gearhead_318

iTrader: (1)

If it comes w/ a windows OS then do yourself a favor and buy a new hard drive to install Ubuntu on. You never know what you'll end up wanting back. I have Ubuntu and can not run TunerStudio, iTunes, ect. What size is the HD?

Bryce

iTrader: (24)

Is it not odd that this thread is in the gaming section, when no gaming will be done on the purchased computer?

FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

very odd indeed. I honestly never noticed which section it was in.

viperormiata

iTrader: (24)

HD is 250gb. Comes with windows 7, but the plan was to dual boot with Ubuntu. According to Lars, it should not be a problem.

If I can run a web browser and MegaSquirt stuff, I'll be happy. There is a vid on youtube that goes into detail about Tuner Studio on Ubuntu.

Well I didn't see a better place to put it and Gaming gets a lot of traffic.

Worked out fine

Ta Da!

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

We have section and topic ***** now.

It makes me sad in the pants. Very sad in the pants :(.

Bryce

iTrader: (24)

No worries. I didn't mean it like that. Just thought it was funny.

I'll cover for him. He can play crush the castle on his new machine.

mgeoffriau

iTrader: (7)

Too late but here's a Lenovo X120e for $300.

http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/6791...ell-win-7-prem

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Wow!

1366x768, an E-350 processor, and upgradeable to 8GB for only $300? That is a hell of a good deal. I wouldn't hesitate for an instant to buy that as a primary-use laptop.

gearhead_318

iTrader: (1)

I duel boot, it would be perfect if I weren't for my windows side being fuked up.

viperormiata

iTrader: (24)

Haha, too late. But I do love Thinkpads. I actually have one. I bought it from my dad years and years ago, and had a friend at Radio Shack put XP on it, 500gb HD, DVD burner and a few other things. In 2006 it was hot ----.

I still have it, but it needs some work. I plan on upgrading it to Mac Daddy status sometime...eventually, haha.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Just noticed there's an x130e as well, which has a Core i3 processor.

It's a trifle on the heavy side, but otherwise looks like a very nice machine.

thait

Any recommendation for a good budget video cards? i notice alot of laptops deal lately

viperormiata

iTrader: (24)

Netbook came in. So far so good.



The case it came with is really, really nice. It's an actual Dell piece.




I got the pretty blue one



The battery, AC adapter and all the back up disks and hardware. All genuine Dell units.


Just a few minutes of setup (normal new computer stuff) and I was on my way, off to explore the internetz!

Now all I need to do is set it up the way I want. Get rid of some of the pre-installed junk and figure out this fancy Ubuntu stuff.


Thanks again to everyone who offered advice/criticism and for putting up with my noobness.

tomiboy

iTrader: (3)

So besides size what makes a netbook different from a laptop? Discdrive?

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Actually, size is not a principle determining factor.

There is no one unified definition of "netbook", however in general, the following factors are usually applied:

Processing power. Netbooks are generally equipped with "low power" CPUs (low power meaning both low electrical consumption and, more importantly, low computational performance) as compared to "regular" laptops. So, within the Intel world, a Netbook will usually have an Atom-series CPU, whereas any other machine will tend to have a Core-series CPU.

Screen quality. This is a different concept from screen size. In general, netbooks tend to have very low screen resolutions, particular in the vertical measurement. 1024 x 600 is a very common Netbook resolution, whereas "real" laptops tend to have resolutions in the neighborhood of 1280 x 800 at the very least.

Memory cap. Microsoft licenses the OS differently to "netbooks" vs "real" laptops, and this may be the most valid distinguishing factor. The old standard, when Win7 Starter / Basic first came out, was that Netbooks were allowed no more than 1GB of RAM capacity. There have been some revisions of late, but the concept of memory-capping is still a major determining factor.


To give you an example, my current laptop is a Dell E4200, which has a 12" display and no optical drive. However, it supports 5GB of RAM, has a Core2Duo processor, and came with Win7 Professional installed, so it is clearly not a netbook. The same goes for my previous laptop, a Sony Vaio TXN, which was an 11" machine but also came with a Core-series processor and Windows XP Pro. Machines such as these are often referred to as "ultraportables", however from an architectural and licensing point of view, they are functionally the same as "full size" laptops.

samnavy

iTrader: (7)

Have been rocking a Samsung N310 for about 3 years now... could be the best electronics purchase I ever made (sex-toys aside).

It sees daily use on and off the battery, which still gives me a solid 6 hours at low screen briteness. It's never failed to connect instantly to any Wifi network in about 10 different countries. Onboard BT so I don't have to use a mouse dongle, which isn't necessary because the trackpad is a like silk. Screen resolution is a weak point, but for general web'ing, it's perfectly adequate. You can run anything USB powered without the AC plugged in. I've had 3 external harddrives plugged in at once on the battery... it got a little hot, but nothing outrageous.

I would never consider gaming on it, outside of "arcade" style stuff to kill time, and it crushes a tablet across the board.

Most of my buddies who say "Dude, I'm looking for a new laptop, and I found this blah blah blah... it's $1500, what do you think?"

My answer is... "What do you want to do with it?"

"Oh, I don't know... maybe watch movies and surf the internet... you know, for when I travel and just sitting on the couch."

Dude... one word "NETBOOK". I think I'd be safe in saying that about 95% of all laptop owners never get within 50% of the capability of their computer. Nobody I know uses one for work, and even then, it's general PDF'ing and Office stuff. Unless you're seriously into video/graphics/gaming, then a modern netbook is going to be powerful enough for all your needs. Let's face it, most laptops just get used to surf the internet anyways.

On the other hand, full-size laptops are scary thin nowadays. Battery technology has come along nicely too.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Looking back at my last message, it might have come off as condemning netbooks as a class. Nothing could be further from the truth- I heartily endorse them for casual computing, I was just responding to tomiboy's question as comprehensively as possible.

Personally, I need something a bit "heftier" than a netbook simply because my work requires the use of one specific application which runs a huge Access database, so lots of RAM and a fast CPU make my life easier in this one specific regard. Aside from that, I'd have no problem rockin' a netbook as my daily driver, and for the past several years, have always striven to find machines which come as close as possible to a netbook's form-factor.

tomiboy

iTrader: (3)

What do you think of this?

http://computershopper.com/laptops/r...1001p-seashell

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

The right-side shift key would drive me insane, and it'd be nice to have more than 1G of memory.

samnavy

iTrader: (7)

^Damn... something that I though about when writing that didn't make it in... THE KEYBOARD IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ANY NETBOOK.

You've got a finite amount of space to work with, and there are a couple dozen different netty keyboard layouts. My Sammy was advertised as "88% real" or something like that. It's got dual sided shift keys, and the tab/cntl/fn/alt/caps/esc/enter everything important is in the right place. It's also got a very functional left/right/up/down arrowpad with convenient pgup/pgdown keys. It was by far the best and most "normal" keyboard I could find... and it alone was the major selling point.

Can't believe I didn't say that in the first post.

Anyways, they call it CHICLET style: