Recommended Laptop

[tuXguy15]

Our team is purchasing a new driver station laptop and programming laptop so I wanted to see if anyone can recommend a nice laptop for the two areas.

[ebarker]

super easy answer.

we have two driver stations with Asus 11.6" inch screen.

NOT the ones with the 10.1 inch screen, like on the KOP laptop.

The Asus laptop with the 11.6 inch screen is awesome. Great performance and battery life. The screen is big enough to run it like a normal laptop and just start the driver station app. we don't have a separate driver station account. not having to switch accounts is great.

For programming you can use any decent laptop with a big enough screen. The horsepower requirement are very minimal. You can get a super nice Asus i5 laptop for under $ 600. It that exceeds your budget then step down to an i3 or dual core pentium.

[protoserge]

This is a complex, open-ended answer. Prepare for trouble

Identify the following before soliciting answers:

-Budget
-Battery Life
-Screen Size
-Portability (weight)
-Life expectancy (how long before you upgrade)
-Quantity (maybe you can get three computers instead of one expensive one based on your budget)


Once you've stated these, then you can begin your search.

[tuXguy15]

-Budget = $400 - $600 per laptop
-Battery Life: 4+ hours
-Screen Size: 14-16"
-Portability: Dont care as long as it isn't extremely heavy
-Life expectancy (how long before you upgrade): 2-4 years
-Quantity: 2 total

[dcarr]

I recently recommended this Vizio machine to someone, and they love it. A good deal at this price point, and decent screen resolution and very slim + light weight is a plus. Certainly there are many choices out there.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834262003

We use an Acer 11.6" for the driver station that cost about $380 last year, does the job.

[kjohnson]

We're using an HP Folio 13 for our Driver Station. They're pricey new but you can get them under $500 on eBay. 4GB RAM, i5, solid state drive, backlit keyboard, and excellent battery life. Classified as an Ultrabook but close enough to regular laptop size to not have trouble with typing, etc.

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by dcarr

I recently recommended this Vizio machine to someone, and they love it. A good deal at this price point, and decent screen resolution and very slim + light weight is a plus. Certainly there are many choices out there.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834262003

We use an Acer 11.6" for the driver station that cost about $380 last year, does the job.

I just remembered that our 11.6" driver stations are Acer, not Asus, and they are still great.

Our larger computers are Asus. Right now you can get a super nice Asus i5 with a ton of memory for about $ 570

[Jacob Bendicksen]

I don't have a lot of experience here, but one thing that I've noticed is that our computer (which is a few years old) runs out of battery almost as fast as the robot. We've rigged an inverter onto the driver station, but that's pretty annoying, so my number one recommendation for driver station is long battery life. As for software... don't ask me.

[inkspell4]

Is your team related to a school district?

[protoserge]

Here are some suggestions:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834231083
$500

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230987
$530 after the additional $50 off

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-K55N-DB81...ds=laptop+15.6
$450

Personally, I like Lenovo, HP Probook/Elitebook, and ASUS. The AMD A-series CPU/GPU chipsets provide excellent graphics performance for the dollar.


Using your specifications, here is the list from Amazon.


For reviews, I filter by number of reviews and then look at ones with 4 stars or higher. I find this useful for most purchases.

I think the best value of the ones listed above is the $450 ASUS. Use the extra cash to buy a nice USB 3.0 external backup drive, computer bags, some mice, or a nice 1080p external display (or all of the above!).

Also, if ordering from Amazon, pay attention to who you are buying from. Amazon is an awesome seller and if you are dissatisfied with your laptop, you can return it within the specified period.

[tuXguy15]

I personally prefer HP or Dell for the laptops for my team

[inkspell4]

I prefer Lenovo....


Some features of them are very good for programming teams, these include...
Number pad
Keyboard
Reliability
Customer service

[protoserge]

Here is today's Newegg Shell Shocker: http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellS...4-_-07252013_1 $350 Dell Core i3.

I don't know much about the i3 for much more than running the basic driver station and programming the cRIO. If you think you will be doing vision processing, this might be insufficient.

Newegg has this type of deal every day, so look back if you miss this one.