Which laptops are ideal for onsite working conditions? What do you guys use?
ajish.raju
Posts: 185
I am planning to upgrade my laptops for offsite and onsite use. It needs to be capable for rough use and be of good configuration. What type of systems do everyone use in the AV industry.
Let me know.
Let me know.
0
Comments
Seriously, my advice is don't spend a ton of money on a fancy laptop. By definition, the worksite is a dirty filthy place with dust and crud everywhere and you often find yourself away from your machine and they have a way of getting stolen. Just get something powerful enough to get the job done. (after all, it doesn't take a crazy-powerful machine to run AMX software) Pick something that works and buy a backup for emergencies. IMHO the only reason to get a fancy laptop for the jobsite is to impress upon the neophyte workers that you are a badass programmer.
That's my advice...
Otherwise, most new laptops haven't had a serial port for several years now. The latest now don't seem to have VGA ports either. So in addition to the USB-serial adapter I now have to lug around an HDMI-VGA adapter. The busted laptop also has a touch screens and runs windows 8.1 64-bit. The touch screen is nice for when I do the VNC thing with a touch panel. In the past I would always try to press the buttons on the screen with my finger, Now it works when I do that. I also use the free classic start menu program to make the system look more like win 7. So I no longer have complaints about win 8.
Getting the AMX programs loaded actually seemed easier with windows 8 than it did with 7. The only major issue that I have is with Netlinx Studio, If I go into the help menu and try to enter something in the index field, it locks up NS completely. But if I highlight a function name or whatever and press F1 it works fine.
My biggest complaint with getting a new laptop is not the size, weight, or features. It is getting all of the crap loaded onto it that I can't function without. It generally takes me a couple of weeks to get the new system configured and then a couple of months to find all of the seldom-used but smaller programs or files that I discover I forgot to move.
Couldn't agree more. The small extra investment will more than pay off over the life of the tool and will result in less aggravation over that time.
The last four or so machines I've had have all been HP ProBooks and EliteBooks and have been solid as a rock. I carefully chose my current machine as a core i7 with an SSD. It has been bashed around a bit, however it is now 4 and a half years old and it as fast as any machine I could buy today for all work related purposes including CAD.
I did stuff 16GB RAM into it for the princely sum of $100 which allowed me to disable the page file which adds an extra layer of snappiness.
For a machine that's being dragged around job sites and bumped and knocked, I highly recommend solid state drives. Pure (not hybrid) SSD's provide a performance benefit as a bonus to the reduced risk of crashed heads and are worth every bit of the extra money in my experience.
PhreaK wrote: If I had to use a laptop 8+ hours a day on a regular basis I'd go insane. I can't deal with a small screen or even a single screen. In my office I have 4 monitors and a 12 core i7 liquid cool machine with SSD and 4 TB hard drive, 32g of RAM and a Rampage IV Black Edition mother board. Totally overkill since I don't game. I prefer to work in the office and do a lot of work remotely which I understand most folks can't for security reasons and when I have to I drag out my P.O.S. (piece of crap) laptop, 17" i7 HP and go to the job but I can't stand working on it.
I'm gonna add a "Me too" on this one.
It's not usually an issue, since I've tapered off using the help system over the past decade and using the highlight-F1 thing gets me 99% of what I need.
But every now and then I get a brain-freeze moment and could use the ability to search for a function that I know exists but can't quite remember.
I use my laptop 8+ hours every day. I have a home office and hate to sit at a desk. My preferred seat is a larger than normal Lazy-boy recliner where I have the laptop on a lap tray that has legs so it doesn't set directly on my lap. The wireless mouse goes on the chair's arm. The good thing about this setup is since I am getting old (63) I can be working and doze off for a quick nap at any point. Then after 10 or 20 minutes when I wake up again I'm right back to work. The only thing that is bad about this setup is having to get up for bathroom breaks and more coffee.
I picked it mainly because Dell made a Legacy port replicator that fits under the laptop and connects to the docking port. No USB to serial thingys for me.
I started a couple of days ago to search for a new computer. I like the high end Lenovos and HPs, but I think I will go back to Precision when the time comes. I really like the M3800 but I think is not rugged enough for travel and onsite working conditions ( and no physical RJ45 port ). So the M4800 is probably going to be the one for me. I can still use my docking stations and the Legacy port replicator with the M4800, so that is a plus and some money-saver.
As far as physical sturdiness goes, I've always had pretty good luck with MacBooks, especially since the TiBook. I beat the piss out of them, and they just keep on running.
Was also the only ultrabook I found with VGA, HDMI and a proper gigabit NIC.
On the software side, Windows 8 x64 has been a breeze to work with - after I installed Start8 and then found the Windows+X god menu - but the usual legacy issues with AMX sotware apply (No IRedit!) so I still have an XP VM for that.
Screen res on this one (1366x768) is a little bit of an issue with studio and tpd and when I look for my next one in a couple of years I will definitely be going for a 1080p display.
EDIT:
On the sturdiness issue, we standardised these on site for our field techs when troubelshooting video and controlling the building and I haven't had one back for repair yet - same can't be said for the previous hardware from ASUS.