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New Laptop "SKYNET" Ordered
Topic Started: Apr 16 2009, 12:15 PM (220 Views)
Cy-FoxPosted Image Apr 16 2009, 12:15 PM Post #1
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We are still watching
 So I got my paycheck this morning and I was planning to go to Wal-Mart to buy a $600 Hewitt Packard Pavilion G60-249WM if I could get a little assistance from my sister (which fell through). So I ended up cruising around eBay and I end up finding an excellent MSI laptop which is a slightly scaled down model of the original laptop I was planning to get (if I hadn't gone on a Steam/GOG.com/GamersGate/eBay spree, but meh. Good deals there). The original laptop I wanted to get was an MSI GX630 which was decked out with a lot of nice things. That would've cost $800, and I wasn't going to wait for my Dell to deteriorate further (Hinges breaking while playing Civilization III for Christ's sake >.>)

As I mentioned earlier, I was cruising around eBay and I found that FrostyComputers.com, which is based in California, has the MSI GX610 for $500. Conveniently, I had $520 in my savings. So I checked the systems out and these are the specs for my system:

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MSI GX610 Neo Edition
Manufacturer: MSI (Based in Taiwan)
Processor (Advertised): AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56
Clock speed of 1.8 GHz, Two 512 KB caches
Processor (Ordered - I'll cover why there's a difference later on) AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-53
Clock speed of 1.8 GHz, 1 MB cache
Display Dimensions: 15.4" widescreen (1280x800 pixels for you resolution heads out there =P)
Memory: 2 GB of DDR2 RAM
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 2600
Comes with 256 MB of DDR3 memory, supports DirectX 10
Hard Drive: 160 GB SATA drive
Operating System: Not included but MSI computers do support XP (quite well I should say), which is very important to me.
Optical Drive: DVD +/- RW and CD-RW combination
Networking: Integrated 802.11g wireless card, Bluetooth and Gigabit Ethernet system. It looks like there might be a 56Kbps modem on there too but that for all I know, could be the Bluetooth connector ("Way to keep up with the times, Cy" [/voice of Valsione leaking with much sarcasm])
Extras: HDMI connector, integrated 1.3 megapixel digital camera

Sub-Total Price: $499.99
UPS Ground Shipping: +$15.98
Total: $515.97

Now for the review. Haven't gotten the system yet but there's enough positives for me to bring about a review of the distributor. FrostyComputers.com like I mentioned earlier, is based on California. After completing my order, I called them up to make sure my payment would get through to them promptly and had the pleasure of actually dealing with the owner-operator, a pretty nice guy named Ben/Frosty. Ben was very friendly and even let me know that he was out of the model that had the Turion 64 X2 as I showed earlier in the specs. He informed me that I could get one with the Athlon 64 X2 processor with the same speed and specs. I dealt with an Athlon 64 X2 desktop in vocational school which I loved like it was my own flesh 'n blood (and steel and silicon =P), and it rocked. So I had no problem with that :D. We even got to shoot the shit for a bit and I come to find that he used to work for MSI, so that was pretty awesome. Also talked about IT certs.

I'll be waiting until next week but I can already tell that I'm getting a good deal. It's not everyday that you can deal with the OwnerOp. Like he himself said, these days you get bounced around with the Big Boys and outsourced to India and the likes. He likes to do things the old fashioned way. In fact, I come to find out that he used to outright ship while waiting for payment to clear but then he got burned a couple times, which seeing as these systems aren't exactly old 486 laptops, I understand completely why he's not doing insta-ship.

So FrostyComputers gets an A+ and a gold star from me for pre and post order service. I'm going to even put up an ad so that you can look around his inventory. I've dealt with a lot of computers over the years. Out of the phased out systems, A Compaq Presario, a Compaq Armada, a Gateway Solo 2100, TWO IBM ThinkPad 600Es (Yuck, Trackpoint drift both times. Never making THAT mistake again), a Toshiba Satellite 4010CDS (A cream colored ThinkPad 600E with a 233 MHz processor to me. Yuck), and a Dell Latitude C610 (which is sitting in front of me).

Soon, to join my faithful party of my Compaq Presario CDS 520 486 desktop, my Dell Dimension XPS T-500 P3 desktop will be the MSI GX610 Neo. And the fate of my loyal Dell Latitude C610 has yet to be determined.

This is what I have planned for it when it comes in:
-Installing Windows XP Professional and possibly Linux or a BSD distribution in a dual boot configuration. If not, I'll virtualize the -NIX I wa nt to use.
-Installing Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and VMWare Server and setting up the following OSes to be virtualized:
1.MS-DOS 6.22 (Standalone)
2.MS-DOS 6.22 with Microsoft Windows 3.1 Operating Environment (Windows for Workgroups 3.11 doesn't cooperate well with Virtual PC when EMM386's being used. I might VMWare that configuration)
3.MS-DOS 6.22 with Novell NetWare 4.11 (IntraNetWare). (Definitely VMWare)
4.MS-DOS 6.22 with Novell NetWare 3 (VMWare too. Might have to downgrade to DOS 5.0)
5.Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 Workstation and Server (SP5)
6.Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Workstation and Server (SP6a)
7.Microsoft Windows 2000 Server (if I find it cheap on eBay)
8.Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard (Through Dreamspark :) )
9.Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard (IF it fits)
10. OS/2
11. Linux (May vary. Most likely a combination of or one of the following: Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSolaris, Damn Small Linux)
12. BSD UNIX (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD comes to mind)
13. Other future OSes to test and play with

I'm going to interlink them all together to where they happily work side by side or in certain combination (Mind you I've got 2 GBs of RAM to play with. 1.5 taking XP into consideration). NT, 2000, 2003 (and 2008 if it goes on) Servers will form the core of my domain (called CYBERDYNE. Heh heh heh. Speaking of which, the MSI will be named "SKYNET"). The NetWare server will form its own CYBERDYNE NDS directory that will co-exist with the CYBERDYNE domain, and as I'm just jumping into Linux and UNIX, who knows what I'll do there. Down the road I might throw in Windows 95 and Windows 98 for giggles and laughs. I will not touch Windows Mistaken Edition (deliberate misrepresentation) or Windows Vista just as I wouldn't be found driving a Chevrolet. :P

I'm also going to deck it out with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 through Microsoft's Dreamspark and get some other nice programming toys for it and of course there will be games. Modern games, old games (what would you expect from me?). It's going to be awesome.

Thanks for reading, and if you're in the market for a new machine, give Frosty Computers a look
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Lord DragonFlame Apr 16 2009, 12:30 PM Post #2
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Christmas is back again

Nice deal there man. 300 is quite different and I found the system well structured. Like to say, a great machine. O well, have fun with the new laptop. ;)
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Cy-FoxPosted Image Apr 16 2009, 12:37 PM Post #3
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We are still watching
 Heh heh heh. I remember the old MSI from school. It was a beast. Counter-Strike matches during lunch and the end of the day in 2006, Call of Duty 4 in 2007 till graduation. And they were specific to our department. Too bad I can't find any pics of the model. I actually think they were custom built from MSI..
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