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Helping out the Profs

post #1 of 15
1/24/05 at 9:04pm
Thread Starter 
My science department is looking to buy 3 new lappies. I'm thinking 14.1" at SXGA+ or so, 1.5 GHz Dohan, HD unimportant, 512 of RAM or so, and CD-RW is a must. Size isn't all-important, but they're upgrading from 12.1's, so they might complain if it's really bulky. Nothing too fancy. Unfortunately, I eliminated everything under 15" from all my searching before I found this one (see sig), so I'm fairly ignorant. I'm thinking maybe a Chembook, but the CL56 is too big of a screen.
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post #2 of 15
1/24/05 at 9:26pm
The problem is that if you have a screen size of less than 15" it is often hard to get better resolution than XGA. There are certainly laptops that have it (Dell Latitude, for one), but your options are generally much better with a 15" screen. I still have a hard time understanding why anyone would want a 15" laptop with an XGA screen, but there are an awful lot of them out there...
If these laptops are going to be used for editing code at all, the bigger screen size (resolution-wise, I mean) is crucial. Having tried to do it on a 1024x768 notebook was an exercise in frustration. On the other hand, if they were used to 12.1"...

Anyway, if you could give some more specific requirements (what were their old laptops?) it would be easier to give suggestions, since there are a host of options out there.
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post #3 of 15
1/24/05 at 9:26pm
check out the college thread, all college related suggestions are there
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post #4 of 15
1/24/05 at 9:46pm
Thread Starter 
This is High School, not college.

They're upgrading from 3-yr-old IBM I-Series with P3's.
The main specs are the above. The only other thing is the price; we're shooting for around $1000.

The teachers themselves are looking at P3-M, and I really want to save them from themselves, as they're anticipating using these for at least 3 hrs at a time unplugged, and would otherwise be installing wireless PCMCIA cards.
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post #5 of 15
1/24/05 at 10:12pm
14" twinheads might put you at $1000, with Pentium M cpu, 14.1" XGA, wireless.

otherwise, looks like you'll have to go dell or toshiba.
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post #6 of 15
1/24/05 at 10:21pm
Dell 600m. Firstly schools often get discounts for Dells. And the 600m sounds like a winner for your school. You have alot of options with it. Pentium-M or Celeron if they need to be cheaper. XGA or SXGA+ display. The 32 MB Videocard would be fine. Harddrive is anywhere form 30 GBs to 80 GBs. And Ram is available anywhere from 256 MBs to 2 GBs, of course 512 MBs is available, and I dont think high schools would be upgrading so get the 512 MBs (256x2) because it is cheaper than the 512 MB (512x1). The 600m also isn't that heavy or big. A CD-RW is an add-on.
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post #7 of 15
1/24/05 at 11:08pm
Have you considered the Apple ibook? They have a 14" screen (1024x768). Good battery life, stable, etc ... and can be bought for around a thousand.

-Frank
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post #8 of 15
1/24/05 at 11:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankTDouglas
Have you considered the Apple ibook? They have a 14" screen (1024x768). Good battery life, stable, etc ... and can be bought for around a thousand.

-Frank

That would be good if his school uses Macs, if not then a Windows based lappy. Having a switch from Windows to Mac would be cheap like you said, but they would have to buy lots of software, I am also assuming that his school has some computer laps and several Windows only programs.
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post #9 of 15
1/24/05 at 11:39pm
Acer Travelmate 3201Xci
ASUS M3Np... if you can find the SXGA+ version (www.geared2play.com maybe?)
IBM Thinkpads are always great too...
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post #10 of 15
1/25/05 at 6:04am
Mwave has a good deal on the Uniwill 245ii series. It's got a 14.1" XGA (Isn't SXGA a bit too small for a 14" screen?), 725 Dothan (1.6) 512mb ram, 40gb 5400rpm HD for $1000.

Here's the link:

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec....ria=NB-BA20683
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post #11 of 15
1/25/05 at 8:51am
for schools you need to go bulk and that means dell even though i hate dell with every fiber of my being, dell gives excelent support, great warrenty service, configurable options.

the only problem is dell sucks for HW but is good for business (which means not games)
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post #12 of 15
1/25/05 at 9:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pr50wner
for schools you need to go bulk and that means dell even though i hate dell with every fiber of my being, dell gives excelent support, great warrenty service, configurable options.

the only problem is dell sucks for HW but is good for business (which means not games)
I like Dell, but I agree that there are better companies for games.
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post #13 of 15
1/25/05 at 9:19pm
Thread Starter 
Wow, colossal response, thanks guys.
I actually had (briefly) considered Mac, but the school's all IBM, and the department hates Mac. Also, they use PC-only software, and are actually probably going to just have Win 2000 on these (not my idea).
IBMs have been researched and the price is pretty much keeping them out.
I'm usually anti-Dell, but this may be one of those times to bite the bullet. We're not looking for real bulk, just 3, so that's another against Dell. I'll look mainly at the twinhead, Acer, Asus, and particularly that Uniwill.
Ok, so I looked at them. The Acer & Asus appear to be quite a bit too pricy, and the twinhead is higher than the Uniwill. Think that's gonna be the first pick.
One thing we're concerned about is keyboard touch. I only have experience with my Sager, ThinkPads, Dells, and low-end Toshibas (M35 series). I like the first two kinds.
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post #14 of 15
1/25/05 at 9:27pm
Let me tell you that my friend has a Dell 600m, and I love it, I would get one tomorrow. The only thing holding me back is the graphic card. The keyboard is nice to!
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post #15 of 15
1/25/05 at 9:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Labmouse
Mwave has a good deal on the Uniwill 245ii series. It's got a 14.1" XGA (Isn't SXGA a bit too small for a 14" screen?), 725 Dothan (1.6) 512mb ram, 40gb 5400rpm HD for $1000.

Here's the link:

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec....ria=NB-BA20683
My dad has a Dell Latitude 600, which has a 14.1" SXGA+ screen, and it's actually very nice. It's quite legible and extremely crisp. I wouldn't want to game on it, obviously, but since his computer usage is pretty much for computational stuff, he doesn't need the graphics capabilities.
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