specs:
2.1 p-m
1 gig ram
dvd +- rw
60gig 7200rpm hd
m9700 256mb gpu
pro 2200g wireless
I've had this notebook for about a week, i orderedut it from ibuypower.com and recieved it smack in the middle of finals. needless to say my grades suffered. a little about the company. i wasn't expecting great service, so no headaches caused. the order took 18 days form first invoice to shipping. but they did ship the laptop in all of three (3) boxes with enough styofoam peanuts to build a snow fort. anyways, when i opened the box, i put the computer on the desk, plugged it in, and turned it on. after launching windows in eight (8) seconds (an act of got compaired to my old desktop), it automatically found and connected to my wireless network and opened windows update to download various drivers/updates. now, let me say a few things about each part.
Size: its 14 by 10.8 inches which differes from ibuypowers specs of 12.1 by 10.8. i subconsiously knew that 12.1 couldn't be true but i just didn't want to find out otherwise. its definitly small enough to manage not like my friends 17in hp notebook. what makes up for the somewhat bigger size (theres some wasted space between the screen & edge of notebook) is its thickness. its less than one inch in the front and slopes up to 1 1/4 in in the back. The first thing people say when they see it (besides what the hell is ibuypower) is "woa thats thin." one thing i should mention is that the laptop has rather large rubber feet on the bottom. these lift the entire computer off the ground.
Case: the case is black plastic with a silver ring around the edges and silver around and in back of the screen. (there is some flex on the back of teh screen) pretty elegant. has a switch for wireless and lights for battery, wireless, and bluetooth. theres mesh around the speakers and ontop of the keyboard. Also on top of the keyboard are the quicklaunch buttion. left one opens the default web browser, middle opens default media player, right one silents the fan. and to the right of that is the power button. if you close the case it will put the notebook into sleep and you have to push the power button again to revive it. if you push and hold the power it will force quit all applications, log out of windows, and shut down.
Keyboard: full size with an extra row of Home, PgUp, etc to the right. keyboard is very springy and has a relativly long travel. i prefer it to the apple powerbooks keyboard. getting used to using the Fn key, alot. the delete key is out of place, moved to the bottom right. the keyboard also has a number pad you can use buy pressing num lock.
Touch pad: very nice clean silver square against the black case. i like the feature of tapping the pad instead of clicking the mouse button. also has shortcuts for dragging files (especially when you run out of room on the pad) and opening the start menu. the scrole bar to the right is way to sensitive but i've been to lazy to change it. on my computer the right mouse button is actually higher up then the left mouse button. you can tell by sight but you can feel it.
Screen: Screen is very bright and very clear, i love it. it can support every resolution from 680x800 all the way up to 1680x1050. no dead pixels. excelent viewing angles.
Speakers: the advertised subwoofer is actually just a slightly larger speaker on the bottom of the notebook (big suprise). the speakers sound better that those on a powerbook. and are also quite a bit louder due to the fact that they are on the screen and are facing towards you. the headphone jack is in the front of the notebook which is kind of a pain when its in your lap.
Heat/fan: i was warned that this notebook would be hot. and its not what i feared. the only place that gets warm is the bottom right corner where the hard drive is. its not like a powerbook that gets to warm to hold comfertably. the fan only comes on when im installing stuff/playing games on my desk or everynow and then when the computer is sitting on my lap. now the fan isn't silent but its not annoyingly loud. lets say if the fan in your house ac/heating pisses you off, maybe try another notebook.
Battery: well ive been on the computer unplugged for about 2hrs and its at 47% so i would support the manufactuers claim of 4hrs. probably between 3 and 3 1/2 with anything besides internet and office. but then again probably longer with wireless turned off or the screen dimmed.
anything i missed? ah, performance. well, valve's steam(ing sht) cuts off halfway though the download of half life 2 but im not having any issues playing cs source or halo. ill get more games installed as time goes on. the rad linker that came with omega drivers says my graphics card is clocked at 104 which i guess is a bit lower than other computers. sometime in the future ill try to oc it a little bit.
one thing i should note is the instant dvd feature doesn't work on my laptop. (you access it buy pressing the quick launch media button when the computers off). i called ibuypower and they probably forgot to make room for it when they installed windows. so ill probably have to send my computer back.
