Time to Buy a New Laptop
So don't wait?
11-25-2006, 03:24 PM
#43
Line Holder
Joined APC: Dec 2005
Posts: 75
I just got a new computer as my Toshiba Portege (2.6 # !!!) was really slowing down - it was about 4 years old with a mighty Pentium III installed.
Purchased a HP nc6400 which is a business class machine and is not usually found in retail stores. Has a 14.7" screen, Core Duo processor and all the other usual stuff. Can be had preconfigured in a number of different ways depending on your needs. I believe there are versions available with the new Core 2 Duo as well.
It so far seems to be a resilient machine and is relatively light tipping the scales at about 4 pounds. Battery life is always about 4 hours. I got an additional battery and that can take it above 6 hours easily. It has dual pointing devices and one of the better keyboards that I have used.
What it is not is a gaming machine, the screen is not one of the new glossy ones. Those are said to give more eye strain than the matte screens.
It has all the mobile protection stuff like drive shutdown and some other stuff. It is also loaded with lots of security protection as well, far more than I need.
It also comes with a 3 year warranty which is also better than the regular retail store products.
I had toyed with getting a Mac, the thing is that those devices are highly proprietary. After my disappointment with the hemmed in functionality of the iPod, (lack of support for open source music formats) I was loath to invest in another Apple product. The bigger expense with the Mac is having to buy all new software to run on it, also I could not duplicate some of the software that I run.
I would strongly suggest checking out the HP business class notebooks. I think that they might be a bit more capable than just the consumer based stuff out there. They are purposely built to last a few more years than the regular store bought laptop.
A good source for laptop information is www.notebookreview.com
Another thing is just after I ordered the new machine I found that my firewall/anti-virus program was the major culprit in slowing down my old computer and was giving me numerous system errors so much so that I thought I was infected with viruses. I was running Zone Alarm Pro, the thing is that they changed the basic engine and that really just gummed up the works. When out on the road it is always wise to keep anti-virus programs up and running, the thing is that they can be very heavy on resources and slow down even the most powerful machines. As I was coming up on the end of my subscription period on Zone Alarm I started searching for a potential replacement.
What I found was a number of programs that accomplished the same thing as Zone Alarm Pro that are either free or cost a fraction of what Zone Alarm does. Additionally they use a fraction of the resources. Zone Alarm Pro is quite extensive in it's abilities, it is a firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware, popup and ad blocker. My machine never suffered an infection, though like I said it just really slowed the system down.
I have replaced Zone Alarm with the following:
Anti-virus: NOD32 by Eset. $39.00 a year. You can download a free demo that will run for 30 days. Purchase the license just prior to the demo expiration and you get 13 months coverage. It has the absolute lowest resource footprint available and has gotten very good reviews.
Firewall: Comodo Firewall. Free, just as good as Zone Alarm and less "chatty".
Spyware: NOD32 offers some protection, but you can also install Adaware and a number of other free programs. I also use a small program called HiJack This!, which is very effective but you have to be very careful how to use it.
Ad/Pop-up blocking: Most browsers will now automatically block pop-ups. For browsers I use Firefox and Opera. You can add Ad Blocker Plus to Firefox and it will block just about all ads. Opera requires a bit more work but can be rigged to block ads as well.
All this made my old machine run much better than when it was suffering under the burden of the now bloated Zone Alarm Pro. I almost could have gotten away for another year or two on the old notebook.
I use TuneUp Utilities 2006 and jv16 powertools to keep the registry cleaned out and keep everything running smoothly. TuneUp Utilities will also give you tools/options to set your machine up for the most optimum operation. Another benefit is that it also gives you the ability to run different themes so you can get rid of that regular ugly Windows interface for something more aesthetically appealing.
On a side note; the newest version of Firefox has a spell checker built in that will red underline suspect misspellings in forum editors like the one's employed here. Just right click on the underlined word and a number of different options with be displayed.
Good Luck To Us All!
Purchased a HP nc6400 which is a business class machine and is not usually found in retail stores. Has a 14.7" screen, Core Duo processor and all the other usual stuff. Can be had preconfigured in a number of different ways depending on your needs. I believe there are versions available with the new Core 2 Duo as well.
It so far seems to be a resilient machine and is relatively light tipping the scales at about 4 pounds. Battery life is always about 4 hours. I got an additional battery and that can take it above 6 hours easily. It has dual pointing devices and one of the better keyboards that I have used.
What it is not is a gaming machine, the screen is not one of the new glossy ones. Those are said to give more eye strain than the matte screens.
It has all the mobile protection stuff like drive shutdown and some other stuff. It is also loaded with lots of security protection as well, far more than I need.
It also comes with a 3 year warranty which is also better than the regular retail store products.
I had toyed with getting a Mac, the thing is that those devices are highly proprietary. After my disappointment with the hemmed in functionality of the iPod, (lack of support for open source music formats) I was loath to invest in another Apple product. The bigger expense with the Mac is having to buy all new software to run on it, also I could not duplicate some of the software that I run.
I would strongly suggest checking out the HP business class notebooks. I think that they might be a bit more capable than just the consumer based stuff out there. They are purposely built to last a few more years than the regular store bought laptop.
A good source for laptop information is www.notebookreview.com
Another thing is just after I ordered the new machine I found that my firewall/anti-virus program was the major culprit in slowing down my old computer and was giving me numerous system errors so much so that I thought I was infected with viruses. I was running Zone Alarm Pro, the thing is that they changed the basic engine and that really just gummed up the works. When out on the road it is always wise to keep anti-virus programs up and running, the thing is that they can be very heavy on resources and slow down even the most powerful machines. As I was coming up on the end of my subscription period on Zone Alarm I started searching for a potential replacement.
What I found was a number of programs that accomplished the same thing as Zone Alarm Pro that are either free or cost a fraction of what Zone Alarm does. Additionally they use a fraction of the resources. Zone Alarm Pro is quite extensive in it's abilities, it is a firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware, popup and ad blocker. My machine never suffered an infection, though like I said it just really slowed the system down.
I have replaced Zone Alarm with the following:
Anti-virus: NOD32 by Eset. $39.00 a year. You can download a free demo that will run for 30 days. Purchase the license just prior to the demo expiration and you get 13 months coverage. It has the absolute lowest resource footprint available and has gotten very good reviews.
Firewall: Comodo Firewall. Free, just as good as Zone Alarm and less "chatty".
Spyware: NOD32 offers some protection, but you can also install Adaware and a number of other free programs. I also use a small program called HiJack This!, which is very effective but you have to be very careful how to use it.
Ad/Pop-up blocking: Most browsers will now automatically block pop-ups. For browsers I use Firefox and Opera. You can add Ad Blocker Plus to Firefox and it will block just about all ads. Opera requires a bit more work but can be rigged to block ads as well.
All this made my old machine run much better than when it was suffering under the burden of the now bloated Zone Alarm Pro. I almost could have gotten away for another year or two on the old notebook.
I use TuneUp Utilities 2006 and jv16 powertools to keep the registry cleaned out and keep everything running smoothly. TuneUp Utilities will also give you tools/options to set your machine up for the most optimum operation. Another benefit is that it also gives you the ability to run different themes so you can get rid of that regular ugly Windows interface for something more aesthetically appealing.
On a side note; the newest version of Firefox has a spell checker built in that will red underline suspect misspellings in forum editors like the one's employed here. Just right click on the underlined word and a number of different options with be displayed.
Good Luck To Us All!
Last edited by FearlessFreep; 11-25-2006 at 03:36 PM.
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