M45-S331 or M45-S351

I am definitely going to purchase one of the two. I would like to purchase the S331, but it is not in stock in my area. The S351 is in stock, but runs about 200.00 more. Is it worth the extra money. I have read about the high pitch noise of the S351, does the S331 make the same noise? What it the difference between the 1.6 and 1.7 processor? Could that be what is making the noise?

 

Why don't you buy online? Then you won't have to pay sales tax. Plenty in stock. I doubt you'll notice much of a differnce between the CPUs. You'll get more of a performace gain by upgrading to a faster hard drive. The noise could be a lot of things fan, hard drive. I had a Compaq that sometimes would make a ticking noise. Drove me mental. Good Luck.






I know things, things that could get me killed


Thinkpad T41:
* 1.6Ghz Pentium M * 768Mb Memory * 40Gb Hitachi 7200RPM * Panasonic UJ-845-B DVD+RW *

 

I would really like to buy it locally, preferably Circuit City. I am fanatical about dead pixels and many of the internet sites clearly state that they will not take it back, and you deal with the company. Toshiba, just like every other company, has a horrible dead pixel policy.My local CC does have the M45-S351 in stock. I know I could exchange it there without a problem, however, it is more expensive than the S331 (that is on backorder) and was wondering if it was worth the extra expense.

 

I doubt you will notice much of a difference. If you want to increase the performance, upgrade to a faster hard drive, like a Hitachi 7200RPM drive. Good Luck.





I know things, things that could get me killed


Thinkpad T41:
* 1.6Ghz Pentium M * 768Mb Memory * 40Gb Hitachi 7200RPM * Panasonic UJ-845-B DVD+RW *

 

According to Amazon's policy, they charge a restocking fee if the item is not defective. However, they have excellent customer service (one of the best actually, and they DO have a phone number.) I am sure they would accept a dead pixel as a defect. Since the S331 is not available, I assume you thought the S531 was worth the extra money.

 

I purchased a M45-S351 at the end of January. It has been great. No problems with fan noise. It is very quiet. I had one hotkey issue (I downloaded some updates from the Toshiba website and made a download which I shouldn't have and there was a conflict) and Toshiba service was very quick and resolved the problem
The laptop is very fast -- Internet and word processing. I hooked up a Belkin pre n router and added a Belkin pre-n laptop card and it is shockingly fast on the Internet. Even the g speed on the laptop is pretty fast. I don't know whether the slightly slower processing speed makes a difference but I would recommend going with the higher processing speed.

Several suggestions:

1. Buy the Toshiba 3 year SystemGuard and warranty extension -- great price when I got it -- I believe that it was $200 ($100 discount)

2. After you register the Toshiba, you get a one time discount which can be added to other Toshiba accessory discounts. Take advantage of it.

3. I recommend that you use the discount and get the 12 cell battery. If you use the laptop with the highest brightness setting, the battery drains pretty fast. The screen is very bright and something that you don't want to go without.

4. Another consideration is another 512MB of ram. The laptop I got had 512 MB in one slot.

5. There are a variety of laptop bags out there. If you need one, check out the Kensington Contour bag -- it has alot of features and works well with the Toshiba 15.4 laptop. I got mine at CompUSA.

If you are still looking at laptops, I noticed that there is an interesting Acer 8104 supposedly with a Dothan processor laptop with 2 GHz, 1 GB of ram and an ATI Mobility Radeon X700 video card. Problem is that it sells for around $2250 -- much more than the Toshiba. If money in this range is not a consideration, I would take a look at the Acer.

Bottom line for me -- the Toshiba M45-S351 is a great laptop -- it is very versatile, nice features and good size and weight.

Good luck -- ROG

 

I would spend the $200 on a faster hard drive.






I know things, things that could get me killed


Thinkpad T41:
* 1.6Ghz Pentium M * 768Mb Memory * 40Gb Hitachi 7200RPM * Panasonic UJ-845-B DVD+RW *