New laptop - any suggestions?

[FG Lurker]

Wouldn't it be great if it was that simple....

I recently swapped the Core Duo T2500 chip in my IBM ThinkPad T60 for a Core 2 Duo T7600. Overall increase in CPU performance of about 25% plus the added features of Core2 over Core. It took about an hour in total to do the upgrade -- notebooks are a bitch to take apart. Replaced the heatsink/fan combo at the same time and everything is running perfectly.

Notebooks are still nowhere near as upgradeable as a desktop but nothing is as limited as Apple hardware. I love the industrial design but hate the control-freak tendencies.

[waruta]

I recently swapped the Core Duo T2500 chip in my IBM ThinkPad T60 for a Core 2 Duo T7600. Overall increase in CPU performance of about 25% plus the added features of Core2 over Core. It took about an hour in total to do the upgrade -- notebooks are a bitch to take apart. Replaced the heatsink/fan combo at the same time and everything is running perfectly.

Notebooks are still nowhere near as upgradeable as a desktop but nothing is as limited as Apple hardware. I love the industrial design but hate the control-freak tendencies.

Whats your battery life look like after the upgrade? How about the internal temps? I had a Dell Inspiron that had the underclocked Celeron, put in a jumper cable under the chip, presto, 2.1GHz, a 70%+ increase in clock speed.

[FG Lurker]

Whats your battery life look like after the upgrade? How about the internal temps? I had a Dell Inspiron that had the underclocked Celeron, put in a jumper cable under the chip, presto, 2.1GHz, a 70%+ increase in clock speed.

All but a few early T60s are rated to support chips up to the T7600 so there are no cooling or power problems with this upgrade. Very nice of IBM (and Lenovo) to socket the chip to make for a very easy upgrade!

Regarding this specific upgrade, the T2500 that came out was rated at 31W and the T7600 that replaced it is rated at 34W. I suppose there may be a small change in battery life but it's not really an issue for me at this time.

I also haven't had any problems with cooling, even after extended periods with both cores maxed out.

I'm very happy with the upgrade and would recommend it to any T60 Core Duo owner who has a Rev 3 motherboard (almost all of them) and who doesn't mind taking their machine apart.

[Osakadave]

But Linux has an extremely sleep learning curve, and many things you're used to having on Mac or Windows (a stable version of Adobe Flash, for example) require serious workarounds to use. But with Linux, there are virtually no viruses or spyware issues.

How bad? I've had people tell me it's not at all bad.

If you're going to do a Netbook, go with HP or Sony. it's worth the higher price to get better quality and customer support.

The gifter's already said no HP, as she had serious problems with their customer service, and had to involve the credit card company to get service.

[waruta]

The gifter's already said no HP, as she had serious problems with their customer service, and had to involve the credit card company to get service.

HP's aftercare service sucks, whether it is for a PC or a Server. 365/24/7 4 Hr is a joke. It takes so long on the phone and they outsource all their technicians as well as call centers, its a wonder they still manage to sell anything.

[TennoChinko]

What's old, is new, is retarded....

http://asiajin.com/blog/2010/06/07/no-ibookstore-on-ipad-in-japan-we-have-ibook/


[SIZE="1"](an iPad implanted into an old toilet-seat iBook)[/SIZE]

[Neo-Rio]

How bad? I've had people tell me it's not at all bad.

Ubuntu is the flagship desktop Linux distribution. I'd strongly recommend it if you are new to Linux, or you just want something that just works more or less like Windows or Mac with the minimum of hassle. There's lots of preloaded software, and additional codecs, flash, and java, are handled automatically for you. In many ways, Ubuntu is even easier to use than Windows or Mac.

There's a pile of other distributions that become more interesting if you're supporting servers or doing some tinkering, and they are harder to use because they assume that you really know what you are doing.

[Ganma]

What's old, is new, is retarded....

http://asiajin.com/blog/2010/06/07/no-ibookstore-on-ipad-in-japan-we-have-ibook/


[SIZE="1"](an iPad implanted into an old toilet-seat iBook)[/SIZE]

Hey! That's mine. It's a toilet seat that never quits!

[Coligny]

Hey! That's mine. It's a toilet seat that never quits!

The guy also integrated a bluetooth keyboard...


(hint, you can use a USB keyboard with the ipad photo thingamadongle adapatapter)

[IkemenTommy]

Hey! That's mine. It's a toilet seat that never quits!

It's something to take a shit on and it comes with a warmer too.

[Uthark_Runa]

Ubuntu is the flagship desktop Linux distribution. I'd strongly recommend it if you are new to Linux, or you just want something that just works more or less like Windows or Mac with the minimum of hassle. There's lots of preloaded software, and additional codecs, flash, and java, are handled automatically for you. In many ways, Ubuntu is even easier to use than Windows or Mac.

