Printable View
I have been looking at this laptop
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...34,44510000,23
Versus
This one:
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...34,44510000,23
I may do some BF2, WoW hL2 on it , But it is not absolutley essential, I want it to be Vista compatible, and I want it to be a good Movie machine, can anyone give feedback on either the Processors or GPU's adv/disadv plz:confused:
The main diff is obviously the 200quid!!! but with the same lovely 17" Widescreen.
Either should run vista, I saw someone saying they had it running on an old 1.4ghz pentim m integrated graphics machine, just depends how fast. Either could handle the aeroglass, the dual core is the obvious advantage of the second as far as vista is concened. From benchmarks i have seen Pent-Ms and turins are about clock for clock but the turions better at video editing type stuff and Pent-Ms better at gaming and that sort of thing.
GPU is miles ahead in the second, but you would be wise to look for benchmarks to see whether it can manage the games you want to play at native resolution. the cheap laptop will have no chance.
Hey if your looking at the Xi 1546 then try this link
http://s84957758.oneandoneshop.co.uk...iew.shopscript
that is a better Xi1546 than one your looking at for £899.99 inc vat
btw would go for the Xi rather than the other one as with laptops they are outdated so rapidly and the performance difference for £200 is alot you go from single core to dual core and the graphics power leap is huge
Thanks Phoney,
Do you have any experience with the bulid quaility/relibility of the main brands out there, as a freind tells me that Asus are genrally better build than the Fujitsu, and to generally regard Acer as budget, any comments or any other suggestions.
Thanks in Advance:)
Vista's biggest requirement is likely to be memory - the more the better really..
Obviously aero will be much nicer on the second but both should run it.
Wow, they've dropped the price by £100! Seriously thinking of getting it now, but want 2Gb and I don't want to spend the £250 they're offering. For that price you can get 2x1Gb sticks and still have the original 1Gb to sell on. However, I don't want to invalidate the warranty and do it myself...just in case.Quote:
Originally Posted by phoney_tech
Have experience of Acer and aslong as you get a high end model the build quality is better but yes mainly budget apart from the carbon fibre beauties those are amazing!Quote:
Originally Posted by Syd
Asus built well though I have had problems with heat and low clock settings but are known to be a good quality.
Fujitsu i have a mate with one and he has always raved about it but to be honest build seems good and that is all i could comment on.
Dell good build quality if a little noisy on fans sometimes, only problem with dell is the price and its a dell whos customer support is a complete joke I never want to have to deal with dell ever again in my life.
Alienware are good few mates with those expensive as you pay for the name the superior tech support etc but damn nice laptops.
Toshiba cheap brand build iffy
Sony way too expensive though some great machines
<Legal>thats about the limit of my experience all of these are only my opinions your experience and other peoples may vary so dont take this as anything other than my opinion. </Legal>
Btw the Amilio Xi 1546 is the same laptop as the alienware m5750 the only difference is the alienware chasis is decked out differently.
as far as i know if you change the memory you dont void the warranty apart from on the memory itself read that somewhere when someone else was talking about it on a different forum.
Orca logic or corsair or crucial do memory sodimm 200pin for anywhere between about 100-160 pounds if you were looking to buy 2*1Gb sticks to upgrade the memory yourself. Plus sell the other 2*512Mb sticks you just take and and recoup some of that money!
Just phoned up and apparently upgrading the memory myself wouldn't invalidate the warranty (unless he thought I meant their upgade option, don't think he did though...) and have found a 2Gb kit from crucial for £150, so that's a fair saving over their upgrade option. However, I'm not sure which of the 2 models I would want.
Would getting the T2500 have any major advantage over the T2400 for gaming?
Also, would going for the 2 hard drive version affect battery life/heat considerably? Not that I am really looking for battery life as a major point, but would still wouldn't mind a little bit of portability every now and then :)
The faster processor with the hard drives in raid would provide the better machine for gaming though would knock a portion of time off the battery life which is rated at 2 hours at best more like an hour n half i would imagine.
will give off more heat due to the components so its all a case of personal preference more speed n power or spend a little less money. major difference is in hard drive space so that might be a factor for you
fujitsu had a problem with the cases cracking on some models a couple of years ago, I dobt its a problem but google the model just to check, also be carefull if you use one of those shop[brandname].com/.co.uk websites on another foum, can't remember which now there were a lot of people who had problems a while back, like paying next day delivery recieving stuff a month later /never and stuggling to get refunds, again goodle or uses hexus trust to just make sure
yes I am allways paranoid about uying duff stuff
Hey Gerrard, did you order that Fujitsu in the end?
