Notebook Help - Advice please.

[mikomi]

I'm looking at getting a notebook, and I've been looking at ASUS notebooks. The one I'm getting is an ASUS F8sg or F8SP (The USA equivalent is roughly this one: http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=132&l3=609&l4=0&model=2032&modelmenu=2)

What do you guys think?

Specs

F8sg
$1,065 USD

Intel C2D T7700 2.4GHz (L2 4MB) 65nm
DD2 2GB 667MHz (2GBx1)
GeForce 9300M 256MB
14" WXGA (1400x800)
250GB SATA HD
8x DVD Super Multi DL
802.11 b+g, Gigabit LAN, 56kbps



F8SP
$1,235 USD

Intel C2D T8300 2.4GHz (L2 3MB) 45nm
DD2 2GB 800MHz (2GBx1)
ATI HD 3650 1024MB
14.1" (1440x900)
250GB SATA HD
8x DVD Super Multi DL Lightscribe
802.11n, Gigabit LAN, 56kbps


Common features
6 cell LI-ON
2.59Kg (5.7lbs)
Windows Vista Premium
5 USB Ports, Firewire, DVI, S-Video, Express Card, Bluetooth 2.0, InfraRed, 1.3MP Webcam, Biometrics (finger printing), Media reader



They are essentially the same except for the RAM, CPU, Monitor, and Video.. is it worth the extra premium?


Thanks for any advice. :D

http://usa.asus.com/999%5Cimages%5Cproducts%5C2032%5C2032_m.jpg

[MAZOOM]

Yes, go with the F8SP

[astraelraen]

What are you using it for? If you just need a laptop to open documents and surf the web you will be fine with a ~600 laptop. Or even those ~400 mini-laptops if you can stand that small of a screen, personally I can't.

The F8SP looks like it just uses the newer chipset and supports 800mhz ram, has a wireless-N card & supports the 45nm processors. Maybe it will use a little less power?

Both of the video cards should be able to play any HD movies fine and neither of them are really going to let you do any gaming, but the 3650 would have an advantage over the 9300M.

[mikomi]

Well, it's going to replace my two computers.

Office: Athlon X2 3800+ with X300, 2GB ram
Primary function: dual monitors and a crap load of spreadsheets and photoshop
Secondary: WoW, FFXI on my spare time

Home: Athlon X2 3600+ with 7800GT, 2GB ram
Primary function: movies, WoW, FFXI, video editing
Secondary: Spreadsheets, 1TB of junk :D

I plan to use the laptop to replace both desktops (home and office), and the desktops will be used at work as servers since I'm writing a new POS system from scratch (well, it's already done, with barcode and stuff) but that's for another store and it worked well, so I'm implementing that system at main office :D so it needs a primary server and a backup. And I though.. I can get myself a new laptop, and save the office money, and relegate my current rigs to server duty.

[astraelraen]

So you need a reasonable video card and a decently fast processor for video editing. If you are going for a desktop replacement I would definitely choose the F8SP. The 45nm processors have SSE4 instruction sets, which should speed up audio/video work if the programs you use support them. You may want to see about getting a laptop with a 7200rpm HD as well. That will help gaming/editing tremendously, also multi-tasking. 5400 rpm HDs are lame, although they increase battery life significantly.

I don't know where you can buy laptops from, but in the US, if you step up to the ~1400-1500 range you can get some pretty sweet notebooks if you look around for good deals.

[astraelraen]

Like this one from Best buy is pretty good for the price.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8906133&type=product&id=1213046768588

7200 rpm HD, 9700Mgt is about the best mobile GPU you are going to get w/o going to some boutique manufacturer such as Alienware. The processor is an older processor though.

Here is another version of it with a 45nm processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220379

Something you have to consider with laptops and dedicated video cards though is that they are not supported with driver updates by Nvidia or AMD. Laptop driver updates from from the manufacturer, who in my experience, never update their drivers. There are 3rd party sites who hack the desktop drivers to work on laptops, but this may or may not always work for your applications.

