#  >  > Computers Can Be Fun >  >  > Computer News >  >  Time for a new laptop

## Mr Earl

I've slapped my macbook about now for nearly 5 years. 
While I like the mac OS I'm considering going for a windows machine this time.
The cost difference is significant.
The entry level mac is now the macbookair(MBA) for about 30k
the Lenovo S205 I'm looking at less than half.

The Lenovo also has a 500G hardrive. The MBA just a 64G solid state drive or for 39k a 128g solid state drive.
The solid state drive would be cool for the moto travels I do. Also the video of the mac is much better. Both have 2g of ddr3 ram. 

The lenovo is a dos machine so I'd have to buy either windows 7 for 4500baht or install my licensed copy of XP.
If I went for the Lenovo I'd partition the drive for linux Ubuntu because I don't like the idea of web surfing with windows security issues.

Which way would ya'll go?

For the money the answer is pretty easy.

The new MBA is much lighter and slicker than the rather clunky Lenovo.
The Lenovo on the other hand seems built like a brick shithouse.

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## harrybarracuda

Go to Amazon's Laptop Page

Then use the criteria on the left to narrow down your preferred spec.

This will give you an idea of the different vendors and prices.

Other questions, just ask here.

Glad you put this thread up, I need a new lappy for the office, and this looks excellent.

Dell Inspiron 17"

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## Butterfly

TESCO has a lot of nice HP for 15,000 THB

if you have an OEM license version of WinXP (about 50 USD in the US through Ebay), then you can install it

usually the staff at TESCO will install it all for you using the OEM CD for another 800 THB

forget the SSD drive, they have a short shelf life.

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## Mr Earl

^I would have thought the ssd would last longer than a regular hardrive. In the five years of the macbook, I replaced the hardrive three times!

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## SEA Traveler

I just recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 15"R-2nd Gen i5 with 2.4 GHz with turbo boost up to 3 G'Hz. and with Win 7 premium, 640 GB hard drive, Office home and student, and CD ROM/DVD.  Had it dlvd to home in States where I picked it up when back there for the holidays and carried it back here to Thai.  I've always liked the Dell and this is no exception.  I like having them built to my spec.  The 17 inch screen on a lap top is excessive for my needs as my iMac desktop with 27" monitor meets the needs of a larger screen.

The Dells are nice and I purchased mine rater than a Mac for the simple reason of getting more for my money and being able to upgrade to what ever is new in about 4 more years.

IMO, stick with one of the major brands (Dell, HP, Gateway, Sony, etc) as they are all fairly similar unless you have the $$$ to pot out for a MacBook in which case tht would always be a good option.

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## SEA Traveler

won't be too much longer before a ssd is all that you'll be able to find and that is the future.  just now, they are still a little expensive.

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## sabai sabai

> The 17 inch screen on a lap top is excessive for my needs as my iMac desktop with 27" monitor meets the needs of a larger screen


You gotta try out twin screens ST

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## SEA Traveler

will the dual screen display property function on Win 7 as well as Lion?

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## harrybarracuda

> forget the SSD drive, they have a short shelf life.


Oh shut up you stupid twat.

You obviously know jack shit about SSD's.

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## harrybarracuda

> will the dual screen display property function on Win 7 as well as Lion?


Yes; as long as the Laptop has an external video port. It's a piece of piss to set up.

Added: It's going to be the way to go with Win 8, where you'll have your application tiles on one and your normal desktop on the other.

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## Butterfly

> ^I would have thought the ssd would last longer than a regular hardrive. In the five years of the macbook, I replaced the hardrive three times!


the SSD have a limit of the numbers of write operations they can do, something like 1m times on a single sector, which make them unusable for servers and heavy duty apps

fine for iPhones and Desktop, which OS can optimize the writing operations and because personal use is not so intensive

The Macs are also notorious for their terrible Filesystem, it's completely unreliable, always been, and it's slow. Did you replace the drive because the Filesystem failed or because they were physically damaged ? it's possible that Macbook are poorly built for secure HD storage, which make them more sensitive to failure. 

You can't have both, stylish case or reliability

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## harrybarracuda

> the SSD have a limit of the numbers of write operations they can do, something like 1m times on a single sector, which make them unusable for servers and heavy duty apps


Stop talking out of your (well worn) arse, that's a load of rubbish. You're reading from a 2007 SSD article.

Drives these days have comparable lifespans to Hard Disks (in some cases longer), and with wear levelling and error correction, the issue is of no concern.

They come with three year warranties these days anyway.

They are being rolled out to servers where disk performance is a bottleneck, as they beat the shit out of hard drives. And if you are using them in properly-configured RAID environment, drive failure should never be an issue.

As with any other technology, you have to pick the right brand.

As Gartner says in its analyses on virtualisation:




> *Storage Considerations for Virtualization of Workloads*
> 
> * Performance*
> 
>   If any of the workloads have specific applications that have  performance requirements of submillisecond latencies, then solid-state  drives (SSDs) need to be used. The fastest high-density disks (HDDs)  used in a SAN array with controller caching can obtain 2 ms to 5 ms  response times, if faster I/O responses are required then SSD storage must be used. In these cases, latency is improved by an order  of magnitude and is in the microsecond range, but costs are also an  order of magnitude higher than HDD.


Having said that, a 16Gb MSata drive these days can be had for $40, a great way to upgrade your netbook.

