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Subject:RE: Laptop for graphics, writing and fun From:"Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com> To:"McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:00:11 -0600
Buy as much RAM as you can afford. The high-end norm these days is 4 GB in a notebook. Hard drives range up to about 320 GB on retail shelves. Total cost and overall compatibility would tilt my choice toward Windows, not Macs. You can get in the game with the aforementioned spex at about $600 to $800, especially if you watch your sales. You can get the equivalent of a portable home theater for about twice that. So that gives you some idea of the range. Once you've got the most RAM you can afford, then match it with the best processor you can afford. Storage is less important because it's so easy to plug in USB externals, such as a MyBook, that storage is relatively cheap. I'm not at all convinced the best sales will be after Christmas -- plausible, but not a given. Buying a PC these days is always drawing a line in the sand -- there will assuredly be something better in three months or less. Once you see what you're after at a price that's reasonable to you, go for it. Bear in mind that most retail stores will price-protect you for 15 to 30 days, sometimes more this time of year. If it's $50 less the next day somewhere else, you should be able to get the difference back -- especially if the competitor is not a membership-based store and has the product in inventory. On notebooks, the store's extended warranty may be a good investment.
HTH,
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jim -dot- pinkham=voith -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jim -dot- pinkham=voith -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of McLauchlan, Kevin
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 4:47 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Laptop for graphics, writing and fun
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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ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. http://www.doctohelp.com
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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