Averatec Notebooks

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three_sixteen

Gawd
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Feb 15, 2002
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Hey everyone

Just curious if anyone owns an Averatec notebook and if they like/dislike it.

I've been looking for a small notebook with good battery life so I can take my homework outside of home and to a coffee shop or something. These looked like they would be right up my alley -- but as I'm not famaliar with the brand name I thought I would see if anyone here had an opinon of them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834149036

Thats the notebook I was looking at. Graphics power isn't really a priority of mine, but if it could play Warcraft 3 or WoW that would certainly be a nice perk.

I was also checking out the Acer TM4404 and TM3002

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115218
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115192

My concern with the first one is the portability, but it looks like a really nice notebook, and the second one if I'm really getting my moneys worth. I think if I were to go with the second one that I would be better off with a 710m

I figure I've overlooked some pretty nice notebooks, and hopefully you guys will have some ideas for me! :D
 
my dislike with it is that the models ive serviced the serial number comes off really easy. In cali you cant service something under warranty without a valid serial number.

what i do like is that the dc jack is not part of the motherboard (atleast on some of the ones ive worked on) they are on a pcd that attatches to the mainboard by a 2 wire plug.
 
three_sixteen said:
Hey everyone

Just curious if anyone owns an Averatec notebook and if they like/dislike it.

I've been looking for a small notebook with good battery life so I can take my homework outside of home and to a coffee shop or something. These looked like they would be right up my alley -- but as I'm not famaliar with the brand name I thought I would see if anyone here had an opinon of them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834149036

Thats the notebook I was looking at. Graphics power isn't really a priority of mine, but if it could play Warcraft 3 or WoW that would certainly be a nice perk.

I was also checking out the Acer TM4404 and TM3002

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115218
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115192

My concern with the first one is the portability, but it looks like a really nice notebook, and the second one if I'm really getting my moneys worth. I think if I were to go with the second one that I would be better off with a 710m

I figure I've overlooked some pretty nice notebooks, and hopefully you guys will have some ideas for me! :D
Click to expand...



my friend and i bought the averatec notebook you linked except with a 60gb hdd and a cd-rw/dvd-rom combo drive. it was $700 each after tax and rebates at staples during the xmas sale. i ended up returning mine while my friend kept his.

heres my pros and cons of the laptop:

pros
lightweight and very portable (the keyboard was usable and i have big hands)
good battery life (with power saving on i was able to squeeze 3 hours out of it while browsing the web and listening to music)
decent speakers for a laptop (the via envy chipset didnt hurt either)

cons
cant do 3D gaming! (the via unichrome IGP managed 10-18 fps in WoW at a low resolution, there was a issue with the mouse cursor as it was blinking... half life 2 was slow also. 2-D games such as gunbound worked nicely)

the form factor of the laptop was ideal for me as it was very light and easy to carry around. it would be a excellent laptop for a college student however the deal breaker for me was the integrated graphics.. it was not able to run WoW or HL2 with decent frame rates which would make extended breaks inbetween classes go by faster (even though studying would be a better use of the time between classes!)
 
Javelin3o4 said:
my dislike with it is that the models ive serviced the serial number comes off really easy. In cali you cant service something under warranty without a valid serial number.

what i do like is that the dc jack is not part of the motherboard (atleast on some of the ones ive worked on) they are on a pcd that attatches to the mainboard by a 2 wire plug.
Click to expand...

Bingo. I'll add a few things to this as where I use to work I had to ship these off for warranty repair every so often.

1. I had a few problems with them shipping them back to the customer insted of to the store. This is an issue when they tell you not to ship the ac adapter or battery and you still have them. We ened up refusing to give them the cust address.

2. Battery warranty is 6 months. Almost everyone warranties the battery a year like the rest of the notebook

3. Slow service. The fastest we got one back was like 3 weeks and yes they will restore the unit when they get it(at least they come out and say they will where others say they may)

4. Parts. Averatec doesn't like to sell parts to end users or companies if you need to fix something out of warranty. And you don't really see places sell parts for them.

5. Yea I don't like that restore partition. The software is no where near as good as other companies(read the review on the egg where someone is bitching about it)

Now on to the good things

1. Price. They seem to usually be pretty good as far as this goes

2. Looks. Many of their notebooks look pretty good. That one kinda looks like an ibook

3. They seem to hold up pretty good. I didn't see that many come in.

4. The dc jack thing somone brought up. A few of the ones I've seen had it on a seperate card which is nice. Also when you can get them to sell you parts they are pretty fair on the price.

Also most of the averatecs I played with felt good. I mean they didn't flex and feel real cheap. I find it hard to recomend one as I don't like the turn around if something does break but I would recomend them over a consumer toshiba if it means anything(I don't even want to get into the issues I've seen with them)
 
I appreciate all of the feedback, I think I may shy away from the Averatec notebook simply because of the mixed feelings about them.

I think I may just go with a 710m or a XPS M140
 
I had an averatec. I bought it for the same reason, to take to a coffee shop etc. It was nice and fit all my needs. It was a little slow compared to my gaming maching (obviously!) but it did everything without a hitch. I know a friend who got one and loves it.

I sold it however, because I was wanting to game on my laptop, and bought a dell.
 
Not to be rude but all the averatec that we sold at the Staples I work at got back being defective less than a year after the customer bought it. I'd stay away from this crap, I'm sorry fir those who have an averatec but they are far from reliable.
 
I talked a very good friend of mine (college student, Japanese major) into getting one because let's face it - with the exception of the 3D, you can't really find anything as nice for the price.

If you are on a budget, and can do without the very latest 3D games, it's great.

She gets about 2.5-3 hours of use a day out of it, uses it for EVERYTHING, and has even dropped it TWICE.

Works and looks brand new still, even as rough as she is with it! I can definetely recommend them AS LONG AS THE LACK OF POWERFUL 3D IS ACCEPTABLE.
 
three_sixteen said:
I appreciate all of the feedback, I think I may shy away from the Averatec notebook simply because of the mixed feelings about them.

I think I may just go with a 710m or a XPS M140
Click to expand...
They are having a sale on 710m right now if you are interested.
-------------------------------------------------
This is what I came up with

- Go to EPP Site www.dell.com/epp
- Choose 710m
- Choose "GOOD" option
- Choose customize option #1 for $948 (Includes burner & Ram)
- Upgrade CPU to 2.0Ghz
- Downgrade to 40GB
- Downgrade Wireless from Intel to Dell
- Upgrade Battery to 8-cell
- Downgrade Warrenty to 1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr Mail-In Service, and 1Yr HW Warranty Support
- Change Anti-Virus to "No Subscription"

Total
= $1,498.00 - 34% off
= $988.68 - 4%EPP
= $949.13 - 2% DPA
= $929.13 total (about $569 dollars savings)

So to sum it up
>>2.0Ghz Intel Pentium M 755 Processor
>>1GB DDR 333 Ram
>>40GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
>>Dell Wireless
>>DVD +/- RW Drive
>>8-cell Battery (Lasting on avg 5-6 hours) That is user said, not Dell
( If you opt for the 4-cell battery you save more...and you can always get a larger battery in the after market for less.)

All for less than $950:) + handling & tax (free shipping) Cheers
 
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