Which Fujitsu (S series) from P1?

Hello guys,

I'm going to order one of the two Fusitsu S series models they offer at P1.

Regarding the price, is the Intel version worth the money? Advantage here is the free 3-year warranty upgrade and supposedly more power, but it doesn't have the praised Atheros wireless.

Should I order the most basic configuration and then order additional memory, replace the hard drive and optical drive?

Can you name places I can order memory (by the way, does brand play any role, kingston,etc.?), hard drive (is 7200 worth the money, can you suggest a good drive?), and optical drive (please also a recommendation on this one!) from?

I'm thankful for any additional advice....

Thanks a lot. Alex

 

Although the specs on the S7000 are pretty nice, I wouldn't recommend it. It seems lately that quite a lot of buyers are reporting light leakage from the bottom of the LCD on the CV models, I am not sure if the sxga+ non-CV has this problem (I am trying to find out because I am also interested in it).

As for the S6000 or S2000. I would pick the S2000. It is a bit cheaper. the intel will be only marginally faster, but nothing too significant to make it shine. As you mentioned the atheros is a plus on the S2000 since the intel wifi cards sometimes tend to have problems with some routers. (you can exchange the wifi card on both models)
As for the warranty you can always upgrade it at any time after you purchase but with in the first year (ie before the basic warranty expires) and it will cost the same as getting it when you are purchasing.

As for upgrades, almost any upgrade will be cheaper to do after you purchase. But I would recommend you not upgrade the optical drive your self, you might run into physical compatibility problems (size/dimensions). Newegg and zipzoomfly are two good places to buy from online, good prices and great service.

Ram brand, it is better to stick with the commonly used brands since they seem to be widely compatible, but usually anything should work. These are crucial, kingston, corsair. Personally I am using kingmax rams, when I got them they were on sale so I took the chance on them and I am pleased.
For rams try to get the lowest latency (CL) possible, the lower the latency the better the performance, but nothing earth shattering.

HDD speed, it seems that the newer 5400RPM are performing quite well and even closer to the 7200RPM level. For the price difference I would recommend you stick with 5400RPM unless you are going to be doing something that relies heavily on HDD speed, something like video editing.

 

Thanks qwester,

follow-up questions: if the P1 model has different latency ram, does the upgrade ram have to have the same latency, or can it be mixed?

So you're saying that I should order from P1 the configuration with my optical drive of choice, or buy one online but let newegg for example install it?

What do I have to regard when it comes to harddrives, do all of them fit as long as they are slim shaped? Can anyone recommend brands, model names? Good 80gb 5400 models?

Thanks again...

 

NewEgg laptops are pre-configured meaning you get them as they is. NewEgg won't install anything for you. It also means a 4200RPM hard drive. Fujitsu is very picky about hard drive upgrades. Hang onto the old one in case you have to throw it back in for service. I have always like Hitachis, but thats me. The 7200RPM drives are starting to come down in price, you might want to look at one of those. I would prefer P1 because they will do a dead pixel check before sending it off and by the time you do all the upgrades it won't be that much less. NewEggs Return policy is not very good. Good Luck.

 

1- you can mix ram latencies. they will just run at the largest (slowest)

2- yes I ment just order from P1 whatever optical drive you want to have as the final drive. because if you buy a replacement it might not fit

3- any hdd that 2.5" will work. they are all identical. as for brand preferance, hitachis are good (both 5.4K and 7.2K)

 

If you are going to stick w/ 5400RPM, do get the hitachi, as the seek times are nearly as fast as for the 7200RPM model. The margin between seek times is greater between other brand 5400RPM Hdd's and the hitachi 7200RPM hdd.

 

i got the s6000 because all the reviews said the the s2000's fan came on alot
but my s6000's comes on too, anyway so its a matter of personal preference
battery life for my is really good 430 hours usually with wireless on, and my wirelss works fine

things i dont like, the keyboard is alittle loud and mouse buttons have a cheap click sound,
but then again not alot of people say this,

you really cant find another comp like this with this good of battery life, i looked at sony's s series and it seems like they dont have this good of battery life

 

I bought my S6231 from Newegg for around $1250- then istalled 2 X 512 mb Adata PC2700 memory sticks ($90.00). Then I installed a Hitachi 7K60 Hard drive ($160.00).

Total = $1500.00

Though it is hard to argue against P1 and having them do all that for you (probably for more $) and having them check the screen for dead pixels before shipping.