Cyberpowerpc.com?

[Tessian]

Anyone heard of these guys? I'm still looking for a laptop and I stumbled upno these guys and they seem to look pretty damn good. Name parts for everything, great prices, awards out the ass and even third party review websites have good things to say; only complaints from customers were the delay during holidays for processing.

I was looking at getting the Xplorer X5-5850, but with a 160gig 7200RPM drive... hell for buying Vista they even give you free gift.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Xplo ... 0_Notebook

[Ronin121_usa]

They have been very successful and have had good reviews from places like Toms Hardware Guide and others like CNET...but I personally do not know much about it... I am leary of all the companies out there right now, but I would check all the reviews and just be careful before I purchase anything. Good Luck.

[M'k'n'zy]

You posted that with perfect timing for me, my motherboard just fried and I need to get a new comp. Put one together there for about 500 that will do what I need it to do, so it helps ^_^

[Shellie]

Never heard of them. I've always bought parts from Newegg, but I guess if reviews are good and the price is right....

[Tessian]

Never heard of them. I've always bought parts from Newegg, but I guess if reviews are good and the price is right....

Newegg is EXCELLENT for parts... but not so much for complete systems. I would build a laptop from scratch if I could.

I think I'm going to go for it... the only bad reviews I've read were people who got DOA systems and their tech support was totally incompetent to help and sent it back unrepaired. But then again what manufacturer DOES have decent tech support?

They have an 8.0 on resellerratings.com which doesn't compare well to the 9.7 of Newegg... but it does to the 2.0 of Dell

[Tessian]

I went ahead and bought it-- what helped even more was I found a promo code that took 5% off which was over $50 for me.

"myspace" will get you $30 off regardless of purchase price
"smartcompu" will get you 5% off but I think you need to spend $1000 to qualify.

Can't wait... looks like it'll be about 2 weeks before I see it.

[SineSwiper]

Ugh. Vista. How come every time Microsoft puts out a new version of their OS, I want it less than the previous OS? I think Windows 2000 was the only time that differed.

[Tessian]

Ugh. Vista. How come every time Microsoft puts out a new version of their OS, I want it less than the previous OS? I think Windows 2000 was the only time that differed.

I've been using Vista since March... have you even used it in the past 6 months? It had compatibility issues when it first came out, but by May/June they were pretty much all gone. There's little reason to upgrade from XP to Vista, but if you have a new PC there's no reason not to get Vista. I hate people who constantly complain about it when they've never used it. You're just as bad as the lying Apple commercials.

[Zeus]

Ugh. Vista. How come every time Microsoft puts out a new version of their OS, I want it less than the previous OS? I think Windows 2000 was the only time that differed.

I've been using Vista since March... have you even used it in the past 6 months? It had compatibility issues when it first came out, but by May/June they were pretty much all gone. There's little reason to upgrade from XP to Vista, but if you have a new PC there's no reason not to get Vista. I hate people who constantly complain about it when they've never used it. You're just as bad as the lying Apple commercials.

Shitsa is a fucking pain in the ass. I have it on my wife's laptop. It asks you to confirm EVERYTHING TWICE. Not only that, it really seems to be nothing more than just a new GUI on XP with stuff moved around to make it "easier". I just find it to be a pain in the ass and other than the Gadgets - which I find surprisingly neat - it has brought nothing to the table for me over XP. It's just a pain to navigate.

[Tessian]

Ugh. Vista. How come every time Microsoft puts out a new version of their OS, I want it less than the previous OS? I think Windows 2000 was the only time that differed.

I've been using Vista since March... have you even used it in the past 6 months? It had compatibility issues when it first came out, but by May/June they were pretty much all gone. There's little reason to upgrade from XP to Vista, but if you have a new PC there's no reason not to get Vista. I hate people who constantly complain about it when they've never used it. You're just as bad as the lying Apple commercials.

Shitsa is a fucking pain in the ass. I have it on my wife's laptop. It asks you to confirm EVERYTHING TWICE. Not only that, it really seems to be nothing more than just a new GUI on XP with stuff moved around to make it "easier". I just find it to be a pain in the ass and other than the Gadgets - which I find surprisingly neat - it has brought nothing to the table for me over XP. It's just a pain to navigate.

Oh boy aren't you clever, Shitsa? Ha ha oh man... in that case I'll call you Peups to show just how cool I am too. Actually, instead how about I just cut to the chase and call you a doodie face while you run and tell the teacher... seriously, how is anyone supposed to take you seriously when you say stupid shit like that? I'm surprised you didn't put "M$" in front of it.

The UAC can easily be turned off-- it's one of the first things I did after installing it. A lot of what Vista changed is under the hood and/or not immediately noticeable to the average user. This is why I said there was no reason to upgrade from XP unless you were getting a new PC anyway. Maybe I didn't find the new GUI a pain because I'd been running Office 2007 at work for almost half a year prior. Now I can't live without that GUI and refuse to use any other version of Office.

[Tessian]

Hey M'k'n'zy-- make sure you watch out for a phone call from Cyberpower-- they called me earlier this afternoon to confirm my order before they processed it.

[Zeus]

I've been using Vista since March... have you even used it in the past 6 months? It had compatibility issues when it first came out, but by May/June they were pretty much all gone. There's little reason to upgrade from XP to Vista, but if you have a new PC there's no reason not to get Vista. I hate people who constantly complain about it when they've never used it. You're just as bad as the lying Apple commercials.

Shitsa is a fucking pain in the ass. I have it on my wife's laptop. It asks you to confirm EVERYTHING TWICE. Not only that, it really seems to be nothing more than just a new GUI on XP with stuff moved around to make it "easier". I just find it to be a pain in the ass and other than the Gadgets - which I find surprisingly neat - it has brought nothing to the table for me over XP. It's just a pain to navigate.

Oh boy aren't you clever, Shitsa? Ha ha oh man... in that case I'll call you Peups to show just how cool I am too. Actually, instead how about I just cut to the chase and call you a doodie face while you run and tell the teacher... seriously, how is anyone supposed to take you seriously when you say stupid shit like that? I'm surprised you didn't put "M$" in front of it.

The UAC can easily be turned off-- it's one of the first things I did after installing it. A lot of what Vista changed is under the hood and/or not immediately noticeable to the average user. This is why I said there was no reason to upgrade from XP unless you were getting a new PC anyway. Maybe I didn't find the new GUI a pain because I'd been running Office 2007 at work for almost half a year prior. Now I can't live without that GUI and refuse to use any other version of Office.

M$ is Lotus', I prefer Microshaft

I keep hearing that a lot of the upgrades were back end on Vista (happy?) but for my purposes, it's just a pain in the ass now. A good part of it is the fact that I have no reason to want to re-learn where everything is, but it seems more like they've just re-arranged things than improved things. The native security is better? Maybe, but I just don't care. I have relatively minimal security on my computer, I really don't need it.

I was agreeing with you with my little mini-rant BTW. I just get frustrated with Vista (I'm trying, man) whenever I'm forced to use it. It hasn't reach Word-level hatred for me yet and likely never will (Word is the worst program Microsoft - another one for ya; that's a natural hatrick there - has ever made IMO; I use Excel for my word processing) but I just don't know why they have to make it less streamlined.

Isn't the point of upgrading to add features and make something more useful and EASIER to use?

[Tessian]

Haha I remember you talking about your hatred of Word... still don't understand it though and probably no one ever will

I think they streamlined things; it's more noticeable in Office 2007 than in Vista though. Office 07 is totally different in layout than 03 and before and it takes some getting used to... but now that I've been using it for a year I can't go back. I am totally used to and need my tabs rather than those damned drop down menus. I love Outlook 07 as well as Word and Excel.

As for Vista itself-- you're right, Microsoft didn't make it different/better enough. I hope SP1 to come out soon corrects that. Vista was a graphical update and a lot of under the hood changes but not too much the user will see. This is why Vista sales have been shitty and no company wants to bother upgrading to it (hell, the hardware requirements alone would make any company laugh and walk away).

[Zeus]

My hatred of Word stems from the fact that I do no like programs that try to force you to do things the way they want you to do it. I know you can turn off the auto formatting and stuff, but in some cases (like bulleting and indenting) you want it. It's just Word comes out and says "oh, you're trying to do x, well THIS is what should happen.......what, you don't want that, YES YOU DO BITCH.......HEY I SAID THIS IS WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN.....FINE, do it your way"....."what, you want a box in here, well you can put it here, here, or here, but NOT here". Those are just some of the complaints I have. I just find that I can get more of what I want from Excel word processing wise easier than I can with Word.

