Samsung Q35

Just to let everyone that has helped me with so many recommendations and a wealth of advice over the past few months today I bought myself the Q35 configuration available at PC World. So far, using the machine has been a delight and I'm beginning to wonder how I even used to tolerate using larger laptops as it certainly is a perfect fit for me! The notebook is running Windows Vista which has been a joy to work with (far better than XP in my opinion) and I've yet to reach a snag when it comes to program installation - I guess the real baptism by fire will be when I put some games onto the Q35. I also picked up a 1GB 667 mhz stick of PNY DDR2 SO-DIMM to upgrade the memory on the notebook with although I've not got round to doing that yet as well as a VX Revolution mouse which has shown great performance so far.

Again, thanks for all the advice (especially you John).

 

Good to read that. I ordered mine today. I hope it will be delivered next week and I'll also just find nice words about it.

 

It is an absolutley fantastic laptop. I have encountered a few problems lately in the way that my XP machine refuses to let my Vista laptop talk to it and I had a small period of worry when my wireless connection went a bit funky. Luckily I found a work around to the first problem and the wireless problem was actually more router associated. The GUI of Vista is fantastic and the notebook has been very responsive whilst running on 1GB of RAM although I'm looking forward to hitting that up to 1.5GB tonight. I don't think I could ever actually stomach using a larger notebook now. 12.1" really does seem like the ideal screen size!

 

Welcome to the Q35 owners club. You certainly spent a while contemplating the acquisition and I hope it gives you good service.

Most aspects of performance should be similar to my Q35. I wonder what Vista does to the battery running time? I can just about get to 5 hours of continuous light use and less than 3 hours of DVD playback.

What HDD and ODD are in your model? These components often changes between batches. (I have Hitachi HTS541010G9AT00 and TS-L632D). How much time is the fan running, on both mains and battery?

Check whether the BIOS is the latest version ( 23SD).

John

 

The fan does not run very often, I've only heard during the installation of some games that are being installed from a CD or DVD. There is no fan noise when the data is on the HDD. One interesting thing that I have noticed about games, some of which are very buggy on my XP based desktop, have been running suprisingly smoothly on Vista with no patching. So far I have gotten around 3 and a half hours when using the computer normally (media player running, wireless and occasional virus check) however I've currently not had time to see how long the computer will run with just the backlight, no applications and no wireless. Currently on 100% with mimimum backlight and all activities detailed above and the notebook is expecting 3 hours and 40 minutes run time. I have yet to check the wear on the battery.

Thanks for the reminder about the bios update! I would have forgotten otherwise. Do you have the update for the GMA 950? I can't get the download to start on Intel's website. Are there any programs that will identify the ODD? I don't have the requisite screw drivers at the moment for openning the notebook up (which is a shame since I haven't upgraded to 1.5GB of RAM still).

Happy to be part of the club!

 

Your initial battery life observations look plausible.

Device Manager will give you model numbers for the HDD and ODD (and the other hardware). If you want to know more details, you can use SiSoftware Sandra, which also includes its own benchmarks.

The latest GMA950 driver for Vista on Intel's site is V15.2 of 25th February.

John

 

Just checked out device manager. The ODD is listed as Slimtype DVDRW SSM-8515S ATA Device. Once I'm back from checking out my prospective University today I will conduct a few tests such as PCmark05 on this variant of the Q35 to see how it compares to the Red.

 

That's a Liteon. I think you're lucky - see this other thread although, on paper, the Liteon is not as fast for +R DL. I see from the features that the Liteon includes an optimisation feature for extraction - I had noticed that my old Liteon was much faster in ripping CDs than the new TS-L632D.

John

 

I got the same DVD drive and i wondered what kind of drive that is...
do you know the exact lite-on model#? i would like to reflash the firmware inorder to do dvd-rom bitsetting for dvd+r dl

 

Its certainly nice to see that my laptop comes with a quality drive. After all, I want it to last as long as possible!

 

The model is SSM-8515S. Features here, specs here and downloads here.

The absence of a new firmware listed under the downloads suggests that there is no updated firmware available.

Some words of caution about firmware updates for the Q35 ODD: My Q35 has the ODD as the second device on the primary IDE channel (there is no secondary IDE channel) therefore the ODD needs to be set as a slave, which is normally done in the firmware. Most notebooks have the secondary IDE channel enabled and it doesn't matter if the ODD is master or slave. I presume the lack of the second IDE channel in the Q35 is to save a little power. In theory there could also be a slight performance hit with data transfers between HDD and ODD having to share the same channel, but I have not noticed any slow down in reality.

