Nondisposable laptop

I like having a true laptop because I can do anything with it such as print etc and take it with me to the races, when it comes time to start tuning a Megasquirt or Haltech or etc it will be really difficult to do with a tablet or a desktop. After fiddling with the kid's touch screen laptop that's probably how I will go next time, i.e. get an 'all in one': touch screen like a tablet, keyboard like a computer, connectivity like a computer.

turtl631 wrote: No desktop for now, I'll probably move twice in the next year and a half and would prefer to wait and get something nice with a giant display when my job subsidizes it. I just want a decent laptop that will last a long time without the plastic parts all breaking and the screen and keyboard getting wonky. There seem to be a lot of gripes about the current think pads like the T430. Any input from owners?

Mine at work does funky things when I undock it requiring a restart.

This is my second at work, and the first issue I have had with either. There was nothing wrong with the first one (it was only 8 months old when they replaced it), but it was replaced because big company does stuff like that.

Our Lenovo Thinkpad has lived through 3yrs of toddler abuse and of being off-site at my wife's business. Its missing a few keys and the power adaptor jack has been snapped, but runs win7 fine. I tend to use older laptops for personal use( right now I have 1 dell insprion, and an older ibm thinkpad), and I use thinkpads at my job so I maybe slightly biased. My wife wants a tablet for Christmas only b/c she hates how heavy her laptop is.

wearymicrobe wrote:

Lesley wrote: I love my MacBook. Although they're stupid amounts of money brand-new, you can pick them up used fairly reasonably. Mine's been dropped and shipped all over the freaking globe, was used when I bought it for $600, and is an absolute workhorse.

Macbook air, 100,000+ air miles on my first one and still working like a champ.

I still have my macbook black that I bought new back in 2006(I think). Its been through hell too, DJ work, college, being dropped, stuff splashed on it, etc. Great laptop.

All our non-engineers at work get the cheap ASUS laptops and they hold up fine and are good for non-engineering. Engineers either get HP Mobile Workstations or whatever new Dell is out. I ended up with an HP Mobile Workstation and aside from battery life, its fantastic. Of course, its also a desktop in a smaller case in terms of hardware and power consumption, so I cant expect much out of a battery. 40-50 minutes is all she is worth.

I use laptops pretty intensely. I consulted some computer geeks and they pointed me toward an HP. Their compelling argument was a sturdy build with quality components. I can't argue. I've had this laptop for three years, it has seen a dozen or more plane trips, multiple drops, an abused battery that still works, and a couple re-formats.

The computer is only as strong as its components. Some of the components are outsourced, like the HD, memory, etc. The board itself is the big component. If you have a strong quality board, the rest can be changed/upgraded.

I think of it like a car. A good quality computer is like a GM B-body. It is a rock-solid frame with a zillion possibilities. Parts are cheap and plentiful. Start with a solid base and you won't lose. HP and Asus are about the only platforms I know are solid. There may be others but I can't speak intelligently about them.