Just bought a replacement laptop
Hey friends!
Since this blog is my most personal, I thought I'd write of my experience buying an up-to-date replacement for my obsolete (3 year old) Compaq laptop PC. It's been good. Here's the background.
I'd started last July to provide GIS services and training to Roberta F. Burroughs and Associates, an excellent African-American woman-owned planning consultancy in business for the past 20 years. So for the past half year, my pay has been quite bountiful (compared to near nothing during most of the Bush administration) and in early 2008 I could consider updating our computing capacity.
I began researching the current computer scene before Christmas, and afterward settled on an ASUS high-end laptop from last year. Who is ASUS? Read http://www.xoticpc.com/info_pages.php?pages_id=11 and you'll find out. Did you know that NONE of the name brands except for ASUS actually manufacture their laptops? ASUS is renowned for their build quality, probably because they are building machines for themselves. Only Apple's line of high-end Macs can be considered to exceed them.
I briefly considered going with a local favorite, Dell XPS. I long considered going with an Apple Macbook Pro (oh it is beautiful and capable, and a number of commenters have praised its ability to run Windows-based software including ESRI ArcGIS as virtual sessions in a 4 GB-equipped Macbook), but the price difference of around $700, even with a student discount of $200, kept me from joining the Macworld this time around. Next time perhaps, Mr. Jobs.
There are about four truly great resellers of ASUS laptops, and the three to which I seriously considered giving my business included GenTech PC, Excaliber PC, and XoticPC. All of these come highly recommended, but
GenTech (http://www.resellerratings.com/store/GenTech_Computers_15) blew me away with its kudos for main man Ken Lee. I had read other threads about the great service at and customer loyalty to GenTech, so seeing a 10 out of 10 score for the past 6 months and reading consistently great reviews nailed it for me. Also their pricing was the best on the net for the object of my interest, the ASUS G1S-B2, at $ 1,549.00 after the rebate through the end of February 2008. I added a second 8-cell battery to give about 6 hours of life on long flights.
This machine should give my GIS business a boost, and will help me create my dissertation research and text.
Since this blog is my most personal, I thought I'd write of my experience buying an up-to-date replacement for my obsolete (3 year old) Compaq laptop PC. It's been good. Here's the background.
I'd started last July to provide GIS services and training to Roberta F. Burroughs and Associates, an excellent African-American woman-owned planning consultancy in business for the past 20 years. So for the past half year, my pay has been quite bountiful (compared to near nothing during most of the Bush administration) and in early 2008 I could consider updating our computing capacity.
I began researching the current computer scene before Christmas, and afterward settled on an ASUS high-end laptop from last year. Who is ASUS? Read http://www.xoticpc.com/info_pages.php?pages_id=11 and you'll find out. Did you know that NONE of the name brands except for ASUS actually manufacture their laptops? ASUS is renowned for their build quality, probably because they are building machines for themselves. Only Apple's line of high-end Macs can be considered to exceed them.
I briefly considered going with a local favorite, Dell XPS. I long considered going with an Apple Macbook Pro (oh it is beautiful and capable, and a number of commenters have praised its ability to run Windows-based software including ESRI ArcGIS as virtual sessions in a 4 GB-equipped Macbook), but the price difference of around $700, even with a student discount of $200, kept me from joining the Macworld this time around. Next time perhaps, Mr. Jobs.
There are about four truly great resellers of ASUS laptops, and the three to which I seriously considered giving my business included GenTech PC, Excaliber PC, and XoticPC. All of these come highly recommended, but
GenTech (http://www.resellerratings.com/store/GenTech_Computers_15) blew me away with its kudos for main man Ken Lee. I had read other threads about the great service at and customer loyalty to GenTech, so seeing a 10 out of 10 score for the past 6 months and reading consistently great reviews nailed it for me. Also their pricing was the best on the net for the object of my interest, the ASUS G1S-B2, at $ 1,549.00 after the rebate through the end of February 2008. I added a second 8-cell battery to give about 6 hours of life on long flights.
This machine should give my GIS business a boost, and will help me create my dissertation research and text.