New Lap Top... does this look okay?

Here we go again...
I bought one inbetween for my other restaurant's server... but the POS (Point of Sale) people insisted on the make. The new one's got a 3 station Micros e7 (supposedly state of the art) POS System... that's got computers and servers built into each unit (pretty slick, I must admit)... so the office computer isn't as important. The previous owner ran it with a dinosaur that originally came with ME... but then put XP on it. It can barely handle XP and as I add software, I can tell it's WAY over-taxed.

My next step is to add a 16 Channel DVR Card that will allow the transmission of 16 security Cams over the web... so I know this old junk won't handle it. So this is what I've ordered...

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Dimension E510 Qty: 1
Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB), Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition Unit Price: $2,103.00
Dell Dimension E510 Series Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB)
Memory 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (4x1GB)
Keyboard Dell USB Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard
Monitor 19 inch Ultrasharp™ 1907FP Digital Flat Panel
Video Card 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X600 SE HyperMemory
Hard Drive DataSafe 250GB (Includes main hard drive plus a hidden reserve hard drive)
Floppy Drive No Floppy Drive Included
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition
Mouse Dell Optical USB Mouse
Network Card Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet
Modem 56K PCI Data Fax Modem
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
CD or DVD Drive Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/dbl layer write capability
Sound Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Speakers No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Office Software (not included in Windows XP) Microsoft Office Basic - Includes Word, Excel and Outlook email
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) No Security Subscription
Hardware Warranty 1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr At-Home Service, and 1Yr HW Warranty Support
Dial - Up Internet Access 6 Months of America Online Membership Included
Miscellaneous Award Winning Service and Support
Operating System Re-Installation CD PC Restore recovery system by Symantec
Dell Digital Entertainment Starter Entertainment Pack -Basic digital Music, Photo, and Casual Gaming
Dell Home Customers: Save $500 off this Dell Dimension E510!
Expires on 2006-05-04 11:59:59
($500.00)
Sub-Total $1,603.00
Shipping $160.00
Estimated Tax $98.75
Total $1,861.75
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Built off THIS system. Am I guessing correct that a ton of RAM is my friend for security cams? See any flaws?

Thanks in advance, Timber AND Co.

Im also looking for some new laptops for field people and me. Weve had a number of Dells and, truthfully, have had bad luck with their durability. Ive had number of them just burn up and fry the HD because wed be downloading field data and the fans were just unable to dissipate the heat. (I think that Dell configs just arent well engineered on the physical end of things). I ant to get away from those mouse pads because they essentially take a one hand operation and turn it into the need for 2..

Obviously, if you insiste on using this for security cams you will want to get one of those waffle stands with a booster fan to dissipate heat or you too will have the special Dell "Incenderon" feature.

Thats not a laptop, fm. And any laptop expected to be pretty much always-on oughtta`be provided with assisted cooling, whether it has a mobile processor, or (as I suspect may have been the case with the ones that gave you trouble) a faster, but hotter-running, deskop processor.



Seems like a decent bang-for-buck system, O'Bill - curious though; why Media Center insteada XP Pro?

Good idea to go with DataSafe; a business-critical system must have active, real-time backup. I think you also should invest a couple hundred bucks or so in a fairly good-sized (200GB+) external hard drive setup, configured for automatic backup (most will come with suitable software). If you have broadband, on-line backup for business-critical files is a good idea, too - a little pricey, but a helluva lot better than figuring out how to recover from losing everything due to on-site disaster.

I'm also wondering why you didn't go with the xp pro.

Those Maxtor 200 Gig external HD's are a good thing for CADD storage and airphotos. Ilike em.

Sine Bill was getting an Inspiron, thats the "Incenderon" i spoke of.

My bad, Farmerman. The laptops were last year. We got twins for my even less savy than myself partner and I, so it'd be easier to trouble shoot screw-ups. This one is an office PC.

What advantage does XP Pro have? I didn't choose the other... it was already listed and I don't know the difference. I'm sure it's not too late to change, since it's not supposed to be built until the 8th.

As for back-ups; the e7 POS system has built in redundancy in all three touch screen stations (even if my office burned along with two of the three stations; the last station has all the info and could take over 100% of the work-load)... and the hard-drive configuration I chose is supposed to be a built in back-up for the other stuff... if I understood it correctly. (80 gig start-up and normal operation and a 250 gig backup and extra storage space).

Also, as a habit, I back up the important stuff every payroll on a 2gig memory key that travels with me. Is that good enough? Oh, plus my accountant gets a copy of quick-books at least monthly… and my laptop gets it every other week, since that's where I do payroll.

I assume the pro is designed for business usage and since you're using the puter for business, I thought the pro might be set up better for you, but Timber would be the pro in this area.

XP pro offers more comprehensive administrative, security, recovery, and network management capabilities than are available with XP Home or Media Center. In a business environment, I feel at least one machine - typically the main machine - should be XP pro ... just another set of tools in case problems come up anywhere in the network. Media Center offers more or less a few convenience features of interest to folks who's 'puters are essentially entertainment devices. The only downside to XP Pro I can think of is that it will allow the inept to royally screw things up all over the place, but whatchya gonna do? The trade-off is utility vs idiot-proofing, and, properly set up, with just one password-protected Administrator-level account accessible only to a responsible, knowledgeble user (which pretty much is how all 'puters oughtta be set up), the screw-up factor is all but eliminated.

As far as your backups go, O'Bill, what's critical to business operation should be regularly - and frequently - be backed up off-site, whatever else as may be important, but not critical, can be given lower priority. Your accounting service can prolly help you figure out what is really critical, and if they can't, get a new service. Also, you should encrypt and password-protect all critical and non-critical but important, proprietary business info files and folders, with the keys available only to responsible, trusted individuals.

farmerman, dunno if I mentioned this before, but if you're looking for laptops that put up a fight, Panasonic's ToughBooks line is pretty hard to kill - many configurations are available, some fully MIL-SPEC; a little pricey on the front end, but in a less-than-pristine environment, the cost-over-lifetime can make them a real value.

Thanks for the advice Timber... but as an idiot... the idiot proofing is probably my friend. Someday; I'll be able to afford someone who really knows what the hell they're doing. Not in the cards today.

Hey Timber. The new machine arrived today (much faster than they said it would)... and it appears that the drive connection has changed. Is there a program you recommend to transfer everything on the old Hard Drive to the new one? Preferably everything, so I don't have to have the Micros people come reinstall their software in the new one, at $200 per hour.
Thanks.

As far as I'm concerned, Detto Intellimover is real hard to beat if you want simple "click to do it" and straightforward "drag & drop" transfer automation. It ain't free (around $50), but it works pretty well even if you don't read the instructions :wink:

Thanks Timber!