33percents Compal EL80 Review

[33percentlonger]

Why I chose El80....
Okay so i've been looking for a new laptop for a few months now... i started off looking at an HP5020 then to an acer 8200 then to an asus 96j and finally the compal El80, now i did alot of research on compal and saw that they built
alot of high quality notebooks (and a few low quality ones aswell) but most people were happy with theirs.... after deciding on the El80 I had already really made up my mind who to purchase from after them being so helpful with all of my questions on the 96j and the El80, I chose www.powernotebooks.com I spoke to both ron and donald and they both helped me though all of my stupid questions and interest over the machine.

The Specs
CPU: Intel® Yonah Core-Duo T2500 2.00GHz 2M 667 FSB
RAM: Corsair 2GB DDR-2 667 SODIMM (2X1024)
HD: Hitachi 100GB 7200rpm S-ATA
Internal Wireless Card: Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945 Tri-mode
Display: 15.4" WXGA 1280 x 800 Glossy
VGA: Nvidia 7600 256mb PCI-E
Optical Drive: 8 x DVD-RW Dual Layer Super Multi
Camera: Built-in Camera
3 year warranty with next day shipping both ways
No OS


Initial Reactions
LCD: Wow!! this thing is bright! its a gorgeous screen and the glossy screen really hasnt been a problem so far i can hardly see what people are talking about with the lights unless its dark when there are light colours on the screen it looks gorgeous and i personally think that its the nicest laptop screen i've ever seen

Keyboard: Its a nice keyboard it has flex on the right side and the rest of the keys are very bouncy and easy to type on its good except when using the scroll keys also its slightly different to my old laptop keyboard so trying to get used to it is proving slightly difficult but i'm getting there

Heat: Okay so the fans are always running but you can hardly hear them in comparison to the other fans i've heard on laptops theres a little blow when i first start up and then nothing for the rest of the time the laptop doesnt get hot but its quite warm here at the moment very humid so i think that the laptop feels hotter because if this but its no problems its alot cooler than my old notebook even after playing half life 2 for an hour

Batterylife: will update later.

Looks: This thing is gorgeous and i love it from the aluminium around the keyboard to the curve at the top of the monitor its absolutely amazing and the metal makes it look gorgeous I even think the powernotebook badge on the front looks pretty cool

Speakers: for laptop speakers i'm thinking these are actually quite good they're loud enough and are just slightly quieter than the speakers in my tv but what makes them really good is you can actually feel the bass on your hands there's no crackle as there usually is with notebook speakers when you fully blast it out as i'm doing now listening to punk/rock music theres very little crackle and alot of bass good speakers these are also nicely positioned on the front of the laptop where you will mostly be sitting.



Final Thoughts on Build Quality: MMmm gorgeous its a great strong laptop its very solid and it doesnt feel breakable at all infact i'm more scared of my arms being caught under the screen

Program Install
Okay so i didnt buy with an o/s so i had to install windows this took a good 45 minutes which wasnt crazy infact it was okay i had no problem with that let me take a few pictures and actually eat I installed half life 2.. football manager 2006(being english i have to have the football/soccer game) i installed my slingbox and zone alarm and avast! which i've been using for a while on all of my computers and i find them easy to use this took the best part of 2 hours and then came copying files over.... that took 5-6 hours to copy all needed files from my old laptop to this new one


Games: Half life 2....
this runs really really well and it looks great with everything set to high its gorgeous i havent played any really modern games the last game i played all the way through was the first half life and all of the add on packs but this looks amazing and its good... i have a problem using the touchpad and keyboard at the same time but i think i just need an external mouse

Football Manager 2006...
Well if you dont know about this game its really not graphically intensive at all but its very ram and processor intensive but still it runs 10-15 times faster on this than on my old laptop games are processed in a fraction of the time and with this screen it makes it easier to see things

anyways I will update with more if any questions are asked etc...

[huntnyc]

Thanks for your review and will look forward to updates. After I get mine and get it set up, will try to report back also as time passes.

1. Did you change the clock setting on the video card or just leave it at the defualt adn thanks.

2. Did you have any problems installing any drivers and did you leave any drivers out?

3. Did you stay with the supplied video driver or did you install another and if so, what and how did you install it?

Hope you don't mind the questions.

Gary

[33percentlonger]

Questions are fine everything is stock on the video card i havent changed the clock settings and the video drivers are the standard on the cd... I didnt install the final 3 items on the cd... watchdog..wireless select switch and sidewalker... if paladin or someone can tell me what they do and if they're useful then i may install them

[aurawolf]

Thanks for the review, I think I am decided on getting this unit now I was 90% sure before the review but hearing someone throughts that actually bought it has swayed me to 99%. I would be interested in hearing the speaker quality and battery life, I think I will place my order as soon as I find out for sure that it is a MXM laptop, if it isn't I don't think it is going to worry me to much but I would like ot know for sure.

[33percentlonger]

i've just updated about the speakers up above I probably wont get time to do battery time until tomorrow or monday i'm going to have a look at the IOMP now

[33percentlonger]

erm i have no idea how to get the IOMP to work... paladin hellpp!! lol

[huntnyc]

For something on those utilities you were asking about whether you should install or not, please go to Hel 80 Owners Lounge

Gary

[33percentlonger]

ooh thanks i knew i remembered seeing something about it i'll prob install the wireless one and for the programmable buttons

[paladin44]

Questions are fine everything is stock on the video card i havent changed the clock settings and the video drivers are the standard on the cd... I didnt install the final 3 items on the cd... watchdog..wireless select switch and sidewalker... if paladin or someone can tell me what they do and if they're useful then i may install them

Leave Watchdog off...it is a lousy power management utility. Use the one in your Windows Control Panel instead.

Wireless select switch should be installed if you are using Bluetooth and/or 802.11a/b/g wireless.

Sidewalker should be loaded to program the two buttons to the left of your power button (they are labeled 1 and 2). They can then be used to program those buttons to open any application of your choice.

[33percentlonger]

any idea about the IOMP?