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Rugged laptop recommendations

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sparkydave

sparkydave

Jedi Knight
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My wife will soon be starting her own business, doing mobile horse veterinary work. She needs a laptop, but one that will be somewhat forgiving of being on the road. She also needs to have Windows XP since the software she's planning to use to manage her practice isn't qualified for Vista (oh darn... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif).

I've looked at the Panasonic Toughbooks and the Dell Latitude ATG, and while they certainly look pretty durable, they also cost at least twice as much as a regular laptop. She's not planning to be tough on it, but if it has an oops like falling off a hay bale, we would need to have some degree of being able to keep ticking. If she does work with it on a hay bale, she will need something that won't be sucking up dust.

Would something like the Toughbook be overkill?
 
I haven't been too much of a laptop fan over the years, but I'm coming around to the idea that having one ~is~ handy.


If I'm not mistaken, Doc is a well spoken supporter of Toshiba's ruggedness. Although, I also hear IBM makes a nice rugged unit as well.


One thing I like about laptops these days, is the fact that you can get them with a finger print scanner for locking documents and even logging into the computer. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
Yeah, I think the Toshibas are about as rugged as any. And IBM does a fine job. IIRC one IBM has even got a choice to go to a Titanium shell/frame. THAT is a bit over the top, tho.
 
I have a Toshiba M6 I bought for taking on trips in my camera bag. It's a small laptop with a 12-13" widescreen, screen. It is a surprisingly tough little laptop, decent battery life, runs really cool, and although I've read some negative reports about the keyboard I find it easy to type on. The frame is a mix of plastic and metal, and has an excellent sturdy feel to it. It also has a sensor in it that parks the HD if it senses any excessive vibration or motion.

Several years ago a company I was working for decided we just had to have tough-books because we found the laptops were physically wearing out after two years. I thought about that and told them to forget it. I'd rather get a decent quality normal priced laptop every two years than get an indestructible one at 2-3x the cost that would be obsolete in a couple of years.

I also reasoned that I could get 2-3 of our normal ones for the same price of a tough-book, so we just took the chance that we wouldn't break any - and we never did.
 
Toshiba looks OK, except they don't seem to offer XP. I'll look at IBM as well, we use those at work. So the super-rugged ones probably aren't necessary?
 
I did see a Toshiba with XP on their website. Model: Tecra A8-EZ8511X. Don't know if the hardware fills the need, but it's $700.
 
Dave
What practice software is your wife going to use? We have gone to using palm software (Take an Order)(In combination with our Treo Cellphones). In our dairy practice, we use Quickbooks for our billing. Cheap, date stamp, takes notes (SOAPs) and very tough. I also use a Toshiba notebook for my consulting work, but it does not go out into the barn. You also can install XP on a computer that has Vista on it (we are going to be doing this with a new Toshiba). Dust is your enemy out on the farm and even a Tough Book can not get away from that! PM me with any questions!
Paul

A. Paul Bos, DVM
Escalon, Ca
 
That one doesn't appear to be customizable though. Looks like you're stuck with what's offered, and it wouldn't meet our needs.
 
Thanks Paul, she was looking at the VIA+ software by ELINC. She had a few she was evaluating but this one was simple enough for her to use. True, I could install XP on a Vista notebook, but I'd rather not have to mess with getting all the devices working properly. Having done that before with a laptop in downgrading from the latest Windows version, it's a pain finding all the drivers and having everything working nicely. Personally, I'd give her a Linux laptop but nobody makes vet software for Linux.
 
Dave
I like the looks of the software. Will she need the computer out of the truck (ie using it to record US images, look up records etc)? If not a simple recorder and a digital camera might work out on the farm, until she returns to the truck to input records and billing. We had problems with our in house software (small animal) and went back to a very simple system (paper) after many software problems and the lack of support from the vendor.

Paul
 
TOSHIBA!!

I've owned mine since 2003 - taken it all over the world in my backpack...original battery just died....no other problems & I hook it up in Korea, Germany, England all over the US & Canada....can't ask for a more rugged computer, IMHO.
 
/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/iagree.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/iagree.gif

I have one too. (Toshiba). Use it in our shop (wireless) which is our old show cow barn. Love the thing. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/banana.gif
 
I have a Panasonic Tough Book and it is next to bullet proof. Water and shock proof. Six years old and used outdoors in my field inspection work daily, it's been dropped and rained upon. It's like a Timex, takes a beating and keeps on ticking. Do a Google search for a refurbished unit or E-Bay for a used on. The touch screen version is great. It is worth every penny of the extra price. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/yesnod.gif
 
We buy IBM laptops at the hospitals for the nurses to push around on the COWs (Computer On Wheels). Not sure what model, but they have to be tough.
 
I've had three or four Sager laptops and found them to be fairly durable. They are not specifically built to take abuse like a tough book, but I am very hard on a laptop and they have held up well for me. My current laptop is a 3860 model and it's been around the world with me. I have thousands of hours of use time on it. I've had a couple minor problems over the years on the various models, but nothing any other laptop would wouldn't have under so much stress. They are fully customizable and you can get them with whatever OS you want, or without an OS at all by purchasing from a retailer rather than online. The guts are mostly the same as Toshiba, only the packaging is nicer and the price is slightly lower.

https://www.sagernotebook.com/default.php
 
I swear by Toshiba's durability - the only ones I ever used. I was in the business a number of years and HP, IBM, Compaq, etc. don't compare. Also, I also buy the lower end models - $500 to $600 range (after rebate)
Just my opinion.
 
Thanks all, actually we went with a Dell the software company was offering. Long story short, the licensing agreement they had for the Microsoft SQL server their software uses was only good on the computers they sold. Had we bought our own laptop we would have been stuck with either shelling out another $2000 for Microsoft SQL server, or make do with SQL Server Express for free but be limited by how big the database could be. This way we get the full SQL Server and Micro$oft is happy. Sure makes me think about how there might be a market for a Linux-based vet management software that runs on MySQL. I could make millions! (a la Dr. Evil).
 
Good thought, Dave. HINT: Look into Firebird for a cross-platform, OpenSource DBMS. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

Linux for the server side, Firebird for the warez... it just WORKS.
 
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