My new Favorite Thing - a laptop review

[Chronik Pest]

So, as part of my Desktop upgrade I figured it'd make sense to finally jump on the laptop bandwagon . . . hey, if I'm gona spend I might as well spend BIG

I've always loved the concept of the netbook. I *really* love their size. I don't mind most of the corners they cut in order to achieve it. However, I found a laptop that's perfectly between netbooks and notebook/laptops.

it's the Toshiba Satellite T115D-S1125 (worst model naming convention ever).

11 inch screen with 768 vertical lines so it's "HD" . . . an actual AMD dual core processor with literally more horsepower than the desktop I'm retiring. and I upgraded it to 4 gig of RAM. and Windows 7 64bit so that I can take full advantage of it.

for only $500 (+$50 for 2 more gigs of ram) it's an exceptionally well powered machine but in the smallest possible package. VGA+HDMI output is crucial as well.

I wiped out the windows 7 Home version with Windows 7 Pro via a thumbdrive, and had no difficulty doing so.

It's got enough horsepower to run the Adobe Lighroom 3 Beta very well. Sames goes for a few other high-demand photo softwares I use in the field.

It seeamlessly steams Netflix fullscreen, even on full-screen external 1080p displays(!!). This was a KEY laptop requirement. Most netbooks fail in this category.

Anyway, there are so many laptop choices out there right now I thought I'd share these findings with you guys. There aren't any other laptops in this size bracket that have the specs and cost $500.

One crazy-ass use I've found for it, is in my newly geeked out kitchen.

I do a lot of cooking, but find all my recipes online. I also store successful recipes as docs on my computer. I've now wall mounted a cheap 22" Asus widescreen LCD in the kitchen and output the laptop to it. The laptop stays folded closed and out of harm's way and I input using my old beater keyboard and a cheap trackball (limited counterspace).

Of course, for ease of reading long recipes the monitor is in Portrait orientation



I'm currently scouring the internet for an under-counter keyboard tray to hide the keyboard when not in use. and the cables haven't been manged to optimal minimum chaos yet.

[RoBBo]

Tell me those aren't jars of piss.

[D-Railer]

meth lab.

Nice set up.

[Chronik Pest]

Tell me those aren't jars of piss.

In about 2 weeks the contents of those jars will get you PISS DRUNK . . . is that the same thing?

Honeywine, or more specifically it's Tej. The cheapest, easiest homebrew there is.

[Xandra]

You sure that's not the first symptom of a near-death XBOX video out?

sounds a hell of alot like what mine did right before it crapped out.

does your xbox output fine to other devices?

Does your monitor accept other inputs okay?

[Chronik Pest]

The holes in the wall from that monitor mount cost me my security deposit.

thanks for the reminder, asshole