[thelist] OT: Need a new laptop for development...

[Ken Schaefer]

Hi,

If you're doing development work you want something with a high-res screen (up to 1920x1200 if possible). At the same time, look at minimizing the physical screen size (as bigger screens = more weight)

Whilst some have recommended a Mac Book Pro (which is certainly an option), the screen resolution isn't that great. Additionally, if you need to do Windows based development (e.g. using Visual Studio.NET) then the lack of Windows keys gets annoying.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Dell has motherboard issues" - most of the parts of most of the laptops in the world come out of a handful of factories - all of them have issue :-) At the same time, Apple, HP or Dell would go out of business if they had large-scale systemic issues.

I think the key is to avoid the consumer level brands, and go for the slightly more expensive, but more robust business models.

So, avoid the Dell Inspirons (for example) and go for the Dell Latitudes instead. The build quality is better, there are a larger range of interchangeable peripherals (e.g. you can add a modular bay 2nd hard disk, or battery of whatever) and you get a 3 year onsite warranty as standard. Something like a Dell Latitude D830 would be a pretty grunty development machine.

Cheers
Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org [mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Bob Boisvert
Sent: Monday, 26 November 2007 6:58 AM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: [thelist] OT: Need a new laptop for development...

Hi All,

Sorry for the OT but I'm in a bit of a jam, my laptop that I use for
development and client meetings has been damaged and I now need to purchase
a new one.

Can anyone make a suggestion as to a good brand, excellent graphics
capability, and a work horse machine?

I was using an HP Pavilion Windows XP Pro 2.9 GHz processor with 1GB of
memory.

I'm currently quoting HP again and Dell, I have heard that Dell has
motherboard issues occasionally but I haven't experienced this.

Any suggestions would help.

Thanks,
Bob