You can connect a numpad or an external keyboard to a USB port, and make your lap top life a lot easier.
At 08:56 AM 9/23/2008, you wrote:
Thank you for your input. That helps a lot to know and I know more now than I did. What is a thinkpad? Thanks again and have a great day. Randy----- Original Message ----- From: <mailto:Corange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>Chip Orange To: <mailto:jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 8:43 AM Subject: RE: Labtop you'll get a lot of opinions, probably all of them right in some way.I just bought a Dell inspiron, one reason is that it has a relatively full keyboard, which includes alt and control keys on both sides of the space bar (not a given with laptops), and it has all six keys of the traditional six-pack grouping (some laptop keyboard require you to make these keys by pressing a special fn key plus an additional key; when you're trying to make control-shift-home, and you have to press fn+ something else to make the home key, this can become a pain).try to ask questions about the keyboard, as it will end up influencing how you feel about your purchase more than say the processor speed. In this case, the heavier the laptop the likelier you are to be pleased with the keyboard, as the larger the laptop is likely to be.I bought a 14 inch screen inspiron, that weighs about 15 pounds. I never price shopped, I was interested in many other things besides price. I simply tried to bring the price down as much as I could by choosing the cheapest screen size, which is today around 14 or 15 inches. smaller and larger screens usually cost you more.I'd recommend you get built-in bluetooth and wifi, as these don't work nearly as well if you have to use add-in devices later on. built-in from the factory means special built-in antennas as well.Try to get the cheapest graphics card and sound card you can; this is usually the one built into the motherboard. I don't believe you'l benefit from upgrading either, and even the cheapest sound cards today are multi-channel. If you ever want to do complex audio things you'll end up doing them at some home desk setup, and it won't be an inconvenience to buy an external high-quality usb sound card if you ever needed something better than you got. Complexity when upgrading the sound card sometimes causes confusion with drivers that have too many options or features which interfear with speech synthesizers. still, if sound processing is what you live for, and you know it, go ahead and get something high-end built-in. Dell offered me a choice of 3 sound cards, much different in price, but I had no real idea how they differed in capabilities.If your money is tight, you can put off buying things like a dvd burner til later, they can be moderately expensive.the exact model of what I bought is the Dell 1420 if you're interested. It's available in your choice of colors, including color matched accessories if you buy any. speaking of accessories, don't buy a leather case; they're heavier, cost more, and are no more durable than the regular ones.I'm also impressed with thinkpads (now from Lenovo). I still own one which is 5 years old.I am very unimpressed by Sony, and wouldn't recommend them. hth, Chip ------------------------------ Chip Orange Database Administrator Florida Public Service Commission Chip.Orange@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (850) 413-6314(Any opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Florida Public Service Commission.)----------From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Randy CampbellSent: Monday, September 22, 2008 11:48 PM To: jfw Subject: LabtopI am looking to buy a new labtop but I'm not sure what to buy. Could somebody on this list reccomend what they think is the best labtops out there. Thank you. Randy
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