Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Sa 3650!

I would like to start a thread which will follow the progress of this notebook's path to release. Is there any new information as of September 2008? Does it stand a chance of being released in the U.S.? Will the XGP port be a revolution in notebook design and function? I am particularly excited about this computer and am anxiously awaiting any future information on this product. I have a Norwegian site which has it for sale, but my Norwegian is horrible.

HTML:

http://www.meeter.no/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:2088008

No one really discusses this model in the forums and I am wondering if it is because there really isn't much information on it or that this technology is really not that important or exciting? Thoughts?

 

I am also extremely interested in the XGP technology. Unfortunately, it seems as though AMD has a patent on it for a year. It needs a special port to function and will only be on AMD Puma notebooks.

Intel right now just has the better laptop processors out right now and I don't want to be stuck with AMD.

I wonder if Nvidia will make an alternative for Intel notebooks? I know a lot of Intel notebook owners that would love to have an external graphics card like myself.

This is a great idea as it lets me have a small 12-13" laptop to take around school, not a huge 15 or 17" gaming laptop. I take it home and plug it to my monitor or HDTV and the XGP and have a full gaming computer. There will be much less heat and noise while gaming, because the graphics card is external.

But there's no news of this Fujitsu laptop or the XGP, only news of its announcement, no mention on price or release date.

But we are heading in the right direction, external graphics cards for laptops are a marvelous idea.

 

Looks perfect but with Amilo Xi series rather

 

Word on the street is that this should be available now. Any retailers that ship internationally? (specifically the US, Japan or an APO AP address (US military base in Japan)

 

Where did you hear this? I don't think its been released yet.
This Amilo Sa 3650 model will be Europe only but I'm sure variants of it will come to other regions.

 

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Fujitsu-Siemens-Amilo-Sa-3650-Gets-Listed-93211.shtml

Dated September 9th.

 

I have my doubts at the moment if an XGP laptop is in the near future for anyone outside of Europe.

 

It's using a mobility 3870 in the GraphicBooster, which makes it smaller but also much harder to upgrade, if possible at all.

In the end it will be more expensive than having two computers.
An Athlon X2 2.4 GHz PC with a real 3870 card is not really expensive, maybe close to the price of the GraphicBooster.

Don't get me wrong, it's a cool product, but I just wanted to point out that you don't pay for mobile gaming, and it won't be cheaper than a gaming PC + laptop.

 

Really? Will it really be that expensive that I could just buy a gaming desktop instead? I wanted to have a laptop that could also double as a gaming machine with external graphics card hooked up to it.

Its too bad it can't be upgraded either, I wanted to maybe swap out the card and put in a desktop 4870 in there.

 

Well I actually haven't seen any price for the GraphicBooster, but I'd be surpised if it costs less than €200, and the Laptop costs €1000.

Looking at the lowest prices for these components:
AMD 4600+: €43
4GB RAM 800 MHz: €58
Samsung 320GB HDD: €39
Samsung DVD RW: €16
Biostar motherboard: €39
ATI HD 3870: €87
Foxconn case & 300 W PSU: €31
____________________________
total €313, shipping cost excluded

Add a decent Amilo Si 2636 to that for €800 and I'm pretty sure you still haven't payed more than what you would have done for the Sa 3650 + GraphicBooster.

 

And you can take that all with you wherever you go?

I can take the former and put it in a backpack and go from my house to my office or home with me to the states. Carry-on.

Can you do that with a desktop gaming computer? Even a SFF is too big to shove in your carry-on.

 

Well the good thing is that you have two computers for about the same price, one desktop for gaming, and one laptop.

 

I can see the point is being missed..

I might part of a very small market, but gamers who travel a lot do exist, and they need a laptop too. Ever try carrying around a 15" or 17" everywhere you go? After a few bullet trains, airplanes, buses, taxis, and walks through Tokyo or in your backpack on a motorcycle, you'll wish you had a 13" that could still game in the hotel or on the airplane, as well as at home or in the office (on downtime like this of course).

 

Yep. I gave up the ghost on this one. Hoy, I agree with you on the possibilities afforded with this machine but essentially they are charging a premium for what amounts to a pretty basic package (minus the XGP). Maybe future variants will come in more favorable price points (I guess depending on the region you live in) but I was really hoping the base would be lower.

 

Hoy: I did get your point, but you asked things we both already knew.
I never said a desktop PC was a substitute for a mobile solution.
I actually didn't see the XGP as a mobile thing at all because I first thought it required an external display.

Connecting the PCIe x16 slot with a long cable must affect performance, right?

 

not really

take a look at this http://sp.fujitsu-siemens.com/dmsp/docs/ds-amilo-graphicbooster.pdf
it says 8 000 points 3DMARK06

 

Im really amazed if this thing delivers 8000pts in the 3dmark06 for such a low price and high portability while having great battery life.

