New laptop

Thought I would just share this for anyone thinking of buying a new laptop.

I have just got my new one an Asus P2520L 15" with an i7 @ 2.4GHz 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive - which came with Windows 7 Pro installed (I got it on discount $800) .
I have now swapped out the hard drive for a Samsung EVO 500GB 4GB more RAM and installed Windows 7 Pro form an ISO I have and it is just a fabulous machine now.

The work was so easy as the bottom plate just comes off after removing eleven screws and prising the clips undone. Underneath the motherboard and all components are exposed and so easy to works on the only issue being a ribbon cable that stretched over the hard drive which needs careful navigating to get the drive out There is also a minor able attaching the bottom plate to the mobo but is again very easy to disconnect and reconnect when done.

The new gear plus some tweaks form the Optimise tutorial has increased the speed of the boot shut down and general operation 20 fold.

All in all a very nice machine thin and light weight.

The only con I found was that is in dim light the keyboard is hard to see onaccount of the matt finish.

Sounded like fun John. Enjoy. :)

Hello Shawn long time no see Yes mate it was a really nice surprise and finding it so easy to work on was such a pleasant surprise. Only took 20 minutes form cover off to beginning the clean install.

Mind you I would have been lost if I hadn't seen your link to the Magic Jelly Bean to get the code

Thing is it does need those improvements as I have done because the spinner and meagre 4GB really was not doing the machine justice..

The kids can have the HP G3 now as it was a real complete disassemble job to do something like I did on this one.

Anyway anyone who wants a nice machine this would be my suggestion

Nice one
Probably sometime this year I might have to look into a new lappy :/
My little m-series gateway is still pretty adequate for what I use it for

An ssd is always a great idea to swap out
Single best upgrade :)

Yes Mike and this laptop I would buy again in heartbeat and now I have most of my programs installed and most of the needed updates it is all I ever wanted in a laptop. If you can run to one it is worth trying one out first.

The boot time is just 14 seconds shut down 5 secs and the graphics even though at 1366x768 are better than my old Toshiba with the 1600x900 graphics and I haven't yet installed the Intel graphics stuff

In between selecting programs is in the blink of an eye I am thoroughly impressed with this machine.

I have had a few issues with Asus over time but they have got this one spot on.

Plus like I said I got it on a sales offer $800 from $1100. The only thing I can criticise is that the letters on the keys would have been nice backlit, slightly larger letters or the keyboard deck a silver colour.

Yea I actually had an eye on a wild MSI lappy :)

Ok mate now depending on your budget my other Asus is a second behind in boot time and it is a gamer. The prices of this range have come down quite a bit too. Mind you the one I have is now over a year old and I suspect it will have been superseded some time ago now.

That machine is an Asus ROG G750JM with an i7 - and I upped the RAM to 8GB and flipped in a Samsung 500GB EVO plus an ISO of 7 Pro that I luckily saved from that Heidoc site before they shut it down.

The resolution is 1920x1080 and I run that through an Asus V250 27" IPS monitor. The new machine can also be run through HDMI to a monitor although I haven't tried it yet the graphics are so good even at low res I reckon it would be just real nice.

I haven't had much to do with MSI and I have seen some not so good reports but that was some time ago though. Myself have got to like Asus for the most part.