Next message: Ron LaPedis: "[WinMac] How to save user & pwd in Dial-up Netoworking"
I wouldn't dare differ from Dan even if he was wrong<g>, so a
couple of minor points only:
The higher-spec Toshiba laptops are available with NT
pre-installed.Warranties up to 3 years, which in the UK at
least are handled through your dealer - so it's important to
choose him carefully. Some of them - certainly the Tecras -
will take a Zip drive in the bay that normally holds the CD or
DVD.
I haven't used an NT-fitted Tosh (lots of satisfactory
experience with them generally), and don't know what if
anything Toshiba have done to overcome NT4's lack of support
for USB and power management.
Toshiba, IBM and the top Compaq machines use a pointing stick
(which I prefer) rather than a trackpad. I second Dan's
suggestion of the IntelliEye mouse.
As for price, there's a massive premium for laptops (say 100%),
a premium for Toshiba, and a further premium for Tecra (serious
corporate machines) over Satellite Pro (casual corporate/power
user) - so you're looking at $3000 plus for a Tecra kitted out
for serious development work ... and in my experience Toshiba
don't bundle application software with their professional
machines ... as against $1000 plus for a desktop box of
comparable performance.
Happy hunting!
----- Original Message -----
From: Daniel L. Schwartz <expresso@snip.net>
To: <winmac@lists.best.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 5:10 AM
Subject: Re: [WinMac] Wintel purchase recommendations sought
>
> Hi, Will!
>
> I mostly agree with my pal Leonard; but I also differ with
him
> on a few
> salient points...
>
> First off, I would *not* use USB peripherals, since NT4 does
not
> support
> USB. NT5, err, Windows 2000, does support USB; but you'll
need dual boot
> (NT4 & 5) capability since Win2k will not take off until next
year.
>
> Second off, I agree with Leonard about getting a name brand
box;
> but the
> support can vary widely amongst manufacturers. Quality of
support can be
> anything from gold plated to "dial-a-prayer." Also, even
among a
> manufacturer's lines (home, office, workstation, server) the
support can
> vary widely.
>
> With that being said, I've found over and over that IBM's
> service and
> support to be the best - It's today as good as Apple's was
6-8 years
> ago,
> with 24/365 availability. On the other hand, H-P's support -
Even for
> their
> NetServer line - stinks. Gagway, Compaq and Dell are
somewhere in
> between.
>
> Since you're working with databases, I/O throughput is more
> important than
> CPU cycles, which means SCSI... You'll also want lots of RAM
of the ECC
> type (Error Checking and Correcting) so you don't get
unexplained
> crashes
> due to "soft" errors.
>
> Video performance is not critical, since you're working with
2D
> & 4D, but
> not 3D. As long as you can slam up 1600x1200 pixels at
greater than 60
> cycles - So you can look at your monitor for hours on end
without
> flickering - you'll be OK.
>
> You'll also want to consider a dual CPU machine with slower
> (400-500 mHz)
> CPU's rather than a single (expensive) CPU, since NT is
multithreaded:
> This
> way even when one CPU is "pegged out" at 100% the other CPU
can still
> handle the rest of the "housekeeping" chores (such as disk
access and
> networking.
>
> [More below, inline]
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: Tue Mar 14 2000 - 23:16:27 PST