New Thread!!! Woohoo!!!
 

finally, i've come up with something new and exciting to post about, and i know a bunch of you will have plenty of ideas on this one. allow me to start in the beginning:

in the beginning, the universe was created....
then hundreds of thousands of years later, i finally found a way to scrounge up some spending cash. i'm going to college for programming, and i need something i can carry with me to and from class(probably a laptop) which can compile my c++ programs(currently, lower-end games). i'm almost definitely putting debian linux on it, and i dont plan to spend more than $1000. i'm open to suggestions, and if someone has a great idea for some crazy mod, i'm up for it. just tell me what to try.

thanks


currently looking at a dell inspiron 8000, for somewhere close to 400 bucks.

I would just like to point out that it's probably closer to a hundred thousand hundred thousands of years later, or a bit more ;).

As to a notebook, I believe that ECS makes some relatively cheap ones. And have you thought about an iBook? Apple laptops are about the only things I would consider buying from them, and they are quite nice.

dell is doing a special right now on a machine for like $700. it's got some decent specs on it, and should do exactly what you need.

i'm sure it's faster than a $400 laptop, and it has a warranty.

you also might check out compaq. they're usually pretty cheap. i used to have one, it was cheap, but it was pretty reliable. but for $700, i'd go with a dell.

Be careful ... some of the less science minded might hijack your thread and insist that it's more like 6,000 years or 50 years or 5 seconds, or whatever their current fairy tale espouses.

Have you considered building a briefcase PC? You take a decent sized briefcase (3-4" deep), mount a 17" LCD in it, mount actual desktop PC components inside with the ports for your keyboard accessable (this can be stored inside with your mouse as well), and if done right you can have an honest to god desktop in a briefcase (your fans and components will be exposed, so no deltas will be necessary) and you will be the envy of geeks everywhere. I'm going to do one of these for my brother one of these days, though I'll watercool his ....

If you don't need the optical drives, this leaves you with just your hard drive as the only real internal component. Your PSU can be modified to run slimline (use an old CDROM box) with a few 30-40mm fans ventilating it. Make sure your board is an IGP board (obvious) and mount your HDD and PSU over the PCI slots on your board (no cooling necessary here) or next to it if your briefcase has the room. Install a plexiglass (for r33tness) shroud over a large portion of the board (with vents on both sides mounted with low profile 80mm fans in a push-pull configuration) and use a 2U or so heatsink (with the two 80mm intakes over it for ventilation). Modify your NB heatsink with a Vantec copper iceberq for extra cooling. Undervolt the processor (I would recommend a stock 3200+ for this project, natch) for lower heat output. Mount the mobo and components on a base lexan sheet and ensure that your grounding cable from the motherboard is heavily insulated and installed correctly. If everything is done right, you should have your middle tray giving you a perfect stand for your full size (minus the 10-key portion) keyboard and mouse when the briefcase is closed. If done right, you could construct a monster like this for under $1000 and it would put all those bargain basement POS laptops to shame.

So, whaddayasay? Sound like fun? It sure would be more up to the task of compiling and such than a crappy bottom feeder laptop, and just think of the envy you will get ....

airspirit: You had me sold on everything except the 17" LCD. I can't imagine that will be cheap.

You can get them in the $360 range anymore if you look. The rest can easily be purchased with the balance. I didn't say get a top-of-the-line 17" monitor ... a 15" (which I have bought for under $200) would work as well.

I was also thinking ... if you wanted to use an AGP riser you could throw a cheap Radeon 9600 in there and get much better 3D acceleration as well.

Aw sh!t ... now I'm thinking of doing this ... wtf .... I guess it would be best to wait for my next bonus and do this from scratch with some low power opterons though ....

Heh, now I want to do this too, but have not the $ :/.

yah but
 

A brief case sounds nice but I would feel much about trading in my laptop for it if it had a) battery (you cant always plugin in class) and b) it meet atx motherboard standard (hence killing one of the main problems with laptops today you cant upgrade them without replaceing the most expensive part the screen)

?NO SIG?

