This morning bright and early 6:45 I headed out to an Aldi on the otherside of town to queue to get into a discount store mainly known for selling cheap as chips bake beans.

In my pocket was the equivilent of £999. I went to buy a Gericom Laptop:

15" TFT (1400x1050)
3.06GHz, mobile intel P4, enhanced speed step and hyperthreading.
512 MB DDR RAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX5600, 128MB Ram
60GB HDD
DVD Burner/CD burner
4 x USB 2
Firewire
Wireless Lan
Standard LAN and modem
TV OUT, S video, etc. etc.
PS/2 port
Card reader

Woo! £999 and I am not joking. Nearest competitor is probably £1350. A trump card is 2 years theft and accidental damage warrenty.

Who are Gericom? The 5th largest manufacturer of laptops in Europe, sponsor of Moto GP (this is their official notebook), sponsor of suzuki and kawasaki etc. So, good brand just unknown in this country until now.

Am I happy with it? Very much so. Bad points: heavy (3.5kg) but I guess you have to expect this considering the facilities. The PSU is also large which is annoying. The free carry case is rather cheapy.

Apart from that, woh! You can't buy anything anywhere near as good for this money.

if you want one, they sold out 10 mins after opening (maybe due to glowing review in computer active and other magazines) and each store only had 8. However, go to your local Aldi and they will have order forms! If you don't mind waiting a few weeks you can have all that.

I am very impressed, who cares that you have to go to Aldi to get it. I don't!

Paul

That IS a really good spec for the price. I'm rather jealous now

<font face="Verdana">--
<font color="maroon">'98 Marea Weekend ELX (1.8 16v).</font id="maroon">
- Kenwood MP3 head unit
- De-Restricted standard air box
- NGK VX Platinum spark plugs (BKR7EVX)
- Toyo Proxes T1-S (205/45) tyres on Stilo 7-twin-spoke 16" alloys
- Quad LED blue sidelights
- Type-VR Aluminum Red tax disc holder
- Richbrook Aluminium Red Uni-Hex gear knob with FIAT logo and silver/grey gaiter</font id="Verdana">

Hehe, this is the first time in my life (despite having comps since about 4!) that I have what is practically the best!

It looks and feels so nice and posh! Just want to get a wireless LAN now - stopped liking wires. Need to get used to XP (if anyone reading this has ONLY used XP, you are lucky!) it is so simple, everything seems to work which is so not windows!

My old toshiba laptop had a little crappy mouse in between the G and H keys and i keep going to use it rather than the touch pad! Whoops!

paul

the equivilent of £999? what did you actually have roubles??

GoGoCinquecento!

Well, I considered it but thought a debit card better I said that rather than £999 in my pocket because then it might imply I paid cash (which some did!) and I didn't!

nice spec, nice price - how did you know it'd be there?


Cinq Sporting - and yes, its broom yellow!

Well, every so often they have deals like that. Computers come up about once a year or so I think. They usually do Medion (which have also been extremely good for the money) and every so often I check the aldi website and i happened to get lucky. Went and checked computer active and they had a review saying "to sell this for a grand is a minor miracle, get one if you can!". So I did and am very happy. Followed it up by going to the store and getting their literature and asking the manager about it; they were VERY good and forthcoming telling me how many units they were getting etc.

Computeractive was the main insentive to buy because they know what they are talking about in general!

Thanks for the kind comment about my deal.

Now I just wanted the cheapest possible way of using my wireless on my network using some sort of access point. Cheapest on ebay is £32 inc. postage for a basic access point which is very poor quality I think and not good value Any better ideas or should I stick with my wired one? I want to keep my router/switch (nice linksys one) but just need someway of connecting to it with wireless - wish I had bought the wireless model now!

i got my medion 19" monitor from there £100 cant fault it, i also got my old digi cam from there that was faultless aswell

Seicento Sporting, Modified Front Bumper, Saxo Custom Spoiler, Abarth Side Skirts, Bad Boy Bonnet, Afterburner Rear Lenses, 4" Powerflow Exhaust System, Abarth 14" Alloys.
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eBuyer (http://www.ebuyer.co.uk) are normally pretty good for stuff like that - they do a reasonably priced 22Mb wireless access point which has had good reviews.


________________________________________________
I have a drink problem...only one mouth but two hands!

1.6 Active 5 door in Crystal Green.

http://www.clubstilo.com

Wireless LAN is great! Get it, but don't buy the cheapest because you _will_ get fustrated at its poor quality.

The best makes for an access point currently are US Robotics and Buffalo. eBuyer is a good place to buy them.

Get the 54g ones even if your laptop doesn't have that card, it's just so then your future-proofed aswell (e.g. if you ever add more machines or anything with newer wireless cards).

<font face="Verdana">--
<font color="maroon">'98 Marea Weekend ELX (1.8 16v).</font id="maroon">
- Kenwood MP3 head unit
- De-Restricted standard air box
- NGK VX Platinum spark plugs (BKR7EVX)
- Toyo Proxes T1-S (205/45) tyres on Stilo 7-twin-spoke 16" alloys
- Quad LED blue sidelights
- Type-VR Aluminum Red tax disc holder
- Richbrook Aluminium Red Uni-Hex gear knob with FIAT logo and silver/grey gaiter</font id="Verdana">

Well it came with a PCMCIA wireless card (the only real complaint by computer active that it wasn't built in) but it only runs at 11mbps. I guess it was a cheap last minute thought to "We should give them wireless". A 54g card is only about £18 from maplin I think (?) so maybe you're right to go for the better standard and then if i chose to upgrade the card I can and have the hardware to support.

