Do you exclusively use a laptop? [Archive]

goraman

17-01-2011, 17:54

Due to space I only have a 15.4 laptop as a computer,I have spent alot of time sorting it out to get the most out of it. I just replaced the old 6 cell battery from 08 with a new 9 cell. This thing runs nearly all day now.
Ion batterys are new to me how often should they be replaced?

I have got the start up time down to 35 sec. and shut down is 14 sec.
Not bad for windows 7.

I belive it is running the max speed of the hard drive 5400 rpm.in most apps.

I am looking at the new Lenovo ThinkPads anyone use em?

I'm just looking to improve preformance a little and I don't think there is much more I can do with this 3 year old 2.0 Toshiba.

Reid Malenfant

17-01-2011, 18:01

Try sticking a 7200RPM HDD in it & tell me the same thing :eyebrows: I think you'd be surprised at the difference in performance ;)

Ali Tait

17-01-2011, 18:13

Yep, I use a 17" Sony Vaio my other half got me for Christmas to stop me using the netbook I bought her a couple of years ago. Has i5 quad processor and 6 gig of RAM.Me like!

MartinT

17-01-2011, 18:19

Seconded about the 7200rpm disk (although it'll hurt battery life a little), and check that you have AHCI enabled in the BIOS and the Intel AHCI driver installed in the IDE drivers section. This enables NCQ (Native Command Queuing) and makes a modern hard disk go even quicker.

Mr Pig

17-01-2011, 18:20

I use a FujitsuSiemans 17'' laptop. It's rubbish! Always has been slow to do anything, battery is hopeless and the wireless card plays up.

My wife and son have Dell laptops and both have been first class. My daughter has an HP and it has been faultless too. My other son has a PC built up to his spec.

goraman

17-01-2011, 18:20

I think I will go with a faster hard drive,I just hate the idea of reloading all my software drivers and 1000 CD's .I already have 250 gigs of software and music. They make a Seagate 500 gig. with 4 gigs solid state to speed your operating system.
I went with this drive because it holds 640gigs. I can keep it as a back up.

http://www.frys.com/product/6320511?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
LOOK ABOVE^

MartinT

18-01-2011, 06:47

I am looking at the new Lenovo ThinkPads anyone use em?

Sorry Jeff, I missed this at first. Yes, I buy Lenovo laptops for all our staff. The cheaper G550s are great value for money and as you go up the range they are built like the old IBM branded Thinkpads and are very sturdy.

Most importantly, all drivers are available and we have no problems configuring even older Lenovos for Windows 7. They take standard RAM too.

Alex_UK

18-01-2011, 07:36

Lenovo ThinkPads are fab! My company used to use them, but we got taken over and the new firm doesn't buy them, but there are still loads in service that are 5+ years old. Historical driver support as Martin eludes to is brilliant on the Lenovo website, and they are very tough and reliable. Martin will hate me for saying this, but the only laptop I've had through my hands either at home or work (all sorts - HPs, Dells, Toshiba, Packard Bell, Acer (crap)) - that I prefer to a Lenovo is my Sony Vaio... ;)

MartinT

18-01-2011, 08:29

Martin will hate me for saying this, but the only laptop I've had through my hands either at home or work (all sorts - HPs, Dells, Toshiba, Packard Bell, Acer (crap)) - that I prefer to a Lenovo is my Sony Vaio... ;)

LOL - each to their own, Alex. My heart does sink when a student brings me a broken Sony only because their parts support, availability and prices are terrible. If you have a working one, then I guess you'll never see the problem :)

Alex_UK

18-01-2011, 08:34

If you have a working one, then I guess you'll never see the problem :)

So far, so good (that's torn it!) - main reason I went for it and love it is the screen and blu-ray drive - but then Sony should know a thing or two about making those!

Ali Tait

18-01-2011, 08:46

Yep, must say I'm very happy with mine. Have a warranty on it too,so it won't cost me anything if it goes wrong.

slate

18-01-2011, 09:37

I bought a Vaio F12M last summer and replaced the harddrive with a Vertex II 120 GB SSD drive. I burnt the 3 recovery disks and restoring was easy.

It is my first Vaio and so far I like it; during light use I do not hear any fans at all. CPU temps are low so the fan must be running.

I was searching for high resolution and blu-ray drive and around here nothing came near in term of price. HP and Dell was minimum 30% up.

I second Alex_UK about the screen; it is amazing however highly reflective.

I have no experience with Lenovo; but at work I have had HP laptops from their Elitebook series. The only problems I had with my lastest was a battery replacement and 2 times dust cleaning during the 2½ years... a NW8440 if I recall.

I second MartinT configuration tips and raise with:

SSD tips
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3116/tweaktown_s_solid_state_drive_optimization_guide/index.html

Latest RST drivers from Intel
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Chipsets&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Rapid+Storage+Technolog y+(Intel%c2%ae+RST)

goraman

20-01-2011, 12:40

Mabey in a faster laptop,I belive this 3 year old prossesser 2.0 to be to slow for that kind of upgrade. Thanks Jan, mabey on the next one.

