Sean Coates: PHP, Web (+Beer)

So, after much [url=http://blog.phpdoc.info/archives/24-Search-for-the-Perfect-Laptop.html]searching[/url], I think I found the perfect laptop (for the price).

The short: Asus sells a barebone laptop that is missing many key components, allowing the builder to supply his own parts.

I've got [url=http://www.phpdoc.info/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=10]photos online[/url].

The Long:

Wow. What a great machine. I'm incredibly happy with it, so far.

Let's start with the basics.

So, as I mentioned, Asus (the motherboard manufacturer) makes a line of "barebone" laptops. Basically, you choose the model with the screen, platform (Intel or AMD) and other features such as video, that you want.

These laptops seem to be generally for OEMs (companies that want to create their own brand of laptops without becoming a full-fledged manufacturer). Asus makes a number of products in [url=http://usa.asus.com/products2.aspx?l1=5&l2=70]this product line[/url] (the "Z" series.

I ran into a few snags when following this path to laptop freedom. The worst was finding proper information on the Z71V. I found a retailer in Montreal that sells these, but they were clueless (to the point that they assured me that it came with certain features, only to get the laptop home and find it missing an optical drive and the wifi module).

So, let's take a look at the specs:

• Asus Z71V
• Screen: WSXGA (1680x1050)
• Video: NVidia 6600 Go; [s]Video out, multihead capable. 128MB Shared memory (yeah, I know.. I didn't want shared; HOWEVER, it [i]is[/i] on the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express]PCI Express[/url] bus, so I'm not nearly as worried about video refreshes hogging bus bandwidth.
• Speaking of BUS: FSB is 533MHz (which is excellent).
• CPU (I supplied this myself): Pentium-M 1.86GHz (DOTHAN -- the Z71V has support for SONOMA, but I don't know a whole lot about this, and the DOTHANs were the only CPUs that my retailer had, so I went with that). As I said, FSB is 533MHz, and it's got 2MB of L2 Cache, so it's more than sufficient for my needs.
• Memory (supplied by me): 1x1GB DDR2 PC4200 RAM -- there's another empty slot under the keyboard: max RAM: 2GB
• HD (also supplied by me): Hitachi 60GB at 7200RPM -- this disk is FAST
• CDRW/DVDRom (me): could've gone for the DVD writer, here, but I already have an external one, so no need. This is hot-swappable, so I can eventually buy the (secondary) battery that fills this bay, if I so desire
• Intel PRO 802.11a/b/g wireless (me) - MiniPCI ; this is installed in the top left corner of the images of the insides, if you're wondering -- the tech at my store did this one for free, so I don't have photos.
• Ports: 5xUSB (yes, 5), 1 VGA, 1 sVideo (comes with composite adapter), memory card reader (but doesn't take CF, which is what I use in my camera )-: ), 1 PCMCIA, 1 CardBus (I think), built in microphone, Ambient Light Sensor (auto-dims the screen depending on room lighting -- pretty cool). 1 SPDIF/Earphone combo. 1 External Microphone Input; 1 Mini-firewire, Telephone (I'll probably never use the modem). Ethernet (gigabit! (but nothing else on my network is, so this is sort of useless, ATM). And external controls for CD playing (work even when the laptop is "off" which is kind of cool.. but I don't know if I'll actually use them or not).
• Heat and weight are already noticibly better than the Dell. CPU still measures 55-60C, but the fan/heatpipe are much less noisy, and seem much cooler. The power brick is literally 1/3 the size and weight of the Dell's (but it gets REALLY hot under full load (charge + power).
• Sound -- Orders of magnitude cleaner than the Dell. I can plug in my Shure E2Cs and hear nothing until music is played. Dell was staticky. Also, pretty cool that it's a SPDIF/Earphone combo jack.
• Keyboard is larger than the Dell. The tilde is in the right place. It will take some getting used to, but overall, I like it so far. Same for the touchad. It's the same (symaptics), but it's got an additional dedicated vertical scroll area
• Screen -- as I said, WSXGA (1680x1050) which is more than I wanted, even -- the widescreen is good, I guess.. *shrug*. The screen isn't quite as CLEAR as the Dell, but I'll get used to that in a few days (it's already "better" than it was, side-by-side). It's not drastic, but the Dell's screen was EXTREMELY clear
• Battery life: well, the 7200 RPM drive hurts me here. It's looking like 2.5-3 hours on a full charge, but I'll need to play with power-saving to see how far I can go. There's also (as mentioned) a place for a second battery (swap out the optical drive)
• Warranty.. My retailer sold me an additional 2 years on all components. So, I've got 3 on most. RAM is lifetime, etc. -- it's not next-day, in-office, but it's still pretty good.

In summary, I built a machine that's comparably to top-end Thinkpads, and the Acer Ferarri machines, but at (literally) half the price. It took some research on my part, but it was all worth it. Total price, including taxes and warrantees: <$2300 (cad).="" take="" a="" look="" at="" the="" photos.="" pretty="" easy="" to="" do="" this,="" if="" you're="" looking="" something="" similar;="" there's="" also="" an="" [url="http://www.synnex.com/sb/docs/june05/Z71V%20Training.pdf]installation" guide[="">url] (PDF) that I only found AFTER installing the parts -- oops (-:

Overall: I'm very happy with the results.

S