Question:
I am currently in the market for a work / personal use laptop in the base
$800 - $1,300 range. I've been out of the loop for the past few years due to
raising kids and am not currently up to speed on the latest hardware / 64bit
platform stuff.
Answer:
For the CPU, you want an Intel Core Duo or Core 2 Duo (Core 2 Duo is
slightly better and also more expensive ... the difference is not great,
however). Both processors do come in a variety of speed ranges. Forget
about every other processor. The one you want is one of these two.
[Centrino is ***NOT*** a CPU ... it's a designation for a variety of
"all Intel" machine configurations, e.g. Intel CPU, chipset, Video, LAN
and WiFi. Fine, but having a better (but non-Intel) video or WiFi
option makes the machine "non-Centrino".]
You may not now be able to buy a laptop that doesn't come with Vista.
It would have been better to have made this purchase before January
30th, you would have gotten BOTH XP and Vista at no additional cost (you
can still get that option, until March 15th, ***IF*** you can find a
machine with XP preloaded and the free Vista upgrade offer. But they
have pretty much disappeared already). You can probably install XP on a
machine that comes with vista, but, amazingly, XP drivers for models
that come with Vista are often NOT readily available.
Hard drives that are externally changeable have pretty much disappeared,
however it's not difficult to change the hard drive in any current
laptops (on most laptops, one screw and you are there). All current
production laptops use SATA 2.5" hard drives. Don't discount the
usability of external USB hard drives, either 2.5" or 3.5". In most
cases, you can even boot from them.
The really good news is that your price targets are too high, you won't
have to spend any more than the low end of your estimate. I'm going to
recommend that you look at the Dell E1505 and the Toshiba A105
(discontinued, but may still be found) and the A135 (the replacement for
the A105, almost identical).
You can EASILY get a machine very close to what you want for $800 if you
are a savvy buyer (watch the sales and for Dell, the deals at
www.techbargains.com). EVERYONE has a Toshiba A135 model (or several)
on sale this weekend, that includes Best Buy, Circuit City, Office
Depot, Staples, etc. Price range from $549 to $799, and the $749 and
$799 models will pretty much have everything you want and need except
that they may only have 1GB of memory, so you may need to add memory
after the purchase. You can also get a loaded up Dell E1505 for $800
(look for the special order code that gives you a 20% discount on any
E1505 selling for $999 or more, then configure you $1,000 E1505 and only
pay $800 for it; there was even a 25% code available but I think it's
gone now.).
So I can easily unscrew the IDE drive from the slot, pull it out, and insert
another drive of similar specs? I would be doing this maybe every day, once
in the morning and then once again in the evening (assuming I find enough
free time to boot up in the evening). I guess most people are just using
Partition Magic, but I'd rather not even take my personal data into the
office, so swapping HDs is what I'm really wanting.
I'm no HW techie, but I'm thinking that the data transfer on a USB2 external
HD would be too slow for serving the OS and applications?
I actually got a quote from a Dell sales guy who works with our office. It
was for $2,100, but included MS Office, 3 year service plan, fancy leather
carry case, etc. the works; perhaps more stuff than what I really need. So
long as I can boot it up, connect to the office LAN, and run my apps
crispily, then I'm happy.
