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Targa Visionary AMD Athlon 64 2800+

post #1 of 15
7/2/04 at 1:15pm
Thread Starter 
http://www.lidl.fr/fr/index.nsf/page...Athlon_64_2800

check that out....

It's always the way isn't it. My laptop died on me and I lost all my info (backup people, BACKUP!), and so recently I have been set on getting a Ferrari 3200. I ordered beginning of June but I have had had trouble doing a bank transfer from the UK to PCTorque. So I gave up on that idea and sent a money order to them yesterday. Now I'm on the waiting list. Being in Europe, it's a little harder to organise everything, including getting it here but the prices in the US are so much better.

And so today I read the local rag and here is this Targa comp, which is basically the same specs (different screen, hard drive, slightly different colour too ) for E1399....from the local cutprice store.

Oh well, I suppose for the hassle I am going to have PCTorque's excellent customer service.....
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post #2 of 15
7/2/04 at 1:17pm
I don't see any mention of a dedicated video card...
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post #3 of 15
7/2/04 at 1:20pm
that looks like the arima chasis used on voodoo. too bad its not a usa site.
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post #4 of 15
7/2/04 at 1:30pm
which i think is the same chasis. just with a weaker gpu.
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post #5 of 15
7/2/04 at 1:32pm
Next week the dutch lidl will also sell this notebook at it's stores only it's 100 higher in price. But at the Dutch site of lidl their saying it's an Ati Radean 9700 128 MB SHARED memory. So before buying I would ask them if it's shared or dedicated. When it's shared I wouldn't buy it and just go for the ferrari, which is an Acer and I prefer Acer.
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post #6 of 15
7/2/04 at 1:34pm
it is dedicated if its ati 9700. shared would be the intel igp pro thing.
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post #7 of 15
7/2/04 at 1:39pm
I just checked out the dutch Lidl site, and the Targa comes with a Radeon 9700 w/ 128 MB DDR RAM. So with the exception of a smaller 4200 rpm hard drive (60 gigs) and a 3 year warranty, its the same computer, at least as far as I can see.
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post #8 of 15
7/2/04 at 1:55pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah well I am in Belgie and can't read flemish so well so I looked it up on the French Lidl site. I remember there was one at Lidl a few weeks ago and it only had a 64mb gpu but this one has 128mb. It just ain't red really......
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post #9 of 15
7/2/04 at 2:38pm
Greetings from Finland, this is my *first* post.

I have to say that when I saw this offer on Finnish Lidl sales flyer I knew I have to get one. All the specs were fabulous when you compare the price. But I just (as I have been hobbying with computers for 20+ years) could not believe that I would ever go to a local supermarket to buy a laptop! But I did and I must say that this has been one of my best buys so far!

The screen is very good, you can really play games on this, built quality is OK, not exemplary but satisfactory and the most beautiful thing for me is that even when gaming or crunching SETI this thing is really cool. When I compare the heat generation to my old HP 4100XE Targa is from a different planet!

The only thing to improve would be more memory (there is a free SO-DIMM socket for this) and a faster hard drive (I don't know if you will void your warranty when you switch HD). And of course you have to buy a bag.

So, my sincerest recommendations for anyone who can swallow his pride and go to a supermarket to have a laptop

Zurg
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post #10 of 15
7/2/04 at 2:56pm
The Targa Visionary 811 IS exactly the Arima K730 and same machine as the Voodoopc m860. The only difference is the processor (but in my opinion, the one on the targa is much better.. sure is less powerfull, but is much more optimized for battery usage), the speed/size of the Hd and the screen. All the rest (the mobo, which is the most important thing) is just the SAME. Ati 9700 with 128MB included.
Memory comes in 1 dimm, so you can add another 512MB without having to sell the spare 256MB. The Hd is internal but comes with 4200rpm which definitely SUCKS. The real drawback is that you can't add another internal hd so, provided you buy a new 7200rpm 2.5 hd and substitute the one inside, you'll end up with a spare 4200 which is almost useless. The only thing you really can't upgrade is the screen.. but I'm working on that . Anyway as far as I've learned, it's quite a good machine. ESPECIALLY FOR THAT PRICE. The only thing I dunno is that the original german offer included a 54Mbps WIfi card.. Is it included in the french offer as well?
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post #11 of 15
7/2/04 at 5:03pm
I think the whole Europe got the same package. We really had some extras included, as:

- the beforementioned miniPCI WLAN card (MSI manufactured)

- 64 Mb USB memory stick

- remote control mainly for DVD use

- optical mini mouse (sucks!)

- software items including Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD, Pinnacle Studio, Works 2004, Encarta 2004, Autoroute 2004, Norton Antivirus 2004, PowerDVD 5 etc.

I would gladly have left something out to shave few more Euros off, but my overall opinion is still that this is one heck of a computer for that price!

And for that HD, you can always dump it to e-bay. You'll get one half of the price of a Hitachi 7200rpm drive anytime so the upgrade is not so costly. But I still wonder about the warranty...

Zurg
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post #12 of 15
7/3/04 at 5:51am
Count my sincere recommendations in too. I bought the machine mainly for my work but now I'm finding myself doing almost everything, including games with it

Zurg: There should not be any problems with the warranty since there are instructions how to remove and replace the HDD in the manual.
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post #13 of 15
7/3/04 at 7:38am
You could use search option! I have already done this targa theard!

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=26680
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post #14 of 15
7/3/04 at 11:11am
http://www.amdboard.com/athlon_64_notebook.html

AMD Board has the Targa down under the Arima section, it is what emachines uses in the US. That looks like one sweet opportunity from Lidl, I didn't realize they sold PCs there, whenI used to shop there as a down and out student in Bordeaux it used to be the cheapest place about for food...never recall seeing any electrical appliances. Times have changed I see, and I have been away for a looong time.

If I was still in France now I would probably get one myself, but as it happens I live in Tokyo, 15 minutes from Akihabara (the so-called Mecca of electronics) and I'm still struggling to find a decent AMD 64 laptop here. No Acer Ferrari in Japan yet I posted another thread about an Epson model but I'm not sure its better than the Targa posted here since it only has an 64MB Radeon 9700.

I would love to see some pics Zurg if you have a digital camera.

Good luck with PCTorque Cagey.
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post #15 of 15
7/3/04 at 12:22pm
Few pictures here:
http://www.pcgames.de/external/brows...mage_id=407540
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