Need help selecting stuff for a laptop, please

[Yvonne Muller]

We're shopping for a laptop for use in the field, and are llooking at a Dell that has an Intel® Core™ Duo

processor T2700 (2.33GHz/667Mhz) with a 100 or 200 GB HDD,  2 GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, and

an NVIDIA® Quadro FX 1500M, 256MB graphics card. In addition, we want an external 500GB HD

and a San Disk 1 GB Cruzer Micro USB Drive.  Is that a good idea?  My pressing question is whether or not to include a DVD

burner in the mix.  It seems to be gilding the lily to include it, on one hand.  On the other, I understand

that the battery life for micro drives is micro.  That could be a big problem because we are usually away

from electricity in the field, shooting horses.  Any advice would be very helpful.  This is the first time

I've planned DAM for the field, except for taking along a battery-run DVD burner that ate all of my

images.  

TIA, Yvonne Muller

[David Arnold]

> We're shopping for a laptop for use in the field

Ditto. I got rid of my last laptop about 5 years ago, before I went digital. I tried using tiny portable HD devices for on-the-road backup, but found them over-priced, under-featured, and generally a marginal solution at best, so I'm once again shopping for a laptop.

As for your "...pressing question...whether or not to include a DVD burner in the mix," my answer is "absolutely." When dealing with image files, redundency is essential. If you just store images on the hard drive, what if HD crashes or the notebook is stolen? Backup #1 while in the field: the laptop's internal hard drive. Backup #2: DVDs, which you store elsewhere (in your hotel room if the laptop is with you, or with you if the laptop is in your room).

David

[peterkrogh]

I'd agree that having a DVD burner is very desirable.
Peter