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BPSITE => Geek's Corner => Topic started by: opperdude on July 23, 2004, 12:35:37 PM



Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: opperdude on July 23, 2004, 12:35:37 PM
ok i know nothing about computers (specially not windows computers) hardware, prices etc. and now i got an offer from my new uni to be in a project with laptops and stuff, it's limited to a certain numer of people so i might have to react fast...
they want first year Mechanical Engineering students to test a wireless network/internet thing on the uni and they're offering (cheap?) laptops with all the needs for it to 130 students, now i have no idea if it is any good or not
so if i post the stats here mebbe sum1 can say something intelligent about it?


its the IBM Thinkpad T42 based on Intel Centrino mobile technology, specs:
- Intel Pentium M Processor (1,7 GHz) with 2048 kb cache
- Intel 855 Chipset
- 768 Mb intern memory
- 60Gb harddisk
- Combo DVD/CDrw drive
- 15" color SXGA dislplay thing, resolution 1400 x 1050
- ATI Radeon 9600 grafic thing with 64Mb memory
- integrated wireless 802.11 a/b/g networkadapter, built in antenne (english?)
- Onboard 10/100/1000 networkadaper
- Onboard 56k6 modem inclusive wires for telephone stuff
- US keyboard with Euro symbol (!!!YEASSS!!!)
- integrated sound card
- PMCIA lock: 2x  type II
- 2x USB 2.0
- S-video
- Size: 31x311x255 mm; weight: 2,1 kg
- 3 year worldwide guarantee
- guaranteed buyability (?) of parts for 5 year

the price for students €1,606.- incl and if i'm in the project the uni will pay €300.- so that'll make it 1,306.-, they claim the shopprice is €3000.-
ow and with that i'll get all my software for my study incl updates and stuff

so advice please?


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: SS on July 23, 2004, 12:50:53 PM
I'm fairly certain the shops wont be selling it for €3000... probably closer to €2000. *shrug*
Either way, €1306 is a good price, especially if you get software with it.

As for the actual system... it's plenty fast enough, got a huge amount of RAM, a decent resolution, and the rest of the stuff is all fine.

Yeah, I'd say go for it. :)


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: opperdude on July 23, 2004, 12:57:31 PM
well thats easy said... i'll have to go convince my parents that i need it :) but i think it might be managable, specially if i'm gonna get a room somewhere this year, i'll need my own computer then :)

another good thing about my new uni: they got ultrafast internet connection in the uni, the libraries and all the big student houses, glassfiber stuff :cool:  


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: RipperRoo on July 23, 2004, 01:02:59 PM
Quote
- US keyboard

Ewwwww


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: opperdude on July 23, 2004, 01:06:28 PM
i think they mean it's not arabic/russian/chinese or something like that  :huh:  


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: SS on July 23, 2004, 01:07:24 PM
They're not too bad. The backspace key only being one slot long is annoying, as is the bizarre ordering of some of the symbols, but aside from that, they're just as usable as UK ones.

Actually, we're talking about laptops here... it'll just be a standard laptop QWERTY thing.


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: RipperRoo on July 23, 2004, 01:37:35 PM
Its bad enough in HL, you have to use Ctrl+ the @ key to get Quote marks!


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: SS on July 23, 2004, 02:14:25 PM
It's Shift+'
And that's because Valve are shit programmers.


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: RipperRoo on July 23, 2004, 03:18:13 PM
Hehe, same thing :P


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: opperdude on July 23, 2004, 04:18:47 PM
yay! it didn't take much to convince my dad, he read the letter about it and i'm gonna get it :)  


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: FragMaster1972 on July 23, 2004, 04:52:39 PM
ibm=crap. i bet they used shared memory. their hard drives are notorious for going bad and killing all your data. sound is guaranteed suckage. bet the memory is slow too. Have fun!  :D  


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: SS on July 23, 2004, 05:00:32 PM
Psk. It was a specific range of IBM Deskstars that were faulty, not the whole brand.
With 768MB RAM, shared memory shouldn't be a problem.


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: opperdude on July 23, 2004, 05:16:21 PM
Quote
their hard drives are notorious for going bad and killing all your data.
mebbe that's why there's service from the department I&A (?) from the university included which enables me to get new software if it screws up, and i can get an other laptop from the same type on loan if the hardware breaks and they can't fix it immedeately
also i got 100mb on their server for data backup and i can rent another Gig data at a server for €81.- a year so if it kills all my data it wouldn't matter :P
don't think i'm gonna take that Gig at €81.- a year tho, i could burn a lot of back up CD's with that money...


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: FragMaster1972 on July 23, 2004, 11:51:55 PM
Quote
Psk. It was a specific range of IBM Deskstars that were faulty, not the whole brand.
With 768MB RAM, shared memory shouldn't be a problem.
but the rest still have a pretty bad failure rate...and one of my friends bout a "new" one and ended of with some old piece of crap too. i wouldnt touch ibm with a en foot pole. and I wouldnt take shared mem with only 768mb....thats becoming less and less very quickly.  <_<  


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: SS on July 24, 2004, 12:01:52 AM
Bah. I'll ask my techie slaves companions in the morning, but I'm sure they're not that bad. :P


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: opperdude on September 18, 2004, 04:58:15 PM
YAY! i am now posting from my own laptop :) i got it and i love it  :)
now this is also my first windows computer i use where i can actually install stuf and so on (no mac no more)...
what would be the first programs you people would get and/or which do you use the most?


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: FragMaster1972 on September 20, 2004, 03:38:01 AM
adaware & spybot search'n'destroy


Title: good deal/bad deal
Post by: matt@school on September 20, 2004, 04:22:05 PM
i like AVG too :)