OT= new laptop
I've been for years a devoted Dell laptop and desktop customer--until I bought this year an IBM ThinkPad T21. One thing is certain, I will never go back to Dell or any other manufacturer than IBM. It's so well made, so ergonomic, fast, powerful, expandable etc, that the Dells look to me now like cheap knock-offs. The cases repeatedly broke in spots that clearly were poorly designed, the screen fell off, the keys were soft and sticky. The IBM workmanship, support (and I've used it quite a bit, since I run computationally heavy applications on it), the parts, keyboard feel, screen, little camera (made in China...), compatibility, backup options, performance, unique trackpoint instead of this terrible mousepad --I have absolutely no complaints after 4-5 months of heavy use. With a $45 2nd HD adapter +$300-450, maybe less, for the second 10/20 GB HD and Symantec Ghost backup program ($65), it takes 20 min to backup perfectly painlessly 10 GB of data.
And now you can get a brand-new, 800 MHz T21 with 3 yr warranty, 20GB+CD/DVD, integrated 56.6/Ethernet card for less than $1,200 if you're lucky, straight from IBM: factorydirectauctions.com My IT person just got one for himself for $1,180.
Disclaimer: I don't have anything whatsoever to do with IBM other than being a new, devoted customer. <VBG>
M_e |