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General discussion

Advice for a NEW NOTEBOOK

Sep 21, 2004 2:27PM PDT

Currently i'm looking at

ASUS M5N with Pent-M 1.5 with 40G HD ($1600 CDN)
Fujitsu S6210 ($2200 CDN)

The notebook is not for desktop replacement and i don't plan to carry it around with me outside all the time. i don't want big notebook. I don't know is Asus M5N can last for 3-5 years. Can anyone point me to the right direction or any suggestion pls?. thx

Discussion is locked

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Re: Advice for a NEW NOTEBOOK
Sep 21, 2004 11:40PM PDT

With care, notebooks can last a long time. My Acer ter603 was acquired refurb from Acer directly and is now over 4 years old. The battery will need replacement since it's good for about 40 minutes rather than its usual 3 hours. I upgraded the hard disk from the supplied sluggish 11GB to a 5400RPM 40GB.

I never loan it out. I don't use it all the time, but use a desktop most of the time since keyboards do wear out since I type a lot. I carry the machine and store it in a very nice laptop bag which is never dropped or abused.

A real problem I found while in Canada was the lack of onshore service centers. The stories about service still continue to amaze me. Be sure you know where that service center is before you pick up a laptop.

Bob

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Re: Advice for a NEW NOTEBOOK
Sep 22, 2004 10:05AM PDT

Fujitsu notebooks are still made in Japan so supposedly their quality is quite good from what I have read. However, only Fry's Electronics sells them at retail in the US (that I am aware of) so you do need to know where it will be serviced.

As you can see, a lot of people are asking about the Asus notebooks in these Cnet forums recently but I have no knowledge of their service or reliability either.

In the PCmagazine and Consumer Reports quality and technical support surveys both of these companies (and Acer as well) were not mentioned as they have a smaller presence (at least in the US).

The big problem you have in Canada is that many of the big boys (Toshiba and HP/Compaq) don't offer the custom order capability they do in the US and also are offering the older 705 Banias 1.5 Pentium M instead of the new 715 and higher Dothan Pentium M's (with double the L2 system cache from 1mb to 2mb).

If there is any way you can purchase a HPbusiness notebook (like the HPnx7000 Pentium M 15.4" widescreen for example -- same as consumer retail HPZT3000 and Compaq X1000) you can get a 1 year international repair warranty.