If you need assistance, please send an email to forum at 4hv dot org. To ensure your email is not marked as spam, please include the phrase "4hv help" in the subject line. You can also find assistance via IRC, at irc.shadowworld.net, room #hvcomm.
Support 4hv.org!
Donate:
4hv.org is hosted on a dedicated server. Unfortunately, this server costs and we rely on the help of site members to keep 4hv.org running. Please consider donating. We will place your name on the thanks list and you'll be helping to keep 4hv.org alive and free for everyone. Members whose names appear in red bold have donated recently. Green bold denotes those who have recently donated to keep the server carbon neutral.
Special Thanks To:
Aaron Holmes
Aaron Wheeler
Adam Horden
Alan Scrimgeour
Andre
Andrew Haynes
Anonymous000
asabase
Austin Weil
barney
Barry
Bert Hickman
Bill Kukowski
Blitzorn
Brandon Paradelas
Bruce Bowling
BubeeMike
Byong Park
Cesiumsponge
Chris F.
Chris Hooper
Corey Worthington
Derek Woodroffe
Dalus
Dan Strother
Daniel Davis
Daniel Uhrenholt
datasheetarchive
Dave Billington
Dave Marshall
David F.
Dennis Rogers
drelectrix
Dr. John Gudenas
Dr. Spark
E.TexasTesla
eastvoltresearch
Eirik Taylor
Erik Dyakov
Erlend^SE
Finn Hammer
Firebug24k
GalliumMan
Gary Peterson
George Slade
GhostNull
Gordon Mcknight
Graham Armitage
Grant
GreySoul
Henry H
IamSmooth
In memory of Leo Powning
Jacob Cash
James Howells
James Pawson
Jeff Greenfield
Jeff Thomas
Jesse Frost
Jim Mitchell
jlr134
Joe Mastroianni
John Forcina
John Oberg
John Willcutt
Jon Newcomb
klugesmith
Leslie Wright
Lutz Hoffman
Mads Barnkob
Martin King
Mats Karlsson
Matt Gibson
Matthew Guidry
mbd
Michael D'Angelo
Mikkel
mileswaldron
mister_rf
Neil Foster
Nick de Smith
Nick Soroka
nicklenorp
Nik
Norman Stanley
Patrick Coleman
Paul Brodie
Paul Jordan
Paul Montgomery
Ped
Peter Krogen
Peter Terren
PhilGood
Richard Feldman
Robert Bush
Royce Bailey
Scott Fusare
Scott Newman
smiffy
Stella
Steven Busic
Steve Conner
Steve Jones
Steve Ward
Sulaiman
Thomas Coyle
Thomas A. Wallace
Thomas W
Timo
Torch
Ulf Jonsson
vasil
Vaxian
vladi mazzilli
wastehl
Weston
William Kim
William N.
William Stehl
Wesley Venis
The aforementioned have contributed financially to the continuing triumph of 4hv.org. They are deserving of my most heartfelt thanks.
I don't know how to link to a saved laptop through Dell but I saved the html and am just trying something. Let me know what you think of the deal, after I get some feedback I'll decide whether I'm buying it this next week.
Geometrically Frustrated Registered Member #6
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373
That sounds like a decent laptop. The integrated graphics won't be anything awe inspiring, but it'll be fairly powerful and have good battery life. There's also the general "Dell sucks" attitude to consider, but that main gripes against Dell are less of an issue with laptops, as you pretty much have to use the manufacturer's parts anyway.
Also, if you ever decide to use linux, you're going to have a hard time getting things working.
Registered Member #108
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 11:44PM
Location: Billings, MT
Posts: 61
The integrated Intel 950 has open source drivers available straight from Intel, actually. My friend recently bought a XPS machine too and Ubuntu worked fine, including the wireless drivers (the a/b/g 220 is well supported). The only other thing that could cause major troubles is the sound card I guess...
The Dell has free shipping as well for right now.
I personally like Toshiba better but doubt I could get that much from them for the same price. For what I wanted and still using the Intel 950, the lowest price I could find was $1200+.
Registered Member #56
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445
It sounds decent, but why do you want media center on a laptop?
Have you considered getting a refurbished one from dell? That is where I got mine, I got xinxppro/offixexppro (the whole nine yards, ms money, publisher, power point, etc) radeon 9000 and a 14" 1400x1500 lcd, integrated bluetooth/wifi, dvd burner, etc for like $1500 w/3 year warranty. Whatever you do, get the longest warranty they have--you will probably need it. I had the power jack on mine go dead, so they shipped me a box overnight, and a week later I had it sitting in my hands with a new mobo that I didn't pay a penny for. Then the hdd died, so then sent me a new one (that was faster/larger) and a note to send the old one back. I also got a dj from them, which I sent back because it had a dent on the back which they did the same thing as the hdd for. Sure it is a pain iming with some guy in india, but they are nice...
Registered Member #108
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 11:44PM
Location: Billings, MT
Posts: 61
The media center laptops seemed to be way cheaper, but I plan on upgrading it myself to XP Pro or dual booting or something like that.
Heading off to check out the refurbished stuff. Is it online? I'll find out soon enough
Ugh, the wireless card I selected (Dell 1390) uses some strange broadcom drivers that seem to be half supported in Linux. The Intel 2200 isn't an option for some reason...
*EDIT
I'm going to wait another 2-3 weeks still I guess. Also looking through the outlet models now, finding some interesting notebooks. What about this workstation or something similar? I would assume it would EAT battery life, but maybe that would be ok.
This site is powered by e107, which is released under the GNU GPL License. All work on this site, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License. By submitting any information to this site, you agree that anything submitted will be so licensed. Please read our Disclaimer and Policies page for information on your rights and responsibilities regarding this site.