I've stretched my old Dell Latitude (D610 - 4 yrs) as far as I can stand it -- and it's showing more quirky behavior; so, I'm looking for advice.

It's primarily for travel and a backup to the desktop in the office, so I'd like to stay at 14" or 15", but want to be able to run Photoshop, DigiPro, LR, Acrobat, Office, genealogy, etc and keep all images from a trip on the internal drive while traveling.

This is probably the time to start the migration to Win 7 (Home, Pro, or Ultimate?) and 64bit; 500GB HD, 6GB RAM, 1GB video, DVD burner, network a/g/n, bluetooth, .....
And, of course, I want to spend as little as possible.

Sure would like good tech support, but I'm pretty handy.
Have looked at Dell Outlet (& Dell), ASUS (Newegg?)....
Suggestions, recommendations for configuration and vendors are welcome.

Dee--Just went through the process due to a (possibly false) alarm when my ASUS got flakey on me after 3 years. Here are some thoughts:

* None of them are perfect (sigh)
* 14" is my upper limit for travel, so that's what I mostly looked at
* If you want 15" and money is no object the HP Envy is very cool
* Unless you want to save $$ by buying the 'last year's model' look for a Core i5 model. i3 is new and cool but single core. i7 is very cool (4 cores) but sucks down even more power, so i5 is a good middle ground (2 cores, up to 4 HT threads)
* For 14" I got the ASUS K42. There is a lower end F1 version with integrated graphics but I got the JR version for $850 from Amazon. Core i5, 500GB 7200rpm ATI gfx, 4GB (expandable to 8), 64-bit Win7, Blu-Ray DVD (not BR burner, DVD burner & BR reader)
* There is about to be an N82 with USB 3.0 which would be very cool, but "about to be" is key.
* Downside to this and many other 14" is that they don't tend to have Expresscard slots and they tend to have 1366*768 resolution, which is a little low
* BestBuy has/had a Sony model for like a week with better rez, i5 & great specs, but it appears to have disappeared completely. If it re-appears that's worth a look, although Sony's aren't the most rugged.
* I looked at Lenovo but nothing really appealed
* I looked at Dell but likewise didn't find anything really compelling
* ASUS is not great at end-user support (okay, they mostly suck at hand-holding) but their hardware guys are great so if stuff breaks they've always taken care of us (we now have 4 ASUS notebooks and 4 machines I've built with their MBs amongst our gaggle of machines). If you want a more user-friendly company then Dell & HP are possibly a better shot.
* HP has a nice looking 14" machine with an even faster i5 & a DVD drive you can take out and replace with a SmartBay drive or spacer which is cool, BUT it had even lower rez, which spooked me. Other than that I think I would have ordered it.

PS The UL (Ultra-Low Voltage) models are insanely cool for batterly life (Annie has one of those and it runs all day) but they aren't going to hold up well under PS or Video editing.

Hope that helps!--David

David -- this helps a lot - thanks!
*I had been looking at Core i5 as sort of the "sweet spot"
*any particular bias for or against the particular flavor of 64bit Win7 - can't imagine why I'd need "Ultimate" and also can't really figure out the practical difference between Home and Pro. I need to connect to our home/office network in either CA or MN and then be able to do wireless on the road. I haven't invested in AT&T or Verizon yet, although it's getting close to being worth the extra $$. Are you saying that the ASUS K42JR does not have a slot for the phone card?
*I looked at Lenovo/Acer also and didn't find anything appealing
*HP & Sony usually want more $$ than I'm willing to fork over
*I've had Dells for many years, but I'm underwhelmed with the price/value proposition and their customer service waxes and wanes (unless you pay up for the Gold-hotline-whatever support).
*How many USB/Firewire ports does the ASUS have. Amazon didn't list that.....

Dee

Dee--I have Ultimate on our Dev machines but the ASUS came with Home Premium which is fine. One drawback is the built-in Backup won't backup to a network but we use a separate package anyway. Other than that it doesn't seem to cause any trouble.

As to a 3G connect some of these machines can take that in a special slot and not need express card. But I didn't check that on the K42 as when I need wireless on the cell network I just tether my phone and use it.

