Structural Integrity of Laptops?

d_m_i_t_r_i asks: "As a laptop-toting college student, I'm very interested in just how much abuse my laptop can stand up to. Just how many pounds of books can I stack on it? How hard can I bang the corner, before it will cave in? Things like that. Does anyone review the cases of laptops for their structural integrity? Are there any sort of statistics out there of things like strength tests, dropping from a height, etc?"

Comments

My iBook (dual USB) and my near death experience

[PatJensen]

I hit a highway divider while on my daily commute to Tulare, CA (from Fresno) at over 70mph after an 18-wheeler ran me off the road. I careened off the highway after the collision and flew over an overpass on the opposite side of the highway. I was driving a '93 Honda Del Sol S automatic equipped with a driver side air bag. My brand new one week old 500mhz iBook was sitting in a Terapin laptop case that I bought off onsale.com a year back.

I shattered my sternum, ribs and collarbone and suffered internal bruising. My whole chest turned yellow 4 days after the accident. It took about 6 and a half weeks to recover. It was the scariest experience I've ever lived through in my life. I'd say recovering was worse then the accident.

Needless to say, my iBook hit the dash at a force of over 500mph (according to the firefighters that pulled me from the wreckage of my car) Once the ambulance transported me to the emergency room, the CHP officers brought my belongings and my wife met me there. To comfort me, my wife fired up my iBook and to my relief it still worked and booted into OS X without any problems.

It's about 3 months later now, and all the damage my iBook has to show is some leather smear from the case on the corners of the nice polished white plastic. No other problems whatsoever. And yet iBook users complain about their hinges.... *shrug* I love my iBook, glad it made it through it OK.

-Pat