Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm seriously contemplating getting a laptop since my computer has been pretty much monopolized by my wife...
Anyway, I'm wondering what you folks use and why.
I know there are tons of companies out there making good products, IBM, Dell, Apple, HP, Gateway etc etc,
but I'm wondering which ones offer the most bang for the buck.
I plan to use it for my business, and these are the primary applications I'll be using:
Accounting software
Website development
Shipping software
Graphics editing (Photoshop)
Possible CAD/CAM applications in the future.
I'd also like it to have as big a screen as possible so I can watch an occasional movie...

At minimum, I have to use XP Pro, or something compatable from Mac.

I'm leaning toward Dell because of my day-job's Employee Purchase plan,
but it may not save me enough to justify buying it because of Dell's terrible customer service these days.

Thoughts?

Thanks!
Don Williams38921.703587963

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I have a Dell and really like it.

I don't know if any major laptop manufacturers have decent customer service. I'm still in the Dell camp, even though their customer service is terrible now.

Make sure and get one with a separate video card and go with the best video card you can afford. When Vista comes out, the integrated video with shared memory isn't going to cut it, and even now, you'll want that for your graphics work.

Also, don't automatically assume that you're getting the best deal with an employee purchase plan. Check some of the "hot deals" forums like fatwallet.com or the one at anandtech.com for the latest deals, Dell seems to change their promotions almost daily.

If you have a Costco near you, you can get a pre-configured Dell there and then you can take advantage of Costco's liberal return policy if you should run into problems down the road. (I don't live near a Costco, that's just what I heard).

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Don I ordered this one yesterday.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Toshiba-Satellite-Notebook-PC -A105-S4114-/sem/rpsm/oid/153876/catOid/-12963/rpem/ccd/prod uctDetail.do

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Thanks Hesh
I thought the price after rebates was good too. I allready have a Toshiba but will be giving it to my wife.
I ain't sleeping on the couch.

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

[QUOTE=Bobc] Don I ordered this one yesterday.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Toshiba-Satellite-Notebook-PC -A105-S4114-/sem/rpsm/oid/153876/catOid/-12963/rpem/ccd/prod uctDetail.do[/QUOTE]
That's what i'm planing on getting. My IBM thinkpad is getting a little dated.

I'm still using the same powerbook I've had for nearly five years now. I
don't understand where claims about slow speed come from. Even my
867 G4 is faster than the brand new Dell laptop we just bought for the
evening church service I help lead. I also just finished playing a game
(the first game I've ever had actually) with all the graphic settings on the
highest value. No problems at all.

I don't use office on it, I use iWork. It consists of Pages and Keynote.
Keynote is by far the best presentation software I've ever used (I've used
Media Shout for five years as well). Pages combines word and a powerful
illustration program.

Don't worry about web development. Dreamweaver and Flash aren't
resource heavy apps. Photoshop can be, but tends not to be unless
you're using absolutely massive files. Actually, dreamweaver requires
about as much from your comp as a word processor since that's all it
really is anyway.

Here's one thing. I refuse to use Dreamweaver or Flash on a PC. The
interface is so congested, and the windows are all controled by tabs that
confuse me (especially in Flash). I don't really understand why the
programs would be designed so differently, and it has nothing to do with
a Mac vs. PC thing. It's just that Macromedia thought barf on the screen
would be easier for PC users or something. I have no idea. This is a
screenshot I took of DW on my mac: http://languagepool.net/images/
dreamweaver.jpg And this is Flash on a PC. You can't even see the
library window, which is the most frequently used thing by far: http://
www.flashmagazine.com/images/flash_pro_pc_lg.jpg

I'm not familiar with accounting software but do have Quicken. I'm not
sure where that falls in the spectrum of things.

I regularly have a web browser, flash, dreamweaver, photoshop, and an
app called cocoa mySQL open and running with no problems.

I'd like to brag that regardless of what I've put on it, my powerbook's also
never gotted bogged down or ran sludgey. And we're talking about a
nearly five year old computer that gets used nearly all day, every day.

