I'll probably buy 1 more Win laptop. Recommendations?

[rcjordan]

>plug-n-play on steroids

Everything moved without spawning a single alert or error message. 

>Win8 is my preferred OS by far these days. I feel hobbled on

I ordered an identical set-up for the office.

[rcjordan]

I now have identical twins --except for the network device names and desktop colors.   Now to properly address syncing and/or cloud file management so I won't have an overwrite disaster.

[bill]

As long as those 13" screens aren't too small for you...the rest of the Lenovo hardware seems pretty sturdy.

> syncing and/or cloud file management
I've been using Cubby by LogMeIn for file sync between multiple Windows machines. However, that's no longer free. You need to pay to get their DirectSync technology which doesn't need to store info in the cloud. You could sync an unlimited amount of data that way. It's a lot like the old Microsoft Mesh product, which I used successfully for years, but ergophobe had issues with...

I'm going to look into the new BitTorrent Sync. It's free; Supposedly quite fast; Doesn't require the cloud. I could see BitTorrent Sync being a serious challenger to DropBox and similar services. It looks like a fast, secure way to transfer files.

[rcjordan]

>13" screens

The lenovo has an hdmi port so it easily jacks into the ageing 42" Sharp lcd tv I use as a monitor at the office.  The settings menues MS now provide make it really easy to configure a laptop to dock.  I'm just going to leave it more or less permanently docked.

At home, 13" is fine.

>sync

I only have two, maybe three, applications that need to work with the same files. I'm leaning toward just putting the master files on a lacie sd key and write backups to each individual workstation.

[rcjordan]

>I'm leaning toward just putting the master files on a lacie sd key and write backups to each individual workstation.

This ended up working fine but took some serious thinking about how I work and what files I wanted kept where.  I'm always very deliberate about how I organize the file tree but cloned workstations required some special consideration.

>I only have two, maybe three, applications that need to work with the same files.

Ended up being about 5 or 6.

<added>
The machines are silent. That's a huge change over the old quad-core Dell XPS at the office that had fans blasting away.

[nffc]

>The machines are silent.

I think that comes from the push for low energy consumption, for me though even if the energy was higher quieter is better.

It is hard to quantify how noisy (and hot!) a few computers can make a room. We tend to work in a bear pit manner where we throw lots of people in a room with no screens or such stuff, a quiet machine is a good machine.

[rcjordan]

>push for low energy consumption

Yeah, and the push to boot fast.  Seriously, if you're going to displace my Ipad, you have to COLD boot damn near instantaneously.  Take a look at the drives

"500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive, 24 GB Solid-State Drive"

It looks like everything 'system' goes on the SSD.

<added>
FWIW, I don't like to use sleep mode. I believe computers should only have 2 settings; Off & GoFast

[Drastic]

So I just signed up some outside office space, and I won't be taking central command, at least yet.

Do you find the extra cost of a touch screen worth it? I just don't see myself touching, you know, the shiny screen.

[rcjordan]

>extra

it's only a slight convenience for full-time keyboard users like us, dras.  we tend to have the places we work arranged to suit us --keyboards, chargers, etc. 

that said, since my main machines tend to stay in service for 5-7 years, i expect some touch apps to become more 'must have' over that time span.


ALSO, from the few people I know who have laptops/Win8 *without* touch, they have said they regret not having it now.   No particular reason given, they just feel they're missing something.