Category: Geeks r Us
Not sure if any of you can offer advice here but I'll try anyway. I'm in the market for a laptop because although my Compaq Armada 1750 has most of these features and a bit more, it's so heavy that I can't realistically carry around with me. So I'm looking for something lighter for daily use. As for the ports, I can probably get an external parallel/serial/usb and use it with the pcmcia but would really rather not do that with the first two. Link to Compaq
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10012_div/10012_div.HTML
Requirements
under 5 lbs (the lighter the better)
hard disk over 2 gb (might need it under 10 but not sure yet)
486 or higher cpu (pentium preferred)
3.5 inch floppy drive
parallel port
standard rs 232 serial port
at least one type II pcmcia card slot (the more the better)
cd rom with burning capabilities
Optional
battery life over 2 hrs (really preferred)
sound blaster support
usb (2.0 preferred)
modem for dialup
ethernet
wireless capability
headphone and microphone jack or built-in microphone
ls120 or 240 drive (preferably in the same slot as the floppy i.e. can handle both)
a machine that won't get too hot when it's on my lap
relatively quiet (fan noise)
I'll add more as I think of it but for now, that's it. I don't mnd smaller keyboards. I like real keys, not those little caps but that's not that important.
You won't find a laptop with a floppy drive under 5 pounds and 8 years old, with a good battery life, it's like asking for a mideval Pontiac Firebird that runs at least 300mph with built in satellite radio.
I'd go with a netbook, if it pleases the geek in you may be go with a linux netbook, and buy usb cd and floppy drives and the serial and parallel adapters you want separately.
I haven't even needed a cd drive for 2 years or so now but if I needed one I'd much rather have a usb one that I can leave at home when I use the netbook like, well, a netbook, but can bring it, a hard drive and whatever else along when I need a full pc capability.
Oh, I don't care if it's under 8-years-old, so long as it's lighter than my compaq. I don't want anything external, though I might make an exception for the usb and just maybe, for the floppy. I like everything built-in. I already have a netbook and hate how it has no periferals other than usb and cd drive. The os doesn't matter, cause I'll just reformat it and put Enhanced DR-DOS on it anyway.
Craigslist or ebay, thats your only hope.
In any case, when you got all these extra things on the laptop it makes it big, heavy and bulky. I wuld be surprised if any sub 6 pound laptops were made in the time of the floppy drives. And even if you can get one off of Ebay or Craigslist it might not last very long, on the other hand it probably wouldnot cost you a whole lot.
Hmmm. Good points guys. I'll check out those two sites. I was kind of hoping for a suggestion as to model or a place where I could check out different ones or choose by option to make things easier. I might be willing to get one without a floppy so long as I could find an external drive and so long as it had the other features, particularly pcmcia. I have the external drive for the Braillenote but it's got some weird electronic component so that it has to be in the machine to remove the disks and I never liked that.
I might consider a Palmtop but the problem there is that, even in DOS, it requires special software. I need a machine that I can format and then reinstall the os that I want on it. I know that's really skimping on periferals but it may be worth it for the size and if it has enough of them to satisfy me i.e. ports and slots (can live without cd and floppy if compatible externals available). Another huge consideration is hard disk capacity, though it might be upped a bit with a pcmcia card. the older ones were absolutely horrible in that regard. The newer ones, to my knowledge, mostly have touchscreens and not real keys and I hate that.