ill get pictures up sometime between now and when hell freezes over but if anyone has questions ill answer them to the best of my ability
(wow, this wasn't so mini)
2.1 p-m
1 gig ram
dvd +- rw
60gig 7200rpm hd
m9700 256mb gpu
pro 2200g wireless
I've had this notebook for about a week, i orderedut it from ibuypower.com and recieved it smack in the middle of finals. needless to say my grades suffered. a little about the company. i wasn't expecting great service, so no headaches caused. the order took 18 days form first invoice to shipping. but they did ship the laptop in all of three (3) boxes with enough styofoam peanuts to build a snow fort. anyways, when i opened the box, i put the computer on the desk, plugged it in, and turned it on. after launching windows in eight (8) seconds (an act of got compaired to my old desktop), it automatically found and connected to my wireless network and opened windows update to download various drivers/updates. now, let me say a few things about each part.
Size: its 14 by 10.8 inches which differes from ibuypowers specs of 12.1 by 10.8. i subconsiously knew that 12.1 couldn't be true but i just didn't want to find out otherwise. its definitly small enough to manage not like my friends 17in hp notebook. what makes up for the somewhat bigger size (theres some wasted space between the screen & edge of notebook) is its thickness. its less than one inch in the front and slopes up to 1 1/4 in in the back. The first thing people say when they see it (besides what the hell is ibuypower) is "woa thats thin." one thing i should mention is that the laptop has rather large rubber feet on the bottom. these lift the entire computer off the ground.
Case: the case is black plastic with a silver ring around the edges and silver around and in back of the screen. (there is some flex on the back of teh screen) pretty elegant. has a switch for wireless and lights for battery, wireless, and bluetooth. theres mesh around the speakers and ontop of the keyboard. Also on top of the keyboard are the quicklaunch buttion. left one opens the default web browser, middle opens default media player, right one silents the fan. and to the right of that is the power button. if you close the case it will put the notebook into sleep and you have to push the power button again to revive it. if you push and hold the power it will force quit all applications, log out of windows, and shut down.
Keyboard: full size with an extra row of Home, PgUp, etc to the right. keyboard is very springy and has a relativly long travel. i prefer it to the apple powerbooks keyboard. getting used to using the Fn key, alot. the delete key is out of place, moved to the bottom right. the keyboard also has a number pad you can use buy pressing num lock.
Touch pad: very nice clean silver square against the black case. i like the feature of tapping the pad instead of clicking the mouse button. also has shortcuts for dragging files (especially when you run out of room on the pad) and opening the start menu. the scrole bar to the right is way to sensitive but i've been to lazy to change it. on my computer the right mouse button is actually higher up then the left mouse button. you can tell by sight but you can feel it.
Screen: Screen is very bright and very clear, i love it. it can support every resolution from 680x800 all the way up to 1680x1050. no dead pixels. excelent viewing angles.
Speakers: the advertised subwoofer is actually just a slightly larger speaker on the bottom of the notebook (big suprise). the speakers sound better that those on a powerbook. and are also quite a bit louder due to the fact that they are on the screen and are facing towards you. the headphone jack is in the front of the notebook which is kind of a pain when its in your lap.
Heat/fan: i was warned that this notebook would be hot. and its not what i feared. the only place that gets warm is the bottom right corner where the hard drive is. its not like a powerbook that gets to warm to hold comfertably. the fan only comes on when im installing stuff/playing games on my desk or everynow and then when the computer is sitting on my lap. now the fan isn't silent but its not annoyingly loud. lets say if the fan in your house ac/heating pisses you off, maybe try another notebook.
Battery: well ive been on the computer unplugged for about 2hrs and its at 47% so i would support the manufactuers claim of 4hrs. probably between 3 and 3 1/2 with anything besides internet and office. but then again probably longer with wireless turned off or the screen dimmed.
anything i missed? ah, performance. well, valve's steam(ing sht) cuts off halfway though the download of half life 2 but im not having any issues playing cs source or halo. ill get more games installed as time goes on. the rad linker that came with omega drivers says my graphics card is clocked at 104 which i guess is a bit lower than other computers. sometime in the future ill try to oc it a little bit.
one thing i should note is the instant dvd feature doesn't work on my laptop. (you access it buy pressing the quick launch media button when the computers off). i called ibuypower and they probably forgot to make room for it when they installed windows. so ill probably have to send my computer back.
ill get pictures up sometime between now and when hell freezes over but if anyone has questions ill answer them to the best of my ability
(wow, this wasn't so mini)
