Official 1558j winning thread

Camride · Post by **Camride** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 12:48 pm

You might want to consider this RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227110

It has 4-4-4-8 timings instead of the 4-4-4-12 everyone else seems to have. Not sure if there's an increase in perceivable performance, but for the price it's worth a shot. Plus, I've always really liked OCZ's stuff, it always overclocks really well. I'm sure that the Corsair is great also, but for the same price you might as well go for the tighter timings!

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:02 pm

the last timing llisted the does nothing for performance........
OCZ have great Cust service.....
Both come with lifetime warranties....but i suspect it will be easier to RMA to OCZ than Transend........

Bal`thzar · Post by **Bal`thzar** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:57 pm

Well I shipped Dragon out his CPU for this Lappy so he should get it built before he goes to school.

Dragon_Cooler · Post by **Dragon_Cooler** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:19 am

yes sorry i should have posted i have ordered everything and hope to take pics and build this weekend.

HARD DRIVE
https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductD ... e=100524-4
I guess i got the last one in stock. LOL

Ram
https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductD ... e=85016-72
I figured it was enoguh for what i am going to use the laptop for

Wifi
http://www.digitalhotbuy.com/dhbstore/p ... No=1023667
Couldnt beat the 6$ overnight and got LR some credit going through them

PROC
Pentium m 730- Through Bal`thzar
Thank you!!!!

Hopefully all the parts will be in Friday with the 2-day air and will have everything posted saturday. :crossing fingers: LOL

Bal`thzar · Post by **Bal`thzar** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 2:54 pm

OK bro I know its running get some pics up dang it.

Dragon_Cooler · Post by **Dragon_Cooler** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 7:42 pm

Finally after months of anxiety and being on a poor college budget, enough money finally rolled in to build the laptop. The world of desktop computers I know like the back of my hand but when it came to building and messing around with laptops, I was oblivious.
It was like a whole new world. When it actually came to getting down and dirty and getting my hands wet it really wasnï¿½t that bad. I was making a mountain out of a mole hill. Compared to a desktop a laptop is nothing. When you look at desktop components; you have a chassis, psu, ram, proc, mobo, optical drive, heatsink for the proc, video cards, Hard drive, pci ad-in cards and list can go on. When you look at a laptop itï¿½s a chassis, ram, proc, and hard drive. All in all, its 4 parts to slap in. Well last night after driving to go pickup the digital camera that my parents forgot to bring home my adventure began.
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2354.jpg[/img]
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2355.jpg[/img]
The 1gig stick of corsair memory, the Pentium m 730, and the hitachi 80gig sata 7200

I kind of cheated and already had the laptop apart, so all I had to do was dig in. (I got to anxious and wanted to take it apart before my parts got here.) I started with the processor and as you can see I took off the regular thermal compound on the heatsink and I used the almighty Artic Silver 5. I just used a dab of it and hopefully it wasnï¿½t too much. I just slid the heatsink off of where the processor goes and inserted it just like you would a normal desktop processor. The only thing different is I used a flathead screw driver to unlock and lock it in place.
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/Lap%20re ... G_2357.JPG[/img]
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/Lap%20re ... G_2358.JPG[/img]
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/Lap%20re ... G_2361.JPG[/img]
removed the old thermal compound which was like a tape and peeled it off
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/Lap%20re ... G_2363.JPG[/img]
applying the AS5
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/Lap%20re ... G_2364.JPG[/img]
Not to much I hope
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2368.jpg[/img]

Next to come was the Intel Wifi Card. This was very similar to adding ram. Initially insert at an angle and press down. Adding it was a no brainer, well one would think!! After it was inserted I added the coax for the antennas which are located in the hinges for the monitor. My electrical experience led me to believe that black being negative it should be auxiliary and the grey being positive and should be main. So I went ahead and added it like so.
The tape holing down the antenna cables
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2370.JPG[/img]
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2371.JPG[/img]
Connecting the coax
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2372.JPG[/img]
what it looked like all connected
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2373.JPG[/img]
The antenna as the hinges, the main one being on the right and aux on the left.
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2374.JPG[/img]

