Laptop Recommendations
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I bought an Acer Aspire 5100 for $750 US. Here are the specs. AMD Turion 64 X2 TL50 (1.6ghz per core) ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 chipset 1gb of RAM 120gb hard-drive ATI Radeon x300 graphics chip Dual-layer DVD burner 100mbs network adapter. 802.11b/g wireless. 56k modem HD Audio 15.4in screen 1280x800 memory card reader A built in mic and video cam Windows XP Media Center Edition (Pro with media center junk) I am able to play Command & Conquer Generals, Morrowind 3, Company of Heroes(a little laggy), and Doom 3(also a little laggy). I acutally use it as my main computer now, I have a 17inch monitor, my Microsoft Ergo 4000 keyboard, and a mouse all hooked up to it. I have a dual monitor setup with my laptop monitor and my 17inch Viewsonic. It runs multiple instances of VS2005 along with Windows Media Player, Windows Live Messenger, Thunderbird, Firefox and whatever else I use all at the same time. I'm impressed with its performance. I even ran Windows Vista 64bit on it and it ran great. I am very satisfied with it. I haven't had any problems with it so far. One thing you will want to do is create an exact copy of the OEM Windows XP disk using the files on your hard drive with NLite. You will need to get the oembios.*** files from your hardrive when you are creating the OEM disk. Also you will need to get the setup.exe and winsp2 file or whatever its called from a real Windows disk. The hardrive is formated as 2 FAT32 partitions from the factory so even if you do not create a OEM disk you will want to create a restore disk(2 DVDs) and use something such as Windows setup(from a real windows disk) and delete the two fat32 partitions and create a new one AS FAT32 and run the restore disks. Then use the command line to convert your partition for NTFS. You will also need to use a key extraction tool to get the real key for your copy of Windows that is installed by default. Dont use the one located at the bottom of your computer because it will require you to reactive. DONT FORGET TO GET THE OEMBIOS.*** files from your harddrive before you install Windows from the OEM Windows disk that you may create, that will suppress the windows activation and help prevent you from getting non-genuine notifications.
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Thanks! That might be what we're looking for. That's a little more even, so for the price I might just go ahead and get her something that will last a while. I'm not too keen on Media Center. Any issues with it?
What's in a sig? This statement is false. Build a bridge and get over it. ~ Chris Maunder
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What type of system? Have you bought one of their low-end systems?
Christian Graus wrote:
I'd never buy HP. If I was given one, I'd sell it on ebay. For $5
hahahaha... I'll buy it for $5. That reminds me of the old Vectra boxes and all of the proprietary hardware issues like adding hard drives. I still have an old 90 Mhz one. Still works. Can't do much, but it works.
What's in a sig? This statement is false. Build a bridge and get over it. ~ Chris Maunder
I bought the most expensive notebook they had at the time, but I'm sure the principles I care about ( support/service ) are the same, even if your notebook is made of cheaper parts.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog
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Thanks! That might be what we're looking for. That's a little more even, so for the price I might just go ahead and get her something that will last a while. I'm not too keen on Media Center. Any issues with it?
What's in a sig? This statement is false. Build a bridge and get over it. ~ Chris Maunder
Chris S Kaiser wrote:
Any issues with it?
It works great for me. I don't use the Media Center, but it seems pretty cool. It hardly different than Windows XP Professional. I wasn't to excited about having the Media Center edition when I bought it but once I realized that it is built on Professional I was really happy to have it. I also get a free* upgrade disk for Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit) in the mail 4-7 weeks after Vista is released to the mass market. *16 bucks for packaging and shipping.
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Chris S Kaiser wrote:
Any issues with it?
It works great for me. I don't use the Media Center, but it seems pretty cool. It hardly different than Windows XP Professional. I wasn't to excited about having the Media Center edition when I bought it but once I realized that it is built on Professional I was really happy to have it. I also get a free* upgrade disk for Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit) in the mail 4-7 weeks after Vista is released to the mass market. *16 bucks for packaging and shipping.
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I hate Media Centre! It turns out the Microsoft will not support it. I had to call Dell technical support (which is completely hardware orientated) because MS support wouldn't help me with a problem I was having. (Hint: When you call support just pretend you have Pro)
Brad Australian -CAUTION- The previous statement may contain traces of PHP, and by reading this statement you negate the right to vote me down.
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I hate Media Centre! It turns out the Microsoft will not support it. I had to call Dell technical support (which is completely hardware orientated) because MS support wouldn't help me with a problem I was having. (Hint: When you call support just pretend you have Pro)
Brad Australian -CAUTION- The previous statement may contain traces of PHP, and by reading this statement you negate the right to vote me down.
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Bradml wrote:
When you call support just pretend you have Pro
Me call support? No way, people call me for support.
