s5n or m5n??

Hey, first i just wanted to say how much your forums ROCK! I've been searching all over the internet to try and find asus forums and REAL user opinions on the asus computers. Man! The topics and answers in this forum is just so professional and helpful, you guys are awesome!

Anyway, i just started looking into laptops and am considering buying an ultraportable laptop for programing so i can vary my work environment. I came across the asus ultraportables and found the s5n and m5n. Both just seem appealing to me! Here are some factors i'm considering, please give me some advice or input! especially the people who own s5n or m5n, tell me about them!

1) FAN! yes! I've been reading all over this forum about the annoying fan from asus m5n. I was so sure i was going to get the s5n because of that reason (s5n seem to have no problem). But i just read today that someone found a fix using speedfan! IS THAT TRUE!? m5n is about 400 bucks cheaper than s5n, and the only thing that i find faulty in the m5n is its fan, if that's fixable, i think i'mma decide on the m5n.

2)Graphics, i think they are both the same graphcis, so this question is a general question for both laptops. How good are they? I mean, i'm not a gamer, i don't play heavy games like WoW or quake3, but i want to play CS occasionally or at least some 3D single player games (NBA, sims.. etc), does this run those smoothly?

3)size, i know the s5n weighs .5lbs lighter because of the CD drive, but what about the thickness. From .8 to 1.12, does it make a noticable difference? I will be carrying around my laptop a lot, working in variuos places, and i really want a thin and light laptop. Plus, how much do each weigh with extra battery? I really want to add the extra battery!

4) comparing the m5n dell 700m, i mean, they weigh about the same (700m weighs 4.1lbs, m5n with extra batteries is also around 4 lbs) and have the same size (except 700m is 1.5" thick and m5n is 1.12"), what are some advantages of the m5n over the 700m?

5)the s5n seem not to be customizable anywhere, where as the m5n seem to be able to customize it everywhere. I heard (or maybe read somewhere) that you can add RAm to the s5n manually right? If so, how can i do that? Because the s5n only comes with 256 RAM, but i want to add another 256mb RAM so i can get it up to 512 RAM. Which type of ram should i buy to make sure i'm not getting it wrong, and what's the price range?

6) price drop, my budget is about 1500, and the m5n is about 1200 while the s5n is about 1600, do you guys think the price will drop when summer hits? If so, by how much? Is the 400 bucks worth to spend to get the s5n instead of m5n?

7)stupid question, they both come in white?[ ]

ok! That's all for now, thanks for all the inputs in advance. Hopefully i can decide on one and wait for that price to drop!


s5n or m5n!??

 

wow justin, thanks a lot! The i believe when you're talking about the rebates, it's the 150 rebate and the free 9 cell battery right? I have a small question, how does the rebate to the 9-cell battery work? Do i buy the 9 cell first? Or do i buy the laptop with the 3 cell first, and then i'll receive an extra 9-cell? Has anyone gotten their's yet?

How long do you think these rebates will stay? Will they be back in the summer? The reason i'm waiting for the summer is my mom won't allow me to buy a laptop untill the summer, thus, with or without the price drop, that's the time i can purchase my notebook.

any responses about the fan fix for the m5n using speedfan?

s5n or m5n!??

 

Let me make this simple for you.

Internally, feature wise, and about 95% of the chassis' are idential. The addition of the optical drive does two things...... it makes the M5 heavier and thicker. Heres the catch, if you get an S5 and carry the optical drive around with you in the computer bag... you're carrying around more weight than if you just had the M5.... The S5 / M5 are just about an inch thick in the rear... The S5 slopes down to about 3/4" in the front. The M5 stays the same thickness. This really isn't much of a difference because the feet on the front of the S5 are just taller to make the S5 level, which makes it sit just about as high as the M5.

Battery/size: The 3x capacity battery adds about a pound to the overall weight...... thats the weight with the regular battery in place.. The S5 is about 2.8 pounds... 3.8 with the 3x battery... M5 - 3.4 pounds / 4.4 pounds... even with the 3x battery these laptops are lighter than a lot of their competition...... but none of them can get the battery life these can with those batteries in place. Dell's dimensions are ALWAYS the size of the notebook it self..... The M5's thickness of 1.12" includes the feet... thats how tall it'll sit off a table. It's just a hair under 1" thick if you don't include the feet........ so that extra 1/2" is quite a lot... I'm not sure what battery the 700m has standard, but if it's similiar to the 3 cell that is standard in the M5, you have to compare the 4 pounds to the M5's 3.4 pounds...

