S96j vs Z96j vs HEL80

Ok so I have been having a hell of a time looking at all the different types of notebooks out there and these seem to be some pretty good candidates. Here is my Dilemmas for each of them.

S96J: Seems like a pretty good spec for what you get, and was extremely appealing until I stumbled across the issue of it having that grainyness effect and is an issue with the 1600x.

Z96J:Came across this and is almost virtually identical to the S96J, so does this mean that it is basically the same notebook and therefore the grainy issue would still be apparent? Not to mention the 1600x makes me very wary now.

HEL80:Basically the 1600x equivalent to the S96J/z96j but with the geforce 7600 instead and is developed by compal. This one seems to stand out the most to me but it also has its own share of issues. It seems that the 7600 is underclocked in this build by compal and therefore doesnt have the raw power of the other two, but would probably be more stable, also issues with keyboard flex.


If at all possible it would be great to hear some opinions/advice on all 3 of these notebooks, also it would be great if I could also get a Merom option with them as well as I would like it to last me as long as possible. Ive also heard rumours that a new card for notebooks called the gefore 7700 is on the way and DX10 has also got me wary.

Any advice and opinions on any of these subjects would be of great help

 

the z96j is awesome. the grainyness issue is not that bad. I do not find it distracting.

 

I think it's hillarious, in a sad way, that all the resellers on this forum have dismissed the grainiess issue and now they're all missing out on sales because of it. Great forsight there fellas.

I would wait. One of the resellers over at NBF has a trouble ticket open on the X1600 graininess issue and we're supposed to hear Intel's response from ATI within a few days. It's almost certainly a fixable problem.

I've built a lot of PC over the years. One thing that steered me towards the Asus is my experience with their design, performance and reliability. The HEL has a bunch of little extras that have no appeal to me and that I've read have been buggy......instant media, fingerprint reader, etc. There are some other minor issues like the location of the intake vents and size of the heatsink but those aren't really decision makers.

The Asus with the 7700 is supposed to be out in October and we'll see what performance benefits its offers over the 7600....I don't expect much if it's still going to fit into a 15.4" case. The X1600 issue may be fixed by then. Either way, waiting a short while will offer you more options and/or resolution of the X1600 graininess issue.

 

Yea, it seems to be the most wise choice, although im usually a geforce fan its a pity that its the weaker of the two in this case, hopefully either the 7700 or the fix for the 1600 comes out soon, but in the meantime any more advice out there?

 

I'd stick with the Asus Z96 model, rather than the VBI S96 - still too many potential issues with vbi for my taste, despite the price diff.