Should I hop on the S96J bandwagon now or wait?

I posted a thread yesterday in the "What Notebook Should I Buy?" forum, asking for a fairly portable, affordable machine that I could use for the occassional game or two. Everyone almost unanimously pointed me to the S96J. I must admit, looking at the specs and the price, I'm impressed. Battery life could be better, but sacrifices must be made for a good GPU, I suppose.

Here's my concern. I don't absolutely NEED a laptop until August. I'm just itching to get one ASAP. I hear talk of Merom and 64-bit processors on the horizon and I worry that maybe I'm jumping the gun. I want a machine that's going to last me the four years of college. I don't expect it to play the latest and greatest games towards the end of its life, or anything, but I expect it to still be compatible with most software. Is it a bad time for me to make a laptop purchase, or should I go for it?

 

OK there will be little difference for most using a 64bit OS. It has some benifits but we are still about 2 years off till they matter. concidering the 64bit chips are coming out in july i think it was or end of june i forget. either way i dont think asus will have put them in their notebooks by august. You really should wait till you need the notebook to buy it. Simply because there will be more models to choose from. But i dont think you are going to see asus with 64bit chips till after the summer.

 

As stated by SRD - you can wait all your life for something better to come out and it will. I was doing the same things. I was waiting for Core Duo, so I waited.....waited...waited and YEAH it is finally here in the notebook I want (Asus), then opps, Meron is coming out. I thought about waiting, but then I said to myself - if I keep doing this, then i will never own a computer

So, my dear friend, hop on the S96J bandwagon, and enjoy the ride

vasylko

 

There are 3 factors to consider.

64-bit processing is one issue and an upgrade to Merom a couple years from now will solve that if it's a problem. In all honesty, 64-bit is overhyped for non-server applications.

DX10 compatibility, however, will be lacking. Is that a problem? I highly highly doubt even four years from now, that DX10 will make any kind of real difference as 95% of gamers are that many years behind on their video cards. As it's not even out yet, we're looking at 2 years before any high profile DX10 games are out anyway.

HDCP compliance. I'm not ure there are any ramifications. Certainly nothing crucial, but if being 100% compliant with everything for the next 4 years is a priority it might be something to research.

Looking at this, it's tough to justify holding off. The main reason would be to see if Asus or anybody else comes out with news of an X1800/X1900 Mobility for a 15.4" notebook. I doubt it would be practical if even possible though and as clocked down as it would be, it

 

My 7 year old P3 Dell still does everything I want it to. Including light gaming. Believe it or not I had BF2 running on that thing (slow) but running. So I doubt that you will need a new computer for function purposes such as word processing and multimedia use. 4 years for gaming is not realistic, but for regular use, it is.

 

If you think ASUS will have a new laptop in August with Merom, you're out of your mind.

Merom is coming late August, adding another month or so usual intel delays, plus transportation etc, etc.. You can expect it sometime by end September/Octomber in stores.

It will take ASUS 2months or so to design new features for their new motherboard, then production, then prototypes, then another 3 months after prototypes for mass production, 2 weeks transport, another 1 month delay. We're loooking at OCtomber + 7 months which is March or April next year for the first Merom based laptop. (at first I woulda guessed january/february, but it takes them longer.)

Think about this. Last summer Yonah was hyped up, it took them nearly 9 months till we first saw our W3J's/A8Jm models just this May.. It will take them less than last year, because last year they were waiting for the new 945Mobos, but they still hafta add features, create new bios etc. It will take longer than you think. I recommend you buy a laptop when you can.

 

Mystery,

Sean Maloney (Executive VP, Intel) said on March 2, 2005 that the Duo would be out in first quarter 2006:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2365&p=2

The first Duo notebooks were available in February 2006. There were no delays. I believe that Asus had their first Duo notebook (Z62F?) available in March (still in that 1st quarter).

The engineering samples of the Napa Merom have been out for at least a couple months. Asus has samples and they have Napa notebooks that will run them. If they were going to need time to to design new notebooks (which they don't) they have had months with the new CPU to sort it out.

I'm still trying to figure out why you think Asus is coming out with new notebooks before Santa Rosa with different technology than Napa. Have you seen an Asus roadmap? The only reason I see Asus or other companies coming out with new notebooks before Santa Rosa is to upgrade graphics.

Notebooks will be available with Core 2 Duo in August or September. I expect that Asus will have them in that time frame as well. Why would they delay? They have the notebooks and at most all they need to do is update the bios.

If you have some info to back up your claims please provide.

And yes pennylane you should JUMP on the bandwagon. I did. Even if I could not put a Duo 2 Core in my S96j I still would have bought one. Technology is always moving forward you can always wait for next biggest thing.

