Thanks, Jim and Diane.
Glad I asked, 'cause last I remembered you were an HP maven, Diane. I have
very fond memories of my last Toshiba -- my T-1000 , the end of my desktop
computing career. Yipes, that was a long time ago...
Where do you get your Toshibas? From the company? From a store? And what
kind of warranty? My laptops are my work machine, so I feel very dependent
on a FAST onsite service contract, which Dell I have to say has been good
about, and reasonably good phone support. Otherwise I'm in trouble when the
computer goes. This time for once I'm deliberately getting the new one soon
enough that I'll be able to outfit the old one as a workable emergency
backup with more RAM and a bigger hard drive. But still, support is
important to my worklife, especially since laptops don't lend themselves to
do-it-yourself repairs. We've got a really fine build-to-order place here,
but they don't do laptops, alas.
This is basically a desktop replacement, but I work in libraries and two
cities. I carry it around some, but not in particularly demanding ways. It
doesn't have to be superlight. Battery life is not a primary issue. I don't
use the computer on airplanes or in cars (in the former case out of nerves;
in the former out of seasickness). So Diane's size constraints don't apply.
I don't use it for movies, so at the moment I think that the size tradeoff
for a wide screen isn't one that I want to make. I have that Tritton
adapter that lets you use an auxiliary monitor. It's not fast, but it's
very helpful if you can use the monitor for reference and the laptop screen
for work. But Jim raises an interesting question about the second screen.
Does a docking station provide an attachment for a second screen that works
as quickly as the main screen? If it does, that might tempt me.
I've got a cute little USB floppy drive, will buy an external backup hard
drive. But do need a build-in CD drive. Or DVD -- I've never had one of
those before.
Crucial is the memory supplier, right? Do they tell you how to put it in?
<blush> Hey, I know I can put it in, I just need to know where it goes...
In response to Jim's questions:
I don't use the computer for TV, movies, games, or music. 90% of the time
it's word processing -- but HEAVY word processing -- internet research, and
e-mail. I usually have four Word files, a bibliography database, and three
or four browser windows open at the same time. The other ten percent is
Front Page, graphics for my website, and fooling around (the best part!).
The computer has to be able to handle an old version of Photoshop, and
display several large directories of graphics thumbnails without crashing.
My current one can't do that -- it turns green every time it even thinks
about Photoshop. I don't really understand why, since it's only two years
old, but I guess it would like more memory and more scratch disk space.
I'm used to a touchpad and don't want a separate mouse. Don't need a
portable printer. I have an old briefcase that works fine and isn't
obviously a computer case.
I can't use a refurbished or older machine, unfortunately. The only reason
I replace my oldies at all is because I have to keep current with my
clients, so... Otherwise I'd just keep using my own old ones.
Wireless -- I don't really care as long as it works (I've had problems).
But would prefer not to have things sticking out. Will buy an external hard
drive for backup. Is firewire better than USB?
Consider
5Gb for XP
2Gb for Office
2Gb workspace for the OS installs - software temp space etc
5Gb space for a DVD 5 image
4Gb more for a DVD 9 image
1Gb workspace for each user
1GB for hibernate file
1GB for pagefile
1Gb for emails and net usage
?Gb for your data
This is helpful, thank you.
Better to have 2 partitions so that you can keep the OS one to a minimum
base OS, hiber, page workspace and user controls - Documents and
Settings/...
that means that the backup image of your partition should fit on a single
DVD
and there will be space on the other partition for that image to be created
before packing it onto a booting recovery DVD platter
This too, thanks, although my good intentions about partitioning always
come to naught :-( Maybe I can mend my ways.
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