Laptop

[motherwell 0]

i need to buy a new laptop as my old one is goosed, this was a toshiba a10 model and worked fine for dj and karaoke. i have seen a Dell D510 for £150 ono and am interested. the guy was unable to tell me the memory of this model but it starts from 256 mb when i read a review. Does anyone know of this model and would it be suitable for what i want to do. i should be able to shave a few quid off the guy. It has a recent hard drive fitted by dell under waranty so hard drive is free of any stuff to clog it up.

 

thanks

[Dukesy 0]

Sorry - can't help.

But I found this:

 

The least assuming of Dell's business notebooks, the Latitude D510 lacks the flashier features of its siblings--the D610's smart card reader and the D810's wide screen, for instance. What it does have is a handsome charcoal-colored case, a good keyboard, a handy multipurpose bay, and a long-lasting battery, all for a good price.

 

The $1509 D510 packs a 1.6-GHz Pentium M 730 processor, a 15-inch XGA screen, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive (a $59 upgrade from the standard CD-ROM drive), and a 40GB hard drive. You can bump up the configuration to include a DVD burner for an extra $90, an 80GB hard drive for $99, and a 1.86-GHz processor for $190; or you can shave a bit off the price and the weight by ordering a 14.1-inch screen and a hollow travel module instead of an optical drive. Bluetooth and software cost extra ($49 for Bluetooth and $125 for Microsoft Office Basic Edition).

 

Connections offer a good balance of old and new, including parallel and serial ports for legacy peripherals and four USB ports, two on the right side for quick access and two on the back, plus a FireWire port for digital video downloads.

 

I liked the quietness of the keyboard and its pleasantly mushy feel. The layout is fine except for the location of the key, which is buried in the second row from the top--not the most convenient place for a frequently used key. (It's more commonly placed in the top right corner.) The touchpad's mouse buttons have a flared box shape I found easy to use. The D510 has no dedicated shortcut buttons for applications, volume control, or anything else. On the plus side, the power status lights are in a quick-to-spot location on the right screen hinge. The front-mounted stereo speakers are loud enough for making presentations to a small group.

 

The D510's battery life and modular design really shine. It lasted 4 hours, 41 minutes on one charge in our tests--more than an hour longer than the average portable. You can check how much power is left without turning on the notebook by pressing the battery's handy external gauge, and you can work even longer untethered to an electrical outlet by using two batteries at once: The $119 media cell battery fits into the modular bay in place of the optical drive. All of the interchangeable bay devices, including a secondary 80GB hard drive ($150), have built-in spring-loaded releases, a small luxury that saves me from having to fumble around the bottom of the laptop for a release every time I want to swap devices. The D510 does not work with the highest-end docking station Dell sells for the Latitude line (the D/Dock Expansion Station, which includes an internal media bay), but a 240-pin bottom connector accepts the $179 D/Port Advanced Port Replicator, which adds a DVI digital monitor port and a S/PDIF port.

 

The D510 performed well in our speed tests, earning a WorldBench score of 76--slightly slower than the other all-purpose notebooks that we've seen, but not significantly so. The D510 comes with good documentation, although mostly in the form of an unindexed, unlinked electronic user manual inconveniently buried in the Windows Help and Support Center. However, the manual is comprehensive and well-organized enough for finding information fairly easily, so the lack of an index is no great problem.

 

 

Upshot: A standout in battery life and modular expansion, the Dell Latitude D510 is a fine mainstream business laptop.

 

Carla Thornton

http://images.pcworld.com/reviews/graphics/products/2005/08.08.05/24522_g1.jpg

http://images.pcworld.com/reviews/graphics/products/2005/08.08.05/24522_g2.jpg

http://images.pcworld.com/reviews/graphics/products/2005/08.08.05/24522_g3.jpg

 

Sourced

[Llyr Roberts 0]

Dell make the best laptops and computers, they are solid, go into any school or business most of the time they will be using dell, the Latitude range are rock solid. If all you want to do is play mp3's the cheapest dell laptop will do well.

[Dukesy 0]

Dell make the best laptops and computers, they are solid, go into any school or business most of the time they will be using dell, the Latitude range are rock solid. If all you want to do is play mp3's the cheapest dell laptop will do well.

