Fujitsu-Siemens Xi series

Okey Charlie

No i havnt, time is 7:20 am here in Sweden
I will get it later today/tonight Cant wait...
I will let you know when i get it

 

Hehe I see you are up early to wait for the notebook

I must go to school, have a small exam today. So I will be learning until 9:15, then go to the University with the train.

I will be checking NBR every few minutes, so if you have any more questions just post them.

Charlie

 

Hehe.
Actually im also going to school. Thats why i get up early.
Well, i dont think i got any questions You guys have already answered all of them. Later today its up to proof
Thx for all info and pictures of the Xi 1526! And good luck with your exam

 

No problem, it was an honour.

Good luck at school, wish me luck too

And congrats with your notebook!

Charlie

 

Thank you again
I wish you good luck at your exam
If nothing new comes up now, next time i post here will be on my notebook
Thx

Pierre

 

Well the exam went very good. Time to relax a bit now, but I have to sell some notebooks now, so I will be working for a few hours.

Do you got any updates Pierre?

Charlie

 

Did you get your notebook Piere?
First impressions?

 

Just came home. Have just seen the package
I have to eat something, then ill focus on the computer.
Will get back with more info

Edit: Okey ppl!
Now i got it all set and running. I cant say other then its Beutiful!
Its also big, and have a really nice display. First thing i reacted on when i opened the top, was the sceen. Its really glossy and good looking. My computer did have the Microsoft Media Center insatlled, so i got TWO remotes, one for the original Fujitsu, and one for Media Center.
So far so good. Will update more

 

Oh that's so cool, you have two remotes! MCE is easy to install and dont forget the RAID!

Now it is time to sen us some pictures!

Charlie

 

Yes, i have pics on its way soon. I had it all installed and stuff, just need to install the norman antivirus and some other stuff i guess.... Although the files on the 1.th harddrive is a mess it seems like. There is no order at all
But ill get to that later.
BTW. when i go to sleep, should i have the powerchord connected or disconnected?

 

Tried any game? Keyboard? Is it noisy? Heat?

 

No games yet, going to watch a movie: The fast and the furious tokyo drift. Its got lots of colors to test the screen. Its not so hot when just installing things, although i havent used in my knee.
The keyboard is just amazing! Just as a flat-keyboard should be. I havnt exactly hit the buttons with 100% acurracy, i need some practise

Im still working on the pictures.

 

Congratulations on your recieving of your ntebook. Enjoy it, and take some pictures of it soon. We would love to see it .

The keyboard is a very good, I agree. It takes a bit of gettin gused to, because some of the keys are abit small, but the main ones, like all the ltter ones, and the commonly used ones are all fine. I use my ntebook most of the time, and now I can't type efficiently on my desktop.

 

Okey, now i got the pics ready!
Just took some of them, if you want more, please tell and i will get it for you
Now when running a movie for a time, the right hand side is a bit warm, but not so i can make eggs on it
I cant just say how much i "love" this notebook, and how happy of the choise i am! Thx for the help guys! Will test some more tomorrow, games, apps, music and stuff. And BTW: when i tried the remote, it didnt work at first, so i tried to press the Shutdown button on it. And guess what... It did Shutdown, i got impressed and tried it again, but not the shutdown button, i tried the menu buttons when watching a DVD, and that also worked

If there is any picture you want explained just tell me.
Sorry for the crappy pics, but anyway.
Didnt get a good shoot at the screen when its running movie or something, but its just Amazing!

Thx again!

 

And finally it is arrived!

Interesting, you have two remote controls! One works with Bluetooth I see, wow then that means that the range of the remote can be much much bigger. You also got a small adapter, I had a much bigger one (for the review).

Charlie

 

Okey Charlie
Okey, Im off for some sleep now, should i let the powerchord be plugged in to the computer, or disconnect it?
Btw, first time writing on any forum with this notebook Feels wonderful
Thx

 

I never let the notebook plugged in when I sleep. But I dont think it is a problem if you do it.

I recommend you to let the battery fully decharge every week a few times (1-2 times). That's the best way to treat your battery.