It looks top-notch for the price....I'm very tempted, although I googled the company selling it (CETUK Ltd.) and there are a LOT of bad reviews (we're talking 0 out of 10 stars here).
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews-all-85278.html
How was your experience (if you used them)?
Wow! Should have read up on them first. I did order from them on Saturday, and did get a confirmation email, but I am now considering cancelling it... I'll see how it goes this week. It's slightly worrying about the extended warranty not being registered properly since I also got the extended warranty (hopefully will make it easier to sell couple of years down the line). However, I suppose you could also say that the only people who would post at these places are those with problems, so it might skew the results a bit (I mean, Scan has a rating of 4.4 :rolleyes: ). I paid by credit card, so can always stop payment if it all starts to go wrong.
Just out of interest, where did you order from phoney? I am guessing the same place as you wrote the link. If so, any luck yet?
The only alternative places I can find selling it at a similiar price was laptopdirect and morecomputers (seemed to get good reviews when i froogled it...but that probably doesn't mean much).
Yeah, I also found those two sites.
Laptopdirect is, in fact, owned by CETUK Ltd. as well!
However, I looked them up, and they've had lots of GOOD reviews....so I don't really know what to think now. Perhaps they're owned by CET, but not actually run by them? I don't know.
::EDIT::
Here's a review (the only one I've managed to find) if anyone is interested: http://www.notebookforums.com/thread161616.html
Hope nobody minds me linking to other forums?
I've just ordered mine from LaptopsDirect, should get it on Friday.
Can't wait!
Well, I got a call this evening confirming my order and details and they said it would be 5 days, so hopefully it'll be here by sometime next week (would like it to be before the weekend though :mrgreen: ).
Woo and yay, mine got delivered lunchtime today!
I'll let you know what it's like.
Same, got mine this afternoon. Just powering it up now. Keep you posted...
Any veiws on your new laptops guys?
Very pleased with it. Some people complain how heavy it is, but I personally don't find it that awkward at all. The screen is great, with very good contrast and brightness. It will flex a little bit, but that's not surprising due to its size. Same can be said of the chassis. However, I'm not planning on moving it holding just one corner, so shouldn't be much of a problem.
Performance wise, it's a good improvement over my desktop system. I got 5757 in 3DMark05 and about 3000 in 3DMark06. However, there is a cost for this; heat. The palm rests do get hot, but not unbearable. The hard drives get to a tempreture of about 50C and the CPU about 65C under load. Couldn't find out about the graphics card though. I think this could be solved if I could increase the speed of the fans, but so far haven't found out how. They are very quiet and would be happy to put up with a bit more noise for a bit less heat. I am considering getting a notebook cooler for it to help with this problem.
The final thing is that the battery will only last about 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 hours. However, I got this more as a DTR, so again doesn't trouble me too much.
So in conclusion; so far so good.
Yep, my experience is pretty much the same as Gerrard's.
Hardware wise, it's nice. Feels a teeny bit flimsy on the lid, but the base feels solid enough. Build quality is satisfactory, although it wouldn't take much of a knock to crack the silver casing.
It does pump out quite a bit of heat when gaming (especially in this weather), but it's not much of an issue so far....at least, I hope not.
Been trying to play Titan Quest on it, and while everything runs silky smooth during the heat of the action, the game will sometimes just drop back to desktop instantly....can't work out why....not sure if it's overheating, or just the game hating ATi graphics cards (I have a friend with an X800 who is having stability issues in the game as well). Having said that, I did have a similar issue when playing it on my shuttle pc as well, and that's got a 6800GT in it, so perhaps it's not an ATi issue.
I reloaded WinXP on my machine to take advantage of the RAID 0 functionality. Can't honestly say it's made a noticeable difference in normal desktop usage, but it definately loads games up in half the time it takes for my friends with comparable laptops, and friends with regular ATX machines (used my laptop to play Rise and Fall, and Titan Quest at a LAN on Sunday).
Both those games run great with all details and res turned up to maximum.
I'm not totally confident that my laptop is 100% healthy though....a few minor stability issues (ATi Catalyst Control Centre completely locked the machine up last night), and shutting down seems to take an inordinate amount of time....upwards of a minute, despite the fact nothing is running.
I haven't really used it enough to make a fair judgment though....I'm still in the process of migrating all my data/apps across from my main PC.
Where did you get the temperature monitoring tools Gerrard? I tried to install MBM5 for that purpose, but couldn't figure out who manufactures the motherboard in order to config the app.