The K42 only has 3 USB ports & no FW port, which could be a deal breaker if you need a DV cable. I guess the assumption is the newest cams use SD or CF cards or something. Other brands do still have FW (Esp. Sony of course) but I really don't use my Firewire any more so I decided not to sweat it.

I agree with most of what David has said here. He's much smarter than I. But I'll inject a few comments:

1) Love Dell. If you buy the NDB (Next Day Business support) I've had great luck with that in the US. Canada, well, not so much.

2) The Dell Inspiron 1545 is a great 15" laptop, fast enough for most stuff, and you can stuff 4 gig of RAM in it. Comes with wireless b/g and you can get N as well if you need/want it. I wouldn't spend the extra $ for N unless you have an N network at home/office, personally.

3) Windows 7 64-bit is miles ahead of Vista. It's even as good as XP (there, I said it). I would strongly recommend Windows 7 Pro. Ultimate isn't really necessary.

4) Disk space. Buy as much as you can afford, but always carry a USB drive as secondary. They are small and inexpensive for the peace of mind they provide. The Simpletech series are bus powered and don't require a power cord, just two USB.

5) A decent USB hub can make up for the lack of USB ports. But you aren't going to find Firewire many places anymore. Not even on a Mac.

I do IT during the day. I'm a strong proponent of Dell. But don't get paid by them. Just like their stuff, for the most part.

Hope that helps.

Mike.
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Thanks for that perspective Mike. As I said, I've had many Dell computers over the years (laptops and desktops), and for the most part, have been satisfied with product & support. The last 2-3 years the service has deteriorated in my experience (and the product proliferation is crazy-making).....so I'm casting about for alternatives.

Everything we have now is running Win XP Pro and it's working just fine, but it is time to make the move to 7 on new PCs. And, I intend to go 64bit. Curious as to why you mentioned the Inspiron 1545 (unless it's one you have) because I'd like to go to maybe 6GB RAM (for sure not be limited to 4GB) as long as I can & because it should help performance with PS & multiple apps open, etc. Am I wrong about that?

Since I'm not a Mac person, I didn't realize they had dropped FW also.

I try to carry a powered USB hub with my laptop if I think I'm going to be scrambling to plug stuff in. Do you have a favorite "decent" USB hub?

Thanks for the comments.

Duh (slapping own forehead) -- that never occurred to me. I have the original Blackberry Pearl (AT&T) -- not sure that I can tether that model. Do you use a special app - which phone?

Dee

Dee--There are several variables that affect tethering:

* Phone & Phone OS
* Carrier
* Rate Plan

I have an HTC WinMo phone on AT&T and don't need a special app. It ships with the capability native. But I know that (for example) the early iPhones wouldn't tether.

In some cases your carrier will charge you another $10-$30 month for tethering (for the obvious reasons) but compared to carrying a separate device it might be worth it.

There are also apps which can convert your phone to a hotspot, again depending on your phone & OS & carrier, or Verizon sells a little device that is a walking hotspot with separate rate plan.

None of this is to discourage you from getting a rate plan & 3G modem for your laptop, but unless you use it a lot one of the other options might have more flexibility and possibly be cheaper.--David

Just to update - I bought an ASUS K42JR-A1; tried it out for a few days and returned it (eating a restocking charge - ouch!!). Decided that the newer format 14" display was just too small for my liking.
Ordered a DELL Vostro 3500 (15") and, other than the longer size which I don't like, it seems to be fine. Got Win7 Pro 64bit w/6GB RAM and 500GB 7200rpm HD, 3 USB2 ports (couldn't wait for USB3). Sure do miss the "old" display size format where the screens are higher & narrower.
Good news is that it is lighter and thiner than my old 14" Latitude.
Another reason for doing the DELL had nothing to do with ASUS per se; I needed a new copy of MS Office & QuickBooks - could get them at OK price from Dell - and was running out of time to continue researching.

Dee--Sounds like a great machine. In general I also miss the old display shapes _except_ when I'm on an airplane. The newer/lower screens work better when there is a seat directly in front of you. --David