LAPTOP

Asus brand are ok at a reasonable price . Any latest one around the $1600-$1800 mark will be fine . It will have bluetooth , internet wireless wifi etc .

Robert,

there are so many choices for you and it really depends upon your needs & how much you want to spend. Will you be Caravaning or Camping. Are you going off road much or just doing the big lap? Does you computer need to be robust or not. How's your eyesite? The computers start size wize at around 7"scrrens (Eeepc) so they can be very small. I have a Asus EeePc which has a 10"screen. Very good. it has 2gig of RAM and 160gig hard drive so plenty of room for photos and it runs Ozi and Trackranger using a Mouse GPS. Doesn't take up much room in the vehicle either. I'd probably go a bigger unit around 13 to 14" screen. Dell are a good brand with good prices. The have a 15" laptop with 3 gig RAM and 160 Gig harddrive for $699 at the momennt and a travel notebook like mine for $499. Have a look at their website.

Hope this helps. Mick

I would suggest most laptops you purchase for around $1500 to $2000 would be fairly good. Any less and you will get what you pay for - cheap = problems. Any more expensive and you will be buying components that are more complicated than you will need.

Brands - Choose major known brands or look on E-pinions website.

Operating systems - personal preference. (I choose Apple Macintosh = less issues)

David

Robert, your question is like how long is a piece of string. That said, there are lots of good brands but you will need to decide the following (an this list may be short)

How much do you want to spend?
How big a hard drive do you need?
How big a screen?
How much memory (RAM)?
How fast a processor?
Do you need wireless or bluetooth?
Do you need a DVD drive/burner?
Battery life, is that a consideration?
Are you happy using the inbuilt mouse on a laptop or do you need one of them too?
How are you going to link to the net?

I have had good experience with HP, Dell, Toshiba, Asus and HP.

Go to somewhere like Harvey Norman or Officeworks and have a p[lay with the laptops there. That will give you some idea of how you can work them.

Then have a think of how you plan to use the laptop, how many maps you'll need, what software you need for the thing, is a TV receiver of use to you when travelling.

Its a big question. Short answer. Get a Dell XPS 15". Theyre great

Hi Robert,
I always like Toshiba, good quality notebook. We always travel with one, mainly for OziExplorer and downloading trip photos. In the past I have had the 15.2" mounted in the vehicle, but have now changed to the Toshiba 8.9" mounted on the centre arm rest - out of the way and still work a treat. It never missed a beat even after the countless corrugation of the Connie Sue, Old Gunbarrel etc.

The Toshiba 8.9" will be the full time in car computer.

Cheers

Stephen

After personal experience with fixing computers I would never buy a HP or a DELL.

Reason being they use a lot of custom made parts and quite often nothing else fits if you want to upgrade.

The best Laptops at the moment would be ASUS by a country mile.

They come in sizes from 7"to 17"and you have to decide what you want to do with it.
I have both a 15in and this one is a 9ïn and I use this one all the time in a caravan as the big one takes up too much space on the table.

You are better talking to users first and then go to a SPECIALIST computer store to play as if you go to HN you will end up with what they want to sell you, not what you might actually need.

You wont realise it as they do it very well.

My daughter used to work there.

I have been building computers for over 10 years and after trying different

brands of equipment have always come back to ASUS for quality components.

My friend has a DELL desktop to her regret and my son has an HP laptop that has spent more time at the shop than hes used it.

Its your money but the above is as I see it from a long time Computer user

If you want something decent you reallly have to go for a Mac

Ditto re ASUS - value for money in Laptops - often on special - wireless enabled (a lot of CP's have wireless internet at reasonable cost) and ready for just about everything you could want to do - $1500+ should snaffle you something very good. You could consider buying a 12V transformer from Dick Smith etc. to power it from the car or van while travelling. Suggest you get 2G of ram from the start - even if it costs a few extra $. Consider security of the unit though - especially the data you don't want to lose - heaps of them are stolen each year !

I agree with the above remarks about the Mac, but if you do go with a PC get a second hand one about three yrs old. The Mac will run OziExplorer but you will need to run XP under Parallels, perhaps a bit complicated for the novice.

For the tasks you mention a 1 GHz processor with about 2 GB of ram (sadly Windoze is bloatware and you need that much just to run the OS) and a 60 GB drive will be more than enough. At this age (3) you will still get XP which is less bloated than Vista. Of course, being Windows you will need to bloat and slow even further with anti virus ware.

PCs a few yrs old are worth nothing, so you should be able to pick one up for a couple of hundred.

I don't know much about laptops either Robert but I can tell you I bought an ASUS last Xmas $1700 mark and it's good. Comes with everything and more than I need, including 4Gig memory although Vista takes up almost 1Gig anyway...so remember that when purchasing. Mine also has a TV receiver built in so you can use it as a TV anywhere you get reception and that can be handy.... I haven't actually tried that side of it out yet so can't comment on how good it is.

All in all, and after all the homework I did I decided on the ASUS. Found it in Harvey Norman for $1900 cash...got it from Rick Harts for $200 less....

Good luck.

Thanks everyone your advice is much appreciated . I have only just joined ExploreOz & I am stoked with the help I have received. Regards to all. Bob

Rob

i have a Toshiba......had no trouble with it,cheers.