Shopping for a new laptop

I was wanting to know if someone could help me with some information so I can choose a new laptop.
Here's a list of things that I need to come to terms with.

1. Power.
My new laptop will be used in a place with DC power as the primary power source. (house power)
And as such, it will be limited to how much I generate and store. I keep about 90 amp hours stored, and have a 100 watt solar panel and a 400 watt wind generator to keep the batteries up.
The new laptop will need to be frugal with its power draw.
Also, will it take less power to run and charge the LT battery using a DC converter cable direct from the LT to the cigarette lighter receptacle? Or use the AC power cord that comes with the LP and plug it in to a main power converter?

2. Processor.
There are so many processors that I don’t know how to go about eliminating those that will not serve my needs.
P4 1600,1800,2200 2800, on and on.
The same with cel 1300, 1500, 2300, ……..
I want to get what is enough, but I don’t want to **** away my money.

3.I plan on using a satellite Internet system, Do I need to make sure my new LT has a certain type of card or whatever installed? If so what is it called?

4. My current PC has a CDRW that I have never been able to use for putting data on a disk. I tried no less than 5 different types of disk and always the same results.
I can down load from a disk that is already written.
So, with my new LT, I want to get it right this time. I need to put data on a disk, Watch a DVD on occasion, and down load from other disk.
Is there one piece of hardware that will do all that? Is it better to get separate hardwares and plug them into a usb?
Whatever HW I get, I will need to know exactly what kind of disk to buy so that they work.

I’m looking at dell’s, I think I want ether one of their deals of the week, or a “refurbished” something or other.

Do you need more information to help me decide? If so just ask, I don’t really know what is the important information I need to put forth.

Thanks sulong

sulong said:

I was wanting to know if someone could help me with some information so I can choose a new laptop.
Here's a list of things that I need to come to terms with.

Thanks sulong

Click to expand...

1. Sulong I ran a laptop on a solar system like that for quite a while and it was fine. You always get the best efficiency if you don't invert from DC to AC and then convert back again - so you are right to be looking into a cigarette lighter type charger. If your batter setup is 24 or 48 volt, an electrician or handy person can put in a transformer to provide you with a 12v cigarette lighter socker. Don't forget to get an extra battery and to charge it in your car anytime you are driving...

2 and 4 -can't help you there, I'm sure someone else will pitch in.

3. A new laptop should come standard with an ethernet cable and a wireless card built in. The satellite setups that I have installed required an ethernet connection to the router/hub or directly to the machine if there is only one cpu. Be aware that satellite systems have a slight delay on the upload. The data will come to you at top speed, but when you click to take action - there is a very small delay. This probably won't be suitable for intraday scalping, but shouldn't be a limited factor to anything else. Also, satellite reception quality dropped during heavy rain, snow, and lightning conditions.

I have had toshiba laptops for years and have recently switched to dell. I don't know if was the vintage, but several of my toshibas were very quirky about network cards.

Best wishes.

JO

JumpOff said:

1. Sulong I ran a laptop on a solar system like for quite a while and it was fine. You always get the best efficiency if you don't innvert from DC to AC and then convert back again - so you are right to be looking into a cigarette lighter type charger. If your batter setup is 24 or 48 volt, an electrician or handy person can put in a transformer to provide you with a 12v cigarette lighter socker. Don't forget to get an extra battery and to charge it in your car anytime you are driving..

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply JO.
My system is 12 volt, so should be no problem there. As far as the car, I'll be getting rid of that monstrosity soon, but I understand your meaning.
Jeezze, they want around 100 bucks for a DC charger cable. Thieves I say..

JumpOff said:

3. A new laptop should come standard with an ethernet cable and a wireless card built in. The satellite setups that I have installed required an ethernet connection to the router/hub or directly to the machine if there is only one cpu.

Also, satellite reception quality dropped during heavy rain, snow, and lightning conditions.

Best wishes.

JO

Click to expand...

The internet connection I'm looking into is T-Mobile GPRS. And they say that I can get a certain type of card, or, get one of their cell phones and a data cable to connect the two.

So does that mean I don't have to worry about it when I purchase a laptop? I'm concerned about making sure that my purchase will have the proper recepticals to plug in that data cable and / or that certain type of card..

Thanks sulong

Go for Pentium rather than Celeron. Faster processors are not too expensive. 2800 for instance are common in Dells now. Their refurbs are supposed to be OK. That's what I'm going for next. 512 MB RAM minimum should also be enough for you.

For trading I'd recommend a 15.4" wide screen model, which is actually wider than a standard 17" monitor, and a real pleasure to look at, even for hours on end.

Sounds like you need a 1.5/1.6 Centrino chip rather than power thirsty 3Gb plus desktop type processors.

I have found Acer to be good value for money, don't know what the back up is like in your neck of the woods though ?

rog1111

Acer do seem to be popular in this list:-

http://www.dealtime.co.uk/xPP-PC_Laptops

What is the build quality like? I have a Rock that is held together with carpet tape. It works well but I want something that can take a few knocks the next time I buy one.

Widescreen does seem like a good idea. A lot of them seem to come with a DVD RW drive that will come in handy.

I have the Acer Travelmate 4501WLMi. The build quality appears to be OK, probably not the toughest laptop unit around, but I have had no problems other than a scratch or two on the nice metallic effect top. For under a Grand you get all the bells and whistles, and you're in business.

rog1111

Bigbusiness said:

Acer do seem to be popular in this list:-

http://www.dealtime.co.uk/xPP-PC_Laptops

What is the build quality like? I have a Rock that is held together with carpet tape. It works well but I want something that can take a few knocks the next time I buy one.

Widescreen does seem like a good idea. A lot of them seem to come with a DVD RW drive that will come in handy.

Click to expand...

"have had toshiba laptops for years and have recently switched to dell "

Came across this site by chance so don't know anything about it but it seems to give a 1% discount on Dell. Interesting but may be a hassle for very little.
http://www.cashbacktoyou.co.uk/

I have two laptops at present:

one is a fujitsu amilo d, P4 2.4GHz / 256mb - not bad, but i probably wouldnt buy one again - mostly because its a bit noisy at times when the fan comes in.

The other is an Acer Aspire 1362 widescreen, AMD Sempron 1.6GHz / 512mb - can't fault it really. Yes, you can notice the performance difference from my P4, but the additional RAM helps out. Quality wise its not as good as the Fujitsu, but then it was cheaper - get what you pay for.

Overall, I'd probably go with a Pentium-based machine next time, although AMD are kicking Intel's butt in the seriously high-performance stakes right now.

Apple

What about a PowerBook G4?​

I wanted to thank everyone for your replies. They were a great help to guide my research.

Update.

I decided on a dell inspiron 6000
15.4 wide screen, pm-16 processor, 60 gig hd, blah, blah, blah..
I got it yesterday, so now I have got to spend some time getting used to it, and getting it hooked up to the internet.

For now I'm trying to make a choice on what type of modem to use for sat. isp.
My choices are between using a cell phone with a data cable, or one of their special type of cards.

So far I'm leaning towards a cell phone with a data cable, but power usage and cost will be the deciding factors.

Has any onr traded with the Sony Vaio T series laptop? I am thinking of this as a backup for when I am travelling and not for home.

This is the lightweight 10.6 inch laptop.

I use SONY VAIO A series laptop VGN A397XP (2Ghz Centrino)......has a sparkiing razor sharp 2nd gen X Black screen running at 1920 X 1200 res....

Comes with WI FI, Bluetooth, network, modem. S400, AVout, USB etc etc etc built in....

I added extra ram...

It comes loaded with many software and support is brilliant......

It was so good that we ditched all PC's at home and bought two more....even kids have one now.......

Metastock charts are crystal clear on this screen...

I don't think that i wil use desktop PC's anymore...

DITD said:

Has any onr traded with the Sony Vaio T series laptop? I am thinking of this as a backup for when I am travelling and not for home.

This is the lightweight 10.6 inch laptop.

Click to expand...

Looks a good machine Z. Thank you.

Do fellow traders think that a 10" screen is too small? I like the idea of it being so portable with a long battery life. However there must be negatives.