Over the course of the next several months, we will post a series of reviews of the equipment in our mobile digitization kits. We will also be continuing to test new equipment and refine our kits to develop suggestions for digitization kits that are professional, mobile, and for a variety of budgets. For our first review, we will briefly discuss our laptop – which has proven to be our most disappointing piece of equipment.
One of our Dell laptops on Maggie’s desk at Queens Library.
We purchased a Dell Precision Mobile Workstation M2800, which has the advantages of both a fast processor, and being a somewhat affordable (at $1,800) option for professional graphics processing. Unfortunately the laptop is also very heavy (5.6 pounds), and has relatively little hard drive space. We have found the weight and physical size of the laptop makes it awkward even for use around our respective offices, and it is definitely not a good option for a mobile kit. At the outset of this project we really underestimated the importance of finding lightweight equipment. Once we assembled our kits and started trundling them around, we realized that a few pounds for each item can really make a difference. Even this computer’s adapter is big and heavy!
The small hard drive size also became an immediate problem. Our laptops were ordered with 120 GB Solid State Hard Drives. After installing all the software needed for our project, we were left with only 30GB of space on our hard drives. Since we are creating preservation quality images, which are anywhere from 5MB to 50MB, our hard drives fill up quickly. We need to stay on top of moving images onto our preservation servers and other backup drives regularly. During busy periods, or when we are working with large collections of images, the capacity of our hard drives is a limitation. We would recommend buying hard drives with at least 500GB of flash-based storage.
In assessing a future laptop purchase, we would prioritize laptops with the following attributes: lightweight and not physically bulky; has a hard drive that is 500GB; has a minimum of 2 USB ports (at our community scanning events, we want USB plugs for the scanner, camera, donor flash drive, and potentially an external hard drive); minimum 6GB of memory; has an Intel Core i7 processor; and is relatively affordable.
Keeping in mind these considerations, we would recommend the following laptops:
Dell Precision Mobile Workstation M3800 ($1,719.00)
- 4 Pounds (significantly lighter than the M2800)
- 500 GB hard drive
- 3 USB ports
- 8 GB of Memory, Intel Core i7 processor
13 Inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display ($1,799.00)
- 3.5 Pounds
- 512 GB hard drive
- 2 USB ports
- 8 GB of Memory, Intel Core i5 processor (Can upgrade processor to i7 for $200)
We think that these options have the advantages of being significantly lighter than the Dell M2800, and having 500GB hard drives. Both of these computers also have robust processors, 2 to 3 USB ports, and are in a similar price range. Let us know if you have other ideas for light, great, and affordable laptops! Leave a comment below or email us at cultureintransit@metro.org.