Back with another problem

I have been trying to buy my first laptop. Have used a PC before but do not know much of hardware stuff. Learnt a lot here.
After my initial research i considered w3v, then acer 1904wlmi and then z71v. I was still in the research stage so there was no hurry to buy any until i find the right choice. So i kept on looking for more notebooks and did more reading when i stumbled upon the Asus Laptop A6743GA-LH.My intentions of buying a notebook is to play games, watch dvd's and lots of multitasking.

The specs of A6743GA-LH look good but i needed the experts advice. So i ask if this laptop will really meet my needs. Is is really bang for buck - in terms of quality and performance. It will cost me £850 (roughly around $1500)

Intel® Pentium® M processor 735 1.7GHz 2MB On-Die L2 Cache, 400 MHz
HD 80 GB 5400 RPM
15.4" (WXGA)
128Mb ATI Mobility™ Radeon™ 9700
DVD-RW Dual
512Mb DDR

Processor & Cache Memory
Intel® Pentium® M processor 725: 1.70 GHz, 2MB On-Die L2 Cache, 400 MHz
Q1:- Will a 400MHz FSB as mentioned above slow down performance and gaming. I know there are 500MHz around.

Main Memory
DDR333 SDRAM, 2x SO-DIMM socket expandable to 1GB
Q2: It is not a DDR2 RAM(or is it?) Also it can only be max upgraded to 1GB. I'm doubtful that since it is not a DDRII ram the performance will not be very good. I'm personally not very bothered about that it can be upgraded to only 1GB but not being a DDRII is the main concern???? What do you say?

2.5" 9.5 mm IDE HDD with Ultra DMA100 supported
80GB 4200RPM
Q3: The reseller in UK has told that he can upgrade the HDD to 80GB 5400 RPM( the notebook comes with a 4200 RPM) but i will have to retain the original HDD for warranty purposes. Is it Okay to do that?
If my warranty will have no problem by doing it then do you reckon that i upgrade the HDD myself than the reseller doing it?
What is the general price of a 80GB, 5400RPM PATA in US?

GPU
ATI Mobility™ Radeon™ 9700, 128MB VRAM (completely dedicated)
Q4: Is this a good laptop for gaming and multitasking.

Q5: I am planning to get this with a £25(around $40) bluetooth upgrade. Do you think it is worth it?

I am terribly sorry for asking so many questions. You might have already guessed my hardware knowledge now. I do this only to know what i am buying. Hope you will bear with me. Any comments are most welcome.

Thanks

 

1) Most benchmarks so far indicate that the newer i915 chipset from intel is not really any faster than the older i855 one, so no the reduced fsb wont impact on games that much

2)DDR2 is not that great, there isnt any major speed increases betw DDR1 and DDR2 at the moment on a laptop. I will refer you to the many article on the web about the problems with ddr2, as they do a much better job of explaining it then I ever could.

3)I'll leave that question to someone like Justin to answer

4)I can say that my M6Ne is great for gaming at the moment. It handles HL2 very well and can play most games at high settings, although usually without AA etc on. However the newer X700/800 are much better for gaming but they do come at a cost, and currently there are no ASUS notebooks for sale that stock these newer gpus. Although the new W2 is supposed to get the X700 in the States.

5)I love my bluetooth MS mouse, and it would be great to not have to plug the little dongle in the back, but its not that much of a pain, and it really comes down to if you have or are planning to use any bluetooth peripherals. I would see this as a nice extra that isnt essential.

Good luck
a


ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 1Gb RAM

 

Two comparisons of the Sonoma chipset with previous technology are:

http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20050119/index.html

and

http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20050511/index.html

You can see the cost of an 80GB 5400RPM HDD at http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Products.ASP?CatID=16&FilterCategories=41&Thumbnails=yes

or, if you fancy 100GB, look here http://www.span.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=23_503_576 .

DDR2 RAM runs at lower voltage, and therefore a bit cooler, than DDR. However, the performance difference isn't much (see the above reviews). I think the chipset actually supports 2GB, but the specs only mention 1GB because the 1GB modules did not exist when the specs were written.

Provided you are not needing high portability then the A6743GA-LH is good value. If you want the newer chipset and your gaming demands are not onorous then you could also consider the W3A with the integrated graphics. I'm not a games person, but the W3A does an excellent job of playing DVDs and while not an ultra-portable, is a convenient size and weight.

Hope this helps,

John

 

Thanks john.after going through the links that u provided it seems going for a I915M chipset with single-channel DDR2 RAM is the best bcoz with I855M with a standard RAM. In that case i am not sure if i want to buy A6743GA-LH bcoz the CPU transfers data at 3.2 GB/sec and the main memory can take only 2.6 GB/sec.
underpantman, I will keep in mind the benefits (yet not necessary) of bluetooth and gaming experience on 9700

Justin, though now i'm not very inclined towards A6743GA-LH could you please clarify me on the HDD upgrade query?