600m vs. Lifebook S6000

[neutralizer]

I was just wondering which laptop I should get, I really can't figure out the pro's and cons:

Dell Inspiron 600m (flexible as in customizable from Dell retail or pickable from outlet)

Intel® Pentium® M Processor 1.50 GHz (Dothan if I buy from Dell retail, not sure if I buy from Dell outlet)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
14" XGA screen (dunno if the screen is glossy or not)
32 MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000
256 MB DDR333 SDRAM memory
40 GB HDD (5400 RPM if I buy from Dell outlet, 4200 rpm if I buy from Dell retail, does anyone know how to get 5400 RPM HDD from dell retail)
Modular 24X CD-RW/DVD Combo
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (true Centrino)
5.4 pounds
4 hours primary battery life
1 year Limited Warranty plus 1 year At-Home service (I can also add "3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year At-Home Service plus Nights and Weekend [add $200 or $6/month1]" with a special offer for a 4th year)
$1337 (what's listed currently, it can change by customization)

Fujitsu Lifebook S6000: (fixed from Fry's)
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 1.60 GHz (Dothan?)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
13.3" Crystal View XGA display (really shiny and glossy, it looks really really nice and clear)
Intel 855GM (Intel Extreme Graphics 2)
512 MB (256 MB x 2) DDR333 SDRAM memory
40 GB hard drive 5400 RPM
Modular DVD/CD-RW combo drive
Integrated multinational? 56 K? V.90 modem and 10/100 Base-Tx Ethernet
Integrated Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200BG (802.11b/g)
4 hours primary battery life
a bit more than 4 pounds
One-year International Limited Warranty
$1500

I'll be using this laptop as a college laptop for work and the occasional light gaming while I'm bored.

 

[xcrunner51]

first off, if you're gonna buy a Dell of those specs you should buy a D600 through Dell Small Business. The build quality on the D series is much higher than Inspiron line and the prices and specs are very similar. As for a Fujitsu Lifebook S Series, I suggest getting the S Series S7010D from newegg. I worked with those notebooks at work and they are amazing pieces of machinery. The S7010D should be slightly better being an update. It is clocked 100mhz less and has 256mb less ram, but it is $75 cheaper so you can up the ram .

 

[neutralizer]

Alright, I built:

Latitude D600
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 725 (1.60GHz)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition, SP1, with media
14.1in XGA Display
32 MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000
256MB,1 DIMM,DDR SDRAM
40GB,HD,9.5MM,5400RPM
8-24-24-24X SWDVD/CDRW Combo Drive
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 WLAN (802.11b/g, 54Mbps) miniPCI Card (non-Centrino? I thought Centrino was internal wireless)
4.6 pounds
4 hours battery life
3 year service plan
$1447

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: xcrunner51
first off, if you're gonna buy a Dell of those specs you should buy a D600 through Dell Small Business. The build quality on the D series is much higher than Inspiron line and the prices and specs are very similar. As for a Fujitsu Lifebook S Series, I suggest getting the S Series S7010D from newegg. I worked with those notebooks at work and they are amazing pieces of machinery. The S7010D should be slightly better being an update. It is clocked 100mhz less and has 256mb less ram, but it is $75 cheaper so you can up the ram .

Actually the S7010D is older than the S6000. Nor does the S7010D come with Crystal View.

 

[edro]

We use the D600s at work (have about 50 of them) and they are working great so far. Very light, great battery, nice wireless.

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: edro13
We use the D600s at work (have about 50 of them) and they are working great so far. Very light, great battery, nice wireless.

Do you know how they compare to the 600M and D600.

And how's the screen on it?

 

[nealh]

OK..I have Fujitsu N5010...the screen is beautiful..best you will find in a laptop....

Skip the deal and go with the fujitsu laptop...build quality seems good..I have had my laptop now for 3 months

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: nealh
OK..I have Fujitsu N5010...the screen is beautiful..best you will find in a laptop....

Skip the deal and go with the fujitsu laptop...build quality seems good..I have had my laptop now for 3 months

The problem is the Fujitsu only has a 1 year warranty and my only option is to use Fry's crappy 2 year warranty that overlaps with mfg warranty.

 

[manko]

Originally posted by: neutralizer
The problem is the Fujitsu only has a 1 year warranty and my only option is to use Fry's crappy 2 year warranty that overlaps with mfg warranty.

Call Fujitsu, I'm pretty sure you can order an extended warranty from them, even if you don't buy it direct.

The Fujitsu S6210 is a good machine, with a great screen. My personal choice between those two would be the Fujitsu, but...