John

 

For me, quality in a burner is defined by the ability to burn any media at reasonable speed and for all other optical drives to read those discs. How long an ODD will last will depend to some extent on how it is used. Steady streaming of audio or video material shouldn't cause much wear, but I do get worried about wear when I hear the ODD making lots of noises when it is trying to read a damaged or poorly burnt disc.

The good news is that the Q35's ODD is easy to remove and replace should you need to make a future replacement / upgrade. The only possible glitch may the slave setting I noted in my previous post.

John

 

I would have thought the majority of optical drives would behave in a similar fashion since they are all marketed as being able to do the same job (DVD + and -, recording etc). I didn't know that different makes of ODDs had advantages over others.

John, for opening the Q35 up to you need a special screwdriver? (I'm asking this because I just CAN'T seem to find one that fits)

 

Hi all,

Sorry if it's slightly off topic, it didn't seem worthy off a new thread.

Can someone explain AV Now to me. Supposedly it works without booting windows, however when I press the AV Now button, my Q35 shows the AV station screen but Windows (Vista) then boots and I have to log on. Surely this completely defeats the object of AV Now.

One other thing (while I'm here) how do I go about turning off bluetooth without turning off wifi? I'm trying to get as much battery life out of the old dog as I can, and this seems a good option.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

 

I also noticed this happening with AV station since I woke up this morning and blearily pressed the wrong button to turn my notebook on. I think its simply because AV station is now on Vista so things won't work exactly as expected. As John's avatar notes; this certainly "calls for closer inspection". I'm not too sure how bluetooth works on the Q35. I've not had a reason to look into it yet but I will play around with it tonight and see what becomes of it.

One interesting thing that I did notice was that upon upgrading the amount of RAM my computer has, the window's experience rating has actually dropped considerably which was not to be expected. My Q35 originally had a Windows experience of 3.1 and upon installing a faster 667Mhz CL5 PC5300 1GB of SO-DIMM there has been a drop in the graphics rating of the system which is most peculiar. My rating on RAM has also not increased even though there is now an extra 512MB (at a faster speed as well) available. This will also be something that I'll look into in due course.

My rating is now 2.3 as dictated by the graphics performance in relation to Aero (even though things seem to be running smoother now than they did before).

 

1. Media compatibility is one of the main issues with optical drives. The firmware contains a table of media ID codes (you can read these with Nero InfoTool or DVD Identifier) and then tooks in the table to see how to burn that media. The brand of the media is no indicator of the dye used.

2. A smallish Philips (cross-head) screwdriver works fine for my Samsung computers. Have they changed the screws?

I had read somewhere else (maybe the R20 thread) that the Vista AV Station Now boots into Vista (I believe the previous version was a cut-down Linux). Once I had determined that AVS Now offered no power saving advantages, at least for DVD playback, I haven't touched it again. Personally, I use hibernation instead of off, so starting the computer is very quick.

As for Bluetooth, don't you have an icon in the system tray? If so, right click to select start or stop.

Strange. This calls for closer inspection!... I would use CPU-Z to look at the actual (memory page) and available (SPD page) memory times for both the original and new RAM. I wonder either if Samsung used some faster RAM (it would help the GPU) or your system with 1GB was running as genuine dual channel. To find this out, compare the memory bandwidth results for both configurations using SiSoftware Sandra. Also get a second opinion for both configurations using PCMark05.

John

 

Many thanks, for the responses everyone.

I have the icon in the sys tray, but when I right click I do not get the start or stop option, and it's not even greyed out it's just not there.

I did try disabling various bluetooth options in device manager but have since re-enabled them. Maybe I missed something but it's got me stumped.

 

CPU-Z shows a definite change with the new RAM. Previously it would display a total of 1024MB of memory plus 512MB under the SPD section for Slot 1. The previous memory also showed a frequency bandwidth max of 200 Mhz whereas this RAM sits happily at 333Mhz. A noticeable difference in speeds. Module size is listed as 1024MB with the larger RAM installed and so a system total of 1526 MB.

One suggestion that was given to me by a poster on another forum was that because my RAM had increased, the graphics were comparatively worse and so this lowered my system score. Surely this can't be right? After all, my graphics have not changed so they shouldn't have lowered my score. If anything I was expecting a slight increase in the Windows Experience Rating in relation to RAM but no change in the overall score.

Hmm, even if the original allocation had been posing as dual channel I still think there has been a performance increase with the new RAM. Using Task Manager I monitored the physical memory useage before and after the new RAM. Before I added the extra RAM I would never see the useage drop below 55% and when I was working the laptop as normal (media player, web browser, downloads, torrents, external mouse) the useage would be nigh on 70% (everything still ran very smoothly though - just goes to show that Vista does have a slightly better procedure when it comes to RAM). Currently I am performing the tasks listed above and my memory useage is at 50%. When not working at all it drops to the late thirties and early forties. I will run PCmark05 with the two different modules in place and see what the results are.

 

I'm puzzled! Are you using XP or Vista? I'm on XP. I attach a couple of screen dumps of what I see when I right click on the tray icon and select Advanced Properties. Do you have the same hardware and driver? Do you have Administrator rights?

John

 

Intriguing....

1. I think the way that some of the RAM is fixed on board is confusing the diagnostic software. SiSoftware Sandra told me:

Chipset 1
Model : Samsung Electronics Co Ltd 955XM/945GM/PM/GMS/940GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 305MHz (1220MHz data rate)
Total Memory : 1.3GB DDR2-SDRAM
Shared Memory : 8MB
Memory Bus Speed : 4x 244MHz (976MHz data rate)

If only those bus speed were true!!! Unfortunately, Sandra's memory bandwidth benchmark gives a fairly ordinary result of 3,000MB/s.

As you have noticed, CPU-Z can only see the module in the slot, but not the RAM on the motherboard. However, I am surprised to see that your 512MB module was running at only 200MHz. What are the timing options on the CPU-Z's SPD page?

Sandra also says that I am using 8MB of shared RAM for the video. This is possible if the RAM is dynamically allocated and more will be added when needed. The BIOS automatic setting shows that up to 128MB will be shared when the total RAM is more than 512MB.

It is quite possible that the Vista Experience score is worked out from a formula by inspecting components rather than running actual tests Changing the RAM configuration has changed the perceived speed.

Best to run 3DMark as well as PCMark05. I would also like you to run the Sandra memory bandwidth benchmark since I believe that to be a good benchmark for that specific component.

John

 

Is Sandra Lite suitable for this test? It seems to be the only free one available.

Edit: downloaded Sandra lite and I ran the Memory Bandwidth benchmark. With the 1.5GB of RAM (so 512MB on board and 1GB SO-DIMM) the bandwidth clocked at around similar results to your own. I was getting around 2,800 MB/s although the test also noted that my FSB was limited (I'm not entirely sure what this means!). Bandwidth efficiency was rated at around 64-65%.

Any other benchmarks worth running in Sandra? One thing I should probably note is that I left my wireless LAN on while running the benchmark since I'm currently downloading a few torrents that I don't want to have to interrupt. Due to this, the results may be a little skewed. I will re-run the tests (along with PCmark05) tonight when the torrents are complete.

 

Again thanks for the response, when I right click and select properties my devices are listed as;

Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator
Broadcom Bluetooth 2.0 EDR USB Dongle

Both are listed as, type, bluetooth radio. I do not have the general option nor do I have the start/stop device option.

I am using Vista, and as the only user configured on the laptop I assume I have admin rights by default.

Under the network connections screen I have a bluetooth Network connection option but it doen't offer any additional options regrding turing off the bluetooth devices. I also have a bluetooth dialup connection icon (which is the result of me adding my mobile phone to test if bluetooth was on. Again no bluetooth activation options are available.

Thanks.

 

So long as bluetooth isn't being used then it shouldn't result in that drastic a power drain I would imagine.

 

Yep, I guess you're right, I've disabled both bluetooth devices in device manager anyway (just to be sure)

Thanks for the input, I am loving my q35!!

 

I would have to agree with you. Its a fantastic notebook!

 

I get about 2,800MB/s on battery but 3,050MBs when on main power. Sandra gives my bandwidth efficiency is 31% based on a maximum busbandwidth of 9760MB/s.

What does CPU-Z show for your timings? Mine are attached. Any of the other Sandra results are interesting, particularly the CPU which may not be in Sandra's database.

I await further results with interest.

John

 

Here are my readings from CPU-Z:

View attachment 6349

View attachment 6350

I will run the CPU benchmark in Sandra then post that.

