Author Topic: Laptops (Read 28989 times)

crzyrbl · « **on:** May 15, 2006, 05:19:00 pm »

goin away to college and getting a laptop. been lookin around for a while and decided that im ordering http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cdetland.to?poid=323570&coid=-30598&fgpn=PSMA0U-07H00C&seg=HHO on wednesday

im completely deckin it out with:
2.0 ghz core duo
1 gig RAM
Tru Brite display
Mist paint job
maybe Windoze Pro
ATI X1400 128RAM
DVD/CD superdrive
Wifi/Bluetooth
high quality speakers
and some other stuff

planning to use it all through college

i think that fingerprint scanner is just overkill

Spellshaper · « **Reply #1 on:** May 15, 2006, 05:32:00 pm »

boo X1400 Pro! j/k
o' course a X1800 wuld be kewler, but it eats up battery sooo fast

Is the processor Intel or AMD and which name?

spengo · « **Reply #2 on:** May 15, 2006, 06:14:00 pm »

Looks excellent. Acer has some really nice ones like that too, I recommend buying through them though as they have some really nice computers for good prices. Go check them out on newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115239
^this one has your same specs but a 120GB hdd and 2GB ram and 15.4" screen and it only costs $1.5k!

I mean don't get me wrong, toshiba is great, I'm just an acer fan.

I was actually considering buying that one, but I decided to go with a 2Ghz pentium M and radeon x700 because I need graphics power more than anything else. (being the silly gamer I am.

) x700 >>>> x1400 However if you don't really need the gaming power I definitely recommend opting for a dual core laptop as you can get a lot of power out of that. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115320 is the one that I bought. It should be here tomorrow actually.

My mom won't let my play with it until graduation on june 3 though.

@spellshaper: core duo is the name for those nifty new dual core Intel chips for notebooks.

Normally you'd think that the x1400 would be better than an x700 right as it's a whole series ahead. Not so! The x1400 is the cheapo version of the new series while the x700 is one of the higher end ones of the previous series. The x1400 has a great processor and can do a few more operations/sec than the x700 can, however, it has a severe dearth of pipelines and just about everything else graphically is slower. In terms of games, the x1400 can run half life 2 awesomely at medium-ish settings whereas the x700 can run half life 2 awesomely at very high settings. x1400 can barely run battlefield 2 on low settings and x700 can get some nice mid-high range settings.

Btw, if you buy an acer in the price range you are setting that toshiba at ($2000) check out this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115226
If that is not the absolute ultimate notebook computer I don't know what is. O_O (spengo does not count those 8-12lb monsters that should be referred to as "small desktops" not laptops.

) Yes, acer owns all.

x1600 in that baby!

kalan_vod · « **Reply #3 on:** May 15, 2006, 06:40:00 pm »

I would have to agree with spengo, and with everything you want to get with toshiba it would be over 2000 + shipping. So I would suggest getting the later link from spengo, but the 1500 would do just fine. So if you are going to spend 2k on a laptop, go with the last link

.

crzyrbl · « **Reply #4 on:** May 16, 2006, 01:32:00 am »

maybe, the problem with those is that they overheat and it all come out on my mouse hand, some of them are still using FAT32, and most come with little or no software i need. i do like the better graphics card though...

spengo · « **Reply #5 on:** May 16, 2006, 10:11:00 am »

Umm, the no extra software is a good thing imo.

All that provides is a reason for manufacturers to jack up the price of thier computer when you could easily get a cheap student ms office suite or even free like at my school. If you aren't a student, there's always openoffice.org too.

Much woot. Also, with a bunch of needless software, you have to spend time uninstalling the stuff you don't want.

The overheating is due to n00bish use. Obviously, the guy who wrote that review was thinking something along the lines of "oh I'm doing games, I should lock my processor into max speed with that nifty manager program that comes with it."

If you notice the reviews of overheating are very few and many more talk about the great graphics they were getting on the newer games.

Fat 32 is nothing. Takes a grand total of about 5 seconds to convert it to ntfs. The hard drives are very high quality seagate drives with the maximum speed available for that much space in a low profile form.

crzyrbl · « **Reply #6 on:** May 17, 2006, 01:35:00 am »

im talking about the stuff toshiba offers that isnt bloatware. one of them fixes noisy optical drives ie. i would get it if i knew it wasnt going to overheat but i dont. any laptops with specs like that arent from acer? (or hp, or compaq, or...)

spengo · « **Reply #7 on:** May 17, 2006, 12:23:00 pm »

Wait... software that fixes noisy optical drives...

#1: wtf??! that makes no sense
#2: I don't notice eccessive noise from my optical drive anyways

On june 3 when I am allowed to play with it more I will post you screenies of battlefield 2 and counter strike source and I bet it won't overheat.

Btw, mine is extremely sexy, the screen is nice and big but not too big to be a hassle to carry like those 17" monster laptops. There are no dead pixels at all!! much woot. It weighs a light 6 lbs and the case overall seems very sturdy. I haven't dropped it yet but I didn't notice any twisting of the monitor at all and it seemed really firm as I held it. The integrated bluetooth is a very nice touch and the little sony bluetooth mouse I got works excellently. I really do like the screen a lot. It has a very wide viewing angle too.

On a purely cosmetic note the acer logo is up in the top right hand corner as opposed to smack in the middle like dell or alienware.

