Sexy new laptop... and other gadget-y stuff

[Itchy]

OK... i\'ve been out shoppin\' for a sexy new laptop and so far the best bang for my buck\'s been this new dell;

Latitude X1 with Gigabit NIC Intel® Pentium® M Processor 733 (1.10GHz ULV) 12.1in WXGA Display
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2, with media
Memory: 512MB DDR2 400MHz SDRAM, (256MB Integrated) 2 DIMMs
Hard Drive: 30GB Hard Drive, 8MM, 4200RPM
Wireless Personal Area Networking: Wireless Bluetooth Enabled
AC Adapter: 50W A/C Adapter
Module Bay: D-Bay plus 24X CD-RW/DVD Combination Drive
Cables: Modem Cable, RJ11
Anit Virus/Firewall: Norton SystemWorks 2005
Productivity Software: Dell Latitude Notebook
Additional Batteries: Additional 6 Cell Primary Battery
File System: NTFS File System for all Operating Systems

It measures 0.98\"(h) x 11.26\"(w) x 7.7\"(d) and weights just under 3 pounds with all the junk i threw on it.

The final cost would be $1,816.00


OK, now i\'ve never been looking for a laptop before and this is the best i\'ve found after about 2 weeks of searching. Is this a good deal?

Oh, and i\'ve been looking at an MP3 player (now that i\'ll soon have a CD drive able to rip my CDs and i could put them on a player). The iRivers look pretty good price wise. Anybody have one, or recommend one?

THANK ANYONE WHO REPLIES WITH ANY INSIGHT... i\'m kind of out of the nitch in the laptop & MP3 player circle.

nick-

***EDIT***
Ok, i just went off to get this link http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/700/ifp_795.aspx and was going over it again and read, \"Record music from any audio source (no PC required).\" Does that mean you can plug it into the headphone jack of a CD player to do a generic rip of the song, or does that mean it uses a recording device to make a jank version of the song? Do you need a PC to transfer quality music files?

Thanks again for ANY knowledge you might have for me.
nick-

 

[Itchy]

OK... nevermind on the MP3 question... i\'ve been reading on cnet and the like... i\'ve settled on this guy http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/700/ifp_790.aspx#

but any help on the laptop would awesome

 

[supervike]

hmm..

I guess I\'m not too much help with the laptop, but Dell has been good to be so far.

Their service has been excellent.

One little bit of advice, would be if you have more than one PC at home (and even if you don\'t), I\'d consider getting a wireless router (if you have broadband). My wife has a laptop. It is cool to have the ability to surf the web from anywhere in the house, and parts of the yard. The routers are relatively cheap and well worth the price.

I considered getting a laptop to replace my old desktop. But considering that I wanted the most powerful \'gaming machine\' I could afford, the desktop gives me much more bang for the buck.

Good luck.

 

[Evil Dave]

Also take a look at Alienware.
I had a friend with an Alienware and it was nice.

 

[frenchkid]

I\'d sugest taking a look at apple\'s laptop, they have some very nice, and pwerfull laptops. And they\'re good looking on top of that
As for mp3, well I have an ipod and I must say it\'s great. Exellent sound quality, good looking, not too big, 20gb of musique and a good deal of goodies that go with it

 

[Evil Bryan]

In order to provide laptop advice, it\'s important to understand what the laptop is being used for. The laptop you have listed is great for certain applications, but if you have a need that won\'t be filled by that choice then it becomes a pretty expensive lesson.

Here is a quick way to identify if this laptop will serve your needs:

Name the Top 3 things you will do with your laptop?

Name the Top 3 qualities you want your new laptop to have?

That information will make providing advice much easier.

 

[Zora]

Vike...

You\'ve been happy with Dell?

We\'ve got 2 PCs by them, and while I like their product, their service has me really rankled.

If you\'re ONE DAY late with a payment, you get upwards of 6 phone calls...drove me nuts!

In fact, I just paid both accounts off on Friday, and they called no less than 15 times Friday and Saturday, telling me that I needed to pay the $57 late payment. The guy did not understand that I paid the ENTIRE balance on both accounts the previous day. He said I still owed the $57 payment.

WTF? Normally, I\'m the more diplomatic and calm of my wife and I, but I almost lost it at that one!:bouncy:

 

[Legacy Account]

256mb for music is sod all....

As for the laptop, get the cheapest one that\'ll do what you need it to. PC\'s are a con at the best of times, but they really do nail you with laptops. It\'ll be next to useless in 2-3 years time anyway!

 

[dauber22]

I\'m with Zora. Dell makes good products, but there service reminds me of a Jack Nicholson movie and it\'s title line: \"What if this is as good as it gets?\" Here at work, we are actually considered a distributor for them - we occassionally sell a Dell computer system with our heart monitors - and it\'s been known to take close to 2 hours to get through for service! :flame:

 

[Itchy]

Well... the main reason for a laptop instead of a desktop is because i do hobby robotics, so it\'s nice to have a portable machine to code from anywhere. That, and film editing and music.
Ummm... Top 3 qualities i quess would be battery life, light weight and good build in speakers.

The only reason i\'m getting the 256MB MP3 player is \'cause it\'s for riding my bike and work (10 hour shifts ). 512MB is overkill plus i\'ve read their battery door has troubles staying closed.???

Thanks for the advice everyone

 

[MarkusTay]

My mother-in-law bought a Dell and she was very happy with it.

I, on the otherhand, bought a Gateway around the same time (I was too busy to build myself one at the time). The Mouse broke the first week, the keyboard broke the first month, and the CD drive crapped out within the first three months. I only used it for 6 months before I gave it to my son. I paid it off early just because looking at the bill every month made me sick. A very nice young lady called me a short time later and informed me that they were raising my credit limit by $3000 for such prompt payment. I informed her that I had already cut-up my Gateway credit card. When she asked me why, I told her about all the problems I had. After I finished with my long list of complaints she asked \"would you like us to send you a new card with the catalogue we are sending so you can purchase a new one?\"

Say what!? ???

I gave her a long and painful description of what she should do with her computers. I never did get another call from them.

 

[Evil Bryan]

With lots of Dell experience, I can safely say that they are not a bad choice for your purchase. They offer quality products, but offer \'hit or miss\' support.

With your needs in mind, I would probably recommend a similar laptop. If I was spending $1800, I think I could get a better bang for my buck. Take a look at the Portable One MX. It comes in at the same price with more features. My two favorite are the carbon fiber constructed body and 14\" screen. Getting the larger screen with the weight under 5 lbs. is a bonus. Add the built in Firewire, Windows XP Pro, faster processor, larger hard drive and hot swap bays; I don\'t think you can go wrong.

 

[frenchkid]

Originally posted by Itchy
Well... the main reason for a laptop instead of a desktop is because i do hobby robotics, so it\'s nice to have a portable machine to code from anywhere. That, and film editing and music.

Film editing and music editing are two fields in wich macs rule. Actually all studios ( musique and film) use mac for their editing. Plus if you only want to do some simple editing imovie is great. For the mor extensive editing final cut pro works great, just a bit hard to learn
Oh and with 10 hour shift you\'ll be hearing the same song often with 256 mb, that\'s about 64 songs so some where around 3 1/2 hours of musique.

 

[Itchy]

Well... a mac would be good for my movies, but do macs have any code for robots??? Everything i\'ve ever used is C based.

So stick with Dell... just a different style? i\'ll check out and play around with the Portable One MX. Thanks

Oh, and the iRiver i got can line-in encrypt to the open source OGG file type which is supposed to be a little over twice as good as compressing music files than MP3 format but without compensating quality. We\'ll find out and if it\'s too small i can return it and upgrade to 512 or 1Gig or higher within 30 days. But thanks for the heads up FK.

Thanks again for all the help everyone