Haselsh1

21-01-2011, 12:16

I built my last PC and it used a Western Digital 10,000rpm Raptor hard drive which was absolutely astonishing. The boot up speed was amazing. It eventually destroyed itself.

MartinT

21-01-2011, 12:36

I built my last PC and it used a Western Digital 10,000rpm Raptor hard drive which was absolutely astonishing. The boot up speed was amazing. It eventually destroyed itself.

Don't say that! I have a 10k rpm Velociraptor in my work machine, together with quad-core processor, 8GB RAM and W7-64. It certainly doesn't hang about.

slate

21-01-2011, 13:19

Off topic

As the defacto IT guy for my parents, sister, brother, uncle, etc.... there are a couple of tools that are permanent on my USB keychain:
- CCleaner
- Avast / Microsoft Security Essentials
- Total Commander
- TeamViewer
- ...

A tool that could find its way in near future: Soluto.com

It is still beta; a new build promised in a near future... but I have had various builds running on my stationary for the last 6 months and it looks very promising.

It analyse all running processes and divide them into 3 catagoris:
- No brainer
- Potentional removable
- Required

Then you can consider if the process is wanted, to be postponed or unwanted... and you can see what other users did.
So no more googling around to find out what all the various processes do.

Video: http://vimeo.com/11952424

A similar tool for drivers, that I have been using lately, is DriverEasy which helps you find latest drivers for your PC. As a non-subscriber downloads are slow. However I have found that it also promotes beta versions; it would be nice if the tool provided some information so that could be avoided.
So close, but not recommended for now.

jbloggs

22-01-2011, 21:31

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop a couple of years ago and upgraded the ram to 4GB and Hitachi 250GB HDD to a 250GB WD Scorpio Black 7200rpm HDD, have Vista HP installed on it, but only use it when I might go away somewhere, or to run the odd task I can't run on Win 7, or to use with Skype (and webcam)...

My main comp, is an Intel Core i7 930 @4.2GHz setup, with 6GB ram, an 80GB Intel X25-M G2 SSD (running Win 7 (64bit) with 2 HDD's (7200rpm) for backup/storage, do quite a bit of video encoding, so this copes very well with that...

Have a 2nd desktop, an Intel Core i5 750 @4.1GHz, with 4GB ram, 80GB Intel X25-M G2 (also with Win 7 (64bit) with a few large HDDs for backups, use this one for gaming, running a couple of TV cards (freeview and freesat) and a few other odds and sods...

Also have a WHS box (Windows Home Server) for backups and storage for music, films, photos, comps...

And lastly my small file server (Intel Celeron 2.2GHz (skt478), with 1GB ram), running windows XP which feeds my SqueezeBox Touch...

goraman

23-01-2011, 04:02

Lap tops are getting closer to desk tops in specs,If you want a laptop in the $5,000.00 to $6,000,000 range.
I like the Lenovo Think Pad T4 series in the 1,200.00+ range but I'm going to wait awhile as my Toshiba is loaded up and running very well now.
http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T410-Review/

I don't do high rez video editing (at most MPEG stuff from our compact digital cameras).
No big video games,mostly just itunes,windows office,photo editing,email and web surfing.
So a 2.0 prosseser with 4 gigs of 800mhz. ram and a 640 gig,5400rpm hard drive and X1250 ATI graffix with 128 MB shared memory and a 9 cell battery,15.4 inch screen will just have to do till at least next year,then I'll go shopping.

goraman

23-01-2011, 19:19

I can't do this now,money is tight but wow!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Thinkpad-W510-i7-820QM-16GB-Full-HD-Multi-Touch-NEW_W0QQitemZ170594061330QQcategoryZ177QQcmdZViewI temQQ_trksidZp5197.m410QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DRPSI%26i tu%3DUCP%252BUA%252BMAGEXP%26otn%3D10%26po%3DLPV%2 6ps%3D63%26clkid%3D6576595959150211726

Reid Malenfant

23-01-2011, 19:22

goraman

23-01-2011, 19:34

Yeah that is some spec isn't it :eek:

16Gb of ram :wow:
Yah,the thing I like about the think pads is the construction,as the #1 killer of laptops is being dropped.I have never dropped my old Toshiba but just a little ruff slamming of the lid has killed my web cam.
My little 1 1/2 year old son has also caused me to rebuild the power jack and replace a power cord.

I have recently put more money into this one than it is now worth so my wife would kill me if I got a new one.
I'm hopeing next year money will be a little better and Conner will be a little older and less curiuos about the computer.

The Lenovo T4 and T5 uses very strong cases or outer shells and a titanum inner roll cage to protect the mother board from damage,there boards are also much better made than most so they will take a beating but you do pay a preamium for them.

