Best laptop to use for chasing?

[Adam Cartwright]

Good point John on the voltage regulation. Definitely, your mileage may vary. My buddy who informed me about the 12v netbook has been running one in his truck for over a year now, and hasn't had any problems. But for sure I think it all depends on your setup. Your caution is wise.

 

[Zach Borst]

Yeah the laptop is built for vehicle voltage, I am sure it's regulated within the laptop, they wouldn't provide it as an option otherwise. The laptops are likely using less then 12 volts anyways so it's probably dropped down quite a bit (I am speculating on this but it's a fair assumption).

 

[Cammie Czuchnicki]

I've just purchased a Dell Vostro 1520 for my first chase. What impressed me is that on Dell's website, you can select a basic model and then customise this to your requirements (increase memory, matt screen etc).

I bought my customised version direct from Dell's website for £459 (approx $707) with a dedicated graphics card & 3GB Ram.

Quite a good deal I thought.

(sorry for the sterling, but I think this equates to approx $707

 

[Rob H]

I'll second (10th?) the matte finish. Glare on the road is bad enough as it is, but glossy finishes take it to a new level.

I'll also second the aversion to 64bit - it really just adds extra complexity to things. I constantly come across programs that have problems running correctly, especially if they use the .NET framework (which lots of these niche apps are doing now). If you don't know the benefits of going with a 64bit OS - then you probably aren't doing anything that would make such an upgrade useful. Computer problems on a chase can end your day, so I do everything I can to minimize that risk.

I've switched thoughts on laptop of choice several times. My new favorite computing device? An old Gateway 320X. It's been dropped hard, it doesn't have a wide screen, and it only has 1GB of ram and onboard graphics. It also runs GrLevel3 just fine with a bunch of place/shape files and Thunderbird for RSS feeds. It's light, it doesn't get hot, and the battery lasts 7 hours. Chasing with multiple people means more competition for charging batteries so that long battery life is great. If you don't need the extra power from a faster processor or discrete graphics card, you may want to consider going without.

edit: My dream laptop would probably be a "tough" touch screen tablet with 6+ hours of battery life - running Threat Net over bluetooth.

 

[Ryan Moats]

I guess I'm one of the very few who use a Macbook Pro laptop. As far as processing and RAM it is more than efficient for chasing - and working the photos and videos afterwards. I've got 3GB of RAM and a 2.33GHz processor in my machine. Plus I think Macs are far more reliable and that can REALLY come in handy...

LOL from being one of the rare ones, its more unexpected to see someone with the same specs as my macbook pro for chasing as well. 2.33 17in macbook pro. Thing is a rugged one too, went through a car crash setting off the airbags, when i looked over to see if the thing was alive, it was on and still running!!

My laptop mount completely broke and the computer took a huge dent right in the air card slot, best place on the laptop to take a hit, anywhere else and it would of cracked and destroyed some part of the IO or logic board.

Whats best about it is the Dual boot of Mac OS X or Windows XP natively.


When i'm on the road while traveling to a chase etc, and want to listen to some tunes and upload my stuff into Final Cut, weatherTap, i use OS X, then when i'm in the heart of chasing, i switch over to Windows XP to handle spotter network, weathertap, GPS,DeLorme and any windows apps.

Then i got the 3.3ghz iMac at home to do all the editing and video converting at home.

Even though the Macbook Pro is great, i really prefer to buy a cheap Netbook or Dell or old MacBook, Chasing really beats computer to the dust.

Even though the computer survived the car crash, a quick peak under the hood showed how the heat and vibration of chasing had loosen every connector and screw, put massive amount of dust, and the thermal coating for the processors was very much well eaten away leading to many CPU overheats and core shut downs. Luckily, all was a easy fix.


So overall pick a computer that if it breaks due to stress, you won't be crying, and pick one thats got enough power to handle the things you must do while going 70MPH and not slow you down.

 

[Richard Dickson]

Reading through this thread, I've obviously noted that a number of folks have commented about the glare factor from a non-matte screen. I wasn't aware there was even a problem with this until I bought mine about three years ago.

I did a lot of web searching for solutions and finally settled on purchasing one of the LCD Protective Film Screens from an online company in Michigan at www.photodon.com

Basically, you find your product on their website by brand and model and it comes custom cut for a quality fit. It was easy to install and I've had very good luck with it. I'd say it reduces the glare by about 90% or so.

Thought this might give someone another option to think about.

 

[swilson]

Me personally I've been a huge fan of HP. I've had a chance to use there Pavillions over the years and I've beat the holy bejesus out of them. I am looking at the HP touch screen and the HP 311. they felt really solid to me in messin with em this afternoon at sams club