Bought this bad boy at Best Buy, last one they had and I just had to jump on it for the price.
Although the box and the display said it had a T5450 1.66, mine actually has a T5550 1.83 installed, which is a nice surprise but nothing ground breaking.
The build and finish of this laptop actually surprised me... there is no flex in the chassis as well as the keyboard... however the keyboard seems to sit a little uneven... could be just a cable that needs to be moved underneath.
For something that only costs 1350.00 retail, the laptop performs fantastic... it is every bit as fast as my old desktop (okay not AS fast, but nothing really to complain about with portability.
Something that people like myself will appreciate is the ease of upgrading. It doesn't take more than a few minutes and a dozen screws to get into the laptop and add an additional hard drive, faster processor, more RAM, and a turbo cache card.
I dont like Vista much, but it has come a ways since the first release, and SP1 has made some improvements thus far, at least in my eyes... and I am accepting it again. OS X still outshines it in almost every category.
This is a large laptop and heavy... well it feels heavy, but I am used to the small sizes of MacBooks and MacBook Pros. It will remain on my desk more than it will travel, but having the option to up and go to the LAN party on a whim is priceless, especially since it plays games so well. I was first slightly disappointed with the display resolution, however it seems to be a good gaming resolution, and gives the GTS nice breathing room.
I will update as I use this machine.. but right now... for the price and the performance I almost think it is a must buy for gamers looking for something portable, without giving up TOO much power.
Two Week Update:
Two weeks in, and this is still a very solid machine... still works perfectly and there are no glaring issues with the build quality... and I have been moving it around a lot in the past two weeks, and even dropped it one time!
This thing is a tank! After a three foot drop on to its top it is still running like a champ and there isnt a scratch on it!
More to come... upgrading the CPU in the next two weeks.
Although the box and the display said it had a T5450 1.66, mine actually has a T5550 1.83 installed, which is a nice surprise but nothing ground breaking.
The build and finish of this laptop actually surprised me... there is no flex in the chassis as well as the keyboard... however the keyboard seems to sit a little uneven... could be just a cable that needs to be moved underneath.
For something that only costs 1350.00 retail, the laptop performs fantastic... it is every bit as fast as my old desktop (okay not AS fast, but nothing really to complain about with portability.
Something that people like myself will appreciate is the ease of upgrading. It doesn't take more than a few minutes and a dozen screws to get into the laptop and add an additional hard drive, faster processor, more RAM, and a turbo cache card.
I dont like Vista much, but it has come a ways since the first release, and SP1 has made some improvements thus far, at least in my eyes... and I am accepting it again. OS X still outshines it in almost every category.
This is a large laptop and heavy... well it feels heavy, but I am used to the small sizes of MacBooks and MacBook Pros. It will remain on my desk more than it will travel, but having the option to up and go to the LAN party on a whim is priceless, especially since it plays games so well. I was first slightly disappointed with the display resolution, however it seems to be a good gaming resolution, and gives the GTS nice breathing room.
I will update as I use this machine.. but right now... for the price and the performance I almost think it is a must buy for gamers looking for something portable, without giving up TOO much power.
Two Week Update:
Two weeks in, and this is still a very solid machine... still works perfectly and there are no glaring issues with the build quality... and I have been moving it around a lot in the past two weeks, and even dropped it one time!
This thing is a tank! After a three foot drop on to its top it is still running like a champ and there isnt a scratch on it!
More to come... upgrading the CPU in the next two weeks.