I've been using them for a couple of years Buttplug. Have you even seen one, you moron?

Of course not. You're frightened of new technology, that's why you're scared of Windows 7, ennit?

 :rofl:

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## harrybarracuda

^ In case anyone wants to try one out, here's the one I mentioned, I buy all my storage from this company, they are very reliable.

My Digital Discount

And the 16Gb

 

*N.B. Check the specs and make sure it's designed for whatever netbook/laptop you have.

*By installing one of these and removing the pagefile, I can run Windows 7 comfortably on an Asus eee PC1000. And the battery life is significantly improved as well.

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## Looper

For desktop use an HDD should last longer than SSD but if you are knocking it about the SSD will probably outlive the HDD.

I looked at some benchmarks for SSD and they just don't seem to be so much better than a fast 7200 or 10000 rpm HDD and they are much more expensive. I would go with HDD for regular use and SSD for rough travel use.

Lenovo X series has a very rigid magnesium alloy chassis and body so maybe the S series has this also. I use mine to batter cane toads to death  :Smile:

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## harrybarracuda

^ Look at some newer benchmarks.

SSD technology is improving far faster than Hard Disks.

And the prices are dropping substantially, too. I'm guessing the manufacturing cost differential is quite significant as well. No moving parts, etc.

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## david44

A day ticket o the circle line and good chance to get one with Liam Fox's pals numbers the Iranian game plan and Hilary Cliton's favourite in flight entetainment thrown in  MoD loses a staggering 340 laptop computers in TWO YEARS... and ... Home | Mail Online...

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## SEA Traveler

> Originally Posted by SEA Traveler
> 
> 
> will the dual screen display property function on Win 7 as well as Lion?
> 
> 
> Yes; as long as the Laptop has an external video port. It's a piece of piss to set up.
> 
> Added: It's going to be the way to go with Win 8, where you'll have your application tiles on one and your normal desktop on the other.


can the benefits of such a set be explained as I'm not to imaginative at this point.

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## Bettyboo

I quite recently got a Fujitsu for 17.5k; it's okay, but I prefer my previous 2 Dells. If I was buying again then I'd spend about 21k to 22k for a Dell with original Microsoft 7 and Office. I don't like McAfee though, slows the computer down too much, imo.

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## sabai sabai

> I don't like McAfee though, slows the computer down too much, imo.


That's not Mc Afee, mate, that's all those bogus, obscure Phishing websites where you get all those moody pics from   :Smile:

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## Butterfly

> Of course not. You're frightened of new technology, that's why you're scared of Windows 7, ennit?


I am scared of Win7 because it's too fucking mac like and retarded like you,

if I wanted MacOSX, I would get the real thing, not WinXP gay edition

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## harrybarracuda

> Originally Posted by Bettyboo
> 
> I don't like McAfee though, slows the computer down too much, imo.
> 
> 
> That's not Mc Afee, mate, that's all those bogus, obscure Phishing websites where you get all those moody pics from


It's not actually, McAfee just evolved into a pile of shit. we ripped it off 2,000 computers and replaced it with FTM last year.

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## harrybarracuda

> Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Originally Posted by SEA Traveler
> ...


The benefits of having two monitors? Keep your Email open on one, browsing on the other, for example.

In Windows 8, applications have "tiles" which notify you of their activity (Emails, Social networks, Sharepoint, etc.).

But you can keep the Win 7 desktop with your icons and shit.

Basically it's just more desktop real estate.

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## sabai sabai

Loads of things you can do with them, watch movies or music vids on one, while you're browsing or working on the other.

This might send you cross eyed, but it is possible to watch a ermmm silent movie(use your imagination here) on each monitor.

Be careful here though, it takes quite a while to shut both monitors down  and get your flies up, if your not prepared for someone bursting through the door  :Smile: 

Being serious now ST, you can drag and drop any program or whatever you want onto your second screen, and the mouse cursor glides effortlessly through both screens

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## sabai sabai

This is a bit OTT, but  will give you the idea

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## OhOh

^If using Windows 7 use the "windows button" + "P" to get the display options. One thing to remember is to plug the external dispaly onto the external VGA plug prior to starting windows OS.

The choices are:
1. Single laptop screen
2. Duplicate/the same image on the laptop and external displays
3. Stretch the single display over both the laptop and external displays. This allows multiple processes, 2 or more web browsing sessions, different applications etc.
4. External display only.

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## OhOh

> This is a bit OTT, but will give you the idea


Is that all driven by one external VGA port?

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## Butterfly

> Is that all driven by one external VGA port?


you either need a card with 2 ports, or 2 cards, depending on brands etc... for desktop PC

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## harrybarracuda

Noooooo.

Normally it's one monitor per port, so if you have a Graphics card in a Desktop with two outputs, you can drive two monitors. There are 4 port Graphics cards available I think.

According to MS you're only limited by hardware, but on a top end machine you can run 6 comfortably, 10 at a push.

With third party add-ons, you can build walls up to 100, but it ain't cheap.

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## baldrick

> external VGA plug


what sort of archaic laptop has those - its all HDMI now baby  or better still , WiDi

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## OhOh

And with a large water tank to keep them cool I expect.

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## OhOh

> what sort of archaic laptop has those - its all HDMI now baby or better still , WiDi


A reliable one, having said that it seems to get very warm underneath.

She only three usb, an ethernet and a D plug with 15 pins, a five holer I am informed, I am assuming its VGA how does one tell?