 

I hope you guys recognize this:

They claim "UP TO 8000"

 

Yeah I've seen the 8000 points, but that cable must be at least 1 meter, doesn't it make any difference?
Maybe the difference is so small that you won't notice it.

 

With the booster plugged in can I play the game on my laptop screen - or it external display only?

 

I think that you can play with your laptop screen

 

Two norwegian webshops have now listed the Amilo Sa 3650 including the GraphicsBooster on their site. XD and MPX The specs are the ones you know all ready. So now news there. Though, the price may be interesting. The current price is 9830 NOK including VAT. Taking the high VAT-rates in Norway, and general welfare, into account, it would amount to something like about 1000$. To convert US prices to norwegian prices and vice versa, you generally just have to multiply/divide the price with 10. The price may be subject to change.

Another interesting thing is the launch date. XD is counting on having the Amilo Sa 3650 in storage 22. October 2008. That is no more than 22 days. Also MPX seems to use the same expected recieval date. We can only hope the release date is true. When the Amilo Sa 3650 will be released in the US is still unknown. You can only hope it's release are not to far away. Though, I must say I'm enjoying it a bit. Usually it's the opposite way around. If somebody needs something translated, just ask.

Edit:

You can play the game on the laptop screen as well as external ones. The cable is two way, so it can recieve and transmit information at the same time.

Snorre

 

Great, thanks for the update. Are you sure about the price? $1000 US seems lower than I thought it would be, but it does sound sweet!

I would just about purchase this, but I dunno about dealing with a Norwegian O/S.

 

Whoa, the currency converter I used says it's closer to $1500 USD. But that makes sense because it includes the graphics booster.

 

I'm pretty sure about the price. It might be a bit higher than 1000$. Perhaps some place between 1000 and 1200$. Yeah, it's too bad it comes with norwegian Vista-versions.

Yeah, but as I explained. You have to take the high VAT-level (25%) and living standards into account. As an example. The Nintendo Wii costs 2500NOK in Norway, but just around 250$ in the US. So it's not just as simple as converting the price from NOK to dollars. 1 dollar is worth about 5 nok today. So if you were to convert directly, a Nintendo Wii would cost 500$ in the US. Everything is expensive here ...

 

I really hope this can come to the U.S by the end of the year, either from Fujitsu or other manufacturers.

It looks like this is exclusive to AMD laptops, I've love for Intel laptops to get this or an equivalent, maybe from Nvidia?

I also hope that perhaps more powerful cards can be offered with this, I'd like a 4850 or maybe I'm asking for too much....

 

I don't think you are. Personally I think the 4850 is a low goal. I'd be impressed, however by a higher end card like a 4870 X2

 

I understand now. Tax is fun.

That's one good thing about living in Oregon, no sales tax.

I think by the time something like this comes out stateside, it'll have a 45nm chip and a 48xx or 58xx XGPU

 

So you think this will take quite a while to come to the U.S Hoy?
I would hope it would come out before the end of the year perhaps. I'd also hope it could work on Intel chipsets but looks to be AMD exclusive for now of course since AMD owns ATI. This should boost sales of AMD laptops.

 

Yeah. AMD owns ATI, so I''ve pretty much given up hope of ATI XGP ever coming to Intel platforms. One thing I do hope, is that one can replace the external graphics card (Mobility Radeon HD 3870) with a better one. I know the external graphics interface (external pci express-thingy) is somewhat limited. But since the ATI XGP-solution allows for multiple/two (crossfire) graphics cards (something Fujitsu-Siemens obviously havn't thought about using) there should be some spare bandwith capabilities to utilize.

 

Despite AMD and Intel being direct rivals, letting Intel notebooks use AMD's XGP technology would get them a ton of revenue as the majority of notebooks out there are Intel. I really wish to buy an Intel notebook and am only considering AMD right now because of the XGP technology.

Of course AMD probably wishes to keep it exclusive to their notebooks to give them a big selling point over Intel as Intel has AMD beat in battery life and performance in notebook processors.

AMD has a one-year exclusive deal to have the special connector ATI XGP requires. This technology will come to Intel notebooks eventually. There are tons of Intel notebook users who would love to have this technology, myself included.

I am wondering if Nvidia will create an alternative to this?

I also hope we can have more powerful graphics cards than the 3870 in the future, I think the bandwidth is enough to support an HD4850 at least.