That was all it took for the inside of the laptop, what most would consider the hardest part of building a laptop. All I had to do was put the keyboard back and the top part that holds the power button and speakers. And that was it before the rest of the install

The flex cable for the keyboard
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2375.jpg[/img]
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2378.jpg[/img]
The hardest part in the whole laptop install is this top part. You have have to really careful in not breaking anything or snapping something off.
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2379.jpg[/img]

When I first took apart the laptop and what caused my first scratch was not catching this screw which holds the top part above the keyboard
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2380.jpg[/img]

Simply after that came the ram. I used the bottom of the 2 that are stacked guessing that was slot one.
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2381.jpg[/img]

Next came the hard drive. I thought there would be some kind of screws to hold it down or have an extra skin that goes around the hard drive that snaps into the bay, something to hold it in place. But it was simply slide it in and make sure you feel the snap into the sata port.
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2383.jpg[/img]
putting it all back together
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2384.jpg[/img]
putting the hard drive lid back on
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2385.jpg[/img]

And the Moment of truth comes!!! I plug it in to charge which ï¿½in 2 Hours it is at a 95% chargeï¿½ and push the power button. A blue power light and a blue HD activity light comes on!!! YEAH!!!!! It took POST a few seconds to do its initial power up which kind of scared me thinking it froze but I hit F2 to enter into the bios and vuala!!
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2390.jpg[/img]

I slap my windows XPPRO disc in and let her run. When it came to the blue screen I read ï¿½press F6 to install third party raid/sata driversï¿½ I went OH NO!! I let it run hoping it would have the basic drivers for the hard drive so I wouldnï¿½t have to get an external floppy drive. PHEW, it did! No extra drivers were needed for it. So I let windows install.

We have all seen this boring processï¿½.
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2391.jpg[/img]

HOORRRAAAYYYY!!!!! Windows installed in about 35 minutes.
[img]ftp://mulanserving.homeftp.net/resized/IMG_2393.jpg[/img]

Well but of course it was Friday the 13th and I had to run into a problem somewhere. After getting windows updated using the cat5 cable and installing the drivers for the lappy, came time to try out the wifi. Nothing! Long Story short I didnï¿½t plug it in all the way, ï¿½. Adding it was a no brainer, well one would think!!ï¿½ if you look in the first pic you can clearly see its not plugged in all the way. LOL long behold I take it apart and reseat it and all worked out.

After getting all settled down the system boots in 29.15 sec, Shuts down in about 20.4, awakes from sleep in 8sec. and having the cd-rom, wifi, and screen on bright the first full charge lasted me a good 2 and a half hours. The computer boots up fast enough for me, which is the one main thing I wanted and is pretty darn fast with this 7200rpm drive. As far as heat, I havent taken it through extensive stress tests but leavin it on my lap and other surfaces it doesnt get hot!! It is really cool to the touch on both the chassis and the fan. ~300$ for a 1100$ laptop I am one happy camper and can not thank LR enough for the chassis!!! It has been fun and the laptop will serve me very well!!

Special thanks to DragonSlayer for being my photographer and Bal'thzar for quick help in the wifi! And to everyones advice and point in the right direction for parts, And of Course Nate for shipping the lappy to me.

My name is ben and this entire review was done on a mac. LOLOL edit// my new laptop

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:01 pm

Damn fine work Ben.......good going dude!!

this guide is definitely most useful, mainly because you showed certain details the 3-part notebook build didn't, and that's mainly the beginners' stuff......told you it wasn't nearly as bad as you were making it out to be

Happy Tweaking!!

Paul

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:37 pm

Very nicely done!

I'm soo jealous....

Greats photos DragonSlayer !

Thanks for sharing your experiences with the build.

