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SSX4life
Premium
join:2004-02-13
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| Acer Aspire 5672wmli review *56k warning*
Acer Aspire AS5672WLMi Review
Well as promised, here is my Acer Aspire AS5672WLMi Review! Let me first off start by saying that once again Acer has outdone them selves on the build quality, craftsmanship, and price vs. performance on their laptop models once again! The Acer Aspire is a step up in the performance and options
Specifications Overview:
CPU - Intel Core Duo T2300 (1.66GHz)
Chipset - Intel 945PM
FSB - 667MHz
BIOS - Pheonix Bios v1.3228
Memory - 512MB x 2 DDR2 533mhz of Infineon memory
Hard Drive - 120 Gig 5400rpm Toshiba MK1234GSX
Optical Drive - PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K06RS (CD 24X Rd, 24X Wr) (DVD 3X Rd, 3X Wr)
Video - ATI x1600 graphics with 128mb memory (1280x800)
Video Ports - 1 x VGA, 1 x DVI, 1 x S-Video TV-out
Expansion slots - 5-in-1 for Multimedia Card, Secure Digital Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, xD-Picture Card, PCMCIA slot, Express Card / 34 slot
Microphone - Realtek HD Audio Input
USB 2.0 - 4x connection (2 on the left – 2 on the right)
IEEE 1394 / Firewire – 1 mini firewire on the right side
Audio - Realtek Audio with 3 audio ports in the front of the laptop (Line in, Microphone, Headphone)
Lan - Broadcom 57X NetXtreme 10/100/1000Mbps
Wireless - Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g
56K Modem - HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP (has anyone even heard of this company? I’m always used to Conexant modems)
Bluetooth - Integrated Bluetooth
Packaging / Case:
  
When I started this review It did not start well, you can see exactly why by looking at these pictures! I was horrified at the condition of the box that UPS sent me, and I immediately filed a damage claim with UPS incase anything was damaged or broken. You can clearly see where the package was dropped and tossed on several occasions. Now I know that if you ship bulk packages of canned beans or other unbreakable items that they can be tossed around a bit, but this simply is uncalled for! I especially love the large gash in the side of the box that had peanuts spilling out of it, such a quality shipping job by UPS on their part.
    
After I removed the outside box I could see that the second box (the main box) that was shipped appeared to be in much better condition than the original. I noticed only a few bumps and dings where the box had been dented etc.
     
After I cut open the box to reveal the actual laptop, everything seemed to be ok. The specs listed on the box show exactly what I had purchased, as well as what came with the laptop. Kudos to Acer for including the serial number as well as all of the specifications on the outside of the box before you open it up, not to mention the excellent packaging that survived the wrath of UPS. 
Included Accessories:
    
The accessories include a user manual, the AC adapter, a 3 month trial of Norton AV, and a telephone cable for dial up users (are there any of those out there still?) 
  
You will also notice that the power brick is slightly bigger than my single core Centrino 1.4ghz Travelmate’s. This is probably due to the larger graphics card needed to power this system, but it is still only comparable to a dells power brick and not as heavy and annoying as some HP’s you will see.
Exterior View:
     
