Mr. Picklesworth
December 12th, 2007, 06:25 AM
I've switched to a new notebook as my main computer, and I am quite pleased with it.
In the end, I chose an Asus F8SV-A1. (http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=194796) I have yet to regret the choice at all :)
The first thing that I noticed was the specs, which are just about on par with the Macbook Pro, but for around 800 dollars less. It is also not a bad looking computer; it doesn't seem horribly thick like many others do.
Intel T7500 (Core 2 Duo 2.20 gHz)
NVidia GeForce 8600M GT 256MB
1GB DDR2 667 RAM
160GB 5400rpm SATA Hard drive
1280x800 LCD screen
160 GB 5400 RPM hard drive
1 year free accidental damage warranty + another year of regular hardware warranty.
Okay, not absolute top of the line, but it was a good price, too.
Of course, I shrunk Vista down to 60 GB of hard drive and gave all the rest to Ubuntu. So far, I have succeeded at only using Windows for games.
I upgraded to 2GB or RAM, since 1 GB is the same as my desktop, and my desktop is less than half the power of this. Fantastically easy upgrade. They were forward-thinking enough to use a single 1 GB module instead of two 512s, and both slots are directly accessible underneath a panel on the back.
I have not given it the Crysis test (in a way, I don't want to. Would probably be depressing). However, I did try COD 4 on it, and it runs beautifully with every setting as high as they will go and native resolution. (The catch being that some settings, like model detail, would only go up to Normal. Do they just not have High, or are they disabling them for me so that I don't suffer with poor frame rates?).
One of my favourite things here is the cooling. While the manual tries hard on the first page to drop any association with laptops, (insisting that this not be used on one's lap!), I almost wonder why. Even after playing COD 4 for an hour, the surface with the keyboard hardly heats up at all; every bit of hot air is blown out the side. The bottom is a bit warmer in some areas, but even that is rather a small amount compared to other computers.
While it is quite noticeably thicker and heavier, that cooling makes for a fine counter to the Macbook Pro's favourite features. (That thing gets noticeably hot with any significant use).
My most favourite thing, of course, is that Ubuntu runs. Actually, it doesn't just run, it runs better than Windows does right out of the box! Where Windows's support of the wireless hardware is still a bit shakey, Ubuntu handled it instantly and connects long before I am logged in. It boots to my desktop in well under 30 seconds, too.
The NVidia card is so far pleasing me, especially since I can now run Compiz's fancy alpha blur effect. As expected, the difference between this and my old desktop's Radeon 9600 Pro is night and day.
Even the webcam works immediately! In Cheese, at least. Camorama gives me "could not connect to video device (/dev/video0)" and quits. It seems that one working and the other not is a common act. I'll just wait it out; judging by how these programs are directly talking to stuff in /dev, I'll guess that webcams in Linux are still waiting for a miracle library.
I should elaborate on "running better," too. I had to run the recovery disk for Windows, because Microsoft changed NTFS just enough that trying to shrink Vista's partition through the partitioner in Gutsy's Live CD resulted in it no longer booting. Actually, I had to run the recovery disk twice. The first time, I followed the on-screen directions and let it install the drivers automatically. Doing that, Windows would not boot. It didn't just give me an error and drop to a command line, though. Instead, (just as it did when I resized the partition, come to think of it) it threw a BSOD. Now, usually, this could be considered good; it gave out an informative error message for a critical situation. Actually, somehow, Microsoft even screwed up their famous BSoDs. They decided, presumably for user-friendliness, to have the computer reset as soon as a BSoD is generated, such that the error report is shown in a helpful GUI the next time Windows boots. A group of nincompoops then decided it fine to do this for critical boot errors, too. The result: Windows tries to boot, gives a BSoD and restarts the computer to give me the message when it boots up. However, as anyone with half a brain can probably guess, it is not going to boot up because the error is with the booting process! It goes on into an infinite loop of rebooting and BSoDing until I take control.
Anyhow, the next time I had to install Windows without that driver disk, instead doing the drivers by hand after installing. (That first boot is a woefully unstable looking experience, I might add. Immensely long wait time, staring at a blank screen with a little rotating circle for ages. Computer reboots without prompting me at least once in the process. Anyone who expects a decent operating system would assume trouble, but it's actually normal!). Absolutely nothing worked out of the box. Nothing. Wireless was toast. Video was not only a very ugly generic driver, but at the wrong resolution. Special keys on the keyboard did nothing.
Ubuntu completely worked out of the box, wireless and all. Besides the pain associated with needing to install Windows a total of 3 times before I got it right, this was a surprisingly pleasing experience.
The only major flaw here, so far, is battery life. 2 hours and 10 minutes in Ubuntu with desktop effects ( I'm addicted to them :( ), same time with Vista in power saving mode. I am sure more can be squeezed out, having seen the difference in lifetime running Vista and MacOS on a Macbook, but that is the best one usually gets here. In addition, the battery is positioned so that getting a larger one is unlikely to ever happen.
I knew what I was getting in to, so don't really mind. If I want a portable device to last all day, I'll rely on something pocket sized, preferably taking AA batteries.
