Help me to decide on buying an Asus laptop

Hello!
I need a laptop for school and gaming,
I like ASUS M6Ne (don't like widescreens)a lot, it's under 1500 USD, which is my max spending amount, got a nice design, decent specs. Only thing that bothers me is video, which is 64mb radeon 9700, and i like playing Unreal Tournament 2004 a lot, and i was wondering if i will still be able to run it on this laptop at normal quality on 1024x768 resolution.
Also, i heard notebooks with radeon x300 are coming out in january, and if you guys know what will be the approximate prices on those, and if it is worth waiting for them, since i NEED a laptop in early january.
Thank you.

 

I too have an M6Ne, and I can assure you that the 64 Mb Radeon 9700 is plenty. It can handle UT2004 and even more demanding games like Half Life 2 and Far Cry.
M6Ne is a great notebook... [ ]


ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Tohiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

I agree the M6Ne is great for games and will run UT2004 fine...but if ya don't need a lappie asap then it might be worth waiting till next year for new models/discount prices. Although I doubt the x300 will out perform the 9700, you would be best to look for x600 or better GPUs.
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ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 1Gb RAM

 

Guys:
Here is something you should all know. All laptops with the radeon 9700 score exactly the same 3dmark points whether they are 128mb or 64. Any game you play requires way more then 128mb so the the system ram is reserved. The only card that scores about 20% higher then both the 128 and 64 version is the 256mb version but its a different card all together when it comes to the gpu architecture.

 

Hi everyone,

First, English is my second language, if you find some or heavy grammar problem, please forgive me. I try my best on my learning edge.[xx(]

I’m an interior designer, I need a fast laptop and good graphics for presentation and drafting application while I’m in mobile. After 3 months research and decision, finally I joined the people in this forum with my M6Ne.

This is my fist laptop, like most of the people, I’m struggling to pick one. As I’m a designer, I almost went to a dead corner for a laptop, which is fast, durable, lightweight and low price situation.
My friends around me named Toshiba is the best overall out there, for a designer’s look is Powermac and Sony, for pricey is IBM. I spent almost everyday to check the review and forum in this place. I narrow down my choices to 15” with high resolution screen, 17” is nice but I don’t want carry a brick with me; The laptop has to equipped with ATI 9700 w/64mb and up, at least 1 GB ram. Those brand name laptops, either they have fast processor with slower graphics interface or with lower resolution screen or vice versa. But the only think I agreed go with the brand name is if you need a well technical support and services, extra warranty and coverage, and some kind of resale value.

After I read over Underpantman’s review and AuroraS and other people in this group to contribute their comments, I have my answer. I decided go for “whitebook” or “barebone” to configure what I want. For the extra warranty or durable issue, I believe if I take care well, there should not be a problem. Sounds like a bit risky, but don’t forget you have to paid couple hundreds on top for that. I spent about CAD$2200 with the following specification: M6Ne with 2.0pm, ATI9700 w/64mb, 60GB HDD, 1GB ram and DVD-RW. I’m sure if I go for 1.8 pm w/o DVD-RW that will tag below CAD$2000. I will be more happy if I can get a wsxga screen in Canada or equipped with 128mb on ATI 9700.

For helping Alexklob out, I just give a small review here for overall since I got my laptop few days ago. And I believe Underpantman’s review was great and very detailed already.

Design: From my design point of view, M6Ne is above average. I like powermac’s design, very clean, simple and stylish, then second is Sony.

Screen: For the screen, based on I run more photo or graphic application than watching DVD and gaming, I believe that I make a right choice with 15” SXGA over 15.4” WXGA. I set on 1400x1050 resolution, a bit smaller on the fonts, but really crispy on the graphics and lucky no-dead pixel so far.

Speed: Obviously is fast with 2.0 PM processor, but not a chance to test yet.

Sound: The machine is very quiet that I didn’t expected. I really appreciate that. Expect the DVD-rw start spinning which is almost the only noise I can hear.

Install: I spent almost 2 days for installing all drivers and configuring the setting. A bit problem setting on the WLAN with my hub and network, but finally went through it (I’m a bit dumb on this area).

Heat: There is a bit warm at the back where the processor located (I believe). You can feel the warm air come out from the right hand side vent, but again almost can’t hear the fan on. It keeps in about average 55C-60C when normal using. I guess I have same question with others without an answer – how to change the fan’s setting. May be I will get a notebook cooler to protect it, did anyone have an experience with notebook cooler?

Battery: Haven’t a chance to test yet.

Overall: So far I’m pretty happy and satisfy on my M6ne with my requirement and budget, if they provide me “ASUS” logo rather the store’s logo on the top of my laptop that will be great. Did anyone know where I can get it?

Thanks again for Underpantman’s review, AuroraS and other people who contributed their experience in this forum.[ ]
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ASUS M6Ne 15" 2.0 PM ATI9700 60Gb HDD DVD-RW 1Gb RAM

 

Hi! Thanks for all your responses.

Underpantman, no, i need a laptop in early january, kinda asap...
Do you have any ideas as to when those laptops with x300 x600 x800 are gonna come out and their approx. prices? I think they will be out of my "under 1500 usd" budget...

Thank you.

 

Intel is supposed to be ontarget for releasing the new chipset/PM cpu early next year, I suspect that most of the big boys will follow fairly quickly with offerings. In theory these notebooks could come with upgradeable gpu slots, although I will wait to see if that comes into fruition, I think that most manf. will want to leave this feature to high end machines initially (just to screw customers over and get more$$) but I could be wrong. Aopen already have a laptop floating around on display with these new features, so there is some hope. But I'm not able to read the future to well (otherwise I would give you lotto numbers instead), and price and released date is anyones guess. I think that you maybe outa luck to have a bunch of new notebooks being released straight after Xmas, my guess is feb/march.
There are a few notebooks with X600's already, one of the ACERs does have it. I haven't seen to many benchmarks with this Gpu but I'm guessing that the performance would be about = to the 9700, as they have a similar core, but again could be wrong. If gaming is your main concern the dell 9100 is the best bang for buck you can get at the moment.
I would still wait till after Xmas to see if you can get a good price in a sale for which ever notebook you decide on.
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ASUS M6Ne 15.4" WSXGA 1.7 PM ATI9700 80Gb HDD 1Gb RAM