2kwik4u
09-18-2011, 10:33 AM
A little back story so everyone knows where I'm coming from....I've been a member here for awhile, but not much of a contributor or active user. I worked for a small family run business that had gone "paperless" before I started, and I was issued a rather nice Motion Computing LE1700 to do my work on while there. I had access to a FlexDock, USB DVD Drive, and external montor for my desk. While on the go I had a decent power invertor for the service van, as well as the extended slice battery for the back. It was a really nice machine, and I enjoyed using it while there. I always got interesting comments on it when taking notes in meetings, or while on a job site doing preliminary evaluations. I also had to use the machine for light AutoCAD duty for asbuilt drawings once our jobs were completed. Overall the machine worked well, although it would lag from time to time when trying to do work with larger AutoCAD files. Normal MS Office apps ran fine, as did most anything on the web. My biggest complaint was the lack of a physical keyboard when trying to type an email outside of the office. I had a bluetooth keyboard with me, but got tired of charging it (or more appropriately got tired of forgetting to charge it and then needing it). I often found I could bang out an email quicker on my blackberry than I could my tablet. Tethering via bluetooth and the Blackberry was an awesome solution, and I was very sad to see the company switch to Android devices and the stupid hot spot setup that never worked reliably (I think the switch from AT&T to Sprint might have had something to do with this as well). Also the slice battery failed on me after about 3yrs usage, and we couldn't find a replacement NEW battery for it. Battery life fell to around 15min, and it quit being the handy tool it used to be. Moral of the story, I have SOME experience with a tablet in a "real" work environment.
NOW.....Fast forward a bit to my current situation. I've quit my day job, and have returned to college full time to finish my career, and get back to the engineering field I left when I took a gamble on the family business. I'm taking a full load this semester at 17hrs, and expect to maintain this pace for the next 8 semesters until I get my degree. I'm going through with a Mechanical Engineering Technology degree from Purdue. I have a couple classes already that will require me to bring a laptop to class, and my current Acer Aspire 5000 isn't quite strong enough to run the programs I need. It's an AMD Turion ML-32 1.8Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD running WinXP Pro SP3. It doesn't meet the minimum specs for either AutoCAD, or SolidWorks. It runs most everything else fairly well, and I would like to retire this one to my wife, and get a new machine. I'm struggling with the selection of a new machine though. I'm on a bit of a budget being as how I have a newborn at home, and have quit my well paying day job in favor of college, and a return to the pizza delivery industry. I've tossed some ideas around, and have looked at a few machines, and can't really decide what I need or want. So here are some thoughts, and I was hoping to run these by the resident guru's here to see what the general thoughts were.
1. HP TM2T. This seems like a pretty solid machine. At the family business there were a couple of older HP convertibles running around, and even at 3 and 4yrs old they were still performing well. It is available with a nice Core i5 processor, up to 4GB of RAM, and a decent sized HD. I like that it has the dual graphics cards with teh ATI Radeon with better OpenGL support for my drawing/modeling programs, and the integrated Intel chipset, and it seems like an overall good machine. I've found some used ones in the $800-$900 range on eBay, and places like that. New ones are still floating around for around $1,100 or so. A little high, but not terrible on the budget.
2. HP EliteBook 2760p. This is a powerhouse of a machine. I can get tons of RAM, a nice HD, and a Core i7 processor. I'm sure this would run all of the applications I need, and probably last me for quite some time. I like that a slice battery is available, but I hear that it makes the device a little heavier. I am already dragging 4 large books around so lighter/thinner/smaller is better. Obviously within reason. The price is very high though at around $1,500-$1,700
3. Motion Computing LE1700. Again my biggest problem here is that it doesn't have a physical keyboard. While I think a good portion of my time will be taking notes in classes with the pen. I have some concern about it's ability to run SolidWorks and AutoCAD well also. They aren't available that I can find with anything stronger than a Core2Duo processor, and 2GB of RAM.
4. Some combination of powerful desktop and super simple tablet. I was thinking some sort of Win7 powered tablet (like the Acer Iconia) and then either use the schools desktops, or get a new desktop for home that is strong enough to run the heavy modelling that I might want to get into a few years from now. I could spread out the cost here, and maybe end up with a better overall solution. I like the idea of the ultra-portable tablet to take notes with, as well as not have to carry around a power adapter, and "heavy" laptop to class with me. Any thoughts on this idea? It might be a little less cash up front, but might lead to the best overall solution?
