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Guerrilla Sentia m3450 Review

post #1 of 52
9/12/06 at 12:02pm
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post #2 of 52
9/12/06 at 6:36pm
Thread Starter 
Bump, I updated it with a review of the laptop now that I actually have it in my hands

Posting pics ASAP! Taking them off the camera now and uploading them.
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post #3 of 52
9/12/06 at 7:38pm
sweet making me very excited about getting mine!

P.S. i don't think they outsource since they were closed down during Fernando (wasn't that the name of the florida tornado?).
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post #4 of 52
9/13/06 at 5:02am
Ok it is 348am Michigan time - I am still up hitting refresh on the fedex page hoping to see mine on truck for delivery today a day early (Wednesday).

If I see pics of one more 3450 I can't be responsible for what happens to any fedex drivers I may see today especially if I am lucky and it arrives a day sooner than estimated, that guy better be ready for a flash and sign/grab, ill try to get him on film hehe...
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post #5 of 52
9/13/06 at 6:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by FTLOSM
Ok it is 348am Michigan time - I am still up hitting refresh on the fedex page hoping to see mine on truck for delivery today a day early (Wednesday).

If I see pics of one more 3450 I can't be responsible for what happens to any fedex drivers I may see today especially if I am lucky and it arrives a day sooner than estimated, that guy better be ready for a flash and sign/grab, ill try to get him on film hehe...

You wont see that message till about 5-6 AM probably lol.
Hope it gets there for ya today though

Guerrilla: Where are the pictures!?? >.>

Nice review though.
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post #6 of 52
9/13/06 at 10:08am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the feedback!

Added pics and a 3DMark03 score

I think the pics turned out alright, I don't have the greatest digital camera. I'll probably retake the side, front and back shots and label the ports later.

FTLOSM: Just like Wiss said, it'll probably show up in Toledo early morning of the day it's supposed to arrive and then near you a few hours later. After that it'll be on a truck and should show later that day. Good Luck!
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post #7 of 52
9/13/06 at 10:56am
Well it is 943am now and still no change on the fedex website under status of my current order, it still shows estimated date as tomorrow and last status leaving orlando on the 9th ....

So I guess my hopes of it arriving a day early are shot

Bill
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post #8 of 52
9/13/06 at 2:30pm
Hi everyone, and many thanks to Guerrilla for this great review!

I intend to buy an m3450 soon, but first I have one little thing to ask to the lucky owners of this PC:
How customizable is the notebook once you have bought it?

What I mean is: Is it easy to change the original components? Especially, is there an easy access the memory and the hard drive? Do you just need to remove one or two screws, or is it more complicated? Is the CPU also accessible (and why not the motherboard?).
I'm mostly interested by adding more memory later on, and having a larger hard drive in case I need it...

If it is not too difficult, and if you have some spare time, would you mind posting a few pics of the memory and hard drive compartments?

Thanks a lot in advance...

Ackeron
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post #9 of 52
9/13/06 at 2:47pm
still not unuf pictures!!!
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post #10 of 52
9/13/06 at 2:49pm
I too am curious on the memory location of the 3450, I plan on swapping out the stock 512 with 2 gig's worth shortly after I get the laptop (it is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow btw).

Thanks to anyone that can snap a picture or knows where the memory is located, also anyone have specs on what company/brand Alienware uses in these 3450's?
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post #11 of 52
9/13/06 at 3:40pm

Re: under side of the m3450

Here is a picture of the exposed underside of the m3450:

http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/a...887875&p_olh=0

They use elpida (i.e., www.elpida.com) chips for the two 256MB RAM sticks that were contained within my notebook. They might use other types for larger memory sizes. Other folks who bought their laptops with the higher memory configuration from Alienware will need to let us know. Memory installation involved removing four screws, removing the 256MB modules, and then installing each 1GB module into their respective places. It took about 10 minutes.

The hard drive can removed as the following pictures detail:

http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/a...714660&p_olh=0

http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/a...714661&p_olh=0

http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/a...714662&p_olh=0

I hope this helps. Good luck.
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post #12 of 52
9/13/06 at 3:49pm
Thanks a LOT!

Plus, you've helped me locate the webpage which explains how to change the HD.

--> http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/a...i=&p_topview=1
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post #13 of 52
9/13/06 at 4:08pm
Ah this is sweet to see the "guts" of things thank you, I can't wait to get mine tomorrow hopefully as long as the horse gets watered tonight by fedex so he can make the final steps of the trip to my house.

