Beeker25 Posted August 4, 2000 Share Posted August 4, 2000 I am in the market to buy a notebook/laptop computer. I am very unfamiliar with laptops and need some good advice on them. Here are the Specs of the system that I am looking at; 600 Mhz Pentuim3, 64-128mb mem, 6.0+ Hard Drive, Active Matrix Screen(A Must) 13"-14", DVD Drive, Mouse Pad-No Eraserhead control. My price range is up to $2200.00. I was looking at a Sony Vaio. How are these system compared to others? What are some things to look for in a Notebook system? How does tha Sony compare to other brands? What are some other good brands? Hoe are the HP Omnibooks? Thanks in advance for the info. ------------------ Beeker25 ------------------------ People can be classified in 3 catagories; Hookers,Pimps,& Truckers.. Which are you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geekysteve Posted August 4, 2000 Share Posted August 4, 2000 Hi Beeker, First- a little background. I do software development for a fairly large government agency. They buy a lot of laptops for a lot of different people who use them a lot of different ways. For example, I'm on my 4th laptop in about 10 months. They buy new ones and guess who get's to always have "the newest"...that's right- me!! We've had: IBM ThinkPad's, Dell Lattitudes, Dell Dimensions, Dell Inspirons, Toshibas, Compaq's, Sony's and Gateway's. I'm currently using a Dell Inspiron 7500 with Pentium III 700, 25GB hard-drive, 128MB RAM, DVD/CD, 15.4" SXGA display. It's one of the worst laptops I've ever had. It's extremely (like over 10lbs) heavy. It hangs-up all of the time. Dell Support is terrible. Previously, I had an IBM ThinkPad 600E. I loved it. Ultra-stable, fast, light, great display (although only 13.3"), long battery life, just all-around a great laptop. Never had any need to contact IBM tech support, but their sales staff sure was excellent! Prior to that I had an IBM ThinkPad 390. It was ok- a little slow, a little heavy, but still ultra-stable. We currently have one of our 390's set-up with a Linux/Win2K dual boot. These are still good laptops for under $1500. My first laptop was a Toshiba (forgot the model name). Again, it was a good laptop- better than my Dell is now. Very stable, fast, but a little heavy. Display wasn't as good as the Dell, and even a little worse than the 390. So, I've used laptops that range in price from $1495 to my current one ($3795).... If I were buying my own laptop, I'd consider the ThinkPad 600E with PII 366, 128MB, 6GB HD, CD, 13.3" TFT. You can get one from egghead.com for less than $1700. Although you said "no eraser-heads", so that kind of removes the IBM's... Our Sony laptops seem to be decent, but they don't like to be bumped around. One of our fiscal specialists took a Sony laptop to Denver for a week, and it died on her- she apparently bumped it around a bit on the plane... Finally, the Gateway's that we have are nothing special- a little pricey, loaded-down with a lot of unnecessary software 'goodies', and when compared side-by-side with the IBM's they're very slow. So, to wrap-up this huge monologue, I'd seriously consider an IBM ThinkPad. Then, I'd look at the Toshiba, then the Sony, then either the Dell or Gateway. BTW, my brother has a Dell laptop that's about 4 years old- his seems ok, but it hangs quite a bit, and the battery pack died after 1 year of use- he's currently on his 3rd or 4th battery. Best of luck to you. ------------------ The ability to speak does not make you intelligent. -- Qui Gon Jinn, Star Wars: Episode One Try the world's greatest search engine: www.google.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santilli Posted August 6, 2000 Share Posted August 6, 2000 Hi Have a look at Panasonic toughbooks. Panasonic is considered in Japan, to be the best of the electronics companies. I have a TF=37. It is close to bullet proof, light, and feels like a brick house compared to the Viao. Be careful. I bought it from Global in San Jose. Price was incredible. However, support from them is horrible. BBB time. No 98 Cd. No cd insert available. Generally, lot of bull... Too bad, the laptop is incredible. gs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santilli Posted August 6, 2000 Share Posted August 6, 2000 Hi Forgot to say your concern about processor speed is bull. Max hard drive speed for a laptop is the limit on most laptops. Therefore, as long as the thing has a reasonable processor, the biggest problem is the hard drive. IBM pretty much has a monopoly on hard drives, and the others avalible can't clear 12 mb/sec, so it doesn't matter how fast the cpu is. 360mhz to 400 is probably plenty considering the hard drive limitations for laptops. gs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geekysteve Posted August 8, 2000 Share Posted August 8, 2000 Don't know if you decided on a laptop yet, but I just got another new laptop today. We just got 2 IBM ThinkPad T20 laptops- both are PIII750MHz, 128MB, 12GB, DVD laptops. OMFG. Let me say that again, OMFG!!!! These things are small, light, fast and awesome. I get to dump my Dell on some unsuspecting pencil-pusher...hehehe.. Anyway, the T20 measures about 2 inches thick (closed), weighs right around 4 lbs, has a 14.4" screen, a nice, full-sized keyboard (almost) and has one kick-arse port replicator. God, this thing is awesome!! Seriously consider the T20. It rules. I will never give-up my T20. I will never give-up my T20. I will never... ------------------ The ability to speak does not make you intelligent. -- Qui Gon Jinn, Star Wars: Episode One Try the world's greatest search engine: www.google.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Distec Posted August 16, 2000 Share Posted August 16, 2000 The IBM Thinkpads are pretty much the best ones out there. Nearly every labtop comparison review on the net says the same thing. All the other labtops are unstable or breakdown a lot. Too bad the thinkpads don't have a touchpad, although touchpads aren't really that great either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tekk Posted August 25, 2000 Share Posted August 25, 2000 Yeah, Distec is right. But make sure that you go with a company that will actually give you the drivers for your system. I do tech support, and Sony is the worst company I have ever had to deal with. They won't email or mail you drivers, unless you buy the 'Recovery Disk'. And the drivers on it aren't even updated... Dell is slightly better, but I would go with IBM. ------------------ A cookie is just a cookie, but a Fig Newton is fruit and cake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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