We'll be switching to Office 2007 soon I imagine at work. I think they're holding off right now because they're considering switching to Shitsa but if I know those IT geeks well, they'll resist that (thank God). Although we just switched to Outlook 2003 just recently so that one might not get switched. The one thing I want from Excel 2007 is the fact that you can go to 1M rows. We have an issue with our SAP dumps of only having 65k rows and we have to work around it all the time. Honestly, that's the only change I need.....well, maybe have Excel's find function fixed. I find it's a bit tempermental.

[Tessian]

My hatred of Word stems from the fact that I do no like programs that try to force you to do things the way they want you to do it. I know you can turn off the auto formatting and stuff, but in some cases (like bulleting and indenting) you want it. It's just Word comes out and says "oh, you're trying to do x, well THIS is what should happen.......what, you don't want that, YES YOU DO BITCH.......HEY I SAID THIS IS WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN.....FINE, do it your way"....."what, you want a box in here, well you can put it here, here, or here, but NOT here". Those are just some of the complaints I have. I just find that I can get more of what I want from Excel word processing wise easier than I can with Word.

Wait a second... you're complaining about the autoformatting... but you can't turn it off because you want it? Wtf kind of screwed up logic is that? I'm so confused...

[SineSwiper]

Sometimes the auto-formatting misbehaves the way you want it, but you have the option to change back any change it made, so it's really no big deal.

[Zeus]

Sometimes the auto-formatting misbehaves the way you want it, but you have the option to change back any change it made, so it's really no big deal.

It's just a pain in the ass to use the program. Its far easier for me to just use Excel, I can actually get what i want faster and easier from that than I can from Word.

[Tessian]

Sometimes the auto-formatting misbehaves the way you want it, but you have the option to change back any change it made, so it's really no big deal.

It's just a pain in the ass to use the program. Its far easier for me to just use Excel, I can actually get what i want faster and easier from that than I can from Word.

... then you're either doing something wrong or you don't really do much word processing. Excel isn't designed to be used to write papers..

I think you had a few bad experiences with Word that you blew out of proportion and went through so much trouble to substitute it you don't even want to consider that you've exaggerated this beyond the realm of fiction and just don't want to admit you're wrong.

[Zeus]

Sometimes the auto-formatting misbehaves the way you want it, but you have the option to change back any change it made, so it's really no big deal.

It's just a pain in the ass to use the program. Its far easier for me to just use Excel, I can actually get what i want faster and easier from that than I can from Word.

... then you're either doing something wrong or you don't really do much word processing. Excel isn't designed to be used to write papers..

I think you had a few bad experiences with Word that you blew out of proportion and went through so much trouble to substitute it you don't even want to consider that you've exaggerated this beyond the realm of fiction and just don't want to admit you're wrong.

It's likely due to the fact that I used Wordperfect for so many years and i was used to a program that assisted me in doing my word processing rather than trying to force me to do it a certain way. Knowing how a word processor SHOULD behave has made me quite resistant to learning a forced way. I don't use Wordperfect anymore 'cause no one else uses it not because I don't like it. It became too much of a hassle to constantly switch resumes or whatnot over to Word all the time.

But yes, I also don't do much word processing that I can use Excel as a good substitute. It does what I need and more. If anything, I can do more with it that I want to do in my job and even on my professional CA exam that I could using Word. So I've also really been given no reason to learn Word, which feeds my hatred for it.

It started bad coming from a superior application and not being forced to learn how to use it has fed that hatred.

[Tessian]

It's likely due to the fact that I used Wordperfect for so many years and i was used to a program that assisted me in doing my word processing rather than trying to force me to do it a certain way.

You're wrong. Plain and simple. Word doesn't force anything on me or anyone else I know who have and continue to use the product... so you're either so weak willed you let a program push you around, or you're just wrong.

[Zeus]

It's likely due to the fact that I used Wordperfect for so many years and i was used to a program that assisted me in doing my word processing rather than trying to force me to do it a certain way.

You're wrong. Plain and simple. Word doesn't force anything on me or anyone else I know who have and continue to use the product... so you're either so weak willed you let a program push you around, or you're just wrong.

I've been married for nearly 5 years and coming to this site for over 10, I know damned well that my opinion is always wrong

[Tessian]

After 2 tries I got through to their Sales team to get a status update-- my laptop is due to ship on the 18th Originally website said the 8th when I ordered it. If it DOES ship on that date it'll mean 3 weeks to process and build.

