laptop substitution

[alpha754293]

My girlfriend is going to B.C. for university come January and I'm looking into possibly getting her a computer that she can travel with.

What do you guys recommend that isn't a laptop?

I'm thinking something along the lines of SFF; but then that would also mean that she would have to carry around a LCD with her and the cost of the system and everything else wouldn't be that much better than if she got a laptop to begin with.

She's going to be getting her degree in teaching English as a second language, so it's pretty much only for internet, word processing, maybe a few spreadsheets here and there, photos, music, and possibly a movie here or there.

Preferably that she'd be able to carry it herself (on the airplane and stuff).

I know that one idea would be to get her something akin to a very short/small version of a 1U rackmount and strap the monitor to it; but I honestly don't think that she'd go for that idea either.

Thanks.

[cirthix]

shuttles are nice ;)

i recommend a refurbished/used laptop if its' the price you're worried about though

[alpha754293]

shuttles are nice ;)

i recommend a refurbished/used laptop if its' the price you're worried about though

Well, it's the combination of price and portability.

Pros for laptop
- easily transportable

Con
- cost (possibly, while trying to stay away from Dell, IBM, and Sony)

Pro for SFF (Shuttle, etc.)
- better price/performance ratio

Con
- portability

I have thought about getting her a Mac Mini as well, but not really crazy about that plus I don't like how Apple's currently marketing them because the picture they paint isn't entirely true/accurate or that they're manipulating the results for marketing purposes.

[[XC] leviathan18]

shuttle SFF are VERY portable i know the system integrators here in venezuela and i moved a few of them and they are xtreme light weight and very portable also...

i wouldnt buy a crappy laptop ever....

[CedricFP]

Yes, but you're forgetting about the portability (or lack thereof) of a monitor.

[neogenesis2004]

every ibm laptop ive ever owned has been bulletproof. Im not sure why you have them on your list.

[alpha754293]

every ibm laptop ive ever owned has been bulletproof. Im not sure why you have them on your list.

Because every IBM laptop that I have ever encountered had about the same (bad) reputation as Dells. (i.e. it's not a question of IF they will fail, but more so a question of WHEN.)

From a price/performance perspective; they're not that much better either. (i.e. I don't see any particular advantage with them compared to other vendors).

[[XC] leviathan18]

ibm fails?????? that BS my mom works in a very very large company (cemex) they have 60k ppl around the world and guess what like 5k or more use IBM laptops to work 1 is my mom and she is careless well i can tell you those laptops are great they are bulletproof like neogenesis said...

also if you buy a shuttle you can transport a 17" shuttle lcd fairly easy

[[XC] MarioMaster]

my hp laptop has been great, they have excellent customer service, the screen on mine had funny white discolorations around the edges, sent it to hp, and got it back in THREE days and they had replaced the whole top half of the laptop. it may not be real great for gaming (GeForce 4 Go 440) but otherwise it's a rock solid laptop, great for music, dvd's, internet browsing, anything besides gaming really (and it plays ut2004 great just not stuff like cs and doom3)

[IFMU]

Honestly, for what you want it for, a laptop is really your only choice.
Dont get me wrong, SFF systems can be made to be nearly perfect in size comparision to a laptop.
The MAJOR drawbacks to doing a desktop, there are many external components for a desktop that would make it not even worth carrying it around.
i.e. case, monitor, keyboard, speakers and the list can go on and on.
Its only major benefit, is ease of upgradeability if needed later on down the line.

IMO, get a laptop. Just be sure to do ALOT of research first.
I am going to actually suggest something most in here seem to not like. Dell. Or the Sony Viao.

Ive heard of something about the sonys, decent if a bit pricey. Nothing more than that really.
Dell, very customizable via thier website and are at minimum decent laptops.
My sister has had one for nearly a year and a half ago and it still runs like a champ.

So, heh, overall, my opinion, go laptop, the simplicity of that alone would be the effort

[WeStSiDePLaYa]

if your from canada as it seems your located.

goto www.redflagdeals.com and goto the forums. in the buy and sell section you can get real good deals.

just got a laptop for 650$CDN a few weeks back. pretty decent for school work. cdrw/dvd drive, 3100 sempron, 512mb ram, 80gb hdd, 15.5 widescreen. only onboard gfx though.

people selling alot of nice lappys there.

[alpha754293]

As far as I know, my gf doesn't plan on doing any kind of gaming on that sorts. Her "game" consists of some like online-game thing (based on what she's told me, she said that it's like an online-create-and-rule-your-own-world type of thing.)

I have no idea what it is called and I've never really bothered to ask (or to go check it out).

So, I think that so long as I can protect her system against unnecessarily stuff from getting in/on the system to begin with; then I don't really think that it should be an issue.


ibm fails?????? that BS my mom works in a very very large company (cemex) they have 60k ppl around the world and guess what like 5k or more use IBM laptops to work 1 is my mom and she is careless well i can tell you those laptops are great they are bulletproof like neogenesis said...

also if you buy a shuttle you can transport a 17" shuttle lcd fairly easy

Put it this way, every single time my friends get an IBM laptop, it dies and I get called in to go and fix it.

(That's based on my experiences with them). I wouldn't be saying that if I didn't know what I'm talking about; and it does happen quite a lot.

Albeit, the last time that one of my friend's $3000 IBM laptop died, he was in Japan. If you've tried doing mechanical CAD design with the little red knob (trademark of IBMs), I'd like to see you try to still defend it. (He had to use that because the USB ports died. All of them). (Now, he has a $5500 Alienware (Athlon 64 X2)).

And we're not just talking about one or two parts - he's a tooling designer for engine block casting.

We've overheated our systems with a 66 F ambient temperature.