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I am going to buy a laptop to run Flexi on from the road, probably estimate as well and check e-mail and what not.
What brands have been good or bad in your experience? I have an old dell that was pretty good to me so I tend to be leaning toward another one the dell Latitude E6500 with windows 7 downgraded to xp.
I am not going to get a mac just out of personal preference.
Thanks in advance
-------------------- Jake Lyman Lyman Signs 45 State Road Phillipston, MA 01331 Posts: 635 | From: Phillipston, MA | Registered: Sep 2002
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My mind wanders. And that's not a good thing, 'cause it's too small to be out there alone. Posts: 3129 | From: Tooele, UT | Registered: Mar 2005
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I have a Dell Studio 15 and absolutely love it. I've had Acer, Dells, a Fujitsu and a Gateway, and this has been my favorite laptop so far.
If I were going to get a new one, I'd either get another Studio or I'd get one of the new Dell Z-series... like the Inspiron 15z in the third column in the link below... very lightweight, thin, and long battery life...
Even though it has a long life battery, I'd spend the money to upgrade it to the 9-cell which would probably give you 10-12 hours of runtime on that machine....
I'd also consider running Windows 7, unless for some reason your Flexi won't work with it... I've upgraded 4 of our computers to Win7 and they have worked flawlessly..... love it. Makes the couple XP machines feel pretty clunky when I have to work on them.
-------------------- Jon Jantz Snappysign.com jjantz21@gmail.com http://www.allcw.com Posts: 3395 | From: Atmore, AL | Registered: Nov 2005
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Lenoveo Thinkpad T500....These things are built to last. I dumped a whole cup of coffee in the keyboard, not even a hiccup thanks to the built in spill guard.
-------------------- Phillip Newell Newell Graphics 1346 Garnet St. Burlington, IA 52601 319-754-5113 Posts: 187 | From: Henderson, IL | Registered: Apr 2004
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I have had Vaio Dell, and for the guys at work and 2 of my kids I bought 17" HP's what a load of crap they were, everyone has had a new motherboard, all fried (graphic card an integral part of the problem.
Have 2 Dell Precisions which are great 1920x1200 screen res like the Vaio graphics for cad/cam Nvidia 512mb.
They are both on Win 7, we even installed Win 7 on an old Dell Dimension 9150, every program works no problems what so ever even though it wasn't on the recomended upgrade list, I found a solution for an old creative audio card that was the only ?
Forget windows xp, we had all xp never tried Vista, most things work in 7 using Vista drivers if you can't find Win 7 drivers
We just took delivery of a new Summa S140T series plotter today and I tried a few different ways to connect, using both Win 7 and XP workstations using RS232 and USB switches and all worked flawlessly.
Just add to say I have an old Panasonic Toughbook CF which I have in my truck all the time with diagnostic equipment, thats a great little laptop for travelling touchscreen and you could drop it from a great height with no problems it has a 1/4 thick magnesium chassis with the harddrive caddy encased in some kind of gel.
[ February 18, 2010, 06:28 PM: Message edited by: Henry Barker ]
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I wanted to go cheap because I needed a laptop for minimal use. I found a Dell Inspiron 1440 for just over $500 at Best Buy. Dual core Intel with plenty of hard drive, burner, and 4 megs ram. So far it is running fine, only one little hiccup. If your software can handle Win 7, I agree with Jon. XP does seem a little clunky. I think Microsoft has a winner in Win 7. I still prefer a Mac OS but Win 7 is getting closer to Mac intuitiveness and Mac is making things more like Windows to make it easier for those of us that run both platforms.
-------------------- Dave Sherby "Sandman" SherWood Sign & Graphic Design Crystal Falls, MI 49920 906-875-6201 sherwoodsign@sbcglobal.net Posts: 5397 | From: Crystal Falls, MI USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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I have a 5 year old Sony Vaio with XP ... and it has been flawless. It has Photoshop, Corel X3, Illustrator and some misc. other programs... and handles them very well.