I am amazed at how simple XP is, it recognises my network within seconds (sometimes could be minutes on 98). It added my printers (quite oldish!) without needing any driver. I am really glad. Just watched twin towers, very impressed throught my hifi. It is larger than my TV so there's no point getting a S-video cable at the moment. Speakers too quiet in my opinion although my sister bought one today also and she says that her's are plenty loud enough. WOnder if it is my unit :S

As you can tell, I am smitten! Sorry if it sounds too much so. Even the memory card reader is great - recognises instantly and I even tried it about 10 times in a minute!

I am going to get some DVD-r's tomorrow I think and give it a spin (literally!)



I get excited way too easily!

Oh, anyone want to buy a copy of MS works 7.0 licenced and everything? I obviously don't need it as I use office.

I used to build Gericom Notebooks at Hi-Grade Computers. Not the best ones we did, and due to high-quantities being ordered at once, (3000 needed in 5 days) they were sadly always rushed, and we ended getting quite a few back for repair. They were never sold under the Gericom label though, we used to remove the badges and stick Hi Grade ones on!

Can't argue with that price though

Cinq Sporting 1997 https://www.fiatforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8033 Parts Needed!

In my life I have had the following laptops either owned by me or used:

Panasonic toughbook, P150mzh etc.
Toshiba Satellite 2100 CDS (P400, this is replaced by my new one)
Toshiba satellite Pro (6 months old)
Iridium (AMD 1600 or so)

Apart from the £4k toughbook, this is the most solidly built one I have had. The toshibas feel so flimsy compared. It is like comparing a car which has a nice "shunt" sound when the door closes to one which goes "clicky clack cheapy crap" type noise.

Not saying that it is definately well built but maybe McKrob things have changed since you made them?

The toughbook isn't in the same league, shock tested from 1metre and water resistant, it was rumoured that it was once tested by driving a car slowly over it and it still worked.

Nothing on my laptop feels badly built (yet) but I know heat disipation will be a problem with such powerful components with reasonably little ability for ventilation although they seem to have done their best. Got to get a game on it to try but it and see how good this graphics card is - not played decent PC games since about 1997!!

Yeah, to be honest, that Aldi one has a chassis that Hi Grade never used, so i doubt Hi Grade build that anyway!

I once had to repair our 'top of the range, waterproof laptop' because water had shorted out the motherboard. Hardly waterproof, but what people dont know can't hurt them

Cinq Sporting 1997 https://www.fiatforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8033 Parts Needed!

Haha! It is so difficult to make something more than splash proof especially in terms of a laptop which has numerous sockets!

I have noticed my first problem :O the numlock key (obviously I haven't used) looked at a funny angle, upon inspection, one side of it isn't fixed into the lever mechanism and it looks like it is impossible for me to fix! Any ideas? I remember having a cordless keyboard and the same thing happened and I couldn't fix it :S I don't want to send my whole laptop back because on key that I never use it at a slight angle but it is kind of annoying considering it shouldn't be like that. Maybe I will drop gericom an email and see what they say.

Is there a nack to getting it back on by any chance does any one (mckrob maybe??) know?

Grrr, it was going so well.

So any one intending to go and try andget one or was my advertising useless?

Right, take the keyboard off, this is done by little clips, usually 3 along the top, a flat headed screwdriver can be used just to push the chips off the keyboard, and lift the keyboard out slowly, bearing in mind there will be a ribbon cable fixing it to the chassis.

This is also very easy to take off, just gently lift up the brown clip that holds the ribbon to the chassis. With the keyboard off, it should be easy to pull the numlock key off (again gently) and put it back on, ensuring its all held down well.

It all goes back on the way it came off, and its preferable to do this yourself rather than send it away for weeks to have 10 secs of repair work!

Alternatively, you could lever that key off without removing the keyboard, and then push it back on, although we never did this, as restricting the area you have to work usually creates problems, and things break!

I've probably made this seem quite challenging to do, but honestly, its a 2 min job. Good luck

Cinq Sporting 1997 https://www.fiatforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8033 Parts Needed!

Aghhh, I am scared to do that! I've done stuff with laptops before and I know how fiddling and easily damaged they are!

So you are saying in order to fix the key, i need to remove it and then press it back on? Isnt it possible to just get the one side that isn't fixed on, fixed on?

Thanks so much for your reply!

Ehh that's bloody good that - can you post on the forum when such a deal is upcoming again?

Cinqmeister
http://www.channel9.tk
'94 Cinquecento Basica (USA Spec) 0,9l

Of course! I would have said earlier but it didn't register it would be a good idea. Any time I see it in computer active or elsewhere I will.

However, you can still get them, my girlfriend has just gone down to try and have one ordered. I think the idea was that they sell 8 of them in each store (low overheads), drum up advertising by word of mouth then everyone else orders them and they should take 3-4 weeks. I know we all hate waiting but it must be worth it!

You can't get much better, nevermind for such "little" money compared to what Dell might ask.