Is there another machine that I should be looking at? I'm still a little concerned that I even "need" a tablet at all. Pen and Paper still work just fine (what I'm currently using for notes). $1,000 can get quite a nice standard laptop, and a helluva desktop computer nowadays. I won't be working on any ridiculously large modeling files, or AutoCAD files, but I need something somewhat powerful to insure that I can at least run those programs. Ultimately I'm just wanting to make sure that I spend my budget on the appropriate hardware that will last me as long as possible, and be as useful as possible. I'm open to any thoughts and ideas that you guys might have for me. Thanks in advance.
NOW.....Fast forward a bit to my current situation. I've quit my day job, and have returned to college full time to finish my career, and get back to the engineering field I left when I took a gamble on the family business. I'm taking a full load this semester at 17hrs, and expect to maintain this pace for the next 8 semesters until I get my degree. I'm going through with a Mechanical Engineering Technology degree from Purdue. I have a couple classes already that will require me to bring a laptop to class, and my current Acer Aspire 5000 isn't quite strong enough to run the programs I need. It's an AMD Turion ML-32 1.8Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD running WinXP Pro SP3. It doesn't meet the minimum specs for either AutoCAD, or SolidWorks. It runs most everything else fairly well, and I would like to retire this one to my wife, and get a new machine. I'm struggling with the selection of a new machine though. I'm on a bit of a budget being as how I have a newborn at home, and have quit my well paying day job in favor of college, and a return to the pizza delivery industry. I've tossed some ideas around, and have looked at a few machines, and can't really decide what I need or want. So here are some thoughts, and I was hoping to run these by the resident guru's here to see what the general thoughts were.
1. HP TM2T. This seems like a pretty solid machine. At the family business there were a couple of older HP convertibles running around, and even at 3 and 4yrs old they were still performing well. It is available with a nice Core i5 processor, up to 4GB of RAM, and a decent sized HD. I like that it has the dual graphics cards with teh ATI Radeon with better OpenGL support for my drawing/modeling programs, and the integrated Intel chipset, and it seems like an overall good machine. I've found some used ones in the $800-$900 range on eBay, and places like that. New ones are still floating around for around $1,100 or so. A little high, but not terrible on the budget.
2. HP EliteBook 2760p. This is a powerhouse of a machine. I can get tons of RAM, a nice HD, and a Core i7 processor. I'm sure this would run all of the applications I need, and probably last me for quite some time. I like that a slice battery is available, but I hear that it makes the device a little heavier. I am already dragging 4 large books around so lighter/thinner/smaller is better. Obviously within reason. The price is very high though at around $1,500-$1,700
3. Motion Computing LE1700. Again my biggest problem here is that it doesn't have a physical keyboard. While I think a good portion of my time will be taking notes in classes with the pen. I have some concern about it's ability to run SolidWorks and AutoCAD well also. They aren't available that I can find with anything stronger than a Core2Duo processor, and 2GB of RAM.
4. Some combination of powerful desktop and super simple tablet. I was thinking some sort of Win7 powered tablet (like the Acer Iconia) and then either use the schools desktops, or get a new desktop for home that is strong enough to run the heavy modelling that I might want to get into a few years from now. I could spread out the cost here, and maybe end up with a better overall solution. I like the idea of the ultra-portable tablet to take notes with, as well as not have to carry around a power adapter, and "heavy" laptop to class with me. Any thoughts on this idea? It might be a little less cash up front, but might lead to the best overall solution?
Is there another machine that I should be looking at? I'm still a little concerned that I even "need" a tablet at all. Pen and Paper still work just fine (what I'm currently using for notes). $1,000 can get quite a nice standard laptop, and a helluva desktop computer nowadays. I won't be working on any ridiculously large modeling files, or AutoCAD files, but I need something somewhat powerful to insure that I can at least run those programs. Ultimately I'm just wanting to make sure that I spend my budget on the appropriate hardware that will last me as long as possible, and be as useful as possible. I'm open to any thoughts and ideas that you guys might have for me. Thanks in advance.