The Long Road

03/28/2006 Archived Entry: "5672"

So after something like 4 months of research and looking around and pouring over each Thursday’s flyer delivery and constantly F5’ing redflagdeals and telling people that I wanted one, I finally gots me a laptop.

Here are the specs for it:
Acer Aspire 5672WLMi
Core Duo T2300 1.66 GHz
Ati X1400
RAM 1 GB
HD 100 GB
DVD-RW (+R double layer) / DVD-RAM
Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
15.4" TFT WXGA (1280 x 800)

The only better deal I ever saw was a Toshiba M70-SR3 which had a weaker processor and an ass of a video card but was 400$ cheaper. I’m not sure if 400$ is worth the difference, but I don’t think I would be able to stand a machine that can’t even push Warcraft 3 at a decent clip. This laptop can do civ4 at 1920x1200 which is…excessive.

The specs pretty much speak for themselves, but one of the things I really appreciated about this machine is that it came with DVI output on top of VGA. I knew that DVDs looked like ass on my LCD and expected some kind of improvement using DVI but I was most certainly not ready for the huge leap in video quality. Gladiator has never looked better.

Something that Phong immediately picked up on that I didn’t was the lack of noise from the laptop. We’re used to having a constant buzzing of 4+ fans in our PCs, this laptop runs dead quiet in comparison. It also takes up way less space than a desktop so you can imagine that my desk looks at least a little less cluttered nowadays.

The main problem with the laptop is heat and ergonomics. The heat vent is on the right hand side where you would usually have your mouse. The area under your wrists and the touchpad also get a little hotter than they should. This mean that your hands may get uncomfortably hot whether you’re mousing or keying around. It’s one hot laptop!

The software that comes with the laptop can be troublesome. I nuked everything and started with a fresh install, but the drivers for things like the audio controller, wi-fi, and Bluetooth are always running even when you don’t need their services. Between the three of them, we’re talking about almost 100 megs of wasted memory(!). This doesn’t include the almost-dozen pieces of crappy proprietary Acer software that came preloaded (on a fat32 partition, no less).

Like the LCD, the laptop is something I wish I had during school. It would have been much nicer to move around with a laptop than it is with a box + CRT. And I could have brought it to class to chat on msn during lectures like so many people are doing now! I’m not quite sure what use I have for a laptop’s portability at the moment. As of now, the laptop is pretty much permanently docked with all kinds of things (4) plugged in and I don’t really move around the house with it or anything. I’m sure all find a legit use of its mobility one day, like blogging from the porcelain throne or something.

Replies: 13 comments

Fat32 partitions are generally there for diagnostic tools you can use outside of windows(at least that's how dell systems work, don't know about others) This way if you have to format your system you don't blow away the diagnostic tools as well.

Posted by Anonymous @ 03/28/2006 05:20 PM EST

Splurge!

Posted by Peter @ 03/29/2006 10:56 AM EST

Nice laptop. You don't know hot unless your case is made of anodized aluminum!

I'm thinking of getting more RAm for mine but I'm waiting on Apple to see if a new iPod is coming out in April first.

Posted by djkimothy @ 03/29/2006 11:51 AM EST

Yours gets hot too? I wouldn't have thought so. I expect better from apple!

Posted by Rayne @ 03/29/2006 12:54 PM EST

They all get hot. It's just compounded by the fact that the casing is metal.

But it only really gets hot when I play Sims 2 or SimCity 4. Obviuosly CPU intensive.

But just browsing or email then it gets no hotter than normal.

Playing Sims 2 will definetly make your lap sweat.

Posted by djkimothy @ 03/29/2006 02:11 PM EST

I love your metal casing though..it looks real nice. Mine's some shitty plastic.

you shouldnt use a laptop on your lap...it'll cripple your little swimmers!

Posted by Rayne @ 03/29/2006 04:59 PM EST

Really? Well then, off it goes!

Posted by djkimothy @ 03/29/2006 07:41 PM EST

I like my laptop's portability.. it's easier than carting my whole CD collection around. I listen to music while I cook - move laptop to kitchen.

Posted by Arshwana @ 04/07/2006 11:03 AM EST

Isn't that what I-Pod's are for? I doubt a laptop can be defined as portable (with respect to music) when compared to all the technology out there.

Posted by dAN @ 04/07/2006 01:56 PM EST

There are degrees of portability

Posted by Rayne @ 04/08/2006 02:51 PM EST

Sure, but doesn't an iPod's battery die, and isn't it irreplaceable? ..waste of money to me! Also, with an iPod, I *must* wear earphones. (At least AFAIK, I haven't dealt with the buggers.)
I don't need my music to be *that* portable.. if I want music in my car, that's exactly what my MP3 player in there is for. No $400 crappy iGimmicks.

Posted by Arshwana @ 04/09/2006 03:10 PM EST

Fine fine...lug your laptop around...:P!

Posted by dAN @ 04/09/2006 09:23 PM EST

You can replace the battery, it's just pretty pricey. And there are a variety of portable speaker options for the iPod. =)

Posted by Mike @ 04/09/2006 11:05 PM EST