# What Is Your Computer Of Choice?



## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

Both are equal to me. Dell is my Favorite Manufacturer.

Post any comments, Favorite Manufacturer, etc...

John


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## Laverne (Feb 17, 2005)

I'll have to say, even though I kinda like the mobility of a laptop, and having a mouse right under my thumbs, I still like to have a regular (read: "BIGGER") keyboard, and something that doesn't get hot on my lap. I always use the laptop while sitting on the couch, never at a desk, so it's always on my lap or on a pillow or something. I don't like the heat.

As far as manufacturer, my favorite is whatever DH brings home from work  for laptops (currently a Dell, same as you Mr. Fun), and he always builds our home computer from scratch, so it's always a mish-mash, and I'm just happy it all works and matches.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Each has it's place. I've been using desktops all my life and was going to get a laptop a while back until something came up. But I am still looking at getting a laptop. I can't go out in public anymore with out my PDA though. Friday I went to get my tires rotated and in the waiting room I fired up my iPaq and discovered three wireless internet connections. I was surfing DBSTalk in the palm of my hand, made the wait go a lot faster. More discreet then a laptop and easier to carry around. After the rotation I went to a pizza joint down the road. Another house broadcasting a wireless signal. That one was really weak and was fading in and out but it was bearable. I love my PDA, but I am disappointed mine is one of the few models that HP is not supporting when it comes to upgrading to Windows 2005.

The only thing I couldn’t see myself with is a Tablet PC. As for vendors, it’s only Compaq in my house. With only Intel processors, only Creative Sound Blaster sound cards, no floppy drives, no dial up modems and all Motorola networking gear.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

> I'll have to say, even though I kinda like the mobility of a laptop, and having a mouse right under my thumbs, I still like to have a regular (read: "BIGGER") keyboard, and something that doesn't get hot on my lap.


I have to say that I agree with Laverne on this. I have a laptop which is great when I am going on the road (I use it with my GPS) and great for hauling from home to the office, but I have a desktop computer at both home and office also. Even though I very much enjoy having a laptop, I prefer a real mouse and a real keyboard to the laptop. Manufacture wise, the computer at the office is a 500Mhz Dell that I got as a beta tester with Starband ages ago. At home I have a local assembled 800Mhz clone, this 2.5G Pentium IV Compaq, and the laptop is a 1.8Ghz Compaq.


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

Steve...I also LOVE my PDA (Dell) It does make wait times go faster!


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Like most people it depends where I'm at. 

I like my workstation here in the office/Video edit suite.

I prefer my large laptop with brite widescreen by the pool, also set up for video editing.

I prefer my smaller laptop for travel and can do video editing on it as well since it is just as fast and powerful as the others.

But my most fun system is my IPAQ 6315 as I have internet access just about everywhere, GPS, MP3 music player, a small collections of movies, wireless cable TV channels, games, language translator, even a couple of books I'm reading and a host of personal productivity tools at my fingertips. I can even go to my PC at the office and pull up documents and files too. With cellphone, all in one package, I don't know how I ever worked without the IPAQ PDA.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

> I prefer my large laptop with brite widescreen by the pool, also set up for video editing.


Your pool is set up for video editing? I have to get up that way sometime to see that. :lol:


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

It just depends. I prefer to build my own PCs, and desktop machines are more configurable than laptops. My main computer is a homebrew Athlon 2200+ running 1GB of ram. However, my secondary computer is a old HP Pavilion 533 with 256MB of RAM that I'm going to be using for Linux. (I manged to install testing/sarge version of Debian last Friday evening.) That was part of a set of PCs that were classified as "junked" because of age and burnt-out power supplies because of a power surge. 

However, I also use my laptop for viewing DVDs and getting some classwork done on campus. However, I keep all of my class files on a USB drive, and back that USB drive up on my desktop machine.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Well, it isn't so exciting with modern day video editing. The only thing I have out there beyond the laptop is an external hard drive with both FW and USB2.0 connect. Connection to the LAN and internet is via 54G or ethernet cable. I should take a picture of it sometime. I also have a table top that fastens to the lounge chair as using the laptop on the lap isn't very comfortable after a while.


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## jrrdy1380 (Jun 27, 2003)

I use desktops at work and at home but I am starting to get into the market for a laptop or PDA. I have a cellphone that has wireless internet capability but hard to enter in stuff with only using the number pad on the phone. 

