like Dell. I have a Latitude, their business focused line, but my dad and a couple friends have Vostros that they got really cheap and are working out well. The hardware has been good so far, and I hear their customer support is better than average (statistically, YMMV).

I like http://www.slickdeals.net for bargains, the Vostro deal came up quite frequently. Looks like right now Dell has the XPS laptops on sale.

Dual Core processors have really turned laptops around for me, make sure you get one (most are). Before that they were just too slow and clunky. You're getting Vista on it, unfortunately, but it's not terrible once you get used to it (and start to customize it). Make sure you get at least 2 GB of RAM. DO NOT GET LESS. Seriously. That should work fine with your relatively light apps.

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

Since this is going to be basically work/Office Work dual-core chips will do you fine and either AMD or Intel will do the job nicely. As XCorvis rightly states, no less than 2 gigs of RAM especially with Vista.

HP is a decent brand. I bought my daughter one for college at Staples and it did quite well for her first year. If she takes care of it it will last her the next three years.

Staples and others are always having really good sales and now that both AMD and Intel are getting ready to release new platforms for mobile computing the current stock should be coming down in price.

*** DON'T forget the extended warrenty. This will add significant cost but if you drop it just once...

* I also strongly recommend Lenovo (formally IBM) ThinkPads. They are built well but only get their onsight repair warrenty option.

 

[azhrei_fje]

If you don't want Vista, and for your simple load you might not, just ask Dell to "downgrade" it to Windows XP. Essentially you get the Vista CDs and all that with XP actually installed (and you get XP CDs).

You've got a light load with what you plan to run. For a heavier machine I would recommend the 64-bit Vista. Running XP with 2GB is going to be pretty fast...

 

[Digital M@]

What is 64 bit Vista?

My home PC is an Apple and i have not kept up with the Microsoft world. I was unaware Vista had two versions. What benefits are there for the 64 bit version?

 

[Aeolius]

My home PC is an Apple and i have not kept up with the Microsoft world.

Ever considered getting a MacBook, installing MS Office on it, and slapping a Dell logo on the back? You could install Windows on it and dual-boot with Boot Camp, when folks are watching.

 

[Rackhir]

What is 64 bit Vista?

My home PC is an Apple and i have not kept up with the Microsoft world. I was unaware Vista had two versions. What benefits are there for the 64 bit version?

There are actually about 5-8 versions of Vista (one of the complaints about it). The 64 bit version has no advantage for you and likely would only be a liability.

It is only useful if you need to run applications that can benefit from more than 4gb of Ram (that's what the 64 bit gets you, a larger maximum addressable memory). Which is mostly stuff like video editing, heavy duty 3d animation work (like Pixar Movies) and large databases. Considering that you probably can't even put more than 4gb of Ram in the laptop, it would be completely pointless. Also the 64 bit version of Vista is going to have hardware and software incompatibilities, since a significant amount of stuff doesn't have drivers for the 64 bit OS versions.

Ever considered getting a MacBook, installing MS Office on it, and slapping a Dell logo on the back? You could install Windows on it and dual-boot with Boot Camp, when folks are watching.

There is one major problem with using an Macbook or Macbook Pro as a windows notebook, namely that there is only one "mouse" button. Though, there are workarounds for this and of course you can always use an external mouse.

 

[XCorvis]

If you don't want Vista, and for your simple load you might not, just ask Dell to "downgrade" it to Windows XP. Essentially you get the Vista CDs and all that with XP actually installed (and you get XP CDs).

I think today might be the last day you can do that, at least with Dell.

 

[Thanee]

I will run Excel, power point, well MS Office, internet. Since it is a personal laptop, I could put a light game or two on it and store music, pics etc. I will not be using CAD and have not ever edited video.

The only serious performance issue there is with the games. Everything else should run fine on pretty much any new laptop you can buy today.

So, I would watch out for secondary traits, like battery endurance and such.

Bye
Thanee

 

[drothgery]

What is 64 bit Vista?

My home PC is an Apple and i have not kept up with the Microsoft world. I was unaware Vista had two versions. What benefits are there for the 64 bit version?

Vista has lots of versions.

Home Basic (don't get this)
Home Premium
Business
Ultimate
... and the 'N' and 'K' (Europe and Korean versions with some features removed to comply with local anti-trust law; no one wants these) variants of all of them in both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) variations.

And there's a few variants on Vista Enterprise, which you can only get through volume licensing so only Really Big Companies (and MSDN subscribers) can get that version at all.

As for the 64-bit version (MS calls it x64 for historical reasons), the advantages are...
1) Can actually use more than 3 GB of RAM
2) Somewhat improved security model (you can't use unsigned drivers, and there are some other things that just won't work in x64)

The disadvantage is that some hardware lacks 64-bit drivers. Microsoft's trying to get hardware vendors in line on this one, and having some success; it's much better now than it was at Vista's launch.