 

My first impressions:



FSC Amilo Sa 3650

+ eSATA, DVI-I
+ real 5.1 audio through 3x jack
+ possible to connect 3 external LCDs in digital quality (with AMILO Graphic Booster)
+ nice design
+ Radeon HD3200 performance (1800 points in 3D Mark 2006)

- small keyboard
- touchpad buttons
- weak battery life (<5 hrs with 9cell 85Wh battery)
- noisy fan (silent mode slows down fan, but performance also goes down)
- 2.5 kg with 9cell batt

AMILO Graphic Booster

+ no performance hit by using XGP (8000 point in3D Mark 2006)
+ it uses same PSU as laptop
+ it's more quiet than laptop

- can't use laptop LCD (I don't know if they want to fix it in final version)
- PowerPlay not works

For people who know Czech: http://forum.zive.cz/viewtopic.php?f=907&t=1052707 ( google translator is not good way)

 

It can't accelerate the laptop's LCD? OUCH. They better fix that..

 

Thank you very much Swarm!

Is it already available to purchase in Europe? How much did you pay for the laptop and GraphicBooster? That is a very nice boost in the 3DMark06 score.

I had read about ATI having Hybrid Crossfire technology, being able to use both the integrated and discrete graphics together to boost performance. Can you do that with this notebook?

I do hope that in the future, more powerful graphics cards will be available for this ATI XGP technology. Its too bad its only using a laptop videocard. I wouldn't mind a larger case and external PSU for it to fit a desktop videocard.

I hear this uses Expresscard 2.0 technology for the bandwidth it requires but it doesn't have the slot so I hope that when that slot comes to all laptops hopefully soon, we can get something like the ATI XGP for Intel laptops as well, since the ATI XGP is limited only to AMD Puma laptops.

I am very excited about this technology.

 

Unless something has changed, AFAIK Hybrid CrossfireX only works with low end video cards.

 

This is a testing sample form FSC. It's only one in Czech Republic. I think that this will be available in november (FSC people said).

It is possible only with Radeon HD3200 & HD34 x0.

I hope too. It has no limits and PCIe 2.0 8x is powerful enough to use hi-end desktop GPUs.

 

XD and MPX has pushed back it's date of recieval. MPX and XD now say that they'll recieve the Amilo Sa 3650 on 20. november. So another month of waiting is on.

 

Are XD and MPX online retailers or something?

 

Yeah, they're norwegian online retailers.

Edit: XD and MPX (I suspect they've got the same owners or suppliers) have now changed the date of recieval to 29. october. (Instead of 20. november). There is still hope that it will come october!

 

That's today!!

 

It seems as XD and MPX pushes the recieval date back and forth. After using 29. october, the recieval date suddenly was something like 20. of november. Now it's 3. november. I'm not sure as what to exspect anymore. I think I'll just let you know when they actually recieve them.

 

Thx for staying on this, I can't wait to see what kind of prices we see on the full setup.

 

What's the resolution you got these points? I am a part-time gamer. At first I was about to buy the new ASUS G50 but because I travel a lot I did some research in smaller laptops and found the FSC Sa 3650 which is (I guess) more powerful than the ASUS G50. Should I wait for the smaller and more powerful (is it more powerful?) FSC Sa 3650 or already hit the shops and buy the ASUS G50? The reason why I need to buy the laptop as soon as possible is that I'm leaving my country for student exchange in the beginning of January and would like to have it with Scandinavian keyboard.

Thanks,
Johanna

 

Default - 1280x1024.

 

Any updates in when the set (laptop+Graphicsbooster) will be available in Europe? I can't find it anywhere. And also - is it final that the booster won't work with laptops own screen?

 

Yes, it's kinda final, unless you can somehow reroute the the signal back to your own laptop screen (which is near impossible without cutting off a leg or 2, would like to see the mod thou ).

I can't find any reseller in europe as well, I'm wondering whether the Booster 's gpu is swappable? (from what i read before, it cant be done but who knows)

 

I decided to wait for the Amilo SA 3650. After all it's way smaller than the ASUS G50V I was about to purchase instead. I called asked Finnish company called Tietoasema about the laptop and they told me that it will be available in the beginning of December but the graphics booster isn't available until the beginning of January. Hope that this information of the date of release stays.

BTW. They've already listed the device and with the price of 999 euros (laptop only).

 

Cool, how much will the booster be?

 

The German FS shop is offering the Sa 3650 for preorder together with the booster for 1199 Euros, so the booster alone will probably cost at least 200 Euros.

I would post the link, but I can't!!!

shop . fujitsu-siemens . de/fujitsusiemenscomputersonlineshop/ctl500000040/cp/si500277738/cl1/amilo_notebook_sa_3650__graphic_booster

 

Here you go.

http://shop.fujitsu-siemens.de/fuji...8/cl1/amilo_notebook_sa_3650__graphic_booster

PDF file with detailed specs of the notebook.

http://docs.fujitsu-siemens.com/dl.aspx?id=61060e28-c118-4df4-b795-abb1d7f2ed45


I can't wait for this or other notebooks with the same solution to come out in the U.S!!!