Would you recommend the 220A5?

[Gilnear]

I'm in the market for a notebook, I've been looking around for about a week and this one is looking to be the best because of it's price.

So I'd like to know what you guys think of it.

Hows the battery life? I read on here that it gets hot on one side, how hot does it get? I've read that the cd drive is a little noisy, how loud is it? Would it be loud enough to make an uncomfortable situation in a class room? (Not that I would be loading a disc during class...) When the fans kick in, how loud are they?

Can anyone post some benchmarks? 3dmark 2001se and some sisoft sandra benchmarks would be great :)

Is there anything that you really really don't like about the notebook?

[Gilnear]

Well the silence isn't very encouraging..

I'm considering three notebooks at the moment, all from bestbuy.com

VPR Matrix 220A5 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1055388013694&skuId=5602467&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01174)
Medion 40274 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1059048806340&skuId=5842895&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01174)
eMachine M5312 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1063670218918&skuId=6046824&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01174)

The hardest thing about it is that the Medion is too tempting (2.6ghz, nvidia 5600 go, 60gb hdd, media card reader, and built in wireless - unfortunately Medion is more European based). I'm only considering the emachines because of it's price and my interest in amd. Finally there's the VPR Matrix. I love its design, widescreen, US based, seemingly good customer service (if you know what's wrong or that they're wrong), and I like the fact there's an actual community for it.

Please give me a reason why I should go with VPR.. Or a reason why I shouldn't.

[Madgenius]

Gilnear,

You're decision should be based on the needs you have. If your just using the pc for web browsing or email, basically simple tasks get the emachines. AMD is not too cool for laptops since they don't produce there own chipsets like intel. they might run some apps a little faster but overall they won't have the kind of support thet the intel chips have (or resale value). The Medion looks like it's using a desktop prossesor, so you might want to check a cnet review or somewhere else to find out the Batt. life. Also the 2.6 speed of the chip is probably a wash w/ the vpr 2.2, since the vpr is a mobile chip. You can check those specs a intel.com.

Now if you should get the vpr depends on your level of PC savey. Tech support is ok, but whose is great. The feature set and performance of the vpr is (from what I found) unparallel. small issues like the hard drive specs can be easily upgraded at a later time (I think NB HDD's are still playing catchup, 7200 rpm drives are now hitting the market and will come down in price) The vpr has good storage, a 1394 external can be used for editing, and having 2 ports makes the vpr optimal. Also ceck the screen res. on the on the others, having more makes your pc useful longer. Good luck.

-S

[tmh]

I have had the 220A5 for a couple of months and am very happy with it. If you need a computer that has a very nice crisp and wide screen, is fast and relatively light, I would recommend to go for the VPR brand. And the price is well worth it.

[Gilnear]

Thank you both for your replies.

Madgenius - My needs are slightly more than just browsing and email. Lately I've been helping some friends with their/our website so I'll be using dreamweaver, photoshop, flash (later on), and a few other programs. I'd also like to do some mpeg encoding which makes the Medion much more tempting.

And yea.. I've built a few computers and worked on several others. I've disassembled an old 286 laptop and my current notebook which is portege 7000ct and reassembled both without killing either :) So the only thing I think would give me problems is adding a wireless mini-pci card and attaching the antennae.


tmh - Thank you for replying. The price is definately a good thing. If I hadn't gone through bestbuy's listing one more time I would probably have the Medion right now or at least on its way. Also thanks for posting your benchmarks in the 'Fresh Diagnose Video Benchmark" thread, I've been hoping for a chance to compare the 220A5 to my gf4 4200 and my gf2 card. I was sort of hoping that it would perform better than the gf2 but wasn't really expecting it to, it really isn't behind by that much.

Thanks again to both of you, I think the vpr is what I want.

[dnt]

Hey Ginear,

I got the 185. Basically same as 220 but except it comes with a 1.8 mhz CPU and wifi. I acutally run DreamWeaver, Photoshop, Ms Office, Couple of IPOD stuff, Mozilla, Filezilla, and a bunch of other open source thing.

Overall the CPU is great. The spead is quick enough for me. There's really no lag when using the program, but I really don't open up more tha 2-3 programs at time. Plus I disable a lot of XP services to free up memory. Pretty much my OS is very streamline but also I have a OSX theme too which puts a little stress on the CPU but it's looks great =)

Also the battery life is like 3 hrs so that great too. The only problem/complains is that I actually carry this laptop around and it weight about 7lbs but it get heavy after awhile. Also you must be comfortable with fix computer because if all you need to do is upgrade the ram and wifi card, then your set. But if you need to fix the screen buzz or change the hard drive, it's a ***** because to have to take part the case. Other than that I love this laptop.

Of course I might get another laptop like in 2 years or so (best buy service plan) :-) This time though, it will be a PEntium M model. Man you see how some of them for like 6 hours and they are real powerful compare to the Pentium 4M. But for now, this laptop is great. It's compariable to my Desktop. Oh, Love the wide screen too. It's great to open up 2 word documents at time.

[Gilnear]

That theme does look pretty slick, my friend would probably kill me for running that theme though :D (not an apple fan). It's good to know that it can do just about everything I want it to do. There's a new problem though, I've just introduced myself to the Sager notebooks and they have a widescreen model available where you can customize it. After school I'm going to look into them a bit closer but the VPR is still high on my list.

I've seen mixed results with the pentium-m (centrino), gateway has a model that only gets about 2 hours but then have a more expensive notebook with 4-6 hour battery life. I've seen other notebooks that also don't seem to follow the "greater battery life" rule with centrinos.

I have to run though, talk to ya later :)

[dnt]

Yeah some manufactor, because of the lower power requirment of the Centrino, tend to shrink the battery size too to make them more portable. Most centrino should get about 3 hours min but even so, if I had a choice, I would get something with 4hrs battery life and atleast a 1.4 pentium M (centrino) Basically it lets me use my laptop for a full movie and 1.4 is almost as powerful if not more than the PEntium 4m 2gigz.

But yeah it really depends on your need. I'm more a student and need it for occasional notes and web editing.

[Madgenius]

I had a compaq x1000 1.4 before the vpr. I took it back because for the price. the batt. life wasn't that great about the same as the vpr. Nor was the performance better, if memory serves me correctly the centrino got about a 2000 performance rating in sandra PC ext (benchmarking) and the 2.2 M in the vpr get a 2400 rating I added the mini pci (dlink 520+) for free so all in all I get the same if not better machine for $500 less. Advantage VPR.

HEY, dnt where'd you get the cool desktop, see thats the cool part of windows it can act like any other OS.

[ECA]

I still like the Sharp 3D, and the price point is good.

[Gilnear]

I'm sorry to say this but another notebook has caught my eye as I, sort of, mentioned earlier. I'm a hair from ordering it right now, the Sager 4760C (http://pctorque.com/4760.php). The only thing I'm not excited about is battery life which is about 1h 30m because it has a desktop processor. Honestly I don't think I'll be using it on just battery power since there are outlets everywhere I plan to be using it and none of my classes are over an hour (so far) so I know I can find time/class to let it recharge. Also I mentioned earlier that I like the idea of a community behind a product, well there's an entire forum dedicated to the sager notebooks and it is pretty active so the 4760 is at the top of my list with the VPR trailing (I can't ignore the price difference..).

[dnt]

The sager doesn't look bad. Just remember if it takes 1.5 hours to run out the battery it's probably gonna take the same amount to charge it.

Also at 17" I'm gonna think this thing is around 10-12lbs. Thats gonna be a work out :-) Trust me... even at 6-8lbs for the vpr matrix (adding the case, ac adapter, various material) it gets heavy if you have to walk around class alot. But I really do like the built in camera.

But it seems that price seems to be the main issue with you right? If so the sager is great. But I thought the VPR you could get for about under $900 w/ rebates and stuff?

[Gilnear]

I understand, it may get really annoying having such poor battery life but I'm confident I won't have to use the notebook for that long off the battery. This quarter isn't so bad, I don't necessarily need to be taking notes with these pud classes I'm taking. One problem is that I have quite a bit of "down" time, an hour before lunch, lunch, and an hour after lunch with absolutely nothing to do. The teachers are getting stricter about the "no internet" policy and such. With a notebook I'll be able to do a lot more of things I want to do than I could do on their (school's) computers. I'm also expecting to go to a couple LAN parties in the near future, the 4760's radeon 9000 can easily support any and all of the games that we would be playing as well as the game(s) I play on a regular basis.

Next quarter is where, and when, the notebook is going to take a crucial role... :(

[flecrone]

A couple of things --

Be aware that the Sager configurations include no OS. You'll either have to install your own or pay extra for it.

Also, a rated battery life of 1.5 hours could mean considerably less in real life.

The Sager looks like a great desktop replacement for primarily stationary use, but not such a good lug-around-all-day notebook. Even the VPR widescreens aren't really well suited for that. If you're going to be carrying a notebook around a lot, look for something in the "thin and light" category. You'll be much happier.

[Gilnear]

Yea.. I'm starting to feel pretty stupid about the battery life issue, I just went out of town today and had about 4 hours total of travel time (I was a passenger) and I was BORED. The VPR's price and better battery life are looking better and better. However if I could find a centrino with at least R9000 (as in performance, doesn't matter to me if it's nvidia or ati) then that would be sweetness.

[Gilnear]

Now I'm looking into the Compaq X1012 from tigerdirect.com - Only $150 more than the VPR but has a radeon 9200 and pretty good battery life (~4 hours). I'm waiting to receive an auth code to get into the X1000 forums where I see they have gaming and benchmark topics.. seems to be taking awhile though :(

[dnt]

Since you really don't care about weight ( I really hope you dont :-) ) and care more about power. Then I would get the sager or whatever desktop replacement laptop that is CHEAP and has the powerful video chipset you want. Then with the money you save, buy the Electrofuel PowerPad. It's like an extra battery that is way better. For 249 you can extend the battery life up to 8hrs more or probably 4 hours in your case. Or opt for the $449 one and get up to 16hrs of laptop time... which I don't think you will be on the road that much. But hey it's great to have.

[Unregistered]

In the very near futury (read: by the end of October) a new version of the 4760 will be out. It will have several new features, as well as the video chipsed being upgraded to an ATI 9600 128mb video card.

[Gilnear]

Yep, I read about that. The 4780 isn't it? That does look incredibly tempting unfortunately I've read rumors from July about it, something tells me it may not happen this month either.

[Zedem Mion]

Well they are usually fairly accurate in their dates of having products out by their estimated date. I would expect that within the next two weeks at the latest it will be out...

[Gilnear]

But was it at any time made official? My understanding was that Adam from pctorque.com had received information about the 4780, but that's all that was given. As far as I know everything refering to the October deadline has been speculation along with lots of guesses towards it's cost.