I agree Ubuntu is great.

[persephone]

How bad? I've had people tell me it's not at all bad.



The gifter's already said no HP, as she had serious problems with their customer service, and had to involve the credit card company to get service.

Oh, I thought HP was good because of good corporate transparency, treatment on Chinese factory workers and the environment.
Can't find the original article I read this in, but here's one:

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/03/03/hp-leads-100-best-corporate-citizens-list-in-2010/



As for Linux, I agree Ubuntu is probably the most newbie-friendly release, but things like iTunes and proprietary software like Flash can be tricky. But if you have the time, there are tons of forums online with plenty of info, workarounds, etc. I installed the Ubuntu GOS environment.

[Neo-Rio]

As for Linux, I agree Ubuntu is probably the most newbie-friendly release, but things like iTunes and proprietary software like Flash can be tricky. But if you have the time, there are tons of forums online with plenty of info, workarounds, etc. I installed the Ubuntu GOS environment.

For sure, Ubuntu's handling of Apple gear is spotty.
That said, the latest version of Ubuntu lets you connect an iPhone and stream music and photos from it to your computer. I had some issues sending tunes over to the iPhone however. And of course, there is no phone backup or management like you would expect on iTunes under Mac and Windows.
You can't blame Ubuntu for that, because this is the situation you get when you lock yourself into Apple's walled garden.

Still, when you get used to the quirks, Ubuntu is a really nice system if you are a DIYer

[BlueLine]

A lot of the recent distros of GNU/Linux are pretty easy to switch over to. Some of the main distros include OpenSUSE, Fedora and Ubuntu. A lot of these distros will supply you with enough software you keep you happy after installation and the learning curve is almost nonexistent.

Uthark_Runa, My advice is to stay cheap, try to get a laptop for the bottom of your price range. Most laptops at the $500 range will be more then enough for your needs. The ASUS EEE PCs has great laptops at about $250 range with decent specs and the recent laptops like Asus U50F (RBBAG05) has awesome specs for way above your computer requirements at about $600. I agree with you though, ASUS builds great products and should keep an eye out for them.

You could even get an older laptop from online for dirty cheap. Thus putting an older OS on it which would be more then prefect for your needs. You will have to have older software as well, and be willing to go through that trouble that isn't an out-of-box experience. As it was stated before, mac are usually higher in price and upgrades, software is also pretty pricey. Linux can be really nice being that it's free, not too hard to learn (including tweaking), and language support.

Out of the 3 main OS's, I find language support to be the easiest in Linux, specially in Ubuntu. Windows 7 is nice and A LOT better since the days of windows xp, but still not as easy as Linux. Mac's language supports are ok.

[Yokohammer]

Just a quick note of thanks to all who directed my attention to Asus hardware and Ubuntu Linux.

I had fooled around with Mandrake Linux a bit several years ago, and that was OK for what I was doing at the time, but Linux had pretty much dropped off my radar because Mac OS X basically did it all and then some.

However, getting lazy and weak in my old age, I had been wanting a truly compact, lightweight, portable solution for getting work done on the road. "Work" usually involving lots of writing. I had been carting a 15" Macbook Pro around, but it's starting to feel a bit heavy, and it really is way too much computer for my away-from-home needs. I looked at the iPad, but the touch keyboard isn't one I'd want to spend a lot of time on, and unfortunately Apple doesn't offer anything in the netbook category at the current time.

So, what I ended up doing was purchasing an Asus Eee PC 1005PE for the low, low price of around 36,000 JPY (at K's Denki) and installing Ubuntu. I did play with the pre-installed Windows 7 a bit before chucking it entirely: just another slow, heavy, annoying version of the same crap IMHO. Ubuntu installed easily and worked well right off the bat. I did have to install a later kernel version to get the wireless and bluetooth to work, but that was just a matter of combing the net for information and following instructions.

Anyway ... did my first business trip with it yesterday and hardly even noticed it was in my bag when I wasn't using it, and it did what was required of it when I was.

Very nice.

[GomiGirl]

Yokohammer,

Thanks for the post - but I have a question about just how much linux skill you need to get this installed.

I have just spent the last week trying to rebuild our mail server in linux and I really just can't get my head around it. People were walking me through it remotely but it was one of the most frustrating things I have done to date.

I have seen a friend with a little notebook and she "hackintoshed" it fairly easily. Note this is all within legal licencing terms as she purchased the hardware, purchased the OS and installed it. She just chucked the win OS just as you did.