-------------------- Si Allen #562 La Mirada, CA. USA
(714) 521-4810
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"SignPainters do It with Longer Strokes!"
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Brushasaurus on Chat Posts: 8831 | From: La Mirada, CA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Currently using a 3 year old Dell Vostro 1500 with XP and Shirl has a 2 year old Compaq with Vista. Both are working fine.
When we get back to Canada this summer I'll be shopping for a new laptop with Win7 on it. Shirl says she is happy with her's for now.
We are fortunate that we know a guy who likes to buy our second hand laptops. Helps pay for new ones.
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
posted
Dell Inspiron 6000, 512g, 124G HD, 2.5GHz running XP since there are some programs I still use but unnecessary to upgrade although my copies of Omega 3.1 will support Win7. Great performance and run a plotter on site when needed. We have 4 laptops and 5 desktops, all Dell and never had a serious problem that was not caused by human interface.
-------------------- Kent Smith Smith Sign Studio P.O.Box 2385, Estes Park, CO 80517-2385 kent@smithsignstudio.com Posts: 1025 | From: Estes Park, CO | Registered: Nov 1998
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I've got a Dell Latitude E6500 and I'm very happy with it. The specs on mine are: Processor, P8600, 2.4, 3MB Dual In-Line Memory Module 2GB, 800 Hard Drive, 250GB, Free Fall Sensor, 7.2K Liquid Crystal Display 15.4WXGA+ Battery, Primary, 85WHR, 9C Lithium The thing that gave me the most trouble when deciding to make the purchase was the screen resolution. Now, after I have it I'm still not sure about that. I would definately suggest that you go see them somewhere in person so you can see the differences in resolution. That particular model has some nice features and capabilities such as the port configuration and the docking stations and accessories. I also like the 9 cell battery.
I'm running XP Pro because I was avoiding Vista like the plague and I have some older equipment that needed certain compatability to operate. I would not hesitate to go with Win7 now though.
[ February 19, 2010, 01:23 PM: Message edited by: Gary Boros ]
-------------------- Gary Boros SIGNWORKS STUDIOS LLC Monroe, Connecticut, USA Posts: 264 | From: Monroe, Connecticut, USA | Registered: Dec 2007
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If anyone is planning on buying a Dell, I recommend that you go here - http://www.dell.com/outlet to look for the machine in which you are interested.
The site has the same Dell machines at discounted prices.
A friend from church works for Dell selling systems to local colleges and institutions. I asked her about the reconditioned machines.
She told me that some are ones that were purchased and returned because they did not meet up to the purchaser's expectations.
But a lot of them are from orders that were placed, the machines started in the factory and then the order was cancelled. They finish making the machines but can't sell them as 'new' because they were being made for another client. So they sell them as 'refurbished'.
Also, the 'scratch and dent' ones usually only have very minor blemishes.
I actually bought one today!
I only wanted a small one that would travel well. It's a Inspiron 11z which is smaller than most would want but should be perfect for me. It comes with 11.6" screen (1366x768), 32 bit OS, 250 gig HD, Intel Celeron Processor 743 1.3 GHz/800MHz FSB/1MB cache (don't ask me what all of that means), 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM, Vista Home Pemium and Microsoft Work 9.0.
Cost: $ 348.00 total shipped.
I mostly plan on using it as an internet gateway for emails, FB, Twitter, and Linkedin as I have been promoting my shop this way and it seems to be working very well. I will probably also put in a VPN portal to access files at the shop.
I'm pretty excited about getting it here. I may take it to a local computer tech guy that I know here and have him remove all of the trialware crap that usually comes with these types of machines.
Anyway, hope that helps.
Good Luck!
-------------------- Pat Neve, Jr. 321-537-8675 Capt. Sign
""Good judgment comes from experience; and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" - Will Rogers Posts: 3485 | From: Beautiful Newaygo, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2003
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