The only thing that might be an issue is your "light gaming". What games are you specifically talking about? The Fujitsu has Intel integrated graphics, which will be fine for some older games, but not for newer games with demanding graphics. The Dell's 32MB Radeon is a dedicated graphics chip which will give you about 2x better gaming performance than the Fujitsu's Intel integrated graphics. Numbers I've seen for the Radeon would be around 5000 3DMark 2001 and 90+ fps in Quake 3, where the Intel integrated scores around 2,400 3Mark 2001 and 45 fps in Quake 3.

You can also order the Fujitsu S6210 with 3 year warranty from Portable One.

LeoG's Fujitsu Forum is a good place to get more info.

 

[nealh]

You can order a 3yr warranty even if you do not purchase from Fujitsu directly..I did

I used Portable One and highly recommend them as a reseller..very nice and did a screen check for dead pixels for nothing!

The basic 3 yr warranty(really a 2 yr extension of 1 yr) is $180..they have much more costly screen warranties that need to be purchased in first 30 days

Manko:..for newer games I doubt the Dell graphics will be much better..my N5010 has a dedicated Radeon 9600 with 64 mg of ram and I doubt it will do well....maybe the Sager etc with the radeon 9700 mobile with 128/256 mg ram will be ok for gaming....

For recent games I personally think laptop are ok ..even with the "great" graphic cards....I suspect the Far Cry's, Doom3 etc will not do well on a laptop..older games like Quake 3 ..not sure what people like for fps but I am telling you the screen on these fujitsu's needs to be seen to see how nice they are

 

[manko]

Yeah, well it depends what games he'll be playing. neutralizer, which games are you talking about? Solitaire?

As you mentioned, brand new high-end games will probably be equally unplayable on both machines. For slightly older, Quake 3, Half-Life/CS or probably even Unreal engine games, the Dell will give better performance. Also, the Intel integrated graphics is missing some functions that are present in dedicated cards, so I've heard some games won't work at all.

On the other hand, if you're playing games like Star Craft, both machines will handle them fine.

 

[neutralizer]

I was thinking maybe some Starcraft, Unreal Tournament 2004, and emulation. It's not like I'm gonna play Doom 3 on it, that's reserved for my desktop .

But I might order from Portable One since they do offer 3 year warranty. Is the crystal view screen that great? I can't really compare it to a Dell computer since I've never seen the screen. How are the reseller ratings for Portable One?

Also do you know if the processor in the Fujitsu is dothan?

edit: wow, its massively expensive with everything. +3 warranty and +dothan = $1799... that's a lot compared to the dell.

 

[nealh]

Just so you know..when you buy from Portable One..you can get warranty from them or directly from Fujitsu as I did...

here is a link to pics of the 16in screen on the N5010...

http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=23119&highlight=nealh

If you have a Fry's I hear they sell the Fujitsu laptops....

My wife who pays little attention to this stuff could not believe how much nicer the screen was tha nhere HP 4125

it is maybe better than my desktop 19" lcd from Envision

Well..if it is a lot more..sorry..but the screen alone is worth it..also the build quality is very good..I hear Dell has slipped

the link above is to a forum about notebooks

 

[neutralizer]

The price quote I have above is of Fry's, but Fry's doesn't offer the 3 year warranty, only Fry's 2 year mfg overlapping warranty.

Can I talk to Fry's in getting an extension of the Fujitsu warranty?

 

[ai42]

Seriously if your going to spend that kind of cash why not get an Acer Aspire 2012? I mean the specs rock the build quality should be very good (compared to previous generation TravelMate 800Lci, also based on what some ppl have been saying) and the specs rock for the price?

BTW even though newegg is OOS, buy.com still has some I think.

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: ai42
Seriously if your going to spend that kind of cash why not get an Acer Aspire 2012? I mean the specs rock the build quality should be very good (compared to previous generation TravelMate 800Lci, also based on what some ppl have been saying) and the specs rock for the price?

BTW even though newegg is OOS, buy.com still has some I think.

I wanted a thin-and-light, not a desktop replacement.

Budget is around ~$1500.

 

[manko]

If you're playing UT2004, the Dell's Radeon will perform better with that generation of game. I think it may be playable on Intel integrated graphics but at minimum resolution and settings.

Originally posted by: neutralizer
The price quote I have above is of Fry's, but Fry's doesn't offer the 3 year warranty, only Fry's 2 year mfg overlapping warranty.

Can I talk to Fry's in getting an extension of the Fujitsu warranty?

No, Fry's has their own warranty system. As a couple of us have said, you can extend the warranty through Fujitsu after you buy it.

The price on Portable One that I liked above is $1649 for the S6210 with 3 year warranty.

