Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life

Deja Vu All Over Again.

First, go read this. It's okay, I'll wait. Well guess what -- it's been nearly six years since I posted that.

Okay, now go read it again, only this time, substitute "Chembook" for "TravelPro" and "Dell" for "Chembook". It had been six years between the time I bought the Travelpro and the Chembook; now, six years later, it's time once again. Dude, I'm getting a Dell.

Most of my comments then still hold true today. The main reason for upgrading is the increasing instability of Windows. I had strongly consider switching away from Windows altogether, but in analyzing my usage, it turns out the showstopper is not really the PC software so much as it is the desktop servers for my handheld software that only run under Windows. And so I am stuck with the virus from Redmond.

For those with a tabular mind, here's an updated scoreboard:

I didn't quite go top-of-the-line on the processor; I figure the difference between a 2.00ghz and a 2.13ghz processor isn't worth over $300. I did go for the best screen, however; that's something that is rather difficult to upgrade. I skimped a bit on the memory since that's fairly easy to replace and upgrade. I didn't see a need to have a DVD burner in a laptop, but I did go for the free CD-RW upgrade.

I wavered a lot on the hard drive. An extra $32 for the 60gb drive instead of the 40gb drive wasn't a lot, but I have a number of 40gb drives I could use for back up. Given that I had over 30GB of programs and data on my old machine, and that Windows XP is almost certainly more greedy about disk space than Win98, I decided in the end that the 60gb drive was the better choice. My decision was made easier by discovering that Dell had a 25% discount on drives running; I picked up a second, bare 60gb drive for backups.

I also added an updated version of the drive duplication software and hardware I've been using. The old version (called, simply, EZ-Gig II) used a PCMCIA connection to a second hard drive to make an exact backup of your laptop's internal, primary hard drive. This new version uses USB 2.0 and presumably includes updated software. The old version has worked just fine, mind you. I strongly recommend this product. This will also make it much easier to upgrade to a larger hard drive, should the need arise.

I didn't include docking stations in the order from Dell; it turns out they are available, brand new and in the box, on eBay for two-thirds the cost or less. I plan to get at least two, but I'll keep my eyes open for any really great deals just in case. I've also found extra hard drive caddies there, as well as cables and additional media bay modules -- CD-ROM drives, secondary hard drives, and so on. There are a lot of models that share a lot of parts with this one so there should be a thriving aftermarket.

Well, that's that. Hopefully, I'll be back up and running in short order.