Laptop

[AdrianF]

Well my near new laptop decided it needed flying lessons and went down the stairs the quick way 2 bounces and a bounce on the cement the result broken screen and case. Was sat on the 13th step of the house thought I had a good hold got up and lost control of the laptop.
Question if you had 1800 to spend on new laptop what would you get?
I7 with 8gig ram? Or something else? Don't like apple

Adrian

[Mighty_oz]

Are u image processing with it ? Then yes would be good.
Are u just controlling gear with it then no, would be over kill get lesser one spend other on partner :) Or more gear.

My 2 cents worth.
Marcus.

[jjjnettie]

Condolences on your loss Adrian.

[netwolf]

Adrian,

Sorry to hear about your damaged laptop.

I was in the shops yesterday looking around at the last minuted June 30th Laptop sales. I saw a number of I7 laptops near the 1000$ mark, so not sure you need to spend 1800 for one. Also I would reccomend looking for a Laptop with a USB 3.0 and a ESATA port if possible. As most of the Consumer laptops dont seem to have expansion slots, it would be best to get one with at least USB 3.0 already onboard. Look for the Blue USB sockets these identify them as being USB 3.0. But I also noted the current HP modesl dont have a a diffrent color for USB 3.0 ports, so check the specs before you buy.

Personally I think your better of getting a light weight say AMD Fusion Laptop that can handle all your capturing work and then have a Custom built Desktop for your processing. Desktops are far more easier to upgrade than Laptops. AMD are bringing out a new Fusion processor that will have USB 3.0 controller on the CPU.

Lots of options.

[asimov]

I picked up an i7 6 GIG the other day for under 1K - There are plenty of deals going on right now.

[Tandum]

http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/notebook.pdf

Bucket loads of cheap laptops in there.

Of course the best laptop is the one with the longest warranty :)

[AdrianF]

Thanks for the replies.
I will eventually get back into imaging been too much on my plate lately to do much astro stuff.

The laptop that took flying lessons was an AMD 2.1ghz dual core 500gb hd so I would want something at least those specs or better. The insurance company is paying all but $300 of the price.
Had a look locally ( very restricted what's available ) and the only 2 available is I7 with 15" monitor 4gig ram 500gig hd for $1485 or same spec exept 8gig ram for $1700. Might have to consider drive to Toowoomba and see what's available.

Adrian

[supernova1965]

That seems an awful lot for one with such a small screen I would shop around more have you thought about buying online. Through WOW online or other stores. Even Dell online would have better deals

[AdrianF]

Yes I have looked around online. I would prefer to go hands on before I buy though. Thats why I will go to Toowoomba before I buy. Have a look at Hardley Normal, Trickie Dick and others.
Living in a small town as its advantages but not when it comes to buying PC's and other appliances.

Adrian
one thing I hope is that my HD in the laptop is OK as I have a fair bit of work on it that I havent backed up. Might see if it works with another monitor.

[ZeroID]

Was the laptop running when it 'bounced'. If so the hard drive will probably be done for. You probably won't be able to just load it into another PC and hope it works, too many differences in hadware,drivers etc especially if the new laptop is more tech. And swapping it into your new laptop might invalidate the warranty as well. Buy a USB HD cage while you are shopping. It will let you mount the drive to try and recover your data. And when you're done with that you can use it for a newer drive and backup your laptop data in case you drop it in the future. And backing up to an external drive is just a good idea regardless.

[AdrianF]

I was going to attach a monitor and see if the laptop still works and just backup my work to an external drive.
The laptop works with another monitor and I have backed up the data I needed. It appears its only the LCD and case thats damaged.


Adrian

[ZeroID]

LCD replacement is a piece of cake, case might be a bit harder. Superglue is good :P :D

[AdrianF]

Insurance is good too. Took the laptop in today to be assessed for insurance and the techs could not get it to boot at all I think I was lucky to get my work off the drive yesterday. They have written the laptop off and I am just waiting for the quote and report for the insurance company.

Adrian

[ZeroID]

Cool !! The best of both worlds, Data AND new PC all intact.