Upgrading Laptop from old Alienware to HYPERSONIC AR7

[aperrigo]

OK,
Just wanted to put out there that I plan on purchasing an Aero AR7 from Hypersonic.

Main Reason: Done with a huge block of my Computer Information Systems courses , which were online, and I will be doing courses like Calculus , Statistics, Speech, and ACCOUNTing, I do not favor accounting at all.
I will also be doing SQL , and a few left over courses to keep my sanity. This mean more time at school.

Second Reason: SCHOOL ......no my second reason is that although my campus provides up-to-date technologies they restrict them...I should know since I help set the school policies. This mean I have to have an off school network for my programming needs.

Third Reason: http://www.hypersonic-pc.com/AR7/index.asp , Allows you the option of not installing the all wonderful, powerful Microsoft as a standard OS. This means you can save $$$$. I also plan to either use the hard-drive the provide or another fine option of theirs is to not purchase a hard drive from them.
AND here's my problem in deciding. I plan on getting this brand laptop...one of only a few that will fully customize their systems to what you wish to have applied. I need help on deciding if I should wait for the
SUPER TALENT SSD32GB25 2.5" 32GB SATA Internal Solid state disk drives to drop in price below $800 or stick with a regular SATA drive like Hitachi or Western Digital for my laptop, which is a lot cheaper.

I also planned on dual or Tri - Booting this laptop between WINXP/ Ultimate Edition 1.7 / Ubuntu 7.10 GuSTy.

[LeadFingers]

Good to see you again aperrigio

I need help on deciding if I should wait for the
SUPER TALENT SSD32GB25 2.5" 32GB SATA Internal Solid state disk drives to drop in price below $800 or stick with a regular SATA drive like Hitachi or Western Digital for my laptop, which is a lot cheaper.

You have to ask yourself a few questions
1) How long can you afford to wait?
If you must have it for school, will the price drop in time?

2) Do you really want Bleeding edge Technology?
can you afford to trust that this new wonder toy won't die a horrible death with all your school data on it.

3) what would be the downside of buying the std Sata for now, and next year buy the solid state drive
with a much larger capacity, for much cheaper?

When you have answered these 3 questions, you will have your answer.

ps: by the # of RMAs for WD you can probably do better than these.

[DaddyX3]

ps: by the # of RMAs for WD you can probably do better than these.

What!? How dare you! Thats blasphemy to my ears LeadFingers!!! I'm perfectly happy with WD products, I have yet to destroy one! I love their silent drives (JS i believe) I run then in my system. If you had any idea of how many times I've wiped them clean and re-installed, transfered, copied, written, ect. to these babies I'm sure you would be impressed

[LeadFingers]

"jeloousFingers" Oh that is too rich!

Daddy wrote:
What!? How dare you! Thats blasphemy to my ears LeadFingers!!! I'm perfectly happy with WD products, I have yet to destroy one! I love their silent drives (JS i believe) I run then in my system. If you had any idea of how many times I've wiped them clean and re-installed, transfered, copied, written, ect. to these babies I'm sure you would be impressed

I'm not saying they make bad products!
I'm saying They have a high # of drives GO bad.

I've got a few of them myself.
HOWEVER the only drive that ever went sideways on me was a WD,
so I checked it out, as of 2 years ago they had higher than average # of RMAs.
Next time I'm looking for a drive and Best has a stupid-good sale on WD,
will I buy one?... You betcha!
Would I bet my collage degree on one?... No Way on god's green earth!
But that's just me. jeloousFingers

[DaddyX3]

Right on. I knew you weren't that way. I do believe that the quality of hard drives now-a-days is much higher all the way across the board. If you look at their life expectancy, it is unbelievable! No matter what brand. I do like quite drives though.

[aperrigo]

I wanted to thank everyone for the replies. I still plan on purchasing the laptop, but I will use a standard 100gb 7200 SATA hard drive instead of the newer technologies. I hope they will drop in price toward the end of the year. They wouldn't be considered bleeding edge laptops....nooo bleeding edge laptops would be the highest end...and I did play with their customizations. The Highest bill I could get from them is what I consider a MOBILE DESKTOP. 7-8000 Dollars. Thats with 3 hard drives and their Extreme Quad processor. I don't need that nor want it...That thing would weigh in over 13 pounds. I plan on getting the laptop when I can afford to do so...I am still looking at various other vendors such as PC Torque and ASUS who have amazing very lite weight PCs ...but they drag on some performance characteristics. Right Now, I don't need it. But and BUT in the near future it is going to be needed for school work when I am away from home. LIKE A VACATION.

[LeadFingers]

I came realllll close to getting an Asus,
Very very few Asus things break before they are WAY outdated.
In the end I got a Sony Vaio off Craigslist for such a good price I couldn't pass it up.
If you're on a budget it's hard to beat some of the deals on Craigslist,
just stick to the top-end lappys.

[Zero Prime]

The real question is....What are you going to do with your old lappy? Wanna sell it?

[aperrigo]

Well if you do trade it in or sell it...don't send it to dealtree for alienware. I sent mine in jan...and I was supposed to receive my gift card / check lets say 10-15 days after....now it is march and I still don't have a gift card. Depreciation sucks too...because a 3500 dollar laptop 4 years ago is roughly 250 now...sigh..