Hot? Best Buy eMachines notebook m6805 $1249.99 ARs 5/9-5/15

[jm0ris0n]

Well I have been a very happy camper this afternoon Not a dead pixel, 3+ hours of battery life ( I think...). WiFi that totally rocks! Average laptop speakers, fast boot time. Haven't done much more than surf the web, read a pdf, IM, and listen to streaming music on winamp, but I can say I am very satisfied so far. I have an engagement to attend tonight, so I won't be typing anything in-depth till tomorrow.

If you have any questions I can specificly answer, ask away. I will burn some files to a dvd+RW to test it out. I really like the scroll bar on the touchpad, and seem to have no problems with the laptop layout so far

One thing that upset me was, when they say "6in1 Card Reader" I thought smartmedia cards would be one of the six. AFAIK they are not :| . Arrrrrrrrrrrg. This is the type of memory my camera uses, and I thought I could finally forget the usb flash reader.

Well Word is not yet installed, so pardon all my spelling errors

 

[Yo2]

Originally posted by: cholley

Originally posted by: Yo2
what if I get the extended warranty and e-machines is out of business(which they are) and the thing breaks?

out of buz, no

get the bestbuy psp for your laptop,

That's what i was alluding to: What will BB or CC do if I have their warranty but they cannot fix the machine nor order a replacement because the manufacturer is out of business?

Besides those warranties are somewhat outrageously priced

 

[INXSible]

Originally posted by: Yo2

Originally posted by: cholley

Originally posted by: Yo2
what if I get the extended warranty and e-machines is out of business(which they are) and the thing breaks?

out of buz, no

get the bestbuy psp for your laptop,

That's what i was alluding to: What will BB or CC do if I have their warranty but they cannot fix the machine nor order a replacement because the manufacturer is out of business?

Besides those warranties are somewhat outrageously priced

They'll give you Store Credit for what you paid for the Lappy.
BTW, BB's ExtendedWarranty covers Battery and AC Adapter, eMachines's DON'T.

 

[NorCalSci]

Remember, folks. Print out the eMachines Extended Warranty page and take it in when you buy your laptop. BestBuy will most likely match the price on the Extended Warranty, or more likely reduce the price of your laptop. (They took $110 off for me and for others) The BestBuy warranty is slightly better because it includes battery replacement.

 

[RocketsFan]

I asked them about matching the eMachines warranty, but they said the warranties have to cover the identical things. I'm guessing they'll try to weasle out of it somehow.

FYI : for those of you looking to buy this laptop, I know the stickers at my local BB here in Dallas say that the $250 rebate is good until today (May 22nd). Not sure what happens after today (well duh, I suppose we'll find out tomorrow).

 

[Godsguitarist]

jm0ris0n

Anything new on the Reward Zones card? If you get $5 for every $125, that more or less would mean that I could get a new Wireless G router for... possibly free... if not, no more than $20 or $30... heh. Let us know if you find anything else out on it (or at least let me know ).

Anything new about the lappy, good or bad? Can't wait to hear back from you!

Brandon <><

 

[jm0ris0n]

Bahhh, sorry for my later than anticipated response, but I haven?t been in a rush to test this laptop out.

Ok, here is a mini-rundown of what I have down with this laptop, and how I feel about it. I should also mention I have not installed the updated Power Now drivers, as many of the forum members suggest, but I have also not gamed on the battery. Also, I am using the shipping ATI video drivers.

• DVD Playback on TV: On battery I tested the DVD playback quality on our TV. Its nothing fancy, but S-Video was used. I played Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, WS, and all the action scenes were flawlessly played back. Terminator 3, WS, flawless as above. A Beautiful Mind, FS, Playback was perfect as the others. And this is all on battery. I should mention that the This was a breeze via the included ATI drivers.

• Battery Life:Being an Athlon64 notebook this was a big concern for me and I can happily tell you, I am not disappointed. On the first charge I got a little more than 3 hours off the battery. Now WiFi was only on about 1/2 of that time, but I was streaming audio through winamp, using aim, reading a few PDF files, and browsing the web. Now subsequent times with WiFi on 100% of the time I will err on the side of caution and say I get 2 hours and 45 minutes. This is using the laptop to do much more intensive tasks such as play dvds,, but no gaming. Now I have heard on battery the processor drops to 800mhz (I can confirm this) and without the powernow patch it always stays at 800mhz (I have never checked during an intensive task to check if cpu rises above 800mhz. But I will say @800mhz DVD playback to the TV was great, and I could even use the laptop without interrupting dvd playback on the tv . So if I had to guess, I'd say about 3 hours either way is what to expect from your battery.

