Please share your Laptop info with me:

Please post what laptop you have -
Brand, Model, O.S., RAM, HDD, and how long you've had it, and do you like it ?  Any quirks that bug you about your laptop ? Anyone have what they consider the "perfect" laptop ?


Thank you for your time 

Hmmm... I am using it right now and have no clue about what the "guts" are on the inside. But it's a company computer issued to me at work to take home and use. It's a Dell, that's all I know. A Latitude E5430.

It does what I need it to do. It has Windows 7 and Office.

Found the info: 

Intel Core I-3130M CPU @ 2.6 GHz
RAM 4.0 GB
64 Bit Operation System

It is a Toshiba (no idea what model) and it's running Windows 7.  
It was a hand-me down from the monster-in-law (just cost us shipping).
It's not a bad computer but runs slower than molasses in winter time....but that might have something to do with mom crashing it somehow with internet badies and probably didn't get a complete fix from the computer witch doctor.

Gary you crack me up, as always !

Question for Topshot Ray:
Is the technical info "Intel Core I-3130M CPU" the LONG way of saying "i3" ?
and do the GHz matter ? I've always been under the impression that the higher the GHz, the faster the processor. Yay, Nay ?

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Is the technical info "Intel Core I-3130M CPU" the LONG way of saying "i3" ?

In this case you were lucky, but you can't really tell normally unless you know where they cutoff from one to the other. Here is a list of those that use Ivy Bridge architecture.

Quote :

and do the GHz matter ? I've always been under the impression that the higher the GHz, the faster the processor. Yay, Nay ?

In the old days that was an easy way to compare them. Not so much anymore unless they are identical in all other ways (ie, number of cores, threads per core, cache size and types, etc). There are a couple sites I've used when I have wanted to get a general idea of how 2 processors compare side by side - cpu-world.com and cpuboss.com
Sometimes it depends on your main usage, too - CPU with higher frequency will run single threaded apps faster, but one with more threads will multitask better even if freq is lower.

Thanks again for all the great info. I am feeling much more well-equipped to hunt down my new laptop than before.

Newegg has several refurb options, including T510 with SSD, well within your budget so you could easily add another 4GB RAM if you really think you need it (which I doubt) or a larger drive. I personally would much rather have SSD and a large external if needed than a larger internal platter. The speed is amazing. Also makes more sense if you're going to image your drive periodically, which I highly recommend.

Thanks again... you've persuaded me to peruse a laptop with an SSD in it. I really wanted one, but never considered one due to cost.

The 128 and 256 GB are quite reasonable I think. Of course, you don't know what brand these would come with and there are some you should stay away from.

I would definitely do regular backups with an SSD. They are still relatively new tech, and my guess is when it goes it will go hard though they seem to act like regular drives. When a memory location (sector) goes bad, it supposedly marks it as bad and pulls one from its "stash". Some have a larger stash than others. Some have better algorithms for writing evenly than others. BTW, you don't defrag an SSD.

I've heard of some who have a small SSD for their laptop which, of course, houses the OS and some other things, then they piggyback a regular HDD for mass storage. I'd love to do something like that as I would want the best of both worlds - a fast boot, fast OS, yet have massive storage for my music, photo album and videos. Not sure if that's possible or just something a pro did.

If you don't mind losing the optical drive that is an option. At least that is how it is done on Lenovo - a SATA adapter for what they call the Ultrabay. Maybe some large laptop has an additional spot for a secondary drive???

Some may have space for an mSATA SSD, too, since they are pretty small.

Otherwise, you're stuck with some kind of external.

If I were to do the SSD thing and piggyback an inexpensive HDD, I could easily lose the DVD drive... I use an external Pioneer burner that is great ! So, nixing the optical would be no prob.

Well, I have a 2008 MacBook Pro, so you will probably not want all the details… but it used to have a 256 GB HDD, which my brother kindly replaced with a 250 GB SSD. The difference in speed is astonishing. I also have an external 3 TB HDD for backup and storage (things like TV shows, music/video projects, etc.); that way, if I'm traveling, I can keep the essentials (music, guitar tabs, homework, whatever) on the relatively small SSD, and get the full experience when I settle down. It's got a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and a 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory (I'm just copying from the About box ).

Nice ! The more I read about Solid States, the more seriously I'm considering one.

As for the MacBook, I've done lots of maintenance on my boss's and learned quite a bit. While I dig a lot of the nice features, I also watched my boss have multiple problems with hers (I guess no different than most Window's based problems) - and besides, some of my expensive programs I bought and use regularly are not compatible. So I'll be sticking with old IBM