Buy now or wait for merom?

I want to buy W3J notebook but i don't know what to do!!
I want the notebook for my college, it starts in 12 days more.
How longer will asus take to launch a notebook with merom? (aprox)
And i also know that the price will drop a few thousand dollars when new notebooks with merom appear.
So what should i do? wait for merom or buy the w3j+?
Thanks and advice will be appreciate.

 

"And i also know that the price will drop a few thousand dollars when new notebooks with merom appear"

HAHA.
Yeah, right
No, seriously, wake up!
wake uppppppp!
Don't wait any longer to buy your notebook. Prices are extremely low and won't go much lower (perhaps 10-50$ even with core2duo available in notebooks) and Intel also said that the Core2Duo will be at about the same price as a comparable CoreDuo!
And since you can most likely upgrade your CPU later, you can simply get a 2.0Ghz CoreDuo now, save the money and then in like 3-6months when prices really have dropped, upgrade to a Core2Duo.. wouldn't make much sense earlier in any event, without the right 64bit applications out there yet and windows vista not appearing until 2007!
So yeah, my advice - and most likely everyone elses:
buy now, don't wait - it's not worth to wait

 

Don't wait. If you buy this laptop you will be happy!
Wait until merom arrives to laptops it's a waste of time because there will be few laptops and merom laptops will increase price. For 64bit applications you'll have to wait so much time.

 

Sorry to steal your thread, but I was wondering if I get a W3J right now, all I have to do is upgrade to the Merom cpu when it comes out (which it will be?) and the whole computer will be 64bit?

 

yeah i think that's how it works.. but dont take my word on it . you also need a bios update to the w3j to make merom compactible with it . for it to be 'truly' 64bit you probably will need a 64bit operating system (vista) and 64bit applications to take full advantage .. but you should see speed improvements of 10-30% in the current system.. from what i've heard

 

it's already been done with several DELL (Inspiron and XPS) notebooks, so if you want to be on the safe side get a dell notebook (I just did), they are upgradable to Intel's Core 2 Duo for sure (you just need to update the bios and windows vista + progams.. and as you know the later hasn't even been released yet, so you got plenty of time left)

 

I am wondering if the refresh on the W3J will include a better GPU or just a better cpu? There doesnt seem to be a reason to wait if all they are going to do is upgrade the cpu? If there isn't going to be a better GPU, might as well get a W3J right now with a lower serie and upgrade to Merom when it comes out considering that the Z96J allready has bios updates for it.

 

I doubt you'll get a more powerful GPU in such a form factor.. .don't think it can get any more powerful than x1600... any more power and heat will become a problem..

 

Buy it NOW! What are you waiting for? Laptops won't be shipping with the Merom processor till late September, early October, maybe even later. Buy it now, and then just swap in the new Merom chip, and you'll be set.

 

I'd say buy it now. The difference in performance between the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo in notebooks is incremental and nowhere near the jump that the desktops have seen. More than that, I question my earlier assessment on the importance of 64-bit capability, as the 64-bit version of Windows Vista seems to have inherited all the problems the 64-bit version of Windows XP has, along with a few new ones.

Also, don't COUNT on being able to upgrade the processor later. Try to remember the following:

1. The processor isn't user-upgradable like the RAM and hard drive are. You will likely void your warranty, ignoring that the notebook would need to be disassembled. If you don't have at least a decent amount of technical skill, this WILL be difficult.

2. There's no 100% guarantee Merom will be a drop-in upgrade on this notebook anyhow.

All that said, I still recommend picking up the notebook or its slightly less expensive cousin, the A8Jm, as they're fine machines and well worth the money.

 

If you can wait a few more months then the w3j will be out with merom same price though.....

 

Thanks for the advice!
I'll buy it as soon as i can.
The only problem now is....
A8Jm or W3J+ , I've read all the pros and cons but still i cant decide.
I found this info about the 3d cards.

Geforce Go 7600

Manufacturer: nVidia
Series: GeForce 7
GPU: G73M
Release Date: 2006-01-05
Interface: PCI-E x16
Core Clock: 450 MHz
Memory Clock: 500 MHz (1000 DDR)
Memory Bandwidth: 16 GB/sec
Shader Operations: 3600 Operations/sec
Pixel Fill Rate: 3600 MPixels/sec
Texture Fill Rate: 3600 MTexels/sec
Vertex Operations: 562.5 MVertices/sec

and
Mobility Radeon X1600
Manufacturer: ATi
Series: Mobility Radeon
GPU: M56
Release Date: 2005-12-05
Interface: PCI-E x16
Core Clock: 470 MHz
Memory Clock: 470 MHz (940 DDR)
Memory Bandwidth: 15.04 GB/sec
Shader Operations: 5640 Operations/sec
Pixel Fill Rate: 1880 MPixels/sec
Texture Fill Rate: 1880 MTexels/sec
Vertex Operations: 587.5 MVertices/sec

So the cards are very similar and great.

But the looking in W3J owns also is more expensive

 

I'd go for the A8Jm, but that's just me, and I already did that.

Honestly, the performance between the two is pretty comparable, but the driver quality of the Go 7600 would really edge it out for me, and I've mentioned this one crucial reason before:

The Go 7600 can scale with fixed aspect ratio. That means that if you have to run a program at 1024x768 or another standard aspect resolution, you can have it scale up so the image fills the panel top to bottom, but there are black bars on the sides instead of hideously stretching the image. While a Go 7600 (or X1600) won't usually need to make the dip in resolution, it's nice to have, and I've already gotten some use out of it.

