Gateway M500 Review [Archive]

nedlyj

07-07-2003, 07:32 AM

Keyboard?

In your review, you stated:
"Keyboard and touchpad layout is excellent and
mimics the VPR Matrix 200A5 almost exactly, down
to the same key design"

I found the M500 to be noticably different. Many key locations have different uses (look at the top right keys) and a big difference for me is that the lower left key is the CTRL key, not the FN key. Big difference for usability.

nedlyj

07-07-2003, 07:37 AM

Centrino performance.

So, I have a question. I keep hearing that Centrino's are so much faster in actual operation than P4-M processors (and seeing other reviews showing this), and yet every DesignTechnica benchmark review I've seen (such as this one on the M500) shows the P4-Ms beating the Centrinos in most every test.

What am I missing??

-n

Ioman

07-07-2003, 07:42 AM

Originally posted by nedlyj
Keyboard?

In your review, you stated:
"Keyboard and touchpad layout is excellent and
mimics the VPR Matrix 200A5 almost exactly, down
to the same key design"

I found the M500 to be noticably different. Many key locations have different uses (look at the top right keys) and a big difference for me is that the lower left key is the CTRL key, not the FN key. Big difference for usability.

Thank for the feedback. I removed "touchbad" from that sentence since obviously the touchpads are quite a bit different. I do find that the key layout is very similar to the 200A5's with a few exceptions. I am pretty sure they are using the same keys as well. They must be using the same manufacturers.

Ioman

07-07-2003, 07:50 AM

Originally posted by nedlyj
Centrino performance.

So, I have a question. I keep hearing that Centrino's are so much faster in actual operation than P4-M processors (and seeing other reviews showing this), and yet every DesignTechnica benchmark review I've seen (such as this one on the M500) shows the P4-Ms beating the Centrinos in most every test.

What am I missing??

-n

Clock for clock the Centrino CPU's are faster. So if you were comparing a Centrino 1.6 GHz with a Pentium 4-m 1.6, the Centrino would be faster. The Gateway 450XL we reviewed and compared to the VPR Matrix and M500 is a Centrino running at 1.5GHz. Compared to a Pentium 4-M 2-2.2GHz it just is not as fast. Now maybe a Centrino 1.9GHz might take the lead, but we have yet to review a laptop running at that speed.

The Sony Z1A we reviewed a while ago was a 1.3GHz Centrino CPU.

nedlyj

07-07-2003, 07:59 AM

Thanks Ioman.

What got me was that recently I saw a benchmark (somewhere, but I can't remember where right now) that showed a 1.6 Ghz Centrino kicking the butt of a 2.4Ghz P4-M. Hence my confusion.

Without a doubt a 1.6 Centrino would beat a 1.6 P4-M, but it was the comparison to a 2.4 GHz chip that seemed to say "Centrinbo is better - period".

In fact, in every PC World and PC Mag review, the Centrinos are all showing better benchmarking scores than P4-M 2.2-2.4 systems. Don't know the details of their benchmarking, but that's what they're publishing.

Thanks again,

-n

Ioman

07-07-2003, 08:02 AM

Originally posted by nedlyj
Thanks Ioman.

What got me was that recently I saw a benchmark (somewhere, but I can't remember where right now) that showed a 1.6 Ghz Centrino kicking the butt of a 2.4Ghz P4-M. Hence my confusion.

Without a doubt a 1.6 Centrino would beat a 1.6 P4-M, but it was the comparison to a 2.4 GHz chip that seemed to say "Centrinbo is better - period".

In fact, in every PC World and PC Mag review, the Centrinos are all showing better benchmarking scores than P4-M 2.2-2.4 systems. Don't know the details of their benchmarking, but that's what they're publishing.

Thanks again,

-n

hmmm interesting, thanks for bringing that to my attention. I am running the same benchmarks we always have. Mad Onion's Mobile Mark which measures performance and battery life, SiSiftware Sandra which measure CPU performance, memory bandwidth and file system performance. Unless there are some updates that I am unaware of which benchmark the Centrino's as being better, I think our results are accurate.

The Centrino CPU's are great, but I just can't see a 1.6GHz Centrino beating a 2.2-2.4GHz Pentium 4M as of yet! :D

nedlyj

07-07-2003, 08:32 AM

FYI, Here's an example from PC World:

Toshiba Tecra S1
- (Centrino 1.6GHz, 512MB) - PCWorldBench 4 score: 125

Gateway 450X
- (Centrino 1.5GHz, 256MB) - PCWorldBench 4 score: 117

Micro Express NP1024A
- (2.4GHz P4-M, 512MB) - PCWorldBench 4 score: 111

IBM ThinkPad R40
- (2.2GHz P4-M, 256MB) - PCWorldBench 4 score: 107

Again, I don't know how they test, but it definitely appears that they are saying the Centrinos are faster than 2.4GHz P4-Ms

Marketing hype? I wouldn't doubt that tests are "tweaked" to support the technology of the day. But they are different results than we've seen elsewhere.

-n

Ioman

07-07-2003, 08:41 AM

I looked at Cnet as well to compare reviews and they had higher overall Mobile Mark scores than we did on the same exact systems. Because we use multiple programs, I think it helps to show more of a consistancy than them (my personal opinion). I noticed that a lot of the time Cnet will ONLY use Mobile Mark as their benchmark program. I am not sure what PC World's program measures either.

Porsche911

07-07-2003, 08:45 AM

Just caught this thread. Ioman, I would not worry too much about what the other sites say. As long as you are running the benchmarks the way they are supposed to be run, then there is nothing to worry about. I often find that Cnet's, PC Worlds scores are over exaggerated. Heck look at the Audio burn tests they did at Cnet over the TDK 440N which you guys reviewed as well: http://reviews.cnet.com/TDK_440N_Indi_DVD/4505-5_7-21211306-4.html?tag=review the fact that it was way off should have told the reviewer that something was wrong. I am more likely to believe your benchmarks because they are not over the top, you are being honest from what I can tell and you are not promising anything. They are real world benchmarks, not politically paid for results. I hope :-)

Porsche911

07-07-2003, 08:48 AM

Originally posted by nedlyj
FYI, Here's an example from PC World:

Toshiba Tecra S1
- (Centrino 1.6GHz, 512MB) - PCWorldBench 4 score: 125

Gateway 450X
- (Centrino 1.5GHz, 256MB) - PCWorldBench 4 score: 117

Micro Express NP1024A
- (2.4GHz P4-M, 512MB) - PCWorldBench 4 score: 111

IBM ThinkPad R40
- (2.2GHz P4-M, 256MB) - PCWorldBench 4 score: 107

Again, I don't know how they test, but it definitely appears that they are saying the Centrinos are faster than 2.4GHz P4-Ms

Marketing hype? I wouldn't doubt that tests are "tweaked" to support the technology of the day. But they are different results than we've seen elsewhere.

-n

There is no doubt that the Centrino CPU's are awesome, but I find it hard to believe that a1.5 GHz Centrino will beat a 2.2 GHz Pentium 4-M. Another thing to think about is that perhaps that PC World score measures bettery life as well? Just like the Mobile Mark scores do? If that the case then maybe that's why it shows the Centrino Systems getting a higher score? I heard the battery life on those Centrino systems is amazing!

b4k4

07-07-2003, 12:28 PM

I have been getting 3.5-4 hours of battery life with my m500. All I did was go into the BIOS and set the power mode to max batt. and with wireless going i get about 3.5 hours and without it I get about 4 hours. I also do not notice any performance drop when running in max batt mode.

nedlyj

07-07-2003, 01:02 PM

Don't the power settings in Windows over-ride the settings in BIOS? I've never understood why I would set it in BIOS if I just set it in Windows Power options? And if Windows doesn't over-ride, then what's the point of the Laptop/Portable, Presentation, etc. settings in Windows?

What is the "right" setting in BIOS to be able to use thw WIndows power settings? Or does the BIOS setting only control non-Windows (ie DOS or Linux) operations?

Thanks,

-n

Ioman

07-07-2003, 01:06 PM

Originally posted by b4k4
I have been getting 3.5-4 hours of battery life with my m500. All I did was go into the BIOS and set the power mode to max batt. and with wireless going i get about 3.5 hours and without it I get about 4 hours. I also do not notice any performance drop when running in max batt mode.

That is great that you get so much battery life from the system! When we run Mobile Mark, we have to make sure the system is is running in its default setup when doing our testing. In this case it was set to automatic. The reason we do this is to benchmark the system in the same way it would typically be run by consumers.

And for those unfamiliar with Mobile Mark, the program runs work load loops with the following applications running simultaneously: Photoshop, MS Office suite, Outlook, Netscape, Winzip and several others. So you can see how the computer is being worked to death through the tests. 2 hours is by no means bad at all. I remember when you were lucky to get a 2 hour DVD movie to finish completely before the battery juice ran out. The M500 would be fine with this.