Oh no they're not! tongue out icon :ouch:

[dh140770 0]

I don't think any brand is perfect, but having also used Compaq's and Acer's for business we always go back to Dell. These laptops get used all day everyday, bashed, knocked you name it. I go into quite a few businesses and it tends to be Dell, Toshiba, HP or IBM laptops

 

As one of my colleagues will agree, a Dell will not survive a bottle of water being spilt all over it though.

[Llyr Roberts 0]

I don't think any brand is perfect, but having also used Compaq's and Acer's for business we always go back to Dell. These laptops get used all day everyday, bashed, knocked you name it. I go into quite a few businesses and it tends to be Dell, Toshiba, HP or IBM laptops

 

As one of my colleagues will agree, a Dell will not survive a bottle of water being spilt all over it though.

 

 

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/290686/index.html

 

waterproof laptop! well splash proof atleast

Edited July 29, 2008 by Llyr Roberts

[analyst 0]

Just adding my 2 penn'rth

 

Dell used to make good computers, then they started to go down market and filling them with cr@p.

So with the word Dell comes the words 10ft and bargepole.

[dh140770 0]

Just adding my 2 penn'rth

 

Dell used to make good computers, then they started to go down market and filling them with cr@p.

So with the word Dell comes the words 10ft and bargepole.

 

so what brands would you touch with your bargepole ?

[analyst 0]

I build my own with a bargepole. You just have to watch out for the splinters. :joe:

 

But I don't use a laptop, for all sorts of technical reasons.

[Revelationroadshow 0]

i need to buy a new laptop as my old one is goosed, this was a toshiba a10 model and worked fine for dj and karaoke. i have seen a Dell D510 for £150 ono and am interested. the guy was unable to tell me the memory of this model but it starts from 256 mb when i read a review. Does anyone know of this model and would it be suitable for what i want to do. i should be able to shave a few quid off the guy. It has a recent hard drive fitted by dell under waranty so hard drive is free of any stuff to clog it up.

 

thanks

Are you planning for this purchase to be your main playout system?

 

To be honest, £150 is not a great deal to spend if it is and from what you are saying I'm getting the impression you are considering a 2nd hand purchase?

 

We've just done exactly what you are planning to do and with limitted funds. I am using Mixmeister, which to be fair is one of the hungrier DJ tools for system resource, but I wouldn't dream of anything less than a Pentium dual core (or is that core 2 duo?) with 2Gb ram. Ended up buying a Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo for £299 and adding 1G extra ram. Extremely pleased with it!

 

Oh and it's running Vista with no noticable issues!

[startrax 0]

I paided a grand for mine, and it performs fantastic....

 

 

:mikee:

[Spear 0]

I paided a grand for mine, and it performs fantastic....

:mikee:

 

It doesn't matter what you pay if it gets dropped or a drink spilled on it. I'd rather spend less and buy 2 rather than pay twice as much and only have 1.

 

I paid £700 for my first and bought my other 2 for £300 secondhand off fleabay.

[UKHero 0]

It doesn't matter what you pay if it gets dropped or a drink spilled on it. I'd rather spend less and buy 2 rather than pay twice as much and only have 1.

 

I paid £700 for my first and bought my other 2 for £300 secondhand off fleabay.

 

I can see what you are saying but I would also add that a more expensive machine might be better built have a higher spec and so be usable for a longer time frame.

 

Nik

[Spear 0]

I can see what you are saying but I would also add that a more expensive machine might be better built have a higher spec and so be usable for a longer time frame.

 

Nik

 

The last 2 where both 2Ghz core 2 duo 17in with 160Gb Hd and 1Gb ram which I upgraded to 2 for about £30. Also I stuck to the same make and all parts are interchangable if need be so I think I can keep 2 going for a while yet.

I'm tinkering with one trying to optimize XP for DJ'ing only a friend of mine reduced the amount of space XP used to less than 1/3 with a boot time of less than 60secs. Needs specialist software to get that far down the line though. (Removing windows functions that is)

[Revelationroadshow 0]

It doesn't matter what you pay if it gets dropped or a drink spilled on it. I'd rather spend less and buy 2 rather than pay twice as much and only have 1.

