Which Laptop?

[Mark Cuthbertson]

Hello,

I am currently looking to buy a laptop that is capable of
processing thousands of records in an Access database I
have developed as quickly as possible.

I am getting a bit confused with what to buy, AMD Athlon?
Pentium 4? Centrino? - The likes of Acer Vs Toshiba?

Does anybody have any advice? Or even a laptop that model
and make they find perfect for the use?

Thank you for any help,

Mark

 

[Allen Browne]

Dell had some really good specials last week.

Their 8600 would be be go if you want some portibility/battry life, or the
5160 if you want power/desktop replacement.

For Access, nothing beats RAM. 512MB min if you plan to have other things
open at the same time (e.g. Outlook).

 

[Guest]

In addition to Allen's response, I am currently using an IBM Thinkpad T41
(Centrino 1.5G - 1Gig RAM) . It's pricey, but I love it. Best keyboard in the
business, good portability ( 5.5lbs with AC) and good battery life.

At work I have an older T23 9P3 1.1 with 512 mb) that routinely runs jobs
with millions of records.

You need to make sure of your priorities in a laptop, and choose
accordingly. My other advise is to stick with a first tier name brand. I've
had some bad experiences with secondary vendors.

 

[Larry Linson]

I second Allen's suggestion. The more RAM, the merrier; the faster disk, the
better. I have been seeing some notebook computers that allow RAM expansion
to 2 GB, lately; unfortunately, there just aren't any notebooks, AFAIK, that
use the very fastest disk technology. If you get one with a 60GB or larger
(I've seen 100GB advertised on notebooks, lately), those should be
relatively recent manufacture and, thus, about as fast as you are likely to
find on a notebook.

I can't give you a specific brand and model recommendation, because I am
looking, too. But, for all the jokes and jibes, I have been perfectly happy
with the two COMPAQ notebooks I have had (vintage 1998 and 2000, both
obsolete now). But, before you rush out to buy one on my recommendation, be
aware I have colleagues who've also been perfectly happy with their IBM,
Toshiba, Sony, HP, Dell, and Gateway notebook/laptop computers.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

 

[Allen Browne]

Mark, underlying Larry's comments is a factor that neither of us spelled
out: reliablity is the most important aspect in choosing a notebook. These
things are flimsy compared to a desktop. The brands that Larry spelled out
are those that tend to have a good reputation for reliability.

Larry, we actually bought one of the Dells. After just a few days, it seems
great. Dell was charging heaps for RAM, so we bought with a single 512MB
stick, and will add another one ourselves. The drive is 60GB, and spins at
4800. Not fast, but unless the databases are large (millions of records), I
think that 1GB RAM and a slower drive is fine. Can remember testing a server
with very fast RAID arrays, being disappointed with the performance gain,
and concluding that Windows was a better memory manager than I had given it
credit for. So in a notebook, the slower spin speed is probably better: less
noise, heat, and battery drain, and works perfectly for development work.

I did want processing power though, so chose the Mobile Pentium IV 3GHz
rather than the Dothan chips that conserve battery better. That choice
probably doesn't make sense for an Access developer, but my wife will use
this notebook as well, and she's a graphic designer. If you know what
Photoshop needs in processing and RAM, the choice starts to make more sense.
The Dell 5160 has a 96WHr Li-ion battery (double what IBM provides), and
even so it looks like it only gives around 2 hours of thrashing (e.g.
playing DVD, decoding, sound, WiFi, ...)

My son (also developer) has ordered one of the 8600 series from Dell -
Dothan 2.1 GHz chip, and is waiting for it to arrive.