# thinking of new laptop, advice?

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by bermuda-triangulese (Help me, I'm stuck to my chair!) on Monday, 05-Jan-2009 21:20:12

hay all,
Well I am soon to get rid of my old clunky 512 ram dell which I baught 4 years ago lol. I was wondering if those ultra small laptops that have hit the market now such as the asus for example have been tried with screen reading software and if everything works. I basically need a laptop which is easy to carry and small with a good battery life. If I had the cash I would go notetaker but I really really don't and plus I prefer mainstream equipment whenever possible. Sorry linux experts but I'm still a windows guy for the moment and preferably xp where I can get it. So any advice and links, do share! thanks a lot
MJ

## Post 2 by Jesse (Hmm!) on Monday, 05-Jan-2009 23:24:44

MacBook. Install XP on it, and you'll have a great Windows box. If Windows fails, boot into OSX, and proceed normally.

## Post 3 by SunshineAndRain (I'm happily married, a mom of two and a fulltime college student.) on Tuesday, 06-Jan-2009 3:01:02

I have an ASUS EEE 900, and though it's small and runs JAWS nicely, the battery life leaves a lot to be desired. It lasts about an hour. The thing I hate about it is how slow it is when using AVG. I'm thinking about switching Virus protection software, but because the memory is so limitted, I'm not sure it would do any good. I have a PAC Mate and I love using my laptop with the PAC Mate in Desktop Remote, that is, once I exit out of AVG. I'm running Windows XP home, and JAWS 9. I paid $359 for it, and it works well for most of my needs; Internet browsing, smaller audio games, email, messaging and word a little processing with notepad. I have trouble carrying havy stuff, so the lightness is very nice, and it's very small. It does not have a CD drive/burner, I had to buy one separately, so if you're looking for a CD or DVD player, the ASUS EEE 900 won't do it alone.

## Post 4 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Tuesday, 06-Jan-2009 8:15:00

If you want to go Netbook the Samsung one looks very good. Tey have a 6-cell battery and independent review claimed it at 5 hours, and that is without turning off the screen. That review also claimed its keyboard best in its class. It will come with Windows XP Home installed, 160gb hard drive and sd card slot so you could expand it with a 32 or 64mb sd card. Don't expect to be able to do anything super fancy with it such as multi media gaming, serious programming and the like, but as a note taker replacement I think it's excellent.
It's hard to find a dual core processor laptop with XP these days but I've seen decent 12 and 13 inchlaptops for around $800 to $900, saw a Sony Vaio one for instance tat I wouldn't mind, very nice specs (although I'd have to dig up the offer), right now buy.com is offering a Gateway laptop with nice specs but I've heard very mixed reviews about them. I've used Compaq for years and like mine, it is a 14 inch, nothing fancy but gets the job done and more than that. You can get amazing deals on the refurbished ones, I've seen decen spec laptops for under $400, but battery life will be significantly shorter and they will be bigger, 15.4 inch most of the time.
Then there's the MacBooks if you want to shell out over $1000, although the priing might change after today's keynote speech, it's possible that they'll go lower on their more professional laptops and you might be able to snatch up a sub $1000 MacBook if etailrs foresee something new coming in.
Hope this helps, the Samsung netbook is 10 inch and the price I a quoting from www.buy.com.
hth
-B

## Post 5 by BigDogDaddy (Help me, I'm stuck to my chair!) on Tuesday, 06-Jan-2009 11:43:17

I use the Asus 904HA, and With the upgraded ram to 2gb it runs really well with jaws and K1000 scanning! I'm getting about 4 and a half hours with the screenn turned on an just over 5 with the LCD turned off! Keyboard is a bit cramped but is just as good as a notetaker!. The 160GB drive holds considerabley more than any notetaker on the market!

## Post 6 by Polka dots and Moonbeams (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Wednesday, 07-Jan-2009 10:59:58

Here's a website where you can read about miny netbook models.
http://www.justnetbooks.com/shop.php
I notice the acer aspire one has a 6-cell battery as well and a 8.9 screen.

## Post 7 by b3n (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Wednesday, 07-Jan-2009 11:55:54

A few things to bare in mind about the acer:
You'll have to get the more expencive version, the cheaper one comes with linux, so ontop of the purchase of the netbook you'd have to get a xp licence plus according to reviews the 8gb ssd just doesn't take xp.
No bluetooth
Granted, the screen is smaller than the nc10 for example, but small screens usually equate to a smaller keyboard.
Reviews say that the battery only lasted about 3 hours when on the internet.

