You may not believe it, but I ordered a notebook!! - Page 2

Yes, everyone knows the keyboards of IBMs are the best. I think 14" is the ideal screen, light, but not tiny. The problem is: no 128 vram (size factor) and too expensive... :-)

Congratulations on your new system...

Andrew:

I joined the CL56 cult a few weeks ago. Ordered one from Hypersonic. Love it.

Scott

Dude what's the point of pretending to run at SXGA+ if you just blow things up to look like XGA anyway? If they're bigger, they're taking up more room & it's essentially the same thing as running at a lower res. I can't see what you're gaining...

I have to agree with the IBM's being really nice laptops. I have a Compal CL56 as my primary. I also have an old Thinkpad 600e. It is slow and the screen is getting a bit old, but that keyboard is BY FAR the nicest laptop keyboard I have ever used; PERIOD. I have used a lot of laptops and I always prefer the IBM keyboard. If you have to write a lot and gaming is not necessarily your focus, than am IBM will server you very well.

I went with the CL56 this time as my primary mobile system. I wanted something with a little more focus on performance for the newer games. Also, I am getting cheap in my old age and didn't want to spend more than $1400 for my laptop.

I may have to pick up an IBM for my wife as she games on here desktop exclusively and does surfing, e-mail, applications on the laptop. She just likes the ergonomics of the IBM chassis better. I will spend the extra cash for the wife, if that is what she wants.

Tell us more about this Liquid View. Does the icons and text still look good or is there degradation that is noticeable? Give us the detail .

I see that no one has appeased the pixel gods for you yet aamsel.
Here you go:

You just blew $4500??? What an idiot...

Good luck dude!!!

I see what you're saying but I can't say I've ever noticed characters at XGA looking pixelated - so I'm sure I wouldn't notice them being less pixelated if they were blown-up SXGA+. For me the big deal about SXGA+ is that you can see more of what you're doing at one time - and blowing up the characters eliminates this advantage as you give back all the space you gained. Slightly clearer text might be nice but I don't see how it justifies giving up all that space.
Still, on a 14" I guess it would be pretty impossible to run purely SXGA+ anyway..

Jesus. I wouldn't like to be a company dealing with you as a customer

Besides, I have tried ClearView and it has royally messed up everything. Not only that, but when I changed the dpi, it royally informed me it had to restart to do its magic. Oh, great. Oh, I also had a very nice blue screen when I did restart - so much about stability. The first blue screen I have on my nc8000! I "system-restored" this utility and don't ever want to hear about it again.

This utility remained installed around 5 minutes on my computer before it was utterly pulverized. I have a certain vision of what an utility should be - if it doesn't work after I fiddle with it for a few minutes, then it's off my hard disk. Period.

Now aamsel, it seems like what we tell you have absolutely no influence on what you decide in the end, but I'll say it once more, just in case it can help you on a future purchase:

Don't get SXGA+ on a 14" screen: it's asking for trouble. XGA is plenty sufficient for 14".

It is ridiculous trying to bump up the dpi because you won't have a SXGA+ that looks like a XGA. No magic utility can make look a 14pt font like a 12pt one. No magic utility can enlarge icons without severely pixellize or blur them. No magic utility can enlarge graphics (take a good look of this smiley - - and imagine it twice as small as you see it now).

In short, getting a SXGA+ and tweaking it so that it looks (but in the end won't) like a XGA is just plain ridiculous. If you do digital photo, then get a 15" SXGA+.

Just trust me for once, you're going to torture yourself to make that 14" SXGA+ look like an XGA. Then, once it will, or once you think it will and you'll feel happy with your setup (let's say, after 3 week of heavy usage) -- startup an XGA to have a new idea of what it looks like compared to your SXGA+. And this is how you'll find out that switching to SXGA+ was the worst idea of all your lives, present and past.

There. I did my best. Just a rock thrown in the ocean, I guess, but you asked for feedback, so you have it.

Besides, I believe you will like the coating of the IBM, especially since you'll be able to have both screens side-by-side.

Yes, I meant Liquid View. It didn't stay installed long enough for me to remember its name.

Simply stating my experience

We all have this problem. It's all about compromising.

IBM's build-to-order system is highly pathetic. Though if you don't game, a 7500 card might be sufficient. Or you might even call IBM to know if it isn't possible to get a 9600 card.

It might. But it seems to me that Liquid View has a lot of rough edges. Example: it "enlarges" my pointer, but it doesn't. It replaces the actual pointer with a new, home-made, boring white one, instead of enlarging the existing one.

Actually, I'm not trying to change your mind - after all, it is your computers and your problems Simply, after years and years working on XGA, I am partially convinced with SXGA+. It has more screen estate, but I find myself enlarging everything; it messes up a few websites and software - you might not care about messed up designs, but you will when half of the text will be cut off because you need to enlarge 200% just to read text without eye strain on your 14" SXGA+.

Can you still cancel those IBMs... ?

No glossy screen though. That should please you