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Best computer for traveling

Joined
Feb 4, 2007
Messages
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Location
Fort Worth
First Name
Chris
Last Name
Wienandt
I'm thinking about an extended trip next summer that would include posting from the road. What's the best computer to take along? I'm weighing the MacBook Air against a plain old MacBook -- the advantages of an Air being light weight (3 lbs vs. 4.5 lbs minimum) and a solid-state drive (no moving parts, therefore less chance of losing data from jarring of the hard drive). The big disadvantage, as far as I can see, is the minimal number of ports -- only one USB 2.0 port, which would mainly matter pre and post trip. What are y'all's experiences/opinions pro and con?

Are there alternatives to taking a computer along? Advantages/disadvantages?
 
I did a ride back from Indy and took along a Acer Aspire One, it was great to have wirless internet at hotels and to plan the next days route to down load to the GPS before leaving the next morning. The best part is it fits in a zip lock frezer bag and was under $300.00. I know they offer a solid state hard drive system now, I bought mine before they offered them and that option is the only thing I would change.
 
I use what the previous poster uses except an Acer or Asus ee. You can get a manifold to change your USB to 3-4 ports.
 
I'm using a Dell mini9 right now to post this. 32gb ssd, 3 usb, card reader, wireless, video out, screen cam, bluetooth. And it has Mac osX running on it.

It's my traveling machine. the good machine stays home. I've got a portable dvd burner for saving pictures off too if the ssd fills up.
 
I bought the Dell 10. 6 hour battery. All the stuff Rusty's has plus 160 GB and the keyboard is a little bigger for my fat fingers. Mine doesn't have the Mac OS since I have no clue how to do that or what the difference is. It came with XP. It works fine out of the box, for me.
 
I'm thinking about an extended trip next summer that would include posting from the road. What's the best computer to take along? I'm weighing the MacBook Air against a plain old MacBook -- the advantages of an Air being light weight (3 lbs vs. 4.5 lbs minimum) and a solid-state drive (no moving parts, therefore less chance of losing data from jarring of the hard drive). The big disadvantage, as far as I can see, is the minimal number of ports -- only one USB 2.0 port, which would mainly matter pre and post trip. What are y'all's experiences/opinions pro and con?

Are there alternatives to taking a computer along? Advantages/disadvantages?

I would take a netbook or perhaps the MacBook air with a solid-state drive. It can withstand much more abuse. I hope eventually the solid-state drives come way down in price fer the desktop arena. :)

If you need complete operating system compatability with your home/office system, you might get a netbook with the same OS. Fer me, I prefer dual boot disk so I can toggle between Windows and Unbuntu. That way, I get the best of both worlds. You could dual-boot on OSX with their superb utilities as well.

If you only have one USB port, you can buy a USB dongle that has multiple USB ports for your extra goodies.

If you need only to access e-mail, web and few cloud computing apps, I would get a solid-state netbook running Unbuntu using their special Netbook OS designed for smaller computers. Tons of quality free software and the Open Source movement standing the shared product.

Of course, you can wait for mothership Google to release their upcoming operating system, Chrome.

RB
 
I'm thinking about an extended trip next summer that would include posting from the road. What's the best computer to take along? I'm weighing the MacBook Air against a plain old MacBook -- the advantages of an Air being light weight (3 lbs vs. 4.5 lbs minimum) and a solid-state drive (no moving parts, therefore less chance of losing data from jarring of the hard drive). The big disadvantage, as far as I can see, is the minimal number of ports -- only one USB 2.0 port, which would mainly matter pre and post trip. What are y'all's experiences/opinions pro and con?

Are there alternatives to taking a computer along? Advantages/disadvantages?
If you are going to have the computer running while you ride like using it to create a track of where you have been then you should be thinking of one with an Solid State Drive SSD as the standard hard drive may have problems with the vibration from a bike. However you should know all SSD's are not created equal. Meaning most of the less expensive ones are a lot slower than the advertisements say. I have and Acer Aspire One with an 8 Gb SSD and while it is not the slowest by any means it is not fast. I use it with a GPS to create a track of where I have been, but I also carry an Acer Aspire One D-150 with a hard drive that is not used during the rides but used when stopped because it really gives me all the computer power I could want on the road. My Acer Aspire One runs Windows 7 and Mandriva Spring 2009.1 Linux but other people have it running Mac OS's and practically any other system imaginable.
 
I'm using my 13" MacBook with no problems. With that said, I'm looking for a cheaper netbook for my off road trips. It needs to connect wireless and be able to load/down load maps to my GPS.
 
Last September in Colorado, I carried a Toshiba Satellite laptop U-305. It has a small 13 in screen. My concerns were getting the computer wet and ruining the LCD screen by pushing something too hard against the closed top of the machine. My daughter's Sony Viao had the screen ruined when a cat stepped on the top of the closed laptop.

I didn't have hard bags at the time so I wrapped the laptop in a heavy plastic merchant bag. To protect the top I was careful in stowing the machine, always in the middle of my clothes. We got rained on several times, but the laptop didn't have any problems.
 
I also use an Acer Aspire one with 1GB mem and 160GB drive with a 6cell battery (7hrs). I have all my mapping SW installed and my photo/camera programs too. I like the memory card slot that reads both my camera and GPS memory cards. Just got it at a black friday sale for $200, less worry than carring an expensive laptop.
 
When mobile take your battery out for less weight your netbook has to carry and bounce with.
 
The new MacBook (white plastic) has been reshaped, and recased. At the only Mac portable under a $1000, it's pretty nice. It lost FireWire in the redesign, but it has the LED backlit screen and is really nice. We had one Prof get one, and I was impressed other than the loss of FireWire.

The 13" MacBookPro is also a nice piece of work, and for not much extra money you pick up FireWire and an SD slot. Still only 4.5 pounds, but a much more complete package than the MacBook IMHO.

The Air is sexy, but you pay a lot for the sex. A lot. We had one roll through here that I spent some time on, and it's too compromised FOR ME to have it as my only machine. As you pointed out, the single port is a pain. It would be a nice secondary machine though, but I think. Of course the price has come down a bit on Airs...but you still pay more than you would for a 13" MBP.

That said, I'm still wondering if I should sell my Mini9 with Mac OS and get an Air...the odd placement of the apostrophe key is killing me on the 9. I'm thinking about it, but I have yet to decide if it is $700 worth of irritation or not.

If you do decide on the Air, MacMall has some really good deals on them, starting at about $1149 for a 1.6 GHz.
 
Oh, and modern laptop drives park the heads pretty securely when they aren't running. I wouldn't worry too much about data loss due to rough handling. Anything liable to hurt a parked drive will probably give you much greater issues ;-)
 
Dell Mini9 SS running XP Home...

Good wireless range

All pgms, routes, mp3, etc are loaded on the SD card (built in slot)

Cleaned out the XP install of all the junk I did'nt need.

Not a ton of storage but I transfer all my stuff to the server when I get home.

Street and Trips w/ the GPS modules is nice...
 
Last September in Colorado, I carried a Toshiba Satellite laptop U-305. It has a small 13 in screen. My concerns were getting the computer wet and ruining the LCD screen by pushing something too hard against the closed top of the machine. My daughter's Sony Viao had the screen ruined when a cat stepped on the top of the closed laptop.

I didn't have hard bags at the time so I wrapped the laptop in a heavy plastic merchant bag. To protect the top I was careful in stowing the machine, always in the middle of my clothes. We got rained on several times, but the laptop didn't have any problems.
Wow that must have been a large cat. I had a Sony Viao for years and then gave it to my stepdaughter and it has been bounced around ships planes and postal service handlers along with being dropped and never had a problem other than now it is just too old and obsolete.
 
on some laptops, my Toshiba included you can distort the screen by pushing on the back side. The lid of the Vaio was very thin. My company computer IBM/lenovo has a hard plastic cover than protects the LCD screeen.

Cat is 15 lbs... doesn't take much pressure on some laptops. The permanent distortion was a surprise.
 
Is there any help for a 'puter novice that will allow me to clean out this extra stuff I keep hearing about? Will it improve performance much or just open up storage space?

I could use the help here also and thinking the same.
 
Is there any help for a 'puter novice that will allow me to clean out this extra stuff I keep hearing about? Will it improve performance much or just open up storage space?

Make a good backup image using the free program Macrium Reflect™ v4.2 Free Edition from....
macrium.com

Make a list of the programs, you have on the computer in the programs portion of the start button, that you do not want. If in doubt as to whether you need a program do a search for it on the net. Then use the add remove tool from the control panel to remove the programs and then go to your Programs directory and delete the folders of the programs you removed. Next clean your registry using the free program Glary Utilities from....
glaryutilities.com
That should do it. Hope that helps.
 
I've made several trips over the years and have always carried my laptop with me. One was a Dell and my new one is an HP PC. I pack them in a padded case and put it between jeans and t-shirts in my bag. I've never had a problem with the hard drive or screen.

I use it at nights to revise planned routes to load my GPS and to just surf the internet.
 
I use a HP netbook. It was $300, so I won't cry too hard if it gets dropped / stolen / rained on / whatever. I'm seriously considering picking up one of those new iPads for $500 since my netbook is soooo sloooooow.
 
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