Since the computer is somewhat related to distance learning , perhaps this is a good place to ask for advice. I am in the process of purchasing a laptop (my first), and want the best quality, price, accessories, etc. The objective is to purchase a unit which will be adequate for at least 3 years. 1) What are the best brands? 2) What caveats are in order? 3) Should one purchase the extended warranty? 4) What accessories are a must, e.g., ports, memory, RAM, processor (Intel, Celeron, etc..), etc.? Thanks for any advice..........
I would recommend Dell with Intel Pentium processor. Laptops tend to break down more quickly than they probably should, unfortunately, and I think it is wise to have at least a three-year warranty and the support of a major manufacturer. Medium priced laptops do come with all the neccessary ports, 256MB RAM is good enough. I would recommend 512MB. At WWW.DELL.COM you can configure laptops based on your requirements. Currently Dell is running very good deal....for example Inspiron 8500 for $1,299 Mobile Pentium® 4 Processor,2.2GHz,15.4 WXGA Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition 256MB,DDR,266MHz,2 Dimms FREE Kodak 2MP Digital Camera and Dell All-In-One Printer! FREE Shipping - Online Only!
Here are my thoughts: 1. I went with a Dell for my laptop, though I go with a HP for a full system. Reason being, they provide great support, and you don’t need as much real power on a laptop than the other. (We have CAD systems running on our box). 2. I have the Pentium M class, it is the latest and greatest, and we benchmarked it against the latest Pentium 4 and it took about 30 minutes less to load the operating system. 3. Purchase the memory in 512 ONE CHIP. Do not buy it with 2 – 256 chips. This should be sufficient memory to do just about everything, but if you do need to upgrade in the future, it will allow you to get one more 512 chip, instead of having to replace one of the chips (only 2 slots) with a 512, making one useless. 4. I bought the RW DVD with mine, since it is what everything is going to, since it was a work machine, I also got the disk drive, but I do not think it is a must anymore. You should have at least one drive you can write from, just not a read (like a regular CD). 5. If you are on the road, get the extended battery, it lasts twice as long. 6. I would not go extended warranty, the laptops have so much wear and tear, it probably won’t be covered anyway. 7. Make sure to visit the website of the provide (Dell, HP, etc.). They always have specials on certain machines, and discounts, etc. I got a free software, sometimes free printers, etc. You can get a real deal if you do the research. Good luck.
Russell, THere are many good brands and of course preferences are highly debatable. At times good companies fall short in putting out a poor design or poor support structure for a laptop. Some of the major brands to look into are Dell, Compaq (now part of Hewlett Packard), and Toshiba. Dor distance learning I would recommend a good size hard drive for downloading lesson and research material. At a minimum 20 go with 20 GB. At least 256 MB of RAM should also be included. I would consider the following my minimum requirements: Network connection is also very important. At home you want want to insure that you have an appropriate network card to support DSL, Cable, or Wireless connections. Typically you would be able to connect through a hub so a good Ethernet card with at least 10 Mbps should be used -- if you are able to support a 100 Mbps connection then go for it as most cards NIC cards today are 10/100 Mbps compatible.. A dial-up modem should also be available for when fast access is not available and you must dial-in at 56 Kbps (especially useful when you are on the road but the slow connection spped can be frustrating) For a processor go for at least 1.2 Ghz. I like the Intel line of processors and use the Windows XP operating system. Some companies such as Dell allow you to customize your notebook to your requirements. Here is a link to a Dell Inspirion 600: http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_600m?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite 1804. I love it and although it is starting to age, as everything in cyberland rapidly does, it continues to serve me well and I use it for distance learning quite a bit. I would purchase the extended warrantly. I buy one with all of my computers and it has come in handy on many occassions. I have had to get monitors replaced and the warraty has saved me a considerable sum. John
Most any brand is fine... I am a LAN administrator for a government agency that is a heavy user of laptops. The extended warranty may sound like a good deal but if you look at what goes wrong with our PC's you will see it isn't always such a good idea. The things which have gone wrong with our Dells is: 1. The mouse port is routinely breaking. Caused by the users propping up the back of the pc with a book. When the pc slides forward it is left resting on the mouse cable which ruins the port. Fix, don't rest the back of the PC on or against anything. 2. The keyboard is failing. Often caused because the users think they can pry up the keys when cleaning them. Also often caused when the user spills something on the pc while eating or drinking. Fix, don't eat or drink over your pc. 3. The hard drive fails. This is a problem on any pc and can happen no matter how well you care for it. However, most hard drives are (or were when I had 3 go on a desktop I had a few years ago)warranted from the manufacturer for 3 years so why buy an extended warranty from the pc's manufacturer? The salesman always sells the warranty for laptops by explaining that the screens are fragile and are expensive to replace. That may be so, but we have never had one fail and our users are VERY rough on their laptops. I currently own 6 pc's in the home (5 desktops and 1 laptop) and have owned many others in the past and have never wished I had an extended warranty. However, while the components carry longer warranties, labor isn't included. If you can't do the work yourself you may consider the warranty a better investment. As far as features, in place of a floppy drive you can purchase a memory pen which goes in the USB port. They can hold around 20-50 mb or more and are very reasonably priced these days ($50+-). Our Dell's hold the floppy drive in the extra battery bay and if you travel a lot you would much prefer that extra battery. Get a dvd player, entertains the kids on those rainy vacation days. Get a nice optical mouse for when you are in confined areas. Optical mouses work on anything, including your knee. Definately get a CD-RW. Get at least 256 mb of memory, but memory is cheap so load up now if you have the chance. It could go up later when you need to upgrade. Get MS Office Professional and XP. If you have big hands and will be using the laptop as your primary PC, get a wireless keyboard to go with it. Typing on a laptop keyboard gets old quick. Hope this was some help.
