My Salvation

I recently brought a laptop on ebay instead of a PDA. I wanted something I could take with me and that could meet my demands which were not really that high and I like a big screen and real keyboard, for quick stuff I use my NGage smart phone.

I want it to take to hospital and stuff so I can have music, movies, my diary (this blog and a private one) and just every the things I needed to cope in life.

Ok so what did I need it to do and what did I want it to do.

Need's

• Work, everything needed to work and it had to look tidy
• CD Rom
• Larger screen the better min 14.1"
• USB makes upgrades cheaper, like external harddrives
• Surf Net
• Email via Gmail
• Play Music
• VOIP single conversation no conference calls
• Blogging
• Word processing.

Not a huge demand so far and now the..

Wants

• xVID
• CD Burning
• Games
• LAN
• Modem
• DVD

So I brought a Compaq armada on Ebay.au for $169 plus postage so about AU$180 with regular postage. It had 32MB on board and a32 MB stick, out went the 32 and in went a RAM upgrade from Memex who i would reccomend for RAM requirements in australia. It was 1 x 128 MB SODIMM 144pin and cost AU$93 with express postage. Added a blutooth dongle that cost AU$26 with express postage as well. I dont like waiting.

So for a grand total of less then AU$300 I have a laptop that I can do the following with.

• Email with Gmail
• Net Surfing
• Music
• Audio with Bluetooth
• 14.1 screen
• The battery holds charge
• Blogging
• VOIP

Yes does what I want it to needs a few more things like carry bag, USB hub and USB external harddrive at least 20 gig for my portable storage.

Now my list of essential software

Im running the following on Windows 2000 as it is similar to XP and stable and is lighter for my older laptop.

• WIN 2K (commercial with licence)
  
• Gmail for my email (free)
  
• Google Desktop Side Bar(free)
  
• Google talk for VOIP (free)
  
• STP a really light and powerful MP3 player (free)
  
• HTTrack to cache webcont for offline browsing (free)
  
• Atmosphere Lite to play bird and water noises to help me sleep (free)
• w.blogger for offline blogging (free)
• Mozilla Firefox for browsing (free)
• Hot Keyboard and sound control to get my hotkeys working (free)
• xVID for movies (free)

Current Specs.
Computer Type: LapTop
Make: Compaq
Model: Armada 1700 6300/T/5000/D/M/3
CPU: Single Intel Pentium(r) II; 300 MHz
Hard Disk Drive: IBM 3.2 GB; EIDE
Video Adapter: Chips and Technology, Inc. C&T 65555
Floppy Type 120 MB Superdrive
OnboardD RAM: 32 MB
1st RAM slot: 128 MB
Total RAM: 160 MB
Screen: 14.1" 1024 x 768
Network: Roamabout 80211.b wireless
Audio: Bluetooth Audio with Motorola Headset
OS: Windows 2000 SP3
Browser: Mozilla Firefox