## Post 8 by cumbiambera2005 (i just keep on posting!) on Wednesday, 07-Jan-2009 12:20:01

O wow mine only lasts two hours! Well, good luck on that, like they said already, it's hard to find good laptops running xp these days! Although people say that vista is not all that bad, I personally am attached to my system, and wouldn't know what to do without it! Gus I dont even have a hard copy of my jaws9, so wouldn't know what to do when it comes to reinstalling, if I'd ever have to do it, (hopefully not). But anyway, yeah! Good luck with that!
Ashley

## Post 9 by Polka dots and Moonbeams (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Wednesday, 07-Jan-2009 14:52:32

I read a little further about the Acer Aspire One... It didn't occur to me, that the 6-cell battery may stick out some. Not sure if that would bother anyone. Reviews say the battery life is great nearly 5 hours. They say the smaller keyboard takes some getting use to and I read a gripe about the mouse pad. It said the right and left buttons were a little stiff.
That just netbooks site advertizes:
Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, XP Home, 6 Cell Battery) Sapphire Blue
Brand: Acer
Buy New: $378.99
Woah, I just clicked on it to read even more. No modem! Is that possible? No wireless!? That's crazy.
Lol, onto looking at other models or sites.

## Post 10 by BigDogDaddy (Help me, I'm stuck to my chair!) on Wednesday, 07-Jan-2009 15:09:09

This IMHO is why the asus 904HA is just a better model!

## Post 11 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Thursday, 08-Jan-2009 14:59:34

Check over on www.blindbargains.com for the Dell vastro deal. Still with XP Pro, they claim it's $599, I clicked the link andit gave me $649 but may be there's some sort of mail in rebate at the end. I like the fact the computer is 13.3 inch and it's basically same or better specs than the MacBook, which starts around $1000, I believe you can upgrade to the MacBook basic processor for $75, but you'd also need to upgrade to blue tooth so may be the comparible price is nearer $750. I'm tempted to buy a machine like this myself as I never saw the point of a large, bulky and heavy laptop, although the Netbook is also a good option.
cheers
-B

## Post 12 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Thursday, 08-Jan-2009 22:55:58

I agree with what jesse says. Grab a mack and throw fusion on it, and beautiful. Got the best of both worlds, and if u want all 3, could always throw virtual box on their with vibuntu. ...Now, if only they won't so high in price...man, i want one.

## Post 13 by Austin (the magic fan!) on Sunday, 18-Jan-2009 16:54:25

i love my asus eeepc 1000h. it has a 5 hr battery life, xp home,, 160 gb harddrive, a gig of ram and n wireless. plus it has bluetooth witch is a plus as well. and it has a built in mic as well. and the nice thing with this is you can turn off the screen. the battery is 6 cells. you defanatly should check it out. it was defanatly worth 479 dollars. i bought it back in october so it may be less expensive now. hope this helps.

## Post 14 by bozmagic (The rottie's your best friend if you want him/her to be, lol.) on Monday, 19-Jan-2009 20:13:01

I'm going for a Del Studio 1537. the Del Studio machines and probably a lot more besides are all customisable so you can choose what you want and what you don't want from them. For instance, I don't need a lot of what's on offer, though it will most probably come with a finger print reader and those horrible media keys above the keyboard whic[h apostrophe r]e just far too easy to knock. My BF Kris has the full-size Studio 17 which imitates a desktop but it is still a laptop. I found this awkward and heavy on the knees when I tried his for size, so I'm going for the Del Studio 1537 with the 9 cell battery which is supposed to last you a hell of a lot longer than two and a half hours. Looking at my order confirmation Email today, it was being boxed up ready for delivery on or before 2 February 2009, so I'll update this topic when I have it all up and running, let you guys know how it's going.
Jen.

## Post 15 by rusty81 (Zone BBS is my Life) on Wednesday, 28-Jan-2009 1:36:51

try to check out compaq c793TU it is a free dos machine meens it has no OS so it is a lot cheper & it is a dual cor 1.86GHZ and 1gb of ram it dossent have bluetooth though! and you can upgrade the ram up to 2gb

## Post 16 by season (the invisible soul) on Wednesday, 28-Jan-2009 2:07:10

hi M,
i'm thinking to get a netbook myself, and have look a few different brand or such, the one that impress me is the asus. but from what my tech friend told me he suggest to get a lynix system, then you convert it back to window. he thinks is cheeper.
another good brand to consider is lenovo. although they are from china, but they orriginally from IBM itself.
good luck.

