Which laptop?

[procrastination inc]

Kid No3 needs a laptop for school next year and I'd like to take advantage of the tax break this year.

She needs a robust unit, 802.11a compliant and it MUST be pretty :D

budget to $1500

So Kid number 2 doesn't get to jealous, I'd like to get here a netbook. Eee PC 1000HE looks good. Needs to be super light cause she has to carry books as well.

expert or novice opinions and proselytizations welcome

[dmdigital]

Eee PC would be good. Top end go for the 13" MacBook which would top out your budget. Don't forget to get educational price on what ever you buy for her as this should save about 10% more.

[Psimpson7]

Dell do some quite nice 'pretty' laptops that are fairly well specced.

The studio range looks good

Dell Studio 17 Laptop (http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop_studio_17?c=au&cs=audhs1&l=en&s=dhs)

Within budget aswell.

Dell also have good customer service.

I have a Dell, and a HP laptop, Both CAD spec machines but the HP which is my work machine is very dissapointing. It had had to be rebuilt twice in the 18months I have had it. My Dell has basically never had a problem and is a couple of years older. On that basis I wouldn't run a HP with my own money.

Windows 7 looks good too, if thats available on the Dells I dont know.

[procrastination inc]

I went to hardly normal's after work today for a look.

I find the whole electronics store thing assaulting. Buying a Dell seems quite a serene experience :)

[Captain_Rightfoot]

I went to hardly normal's after work today for a look.

I find the whole electronics store thing assaulting. Buying a Dell seems quite a serene experience :)

Get one of the low end macbooks with the education discount. It will seem more expensive up front but it will be cheaper in the long run if you value your money and time. Also, mac laptops tend to have a much longer functional life than pc laptops.

Don't miss the fact that the mac has a 7 hour battery in it which is good for 1000 cycles (not the normal 300) and there is a huge saving on its own. In 18 months when your daughter is complaining that her laptop needs to be constantly tethered to the power the mac will still be running off batteries far better than a dell ever will have.

Oh, and you'll get snow leopard for less than $20 bucks whereas MS will likely charge far more than that for Vista Fixed. When you update to the new OS you'll get an extra 7gb back on your HDD too :)

[350RRC]

Get one of the low end macbooks with the education discount. It will seem more expensive up front but it will be cheaper in the long run if you value your money and time. Also, mac laptops tend to have a much longer functional life than pc laptops.

Don't miss the fact that the mac has a 7 hour battery in it which is good for 1000 cycles (not the normal 300) and there is a huge saving on its own. In 18 months when your daughter is complaining that her laptop needs to be constantly tethered to the power the mac will still be running off batteries far better than a dell ever will have.

Oh, and you'll get snow leopard for less than $20 bucks whereas MS will likely charge far more than that for Vista Fixed. When you update to the new OS you'll get an extra 7gb back on your HDD too :)

^^^^^^
Wot he said. I paid about 2200 for the 160 gig Macbook 18 months ago. The new 320 gig equivalent ali case one is 1900 full price. The edu discount would bring that down.

They are a delight to use.

cheers, DL

[frantic]

For Uni go a mac but if you must get a micropowered intel/AMD, WAIT till after the new operating system windows i7 comes out as it is supposed to be much better and smoother than vista , or get a laptop with xp if you need one straight away and upgrade to 7 later.

[dmdigital]

I can vouch for the new Macbook battery life. Fantastic!!!!

[Michael2]

Panasonic Toughbook CF-18, just superseded by the CF-19. Worth $6,500 new, can pick one up for around $1,000. Touch screen, titanium alloy body, long battery life - no cooling fans, as it dissipates heat through the body. No internal CD drive though, as it's compact and folds back to be a tablet. Nowadays it's all USB drives anyway. In built wireless too.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/06/241.jpg

did I mention it was water proof.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/article/inline/2441-overview.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2009/06/242.jpg

http://www.techshout.com/images/panasonic-toughbook-cf.jpg

Makes a great "Land Rover" Computer

[miky]

While I wouldn't mind going for a Mac, all my software is for Windows. If I have to go buy Mac software the overall cost is pretty high.

Yes, I know you can get Windows software to run on a Mac... but that seems to be defeating the purpose of buying a Mac in the first place.

[Michael2]

CF-18 toughbooks on ebay. Ex-Lease for $699 (10 available) in Sydney.