The screen on the Fujitsu is excellent and I have seen it in person. It's bright and sharp, with great contrast and color tonal range. It definitely beats out the 600m screen.

Dothan will not make much difference in this type of machine. If you look around, you'll find benchmarks where Dothan and Banias are neck-and-neck in most situations. Rather than being a big boost to the Dothan, its bigger cache only offsets the performance loss from more transistors. You really won't see a difference.

 

[Treyshadow]

I currently have a Dell D600 with almost the exact specs you have there (mine has 512 MB Ram and 60 gig HD).

It is a great notebook, but my wife has a Sager Notebook 4380 and it is so much faster/better for gaming and such. The build quality is easily as good or better than my Dell.

Sager 4380

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: Treyshadow
I currently have a Dell D600 with almost the exact specs you have there (mine has 512 MB Ram and 60 gig HD).

It is a great notebook, but my wife has a Sager Notebook 4380 and it is so much faster/better for gaming and such. The build quality is easily as good or better than my Dell.

Sager 4380

That weighs a bit too much for my college needs.

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: manko
If you're playing UT2004, the Dell's Radeon will perform better with that generation of game. I think it may be playable on Intel integrated graphics but at minimum resolution and settings.

Originally posted by: neutralizer
The price quote I have above is of Fry's, but Fry's doesn't offer the 3 year warranty, only Fry's 2 year mfg overlapping warranty.

Can I talk to Fry's in getting an extension of the Fujitsu warranty?

No, Fry's has their own warranty system. As a couple of us have said, you can extend the warranty through Fujitsu after you buy it.

The price on Portable One that I liked above is $1649 for the S6210 with 3 year warranty.

The screen on the Fujitsu is excellent and I have seen it in person. It's bright and sharp, with great contrast and color tonal range. It definitely beats out the 600m screen.

Dothan will not make much difference in this type of machine. If you look around, you'll find benchmarks where Dothan and Banias are neck-and-neck in most situations. Rather than being a big boost to the Dothan, its bigger cache only offsets the performance loss from more transistors. You really won't see a difference.

Yeah... $1649 is a bit less without the Dothan, but it's still a lot... the D600 is only like $1342 for me.

 

[neutralizer]

Thanks guys for all your help. I went with the D600 mainly because it was cheaper and the screen pretty good compared to the Fujitsu Crystal View.

 

[Yobbo]

I would have sold you my HP xe4500 OmniBook...1.7ghz 15" screen, 5lbs, 256mb, cd-rw/dvd, ati mobility radeon (32), wireless, all the works (even a firewire port) and 3.5 hours of battery...for like $800.
Used it at school for a month until I got a desktop that blew this out of the water

edit:
Oh, and XP pro

 

[jvarszegi]

Sorry I got here so late. You should've picked the 600m. The build quality is at least as good as that of the D600; it's currently the only Inspiron (except maybe for the new 700m) to have a magnesium-alloy case. The graphics card is also much better than the Latitude D600's: a 64MB Mobility Radeon 9000. To put things in perspective, I play mostly racing games, and this card handles games like NFS Underground perfectly.

The screen, incidentally, is good but not nearly as awesome as the Crystal View display on the Fujitsu S6000 series, which I had the pleasure of seeing up close.

Since you're getting the machine for school, I think you made a good choice (although, as I said, I think that the 600m is a better buy). Dell laptops always have great keyboards, an area where Fujitsu is a little weak.

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: jvarszegi
Sorry I got here so late. You should've picked the 600m. The build quality is at least as good as that of the D600; it's currently the only Inspiron (except maybe for the new 700m) to have a magnesium-alloy case. The graphics card is also much better than the Latitude D600's: a 64MB Mobility Radeon 9000. To put things in perspective, I play mostly racing games, and this card handles games like NFS Underground perfectly.

The screen, incidentally, is good but not nearly as awesome as the Crystal View display on the Fujitsu S6000 series, which I had the pleasure of seeing up close.

Since you're getting the machine for school, I think you made a good choice (although, as I said, I think that the 600m is a better buy). Dell laptops always have great keyboards, an area where Fujitsu is a little weak.

Wow... i check this forum and i noticed my thread had been bumped.

the d600 is not in an magnesium alloy case? i thought it was VERY similar to the 600m. btw, i checked the 600m come with a 32mb mobility radeon 9000 and a 4200 rpm hdd...

edit: i agree with the keyboard. the dell keyboards are nice and full size.

 

[user1234]

if you put the laptop on your lap, the 600m will burn you. Never pay more than 1100 for this model.
The fujitso is by far a superior quality and justifybly more expensive. dell stands for cheapness