I need help. I am looking for a laptop. I found the Vostro on dell
14.1 Wide Screen XGA+LCD Display w/true life
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz,2 DIMM
160GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
128 NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
These were the recomendations from my son. He likes the fastest and best but he toned it down for me.
Rich (husband) thinks it is over the top because I started out looking at $600. bargins and this is going to cost close to $900.
I will be useing it for my lighthouse pictures and Photoshop CS2. I dont play a lot of games and I dont like Vista. I bought a HP but the screen was to shinny (glare) and dont have the time to learn Vista. Returned it at Best buy. I want what i know so this can come with XP. Can anyone tell me what they think. Gary(son) says since I am so into my pictures this is the minimum requirements. I am ready to put husband and son in the ring and let them at each other. Rich sugested I post here and ask you guys I feel like I am banging my head against a brick wall.
Since i got great help with a digital camera I figured someone out there can help!!!!!!!!!!!

Fran,

I bought a new laptop in August from a local computer shop I deal with. I paid $1,200 for it, but, because I've been a client for at least 5 years, I get the shop owner's undivided attention. I use the laptop for my HL inventory, access to the internet and email accounts, and, most importantly, mapping routes for my GPS for lighthouse hunting. Stan downloads the pictures he takes daily and has an empty card or two for the next day's photography. I've had no problems getting online at the campgrounds we stay in when we travel with the RV.

The computer is a Lenovo Laptop with 15.4" monitor, has 1.73 gigahertz memory and CD/DVD-Rom, an integrated wireless LAN, a Sony 1.44 MB External Floppy (I still use 3-1/2" floppy discs to save my work), and a lithium-ion battery pack. Thinking I was plugged into AC recently, I operated the laptop for 8 hours on battery before the low-battery warning came on.

I insisted on having Windows XP installed to avoid problems with having XP on my office desktop and Vista on the laptop. Hearing the horror stories about the glitches in Vista, I'm glad I pushed for XP. The laptop was also loaded with data from the outdated IBM laptop I was using before purchasing this one.

The only problem I encountered with the Lenovo was the touch pad to move the cursor. I've had to disable the pad as it's located where I rest my thumbs when I type. Couldn't figure out why the cursor was moving all over the place when I wasn't using the wireless mouse. Finally happened onto what was going on when I stopped typing and took a long look at my finger positions.

BTW, I bought the IBM from this same dealer in 2003. It was refurbished and the selling price was what I was willing to pay at the time--$750 if memory serves. The monitor and battery had to be replaced in the 4 years I used it before purchasing the Lenovo. All-in-all, I probably ended up spending $1,000 for it and it never had the speed or memory this one does. I've had as many as 5 different files and been on the internet at the same time and wasn't getting any alarms.

None of my experiences with the Circuit Cities, Best Buy, and their ilk have been good once I'm out of the store. Getting service out of the small operator has always been easier.

Hope this helps more than it confuses. . . .

Sandy

Fran, for what you want I think there are two important considerations: speed and memory. Two gigs of memory is a good start. Will it handle more if you decide you need more? (You would have to replace one or both of the DIMMs with a new memory chip if you needed more memory and the system would handle it. Don't need to worry about it at this point, just nice to know if you can....)

You don't say what processor or speed, but guessing it will be one of the "x2" or "duo core" type of processors which will especially help with your Photoshop work.

Dave you are correct Intell Core 2 Duo T5470(1.6GHZ 2MB L2 Cache,800MHZ FSB)
When I look at all those #'s my mind goes !@#$%^&*.
Sandy I was also thinking about looking into a private store some where. Gary told me he has had no problems with his Dell. Might spend a little extra for on site fixing

Fran, fro the last birthday and for this Christmas Stan and I requested contributions to a new lap top. This we got the other day.

Our main consideration was: Photographs. We needed a portable way of looking at the pictures we take.

So I looked and looked and in the end came back to Dell. I have had several Dell computers and have always been happy with them and - most importantly - with the after care I got from them.

Usually I have them build me the computer I really want. But in this case - mainly to save money - I opted for a standard lap top "off the peg" .

The Dell Inspiron 1521 has everything I need. It is fast enough for me. It has wireless capability and you can up date it if you feel the need.

Best of all, it has a SD card reader built in, so there is no faffing around with the picture transfer from our cameras.

As for Vista ... well I felt the same as you. But this LapTop is beginning to convince me that Vista has many good sides and I did not find it too difficult so far!

And I paid about half way between you $600 and the $900

I would be very happy to recommend this lap top!

Oh and Sandy, I had the same "thumb problem!" and used the same solution. The wireless mouse it much easier to handle anyway.

Thanks Margret I am thinking of telling hubby that Dell is going to get my business. He thinks my son is telling me to put to many upgrades into it and my son thinks I am not putting enough upgrades into it.

Fran, I have always maintained "I decide what I want form my computer" not anyone else. I will admit, I try and make sure, the computer I buy has the capability to be upgraded, if I find I need to. But you need to use it, so you need to decide what you want!

You are so right but I dont know anything about what is in the computer and speed differences. I bought one and took it back because of the glare and it crashed 2x. The glare is bad for me and every laptop at Best buy has the same screen, all I see is my own reflection, very distracting. It took soooo long to boot up with Vista. I check out things till I am blue in the face. I cant help it dont want to make a mistake with something that is expensive. I question a lot of people and everyone says it depends on what you want and in my head I am saying "If I knew I would not be asking you"

Fran,
if I understood you right and you want to be able to use Photoshop and work with pictures, maybe go on the Internet and in general use the computer gently and not for any high flying games etc, the Inspiron 1521 should be fine for you.
I may be possible to call Dell and see if they will deliver one with XP on it, if you really don't want Vista.
But as I said before, I did not find Vista as bad as I had expected. And I can put up with waiting for it to start.

Actually I don't think the perfect computer exists. There is always something you need to compromise on. For me it was the fact that I accepted Vista and the slow start.

Margret you are absolutly correct. I dont think the perfect one is out there so I will weigh the pros and cons and do heads or tails(flip a coin) and pick one.

NSA has a spare Cray Supercomputer on display in their museum...... Actually, they now have two Crays on display. Not very portable, but you should be able to fly thru those image edits.

Wow ... I wish! Wouldn't I like access to one of those. But ... not very portable!

That would put a dent in my lap and my bank account.

I cannot imagine retiring a Cray. They should still be useful.

One thing you can be sure of when buying a new computer.

A better one will come along in about 6 months - cheaper, faster, a better display and more features.

My first computer was an Apple II Plus bought in 1978 with two 5-1/4" disk drives . One for programs, one for storage. 180KB on each disk. I added a special chip to display 80 columns with upper and lower case letters on the 11" BW Monitor.

VisiCalc and WordStar were two early programs.