There is an information page:

Silicon Intergrated Systems Corporation, Sis672 series, SIS VGA Clone!

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## Troy

You can also use Virtual desktops (as per unix and Linux) now...I use Dexpot with four virtual screens...makes me feel almost at home with W7 (still prefer unix though....)

Dexpot - The utility for virtual desktops


As for laptops...depends what you are using them for and how much money you are willing to pay out. I bought a Dell i7 machine last year and am very happy with it...I still use my inspiron as an emergency backup (12 yrs old now and only had to replace HDD 3 times).  I bought a 14" HP for the G/F so she can stay in touch through skype when I am away...got it in BKK for 13900 baht...came with lots of goodies including extra 2Gbyte RAM...Machine is more than enough for most users...

I have a mac as well but hardly use it..they cost too much IMO...I only have it to test programs I write are able to run on all machines...

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## harrybarracuda

> Originally Posted by OhOh
> 
> external VGA plug
> 
> 
> what sort of archaic laptop has those - its all HDMI now baby  or better still , WiDi


I have two decent laptops less that two years old and they both have a VGA and HDMI out.

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## baldrick

I need to (should) buy another laptop - 15k baht

looking for i3 sandy bridge , and wanted 15" but they all seem to be 14" panels ( LED backlit ) - is this standard now ?

would like discrete graphics - though if intel HD3000 good enough to play something like portal 2 then that should be fine ?


PRICE LIST
Hardware House Smiley IT Magazine NO. 72

any recent recommendations from panthip or fortune ?

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## harrybarracuda

Go to Amazon's Laptop page and put in the spec you like, to see what's available and what price.

Then compare it with Panthip and Fortune.

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## baldrick

Search - Notebookcheck.net is what I use

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## Mid

> The Lenovo on the other hand seems built like a brick shithouse.


at the risk of putting the hex on myself ..................

mine is over 6 yrs old , been in a dozen countries plus extended periods on a yacht or 3 working 24/7 running chart plotter software .

buy another yesterday no contest .

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## baldrick

> buy another yesterday no contest .


was looking at this Lenovo - Review Lenovo B570-M58G4GE Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

no USB 3 or card reader is sad though

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## Mid

I should state I've a thinkpad

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## Looper

The only thing that sucks balls on the Lenovo is that the Fn key is in the bottom left corner (where the Ctrl key should be). If you are used to using Ctrl key short cuts then this will fuk you right off for a long time and you will never get used to it.

And Fn is the only key that cannot be remapped using the registry - yes I tried.

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## harrybarracuda

> The only thing that sucks balls on the Lenovo is that the Fn key is in the bottom left corner (where the Ctrl key should be). If you are used to using Ctrl key short cuts then this will fuk you right off for a long time and you will never get used to it.
> 
> And Fn is the only key that cannot be remapped using the registry - yes I tried.


ButtPlug is your man, he can do anything with the registry.

 :rofl:

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## Bettyboo

> any recent recommendations from panthip


You can get a Fujitsu with a 2 year warranty from Pantip for that money - they will put all the s/w on for free too; I got mine from Banana-something or another, and they have been very helpful putting new s/w on for free when I crashed.

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## baldrick

> I got mine from Banana-something or another


none listed - mai mee , mut lao   :Smile:  - FUJITSU[at]::[at]NoteBook[at]::[at]BaNANA IT make IT easy

I will have to spend some time in pantip and have a look at what they have

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## Butterfly

Try TESCO, 15.000 THB for a brand laptop

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## baldrick

> Try TESCO, 15.000 THB for a brand laptop


specs ?

no ?

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## Troy

> Try TESCO, 15.000 THB for a brand laptop


I think the HP i3 for just under 14000 Baht is a far better deal...

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## Bettyboo

> Originally Posted by Bettyboo
> 
> I got mine from Banana-something or another
> 
> 
> none listed - mai mee , mut lao  - FUJITSU[at]::[at]NoteBook[at]::[at]BaNANA IT make IT easy
> 
> I will have to spend some time in pantip and have a look at what they have


I got mine there about 6 months ago for 16,500. It's an i3 with a GEFORCE nVIDIA; 2 year warranty, SomchaiWindows 7, SomchaiAdobe, etc. Speakers are especially weak, but everything else seems good. They had one Fujitsu i3 at 15,500 too.

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## DrAdamJones

This is strange... 3 months ago  I was in the same situation with my 5 year old macbook.  I too had replaced the hard drive 3 times.

I decided to stick with Mac as, to me, it is a far superior machine.  I  also didn't feel like learning windows again, not that it would be that difficult, but working on a mac for 5 years has proven to be a much smoother and more enjoyable experience for me.

I just spent $2000 on a 13" macbook pro, with ram and hard drive upgrades, (8gb ram , 750 GB hard drive).  Yes that is a lot for a notebook, but I look at it this way.  If the computer lasts another 5 years then I am happy.  Too many times I have seen friends and family buy a $400 laptop because its cheap, only to have to replace it a year or two down the road...  sure that is still cheaper than a macbook, but the features and quality of the machine are far less. 

I'd go with the macbook air. personally.  you can always get a external hard drive if you are worried about not enough hard drive space.

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## harrybarracuda

^Two grand on a 13" laptop.

Boy those Apple marketers are fucking geniuses, aren't they.