I love my computer. It hasn't been perfect. There were some issues a few
years ago (I forgot what they were to be honest), and Apple sent me an
overnight box, then had it back to me within the week, free of charge.
Everyone gets that for a year, but you can extend it to three years if you
pay for Apple Care.

This is my honest review as a user. I'm not going to get diddly from
Apple if you buy one....but I think you will.

I should also say that the only time my computer felt slow was after I'd
used the dual G5 at school to render something.

I'm in the Mac camp too. Their new laptops have Intel processors and support chips, so they can run Mac OS X or XP. I know a couple people who have gone from XP to Mac and swear they'll never go back.

I've been responsible for two computer labs in the last ten years and have encountered one Mac virus, back in '98.

I've had no compatibility problems between the two, using standard apps like Office, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
_________________
http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I forgot to mention one other piece of information regarding my requirements. Since I'm a heavy multi-tasker, I would want whatever I get to have dual-monitor capabilities, as in be able to use two monitors at once, and drag apps & such between the two screens.

A young lady at work has a G5 or something like that which she uses for graphics applications and for her photography business, and she also raves about it.

Unfortunately for me, whatever I get has to double as an office computer (day job) should I ever need to work from home. They're not going to buy one for me, so if I want that capability, I'm on my own. What that also means is I have to have at least XP Pro's ability to handle certificates for some of the work I do, and it also needs to be able to have my office accounting software loaded as well, whcih requires XP Pro.
I have a 45 minute commute to work, and if I need to do OT, doing it from home is much more pleasant than driving in for a few hours.
I'm also used to Dell's high end 19" flat panel LCD monitor, so going real small isn't real all that enticing. I really need one of those newer 17" widescreens. My eyes stink.

Sounds like from what Hesh says, that waiting a few weeks might show the Core Duo prices coming down as the Core 2 Duo processors are hitting the market this week. Hmmm....and if I go that route, I would want to be ready for Vista as well...

Lots to think about...Don Williams38922.3829513889

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don
Dell in my mind is just a little overpriced. Here is what I recommend Compaq. Click on the link to their site I included. You can start by picking the screen size you want. Then you can go from there. You can click recommended computers or click customize. Customizing is what I would do. You can choose everything you want to add or remove and it will add it up for you right on your screen. You can choose different processors, hard drive sizes, CD DVD rom or burning drives, lots of options.
Compaq Computers

Don,
remember what Hesh said. The new Macs can have both operating
systems on them and you can boot from either, as needed. Best of both
worlds.
Craig S.

Dual monitor isn't a problem on either platform as far as I know. On
Apple, you plug it in and it's on. In windows you plug it in and got to
conrol panel, display settings, and click the extend my windows desktop
button. I usually have a second monitor hooked in when I'm working in
Flash. I like to my my actionscript window to it.

Don't you sacrifice a lot of speed with Mac when trying to run Windows apps?
How will it handle certificates from places? For instance, I deal with payroll, and have a certificate in my computer to allow access to the website.
I can't do that with XP Home Edition - need Pro. How about the Mac?
Realistically, all my apps are Windows-based. Will I then eventually have to turn around and spend a small fortune on Mac-based apps?
How about CAD/CAM software for running a cnc eventually?
These are all questions I need answers to. I'd love to have the stability of a Mac OS, but at what price?

Thanks everyone....

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I actually don't know what certificates are. My experience using windows
with a program called virtual PC was that yeah, it's slow. From what I
hear though, it will be different. The computer won't be using a program
to emulate and run windows, it will actually be starting up in Windows as
the operating system, so it won't be any slower than a PC starting up with
Windows. I don't know much about it other than that. But it is different
than the old way of using virtual PC. I would use virtual PC to use some
Bible translation software.

I don't know about CAD either.

Regarding getting new Apps, I doubt it. iWork is $75 bucks and totally
trumps Office. As an academic librarian, my mom gets me things like
Microsoft office for $20, so I could help you there. Have you already
purchased Photoshop and Dreamweaver? I guess I'm assuming you'll be
using Dreamweaver.