It has to be coming by horse and cart because it is taking a full week to travel 20 hours drive-time...
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post #14 of 52
9/13/06 at 4:10pm
Thread Starter 
The Sentia comes with a whole booklet with diagrams of what screws to take out and where they are for upgrading the RAM, CD/DVD drive and HDDs.

Noldo: I got my Sentia with 1GB RAM, I'll check to see if the 512 sticks are any different than the 256 sticks.

Arch: More pics coming soon
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post #15 of 52
9/13/06 at 4:18pm
Allright then, I think I'll buy mine today or tomorrow!
I'll just wait for Guerrilla's pics to ensure that I can upgrade my 512 Mo RAM to 2 Go...
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post #16 of 52
9/15/06 at 6:32am
You said that the speakers were "A little low, but the sound settings were about at the minimum to make them just audible enough for me to notice them."

Why is that a 5 out of 5 on your review?

Update on this would be appreciated b/c the sound concerns me for a future purchase.
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post #17 of 52
9/15/06 at 9:25am
Thread Starter 
When I first booted up my Sentia into the Window's setup Windows plays one of its lame sounds. The sound was very low, but once I got to the desktop I saw the volume was set to be barely audible.

I boosted the volume, changed the equalizer settings and now the sound is great. That's why it got a 5/5. The speakers have awesome quality. I keep them around 50% when I game or play music and sometimes that seems a little loud for just me.
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post #18 of 52
9/15/06 at 10:03am
Not to start an arguement but mine were set at 100% volume and I did hear windows boot up (medium sound wise) nothing I would say was loud yet not soft, then I opened properties etc confirmed all were up (wav, main etc) went into mediaplayer enabled eq gave it a boost that way too, installed winamp again with boost from eq mp3's were audible...

I stuck a dvd in late last night (shes the man) and skipping around chapter to chapter ALL volumes UP (player and windows main etc) kids in bed wife in bed 1:30amish, only a ceiling fan on I could barely hear the people talking and I was 3-4 feet away from the laptop.

It could be this particular movie, and when there was a part that there was music in the movie I could hear that much better (like listening to an mp3) male and female voices in the movie were hard to hear though, will try with another movie.

I do like where they are mounted vs my gateway 9500 being in front of base so they get blocked by my gut and arms when used in "true" mobile or "laptop" modes.

Wasn't trying to thread-poop, just chiming in on my experiences after about 8-9 hours so far of use and goofing with things audio wise.

I just wish they gave the audio chip in here a bit more UMMPHH.

UPDATE

Guer, I saw your reply in my review and realized I had NOT gone in and turned up realtek eq or enviorment settings...will update once I do that to see if I get improvement overall on dvd movie (doing it now)...

I did load winamp and in mediaplayer (both) jacked up eq to make mp3's decent and gave them a boost but to be 100% fair I did NOT go into the realteck enviorment and jack that eq up and change enviorment settings (just turned main windows and wav up for mp3's) and added eq from winamp and mediaplayer to make them better.

Cyberlink dvd tho man it was so low sound wise, ill goof around in those settings for any improvement that I can possibly make and maybe jacking up the realtek will help on that shes the man movie since it will control main levels and envoirments.

If I find that these adjustments help movies in 3-4 feet enviroment I will up my review score for it too.

Bill
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post #19 of 52
9/15/06 at 10:17am
IN POWERLINK DVD under settings in advanced audio, Misc, there is a compression tab, I set it for noisy envoirment to experience boosted sound (says strongly recommended for notebook users)

Even tho there is nobody in the room no fans or noise I still had trouble hearing the talking in movie, but changing that setting in cyberlink dvd has made a world of difference

I also went into the realtek settings as Guer mentioned, jacked around with that a bit and made overall gains too.

I am gonna up my review score a bit to reflect this.

The sound CAN be manipulated with some digging here and there to max out for an overall "ok" enviorment sound wise.

Bill
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post #20 of 52
9/15/06 at 11:10am
Thread Starter 
I have yet to try and play a DVD, but watching some Google Videos I found the sound quality was great with the speakers at 50% volume, could hear the voices just fine watching some SNL Celebrity Jeopardy clips. I did run accross a low quality clip that had really awful sound, but the video was just of poor quality so it made sense.

I'm happy with the speakers, their placement seems to really help. I'll watch a DVD and let you know, who knows, maybe DVDs are different. Could be DVD settings like you mentioned.

I'll also update my speaker review to be a bit more clear and add what I find.
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