Toshiba Satellite A15-S129 Notebook PC (2.40-GHz Celeron, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Deal for Price Shoppers!
Review: ... It has seen a lot of use ... . Great for watching DVDs on road trips (although you'll need a DC adapter, the battery won't last for a full movie). Battery life is pretty good though, if you're using programs resident on the hard drive. The only problems I've had have been OS related (but we all know MS sux). Burns CDs fast & reliable. As fast as I expected for a Celeron. Display is not the best I've seen, but is large and bright. The only problem I see going forward is that the display hinge seems flimsy .. close it with 2 hands on the sides... On physical construction, probably not the most solid laptop. Daily laptop users may want to consider different units. All in all much much better than I expected for the price.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Deal for Price Shoppers!
Review: ... It has seen a lot of use ... . Great for watching DVDs on road trips (although you'll need a DC adapter, the battery won't last for a full movie). Battery life is pretty good though, if you're using programs resident on the hard drive. The only problems I've had have been OS related (but we all know MS sux). Burns CDs fast & reliable. As fast as I expected for a Celeron. Display is not the best I've seen, but is large and bright. The only problem I see going forward is that the display hinge seems flimsy .. close it with 2 hands on the sides... On physical construction, probably not the most solid laptop. Daily laptop users may want to consider different units. All in all much much better than I expected for the price.

Rating:
Summary: First thing I did was get rid of Microsoft...
Review: And installed SuSE Linux 9.1 Professional. The next thing I did was bump the RAM up from 256MB to 512MB. Overall I am pleased with the performance and reliability of the system. Battery life has been consistantly around 2 Hours and 10 Minutes running Linux generally with multiple accounts open and over 140 processes running.

If I have to run Windows (usually because I have to fix someone elses bad coding...), I will only use Windows 2000 Pro inside of VMWare while running my Linux OS native. Haven't had any heating problems, no data loss issues, heck the darn thing just works. It's been dropped once, luck me no major damage. And smacked against the table (in my backpack I carry it in) a few times. The case has some nicks and dings but everthing just works!

I use it to program C/C++ and Java applications as well as tinker with Oracle databases on occassion. I also play some pretty intense 3D games as well, although the FPS is a bit sluggish at times, it's not bad enough to stop me from playing.

About the only thing I really have a complaint about is the fan, noisy as all get out! I have removed it and checked the bearings and made sure it was clean of debris, but it's still pretty noisy.

I sometimes will leave the system on 24/7 for up to a week while I am compiling code or running a series of tests against UNIX main frames or other Linux systems. Overall the only other thing I will change is the hard drive, 40GB is pretty small for what I do. But overall I recommend getting rid of Microsoft Windows on this system... completely and install Linux, preferably SuSE, and enjoy virus free, pop-up free internet time! It's worth it!

Rating:
Summary: For the price can not be beat!
Review: I bought mine at CompUSA for $599 after rebates w/ a free printer before Christmas. It has seen a lot of use since. Great for watching DVDs on road trips (although you'll need a DC adapter, the battery won't last for a full movie). Battery life is pretty good though, if you're using programs resident on the hard drive. The only problems I've had have been OS related (but we all know MS sux). Burns CDs fast & reliable. As fast as I expected for a Celeron. Display is not the best I've seen, but is large and bright. The only problem I see going forward is that the display hinge seems flimsy .. close it with 2 hands on the sides... On physical construction, probably not the most solid laptop. Daily laptop users may want to consider different units. All in all much much better than I expected for the price.

Rating:
Summary: For the price can not be beat!
Review: I bought mine at CompUSA for $599 after rebates w/ a free printer before Christmas. It has seen a lot of use since. Great for watching DVDs on road trips (although you'll need a DC adapter, the battery won't last for a full movie). Battery life is pretty good though, if you're using programs resident on the hard drive. The only problems I've had have been OS related (but we all know MS sux). Burns CDs fast & reliable. As fast as I expected for a Celeron. Display is not the best I've seen, but is large and bright. The only problem I see going forward is that the display hinge seems flimsy .. close it with 2 hands on the sides... On physical construction, probably not the most solid laptop. Daily laptop users may want to consider different units. All in all much much better than I expected for the price.

Rating:
Summary: Excellant for what you pay
Review: I bought this laptop in the first week of November. Its a good deal for me with all those rebates. Processor speed is good. The fan occasionally makes little, but hey , all laptops have some or the other issues these days..... Otherwise its an excellent buy. I myself was going for a dell...but considering dell's issues these days, I opted for the TOSHIBA........

Rating:
Summary: Toshiba Support is AWFUL
Review: I had my machine for 3 weeks and the DVD broke. It taking 4 weeks and I still don't have a machine. Buy Dell or HP or anyone else.

Rating:
Summary: yep
Review: I have recently baught one, it is a good computer. Got a good deal on it, which made it afordable, it even plays my games well.

Rating:
Summary: How come it comes with bad sounds? Anyway to mute it?
Review: I just got this computer yesterday. When I log in
to WinXP, the notebook comes with bad sound(the sound just
likes every computer running out memory). Every time I launch
an application, the sound comes again. When I try to install some software, the CD-Rom is also very noisy. I muted the voice,
but I still got those bad sound every time.
This really makes me feel bad. And it's not running as fast as expected.
Could anyone tell me that it happens to my notebook only,
or happens to every notebook of this type? Anyway to mute this sound?

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Laptop for the price
Review: I own this laptop for 5 weeks now and it works great. First I was worried abt the celeron processor since i thought it will be damn slow. But then my thinking was wrong. I also own another Toshiba that has centrino processer.This one is almost 80% fast as centrino.If u want to use the laptop for word, excel, powerpoint applns and to surf the web, burn cds , this one is excellent choice.

The only con i can report is since the design is not slim, even though its stated as 6.2 pounds, it seems like its a bit bulk..but for this price, its unbeatable. I highly recommend this laptop for personal/home use.