 :Smile:

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## baldrick

> Originally Posted by Butterfly
> 
> 
> Try TESCO, 15.000 THB for a brand laptop
> 
> 
> I think the HP i3 for just under 14000 Baht is a far better deal...


I am not seeing any laptops

Tesco Lotus

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## harrybarracuda

Have a look in PowerBuy.

Powerbuy Laptops

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## Bettyboo

^ at least 10% more expensive than Panthip, ime. The best way is to just spend a few hours in Panthip then buy the one that takes ya fancy.  :Smile: 




> I just spent $2000 on a 13" macbook pro, with ram and hard drive upgrades, (8gb ram , 750 GB hard drive). Yes that is a lot for a notebook, but I look at it this way. If the computer lasts another 5 years then I am happy. Too many times I have seen friends and family buy a $400 laptop because its cheap, only to have to replace it a year or two down the road


I don't follow your maths.

You're saying that 2000/5 is better value than 400/2???

Everyone I know with an Apple laptop has had problems within a year, dead within 3 years; not economical. You pays for the branding...

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## baldrick

the lenovo here looks ok - http://www.bigc.co.th/bigc/file/page_img/9374.jpg
but have not been able to find the full specs

seems the 14" LED backlight is the new standard - away from the 15" flourescent backlight




> The best way is to just spend a few hours in Panthip


that will be the end result - I was just interested in others experiences this year

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## Marmite the Dog

> This is strange... 3 months ago  I was in the same situation with my 5 year old macbook.  I too had replaced the hard drive 3 times.
> 
> I decided to stick with Mac as, to me, it is a far superior machine.  I  also didn't feel like learning windows again, not that it would be that difficult, but working on a mac for 5 years has proven to be a much smoother and more enjoyable experience for me.
> 
> I just spent $2000 on a 13" macbook pro, with ram and hard drive upgrades, (8gb ram , 750 GB hard drive).  Yes that is a lot for a notebook, but I look at it this way.  If the computer lasts another 5 years then I am happy.  Too many times I have seen friends and family buy a $400 laptop because its cheap, only to have to replace it a year or two down the road...  sure that is still cheaper than a macbook, but the features and quality of the machine are far less. 
> 
> I'd go with the macbook air. personally.  you can always get a external hard drive if you are worried about not enough hard drive space.


Only a 'genius' would pay stupid money for an underspecced machine that has proven to be unreliable.

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## harrybarracuda

This is available in my local shop here in the sandpit, traditionally more expensive than Thailand, for Bt17,000:



> LENOVO G570-19187 LAPTOP Intel Core i3-2350M Sandy Bridge processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB HDD, 1GB Dedicated Graphics, 15.6" HD LED Screen, Bluetooth/WiFi/Webcam, Win 7 Home Basic ***FREE Carry Case, Mouse & Headset ****

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## baldrick

^ whats the graphics card  ?  radeon HD 6470M ?

been looking also at the Dell Vostro 1450  - it is 14" , but I am now thinking the 14" may be a better fit for the purpose

will have to check out the prices on the floor at pantip - but I am getting a better grasp on what spec to expect

it is a bit surprising to me though the lack of USB3 on all these devices

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## sulasno

anyone into Acer's range of ultrabooks ? I may have one for sale at 36000 baht; I think it is a S3

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## harrybarracuda

> ^ whats the graphics card  ?  radeon HD 6470M ?
> 
> been looking also at the Dell Vostro 1450  - it is 14" , but I am now thinking the 14" may be a better fit for the purpose
> 
> will have to check out the prices on the floor at pantip - but I am getting a better grasp on what spec to expect
> 
> it is a bit surprising to me though the lack of USB3 on all these devices


I couldn't agree more. I've had a 1TB USB drive for a long time, but I had to buy a card for the Desktop to get any use out of it.

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## harrybarracuda

Try a search like this

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## Troy

> I couldn't agree more. I've had a 1TB USB drive for a long time, but I had to buy a card for the Desktop to get any use out of it.


Not sure I agree with this...USB2 is good enough for most people...unless you are trying to copy 30Gb+ at a time. I have used a 1 Tb disk for a year or so now without problems....

Why does everyone go on about Pranthip....ever tried Zen in Don Mueang? Some really good deals there at the moment....

That HP maybe 14" and only an i3 but still a great deal of computer for the money.

Not sure what you want to use anything more powerful for...unless you are a developer or a games freak...no can't be a developer...must be a games freak... :Smile:

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## can123

I bought a Lenovo from Curry's in the  UK yesterday. It has an i5 processor and 4Gb ram. Built in webcam which is very good even though the specification says it's only 0.3 MP. Only one junk piece of software to remove - trial of Kaspersky. Five Internet shortcuts on desktop deleted and, apart from the need to download Windows 7 updates, the machine is functioning very well.


The trick was to reserve the computer, online, for collection at the store. This allowed me to save £ 20 off the in-store price. I paid £ 429.99, the identical machine is on Amazon at £ 499.99.

Too soon to rate the machine but it looks great to me.

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## blue

do they have a good battery ?

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## Butterfly

> Originally Posted by Butterfly
> 
> Try TESCO, 15.000 THB for a brand laptop
> 
> 
> specs ?
> 
> no ?


who cares about specs these days unless you are a PCtard who lives in a basement

all of them are good enough for 99.99999% of users, have plenty of RAM and power for surfing porn, emails, and forums

the only thing that should matter is price, that is cheaper is better

unless you are a gay mactard and you have a small penis and need to compensate your penis envy by showing off gay looking computer gears

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## baldrick

> ever tried Zen in Don Mueang?


