Are any notebook PCs as minamalist as the macbooks?

[Infohawk]

Anyone recommend a PC notebook with a simple streamlined chassis like the one macbooks have? Seems like most pc notebooks have tons of seldomly-used ports and useless things like fingerprint readers.

 

[Parasitic]

Dell Adamo
HP Voodoo 13

Both are obscenely expensive and even priced beyond the Macbook series, however.

 

[TheStu]

There are also things like the Dell Latitudes (not too crazy about the styling), or Lenovo ThinkPads, but since those are business machines, they will also have quite a few ports and bells and whistles.

 

[Tom]

My Dell 1318 doesn't have any useless or extra stuff. It's a pretty clean simple design.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Anyone recommend a PC notebook with a simple streamlined chassis like the one macbooks have?

The short answer is, yes! Which begs the question...

Do you want a 13.3" PC knock-off or does "PC notebook" simply mean something larger, but with less clutter?

 

[heymrdj]

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Anyone recommend a PC notebook with a simple streamlined chassis like the one macbooks have? Seems like most pc notebooks have tons of seldomly-used ports and useless things like fingerprint readers.

Sounds like to me you're in a class that doesn't hardly use their notebook. I mean most come with just 3 USB ports. USB mouse, cooling pad, thumb drive. Well that's those. modem and network? necessaries. Expansion port...very necessary. VGA/DVI/SVIDIO and HDMI ports? I love those for media usage at the end of a long day.

And I personally love the finger print reader, beats typing in the 20 letter and number password I have.

 

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Anyone recommend a PC notebook with a simpleton chassis like the one macbooks have? Seems like most pc notebooks have tons of useful ports and add-on things like fingerprint readers that are useful and necessary. But I prefer style over substance ... maybe something that I can only look at but not use.

Fixed.
And no - PC notebooks are actually useful.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: heymrdj

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Anyone recommend a PC notebook with a simple streamlined chassis like the one macbooks have? Seems like most pc notebooks have tons of seldomly-used ports and useless things like fingerprint readers.

Sounds like to me you're in a class that doesn't hardly use their notebook. I mean most come with just 3 USB ports. USB mouse, cooling pad, thumb drive. Well that's those. modem and network? necessaries. Expansion port...very necessary. VGA/DVI/SVIDIO and HDMI ports? I love those for media usage at the end of a long day.

And I personally love the finger print reader, beats typing in the 20 letter and number password I have.

I don't know, my MacBook had 2 USB ports, I had no use for a mouse since the trackpad didn't blow, no need for a cooling pad since the thermal design didn't blow, and there, that leaves me an empty USB port if I hook up a thumbdrive. Modem, not necessary, but it did have gigabit ethernet, so that was nice. Expansion port... never felt the need for it on my end, but I can appreciate that they are valuable to people. Video out was provided via the MiniDVI port and now the MiniDisplayport. Never had a fingerprint reader and not sure how much utility I would get out of it.

You are making it out as if a MacBook has no ports except power and headphones which is really only mostly true on the MacBook Air.

However, your comments are at least not nearly as venomous as CoolVariable who apparently thinks that Apple laptops are overly simplistic form over function machines that only idiots buy. Whatever, its not like when a person buys one they take money out of his pocket...

OP, I am wondering about what you are looking for. Is it more important that the system have fewer ports, or that the ports are laid out a little better than average, without the strange bulbous look that most laptops seem to have?

 

[heymrdj]

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: heymrdj

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Anyone recommend a PC notebook with a simple streamlined chassis like the one macbooks have? Seems like most pc notebooks have tons of seldomly-used ports and useless things like fingerprint readers.

Sounds like to me you're in a class that doesn't hardly use their notebook. I mean most come with just 3 USB ports. USB mouse, cooling pad, thumb drive. Well that's those. modem and network? necessaries. Expansion port...very necessary. VGA/DVI/SVIDIO and HDMI ports? I love those for media usage at the end of a long day.

And I personally love the finger print reader, beats typing in the 20 letter and number password I have.

I don't know, my MacBook had 2 USB ports, I had no use for a mouse since the trackpad didn't blow, no need for a cooling pad since the thermal design didn't blow, and there, that leaves me an empty USB port if I hook up a thumbdrive. Modem, not necessary, but it did have gigabit ethernet, so that was nice. Expansion port... never felt the need for it on my end, but I can appreciate that they are valuable to people. Video out was provided via the MiniDVI port and now the MiniDisplayport. Never had a fingerprint reader and not sure how much utility I would get out of it.

You are making it out as if a MacBook has no ports except power and headphones which is really only mostly true on the MacBook Air.

However, your comments are at least not nearly as venomous as CoolVariable who apparently thinks that Apple laptops are overly simplistic form over function machines that only idiots buy. Whatever, its not like when a person buys one they take money out of his pocket...

OP, I am wondering about what you are looking for. Is it more important that the system have fewer ports, or that the ports are laid out a little better than average, without the strange bulbous look that most laptops seem to have?

I wasn't by any means pointing to Mac's with my statements, but more portless designs themselves. Even with a proper design, it is impossible to have a high end mobile graphics system and keep it cool enough under 100% load for over an hour (under 55C on CPU, under 65C for the GPU and under 35C for the hard drives) without the use of some outside cooling system to cool the case itself. I like the expansion port to quickly dock at the end of the day without reconnecting every single port (speakers, printers, external monitor keyboard and mouse, ect). As for the Mac's use of miniDVI or miniDisplayPort, I have enough issues with proprietary electricals in car systems, can't stand computers that make me buy adapters to use their ports.

