Questions about SR

1. Would it be worth the $50 to upgrade from P8400 to P8600? Or would it not be noticeable enough? Would it affect the battery usage quite a bit?


2. Is there a point to getting the 4GB if the 32bit Vista (I'm assuming) that comes with it does not use more than 3 GB?



3. How severe is the battery drainage?

4. Would I be able to play CoD4 on med fluidly?


Thanks a lot guys!

 

i have an FW so i'll try to field some questions for you,
i have a 9400 and the difference between the 8600 is not noticeable so its up to you, if you can justify the 50$ price then dont worry about it
in regards to the ram, it will show up as 4GB but your system will only use 3.2, so really just stick with the 3GB,
from what i've heard the battery drainage has gone by the way side, as long as you use proper battery practice when you first get it, you should be fine.

the SR is not really built to be a gaming laptop, i haven’t tried any games but i would not get my hopes up

 

Thanks for your reply. I won't be gaming often but I will be playing CoD4 every once in a while and I will give SC2 a try once it comes out, so hopefully the SR will suffice.


My ranks of importance are

1. portability
2. design
3. everyday reliability
4. performance/gaming

If anyone has any other recommendations, I'm very open

 

the SR fites well into your scale, i'm crossing my fingers the FW is going to run diablo 3, but yeah i haven't seen any benchmarks for it yet, you could read through the official SR thread.
or run down to you sony style and go to http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest
run it and see how it works out.its hhould give you a ball park on how well it'll run.

 

Should I get the 7200 rpm or the 5400 rpm? What are the disadvantages and advantages of each? Thanks

 

7200 rpm means faster access times/loading times for programs. However, it is not always the better choice, depending also on size of the HDD/density. Check out PhilFlow's guide on HDDs. Very informative.

I currently don't have access to my games, but I can do some gaming benchmarks on the SR when I get back home to the US mid-September if no one else beats me to the punch .

 

I'm choosing between the 320GB/5400rpm and the 200GB/7200rpm.


Which brand HD goes into the SR?


Would they perform similar to each other that I wouldn't notice the difference?

 

meh... if you need more than 200 GB get the 320 one no question about it. i remember reading the 200 one is faster only if you're lucky to get a certain brand/model of it. if you use way less than 200 Gb get the 200gb one...if you need the space, get the 320.

 

if you do go with a 7200 drive, your best bet it either Hitachi or Western drive, but what i've heard is Hitachi would be the better choice, Hitachi has been in the 2.5' market for along time, while western is relatively new to laptop drives.
In regards to noticing a difference its really up to your personal preference, some people might freak out when they cut 13sec off their boot up time with a 7200rpms