Iraq bound L'top

[flingers]

My son is currently bound for 18 mos. in Iraq and he wants to purchase a reliable unit that will stand up to conditions he might encounter while there. Since he expects it to be subjected to about the harshest environmental extremes, he wanted me to ask around for input on what would be the best. He wants to spend anywhere from 1200 to 1700$ if possible. 2 stripers don't bring in alot of $$$'s
Heres a list of items he'd like
>2 ghz proc. any flavor?
512 mb ram
60 gig HD
higher end graphics card
15" screen
DVD/CD-RW
10/100 NIC & Modem
min.2 usb ports
battery life as long as possible "you can understand why"
weight and size not really a problem - he said, "don't worry its my back & I'm a big strapper" and he really is...
But above all ruggedness & reliability a "must"
After all he's not going to be "just around the corner from the local compinthebox.
Anybody have any experience and suggestions.

 

[jshields13]

My PD uses Dell M600 laptops. They seem to hold up well. I googled for you and found http://www.dolch.com/html/laptop.html
This may help. If you google under "laptop extreme conditions" (without the quotes) you will find a number of sites.

Hope this helps. Wish your son luck.

 

[young&wild]

If long battery life is important, I guess its wise to stick with Pentium M chips a.k.a Centrino when coupled with a 802.11b wireless.

 

[Godataloss]

My wisest advise would be to flee to Canada barring that I would try to talk him into a pocket pc.

 

[Didou]

Originally posted by young&wild
If long battery life is important, I guess its wise to stick with Pentium M chips a.k.a Centrino when coupled with a 802.11b wireless.

I second the centrino choice. Any chip based on the Dothan core will perform very well & be easy on the battery life (Dothans have 2mb of L2 cache as opposed to 1mb for the previous generation).

You certainly don't want a desktop replacement part, they can barely last 2 hours on battery if you're lucky.

 

[StormBringer]

I'd recommend the Dell Latitude D600 for a rugged machine, police depts seem to love these machines and they are quite rugged (their opinion probably also has a bit to do with the great deals they get by buying them in bulk) , though the I600M is a little better machine, it is also a bit more expensive. If you want small and powerful, have a look at the new I700M, its a replacement for the X200/x300 blade series and most of the machine's components are CRUs, such as the LCD and the HDD(the blade series was almost completely FRU, meaning it required a tech to replace parts under warranty) The one drawback I find to the 700M is that is has a high gloss LCD and does not currently have an antiglare option available. The LCD is great for watching DVDs indoors, but sux for trying to do anything outside(this is ironic since the machine is very small and designed to be very powerful yet lightweight)
If Size is not a a concern, I'd recommend the XPS, its very bulky but also a very powerful machine. It is basically a portable desktop gaming machine, it also can run nearly $6k if you max everything out.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Look at this Panasonic baby:
http://www.yenra.com/rugged-laptops/

 

[Goalie]

Do keep in mind US Export laws here.

There's a good chance that electronics purchased in the US (and not done so by the military) may not be allowed to be taken.