My old cheap Dell notebook

fdeck · #1 06-12-2009, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by popinfresh

And if you're still not convinced, then just start a thread about your own laptop

Okay, here it is. Let's discuss my old cheap Dell notebook.

tplyons · #2 06-12-2009, 06:38 PM

Okay... it's old, it's cheap, and it's a Dell. What's left to discuss?

In all seriousness, it's not the tool for me, but I won't give anyone guff for using a PC. I used them for ten years before I saw the light.

fdeck · #3 06-12-2009, 07:07 PM

Amusingly, I switched from Mac to Windows just over ten years ago.

hover · #4 06-12-2009, 07:09 PM

I have an old, cheap DELL notebook as well. What's to discuss? Mine is an Inspiron 1100. P3, gig of ram, running Xp like a rock. Overheats, does its normal notebook things, cools down, like a rock again...it's my mobile recording studio, at the moment... yours???

James Hart · #5 06-12-2009, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fdeck

Amusingly, I switched from Mac to Windows just over ten years ago.

me too... I've got an Apple][c, Performa 6200, Powermac 7300 and 8600 here as well as a Duo 280c and a Powerbook 165c (couple Quicktake cameras too).

My personal laptop is a Compaq and my work laptop a Dell... my wife's laptop is a Fujitsu tablet/convertible thing and both our towers are built from my 'gamer geek' friend's hand-me-downs.

fdeck · #6 06-12-2009, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Hart

me too... I've got an Apple][c, Performa 6200, Powermac 7300 and 8600 here as well as a Duo 280c and a Powerbook 165c (couple Quicktake cameras too).

My personal laptop is a Compaq and my work laptop a Dell... my wife's laptop is a Fujitsu tablet/convertible thing and both our towers are built from my 'gamer geek' friend's hand-me-downs.

The ][c is pretty cool. It was one of the computers that I considered buying for college in 1984, but what won out was a Sanyo "PC Compatible" that wasn't really PC compatible. For better or worse, I gave away all of my antique computers to better homes.

Was the 165C the one with the active matrix monochrome display? I gassed over one of those at the time.

popinfresh · #7 06-12-2009, 08:03 PM

My girlfriends laptop is a Dell XP something and it's a big heavy hunk of junk that's had numerous problems, and poor customer service. She only checks email on it.
She wishes she brought a macbook after using mine because even though they cost a bit more in the long RUN it would have been much better for her and prefers how they work as well.

Is this what I do in these threads?

hover · #8 06-12-2009, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by popinfresh

in the long wrong

I dunno man, what's that mean? Is that an Eagles tune?

popinfresh · #9 06-12-2009, 08:06 PM

Hahaha, I just woke up from napping, shush.

James Hart · #10 06-12-2009, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fdeck

Was the 165C the one with the active matrix monochrome display? I gassed over one of those at the time.

the C is for the 'color' screen... first color Mac laptop. It was a slammin' laptop with it's built in floppy, upgraded 320MB hard disk, maxed out 14mb of ram and SMOKIN' 33Mhz processor! It's loaded with MacOS 7.5.5, Clarisworks, Photoshop 3.0 and Snood. The wife has it in the bottom draw of her filing cabinet... I should pull it out and bring to it to work tomorrow for a day of Snoods

Maybe I can find my installer of Escape Velocity too

Kenbuntu · #11 06-12-2009, 08:37 PM

I suggest you throw any distro of linux on it. Should make it somewhat use-able again.

While you're at it, get the Opera 10 Beta, it has this turbo mode thing that actually seems to work.

And damn, pitsburg just won the stanely cup

**bassybill** · #12 06-12-2009, 09:22 PM

Posting from my own old cheap Dell notebook here. Had it three years, still runs like new.

I had a Macbook once (from work) but couldn't understand the purchasing decision that got it for me as it couldn't do anything that I wasn't already able to do and I couldn't see any point spending time on it to relearn the same stuff I used a PC for. The Mac sat in its case behind my couch for two years before I handed it back when I quit that job. I think that in the two years I owned it, it was switched on for about 40 minutes (the day I brought it home).

No argument intended here, use whatever works for you. If I'd grown up with Macs, there's a good chance that I'd probably still be using them. Despite the price...

TOOL460002 · #13 06-12-2009, 10:50 PM

i am currently typing on a dell inspiron 6000 that is over five years old. about six months ago i put in more ram (2gb now). about five months ago i had to replace the lcd inverter (if your screen goes black, its normally the inverter or the light, so dont feel the need to throw it in the garbage). i have reformatted it probably ten or more times. it is heavy as sh*t. that is my only comlaint. the battery still lasts four hours. the screen still holds its position, and doesnt flop around.

i built my desktop, and will always build them, but for laptops, i think im going to be a dell customer for life. maybe i got lucky. my buddy had his hdd fail in under six months, and his screen wont hold its place well. still, he got a new hdd for free. dell is a good company, and has excellent support.

i cant run pro tools on this thing, but it will run reason 4 quite well. as long as i can use the web, ms word, and play movies while im on an airplane, i will keep it until it fails to the point where fixing it isnt worth it.

that said, i have been less than impressed with dell desktops.

