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[Ron Hebbard]

Duane Massey wrote on Wed, 22 August 2007 21:59

Well, I finally made a decision: I bought an off-lease Toughbook for $399.00. It's got a Pentium 4 M 1.8 processor, a 30g drive, and XP Pro (with the back-up disks); it only comes with 256k RAM, but I'll increase that once it gets here. AND it's got a serial port! Oh, boy..... I'm figuring it's going to do what I need for now, and when I finally need a bigger, faster machine, I'll buy one then. Maybe everything will run on Vista by then?....naaahhh! Got my fingers crossed.

Hello Duane;

I'm following your laptop quest with great interest.  Please report back with updates both after you've received and tested your Toughbook and after you've completed your upgrades and lived with it for a while.

Thanks in advance.

Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard

[Josh Millward]

As Ron mentioned, please do report back and let us know how it works out for you. I am in the market for something like that too...

Until then, however, I am wondering if anyone else has any information about that Sager notebook outfit? I see Jon mentioned that they are geared toward the gaming sector of the PC world... I would think this would be fine since a lot of the gamers require awfully robust machines to run their games. I went through the "build your own" thing on their website and was able to put together a decent machine with XP-Pro on it The price came in at a shade under $1100... more than I was hoping to spend, but I know I will be planning on using it for many years. (the laptop I use now was a pretty good one when I received it in January 2002, ooo... 256MB of memory!!!    ) I would expect that it has some USB2 ports and an ethernet port but not much else, well possibly a 1392 port. Anyhow, I was very interested, but I'd like to get some first hand experiences of people who have had to deal with Sager.

I'm going to have to look into the Toughbooks for myself as well.

-Josh

[Karl P(eterson)]

Used ToughBooks are a great option, the machines are solid and often contain a built in RS232.

If you are looking for a new machine, please consider a ThinkPad - preferably a T Series. They are just slightly more than the machine you are considering, but with a far greater build quality.

I have been through numerous laptops for myself and my clients, and I think the ThinkPads are pretty much the best balance between price, power, quality and portability out there.

Karl "Wearing my Corporate Consultant Hat" P

[Eric Snodgrass]

I went through a similar search in March when I needed a new laptop.  I found a Compaq XP machine at a chain store in the back room.  I also need it for Studio Manager and Soundweb support.  It doesn't have an RS232 port but I purchased a little USB to Serial converter at an office supply chain store and it worked perfectly.  

[Ron Hebbard]

Duane Massey wrote on Wed, 22 August 2007 21:59

Well, I finally made a decision: I bought an off-lease Toughbook for $399.00. It's got a Pentium 4 M 1.8 processor, a 30g drive, and XP Pro (with the back-up disks); it only comes with 256k RAM, but I'll increase that once it gets here. AND it's got a serial port! Oh, boy..... I'm figuring it's going to do what I need for now, and when I finally need a bigger, faster machine, I'll buy one then. Maybe everything will run on Vista by then?....naaahhh! Got my fingers crossed.

Hello Duane;

Would you mind posting a link to where you purchased your used Toughbook?

Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard