My work, play and everything else laptop
Written: May 27 '02
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Pros: pretty quiet, comfortable, CD-R/DVD Drive, fast, awesome video chipset
Cons: hot, heavy,, audio channel noise, clackity hard drive, no OS CD, rotten speakers
The Bottom Line: Rock solid, excellent performance, good graphics performance however it gets a little warm, and its not the lightest thing to lug around.
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| lynchenstein's Full Review: Fujitsu LifeBook E-6644 PIII 1.06GHz / 30GB / 128M... |
This is my work laptop and I do everything from running Oracle8i databases and developing Web applications and graphics to recording music and playing video games. I have upgraded the RAM to 512mb and it can take all the tasks that I throw at it.
I take it pretty much everywhere with me, so I've noticed that its a bit heavy when its on your should for more than a few minutes. Also, when its been on for a while, it tends to get quite warm. The hard drive is located at the front left corner - right where my left palm rests and I need to take a breather every once in a while to let my hand cool down. Also, the hard drive makes some rather loud clicks and clatters which initially was alarming, but several other people in my company also have the e6644 and theirs does the same thing so I guess its normal. Its still annoying at times though.
I also use this machine as a gaming machine. Its got a 16mb ATI Radeon graphics chip and does quite nicely especially since I'm limited by the screen to 1024x768. It would be nicer to have higher resolution especially when I'm working on graphics, but its WAY better than my old Fujitsu 790tx that I had before. I bought a USB gamepad for it for when I'm on the plane or at the hotel so I don't always have to be mashing the keys to play games.
The CD-R drive has come in very handy, and the DVD drive is very nice to have when traveling or when browsing the MSDN DVDs.
I also use it occasionally for digitally recording music in my home studio. There seems to be a rhythmic "chirp" when recording through the built-in microphone jack. I can't seem to track down the source, but its only really noticable when there is silence in the recording. I have been able to take care of most of the worst stuff in post production and its not like I'm a good musician anyway. Don't even bother with the built-in speakers though. They're horrible but what can you expect for 1" speakers?
I don't miss not having a built-in floppy drive. I hardly ever take the supplied external USB floppy with me so I've gotten used to not using floppy disks at all. I guess that's a good thing. If I need to transfer a file to someone I usually use the infrared port, or a 64mb USB RAM drive that I keep in my case. (It was only $45CDN at Costco I think and well worth it.)
For some reason the OS CD is not included in the package when you buy it. I was told by support that I had to register it and they would send me the OS CD. This seems strange to me, but an image of the OS CD is on the hard drive so you don't really need physical CDs unless you upgrade the hard drive.
I have used this laptop 6-7 days/week for the past 4 months both at home, in the office and on the road. It has been bounced around many airports, cab trunks and luggage racks and hasn't missed a beat. I've only ever used Fujitsu laptops, and this one is excellent.
Please note that the price paid is in Canadian dollars.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2700 Operating System: Windows Processor: Intel Pentium III Processor speed: over 1000 Screen Size: 14 RAM: More than 256 Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID: lynchenstein
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Reviews written: 1
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