Laptop Shopping

May 1, 2004 10:55 AM

I'd like to purchase a laptop for my work, but I know jack crap about hardware, and I don't know where to start looking. Anyone have recommendations on where to go about getting a robust laptop for a fair price? (Specifically, a Windows machine with lots of speed and memory for graphic design and software development -- size/appearance aren't much of a concern.)
posted by oissubke to shopping (4 comments total)

J & R has a really cool form you fill out (novice or advanced) about what you want in a laptop and then it spits out suggestions matching your needs.
posted by CunningLinguist at 12:16 PM on May 1, 2004

Previously on Ask MeFi.
posted by normy at 1:25 PM on May 1, 2004

Previously two or three times on AskMe, I'm pretty sure.

We need a sidebar that contains the top ten most-asked questions, so we can get on with unasked questions.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:13 PM on May 1, 2004

My Asking of this question -- specifically highly durable hardware to be lugged around, which is what I take your use of the term "robust" to mean -- netted a lot of responses, but my criteria differed quite a bit and I wasn't too heavy on Windows capabilities.

It boiled down to the Thinkpad, maybe something in the T40 series at the high end. They're apparently built like tanks and the 40 series sports pretty impressive performance. Since you're after Windows, IBM isn't at all your only good choice. Someone mentioned the Fujitsu notebooks as having a really good bang/buck ratio, and there are probably Windows drivers for everything in the machine.

(For the curious, I wound up with the last-year model 12" Powerbook which I've had to exchange once already and have some other minor issues with, but it has impressed me so far despite them. The hype about OSX's user interface superiority is HIGHLY overblown -- it's roughly as nice as pure KDE -- but the XCode development system is awe-inspiring.)
posted by majick at 5:53 PM on May 1, 2004