I noticed no damage at all with my laptop physically which was a huge benefit seeing how UPS seemed to play soccer with it between New Jersey and Wisconsin.
One thing you will notice right away is the fact that my new acer is built on the exact same chassis as the Travelmate 4000lci. From the left side, right side, back, front etc. it has the same basic layout of the optical drives, battery, etc. You can even see the old battery fits with the new one, and even has the same speed rating.
I love the external color and the design of this laptop, the silver color along with the high gloss really makes this laptop stand out.
The laptop came with a nice cloth that protected the keyboard and lcd screen during shipment from the factory to the end user.
You will notice that there appeared to be either dust or dirt on some areas of the LCD, I cleaned the screen with no problems.
Closeup of the stickers on the left, these include the Intel Centrino Duo, x1600 graphics card, and a nice new "Vista Capable" sticker I will install vista on this laptop at a later date, but for now I will stick with XP Pro.
The right side also included some stickers of the various hardware components as well as software such as Acer Arcade (a media center spin-off) as well as other basic components. One nice thing Acer did is that they did not use very strong glue / adhesive with these stickers! They easily come off, and do not require any goo-gone to clean the surface. 
LCD Screen:
I love the WXGA screen included on this laptop; it is super bright and allows for many brightness options. I was able to see clearly indoors as well as outside with this high gloss finish. Some people complain of the "reflective" nature of the screen but personally I love it and will purchase my next laptop again with a high gloss finish for sure.
You will also be happy to know that the LCD screen has no dead pixels, and also that it has no backlight "bleed" that is so common on cheaper LCD screens found in Dells.
Gloss:
One thing you will notice about this laptop is that not only is the LCD screen glossy, but the top ½ of the LCD itself is also glossy! Any form of sweat, oil, dirt, etc. will show right away with use. This is not hard to keep clean at all, but I felt it should be noted in my review as well. Look at the picture for a visual representation of what I mean.
Keyboard and functionality:
This keyboard includes a straight line keyboard and layout similar to a standard keyboard. My previous Travelmate 4000lci came with a slanted keyboard, and as a result I'm finding I have to retrain my brain at times due to the angle or lack there of on this keyboard but it will be fine. The standard layout of Acer's keyboards are universal so when I jumped from my Travelmate to my Aspire the hotkeys as well as the Fn keys are all the same, big props to Acer on this one!
The keyboard also sports some nice media buttons for audio and video playback. I was able to hot-key them though winamp so my tracks were right there at a touch of the button!
Weight:
The weight is rated at 6.6 lbs. with the battery installed, after weighing it on a scale it is indeed what they say.
Front Panel:
   
The front panel includes an IR port, 3 audio ports, 5in1 Card Reader, and two toggle switches for blue tooth and wireless. All of the ports and connections are with in easy reach and I find them to be very handy for accessing what I need when I want, especially the 5in1 card reader.
Back Panel:
 
The back panel sports a nice option on this laptop which includes a DVI port as well as the Ethernet jack. By having two options for connecting to monitors it leaves the end user with a lot of options to connect their devices to (older VGA monitors as well as newer DVI monitors). I also like the fact that the NIC is in the back of the laptop which is out of the way and hidden from sight, on my previous Travelmate 4000lci it was on the side which was fine, but it became annoying at times.
Top:
The top includes a very nice and simple 1.6mb digital camera. One thing I noticed is that the initial software is rather bloated, and includes some rather *ahem* dumb overlays that will allow you to control a T-Rex by your movement on the screen. Bloated and slow, but yet nice none the less if you overlook the crapware it came with. Another nice option about the webcam is that it can be rotated 108 degrees to be facing out instead of towards the user. A nice little addition in my opinion.
Left Panel:
   
The left panel has the 56kmodem, a sleek slot loading DVD burner and two USB 2.0 ports. The slot loading pioneer drive is very handy and imho cuts down on the "bulkiness" of the laptop overall, I like the option of it "eating" my disks and spitting them out compared to a drive that you have to manually attach. The only concern I have is that it does not have a small pinhole on the optical drive incase I need to manually eject the disk. The last thing I want to have happen is to have a disk be stuck in the laptop with no means of ejecting it!
Right Panel:
    
The right panel has many nice features which include a PCMICA slot, Express Card / 34 slot for connecting to EVDO networks, 2 more USB 2.0 slots, S-Video out, and a VGA connection.
Notice the quarter in the 2nd picture, it shows the height is not very tall and bulky which is nice.
It's also important to notice the fact that the heatsink is copper based instead of aluminum in other cheaper laptops.
I like all of the connectivity that this laptop comes with, but I have a minor complaint about the right side of the laptop. If you look carefully you will notice that the VGA port does not includes screws to fasten the laptops connection down! It simply has you "plug" it in with the pins just sitting there, this is a poor design overall in my opinion, especially since the back DVI connection allows you to fasten it down securely.
Bottom:
 
The bottom of the Aspire is slightly bigger than the Travelmate 4000lci, this is due to the additional cooling and space needed to include the ATI x1600 graphics card.
Internal View:
       
The internals of the Aspire 5672 are very easy to work on, as well as upgrade, there are two main bays on the bottom of the laptop. The first holds the hard drive, and the second holds the memory, wireless card, and all of the heatsinks and heatpipes for the x1600 graphics card as well as the Intel Core Duo processor. I don't like the fact that the x1600 graphics card is on the same heatpipe as the core duo (unless that is the chipset but I doubt it). It seems fooling to run the heat through 2 things before cooling it. The touchpad gets VERY warm which I suspect is due to the GPU right below it.
One thing I noticed was that it does not appear to be a mini-pci card for the wireless card, instead it looks more like a 1x pci-x slot almost. If someone can confirm or tell me what this is please do so!
Bios:
    
The bios is fairly basic for a laptop which is to be expected. The simple layout does offer several benefits to the basic user to tweak a few options here and there, but limits them to such tings as FSB and voltage adjustments (common on laptops). The dates of the bios install shows May 16th 2006 under the revision v1.3228 which is less than a month prior to purchasing the laptop. With a recent bios installed on the laptop you would expect them to have the rest of the PC up to date as well when you purchase it, but more on that later.
I found it important to note on the bios that when you first access it two key items are disabled. The first being the 1 time boot menu by hitting F12 is turned OFF which will not allow you to choose your device (HDD, Optical, PXE, etc.).
The second important thing to note is that by default the HDD is set to the first boot device! If a standard user needed to access or boot off of a disk they would not be able to do so unless this option was changed. I can understand a "factory" setting that sets everything to the basics and locks people out of possible problems, but at least allow us to choose which option to boot to by unlocking F12 boot menu!
First impressions:
My first impressions of this system are wow! The fact that they packed an x1600 graphics card with 128mb of memory in the same chassis of my Travelmate and threw in all sorts of other goodies makes this laptop stand out in the price vs. performance compared to any other desktop on the market.
Operating System(s):
Windows XP Home Ed. with SP2 + Updates now it has XP Pro
First Boot:
         
The first boot of windows takes me to the Windows Pre Built Environment which allows me to input my username, time zone, read the EULA, turn on automatic updates, and name the pc.
After the PC has been turned and all the users info has been input it actually restarts and installs all of the drivers! The screen below shows the pc installing all of the device drivers from the restore partition.
 
The start menu does not appear to be too cluttered with useless crap, unless you count the "free" software that comes with the laptop. I prefer to use my own software instead of spoon-fed oem software but for the standard user this will work just fine.
Once installed and updated you will noticed that my computer shows two hard drives, one appears to be a restore partition, while the other holds what appears to be the operating system itself.
It is also important to note that Acer asks you to back up your windows OS to restore disks right after you boot up your PC. A single DVD or 5 cd's are required to complete this task. I threw in a DVD-R and got it done with in little to no time at all.
Operating System:
  
This is where I get a bit upset in my review of this laptop, so far things have been going great but this is about to change in my opinion. The first thing that I always do when I get a new pc is UPDATE it, this is no different. When I went to windows update I noticed that not only did I not have updates from the factory on this pc, but it only had a base image of windows XP with Service Pack 2!!!!! Big mistake on acer on this one! I mean holy cow why would you ship a new pc with a bios that is only a month old when the actual image from the factory that is from August 6th of 2004! 2004 is when SP2 came out, and this pc is up to date as of 2004 not 2005 or even 2006! I see this as being a huge problem for the end user, especially if they load up their spyware filled applications and never run windows updates (which they never do).
This is the biggest negative aspect of the OS I found, with 56 total updates found this is just not acceptable in my book at all.
Other problems:
I'm one to run operating system as lean and mean as possible, and when I first boot up and press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and see over 67 processes running on my laptop from just turning it on, and also seeing more than 470MB of physical memory to support it I know something is not right in my book.
Clean installation:
 
Ah yes, the clean shower feeling! We all know it, and love the feeling of a clean installation on a piece of hardware when there is no bloat! I ended up formatting the OS and reinstalling XP Professional with SP2 + Slipstreamed updates with RyanVM's integrator. By the time I hit the windows update page I needed zero critical or secondary updates!
I also went to acer's site »www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/···#results and downloaded the latest drivers and applications for my laptop.
before
after
Also I feel it is important to note that I used the omega drivers from www.omegadrivers.net instead of the drivers supplied by Acer. The clock rate for the x1600 is rated at 339.30 for the core and 326.40 for the memory according to radlinker. After reinstalling with the omega drivers it maintained those clock rates, this shows that Acer did not down clock the GPU any which is good to know.
Also my page file sat at around 160MB after installing all of my drivers and applications! It is also important to note that I used msconfig to edit what started up, and removed everything that as not needed. Quite an improvement over waste of 470MB if I do say so myself!
Wireless reception:
The wireless reception is "decent" in this laptop but surprisingly not as good as my Travelmate 4000lci overall. This will suit my needs, but the other laptop is defiantly better even though it only is 802.11 b/g. Also you should note that you do not need to use Intel's software to connect to the wireless connections with this laptop, just load the initial drivers on the pc instead. You will save yourself another 70+mb of page file usage as well.
5 in 1 Card Reader:
   
I used a Sony memory stick in my Sony Cybershot at work to take the pictures, the card reader works as promised works great. One thing I noticed about it though is that it has a rubber flap that closes to protect it from dust and dirt, while this is fine you will also notice that it is "hinged" on one end. I almost ripped this off at first thinking that it came all the way out similar to PCMCIA slot covers you see that hold a dummy card.
Sound:
Sound quality is EXCELLENT in this laptop compared to other models; I think this id due to turning on a few tweaked settings that include the realtek audio mixer (big plus imho).
Hot Keys + Media Keys:
Same hotkey functions as my 4000lci, but also includes some great media buttons on the left hand side. I don't see me using it any time soon but if and when I do decide to use it for DVD playback it will be nice.
Touchpad:
I absolutely LOVE the Acer touchpad's the have on their Travelmate and Aspire lines! They are silky smooth to the touch, and are very responsive. I've used some dell and gateway touchpad's that are almost "rough" to the touch and sorta feel like a worn down cats tongue. To me the smoother the better!
I also enjoy the 4in1 scroll feature built into the middle of the keyboard as well. Out of the box it did NOT work with firefox which is to be noted if you purchase the laptop. After downloading the latest drivers from snaptic's site I was able to use the 4 way scroll in firefox as well as opera.
DVD Burner:
I love the slot loading DVD burner included in this laptop. The strongest point would probably have to be the fact that it is made by pioneer which you KNOW is a reputable company when it comes to optical devices unlike some companies like sony etc. The slot loading DVD player played all my dvd’s just fine with Power DVD, and burned a dvd with Nero 7 after DVD Shrink moved it to 4.7 gig's.
IR:
I tested the IR on this laptop with my PDA, transfer speed was fine and found it just fine. This is a no-frills solution to transferring media. Works like a charm.
Bluetooth:
I unfortunately do not have any Bluetooth devices to hook up to this laptop, but I foresee no problems at all with it at all. The wireless hotkeys found on the front of the laptop work great, and I see no problems with this in the future.
Videocard:
The x1600 graphics card is a great laptop based graphics card that comes with 128mb of memory. The core is rated at 339.30 and 326.40 for the memory. I was happy to play all of my games on medium / high settings for BF2 and CS:S.
Battery Life:
Battery life is acceptable considering the fact that it is running a duel core 1.6ghz Centrino, an x1600 graphics card, and a power hungry wxga+ lcd screen. I got 1.2 hours of gaming on the battery and 3.4 hours of battery on power saving mode. My single core 1.4ghz Centrino got 6 hours of battery life when I first got it, and having less battery will mean I will be more “tethered” to the wall but that is ok. I bought this laptop so I can play games on the road and at LAN parties.
It is also important to note that this laptop’s fan is ALWAYS running due to the video card and core duo processor. This is not annoying and not always a problem, but it will get your lap warm if you sit in a car or on a plane for awhile so be warned. If you need something cooler look at something with integrated graphics and a core solo instead of duel core and a nice gpu because this WILL warm up your lap. I always use Webster's dictionary to prop up my lappy and it works great at improving the airflow and cooling it better.
Gaming:
Ah yes, the all important part of this review, the gaming section and how it performed! I must say that I am greatly impressed with the gaming performance of the x1600 graphics card for Battlefield 2 and Counterstrike Source.
Battlefield 2
BF2 under full load
     
I was able to play BF2 on 1024x768 with max AA and high settings with minimal to no lag at all while gaming! I feel that it is important to note that I did experience "glitching" while playing BF2 but this is due to the laptop only coming with 1 gig of memory and not 2 gig's preferred like BF2 likes. I ended up Alt + Tabbing out of BF2 to see how the page file was running and it turned out that it was around 1.26gig's which is typical for BF2. This means that 200MB or so is being cached to the hdd, and causing glitching and slowdowns in the game. I experienced no lags or slowdowns on 1024x768 when I set it to medium settings instead of high, and I also had no problems on 800x600 on high. I think the extra AA causes the game to use more memory and as a result causes the HDD to cache the game data as virtual memory.
My overall average FPS for BF2 on 1024x768 was roughly 55fps and only dipped into the low 40's when there was large amounts of terrain or explosions requiring AA and AF.
It is also important to note that once you install 2 gigs of memory in this laptop or any PC running BF2 it will remove all of the lag issues you will face, so please don't dock it down for that reason.
Also I used the resoultion hack for BF2 to allow it to run @ 1280x800, simply add this command to the end of your shortcut to bf2.exe
"C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\BF2.exe" +menu 1 +fullscreen 1 +szx 1280 +szy 800"
Counterstrike Source
Counterstrike Souce Page File
CS:S ran like a dream on this laptop and it also ran at my native resolution of 1280x800 with max graphics and max AA / AF! I was able to really crank up the graphics settings and see what this sucker could do with the HL2 engine. Overall I had no glitches or slowdowns (because the page file was at 700mb) and because the x1600 graphics card uses built in memory and not "hypermemory" like you see on dells that use 128mb of system memory which cripples the pc and also causes bottlenecks.
My framerate was in the 70's for gaming which is great!
Overall I know this pc can run anything I throw at it, and will continue to run games for quite some time. I know that I need 2 gig's of memory, and when the time comes I will defiantly purchase it.
Benchmarks:
3dMark06
I ran 3dmark 06 and received a score of 1242 which is acceptable but not supburb.
HD tune
HD Tune shows that I have a Toshiba hdd in my laptop, and that the average read / write speeds are more than acceptable for my laptop.
CPUZ
    
I also ran cpuz and here are the screenshots showing everything you could possibly want to know about the laptop.
Pros:
I really love this laptop, and it will suit my needs for the next thee years. On the gaming front I will be able to take this to lan parties instead of my desktop, and once I get 2 gig's of memory I'll be in better shape than I was previously.
I love the bright screen and the design of this laptop as well, it really goes to show how Acer is on the ball as far as their craftsmanship and layout design of their laptops.
The slot loading dvd burner is a plus, and the double vga + dvi connections make it unique in the fact that not many laptops have this option included. I can also upgrade the memory and the cpu in this laptop in the near future as well! Core Duo systems are up to 2.2ghz currently and I expect to see a few more clock cycles added to that list in the next 6 to 8 months down the road.
Cons / Problems:
The main problems I had with this laptop include the fact that the operating system comes with FAT32 instead of NTFS, and a rebuild is almost mandatory in you want your pc to run lean and mean. I do not like the fact that the PC only came with SP2 on it as well! What in the world was acer thinking! Their bios install is only 1 month old which tells me that they were able to update their OS in the pre-build envyroment instead of resting that on the end user!
The "bloat" oh the bloat...... were do I start with this one. I don't like bloat, none of us do, but in the end the average user would simply "put up" with what ever they were given. And in my opinion what they gave me was not (and never will be) good enough! Grab yourself an oem disk and reinstall the system (delete all 3 partitions as well) to free up hdd space and remove any problems.
These are the only problems I have found, and overall I'm very pleased from a consumer standpoint.
Rating and other thoughts:
I give this laptop a 9.5 out of 10! Overall price vs. performance gives you a great reason to pick this laptop up, and it performs like a DREAM at what ever I throw at it. Props to Acer for using a great chassis and display in this laptop, I will defiantly purchase another Acer down the road.
A few minor points they need to work on is their NTFS file structure, restore media capabilities, and the removal of bloat software and basic page file usage of their operating systems.
Please also get a warranty on this laptop with in the first 90 days of purchasing it! Don't buy it though newgg.com's warranty or acer's site because they are over priced and suck. Instead go purchase this warranty instead! »www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···34999065
3 years total for under 100 bucks! You can't go wrong!
Thanks for reading my review; I hope you enjoyed reading it! I defiantly enjoyed putting the time in to write it! If you have any questions or comments feel free to let me know!
Thanks again!
--SSX--
--
BF2 Server - 208.51.201.242
My BF2 Stats
Viva Le' Piracy! ^_^
[WDT] - My BF2 Clan!
| |
BA
The Old Man's Gonna Roll the Hard Six
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-24
Vancouver, BC
clubs: 
| Great review! Thanks for taking the time to do a very comprehensive critique.
Just one question: What's the capacity of the included battery?
said by SSX4life  :I don't like the fact that the x1600 graphics card is on the same heatpipe as the core duo (unless that is the chipset but I doubt it). That is indeed the northbridge sharing the heatpipe with the T2300.
said by SSX4life :One thing I noticed was that it does not appear to be a mini-pci card for the wireless card, instead it looks more like a 1x pci-x slot almost. If someone can confirm or tell me what this is please do so! Your suspicions are correct. I think it's officially called a "PCI Express Mini Card." Like ExpressCard, it can talk using PCIe x1 or USB 2.0. | |
SSX4life
Premium
join:2004-02-13
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by BA :Great review! Thanks for taking the time to do a very comprehensive critique. Just one question: What's the capacity of the included battery? What do you mean by capacity? The number of cells that the battery comes with (4cell, 8cell, 16cell etc.) or..... 
Just wanting to make sure I answer the question properly.
--ssx--
--
BF2 Server - 208.51.201.242
My BF2 Stats
Viva Le' Piracy! ^_^
[WDT] - My BF2 Clan!
| |
dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| 
BatteryMon |
| |
RedSunBed
join:2006-06-06
USA | reply to SSX4life
Nice laptop! | |
La Luna
Surviving Ashraful
Premium
join:2001-07-12
Warwick, NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
 ·Vonage
| reply to SSX4life
I love my Acer laptop (Aspire 5003WLCi).
»Notebook Reviews »Acer Aspire 5003 WLCi Review
It didn't come with much pre-installed bloatware (which surprised me), and I was especially happy that Norton AV was NOT installed, it was just there, ready to be installed. I chose to go with a different AV.
I had an Acer as my very first computer years ago, which was very reliable, and IMHO, they still make great products.
--
~~Tears from the moon, fall down like rain, I reach for you, I reach in vain, tears from the moon...~~ | |
SSX4life
Premium
join:2004-02-13
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to SSX4life
here ya go | |
nohelpWA
join:2001-12-06
Federal Way, WA | reply to SSX4life
May I ask where you bought this version with the x1600 graphics. My searches only find the x1400.
Thanks! | |
SSX4life
Premium
join:2004-02-13 | this was purchased off of newegg.com
Here is a direct link
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···34115246 | |
nohelpWA
join:2001-12-06
Federal Way, WA | I did a search for it yesterday at newegg and couldn't find it there!? Either it is me or my computer isn't working right the last few days. 
Thanks for the direct link!!! | |
kw
Premium
join:2004-06-12 | reply to SSX4life
I may get this machine for college. Give me something to kill time with. Not to mention, play games. | |
dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA | reply to SSX4life
That's a killer battery! | |
SSX4life
Premium
join:2004-02-13
·RoadRunner Cable
| I noticed that my total wattage capacity is much larger than yours. How many cells do you think this battery has? Overall I'm very happy with the overall performance of this laptop.
I just reinstall XP Pro again this weekend and I did some registry tweaking and turning off of system services (as well as not installing certain appz that suck up memory). As a result I am now playing BF2 on a page file of only 724MB! On my desktop it requires 2 GB of memory and sits around 1.4gb constant!
I'm glad I created an image of my OS after tweaking and before installing BF2! I'll restore to this image in the future incase something goes wrong etc.
Also just a heads up involving the built in microphone! If you just reinstall the OS and drivers the mic is WORTHLESS unless you change some options! If you turn the mic volume up all the way it still "barely" works! You will have to go into the Realtek options and enable microphone "boost" and then it worked fine.
I imaged my lappy back to the XP home image it came with earlier today to see if the orgional volume worked out of the box. Suprisingly it did NOT! Make sure you inable those 2 options under Realtek's audio configuration utility.
Also thanks for all the kind comments on the through review! I know that if someone else was looking at purchasing a laptop I would want to look online for a review to see how it is. I figure the more through it is the better it is ya know?
Writing unbiased reviews and telling people "like it is" is how I always review my products and I wish I could work for a company like Cnet and review a few of their products on a weekly basis! I would have my hands full but at least I would have fun!
If you have any other questions or comments feel free to let me know! I think I've taken enough pictures of the laptop, but incase I missed something let me know!
Thanks again, and keep your questions coming or comments on your own purchase of this laptop!
--SSX--
--
BF2 Server - 208.51.201.242
My BF2 Stats
Viva Le' Piracy! ^_^
[WDT] - My BF2 Clan!
| |
-x
@net.do
| reply to SSX4life
WOW, you just made me go out and order one for myself!
I have one question though: You mention that the CPU is upgradeable, but in your pictures I didn't see any CPU in a socket or something like it. Can you explain a bit more about this as I might be interested in upgrading my CPU in the future on this machine.
Thanks again for one of the most informative and well-written reviews I have yet read.
-x | |
SSX4life
Premium
join:2004-02-13
·RoadRunner Cable
1 edit | said by -x :
I have one question though: You mention that the CPU is upgradeable, but in your pictures I didn't see any CPU in a socket or something like it. Can you explain a bit more about this as I might be interested in upgrading my CPU in the future on this machine.
-x
-X you should register on DSLR! As far as the cpu being upgradable if you look at the pictures of the bottom of the laptop you will see the long heatpipe. Under the 4 screws is where the CPU is located. By removing the heatpipe and the 4 screws you would be able to upgrade the CPU (make sure you upgrade the bios first tho). If you buy a future duel core CPU 2.2+ghz or higher you can simply plug the new cpu into the socket, seal it up, and go on your merry way!
I'm glad you enjoyed the review, if you have any other questions let me know! =)
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Darkhawk16
join:2006-06-26
|  I am VERY impressed with this review. I've been eyeballing this laptop for at least a month now, and I finally saved up the cash and purchased it. Once I get home from my vacation in Germany, I'm going to use your review as a step by step process to tweaking this laptop to its full potential. Although I have one question. In regards to the Fat32/NTFS issue, im none too knowledgable as to why it would matter. I intend on using this as a desktop replacement/LAN party machine, so I would like to know the benefits of converting the HD to NTFS. Also, simply by using partition magic bring all 3 partitions together doesnt erase any of the data, does it? Thanks for your help! | |
SSX4life
Premium
join:2004-02-13
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by Darkhawk16 :In regards to the Fat32/NTFS issue, im none too knowledgable as to why it would matter. I intend on using this as a desktop replacement/LAN party machine, so I would like to know the benefits of converting the HD to NTFS. Using partion magic to bring 3 partitions together will not cause a problem at all, however I have a suggestion for you on something I found the other day involving partition magic.
I decided to test something under the origional image instead of my XP Pro operating system. So I threw my restore DVD back in the drive and 30 min's later I was back on XP home just like when I burnt the dvd. The one thing I noticed however was that there were no longer 3 partitions on the hard drive, there was one large called "Acer" I belive.
So if you want to merge the 3 partitions with partition magic I forsee no problems at all, however I would suggest that you still create your restore media before you do so.
Also as far as the FAT32/NTFS question there are several reasons to upgrade to NTFS. While I'm not going to get into too many specifics as to why the one main reason I would suggest that you go with ntfs is because you can store files larger than 2GB on the hard drive, and it offers some better encryption at the same time. As far as gaming performance goes I'm going to give my opinion (slightly biased) and say that FAT is not as good at gaming as NTFS, while I may be flat out wrong or left feild here I try to stick with one main partition scheme on my desktops (unless i'm runing Linux).
said by Darkhawk16 :Also, simply by using partition magic bring all 3 partitions together doesnt erase any of the data, does it? Thanks for your help! Partition magic simply erases the two partitions and moves the free space onto the new drive. If you do this properly I see no problems at all.
said by Darkhawk16 :I'm going to use your review as a step by step process to tweaking this laptop to its full potential. Although I have one question. If you really want to tweak it properly I did not write a review for running this as lean and mean as possible, I wrote it to be informative for a buyer not how to configure it to how I would see fit. If you did want to run this laptop as lean and mean as possible and get the most cpu cycles for your money out of this laptop I would suggest a few things (but please remember this is my suggestion and opinion only, if you see differently then by all means configure your laptop how you see fit).
#1. Reinstall your operating system with Windows XP Home / Pro with a reinstall disk and NOT with a recovery CD or DVD. By doing this it wipes the entire drive removing all of the old and outdated drivers, applications, and bloat. If you don't have an OEM disk of Home give me a PM and I'll see what I can do for you. If you own a license for XP the distribution of the media for backup purposes without the key is legal and within the fair use clause of the DMCA, so gimme a pm if you need.
#2. Download the required drivers for your laptop, here is a screenshot of the drivers I found I needed for my laptop off of acers site.
The key part about this is that you do not, I repeat do not double click the setup.exe file located in the unzipped folder you see. InsteadI would go ahead and go to your device manager and manually link the driver .dll to the missing hardware found.
By doing this you won't get the bloat you will normally find when you run the .exe which bundles all the "wonderful" software included as well (hp and their God-dammed printer software is the worst for this). This also removes the possibility for multiple items showing up in your msconfig directory on startup (speeding up your start time, as well as lowering your page file).
#3. I would install your needed drivers for your laptop. When this is done go into your msconfig direction (start --> run --> msconfig --> startup) and remove any unneeded applications from your startup. Here is my current startup that I have enabled, you can see that I do not have much on there.
By turning off the useless "junk" you save yourself time and headaches. Leave what you want on, but personally the less I have the happier I am. I can always run an application and throw it into memory, I don't need that application to startup right away and "think" for me so I have it right there waiting when I want
These are the three main things I have found with my laptop that improve performance and reduce the amount of sh!t that ends up slowing me down.
Hope this answered your question
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Darkhawk16
join:2006-06-26 | ...Wow. I am absolutely speechless. Your answer went above and beyond what I had originally asked, and even answered some things I was too shy to ask. Thank you very much. I can not begin to tell you how much this helped me. Major, major kudos. | |
dvi man
@net.do
| reply to SSX4life
I was trully blown away by this article and by the machine specs, it seems the best deal out there now.
I have a couple of questions for anyone here:
1. Can you use the VGA and DVI outputs of this machine on two monitors at the same time? I don't mean displaying the same image on both monitors, but extending the desktop across the two external monitors.
2. Has anyone used the DVI output to connect the laptop to a Plasma or EDTV??? I guess we'll need something like Powerstrip to set a custom resolution, but this would be awesome if it could be done!
3. If I install Windows Media Center Edition on this laptop, and buy a Media Center remote, will it work with the laptop's built-in infrared port?
Thanks to all.
- dvi man | |
jblade
join:2004-04-23
Columbia, MD
| reply to SSX4life
After looking on newegg I noticed something troubling.
The memmory speed is reported at 533, while the FSB is at 667? Dont you want for optimal performance to have a 1:1/6:6 (same thing) FSB:Memory clock ratio? Otherwise your running it at 3:2 or something like that, which causes a bottleneck?
Therefore when doing a memmory upgrade, would it be best to purchase to 667 sticks instead of 533? | |
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