Potential Chase Laptop

[swilson]

Okay this is what I am looking at: http://tinyurl.com/kuewuy

Its an HP 311. HP feels durable to me still. I've used them over the years with excellent success.

11.6" screen

I'd trick it out to its max with 3gig ram, the better proc setup, and the 80gig solid state drive.

It's mission should be be chosen is to run all of GR's products and a GPS.

I have messed with one at sams club a while back and the screen is acceptable space to me and the keyboard is nice. And it doesn't feel like its gonna fall apart.

Anyone else have any thoughts on the capability of the proc/mem/nvidia setup in regards to gr2analyst?

Or should I step it up to the 13.3 inch version with 4gig of ram and 128gig solid state.

Thanks!

 

[Joey Ketcham]

I have messed with one at sams club a while back and the screen is acceptable space to me and the keyboard is nice.

I don't know man, 2 years ago I bought an EEE PC laptop about the same size and thought the screen size would be acceptable. After sticking GRLevel3, StormLab and my GPS mapping software on it I ended up hating it as far as chasing goes. It was neat to have at home or at work, but for chasing the screen size proved to be a royal pain in the a$$.

I ended up ditching it and got myself a 17" laptop which has worked beautifully ever since.

 

[Jay Cazel]

I would use that unit more for before the chase when you have having lunch and want to look at radar or models e-mail etc... Or after the chase, like sitting around Pizza hut or Applebees looking and uploading pictures and video. Not saying it is a bad computer just aliitle small for the car like Joey said.

 

[Dave Marshall]

I didn't have too much trouble seeing or typing on my 8.9" HP 2133, and the 11.6" screens are a good bit bigger than that. With the addition of one of the touch-screen kits from eBay, it was quite usable for mapping and GRLevelX. You might find some constraints with processing power, so make absolutely sure your model either comes with, or can be upgraded to 2GB of ram. That really makes a big difference.

If your eye sight isn't great, take Joey and Jay's advice and get something with a larger screen. I moved to a 13" screen mostly because I wanted some additional horsepower for doing basic video renders and the like. Something like the Toshiba T135D-S1325 is just about as thin and light as a netbook, but with a much better feature list.

As for the manufacturer, I won't do business with HP again. After 7 years of owning nothing *but* HP, they tried to scam me out of almost $500 to fix a $550 netbook after deciding that a major system issue was "because it was impacted" (the internal accelerometer was not tripped and there were no impact marks) when in fact it was blatantly a design flaw, and I had signed evaluations from third party technicians that testified to this. It was simple enough that I fixed it myself for less than $40. On investigating a bit more after that, it became pretty apparent that this is a standard tactic with them. If you buy that HP, get a warranty through someone *other* than HP, or make sure it's cheap enough to be disposable.

 

[Steven Marshall]

Yeah and Im not real happy about the lack of support from HP for their stuff. I about exploded when I saw a Windows 7 banner on their website....when they dont issue drivers for any of their stuff for Windows 7. I have two completely useless HP dvd burners sitting here because they wont support them with win 7 drivers. Ive been a die hard HP customer for years...but not anymore. Tosheba for me for now on.

 

[Jay Cazel]

Yeah and Im not real happy about the lack of support from HP for their stuff. I about exploded when I saw a Windows 7 banner on their website....when they dont issue drivers for any of their stuff for Windows 7. I have two completely useless HP dvd burners sitting here because they wont support them with win 7 drivers. Ive been a die hard HP customer for years...but not anymore. Tosheba for me for now on.

I agree, I have had many HP laptops over the years, I use one now. But I have a had a few friends that have had their keyboards stop working or only half of it does, HP wants 400+ to fix this problem and it is a known defect with the motherboard but they are(or were) selling laptops with this known problem. The one I have is working fine for now, but at this time I won't be buying anymore HP laptops.

 

[swilson]

hmmm interesting. thanks for the replies! Just for kicks I'm gonna look at toshiba and dell again and see what I can come up with there.

I really like the M11Z i was lookin at from dell/alienware earlier today. I may splurge a little and get what I really want.

There are way too many choices

 

[swilson]

Well after thinking about it for a good while now. I believe I'm gonna go with a Dell E5400. I've been using Latitudes now for 8 years at work and they put up with alot of abuse.

It will have 4gig of ram, the nvidia whatever card, core 2 duo at least, aint goin with no celery chip. And just a 250g drive and a few other minor things and its around the $900 mark.

I for now have given up on the solid state idea. After using this macbookpro on chases and travel I'm not really concerned about my disks uberly failing. + by the time I think it might be worth it I'll just do it myself and save $200 or more!

