New Laptop

[Gregg Bolinger]

I just got my new Laptop!! Just had to tell someone. I am really excited.
"Dude, I got a dell."
Ok, that Dell kid sucks. But the Laptop is nice.
Wow, actual meaningless drivel in the MD forum. Cool.

[Cindy Glass]

Congrats!! Yeah - we got a Dell this time too. That was about 4 months ago, but it still FEELS new .

[Pranav Jaidka]

Guys
Im thinking of buying a laptop....im kind of confused between the VAIO and the DELL inspirons .The sony's are a bit expensive for me ...but wont mind spending some extra cash if there are any distinct advantages.
What made you go for the Dell...and whats a good enough configutation ??

[Cindy Glass]

Stevie .
Oh yeah - and my husband said that it was the best value. It was his turn to do the research - so I just believed him .

[Gregg Bolinger]

Originally posted by Pranav Jaidka:
Guys
Im thinking of buying a laptop....im kind of confused between the VAIO and the DELL inspirons .The sony's are a bit expensive for me ...but wont mind spending some extra cash if there are any distinct advantages.
What made you go for the Dell...and whats a good enough configutation ??

I don't know much about the Sony laptops. But what I do know is pretty much everyone uses the same components inside the laptops, it's just a different case on the outside.
As far as a good configuration? That all depends on what you want to do. Here are the specs on what I got
Pentium 4 1.7 GHz
40 gig HD 5400 RPM (fast for a laptop)
256 MB DDR RAM
64 MB DDR nVidia GeForce4 ToGO (res up to 1400x1050)
DVD/CD-RW combo drive
Floppy drive (typical)
15 inch SXGA+ Screen
FireWire 1394
Built in Ethernet
Built in 56 K modem
Touch Pad and Stick mouse controls
2 USB
2 PCMCIA
Crystal Dobly 7.1 Sound card
S-Video Out
IR
Docking Capable (big waste in my opinion)
Paralell port
Serial Port
Keyboard/Mouse port
External Monitor port
What I use it for
Development - mainly JAVA
Office software
Web Development
Portable DVD Player
And a slew of miscelanious other crap.

[Brian Glodde]

I've owned a VAIO and now own a Dell. It's the best laptop I've ever used...could easily replace my desktop. I would recommend the Dell over a Sony just for the video/display alone.

[Gregg Bolinger]

Interesting Brian. Is it that Sony doesn't offer a comparable display or is it just because the Dell you now have is newer than the Sony?

[Pranav Jaidka]

I thought VAIO was something like "Video Audio Integrated Output " or something like that......and thought Sony was better.....
I was inclined towards the SONY but looking at what people have to say .......im kind of thinking about the DELL now.........too bad they dont offer it in stores where I can go and have a look myself.

[Jim Yingst]

I just picked up a VAIO myself, which I'm quite happy with. I didn't really compare to Dell though, since I seeded a new machine rather abruptly and urgently, and couldn't afford to wait for shipping. And it is nice to be able to go into a store and see the model yourself.
The downside is, I got myself more computer than I really need, so now I need to go find some good games to take better advantage of my new system.

[Gregg Bolinger]

Jim, if you don't mind, how does yours compare to mine from the listed specs above and how much did you pay?
I payed around 2200 for what you see listed. I bought some accessories that pushed it over 2600 a little, but for what I have listed, about 2200.

[Jim Yingst]

Lessee... I paid $1950 for a PCG-GRX550 (at Fry's, not this link). The specs given at this link seem about right, except I don't have a floppy drive. :roll: Looks like yours is a little better overall except for memory. I'm fond of leaving lots of different windows open, so I actually do use the 512. Probably the SXGA+ monitor is the most notable improvement of your model over mine (which has XGA) - but for my own eyes, I wouldn't really want finer resolution unless it came on a bigger monitor (and 15" is big enough for a laptop I think).
Enjoy your new toy...

[Johannes de Jong]

Sounds like you have the newer version of the Dell Latitude C810 or the C840 Gregg
I have a C810 for about 7 months kjnow and I'm really happy with it !!!. Have fun with you new baby
ps made one BIG mistake though, to cut cost I did not take the Ethernet / Modem combination , never thought I'd need it, till we installed cable at home
[ July 03, 2002: Message edited by: Johannes de Jong ]

[Gregg Bolinger]

Congrats Tony!! Sounds like you got some power there. Hope it works out for you!!

[Tony Alicea]

I bought one last Saturday!
P4-2.0GHz
512 MB of (PC266) RAM and 40GB Hard Drive.
HP Pavillion ze5170...
CD-R/CD-RW/DVD Combo drive.
3-USB and one Firewire ports.
!!!

[Tony Alicea]

Gregg:
How come your message shows up <em>before</em> mine!?
(I paid $2100)

[Gregg Bolinger]

Well, you had posted, and then I replied, and then your post changed. You added the USB and FireWire line to your post.
I don't really know what happened. But the first time I read your post, that last line about USB and FW was not there.
Strange things are afoot at the Ranch.

[Tony Alicea]

Ah yes! I deleted the original post and added the USB/Firewire thing...

[lehmanra]

What is Dell stock selling for???

[Shawn Meyers]

Laptops are great, got me a HP omni book,, fricken great. I forget what a desktop was for by now. Why on earth do they make them so darn big?lol. I doubt that I will ever buy a desk top in the future, although those little thin Imacs are cool.And another plus, my screen is bigger than most monitor screens

[Reid M. Pinchback]

I was looking at the HPs just this weekend; my wife's boss wants to get one, so I was helping them scout out the options. The HP pavilions seem to pack a lot of value into the box. The keyboard looked decent too (I hate the keyboards on Compaq laptops; the Ctrl key is in an ergonomically dumb place).

[Tony Alicea]

Well, I am the proud owner of not-yet-two-week-old HP Pavillion ze5170.
I went to buy the previous model and was pleasantly surprised to see that they had replaced it with this model almost the day before, and at the same price!
It is a P4 2.0GHz instead of 1.5GHz and the expansion capabilities are significantly better: More PCMCIA capabilities, more USBs.
They both have one Firewire port.
It came with 512MB of PC266 RAM. The bus is 400MHz.
The native resolution of the screen which BTW looks great with 32-bit colors is 1024x768 although you can have higher with scrolling.
That's the resolution that I associate with a 17" monitors "for god's sakes!"
The hard drive is a very healthy 40 GB!!

[Shawn Meyers]

Yeah don't ya love these HP's