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    Project Super-Cheap-Famtop

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by dietcokefiend, Jul 20, 2006.

  1. dietcokefiend

    dietcokefiend DietGreenTeaFiend

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    The base model C100 arrived about an hour ago, and I have one week to start pimping it out before family vacation to Cape Cod.

    Current Specs:

    Price: $500 shipped AR
    1.5 Celeron
    256 DDR2
    40GB HD
    cdrw/dvd-rom
    Atheros a/b/g WIFI
    8 cell battery

    Specs for Vacation

    Price: ~750 shipped AR
    1.6 730 Pentium M
    512x2 DDR 667
    100gb 5400 Hitachi HD
    40gb External

    Laptop is 500 shipped after rebate, and upgrade parts brings it up slightly over 700. The rubbermaid laptop of EVIL, DEATH, AND DESTRUCTION was picked for this trip since I loved it so much when I reviewed it :D

    The motherboard isn't locked for celerons, so a 50-60 buck used cpu off ebay is the perfect upgrade for a bit more performance and about 30% more battery life with speedstep. Ram was super cheap from Newegg, and I plan on ordering the HD tonight as long as the thing isn't DOA or something.
     
    dietcokefiend, Jul 20, 2006
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  2. dietcokefiend

    dietcokefiend DietGreenTeaFiend

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    Muahahaha, the laptop is close to perfect. No dead pixels, nothing.

    Oh, and I can't get enough of this GMA900. My god, with the Celeron M 1.5 ghz, I can play a 720P Hd movie with 0-1% cpu usage. My desktop 2.8 p4 with a 6600gt is around 30-40%. :)
     
    dietcokefiend, Jul 20, 2006
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  3. Smith2688

    Smith2688 Notebook Evangelist

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    Awesome...good luck with it man!
     
    Smith2688, Jul 20, 2006
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  4. bman22

    bman22 Notebook Consultant

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    haha I cant tell if you are being serious or not. Either way, so much for that month delay in shipping ehh? Glad it worked out. Enjoy that beast of a a laptop :D
     
    bman22, Jul 21, 2006
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  5. dietcokefiend

    dietcokefiend DietGreenTeaFiend

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    Dead serious. The mpeg4 optimization of the GMA900/950 is pretty amazing. the best part is since it is barely loading the cpu, power draw playing movies off the HD puts this things battery life into the 6+ hour range. Mind you this is on battery cycle #1 right now.

    Not sure if I even need to upgrade the CPU anymore now. I cant believe how damned fast this celeron m is.
     
    dietcokefiend, Jul 21, 2006
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  6. Andrew Baxter

    Andrew Baxter -

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    Is this somewhat akin to buying a $10K Honda Civic and then equipping it with $15K worth of lights, a new engine and other bling?

    I like it.
     
    Andrew Baxter, Jul 21, 2006
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  7. dietcokefiend

    dietcokefiend DietGreenTeaFiend

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    Well kinda. I hope not to go over the purchase price of the laptop.

    Another interesting thing. The IBM 11a/b/g card in this series is Broadcom, not Atheros like the rest of the lineup, and the chassis is made by Compal. Oh, and the Hitatchi drive was showing a few smart errors, so I will see if I can get a warranty replacement of that when I get back from vacation.

    Its like 90% faster when bumped over 512mb of ram.. up from 256, and after wiping the preloaded crap, and installing a clean XP Pro.
     
    dietcokefiend, Jul 21, 2006
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  8. Andrew Baxter

    Andrew Baxter -

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    Well the icing on the cake would be if you could maybe raise it a little using some knobs / feet for cooling purposes and put some glow lights on the bottom so it appears to hover. I'll get you started: http://www.bodelin.com/bumpers/
     
    Andrew Baxter, Jul 21, 2006
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  9. dietcokefiend

    dietcokefiend DietGreenTeaFiend

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    Trip update. This thing has been a trooper. Fan is constantly on, back is a little warm but it is handling the 90-95% constant humidity and 80-85F temps decently well. I am leaving the computer on all the time plugged in at my desk. So far wireless has never dropped EVER to the router I brought with me, and it is turning out to be a great laptop.

    Hands down worth all of that 500 bucks!
     
    dietcokefiend, Aug 1, 2006
    #9