Infoseek: Laptops

[cherry]

As I know a great many of you are more knowledgeable on the subject than I am: I am quite possibly getting a laptop for grad, and I was wondering if there were any words of wisdom -- or suggestions, or recommendations, or just plain anything I need to know.

It's going to have to last me four or five years. University, of course. I'd like to be able to use it to take notes in class, as I type so much less slowly than I write. A burner would be nice, but I can always get an external and hook it up -- With my music addiction, I'm going to be saving money in the long run. I don't know what I'm going to need for power, for RAM or anything. As far as I know, all laptops are fully compatible with printers, so that shouldn't be much of a concern.

I'm comfortable working with both Mac and IBM compatibles, and I really don't have a preference for either one.

Any thoughts/suggestions/pointers/warnings/funny stories involving laptops hurtling through fifth story windows?

Comments

[cgilmore.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who supports laptops professionally in a collegiate environment...

First, decide if you want a PC or a Mac. This is mostly personal preference, but it might be worth talking to the schools you're looking at to see if they have any recommendations. A lot of engineering programs are built around PC's, either with Windows or Linux (or both). Most writing programs are geared towards Macs. Getting a Mac if you're going into a PC environment (or vice versa) will mean that you spend a lot more time in the computer labs than you would otherwise.

There aren't really many more options if you're looking at a Mac - "any color, so long as it's black" and all that. Personally, I'm drooling over the 17" PowerBook G4, but you'd probably want something a little less over the top.

On the PC side, make sure you get what I fondly refer to as the "drop kick warranty" - not every vendor offers them. It's basically a no questions asked, whatever you do to it is covered policy (actually, it's probably more accurately described as "Don't ask, don't tell"). Dell calls this "Complete Care" or something to that effect. If you can get an extended warranty (something that'll see you through the end of Uni), you might want to get that as well.

Now look at the features. Throw as much money at it as you can for the things that are expensive to upgrade or can't be upgraded at all. Get the burner now. Get the bigger hard drive. Go light on RAM (256MB would be the minimum on the PC side, but 1GB isn't unreasonable for engineering apps) if you need to cut costs a little - vendors charge an arm and a leg for RAM, but 3rd party upgrades are dirt cheap. (I recommend Crucial - www.crucial.com - for almost all RAM needs.) Don't pay 10% more for a processor that is only 2% faster. Don't get a big-ass, high resolution display unless you think you're going to need it (CAD, video editing, etc). Do get a spare battery. If you like having a real keyboard and/or mouse, consider getting a port replicator for your dorm room/home/wherever. Get integrated wireless - 802.11b or 802.11g - a lot of campuses are making wireless connectivity available in common areas.

I recommend Dell. We use them almost exclusively here, and haven't had any major problems.

Um... That's all I can come up with off the top of my head. Feel free to IM me if you want more detail or have any other questions.

Chris