a few jfl92's... some pics..

and more to come i took a ton of them just have not had time to upload them all.. i actually have 2 more as well here right now. these were built for a couple different people. 2 of them were for my sister and bil, and the other 4 were for a local dentist office who i do all the pc work for.. i know these have been around for a while and there are new ones on the horizon but if you look around for the prices these can be had for and a little creative buying for things like the cpu and hdd etc.. (ebay, forums etc) these can be a huge bargin for people.

these were all ordered from microexpress.net and i have to say they were super fast with shipping and packed them very well. one notbook had a bad touchpad (it literally sunk in when pressed almost 1/8th in or more) and they very willingly sent out a new one and i just mailed back the bad one today. so i have to say a+ for microexpress. as of now these do not have badges on them but microexpress did provide their badges but my sister and bil are going to have small engraved nameplates made instead (so they know which is which since she got a wxga+ and he got the wsxga+ lol they dont want to grab the wrong one when running out the door).

these come BARE BONES as it gets. no optical drive etc.. they do come with keyboards but they are not installed either, the fan needs to be installed, ram, hdd, cpu, heatsink, bluetooth, and wifi.

2 of them are wsxga+ and the rest are wxga+ imo on a 15" after working on them all the wxga+ would be my pick.

all had the same model screens for their res size so you can be pretty sure what you will get. the wxga+ was a cpt screen which is BRIGHT and had pretty nice color. its a bit washed out sooner than i would like vertically but horizontally its great. this does wash out sooner than most but i have seen worse. overall a small bit of light bleed at the bottom from all the cpt's and about the same amount from each. it was only seen on a black screen and mainly when the brightness was maxed out. the wsxga+ screens are chi mei and are BEAUTIFUL!! compared to all the dell's i had in my hands this past year with wsxga+ 15" screens this chi mei BLOWS them away, very bright nice whites, black is black and they have really good viewing angles all the way around. they get a tiny bit washed out vertically but its VERY minimal compared to many ive seen..


overall the finish could be A LOT better. the glossy clear coated lids all have small specs of dirt under the clear and the paint is not at all layed down very smooth. its not bad i guess but it could be a lot better. im going to wet sand and buff my sister and bil's this weekend. this will require taking off the lids. the black painted plastics on the palmrests have some lighter and darker areas as well like a not so even coat of paint or dye was applied.


keyboards are not to bad but they do have flex, at both bottom corners and at the top near the f9 key is where it is noticable. other than that they feel nice. about average for a laptop keyboard with my sager one being MUCH nicer overall.

the hinges are very strong for a notebook with no latch and being a 15" i dont see any way it will open on its own or the lid will move while using it unless its moved by you.

webcam when used with different software than compal provides is very nice. the compal provided software SUCKS and makes the camera look like a old vga cam. once you use a different program it works and looks very nice.

the touchpad... argghhhh my really sore spot with these, first they use elantech touchpads and those drivers are horrible imo. the pad itself has some give to it along the bottom where the right and left buttons are. but its not to noticable unless you have a heavy finger lol...so far only the stock ps2 wheel mouse drivers work well but when they are used it makes using the touchpad very slow and it limits its features. if this could have had better drivers it would not be bad at all minus the small amount of movement in the pad itself as i stated.

all of the touch buttons work well and do what they are labled for. so they work as they should and this was with no additonal drivers installed from compal.

the additon of the standard 9 cell battery is very nice imo. and they seem to do a really nice job as far as overall usage and the time you get from them. i have not tested it yet for time to drain so ill add that later.

if you buy these barebones and take your time it is really very easy to build one. these took me about 30 min each to install the hardware then whatever time it took for vista after that.

well for now that is all i have time for. ill add lots more pics later as soon as i have time. overall these are a heck of a system for the money (when built with components found on ebay, the forums etc.. ) they can be built for much less than anything else in their league that is out there right now.

 

Nice, are you selling them?

 

but im not sure if ill resell or not yet. i can get them at dealer cost if i need them..

 

Sorry pal, I hate to read, so I always do it in diagonal, so my question is are these laptops yours and you are trying to sell them or you are just showing them??????

 

no these actual ones are not for sale... these were built for family / customers. just thought id post up my thoughts and ill be adding more pics tonight as soon as i can

 

Ok, thanks.

 

Nice review...... but dell now make unbeatable deals on xps1530........

 

really ill have to check that out..

update: the wxga+ has had to be exchanged out. after about a day of use there is now a small white spot about the size of a nickel on it that is brighter lit then the rest of the screen. so a wsxga+ was sent out in its place and they only charged me the difference. i have to fully say microexpress.net rocks... they have been nothing but helpful to me