I use my work laptop for occasional personal use, but our IT policy prevents me from installing s/w (Quicken, Blackberry Desktop, Map-tech Chart Viewer). I have considered buying 13.3-14" Intel based laptop (ThinkPad, Dell, Sony), priced ~$1000. But, I might build a home system and use remote desktop on my work pc to access. Details below. Looking for the today's performance/price/enegy efficiency sweet spot.
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: <1 Month
BUDGET RANGE: $400-700 (will consider higher if justified)
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Quicken, Internet, Picasa / Other photo apps, light-duty Excel, occasional HD/blu-ray if system allows.
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard / Mouse / Monitor
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: NewEgg is fine
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel CPU, 1TB+ HDD, EVGA, Giga-byte or Asus MBs.
OVERCLOCKING: Maybe.
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No
MONITOR RESOLUTION: up to 1920x1200. lower resolutions are fine.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: As I mentioned, this PC will likely be accessed by remote desktop via my work laptop, but I may end up setting it up in my home office. Ability to WOL out of standby would be a nice feature. I have investigated options to build a system ranging from an Atom 330 (seems a bit underpowered for Quicken?), all the way to an i5. Smaller form factors with cutting edge power / power consumptions are ideal, as the system would be idle most of the day. But, I would also accept a LianLi mid-tower or equivalent. ITX or mATX boards. I am not a gamer. Prefer an 80+ power supply, but not necessary. Price difference needs to be enough to make the build vs buy decision easy. I am comortable with system building. System upgrade path nice, but not required. If going Win7, I need an OS (own a copy of XP that would work).
APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: <1 Month
BUDGET RANGE: $400-700 (will consider higher if justified)
SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Quicken, Internet, Picasa / Other photo apps, light-duty Excel, occasional HD/blu-ray if system allows.
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard / Mouse / Monitor
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: NewEgg is fine
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel CPU, 1TB+ HDD, EVGA, Giga-byte or Asus MBs.
OVERCLOCKING: Maybe.
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No
MONITOR RESOLUTION: up to 1920x1200. lower resolutions are fine.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: As I mentioned, this PC will likely be accessed by remote desktop via my work laptop, but I may end up setting it up in my home office. Ability to WOL out of standby would be a nice feature. I have investigated options to build a system ranging from an Atom 330 (seems a bit underpowered for Quicken?), all the way to an i5. Smaller form factors with cutting edge power / power consumptions are ideal, as the system would be idle most of the day. But, I would also accept a LianLi mid-tower or equivalent. ITX or mATX boards. I am not a gamer. Prefer an 80+ power supply, but not necessary. Price difference needs to be enough to make the build vs buy decision easy. I am comortable with system building. System upgrade path nice, but not required. If going Win7, I need an OS (own a copy of XP that would work).