Packard Bell BG45-U-300 - Netbooks @ MoDaCo

Packard Bell BG45-U-300

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Shuflie

Oct 21 2008, 13:59

Post #1

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Was in PCWorld on sunday picking up a computer desk for my wife when she spotted this on the shelf. Does anyone have any experience on one? I must say it did look very nice, just not so sure about the processor - dual core pentium T2390 - seemed to be nippy enough though.

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Looby

Oct 21 2008, 16:22

Post #2

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I have the model prior to this. Have had no problems. Excellent screen, very bright and clear. Good keyboard and build quality. Battery average and a little slow to boot up. WiFi very good. Volume of speakers could be a little higher but maybe I'm being a little picky. All in all I'm very happy with it especially the compact size, build quality and lovely screen. Hope this helps

This post has been edited by Looby: Oct 21 2008, 16:23

xxcooldudexx

Oct 21 2008, 17:03

Post #3

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That is nice, but would be ideal if OSX ran on it...

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Shuflie

Oct 21 2008, 21:37

Post #4

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QUOTE(Looby @ Oct 21 2008, 17:22)

I have the model prior to this. Have had no problems. Excellent screen, very bright and clear. Good keyboard and build quality. Battery average and a little slow to boot up. WiFi very good. Volume of speakers could be a little higher but maybe I'm being a little picky. All in all I'm very happy with it especially the compact size, build quality and lovely screen. Hope this helps

What were the specs of the previous version? Slow boot might not be such a problem if it sleeps and hibernates properly.

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Shuflie

Oct 21 2008, 21:38

Post #5

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QUOTE(xxcooldudexx @ Oct 21 2008, 18:03)

That is nice, but would be ideal if OSX ran on it...

Would for me but not my wife, prefers Windows I suppose.

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Looby

Oct 22 2008, 11:56

Post #6

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The Packard bell Easynote came suppliied with full Norton 2007 pre-installed. I installed Norton 2009 antivirus last night which completely uninstalls the previous version. It now boots quickly. The specs are less than the version you are looking at and have included a link to a review of mine

http://www.whatlaptop.co.uk/YRQkgRho-WckGQ.html

NB: The price I paid was approx £400.

This post has been edited by Looby: Oct 22 2008, 11:58

Subliminal Aura

Nov 16 2008, 16:42

Post #7

Diehard

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This is a great machine. I bought it yesterday for 350. There is an online coupon '5weekend' which will get you 5% off but you'lll still have to pay delivery and hence the total saving is only 11-12 quid. Currys had the machine on for 329 a little while back so I'm kicking myself a little for not buying it then.

The Good

This is a fast machine aka a real laptop not a netbook.

After turning off a hell of a lot of stuff in vista it now flys.

My intention was to put xp/linux and maybe OSX on it (osx note : http://www.insanelymac.com/lofiversion/ind...p/t113456.html) but I'm going to live with Vista for a little while.

I don't think the battery will last long as it 'IS' a power horse.

The Seagate SATA is fast enough giving me a hdtune bench of 40mb/s.

The geekbench CPU benchmark is an astounding 2000 !

The bad

Things to watch out for....

- Installing XP might not be plain sailing as you'll really have to look for drivers.

- Audible fan.

- Vista, when you first get the machine it is unusable - hell of a lot of tuning required if you want to keep vista on this machine.

- ICH8-m chipset may hinder you upgrading the hard disk to an SSD (maybe Intel has released fresh drivers I don't know)

- Webcam is shite, onboard sound is shite too (will need to check for drivers here)

The Ugly

- It 'IS' - that's all

- hate the Packard Bell logo, what is worse is that it lights up *doh*

This post has been edited by Subliminal Aura: Nov 16 2008, 16:44

Shuflie

Nov 18 2008, 12:06

Post #8

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QUOTE(Subliminal Aura @ Nov 16 2008, 16:42)

This is a great machine. I bought it yesterday for 350. There is an online coupon '5weekend' which will get you 5% off but you'lll still have to pay delivery and hence the total saving is only 11-12 quid. Currys had the machine on for 329 a little while back so I'm kicking myself a little for not buying it then.

You're going to really love me for this, but its on offer at PC world again, £329.99. linky
Thanks for the mini review, just what I was after.

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Subliminal Aura

Nov 18 2008, 12:18

Post #9

Diehard

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QUOTE(Shuflie @ Nov 18 2008, 13:06)

You're going to really love me for this, but its on offer at PC world again, £329.99. linky
Thanks for the mini review, just what I was after.

You're welcome. At 329 it's a bargain and probably a loss leader.

Heh I got fed up with looking at the machine for months and finally decided to go for it so no worries about the price drop.

I've got a 2gig stick from crucial coming today for it. Irony would have it that cost is £20

Shuflie

Nov 18 2008, 12:31

Post #10

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QUOTE(Subliminal Aura @ Nov 18 2008, 12:18)

You're welcome. At 329 it's a bargain and probably a loss leader.

Heh I got fed up with looking at the machine for months and finally decided to go for it so no worries about the price drop.

I've got a 2gig stick from crucial coming today for it. Irony would have it that cost is £20

Does it come with home basic or home premium, the pcworld website is a bit ambigous about this, says home basic then goes on to describe media centre and mentions that it has home premium.

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Subliminal Aura

Nov 18 2008, 12:37

Post #11

Diehard

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QUOTE(Shuflie @ Nov 18 2008, 13:31)

Does it come with home basic or home premium, the pcworld website is a bit ambigous about this, says home basic then goes on to describe media centre and mentions that it has home premium.

It's home basic I'm afraid which is 'ok' I suppose but I am missing the ability to remote desktop into it

Subliminal Aura

Nov 18 2008, 23:08

Post #12

Diehard

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We're in the money .... in the money ....

Just spotted the 7 day price guarantee

https://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/editorial/Price+Promise

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