Laptop hunting

[torquill]

Okay. I need a new laptop sometime in the foreseeable future. Any advice I can get in terms of recommendations, industry gossip, or horror stories is welcome.



What I need:

• A touchpad. I don't care if it has a clit-mouse, but I won't use it... I'm absolutely a touchpad person. Two buttons at least, three would be ideal.


• Built-in wireless would be really nice.


• A couple of features which I suspect are standard these days: an ethernet jack and DVD-ROM. I had to hunt for the former last time.


• A 14-15" screen or better.


• Linux compatibility. Again, I expect most good models are pretty good with linux, but if you know of one to avoid, please let me know. I have heard that some Dell laptops have been dismal in this regard...


• Reliability. This is my primary machine, and gets a lot of hard use. It can't need to be fixed regularly.


• I need it to be affordable. The only reason I haven't bought Sony in the past is because they cost too much, not because they're bad machines (quite the contrary). I need a basic, well-built machine for as little as possible; I bought Hesseth for $1100 plus tax and shipping, and I'm looking for that sort of deal again.

What I don't care about:

• Processor speed. Any of the current processors are plenty fast for me.


• Graphics. Ditto above -- I'm not going to be playing Half-Life 2 on my laptop, and any model out there can handle playing DVDs just fine.


• Weight. I'm quite used to 10+ pound luggables.


• Stock memory. It does need a relatively high memory capacity, but memory itself is so cheap that I can buy it separately.

What brands I will not consider:
Dell and Gateway. I won't give Dell my money, if for no reason other than the crappy stunts they pull on desktop computers. (Ask me about the power supply trick... *shudder*) Besides, I hear more Dell horror stories than any other. Gateway has really bad support and quality both.

Sony and Apple both come under the category of "good but overpriced". If I could get a Sony for the same price as an identical HP or Thinkpad, I'd jump at it. And I can run linux on a Powerbook, though it wouldn't let me dual-boot WinXP as I occasionally like to do. Windows capability would be nice.

What brands I have considered in the past:
HP's Omnibook has done well by me for several years. I've heard the Pavilion notebooks have gotten better (they've always been better than the desktop models anyway). Last time I was also looking at Toshiba, IBM, and possibly Compaq. I'm hearing conflicting reports of both HP and Compaq quality since the merger; I'm curious as to whether HP's quality has gone down, and/or Compaq's has improved.

So. That's where I am... any thoughts?

Comments

[phantomdancer.livejournal.com]

power supply trick?

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

They used to make power supplies which had a standard connector, but whose pinout was completely different. This means that if you swapped power supplies with a standard desktop setup (an HP, say) then it would fry one or both machines. They neglected to even slap a label on the supplies mentioning that the pinout was unusual...

I came across a website which mentioned casually that this non-standard pinout was found in Dell power supplies made from about 1996-2000. My brother says it was done in such a way that they had to rewire the motherboard to suit, so they had to be aware of the problem.

I just have philosophical issues in dealing with a company which would do something that insanely stupid. Maybe that's just me. :)

[seamoose.livejournal.com]

IBM and Toshiba have both been pretty good for Linux. The biggest complaint that I have about IBM is the battery life. And I don't know of any models that have the touchpad mouse, but I haven't been looking.