Do I need a toughbook?

[washmc]

So I'm planning on doing some overseas humanitarian work and just thought a toughbook or similar rugged laptop would be a good idea. Guess I didn't realize how dang expensive they are holy crap! And for such low specs even it's insane. So now I'm wondering, do I even need some indestructible monstrosity or would like a lenovo T series or some ultrabook in a good case do me just fine? I will be doing IT and networking so it needs to have some power and usability and not like I'm going into a war zone but I figured it would be exposed to a lot of dirt/dust and potentially water, maybe a solid fall or two. Ideally I'd like to keep it as close to or under $1000 as possible. And again should I even worry about the laptop being durable if there exists some awesome fairly cheap case I can store it in? Really outside my element so hoping someone has some good advise. Thanks in advance!

 

[boosted1g]

Get a PC with a solid state drive instead of a hard drive.
That will go a very long way protecting it against a fall.

If it is very dirt/dusty environment then get plugs for all of your unused ports.

 

[jaguarskx]

ThinkPad T and X series laptops goes through the Dept of Defense's MIL-SPEC requirements for equipment to operate in harsh environments. They are considered semi-rugged laptops. But they are not considered as rugged as the more expensive Toughbooks. If ~$1,000 is you limited then definitely forget about Toughbooks. That makes the ThinkPad T series your best option.

ThinkPad keyboards is compartmentalized from the rest of the laptop and it has drain holes. That means if you happen to spill water on the keyboard the water will drain out and will not damage your laptop (unless there is a bad seal). They also have a roll cage designed to increase the survivability of the laptop internals; specifically the hard drives. The "T" series have been designed to survive a 35 MPH direct impact long enough for data to be retrieved from the hard drive. Naturally, the laptop[ itself is more or less a disaster, though some people will probably that impact will improve it's looks.

As stated above, look for places that sell rubber plugs for the various ports on a laptop to help keep dust and dirt out.