Jac Hawk

23-01-2011, 19:40

LOL - each to their own, Alex. My heart does sink when a student brings me a broken Sony only because their parts support, availability and prices are terrible. If you have a working one, then I guess you'll never see the problem :)

Wouldn't touch another Sony with a very long stick, as you say the parts cost a fortune and in my opinion are no better built than any other laptop, to be honnest they all (the manufacturers) use the same chipsets, motherboards, HDD etc. so in my opinion why pay top dollar for the name and a nicer looking box that in the end will cost a fortune to repair if it goes wrong, personally i have used Acers for about 4 years now and find them (laptop and desktop) well made easy and cheap to fix if for instance you spill larger on the keyboard you can get a replacement keyboard for £20 delivered, a sony one if you could get it would cost near to £100. i rest my case :)

Reid Malenfant

23-01-2011, 19:45

goraman

23-01-2011, 19:48

Wouldn't touch another Sony with a very long stick, as you say the parts cost a fortune and in my opinion are no better built than any other laptop, to be honnest they all (the manufacturers) use the same chipsets, motherboards, HDD etc. so in my opinion why pay top dollar for the name and a nicer looking box that in the end will cost a fortune to repair if it goes wrong, personally i have used Acers for about 4 years now and find them (laptop and desktop) well made easy and cheap to fix if for instance you spill larger on the keyboard you can get a replacement keyboard for £20 delivered, a sony one if you could get it would cost near to £100. i rest my case :)

I know someone who has 2 Sony's that won't power up.
Never dropped,they just stopped working one in the middle of retreveing an email and one just wouldn't power up after a all night chargeing.

The mom bought a Vaio for each of her daughters,one almost lasted 2 years.

goraman

23-01-2011, 20:01

I understand Jeff, i picked up a high quality old laptop off of a member on here recently. Not a spec that'd put a candle to that Lenovo but just what i wanted ;) Same screen resolution (1920 x 1200), 2Gb of ram (this machine has 500Mb :eyebrows:) a seperate video card with DVI out (convertable to HDMI but with no sound) etc etc. Just about the best that you'll get for an XP period laptop, it was £2500 new or if you like nigh on $4000 :eek:

It'll shut me up for ages now i have installed a 7200RPM HDD, after all the machine i'm using now is at least 5 years old & still going strong :lol:
It's always best to get something that is made well.

I may upgrade the speed of the drive some day but I would rather wait till I get a new laptop before doing much more to it.
A little faster drive won't make that much difference,and my next move is to get a T4,smaller in size than a T5 with longer battery life, the i5 is actualy a newer prosseser than the i7 is almost as fast but battery life is far better.
I don't want a laptop that after 6 to 8 months of useing the battery the life drops to an hour! or 1.5 hours if your lucky.
The T4's last way longer are more portable and can last over 4 hours,when new just short of 8 hours.
The i7 is far better in a desk top unless batterys improve soon.

Reid Malenfant

23-01-2011, 20:04

Battery this way is still good for over an hour - & it's the original :eyebrows: 5 years old or more... :scratch:

goraman

23-01-2011, 20:11

Battery this way is still good for over an hour - & it's the original :eyebrows: 5 years old or more... :scratch:
If you look on ebay there are good deals on new batterys,I just stepped up from a 6 cell to a 9 cell with proper settings I can run for a full 8 hour shift.
It will slowly drop off after 6 months to a year but thats what batterys do.
They seem to go for years with out changeing after that though untill they are ready to die compleatly.
If you notice your battery getting hot when chargeing,or the wire on the charger getting hot replace it soon as they can catch fire when they fail.

DSJR

23-01-2011, 20:23

My laptops are old RM NB3000's, which are Athlon(LV+) XP versions of the old Amilo EL. Plastics are very frail, but so many of these were used in schools in the mid noughties there are still plenty of spares. My personal one has a 2400+ CPU and runs XP Pro very well. Only the failure of an Infineon 512MB card caused my recent woes as I transferred it over to the standby laptop when the first one failed. Took me a week to find and deal with :steam:

For the few of us unable to afford the "next big thing," I'd advise looking on the likes of fleabay for popular used models where spares are readily available. These ones I have are fast enough for what I need (internet trawling mostly - ahem), but i can see the day when I may become more ambitious in a streaming sense and shall want a machine with digital output for audio.

goraman

23-01-2011, 20:26

This stuff blows my mind.
http://www.frys.com/product/5982934

Even more amazing!
http://www.frys.com/product/6197469?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

The solid state memory dosen't live long though it would be E 1,600.00 in the UK and will last around 2 years with daily use if your lucky before failure.
I hope the next big thing is improved life of solid state memory in flash drives.

Anyone else here using the memory boost feature,in Vista or 7.
I set up a 2 gig. SD card to help with random memory tasks,I haven't noticed much difference but will see.

goraman

25-01-2011, 03:29

This is the one I want but with at 16 gigs of ram and a 500 gig seagate momentus hard drive added,and mabey the larger battery.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T410s-14-1-Intel-i5-560M-3-2Ghz-4GB-/300517082240?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item45f836c480