Currently, I use a HP Pavilion 514n desktop at home and a Dell GX260 at my workplace. I use to have a older Dell Desktop at home before I had to replace but got a deal on my current setup but if I had to upgrade or replace my sytem, I would use a Dell. As for a laptop, both HP and Dell have laptops that I would look into purchasing.


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

At work, it's almost exclusively desktop. At home, just the opposite since with got WiFi. We're a Dell household with the exception of a custom HTCP put together by the friendly folks at Monster HTCP.


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

I like the laptops because they use up less space and they are portable. I also like my widescreen.


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

I like both my desktop and my laptop. It just depends on what and where I want to do. I'm just glad I have both.


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

Personally, I do all my work on a 12" iBook G4. It's not a supercomputer, but I love it for what it is. It's stable, reliable, low-maintainance, great battery life, really cute (though it would be nicer if it came in pink), lightweight, and it has features such as FireWire for video editing not found in Windows laptops around the same price range


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

Sony VAIO® T350P/S NotebookVGN-T350P/S

One to check out. It is one of the first Laptops to come with built in Cingular wireless EDGE network.


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

DonLandis, why would you want GPRS EDGE? I mean, seriously. It's TDMA technology. TDMA isn't adequate for Internet, you need CDMA. Next-gen CDMA at that, CDM2000 1xRTT isn't really any faster than EDGE. There are only a few technologies that really make mobile Internet usable:

CDMA2000 1xEVDO (widest deployment - Verizon, Alltel, and Sprint, though in limited areas)

W-CDMA UMTS (limited deployment and slower than EVDO, legal in Europe unlike EVDO making global possible, only in a couple cities with Cingular. Was built-out when AT&T, Cingular plans no further UMTS build-out)

W-CDMA HSDPA (no commercial deployment in the US, slightly faster than EVDO, also legal in Europe, Cingular plans rollout, should be compatible with UMTS)


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## marko (Jan 9, 2003)

For day to day use, I prefer laptop, but screen resolution for some tasks can be pretty blah, so I prefer my desktop with bigger resolution monitor. Also like the desktop since it has Windows MCE, and the benefits of runnign that.


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

MarkA-

I guess the best answer I have for you is how I have gotten along so far.

Back when I first started to do a bit of travel, I had the laptop with a hunk of phone cable I had to sometimes, hotwire to the phone for internet connection, mostly at 28.8. Then about 2 years ago I got the T-Mobile air card for $30 a month unlimited. I still use it today, just about anywhere in the country. Even the Carolina's have now upgraded so I can use it, the last states on the continent to convert. Today, the other higher speed technologies are just not yet reliable for state by state travel. Most places you will not have service at all. Here in Jacksonville, we tried a Verizon broadband recently and it only covered about 15% of the city. While some of these cell phone services are excellent they do not provide the wide coverage of internet services that other, veteran providers do now and for the price they do.

You mention: _"There are only a few technologies that really make mobile Internet usable"_

This is a fine statement for a theoretical discussion but I need to function in the real world today. It matters not what is possible in the technology but what works and at an affordable cost today and what was available when I got onboard 2 years ago. The old GPRS is not the fastest but it does work, particularly where I need it to work. The others may be practical in the near future and I may switch to that technology as it becomes mainstream. Today, I can use the GPRS service up and down I-95 as I travel and while I don't have fast enough connection speed to watch IP TV as I can with a wifi zone, It does work fine with the small screen size image and it switches to that automatically. I use it regularly to watch the Weather Channel and MSNBC etc. But more importantly, I can get and respond to my e-mail that does not require broadband. I can surf the web for information at least as fast as a dialup. So, is it usable? I think it is because I use it regularly. I also keep watching for the newest technology as well but do not sit at the train station waiting for a faster train to come along. If it's prolific enough, affordable, and the conversion is not out of sight, I'll move to the faster service. Until then, I'll stick to what is now working for me.


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

Desktop for these reasons: they are dirt cheap to build, dirt cheap to repair and dirt cheap to upgrade. You can buy _some_ parts for one at Wal-Mart. I had a power supply fail a few months ago on a Sunday afternoon. Went to Best Buy bought a PS and was back up inside of 45 minutes. With a laptop you'd be looking at several days downtime. I don't own a laptop and never have although I would like to have one. Just my .02


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## Maniacal1 (Apr 9, 2002)

Steve Mehs said:


> The only thing I couldn't see myself with is a Tablet PC.


