Computer Recommendations

[willywildes]

Dell cut there prices to business last month. I get the home catalog, and the business catalog. The latter gives you way more bang for your buck.
Good luck.

WW

 

[Av8r3400]

Gateway has never served me wrong. They have much better support than the Dell, from my experience.

 

[rrsquid]

I will also recommend Dell brand laptops. Not so much that the computer is better, but in my experience (I do tech support for work) they have better support.

If possible get CompleteCare which will warranty the computer if there is user-caused damage.

If you want to connect to external monitors/projectors stay away from the new wide aspect display notebooks.

--
mark

 

[gsxr1100]

So far my Dell laptop has been great; however, dell support or lack there of is worse then my ISP…I personlly think dell support sucks. I had 2 issues and was on hold for over 2.5 hours....Give me a break.

My laptop, or wife’s laptop, works great on my Epson projector!

 

[PineRidge]

In the past years we have always upgraded each of our computers every 3 years. Each time that was necessary it involved a trip to the local Gateway store to order our specific need. They have since closed all walk-in Gateway's. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Now I have no brand loyalty since Gateway made that move.

Did I say that I recently became aware our neighbor JASTN70D builds computers? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bird]

Mike, when I bought my Dell, I let them finance it for a few months, Thank Goodness!! Because when I called for support, several times, talking to a different person each time, when they sent the XP upgrade that didn't work, they finally decided there was nothing they could do. So when the guy said there was just nothing more they could do, and my computer still didn't work, I told him to go ask his supervisor where they wanted it shipped to, since I wasn't going to be paying for it. Hmmm, he promptly found someone who knew how to get it to work (except for changing my primary hard drive from C: to E: /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif).

And for the other Mike, before I bought this Dell, I called Gateway to ask about their computers and the lady said she'd send me a catalog. A month later I called back and got a man that time, told him I hadn't received the catalog I was promised, and he assured me he would get one in the mail promptly. And a couple of years later, it still hasn't arrived. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[OKnewguy]

Hey this is my area!!! I do not have occasion to give input to often (still learning this tractor thing). But as the media director of a 3200 seat church, I can give my 2 cents on this topic. Make sure and get your laptop with a seperate video card. This way you can have a preview screen and the projector will be your program.. Not just the vga out that is with most laptops. This is extremely important for presentation software. Also there are a multitude of programs that make this very easy, they will even link up with the ccli organization. In doing this, you will be completely legal to show song lyrics and such. You might also want to check out churchmedia.net. They have a great forum and you can get an idea of what might be the best presentation software for your specific need. You also should consider a rf wireless mouse. This way the pastor is not tethered to the laptop. Don't go with a infrared unit.
Hope this helps /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif