Advice/Recomendations for Laptop

[bluedog5]

We are moving to a shared facility and will be using the video system that is there but not their computer so we are planning to get a laptop to use. We are also planning to start using Easy Worship (currently using SongBase and Power Point). I am partial to Macs but we will be going the PC route so I am looking to see if I can get some recommendations on the best PC laptop to use with Easy Worship, money is an issue so affordability should be factored into recommendations ($400 to $800 range?).

Thanks,

[chazman14]

I got a nice Acer laptop from Walmart for 500 out the door. 2.3Ghz Dual-core, hdmi/vga out, blue ray, 15.6 widescreen, 4 gig ram, 320 gig hd. It's light a quite. Model number 5551-4200.

[bluedog5]

Thanks, are you using Easy Worship on it and any issues with the graphics card connecting to additional monitors/video?

[chazman14]

Not Easy Worship, but Media Shout and it works great.

[petereit]

Look for a used MacBook Air. They make the best PCs.

[Mustangnaz]

Originally Posted by petereit

Look for a used MacBook Air. They make the best PCs.

How's is that? Especially considering that you either have to pay significantly more money or take your chances with used. I don't know about you, but on a media computer it is important to me to have multiple USB ports, an optical drive, memory card reader, expandable RAM, and an extended battery option.

I've always had good luck with HP laptops. At the bottom end of your range you can get a HP ProBook for $410 shipped. It has a dual-core 2.2Ghz CPU, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, and ATI Radeon HD 4250 GPU. On the top end of your range you can get a HP Pavillion for $775 shipped AR. This beast has an i5 2.3Ghz CPU, 6GB RAM, 750GB HDD, and a discrete AMD Radeon HD 6490M GPU. This thing would handle anything you throw at it without blinking.

[SamG269]

My wife has an HP laptop... It is the first laptop I have ever Hated. Maybe its just that one laptop. But I never want to get one again.. I am definetly going to MAC. Had a job where I was supplied with a OLD Mac laptop and it ran circles around my wifes HP.

[Mustangnaz]

Yeah, that's the problem with asking advice for computer's: most of people's recommendation is based on anecdotal evidence. I simply have had more luck with HP's than others. But even when you look at it spec for spec (PC and mac), I just can't justify spending that much more of the church's money. I recently built a new high-end tower for our sanctuary media computer for $1,000. I also speced a comparable Mac tower for $3,000. It's not always that big of a difference, but it's always important to me to be a good steward of the church's resources. I will say though to stay away from Dell, not only due to their low quality products but unethical business practices as well.

[bluedog5]

Thanks for the input. I will check out the HPs (I would prefer a Mac but not the route we will go at this point)

[[Director] Joseph B]

I will say that I put windows on my MAC - it runs better then it did on my Dell

[Gracetech]

The difference between laptops is so great that it's hard to really make a good choice, and that just under one manufacture. The good news is there are alot of great laptops below a grand. The bad news is there are about as many bad laptops in that range as well. I've had good laptops and bad laptops in every brand out there so there is no safe brand.

Look at the processor in the laptop as well as the amount of ram(speed of ram won't factor in to your equation). If you can afford a dedicated video chipset that would be the best way to go with atleast 512vram. When looking at laptops for usage here are a few of my test tips.

1. Lift the lid of the laptop with one finger, while doing that look straight down from the edge of the lid to see if the lid is bending alot. If there isn't enough bracing in the lid you will end up with a messed up screen after a while with rough handling.

2. While swinging the lid from one extreme to the other but a finger close to the hinges on both sides of the lid and feel for any bulging. Week hinges will bulge greatly and eventually fail.

3. type a paragraph on the keyboard and see if it is comfortable for intermittent use. If you plan to right a dissertation on a laptop get a secondary keyboard

4. If you are going to be carrying it around alot then you may want to get a smaller laptop. My preference is to never have a laptop with a screen larger than 14". My current laptop has a 12" screen. Anything larger defeats the purpose of portable. I understand in some cases that people only have one computer and go with a larger laptop as a compromise.

Happy hunting

crt

[shane2943]

+1 to everything Gracetech mentioned. Great post.

+1 also to a dedicated GPU. Especially if you are going to run the displays as split screen (control on the laptop monitor and EW primary view from the VGA port), a NVidia or ATI is the way to go. The Intel IGPs aren't terrible (anymore) but they are a bit weak. You may encounter video stuttering issues when transitioning between motion background or in/out of videos and whatnot. Also, if you plan to run a foldback display as well (utilizing a DH2G), you'll definitely need the additional power the dedicated GPU can bring.

All that being said, I really like Asus products. Their laptops tend to be higher spec'd for the same price as other brands and hold up well.

One more thing: if you want to eliminate any delays in video transitions and "go live" transitions with things like power points, then you may want to swap in an SSD drive into the laptop eventually. They're still pretty pricy but they've come down a lot and I'm sure will continue to drop in price. A slow SSD will CRUSH any and all benchmarks from even a 10,000 RPM standard hard drive. I swapped an 80GB Intel SSD into our media PC and it made all the difference. No more lag...at all......gone!