[Leaplist] Laptop Hardware Advice

[Jason Boxman]

Todd Davenport wrote:
> Hey all.  Maybe some of you out there can give me some
> advice?  (Warning: lengthy email)
> 
> OK, I have two laptops that I've bought in the last
> two years, both on sale and for cheap.  A Dell
> Inspiron 1100 and a Gateway MX series.  I think I've
> learned my lesson, though, about buying laptops on the
> cheap.  Neither of them lasted a year.  The Dell needs
> a new hard drive and the Gateway's power socket is
> hosed (I've had it re-soldered twice by a tech but it
> keeps breaking again).

Oh, my.  I bought an Inspiron 1100 back in 2005.  Bad, bad idea.  Of 
course, I bought the cheapest version with a Celeron M processor (read 
as garbage).  Getting a value processor in a laptop will get you burned, 
badly.

I just picked up the XPS (m)1530 laptop and I am extremely pleased.  It 
was on clearance at Best Buy.  The only clearance deal I've ever gotten. 
  Core 2 Duo instead of a value processor for a change.

My Inspiron 1100 didn't suffer a hardware failure, though.  The badly 
designed DVD-ROM needed a warranty replacement a month before the 
warranty expired.  Otherwise, it's been fine.  With the junk Celeron 
processor it takes it 30-60s to render Web pages, though, like Ebay, 
which the new laptop and even an ancient P4 desktop can render in under 
15 seconds...  My Celeron-M was painfully obsolete before I bought it.

> So my wife (who is actually the primary laptop user)
> is tired of this and told me to spend the money and
> get her a laptop that isn't going to break.  Aside
> from a Panasonic Toughbook, I'm thinking Mac of
> course.  But now I'm exited because if I can fix the
> two broken laptops I can have more Linux boxen and
> start doing neat things on my home lan...streaming
> media server, web dev/test box, etc.
> 
> The Dell with the broken hard drive, I've been using
> Xubuntu LiveCD but haven't been able to get
> persistence to work.  I flipped around on TigerDirect,
> etc., looking at hard drives but unfortunately, while
> I'm a software geek I don't know much about laptop
> hardware (I last built my desktop about three years
> ago, that's the last time I touched any hardware.  I
> don't even have a PCIe video card!)
> 
> Can anyone out there give me a pointer to the correct
> hdd to buy?  All I know is EIDE, I'm not up on this
> Serial ATA/Ultra ATA/SATA stuff.  (I know, i've gotten
> too lazy).

Probably a 2.5" form factor drive.

Dan mentioned the thickness, which I'd forgotten about.  It's important 
to check that so you buy one that fits.  You can find 7200 RPM drives, 
but it's possible the drive may overheat your laptop.  A 5400 RPM drive 
is probably fine.  I wouldn't suggest any 4200 RPM drives if they still 
sell them, as it'll be even slower than the 5400.

Have fun!