LakSi Mall ? like pantip Ngam wong wan it has a bit of gear but not the full range like pantip pratunam




> USB2 is good enough for most people


for the majority of things , but start to copy 10 gig and you are looking at 20-30+ minutes

and like readyboost , a fast usb ram stick in a USB3 slot may well be able to give your PC some legs if you want




> who cares about specs these days


those of us who would use a android tab for more than viewing and wanking over photos of used brindle gerbils

this laptop is for the gf sister's 12 yro son - thus I want it to have some gaming potential within the price range I have set

if it was for a belgian/quebecoise small furry animal bukkake participant I would get the tamagotchi from tesco that you recommend

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## Sailing into trouble

I am going to have to move back to the darkside and get a pc once I Finnish working here. god I have been spoiled these last 4years. 

the lap top I will buy will be a modest machine that has just enough to do its job. hopefully cheap but reliable. Toyota sort of machine.

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## Butterfly

> this laptop is for the gf sister's 12 yro son


buy him an XBOX or a PS3, will be more useful and cheaper since they retail at 10,000 THB here

problem solved,

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## baldrick

> buy him an XBOX or a PS3, will be more useful


what office suite do you run on your console ?

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## harrybarracuda

He doesn't he plays "Star Wars". He thinks he's a Jedi knight.

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## TizMe

Plugh

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## Troy

> LakSi Mall ? like pantip Ngam wong wan it has a bit of gear but not the full range like pantip pratunam


My apologies I meant to say Zeer in Rangsit...not far from Don Muang. It had a very good stock of machines and at some very good prices. Not quite the hustle and bustle of Panthip but deals still came with a lot of extras...the Hp had +2Gb free (ie 4Gb) + carry case + headphones + mouse + many other bts...Win 7 was extra 300 Baht...but was far more than win7...many applications I was going to download were already installed.  Acer machines were very good as well...and had everything from top end to low cost. It is also possible to buy second hand machines...and good ones for those who don't want to lay out loads of money for an ever changing product....I know Pranthip does the same but there is a lot less hassle at zeer.

I knew what I was after in terms of equipment and was after something rugged and able to work in hot conditions...There were others besides the HP that could have done the job...but the offer was too good to turn down...before I saw the extras...

I think I would have an i3 with linux as the OS if it was for a 12 yr old....far more educational in terms of computing....and Ubuntu is pretty fail safe nowadays...

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## baldrick

any experiences with MSI laptops in recent years ?

I have noted good reviews and they have some well specc'd machines

http://www.pantiphotsale.com/goods-2658.html

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## Butterfly

> He doesn't he plays "Star Wars". He thinks he's a Jedi knight.


I don't think, I am a Jedi Knight  :Razz: 

what level are you on ?  :Smile:

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## Butterfly

> I think I would have an i3 with linux as the OS if it was for a 12 yr old....far more educational in terms of computing....and Ubuntu is pretty fail safe nowadays...


indeed, good thinking

Ubuntu is perfectly usable these days for newbies, and it's free

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## baldrick

^ and the ISO of Rosetta stone ?

I am not installing virtuabox

the machine will run a pantip copy of win7

I only wish to discuss hardware

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## Butterfly

^ are you 12 or something ? hardware is irrelevant these days,

check screen size and price, they all have already what you need

are you new to computers or what ?

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## harrybarracuda

> Originally Posted by harrybarracuda
> 
> 
> He doesn't he plays "Star Wars". He thinks he's a Jedi knight.
> 
> 
> I don't think, I am a Jedi Knight 
> 
> what level are you on ?


WTF?! Seriously, I was joking.

You fucking retard! So that IS you in the Fat Star Wars Kid vid!

 :rofl:

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## harrybarracuda

> Originally Posted by baldrick
> 
> LakSi Mall ? like pantip Ngam wong wan it has a bit of gear but not the full range like pantip pratunam
> 
> 
> My apologies I meant to say Zeer in Rangsit...not far from Don Muang. It had a very good stock of machines and at some very good prices. Not quite the hustle and bustle of Panthip but deals still came with a lot of extras...the Hp had +2Gb free (ie 4Gb) + carry case + headphones + mouse + many other bts...Win 7 was extra 300 Baht...but was far more than win7...many applications I was going to download were already installed.  Acer machines were very good as well...and had everything from top end to low cost. It is also possible to buy second hand machines...and good ones for those who don't want to lay out loads of money for an ever changing product....I know Pranthip does the same but there is a lot less hassle at zeer.
> 
> I knew what I was after in terms of equipment and was after something rugged and able to work in hot conditions...There were others besides the HP that could have done the job...but the offer was too good to turn down...before I saw the extras...
> 
> I think I would have an i3 with linux as the OS if it was for a 12 yr old....far more educational in terms of computing....and Ubuntu is pretty fail safe nowadays...


I prefer Vector Linux to vanilla Ubuntu these days, but that's probably a whole new thread on its own and as I'm fucking off on hols for a week, maybe I'll open a thread when I get back.