 

Thanks for the CPU-Z output. I will try to make a meaningful interpretation. For both our Q35s the RAM is running at 266MHz. On my Q35 the timing is 4-4-4-11-16 and on yours it is 4-4-4-12-16, which is slightly slower. I have to presume that the on-board RAM is pegged at 266MHz since your module could run at 333MHz. This could be the RAM itself or a ceiling on the system (no bad thing since the higher frequency uses more power but the higher latencies on the RAM mean that the true data transfer rates do not increase significantly). In my case the on-board RAM must have a Trc of 16 since the module has a Trc of 15 but is running slower.

The other interesting feature is that your FSB is running at half the RAM speed (FSB:RAM) = 1:2, but on my Q35 the ratio is 5:8. This is because the T5200 uses a 533MHz bus while the T5600 uses a 667MHz bus.

The answer is that your RAM is running at a respectable speed. It will, however, to see what the corresponding numbers are with your original 512MB module in place.

John

 

I understand that, thanks for the easy to digest explanation. I thought the T5200 with its slower bus may be slowing the RAM down. Tomorrow I'll replace the 1GB module with the original Samsung provided RAM and get the CPU-Z results. I'll run some Sandra benchmarks tonight whilst the computer is doing its nightly virus scans.

 

Heres the update that you were waiting for; I ran CPU-Z and Sandra with the 512MB RAM module in place. The results I got are in the attachments.

View attachment 6427

View attachment 6428

View attachment 6429

View attachment 6430

Aside from less available memory speeds, the results are very similar between the 512MB module and 1024MB module. Perhaps the most interesting occurence is that when I re-ran Windows Experience Index I was back up at an experience of 3.1!

View attachment 6431

I will re-run Windows Experience Index with the 1024MB of RAM in place.

Edit: Much to my surprise, after re-running the Windows Experience Index with the larger RAM unit in place, my experience had not dropped back down to 2.3 like I expected it would but remained at 3.1 this time. Most confusing...

 

Well, it seems that Vista Experience Index didn't get out of the right side of the bed a few days back and got confused. It is also interesting that the Index places no value on that extra RAM.

Your new RAM should slow RAM access very slightly because the Tras is 12. However, I am suprised that your results are not a bit higher. My Q35 with 1.25GB RAM is giving around 3,150MB/s on mains but about 2,800MB/s on battery. Were you running with mains power? If yes, then I wonder whether Vista is slowing things down. I should have an answer for this in a month or so when I try Vista on my Q35 and can compare results for identical hardware.

Anyway, we've seen off the initial concern that the RAM upgrade was hitting performance. If you're feel ambitions, you can try PCMark05 for the two RAM configurations (assuming it runs under Vista).

John

 

I'm not too bothered about having slightly slower RAM but I'm more concerned about having plenty of it! I was running the notebook on the mains and I have had an inkling that Vista may be slowing the system a bit. Speaking of feeling ambitious I actually started downloading PCmark05 before I went to work. I've got the file now so I'll install and run it tomorrow under the two different configurations.

I have also concluded that the Vista Experience Index is on an entirely different planet from ourselves. It really does seem very random at times.

 

So how is battery life in vista? Did you manage to try it with max power savings (bluetooth off, wlan on) and something like medium brightness?

 

Hello Guys,
I just bought me the Q35 a few Days ago. May I ask which of the running Services You would recommand not to autostart becouse they are not that necassary.
Furthermore how long did it take You to bring the Battery to maximum Power? After 2 Days of using it my Battery holds at the moment for aprox. 1:45/2:00h.

Regards,
i101.

 

They say that around 3 or 4 recharge cycles may be needed to get the battery to full capacity.

I haven't explored what to not load, but disable Bluetooth in Device Manager if you don't need it. And select the Power Saver power plan.

I am still exploring Vista, having just got an upgrade disk, but the power management is predicting over 5 hours with the display at 4/8 brightness and no networking.

Unless you like the artistic effects, turn off the eye candy through the My Computer > Properties > Advanced Settings and set it for best performance. I just have the smooth screen fonts selected. Nothing else.

John

 

I look forward to your results

 

My Vista Experience index with 1.25GB RAM is 2.3 (same as Sub-D's lower score). This was with the 2006 standard drivers off the base Vista DVD.

However, further testing has taken a step backwards since in the process of installing the specific Q35 drivers something has caused a bug so I just get a mouse pointer on an otherwise blank screen So I am reinstalling.

