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a laptop question

M

melly

Diamond Member
i'm in the market for a laptop in the near future. i'm confused about a 'new' kind i saw. i was browsing through a future shop flyer and they had advertised a slimline one that looked like you took it out of case. pic what would be better about this one as opposed to a regular laptop?

i remain,

a confused melly
 
Originally posted by: isekii
great portability

it won't strain your shoulder as much lugging it around~
Click to expand...

But it won't be a desktop replacement either.
Kind of an inbetween.
What will you be using your laptop for in general?
 
that's a Sony Vaio w/ docking station.

usually the optical drives are in the docking station, rather than the laptop itself, thus giving the laptop more portability.
 
That is most likely a slim Sony VAIO laptop, the major benefit being it's VERY slim and VERY lightweight. If you can afford it, then buy it.

The laptop itself doesn't have a CD/CD-RW or DVD drive or floppy drive inside of it. Once you connect it to the "docking station" (the base) it has a CD drive, floppy drive, probably printer, serial ports, whatever.

So if you can live without the CD/floppy not being directly on the laptop AND you can afford this, then go for it.
 
Looks like the sony thin line of laptops. The docking station houses the CDROM and various ports. The laptop itself has only a few essential ports on it (monitor out, USB, modem, & network). It's pretty nice. Improves battery life, and greatly reduces weight. Also makes it nice if you don't need the the extra stuff in the dock when you go out on the road to do presentations and such.

I've got a couple at work and they work pretty well.
 
yes, it is a docking station but i do plan to have it as my main computer. my 'dream' is to be able to do work while i'm all cozy in bed. which means i also plan to get a wireless connection to the internet. i don't want to find out that the laptop wouldn't be compatible for doing this.
 
Originally posted by: caramel
yes, it is a docking station but i do plan to have it as my main computer. my 'dream' is to be able to do work while i'm all cozy in bed. which means i also plan to get a wireless connection to the internet. i don't want to find out that the laptop wouldn't be compatible for doing this.
Click to expand...

if you do any sort of gaming, subnotebooks are not ideal. just an fyi.

 
Originally posted by: caramel
yes, it is a docking station but i do plan to have it as my main computer. my 'dream' is to be able to do work while i'm all cozy in bed. which means i also plan to get a wireless connection to the internet. i don't want to find out that the laptop wouldn't be compatible for doing this.
Click to expand...

I can't remember off the top of my head, but *I THINK* the PC card slot (yes, singular) is located in the docking station. If you were to use it without the docking station, you'd have to drag along a USB based "wired" wireless adapter.
 
the Compaq N410C is like that, it is very small but comes with a base that has the cdrom and speakers and stuff, so that you can either use both pieces when you need to , or just take the tiny part when you are only going to do email/word processing/whatever/don't need the cdrom, etc
 
Originally posted by: caramel
yes, it is a docking station but i do plan to have it as my main computer. my 'dream' is to be able to do work while i'm all cozy in bed. which means i also plan to get a wireless connection to the internet. i don't want to find out that the laptop wouldn't be compatible for doing this.
Click to expand...

then a laptop like this probably won't be appropriate for that type of user.

You shouldn't be spending all that $$$ for a lightweight barebones laptop since you only plan on using it "in bed".
 
damn. another thing that pisses me off is that laptops are doing away with the floppy drive. it doesn't matter that the last time i used the a\ drive was oh, a year ago, lol. it's the principle!
 
If you want a fairly light, yet fairly sturdy and powerful machine, look into a Dell Inspiron 4150. Very nice machines. You can get them very well configured for right around $1000 USD.
 
Originally posted by: fatbaby

then a laptop like this probably won't be appropriate for that type of user.

You shouldn't be spending all that $$$ for a lightweight barebones laptop since you only plan on using it "in bed".
Click to expand...

right, i don't want any cables or wires. i'm not one to stay online 24:7 and think the world ends when my uptime is shot. 😛 i just want a great setup in terms of portability and wireless internet. my former technician told me that it would cost a few hundred to wire that alone. money is not a great object, i have it, but it's more the size. i will be living in a fairly small condo so i wouldn't have the opportunity to have a big desktop setup.
 
From speaking with an IT guy several months ago on which brand name to buy, he first suggest IBM. If I couldn't afford those (I had a IBM T-21 at work, very nice)
then to go with Toshiba. He mentioned all other brands were crap.

 
thanks for the replies and information. i have heard that dell and toshiba are great laptops, but while i want quality, i know with those brands you're paying for the name as well. in any case, i'm willing to spend up to $3000 CDN for a system but including the wireless internet stuff. I know I could get a desktop for 1/3 of that price, though...i believe that $3000 CDN is about $2600 USD.
 
