When is the right time to buy a loptop? During Christmas Holidays or by January na?

**Horsepower** · November 17th, 2009 08:19 AM

Yeah but Intel sued nVidia because they want the 9400M Chipset out of the picture since it was practically set to eat all the market of the Intel Craphics after hooking up with Apple. For the first time, people got hold of affordable but decent built-in videocard. The suit scared a lot of mobo makers though well except for the mighty Gigabyte.

So, they didn't allow nVidia to make chipsets for the Nehalem. I don't know what'll be the recourse of nVidia though. It actually makes me mad at Intel for being so greedy. I know they're greedy as a dinosaur but man, even chipsets that are good for the masses??

I'm going AMD again (well except for the Apples). AMD for my desktops and HTPC.

**badkuk0** · November 17th, 2009 10:29 AM

pero di ganun kaganda ung XMA3100/4500 ng Intel di ba? Virtually all of the forums i've visited consider it unfit for modern games.

**rion** · November 17th, 2009 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by Horsepower

Yeah but Intel sued nVidia

mabuti naman at may alitan na ang dalawa, both are greedy companies. violating the anti-trust law. games these days we see logos from intel "works great with intel i7" at yung nvidia physx logo sa intro ng game. making Ati less and less optimum compatible with those games.

although i'm more of a intel and nvdia fanboi. mabuti nga sa kanila. hehehe...

**ess** · November 17th, 2009 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by Jun aka Pekto

Computers are an impulse buy. You can wait til January to buy a laptop. Then there may be another round of discounts a month later. It's a never-ending cycle. So, I just buy when I need to (or more appropriately when the wife says so).

Wahhhh

(!!!

My beloved S939 motherboard finally died on me last night. It won't even complete its POST anymore. Sayang yung mga ibang piyesa...

Anyway... time to pay a visit to the Hardware review sites again. I've been out of touch for so long na.

**Jun aka Pekto** · November 17th, 2009 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by ess

Wahhhh

(!!!

My beloved S939 motherboard finally died on me last night. It won't even complete its POST anymore. Sayang yung mga ibang piyesa...

Anyway... time to pay a visit to the Hardware review sites again. I've been out of touch for so long na.

Really? My S939 board died as well. My MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum had a case of swollen capacitors. That's why I had an unscheduled upgrade of my pc. I wasn't planning anything until next year.

**ess** · November 17th, 2009 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by Jun aka Pekto

Really? My S939 board died as well. My MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum had a case of swollen capacitors. That's why I had an unscheduled upgrade of my pc. I wasn't planning anything until next year.

Hahahahahaha!!! Talk about coincidence!

My mobo is also a K8N Neo4 Platinum (non-SLI).
Well, to be honest, it's been giving me "signs" of imminent failure for almost six months now. At first I'd be getting intermittent hangs both on XP and Linux. I already checked the board but found no swollen or leaking caps. Now it refuses to POST and all I'm getting at long beeps with no video display.

According to the MSI forums, those long beeps during power on could be a sign of bad RAM. Dunno....

Anyway, the wife already gave me her precious "YES" so bad RAM or not, I'd better take that approval before it expires.

**Horsepower** · November 17th, 2009 07:05 PM

So I guess we should avoid MSI then. Never liked that brand. hahaha

Get a Gigabyte UD series with Japanese Solid caps.

**Jun aka Pekto** · November 17th, 2009 09:07 PM

Originally Posted by Horsepower

So I guess we should avoid MSI then. Never liked that brand. hahaha

Get a Gigabyte UD series with Japanese Solid caps.

Most of MSI's motherboards have solid state capacitors. They may not last as long as the Japanese-made ones. But, they should also last well beyond the expected lifespan of the pc.

**Jun aka Pekto** · November 17th, 2009 09:41 PM

Originally Posted by ess

Hahahahahaha!!! Talk about coincidence!

My mobo is also a K8N Neo4 Platinum (non-SLI).
Well, to be honest, it's been giving me "signs" of imminent failure for almost six months now. At first I'd be getting intermittent hangs both on XP and Linux. I already checked the board but found no swollen or leaking caps. Now it refuses to POST and all I'm getting at long beeps with no video display.

According to the MSI forums, those long beeps during power on could be a sign of bad RAM. Dunno....

Anyway, the wife already gave me her precious "YES" so bad RAM or not, I'd better take that approval before it expires.

My Neo4 Platinum lasted 4.5 years. It still posts into the BIOS. But, anytime an OS loads from hard drive or cd, the whole thing just turns off. I thought at first it might be the PSU. But, I tried 3 different PSU's and had the same results for all of them. I also thought it might be the RAM. But, my Amiga Forever cd boots AmigaSys 4 which goes straight into RAM. Technically, a Linux LiveCD should do the same. But, no luck with that one. So, it's not the RAM either.

I took a very close look at the capacitors and noticed the slightest bulges of the five capacitors nearest to the cpu:

**Jun aka Pekto** · November 17th, 2009 10:06 PM

Anyway, the new MacBooks are out and they gain the 9400M gpu. The MacBook Pro sticks with the 9400M. But, select models have 2 gpu's: the 9400M and the 9600M GT.

I'm not sure if the older models will get discounted after the Christmas Holidays. But, the new ones are worth a look.

http://www.apple.com/macbook/design.html

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/graphics.html