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04-23-2008, 06:22 PM
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#101 |
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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I've always liked the feel of toshiba keyboards, and they usually put a good screen on them. The 14" one I had as my last machine had a lot of flex in the chassis, which I wasnt fond of. But it hung in there for 3 years and I got about half of what I paid for it when I sold it on craigs list. Every time I picked it up from the corner with one hand it felt like it was gonna wobble and snap off.
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Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. |
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04-25-2008, 09:46 AM
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#102 |
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Neither super great nor super cheap, but okay if you want a laptop in a particular color and these meet the bill
 Gateway with a dual core, 2GB ram, 120GB hard drive, webcam, vista premium, $599 in red, blue or some funky light blue flower pattern... Never touched a gateway machine, but they're getting okay reviews. I think gateway is owned by Acer now, so no worries about the company disappearing. Gateway Computers: Store - M Series-S Uncheck all the BS addons like Office, the 3 year warranty and the Norton subscription, and use the code FLOWER at checkout to get an extra $100 off. This is about even with the Dell deal that was at bestbuy for $499, but that didnt come in all these pretty colors 
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Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. |
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04-25-2008, 10:20 AM
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#103 | |
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Moderator
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Location: New Orleans
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Quote:
 <~~~ (sorry attempt at humor!)But seriously, though I do believe you about the 14" ones, the Toshiba 15.4" laptops are well over 6 pounds and over 17" on the diagonal. Their center of gravity is somewhat removed from one's hand when picking one up from one corner with one hand like that. To do so with ease takes more muscle and a stronger wrist than mine. Maybe the flex in the chassis would be a concern to someone thus endowed. Before today, I have always picked mine up with two hands, one on the middle of each side. The metal case seems to protect it sufficiently for travel.
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Dreaming of retirement.... |
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04-25-2008, 10:30 AM
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#104 |
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Yeah, it never amounted to anything in terms of reliability. It just felt a little cheap.
One of the things you need to worry about with computers is flex in circuit boards and connectors. Even overtightening a couple of screws in a mainboard when mounting it in a chassis can cause an iffy trace in the PCB to become defective. A lot of cable connectors in laptops are pretty close tolerance too, so a little bending over a long period of time can cause a cable to unseat. Seems they did some "sculpting" on the case to reduce size and weight, and thats a good thing, but that little bit of wiggle always made me a bit nervous. Fer crying out loud, first you shift to lighter pans and now to lighter computers! Time to do some wrist and forearm exercises M'am!
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Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. |
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04-25-2008, 10:37 AM
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#105 | |
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Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Orleans
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Quote:
So true, so true.... I lift a lot more than that at the gym, but the weight machines don't usually exercise my puny wrists very much!
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Dreaming of retirement.... |
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04-25-2008, 11:25 AM
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#106 |
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 779
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My Dell Latitude L400 (which I bought in 2000 and still ran on Windows 2000 pro) died last week. I don't know what happened, I shut it down one day, no problem, the next day I couldn't restart it. I thought it was a windows problem, so I reinstalled, but I kept getting the same error message (something to do with networking...). So, since it was starting to fall apart anyways, I decided to splurge on a brand new laptop this morning.
Anyways, I went to circuit city and got a HP Pavilion dv6833us for $700. I don't know if it qualifies as a cheap laptop for you guys, but I think it's a pretty good price. It has 3GB DDR2 RAM, 250GB hard drive, 15.4" widescreen (glossy and high def), Intel dual core processor (1.83 GHz), built-in webcam. For the cons... It's HEAVY, and not very well balanced. It runs on VISTA premium (I would prefer XP). and it's probably not the ideal laptop for gaming. But overall I thought it was good value.
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"Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong" - Winston Churchill |
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04-25-2008, 03:00 PM
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#107 |
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Staples has the 17" Acer Aspire AS7720-6569, which is a similar model to the laptop I own, for $579 on clearance, in store only as far as I know. Thats pretty cheap...mine has a faster processor but it went for $599 and I thought that was a steal for a 17".
7.4lbs; 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo; 2GB RAM; 160GB HDD; DL DVD+/-RW; 802.11a/b/g; Vista Home Premium; SD card reader. Runs pretty cool, fan hardly ever kicks in and you cant hear it when it does. Screen is nice, its 1440x900. Big full size keyboard. A little thinner and lighter than the Dell 17" models. Try picking this one up with one hand W2R...
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Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. |
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04-25-2008, 06:15 PM
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#108 |
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,818
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So I almost broke down and got this bad boy today.
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start your day with a smile! :) Last edited by Notmuchlonger; 04-29-2008 at 03:16 PM. |
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04-25-2008, 06:33 PM
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#109 |
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 2,166
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And that dollar figure, adjusted for inflation, would be $14,717 today.
It would have been hard to believe in '89 that we'd be buying laptop machines with 1000 times the RAM for 5% of that price in 2008 (and still knocking ourselves out to find them cheaper!).
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"Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite." - R. Heinlein Last edited by samclem; 04-25-2008 at 06:54 PM. |
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04-25-2008, 07:22 PM
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#110 |
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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I remember back then talking about how in 15 years we'd have something the power of a mainframe that'd be small enough to put under a desk and thinking that such an idea was pretty much ludicrous.
I stuck my head in the Staples next to Sams Club while i was over there shopping and they had four of those 17" acers sitting on the shelf. People at Sams Club were cracking me up. Everyone had a huge bag of rice in their carts and there were about 10 people stacked up at each gas pump. Usually theres one or two. So I guess this recession may be good for the warehouse clubs.
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Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. |
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04-25-2008, 07:32 PM
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#111 |
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,818
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Good thing no one is onto the beef jerky shortage yet
Oh ya I still need a laptop  Im having problems making that commitment.
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start your day with a smile! :) |
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04-25-2008, 07:36 PM
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#112 |
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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You shoulda bought that gateway!
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Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. |
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04-25-2008, 07:56 PM
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#113 | |
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,818
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Quote:
Plus I need a tad beefier video card.
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start your day with a smile! :) |
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04-25-2008, 08:13 PM
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#114 |
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Shoot dude, you're gonna have about 15 minutes of battery life.
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Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. |
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04-25-2008, 08:18 PM
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#115 |
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Greater Dayton area
Posts: 2,360
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Back in '82? I spent $3000 for an IBM PC.
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'Cause he's the Captain; and that's why he is and you ain't.
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04-25-2008, 08:40 PM
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#116 | |
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Quote:
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start your day with a smile! :) |
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04-25-2008, 08:43 PM
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#117 |
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Make sure its on a 20 amp breaker!
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Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. |
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04-26-2008, 03:33 PM
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#118 |
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Another reasonably priced 17" unit. Not a big fan of Compaqs, but this is okay. Lots of memory.
Compaq - Presario Laptop with Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T2370 - A931NR 17", dual core, 160gb, 3gb ram, dvdrw, etc $599. I think I'd take the acer over this if you can find it at Staples, but this is pretty decent if you want a big screen/keyboard lappie.
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Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. |
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04-27-2008, 09:52 AM
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#119 |
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The $499 Inspiron is back in stock at Best Buy
Dell - Inspiron Laptop with Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T2370 - Jet Black - I1525-100B Cant do much better than this deal for a well equipped 15" notebook. Dual core, 2GB ram, 160GB drive, etc.
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Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. |
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04-27-2008, 11:38 AM
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#120 | |
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Quote:
Looks to be in stock in store at all the bestbuys around here, so you can go poke it with a stick.
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Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. |
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