Is this PC worth it.

[evaky]

My school requires me to buy a laptop. This is the model that the vendors recommended. Is this Fujitsu Lifebook S7110 worth it?details can be found here.
http://www.sp.edu.sg/SPweb/ShowBinar...rFujitsu07.pdf

PS: it's the Upgrade Package version(Singapore dollar +289)

[Tiberium Wolf]

You forgot to tell us what are you going to use it for?

[Vexx]

I'll bet the school isn't considering frames-per-second for FPS or MMOs in their requirements If the school is requiring a laptop and this is their recommended model, its totally sufficient for communications, web browsing, document preparation, and maybe half-assed video streaming as well as connecting wirelessly to any network cloud.

If evaky wants to play Diablo X, FF whatever, WoW, or Pangya.... blahblahblah ... .he should get some data on the video capability. I'm not sure what the 945GM chipset provides in the way of video coolness.

[Phantom-Takaya]

Originally Posted by Vexx

If evaky wants to play Diablo X, FF whatever, WoW, or Pangya.... blahblahblah ... .he should get some data on the video capability. I'm not sure what the 945GM chipset provides in the way of video coolness.

Not very good in terms of games. It looks like your typical school laptop. It can even be used for business. The RAM and HDD space wouldn't be enough to handle larger programs like MMORPGs. AutoCAD would cause the laptop to lag during the program start up, and opening a detailed AutoCAD file would take a while and eat up a lot of the laptop's resources.

[Ledgem]

It looks decent. Almost three years ago, when I was looking into laptops, two brands emerged as the best bets in terms of system reliability and usefulness: Toshiba and Fujitsu. I went with a Toshiba because the pricing was better; those Fujitsu systems can get pretty pricey. I think this one's a bit pricey as well, but it's a nice system. You can always upgrade the RAM later if you want.

[Potatochobit]

Toshiba and fujistsu are almost the same thing. fujitsu is like the lexus brand. I have a fujitsu the biggest problem is the battery drain. I had to replace the cheap toshiba made DVD drive on mine. and as stated its pricey.

take a look at dell, seriously, for the price the quality is good nowadays. most of their laptops are very light. remember weight is VERY important if your going to lug it around all the time. so go to the store and pick up the fujitsu and pick up some other brands to see how heavy they are.

if your in singapore though, your options might be limited.

[firestarter]

Dell, is a good option, so is HP, for the price and quality though I would probably reccomend HP. Hp has come a LOOOOOONNNNG way, their desktops are shitty still, but their laptops can hold their own against the Toshibas and Fujitsu's Fujitsu is a good brand, especially considering my 5year old Fujitsu 19" CRT went across the atlantic TWICE and wasn't so much as out of focus when it got to me either time.

[Phantom-Takaya]

I highly, highly don't recommend getting a Dell. Just because they're advertised everywhere and have "cheap pricing" doesn't mean they're the best option. I've said this in another thread or two, but I've worked for a computer repair company, and out of all the brands, Dell is the worst to deal with. All their stuff is proprietary, which means you have no choice but to order from them for nearly anything, from replacement parts to upgrades. Even Dell machines (especially laptops) that require a heavy amount of repair has to be sent to Dell, themselves, for repairs, which could take weeks or months. You'd be lucky to find a local computer repair shop that are allowed to do anything with them. Until Dell actually allows local computer stores to sell their laptops and computers, much less allow local computer repair shops to do the servicing, I highly recommend not getting a Dell.

HP isn't so bad. They're easy to deal with and usually made for average usage, which is more geared to be school oriented.

Toshiba and Fujitsu are durable, so I would recommend them at the top.

Another recommendation would be Acer. There's a 50/50 outlook at Acer from the masses, but I can tell you from experience that they're good for their money. I use one for my college courses.

[firestarter]

Although my level of technical (hardware) knowledge is rather high, I have a small amount of knowledge about laptops. Here's the things I do know.

Toshiba:
GOOD craftsmanship, non proprietary parts (save for mobo) VERY DURABLE (I've seen one take a 2 story plunge to grass and survive, did need a new HDD a few weeks later, but the rest was working) However trying to find accessories later on can be a bit nasty. Older than 2 years and you'll have to buy a "universal" charging brick, and hope it works.

Dell:
Decent quality, but as mentioned before very proprietary. But for the money what more could you get?

HP:
Formerly known as Hell's Pride PC's they sucked, HARD they sucked so hard they made mamasan the 90yo hooker in Tokyo look like a tween. However they have come a long way since then, infact they are probably on par with most of the lower end Toshiba's Mainly, because they don't cost nearly as much, yet maintain the same amount of durability and quality. Higher end their offerings aren't all that wonderful.

IBM:
Don't skoff at this, but IBM has one HELL of a laptop in the thinkpad. The major issue though is, even at the highest end of the line, they are still not much more than a NICE business laptop.

AlienWare:
At one point these guys were the gods of Laptops, however now, they are just another overpriced dell.

VooDoo:
High performance High quality High price tag

Falcon:
OMFG I don't need to say anything else, if you can afford it yeah this is the best it gets, if you can't set a picture as your desktop background and masturbate, because that's the closest you'll get.

Acer:
Good, for about a year, then the inability to upgrade and the second rate parts start to add up.

[Phantom-Takaya]

Dell: Repair hell? No one wants to deal with that. Believe me.

Acer: Been a little over a year for my Acer and it's still up to par with the other laptops out there. Of course, I bought the high-end one.

[Snyper64]

I know I am new here but but I am in the IT field and I can tell you flat out stay away from Dell! When I worked at the local pc repair shop while in college the one pc brand that was extremely problematic and were having the most hardware related problems were the Dells. On most days Dells were brought in over fifty percent more than other brands and the laptops were usually more hardware problems than software. Dells use to be good PCs until they went completely overseas and tried to maximize their profits by putting sub par components into their PCs.

Personally I would recommend either Acer or HP for your laptop for a cheaper but reliable laptop as I have seen less hardware problems with these manufactures(still have seen alot of spyware problems but that's Windows for you ). Firestarter has a pretty good list of manufacturers and their quality but I have to disagree with him about Dells, spend a little more and get something that will actually last more than a few days/months past the warranty.

I myself own a HP zv5410z(a little over 2 years old) laptop running Ubuntu 7.10 Feisty Fawn and don't have much of a problem with it.

[Vexx]

Dell's problem is twofold: unless you're a business buyer and can demand components... you can buy two exactly identically spec'd models and get entirely different innards. Also, the OS is filled with craptastic software ... it is *amazing* how much crap (I'm used to corporate licensing and those lovely MSDN packs so I'm always astonished by the crap level that comes with a personal purchase).

[evaky]

So, DELL is 100% no no. brands like HP and Toshiba still can be considered.... what about Acer? My sister told me not to pick Acer. OH YAH, the PC i'm planning to buy is the typical stuff u will see a lot of course students using. NO games coz i always lose when playing games. the most complex software i'll be using probably are ZBrush, BitComet, viewing h246/mkv files....i'm an anime otaku. My school is actually recommending Acer Aspire 5583WXMi , Acer Aspire 5685WLMi , Fujitsu LifeBook S7110 , Fujitsu LifeBook E8210 . the 2nd & 4th model are out of budget.
Details can be found here : http://www.sp.edu.sg/SPweb/appmanage..._Comp_Notebook

[Snyper64]

What's your spending range? Maybe we can make some suggestions for a pc.

[Loniat]

Of course, buying a notebook nowadays is like playing in the lottery. It doesn't matter what people say about brand x or y, they all come from the same place, believe me.

[Phantom-Takaya]

The pieces to make the parts may have come from the same place, but how they're built is important as well. You wouldn't want them to put together a laptop with the hard drive, RAM and/or CPU all next to the power supply.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by firestarter

Dell, is a good option, so is HP, for the price and quality though I would probably reccomend HP. Hp has come a LOOOOOONNNNG way, their desktops are shitty still, but their laptops can hold their own against the Toshibas and Fujitsu's Fujitsu is a good brand, especially considering my 5year old Fujitsu 19" CRT went across the atlantic TWICE and wasn't so much as out of focus when it got to me either time.

HP's come a long way? How new are the laptops you're referring to? My girlfriend's laptop is pretty terrible. It must be from their desktop replacement line, because it's pretty bulky and heavier than my Toshiba Satellite. It's about two years old. I dislike that the volume doesn't use a slider, but integrated buttons. Same for the wireless - no physical switch, but a button. And for some reason, Windows is strange on it, even though I redid her Windows install myself and cleared away the garbage.

My roommate also uses an HP, and his is definitely a desktop replacement. Also bulky. His battery died on him in under two years. And I mean died completely - if his power cable disconnects, his computer shuts off, but the battery is still in there. My Toshiba is reaching three years now, and the battery has a few dead cells, but it still gives me almost two hours of life (gave me four when it was new).

So, if those are HP's offerings, I say to avoid them. Now, I have noticed that a classmate of mine has some snazzy-looking HP - it's all black and pretty shiny, looks more like the size of my laptop. It looks more reasonable for a laptop in terms of form and probably weight. I'm not sure about its operation, though.

I'm retiring my Toshiba for a MacBook Pro, but I still recommend Toshibas. Best value for the money, in my opinion and usage.

[Snyper64]

I don't know what kind of HP your girl friend had but mines a little over 2 yrs old and it runs just fine. When I used it too run Windows I got anywhere from an hour and a half to over 2 hours on a charge depending on what I was doing with it and the power settings. Right now I have Ubuntu installed on it and I get anywhere from 2 to 3 hours when running it on battery. As for size my a little bigger that some of the other notebooks but that's because I went for a 15.4 wide-screen monitor instead of the standard 12inch.

[Ledgem]

My girlfriend is right next to me; she's on an HP Pavilion dv4000. It's also widescreen. Is that similar to your system? I also want to put Feisty Fawn on her system, but some of the comments I've heard on here stated that HP laptops weren't particularly Linux-friendly. Did you have any issues getting Fiesty set up? (This may go off-topic and onto private messages, but it might be helpful for others to know as well.)

[evaky]

my buget would be around 1500-1600/1700. cannot get overboard cause i'm a student in 'poverty'.haha. i'm doing diploma in chemical engineering then one of my friends recommended me not to invest too much on Laptop nowdays(life span is 3 years and i'll be moving it a lot). she told me to take the upgrade package A which only upgrades to 1GB and most importantly 3 years warranty. Any other better recommendation? As i said there were 4 recommended PC. Our course would only need the 'Value Buy" models.
http://www.sp.edu.sg/SPweb/appmanage..._Comp_Notebook