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## Butterfly

> I'm fucking off on hols for a week


don't forget to download your favorite root Kernels for the Android, you might get bored after a few days

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## Bettyboo



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## baldrick

^ miss piggy is worth a fap in that poster

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## Bettyboo

^ you'll be onto cartoon characters next, God forbid...  :Sad:

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## Troy

> I prefer Vector Linux to vanilla Ubuntu these days, but that's probably a whole new thread on its own and as I'm fucking off on hols for a week, maybe I'll open a thread when I get back.


Look forward to the thread....let me know if you start one....

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## baldrick

I ended up buying ASUS

i3 2350M
GT 520M
4 gig ram
USB3 port
14 inch LED

17 500 baht

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## harrybarracuda

Did it include an OS?

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## Kwang

> Did it include an OS?


I very much doubt it

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## Bettyboo

Usually about 21k for that spec with OS. You can get a basic spec Dell (last generation processor) with OS for that money - that was a few months ago, might've changed, but I doubt it because the MS OS seems to be prohibitively expensive on these lower end laptops; 25% of the cost is just too much, imo.

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## Butterfly

> Did it include an OS?


probably the lastest version of OpenDOS  :Razz:

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## baldrick

> Did it include an OS?


that cost 100 baht installed by a shop on level 4

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## harrybarracuda

Which one? (OS, not shop).

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## baldrick

win 7 - I would guess it was ultimate - never bothered to look

and all the shite software that gets loaded on the machines when they put the OS on

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## Kwang

^ It's a boot legged copy though, yes ?

Do you need to remove the WAT ?

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## baldrick

> It's a  copy though, yes ?


 yes



> the WAT ?


 what ?

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## Fondles

> ^ It's a boot legged copy though, yes ?
> 
> Do you need to remove the WAT ?



Some of the dodgies are pretty good these days, the one I have has no issues with WAT.

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## Butterfly

you can buy official OEM copy of WinXP Pro for 50 USD on Ebay, that's about 1,500 THB

one day, at airport, they will check for those genuine Windows stickers on those laptops, and if you don't have one, you could end up paying a fine

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## 9999

Well it's time for a new one here also. All I know from here is that it has to be an i7 and big screen (for a laptop). The higher resolution the better, and mac is not an option. Any suggestions?

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## 9999

This is the kind of thing I'm after...

Samsung RF509 (Core i7) at Shop4Thai.com B2C E-Commerce by AG - Online IT Retail Store Bangkok, THAILAND Computer, Hardware, Software, Digital Camera, Notebook

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## harrybarracuda

> Well it's time for a new one here also. All I know from here is that it has to be an i7 and big screen (for a laptop). The higher resolution the better, and mac is not an option. Any suggestions?


I just spec'd out a raunchy Dell XPS 17. Thank fuck work are paying for it.

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## 9999

Refuse to buy Dell. Had one before and never again.

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## Butterfly

DELL is the Apple of the PC,

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## harrybarracuda

> Refuse to buy Dell. Had one before and never again.


Got a couple of thousand of them and they are pretty reliable.

Wouldn't buy their servers though.

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## Bettyboo

I've had 2 Dell laptops, both okay.

Me little brother just spent gazillions on a multiscreen highly RAMed desktop back in the UK - Dell...  :Smile:  He had a Sony for 2 years and it spent more time being fixed than he spent on it...

Probably luck of the draw half the time.

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## harrybarracuda

The Inspiron 9400 (the original XPS) I have now I've had turned on 24/7 for five years, (possibly a total of a few hours powered off in that time) and it's only now I'm upgrading it, mainly because the audio socket is disconnected and rather than do without it while it's being fixed, I'm just going to upgrade to the new one, wipe it, get it fixed and put it into a pool for general use.

Been an extremely reliable machine in all that time.

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## baldrick

> they will check for those genuine Windows stickers on those laptops


stick one on - you can probably buy them for 20 baht

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## 9999

What are the Samsung laptops like? The 15.6" i7 seem to be pretty good value just <30K

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## 9999

This looks like a pretty decent machine for the price...

PANTIP.COM Market Place - ?? ?? ????? ??? ?? MP3 ???

NP-RC528-S01TH

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## 9999

The HP of the same price has lower specs in the graphics (1GB instead of 2)

PANTIP.COM Market Place - ?? ?? ????? ??? ?? MP3 ???

PAVILION DV6-6156TX

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## Butterfly

> Originally Posted by Butterfly
> 
> they will check for those genuine Windows stickers on those laptops
> 
> 
> stick one on - you can probably buy them for 20 baht


actually you could buy those out of Pantip a few years ago, they were selling 100 THB or 300 THB, can't remember exactly

wished I had bought a few of them,

they were sold out eventually, and then they had a crackdown

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## 9999

ZOMG LOL @ Crackdown anyone who pays for windows or a licence is a chump especially in Thailand.

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## Bettyboo

> buy them for 20 baht


80 baht.

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## nareto

if you are looking for a new laptop here are the links to Thai resellers
.::: Welcome to Hardware House International Co., Ltd. :::.
J.I.B. COMPUTER GROUP
ºÃÔÉÑ· à¨· ¤ÍÁ¾ÔÇàµÍÃì ¾ÅÑÊ ¨Ó¡Ñ´
BaNANA IT make IT easy
Advice Computer
or istudio if you are looking a Mac laptop (very dear but it works perfectly)

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## baldrick

and
Notebook,

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## baldrick

the 13.3 inch version looks very good as the new laptop

Asus Zenbook UX31A and UX21A coming soon with Ivy Bridge, WiDi, matte Full HD IPS display, and backlit keyboard | The Verge

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## Bettyboo

^ the missus got a 13.3 DELL about 3 years ago; sexy little thing... But, 1) it runs very very very hot; 2) the DVD isn't a tray, after about a year it stopped working properly, nowadays it works about 10% of the time.

