Any more new Satellite M100 owners?

I'm thankful for the two reviews of the M100 (although note to admins, only one of the two reviews on NBR shows up in the Notebook Database/Reviews area).

Has anyone else purchased the Satellite M100 or M105 and have any opinions to share? I know that the one reviewer returned his to wait for an Asus W3J, which I've also taken a look at, but I'm worried it will be a little too loud/hot, and I'm guessing that the x1400 might be sufficient for the gaming I'd want to do.

Anyhow, if there are any other new owners, I'd love to hear any more impressions about the M100.

Thanks!

 

I've seen the M105 in a few stores (BB, etc.) and have found its build quality overall to be above average. I would consider the W3j over the M100 if you've got the budget however - better hardware and better build quality. What are you going to be doing with your notebook?

 

Mostly websurfing, document editing, secondarily some gaming (BF2, WoW, Sims 2, highest res not important), and finally image editing (PS, Illustrator).

My big concern about the W3J is the heat and fan noise that likely comes with the x1600. I forget which thread described it, but one of the Asus vendors was repeatedly warning about how that kind of performance will not come without some tradeoffs. For me, while I would like to do SOME gaming, I more importantly do not want the fan to be loudly running all the time when I'm trying to do work. Also, the heat on the MacBookPro (which also has the x1600) seemed to be pretty high when I was trying it in the store.

Any idea about the ability to ratchet down that x1600 card to hopefully ensure a quieter/cooler machine for non-gaming situations?

 

You could always downclock/underclock the GPU to make it run cooler when you don't need the power and always return it to normal operating level when you want to game. If the Asus and the Toshiba cost about the same (meaning less than a $200 difference), I'd go for the Asus. Otherwise, the Toshiba should handle all of your needs quite nicely.

 

Still trying to find that one thread I saw (maybe it wasn't on NBR) about how the W3J's performance will necessarily come at a cost of heat and noise... that's my only real concern. I would happily pay the price difference, and the machine looks very nice all around. Love the modular bay, too-- i certainly don't need to haul around an optical drive all the time.

 

I don't think I'll write a review but I'd be happy to answer any questions. I have the M100-JG2 and it's my first laptop. I really like it.

 

It was ProPortable (Justin) that was speculating that with the specs of the W3J it would have to run pretty hot. The speculation was mostly done before the specs of the W3J were even announced. However, if you take a look at this thread you will see an actual user reporting that the heat and noise are not that bad.

I've been on the sidelines with both the M100 and the W3J. The reviews of the M100 look OK, but not earth-shattering. I will wait for reviews of the W3J and then make my decision.

Btw, I went to look at the M100 at an Office Depot here in Toronto, and I have to say it's a beautiful laptop. If it was on par with the W3J in terms of performance I would choose the M100 because of the design.

 

I'm on that same fence now.
Honestly, I probably don't need the power of the x1600, and that is the primary benefit of the W3J. I also am very sensitive to loudness of fans, which is a potential concern. Yet, it is appealing to think that the W3J will be very future-proof. I really wish I could play around with it and try the GPU adjustment, to see if i can get it running acceptably quietly.

I also like the modular bay of the W3J, as well as the repute of the build quality. The Toshiba looks nice, but probably is slightly less than the W3J in this respect.

 

One new comment I have about the M100-JG2 with intel shared graphics is that it will play Doom 3 pretty well at the lowest settings.

 

Anybody else out there on the fence between these two machines? I am having the same problem. I am trying to decide between the M100 and the W3J! Anyone else out there with suggestions or experience with either machines.

Thanks

 

How is the battery life?
Can you hear the fan spinning up and down?
What would you list as the pros and the cons?

 

The battery life isn't great but I haven't done extensive testing. I got over 2 hours, probably less than 3, and then the alarm started going off at 10% so I recharged it.

You can hear the fan but it's not loud.

I'm not sure about cons, this is my only experience with a laptop but I have no complaints so far. It gets hot on either side of the touch pad but it's not too bad.

 

Well, just wanted to chime in that I was debating between the M100 and the W3J for a while, and finally decided I didn't want to keep waiting (i'd been debating since January about what to get). I have ordered the M100.

My opinions: The W3J was just more gaming power for me than I really needed. I hope to play Battlefield 2, Sims 2, and maybe some RTS. BF2 might be intensive, but I have a feeling that the x1400 chip in the M100 will suffice for what I want. I didn't want to pay the premium for, essentially, power gaming ability. I know Asus has a nice build and so on, but I haven't heard anything bad about the Satellite, either. And I was VERY concerned about heat and fan noise with the more powerful Asus. The Asus vendor (ProPortable) kept emphasizing that you can't get such awesome performance without some tradeoffs, namely fans and heat. And I'm very sensitive to noise issues (I returned an Acer Travelmate 3002i because the fan noise was too much for me).