Newegg's shipping was uber as it got here in 3 business days just like they said. It boots up almost instantly.

I press the power button and there is barely any time at all before I can log in and use it. Much faster than my 2.8Ghz p4 desktop. Also, it's really quiet. O_O I haven't played any games or done any real heavy duty stuff yet, but with the basic installing and goofing off with the bluetooth mouse there was like, no noise at all.

I have to think of a cool name for it though.

It is temporarily named Zangetsu after my favorite bleach character Ichigo's sword. (yes a sword is a character

) I kind of want something more original though... *spengo goes to quickly make a random letter generator on his ti 89*

EDIT: I got it! I shall name it Stigandr which means "wanderer" in ancient norse. \o/

crzyrbl · « **Reply #8 on:** May 17, 2006, 05:31:00 pm »

if you've ever owned a ps2, you'd know what a noisy optical drive sounds like. all the software does is lower the rpm if the disc is acting up (happens with old or scratched discs, some drives dont like certain formats) anyway, thats not really important. what is important is that if i did get an acer, i would get the last one, and one out of every three reviewers (NOT NEWEGGS, cnet reviewers for example) got a lemon for that model. i dont feel very comfortable considering they didnt get much help from the customer service. the ones who said it was freakin awsome (not doubting that) said they never had to deal with them. price is nonissue here, whether this thing is going to last a long time without breaking down is...

oh ya, bleach is awsome.

after seeing a friends 14.1" widescreen laptop, i think the toshiba might be too small now.

spengo · « **Reply #9 on:** May 17, 2006, 07:12:00 pm »

Well, I dunno maybe I got really lucky. Nothing is broken so far as I can tell, and I even got a 0 dead pixel screen.

So far I've asked them questions about the bluetooth mouse as I couldn't get it to connect properly right away without messing with the bluetooth settings in the control panel every time I turn on the machine. I haven't got a response back yet (well I emailed like 2 hours ago

) but I shall report on the results.

I have never owned a ps2 however, but I can relate to loud dvd drives I suppose. On my desktop, if I try to play anime (like in avi format or something) directly off a dvd with video lan, it gets really really loud. o.o

The drive that is. It sounds painful. I have not tested this with the laptop yet so I don't know about that. Also, I bought an extended warranty to make sure it lasts as long as I need it.

You should do that whether you buy acer, toshiba, dell or anything.

I got to play with it again today because my dad was messing with the wireless trying to get a network going. The wireless network that is also shared by a windows '98 computer and an xp home with an extremely tempermental usb wireless thingy. Every time I connect with the laptop, the usb wireless dies in the desktop. >:0 I hate that usb thing. Whenever anyone touches the internet on any other computer it goes down to like 1mbps and gets irc lag of like 12 seconds.

If I try to torrent stuff it randomly disconnects as if it can't handle the bandwidth torrenting consumes. Rather unsatisfactory imho. I should just get my parents to bear with stringing ethernet across the room to the desktop.

*note for future reference* never buy a usb wireless thingy, they suck major arse (sorry about the rant, but I do have anger at this usb pos wireless :angry:

)

@ the toshiba: isn't there one with a 15.4" widescreen too? There should be.

15.4" wsxga+ is sexy :> Go look for the bigger toshiba ones. I'm almost positive they exist.

crzyrbl · « **Reply #10 on:** May 19, 2006, 12:31:00 pm »

found three more laptops to choose from (not including that acer ^)

1: http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cdetland.to?seg=HHO&poid=327377&fgpn=PSPA0U-02F01R&src=ABEM&cm_mmc=CNET_Feed-_-Notebook_PCs-_-_-_-Satellite_P100_ST7211_Customizable its only 7.1 pounds for a 17" laptop and pretty dang sturdy. the 7600go grfx card is nice too (better than x1600 i think). comes with too many features to mention, the coolest being that fingerprint reader!

2: http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_CTO-Start?ProductSKU=M1NBSP06-A&catname=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers_FE_Series it has a nice 15.4" screen, great keyboard, a 7400go, which is still nice.

3: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/entnb_e1705?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn although almost a pound heavier than the toshiba, it has an optional tv tuner, adequate multi-mediafunctions, and the 7900 GS, which is the equivalent of the 7800 GTX!
"Save $750 on select Inspiron? notebook systems $1999 or more in Dell Home.
For this offer, enter Dell Coupon Code: R3D0GW03LCSZ14"

price is not really an issue for me, and i dont think (but not sure) i need to worry about weight as i wont need to have it next to me all day.

kalan_vod · « **Reply #11 on:** May 19, 2006, 01:11:00 pm »

You wont need a 17" screen, it will kill the battery faster. 15.4 is fine.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #12 on:** May 19, 2006, 01:14:00 pm »

can it support 1024x768? because most website are now 1024x768 optimized

kalan_vod · « **Reply #13 on:** May 19, 2006, 01:15:00 pm »

My 15.4 can, so I am sure his will (since it's newer anyway).

crzyrbl · « **Reply #14 on:** May 19, 2006, 03:47:00 pm »

is 8 pounds too heavy for college? ive heard a very wide variety of responses....

EDIT:

anyone else suprised that the decked out Dell is the cheapest?!?

Author Topic: Laptops (Read 28989 times)

crzyrbl

spengo

crzyrbl

spengo

crzyrbl

spengo

crzyrbl

spengo

crzyrbl

crzyrbl