desktop replacement

Toshiba Satellite L505-S5993 15.6-Inch Laptop Review

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 | Laptop and Notebook Computer Reviews | Comments

Toshiba Satellite L505-S5993 TruBrite 15.6-Inch Laptop Computer

With a large 15.6 inch widescreen monitor, large hard drive and plenty of memory, the Toshiba Satellite L505 has a lot of performance in a not-so-portable package. Ideal as a desktop replacement laptop, it offers a full range of features expected from a desktop computer, but in a laptop sized package.

Here’s some of the more important stuff:

  • 15.6 inch monitor
  • 2.1GHz Intel Pentium T4300 dual-core processor
  • 500GB SATA hard drive
  • 4GB memory
  • Graphics card with shared memory
  • DVD writer
  • 802.11n Wifi and Fast Ethernet

The 15.6 inch monitor is enough for everyday use. My wife owns a similar Toshiba with a screen of the same size. It is not up to the full day workloads of a desktop computer, where a much larger desktop is more comfortable. But for using a single window at a time, this is just enough. At the highest resolution the screen will accommodate a web browser with an instant messaging program or other slim window at the side. A VGA slot if available for attaching a monitor.

The memory is enough, 4GB will serve even the most demanding of users, and is upgradeable to 8GB, although I really don’t see that as being worthwhile because the odds of actually using that much memory are very slim. If you run enough programs to fill up more than 4GB of memory then the speed of the processor will start to come into play as it will have a lot of programs to deal with.

The processor is fast enough, but will chew on power. This is not a super low power CPU and that is reflected somewhat in the short battery life of this laptop. Nothing special, but will perform as expected for the price range.

The 500GB hard drive is more than enough. Up to 100 DVD movies. Just remember to back up your data if you’re going to use that much space. Although hard drives are pretty reliable, they are a common point of failure and are usually not recoverable. With all the information you can store on there, it means there is a lot to lose if the hard drive is damaged. The same information can also be lost due to viruses, so backup regularly. Consider an external hard drive or online storage for backup.

802.11b/g/n wireless is always good. This offers speeds of up to 300Mb/s for the wireless connection to the router if the router supports it. There is a wired Fast Ethernet port too, which is standard and will connect nearly anywhere there is a network available.

Rounding out the rest are three USB ports, built-in speakers, a webcam, and audio input and output.

One little gripe though. I really don’t think it’s necessary to squash the 10-key numeric keypad onto the right. I would opt for a keyboard without the numeric keypad. Although the extra keys are helpful, it is pretty much expected that it won’t be included on laptops because it just makes the space too squashed.

Overall, I would recommend this for home use. It can get lugged around, but does not offer the portability of a netbook. My wife’s version, with different speakers is just great. Windows 7 is a plus too.

Pros:

  • Fast
  • Plenty of memory
  • Spacious
  • Full range of extras

Cons:

  • Unnecessary keyboard keys

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Gateway M-6750 Notebook PC with Core2 Duo and 3GB RAM Review

Friday, December 11th, 2009 | Laptop and Notebook Computer Reviews | Comments

I have come to a point where I really do think that most desktop computers can be scrapped for laptop or notebook computers. Seeing as my home computer is a Pentium 4 and I’ve been using that for six years, with a few repairs along the way. The Gateway M-6750 provides enough processing power for all applications besides games and a 15″ monitor that gives enough desktop space.

For under $600 the Gateway M-6750 notebook computer comes with a nice shiny finish combined with polished aluminum looking edge around the keyboard. The looks are good, and that’s not bad for a nicely priced laptop.

The Core2 Duo processor, although a mobile version, will give enough power for office type applications, web browsing, listening to music or playing videos. The processor is combined with 3GB of RAM and the Windows Vista operating system.

Some of the main features are

  • 1.66GHz Intel Core2 Duo CPU
  • 3GB of RAM
  • Windows Vista Home
  • DVD writer
  • Memory card port
  • Speakers
  • Webcam
  • Network port
  • 802.11n wireless

These features together will do well for a home office or personal use.

The 3GB of memory is good for Windows Vista as it needs more memory than previous operating systems, which is usually true anyway I guess. The dual core processor helps too.

Networking features are good, and having 802.11n wireless, which supports up to 300MB/s transfer speeds allows the fastest possible speeds over wireless networks.

The graphics uses up to 384MB of main memory. This is good for increasing the graphics quality, but not so good as it uses up more of the memory that could be used by other programs on the computer. With that said however, there is plenty of memory to go around and programs won’t be left wanting with still 2GB of memory after the graphics and Windows’ needs.

There are three USB slots and an Express Card slot for system expansion.

Finally, the 15 inch monitor supports up to 1280 x 800 screen resolution. This is spot on for a monitor of this size and gives enough extra room to squeeze two web browsers side-by-side, but keeps them at a readable size.