 

I paid £700 for my first and bought my other 2 for £300 secondhand off fleabay.

 

Or it could overheat live at a gig and switch itself off completely in the middle of a song.

 

That's why I opted to buy brand new!

[UKHero 0]

Or it could overheat live at a gig and switch itself off completely in the middle of a song.

 

That's why I opted to buy brand new!

 

 

I think this is pretty much an old wives tale. Unless the laptop is way way under spec for the job it is being asked to do.

 

Nik

[Revelationroadshow 0]

I think this is pretty much an old wives tale. Unless the laptop is way way under spec for the job it is being asked to do.

 

Nik

 

Take my post as a word of warning or not as you see fit. I own a Toshiba laptop, perfectly well specced for the job and last month stripped back to the bare bones and serviced by a local PC shop.

 

But it does just switch istelf off with no warning at all - completely uselss for gigging with.

 

As I said, not worth buying second hand - go for a reliable brand name and buy new.

[Gary 0]

Or it could overheat live at a gig and switch itself off completely in the middle of a song.

 

That's certainly a possiblility. I spoke with several DJs at DJ Show North last Sunday who had been having issues (some which sounded heat related) with their lappys and were looking at more recent alternatives.

 

[motherwell 0]

ok i've gone second hand and got a fujutsu siemens , this was a job lot from a company. apparantly just over a year old and so far seem fine. The IT guy at my work got them and has serviced it for me as well.

[UKHero 0]

That's certainly a possiblility. I spoke with several DJs at DJ Show North last Sunday who had been having issues (some which sounded heat related) with their lappys and were looking at more recent alternatives.

 

But there just is no alternative for what a laptop can do...

 

It does seem funny its always I was talking to or I heard about... No one I know who uses lappys has ever had a heat problem this includes working in some very hot countrys around the world... Used for conference work driving Powerpoint, Video, audio, Lighting no one has ever had a problem... Is it just some DJs then that have this problem and if so is it due to lack of maintenance or knowledge of how best to use there machine?

 

All electrical items produce heat, but lets not confuse a hot transformer with a fire hazard...

 

Nik

Edited July 31, 2008 by UKHero

[Dukesy 0]

But there just is no alternative for what a laptop can do...

 

It does seem funny its always I was talking to or I heard about... No one I know who uses lappys has ever had a heat problem this includes working in some very hot countrys around the world... Used for conference work driving Powerpoint, Video, audio, Lighting no one has ever had a problem... Is it just some DJs then that have this problem and if so is it due to lack of maintenance or knowledge of how best to use there machine?

 

All electrical items produce heat, but lets not confuse a hot transformer with a fire hazard...

 

Nik

No pun intended, but lets not get heated, eh?

Looking at this thread, there does seem to be (according to the votes) that a few who have had experience of problems with laptops, but by and large, nothing worth baiting about.

Problem wise, the same could be said of any piece of kit really. I've had problems with Pioneer products and I bet there have been problems with other makes.

I believe from what I have heard (there isn't much to peruse on the net smile icon ) that the biggest problem with the new HD2500 is USB and hub problems, other problems being with how the user has created / ripped the files which the unit has had a problem with. Both 'problems' can be solved.

Laptop wise, if the machine is looked after and has enough spec to cope, it will last a long time indeed.

 

Now, who needs a lie down? smile icon

 

[UKHero 0]

No pun intended, but lets not get heated, eh?

Looking at this thread, there does seem to be (according to the votes) that a few who have had experience of problems with laptops, but by and large, nothing worth baiting about.

Problem wise, the same could be said of any piece of kit really. I've had problems with Pioneer products and I bet there have been problems with other makes.

I believe from what I have heard (there isn't much to peruse on the net smile icon ) that the biggest problem with the new HD2500 is USB and hub problems, other problems being with how the user has created / ripped the files which the unit has had a problem with. Both 'problems' can be solved.

Laptop wise, if the machine is looked after and has enough spec to cope, it will last a long time indeed.

 

Now, who needs a lie down? smile icon

 

OO OOO Me me lol Also I have never had to drill a hole in a flight case to switch my laptop off :dan+ju: tongue out icon :joe:

 

Nik