buying new laptops

[EHaskins]

[tablet PC, Vista, Gateway rant]
I'm running a Gateway cx210. The bottom of the line is $1100, but if you watch for a sale you can easily get it for $1000 or even $900. I have the 12 cell battery(standard is 8 cell) which gets up to 6.5 hours(depend on optical drive use) of battery life when I put in Power Saver(WINDOWS VISTA ONLY) mode. In High Performance(same as XP) I still get around 4 hours.

Keep in mind the CX210's base line is: 1.86 Core Duo, 1024mb RAM, 80gb HDD, CD-RW/DVD Combo, Wi-FI a/b/g, Vista Home Premium.

NOTE: I also have the ATI graphics card, which also uses more power than the less powerful Intel option.

I also suggest this unit because I LOVE convertible laptops. You have no idea how wonderful it is ,for graphics work, taking notes, scouting the pits, or anything else, to be able to draw/write on the screen.

Also this unit has the option to get Windows XP Tablet Edition(pro + tablet functionality), for $100.

I STRONGLY recommend getting Vista for a laptop. As I mentioned above the power saving features of Vista a amazing. Unless you know a product you want to run has compatibility issues, get Vista.

Vista does have a learning curve, but once you learn it you will find Vista really is better, and a lot prettier, than XP.

I have run all Lego Mindstorms software on Vista without any issues. I did need to install a driver update for the USB RCX tower, but that was easy.
[/tablet PC, Vista, Gateway rant]


If you don't like to unit I mentioned above, which I can understand, find the cheapest computer you can find, and replace it when you need something better(or it gets broken).