 

Thanks for your advice, I'm thinking about it, because I have to decide very soon!!!!!

 

Here's a post I made on the topic a while back:

 

This is the only part I'm worried about and if they don't have a bios update. And I really see why they won't if there is allready one for the Z96J.

 

If you can wait... then wait for Merom, and buy something like the W3j with merom in a couple months... People say you can upgrade it in the future. Like pulp pointed out, there is no guarantee everything will work. And even if it does work, you will be voiding your warranty. The difference in speed is about 20% and in my opinion that’s quite a bit. If you had like a 2ghz core duo 2, it would run at about the same speed as a core duo at 2.4ghz. That little speed gain + 64 bit for the future will make a nice fast future proof notebook. Right now on the notebook market, people are paying $300+ just to upgrade from something like a 1.83 core duo to a 2.16. If you had a 1.83 core duo 2, it would definitely outperform the one at 2.16 and it would be heck of a lot cheaper...

 

Here is a very nice article, comparing Yonah and Merom. It helped me
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2808&p=1

 

Thanks.
That was a nice article!
But i don't know if i wait or no. Because i need the laptop in 10 days but i want to wait!!!
Because one option is, buy the notebook now and wait till asus warranty is done (1 year) and then i can think if i change the CPU.

 

The only problem with doing that, is that it would still be a risk that Merom might not work. Why not just wait 1-2 months for Merom to be in it would be for sure it is working 100% insteading of puttting down $2000 on a machine that won't be able to use Merom. That's why I decide to wait 1-2 months as my class start in 2 weeks as well to see how the Merom is inside the notebooks and I figure I won't have to do hardcore programming until the middle of the semester.

It's hard because realistically, I would want to wait until Q1 2007 and see how the Santa Rosa chipset helps Merom overall. Supposedly you won't be able to unleash the true power of Merom until they redesign the chipset which is supposed to come out by Q1 2007. But given that, it's another year

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2808&p=17

 

ATI cards can do the same. Including the X1600. Even my old m9700 can use centered timings, as well as scale with fixed ratio.

 

DATTS168 I think you are completely right, I made the same decision about 3 hours ago, now that i read your post I think I'm in the same place as you.
I'll be hardcore programing too untill middle of semester, so yes I'll wait for merom, I would like to wait untill 2007 for new chipset too, but I just can't wait that much.

 

I program as well. I find the WSXGA screen of the Z96J to be far more comfortable than a WXGA screen. While you can manage on a wxga screen(I did so for a year) it is just much easier with a WSXGA screen. Especially because, on a WSXGA screen, you can fit two files side by side. You just can't do that with a WXGA screen, because 640 pixels(half the width of a 1280x800 screen) just isn't enough to display a file. But it works out pretty well with WSXGA, having 840 pixels. And of course, if you write wide code, the WSXGA screen is helpful there as well.

Z96 already has a Merom compatible BIOS, and you can get it now with a merom(at select resellers) or get a cheap t2300 on ebay, wait a few months for merom prices to drop and become mainstream, then upgrade to a nice t7400 or something.

Although if you were planning on programming under Linux, then the A8Jm 7600go might be a better choice.

 

Seriously, how much difference do you really think Merom will do, compared to Yonah, when programming?

 

Umm... if you compile often, you might get an extra 5 minutes of programming every hour. I never said I thought I needed a merom, or was getting one. I wanted to get one before, but when I saw that it had no impact on gaming basically, I've been thinking against it. If games were more damanding of a cpu, I'd upgrade to Merom because I do play games often.

 

Thanks for your advice JPZ.
Leong, I know yonah is enough for programing stuff, but I'll play often too also I want the 64bits because all the design programs that I'll use and Windows Vista.
About Z96J it's great too, I already saw that geared2play got it w/ merom.
But I want 14" or less because I'll take it everywhere the whole day, that's why I think W3J is better.
About the screen you might be right but I'm used to program in WXGA.

 

I've carried my 15.4" notebooks with me everywhere. I was also used the programming in WXGA. Like I said, it's not bad, but once you to go WSXGA, there's no going back. I can't even bear to look at a WXGA screen anymore. Everything looks so big and fuzzy. Image yourself getting a CRT and doing daily tasks in 640x480. That's what it feels like.

If you are worried about the weight of a 15.4" over a 14", don't worry about the Z96. I believe it weighs about the same. Official weight for Z96 is a little over 6 lbs, but I weighed it and it came out to 5lbs, fully configured. With battery. No PSU though. MUCH lighter than my old WXGA 8 lb 15.4" I carried with me everywhere last year.

 

any news on the Santa rosa platform?

 

I think they said Q1 2007.

 

Yes I saw that intel is saying it's going to be next year.
AMD is going to launch his new architecture too, its quad architecture processors, i dont remember the name right now but it is going to own.
Core 2 duo for desktop comp(as far i know, i dont know very well for notebooks) have 2 processors in 1, and they are 2 so, 2 x 2 = 4, that's why they are owning AMD.
So next year is going to be interesting, lot of new things coming out.

 

Umm... where are you getting that crap about the conroe? Now I haven't looked into this much, but I thought that the conroe was dual-cored. Two cores. Not four. 2 cores times one processor = two cores. Sure, if you put two conroe chips in your computer you'd have 4 cores, but how many people are planning on doing that?

AMD quad-cores will pwn.

 

Look it's an interesting review http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2808&p=1