Did you like it to watch the movie on the Xi? How is the screen, are you satisfied?

Charlie

 

Okey, anyone else have a oppinion about the battery?
I will decharge the battery as you told me to.
Watching movies is just wonderful on this screen! I can`t explain how good it looks
Today ill try some games, like the Original CS ( know its not that performancetaking, but anyway), Need for speed Carbon, and maybe some other game, time will decide.
I also have tried the GB-lan, very useful when sending stuff like movies and music. I still cant wright with fully accurate, but its getting better

Questiontime
When the computer sais its running on 1,86 ghz, does it run its both cores or not? I an other question in mind, but forgot about it.

Pierre

 

Both cores run at 1.86 GHz, at least I think so...

I also had some troubles with writing (especially because the buttons near the Enter are much smaller then normally) but after 2 days I could typ perfect again.

Charlie

 

Hehe, yes those buttons are a bit smaller than the ordinary ones.
I have never got this notebook rev up its fans, but it will now, going to try some games
Later on i will try to get some benchmarks

Pierre

Edit: The other question was; How do i enable raid? I head from a friend that it takes more battery when i run the 2 disks in raid 0, then having 2 separated disks in partitions. What to do? I might need the battery sometimes, but not very often.

Edit 2: No rev-ups when playing NFS carbon, I had to go with the minimal settings everywhere. Is the 7600GO card underklocked from factory? The computer have although got a bit hotter in all places, but still not freaky hot

Edit 3: Hmm... Just ran 3DMark03, and i got 1357 points, seems quite low points to me... And suddenly when i checked the System Propties, i had only 967 mhz running. Now when i check i have 1,86 ghz. Is this strange?

 

Running your hard disks in RAID will affect your tuntime, but not by a massive amount. First see if you benefit anything from running them in RAID.
The 7600 Go shouldn't be undercloked, as it is a relatively cool card. The cooling system should be able to deal with the proper core and memory speeds of the card, set by nVidia.

Make sure you run 3DMark on AC Power. The reason your processor has clocked itself to 967 Mhz is because you are on battery All Centrino notebooks will do this, to conserve battery life. When there is a heavy load on the processer, then it will clock to 1.83 GHz instantly, and do the work needed of it.

 

I was running on AC, strangely enough,
But how do I enable RAID? I havent used RAID anytime else, so Im new to this
Thx

Pierre

 

To enable, I belive you have to format. I am not entirely sure, but you may have to use a disc provided with the notebook to help setup up the RAID function. It may already be on the Windows Recovery disc, as it appears to have the SATA drivers on it already. It may a similar case with the RAID drivers and setup utility.

 

So if i want raid, i will have to "re-install" windows using the recoverydisc?
I will try a disc that i have with software and untilities.

Pierre

 

Pierre I am typing a guide now.

Charlie

 

Start your notebook as always and make sure the notebook is plugged.

After that: get your CD's that F&S gives along and take the XP MCE DVD (or CD) and the 'Recovery and Utility' CD.

Ok, now you are ready to format your notebook.

Restart the notebook: Press TAB to go to the RAID program. After that, select: Create Array. After that, select RAID 0 (instead of RAID 1) and select both the hard drives.. Make sure that the cache is 64k (largest possible).

Then press Escape to go the previous screen. Then select Bootable Array, and select both the harddisks.

Now you have created RAID 0 but all your files are now deleted. Now enter the XP MCE (or Home) CD in your notebook and boot your PC with that disc. After pressing next a few times you get the option to Format NTFS or NTFS fast.
If you do not want to wait 2 hours select NTFS fast. The difference between them is that NTFS fast does not check the hard drive for any failures. Actually I advice you to run normal NTFS because your notebook is new (it is always good to check if there are no problems.), but thats your choice.

After a while Windows is finished installing and Windows will boot.

You will get a screen with: New hardware found. Click on Cancel and enter the Recovery and Utility CD now. The CD will run, select your system and do let F&S cd install all the drivers for you.

I had a problem here, it installed all the drivers expect the video drivers. So after rebooting, insert the disc again and choose Custom to install the 7600Go drivers.

