~14" laptop that will last 5+ years?

N

NleahciM

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Aug 2, 2002
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Hi - my trusty Dell 600M that I bought in August of 2003 is starting to show signs of age... Last night it simply wouldn't turn on. Luckily, I have two spare laptops to harvest parts from (another 600M and a 500M) so I was able to get it up and running again. But I think this is a sign that I need to be thinking about getting a new laptop in the next 6 months.

It honestly is almost enough laptop for me, if it would not break. I don't have crazy requirements. I don't do any gaming. I do do some CAD work (mostly electrical design, but that includes some 3D work). In fact, the only thing that my 600M can't handle is the 3D aspect of my eCAD work - it needs some DirectX feature that my video card does not support.

So I'd like a similar laptop. Features that I want:

very high resolution 14" screen (or smaller, 15" laptops are too big for me)
dual core processor
integrated webcam
touchpad

Note that I didn't mention a DVD drive. I don't need one. It's fine if it has one though - especially if I can get a battery that'll fit in the same place.

Also, it'd be great if parts were available for it. I mean - I travel a lot - so my laptop sees a decent amount of abuse. So that probably means that I'd like it to be a fairly popular laptop model.

A good warranty would be sweet too.

Any suggestions? I don't have a specific price in mind, but I'd be pretty surprised if I couldn't get a nice machine for under $1K.

Thanks so much!
 
I would go for a Lenovo or HP Business series, you should be able to pick something decent up for around $1000 . I have a work issued HP Compaq nx7300 14" from 2007, I slapped in 2 GB of memory, got a new battery and put Windows 7 Enterprise on it and it handles everything I do fine and I beat the crap out of it. Before this I had a Lenovo X60 12" I picked up used on Ebay in early 2005, I sold it earlier this year for $350 and it was still working great and held up to 4 years of college/work use. The X series are nice and can be found easily. I will never buy a consumer level laptop again, business series from HP / Lenovo have such a better build quality. Both typically come with 3 year warranties for around $100 extra.
 
The E6400/6410 is of middling quality. Definitely a step above the Inspirons, but plasticky with keyboard flex and a highly inferior trackpad/pointing stick by Alps instead of Synaptics.

The T4xx is a great choice, though.
 
No, the E6410 is magnesium alloy.

The thing with magnesium alloy is that it feels plasticy, as in it doesn't feel cold. If you hold an aluminum MBP, it will feel cold. My mom's Dell D630, on the other hand, will feel like plastic because it doesn't feel cold. I broke an old magnesium alloy Inspiron once (I thought it was plastic) and was really surprised to find that the panels were metal.
 
Pylon said:
No, the E6410 is magnesium alloy.

The thing with magnesium alloy is that it feels plasticy, as in it doesn't feel cold. If you hold an aluminum MBP, it will feel cold. My mom's Dell D630, on the other hand, will feel like plastic because it doesn't feel cold. I broke an old magnesium alloy Inspiron once (I thought it was plastic) and was really surprised to find that the panels were metal.
Click to expand...

Parts of the exterior are alloy, but parts are also plastic. And it's plasticy. I'm holding one in my hands right now.
 
How are Dell/HP/Lenovo about providing spare parts? My memory with Dell is that they pretty much just don't and you have to go to Ebay. But maybe that's the cheapest solution regardless.

Are all these laptops similarly popular?
 
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