I LOVE my C2210 - but need to replace, simple questions regarding N6410

Over 3 1/2 years, at least 50 drops (some from considerable height on to hard surfaces), untold abuse my kids put it through using it as 2nd plate in a living room baseball game... yeah it went through a lot. In the end the power connector on the main circuit board broke – re-soldered, glued, removed connector and soldered wires directly to the board... about 10 different times... then I stepped on the power cord while picking up the computer... time to replace, sad too because that is the only thing wrong with it but of course a new motherboard from Fujitsu would be expensive and new toys are always fun.

REALLY like Fujitsu support too. I believe they are in Canada or somewhere near the USA, and appreciate that a lot. Of course the only time needed to call was when I screwed something up. Don’t really like overseas support for a lot of reasons.

Anyhow I would like to say this is a GREAT forum, have been reading non-stop for many hours. I suppose another place to ask these questions would be in the "what to buy" section but I am only interested in Fujitsu so here it goes:

Fry’s has a N6410 for $1299 512MB 80Gig HD,
Since the graphics from what I can tell steals 128MB from the system memory 512 MB seems a bit light – its listed as 256MB video memory - 128 MB from dedicated video memory, 128 MB system memory. Fujitsu says the memory can be upgraded with any DDR2-5300 667 FSB memory module, which after a quick search I found this: http://www.simpletech.com/commercial/products/pc25300.html
which seems to indicate that memory is prohibitively expensive to get.

Another alternative is Fujitsu itself, which has a N6420 with 1MB, 160 Gig HD for $1499.

Clearly the 6420 is a better deal but I have never used close to my 60 Gigs on my current laptop so the bigger drive is not needed and Fry's have them in stock, and I would like to get back to work using a laptop. I believe memory is a good performance enhancer – how much difference in performance between 1 GB an 512M? Just a clue would be good, all guesses / input welcome!

The reason for the choice of the larger display... it just looks cool and I am shallow. Weight is of no concern at all nor is size. Simply take it from house to car, to clients house, and back again. Not concerned about battery life 20 minutes would work well for what I do with it - surf web, excel, word, minor picture & video imports exports.

First post – sorry it was so long.

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going to 1 gig is highly recommended. the ram you are looking at is ridiculously expensive. go to newegg if you want to upgrade:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1+1309221133&Submit=ENE&Nty=1&SubCategory=381

if you are a gamer though, i would highly suggest getting the 6420 because the x1600 is a much better video card than the x1400.

 

Slowly starting to understand how memory works. Seems some decent 1 MB DDR2 667 PC2-5300 memory can be had for $90 - $140. The only reason for the increase in knowledge is a link from the newegg link you posted - very much appreciated!

I checked the Fujitsu site the version that has the upgraded video chip set is $2499... a bit out of my league, don't play games anyway. I don't think I need the tuner either, the wide screen just seems nice to have multiple documents overlapping a bit.

Any other reason to choose the N6410 vs N6420?
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In the "Dummy" section is says the dual channel memory for laptops has negligible increase in performance for laptops, but that was written a year ago.

Is that still the case?

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i don't think it gives that much of an added benefit. and more ram is better than having dual channel by a long shot.

another thing to take notice is that the 6420 has the core 2 duo, which is slightly faster than similarly clocked core duo, though probably not noticeable by the average user.. also, it is more "future-proof" than the core duo b/c it is 64-bit.

 

I really appreciate the time you have taken to answer my questions. Long story short - probably going to go for the N6420 (lowest price version). Just does not make sense to do anything else.

Anyone have good/bad experience with Euclid? They say they have them in stock via price grabber for $1450 no shipping or tax.

Thanks again for all you input, if you think there is a reason to bring anything else up at this time that would be great. I can order a custom made N6420 from Fujitsu but it would just take time.

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Found N6420 at newegg in stock - unbelievable!
On sale $1349 after instant rebate, I posted in the bargain section too.

Anyone have any thoughts on going from 1 G to 2 G ram? Much increase in performance?

Newegg has all kinds of memory for sale, this N6420 needs 1 GB DDR2 667 MHz memory does this look good?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820208037

ECC? Parity?

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At this point, depending on your usage, I doubt that going from 1GB to 2GB would make much of a difference. Unless you are a running a whole bunch of intensive programs at once, it's unlikely with XP that you would use more than 1GB RAM. A good way to tell is to open the task manager while under a typical load of programs...if it indicates having less than 100-150MB of RAM available then you don't have enough. Another indication would be noticing your hard drive is being used frequently b/c of the system writing to page file because the RAM is full.