You are not done yet. After all this go to your drive again and choose for hotfixes. It will install all the hotfixes Windows has to offer for your version.

After that, install Norton 2006 (to be sure that you enter the internet with security) and the other CD's if you want too. Dont forget LiveUpdate, it is ver y important these days!

Install all your games/programs and things like that.

After this, defrag your hard drive. It really gives a boost in performance.

If you want it: you can also adjust your page file (amount of GB of your harddrive which is being used as RAM) which can give you some more performance but not much.

That's all I have to say mate, good luck you have to do it on your own.

Charlie

 

Thx Notebook Solutions!
I just got a: Recovery CD/DVD Windows XP Media center version 2005 with update rollup 2.
Is this the right disk?
Will i loose stuff on the hdds?'
Thx

Pierre

 

Yes but you also need another disc witch says: Drivers and Utility's. It has all the drivers.

And yes, if you are configuring your RAID 0 you are losing the files on both hard drivers.

Configuring your notebook in RAID 0, it gives much better performance. And configuring RAID 1 means that 80 GB of the 160 GB will be lost (do not forget this!). So that is why I prefer RAID 0.
Believe me: it is worth it!

Follow my guide and you will have a perfectly formatted notebook. Fresh install!

Charlie

 

Thank you very much Charlie

Yes I have a drivers and Utility disc. So no probs then just reformatting and no need of saving files to another comp i guess
Thx for fast answer!

Pierre

 

Pierre there must be a mis-understanding.

EVERYTHING on both hard drives will be lost. So if you have important files on your Xi, put them on a CD or another computer.

Charlie

 

I understood that But when i got the computer i got lots of folders with installers in, i have saved them just in case.
Will begin reinstalling now ( still sitting on my Desktop PC so I can post here)
Thx!

Edit: Formating the HDD's now, not using the fast option though. It seems to be best and worth it to run the slower one. So why not

 

Great to hear that.

Did you succeed in installing RAID? I advice you to follow my guide to make sure you get the performance.

Charlie

 

Yes I did, wasnt hard at all
Im doing stuff according to your guide Formation is at 49% now

Pierre

Edit: Just one question again...
About that Swap/Pagefile, should/can i make a own partition after installing windows via Partition magic? Iv heard ppl say that they put 1 gb to the Swap/Pagefile on its own partition. And then have Windows running on a 15-20 GB partition. Can/Recommend/Is it worth it to do like this?

 

I read that you just had 1400 3dmark03 points... that is not correct, I had 8000 3dmark03 with the T2300, 1 GB. You must have around 8500 3dmark03 points.

A few tips: make sure you do not run on battery, the notebook clocks itself down when running on battery. That means from 1.83 GHz to 1 GHz and also the GPU.

If you want to regulate the CPU speeds yourself, download Notebook Hardware Control with the Core 2 Duo patch.

That program is very nice to use with Centrino processors. It lets you change the CPU speeds on the fly.

Good luck,

Charlie

Edit: here is a pic of how it looks! I had made it a few months ago: http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=4119&d=1161640183

And: http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=4603&d=1164390334

 

Okey, ill try that out.
I did run on AC power when i ran 3DMark, but maybe something with the old windows was a problem, i dont know...
No I have completed the installation of Windows, just got the drivers and Norman Anti-Virus needed to be installed.
Please check my edit in the last post i made
Thx!

Pierre

 

I do not recommend to make any partition by using other programs. Just leave it like it is. You already have 2 GB of RAM, that is more then enough for any application. So the page file for Windows will not be even used. I recommended it because it can be handy for high end applications like Oblivion et cetera.

How did the video installation went? Have you installed nVidia drivers?

Charlie

 

The videoinstall went good, no need to install it separately, it worked from the beginning. Iv just finished installing bluetooth/wireless. Okey, so if I want to edit that Pagefile, where do i do it, and what to set it to? Sorry for answering all these questions, but I havnt done installations like this before
Thx

Pierre

 

No problem I like helping people.

