I've been a very good girl, and Uncle Sam thinks so too, so he's rewarding me with a very nice refund. So I'm going to be very, very good to myself and finally buy a new, top of the line laptop. I've narrowed it down to either a brand new HP Pavilion dv5000z Turion 64 or a scuffed up floor sample of the latest Lenovo ThinkPad T60 1952 - Core Duo T2400 1.83 GHz. I've also decided to set up a wireless network at home because there are times when I want to have the freedom to move around with my laptop and enable my son to have online access when he does his homework.

The advice I need is simple: help me select the laptop by you guys chooseing the spec's. The bottom line is I'm unsure if some of the new tech features are really advances or just hype used to drive up prices. Also, any help/guidance you can give me in selecting a wifi solution for my apartment environment will be greatly appreciated.

So should I choose:
a) AMD or Intel Core Duo ?
b) Password or Biometric security?
c) Fast Ethernet vs Ethernet, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, Gigabit Ethernet
d) Open Slots: 1 Memory, 1 PC Card vs. 1 Memory SO DIMM 200-pin, 1 CardBus Type I/II, 1 ExpressCard 34mm/54mm.
e) DDR SDRAM or DDR II SDRAM-667 MHz

Finally, I'm doing research into setting up a home wireless network, any suggestions or tips on things I should look out for or include?

As always, I am very grateful for any advice or suggestions you share with me. Who knows, my new system might inspire me to blog more frequently. Right now my Thinkpad 600E just doesn't cut it anymore for travel and mobility. BTW, does anyone know if T1G's friend is still looking for a laptop?

Posted by: Michele at 01:34 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 320 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I will review the laptops in a few, but as far as the wireless, I've setup a few using the Linksys that supports g and I like them. b is slow in comparison and sucks bandwidth. I turn off b when I set it up. I use WEP128 and setup at least a 16 character alpha-num key. After installing the software for the router on the laptop (I've bought the package that came with a PCMCIA wireless card.), I then right-clicked on the icon that it puts in the System Tray and selected "Let Windows Manage My Wireless Network". That interface worked great and is one less program running. I'm going to look at the laptops now, but I already have two other links to give you that aren't on your list. heh

Posted by: _Jon at May 15, 2006 02:49 PM (aHLPi)

2 Given the choice of those two laptops, I would take the HP. It is heavier, but can do more, IMO. The specs are impressive for that price range. And I've always been partial to AMD. They are power hungry. If it get's ripped, no security will matter. It ain't kids nabbing these things. There are ways to reset the BIOS password and get around anything else that may be setup. woot.com has a refurb'd lt today for about a grand, worth looking at, meh thinks. Also, when I sell these houses, this is the lt I'm getting: http://dynamism.com/x1/specs.shtml

Posted by: _Jon at May 15, 2006 03:12 PM (aHLPi)

3 The 11g network is definitely the way to go. Google up network security, there are some little things you can do that will help alot. The simple thing to remember is that you don't have to have a completely secure network, it just has to be more secure than the others in the vicinity. Hackers will look for the easier of two targets.

Posted by: Ted at May 17, 2006 10:51 AM (blNMI)

4 Ted is right about the wireless thing. _Jon is right about the Linksys - I use them and they've always been reliable. These are the things you can do to make your wireless more secure. Do them one at a time and check the connection after each change to be sure you can browse. And the "reset" button is your friend if you get really messed up. -change the name of the base station and give it a good password - allow connections only by those with a MAC entered in the list (there's a page for that) - if you worry about someone snooping your connection then enable the WEP connection then you will be encrypted up to the wireless router As for the AMD or Intel - _Jon pointed out the power thing. The other thing is that unless you do intensive number crunching or lots of photoshop stuff you don't have to worry about the processor speed. Get the least expensive one - RAM is more important. Hope that helps some. I'm looking into getting a new computer myself but I'm looking at desktop. It's frustrating trying to figure out the best thing.

Posted by: Teresa at May 18, 2006 09:49 AM (jgXyO)

5 I had the HP dv5000v at my last job and just loved it, loved it so much I went and bought one for home (but ended up with the HP dv8500v, it has the number pad on the side and a huge ass screen width). I can not say enough good things about HP laptops as I went with HP because my last home laptop was a HP and never had problems with it. As for wireless we set one up at home and have a secure encripted one, I suggest that as neighbors have tried logging into ours but can't. I actually set all this up myself, so anybody can set up the wireless with no problem.

Posted by: Quality Weenie at May 18, 2006 11:10 AM (XG7jZ)

6 If you are set on wintel, I agree with QW and a lot of the advice above. I set up the lair with a Linksys wireless/wired so I can have the best of both worlds, along with good security. Change the name, use MAC, and tweak the other features as suggested and it gives good security. Then again, I also recommend the PowerBook laptops hands-down over wintel, so take it all with a grain of salt.

Posted by: Laughing Wolf at May 20, 2006 07:42 AM (KTIad)

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