You can use a mid-ATX motherboard easily, and a full ATX motherboard if you really planned your project out good and found a suitable case. A mini-ATX nforce2 board would be ideal, and an extended ATX board could be used to run a dually, though there would be fun engineering issues with the PSU and you'd need a big freakin' briefcase. As far as plugging it in, most classrooms have the plugs ... you'd just need to stay near one of the walls while working. I've yet to see a classroom anywhere without them. If you're thinking of running it at McDonald's during lunch, however, that may become an issue.

What? McDonalds doesnt have electricity anymore?

sorry i haven't gotten back to you guys in awhile. i've been trying to find out where my wallet went. i got paid, put it in my wallet, went to the bank, deposited the store's money, went back to our store, then proceeded to purchase a red bull. unfortumately, i had no wallet, and therefore no money, to purchase this red bull. so i settled on a nice cool refreshing tantrum. i then proceeded to follow every step that i had made but to no avail. so there goes 700 dollars. this definitely limits my budget. one of my favorite things about actual laptops is their keyboard. i dont know why everyone seems to hate them. oh, and about compaqs. they are terribly built laptops. with dell, you can just pop out a cd/floppy/battery and put in a cd/floppy/battery. NO SCREWS! with a compaq, to change the hard drive let's say... you have to take out the floppy, cd-rom(in most cases), the cooling board, the keyboard, and the front panel which holds the trackpad. now, first off. there's almost no way you can take all this out without detaching the wires connecting them to the computer. so, in the end, you basically end up completely rebuilding your computer if you want to change out any components. compaq is terrible at designing. ecs doesn't sound too bad though. the briefcase would be nice, but if i'm getting a 17" LCD, it's going on this computer. not some thing that's gonna sit in the corner and do some beeping that i dont really care about :). that goes for any lcd. i'm currently in the market for a third monitor for this one. anyway, this project is terminated for the time being, caused by lack of funds, and i'm assuming somebody very dishonest. lesson learned.

damn that really sucks dude. maybe you'll get lucky and some good sumaritan will return your wallet. :(


i mentioned compaqs because they're cheap, not because you can rip them apart easily on a regular basis. although they aren't _too_ difficult to dismantle. and their processors are pretty easy to get to :)

That reminds me why I don't carry cash anymore. Debit/check and credit cards is all I use anymore. My pay check is deposited into my bank account directly. Can't afford to have $1,100 every 2 weeks in my wallet, not just for safty of loosing it, but for safty of spending it. :D:D

Check you car seat carefully. Good luck finding it. Hate when stuff like that happens.

Yeah same. I keep between 20 and 60 dollars in my wallet, and I use Interac for everything else.

the nice thing about cash, though, you cant over draw it.:p

that's a nice thing about debit cards too :)
called the bank today. luckily nobody has used the debit card. which means it could just be lost. i called the police station, and left a message for the guy in charge of missing property. hopefully somebody's going to be nice and at least get me my license and health insurance info back. anyway, i've taken apart about 100 compaq laptops in the past 3 months, and they are NOT fun to work with. i'd rather fork over a little extra money and have something i can fix without killing myself :) i have a very deep-seated hatred toward compaq to begin with, so that's also influencing my decision.

Yea, Ive always hated compaq, the only thing thats changed, is now I hate HP too.

i have to agree with the HP thing. blegh. well, here's my planned complete setup for computers:

500mhz pIII, 640mb pc133, ati rage 128, 5gig hard drive, dual NICs
-running routerlinux to maximize my crappy cable connection (i'm lucky if i get 50kb/s downloads.
-plugged into a 12-port or 18-port switch, whichever i find a better deal on.
-no monitor, just a 5.25 LCD for the console. it's not a tower, it's a im-a-gimp-so-im-laying-on-my-side computer. the ones you'd normally put under your monitor. i'll put mine under my bed.

athalon xp 2100+ blah blah blah specs in the sig, as my gaming machine.

700+mhz laptop as dedicated server and homework box. wondering what laptops can support the geforce GO. anybody know? i think what i'll end up doing is getting ahold of some broken laptop and rebuilding it using a parts machine. that way i'll have extra parts lying around too for when i need them.

hopefully i'll be hosting bi-weekly lan games at my house, or at others' houses, because this setup is highly portable, as long as i end up with an LCD monitor for my gaming box. halo on LCD.....(drools)