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    F9J vs. W5FM

    Discussion in 'Asus' started by MassiveAttack, Jun 9, 2007.

  1. MassiveAttack

    MassiveAttack Notebook Geek

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    It looks as though the W5 series has been officially discontinued but the W5FM with Core 2 Duo 7200 is still carried by many retailers.

    I'm quite sure the W5 has better build quality than the new F9J but can only be upgraded to 1.5GB versus 2GB in the F9J and lacks the Nvidia 7300.

    Thoughts?
     
    MassiveAttack, Jun 9, 2007
    #1
  2. coriolis

    coriolis Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    The W5f is definitely built better in terms of material, though the F9 is pretty impressive I must say. The W5's made from a carbon fibre composite on majority of it's chassis while the F9 is just plastic. The W5fm's probably still available due to excess stock before the W5 with sideshow comes around.
     
    coriolis, Jun 9, 2007
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  3. Redline

    Redline Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    The W5Fe with Santa Rosa and Sideshow is supposed to be coming out in July or August sometime.

    The W5 has better build and faster CPU; the F9J has a dedicated graphics card and 2 slots for memory. Screens are I think almost the same, but the W5 weighs slightly less.
     
    Redline, Jun 9, 2007
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  4. MassiveAttack

    MassiveAttack Notebook Geek

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    Thanks for the feedback guys.

    One last question: I know this has been discussed before, but is it possible to upgrade the W5 to 2.5gb? Does the latest BIOS support it?
     
    MassiveAttack, Jun 10, 2007
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  5. coriolis

    coriolis Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I doubt it's impossible, ASUS doesn't usually set BIOs limits, though you may want to email/call ASUS or a dealer and see if they know.
     
    coriolis, Jun 10, 2007
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  6. MassiveAttack

    MassiveAttack Notebook Geek

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    Has anyone here with a W5 or W7 successfully upgraded to 2.5GB?
     
    MassiveAttack, Jun 12, 2007
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  7. itari

    itari Newbie

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    I am sure you already got the answer to your question about RAM
    upgrade limit, but for new buyers of W5Fm. It is upgradable to
    2.5 GB without any problem. Tested by many others besides me.
    And surely the performance improves drastically.
     
    itari, Jan 24, 2008
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  8. Silvr6

    Silvr6 Notebook Evangelist

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    In terms of looks and styling I"d take the W5Fm over the F9J but only if your not planning on playing games. The 7300go will be much better than the GMA 950. Battery life will be better on the W5. As for the 2.5GB limit I have the current bios flash (or the lastest one on Asus' site) and with the 2Gb SO-Dimm in there it only registers as 2.1gb's. Not sure if the onboard 512 get disabled or something but you won't see the full 2.5gb's
     
    Silvr6, Jan 24, 2008
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  9. E.B.E.

    E.B.E. NBR Procrastinator

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    Maybe it's being allocated to the GPU?
     
    E.B.E., Jan 25, 2008
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  10. Silvr6

    Silvr6 Notebook Evangelist

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    I was thinking of that except that in the bios i have the gma 950 set to the least amount of ram to use, no big deal i can still use 2gbs .
     
    Silvr6, Jan 25, 2008
    #10