Lenovo S10 Impressions
Yes, it has been awhile since my last post. I have been working an insane amount of hours lately and that has not left much time or energy for writing. I work in the IT department of a casino (I won’t say which one), and we have been working night and day to get an expansion open. Now that it has opened, I hope to return to the realm of normal life again, although I think most people would be surprised at just how hard all casino employees work.
My last post mentioned that I had purchased a Lenovo S10 netbook computer. I have been using it has my main machine at home and I can say that it was a very worthy purchase. Now, you may ask why would I use a 10″ netbook as my main computer. Well, I decided to sell my Alienware M17 gaming laptop and go back to a 17″ Macbook Pro. The Macbook Pro does not have nearly the same graphics card power as the M17, but I really missed using OS X. Plus, with the hours I have been working, my gaming time has dwindled drastically.
The Lenovo netbook is what made me realize I missed OS X. You see, it is possible to install OS X onto the S10 and that is exactly what I did. I am now dual booting Windows XP and Mac OS X. Installing the Mac operating system on a machine like this is not the easiest thing to do, but when you get it completed, it runs perfectly fine. All the hardware works well. The only exception to that is the built-in ethernet card. It currently does not work, but the built-in wi-fi does, so it is not much of a problem. I started with this guide from the Lenovo S10 forums.
The Lenovo S10 uses a 1.6ghz Atom processor. Its intended use is light tasks and that is exactly it shines at. I can browse the web, check email, view online video, play music, and other standard things. It can’t view high definition video. It just does not have the raw power necessary to do so. I don’t find this much of a limitation as I don’t think most people get a 10″ netbook with the intention of watching high definition video. Non-HD content plays fine, but it does push the processor. If I watch a YouTube video or watch Twit Live, the CPU utilization stays at 75%.
I only have one complaint about it and that is the placement of the right-hand “shift” key. It is not in the standard position and I find myself pressing the “enter” key most of the time by mistake. It is awkward but I can live with it. All-in-all, the Lenovo S10 is a great little machine.
My 17″ Macbook Pro won’t ship until February 26th, so I will get even more use out of the S10. I wouldn’t recommend it for every day use, but for light use and travel, it can’t be beat.
Read MoreAlienware M17 Gaming Notebook Is Mine!
I gave myself a treat this Christmas. I bought an Alienware M17 gaming notebook computer. I have done away with my desktop computer and I now use this notebook for everything. It is a powerhouse that can handle anything I throw at it.
The Alienware M17 is not built with portability in mind. It is a desktop replacement machine that weighs around 10 pounds. Needless to say, not many jet-setters will be carrying this thing around. If you are looking for a gaming notebook and portability is not that important to you, then you need to take a serious look at the M17.
The M17 can be customized in many different ways. I chose the 2.53ghz Core 2 Duo processor. It can be easily upgraded to a quad core processor later on, so I didn’t feel it was necessary to pay the extra money for it now. I also choose to get 4gb of RAM, 320gb hard drive, 17″ screen, illuminated keyboard and more. You can really make the M17 your own.
The most important feature available on this notebook is the SLI graphics card option. I went with dual ATI 3870 graphics cards, each with 512mb of RAM, and running in Crossfire mode. That is two full video cards with a total of 1gb in video ram – in a notebook computer!
I haven’t had a ton of time with it yet, but I can tell you that this thing screams! It plows through World of Warcraft at max settings with ease. I also love how quiet it runs. Even with the GPU fans at full speed, the noise is very acceptable. I expected it to sound like a jet engine but it absolutely does not.
I’ll report more on its gaming performance as I get back into playing. I am very interested to see how it can handle Vanguard’s hefty graphics engine.
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