 

Mystery's claims are based on historical facts, and yes its true, ASUS has not put out their entire Yonah Line yet! Mind you ASUS released one hell of amount of Yonah laptops to all markets.

But technically speaking yes a Bios upgrade + a Merom cpu would mean ASUS can put out Merom notebook almost instantly.

Will this happen?? LOL you can prolly put a poll and let the people hypothesize about this. My money is that ASUS will not anything released buy August or September...but who knows.

Expect there to be HUGE premiums for merom (well in my opinion)

It would be nice to see a possible roadmap of MErom + NAPA notebooks, and then later on Santa Rosa + Merom road map.

FlipTwister, if you think ASUS will release some of the Merom line, in August and Setpember, wouldn't you think it would be best just to wait till then to buy and get it. Since many here want it for school, but you'll lose out on the summer use.

But if ASUS doesn't release anything after Merom's release, then it would definately make more sense to buy now and have fun, and then upgrade to Merom when you need to, 1-2 years from now.

But to those who can wait, just wait, you neva know what ASUS turns up, heck im hoping for a 15.4" WSXGA+, X1600, Merom, Modular bay, Bluetooth, webcam or finger print reader (both or none), and gots to be relatively thin and light. Price..well ensemble would put this machine over 2k Canadian..LOL

Yes this is very close to the V1J...i'm just waiting to see what happens around august.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

MysticGolem, I'm really not sure. If you are going the built on route I would say buy. The Ensemble line is more complicated. Voiding your warranty with a CPU upgrade is kind of a drag. If I was going to go the Ensemble route I would buy one now (but I have been waiting since Jan.).

While Merom will have a significant performance improvement and 64bit support it is not a huge jump over Yonah. I expect that there will not be that many people upgrading CPUs to get 20% more performance. Remember that the platform (Napa) remains the same so that features remain the same. The only real difference is the CPU (which does include 64bit support).

With as many Napa notebooks that Asus has put out I just can't see why they would introduce a new notebook line with the same Napa platform. Why spend more money in development when you have the notebooks? I suspect that Asus will have the same Ensemble line with the new CPU. Possibly a few models with new GPUs when they become available. Obviously this is just my speculation and I could be wrong.

Asus is trying to grow their own-brand notebook business 30% this year. They can not afford to let other manufacturers have Core 2 Duo systems months before they do.

 

The first NAPA/Yonah laptop was released by ASUS in mid-March, but it was with an integrated video solution (GMA950). At that time ASUS claimed they were first to market...and they were pretty close but may have been beaten by a few days.

The Yonah processors and the Intel 3945 wireless cards were already in our warehouse by mid-January, and they sat there for two months until we had any laptops to put them in!

Then, we waited another two months until May 19th before we started shipping the ASUS W3J with a discrete video card, and May 23rd we started shipping the S96J with a discrete video card. We are still waiting for the Z96J that will start shipping in June.

This is quite typical for the laptop industry. It ALWAYS takes longer than you think to get new models with new technology actually shipping.

Say what you will about all the announcements about MEROM (oh, and the pricing will be the same as the Core Duo processors...there will not be any premium for them), you won't see them on the selves and shipping in laptops until September or later. I also agree that there is no reason to wait for them because why have a 64-bit processor months before you have an OS and software that can use it, and why wait when what you buy today will accept the MEROM processor when and if it ever becomes important to you...all it takes is a BIOS update in what you buy today to accept the MEROM.

Now, to answer your question...now or later...the best advice is to wait if you can because as SRD said, there will be more to choose from as time goes on. For example Compal is about to introduce a new 15.4" WXGA model with the nVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 w/256MB, with a fingerprint scanner and 9 cell battery standard, and Bluetooth and a TV tuner as options. It will of course cost a little bit more than the S96J becuase it has more features, but it will be less than $100 more. And...there will be others. However if you are eager to get going and start enjoying what your new laptop can do for you...the differences will be slight and you really won't be missing out on anything important.

 

Go for it! It's a great deal.

 

Amen!

 

While its not always good to wait forever. The best time to get a laptop is when you need it. No later no sooner. The deal will still be there and their might be more options out later.

 

Looks like I'll be waiting until Julyish then. Although I might get anxious and end up pulling the trigger early.

 

Should I wait? I have no idea what you are talking about.

 

Have you read this thread from the beginning??

 

Yes, I just don't know what Merom is.

 

MEROM is the code word for the Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Dual core, 64-bit

 

Okay, I'll wait then. I'm in no rush.

 

Wait a second. I don't see why we have to wait for Asus to put Meroms in when you have companies like Portable One dropping in their own chips anyway. If that's the case, shouldn't we see the A8JM (Portable One MX) with Meroms as soon as they can get their hands on them?

~ Brett