The great Laptop discussion forum

The one I priced out last night (I believe it was the 6930) came to $1400 after the 18% discount. Damn, $4k would be alot to spend on a laptop.

Basic model starts at 4.7lbs. That's little heavy in my opinion.

It's definitely heavier than others. But, I wonder whether 1.7 pounds will really make much of a difference.

To me, 1.7 pounds makes a pretty significant difference. Lifting my 3.0 pounder is like curling a bag of air, even in comparison to some of the very light Macs I've hauled (exclusive of the Air).

But, I am a pathetic weakling, so keep that in mind.

Maybe you should try curling something other than bags of air?

I think 1.7 lbs would be a noticeable difference. I can definitely feel the difference when I have my work laptop (about 5 lbs) in my bag, compared to my personal laptop (3.5 lbs). That said, I think many students at Kellogg carry the Kellogg-issued laptop, which is about 5 lbs, so it's definitely doable at school.

Well after toying around with my HP dv3t for a few days, I have decided to put it on a truck and send it back. I am pretty certain that I am going to go with a 13.3" Macbook Pro. I am just not prepared to deal with the bloatware, viruses, and performance issues inherent in a Vista computer. For a computer that has 4GB's of RAM, it runs WAY too slowly. Also, the construction feels a little flimsy. The Macbook will be a few hundred more, but I figure it is worth it to avoid the headaches involved with Vista. As for the touchpad/joystick debate, I think I am just going to get a small Bluetooth mouse.

i actually paid and extra 100 dollars for Lenovo to deinstall vista and install XP on my X200s. In the macs you should be able to install XP as well with that bootcamp thing.
Good luck and thanks for the info.

One thing to note if you're planning on upgrading to Windows 7 when it comes out - it's supposed to be a lot easier to upgrade from Vista than from XP. So I would say if you're planning to get Windows 7, you're probably better off putting up with Vista for the next 4 months.

Yeah, if I had that option I would probably take it too, or just upgrade to Windows 7, although the ease of doing that is still unknown. I am probably going to hold off on buying a copy of Windows for Boot Camp until I come across software that really necessitates it. Although it will probably end up costing a good bit more when all is said and done, I think having the option of using Unix or Windows is worth it instead of always having to rely on Windows.



Thanks for the info. It is also worth knowing that most Vista computers that are purchased after July 1st are eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7. If past Windows upgrade prices are any indication, that alone is worth $100-$200. Although it will be interesting to see how Microsoft responds to Apple offering the Snow Leopard upgrade for $29.

whats your thoughts on the smaller 12" HP laptops?
there are some nice deals on both the HP DV2 (light weight) and the tx2z (touch screen) and both go for ~$750 with a pretty impressive spec.

I like thinkpads and had one for work but the same spec is almost twice as much for the x200.
moreover, these laptops will most likely be in use only for the ~2 years of school, (assuming that we'll get a work laptop when we go back to work) so i'm not sure spenind ~1200 on a high end laptop makes sense
any thoughts?
Ori

What?! I so expected you to get it, do a format reinstall and dual boot free/open bsd with Windows XP!

I am going to do the same thing, only I'm saving $100 and doing it on my own. I still have my Windows XP Pro license from college, so I'm going to install that on my laptop. Don't think I'll be adding a linux partition, but who knows. I'll be doing this before b-school so I might have WAY too much time on my hands, heh.

You are paying a ton for the screen. I personally think the laptop-as-a-desktop replacement idea is pretty ridiculous. From a value for money perspective, you are never going to make up for the performance hit by going for a laptop over a desktop. And you are really going to take a hit in terms of portability when you try to get too powerful of a laptop.

I think you have to realize that when you decide to go the laptop route, you are essentially saying no more powerful computing. I mean what's the most demanding program you are going to use in b-school? Minitab? Matlab? Origin? Even with Photoshop, you're not going to working with 100 RAW images or anything of that sorts. You don't need to pay for extra performance that you're not going to use or need. When you decide to get a laptop, you have to realize you're saying portability and battery life[0] takes priority over everything else. Don't get seduced by all the other bling bling.

When you become a road warrior, which you will be since you're taking your laptop to school everyday, even a 0.1 lb difference can feel significant. Every extra hour of battery life becomes huge (especially since battery life deteriorates over time.)

If a Full HD screen (1920x1200 resolution) is that important to you, get a nice laptop (easily obtainable for $2K) with a docking station with a 24" screen (another $1K at most) and enjoy Full HD goodness when you are home. This is something I will think about doing myself. Don't pay $4K for a 17" monster that is really too big and heavy to lug around everyday, and not as good as decent desktop. It's like overpaying for the worst of both worlds. That's my opinion at least.

[0] I think the x200s is better than the x200 mainly for this reason. Yes, the better screen is nice, but a slower but leaner CPU (which a b-schooler won't notice) means the same battery lasts long with the x200s.

Haha xenok those BSD days are over. I'm way too lazy these days - I actually find myself using excel and word (shudder) and am happy with something that is just *good enough* (i.e. XP) . Truth is I don't see any potential use for this techy stuff in b-school. I mean if I really really want unixy stuff and renew my love affair with vi, I'll install cygwin and that is again *good enough*.



xenok you think exactly like I do. I got the x200s (mainly for the large screen and extra battery) and I also got the docking station with plans to get myself a LARGE screen to handle those 20 tab spreadsheets. Desktop replacements are lame. Everyone that I have seen buy one almost never carries the monster anywhere.

Ok, quick question for all the computer geniuses here. I currently have a Lenovo T40 that I bought from my company last year for like $150. It has an Intel Pentium M processor 1500 MHZ 1.49 GHZ, 512 MB of RAM (which I would upgrade to 2 GB for like $90) with Windows XP.

My question is, do I really need to go out and get a new laptop, or will this get me by for a while, at which time I can order the Kellogg laptop if I need to? Is my laptop so old that it's not worth even upgrading the RAM? I only plan to use the internet and run Office programs - nothing too memory intensive. Let me know what I should do:

A. Upgrade the laptop RAM and use as long as I can in school
B. Buy the Kellogg laptop and keep as a backup

Is it necessary? Nope. I think upgrading the RAM should do the trick. It's good enough for bschool.

If you care about battery performance and weight, then you should buy a new laptop. Otherwise, you should be able to get by with what you have. Hell, it's still better than a netbook!

If you already have a serviceable laptop, my advice is bring it and see if it's powerful enough for your needs. The thing you have to remember with computer hardware is that buying later is always better. Unless you have an amazing deal that you can't pass up now (e.g. your friend is working for a Lenovo and he's about to quit, so you only have access to the employee discount for a limited amount of time), I would advise waiting to see if you need a new laptop or not.

In that vein, I have a desktop, but not a serviceable laptop. Perhaps this is more appropriate for a current student, but I have been tossing the idea around to hold off on buying a laptop until I get to school to see whether it is absolutely necessary. In reality, if I am not using it in class, how often will I need a portable computer? Does most work actually take place in break-out sessions or on-campus where you must have one, or is it reasonable to think that I might be able to just complete assignments at home? I know requirements must differ to an extent from school-to-school, but does anybody do it?