OA's possible new notebook+gadgets: Have your say..

**Oleander Ardens** · 09-28-2007, 21:46

I hope I will

**DukeofSerbia** · 09-30-2007, 07:53

Oleander Ardens
First of all, forget what is written in CNET reviews. They are poor (do not ask why, but for notebooks they are poor).

This Acer Aspire 5920G-302G16MN is not bad at all. I read good review (in one Serbian forum http://www.benchmark.co.yu/forum/sho...d.php?t=136794 – you can see at least real life pictures + various screenshots from test programs).

Just stick with faster 5400rpm 160GB and later buy extended warranty as I think it comes with just 1 year.

The good (from review):
- screen, performances, solid battery’s life
The bad:
- touchpad, design is average (like usb port close to dvd tray wich blocks usage of dvd if you use that usb port)

And this Acer (as many) has problem with heat in left side (buying cooler pad is must).

P.S.
I prefer Toshiba.

**Bootsiuv** · 09-30-2007, 08:33

As do I....I bought a budget notebook since I do most of my gaming on my desktop.

That being said....the Toshiba Satellite plays nearly all of my games, albeit some are nigh unplayable due to lack of ram. It has an Intel(R) Celeron(R) M CPU 520 @1.6 GHZ with 512 MB and a 128MB Radeon XPRESS 200 M. It was a bargain at $500 american. Once I upgrade my ram, I think it will be able to handle most games I currently own. One of my favorite things about it is the display....it's big and luscious and bright and HD and sexy....one of the nicest laptop displays I've come across.

**KukriKhan** · 10-02-2007, 18:54

Originally Posted by Ramses II CP

As a further FYI, I recommend against Alienware (Now owned by Dell). There's a class action lawsuit in progress over the machine I have now, and over a hundred complaints with the BBB.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to jump on Ramses' bandwagon and trash Alienware. I bought their 7700 laptop for my son, and it's been shipped back to AW for maintenance 8 (EIGHT!) times in 25 months (4 vid cards, 2 motherboards, 2HHD's). By my math, they've spent over $2,000 on shipping and parts replacement for that $3,000 machine. So, not only a poor design, but a dumb business practice, too. There's 19 months remaining on the extended warranty I bought, and I expect to be shipping it another 3 times - if it doesn't blow up first. The Miami BBB has stopped taking complaints about Alienware, due to the volume.

Don't buy AW. Really. They were good 5 years ago, but suck now.

/rant

**Ramses II CP** · 10-03-2007, 02:00

Kukri, regarding the 7700:

I had the base (1 year) warranty due to a combination of over confidence in their brand and in my own technical skill. I had trouble with it through the year, including it arriving in a non-working state and requiring some work right off the bat. Shortly after my warranty expired, so did my motherboard. I could've replaced the video card, but no one sells the motherboard, and I almost certainly couldn't have replaced it at home anyway. $500 bucks to fix it.

Now the interesting part, Alienware replaced the graphics card (Which was working fine, as verified by me and a CompUSA tech) with a newer and significantly better model. When I contacted them, their only explanation was that the older card wasn't being made anymore (A flat lie). A little digging on my part revealed that they did this with a lot of other people too, and the general opinion was that they'd discovered that their case design was simply unable to handle the heat load from the older card. I also got some invaluable advice:

1. Run the fans at 100% all the time (Undocumented command: function-F2), and use Speed Fan to monitor internal temps. (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php)

2. Clean the fans regularly with compressed air, especially the one under the GPU. Check and replace the thermal grease under the GPU if cleaning the fans doesn't bring temperatures as reported by Speed Fan back to a normal range for your system.

3. Listen to the fans (It's hard not to, they're quite loud) and be aware of changes in their sound as running the fans that hard will cause them to wear out more quickly, but it's muuuuch cheaper to replace the fans than to replace your GPU or etc. They should last a long time, but there's no guarantee.

How do you know what temperatures are normal? There's no definitive guide because of the variations in hardware with the 7700, just do your normal activities for a few hours under good conditions and see where it rests.

Good luck Kukri. It always sooths my burn a little bit to hear people who were smart enough to buy the extended warranty and make Alienware eat their mistake.

**KukriKhan** · 10-03-2007, 13:52

Did I say 8? Make that Nine times - the vid module failed again yesterday, two weeks after the 7700's last trip to Memphis (AW's repair facility).

I agree, it's obviously the heat-dispersion plan (or lack of one) within the case itself. Jason, my son, cleans the fans daily before use (or so he says, anyway). I didn't know about the f2 100% fan speed trick - thanks for that tip, and the others.

Having gotten used to the customer service hoops that Alienware makes us jump through, my emails to them now always contain the 5-step trouble-shooting procedure that the cs rep reads from, trying to cut down on the time involved in getting the machine shipped back for repair.

I've suggested to them that they offer a discounted upgrade to a more manageable machine, but got no response. I wonder how much more $$$ they'll waste swapping out components every couple of months.

Their accounting department must hate that the sales department offered me that 3-year warranty (coincidentally right after the first failure - that's why I jumped on it. I could smell "Lemon" even then).

Oleander Ardens, I apologize for derailing your thread; as Ramses II CP says, it 'soothes the burn' a bit to commiserate with other screwed customers.

**Oleander Ardens** · 10-04-2007, 17:15

No problem KukriKahn, makes me think twice about buying a laptop from such a company without warranty. BTW I have still to decide if I should get the extended 3-years one, but I guess I will give it a go. As far as I know ACER gives two years in Germany but only one year in Austria

I have still to check the Italian warranty.

Talking about the heat issues of Laptops, especially the ones with high-end CPU and GPU is it sensible to buy a cooling pad?

PS: TurboMemory, ReadyDrive and all hyped features seem to be according to the c't just that - hype. Interesting technology but most likely ill implemented in Vista.

PPS: Seems that some ideas from the semi-rug. notebooks are making it into the mainstay products. For example to design the underside of the keyboard lile a shallow pool with an outflow.

Cheers
OA