interested in getting a a8jm, have some questions though

hey all, i plan to get my first laptop before i go back to college in about a month. i've been reading around NBR for the past few days (best notebook site) and i've got my eyes set on the asus a8jm. i do have a few questions though:

1. should i wait till the release of the merom to buy the a8jm?
2. i know about milestonepc.com, are there any other online stores that have similar prices/services?
3. with the default 1gb memory, is it one stick of 1gb or 2x512? if its 1 stick then i can definitely opt to upgrade the memory in the future.
4. is it worth it to upgrade the hard drive 5400 to 7200? i know files/folders will load faster, but what is the toll on the battery/heat
and finally for the $180 2 year warranty on milestone, i'm not exactly sure what it covers, if someone who bought it from them can explain to me

thank you for your advice and your time =)

 

It depends how long you can wait, 2+ months would be my guess for the 'refreshes'.

PortableOne sells the A8jm as their MX, check into that as well. There is one more dealer, but I don't recall their name at the momment.

The RAM should be 1 stick of 1gb, it was 2x512mb, but since have been upgraded(from what I hear, I need confirmation about this though.)

As for their warranty, best to ask them

 

In my opinion, milestonepc.com has the best price and Danny from MPC is very helpful. I wouldn't wait for the merom because IMO 64-bit wont be widely used by software companies and such for atleast couple months to a year. unless you are a heavy gamer or video editor, u shouldn't need 64-bit for more than a year or so. That's just my opinion though. I wouldn't upgrade to 7200. not worth the cost and the battery usage. not sure about the 2 year warranty. not sure about the memory either. sorry that i can't help you there. hope you make the right choice on your new laptop.

I would consider the W7J if you are going to college. I will be going back to college too and i thinkn the w7j is gonna be better for caring around campus. If you dont' need DVI, w7j is a good choice too because it has a bluetooth built in. GL.

 

portable one is the only place to get built-in bluetooth for a8jm, but they cost ~$100 more than other places at 1600 dollars

and as for the merom... wait if you can... it will be in notebooks in a month or two... but is it worth it? i'd say no because you probably won't use a 64bit os (vista is delayed again). It will be over-priced when it comes out, so you might have to wait another month or two before prices are reasonable for core 2 duos... BUT, the core 2 duos are going better than the current core duos

 

sunjinee87, the w7j is another great laptop but i think i prefer the 14" screen size over the 13.3", plus i play games like bf2 so the gpu in the a8jm is better for it.

yeah i have about a month to wait, however am i correct in saying even if i just get the core duo, i'll be able to upgrade it to the merom in the future if i choose to? thanks

 

i agree with dizzydxz, the core 2 duos are going better than the current core duos,, however,, u will not see the difference unless you are running a benchmark test or if you are doing some intense calculating, i.e. calculating couple million digits of pi.

 

I have seen it at buy.com ewiz.com and newegg.com

Im pretty sure its at newegg right now.

The lowest price I have seen is milestonepc though. I think newegg.com is close though

 

hmm on portableone it says 2x512 for the memory, so i guess its better off to upgrade to 2gb

 

Because I am guessing 3 months until the asus come with merom, i probably won't wait, but maybe in a year when the CPUs are even faster and cheaper i will upgrade it

Does anyone know if the extended asus warranty has to be purchased right away or do i have a period of time to decide if i want to get it? that's how it was when i got a toshiba a few years ago.

i'd be interested in what a 7200rpm drive would do to heat/battery life as well.

 

Just as a clarification. For $100 more from P1 you not only get bluetooth but all their extra "cooling piping" on the CPU / GPU.

The 7200 will produce more heat but not very noticable. Aswell as use a bit more juice to power it because it spins faster. There are multiple threads on this topic.

If you get the seagate perpendicular drive at 5400 rpm its just as good as a fast (but not equal) as a 7200, and most likely easier on the wallet.

Can't comment on the extended warranty issue, sorry.

 

1. should i wait till the release of the merom to buy the a8jm?
I wouldn't bother. I know I didn't. As the others have said 64-bit won't be a mainstream necessity for a while and a Core Duo will do just fine until you have to upgrade, when-yay!- you can do just that.

2. i know about milestonepc.com, are there any other online stores that have similar prices/services?
I got mine from NCIX to save $150 worth of PST, but service obviously can't compare to in-person service.

3. with the default 1gb memory, is it one stick of 1gb or 2x512? if its 1 stick then i can definitely opt to upgrade the memory in the future.
I bought mine at the beginning of July and it has 1x1GB, to my confusion

4. is it worth it to upgrade the hard drive 5400 to 7200? i know files/folders will load faster, but what is the toll on the battery/heat

I got a Hitachi 5400 on mine and it's plenty fast for me. It's fairly quiet too, and cool. I wouldn't want to sacrifice that for having MWord load 0.5s faster.

[/QUOTE]