[mikomi]

So you need a reasonable video card and a decently fast processor for video editing. If you are going for a desktop replacement I would definitely choose the F8SP. The 45nm processors have SSE4 instruction sets, which should speed up audio/video work if the programs you use support them. You may want to see about getting a laptop with a 7200rpm HD as well. That will help gaming/editing tremendously, also multi-tasking. 5400 rpm HDs are lame, although they increase battery life significantly.

I don't know where you can buy laptops from, but in the US, if you step up to the ~1400-1500 range you can get some pretty sweet notebooks if you look around for good deals.

I'm ordering from Taiwan. The only place I can order from in the states is Amazon or Ebay. But Amazon is too expensive, and Ebay is a hit and miss thing... I'm hooped if I get a bad apple due to my inconvenient geographic location. I was thinking of a firewire enclosure if I need a fast hard drive.

[texasguy]

service can be a big consideration for laptops.

[Sunlokyee]

u're gonna love all the Pinyin symbols on your taiwanese keyboard. I bought an Eee pc there when i visited a year ago.

[astraelraen]

This is what you want.

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Qosmio-F55-Q503-Processor-Premium/dp/B001C3L6H0/ref=sr_1_65?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1220041987&sr=1-65

It's little more expensive though. 45nm processor, 9700Mgt, 7200rpm HD.

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Qosmio-F55-Q502-Processor-Premium/dp/B001C3L6GG/ref=sr_1_61?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1220041987&sr=1-61

Looks good and cheaper, except its got a 5400rpm drive.

i recognize I'm going pretty far above the 1235 price of the F8SP. If 1235 is your limit, that notebook is a pretty good value.

[mikomi]

Uh.. wow. those are damn nice. but.. my budget was supposed to be 1K, but I was debating if the extras on the F8SP were worth it. And I prefer 14", 15.4" is too big for me. Or is it? can it fit into the center storage on the CX-7? :P

Would like to have the pingyin/chinese input labelling on the keyboard, I do a lot of international trade with partners in asia. :D

[astraelraen]

I just tried to put my wife's 15.4" laptop in the CX7 bin and it won't fit.

If you want to go for a "desktop" replacement I would probably look higher to the 1400 range.

The F8SP will probably do slightly better than the F8SG, but the F8SP still isn't going to adequately replace your desktop for WoW or FFXI in my opinion.

All that said, I don't think very many 14" form factor notebooks come with decent discrete video cards, so taking that into consideration, the F8SP is probably the way to go.

[mikomi]

I just tried to put my wife's 15.4" laptop in the CX7 bin and it won't fit.

If you want to go for a "desktop" replacement I would probably look higher to the 1400 range.

The F8SP will probably do slightly better than the F8SG, but the F8SP still isn't going to adequately replace your desktop for WoW or FFXI in my opinion.

All that said, I don't think very many 14" form factor notebooks come with decent discrete video cards, so taking that into consideration, the F8SP is probably the way to go.

I'm using a 3600+ and a 7800GT and i'm plenty happy.
but you got a point. I will keep researching. Thanks.

[astraelraen]

The problem with desktop video cards vs laptop video cards is that the laptop video cards are always at least a generation behind.

Without going into too much detail, the mobility radeon 3650, is basically 1/3 of a desktop HD3850 which is a waaaay detuned HD3870. The 3850 is basically the equivalent of an 8600GTS, which was a lower end card when it came out.

Nvidia's discrete GPU offerings are way harder to decipher.

http://www.techreport.com/discussions.x/15157
http://www.techreport.com/discussions.x/14846

Basically less than 32 SP's is pretty lame, and won't get you all that far. But as you can see, a lot of discrete Nvidia mobile GPU's have 32 SPs or less. The mobile 8 series is pretty much the exact same specs as the mobile 9 series, just renamed and maybe? on a smaller fab process.

[mikomi]

I don't really plan on going into the latest and greatest 3D gaming PC has to offer... that's what the consoles are for. But i still like to play MMOs. :)

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX21492(ME).aspx