Tell him to keep pushing for Linux!

 

actually..funny you mention that...for a while a coupe years ago he was on the Linux team for IBM, and they gave him a IBM webserver for our house with dual xenon processors, hot swap scsi drives, etc etc...so he could play with linux and stuff...then he gave it to me for a while cause IBM never asked for it back. In the end he traded it to a buddy for a favor, and made me :wtc:

 

I do favors for multiprocessor servers too :eek3:


that must be pretty cool to have someone with some status at a big company like that.

 

Waiting for your "review". I am lookin' at the 9100 and want to hear what you have to say about it. Are the 3 fans (at full tilt) loud?

 

its had its perks...

 

sorry, wasn't feeling well last night, so i never came online. off the top of my head, i upgraded the display to the next step up, and upgraded the vid card to the 128MB Mobility Radeon 9700. it's a 2.8GHz w/ 512MB RAM. i think now it's being offered with 3+GHz. when i ordered, the wireless card was included free.

anyhow, i love the machine. the widescreen display is incredible. crisp, vivid picture and colors. DVDs look great on it. about the only complaint as far as that goes is that standard resolutions are stretched to fill the screen. but it doesn't really bother me. certain games will support widescreen resolutions. but even when stretched, it looks fine.

the wireless has worked well. i get download speeds on par with my (wired) desktop, even with the overhead of the security and encryption. i haven't tested the range on it yet, but that's more dependant on the wireless router.

performance? the vid card is more comparable to the speeds of my radeon 9500 pro on the desktop, than a 9700 on a desktop, but this is also expected of a mobility card. i'm able to play games like doom 3 and city of heroes just fine. i may try some tweaks or adjusting vid settings when i get around to it. as far as the cpu itself, it's a P4 in there, not a centrino, so it runs as such.

there are other things that i think may be a problem for others, depending on what they're looking for: the size, and the capacity of the battery. i was looking for a desktop replacement, so this doesn't really concern me, but it may some. the size and the weight may be a bit more than some people are comfortable with. it's definitely a porker compared to my gateway work laptop. and on the gateway (upgraded) battery, i can go 4 hours or so. however, the gateway can't perform like the dell does.

the dell's battery lasts maybe 1 hr 20 mins while in game, a little longer while doing things like browsing the web. again, issues that i wasn't really concerned about, although i do admit that longer battery life would be nice.

as for audio quality, the battery has a built-in subwoofer. it doesn't really add bass, but it does give the audio a fuller feel. while gaming, you don't feel the need to hook up external speakers like you may with other machines.

as for the noise level of when the cooling fans come on? it's definitely audible, but i actually never thought about it until you mentioned it. i don't think they frequently come on, because i don't really have a memory of feeling like they were disrupting anything i was listening to; but like i said, you can definitely hear them.

price? i don't remember exactly, but i had a 15% off coupon, a $150 mail-in rebate, and free shipping. that knocked off a huge chunk of change. given that i also upgraded the service plan to 2 year/at home, i'm very happy with how much i got it for.. (under $1500, i'm pretty sure)

to sum up (given my experience so far)...
cpu: A
display/gpu: A/B
wireless: A
audio: B+
size/weight: C/C
battery: C-
noise (when cooling fans come on): B or C ??
price: A+

 

if you wanted battery life you shoulda got a pentium m
my p3 lasts about 20 mins just browsing internet

 

Sweet, I know what i'm getting my self for Christmas/Birthday :wiggle:

 

Hey is IBM hiring :wiggle:. If he can get me a good deal on a Thinkpad that'd be great. Mine fell of my trunk when i pulled off on sunday and now the hard drive is clicking and its running really slow.