PANASONIC CF-18 TOUGHBOOK TOUCHSCREEN LAPTOP - EX LEASE - eBay, Laptops, Notebooks, Computers. (end time 25-Jun-09 11:01:56 AEST) (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/PANASONIC-CF-18-TOUGHBOOK-TOUCHSCREEN-LAPTOP-EX-LEASE_W0QQitemZ200352851513QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_c omp_laptop?hash=item2ea5f5e639&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A1|66%3A2|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1| 293%3A1|294%3A50)

[procrastination inc]

ended up getting one of these

HP Pavilion dv5-1223tx Entertainment Notebook PC (NM517PA) specifications - HP Home & Home Office products (http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/au/en/ho/WF06b/321957-321957-3329744-64354-64354-3744212-3879915.html)

I love over kill :)

[Captain_Rightfoot]

How much was it if you don't mind me asking?

[procrastination inc]

on sale at office works for $1427, less 5% for shop stock. About the same price in the end as a buy it now deal on ebay for the same model and spec. Just nice to be able to have the daughter see it, touch it and give her nod of approval.

Vista seems very hungry. Just idling while on the web, performance manager shows 1.13 of 2 gig of ram in use.... lucky you can squeeze 8 gig into it

[dmdigital]

What's the battery life like?

I'm very surprised by how true the battery life is to that advertised for the new MacBookPro, should be able to get 6-7 hours out of it.

[Captain_Rightfoot]

on sale at office works for $1427, less 5% for shop stock. About the same price in the end as a buy it now deal on ebay for the same model and spec. Just nice to be able to have the daughter see it, touch it and give her nod of approval.

Vista seems very hungry. Just idling while on the web, performance manager shows 1.13 of 2 gig of ram in use.... lucky you can squeeze 8 gig into it

Well MS have released their US pricing. It will range between $120 and $320 USD.

The Apple upgrade prices have been announced.. for computers purchased after 8th of June it's 8.95 USD and for those purchased before it's 29 USD.

HP don't specify the battery life for that computer (interesting). Is it 7 hours and 1000 cycles like DM_TD's new macbook?

[bruiser69]

As you have seen Vista is very memory hungery. Just starting up you are using 1.13Gb,
Open a few browser windows and Outlook & you are rapidly running out of RAM.
With 32bit Vista you should have 3GB RAM. This is the max that 32bit can address.
I have an ASUS M51VA laptop which runs very fast with suplied Vista Ultimate. But then it should with duo core dual 2.53Ghz CPU, 4 Gb RAM, and dedicated ATI HD3650 500Mb video card. I bought it on EvilBay for $1575. To run Vista properly everything needs to be top spec.
I have installed Windows7 (RC1) on the D partition and am very impressed with the performance gain over Vista. Performance Monitor shows only 380Mb Ram at idle!
Using Windows XP compatibility mode allows you to run all your old applications.
If you don't want to install more Ram download Windows7 RC1 whilst still free. You will be impressed.
Cheers..B

[Captain_Rightfoot]

As you have seen Vista is very memory hungery. Just starting up you are using 1.13Gb,
Open a few browser windows and Outlook & you are rapidly running out of RAM.
With 32bit Vista you should have 3GB RAM. This is the max that 32bit can address.
I have an ASUS M51VA laptop which runs very fast with suplied Vista Ultimate. But then it should with duo core dual 2.53Ghz CPU, 4 Gb RAM, and dedicated ATI HD3650 500Mb video card. I bought it on EvilBay for $1575. To run Vista properly everything needs to be top spec.
I have installed Windows7 (RC1) on the D partition and am very impressed with the performance gain over Vista. Performance Monitor shows only 380Mb Ram at idle!
Using Windows XP compatibility mode allows you to run all your old applications.
If you don't want to install more Ram download Windows7 RC1 whilst still free. You will be impressed.
Cheers..B

OK... so now we're saying someone with the best intentions has purchased a brand new $1500 computer for his daughter that is only just capable of running the operating system, and not much else.

But don't worry... it's ok because you can upgrade it and put more ram in (but only a little because it can only address a little more than you have), or wait and pay $200 or thereabouts to upgrade your new OS to an operating system which by all reports should run effectively on your computer. If you really want to be sure you need to buy the memory and the new OS.

I'm sorry, but I'm just not with the program (pun - sorry) because that to me is completely unacceptable. It's just beyond me why all you people encourage MS. :eek2::eek2:

If lots of people say "no - this is not good enough" and buy computers with other operating systems maybe they might do something. But even then I'm not sure MS are capable of producing anything better while they operate within their current paradigm ...

It really annoys me that it's difficult to buy a PC with no OS because MS have the arrogance to presume that if you have bought a PC you must be intending to us a pirated MS OS... that really sux. Don't get me started... hang on I am started.. :rocket: