And I ****ing love it!
I positively adore it in every manner one could possibly think of! I'd probably make out with it if it were possible, maybe not since that would be freaky...still I wubs it oodles much!!!
It royally beats the **** out of my puny 13-Inch Macbook (I'll never understand why I bought my Macbook in the fist place
. Something tells me deep down inside that I've always disliked it in one way or another )
It was a kind of (Woah, wake up, this thing beats my 3-4 year old mac, I has enough monies, is cheaper than my mac, probably easier to maintain, plus I wont have to worry about OSX, not that I use it that much, if at all anymore. Lets get it!) spur of the moment sort of thing. I paid $477.82 for it, which is not bad considering the specifications below
Yeah, you kinda get the point. I'm a power-hog, I like my machines to be powerful, even if they are a bit heavier than usuall.
All in all it seems to be relatively well built, the Hard Drive is even held in place by a screw to it's drive bay in the corner, unlike my mac in which it just sits in there and hopefully doesn't move around too much. The cover for the hard drive is very sturdy, and could probably take a good hit, which compared to my Macbooks's thin aluminum hard drive shielding is a good thing (Seriously, my Macbooks HDD cover is so thin, you could bend it without even trying to).
Before we start the next session, let me iterate a few facts,
It royally beats the **** out of my puny 13-Inch Macbook (I'll never understand why I bought my Macbook in the fist place
. Something tells me deep down inside that I've always disliked it in one way or another ) It was a kind of (Woah, wake up, this thing beats my 3-4 year old mac, I has enough monies, is cheaper than my mac, probably easier to maintain, plus I wont have to worry about OSX, not that I use it that much, if at all anymore. Lets get it!) spur of the moment sort of thing. I paid $477.82 for it, which is not bad considering the specifications below
Specs and Tech Stuff that some of you wont care about with pointless yet fancy formatting.
[*]AMD Phenom II X4 Quad-Core N970 processor (Hellz yeah!)
[*]2.2GHz, 2MB L2 Cache
[*]4GB DDR3 SDRAM system memory (expandable to 8GB)
[*]500GB SATA hard drive (Western Digital Scorpio BTW, yeah a decent brand for once)
[*]8x SuperMulti DVD Double-Layer Drive
[*]3x USB 2.0 Ports (They might be 3.0, but I haven't really checked into that yet.)
[*]SVGA and HDMI outputs (Yay, normal Video Outputs again!)
[*]1x Obligatory Ethernet Port
[*]1x Obligatory Headphone and Microphone port
[*]Nice built-in speakers that I cant remember the name or brand of right now
[*]Built-in 1.3mp webcam, probably has a built-in microphone on it.
[*]17.3" HD+ widescreen CineCrystal display (LED to be exact, Resolution is 1600x900 (16:9) Refresh rate is 60Hz)
[*]ATI Radeon HD 4250 Graphics with 256MB of dedicated video memory and support for Microsoft DirectX 10.1 (LolICareAboutDirectXWhy? Also LolI'mnotonetoneedtopofthelineexpensivevideocardsthisisfineformeIdontuseWindowsha
rdlyever.)
Some other handy features include
- Natively/Kernel Supported Supported Wireless Card: It works out of the box on Linux on every distro, specifically it uses an ath9k chipset (I love this, no more crap broadcom card or having to install drivers, just had to blacklist the acer-wmi module in Linux which is cakewalk)
- Numeric side-Keypad
- Tons more screen real-estate in general, expecially in Linux
- Brushed Aluminum casing around the keyboard
- Webcam works out of the box (So long and good riddance isight-firmware-tools)
- HDMI and SVGA work out of the box
- I also seem to have a 5-10 hour battery, depending on the demand given for power, which you know for such a powerful laptop, is just damn sexy, expecially since you would think it would consume much more
- Barely heats up at all compared to my mac, of course this is because it has more fans than my mac
Yeah, you kinda get the point. I'm a power-hog, I like my machines to be powerful, even if they are a bit heavier than usuall.
All in all it seems to be relatively well built, the Hard Drive is even held in place by a screw to it's drive bay in the corner, unlike my mac in which it just sits in there and hopefully doesn't move around too much. The cover for the hard drive is very sturdy, and could probably take a good hit, which compared to my Macbooks's thin aluminum hard drive shielding is a good thing (Seriously, my Macbooks HDD cover is so thin, you could bend it without even trying to).
- I'm a user, have been for 3-4 years now or so. It's always worked for me in everything I have needed, and I generally hate
with a passion, to the point in which I seem to be unable to actually want to type it's name out. I only use
in rare situations such as college classes that require it's use. Don't take this to offense though please, it doesn't actually affect you, and I prefer to not really pick fights with
users.
- As a result I don't give so much as even the smallest, most microscopic sliver of a rats you know what of a damn about the OEM copy of whatever OS a laptop ever comes with (Windows, Linux, etc, it doesn't matter). OEM copies in my honest opinion, suck but you're free to your own opinion on the matter.
- Sub-sequentially, I'm always just going to install some Linux distro over the partition housing the OEM copy, even if I never make any recovery disks, and with the tools I have in various Linux distros and utilities, who needs em anyways?
The first thing I did was format repartition my existing 500GB Drive that I bought a few years past to clone my Arch Linux Install to off of my 750GB Drive, and then Rsync -avh my Home Directory off of it's partition on the same 750GB drive to the 500GB drive so the permissions and files would be preserved.
I then cloned over Mac OSX into my 120GB HDD that came with my Mac Originally so that I could preserve it.
After all this was finished and I confirmed that all of my data, files,etc were still there , I used a Linux Mint 10 Live DVD to format the 750GB Drive and change it's Partition Map type from GPT (Which is what my Mac Used), to MBR, and partitioned it as follows
Primary Partitions
Mount Point/Purpose: Root (This is where Arch was supposed to go) ( / )
Device Name: /dev/sda1
Size: 45GB
Filesystem: ext4
Mount Point/Purpose: Some NTFS Partition (If I need Windows for some college class, which I doubt will be the case, this is where it'll go)
Device Name: /dev/sda2
Size: 80GB
Filesystem: NTFS
Mount Point/Purpose: Other Linux Distro (Will probably be Debian, Crunchbang, or Sabayon)
Device Name: /dev/sda3
Size: 35GB
Filesystem: ext4
Extended Partitions:
Mount Point/Purpose: Home Partition/Where my Home Directory goes (/home)
Device Name: /dev/sda5 (Dunno why it skips a number when going to extended)
Size: 400GB
Filesystem: ext4
Mount Point/Purpose: Temporary ( /tmp )
Device Name: /dev/sda6
Size: 25GB
Filesystem: ext3 (I admit, Journaling is probably useless on a /tmp partition, but whatever)
Mount Point/Purpose: Swap (/swap)
Device Name: /dev/sda7
Size: 8GB
Filesystem: linux-swap
Mount Point/Purpose: Virtual Machines or something like that, mostly a misc partition though
Device Name: /dev/sda8
Size: 105.63 (Yeah, couldn't get this to be even, of course this is due to the base2 and base10 discrepancy)
Filesystem: NTFS
I didn't foresee any complications at first, which would later come back to bite me in the ***. After I had gotten my 750GB drive formatted to MBR, partitioned, and ready to go, I began the process of using the same Linux Mint live cd and the same rsync command I used earlier (subsituting my home directory backup on the 500GB as the source (mounted under /media), and the partition's on the 750GB drive's mounted location in /media as the target. It took about an hour and a half, maybe two hours, but eventually it finished.
I then used Parted Magic, which includes a application-ized version of Clonezilla to clone my Arch Linux install on the 500GB drive to it's designated partition on /dev/sda1 on the 750GB drive. Afterwards I altered fstab and a few relevant config files to match the new one, switching to the use of UUID's as well. Unfortunently something went "holy foobar batman!" and Arch would never boot, merely *****ing that the root device on /dev/disk/by-uuid/ didn't exist. Needless to say I spent at least an hour and a half trying to fix this, using the Linux Mint live CD from earlier to alter the files.
Arch however would have none of this, and even though I reconfirmed that everything would allow me to boot it properly, and the UUID's were in fact the same as they should be in fstab and every other relevant config file on the Arch Partition, it would not boot.
The only good news was that my home directory was completely intact in every possible way (Yay!)
At this point I didn't have the time or patience to fight with it anymore and I was like "**** it!"
I decided to screw trying to get Arch up and going, and I just installed Ubuntu 11.04 over it (I still have a backup of arch on the 500GB drive, which boots just fine in my puny Macbook, so go figure), and gave it my login/user info from Arch, which in turn made it so it was as if nothing happened. I installed openbox, KDE , and a bunch of other stuff (I'm not gonna post all the packages unless someone wants me to, not that it matters), compiled a few programs from source that didn't have .deb binaries available, installed several themes, edited conky to display two more bars for the two new CPU's I had compared to the old config, edited more configs, installed a new kernel or two etc. The only thing I did not reinstall was Gnome3 and Gnome-shell, which seem to be very unstable in Natty NarwhalAll in all it was a successful day for the most part
Everything I need is back and installed in one form or another, and I've learned some stuff as a result of buying it and using it for a few days
- Don't buy overpriced hardware, especially hardware that is no different from a normal laptop, just made to sound better. You know what I'm talking about here, and I really don't mean to bash "those machines" seeing as I've used one, and it lasted me quite some time and still works, but enough about that.
- Don't get attached to one Linux Distro (I'll miss you Arch Linux, but the lessons you taught me will never fade. I just dont have the time or patience to maintain such a distro anymore, and it was fun while it lasted.)
- Look for good deals on laptops. A machine with a Quad-Core that runs at 2.2 GHz, has a 500GB HDD, 4GB DDR3 RAM (Up to 8GB they say could be installed), a Dual Layer DVD drive, etc is nothing to scoff at, no matter what the brand is. (Currently this Acer is the best deal we have at my Work in terms of Price for performance.)
- Quad Cores ****ing own!
- Not really a lesson I've learned recently, more like a long while ago, but some advice if you're going to use alternate OS's such as Linux like I do. Do lots of research to see what is natively supported and what isn't. It really really makes a difference to not have to install loads of crap to get wireless to work and whatnot.
For example, my new Acer uses an Atheros chipset (Almost all wireless cards are rebrands of some other kind), Atheros seems to support Linux quite well and seems to be generally friendly to it as well. As a result almost any computer you buy that uses an atheros chipset will work out of the box.
However my new Acer needs restricted/proprietary drivers for it's Radeon card, which is not a problem for me since most any distro out there will offer an easy way to install them, but none-theless it doesn't work out of the box entirely. The video still works, but Unity and some applications suffer from garbage on the menus and screen unless these drivers are installed. I knew this would be the case with Radeon anyway, as my brothers old crappy Compaq had to have them installed as well. On my Mac it used an Intel card, which was natively supported. Nonetheless the radeon driver works insanely well, and I have no quells or problems will it being propriatary.
But yeah, I'm done flaunting my new laptop for the most part. It's my new main machine, and consequentially and predictably the most powerful out of all of the machines in our household whether the other machines be laptops or desktops. Old Somewhat-beloved Macie has been retired to (We'll use this if Big Boss falls) duty, and I'll only use it as a backup machine. I'm gonna go back in on payday this week and get the 2 year extended care plan from work (I never risk not getting it, and no you cant stop me, it's only about $59-$70 anyway), I just didn't want to spend that extra $59-$79 at the time.
I only wanted to show it off, and not trying to bash any other brands too terribly much, so sorry if I come off that way. I think it was a good buy for the price (I was gunning for under $600, and I honestly am not swayed one way or the other between Intel and AMD processors)
My only remaining question, is that do you think it was a good buy for the price and the capabilities? Again I'm not fussy about graphics performance, and I'm not gonna be running stuff like Crysis and high-end games on it, the most I'd be running is TF2 when I eventually get it setup (Hey, my bro and I could do Ad-hoc using this new laptop and my old Macbook!). Just asking everyone's opinions and thoughts on it.
Also I need a nickname for it. All of my laptops are obviously female, because they are all beautiful in their own ways? Any suggestions?
Now that I'm done with this, I'm gonna do some pelvic thrusting as a victory dance k.
Again, you don't need to care at all about it, I just felt like flaunting it off a bit. I gotta have my fun and ego-moments from time to time ya know.