Having just bought a new laptop a couple of months ago (HP Pavilion), you can save a ton of money by purchasing a refurbished model. I did a web search, and ended up buying my machine from a company called eCost (ecost.com), although there are many other vendors out there. I saved about $ 400 over buying the same computer at a bricks and mortar store in the Seattle area. Regards, Michael Lloyd Mill Creek, Washington USA
I agree with Michael as well My laptop and a couple of my desktops are refurb's. Another thing, I picked up my daughters Dell (new) from Dell's college sales program. I was able to do that as a Touro student. I got it way cheaper.
General comment: consider academic pricing. Just about all the manufacturers offer it -- sometimes a two-tier system, for students and for faculty -- and for hard and software. My wife, as part-time community college teacher, bought her computer two weeks ago through an academic program -- for 20% less than the best street price. And the student price would have been even less. Same with software. Just bought the faculty edition of Microsoft Office (full featured, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage) for $135. List price over $300. And the current student price is an amazing $71. One good source is https://www.academicsuperstore.com/ Interesting footnote: Some suppliers, like Microsoft, make a very clear distinction between regionally accredited and DETC accredited. Microsoft explicitly says, even on the box, that academic software is for regionally accredited, not DETC accredited schools. I have no idea why. Maybe Bill Gates flunked out of meat cutting school long ago and is getting revenge.
If cost is a major issue check out fatwallet.com. Go to forums, then hot deals. The folks there scour internet pages and newspaper ads for incredible deals. Typically you can find Dells, HPs or Compaqs pretty fully loaded for around $500 to 700 (roughly 30-60% discount). They seem to find a good deal on laptops about every 3-6 weeks and when it is posted it is usually only available for a couple of days. I
Somewhat tangential but as a student you can buy microsoft office for around $100.00 although the one I bought lacks the math functions in word.
re: laptop I wondered about the same things when I decided to purchase my first laptop. I found that going to all the electronic stores was a daunting task. There is so much to choose form out there. The price of laptops is fairly high as well. I decided to go the refurbished route. I purchased an IBM Thinkpad 600X. It was a fraction of the price and so far I am very pleased with it. You might also want to check out www.Overstock.com which sells new and refurbished laptops at up to 80% discount.
Can't hurt to mention, in this context, my favorite electronic tool, the Alphasmart 3000. It is purely for data entry. 8-line screen. Minimal word-processing. But . . . 1. List price is $200; mine, from CraigsList, was half that. 2. It has what every computer on earth should have: two sockets, one labelled "Mac" and one labelled "Windows" and a cable that works with both; also a wireless version. And . . . what makes it all so fine, 3. It runs for at least 300 hours on four AA batteries. So it is what I carry on planes, to libraries, etc. www.alphasmart.com, and no, I don't get a commission.
I bought my laptop about 1.5 years ago from the local Best Buy. I got the in-store warranty, and I have used it once when I had a keyboard problem. The warranty does not cover software problems, so it did no good when the computer crashed completely. (I ultimately fixed that problem by using the system restore disk, and then recovery software allowed me to recover some of the files.) Others have made a lot of good suggestions above. I would suggest that you not get the very top of the line (unless you have $$ to burn), since you'll pay a premium for the latest technology. Do consider an external (USB) hard drive to make routine backups much easier. And please do those routine backups! Essential features for the laptop itself: * For most applications, memory and hard drive space are more important than processor speed, assuming you are getting a relatively recent machine. Get at least 256 MB ram; 512 is better. Get as much hard drive space as you can- at least 20 GB. * Get one with a built-in CD-RW. A CD-RW/DVD combo drive is even better. * Get one with built in ethernet and 56 k modem ports. * Make sure you have USB ports. * Get an optical mouse and external keyboard for use when not on the road. * If you'll be travelling with the laptop a lot, try to get a light weight one. Consider also the weight of the carry case. 7-9 lbs may not seem heavy, but it gets heavy when you are lugging it around all day. Enjoy! Alex
That's bizarre. Does it actually mention DETC by name? If so, does it mention other national accreditors (ACICS, for example?) I wonder what the point of that is. I mean, obviously the RA's, collectively, have FAR more power in the marketplace. But it seems to me that academic pricing is just a good idea in general for a company like Microsoft. I'm not sure why they would want to exclude certain students, especially students in DL programs. Seems like that is a market they would want to cultivate.
Laptop thing Originally posted by Russell 1) What are the best brands? I bought a Toshiba, since that's what businesspeople in airports here tended to use. If you want to buy American, then I agree with the majority of people posting here that Dell would be a good choice. 2) What caveats are in order? I can't think of anything brand specific, but you might want to consider battery life. 3) Should one purchase the extended warranty? 4) What accessories are a must, e.g., ports, memory, RAM, processor (Intel, Celeron, etc..), etc.? The Celeron is good enough if all that you want to use the laptop for is word processing, but if you are going into graphics intensive work, the Pentium IV is the best choice. It's not really necessary to max out the processor type (ie: getting the fastest processor), unless you have the extra "cabbage" to make such a purchase. Max out the memory, but buy it at a third party establishment. Manufacturers tend to charge a premium for the RAM that they sell. Also, as I think somebody else mentioned here, if you are going to be using your laptop in a wireless environment, then go for one with the "Centrino" package which comes with integrated wireless LAN capability. You might want to get a combination CD-RW/DVD Combination drive to both back up your data, and watch movies. Make sure that the proper software comes with the combination drive, though. Sorry for rambling on about this.
