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Lenovo Thinkpad Edge

whiteslashasian

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Originally Posted by javyn
I decided to go to the Dell Outlet refurb site.

For $550, I ordered a refurb Dell Vostoro 3500, Core-i5, 3g DDR2, 320 gig HD, and discrete Geforce 310M video (512MB).

Probably going to run just as fast as my x4 Propus 630 desktop.

I don't like having 3 gigs of ram though that's stupid. If I want 4, which I'm sure I will, I'll have a leftover 1g chip.

The same laptop with 4 gigs cost 50 bucks more.


Sounds like a good deal. I was going to suggest going for a 210 or 310 from nVidia. Miles better than the Intel stuff with all the lovely Linux compatability that ATI lacks.

Is the OS 64bit? Otherwise that last gig is kinda pointless...

Ram is cheap. I think I saw a 4gb (4gb x 1) DDR3 SODIMM chip for $40 recently.

It does suck about the Bulldozer lack of compatability with the current AM3 socket. Apparently the new AM3+ mobo's will support all older AM3 procs though... Thankfully AMD mobo's are far less expensive than the Intel counterparts and you don't have to buy a new mobo EVERY SINGLE GENERATION (wtf Intel???)

I was tempted to buy a new HD 6950 card, which can be BIOS flashed to the top of the range HD 6970 (very low fail rate, dual bios prevents bricking!) for only $290. I abstained because it will be a while before Bulldozer is released and the rest of my system would be a huge bottleneck as is...and I don't think the HD 6950 would fit in my mATX case....

Will be getting one of these to house my next build (******* expensive!):
Aluminum unibody construction, sound dampened panels.
ft02_front1_sm.jpg


Air is drawn in from the bottom through 3 180mm fans and blown out the top.
ft02_inst1.jpg


Quad GPU lolz (I just realized that this is the Raven, sister to the FT02, very similar on the inside):
RV02_blackice_GT_Stealth360
 

javyn

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Originally Posted by whiteslashasian
Sounds like a good deal. I was going to suggest going for a 210 or 310 from nVidia. Miles better than the Intel stuff with all the lovely Linux compatability that ATI lacks. Is the OS 64bit? Otherwise that last gig is kinda pointless... Ram is cheap. I think I saw a 4gb (4gb x 1) DDR3 SODIMM chip for $40 recently.
It's a Windows 7 32 bit home premium or some crap. Whatever, it's getting formatted as soon as my battery is done charging. Actually, that's probably where most of the price difference between the 3 gig and 4 gig models came from rather than just the 1 extra gig of ram. IIRC, the 4 gig had a professional edition of Win. 80 bux to max this bad boy out at 8 gigs...tempting....but I'll likely just grab a 2 gig chip off newegg for 20 bucks. I ended up buying two 4 gig G.Skil Ripjaws for my desktop....I don't even use half that amount of RAM even with a 2 gig Windows XP VM open and every window I can think of lol.
It does suck about the Bulldozer lack of compatability with the current AM3 socket. Apparently the new AM3+ mobo's will support all older AM3 procs though... Thankfully AMD mobo's are far less expensive than the Intel counterparts.
Yeah....honestly though, I'm just looking for a reason to blow money heh. This Propus 630 is more than capable for what I need it for, and I actually do video work.
 

whiteslashasian

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Originally Posted by javyn
It's a Windows 7 32 bit home premium or some crap. Whatever, it's getting formatted as soon as my battery is done charging.

Actually, that's probably where most of the price difference between the 3 gig and 4 gig models came from rather than just the 1 extra gig of ram. IIRC, the 4 gig had a professional edition of Win.

80 bux to max this bad boy out at 8 gigs...tempting....but I'll likely just grab a 2 gig chip off newegg for 20 bucks.

I ended up buying two 4 gig G.Skil Ripjaws for my desktop....I don't even use half that amount of RAM even with a 2 gig Windows XP VM open and every window I can think of lol.



Yeah....honestly though, I'm just looking for a reason to blow money heh. This Propus 630 is more than capable for what I need it for, and I actually do video work.


I told you 8gb was a bit of overkill...lol.

The 630 is venerable indeed. Did you get a better cooler for it? If so, you can OC later on to extend the usability. I bumped the OC on my Xeon X3110 (e8400, stock 3ghz) from 3.4 to 3.8 a few months ago and I'm liking the extra speed when playing BFBC2 (CPU bound game).
 

javyn

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Well, the thing is, when I took out the two 2 gig chips and replaced with the two 4 gig chips, I did notice a difference, things were faster and a bit snappier. Not quite sure why, especially since the speed, timings, etc are the same.

I kept stock cooler and am running at stock speed. Suits me just fine!

Dude that chassis looks like beast!
 

GQgeek

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Originally Posted by whiteslashasian
I told you 8gb was a bit of overkill...lol.

The 630 is venerable indeed. Did you get a better cooler for it? If so, you can OC later on to extend the usability. I bumped the OC on my Xeon X3110 (e8400, stock 3ghz) from 3.4 to 3.8 a few months ago and I'm liking the extra speed when playing BFBC2 (CPU bound game).


8 dropped 8gb into my thinkpad x200. Overkill? Maybe, but it was $100 bucks.

Interesting concept with that silverstone case. I still prefer the antec P183 with as few fans spinning as slowly as possible to keep temps in line. I can't be bothered to overclock anymore...
 

whiteslashasian

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Originally Posted by GQgeek
8 dropped 8gb into my thinkpad x200. Overkill? Maybe, but it was $100 bucks.

Interesting concept with that silverstone case. I still prefer the antec P183 with as few fans spinning as slowly as possible to keep temps in line. I can't be bothered to overclock anymore...