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Gateway M-6750 Notebook PC with Core2 Duo and 3GB RAM

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 | Laptop and Notebook Computer Reviews | Comments

After plenty of laptop computer reviews and notebook computer reviews I have come to a point where I really do think that most desktop computers can be scrapped for laptop or notebook computers. Seeing as my home computer is a Pentium 4 and I’ve been using that for six years, with a few repairs along the way. The Gateway M-6750 provides enough processing power for all applications besides games and a 15″ monitor that gives enough desktop space.

Let’s continue our notebook computer review.

For under $600 the Gateway M-6750 notebook computer comes with a nice shiny finish combined with polished aluminum looking edge around the keyboard. The looks are good, and that’s not bad for a nicely priced laptop.

The Core2 Duo processor, although a mobile version, will give enough power for office type applications, web browsing, listening to music or playing videos. The processor is combined with 3GB of RAM and the Windows Vista operating system.

Some of the main features are

  • 1.66GHz Intel Core2 Duo CPU
  • 3GB of RAM
  • Windows Vista Home
  • DVD writer
  • Memory card port
  • Speakers
  • Webcam
  • Network port
  • 802.11n wireless

These features together will do well for a home office or personal use.

The 3GB of memory is good for Windows Vista as it needs more memory than previous operating systems, which is usually true anyway I guess. The dual core processor helps too.

Networking features are good, and having 802.11n wireless, which supports up to 300MB/s transfer speeds allows the fastest possible speeds over wireless networks.

The graphics uses up to 384MB of main memory. This is good for increasing the graphics quality, but not so good as it uses up more of the memory that could be used by other programs on the computer. With that said however, there is plenty of memory to go around and programs won’t be left wanting with still 2GB of memory after the graphics and Windows’ needs.

There are three USB slots and an Express Card slot for system expansion.

Finally, the 15 inch monitor supports up to 1280 x 800 screen resolution. This is spot on for a monitor of this size and gives enough extra room to squeeze two web browsers side-by-side, but keeps them at a readable size.

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Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 Laptop Computer with Intel Core2 Duo

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 | Laptop and Notebook Computer Reviews, Reviews | Comments

This laptop computer review item goes for just under $1000, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 offers a well-rounded package with fairly high performance processor, decent sized screen and enough extras to keep most users happy. Ahead with the notebook computer review.

The screen is a around 14 inches and offers 1280 x 800 screen resolution. I always find this a little disappointing. The screen resolution doesn’t allow much more than a standard amount of desktop space, that is to say it will fit a document or a webpage, but struggle to fit both. I suppose that’s reasonable for the size, but even if the text is small, I like to be able to fit two windows comfortable beside each other. On the other hand, I do use a 1280 width monitor for work and it’s usually enough.

The dual-core processor gives a bit of punch, and allows multiple programs to be run simultaneously, whilst the load is spread over the two cores.

Here are some of the main specs for the Lenovo IdeaPad Y510:

  • Intel Centrino Core2 Duo
  • 3GB of memory
  • 250GB hard drive
  • DVD writer
  • Windows Vista Home
  • 3 USB ports
  • Wireless 802.11b/g/n
  • Fast Ethernet
  • Up to 4 hours battery life

A major plus is the amount of memory and hard drive space. 250GB of hard drive space is enough to store plenty of photos, songs and videos. 3GB of memory gives a lot of memory for Windows Vista to play around with. Windows Vista needs at least 1GB and this gives it more than it needs.

Wireless connectivity supports up to 300Mb/s, faster than most internet connections. The Ethernet port only supports up to 100Mb/s, which is a little strange, because the wired networks usually support much faster speeds than the wireless. However, there are probably more fast wireless networks around than Gigabit wired networks.

At a tad under 3kg, this is not a light notebook, but makes up for the extra weight with a full house of features. Add to these Lenovo’s VeriFace security software, which verifies users by their facial features and you get a very capable machine quite worthy to be a desktop replacement laptop.

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Acer Aspire Refurbished Notebook PC with AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 | Laptop and Notebook Computer Reviews, Reviews | Comments

This notebook computer review is for an Acer computer for just under $600 and offers a lot of features for a fully-featured laptop. AMD Turion 64 X2 processor offers a lot of processing power without sucking too much power. A 15.4″ screen gives ample viewing area. 2.0 GB of memory allows Windows Vista to operate well, and 160 GB hard drive and DVD burner give plenty of options for storing lots of data.

Personally, I love litte, ultraportable computers. That’s probably because I do the vast majority of my work at a desktop and have little need for a regular laptop. However, modern laptops have improved so much that they provide more than enough power for what most users require. My five year old desktop computer still does everything I want it to do, and laptops now do better, for even less than what I originally paid.

This Acer Aspire does give what’s necessary to be a desktop replacement notebook. Here are some of the main features:

  • 1.9GHz AMD Turion 64 X3 Dual-Core processor
  • 15.4″ wide screen (1280 x 800)
  • 2.0 GB of DDR2 memory (supports up to 4.0 GB)
  • 160 GB hard drive
  • DVD writer
  • Media reader
  • Gigabit Ethernet
  • Wi-Fi (b/g)

This is a refurbished notebook though, so you get a computer that has been used before, but fixed up. With all the features I would still say that this is a good bet and offers everything necessary to be a desktop replacement computer.

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