[kwlug-disc] could be the laptop deal of the year

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 2:25 PM, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at crashcourse.ca>wrote:

> On Fri, 25 Jun 2010, Chris Irwin wrote:
>
> > On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 09:45, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at crashcourse.ca>
> wrote:
> > > i've had consistently good luck with refurb'ed laptops from
> > > tigerdirect, and it had what i wanted for my new system (1600x900
> > > display, DDR3 memory, basic HW virt support, HDMI port), and at
> > > that price, it's hard to go wrong.
> >
> > Let us know how the graphics work. I haven't heard much about the
> > new Intel on-package graphics. It would be nice to get a first-hand
> > report.
>
>   just pulled it out of the UPS box, plugged it in, booted to live
> ubuntu 10.04, desktop is running at 1600x900, wireless connected,
> seems fine, pretty much what i expected.  sadly, it's only the i3
> processor (as advertised) rather than the unexpected bonus of an i5,
> but i can live with that.  and it's actually fairly light.
>
>  regarding graphics, i have no need for blinding speed, i just want
> lots of pixels for real estate.  as long as it runs at native res, i'm
> happy.  all in all, a fairly good deal.
>

A great deal at that price vs. features for sure. Good thing most things
work.
What about sound? Are there decent channels showing in the mixer (Master,
Speaker, Headphone and Capture at a minimum?)

When you plug in a headphone, do the main speakers go mute, or does sound
come out from both headphones and the built in speakers are the same time?

We had an audio issue with the Core i3 350M Toshiba that I mentioned earlier
when booting from the Kubuntu 10.04 CD. Wireless (Atheros) worked great,
the screen native resolution was recognized (1366x768). Only the sound had
a problem.

Also, it lacked the hardware buttons for audio play/mute/stop/pause/...etc.
which
was the deal breaker for my daughters. We took it back and got a gift card.
Allows
us to look for better deals in Back To School time.
-- 
Khalid M. Baheyeldin
2bits.com, Inc.
http://2bits.com
Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
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