Originally posted by: caramel
thanks for the replies and information. i have heard that dell and toshiba are great laptops, but while i want quality, i know with those brands you're paying for the name as well. in any case, i'm willing to spend up to $3000 CDN for a system but including the wireless internet stuff. I know I could get a desktop for 1/3 of that price, though...i believe that $3000 CDN is about $2600 USD.
Click to expand...

How much tax/tariff/crap do you have to pay if someone buys the laptop in the US and ships it to you in Canada?

N8Magic, sully or PAB might know about this.
 
Originally posted by: caramel
thanks for the replies and information. i have heard that dell and toshiba are great laptops, but while i want quality, i know with those brands you're paying for the name as well. in any case, i'm willing to spend up to $3000 CDN for a system but including the wireless internet stuff. I know I could get a desktop for 1/3 of that price, though...i believe that $3000 CDN is about $2600 USD.
Click to expand...

I'm all for quality, but you really don't need to spend that much on a laptop to sit in bed and work on. Check out the hotdeals forums here, I think I saw a dell yesterday for like $700 that looked like a good buy, and with a good warrenty on it, its hard to go wrong.
 
Dude you're getting a Dell. This comes with a FREE DVD upgrade (also plays regular audio CD and computer CD's and of course DVD movies), floppy, we just need to get you the WiFi stuff.

Inspiron 4150
Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor at 1.8GHz w/ 14.1'' XGA Display & 16MB Video
Qty.: 1
Unit Price: $1,898.00
Date: 26/02/2003 1:55:15 AM

Warranty 1 Year Express Depot Warranty with Complete Care, 24x7 Tech Support, 365 days/year.

S111RRC-[009-9998][950-9900]
Inspiron 4150 Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor at 1.8GHz w/ 14.1'' XGA Display & 16MB Video

A18AGHC-[220-9872]
Memory 256MB DDR 266MHz RAM (2 DIMMs)

256MB2D-[311-1750]
Primary Hard Drive 30GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive (4200 RPM)

30GB-[340-6378]
Floppy Drive and Additional Storage Devices Floppy Drive

FD-[340-7047]
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition (English)

WHXP-[313-1210][420-1961]
NIC Integrated Network Card

INTNIC-[430-1292]
Modem Internal 56k Modem

56MPC-[313-1029]
Primary ROM Drive DVD / CD-ROM / CD-RW Free Upgrade from 24X CD-ROM to 8X DVD-ROM Drive

8XDVDP-[461-6858]
Internet Access 6 Months of AOL Dial-Up Internet Access (Version 7.0)

AOLCAN-[412-0174][412-0245]
Productivity Software Word Perfect Productivity Pack

ICOREL-[412-0303]
Security Software Dell SecurityCenter by McAfee, 90-day Introductory Offer

MCAFE90-[412-0328]
Primary Battery Lithium-Ion 8-Cell Battery

LIION8-[312-0047]


$1898 Dell Inspiron 4150
$139 shipping
========================
$2037

I'm not sure if that's in USD (I went to the Dell Canada website) or CAD and if it includes any sort of tax/GST but that's a nicely loaded laptop.

You may want to upgrade:
Faster processor
Better screen
Switch to 3 year warranty instead of 1
Maybe buy an extra battery

Questions?
 
Originally posted by: caramel
i'm in the market for a laptop in the near future. i'm confused about a 'new' kind i saw. i was browsing through a future shop flyer and they had advertised a slimline one that looked like you took it out of case. pic what would be better about this one as opposed to a regular laptop?

i remain,

a confused melly
Click to expand...

well, smelly, it depends on how much you wanna spend. The lighter you want it (for travel) the more you pay. The more powerful you want it (it's heavy) the more you pay. some of the sony vaios are light, but there are better ones. if you want a light one, i recommend fujitsu.

thing about laptops, they cost a lot.
 
If it is the 505 series, and it looks like it, looks exactly like the one I have, the PCMCIA slot will be in the laptop, not the docking station. However it only comes with one slot so if you have something else you want to plug in like a USB 2.0 card while on the net you will be out of luck. Personally I love mine, great balance of portability and performance (PIII 850) and decent battery life but then again I don't use it for gaming except for some UT and I have several other computers as well for the real heavy work.
 
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