Donors Choose for Team 842

[tickspe15]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

On further thought, isn't a laptop with no keyboard or ethernet port an awful choice for programming and driver station use?

I agree that using getting a laptop with no keyboard is a bad idea especially considering the price. As for the lack of an Ethernet port, we have been using a USB network adapter the past two years. We experienced dropped packets and other network problems at the beginning of our 2013 competition season and we no longer trust integrated Ethernet ports for competition use.

[mrnoble]

We briefly considered getting a Surface Pro, but decided against it for the exact reasons already brought up. We got a cheap laptop as a driver station and a better one for CAD.

[asid61]

$70 for a mouse seems pretty steep.

[pastelpony]

Originally Posted by tickspe15

I agree that using getting a laptop with no keyboard is a bad idea especially considering the price. As for the lack of an Ethernet port, we have been using a USB network adapter the past two years. We experienced dropped packets and other network problems at the beginning of our 2013 competition season and we no longer trust integrated Ethernet ports for competition use.

We similarily burned out the Ethernet port on our latitude back in 2013...would never go back to depending on integrated ports.

[sanddrag]

I fail to see how on earth a USB ethernet adapter can be more reliable than an onboard port and chip on the motherboard. USB drivers can be super flaky at times, and I would hate for it to ever be the reason I lost a match.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I fail to see how on earth a USB ethernet adapter can be more reliable than an onboard port and chip on the motherboard. USB drivers can be super flaky at times, and I would hate for it to ever be the reason I lost a match.

I could see having one around to use as a backup, but I agree, unless there are known issues with a stock ethernet port I can't think of a reason to avoid it.

As for buying a laptop/tablet without an ethernet port, having to buy an adapter is just yet more cost that could be avoided with multiple quality laptops instead of a state of the art ultrabook/tablet.