Laptops

[Kieran]

I'm thinking about getting a cheap low powered laptop, REALLY cheap and of course with a low power consumption

http://www.elonexone.co.uk/oneunion.html
Elonex ONEunion

For now I would use it mostly as a PDF reader but a little way down the line it looks like the kind of thing most of us may be using out of necessity. Can anyone more tech savvy comment on this make? Does it look like a good buy?

[mobbsey]

Get an older/second hand laptop so it can run with Linux/free software. I find using Linux instead of Windoze cuts power consumption by a third, and older laptops use less energy than newer ones (because faster processors and memory buses use more power).

Plus the fact that a second hand laptop and free software costs a fraction of a Windoze system -- and it works a hell of a lot more reliably.

[Vortex]

ASUS EE nano notebook (LINUX) ... it's tiny with FLASH drive .. about ?220




http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/16 ... us_eee_pc/

[gug]

ASUS EE nano notebook (LINUX) ... it's tiny with FLASH drive .. about ?220




http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/16 ... us_eee_pc/

I have one of these.
For the price, I'd highly recommend them.

Not the sort of thing you could use all day (unless you had an external keyboard) but perfect adequate.

[Kieran]

That Asus does look good, like a somewhat higher spec version of the Elonex that I linked to. Hmmm...a ?100 difference in price though. I'll have to mull this over. Thanks for the suggestions guys.

[isenhand]

The reliability of laptops, in my experience, is low. We have loads of them at work and they require being sent back regularly. If you get a laptop get a 3 year warranty on it too. If you don?t use it you have bee lucky! ASUS is something I would avoid as well. I have had a few ASUS stuff and they all have had problems. At work, ASUS has given us more problems than any other manufacture we use.

.ui

[skeptik]

I'm thinking about getting a cheap low powered laptop, REALLY cheap and of course with a low power consumption

you're a few years too early. In a few years time simple laptops which use static RAM instead of hard drives should be available. FlashRAM for cameras has increased in capacity enormously over the last few years. My first digital camera was supplied with an 8Mb card. My current camera is capable of using an 8Gb SD card which can be had for about fourty quid. An order of magnitude increase in 10 years.

The screen is the other big power draw. There are a number of low-power technologies under development to replace the backlit LED. I dont know which is currently favourite to get into production.

I imagine that when both these technologies are available laptops will run off a solar panel covering the outside of the display, which will constantly charge a nano-tech Lithium Ion battery or similar.

addendum
.. I see from gugs contribution that the flash RAM 'drive' notebook has already arrived... Nice, but unfortunately no use for me until it can run Photoshop CS3...

At work, ASUS has given us more problems than any other manufacture we use.

Hmm.. a little too much corner cutting to keep the price down... Think I'll wait till Apple come out with one that runs OSX..

[JohnB]

Laptops don't last that long, and once they go wrong you have to throw them away and buy another one. So you get a few years use after TSHTF and then you have no computer. Before I sold my house I was collecting bits to build a desktop PC to see how little power I could make it use, and to experiment with Linux. If part of a desktop PC fails you can replace it from a collection of parts from scrap computers, and hopefully keep it going indefinitely. You can get 12v power supplies to run it direct from batteries, PV etc.

I'm writing this on my 2 year old Toshiba laptop that cost ?455 and is now pretty worthless, as it got dropped and trashed 2 of the 3 USB ports, and I've been quoted up to ?150 to get fixed. I really don't fancy dismantling it to fix it my self, even if I could get the parts, but would have been inside a desktop PC and fixed it in no time for little cost.

[fifthcolumn]

If TSHTF as you say I plan to lay low for about six months then systematically go door to door killing starving chavs, and stealing their x-boxes.

[phobos]

Think I'll wait till Apple come out with one that runs OSX..

Apple Macbook air can be configured with a 64Gb Solid State Drive, should run PS fine

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects ... acbook_air

A little pricey still but nice

[Kieran]

Sounds like laptops have a pretty limited lifespan from some comments here. I might be better going with the ?100/120 Elonex since it'll do nicely as a PDF reader and something to browse the net with. Wonder if it can easily be connected to an external optical drive? Maybe only desktops will be viable longer term, as JohnB points out parts can be scavenged to keep them going longer.

Damn, the thought of no longer having a PC in the not too far distant future gets me down. Only had a decent PC for the past 3 years and it's hard to imagine life without the internet flightsims, astronomy programs etc.etc.

[gug]

You might want to look at loading operating systems on to thumbdrives.

This takes can take the reliance away from a single piece of hardware (assuming that you backup the usb drive and your data of course).


I've had by Asus EEE booting Openbsd and ubuntu off of thumbdrives.
I can then take those thumbdrives and boot my other laptops from them giving me the same environment and data irrespective of the hardware.

If your hardware is fairly modern and generic it might be worth trying.

[mobbsey]

The reliability of laptops, in my experience, is low.

I've not found that:

My current work laptop is nearly 4 years old (the touchpad is a bit dodgy, but you can plug in a USB mouse to solve this, and the 'G' key has just fallen off, but other than that it's fine).

My spare travelling laptop is nearly 5 years old, and it works perfectly, although it's the same weight as a brick which isn't fun.

The Linux Training Centre (http://www.fraw.org.uk/cltc/) still has two out of the five second-hand, now 8 year old Pentium-II laptops I bought in 2002, and by using free software they're still usable to teach people how to use computers (albeit a bit more slowly than most new computers). And these laptops have been dragged around the UK and to Jamaica for workshops over this time.


I find that laptops, because the components they contain tend to be a little more sturdy (it's usually surface mount boards rather than standard PCBs) can take more punishment than desktop computers. Ultimately what determines the lifetime of a laptop is not the hardware, but the software. Using Linux the Pentium-II 266MHz laptops are still compatible with my 'youngest' Pentium-IV 1.7GHz laptop. This wouldn't be the case using Windoze.

[RenewableCandy]

Marvellous Other 1/2's laptop is over 6 years old and still alive. Erm, just.

[skeptik]

Think I'll wait till Apple come out with one that runs OSX..

Apple Macbook air can be configured with a 64Gb Solid State Drive, should run PS fine

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects ... acbook_air

A little pricey still but nice

wot.. no cd/dvd burner? Slim is nice but thats taking it too far. A triumph of Jobsian style over function... like designing a car thats so small you have to have the engine on a trailer at the back. Rather silly in my book. a CD/DVD burner is an essential part of a laptop and should be integral, not dangling off of a USB port.

thanks for pointing it out though. Screens a bit on the small side too.