Picking a laptop, close to final decision

Subject: Picking a laptop, close to final decision
From: "Hemstreet, Deborah" <DHemstreet -at- kaydon -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 08:58:17 -0400

Hi Everyone,

Based on the input from everyone, and a long time of research on the
Internet, I'm close to the following decision:

Dell Vostro 1500
Intel Core 2 Duo T5270 (1.4GHz/700 Mgz FSB/2MB Cache)
XP Professional
15.4" Wide Screen XGA LCD (TrueLife)
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2
160GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive, 7200 RPM
Integrated 10/100 network card/modem
Dell wireless 1395 802.11 g Wi-Fi Internal card
Dell wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal for WinXP


I spent quite a while on Newegg but could not find anything that matched
the price currently being offered by Dell for equivalent features.

Since the main complaints I found about Dell were service-related, and
my personal experience with ALL my past laptops is that service is a
pain, I am hoping not to get a defective new machine.

Major considerations that you all helped me to look at were the speed of
the hard drive, memory, and screen quality. (Still not sure about the
True Life vs antiGlare, but TrueLife seems to give better resolution and
I don't mind the small text...)

In doing research on the reviews of the Vostro, main complaints were
weight and stiff keyboard... Since I like a stiff keyboard, that won't
be a problem. When I travel, I tend to pack any extra cards, cords, etc.
in my suitcase, and I make sure that my travel bag is on wheels, so I
don't anticipate a major weight problem...

Since I rarely work off of batteries (again, a habit gained from
historically not having decent batteries anyway...), this is not a major
issue either.

In the end, I would have liked to get a something a bit lighter weight
of same quality, but the cost difference put it out of my capabilities
for now. Likewise, if I could have chosen anything, I would have
preferred a MacIntosh with a Windows XP partition, as I have a great
Mac-only program that I have to run on a Mac-simulator at present... But
them's the breaks... Until Macs get into a competitive price market, a
lot of us won't be able to get them...

Thanks again for your input,

I will only do the purchase this evening or tomorrow morning, so if you
have any last minute considerations, don't hesitated to let me know.

And I hope this discussion will be helpful to others like me, who work
with a computer every day and know far less about them than we should...


On an aside, they should give a course to technical
writers/communicators/authors when we study, about computers and how we
can understand them etc... Something I could have benefitted from when I
did my MA... Ah well...

Deborah

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