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:-D But seriously there are so many bugs in the way they implemented Media Centre. There are weird things like: It can detect XBox through AV ports but it can't detect PS2.... :suss: When I called Microsoft and was told they would not help me I just starting yelling every anti-Microsoft thing I could think of. At the end of it the support person said: "Yeah, but what other option do we have?"
Brad Australian -CAUTION- The previous statement may contain traces of PHP, and by reading this statement you negate the right to vote me down.
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Bradml wrote:
When you call support just pretend you have Pro
Me call support? No way, people call me for support.
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Captain See Sharp wrote:
No way, people call me for support.
Me too. Doesn't mean I'm too proud to call Dell if their hardware blows up.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog
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:-D But seriously there are so many bugs in the way they implemented Media Centre. There are weird things like: It can detect XBox through AV ports but it can't detect PS2.... :suss: When I called Microsoft and was told they would not help me I just starting yelling every anti-Microsoft thing I could think of. At the end of it the support person said: "Yeah, but what other option do we have?"
Brad Australian -CAUTION- The previous statement may contain traces of PHP, and by reading this statement you negate the right to vote me down.
Bradml wrote:
But seriously there are so many bugs in the way they implemented Media Centre. There are weird things like: It can detect XBox through AV ports but it can't detect PS2....
I don't use the Media Center program. It is just an add-on program like paint to me. Although I am curious to why Windows XP Media Center Edition costs much less than Professional as it is Professional and then some. It must be because they don't support it.
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Captain See Sharp wrote:
No way, people call me for support.
Me too. Doesn't mean I'm too proud to call Dell if their hardware blows up.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog
Christian Graus wrote:
Me
Christian Graus wrote:
call Dell
Christian Graus wrote:
hardware blows up.
I always build my own, its fun and I get to choose exactly what I want and its usually higher quality than your standard system builder's (Dell, HP, ...) computer. You need to know what you are doing and spend a bit of time reading reviews and news groups to get the highest quality. The only time I bought a pre-built system is when I bought my laptop.
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Christian Graus wrote:
Me
Christian Graus wrote:
call Dell
Christian Graus wrote:
hardware blows up.
I always build my own, its fun and I get to choose exactly what I want and its usually higher quality than your standard system builder's (Dell, HP, ...) computer. You need to know what you are doing and spend a bit of time reading reviews and news groups to get the highest quality. The only time I bought a pre-built system is when I bought my laptop.
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What I do is buy a system with a big waranty. Then when I have beefed it up, made a mistake and had the whole thing aspole on me..... I call Dell.
Brad Australian -CAUTION- The previous statement may contain traces of PHP, and by reading this statement you negate the right to vote me down.
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I'm looking to get a new laptop for my wife for her birthday. I'm not looking to spend alot though. Maybe 700 or 800 bux. Those are US bux btw. Do you guys have any recommendations? I was thinking either Acer, HP, or Dell. But would love to hear any suggestions. Cheaper than 700 is good too. It just needs to be a decent base system. Maybe a couple of games, but nothing too heavy graphics wise. Maybe some drawing/graphics, but if rendering is a little slow that's fine. Later I'll get her a whizz bang desktop. We have some good ones, but she wants her own. Heh, guess my 10 old machines aren't up to her muster. She'd rather have a new limited one than one of my upgraded old boxes. Go figure. I don't like makeup either. :laugh:
What's in a sig? This statement is false. Build a bridge and get over it. ~ Chris Maunder
I :love: my Inspiron 9400[^].
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I'm looking to get a new laptop for my wife for her birthday. I'm not looking to spend alot though. Maybe 700 or 800 bux. Those are US bux btw. Do you guys have any recommendations? I was thinking either Acer, HP, or Dell. But would love to hear any suggestions. Cheaper than 700 is good too. It just needs to be a decent base system. Maybe a couple of games, but nothing too heavy graphics wise. Maybe some drawing/graphics, but if rendering is a little slow that's fine. Later I'll get her a whizz bang desktop. We have some good ones, but she wants her own. Heh, guess my 10 old machines aren't up to her muster. She'd rather have a new limited one than one of my upgraded old boxes. Go figure. I don't like makeup either. :laugh:
What's in a sig? This statement is false. Build a bridge and get over it. ~ Chris Maunder
They are useless in the servicing department.
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xacc.ide-0.2.0.57 - now with C# 2.0 parser and seamless VS2005 solution support!
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They are useless in the servicing department.
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xacc.ide-0.2.0.57 - now with C# 2.0 parser and seamless VS2005 solution support!
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What would be your choice? I think I'm leaning towards Dell at this point.
What's in a sig? This statement is false. Build a bridge and get over it. ~ Chris Maunder