got a new laptop and...

[b3lha]

I've always found laptops to be rather fragile and less reliable than their desktop equivalents. I think this is due to the manufacturers trying to make everything as small and lightweight as possible.

The worst thing is PCMCIA modems and network cards, which typically last about 3 months. The weight of the cable eventually distorts the flimsy connectors until they don't make a good contact.

If you're going to get a laptop get one with everything built in and get a docking station to plug the cables into. I prefer desktops and would only buy a laptop if I needed to travel with it.

My machine of choice at work is a rackmounted quad-Xeon server running Linux. I tried to run a similar one at home, but it's way too noisy.

[Shadow248]

Here's something i find odd: Laptops of even ten years ago were heavy and big and bulky feeling. Grandually they grew smaller through the virtue of microtechnology. Good thing. Why then are they getting bigger now, in order to fit 15" and larger screens!? What's the point of a laptop of that size? Might as well carry a small desktop with you. Am I the only one who finds that ironic? All the money spent to research smaller and more efficient technologies is now in vain because of big stupid screens.

[Seraph]

That's why i paid 2k for my tiny laptop.

[CigarJohnny]

Originally posted by Shadow248
Here's something i find odd: Laptops of even ten years ago were heavy and big and bulky feeling. Grandually they grew smaller through the virtue of microtechnology. Good thing. Why then are they getting bigger now, in order to fit 15" and larger screens!? What's the point of a laptop of that size? Might as well carry a small desktop with you. Am I the only one who finds that ironic? All the money spent to research smaller and more efficient technologies is now in vain because of big stupid screens.

That's why I am off the do-all, end-all desktop replacement laptops kick and want something well engineered and small. When I get one I will likely go with a 12" G4 iBook. I know several where i work that have them and I like them more and more each time I see one. :-)

Johnny

[SubaSteevo]

I have an HP 2.4gHz, 512 RAM, 15.4" P4 laptop, with 64MB shared video that I picked up for under $1k

When I first got it, I couldn't even run the Pinball game that comes with Windows due to poor software hogging up resources. So I trashed all the pre-loaded apps, got a cracked video driver, partitioned the hard drive.

Now I have 64MB dedicated video, Windows "Longhorn", what my comp thinks is a Radeon 9200, 3 partitions with one dedicated for Windows, and a computer that can run my favorite game, Unreal Tournament 2004, without any problems.