So my wife says to me, "We have to talk..."

[Zap]

WIFE SAYS: We have to talk. I think I have an STD from the fling last month, I've filed for divorce, I'm leaving on a business trip at the same time as yours and so we need a second notebook computer, my new lover that I'm leaving you for is a woman and I just polished off that dessert you were saving from last night.

ZAP HEARS: Blah blah bah-blah. Blah blah buh BLAH blablablah BLAH blah blah, blah blahblahbah bah, blahbabaBAH blah buh blah buhbublah bah blah and so we need a second notebook computer, blah blah buh BLAH bah blah, BLAH bahblah bublah bah blah bah0BLAH blah bah buh blablablah bah blah bublah.

Time to dust off the credit card and go shopping!

Existing notebook is a Dell Inspiron 6000:
1.6GHz Pentium M Dothan
768MB DDR2
40GB 5400RPM
DVD/CDRW
Radeon Mobility X300 128MB
15.4" widescreen
extended capacity battery ($99 upgrade)
under $900 new about a year ago

What I'm looking for:
Good price
low end Core Solo or Turion
1GB RAM
40GB 5400RPM or better
DVD/CDRW or better
15.4" widescreen
extended capacity battery
Some kind of semi-reasonable discreet graphics that's at least better than X300, will play games but willing to use lower quality settings

What I've found so far (haven't gone to Dell.com yet):
Great deals on notebooks as I've described except all using IGP and no mention of battery life.
Notebooks with discrete graphics, but higher end and higher priced than I want on all other parts and still no mention of battery life.

Any recommendations before I succumb to Dell? I have no poblems building my own but Dell's various promotions make it more expensive to BYO, and Dell lets you customize to a degree, plus easier to deal with in case of warranty.

 

[Zap]

Considering this notebook.

Acer
15.4" widescreen
Radeon mobility X1600 128MB
1GB dual channel DDR2-533
120GB SATA 5400RPM HDD
DVDRW
Core Duo 1.66GHz
$1085 shipped price

How does that sound? Anything smaller and I'd give up too much on video card. Anything larger is not very portable (will use it when traveling, on plane, etc.).

 

[kenan921]

I think you just found my next notebook for me. Thanks. Great Find. It even has a built in Web Cam a la the Macbooks. Hell except for the design it is a Macbook Pro.

 

[ubercaffeinated]

doood. i thought my night was bad. fucvk. i'm so sorry??? nice lap top though. acer is alright., nice. prefer appel if had funds ttyho,. good vlicjk wiht lesbo fbnuifew tiubifer,,,

 

[TrailerParkKing]

Zap,
I have that exact lappy and have had it for about 3 months now..... nice machine. I don't have any complaints at all... The only games I have played on it are Halo and a couple need for speeds and it is fine. good machine and a good feature set.

 

[deepakvrao]

Its a great laptop but i have had it for only a week

 

[Looney]

1280x800 sucks for 15". I would find a notebook with 1680x1050.

 

[Zap]

I'd hate to try running modern games at 1680x1050 with the X1600 video card and I'd rather not do any scaling, and my eyes aren't good enough to see the small text at the higher resolution on such a small screen without setting Windows to large fonts, but then why get higher resolution screen only to do scaling and run large fonts? The resolution doesn't "suck" but instead is a viable alternative for different usage patterns.

Ordered yesterday, received today. As I type this message, Windows is running through the initial configuration. One thing I've already noticed is that it's putting out a lot of heat already. The slot load optical drive was a nice touch as well as the webcam.

 

[6000SUX]

Let us know how you like it! Congrats!

 

[6000SUX]

Originally posted by: KillerNotebooks
We have a lot of high end stuff, but you may be able to configure something you would like at our site: Killer Notebooks

More spam. Lovely. I'd never order from that site.

 

[corkyg]

This thread is pathetic - may it soon fade away. With this kind of commitment and integrity, it really doesn't matter what kind of notebook is chosen.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: corkyg
This thread is pathetic - may it soon fade away. With this kind of commitment and integrity, it really doesn't matter what kind of notebook is chosen.

I think you're taking this too seriously

 

[pkme2]

PMed you.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: corkyg
This thread is pathetic - may it soon fade away. With this kind of commitment and integrity, it really doesn't matter what kind of notebook is chosen.

I think you're taking this too seriously

No, not really. I just hope there are no kids involved.

 

[Leafblighter]

"hope there's no kids involved?"

aight, so I guess i'm the only one that saw the joke with the original post........

 

[Raduque]

no, corkyg was the only one who didn't see it for what it was.

 

[corkyg]

Yeah - I waited for a few days, and I have read and re-read. It must be a generational thing because I see no humor or joke tag at all. It is sadly a typical happening among young people today, and I take it rather seriously. So, my apologies. Enjoy!

 

[railer]

If this didn't tip you off......

my new lover that I'm leaving you for is a woman and I just polished off that dessert you were saving from last night

....then you have no hope. <shrug>

 

[Zap]

My wife finally left me today, while I was at work. I'm not worried though because I believe she'll be back. Indeed I predict she'll come crawling back to me in three weeks, begging for me to let her back into my life. IIRC her work stops paying for her hotel room and comp-ing meals on the 30th of June. I am sad that she took our newborn notebook with her, leaving me with the older one for my own business trip next week. Oh sad Radeon Mobility X300, why can thou not keep up with the Mobility X1600? WoW is choppy on the X300 (Dell Inspiron 6000) even in low quality settings, but the X1600 can play in fairly high quality settings smoothly.

I installed Beyond Divinity (sequel to Divine Divinity) and soon as icon is clicked, Windows blue-screens and reboots... to a Norton Antivirus error message. Googled and found out that the game has Starforce copy protection. According to the game web site, if game crashes then uninstall NAV. I did one better. I uninstalled NAV and Beyond Divinity. I don't need software that I paid money for to cause problems with other software I legitimately own just because of some overzealous copy protection.

Anyone want to buy Beyond Divinity for dirt cheap? Seal on retail box was just broken on Friday and the game has been installed once, but never played.

 

[Raduque]

Z0mg, you don't like starforce? YOU PIRATE!

 

[ubercaffeinated]

f starforce, f nav, f wives.

yay bachelorhood. yay mobility x1600.

oh yea and f WoW.

 

[Zap]

The wife phones me from across several states and one time zone to tell me that she likes the picture quality of the screen (some "truebrite" or other special stuff) better than her Dell 2004FPW 20" widescreen. Ya know, if she doesn't come back the Dell monitor is mine!

 

[ai42]

Just tell her to keep the Dell. And buy yourself a giant F-you Acer 8204 or something like that.

 

[KevinH]

Originally posted by: Zap
Considering this notebook.

Acer
15.4" widescreen
Radeon mobility X1600 128MB
1GB dual channel DDR2-533
120GB SATA 5400RPM HDD
DVDRW
Core Duo 1.66GHz
$1085 shipped price

How does that sound? Anything smaller and I'd give up too much on video card. Anything larger is not very portable (will use it when traveling, on plane, etc.).

Given the video card..that is about the best bang for the buck notebook out there. A lot of people on www.notebookforums.com are very please with theirs.