The work dell's and the MBP I cannot even begin to tell you how many times they have been dropped and continue to work. heh.

Anyway there it is.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

hmmm interesting. thanks for the replies! Just for kicks I'm gonna look at toshiba and dell again and see what I can come up with there.

I really like the M11Z i was lookin at from dell/alienware earlier today. I may splurge a little and get what I really want.

There are way too many choices

It is too easy to spend too much on a laptop. Just remember, that the resale value of a 3 or 4 year old laptop rates right up there with the amount of interest gained on a pound of lard.

To put it another way, a laptop that you paid $700 for 3 years ago is worth only $200 today. Obsolescence or current value isn't really an issue, so long as the laptop can work GR3 and any/all other 'vital' programs relevant to chasing. Is Windows 7 really a need? No; because all programs needed for chasing are still based in Xp..

I wasn't aware that older HP laptops won't take Windows 7 because of the DVD/CD software. That is - if I understood a previous posts correctly. Yeah; if that is the case - then I may well consider upgrading with a Toshiba myself.

One should expect the unexpected for a laptop when chasing. Having a spare hard drive is a new, painful lesson for me at the moment. I treat all of my gear with respect and care - but the hard disk took a dump on me just the same. At a very inopportune time as well. No laptop is immune - unless one upgrades to the solid-state SATA or PCIe hard drives - which are still a bit too pricey at this time.

I am not going to get and use a laptop stand now. I feel that will only accelerate hard disk failure. My laptop has always been on the laptop bag on the seat next to me (very cushy) when it failed - and I know that saw far less shock than any laptop stand could ever provide - IMO...

When I sell my current laptop at the end of this season and get a newer one, I hope the prices on those solid-state HDD's units will have gone down a bit. The upside to these are less battery use, faster access time, and not having to worry about a hard disk that is all-too-sensitive to shock/jarring and failure. While on the subject of hard disk size - why bother having an relatively expensive semi-large hard disk (250gb/>) that may well fail in time? My 80gb unit was still bigger than I needed anyway. Seems to me more frugal to just get a smaller, cheaper replacement spare to keep on-the-road reliability present. One can opt to pre-program it in case of failure - so that a quick change out can be done in short order.

Just some thoughts...

 

[fplowman]

Heads up.

I have been chasing a good long time. In 2005 I jumped into the laptop data age. My experience has been I can wear out a laptop about every 2 chase seasons.

I am working on a hardened Dell for my 3rd chase season this year.

If i could do it all again and I will this fall, I would buy a Panasonic Toughbook used from Ebay. For about $600 you can buy them used in excellent condition. They usually sell for 2,500 - 3k new.

Im suspecting it will last you about 3 - 4 chase seasons even being slightly used. You might want to look into the Toughbooks. I seem to be hard on laptops while chasing and the rest of the use I get out of it in the off season.

 

[Cory Schuller]

Just a quick note about the Toughbooks. Our work place has switched over to the Panasonic Toughbook last year. As of today, I'm on my 3rd one and the other 3 guys have had their's replaced also. I think the hardware is good but our problem dealt with the "blue screen of death". I guess if you can put up with losing all you data and reloading windows a couple times a year than Panasonic is for you.

Thanks
Cory

 

[George Grant]

SWilson,
I'm a little miffed you went from netbook to a $900 unit. C'est la vie. You might take a look at the specs on this ASUS unit. I just ordered this for a customer and it is s**t hot:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220706

Rob,
Having a second hard drive is not a bad idea if you have light to moderate tech experience. Instead, I just carry two, used laptops loaded with all the goodies! Because, for some odd reason, I could not get my old Vaio to recognize a new hard drive. I ended up buying a refurbished Dell online since chase season was upon me last year. I finally got the new hard drive formatted after buying a 2.5/3.5 ATAPI to USB cable and plugging that into my home-built desktop.

While I agree that the endless vibration might ultimately lead to premature failure, I would say that your laptop's HDD failed because of heat. Placing the laptop on an irregular fabric doesn't allow the heat to properly disperse from underneath. Set a piece of plywood on your seat or buy a mobile laptop stand. I like the stand, because it keeps my eyes closer to the road. (I did the plywood trick for a season).

Solid state drives? For vibration matters? Much too pricey. A stick of DDR3 can fail at any time and it has no moving parts. Chips can last a year or ten years. Take care of the heat issues first.

One should expect the unexpected for a laptop when chasing. Having a spare hard drive is a new, painful lesson for me at the moment. I treat all of my gear with respect and care - but the hard disk took a dump on me just the same. At a very inopportune time as well. No laptop is immune - unless one upgrades to the solid-state SATA or PCIe hard drives - which are still a bit too pricey at this time.

