Check out my all powerful new gaming rig!

[lord of the mark]

well, not quite.

First of all cause its a laptop. A budget laptop at that. Which is not unconnected to point 2. Its not "mine". Well I paid for it, and if I insisted, well .... but it was purchased for POTM (my kid) to help her in her schoolwork. Its designated as "her" computer and for the time being QOTM and I share the dinosaur. Although we've made clear to POTM there will be times when we need to use the new PC, and she of course agrees. Shes even accepted that I will use it for gaming "but not like when you played Civ2, daddy, that went on for hours" which I agreed to, not without some regret, as the first game I want to try out on the new PC is Victoria, which IIUC is not a "play it for 20 minutes" kind of game. But im still happily playing Starcraft, so its not urgent. And there are other advantages for me = 1. Everything on the dino puter that is in any way associated with POTM moves to the new laptop, and is deleted from the dino. This should release considerable HD space. 2. Now that we have a backup, I will be free to open up the dino and tinker with it. More on that later. 3. We're now agreed that next PC will be a desktop, and I will have complete input (within budget) as to what I want.


So, heres the new notebook
Toshiba Satellite
Celeron M, 1.6 Hz
256 Meg Ram (upgradeable to 2 gig)
60 Gig HD
Integrated Graphics by ATI-Radeon
Onboard wireless, b and g.
15 inch trubrite screen.


And the deal - $500 US, including free wireless router, and a free printer/copier/scanner.

[snoopy369]

Re: Check out my all powerful new gaming rig!

Originally posted by lord of the mark
So, heres the new notebook
Toshiba Satellite
Celeron M, 1.6 Hz

Pretty sure you might want an upgrade on that one, LotM ...

Seriously though, nice machine for $500

[Solver]

Ehh, laptops. They're still wickedly expensive. For 500$, if buying a desktop, you wouldn't have a bleeding edge system, but still a decent computer with a dedicated video card and at least 80 GB HDD, I guess.

"but not like when you played Civ2, daddy, that went on for hours"

That's funny .

[lord of the mark]

Re: Re: Check out my all powerful new gaming rig!

Originally posted by snoopy369


Pretty sure you might want an upgrade on that one, LotM ...

Seriously though, nice machine for $500

oops, yeah, I sometimes forget my "gigas"

[El_Cid]

well you did get some cool games on 1.6hz systems back in the day - so you should be ok for a little while, and as long as its not Elite, you wont spend long hours on one single game

seems a good deal overall for $500

[DrSpike]

Is there a reason why you didn't just spend that $500 on replacing the dino? You could then have given the dino to your daughter.

[Nikolai]

Good point.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Is there a reason why you didn't just spend that $500 on replacing the dino? You could then have given the dino to your daughter.

Cause it was decided, by the powers that be, that having a laptop rather than a desktop was important to my daughters academic progress. Once the decision was made that she needed a laptop, it followed that she would get the first new PC, since we didnt have a dino laptop to hand down to her. My personal concern was simply to get the process off square one, rather than delay it with a desktop-laptop debate. And, Doc, the presence of 2 PC's in the household removes a significant CONSTRAINT to gaming.

[Kassiopeia]

Nice laptop for $500 , I'd buy one if I needed a laptop.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


Cause it was decided, by the powers that be, that having a laptop rather than a desktop was important to my daughters academic progress. Once the decision was made that she needed a laptop, it followed that she would get the first new PC, since we didnt have a dino laptop to hand down to her. My personal concern was simply to get the process off square one, rather than delay it with a desktop-laptop debate. And, Doc, the presence of 2 PC's in the household removes a significant CONSTRAINT to gaming.

I reckon the powers that be pulled a fast one there.

Good news on the constraint removal front though.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DrSpike


I reckon the powers that be pulled a fast one there.

Good news on the constraint removal front though.

I get more than the extra time on the dino, though. I get the opportunity to open the box on the dino. I dont think the modest increase in RAM that, IIRC, this particular Aptiva allows will buy me much, but it gives me a chance to develop my PC fixer skills, which should come in handy.


Also, POTM wants the Sims. which isnt that expensive now. This will give me the chance to actually play it, which will provide many fine opportunities to sp- er, to post real contributions to discussions about it.

[Jaguar]

Upgrade that RAM, sir. It's worth it.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by lord of the mark

Also, POTM wants the Sims. which isnt that expensive now. This will give me the chance to actually play it, which will provide many fine opportunities to sp- er, to post real contributions to discussions about it.

Well, you should know what line you need to take by now.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Jaguar
Upgrade that RAM, sir. It's worth it.

You mean the RAM on the dino? IIRC (and I do need to check) the dino maxes out at 64 Meg. So thats not a huge gain over 48 Meg. Should make EU2 run smoother, though.

[Nikolai]

I'd at least double the RAM for the laptop too, it's a very smart thing to do. 256 MB is very little. If POTM is going to play Sims2(and I guess she want to), 512 MB will make it a much better experience.