Plans! [elanya]

Tonight is Exia night. Tomorrow I have to leave extra early to go out to the airport. My grandmother is picking me up at the airport. Apart from that, I have *no* idea what is going on. I was hoping my dad would e-mail me back but I haven't heard anything! :( I have to call him tonight, one way or another. It would help if I actually had a phone -_- I may resolve that issue today though - I am about to go out and try to buy one, whee!

I am trying to figure out what to do about games and such while I am (even more) on the road. I figure that if I am not actually in F'ton, it will probably be decently easy to arrange. If I am in F'ton by friday, then I can play FK at cat's computer, since we are doing solos, if that is okay with Cat. I will have to see about Exia. At somepoint, hopefully I will get my very own shiny computer. I'm still looking for advice on laptops in particular.

I've been told not to get Dells, because people just don't like they. I know that they are not easily upgradeable, but I didn't really think that most laptops were upgradeable at all, so is this really an issue? Is there some other reason that I should not get one? I have heard that their customer servise is terrible, but also that it is good - it probably depends as much on the agent as anything. Anyone else want to weigh in? I'm kind of leaning this way because it is an easy option.

Here is what I am looking for in a laptop:

I want it to be something I can take pretty much anywhere (internationally) and still use.
It needs to be able to handle my (fairly basic) softwaree need - firefox, itunes, mIRC, Word, some other fairly small programs.
I want it to have a fairly large hard drive (At least 80 gigs).
I want to be able to watch and burn dvds and cds (fairly straightforward these days).

So I don't need anything stupid fancy. A big screen would be nice but isn't *essential*. I do't need a super huge graphics card, but good sound quality would be a boon.

So what do my experts think?

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I'm not really an expert, but my experience with older Dell laptops is that you'll probably spend more time on hold waiting for support trying to get them to fix it than you'll ever spend actually using it... at least that is what it was like a few years ago. I would hope their newer laptops are better. Unfortunately, you can't really beat their prices, just make sure you really read the fine print in features though, Dell has a habit of really accenting all the good things a computer has, and neglecting to mention that it doesn't come with, oh, a battery recharger, or something stupid like that. :)

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I have a Dell Inspiron 700, and I bought it for many of the same reasons as you are looking for one. It is very small and lightweight, so it's nice to travel with. It can handle all the basic stuff, and some older or less technically advanced games (I can run Sims 2 on it, although the graphics ain't so pretty). It has an 80 GB hard drive. I only opted for a DVD player, not a burner, because I didn't think I'b be burning too many DVDs (and I was right), but I remember there was an option for a DVD burner as well, for a little extra.

I bought a separate adapter for using it in GB at Radio Shack, it worked fine when I was visiting Hazel last year.

The sound seems to be pretty good, but it does not have a big screen, because it is such a compact laptop. Still, the screen is good enough for watching movies on long airplane trips. :)

The only complaint I have about Dell so far is all the extra software they load on to their computers. Some of it hard or impossible to uninstall, so it's just taking up space.

Dell is one way to go, but not if you're especially looking for good sound quality. If you want that, you'll have to look in brick and morter retailers like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. Look at laptops featuring Harmon Kardon speakers. Currently, I think HP and Toshiba carry them, though Toshiba has a much bigger lineup. The other specs you're asking for are pretty standard, although one thing I would definitely look for in a new notebook is the Core Duo processor. They're the first dual-core CPUs for notebooks, and they blow everything else out of the water performance-wise. Go to a store, see what's available, and then make a descision based off of what you're willing to spend.

Thanks, I will see about doing that while I'm in NB :)

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bon voyage!
;0)

The best notebooks IMHO are Apple, the new Intel MacBooks (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/canadastore.woa/wo/0.RSLID?mco=2D3AC798&nclm=MacBook) and MacBook Pros (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/canadastore.woa/wo/0.RSLID?mco=2BF7FB2D&nclm=MacBookPro) are beautiful and will run both OPSX (the Apple OS) and Windows XP. Unfortunately, they are quite a bit more expensive that your run of the mill notebooks.

The notebook I currently have (and the one I had previous to this one) is a Toshiba, which I am very happy with. The battery life when I first bought this machine was close to 4 hours. Mind you after two years it's lifespan has been reduced to 15 minutes but such is the nature of notebook batteries.

I'm not really much of a DELL fan myself but if the reason they're attractive to you is the low monthly payment than that might be worthwhile. If you are going to buy a notebook outright then I recommend that you get it at Staples. They have the best extended warranty of all the big box stores and it even includes battery replacement (which I need to take advantage of).

Brand preference aside, what you should be looking for is either a centrino or intel duo core notebook with at least 1GB worth of ram, a dvd-burner and a decent size hard drive. You should avoid Pentium 4 notebooks (if they even make them anymore) because they are power-pigs.

elanya

Plans!

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Notebooks, notebooks...

May