Now and then it does pick up on a false click, I just put that down to being hesitant with gestures and getting used to it...I need to give the laptop chance, it is small, the keyboard layout is different (Fn where Ctrl should be), trackpad is small, I have a nipple to play with. So far I am liking the whole package, for the money it's a cracking deal IMO.
OK that's reassuring. I still think I'll have to rely on the trackpad, but, yeah, I'll certainly give the trackpoint a go too. Regarding the Fn/Ctrl switch, have you tried this?
There is an option to swap in the bios - Config -> Keyboard and mouse
I guess it would be okay assuming the memory is rated the same speed and latency etc but it is dual channel so matching brand modules just makes sense, and as I wanted 8GB buying the lot and tossing the 2GB was cheaper than upgrading to 4GB and buying another 4...
I have ordered the 2GB version and plan to either another 2GB, or go all out and stick in 2 x 4GB modules as you have done. 8GB does seem overkill for my requirements, so I'll probably go for 4GB. I really am struggling to think of anything that would require so much RAM!
With the X121e, I'm finding the fan noise rather annoying. Based on the BIOS profile in tpfancontrol, the fan turns on at 45 degrees and off at 40 degrees. The problem with this is that it virtually never returns to 40 degrees after even a light amount of use, stabilising at around 43 degrees or so when idle.
The fan in my opinion is also rather noisy, even at level 1. Does anyone know if there's a BIOS update that alters fan behaviour? At the moment, I'm running tpfancontrol with higher temperature thresholds before the fan kicks in, but that's not that ideal. I'd much rather there actually be a slower fan speed that's on all the time.
I use
SpeedFan on my PC. You can specify different fan speeds for different temperature ranges. May be worth a go?
Its always been my opinion you shoild ALWAYS charge a battery to full then run it to complete flat even when your sitting next to the power cable, just pop the cable out and run it down till Windows moans about low power (5% warning) but others do.t agree with this.
I’ve heard this is important to maintain battery life, though few people bother. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to unplug the battery when running from mains to prevent that constant recharging… any thoughts on this?
Here are some basic benchmarks on the i3-2367m version, Windows 7 Pro:
Thanks for sharing this. For the price, upgrading the memory is a no-brainer. Just need to decide whether I’ll be limiting the system by going for 4GB rather than 8GB. I was quite surprised by the big boost to graphics performance using an SSD!
Dual booting Ubuntu 11.10 64bit and Windows 7:
You may (like me) think this should be a straightforward task... sadly it isn't! There are issues with UEFI that make this quite a headache. However, I have managed to get a dual boot working with relative ease on a fresh SSD.
Step 1. In the BIOS (used for ease of terminology) startup tab modify UEFI/Legacy Boot Priority to Legacy First. If you don't do that, Windows installer will see the drive but will politely tell you that you can't install on to it.
Step 2. Run Windows 7 installer, and let it do its thing on the empty SSD
Step 3. Google for "fixparts" utility and then run it. If you don't, ubuntu is about to see an empty SSD...
Step 4. Run Ubuntu 11.10 installer, and install it alongside Windows.
Step 5. Reboot, and you'll see no Grub... Windows will start up and you'll be scratching your head about what just happened. So boot into a live Ubuntu session so that you can reinstall grub. You need to find your linux partition (sudo fdisk -l). Lets say it is sda5. You'll need to mount it (sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt) and then reinstall Grub (sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda). Restart, and you should have a normal Grub screen. Happy days!
Step 6. Set the UEFI/Legacy Boot Priority back to how it was, if you want.
3G works, and to get the a/b/g/n adapter (Broadcom BCM43224) to work you need to blacklist bcma
I’ll make sure I keep this info as I might well have a go with ubuntu. One thing that was putting me off was problems with the wireless, so it’s good to know there’s a work around for the high-bandwidth module.
And yet people are buying it and by and large are happy.
- The build quality is better than any netbook I've used
- Netbooks have become quite expensive, but still have slow processors. I just can't put up with that. (don't forget the original eee pc was under £150)
- The screen res is pretty reasonable, I can generally see what I'm doing, and its a decent enough res to do some coding on there
- I want to be able to pop it in my bag without noticing it.
- I prefer a nipple
I have a 14" work machine, its too big in this world of widescreen
This pretty much sums up my thoughts after doing quite a bit of research… I just hope I’m not disappointed when it arrives. I was originally planning to go for a netbook, which would have cost ~£250. For ~£330 I can get what I hope will be usable as a main computer - I would rather have just one machine if possible. I did look at 13.3” laptops but, unless you pay quite a bit more money, you’ll have the same screen resolution and comparable performance (I think). If I could justify spending twice the money I probably would have gone for a decent 13.3” laptop.
- i can see the appeal for people that play lots of silly games but it doesnt appeal to me.