I don't recall the site, but the silverstone FT02 is one of the quietest cases money can buy. The fact that it cools better than most cases is a huge plus as well.

I believe there was a comparison between one of the antecs, likely the p183 and the FT02 smoked it in dB and temp tests.

*edit* Found it http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...se-review.html
 

Pezzaturra

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Originally Posted by javyn
Well, I just cancelled my order. I received confirmation today stating my CC will be charged over $200 what the laptop is priced at on the website, as well as a shipping charge when FREE SHIPPING is plastered all over the website.

The e-mail address to the rep I dealt with in Idaho or somewhere was invalid in the confirmation email, could not reach him. Called the call-center and the Indian dude swore up and down that was incorrect and I was being charged 650 not 850, but was unwilling to transfer me to the sales rep or even send me an updated confirmation with the correct price.

So I went ahead and told him just cancel the order then, and not 5 minutes later I'm getting voicemails from my sales rep acting all irate that I cancelled heh.

A real shame, I really wanted a Thinkpad but just don't feel comfortable after this gaffe. I've been burned in a way similar to this and it was a nightmare getting it worked out.

I'm just going to settle for an HP or something, which by the looks of it has better specs and 100 cheaper.

Oh well. I really wanted that damn track-nub heh.


I see that nothing, absolutely nothing changed with ******* marsupialed customer service and order procurement services. I had exactly the same experience with Lenovo 3 years ago and will not touch them until they start selling at Best Buy.
 

javyn

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Heh, if you think that's bad, try Dell Outlet's customer service, if you could call it that. Placed an order for a refurb Core-i5 Vostro laptop only to get an email from Dell saying my order was cancelled b/c the item was no longer available.

I checked the Outlet's website again, and sure enough, as soon as my order was cancelled the exact item I ordered was back online for sale. I placed an order again and am waiting to see what happens heh. I have a feeling Dell Outlet is selling vaporware.

edit: For anyone who may be interested in a Dell....here is an online coupon for 20% off any Home series laptop from Dell.com or Dell Outlet .... BP6SM900JMH74L

This one is for 15% off any Vostro business class lappy.... 8LTWKCHKQM1$4S

Both expire 1/28
 

javyn

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Received my Vostro 3500 yesterday. Pretty sweet, but the display leaves a bit to be desired. Kinda bright and washed out looking, still deciding if I can put up with it or not.
 

whiteslashasian

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Originally Posted by javyn
Received my Vostro 3500 yesterday. Pretty sweet, but the display leaves a bit to be desired. Kinda bright and washed out looking, still deciding if I can put up with it or not.

Can't you tinker with the brightness, contrast, saturation, color, gamma etc to mitigate this??
 

javyn

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Originally Posted by whiteslashasian
Can't you tinker with the brightness, contrast, saturation, color, gamma etc to mitigate this??
Yeah. Going to do my tinkering tonight. Wasted last night because I installed Win7 64 over the pre-installed 32 bit and couldn't get the Nvidia display drivers to install. Turns out I shouldn't have had that 6th beer, I had downloaded the wrong ones off Dell's site
smile.gif
I think it's going to be fine though, because I don't want to pony up the extra $$$ for a lappy with a fancy display, and sure as hell don't want a glossy screen. I think this screen is intentionally bright like this (even with brightness turned down) to ensure good viewing outdoors in sunlight. edit: I probably wouldn't even have noticed the display had I not immediately plugged my monitor into it to compare screens heh.
 

Pilot

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Bumping this thread for some Lenovo love. Just picked up a loaded up X120e today. SO far its fantastic, great webcam, love the keyboard, screen is good, solid construction, and hasnt had a hiccup yet. Specs http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0358283 Nice and compact. Really going to enjoy using it on a plane for watching videos.
2011-04-30_11-10-50_50.jpg
2011-04-30_11-28-33_239.jpg
 

yjeezle

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what's the monitor resolution on that thing?
 

dcg

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Originally Posted by Pilot
Bumping this thread for some Lenovo love. Just picked up a loaded up X120e today. SO far its fantastic, great webcam, love the keyboard, screen is good, solid construction, and hasnt had a hiccup yet. Specs http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0358283 Nice and compact. Really going to enjoy using it on a plane for watching videos.
Wow, that looks extremely promising. Engadget review makes it seem pretty great: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/07/l...-x120e-review/ Will be interested to hear your impressions once you've had a chance to play around with it. Wish there was an SSD option.
 

Pilot

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^^ this is a great little computer. after my initial charge the battery lasted 5.5hrs (constantly web surfing, downloading torrents, and occasionally listening to music.). hopefully after the next few charges I will see that improve some. As far as performance goes, I havent seen it stumble yet. i've tried to open up a ton of tabs run windows media player, utorrent, and a few programs all at the same time and it was still smooth (4 gigs of RAM). The screen looks solid, I keep the brightness down just because i hate staring at something super blinding.

The only thing I've had to get used to is the Fn key is on the bottom left, where the control key normally is, and the control key is directly to the right of it. so i have to make an effort to make sure I'm hitting the control key.

Also, for whatever reason about the first 10 times I tried to scroll up and down using the trackpad it just didn't work.... I've found somewhat I've a sweet spot now and it does it fine. I think it was "learning" my movements or something. There ae about 10 different motions you can do on the track pad for diff things.

Speakers are plenty loud, just lacking in low range, but I mean this thing is like an inch thick. I wasn't expecting much.

Web cam is great. Really adapts to low light like they say.

Originally Posted by yjeezle
what's the monitor resolution on that thing?

1366x768
 

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