At least the XP installation still works

John

 

Could you explain how system performance is slower given this difference in timing?

 

For memory times, each of those values means the number of clock cycles required to undertake a memory access function. In the example quoted, the difference is between 11 and 12 in tras (the row access time). More about memory timing in Wikipedia.

However, I would not expect a small difference in tras to have a significant impact on computer performance. I suspect there are aspects of how the chipset and integrated graphics interact with the RAM which make the module configuration significant. Either that or the software utilities can't properly detect the properties of the on-board RAM.

John

 

btw... i just tested my Q35 during my holiday in berlin. For my first time test for the battery, it last for 3 hours + while i'm watching a movie on window media player with wireless off, bluetooth off, and brightness at 6/8...

later on, i'm doing some work using dreamweaver, again with my wireless off cause no network at that time... so i work like an hour or something, n the battery goes off for like 20% only... maybe because of the easy load on the laptop...

Another thing that i tested is to leave the laptop to "sleep"... then after 3 hours... the battery goes off from 100% to 98%... i don't know if this bring anything to you guys... but i just want to share it...

I will try to use the laptop till the battery fully empty today... while doing my daily routine later.

 

"Sleep" still has the RAM active so it will use some power. I alway use hibernate so I know that the computer is off and using no power (and much less likely to wake up). Vista includes a hybrid sleep which leaves the RAM on but also copies everything to the HDD. I have changed the action on pressing the sleep button (Fn+Esc) to hibernate.

John

 

btw john... where can i change the hot key function?

 

right click on the power icon in the system tray and select Power Options. Then, on the list on the left side of the Power Options page, slect the second item "Choose what the power buttons do". Fn+Esc is the sleep button, but you have a choice of Do nothing, Sleep, or Hibernate.

You can also change the power button and close lid effects. XP has the option "ask what to do" but that has disappeared in Vista.

John

 

Hello everybody!
Nice to meet you! ​

I've been planning to buy a notebook (12"-14", about 1000-1500$, weight 1-3kg, battery life 3-5h, built-in DVD-RW). I'm a freelance translator and an active young girl - I need my laptop to be not very heavy, not very bulk, sturdy... So on So... I think Samsung Q35 is the best choice. But I'm still in 2 minds... Does this pretty laptop have any unforgivable flaws? And if it does, is there anything better on the market now?

I'm looking forward to your replies.

 

hi YukiOnna...

This is my third week using the Samsung Q35... as far as I'm concern, there is no "unforgivable flaws" like the term u used. Like for my Samsung Q35 Ruby... the screen seems lil bit faulty, you can see it on this thread, but the samsung representative already contacted me to discuss this matter... other than that... i dont think there is any serious flaw within this Q35, i'm really satisfied...

with the weight of 1,89kgs, i think this laptop really nice, cause i've bring along my Q35 to holiday... so before i use to bring a FS Amilo along to holiday, which have the 14" monitor... so it is different in the weight involved... n the size... with Q35, i can easily put it in my backpack, it fit really nice in it with the sleeve... which i'm really happy... but with the FS Amilo before... it always get off to much from my backpack backside compartment(there small compartment where i can put laptop but no pad)...

so if you think you want to buy this... i personally, would recommend this... but if you like to have a black notebook... you can try Q45... the new model.. which someone said that its gonna be the replacement model for the Q35... this i cant comment futher...

 

First question: Where are you? Samsung notebooks are easily found in Europe and parts of Asia but not in North America.

What unforgiveable flaws: None that I can think of. I would have liked a low voltage CPU to further extend the battery life.

If you haven't read my review (link in signature below) then do so. The Q35 first thoughts thread also contains many pertinent points.

If you are looking for portability then 12.1" or 13.3" size is as big as you should go. Slip the computer into a sleeve (either a neoprene sleeve or the becase sleeve (link below)) and then put it into an ordinary bag.

The Q35 has achieved a good balance between price, size/weight build quality and performance. You can get lower weight at higher price. The Q45 has just arrived and is currently being sold alongside the Q35. It is essentially the same design with new internal hardware and a shiny black exterior. However, the red Q35 has a charisma which is lacking from the black Q45.

John

 

This is something i have to agree, because of the ruby red... the laptop really have its own strong "personality"... i've wrote this in other thread before... but so many people come to me, just because they impress with the ruby red colour on the Q35 while i was in holiday in berlin...

Great question... it is pointless when we give all the recommendation when the people can't buy it from their home land...