I am not going to get and use a laptop stand now. I feel that will only accelerate hard disk failure. My laptop has always been on the laptop bag on the seat next to me (very cushy) when it failed - and I know that saw far less shock than any laptop stand could ever provide - IMO...

When I sell my current laptop at the end of this season and get a newer one, I hope the prices on those solid-state HDD's units will have gone down a bit. The upside to these are less battery use, faster access time, and not having to worry about a hard disk that is all-too-sensitive to shock/jarring and failure. While on the subject of hard disk size - why bother having an relatively expensive semi-large hard disk (250gb/>) that may well fail in time? My 80gb unit was still bigger than I needed anyway. Seems to me more frugal to just get a smaller, cheaper replacement spare to keep on-the-road reliability present. One can opt to pre-program it in case of failure - so that a quick change out can be done in short order.

Just some thoughts...

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

SWilson,
I'm a little miffed you went from netbook to a $900 unit. C'est la vie. You might take a look at the specs on this ASUS unit. I just ordered this for a customer and it is s**t hot:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220706

Rob,

While I agree that the endless vibration might ultimately lead to premature failure, I would say that your laptop's HDD failed because of heat. Placing the laptop on an irregular fabric doesn't allow the heat to properly disperse from underneath. Set a piece of plywood on your seat or buy a mobile laptop stand. I like the stand, because it keeps my eyes closer to the road. (I did the plywood trick for a season).

Solid state drives? For vibration matters? Much too pricey. A stick of DDR3 can fail at any time and it has no moving parts. Chips can last a year or ten years. Take care of the heat issues first.

I will agree is the 'other' major killer of hardware is heat. But G-forces applied from the pickup head to the disk after myriads of bumpy roads - and many miles of it - is more than likely the real killer. This is just what the statistics say - that is true. But more likely - nonetheless. Especially if one hears the 'click-thump-click' of death from the hard drive as I do. That is indicative of a dashed head.
(BTW - there are some pages n the web that one can hear these sounds to help identify the problem - if anyone is interested for themselves. But hearing these random 'clicks' and 'thumps' are all anyone needs to know about their hard drive. That - and a few BSOD's)

There is air flow under my laptop; in this case - heat wasn't the killer.
ASUS laptops are built with their own motherboards - quality stuff!

Having a laptop connected to a solid pedestal directly attached to the car's body can only speed up that process. Solid state drives are the only practical solution for any laptop under such circumstances, and will soon be the rage in all laptops in the near future. Sure, they are high priced now because they are still in the 'novelty' phase. But between popularity and necessity, they will become far more commonplace. Mass production and successful marketing can only make them cheaper. Again, the strong marketing factors are less heat generated, smaller, less load on the laptop's battery, and just plain faster. It is the only logical solution to the laptop/hard disk dilemma - IMO.

No matter what brand or model of laptop one has - it is still vulnerable. Until they make the 'SSD ('solid state drive')' standard equipment on every new laptop; then anyone may face a hard disk failure at some point. As I did...

'click......................thump..........click'...

 

[Fred Dearborn]

Just a quick note about the Toughbooks. Our work place has switched over to the Panasonic Toughbook last year. As of today, I'm on my 3rd one and the other 3 guys have had their's replaced also. I think the hardware is good but our problem dealt with the "blue screen of death". I guess if you can put up with losing all you data and reloading windows a couple times a year than Panasonic is for you.

Thanks
Cory

AHHH Crap! I just ordered one of these from geeks.com just because my current laptop is Vista,turned to Windows 7 and not liking it.The Panasonic Tougbook CF 51 is refurbished though with a 90 day warranty.Maybe the problem was fixed. I paid 519.00 plus 15.00 shipping if anyone is interested.The lady said these were just like new,with Windows XP Pro. installed.

 

[John Erwin]

Just a quick note about the Toughbooks. Our work place has switched over to the Panasonic Toughbook last year. As of today, I'm on my 3rd one and the other 3 guys have had their's replaced also. I think the hardware is good but our problem dealt with the "blue screen of death". I guess if you can put up with losing all you data and reloading windows a couple times a year than Panasonic is for you.

There must be some configuration issues involved in your situation; having that kind of problem as an overall experience with Toughbooks would be an unacceptable situation. We've been using Toughbooks at my workplace for years in some extreme environmental situations and have never had the problems you speak of. In fact, the only hardware failure I've seen was a defective hard-drive on one unit and it was covered under warranty. Software problems have occured here and there of course, usually after somebody either mucked something up or due to some Microsoft issue. Nothing that wouldn't happen on any MS-based computer.