Steve, I'm curious why you don't think a Tablet PC would work for you. I've had a convertible Tablet for a little over a year now, and I'm using it more than my desktop. It's a little heavier than I'd like, and I can even see my next computer being a slate Tablet.

I like the convenience of handwriting, but I still use the keyboard more than the pen. I probably use the Tablet in laptop mode three quarters of the time. But it's nice to have the option of using the pen when it's more convenient.


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

I don’t know really, I just never considered using one. A cross between a laptop and PDA sounds cool but I really have no need for one. I like my pocket PC since it’s easy to carry around, just clip it on a belt. When I get a laptop I’ll use it as a more serious (for lack of a better word) computing. 

I have never used a Tablet PC in my life, but I have used Windows XP Tablet PC Edition for a week or so. Figure that one out


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## n8dagr8 (Aug 14, 2004)

Desktop - seems that the better (faster) stuff is cheaper to get. I also like having the dual monitors (which can be done with a laptop but then is it really a laptop?). I do have a crappy old laptop (my dad gave it to me because he had pretty much destroyed it - he dropped it a few times) in the living room but I rarely use it and I don't have a wireless card for it. Also, the 20'' LCD screen w/ 1600X1200 resolution is nice.


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

"which can be done with a laptop but then is it really a laptop?"

Absolutely. I have a 15" LG flat panel I plug into my iBook when at home doing design and stuff - giving me a total of a 2048x768 desktop. When out and about I've got my nice cute little portable iBook. It works out as a very nice best of both worlds...


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## n8dagr8 (Aug 14, 2004)

MarkA said:


> "which can be done with a laptop but then is it really a laptop?"
> 
> Absolutely. I have a 15" LG flat panel I plug into my iBook when at home doing design and stuff - giving me a total of a 2048x768 desktop. When out and about I've got my nice cute little portable iBook. It works out as a very nice best of both worlds...


I was saying that to get dual monitors you have to be where ever the other monitor is and you are *basically *locked down. I do find it humorous that you have a "nice cute little portable iBook".


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

"I do find it humorous that you have a "nice cute little portable iBook""

I love the iBook. It's not as fast as the PowerBook, but it blows away similarly priced Windows laptops, it's really cute (though it would be better if it came in pink to match my iPod mini), it's stronger than most laptops, very solidly constructed. Nice stuff.

It doesn't officially support screen spanning, but it's an easy Open Firmware (the Mac BIOS) hack; because the ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 supports it. Apple just tries to differentiate the iBook and the PowerBook by disabling screen spanning in Open Firmware. Any reasonably compentant user can turn it back on themselves, and theres even a program which does it for you.


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## astrotrf (Apr 5, 2004)

JohnGfun said:


> Both are equal to me. Dell is my Favorite Manufacturer.
> 
> Post any comments, Favorite Manufacturer, etc...
> 
> John


I build my own - almost always based on an old DEC/Compaq Alpha system. I do have _one_ AMD Athlon SMP system. All run FreeBSD. They serve my web sites and offer FTP service, and are also my software development systems.

My one and only Windows box is a Monarch Hornet 64 running Windows 2000. It browses (FireFox) and runs my telescopes and does image processing (PhotoShop, et. al.). I hate having it, but the telescope and CCD camera control software is all Winblows-based. 

Terry (astrotrf)


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

As a PC tech (one of my professions  ), I have to be adaptable.

Big or small keyboard, mouse or touchpad, left- or right-handed, reversed buttons or not.

Being left-handed, my preferred configuration is using a "normal" button mouse with my left hand. That is, the left button is "primary", and I use my middle finger to click it.

The only thing I downright HATE is the pencil eraser pointing device. They SUCK!


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## JohnGfun (Jan 16, 2004)

SimpleSimon said:


> The only thing I downright HATE is the pencil eraser pointing device. They SUCK!


I agree!


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## DonLandis (Dec 17, 2003)

SimpleSimon said:


> As a PC tech (one of my professions  ), I have to be adaptable.
> 
> Big or small keyboard, mouse or touchpad, left- or right-handed, reversed buttons or not.
> 
> ...


When IBM first had those on the Think Pad, my wife got one assigned to her at work. She thought it was cute! I tried it and hated it. I believe, This sucks was my comment as well. Then it broke! Well, seems many of her coworkers broke theirs as well. The company got rid of the think pads in a few months. Too many complaints about that rocker button!


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## MarkA (Mar 23, 2002)

I actually liked those pointing devices, though the touchpads are nice too, but need more movement when you're tired... What I HATE are the old trackballs.


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