edit:

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Hart

It's loaded with MacOS 7.5.5, Clarisworks, Photoshop 3.0 and Snood. The wife has it in the bottom draw of her filing cabinet... I should pull it out and bring to it to work tomorrow for a day of Snoods

hahaha. SNOOD! i had completely forgotten about that wonderful game. thanks for that.

fdeck · #14 06-13-2009, 12:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Hart

the C is for the 'color' screen... first color Mac laptop. It was a slammin' laptop with it's built in floppy, upgraded 320MB hard disk, maxed out 14mb of ram and SMOKIN' 33Mhz processor! It's loaded with MacOS 7.5.5, Clarisworks, Photoshop 3.0 and Snood. The wife has it in the bottom draw of her filing cabinet... I should pull it out and bring to it to work tomorrow for a day of Snoods

Maybe I can find my installer of Escape Velocity too

I still have my HyperCard diskettes. It is my dream to revive HyperCard in some form or fashion.

But I somehow persuaded myself that I wanted a desktop, so I got a Quadra 605, and found an article on how to jailbreak it to use a non-Apple monitor.

Honestly I have nothing against Apple. You have to make your best choice based on a lot of things, such as what you plan on doing with a computer, how much support you expect to need, how you want that support to be delivered, and of course cost is a consideration as well.

My choice is pretty much dictated by my electronics hobby, which uses a fair amount of free engineering software. The Mac just doesn't support that. On the other hand, if you are in the arts or education, the tables are probably turned in favor of Apple. A lot of musicians I know have Macs.

TOOL460002 · #15 06-13-2009, 01:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fdeck

A lot of musicians I know have Macs.

not to hijack this thread, but can the people who converted to macs for strictly music purposes tell me why? i have heard that the osx stability is good, but i dont get the blue screen of death on my three year old pc desktop.

all i want to run are pro tools, reason, photoshop, and the interweb and word processing type stuff. why is a mac so much better for these creative programs? is it virus protection? is it stability? i just dont get it.

i (kind of) respect all opinions, so please tell me why your apple desktop is better than the same pc desktop with identical specs.

i am very, very, very biased, because i know how to run a pc. it is easier to get pirated software, were i ever to have obtained such stuff, yet i see a lot of professionals using macs over pcs for some reason. feel free to get technical.

rcarraher · #16 06-13-2009, 01:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fdeck

Amusingly, I switched from Mac to Windows just over ten years ago.

Yeah, I gave up the "Crapple" after grade school....

TOOL460002 · #17 06-13-2009, 01:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcarraher

Yeah, I gave up the "Crapple" after grade school....

those neon imacs were so lame. they got (ca) school contracts, but seriously, that cant be good advertising. its not like anyone wants to invest in numbermunchers.

fdeck · #18 06-13-2009, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TOOL460002

not to hijack this thread, but can the people who converted to macs for strictly music purposes tell me why? i have heard that the osx stability is good, but i dont get the blue screen of death on my three year old pc desktop.

all i want to run are pro tools, reason, photoshop, and the interweb and word processing type stuff. why is a mac so much better for these creative programs? is it virus protection? is it stability? i just dont get it.

i (kind of) respect all opinions, so please tell me why your apple desktop is better than the same pc desktop with identical specs.

i am very, very, very biased, because i know how to run a pc. it is easier to get pirated software, were i ever to have obtained such stuff, yet i see a lot of professionals using macs over pcs for some reason. feel free to get technical.

Actually, the musicians I know didn't convert. Many of them started with Macs. And I know one thing that has helped Apple in my locale is that there are a couple of Mac shops with really helpful staff. I think they realize that when a repair just costs them a few minutes of their time, they are really helping themselves sell the next Mac to that customer or his friends. The local stores that sell other brands of computers are really not making visible efforts to win repeat business.

Windows support is a different beast. I admit that support is not in the picture when I buy a computer, as I expect to figure things out myself. Between Google and web forums, I have never run up against a wall. As someone I know has found out the hard way, try getting support when you're deaf.

Things like "stability," reliability, and support, may be largely matters of perception and marketing. Anecdotal evidence is insufficient to convince me one way or the other.

As for performance, the hardware is the same -- generic Wintel boxes with different packaging. I doubt that the software is massively different. Most of what we see as the "operating system" is just a shell, and the low level nuts and bolts are probably similar.

TOOL460002 · #19 06-13-2009, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fdeck

Most of what we see as the "operating system" is just a shell, and the low level nuts and bolts are probably similar.

oh, this just sparked another question. i am going to get another app/os hdd pretty soon (raptor 10k is a bit out of date, plus i had to reformat once [1=throw in garbage {for me}]).

does anyone here have windows on one hdd, and then mac osx on the second fot music/graphics purposes?

CamMcIntyre · #20 06-13-2009, 12:52 PM

I'm also using an old Dell Laptop. It's a Latitude D610 that my Dad bought for me to use at school.

I've liked it good enough. I quickly added an external hard drive.

A new desktop is on my list of wants. I'd like a bigger monitor and for it to run a bit faster & more smoothly. This one works fine, and pending any massive failures, I plan on using it for a while still.