What laptop to get?????

[Steve Polley]

Take a look at the Dell Latitude series for chasing purposes. They're built more solidly than most any consumer laptop, and are available with LED-backlit matte screens which are great for minimizing glare. I couldn't be happier with mine. Definitely check out the Dell Outlet for some good deals.

I couldnt agree more with Brett. I have an Dell Latitude E6400 w/ matte finish screen and backlit keyboard with similar specs that Skip mentioned. Consumer type laptops are not well built and do not sport the matte finish screen. I was constantly struggling to see the screen with my old laptop that had a gloss screen finish. If you decide to go with a consumer laptop as opposed to the business models, consider purchasing the matte finish overlay for the laptop. Also as mentioned, great deals on these at the dell outlet store.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

I personally use a cheap $500 Dell laptop I purchased 2 years ago. It works fine for me, no major problems I can think of. For extra peice of mind, if your willing to spend the money, look for a laptop with a solid state hard drive. I always cringe when going over the first few bumps of the chase season. The screen is probably the most important decision for chasing. I agree a matte is best. Other important things to remember, battery life and USB ports, something I want more of the next time I purchase a laptop. It's nice to turn the car off and not have to worry about your laptop loosing juice. Also, I don't know about you, but I keep finding more an more things to plug into my computer for a chase. Lastly, I had a friend try the mac windows thing for work, and got burned. She ended up losing her data because of some problem that occurred. However, I don't know any one who has tried using it for a chase, so can't say for sure.

 

[chadvia]

I've used an HP with Windows XP for the past five years. Thus far no issues that weren't self inflicted!

 

[Darren Stephens]

Mac all the way. IF you must run windows apps I use VM Fusion with no trouble at all.

 

[Cory Schuller]

I know this post is almost a month old but I just wanted to update on my laptop decision. I went ahead and purchased a used 12" D410 Dell off of Ebay. It's nothing special but it does run fast and fits nicely in my mount in the Tahoe. Hopefully it works just as well during the season.

Thanks
Cory

 

[David Wolfson]

Last week I "had" to give my chasing laptop to my wife when the older one she uses finally died. I've just ordered an HP dm3 from B&H. For my seat bolt removable desk mount in a compact car, I've found the best is a smaller computer no more than about 10" high with the screen raised, so it can open underneath the rear view mirror. The dm3 should fit height-wise and has a wide aspect screen for a little more viewing real estate.

For $600 delivered you get an AMD Core 2 Neo 64-bit CPU, 4Gb memory, 320Gb HDD, four USB ports, built-in wireless A/G/N in a metal (not plastic) case, and Win-7 64-bit home premium. It doesn't have an internal optical disk, so is very thin and 2/3 the weight with no ports, jacks, or switches on the front to quarrel with the lip of the mounting tray like my old one did. I have an external USB optical R/W DD which should work just fine for occasions when you need one. It claims to use perhaps half the power of my old one -- hopefully about 4A at 12v (we'll see). The Win-7 partition will be reduced shortly upon receipt to dual-boot with Ubuntu linux via grub2.

 

[Joshua Nall]

I know this post is almost a month old but I just wanted to update on my laptop decision. I went ahead and purchased a used 12" D410 Dell off of Ebay. It's nothing special but it does run fast and fits nicely in my mount in the Tahoe. Hopefully it works just as well during the season.

Thanks
Cory

I knew absolutely nothing about laptops when I started to look for one to chase with, except that they opened up like a book. Ended up with a used Dell latitude D400 because of the size and some good reviews. I love the size, and matte screen like others have said.