The reason I ask is that I too have a 15" MacBook pro and I love it but it stays on my desk and it is not really portable for reasons of weight and the fact that I am heavily pregnant. I tend to travel now with my iPad for which my back thanks me.

I would consider a Mac Air as it is very light but the cost of these small notebooks are also really attractive.

[Caustic Saint]

Anybody looking to pick up a mini-notebook to hackintosh (with legal limits, as described above) should check out the Dell Inspiron mini 10. I picked one up a few months ago and have it set to dual boot OSX (10.6.2) and Windows 7. It came with a 250 gb drive, so both OSes have lots of room, and Dell will even fit it with an English keyboard if you choose. (I chose.)

I got mine for about 35,000, but the price now starts at 40,000, with optional items adding to the cost.

Hackintoshing it is dead easy, and only requires 2 USB sticks (4gb for Win7, 8GB for OSX) if you want to dual-boot is. Obviously, only one is needed if you only want one OS. The motherboard and chipset in these is basically the same as what's in a MacBook air, which is why they're so easy to hack.

[Yokohammer]

I have a question about just how much linux skill you need to get this installed.

None if you're installing on the right hardware. To begin you can test it out by creating a bootable CD or USB memory (I used the latter) and running it from that. The Ubuntu website describes how to do this, and even provides the little program you need to create a bootable USB drive under Windows or Linux. Then if you like what you see you can install the software from the CD or USB drive.

That's really all there is to it ... unless there's some sort of hardware incompatibility. There are lists of compatible hardware on the Ubuntu website. It ran flawlessly on my HP/Compaq laptop right from the git-go. But as I mentioned I had to tweak a bit to get wireless working on the Asus netbook.

Simply installing Ubuntu Linux on compatible hardware should be a helluva lot easier than trying to rebuild a server!

I would consider a Mac Air as it is very light but the cost of these small notebooks are also really attractive.

That's what attracted me as well. Plus the size and weight. You won't want to be doing any image processing on the little 10.1 inch display, but for basic office stuff, email, and web surfing on the run it's fine. The hardware was less than 40K and the OS plus a surprisingly extensive and useful suite of apps was free. Can't complain.

Pop into the Ubuntu website and take a look around -> ... here ...

[Kuang_Grade]

Goodness Caustic, you haven't been around for a donkey's age

[FG Lurker]

Anybody looking to pick up a mini-notebook to hackintosh (with legal limits, as described above) should check out the Dell Inspiron mini 10.

I think you mean the Mini 10V. This is a small difference but from what I remember extremely significant. When I was trying this the Mini 10 wasn't hackintoshable at all (graphics driver issues I think) but the Mini 10V was incredibly easy.

[Caustic Saint]

I think you mean the Mini 10V. This is a small difference but from what I remember extremely significant. When I was trying this the Mini 10 wasn't hackintoshable at all (graphics driver issues I think) but the Mini 10V was incredibly easy.

Ah, you're right. Before posting I'd just flipped it over & the sticker on the bottom only says "mini 10." I checked my original order email & it is indeed a 10v.

Sorry for the misinformation.

[FG Lurker]

Ah, you're right. Before posting I'd just flipped it over & the sticker on the bottom only says "mini 10." I checked my original order email & it is indeed a 10v.

I have one here too, great little computer. Bought mine on eBay, paid $360 for it in Oct '09 and it came with XP Home. I Hackintoshed it and played with OS X again for awhile but in the end put it back to XP and it works perfectly for what I want. Mostly I use it for a bit of email, a bit of web browsing, and occasional RDP work to one of my servers.

For anyone looking to convert a netbook now: I haven't looked at the Hackintosh world for the past 6 months or so but when I bought the Mini 10V it was considered the easiest netbook to Hackintosh. There are a few sites around dedicated to this sort of conversion and a quick look will tell you which computers you should consider if this is your goal. Be sure to check before you buy as many computers won't work with OS X at all due to driver issues.

[Caustic Saint]

For those who might be interested, Dell no longer sells the mini 10v in Japan, either in their regular online shop or the refurb "outlet" section. You can find them in the US Dell site in the outlet section there, and there are some to be had on Yahoo auctions if you prefer to shop locally.

While checking Yahoo auctions I saw that some enterprising individual was selling a combo pack which consisted of a copy of Snow Leopard and a USB key preloaded with the OS for installing on a mini 10v.

[Christoff]

i recently got a mac book pro 15" core i7 with the Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display and must say I am super happy with it.

[BlueLine]

I did have to install a later kernel version to get the wireless and bluetooth to work, but that was just a matter of combing the net for information and following instructions.

I have installed ubuntu on quite a few laptops and luckily most of them work or simple visit to the Hardware Drivers sections does the trick. I am also thinking about getting an Asus EEE PC, thanks for the feedback.