Processer:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5600 (1.86GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
<o>
</o> What more can I say? While not the fastest, it certainly smokes anything I’ve ever used. On XP it was lightning fast; on Ubuntu, its pretty quick also.
<o>
</o> Video Card:<o>
</o> Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
<o>
</o> Out of the two choices, this is not the best, but it is the cheaper. If you’re not gaming, then this is probably all you’ll need. I’ve played doom 3 a little bit, but it was kind of choppy. If I had it to do over again, I’d spring for the Nvidia.
<o>
</o> Chipset:<o>
</o>Intel Pro Wireless
No complaints here. The Wifi connects easily in XP, and not so easily in Ubuntu (mainly due to my use of WPA encryption. I really don’t know enough about Linux to troubleshoot it at this point). After changing my router to WEP encryption however, it worked fine.
<o></o>
Memory:<o></o>
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
<o>
</o> This wasn’t the largest amount of RAM money could buy, but it wasn’t the lowest. So far it doesn’t seem to have affected performance.
<o></o>
Audio:
Integrated Audio
<o>
</o>The absolute bane of my existence; Sigmatel hardware, and Creative software. I’ve had and read about more problems on this segment than any other “out of the box” notebook. Now I’m not a music buff, and I’ve read that the speakers are too tiny. The real problem however, is the software conflicts (both on XP and Ubuntu). The best I could figure it, the software on the Creative CD (pre-installed), was conflicting with the Sigmatel drivers. After reformatting I left the Creative out of installation, and it worked fine- that is until I installed Ubuntu. Initially the speakers were good, then as soon as I plugged in the head phones, there was no sound at all. After some laborious googling, I got the speakers and one (of two) headphone jacks working, but the line in doesn’t function at all (everything still works in XP though).
<o>
</o><st1><st1
lacename w:st="on">Media</st1lacename> <st1lacetype w:st="on">Bay</st1lacetype></st1>:
<st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive</st1:address></st1:street>
It plays movies. No issues.
<o></o>
Build Quality<o></o><o></o>
I really like its sturdiness. It’s a hearty little machine with a lot of power. Some people complain that its too fat, but I guess that’s just personal preference.<o></o>
A tale of two operating systems:<o></o><o></o>
Currently I’m dual booting with Ubuntu and XP. This might actually be necessary with this model due to the protected Media Direct software that comes with the system (it’s a long painful story) The version of XP I selected was Media Center Edition, with an express upgrade to <st1>Vista</st1>. Everything worked out of the box except the audio (which worked, it just kept popping error messages every time I plugged in headphones).<o></o>
Later, I installed Ubuntu, which took a lot more tweaking to function. So much so that it begs the question; why switch? I guess I just heard so many great things about it and I’d hate to miss out just because I’m dumb. <o></o>
Anyways, I’ve managed to get mostly everything working, and I’m pretty happy with it. It runs fast, and Does everything I need.<o></o><o></o>
Pics to follow!
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5600 (1.86GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
<o>
</o> What more can I say? While not the fastest, it certainly smokes anything I’ve ever used. On XP it was lightning fast; on Ubuntu, its pretty quick also.
<o>
</o> Video Card:<o>
</o> Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
<o>
</o> Out of the two choices, this is not the best, but it is the cheaper. If you’re not gaming, then this is probably all you’ll need. I’ve played doom 3 a little bit, but it was kind of choppy. If I had it to do over again, I’d spring for the Nvidia.
<o>
</o> Chipset:<o>
</o>Intel Pro Wireless
No complaints here. The Wifi connects easily in XP, and not so easily in Ubuntu (mainly due to my use of WPA encryption. I really don’t know enough about Linux to troubleshoot it at this point). After changing my router to WEP encryption however, it worked fine.
<o></o>
Memory:<o></o>
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
<o>
</o> This wasn’t the largest amount of RAM money could buy, but it wasn’t the lowest. So far it doesn’t seem to have affected performance.
<o></o>
Audio:
Integrated Audio
<o>
</o>The absolute bane of my existence; Sigmatel hardware, and Creative software. I’ve had and read about more problems on this segment than any other “out of the box” notebook. Now I’m not a music buff, and I’ve read that the speakers are too tiny. The real problem however, is the software conflicts (both on XP and Ubuntu). The best I could figure it, the software on the Creative CD (pre-installed), was conflicting with the Sigmatel drivers. After reformatting I left the Creative out of installation, and it worked fine- that is until I installed Ubuntu. Initially the speakers were good, then as soon as I plugged in the head phones, there was no sound at all. After some laborious googling, I got the speakers and one (of two) headphone jacks working, but the line in doesn’t function at all (everything still works in XP though).
<o>
</o><st1><st1
lacename w:st="on">Media</st1lacename> <st1lacetype w:st="on">Bay</st1lacetype></st1>:<st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive</st1:address></st1:street>
It plays movies. No issues.
<o></o>
Build Quality<o></o><o></o>
I really like its sturdiness. It’s a hearty little machine with a lot of power. Some people complain that its too fat, but I guess that’s just personal preference.<o></o>
A tale of two operating systems:<o></o><o></o>
Currently I’m dual booting with Ubuntu and XP. This might actually be necessary with this model due to the protected Media Direct software that comes with the system (it’s a long painful story) The version of XP I selected was Media Center Edition, with an express upgrade to <st1>Vista</st1>. Everything worked out of the box except the audio (which worked, it just kept popping error messages every time I plugged in headphones).<o></o>
Later, I installed Ubuntu, which took a lot more tweaking to function. So much so that it begs the question; why switch? I guess I just heard so many great things about it and I’d hate to miss out just because I’m dumb. <o></o>
Anyways, I’ve managed to get mostly everything working, and I’m pretty happy with it. It runs fast, and Does everything I need.<o></o><o></o>
Pics to follow!
about what I said to you,spare a thought for the OP,in his first or second post and obviously not familiar with the forum and how to do things,gets slaughtered by a five minute wonder asswipe like you,telling him his review is pointless.