Dragon_Cooler · Post by **Dragon_Cooler** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:38 pm

kind of an update, i went on my first war driving experience with this laptop(going to dragonslayers) and W O W!!!!! This thing has better reception than my linksys usb wifi adapter. Using nestumbler i was able to pick up hotspots one after another. With that being said i am posting this on someone elses internet. LOL

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:49 pm

welcome to the mobile world, buddy! I've never personally owned a lappie, but have used one on the road, and yeah it is extremely handy with the wireless connectivity......it saved my butt once when I had a big class project due, and I had my comp set up with VLAN enabled.....I was able, through wireless connectivity, logon to my running machine at home, get the files necessary (I was in a hurry and forgot to burn them to CD), and load them onto the lappie and present them in class........there are a whole lot of possibilities as soon as you step out of the wired environment!

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:52 pm

killswitch83 wrote:........there are a whole lot of possibilities as soon as you step out of the wired environment!

Airsnort anyone? ;)

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:54 pm

and what does that mean young man

think about it....if you're a college student, wireless is an invaluable tool to get things done.....I wouldn't knock it at all, lol

Post by **Apoptosis** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:54 pm

Congrats on your first DIY notebook! The first of many for all your new friends that are going to want one... hehe

Cheers!

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:56 pm

killswitch83 wrote:and what does that mean young man

think about it....if you're a college student, wireless is an invaluable tool to get things done.....I wouldn't knock it at all, lol

wasn't knocking anything --> Airsnort, google it......

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:59 pm

ohhhhhhh, ok, lol, my bad

I'm not up on my open source programs, lol......I'm barely dabbling in the "Extreme Dark Arts" right now, lol......Linux hasn't become my friend yet, though I have a feeling that down the road it will.....just kinda torn between which distro I want, given my limited knowledge, lol

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 10:06 pm

killswitch83 wrote:just kinda torn between which distro I want, given my limited knowledge, lol

Easy...SuSe Linux....Very easy to install and config...plug&play...has drivers for nearly all hardware...plus you can run any kinda server you want...
you can use a desktop like KDE or GNOME or the command line...(you don't need to touch the command line if you don't want to, to use it!)

Novell also has made an open source (free) version available to download as a .iso (dvd or cd - 32bit or 64bit) -> you used to have to either buy it or do a FTP install....

plus it has great support for laptops....

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 11:08 pm

well, it looks like my new build is actually going to come to fruition sooner than I thought, so this POS Compaq will get a few minor upgrades and then I'll experiment with SuSe

gotta learn how to use Linux, and a dummy system is the best fix, right

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 11:20 pm

killswitch83 wrote:gotta learn how to use Linux, and a dummy system is the best fix, right

Download "Konppix"

It's a bootable CD based on GNU Debian (Linux)
It boots into a near full linux install....straight to desktop!
It doesn't touch you HDD (unless you tell it to)
It will detect most network card etc...all you need to do is give an ip address etc. to go online.....all very easy...no command line...

It will even work on your "P.O.S" PC....

You can use it to see what Linux is like with no risk to your data....
Thanks to Linux/GNU we can be free from M$...
To learn linux, it takes time...@ first you haven't a clue...but once you learn the basics, learning becomes easy....
Anyone who can use XP can use Linux....

This should be in the OS section!

killswitch83 · Post by **killswitch83** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 11:44 pm

yeah, my bad......sometimes when it comes to good info, I tend to get carried away with asking questions, lol, but hey, one can never know something without asking questions, right?

I'll keep these softwares in mind, and grab em after I "Ghost" my current XP Pro config on my new system....believe me, when I start fooling around with this, you'll be getting plenty of questions from me, lol

btw, since we're all off-topic for the moment, how old are you? you posted your pic and you look my age, though I could be mistaken

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 11:58 pm

I'm 27...... I know I look young...even younger when i've shaved LOL
I'm 6ft 4"... Really into PC's for about 4yrs (only OC'in ~3yrs)....using pc's for about 7yrs (started with a POS laptop, pentium 233 / 32mb ram / 2GB hdd...Thank's to that...I learned what the Start Menu was for!)
I've no probs answering any questions...if I do I'll tell you

Going off-topic now and again is cool....aslong as it means we get to know each other! IMO

Anymore questions?