## Post 17 by bozmagic (The rottie's your best friend if you want him/her to be, lol.) on Wednesday, 28-Jan-2009 4:38:24

Well, my new Del Studio 15's been up and running for 4 days now and she's very, very, very fast! You need over 3 Gb of Ram and prefferably as bigger hard drive as you can lay your hands on in a laptop when running Vista. In the end, my Del came with a 6 cell battery, but no matter. I use it plugged in to the mains most of the time anyway, I'm hardly ever on the move with it. Very nice, very afordable machine at oo, around $1300 or £666 GBP by the time you paid Vat and stuff and stuff on top of what you're paying for the lappy. £666 that was well worth my while though. She can manage everything that my nackered old Toshiba couldn't basically as that only had 1 gig of Ram and a 320 GB hard drive. That was just horribly horribly slow as it struggled even to run Vista let alone Jaws for Windows, my preferred screenreader. This one's almost too fast to run JAWS, lol and I love it.
Jen.

## Post 18 by rat (star trek rules!) on Wednesday, 28-Jan-2009 13:34:36

well, if you absolutely need xp, i'm not going to be able to help you much. if you don't mind vista though, i'd check out tosheba's laptops. they're quite good and run pretty well. i've had mine for about oh, 2 years or more now and it just purrs along. i updated it's ram a bit, but they come with more now anyways.
a little advice with a tosheba, do not try to get xp for them, you won't find the drivers you need and my tosheba really hated it, ran slower than ever when i had a dual boot.

## Post 19 by bozmagic (The rottie's your best friend if you want him/her to be, lol.) on Wednesday, 28-Jan-2009 15:06:53

My Toshiba was a total waste of space and a bloody cheap piece of crap from Pc World two years ago, prompting me to chuck it away for this beautiful work of art, the Del Studio 15. With my Toshiba, the first keyboard, audio jack and speaker contacts all died a year or so after I got it and the warrantee had just that minute expired, so we were unable to replace it even if I'd wanted to, so I then spent a fortune on USB audio adapters and sound cards, none of which seemed to last more than a week before they all died, so in the end, I plugged my Olympus Ds-40 in and set the USB class to audio class and used that as my sound card and microphone. It didn't cope at all well with Skype or Vt either. Finally, the week before last, after having to bring Bf Kris in to the arguments I was having with mum about getting a new laptop, plus it took him to persuade mum between the both of us that I did desperately, need a new laptop with 2 Gb more Ram and a bigger hard drive so I could run Vista properly, since I prefer that myself over Xp. Finally, she gave in after the USB ports then died on my old Toshiba and we ordered this baby on Sunday 18th January and it was delivered by 9:20 Am on Thursday January 22nd, 2009. Mum then loaded it with JAWS, Broadband and everything the following Saturday afternoon and I'd well and truly moved on to it by Sunday morning, lol. Beautifully made,solid, heavy duty, robust piece of kit. It'll run like lightning with Xp too, I'll bet you anything it will.
Jen.

## Post 20 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Thursday, 29-Jan-2009 18:28:47

Jen, you had better take out the batteries out if your keeping it on the power chord. If not, you r fucking the battery life making them become less powerful.

## Post 21 by bozmagic (The rottie's your best friend if you want him/her to be, lol.) on Friday, 30-Jan-2009 6:00:08

Not necessarily. I used my last two lappies plugged in as well and it made no difference what so ever to the battery life. This one's about the best machine I've had so far, almost a portable desktop in its own right, so I bet it wouldn't blow the batteries on the power cord which I need to have plugged in anyway, the amount of time I'm likely to spend on the thing every day and the smaller battery only has 3 hours life span before I'd have to plug the lappy in to charge it, so that's no good.
Jen.

## Post 22 by Austin (the magic fan!) on Saturday, 07-Feb-2009 0:50:59

anyway, my stance remains with my asus eeepc. i have a 5 or 6 hr battery life easy and i love it. it helps me out in school a lot as well. it replaced my old dell latitude d610. that thing was soooooo bulky. and i just bought an external lg burner witch uses usb power and im all set. i love this comp. defanatly some of the best money i have spent.

