Any chance I can you to try an Ubuntu live CD and see what parts work and what doesn't?
I just wish I could find B&M places that actually sold 11.6in-12.1in machines. Everything at Best Buy is 14in, 15.6, or 17.3in. Or 10.1in netbooks. Same with every other place I looked up.
I was going to get the Acer 1551, but I decided on the Alienware:
I
Sales Tax: $48.25
Total: $852.35
I'll upgrade the RAM and get a Seagate Momentus XT when she comes in.
It's worth the money if you want to stay at 12" and below. Even though 13" opens up a new realm of possibilities, it's just not as portable. I was using my MSI Wind U230 on an airplane trip a couple months back, and I knew then that 12" was the absolute max for portability for me. As often as I upgrade, I'm betting the Alienware will hold it's value better than the other brands.
Obviously, the current Nile and Radeon IGPs aren't really gaming machines, but it'd be nice to be able to play some RTSs on it. SC2 looks to be out, but I'm guessing older RTS/RPGs would be just fine on them.
Nonsense, Read the article, SC2 plays very well on the Toshiba, better even than on a Nvidia 9400. I can also testify that it runs very well on my Congo platform Wind U230. My only complaint about SC2 on it is that with the tiny touchpad that you get on a 12" subnotebook it's tough to be competitive, so you really need to bring a mouse.
Playing single-player mod of BF2142 was unbearable on my MSI Wind U230. I believe it was a combination of the CPU loading because of bots as well as the video requirements. I'll let you all know how it runs when I get my MX11R2.
I wish you knew if it was a CPU or GPU bottleneck. I've never been able to figure out how to OC the CPU (I imagine it would run to 2ghz easily if the HT link is stable that high) but the GPU on the U230 is easy as pie to OC to 700mhz, did you do that before playing BF2142? (admittedly it's not a game i have any experience in)
ordered the 1830t today, should have it in thursday
almost got the toshiba i posted a thread on...but its a little larger than what i want to carry and taxes brought it to almost 540 for me
/is gonna have a netbook to sell
Nonsense, Read the article, SC2 plays very well on the Toshiba, better even than on a Nvidia 9400. I can also testify that it runs very well on my Congo platform Wind U230. My only complaint about SC2 on it is that with the tiny touchpad that you get on a 12" subnotebook it's tough to be competitive, so you really need to bring a mouse.
35 fps on low detail setting, and thats with a K625 CPU vs the K325 CPU in the model I'm looking at. That may be playable, but I'm not exactly going to set it on low details. How fast does that number drop when you notch the details?
It drops unacceptably. by all accounts the L335 is trading blows with the K325 CPU wise, and even if the 42XX shaders are better than the 3200 shaders, I have my 3200 at 700mhz, and I get 35-40fps on low, and drop to 10 on medium. By all accounts this is normal in SC2, as the jump in graphics quality from low to medium is quite large. (more noticeable than the jump from medium to Ultra IMO)
I'm just curious, why would new i3 ULV laptops have lower battery life compared to previous generation SU7300 ones? The new tech is supposed to be 32nm and have everything integrated on a single chip including memory controller and video. It should consume less energy, so why would new laptops last less? Are they putting smaller batteries in new laptops (I'm talking about Acer 1830 vs 1810 and Asus UL20A vs UL20FT) or do the new i3 ULV chips really require that much more energy?
this is the case with the 1830t that i ordered, i believe.Sometimes they put in lower capacity batteries. Also, some thin/light notebooks do not actually use ULV versions of the chips, such as some of the TimelineX models.
Sometimes they put in lower capacity batteries. Also, some thin/light notebooks do not actually use ULV versions of the chips, such as some of the TimelineX models.
As far as I know Asus UL20FT uses i3-330UM and Acer 1830 uses i5-520UM, both are UM models which AFAIK is designation for ULV models. So both should get at least the same battery life as previous gen. Or am I mistaken about UM chips being ULV?
Acer Aspire AS1551-5448
After going through all the benchmarks, features, etc. we come to the final tally, and for once we have an AMD laptop that we can recommend without hesitation. You're not going to have a great gaming experience on the T235D, but for everything else it works well and the price is right.
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Perhaps the most interesting alternative is the Acer Aspire AS1551-5448, which sports similar specs to the T235D but with an 11.6" chassis. We hope to get one of those for review in the near future, although it looks like the keyboard carries over from the other 11.6" Acer laptops we've looked at in the past—in other words, not our favorite keyboard.