To get the CPU temps, I am using Notebook Hardware Control, but it doesn't seem to support HD SMART, so couldn't get the HD temps from it. However, another program that I got off a link on notebookreview forums (Everest Home 220) seemed to be able to access them, but gives the CPU tempreture as completely different to NHC :confused: . I tried using 3DMark06's system details, and it comes up with the MB manufacturer as Fujitsu-Siemens and chipset as Intel Calistoga i945GM/PM.
I am also getting some slight instability issues (currently only playing DDO and Civ4), but I think this may be due to the heat. Tried to update the drivers, but the Catalyst 6.6 drivers complain it can't find a driver, and the ATI mobile compatibility tester thing said it wasn't compatible. So I am currently using the latest Omega drivers which seem to be OK at the moment.
Yep, had the same problems when trying to upgrade my drivers last night. There is a way around it. I saw a forum post on another website, which I'll link you too as soon as the Google Mail servers come back online (I emailed myself the URL, hehe).
What are Omega drivers? Are they just Beta ATi drivers?
Thanks for the info about NHC. I already knew which chipset the laptop was running, but the problem is to load the correct configuration you need to tell MBM5 who actually made the mobo, and Fujitsu-Siemens aren't listed. Bumflaps :(
http://www.omegadrivers.net/about.phpQuote:
Originally Posted by da.Guvna
Sort of the other way around. They're modded drivers by Some Guy which can help gaming porfarmance and give users more options/tools. It's an alternative to the official ones.
OK, here's that post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/show...&postcount=154
I think what he means to say is to install from Device Manager/Add Remove Hardware, use the "Have disk" option, and point it to the specific inf files.
amended:) catalyst drivers are guff:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Gerrard
Progress Report:
This afternoon AVG decided to crash in the background whilst I was playing DDO. The error message it came up with said it was having trouble reading from memory. So I decided to download a memory tester (Windows Memory Diagnostic) and try it out. Lo and behold, my memory started to fail various tests. Just to make sure, I downloads Memtest+ which is also failed, but was more helpful in its results.
First, I tried one module at a time, and found that only 1 module failed. I then took the "good" module and tried the other slot, just to make sure, and it passed there as well. So I think I have a duff module. I am currently running my machine now with just the "good" module in hope that it might cut down the instability I have been having. Whether the heat has anything to do with it I am unsure, but should hopefully find out by tonight. Should it proove to be a duff module, then it doesn't matter too much as I am going to upgrade to 2Gb anyway.
PS, thanks for the link. I might try it if the Omega drivers prove unstable in any way.
Aww man, that sucks about your memory :(
Just ran Memtest on mine and everything passed hunky-dory, so I'm pleased on that front at least.
I've also spent some time checking out the Titan Quest forums, and dear God are there a lot of people experiencing issues. Interestingly, the majority of people having crashing/rebooting issues are ATi card owners!
Been using the laptop all evening and not had a single problem with it thus far (fingers crossed), so I think my fears have been put to rest.
Just gonna install F.E.A.R for a bit of a stress-testing session to see if crashes are just limited to TQ.
Well, I managed a whole evening gaming session without a single crash! :D It was just incredibly slow loading. So it looks like it was the memory after all, but it's also the first full evening I've done with the Omega Drivers, so it might have been that as well.
Anyway, I've ordered 2Gb RAM from Scan (as well as an external HD) which might come before the weekend, hopefully (*nudge* nudge* :) ). If it does, I'll probably spend the weekend doing what you did and reinstall Windows with the drives in RAID to help speed the system up.
Yep, mine didn't crash at all playing F.E.A.R, although I seemed to get some bad "lagging" issues seemingly everytime I performed an action that required a 'new' sound to be played. I.e. the first time a shot a wall there was a half-second pause, and then I could shoot the wall for ages without any issues. But then, shoot a paint can and it would lag for a split second , etc.
Then I realised that I had ALL DETAILS maxed out, so I turned everything down to 'High' and it's smooth as anything now :)
I'm also running FEAR v1.00...unpatched, straight from the DVD, so perhaps performance will increase once I update it.
One grumble is that Volumetric Lighting/Shadows look pants on ATi cards compared to my old Nvidia.....or is that just because TQ and FEAR are both optimised for NV cards?
Anyway, that's not a complaint of the laptop, that's just an ATi issue.
Can honestly say I've had no stability issues other than the 2 I mentioned in previous posts.
Would definately recommend this laptop.
Put the 2Gb RAM, did a Memtest of it, which turned out OK, and haven't looked back. Had no stability problems and 2 Gigs is definately the way forward. With transferring to RAID as well, I really can't complain about performance at all. Whilst I had the back off, I noticed that the graphics card is of the MXM type, so there's a possibility of upgrading later on; maybe.
Definately recommend the laptop, especially with 2Gb RAM.