Review: Acer Extensa 5220-2516

3 08 2008

Every year as back to school season approaches Best Buy teases consumers into their stores with loss leader notebooks. Usually they sell out pretty fast. It probably isn’t the typical PC users that buy them, but rather tweakers who are looking for a decent kit to experiment with. What kind of experiments? Linux distributions and other hacked OSes.

I thought it would be cool to pick one up when my monthly Best Buy Credit Card statement arrived with a ‘$50 off any notebook’ coupon attached. This years Best Buy attention grabber is priced at $399 CDN ($349 after coupon).

What does $350 get you these days?

  • Celeron M550 2 GHz CPU
  • Intel Santa Rosa chipset with GMA X3100
  • 1024 of DDR2 at 667MHz
  • 120 GB Hitachi 5400 RPM HDD
  • Pioneer DL DVD Multi recorder
  • 802.11g and Gigabyte Ethernet
  • Windows Vista Home Premium
  • 6 cell 4000 mAh battery

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Review: Toshiba Satellite A210-04F

29 03 2008

That’s Mr. Cheap to You

Once or twice per year, a friend or family member asks me to help them pick a notebook. Most of the folks I know just need a basic computer, and the reason they enlist me is that I love finding good deals on notebooks. This week I needed to find a good little Grandma computer. Having scanned the used sections of my favorite websites for deals I quickly determined that most people were stuck in 2005, asking way too much for notebooks that are much slower than current budget units.

So I hit the stores and found a pretty good assortment of dual core models in the $500-600 range from Acer, Dell, Compaq and Toshiba. The Toshiba Satellite A210-04F caught my eye:
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Fakefactory Cinematic Mod for Half Life 2

27 01 2008

After procrastinating for a couple of years I finally got my hands on this mod. With a 3.2 GB filesize pushing it through the Intarweb and down my skinny DSL pipe there was no instant gratification. The wait was worth it though. Read the rest of this entry »


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Gateway 6831FX News

27 01 2008

Over at NBR there is a really good discussion on this notebook. If you read my review and thought it was a good deal at $1349 (or $1399 in Canada), then you will be happy to know that Best Buy is offering it this week (1/27/2008) at $1249 or $1299 with a game and some in store setup and optimization (scary).

I have my fingers crossed that Best Buy Canada will run a similar promotion during my price match period.


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Gateway P-Series (6831FX) Review

18 01 2008

It seems like only yesterday that consumer notebooks were simply analogs of their corporate cousins. Think grey slabs of plastic with no personality. Those were sad times.

Something happened recently to change this. I don’t know if it was a resurgent Apple showing the big PC makers how to infuse some soul and character into their products or if it was the realization that there is no longer any way to differentiate against a competitor through specs alone. Maybe it was something else entirely. Whatever the reason, PC makers have discovered style. Read the rest of this entry »


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Review: Mass Effect

31 12 2007

Only after completing the game three times did I start to fully realize how good Mass Effect was. Up to that point, it struck me as not quite delivering on the hype and promises made (mostly by Microsoft). You are probably wondering, what made you complete it even once if it was not what you were expecting? I was expecting a lot. Frankly I thought this would be a modern revision of the classic 1980’s sand box game ‘Elite.’ Such an ambitious game was never going to be perfect in every way with only 120 people developing it. Even with 1,000 people working on it would have been hard to fully realize Bioware’s vision. Read the rest of this entry »


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Review: Uncharted Drake’s Fortune

25 11 2007

Sympathetic characters, great acting, terrific game play with a variety of styles and stunning visuals make Naughty Dog’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune the best game I have played this year.

The story is typical pulp fiction fare, you are Nathan Drake a descendant of Francis Drake explorer and treasure hunter of yore. An heirloom passed down to you contains coordinates that lead you on what will eventually become an epic treasure chase. Like any good pulp fiction, you have to suspend disbelief to truly enjoy the experience because there are some little holes in the plot. However, compared to most video game stories this is Booker Prize winning stuff. Read the rest of this entry »


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Review: Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

11 11 2007

Until this title, I had never played a Zelda game. So this review is devoid of any comparisons to Zelda cannon - it is a simply an answer to the question; is this game any good?

This game is very good. In fact it might be the best handheld game that I have ever played. Read the rest of this entry »


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Review: Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

11 11 2007

I had a friend once that kept on telling me about this game called Ratchet and Clank. He said I should play it. This was probably five years ago. Being in my early thirties, I had little desire to play any game with such a childish name where the main characters looked like muppets. I only had time for Counterstrike.

Eventually someone forced me to play the game, and within minutes I was hooked. Ratchet played like Mario 64 only better. I was transfixed. The cartoon environments, Disney-esque music, and likable characters had an irresistible charm. Read the rest of this entry »


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Review: HP dv2404

17 09 2007

Back to school shopping season is here and like every year retails are clobbering each other with hot deals in an effort to win your dollar. Having reviewed some entry level models from Toshiba and Acer in the past, I wanted to try something from HP. Their popular Pavilion line seemed like a good place to start as they offer lots of different configurations, seemingly great value and aesthetically pleasing designs.

I opted for the dv2404 model which currently sells in Canada for $599 ($649 with 12 cell battery).

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