Any word on yours, M'k'n'zy?

[Kupek]

Knowing how a word processor SHOULD behave has made me quite resistant to learning a forced way.

I think that's the key phrase there.

I haven't actually used a word processing application in years. Latex all the way.

EDIT: Probably not the smartest post considering Zeus hasn't shipped CT yet.

[M'k'n'zy]

After 2 tries I got through to their Sales team to get a status update-- my laptop is due to ship on the 18th Originally website said the 8th when I ordered it. If it DOES ship on that date it'll mean 3 weeks to process and build.

Any word on yours, M'k'n'zy?

Mine shipped yesterday actually, and I took advantage of being able to get 2 day shipping for only 30 bucks. But then, I also paid for rush delivery, as using my wife's computer for WoW is ugly, espically when I try to do BG's

[Judgment 1999]

I've not heard of these guys before, I've always used Tigerdirect. Newegg.com I've also looked at but have yet to order anything from them.

[Tessian]

I've not heard of these guys before, I've always used Tigerdirect. Newegg.com I've also looked at but have yet to order anything from them.

Newegg is phenomenally better for parts than TD. At least by now I hope TD doesn't bury you in spam mail at home after you order from them... that was annoying. These guys are just for custom PC's, mostly gaming ones.

You're lucky Monk, but I doubt faster shipping and processing on my end would have helped things... looks like they're just taking longer to build laptops than PC's. Who knows, maybe they'll ship it next week ahead of time.

[Judgment 1999]

TD sent me a monthly catalog. Kind of a waste of paper since I almost always look online for stuff but it was actually nice to have for a backup if I wasn't on the PC.

[Tessian]

TD sent me a monthly catalog. Kind of a waste of paper since I almost always look online for stuff but it was actually nice to have for a backup if I wasn't on the PC.

Then they've gotten better. Many years ago my mom bought a bunch of laptops off of them for work. She was getting spam weekly from them in the mail.

I have nothing against TD, I've bought some stuff from them-- but I prefer Newegg as they normally have the better prices.

[Zeus]

Knowing how a word processor SHOULD behave has made me quite resistant to learning a forced way.

I think that's the key phrase there.

I haven't actually used a word processing application in years. Latex all the way.

EDIT: Probably not the smartest post considering Zeus hasn't shipped CT yet.

I haven't? :-)

I can't use Linux, I'm not a programmer. Besides, I want 100% compatibility and the only way I can do that is by having Winblows. With XP it ain't nearly as bad as it used to be. I actually don't have any Winblows issues anymore, just app ones now.

[Tessian]

I can't use Linux, I'm not a programmer. .

What are you SAYING?!?! EVERYONE should embrace the USER FRIENDLINESS AND EASE OF USE of VI!! ITS GUI AND STREAMLINED INTERFACE SHOULD BE PRAISED.

Fucking hate vi.... needs to die in a fucking well; but most of the time it's the only damned text editor on Linux distributions by default.

/End Rant

[SineSwiper]

Not really. There's usually Joe or Nano or some other text editor. Solaris and some other UNIXs, on the other hand, force you to use a really basic version of VI. (VI, not VIM or Elvis.)

Oh, and Linux isn't really for programmers, anymore. I'm not saying that it doesn't have its technical issues (that Joe Average might not be able to fix), but it's fairly easy to use some of the GUIs out there.

[Tessian]

Not really. There's usually Joe or Nano or some other text editor. Solaris and some other UNIXs, on the other hand, force you to use a really basic version of VI. (VI, not VIM or Elvis.)

In a lot of cases I'm working on an appliance which normally run custom builds of Unix/Slackware... but Xubuntu that I'm running on my old laptop doesn't appear to have anything better... maybe I didn't look very hard.

Oh, and Linux isn't really for programmers, anymore. I'm not saying that it doesn't have its technical issues (that Joe Average might not be able to fix), but it's fairly easy to use some of the GUIs out there.

For basic installations with normal hardware-- yes. But god help you if you want to connect to a wireless network using WPA/WPA2... then it's time for plenty of text editing!

[M'k'n'zy]

My first post from my new comp, everything is running great so far!

[Tessian]

My first post from my new comp, everything is running great so far!

Glad to hear it-- what one did you get, anyway?

I'm still sadly hoping I possibly get my laptop at the end of NEXT week I fucking love how it says that the status online is "updated daily" and mine STILL says "order received" and I ordered it on the 28th!

