A few 6615WD questions

Hey everyone,

First off I'd just like to say that although this is my first post here I have found these forums to be a great help while trying to decide on a new laptop.

I have pretty much decided that I will order a 6615WD from the UK zepto site but before I do I would just like to ask some of you existing 6615WD owners a couple of questions about it...


The keyboard is very important to me and is one of the deciding factors for me choosing a zepto due to the perfect layout of it for me compared to say a Fujitsu Siemens. However, I have heard someone mention that the letters start to rub off the keys, is this the case for most of you or just a one off incident?

Another question about the keyboard, does it flex much and if so what area's of it flex. I have seen someone fix the flexing keyboard on a 2425W/HEL 80 so if it does indeed flex maybe I could do something similar for the 6615WD instead.

I have read the 6615WD can get quite toasty while running a game but what are its average idle temperatures and if possible the temperature of CPU load alone rather then both CPU and GPU.

I believe the fan runs all the time which I would actually prefer, is this so? One thing I really hate is a noisy fan cycling on and off.

Lastly, as I will be running linux can someone confirm the touchpad is indeed made by synaptics as they have very good drivers for linux.


Thank you all in advance..

./zeano

 

Since last September, I haven't noticed any keys rubbing off. Generally, I like the feel of the keyboard more than of the old HP Pavilion series I had (which was a 15" screener, so basically a similar layout but a bit... less touchy). It flexes worst around h, and you can see it if you push hard enough (but unless you're one of those people who hammer their keyboards hard enough for half the office to hear them typing, you won't notice it while you type).

As far as the heat goes, yeah, it does hit over 80 degrees celcius (per Notebook Hardware Control CPU heat) on loads, but so far I've failed to crash the computer because of the heat. And while your palms might sweat a little during a six hour gaming session, it's yet to reach a condition where it'd be uncomfortable (in compared to some P4 laptops, which, literally burn you). At the moment, I'm running just basic apps (browser, acrobat reader, winamp, f-secure), so it'd probably be called light activity. The loads are 40 degrees celcius per CPU and 41 degrees celcius per HDD. For the GPU I have no clue, but that's the part of the laptop that apparently gets going hottest. (There's quite a few people saying they get shutdowns because of heat, but I haven't yet experienced such, even with a mentioned six-hour FEAR period). So, to say, on idle the computer revolves around 35-40 degrees as per CPU and HDD.

The touchpad. According to EVEREST, it is Synaptics, and I'm happily running Synaptics drivers on it. While people cry that it's hard to spot, I find it fairly average for a laptop touchpad.

 

I have had my 6615 since last september aswell. And im very happy with it.

The keyboard has a great feel. Im not sure what flexing is. But my left arrow key is slightly "clicky". But nothing to write home about.
The letters dont rub off, at least not yet. I type fast, and play plenty of games the use the "wasd" keys, and they are all fine.

Heat, Yes there are some unlucky people on this forum. The most common problems with this laptop, seems to be overheating and faulty memory.
I dont know the sales numbers for the 6615, but im sure that there are more happy owners than there are unhappy... Anyway...
I havent messured the temp. of my 6615, but it has never crashed due to overheating and i have never felt uncomfortable due to heat. And thats with
whole evenings of WoW, and even a 2½day gaming session 2 weeks ago.
Man i had a sore butt.

Linux, i have no experience with it on my laptop, but i have seen posts on this forum about it. And i thing i heard that someone had success with it.

The touchpad. I like it, when i first did my research on this forum, i heard some say it was crap and you could have a hard time finding it.
I dont agree with that, it blends in with the rest of the plastic, but you can feel the indentation just fine. And the scroll function works great.

I dont look at my keybord that much, nor when im using the touchpad. I dont really understand when i hear that its hard to find. I mean, it doesnt move?!
The only "issue" i have (if you can call it that) is the placement of the 'ins' 'home' 'end' 'pgup 'pgdw' keys. I need to look down when i use them.
But thats just something one has to get use to. With prolonged use, you get use to it.

I dislike zepto's driver support. Yes it works, but i keep getting the feeling that they are lacking in this area. The download page is a bit messy. But i hope it will get better.

I guess that was my 5 cents. (øre) hehe.

My specs are c2d 2ghz, 2gb ram, 100gb 7200rpm hd. Same as Keizafk.

Cheers

 

Thank you both for your replys..

40C idle is a very good idle temperature in my opinion. The 80C full load temperature sounds a little hot but I can easily see how it gets that hot with two such powerful components sharing the same cooling system.
So it's nice to hear that it will hopefully be a nice stable laptop.

Thanks too for confirming the keyboard quality, recently I saw a keyboard that looked like it had decades of use but I was shocked to hear the person had only brought it 2 weeks before.