Graphics: Intel's Extreme Graphics 2 runs about as good as a 64mb nvidia geforce 4 4200 when it has the ram to allocate. You MUST have the system packed with 768mb of ram to have the maximum of 64mb allocated for video..... The way the integrated video works is it only takes a portion of the system ram and uses it for video.... So, if you use the systme out of the box, with it's 256mb of on board ram, you'll only have about 21mb allocated for video.... This is one reason I strongly suggest getting a 512mb microdimm and not just another 256mb. It's a 12" professional notebook........ yeah there is a lot you can do with it graphics wise... but it's not a gaming machine and you're not going to be running your games with full detail.... however, when running them on a 12" system, you can lose a lot of the detail and not really notice. As far as what ram to buy, you can always give us a call.. you want to use kingston's microdimms.... they're the only microdimms that are short enough to get into these systems without a crowbar. We got a lot of these when prices were very low. If you go to kingston's site now I think a 512 stick is up over $210.

By this summer the S5/M5 will be converted to the sonoma platform and if anything their price will stay the same. Right now there is basically $300 worth of rebates on the S5 and you can't beat that with an M5 at the same configuration. By then any remaining units with the current configuration will be long gone, so you're not going to see anyone with them........ if you did, obviously you might be able to get a good deal, but I'm sure they're not going to give it away.

If you're in the US, there's actually only one way to get the M5 in the pearl white finish like the S5..... it's basically through me. The white M5 didn't come to north america. Because of years I've put in working with Asus on getting their notebooks out there........ they "allowed" us to purchase a limited supply of white m5 chassis'...... We had 10, I have 1... and I think about 5 others were sold. So I think there are 4 left... Thats it, only 10 people will ever have white M5's in north america...... if you take into consideration north america is the only place Asus sells barebone units, they are the only 10 in the world that are customer configured. That's called a limited edition if you ask me.

I hope that gives you a start.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Personally, I'd for the M5Np... but if you're not going to be carrying around the optical drive, then the S5N would do just fine.
I like the keyboard on the M5Np better and I just like to know that the optical drive is readily accessible...

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Tohiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

oh yea, how are the graphics compared to the dell inspiron 700m?

Asus: Embedded Intel 855GME internal graphics
Dell: Integrated Intel® Extreme graphics up to 64MB shared.

s5n or m5n!??

 

They have the same graphics performance... or should, theoretically.

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Toshiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

The battery life on the M5N seems pretty short to me. With the 3-cell battery, maybe an hour(?), if I'm doing stuff, bit longer if it's just idle/hibernating. With the 6 cell, double that. I've not really tested it systematically, but I'm always surprised at how quickly it seems to run out, even when I've not been using it for anything other than perhaps email checking. That could be perhaps because the fan is on so often!!

It can get hot on the hands occasionally - if it's been sitting on the table for a few hours, with nothing running (plugged in, so fan running full speed, though), it can be noticeably hot when I pick it up - the bottom, and somethings the trackpack. Not so hot that I can't use it or anything, just hot enough that I can certainly feel it. It keeps me warm when I'm using it on my lap, for sure! (and this is with the fan running full speed, obviously, as there is no other setting). That's why I'm slightly dubious about whether to try this fix of the fan speed. Yet the internal temperature of asus probe says it's fine, never more then 50C, so this is just something about the way it gets rid of the heat, I guess - you feel it in your palms and trackpad.

But I really like the keyboard and the design of the M5, and it was the lightest one I could find for a reasonable price that included a DVD-rewriter. I like the convenience of having an optical drive built in. By the time you carry around the power pack and perhaps mouse and stuff, it's already adding weight, so saving weight by having the lighter built-in one if good - if you need it a lot on the road.

(why does the power pack have to be so big?? Why can't there just be a cord that goes to the outlet and that's it? Does it have to convert the supply or something? It's a pain to carry it around when the rest of the laptop is so small and sleek).

 

Robyn, what cpu, hard drive do you have? An hour on the regular battery is a little more than what I get with my 2.0ghz unit with 60gb/7200rpm drive......... and really really using it hard.. I get about 50 minutes... Thats weird.


The rebates will go on this month... W1's and S5's are running in short supply with Asus, so the rebates were continued just this month. I'm not sure of the level of supply at asus, but the units will probably all be gone this month. So I doubt they'll even go into next month.. The rebates have really helped sell these at this point in time and I can't see supply lasting that much longer.

You don't buy the battery, they ship you one when you fill out the form and send it in.

Back to the M5 fan,I'm not a good one to ask. The "noise" is not an issuse to me as it's no louder than all of my other asus notebooks and no one has ever said anything but how quiet those were...... The latest bios did seem to slow down the rpm's a bit, and it stays just as cool.

By the way, I understand what your mom is saying, but you can tell her that the summer is never a good time to buy a computer...January through March are usually the best time to find deals. March / April / May are usually when new stuff comes out - November / December are when everyone's buying stuff..... August and September are when kids are buying stuff for back to school. Thats just something to keep in mind. Usually the rebates do the trick to show someone it's never going to be cheaper....

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Hey Justin, I'm curious.. on your website, you list the S5N as having a Dothan processor; on the ASUS website, it would appear that they list a Banias one.

Do all S5Ns ship with Dothan processors... or does your company only supply Dothan-equipped S5Ns?