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

That lappy is pretty nice, Tess!

I'm window-shopping laptops at the moment 'cause both Fea and I can salary sacrifice them. This means that our employers would pay for the laptops up front, then deduct their value from our gross wages over 12 months. We'd not only get to pay for them over a stretch rather than all in one go, but it'd represent savings of about 40% off the price of the laptop.

My natural inclination is to get a MacBook Pro (for love of OS X and being an industrial design whore), but in terms of their performance they are terrible value for money. For the price of the top-tier 15 inch Mook Pro I can get a 17 inch Dell XPS with twice the RAM, twice the hard-drive space, and dual 8700M GTs. Madness.

[M'k'n'zy]

I got the Intel Holiday special they had going. Its running great so far, and I have had very few problems.

[Tessian]

That lappy is pretty nice, Tess!

I'm window-shopping laptops at the moment 'cause both Fea and I can salary sacrifice them. This means that our employers would pay for the laptops up front, then deduct their value from our gross wages over 12 months. We'd not only get to pay for them over a stretch rather than all in one go, but it'd represent savings of about 40% off the price of the laptop.

My natural inclination is to get a MacBook Pro (for love of OS X and being an industrial design whore), but in terms of their performance they are terrible value for money. For the price of the top-tier 15 inch Mook Pro I can get a 17 inch Dell XPS with twice the RAM, twice the hard-drive space, and dual 8700M GTs. Madness.

You could get even more of that out of this place. For only $1k I already got 2gig, 4mb cache, 160gig 7200RPM, and 1 8700M... Why would you need DUAL? I can't see much of a difference with 2 7600GS's on my PC here.

[Andrew, Killer Bee]

I'm restricted to Australian suppliers, sadly .

[Tessian]

That's quite lame...

[SineSwiper]

In a lot of cases I'm working on an appliance which normally run custom builds of Unix/Slackware... but Xubuntu that I'm running on my old laptop doesn't appear to have anything better... maybe I didn't look very hard.

Hell, that's easy. Just fire up Aptitude and download the thing if it isn't on there. Or "apt-get install nano".

You could get even more of that out of this place. For only $1k I already got 2gig, 4mb cache, 160gig 7200RPM, and 1 8700M... Why would you need DUAL? I can't see much of a difference with 2 7600GS's on my PC here.

Depends on how you multitask your processors.

[Tessian]

Depends on how you multitask your processors.

Wtf are you multiasking graphics cards with?

[Blotus]

Yeah! WTF.

[SineSwiper]

Oh, two GFX cards. My bad. Wouldn't that be a kick ass game of Unreal or WoW though?

[Tessian]

Oh, two GFX cards. My bad. Wouldn't that be a kick ass game of Unreal or WoW though?

SLI-ed graphics cards don't give you as much a performance boost as you'd think. Definitely be better off just buying 1 better graphics card.

[M'k'n'zy]

Oh, two GFX cards. My bad. Wouldn't that be a kick ass game of Unreal or WoW though?

I know with the card and processor I have in here now, I am running WoW on its highest settings and went through a full game of AV without a hint of lag. It was GREAT ^_^

[Tessian]

FINALLY-- I got an automated email with my tracking number today! Shipping from CA... due here Wednesday. Obviously won't be home to sign for it, so I'll just have to run home after work, grab the tag, and go down to our distribution center which is luckily only about 10-15 minutes away.

[M'k'n'zy]

Sorry it took you so long but I think you are in for a treat, mine is running very VERY well.

[Tessian]

Laptop FINALLY came today! I got scared cause I called Fedex earlier and they had told me that I couldn't pick it up that evening at the distribution center since it was "home delivery direct" but luckily I got home before it did.

Great laptop-- Vista runs wonderful. Vista even shrunk the partition for me so I could give Linux 40gig without using a repartitioner!

I'm still having issues with Ubuntu... everything works except the WEP hacking tool I wanted to use (aircrack-ng) because my wireless card was Unknown and I can NOT get a driver built to save my life... something's wrong so I'm downgrading to 7.04 instead of 7.10 and see if that helps.

[SineSwiper]

Might be a good time to learn how to compile a kernel. It's not especially hard, but it can be time-consuming, especially the first time trying.

[Tessian]

I have experience using MAKE commands... but I kept getting an error about missing a file. It was looking in the source folder of a module but there was no such folder in that module's directory.