General question about Latitudes

I have a few broad-based questions about Latitudes and I'd sure appreciate anyone's comments on any of my concerns. I'm looking to buy my son a laptop, and as the prime consideration of this laptop is that it be durable and sturdy for someone who might be a little careless with his belongings, allowing cats to walk on the keyboard and just having a heavy hand in general, I thought the Latitudes (from what I've read) seemed to fit the bill...a better built business-class laptop that would be a bit more affordable than a Lenovo business class. I was hoping that folks who own Latitudes could confirm that for me.

Additionally, as my budget is limited to $750-800 and I need to get Win7, I'm having to choose from preconfigured models at either Dell proper or Dell outlet. Most of the ones I can afford only have 4 GB of RAM. Is that enough or will internet surfing, music playing, etc., be laggy?

It also seems that most of the hard drives (again, the ones I can afford) are in the neighborhood of 500 GB @ 5400 rpm, with some showing a 500 GB hybrid drive. Can I assume the hybrid drive would be preferred? But if I elected to (or get stuck with) a 5400 rpm drive, will the slowness and or lagginess be something I would regret?

I'm also thoroughly confounded by all the model numbers. I see Latitude E6440, 3440, 5440, and 14 3000. They all seem rather alike. Once I get the right combination of RAM, hard drive, and CPU (although they all seem to have the same i5-4300U or 4200U), does it much matter whether it's an E6440, 5440, or whatever?

Lastly, he's currently using a 6-year-old Dell M1330, which is on its last legs. It has an Intel T9300, which is a 2.5 GHz chip. Seems like many of these new Latitudes I'm looking at have chips that run slower than that speed. Compared to this 6-year-old machine, can I still expect that it will run faster?

Sorry for all the questions. But I would surely appreciate any guidance.

 

It depends, but unless you go nuts with the amount of internet browser tabs you have opened at one time.

That depends, it definitely won't be slower than your current laptop if it's still running its stock hard drive. If you are used to SSDs, then, yes it will feel slow.

The 6000 series is generally sturdier than the 5000 series. The 7000 series are ultrabooks. Not sure about the 3000 series.

Any core i5 will run circles around your core 2 duo, clock speed isn't everything. There is also this neat Intel feature called turbo boost that you should look up. also, be careful, you have the i5-4200U and i5-4200M, not the same beasts, the same can be said of other U vs M core i that have similar numbers.

 

I have a Dell Dimension 8250 bought in 2003 that's still fully operational, and contains a 3.06Ghz processor. My current laptop has a 'slower' 2.7Ghz processor. And the performance difference...

CPU Passmark:

Intel Pentium 4 3.06Ghz - 348 points
Intel Core i7-4800MQ 2.7Ghz - 8,625 points

MASSIVE!

 

Also consider that you can order a machine with a slower drive and 4GB of ram, and purchase additional ram and a faster drive (SSD?) to install yourself. It will probably exceed your budget, but does not need to be done all at once.


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Thanks all for your comments. Still mulling things over and looking at refurbished models as well as Lenovo and HP. Guess I need to be more open to other options when stuck with a budget. Appreciate it.

 

I would second this. For "internet surfing, music playing, etc" where you really aren't going to be CPU or RAM limited, the faster I/O from the SSD will help overall performance the most.

 

Thanks all for your thoughts. It certainly helped clarify things for me. I've decided my budget is just not good enough for what I was wanting to get him. Instead, I'll give him my old Lenovo T61 and purchase a new business-class Lenovo for myself. Budget is bigger here since I can get a tax deduction! I'll head on over to the Lenovo site and see what's doing there. Thanks again.

 

I have a Thinpad but I'm not sure about the newer models they have now. If I was buying today, I'm not sure if I would get the newer Thinkpads. The whole keyboard and trackpad design seems strange and some of them aren't as easily upgradeable as the previous models. Check out some other models too.

 

Bluebird, I have to admit the forum notes I've been reading over at the Lenovo forum have been very discouraging. The sticking point for me and probably THE most important aspect of a new laptop would be the need for a trackpoint. My husband will be using this laptop more than I will, and he's adamant about needing it on a new laptop and also very leery about the changes Lenovo made to their keyboard. Do you know of any other models with the trackpoint? I'd seen HP mentioned in a post but can't seem to locate a 15.6 laptop with trackpoint on their site. If you have any recommendations, I'd appreciate it.

 

Some of the business dells have one (mine does - I don't use it), but I have heard ThinkPad fans dislike it (it's much shorter, and cupped/concave with dimples, rather than convex).


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