I wouldn't buy a 13.3 laptop again; that small size, on a laptop with a fast processor is asking for heat trouble, imho. But, as you know,  :Smile: , I know fuk all about these things...

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## Mr Earl

I got me a new mini-notebook; Lenovo Idea Pad S110. Its nothing fancy intel atom 1.86ghz processor 32 bit, 2g ram, 320g hard drive.

It came loaded with win7, photoshop cs3 and some other nice software.
Included was mouse, soft case, keyboard protector, cleaning kit and a coffee mug! 
All for a whopping 9990 baht!
The little sucker works just fine, the keyboard is great for such a small unit. It has a nice quality feel to it.

I was thinking about getting the MacBookAir but for nearly 40k I could not see why I'd spend the dough for it.

I can buy a ssd for this mini laptop and install a hackintosh OS and be way ahead.
Anyway for the money this deal was the best I've seen anywhere. Got it from the Super Cheap here in Phuket.

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## 9999

Gotta say this sony i7 I recently bought is awesome. 15.6" 1920x1080, number pad on keyboard, all round great machine especially for working on the road.

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## Butterfly

> It came loaded with win7, photoshop cs3 and some other nice software.
> Included was mouse, soft case, keyboard protector, cleaning kit and a coffee mug!
> All for a whopping 9990 baht!


very nice deal indeed, I assumed it's Win7 bootleg by the clerk, not official OEM

those deals usually come with OpenDOS,

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## Mr Earl

Yea I'm sure its bootleg. When I asked him he said "copy". It works fine. I never used win7 before, seems snappy enough, even with the slowish processor.
They loaded win7 into an 80g partition, leaving a 220g partition empty.
Its supposed to be a 320g drive, I wonder where the other 20g are hiding?

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## 9999

> Win7 bootleg by the clerk, not official OEM


Surprisingly, my Sony came with OEM sticker. They upgraded to 8GB RAM for a few hudred baht under a promo designed to piss off butters. This was a 40K machine though.

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## harrybarracuda

> Yea I'm sure its bootleg. When I asked him he said "copy". It works fine. I never used win7 before, seems snappy enough, even with the slowish processor.
> They loaded win7 into an 80g partition, leaving a 220g partition empty.
> Its supposed to be a 320g drive, I wonder where the other 20g are hiding?


That might be the Rescue Partition for the Windows XP it was supposed to come with.

 :Smile:

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## harrybarracuda

^ And obviously have fantastic keyboards.

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## Butterfly

> Yea I'm sure its bootleg. When I asked him he said "copy". It works fine. I never used win7 before, seems snappy enough, even with the slowish processor.
> They loaded win7 into an 80g partition, leaving a 220g partition empty.
> Its supposed to be a 320g drive, I wonder where the other 20g are hiding?


could be the recover partition for Win7 with DVD images on it,

make sure not to use Windows update if it's a copy, could fuck up your PC

personally I would upgrade to WinXP Pro, much better. Make sure to disable SATA in BIOS before installing WINXP

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## Butterfly

> They upgraded to 8GB RAM for a few hudred baht under a promo designed to piss off butters. This was a 40K machine though.


what kind of idiots spend 40k on a lame laptop ? SONY are fucked up POS junk, you won't probably tell the difference, could be a mac and you wouldn't know it

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## Marmite the Dog

> personally I would upgrade to WinXP Pro, much better.


Personally, you like to suck cock - it doesn't make it right.

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## Bettyboo

^ personally qualifier... you trying to tell us something, matey?  :Smile:

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## Kwang

^ If that was Buttplugs closet there would be about 8 glory holes in it :Smile:

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## harrybarracuda

> Originally Posted by Mr Earl
> 
> 
> Yea I'm sure its bootleg. When I asked him he said "copy". It works fine. I never used win7 before, seems snappy enough, even with the slowish processor.
> They loaded win7 into an 80g partition, leaving a 220g partition empty.
> Its supposed to be a 320g drive, I wonder where the other 20g are hiding?
> 
> 
> could be the recover partition for Win7 with DVD images on it,


There's a fucking echo in here......

 :rofl:

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## Marmite the Dog

> personally qualifier... you trying to tell us something, matey?


I was using 'personally' in the 2nd person.

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## baldrick

> what kind of idiots spend 40k on a lame laptop ?


me - though i7 sandy bridge , GT 620M ,1080p IPS matte and SSD aint so lame

ASUS bringing Zenbook Prime UX21A, UX32A and UX32VD to the US, prices tentatively start at $799 -- Engadget




> ASUS just confirmed it's bringing four models to the states: the  11-inch UX21A, the 13-inch UX31A / UX32A and the UX32VD. What's the  difference between the UX31A and the UX32A, you ask? It all comes down  to storage: the UX32A uses hybrid hard drives, while the UX31A packs an  SSD. Meanwhile, the UX32VD is nearly identical to the UX31A except that  it packs an NVIDIA GT 620M GPU. As rumored, the lineup includes  Core i5 and i7 Ivy Bridge processors, with 1920 x 1080 IPS displays  offered even on the 11-incher. (If you don't need that kind of pixel  density, 1366 x 768 displays will be available as well.) Another thing  they all have in common: ASUS has tweaked that flaky touchpad and  re-tooled the keyboard, making the pitch 12 percent deeper. Also, the  keys are now backlit, for what that's worth.

