Which <$400 Black Friday laptop to buy?

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: jonjon0nline
So how difficult would it be to upgrade the Celeron M to Pentium M? If this isn't difficult I'd go with the BB offer only to later upgrade.

If you've never done it before, it can be imtimidating. Not actually removing the processor (assuming it's not soldered on), but removing parts of the chassis to get to it.

If you don't have a service manual, you have to really think what you need to remove to remove what. And because it's usually plastic, you're afraid to break something. But if you have instructions on what to remove to get to what, then it's not that bad.

BTW, I drove from Canada with my friends to a CircuitCity and got there at 12AM with about 25 people already in line (not including potential friends of friends etc). 4:30AM came around, they starting issuing vouchers for the laptops and poor us didn't get a cheap laptop. Had to go back to Canada laptopless. 🙁

I would have taken it apart and showed you guys how to do it if it was possible 😛

 

[Slicedbread]

I went to walmart at 12:02 and there were 30 people in line already, went to another walmart 4 miles away and was fifth line. It was funny how alot of people started coming between 2-4 a.m.; by that time there were already over a hundred people in line, even though they had said they only had 24 of them.

 

[KrillBee]

Originally posted by: Hacp
I was thinking. Maybe I could upgrade that ****** celeron M to Pentium M. I can buy a used pentium M dothan for around 80 bucks, so an upgrade wouldn't be that bad.

I'm seriously thinking about starving myself for a few days and buying that laptop at bestbuy. I think that the HP one is better, but I live in NYC, so no wal-mart.

I upgraded my Toshiba m35x s149 from celly M to pentium M

It was a good move on my part, much better battery life now. But I would call Toshiba tech support first to make sure the upgrade will work.

 

[DragonMasterAlex]

Well, I got the ze2308WM and I have to say that even though it's a no frills laptop (no card reader, no firewire), it's a pretty impressive package. The silver case is very classy looking, and the built in speakers are surprisingly clear and powerful. I'm not sure I've ever heard laptop speakers that were so damn decent (as laptops go, of course; obviously no laptop speakers, no matter how high end, are ever going to sound as good as desktop speakers). Both memory slots are easily reachable (under a cover on the bottom, 2 screws) and the laptop appears to be ready to take 2GB of RAM.

The hard drive is only 4200RPM, which really sucks, but is easily accessible for upgrading. I don't anticipate any issues. I've still not opened the unit further to find out if I can replace the CPU with an Athlon64, but I'll definitely be looking into it! All in all, this is a nice laptop for the price, and i've got no major complaints!

Jason

 

[zerocoolok]

I got the Wal-Mart HP 2308wm and its pretty great. I was the first in line in the Conroe, TX store. They only had 12 laptops there! Anyway, I have compiled a list of upgrades for you guys that got it. First go here for the service manual (lists correct ways to upgrade and part #s)

1. Hitachi Travelstar 60gb 7200rpm HD

2. PQI 512mb pc3200 200pin Memory (order 2 of these)

3. AMD Turion 64 Mobile MT40 800MHz FSB Socket 754 Processor - OEM

You can upgrade the processor but it involves taking the whole laptop apart, which you should be able to do with the service manual handy.
I made the list in order of which should be done first because it is A LOT easier to upgrade the hd and ram than the processor (which is NOT soldered to the board btw). The hard drive is a huge performance bottleneck with the laptop so thats why its on top of the list. The ram comes in close second though because its cheap and 256mb shared with video is Barely enough to keep the laptop going.
Thats my 2 cents worth lol.

 

[bs49886]

I also picked up this notebook.

Impressive for the price. Mine ws only $378, although
it was advertised for $398 and at some stores advertised for $488..

If I remember corectly the FSB is what, 333mhz?

would there be compatability issues between the chipset & that processor?
Or is the the processor the limiting factor for the FSB.
Also, I dont believe this chipset supports hypertransport..

Wonder would a normal althlon 64 mobile(754) work?
Something like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103470

 

[bs49886]

Anyone know if that will work?
(mobile athlon 64 3000+)

well I know it will fit.
But the question of cooling, hyper-transport,
dual channel memory, and short battery life comes
to mind.

 

[TygGer]

For those of you who went to Walmart, how did they handle the hot ticket items? Did they hand out vouchers like BB and CC?

BTW - The speakers on the L25 SUCK.

 

[Slicedbread]

They waited until 5:00am to sell even though there already over a hundred people in line at 4:00am (they actually thought they were getting laptops). It was first come first serve as with everything else that is why you heard so many reports of fights in walmart.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: bs49886
Anyone know if that will work?
(mobile athlon 64 3000+)

well I know it will fit.
But the question of cooling, hyper-transport,
dual channel memory, and short battery life comes
to mind.

You do not want to use a full fledged Mobile or DTR A64. Those have much higher power requirements and even if it gets enough power, it will be difficult to dissipate that heat.

Only replace with a 25W Sempron or a Turion 64.

EDIT Also, there is no dual channel support on the S754 platform. Hypertransport is the same between all S754 chips (Sempron & Turion)

 

[TygGer]

That sux. I saw on the news about people getting trampled around the doorway! People were stepping all over each other.

So if it was first come, first serve, one person couldve grabbed 2 or even 3 of these laptops if they were fast enough???

Hopefully next year they will get better organized. I think this was the first year Walmart had something worth standing in line for...

 

[Slicedbread]

No it was one per paying customer but you had to wait in line, I was 5th in line I was there since midnight. The store only had 24 laptops and all 24 of them had come by 1:30am but the manager refused to give out any vouchers (I guess they wanted all that chaos). Around 4:00 am they had a local police officer at the front, at 5 they had two; they were there to prevent people from cutting, which they did, and keep the people in the front of the line from creating a scene or something.

I was just amazed how many people were there, some had chairs, cards, and snacks. The local bestbuy had people waiting outside since its not 24 hours and one guy was having a barbecue and watching tv that he had hooke up to his truck.