At 09:29 AM 10/31/2005, Eve Golden typed:
This time for once I'm deliberately getting the new one soon enough
that I'll be able to outfit the old one as a workable emergency
backup with more RAM and a bigger hard drive.
To have an emergency backup system is a good idea.
I have that Tritton adapter that lets you use an auxiliary monitor.
It's not fast, but it's very helpful if you can use the monitor for
reference and the laptop screen for work.
Do you have a URL for that adapter?
But Jim raises an interesting question about the second screen.
Does a docking station provide an attachment for a second screen
that works as quickly as the main screen? If it does, that might tempt me.
Most laptops allow one to connect a CRT but not use it at the same
time as the LCD & in this way it is actually as fast if not faster
than the LCD. The fact that one can use these features via a docking
station is just for comfort of not having to reconnect the monitor &
etc all the time. When I got to the hotel in Albuquerque I set up my
port replicator with monitor, keyboard, mouse & networking then only
transported the laptop back & forth to the office so when I came back
to the hotel I just snapped my laptop into place & I almost felt like
I was home as far as the computer was concerned.
Crucial is the memory supplier, right? Do they tell you how to put
it in? <blush> Hey, I know I can put it in, I just need to know
where it goes...
I'm sure it'll be in the instruction manual that comes with the
laptop. How much video memory does your existing laptop have? Not
system memory or scratch disk space but video memory? Your cheaper
laptops have a tendency to skimp in this area. It also sounds like
you may not be happy with shared memory. [The system memory is shared
between the cpu's needs & the video processor's needs]. Even my
little Dell L400 has only has 4meg video memory but it's dedicated &
I have no problems with Photoshop. What resolution do you feel
comfortable working at? Does the new laptop native resolution equal
this? Some of the Dells desktop replacements have ridiculously high
resolution & you'll have to adjust menu & text sizes to suit your
needs. While you may not need an ultra lite like I have you don't
want a boar anchor either.
I'm used to a touchpad and don't want a separate mouse. Don't need a
portable printer. I have an old briefcase that works fine and isn't
obviously a computer case.
I thought the Toshiba's used the pencil eraser thingy. ;-) FWIW I
hate those things. Also I wouldn't want to get stuck with an Intel
processor when there are so many laptops with AMD processors these
days. That wasn't the case when you bought your last one. If you get
one with an AMD processor you'll have more money left over for the
external HD you're talking about.
Wireless -- I don't really care as long as it works (I've had
problems). But would prefer not to have things sticking out. Will
buy an external hard drive for backup. Is firewire better than USB?
My real world experience is that Firewire is faster than USB 2.0 as
many USB 2.0 devices are not of the HighSpeed variety where as with
Firewire 400 or 800 whereas USB 2.0 HS is 480 most USB 2.0 items only
run at ~240.
This too, thanks, although my good intentions about partitioning
always come to naught :-( Maybe I can mend my ways.
Most people that get laptops don't bother with partitioning because
they want to start using the laptop right away & they certainly don't
want to buy Partition Magic to re-partition the drive once.
Re-partitioning with a single HD is of limited value when compared to
using an external HD & if you're going to get an external drive
anyway then you may want to forget the re-partitioning altho that can
make backups go quicker. Whether you re-partition or not you should
have all the stuff that you want to backup in a central location. I
prefer mine in C:\My Documents versus XP's C:\Documents and
Settings\User\My Documents. I even install Eudora in My Documents
instead of Program Files just to make backing up email easier & faster.
----------+----------
Wayne D. Johnson
Ashland, OH, USA 44805
<http://www.wavijo.com>
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