New LapTop Part 1

As bad as things are in the world right (whole other topic and many post's) I cant help but love the time we live in. The technology that is out right now is so much fun. Everyday something new comes out that is just a little better a little faster or does something just a little diff. I love it.

I recently posted about getting a new laptop. I am having so much fun with it I just had to blog about it. Maybe you are looking to get a new laptop yourself. If that's the case I hope this blog helps out in some way.

I guess Ill give a little back ground first. I bought my first laptop about a year ago. Before that I had never even really used one very much but had always been interested in them and the fact that you could take them anywhere. That in itself is just completely cool. Anyway my first laptop was an Acer with a 15" screen. Just a little budget laptop that for the price was completely awesome and still works great today. So then why did I need a new one you ask. Well technically I probably didn't. But that laptop seems to have found its home at my home. The whole family uses it now pretty much daily. With 5 of us in the house it does get a little crazy with just one computer. Jen and I probably use it the most because we can get on the Internet from anywhere in the house via the built in wifi. So much nicer than being tied down in the kitchen on the desk top. The other reason is I needed a new computer at my shop and the Acer isn't really a desk top replacement. As good as it works its not really big enough for that. So as most guys I took the few little excuses I had and ordered up a new one.

So lets get down to it. It is a Toshiba Satellite series notebook. I ordered it directly from Toshiba off there web site. They have quite a big selection to choose from. They do have some different categories to help get you started. You can pick what you want your laptop for and it will narrow down the selections from there. They have many computers to choose from that are pre-built or you can customize them to suite your needs. If you know me at all you already know which way I went. Customize.......One of the greatest words in the english language.

Ok so here are some specs for my fellow techies and those of you like myself who just like to know how much power something has no matter what it is.

It has an Intel core 2 duo t7300 2gig. processor.

It operates on Windows vista home premium (which I love) I am even considering upgrading to Vista ultimate. Just to see what else Vista has to offer.

It has 2gig of ram and is upgradable to 4 gig.

17" monitor w/1440x900 resolution. Yeah I wish I would have upgraded to the 1680x1050 but I had to stop somewhere.

It has an ATI Radeon HD2600 graphics card. OOOOHHH Yeah!!! you saw the HD in front it. Yes that means it supports HD video. It has 256mb of discrete memory and another 255 allocated.

I did only get a 120gig hard drive. But I think that is plenty. That and it has a bay for another 120gig. So if I did fill that one I can always add another. Its a 5400 rpm sata.

Now one of my absolute favorite things about it. I did upgrade to the the 12 format dvd player/burner. One of the formats being HD. Yes it will play HD dvd's. I am working on getting the adapters so that I can use it as a dvd player and play the HD dvd's on my tv. So that upgrade was not at all necessary but it was cheaper getting it in the laptop then buying a HD DVD player. Which the last time I checked were still up above $400.00.

It does have built in wifi. I just got plain old a/b/g just because there is still to many questions about the new n. By time they get that all figured out it will be time to get a new comp anyway. That and it doesn't sound like its all that much faster.

I also opted for the blue tooth even though I haven't had a chance to even see what that does at all. I am thinking about getting a blue tooth keyboard to use when its at the shop.

I also got the upgraded Harman Kardon speakers which I'm not sure if I am completely happy with. They are better than the speakers in my Acer by far but just not sure if it was worth the extra money.

6 cell battery seems to be ok. If I switch to power saver mode I think it will go 2 and a half hours before needing plugged in.

So there are specs. Wow this got longer than I had intended and I haven't really said anything about the laptop except the specs so I think I will make this Part 1 and part 2 will follow shortly where I will go more into some of the features it has that I like and a couple real bone-head things that I'm not happy about.

Til next time.......