StarDestroyer.Net BBS

As per the title. Looking for something mostly for notes and whatnot for school, but would also like some gaming functionality.

Looking to keep it in the 400-500 range.

Can anyone recommend anything?

I use a notebook from Asus, one of the Eee PC line. It's got 1.6GHz and 2Gig Ram. I can play WoW on it with little trouble.

The problem with recommending anything is that there are vastly different products that qualify as "laptop". Do you intend to also do work on this computer? Do you care more for mobility (i.e. small and light) or ergonomic? (i.e. big screen and big keyboard.)
EeePC is a netbook, those are relatively small and cheap, but that also means they have tiny screens and you can forget about most games. Is the ability to have it on your desk during a lecture a factor for you? Have you thought about getting a tablet? Those don't have a keyboard, but most come with great handwriting recognition.

LadyTevar wrote:I use a notebook from Asus, one of the Eee PC line. It's got 1.6GHz and 2Gig Ram. I can play WoW on it with little trouble.

Same here. I recommend them highly, not least because amongst all the usual extraneous junkware that every off-the-shelf PC manufacturer feels compelled to waste several gigabytes of disk space on is a genuinely useful CPU-management app that can either extend the battery life by about half an hour or squeeze a bit of extra performance out of the system for gaming or whatever. Make sure you get the latest patches downloaded before you try it though, it had a tendency to crash the computer spectacularly (screen scrambled and full of snow like the graphics card was going boom, no response to Ctrl-Alt-Delete etc) in the first few weeks.

Oh, and don't get a white one if you can avoid it, they pick up stains and fingermarks like you wouldn't believe.

I'm quite loving my notebook from Asus too. Granted, I was kind of forced by what I wanted (Hello 1080p screen in a stupid small chassis so I can get nice clear text even when small for the way I tend to deal with coding work) to get an Asus or spend way more, but the construction seems very solid, its got nice cooling, and it's a powerful selection of hardware in a relatively cheap and mobile chassis. I also agree with Zaune, this is the first computer where I've actually decided to manually gouge out most of the shovelware rather than going to ground zero. Who'd have thought that a vendor power management program could actually include features not that easy to deal with from inside windows? It's also got a pretty solid keyboard, no Thinkpad keyboard but very typeable with solid feeling keys (that are attached really well, unlike most other keyboards I can think of, including a certain Thinkpad which had recurrring issues with its spacebar ever since I accidentally pulled it off.

Short version is as far as I can tell, Asus delivers a solid computer for a very competitive price with a surprisingly non-shit bloat situation.

I got mine since 2009 and so far, it only got minor problems: one of the touchpad's botton doesn't work and the webcam's cable from inside is damaged (and it's apparently a super-special cable because the laptop's repairmen can't get it). But essentially, it's functioning well enough and I kept most of the driver software.

If I can give you advice on that, avoid the Seashell line. You can't swap batteries.

You can register with Asus for getting easier access to drivers and have some tech-guy answer some minor problems.

Zixinus wrote:I got mine since 2009 and so far, it only got minor problems: one of the touchpad's botton doesn't work and the webcam's cable from inside is damaged (and it's apparently a super-special cable because the laptop's repairmen can't get it). But essentially, it's functioning well enough and I kept most of the driver software.

If I can give you advice on that, avoid the Seashell line. You can't swap batteries.

You can register with Asus for getting easier access to drivers and have some tech-guy answer some minor problems.

If I nuke and pave (read when if your answer is yes) can I get the drivers on it easily?

I have an Acer that I bought just over 3 years ago, and I'm very happy with it. not so happy with Vista, but the actual machine is fine!

spooky spice wrote:I have an Acer that I bought just over 3 years ago, and I'm very happy with it. not so happy with Vista, but the actual machine is fine!

Acer is ok, but you might have some prblems with the back in future. Asus is more reliable. I like Dell or HP.