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## 9999

> what kind of idiots spend 40k on a lame laptop ? SONY are fucked up POS junk, you won't probably tell the difference, could be a mac and you wouldn't know it


Fuk off butters you shit stirring carnt. It's not just some netbook to sit in cafes with - it's a proper machine, a heavy laptop that's easy to take with you.

But yeah the Sony bloatware is fucked and it has this gay special sony feature with a menu trying to strap off macs. I got rid of that shit pretty quick.

The rest of the gear seems solid - screen is awesome best I seen on a laptop, keyboard is sweet, runs smoother than any PC I owned. It makes perfect sense to get this over a chunky desktop that you cant take anywhere.

All I need is internet and this machine plus a 21" 1920x1080 LG LED screen for 3500 bt and I can set up shop wher ever the fuck I want. Why would you but an i7 desktop chunk when you can get it packed up in a laptop you can put in a bag and take anywhere?

The only downside is graphics. Although they are good - best ever for laptop, not quite up to the latest gaming standards, so not for you Butters. Zork III in a DOS window just wouldn't run as you intended it to when you wrote it as a youngster.

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## harrybarracuda

Calm down 9999. Buttplug has a Pentium III running Windows XP, an iPhone 3 and a cheap and crappy Viewsonic tablet.

He hasn't got a clue about technology. So he wouldn't know a decent laptop from a microwave.

 :Smile:

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## DrAndy

> Originally Posted by Bettyboo
> 
> personally qualifier... you trying to tell us something, matey?
> 
> 
> I was using 'personally' in the 2nd person.


 
Jekyll and Hyde like?

I wouldn't recommend a Sony laptop; my experience with them has been lots of trouble, due to bad electronic design and poor customer service

looked nice though

bastards

----------


## Mr Earl

Sony has really taken a nose dive as a brand in the last ten years.

I wont buy anything Sony ever again.

----------


## 9999

^ Fair enough mate, I hear Viewsonic make a fine product.

----------


## Butterfly

SONY is shit, and only idiot suckers buy them

blame it on American management of the company, time to ditch those fuckers and replace management with real japanese engineers like it was before

----------


## Butterfly

> He hasn't got a clue about technology.


unlike you, teenage harryb, having the last tech doesn't mean you are an expert in the field, more like a fucking cheerleader, which you are.

I choose the specs on my needs, not what I can buy or play with, because I am not teenager harryxbox "I have a small penis and hi tech toys is the only thing to make me forget that"

----------


## Butterfly

> I hear Viewsonic make a fine product.


don't know about their other products, but their tablet is awesome, good deal. 

Again, I could buy an iPad and look gay in Starbucks, but why bother ?  :Razz:

----------


## 9999

To be honest I'm not really up and the latest brands and what is in vogue but apparently SONY isn't cool right now which is why I got this machine for a steal  :Very Happy:

----------


## Butterfly

^ 40,000 THB a steal ? money would have been better spent on katoys barfines

----------


## 9999

That a fukn lot of barfines you're right. The laptop will blow up before I get half as much mielage watching gay porn.

----------


## harrybarracuda

> "I have a small penis and hi tech toys is the only thing to make me forget that"


Brave of you to admit it.

----------


## baldrick

can we talk about new laptops on this thread

piss off somewhere else to talk about penis'

----------


## harrybarracuda

> can we talk about new laptops on this thread
> 
> piss off somewhere else to talk about penis'


I didn't bring it up, it's ButtPlug, he's obsessed with them.

Moving on, I requested a new laptop to replace my aging XPS. I sometimes wonder what goes on in the head of salesmen.

If you walked into a shop and asked for a bottle of champagne, and they said "here's a nice bottle of Asti Spumante", what would you say to them?

"Fuck off, you moron", right?

So I spec'd out a decent rig, 9-cell battery, Bluray drive, 8Gb, etc., and the company rules say it has to go out for three quotes.

One comes back with the spec, the other two come back without the 9-cell, Bluray or 8Gb. Naturally they are cheaper.

Naturally, they both went in the bin.

Stupid, no?

----------


## Bettyboo

I played with an ASUS transformer 101 the other day; lovely it was. The new transformer 300 has most of the ability, but a reduced price, should be out within a month or so, and I reckon will be a great m/c.

&, I have a very handsome penis (no you can't see it, Papillion...).

----------


## harrybarracuda

Like I said, wait for the Prime HD before you make that decision.

----------


## baldrick

the ZenBook Prime VD should make short work of the penis'

----------


## harrybarracuda

You do know you're just playing into Buttplug's hands with all this talk, don't you?

I bet he's knocking one out already, and the Viewsonic's crusted up enough as it is.

 :smiley laughing:

----------


## Bettyboo

^ I feel violated now...  :Sad:

----------


## FailSafe

Diablo 3 just arrived from the States- my high-end Samsung with an i7 processor and upgraded video card will run it at full graphics level- nothing wrong with a decent laptop if you can make use of it. :Wink: 





> Like I said, wait for the Prime HD before you make that decision.


Agree- if you're gonna go Android, that's the one to get- it's worth waiting for.

----------

