VAIO or DELL????

Low Frequency Obstinator · Post by **Low Frequency Obstinator** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 10:50 am

Been gigging with an ACER Travelmate for past 2 years and use a Maplins ground loop isolater to stop the hum.

My bandmate has an MBP which he swears by but fortunatly Ive had no probs with the trusty ACER.

(Using Tiny XP OS tweaked up to the balls with no internet, virus software etc...just bare bones for running music apps).

Dell - seem to be very tied giving you addtional software you dont want/need - and they try to keep you in the loop with clever marketing.

Sony are facists/cnuts.

All said though.....I reckon save up for a MBP.....:They look better, give you loads of cred on this forum and are good for picking up girlies.

weeddigger · Post by **weeddigger** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 1:11 pm

I had a 13" Dell that kicked tons of ass. And their warranty was awesome. I had to have my screen replaced a few times, the touchpad, and my harddrive, but they did it at my house in just a few minutes.

I've never used a Sony, but Playstation kicks ass!!!

I'm on a Mac now though, and yeah, I wouldn't trade that for a Dell...

Hell no...

twisted-space · Post by **twisted-space** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 1:54 pm

Used both makes in the past.
Got a dell now, will never buy sony again!

NorthernMonkey · Post by **NorthernMonkey** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 1:56 pm

twisted-space wrote:Used both makes in the past.
Got a dell now, will never buy sony again!

Really? Can you expand on that?

Grappadura · Post by **Grappadura** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 2:06 pm

Damn, those VAIOs are so much more fashionable, but it seems they´re not as reliable (no experience of my own, but thinking about a new lappy too.)

Low Frequency Obstinator · Post by **Low Frequency Obstinator** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 2:22 pm

One of those nice round plastic Live stickers over the 'Dell' badge would help though I reckon best to front it out like proper bloke and get a 'Dell' T-Shirt too.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:05 pm

I'm a huge fan of the Dell D630. It's a ROCK SOLID platform that's been used for years and updated with excellent components. I got my Core2Duo 2.4 ghz with 2gb of ram and 7200 rpm hard drive for $725. Love it.

night shift · Post by **night shift** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:43 pm

leedsquietman wrote:The majority of PC laptops run at 5400 these days and my 4 year old Dell laptop has a 7200 HD. But yes, get a 7200 if you can.

Also, running on battery might be OK for very light sets with few tracks and plugins but if you are using the laptop as a home recording machine, that will burn out your battery and cripple your track and plug in count severely. So run it on AC for this - i have had no grounding or AC noise issues with any of my Dell laptops.

i forgot to mention that my laptop is a sony vaio so perhaps they are more prone to this ground noise. My previous laptop was a toshiba and that was ok i now recall.

My new desktop is a Dell though so hopefully no probs

rikhyray · Post by **rikhyray** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:52 pm

I had couple of Vaio laptops over the years, well build, never had problems with any. Like Macs, you pay extra but not just for better design and build quality but also components. This does not apply to any cheap Sony products, be it camera or laptop. Their top products are excellent but cheap as good or bad as any other.
Vaio notebooks come with lots of useless software, I always used my own XP, not big problem to get drivers from Vaio site. Support is known to be difficult and out of warranty-expensive.
Now went for Thinkpad because of better cooling (need it for VJing), PCMCIA and XP pro factory installed. What I miss from Vaio ? Display for sure, they are the best! Is it worth paying extra ( and nice design+build quality) depend on individual preferences. Good Vaio wont be cheaper then MBP and just for the proper FW MBP is probably better deal.
If you buy Dell dont go for conumer models but check small business section- better ...everything.

NorthernMonkey · Post by **NorthernMonkey** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:58 pm

rikhyray wrote:Good Vaio wont be cheaper then MBP and just for the proper FW MBP is probably better deal.

That's the one thing I dislike about my VAIO - one crappy little unpowered mini FW 400 port. The rest is fine.

ollyb303 · Post by **ollyb303** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:58 pm

If you buy Dell dont go for conumer models but check small business section- better ...everything.

+1 - My vostro machine is marketed as business and this comes without a lot of the "useful" software & demos that dell market with their consumer machines.

One of those nice round plastic Live stickers over the 'Dell' badge would help

LOL - I'm just waiting to receive some live stickers in the mail from another forum user having appealed for help on this forum for exactly that reason!!!

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 11:38 pm

Dell's top end Inspirons are just as fine as the Latitudes and Vostros, in fact they are more multimedia optimized so might fit better. The top line XPS models are an example. But the business models do go better in the low - mid range categories.

Sony, HP and Toshiba all bundle extra 'lite' or 'demo' software. All you need to do is remove it in control panel and/or run msconfig.exe to prevent it booting at start and no more issues.

I still say get a Mac if you can next time, mostly down to Vista and the fact that XP support will only be around another year, maybe 2 tops.

adventurepants_ · Post by **adventurepants_** » Wed Aug 06, 2008 11:51 pm

+1 for the Inspirons. you can get them with the same hardware as the more expensive latitude range, for about a third less. they are a little heavier, but as far as build quality goes, im on my third, and have never had a serious problem.

OH, and the first thing you do with a new dell is format it, and reinstall Windows without all the dell rubbish. you get about a 20% performance increase with all the guff gone.

signal · Post by **signal** » Thu Aug 07, 2008 6:09 am

On my second VAIO with no real problems. You can get deals if you dig around. Picked up my last one on the Sony site in the clearance section a couple of years back. Apparently they sometimes sell laptops configured by someone who ultimately canceled the order after it was built but before it shipped. Happened that I found one with the specs I wanted more or less.

With that said, someone I know has a year-old Dell Vostro and it seems like a solid machine. Affordable as well, as I remember. As a bonus, its free of the two-tone, chrome-trimmed, racing-stripe styling that so many PC laptops suffer from. Just a black rectangle.