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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Desperately seeking notebook PC < $1000. Thin and/or lightweight a must
Posted by Jill | 3:15 PM
Last summer I spent three days at YKos shlepping my bigass HP Pavilion around the McCormick Center in a backpack. It's a preposterously powerful machine, but I really need something smaller and lighter for travel. So I'm looking for recommendations, just to confuse the issue further. I was mulling over the $399 ASUS eee, but it just doesn't seem to quite do the trick, and it won't handle the VPN I need for work. So right now, unless someone knows of a fantastic alternative, I'm looking at the base model Dell XPS M1300 and the HP Pavilion tx2000z, which I can get for $900 with 2.2ghz AMD Dual-core processor, 2GB memory, 250GB hard drive, Fingerprint Reader + Webcam + Microphone, wireless networking with bluetooth, the HP USB TV tuner and 8x LightScribe (you can burn labels on the discs) double-layer DVD / CD burner.

The advantage of the HP is a tablet, which means I could easily use it on a flip-down shelf in the kitchen when I'm not traveling, so I didn't have to print out recipes and have all this miscellaneous paper around the house. But it's an AMD chip.

So, all you techie folks out there, what do YOU think?
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7 Comments:
Blogger Jersey Guy said...
Go for the HP. Nothing at wrong with an AMD chip. I've been using an HP Pavilion with an AMD chip for around 2 years now. No probs at all. The tx2000 gets consistently good reviews and is a beautiful little system. I plan on buying one sometime in the next couple of months. The price is certainly right.

JG.
3/19/08, 4:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I know nothing against AMD chips, which is sort of a weak argument, especially from someone who knows nothing, and refuses to know anything, about Windows.

But here's the catch: No Mac fanatic here. The OS I rely on has been virtually orphaned for over 10 years, and officially for a few years. Any new hardware I get, I have to *know* that it will run an unsupported operating system that no one cares about. And I've used an AMD chip, and the scuttlebut in the eCS (formerly OS/2) community is that the AMD's work just fine with our beloved orphans. So I can't imagine they'll trip up a Windows user.
3/19/08, 5:05 PM  
Blogger Melina said...
Nothing at all with the AMD...some gamers actually prefer them....I think the HP has better specs, no?
Just do it!! You know you want to!!
;-)
3/19/08, 7:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
delurking
check out Stephen Fry's posting about the triple E, and those of his commenters. Might help, can't hurt,and anything written by Fry is always a treat.
http://stephenfry.com/blog/?p=39
3/19/08, 7:44 PM  
Blogger Phil said...
Jayzus!
That thing will do everything except yer laundry!
3/19/08, 7:47 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...
Yes, the killer for the eeePC is that you can't run VPN, or any Windows-only program for that matter. Since I spend 95% of the time on web, email, and word processing, though, that's not a big issue for me. And I want something with few moving parts like disk drives--they have a tendency to break easily when they're moved around. So the eeePC was the ideal solution for my needs.
3/20/08, 9:59 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...
I should add that, yes I know that you can get Windows on the eeePC. And the "bigger and better" eeePCs will have a bigger screen and more memory, which should improve Windows' performance on them. But at that point, you're paying as much as, or more than, a much more capable laptop. Is it worth it for the impact-resistance? Dunno.

Anyway, I like my 4GB eeePC for what limited things it does and for its relatively low cost.
3/20/08, 11:49 AM  
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