Here is a guide to set up page file:

Right-click on My Computer --> Properties --> Then go to the Tab Advanced --> Then you should see something like Performance then click on the tab.
Then you see things like Visual effects but you must click on the Advanced tab --> There you see something like Virtual memory or Paging file.
Click on Adjust --> After then adjust the size of it.

After then you must restart your notebook. That's all!

Charlie

 

Thank you again!

I set the file to 1000 mb / 1200 mb.
Is that ehough or should i put more?

Pierre

 

I do not use much hard drive space so I have it maxed out (4095/4096). But that should be enough for your system.

Charlie

 

Good
Btw, I might know why i didnt get so good points in 3DMark... And most of the games was quite slow, probably because I didnt have any Direct X drivers installed.

Pierre

 

Aaah that explain everything. And do not forget to defrag!! That is very very important! It can give you 500 3dmark03 points more and it can load Windows and things like that much faster.

Charlie

 

Do you it think it's faster now? Does connecting in raid help?
Played NFS Carbon on new settings?
Who is manufacturer of HDD's (spec.)?
If not secret how much did you pay for it?
Thx!

 

Will do when I have installed some of the most nessecary programs
And this time I wont forget Direct X
Thx

Pierre

 

Havnt been able to really try it out yet, but it feels even more responding and faster. No NFS carbon yet, but tomorrow I will. Its just the HDD's that Fujitsu has standard. I think its 2 x 80 GB 5400 rpm Fujitsu disc's.
I have it on Payment, but in a store here in Sweden we pay about 1780 euros or
2285 dollars, recounted from Swedish Kr's.
Tomorrow I will let you know more Laki_Ge. When are yours arriving? If I dont remeber wrong, you get one too right?

Pierre

Edit: Sorry for Dubble-post.

 

Thanks.
Yes, i am getting one too in ten days.I am going to buy in Austria (Osterreich) and it is going to cost about 1400E with T7200, 1GB RAM and 2x120GB HDD.

 

Nice, 2 x 120 and a T7200 is very good 1 GB ram can be a bit to little, but I hope it isnt. I can promise you one thing though: You will like this notebook. Its amazing
Just a few stuff to install left, then ill go Defrag

Pierre

Edit: Notebook Solutions, did Battlefield 2142 run good on the machine you reviewed?

 

What a coincidence, I reviewed that game on the Xi 1526

It ran at native resolution (check widescreengamingforum.com on how to do that) with 'High settings'. Which means 2x AA, full distance and a lot of other nice features.

It ran at a steady 30 fps, sometimes drops to 20 fps. I had some stuttering sometimes, but that is because I had 1 GB.

You can be sure that it will run very smooth at 1440*900 with Medium-High settings with your notebook.

Charlie

 

Hehe, yes I read it in a previous post you made about the gamepreference.
The reason why I asked was because the router im going to buy has it bundled, to the same price as just the router. Thx

Pierre

Edit: Now iv tested Counter Strike and NFS Carbon.
Cs is fully playable at widescreen mode, with OpenGL.
NFS Carbon is a little different. With different settings you get different FPS, ofcourse.
When running:

640 x 480 @ Low Graphics I get FPS 110 to 130. (Fully Playable)
640 x 480 @ Medium Graphics I get FPS 90 to 100. (Somewhere Between)
640 x 480 @ High Graphics I get FPS 30 to 40. (Playable)
800 x 600 @ Low Graphics I get FPS 80 to 100. (Fully Playable)
800 x 600 @ Medium Graphics I get FPS 40 to 50. (Somewhere Between)
800 x 600 @ High Graphics I get FPS 20 to 28. (Playable)
1024 x 768 @ Low Graphics I get FPS 65 to 70 (Almost Fully Playable)
1024 x 768 @ Medium Graphics I get FPS 33 to 38 (Playable)
1024 x 768 @ High Graphics I get FPS 10 to 15 (Non-Playable)

Will get back with some 3DMark03 and -05 results.

Edit 2: How do i run music while the notebook is not booted? Think you told me I can, but not how
Thx

 

This is not looking good.I was hoping taht 7600 should run Carbon much faster, unfortunately...
Any other game? Any complains after two days?
Are fans loud (normal use/games)?