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Toshiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

thanks people for replying, i'm understanding more and more about these 2 machines. In about two weeks, i'm going home (Bay area) for spring break. There seems to be a central computer around Newark just 15 mins away from me. I will be going there to actually check out these two machines and have some hands on experience on them. Is there anything specific that i should take a look at or try out?

s5n or m5n!??

 

Yeah, when the S5 was upgraded from the 1.0ghz ULV cpu to the 1.5ghz, it was upgraded to support the dothan and ddr333..... If it was still banias, it would only support ddr266. Although Asus' site says Banias, it's a Dothan. The cpu itself has the dothan code...... if you look at Asus' site hard enough you'll think their pocket pcs are cell phones, gps navigators and everything else under the sun..... the fact checking isn't there. Usually.. it's not in their favor. More than one time I've seen products that would just sell better if Asus listed the correct specs... In August I told them about the Dothan cpu, because and the US office fixed it on their invoices.. but didn't notice if it was fixed on their site.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

Robyn,

Did you install the powergear software? What bios are you running? I think your system is running all out at 1.6ghz all the time...... Your battery life should be an average of 2 hours of normal email, internet, word sort of stuff......

Check those out.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

my hard drive is 40Gb, and the processor is 1.6Mhz (725, I think?). I don't know why the battery life seems to be quite poor; I'm surprised that even when it's just sitting there, not hibernating but also not doing anything, but the battery still drains quite quickly. I've never actually tested to see how long, though. It's perhaps to do with this silly fan. Or maybe there's something else that's a problem.

I'd go for the M5N over the S5N, just because it's better not carrying around the optical drive if you use it at all when you're out. There's already so many bits and pieces to carry, and it's just more of a hassle and weight to have somehting extra. But the design of both of them is really nice. And if it's cheaper, too, more to the good.

The keyboard on the M5N is nice, at least in the version that I have - took a short time to get used to the spacing, but after that it's fine. The control key position is hard to use, and the right shift is too small for my liking, but otherwise things are fine.

The white version might be better for not wearing off the paint so quickly - the black finish gets shiny within a couple of days of use, both the keys, the trackpad, and the palm-rests, so it looks "used" quite quickly. I haven't yet found a way to clean this or restore the finish. The track pad seems to be slightly less responsive now that it was initially. But it's a nice design, and I like the rimless shape.

 

I didn't install anything, but as far as I know it came pre-installed - I certainly have the option to change between the running man, the tractor, the car, and the aeroplane. And when it's on battery power, it's on the running man. I don't know which bios I'm running - it came pre-installed, in December, and the Asus live-update programme doesn't say I need anything new, so I'm assuming that it's the most recent?

 

You should be good... might just have a defective battery...... in all honestly you should be getting much better life with that set up. Unless there is something you're not telling me, I have over a years worth of experience with just that model (although that doesn't mean much for some people in this forum) - but I've used all different setups and I've gotten a pretty good read as far as what you should be getting with a particular setup.

The live update will NEVER mention a bios update unless it is a fix for something you need... For instance...some of the fixes are for difference ram manufacturers... hard drives.. things of that nature..

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

ey justin. how do you get 2 hours on the S5N? do you lower the brightness of the screen as well? thanks

diego

 

well, on the configuration Robyn has ... 1.6ghz 40/4200rpm ..... it's not not about how I got it... thats just average.

With my M5 - I've got a 2.0ghz / 60gb/7200rpm drive....... I can get about 45-50 minutes on the 3 cell battery with that set up. It's totally overkill, but it helps with some of the things I have to run when I'm on the road. We have customers with every thinkable configuration, and like I said... over the course of a year, having people report back what kind of life they're getting, doing what... and having your own... certainly helps understand what life you'll get with what set up.

Having powergear running is important...... If you take over powergear and have the cpu run at full speed all day long, and set the brightness to 100%... you're going to be dead in 30-45 minutes on any configuration.. It's almost impossible to get accurate battery life numbers from everyone as there are a lot of factors that are almost impossible to get everyone to adhear to in order to get a certain life...... but I think I posted numbers I've seen under different set ups somewhere in this forum.... if someone could find them for me, maybe we can have other people post what they are getting and see where people are doing something wrong or doing something that is requiring more battery or what......

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]

 

On my system: 1.6ghz and 7200 RPM HDD I get this

slightly < 2:30 on a 3-cell at the lowest setting


slightly < 8:00 hrs on a 9 cell at the lowest setting

(I only use the 9-cell battery since it last me so long, rarely use it running on AC)

I also use this program, Battery Doubler (no, I don't think it actually doubles your battery life, but can squeeze a bit more out)

http://www.dachshundsoftware.com/bdoubler/index.html

 

I used to use the program "Hare" from Dachshund Software... but I find that it doesnt' really make a difference.
I think Power4Gear works just fine on these ASUS notebooks...

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Toshiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

That battery doubler program is sort of like powergear.... powergear works better though... Your numbers are pretty good.

Thanks,
Justin
PROPortable
www.proportable.com
[email protected]