Jul 30, 2004

Darwin Awards

This is the Darwin Awards website.

"The Darwin Awards honor those who improve our gene pool... by removing themselves from it. Of necessity, this honor is bestowed posthumously."

M6805 reviews

Here are a couple of links to reviews of the M6805 laptop:

PCPER review

Dealtime review

Jul 29, 2004

eMachines M6805 laptop

Yeah, I did get this laptop (finally). It's pretty good, lives up to all the reviews one finds on the web.

Display: 15.4" Widescreen TFT LCD WXGA (1280 x 800 max. resolution)

Yes, it's a widescreen display, and you don't get to see that too often in India :) Display is crisp, nothing to complain about. The graphics system has an option to stretch the display if the video mode is not 1280x800, this is usually OK but it does distort the aspect ratio.

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition

Nothing to complain about here either. You can always replace it with Linux.

CPU: Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 3000+ Processor
64-bit Architecture operates at 1.800 GHz
System Bus uses HyperTransport™ Technology operating at 1600 MHz
1 MB L2 Cache

No problems with this one! Windows is responsive, games run smooth (thanks to the 9600 too). Games being run - NFS Hot Pursuit II, NFS Underground, Rise of Nations, UT2004, Ghost Recon, Call of Duty, Age of Mythology... I haven't yet run any benchmarks to see if it really is comparable to a 3GHz processor. 64bit doesn't mean anything right now, as long as a 64bit Windows version is not readily available. There is a beta, but I've heard there aren't drivers available for it. On the other hand, I can't think of anything that you'd want to do on a laptop as of now that would want a 64bit processor.

On a purely qualitative note, it does seem to be at least as good as the dekstops I use at home and at work (Athlon XP 2600+ and P4 2.4HT). Games are MUCH better on the laptop than on that P4, mainly because the P4 is on Intel integrated graphics, which, of course, the 9600 blows away. The Athlon XP puts up a better fight - it has a 128MB Nvidia 5900.

It also has a lot of boast value, 64-bit, 1600MHz HyperTransport, and all the rest; for those who understand the terms.

Memory: 512 MB DDR SODIMM (PC 2700)
Hard Drive: 60 GB HDD
Optical Drives: CDRW/DVD Combo Drive (24x24x24 CD-RW; 8x max. DVD-ROM)

512 MB is good. I've got the 4200rpm hard disk, but I couldn't really notice much difference in performance from my desktop drives (one is 5400, another is 7200rpm). Then again, I don't really do anything with this machine that would be limited by the HDD... sigh.

CDRW works fine, not noisy at all. In fact, the whole laptop is not noisy, and the fans turn on only once in a while.


Media Reader: 6-in-1 Digital Media Manger (Compact Flash, Micro Drive, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital (SD), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro)

Used this to transfer data from my cell phone's (Nokia 3650) memory card. Works fine, considering I had to use an infrared dongle to do it with my desktop. Should be good for digital cameras too.


Video: ATI® Mobility RADEON™ 9600 with 64 MB Video RAM

Rocks! This would be considered to be at higher end for even a desktop in India ;) I've downloaded the Omega drivers, let's see where overclocking can take this system.


Sound: PC2001 Compliant AC '97 Audio
Built-in Stereo Speakers

Acceptable. Not too loud, but external speakers are always an option. I'm not an audiophile, so this works just fine for me.


Modem: 56K* ITU V.92 Fax/Modem

Haven't tried it out, but how can it be any different from other modems?


Network: 802.11g Built-in Wireless (up to 54Mbps)
10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet

Haven't tried the wireless. Ethernet works.


Pointing Device: Touchpad with Vertical Scroll Zone

Vertical scroll zone is cool. I get really mad when I don't find it on my friends' laptops now.


Battery: 8-cell Lithium-ion (Li-ion)

Always on AC power; I'm not really interested in finding out how long the battery lasts and I'm not going to crib if it doesn't last as long as other laptops.


Dimensions: 1.6"h x 14.0"w x 10.4"d

Big. Because of the screen.


Overall, it has been a pretty nice experience. If you're looking for portability in a laptop, then perhaps this system is not for you. It has MS Works bundled with it, but MS Money is of no use to someone like me, and I've installed Office anyway. NAV comes with a 3 months subscription, I guess I'll replace it with AVG once those 3 months are up. I miss the mouse when gaming, getting used to the touchpad for games is going to be an uphill task. USB ports on the left side of the box really help, as many people have pointed out in reviews all over the web. It's the equivalent of having front USB ports on a desktop case. No PS2 ports, no infrared (I have a dongle tho, so no harm done), no serial port, no parallel port. No need for any of these, come to think of it, everything is USB now (or FireWire).

If anyone has specific questions, please let me know.