That's that, I've done my babbling for today. This computer is highy recommended.
In the end, I chose an Asus F8SV-A1. (http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=194796) I have yet to regret the choice at all :)
The first thing that I noticed was the specs, which are just about on par with the Macbook Pro, but for around 800 dollars less. It is also not a bad looking computer; it doesn't seem horribly thick like many others do.
Intel T7500 (Core 2 Duo 2.20 gHz)
NVidia GeForce 8600M GT 256MB
1GB DDR2 667 RAM
160GB 5400rpm SATA Hard drive
1280x800 LCD screen
160 GB 5400 RPM hard drive
1 year free accidental damage warranty + another year of regular hardware warranty.
Okay, not absolute top of the line, but it was a good price, too.
Of course, I shrunk Vista down to 60 GB of hard drive and gave all the rest to Ubuntu. So far, I have succeeded at only using Windows for games.
I upgraded to 2GB or RAM, since 1 GB is the same as my desktop, and my desktop is less than half the power of this. Fantastically easy upgrade. They were forward-thinking enough to use a single 1 GB module instead of two 512s, and both slots are directly accessible underneath a panel on the back.
I have not given it the Crysis test (in a way, I don't want to. Would probably be depressing). However, I did try COD 4 on it, and it runs beautifully with every setting as high as they will go and native resolution. (The catch being that some settings, like model detail, would only go up to Normal. Do they just not have High, or are they disabling them for me so that I don't suffer with poor frame rates?).
One of my favourite things here is the cooling. While the manual tries hard on the first page to drop any association with laptops, (insisting that this not be used on one's lap!), I almost wonder why. Even after playing COD 4 for an hour, the surface with the keyboard hardly heats up at all; every bit of hot air is blown out the side. The bottom is a bit warmer in some areas, but even that is rather a small amount compared to other computers.
While it is quite noticeably thicker and heavier, that cooling makes for a fine counter to the Macbook Pro's favourite features. (That thing gets noticeably hot with any significant use).
My most favourite thing, of course, is that Ubuntu runs. Actually, it doesn't just run, it runs better than Windows does right out of the box! Where Windows's support of the wireless hardware is still a bit shakey, Ubuntu handled it instantly and connects long before I am logged in. It boots to my desktop in well under 30 seconds, too.
The NVidia card is so far pleasing me, especially since I can now run Compiz's fancy alpha blur effect. As expected, the difference between this and my old desktop's Radeon 9600 Pro is night and day.
Even the webcam works immediately! In Cheese, at least. Camorama gives me "could not connect to video device (/dev/video0)" and quits. It seems that one working and the other not is a common act. I'll just wait it out; judging by how these programs are directly talking to stuff in /dev, I'll guess that webcams in Linux are still waiting for a miracle library.
I should elaborate on "running better," too. I had to run the recovery disk for Windows, because Microsoft changed NTFS just enough that trying to shrink Vista's partition through the partitioner in Gutsy's Live CD resulted in it no longer booting. Actually, I had to run the recovery disk twice. The first time, I followed the on-screen directions and let it install the drivers automatically. Doing that, Windows would not boot. It didn't just give me an error and drop to a command line, though. Instead, (just as it did when I resized the partition, come to think of it) it threw a BSOD. Now, usually, this could be considered good; it gave out an informative error message for a critical situation. Actually, somehow, Microsoft even screwed up their famous BSoDs. They decided, presumably for user-friendliness, to have the computer reset as soon as a BSoD is generated, such that the error report is shown in a helpful GUI the next time Windows boots. A group of nincompoops then decided it fine to do this for critical boot errors, too. The result: Windows tries to boot, gives a BSoD and restarts the computer to give me the message when it boots up. However, as anyone with half a brain can probably guess, it is not going to boot up because the error is with the booting process! It goes on into an infinite loop of rebooting and BSoDing until I take control.
Anyhow, the next time I had to install Windows without that driver disk, instead doing the drivers by hand after installing. (That first boot is a woefully unstable looking experience, I might add. Immensely long wait time, staring at a blank screen with a little rotating circle for ages. Computer reboots without prompting me at least once in the process. Anyone who expects a decent operating system would assume trouble, but it's actually normal!). Absolutely nothing worked out of the box. Nothing. Wireless was toast. Video was not only a very ugly generic driver, but at the wrong resolution. Special keys on the keyboard did nothing.
Ubuntu completely worked out of the box, wireless and all. Besides the pain associated with needing to install Windows a total of 3 times before I got it right, this was a surprisingly pleasing experience.
The only major flaw here, so far, is battery life. 2 hours and 10 minutes in Ubuntu with desktop effects ( I'm addicted to them :( ), same time with Vista in power saving mode. I am sure more can be squeezed out, having seen the difference in lifetime running Vista and MacOS on a Macbook, but that is the best one usually gets here. In addition, the battery is positioned so that getting a larger one is unlikely to ever happen.
I knew what I was getting in to, so don't really mind. If I want a portable device to last all day, I'll rely on something pocket sized, preferably taking AA batteries.
That's that, I've done my babbling for today. This computer is highy recommended.