[ProgSoc] Laptop advice/suggestions

Noah noah.odonoghue at students.mq.edu.au
Tue Jul 1 15:20:56 EST 2008


>My last laptop was a HP V2140CA (a presario shockingly, purchased Feb
>2005) that has been to the top of mountains in the rockies, through the 
>deserts of nevada, beaches in california and Australia. Has been online for
most of the
>above including over 25,000 km of driving in a car over 35C for some of
>it... In humidity of over 100% for weeks and all sorts of abuse (5
>months backpacking).

>That is the kind of reliability I want to have... where the worst
>failure has been the external VGA output (and of course a few HDD
>sectors).

>I mention it because unless you have been living on the street for those
>months and using your laptop as a tent I am not sure I consider it a
>huge test of reliability. ;)

Well, I certainly haven't tested my laptop in the same ways you mention,
However I have had enough Toshiba notebooks to know that these are (more)
reliable. (zero failures so far, vs entire laptops replaced within weeks of
purchase, because Toshiba service could not fix them)

I'm impressed by the "HP Mobile Data Protection 3D" which parks the heads of
the hard drive if you shake it or drop it. Perhaps you could've gotten away
with only a broken VGA output with this feature ;)

And it also counts that HP sell fully approved (albeit as expensive as the
AC adapters) DC 12V / Flight adapters for the notebook, which could be handy
if you intend to use it in a car. Also, at least on this model that I own,
you can clip on a bottom battery and a back battery that would increase
battery life significantly. (as well as various docking station options)

Link is below, although I stress that I haven't thoroughly compared all the
options on that page, that was just an example from the front page.

http://www.ht.com.au/part/V7163-HP-Compaq-Business-Notebook-6710b-Core-2-Duo
-T8300-24-GHz-RAM-4-GB-HDD-250-GB-DVDRW-R-double-layer-DVD-RAM-GMA-X3100-Gig
abit-Ethernet-WLAN-80211abgn-Bluetooth-20-EDR-TPM-fingerprint-reader-XP-Pr/d
etail.hts

- Noah

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Given-Wilson [mailto:sanguinev at progsoc.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, 1 July 2008 10:20 AM
To: Noah
Cc: progsoc at progsoc.org
Subject: Re: [ProgSoc] Laptop advice/suggestions

On Tue, Jul 01, 2008 at 08:02:57AM +1000, Noah wrote:
> Personally I don't understand why Macbooks are so popular at progsoc.. 

I also don't see the up side of Macs... and haven't really considered
them. That sid, they aren't all bad and seeing as price isn't a huge
concern, if they were good enough in other areas I would consider one.
> 
> >The top MacBook is Black, 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 
> >13.3" screen, 2GB ram (expandable to 4GB), 4.5 
> >hours battery, 802.11n, 1000 Bast-T, 2 USB, 
> >Mini-DVI port/VGA adaptor, 250 GB HD, same DVD 
> >drive. At 2.27 kg.
> 
> $2100 before education discounts
> 
> HP6710B
> Black, 2.4ghz, 15.4inch, 4gb ram, 250GB, 802.11N, Bluetooth 2, GigE, Vista
> Business & XP Pro, Fingerprint reader, Two mouse buttons...2.6kgs.
> 
> $1799 before education discounts. 

Do you have a link, the HP site is more expensive and lower spec.

> >guys might be able to provide some advice/suggestions. My priorities
> >are:
> >
> >- Reliability (Very important)
> 
> I have one that I've been carrying round Japan 
> for a few months and had no problems.

My last laptop was a HP V2140CA (a presario shockingly, purchased Feb
2005) that has been to the top of mountains in the rockies, through the
deserts of nevada, beaches in california and Australia. Has been online for
most of the
above including over 25,000 km of driving in a car over 35C for some of
it... In humidity of over 100% for weeks and all sorts of abuse (5
months backpacking).

That is the kind of reliability I want to have... where the worst
failure has been the external VGA output (and of course a few HDD
sectors).

I mention it because unless you have been living on the street for those
months and using your laptop as a tent I am not sure I consider it a
huge test of reliability. ;)

- SanguineV



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