Replacing a desktop with a laptop?

  • Thread starter Thread starter RF
  • Start date Start date
RF said:
I tried that ... marriage still sucks. She just found something else to
bitch about.

Hope you have better luck.

I hear ya, man. But I gotta do something, she hates the BIG pc along with
it's big desk in our dining room.
Click to expand...

Instead of the laptop, save up your money and buy a bigger house, one with a
room to put your computer in.

Jon
 
RF said:
All,

I am thinking about replacing my home built pc with a smaller laptop, (in
an
effort to help save my marriage). I figure the convenience and portability
will make it worth it. I am not in to gaming, but think that it would make
a
nice little dvd player at work. Has anyone else done this? Do you have
regrets? I am looking at spending a grand, and would like a nice display
if
possibe, I have seen some nice refurbs at Tigerdirect.com.
Any advice would sure be appreciated
Click to expand...

Well let's see:


- TigerDirect? That's my first home for purchasing online. BUT, also
consider HP's http://www.shopping.hp.com/ for some other good deals. You
can even customize your purchase as I did myself.

- I got my HP Pavilion Notebook from the HP online store. Awesome PC and it
certainly outdoes my desktop. BUT, IF/When you order online, don't forgot
about weight consideration. This sucker's heavy! Too much so for me to lug
around on foot. But I was so happy with it that the idea of returning it was
not up for consideration. So be sure to pass by a local store and feel some
out in person before ordering anything online. Anyhow, I travel mostly by
car these days so the subject's moot now.

- Someone else's post mentioned a router. Yup! Be sure to take this into
consideration. I'm so very very happy being able to connect to my other PC
and the Internet from anywhere in my house with my Notebook because of this.
'and it communicates quite nicely with my desktop for the sake of
transferring files without having to write to disc and such.

- Regarding display. I've got a 15.4 inch with Bright View technology
(whatever the heck that is). Anyhow, the display is to die for! Though, a
smaller display should do you just as well and might've done me better for
the sake of cutting down on weight. But I'm still in love with this
notebook!!!

- Upgrading in the future: Nothing cheaper thus far than upgrading a desktop
as opposed to a notebook. SO, think about this and make sure you've chosen
the right notebook that'll last you awhile and keep you happy since it'll be
very expensive to make any additions/upgrades to it at a later date.

Sorry for my lengthy post but got caught up in talking about my own notebook
for the very first time.
It's like falling in love all over again!!!
;-)))))
 
Another option is to replace the wife.

Good luck, jimbo


Jimbo,
She's got a GREAT ASS! So I'm stuck.

RF
 
Where did you camp that had internet access? The local Wall Mart
parking lot? Or did you get satellite?
Click to expand...

We did a loop from central NY down to NC and back home via western NY. One
campground had WiFI access, but most of the time, my access was through the
Verizon Wireless Americas Choice plan (per minutes of use access - free
nights and weekends). I guess it is also becomming fairly common to have
at least one or two wired access plugs - the campground with the WiFi
access also had a wired connection available by the payphone. Two
campgrounds had us on only the extended network cell phone access, so the
Verizon Wireless Internet access was not available - I've now installed the
Road Runner dial up access for when I next encounter that problem.
 
read all the responses and they're all good. here's my 2 cents:

the screen is all important.

i've had a number of nice laptops, from the tiny IBM X31 to the massive HP
ZD7000, and a dozen others in between. ALl have their advantages. But go to
your local best buy or circuit city and take a look at the screens on the
new Sonys and Toshibas. Be sure to see the ones called XtraBrite on Sony,
and something similar on Toshibas. These screens are stunning, take your
breath away good.

I bought a mid-line Sony X25 (15.4" XBrite widescreen, 2.8GHz, 60 G drive, I
added some memory to get to 768 MB, 2.4x DVD+/-RW, 3 USB2 ports, Firewire,
PCMCIA, 802.11b/g built in) and have been very pleased replacing my Shuttle
ST61G4.

THe new machine is a tiny bit slower, much much quieter, much less mess.
Any Sony XBrite or the Tosh Qosmio will make you (and the wife) happy
campers.
 
I am thinking about replacing my home built pc with a smaller laptop
Click to expand...

The screen is the key item.

Don't go for too high resolution.
Mine is 1400x1050 and I thought "great!"
And it is great for viewing images or some CAD apps.
But most of the web is written by people who optimise their pages to look
good on the monitor they have typically 1K x 768 pixels. And they try to
cram lots of text in. So text looks squitty and IE6 won't let you enlarge
text with specified font sizes.

Definitely check out the screen viewing angle and contrast ratio.
Ask to see it playing a DVD with dark images.
Make sure there is no intensity gradient or changes as you move your head
up/down.

And check out quietness, when it has been running long enough for the
cooling to switch on.
Mine is certainly quieter than my floortop PC, but it is by no means silent.

In short, a laptop has the convenience of size but LCDs are not entirely as
good as CRTs, the keyboards are awkward after using the standard keyboard,
they are not so upgradeable, etc.

If you don't need to be able to fold it up into a rucksack and cycle to
clients, then consider getting one of those tiny PC boxes and an LCD
monitor. You can upgrade the latter if needed.

DVD drive is not silent, and tiny speakers are rather 'tinny.
Playing DVDs is a neat trick but you are better having a dedicated DVD
player.

Unfortunately I really am forced to minimise the size & weight of my stuff
(moving soon) so I have to choose a laptop.

K.
 
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