Laptop computer questions.

[mjlaupp]

Two thoughts:

1) Get everything (memory, hard drives, DVD/CD drives, etc.)you want or need in the notebook computer when you purchase it. Notebook computer upgrade parts are almost nonexistent after 6 months.

2) Game builders tend to use a MAC for the multimedia (vidio/audio) portion of the game and a Microsoft PC for the actual programming.

I am in the process of migrating my existing desktop and notebook PCs to a new Toshiba 17" dual core 2.4 mhz notebook with 2 g ram, 80 g hd, DVD/CD R/RW and a TV tuner. This will also replace the 9" 110vac/12vdc TV with VCR that I use in my TM.

Mike

[tucsoncarol]

Thank you folks for the information and inspiration. It looks like there are more answers to this dilemma than even I had envisioned. So if I go any of the directions mentioned I should do OK? Some final questions. About the TV tuner. Some say to not get one IN the laptop but maybe one of the USB tuners that are available. This might greatly affect the cost of the laptop as very few of them come off the shelf configured with a tuner. Does anyone have any experience with this option? Since I will be watching TV from my satellite dish, do I really need a tuner other than my satellite box? This way the laptop is basically a TV screen, but little else.

[Bill]

Carol -

I'm out of my depth here, so let me just ask and wait for others to answer. Re a TV tuner, is there an issue with upcoming proliferation of HDTV, and the current lack of a standard? In other words, if you buy a built-in tuner, do you run the risk of it becoming obsolete/unusable in a few months?

Bill

[tucsoncarol]

That's another one of the issues at play here, Bill. I don't know and can't get a straight answer from store salesmen. Or no, that's not right; I get a DIFFERENT answer from each one. I can't even say how much it would p*** me off to pay large dollars only to find out that a few weeks wait would have made all the difference. Anyone who has answers please chime in.

[B_and_D]

Not being one who keeps up with technology on a daily basis, this is also a frustrating subject for me. I finally broke down and bought a dvd recorder last September. Now I'm faced with a changing technology: do I want to buy Blue Ray or HD (I'm not even sure what the choices are called?) I was so happy just to have a dvd recorder. I love it. Now I hear that it's out of date.

Have you tried calling Dell? I bought one of their laptops about 4 years ago for my husband, and the person I talked to was very helpful. I called their business division and they gave me a better deal than what I could get off their website build. It wouldn't hurt to just talk to someone there. I thought that they were very informative and knowledgable about the options I could order.

I did have to have our Dell laptop reformatted about 9 months ago. Not sure what happened to it, but it's working OK now. On the other hand, a lady in our office bought a Dell laptop about the same time that I did and it died. I know of a few other people who have bought expensive laptops and they have suffered early deaths (other than Dell). If I had to buy another laptop I'm not sure what I would buy.

A very common cause of premature laptop failure is using it on your lap. Even worse is placing it on a bed. This is very common for students to do.

Any laptop computer that is powerd on must be on a hard surface, such as a desk or a TV tray. If there is no air flow around the laptop, especially under it, then it will likely overheat and damage the electronics.

Some laptops have little extension legs on the bottom, I always extend them to maximize airflow.

Our Gateway laptop from 1997 is still useable, but at a whopping 233 MHz it isn't good for very much.

[Denny_A]

Originally Posted by PopBeavers

A very common cause of premature laptop failure is using it on your lap. Even worse is placing it on a bed. This is very common for students to do.

Any laptop computer that is powerd on must be on a hard surface, such as a desk or a TV tray. If there is no air flow around the laptop, especially under it, then it will likely overheat and damage the electronics.

Funny I should read this whilst using my laptop....ummm, on my lap. I just happen to use the removable "door" from my pup's kennel. It's hard plastic has a grid to facilitate air and light for the pup. It also makes a very fine base for keeping the pc from overheating. Talk about (as my 9 yr old granddaughter would say) a coinkidink.

Denny_A

You can also get laptop coolers for $16.00 on up. http://www.jab-tech.com/product.php?productid=2111

My only complaint about Macs is that when I go to the computer store to peruse the many aisles of parts there is a lot more stuff for PCs then there is for MACs, and at a substantially lower cost.

However, I'm certainly not normal. I routinely open up computer cases and swap parts around.

My friends that are computer illiterate love their Macs. My friends that have been using computers for over 30 years hate them.

Assuming you have no plans to ever open it up then by all means you should buy what you need/want and can afford because upgrades to any notebook/laptop can be rather expensive.

I still use Windows 98 on a 500 MHz processor with 512k of RAM as my email machine and for surfing the web. It works well for what I use it for. My 233 MHz Gateway laptop, also running Win98 is so slow it can barely surf the web any more because too many web pages have too many graphics.

So, if all you want is web surfing and email you don't need much. A brand new laptop should not be more than $700.00 for that purpose. But if you want to do digital photo editing or movie editing then you will need more.

I will admit that my limited exposure to the Mac was when it was not using Intel chips. Things may have changed.

I still use my very first computer on a daily basis. I have gotten a lo of miles out of it. The only original pars are the case and the floppy drive.

I upgrade hard drives about once a year. The original HD was 1.2 gig. I have gone through 4, 8, 13, 40, 80 gig drives. I only have dual 120 gig drives in the old computer. I have upgrade the video card 3 times since 1995 when I originally bought it. The motherboard, cpu and memory have been upgraded once to convert from 133MHz to 500MHz. It had a 4x CDROM, back when they were only 300 bucks. My friends laughed at me for wasting money on a 4x CD reader. 2x is all that I would ever need.

Upgrading is always substantially cheaper than throwing it away and buying another new unit. Any time I wanted to buy an upgraded part I had sometimes dozens of different brands to choose from.

This is no longer as important to me as it used to be. About all I upgrade any more is the hard drives. The next time the 500 gig HDs go on sale I will buy a few more. I only have a little over a terabyte at home at the moment, and I am running out of space. HD space is approaching 50 cents per gigabyte these days.

I just have never met anyone yet that is still running a 12 year old Mac on a daily basis as one of their primary systems. I suppose in 3 or 4 more years I will be forced to retire the old PC because web sites keep getting too much graphics on them. Web sites are loaded up these days with entertainment (silly graphics for no good reason) instead of information (useful data worth reading and researching).

My friends that do a lot of professional video editing definitely prefer the Mac.