But I still like Macs.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: heymrdj

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: heymrdj

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Anyone recommend a PC notebook with a simple streamlined chassis like the one macbooks have? Seems like most pc notebooks have tons of seldomly-used ports and useless things like fingerprint readers.

Sounds like to me you're in a class that doesn't hardly use their notebook. I mean most come with just 3 USB ports. USB mouse, cooling pad, thumb drive. Well that's those. modem and network? necessaries. Expansion port...very necessary. VGA/DVI/SVIDIO and HDMI ports? I love those for media usage at the end of a long day.

And I personally love the finger print reader, beats typing in the 20 letter and number password I have.

I don't know, my MacBook had 2 USB ports, I had no use for a mouse since the trackpad didn't blow, no need for a cooling pad since the thermal design didn't blow, and there, that leaves me an empty USB port if I hook up a thumbdrive. Modem, not necessary, but it did have gigabit ethernet, so that was nice. Expansion port... never felt the need for it on my end, but I can appreciate that they are valuable to people. Video out was provided via the MiniDVI port and now the MiniDisplayport. Never had a fingerprint reader and not sure how much utility I would get out of it.

You are making it out as if a MacBook has no ports except power and headphones which is really only mostly true on the MacBook Air.

However, your comments are at least not nearly as venomous as CoolVariable who apparently thinks that Apple laptops are overly simplistic form over function machines that only idiots buy. Whatever, its not like when a person buys one they take money out of his pocket...

OP, I am wondering about what you are looking for. Is it more important that the system have fewer ports, or that the ports are laid out a little better than average, without the strange bulbous look that most laptops seem to have?

I wasn't by any means pointing to Mac's with my statements, but more portless designs themselves. Even with a proper design, it is impossible to have a high end mobile graphics system and keep it cool enough under 100% load for over an hour (under 55C on CPU, under 65C for the GPU and under 35C for the hard drives) without the use of some outside cooling system to cool the case itself. I like the expansion port to quickly dock at the end of the day without reconnecting every single port (speakers, printers, external monitor keyboard and mouse, ect). As for the Mac's use of miniDVI or miniDisplayPort, I have enough issues with proprietary electricals in car systems, can't stand computers that make me buy adapters to use their ports.

But I still like Macs.

My mistake. The OP was looking for something similiar to a MacBook, you listed off a bunch of reasons why not having many ports was a 'bad' idea, so I put 2 and 2 together and apparently got 5.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: heymrdj

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: heymrdj

Originally posted by: Infohawk
Anyone recommend a PC notebook with a simple streamlined chassis like the one macbooks have? Seems like most pc notebooks have tons of seldomly-used ports and useless things like fingerprint readers.

Sounds like to me you're in a class that doesn't hardly use their notebook. I mean most come with just 3 USB ports. USB mouse, cooling pad, thumb drive. Well that's those. modem and network? necessaries. Expansion port...very necessary. VGA/DVI/SVIDIO and HDMI ports? I love those for media usage at the end of a long day.

And I personally love the finger print reader, beats typing in the 20 letter and number password I have.

I don't know, my MacBook had 2 USB ports, I had no use for a mouse since the trackpad didn't blow, no need for a cooling pad since the thermal design didn't blow, and there, that leaves me an empty USB port if I hook up a thumbdrive. Modem, not necessary, but it did have gigabit ethernet, so that was nice. Expansion port... never felt the need for it on my end, but I can appreciate that they are valuable to people. Video out was provided via the MiniDVI port and now the MiniDisplayport. Never had a fingerprint reader and not sure how much utility I would get out of it.

You are making it out as if a MacBook has no ports except power and headphones which is really only mostly true on the MacBook Air.

However, your comments are at least not nearly as venomous as CoolVariable who apparently thinks that Apple laptops are overly simplistic form over function machines that only idiots buy. Whatever, its not like when a person buys one they take money out of his pocket...

OP, I am wondering about what you are looking for. Is it more important that the system have fewer ports, or that the ports are laid out a little better than average, without the strange bulbous look that most laptops seem to have?

I wasn't by any means pointing to Mac's with my statements, but more portless designs themselves. Even with a proper design, it is impossible to have a high end mobile graphics system and keep it cool enough under 100% load for over an hour (under 55C on CPU, under 65C for the GPU and under 35C for the hard drives) without the use of some outside cooling system to cool the case itself. I like the expansion port to quickly dock at the end of the day without reconnecting every single port (speakers, printers, external monitor keyboard and mouse, ect). As for the Mac's use of miniDVI or miniDisplayPort, I have enough issues with proprietary electricals in car systems, can't stand computers that make me buy adapters to use their ports.

But I still like Macs.

Well it's a good thing I got my Macbook Pro when they used DVI ports huh? And back when Apple would supply a DVI => VGA connector. Then again I got tons of those from my graphics cards. Who uses VGA anyway (the only time I do is at work with our projectors)?

Well MBPs and MBs are so compactly built that there IS no way to keep it that cool. Shrug. The most I've used was 2 USB ports (but then again that's the limit), and it's rare. Flash drive + Mouse for photoshop work? I use my touchpad 99.9% of the time on my MacBook Pro. I've actually made some impressive photoshop stuff using the touchpad only (i was too lazy to grab my mouse)