Re: Which New Notebook To Purchase - Help

Important Caveat:
I got more opinions than actual knowledge and/or experience. Sad, but true.

I have no way of knowing what, if any, financial limits constrain your prospective wine seller. For some folks the diff between $1000 and $1500 is only a question of which digit to put on the check. If that's the case, ignore my ramblings. They have no relevance to your friend's life. Just go out and spend up a storm!

But if that's not the case then I tend to agree with the first poster. You may have "somewhat over specified". Unless QuickBooks now includes a 3D role-playing gamer mode, the integrated graphics on the current crop of notebooks should be adequate. My advice: sanity check the graphics after picking a notebook based on other criteria first.

Total system speed is much more important than CPU speed. Having said that, I've driven both a Presario with a 1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 and a Gateway MX6025 with a 1.3GHz mobile Celery chip. Both had 256MB, 4200RPM drives, and Win XP Home. I definitely noticed a performance difference between the two. I thought the Gateway was a .... well, lets skip the profanity.

If possible, run some simple test tools on notebook systems you're considering. Booting from a Memtest86+ CD works pretty well for me. The memory speed and throughput numbers Memtest86+ displays can be interesting, informative, and relevant. (http://www.memtest.org/) CPU-Z is another useful info tool. Windows based and you can carry it self-contained on a USB memory drive. (http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php)

There was a comment that 1GB of memory is over-kill. Perhaps so. But then again, I recently got 2x512MB PC2700 SODIMMs of Micron memory on ebay for under $55. If you can get 1GB of reliable memory for a good price, what's not to like about that?

Of course, shopping on eBay is a lot like j-walking across a multi-lane highway during peak traffic. Even if you're careful and constantly vigilant, you're still taking a risk. But (I think/hope) not everything on eBay is a scam.

If you're going to spend money on some form of "extended warranty", make SURE it covers the LCD! I have a friend who owns a really nice (for her purposes) Compaq Presario V2000 which is now essentially useless to her. Everything works fine except for the display which is cracked and unreadable.

I'm sure after she accidentally destroyed the LCD she was initially thankful she had purchased the (so-called) insurance. That changed when "Best Buy" pointed out the clause in her agreement which explicitly excluded display damage. If you buy insurance, make sure it actually protects what you think it will protect.

About the "buy both a laptop & desktop" suggestion ... evaluate this in the context of whom you are getting the system for. If your friend would have no problem networking and syncing applications, files, bookmarks, and email between two computers then this may be a big plus.

But it also may be more of a hassle than your friend really wants. If your friend values simplicity above all else then having all her data (except backups!) in one package may be the way to go. If you go the notebook only route, a separate monitor and keyboard for office is definitely worth considering.

Some sort of backup seems essential for any computer to be used for a business. I'd suggest setting aside $100-$120 for a 250GB or so drive in a USB (or Firewire) attached enclosure for backups. There are 250GB Seagate IDE drives which come with a 5 year warranty that can be had for $70-80 if you're patient, look-around, and willing to go the whole annoying rebate route.

My final suggestion would be to ask to do a brief test-drive of some of the laptops of some friends. How "usable" are the keyboard and pointing device? Also try to visit the manufacturer's support web-site and see what you think of the experience. After all, you're not buying just a piece of hardware, you're buying an integrated system.

How easy is it to update the software and drivers on the laptop? At minimum there should be a means to automatically detect and notify of hardware and software updates. The better manufacturers have software which also downloads and installs the update for you.

How easy is it to use the notebook and/or web support to answer questions your friend might have? Try searching for info on how to the use the special purpose keys on the laptops. For info on setting up different power settings. Stuff like that. If you're up for it, try the on-line technical support chat and see if you get a useful answer or just a bunch of overly polite, scripted, party-line gibberish.

-the "why should ignorance restrain me?" john
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