Don,

The beauty of the new Mac is that, inside, it's full of Intel chips. It can run Mac OS X or XP, without emulators. BootCamp simply ALLOWS Windows to boot on the Mac and provides all the XP drivers needed for the Mac hardware. There is no speed hit. It runs XP as if it were on a Dell, Compaq, Sony whatever. Ditto when running the Mac OS.

Another option with the Mac hardware is that with Parallels, you can be in the Mac OS, and hop over to XP and back without rebooting, which would mean you'd be running in the Mac OS with a possible slight speed hit though nothing like with Virtual PC, but with the ability to shoot over to XP (or Vista, I would imagine). There might be a hit with high-end graphics games and apps. If that's a factor, stick with BootCamp.

Here's a review of Parallels from a trusted source.

You wouldn't need to replace any Windows apps right off, but you could later on. In the meantime, just run your main apps in XP. The apps won't know the difference. Then if you want, sometime down the road you could switch apps to Mac-based, as funds permit.

One reality that remains though is that if you have XP apps with stability problems, they'll have the same problems on a Mac running XP. Same with malware. And you'd have to get a non-OEM license for XP with SP2.

I know, sometimes there's just too many choices.

_________________
now known around here as Pat Foster
_________________
http://www.patfosterguitars.com

So I would have to pay for a copy of XP Pro on top of the cost of the Mac? Yikes!

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don,

Yes. Apple's not going to give us a free copy of XP with every new Mac. If they did, they'd have to support it, and then we'd really be in a mess!

_________________
now known around here as Pat Foster
_________________
http://www.patfosterguitars.com

My mom's an academic librarian and gets microsoft apps for $20 because
of a setup they have with universities. I could pass it along and it would
be legal.

A computer is a computer. That's how I look at it. I prefer using a mac. I
like them better and believe they're the best on the market. I believe their
OS has been the most intuitive around for some time and that's why
Windows is making a carbon copy.

Buying software is nothing compared to buying wood, or in my case,
fonts.

A computer is a computer. I'm happy mine has held up so soundly.

Don,
you probably already own a copy of XP Pro. All you'd have to do is install
it on the new Mac.
Craig S.

No...I own a copy of XP Home Edition...which is why I can't work from home for certain things. I wish I did own it. If I could get an inexpensive upgrade, I would upgrade my current computer too. Even then, you need a license for a second computer, or another copy. I guess it's possible to use one of the office's licenses for it, but that's a grey area I'd rather not get into.

Part of my day job involves going to secure sites where I need a certificate, and you can't use those with XP Home Edition. Plus, there are the security issues should I need to connect with our office network over the internet. Not sure how a Mac and PC servers relate to each other...???

The only thing scary about a Mac is the expense. They seem to be way more money than most IBM compatibles.
Last I knew, I wasn't a wealthy guy, (and am somewhat known as a penny-pincher) so I try to find a balance between getting the features I want and paying a price that is acceptable.

I like the concept of a stable OS though, so no decisions have been made one way or the other. I've been leaning toward a Dell, but their prices just went up today. Grrrrr.....Don Williams38923.5414583333

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don,

The Macs we have in our lab and the one on my desk connect to the Windows servers all over campus. No probs, though I don't know what sort of servers and work you do. You'd need to talk to a sys admin to make sure about the certificates if you try to access in OS X. In Windows, should be fine.

It is more up front, but there's security, stability and longevity that comes back over the long term. That's been my experience. In the labs I've been connected with, we use an incredible array of software and hardware just to keep the Win side running, pumping out new virus defs, updates and new hard drive images. For the Macs, nada, except Symantec Antivirus, which has yet to report a virus in three years. We dump the Windows machines every three years, keep the Macs for five. But I hear ya on the cost. I'm a cheapskate if ever there was one and I buy my Macs used. Not an option for an Intel Mac, though. Anyway, ya gotta do what ya gotta do!

_________________
now known around here as Pat Foster
_________________
http://www.patfosterguitars.com