• Gaming:Well to be honest last night was the first time I tried anything 3D related. I picked up Thief 3 last night, and have too lazy to hook up my main rig, so I thought I'd give it a go on the laptop (I moved home for the summer, still haven't set everything up yet). Before the game installed I got a pop-up telling me I needed to update my videodrivers. Knowing this was just to give the game a spin, I didn't update my drivers. Game installed, and then I played thief II with a touchpad, lol . I just played the tutorial, but I must say I was pleased with my performance. It was in 1024*768 resolution, although the game used the entire widescreen. Shadow detail was on max I believe, and more or less I would say my game settings were a good bit above average. There is no 3d sound chip on this laptop, so my cpu had to do all that work. I played the game with my Laptop plugged in. The tutorial was much smoother than I anticipated (I recall reading some pretty dismal benchmark scores from say X2, etc). The laptop was easily playable. Generally smooth framerate. I would say it was easily above 30 most of the time. Probably 40-45 fps is a good estimate. Although playing the game with a touchpad can be done, a mouse is strongly recommended. So overall I was very pleased with my performance. (I did not experience any freak graphic anomalies. In fact the game looked great!). Now some people have overclocked their videocard for even more performance, and this is something I could see myself doing later on down the road. As for now, I will wait and see how much I want to game on this. See my Sig for my Desktop rig specs. (FX5900, Athlon@2Ghz, 1GB ram, etc).
  
  I am getting tired of typing and I could probably fill three more pages. If you have more questions please let me know them. I have also burned a CD and it was fine. I might add more thoughts later in the week. If you want to IM me, my AIM name is 'Jm0ris0n'.
  
  It all comes down to 'Am I satisfied with my purchase'. The answer to that is a big whopping yes!

 

[jm0ris0n]

Also, you should check here Reward Zone FAQ for information about the BestBuy Reward Zone Program

 

[Mermaidman]

Re: Reward Zone

I bought my M6805 back in March and purchased a Reward Zone card at the same time. I received bonus points for signing up and together with the laptop purchase, ended up getting $65 worth of BB gift certficates (Six $10 and one $5 certificate). Throw in the 0% financing and I've been using the lappy for free!

 

[Godsguitarist]

That sounds awesome, jm0ris0n. I can't wait to get mine! As far as I know, next Friday could be the big day! It just depends on how everything goes. Then again, I may not be able to get anything at all. Finances are weird at this point and I have no credit as of right now and WILL NOT purchase on a credit card without 0% for AT LEAST 6 mo.s, so we'll just have to see. Anyways, it's awesome to hear that you're getting along with your lappy quite well. Also, I will DEFINITELY be signing up for the Reward Zone and get that extra $50 or so to buy a Wireless G AP. Anyways, Later!!

Brandon <><

 

[jm0ris0n]

Mermaidman, how long did it take you to get your gift checks in the mail ?

 

[Mermaidman]

Originally posted by: jm0ris0n
Mermaidman, how long did it take you to get your gift checks in the mail ?

About six weeks. Before I received the checks, I did get a notification that there was a delay in sending them due to an internal screw up.

 

[manno]

This laptop is awesome. And the video card on it ia HIGHLY overclockable.
It's stock @
300 MHz Core
200 MHz Mem 400 MHz (effective)

I'm running it at

435 MHz Core
234 MHz Mem 468 MHz (effective)

ATITool (the testing tool included with it) my average FPS went from 69 to 84
that's over a 20% increase

Far cry "max details" went from
20 FPS @ 1024x768 to
25 FPS @ 1024x768
that's a 25% increase

so the gains are significant. I would higly reccomend this laptop to anyone looking to play games on a portable PC

 

[jcolby]

Originally posted by: foolish501
I found the same computer here refurbished for $1,169.95, they have a 3 year extended warranty for $79.95

I'm trying to sell my kit to buy oneb