So I went with the cheaper machine-- the current deal on Toshiba Direct is great-- i ended up paying around $1420 for a really nice 5.2-pound rig, with the 3 year warranty, Bluetooth, Fingerprint, x1400 graphics, 1.83 Ghz, 80GB, etc.. I will add another GB of RAM separately for $90.

I'll post some thoughts on the M100 in two weeks when I get it and put it through the paces.

If you want an awesome gaming machine and don't mind possible heat & fans and don't mind spending an extra $300, go for the W3J-- it is a better machine overall, I think. For me, the features of the M100 (remote, Bluetooth, Harmon/Kardon, x1400, lightweight, 3 yr warranty), seem to really be a great deal for around $1500.

 

I own the Satellite M100 and have a review waiting to be sent in on it. I think my decision to purchase the Toshiba was the best one I've made. The fan does not get too loud when it does go on, which is a little above rarely. I play Counter Strike: Source with it on the highest settings and as many as 30 other people playing and it runs smooth as butter. For me the bigger GPU wasn't worth the premium, so Toshiba was the way to go.

 

Could you post your review?

 

yeah that would be really helpful! And did anyone get the m100 with the 12 cell battery?

 

I'm going to post me review soon. I'm working on getting a few more pictures ready then I'll send it in. I did get the 12 cell battery and it works great for me. It does stick out a bit in the back but you wont notice it when you're actually working with it, just when you're carrying it.

 

I've heard that it's not very nice looking battery as it doesn't suit at the back side of the laptop

- cannot observe the CPU temperature !
- fan is working quitely as for me - but it's working to often (8 seconds of blowing, every half minute or more often) even while writing something! - it's been amusing that the same job done at the same frequency (1GHz) but at the bateries makes this work much better as the fan working time is harly limited - I'd like to limit this fan control at the AC operation also!
- mine HDD Toshiba SATA 80GB 5400rpm is getting suprisingly warm (46-51 Celcius)
+ very good quality of plastic
+ super performance (especially as I have upgraded my RAM up to 1GB)
+ suprisingly good graphic card - ATI X1400 with performance almost the same as normal GF6600.

 

M4ciek: you can adjust the fan settings under the Toshiba Power control panel (should be two hands on a battery in your taskbar). Go to the "Normal" power settings, and change the "Cooling" options to either "BATTERY" or "MAX COOLING"--- I think it keeps the fan on more when it is plugged so that the system parts have extended lifespans. It spins down the fan more frequently when it is on batteries to extend unplugged usage.

I changed those settings and it immediately quieted the fan while plugged in.

 

thanks Mathias, I'v got many profiles in Toshiba Power Saver and all of them are already set up by me, and this change of type of cooling did have some effect but not much

 

First time I saw it (was a demo unit at Futureshop) half a year ago, the M100 came with a fingerprint reader and had a pretty rigid build. As happy as I was with my first impression of it, finally being able to shell out a considereable amount of cash for a new laptop, I decided to get the M100 last week. Guess what? Albeit being sold at a far cheaper price (was $1699 and now just $1299), it no longer comes with a fingerprint reader. Build quality? To my surprise, far worse than the first time I saw it. Notebook literally flexes when you hold it with one hand. Want a suggestion? Don't get the M100 (or Toshiba for that matter0 if you want a quality machine.

 

Maybe you were looking at a different machine? I got mine a week ago for a little over $1000, came with fingerprint reader and all, and the build quality is one of the better I have seen for a laptop at the price I paid.

Overall, I must say that I am impressed with this machine in the limited amount of time I have had it. I have worked a several Dell's in the past, and the toshiba is much better.

As most people have said, it does get hot around the touchpad, but that's because the hard drive is located right there. However, it is nothing that is uncomfortable or distracting. The fan does switch on more than I thought it might, but it is only noticeable if your hand is resting next to the vent and hot air begins to blow on you. In otherwords, you can't hear the fan.

The one thing that I am disappointed about is the second memory slot is not "user accessible." From what I gather, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it is underneath the keyboard. So you would have to basically take your laptop apart to get to the second ram slot. That is a bummer, but luckily, I was able to get mine with 1gb already installed.

So to anyone thinking about getting this laptop, I would say go ahead.

 

The build quality is pretty decent, but you could say the hinge area is a bit flimsy. It's true that if you push down between the two hinge points when the lid is closed it flexes a certain amount.

 

I agree with both previous comments.. i'm plenty happy with the build quality, and the fan, while being on, is very quiet. And I consider myself fairly sensitive to fan noise. I had to return an Acer Travelmate 3002 in February because the noise drove me insane.
The air it blows is also hot, but I think this is preferable the leaving much of that heat inside the machine (a la Macbook Pro). i've found that the machine stays quite cool thanks to the fan. The palms get slightly warmer after a long while, but nothing as hot as the MBP I almost purchased..

I think the M100 is a great deal, all factors considered.

 

I was checking the CPU temp while changing the fan from full performance to battery mode, and the cpu was fine with regular activities like playing music and surfing the web. So if the fan is really bugging you, just set it to battery conserving mode and I don't think it'll make any difference in terms of the temperature. I'm sure the difference would come in when you're playing an intensive game or something like that.

 

Has anybody tried doing a clean XP profressional install on M100? Any issues with that?
Hopefully I will make up my mind between M100 or HP DV200t/1000t pretty soon. Satellite M100 pricing is very competitive

 

I don't think that anyone did. I's a new model on the market, people has got it maximum for a month or maybe two (I doubt it, as I have mine for a week) so there was no time to f..k up the pre-installed XP Home Edition

 

Hello!

I live in Hungary and the Satellite M100-165 and the Asus A8JC (here) has about the same price, and i cannot spend more on laptop than this.

I am not a hardcore gamer but like to play NFS:MW occasionally, would like to try Doom3 (haven't tried yet, have only an ATI Radeon 9550 in my desktop PC) or maybe Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (of course not at high gfx settings). At most of the time i would use it for my studies (office work with some computation-intensive physics simulations).

As I have seen, the GeForce Go 7300 in the Asus is considered low-end by the comparisons, and it only has a 64bit membus (if i am right). My desktop Ati9550 is also SE (with 64bit bus) and i think it limits its capabilities quite a lot... doesn't it?

The Asus has more features (IR, webcam, ...) but i can add these via an external USB device too (I won't carry around the laptop every day).
Build quality, low fan noise is important for me. It would be a long-lasting (~3 years minimum) solution.

So which one do you consider a better choice? Asus A8JC or Toshiba Satellite M100-165?

Thx!

 

I have been considering these two before I bought Toshiba...

It may have a bit more often working fan, but it's still quiet. HDD in Toshiba is 5400rpm, not 4200rpm as in Asus, and a graphic card in Toshiba is like a GeForce 6600 (comparing 3DMark 05 score). Propably the battery in Asus will be better (0.5-1h max) and these features you've mentioned (IR, webcam) but in mine case it was not important at all.

 

I've ordered for 1435 including tax and shipping!

Satellite M100-ST5111 - Toshiba Laptop Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2500 (2.00GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 667MHz FSB), Genuine Windows® XP Professional SP2, Mist gray, 1024MB PC5300 DDR2 667MHz SDRAM (512MBx2), 14.1" Diagonal Widescreen XGA TruBrite™ display (1280x768), ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X1400 with 128MB DDR SDRAM, 100GB HDD (5400rpm, Serial-ATA), CD-RW/DVD-ROM Multifunction drive, Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (802.11a/b/g), Bluetooth® (v.2.0) + EDR, harman/kardon® stereo speakers, Lithium Ion Battery (6-cell, 4000mAh), 1 Year Standard Limited Warranty,

Good buy I believe, i researched a bit, this pricing is by far the best! I dont need to play games at 3000fps, so a good buy?

 

Hi guys, just bought this notebook last week and did a initial charging of 8hrs. Need some info from fellow M100 owners..
The Spec: C2D1.83ghz/w 1.5GB ram running on Home Vista Premium with 120GB HDD.
I'd split the disk into 3 partitions. When unplugged, under normal web surfing(Not playing any music nor any video, no usb stuff attached, juz plain web surfing), I am experiencing a lower than expectation battery life of 1hr and 30min even thou I set to power saving mode via the Fn shortcut(I'm not trusting Vista Power Saing mode)

Just wondering what's the typical battery life of M100 and whether my situation is a isolated case or not. The batt pack is a 6-cell anyway.

any feedback from u guys here to improve the batt life will be greatly appreciated.


Does it got to do with OS? I thinking of switching to XP to see whether batt life will improve or not.

 

Indeed. Vista has a defragmentation process in the background when computer (any) is in somehow idle state. Much influence of battery lifetime comes from the graphic card you have inside. Mine is X1400 (so with ext.memory) and with XP i get a maximum of 2.5h battery lifetime (usually it is a bit more than 2h)

 

thanks for the feedback. Mine comes with X1400 gfx as well.
Other than OS, Is there any factors I need to consider to prolong the batt life during unplug mode?