Laptop for graphics, writing and fun

["McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

Hey all.

Many thanks to the several Whirlers who responded with a bucket-load of good suggestions and observations regarding a vector-graphics replacement for Visio and an intermediate Paint or GIMP replacement.

You gave me lots of things to think about and stuff to try (Iâve got Paint.net installed already and Iâm looking at some of the vector suggestions that are available for both Windows and Linux.

Now I have another tools-ish question.

Itâs wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-ayyy past time for a new laptop (about eight or nine years past due, I think.


Iâm pretty much persuaded that if I want the best bang for the buck that will last me for another several years, then I need a machine with a Centrino-2 processor at its core. I could be wrong on that, but I donât want to purchase previous-era tech when Iâll be living with it for a goodly while. Of course, I donât have the arm-and-leg to pay for bleeding edge, high-end.  A well-integrated fast processor, a goodly-sized hard disk, a few Gig of memory, and enough graphics power to run all the Vista or Compiz eye-candy and still let me work and maybe watch a video.  Thatâs not too much to ask, is it?     â

The offerings appear slim, so far (are predicted to pick up just after Christmas, natch, so I'm holding out 'til at least January). Of those that _are_ already on the market that include the Centrino-2, I have read that many/most are early âget-it-out-the-doorâ place-holders/market-share-grabbers that do have the new CPU, but that arenât really built (older motherboards basically) to take advantage of it.

Is anybody on the list a bit more current in their laptop market knowledge and have some gems of wisdom to offer?
D'ya know what motherboard is what? Are there some keywords to look for in the ads?

Iâm also sniffing about the edges of the Mac world, but Iâm not totally impressed. I could extend the checkbook enough to buy one, but then all the upgrades or repairs would be more expensive than the equivalent for a Windoze-based laptop. Or is that not true anymore, now that they're Intel-based?

No doubt, thereâll be others with upgrade fever, so an answer that helps me would probably be useful to other Techwhirlers, too.

Thanks,


- Kevin


















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