[OT-mostly] Suggestions for a new laptop?

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy a new laptops. Hopefully under $1200, windows, light-weight/thin. Primarily for PIC code development but eventually for use at launches.

Any suggestions?

TIA

Reply to
bit eimer
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dude, get a dell...

Mike Fisher

Reply to
Mfreptiles

I got an email from them:

Outrageous Deal ? InspironĀ 5150 Notebook! Was $1,249, Now $999. After $250 mail-in rebate.

Two days only! Offer valid 04/13/04 ? 04/14/04.

Reply to
Jerry Irvine

Get one of the "cheap" HP/Compaq's from compUSA or Best buy. I got mine during the Xmas sales for $600 after rebate. Its a 2.4gh celeron, 30gb hard drive, 15" Screen, CD-RW, and either 264 or 512mb of memory (forget which). Has all the ports and stuff I need for my accessories and networking.

John

Reply to
JohnT.

Dude, don't get a Dell... they aren't worth the headaches! Their in-house financing sucks. The overseas, English as a second language tech support sucks. The online tech support sucks. The hardware sucks and comes pre-set with annoying incompatibilities that Dell is aware of but will not fix. The proprietary software sucks and comes with more bugs than even Raid can handle, but whatever model you buy will be out of production shortly thereafter and they will no longer be working on fixing any of those issues. Every couple months, your new Windows OS will automatically eat itself so that you have to reformat and reload everything. (is it just me, or has each new version of Windows since 98 been just a little bit less stable and even less user friendly?)

I know some people with Gateway laptops that haven't had any problems, and we recently replaced all our Dell's at work with IBM's and they seem to work great...

Mfreptiles wrote:

Reply to
Scott Aleckson

A couple years ago, I bought a Sony Vaio. Not the fanciest, but it has firewire and a DVD player, which were two of my main requirements.

It has worked well for me and hasn't caused me any problems. Of course, I also did my standard to any "pre-installed" computer I get -- fdisk and reinstall a clean OS. 8-}

-Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Trojanowski

Get a mac. Pay $200 more.

Reply to
Jerry Irvine

Not sure how you program a PIC but if you need a real serial port or parallel port then your choices are getting smaller and smaller every day. I program PLC's (Programmable Logic Controlles) and support legacy hardware and the real serial port was one of my requirements when I needed to buy a laptop last November. Those USB to Serial converters work for some things but not all and a PCMCIA card with serial ports (and a 16550 UART) costs more and leaves cables hanging out of the port.

Need a floppy drive? They are also going the way of the dinosaur. I did get a DELL (Insprion 8600) and have been happy with it but it is not an under $1200 machine. Note that recently DELL has taken the Serial and Parallel ports out of this model. Their Latitude line of laptops which is geared more toward business is more robust and stable but also a little costlier.

If you need a real serial port and floppy, used might be the way to go. Like car dealers, most name brands have the "Factory Certified pre-owned" which gets you a little warranty in case of a lemon.

YMMV nOrM

Reply to
nOrM Dziedzic

The latest Max X-serve has a real serial port and USB with FLOPPY drive options for the USB.

The more advanced you get the more backward you can look.

Reply to
Jerry Irvine

I use an MPLAB ICD2 (from Microchip). It uses either USB or a "real" serial port, so this is USB is not a problem (for the moment).

I just ordered an Inspiron 300m; 3 lbs, 1 inch thick $200 "instant rebate", plus free shipping ($50), plus $150-off coupon I found somewhere on line, no tax. . Of course, I dropped more than I wanted to ($1400), but the size/weight is a big issue for me.

Curious though: what kinds of things will a USB-to-serial-port converter not support? I do plan at some point to build serial port comm into my project, and I had always assumed I could just use such a converter to talk to a PC that didn't have a free serial port.

Reply to
bit eimer

What about the parallel port? I've got a little adapter that connects to the In Circuit Serial Programming interface of a PIC16F877 and writes the flash memory from a parallel port.

-dave w

Reply to
David Weinshenker

Good man. Just for giggles once I ran Adaware on a buddy's new system.... beyond scary what it found :(

I haven't bought a new system in 12+ years as I prefer to build my own but I trash the hd and rebuild at least once a year for just for preventive maintenance. Too damn many digi critters out there for me to rest easy.

Ted Novak TRA#5512

Reply to
the notorious t-e-d

I think most of the incompatabilities come from two things.

  1. Lazy or sloppy programmers writing the driver software for the USB/Serial device
  2. Nonstandard use of the handshaking signals on legacy industrial hardware I sometimes need to deal with.

We had a situation this week trying to use a USB/Serial converter to talk to a PLC with a colleauge's laptop without serial port. He had bought a Keyspan converter on the recommendation from someone else that it worked. Keyspan recently stopped making the version the other person had and now has an "improved" version which is what we have. It worked with one model of the PLC and not another.

I think they probably work for most regular home/office applications but there is a fringe area where things get dicy.

nOrM

Reply to
nOrM Dziedzic

You are so predictable.

Reply to
Phil Stein

There is a device called Powerprint that is a parallel port for a mac serial port or a USB port.

The Motorola Power PC clones had real parallel ports as well.

They can be bought for under $300.

Reply to
Jerry Irvine

Do what I'm doing. An abicus, some string and 2 empty soup cans. Not quite as high tech but it won't fail when Y3K hits. ; )

Randy

Reply to
Randy

That's only if you use a high-end Y3K compliant abacus (with more strings)!

Reply to
bit eimer

Reply to
Mfreptiles

Been recomending Dells for friends, family and clients for years. No one has ever complained. Damn nice systems.

But we all know in the PC world the problems are pretty much with sw/os's rather than hardware.

Ted Novak TRA#5512

Reply to
the notorious t-e-d

Hey! Where were you whne I spent 3 months on R&D figuring that out?

Randy

Reply to
Randy

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