Re: Hardware requirements for a tech doc laptop?

Subject: Re: Hardware requirements for a tech doc laptop?
From: "Kevin Amery" <kevindamery -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:48:44 -0500

To add to what Lech said, you might need to look at battery life,
depending on how you intend to use it.

- Do you need to write while away from a power source? (i.e. on a
plane?) Then you should make battery life a priority.

- Do you write when you are around power, and just need a laptop so
you can go from site to site easily? In that case, battery life is
less of an issue. I'd also go with a larger / higher resolution screen
in that case so you can have more screen real estate.



--
Until next time...

Kevin Amery


On 2/28/07, Lech Rzedzicki <xchaotic -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

Personally I'd prioritize on the amount of RAM, especially if you plan on
upgrading to Vista, then at least 2GB is reacommended. If you intend to have
all the forementioned app all running at the same time, it will also come
handy :)
Almost every processor will be good enought, be sure to stick with the Intel
Centrino Platform as it gives the best bang for the buck, the best
performance/battery life ratio etc. Furthermore you can't upgrade your CPU
in a laptop in the future, so I'd go with a Core2Duo.
None of the apps takes advantage of a discrete GPU, so go with an integrated
video card (part of the Centrino platform as well), it will be cheaper.
Since you'll be writing a lot, I'd go with a brand know for good keyboards,
in my view IBMs/Lenovo are top-class, HP are great as well. but that's very
subjective.
I'd also go with a bigger laptop, which means bigger screen and bigger
keyboard.
There are 12.1" ultraportables, but they're not suited well for TWs.
This leads us to the most important part in laptop for me - the screen, I
find 14.1"-15" sufficient, but you can have different resolutions with that
size, go with the highest.

Too big machine won't fit on plane and will look awkward and it's heavy, too
small one won't fit much info on the screen, so for me 14-15" is the sweet
spot. They're also usually the cheapest and most popular.

Regards,

Lech


On 2/28/07, Yves Barbion <yves -dot- barbion -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Hi techwhirlers,
>
> I'm about to buy some new laptop computers for my technical writing
> activities. So I'll be using the typical tech writer's toolset: Adobe
> Creative Suite + Adobe FrameMaker, WebWorks Publisher 9.x, XMetal, Madcap
> Flare, AuthorIT etc.
>
> What do you think I will need in terms of hardware (processor, RAM, ...)?
> Of
> course, I'd like the laptops to be "Vista-ready".
>
>
> Best regards
>
> Yves
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>


--
Lech Rzedzicki
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Follow-Ups:

References:
Hardware requirements for a tech doc laptop?: From: Yves Barbion
Re: Hardware requirements for a tech doc laptop?: From: Lech Rzedzicki

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