New laptop
 

Good evening. I’m about to start looking for a new laptop to replace my 15 year old dinosaur Dell unit. Any recommendations or advice on what to look for and stay away from? Aside from general work stuff and typical internet stuff, I’ll be using it for logging race car data and eventually some video/picture editing. Thanks and have a great evening.

Re: New laptop
 

I’ve had good luck with a Dell laptop I purchased a few years ago for college. Compared to a similarly priced HP that a friend of mine bought, the Dell seems to be of better quality. I don’t have much experience with windows 11, but windows 10 seems to run Racepak, Holley, and Innovate software very well.

Re: New laptop
 

I also use Dells. Whatever you get, research how well they perform in bright daylight. Nothing is worse than a dull screen while working outside in the sun. I have Intel Core I5 on my laptops, but for the racecar stuff a I3 is plenty fast enough. My older one is a traditional hard drive and the newer one is a solid state drive. It boots up almost instantly and shuts down likewise. Plus the battery last tons longer. Good Luck in your search.

Re: New laptop
 

I have had great service from Dell, but whatever you buy,
make sure the hard drive has plenty of disk space.
It can fill up quick and be a headache if you use your laptop for other things.
Its a problem with some of the smaller laptops.
Happy hunting.

Re: New laptop
 

As someone who rode the IT wave for work, all that I can tell you is that all new laptops are ****.
Don't expect to get 15 years out your new one.
The batteries are not replaceable anymore, unless you actually open up the laptop.
The worst part is that both Windows 10 and 11 take control away from you.
The laptop will almost stop as it randomly downloads whatever updates that Microsoft is mandating.
And worse, it will just install them and force you to reboot regardless of what you are doing and how limited you are for time to finish what you are doing.

Now, having said that, I am partial to HP laptops.
They have been good to me and last a long time.
I also prefer a 17" screen for the track, as I can get by without my glasses often.

All hard drives are solid state these days, which means that they are nothing more than a very large memory stick.

Buy the fastest CPU and the most amount of memory that you can afford.

I hope this helps.

Re: New laptop
 

stay away from windows 12. My lap top died couple years ago and i went to replace it and seen windows 12 thinking new addition would get is. Big mistake had to get new printer also as mine old one was only about 6 years old. It is tuff to deal with you have to relog in if you leave it for a little while. I am computer illiterate so its a real problem and when you talk to someone who is computer friendly and tell them you have windows 12 they have nothing good to say about it.

Re: New laptop
 

I thought Windows 12 was not to be released until later this year. Google inquiries suggest June of 2024.

Do you mean Windows 11?

Dell has good products but dealing with them as a consumer can be a real PIA!

Re: New laptop
 

Look on any Snap-On Tool truck, most police cars and likely military uses and you will find Panasonic TuffBooks....pricey yes but they are called tuff for a reason

Re: New laptop
 

My bad i have windows 11 one of the things is when you go to open it up it pops up your not conected to internet and you havnt even tryed yet about half the time

Re: New laptop
 

I had one of those and didnt like it. Yes its built like a tank, weighs the weight of a small suitcase, and can withstand being thrown off a cliff. But the mouse is not made for what we use them for. At least it isn't very precise,smooth and repeatable. Mine was also a touch screen and it was not very clear compared to a typical laptop. During bright sunny daylight it was sometimes unusable because of the dimness of the screen.

Re: New laptop
 

both dell and hp have good laptops from low end user to high end. just like everything. you get what you pay for. i would stat away from the low end

Re: New laptop
 

my experience has been mixing work and racing on my laptop has always led to problems .
I finally went to a dedicated factory refurbished Lenovo think pad with a SSD for racing use only ,and did not need to spend a fortune on memory or power I did not need . ..Run on windows 10 , rarely bother with updates because I don't use it on the internet except to update Crew Chief. Been reliable for several years
Freed up money to buy a good unit for work.

Re: New laptop
 

If you plan to carry it around a lot, you will appreciate the light weight of the LG Gram laptops.

Re: New laptop
 

Another recommendation, I don't think I would purchase a laptop or a desktop that did not have a SSD (solid state drive) as its primary storage device.

Re: New laptop
 

Another thing. Make sure the unit your buying is using the traditional USB Ports...the old style. A lot of the nicer ones are switching over to the mini, and you will have to use a dongle adapter to hook up to your Big Stuff/Holley/Msd etc.
One of my laptops, a solid state drive Dell XPS-15 is wonderful, except it's full of those mini ports and is a pita.I have a couple year old identical traditional drive XPS-15, and it's still the old bigger ports. I end up using the old one most of the time

Re: New laptop
 

Sorry guys but I have had an Apple product since the mid 80s starting with the Apple II E. Use an iMac daily and just purchased a MacBook Pro for Christmas. I don't even know if I could work with Microsoft programs.