## Post 23 by skpoet711 (Zone BBS is my Life) on Wednesday, 11-Feb-2009 12:25:53

A dell m1330 rocks something fierce
You can get it very cheap at costco
1. Its very light, not as light as a netbook, but for the power and speed, its worth 10 netbooks.
2. it has webcam, mic, stereo speakers, slot cd drive, wireless, bluetooth, and fingerprint reader(if you're in that type of thing).
3. You can easily upgrade it to wwin xp, its been tried and true. I have all the drivers if you get it and want to upgrade to windows xp.
I think the weight is something like 4.5 lbs
I get about 6 hours with my battery, dimm the screen max
I am refraining from a solo core(the netbooks), because its like me going back to 1999 with my solo core pentium 3 desktops :P
When the netbooks begin to implement the su9400 processor dual 1.2, then perhaps it might be worth it.
I'd take 2 1.2 over one 1.67 anyday
Take a look at the dell m1330
you won't be dissatisfied.
I found that any other dell's laptops are a bit thick and/or heavy
the studio
the lattitude
the precision(I think thats the laptop my friend has)
the enspiron(with exception to the netbook)
My only complaint about the m1330 is that its all made from carbon alloy, so its easily dented if you drop something on it. I already have one circular dent near the mous pad heh.
Oh, and its curvacious!

## Post 24 by KnuxDude (Account disabled) on Tuesday, 17-Feb-2009 17:30:01

For xp, only select netbooks have them, but do realize that they are not meant for wear and tear, so the thing will probably die out in a year or so. They are not meant for every day use and you may be disappointed at the processing power of an Intel Atom chip. SSD's might be great but what can one really store on 8 gb or even 16 gb? Hell Windows update will just use it all. Personally I would never buy one they aren't worth the cash. Even those that have regular HDD's, the other hardware such as the chip can't really withstand too much on it. It'll most likely burn out and die before you know it. Some netbooks even come with vista on them, good lord and may god be with you if that is the case that you get one with it on it. If I were you, I'd get a compaq presario. I say this because the ram is fairly good and expandable. HDD sizes are decent with a big enough screen if you have any vision. The netbooks do not have cdrom drives and for $400 you can get a compaq Presario...look at your local staples. I carry a compaq around every single day and it does not weigh but 3 or 4 lbs. Everyone is having orgasms over these damned netbooks and for the life of me can't figure out what the hell is so great about them. They are throw away flash drives with screens and limited read/write life expectancies. If you want, also look at the Averatec line of laptops. I used one for 2 years and it served me well, never had any issues with it.

## Post 25 by Austin (the magic fan!) on Sunday, 01-Mar-2009 23:03:33

well the asus eeepc 1000he is real good. i think netbooks are real good.

## Post 26 by b3n (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Monday, 02-Mar-2009 8:38:06

@24
For xp, only select netbooks have them, but do realize that they are not meant for wear and tear, so the thing will probably die out in a year or so.
This is simply not true. If anything, the hole concept of a netbook was originally thought up for those people who aren't into computers. Whilst this may in some cases translate into them not being used every day, consideration will have been taken to inshore that the new computer user will not be able to break there netbook. There meant to be taken around with there owner; do you really think big companies like asus or samsung would bring out a computer that would fall apart when they hit the road? On top of this, drop a harddrive from head hite and you'll quite possibley have a dead drive, drop a ssd from twice my hight and it'll work fine. I'm not defending the speeds of some of the cheaper ssd's, just there ruggidness.
They are not meant for every day use and you may be disappointed at the processing power of an Intel Atom chip.
What exactly do you want this to do matt? I kno people that have run xp, vista, 7 and osx on there atoms with no problem; ontop of this, i've been able to run ubuntu in a virtual machine on my nc10. Most reports suggest that the new via cpu is quite a bit better than the atom anyway.
SSD's might be great but what can one really store on 8 gb or even 16 gb? Hell Windows update will just use it all.
Yeah its not great really is it; going to be a while before I go out purely with solid state drives for storage.
If I were you, I'd get a compaq presario.
I say this because the ram is fairly good and expandable. HDD sizes are decent with a big enough screen if you have any vision. The netbooks do not have cdrom drives and for $400 you can get a compaq Presario...look at your local staples. I carry a compaq around every single day and it does not weigh but 3 or 4 lbs.
I've scene a compaq withstand a stupid amount of abuse from its owner but have equally sceen quite a few that are just not built well.
Just don't be taken in by a great spec for a great price; you can get computers with big numbers these days but if you look at the brands inside them its all a load of crap.
If you want, also look at the Averatec line of laptops. I used one for 2 years and it served me well, never had any issues with it.
O god, where do I start? i've had to do trivial things to around 3 of them in the past 2/3 years like ram and harddrive upgrades. Everything that the user could want to upgrade is berried away - remove the under casing, unscrew and disconnect the keyboard, remove any mini pci cards that are installed and hey presto, you can upgrade your ram.
Plus when i've been unscrewing things I seem to remember that quite a few screws got stripped and yes, I was using the right size driver.
I kno that a lot of stuff about brands is subjective - its all purely imho.