[NBLUG/talk] When to buy a laptop? Where's the "sweet spot" these days?

[Steve S.]

@Zack - Yeah, my gut too.  But on this, I suspect my "gut" is wrong --
when I'd think *I* would offer the deepest discounts isn't necessarily
when *professional*marketing*folk* will offer the deepest discounts...
:-P

@Omar - "College Stats" may or may not stress the average laptop
(sometimes, a prof will assign a problem together with a very-large
real-world dataset); but she's got an internship in a lab doing
meta-analysis of all available data (peer-published journals) on all
seabird species on the Endangered Species List, so that's going to be
a non-trivial bit of stats.  And even "student oriented" ArcGIS
problems are likely to be heavier-duty (for the CPU) than even 3D
gaming.  And -- RE "adware/malware" -- isn't that called "Windows 8"?
;-)

@AllanC - that "3yo/high-end" strategy is interesting... thanks!  It
matches closely with a notion that I've previously developed RE the
price/performance "sweet spot":  the cutting-edge / most-current tech
is premium-priced, not commodity priced; one iteration back (an
18-month iteration a la "Moores Law" (or House's variation thereof))
is still carrying some of that "premium" cachet (and pricetag); but 2
iterations back (36 months) is the "sweet spot" where "commodity
pricing" economics has reached the most-powerful computers that it
reaches.  It has been some years since I needed to research this, but
your suggestion leads me to believe that my old analysis is is still
valid...  :-)

@William - "Cyber Monday" (usually) beats "Black Friday", you say?
And "open box" deals in the days/weeks after the big events... Thanks,
good info & ideas!  And RE the RAM-vs-CPU debate -- I know that a
low-end CPU won't cut it for GIS; but once the CPU is "good enough"
then I agree that more RAM is a better investment in overall system
performance (SSD's, however, tend to be too low-capacity vs HDDs,
IMO/IME).  FWIW, though (RE camera's, an arena where I also geek):
MSRP isn't really the relevant number to figure how steep the
discount.  The two biggest "reputable" camera-houses in the USA are
(oddly) both in New York:  Adorama and B&H.  They usually are priced
within $1 of one another on over 95% of their inventory; and (except
for newly-released gear) rarely at MSRP (note that Sony has an odd
requirement of their vendors, and is an exception).  If you find a
price that beats both Adorama and B&H on a camera you want, then (1)
investigate the HELL out of whoever's offering the price ("If it
sounds too good to be true..."), and (2) if the vendor really *IS*
legit, buy it !

@AlanB - I keep looking at refub prices longingly, but have been
burned twice on electronica recently when I let the prices tempt me
away from "new".  At this point, unless the seller is willing to
"warranty as if new," I won't seriously consider refurbished.   :(

RE various manufacturer-suggestions --  I've previously liked HP gear,
but have found that -- laptop/touchpad and desktop/corded both -- the
HP mouse gear fails while the rest of the system is purring happily
along.  I am 8 for 8 on this observation, between my family computers,
those I've advised/assisted friends with, and a few systems I've
specified at work; honesty compels me to admit that, even though it
"feels" like a large sample-size in my own personal experience, 8
systems is probably NOT a statistically-valid sample-size (also, I
don't have enough OTHER systems to compare with).


Thanks to everyone!  And if anyone has anything to add, please
continue to chip in... even after I make the plunge myself, it's
liable to be a useful thread for others!


- Steve S.


-- 
"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of
childishness and the desire to be very grown up."      -CS Lewis