Also, most other laptops in this range come with 4400 mAh sized batteries such as the VPR Matrix 200A5 and the Sony Z1A (which is Centrino based to begin with!) so we were dissapointed to see the M500 with only a 4000 mAh battery. Although if you remember our Gateway 450 XL review the 450XL only comes with a 3500 mAh battery! Talk about tiny.

nedlyj

07-07-2003, 01:14 PM

Ioman, was "automatic" a BIOS setting or a windows power setting (per my previous post)?

FWIW: In my default setting, the M500 was "reporting" that it had 3:25 remaining when fully charged (the 200A5 reports 3:15 when fully charged), though I never actually ran it all the way down and timed it to see if this was accurate.

-n

Ioman

07-07-2003, 01:23 PM

The BIOS setting was set to automatic and in Windows we set it to Portable/laptop with the brightness level on the screen set to medium. We have it set to not turn off any hard drives or run any screen savers during the test. We also run the battery conditioning program which drains the battery completely and recharges is to the max so we get accurate results.

Oneijack

07-07-2003, 03:54 PM

Not to get off subject but you guys might want to know this so I'm leaving it in this thread too

I've been doing mad research on the Medion laptop and I can say without a doubt its better than a Gateway M500, Comes with a DVD burner! (screw the slot drive) a 2.4ghz CPU over a 2.2ghz! A GForce440 over a 420 it just gets better and better... Ok heres the deal with Aldi. They built a store near my work a year ago and I have been buying stuff from them since. They are a very very good store. They don't do credit cards so to cut their costs, same for checks. Aldi is obessed with cost cutting. I went there today and the price will be $1499 on the notebook (atleast here in Georgia) this my friends will be a deal. Medion is a good company and Aldi will stand behind what they sell (atleast for a year anyway) I'm kind pissed though I figured they would do it for $1300 but guess they want to make some money on this one.

Got to Aldi's website and read up on them, anybody who is about to plunk down good money for a Gateway M500 needs to bust the piggy bank and run to a Aldi July 14.

Unregistered

07-07-2003, 10:16 PM

Originally posted by Oneijack
Not to get off subject but you guys might want to know this so I'm leaving it in this thread too

I've been doing mad research on the Medion laptop and I can say without a doubt its better than a Gateway M500, Comes with a DVD burner! (screw the slot drive) a 2.4ghz CPU over a 2.2ghz! A GForce440 over a 420 it just gets better and better... Ok heres the deal with Aldi. They built a store near my work a year ago and I have been buying stuff from them since. They are a very very good store. They don't do credit cards so to cut their costs, same for checks. Aldi is obessed with cost cutting. I went there today and the price will be $1499 on the notebook (atleast here in Georgia) this my friends will be a deal. Medion is a good company and Aldi will stand behind what they sell (atleast for a year anyway) I'm kind pissed though I figured they would do it for $1300 but guess they want to make some money on this one.

Got to Aldi's website and read up on them, anybody who is about to plunk down good money for a Gateway M500 needs to bust the piggy bank and run to a Aldi July 14.

Go away spam head!!

Oneijack

07-08-2003, 04:10 AM

fine.. I don't work for them. I was just informing peeps how not to waste money. Bet you use AOL too. loser.

nedlyj

07-08-2003, 07:11 AM

Originally posted by Ioman
The BIOS setting was set to automatic and in Windows we set it to Portable/laptop with the brightness level on the screen set to medium. We have it set to not turn off any hard drives or run any screen savers during the test. We also run the battery conditioning program which drains the battery completely and recharges is to the max so we get accurate results.

Wow - I just performed a completely unscientific and lame test of the M500 battery vs the 200A5 battery. But the results still speak volumes. Here's what I did:

Both laptops were fully charged, set to the exact same power settings in Windows and BIOS, screen saver turned off, and power set to Always On. Then 3 programs were opened: Photoshop 5.5, Notepad and Task Manager (on the Performance tab). The laptops were then left to sit - basically running at 0-1% CPU and 100MB of RAM in use - and I periodically checked the power meter to see the current value.

Here are the results:

At Start
- VPR: 99%, 3:10 remaining
- M500: 99%, 3:57 remaining

After 15 minutes
- VPR: 92%, 2:54 remaining
- M500: 87%, 3:29 remaining

After 45 minutes
- VPR: 77%, 2:27 remaining
- M500: 66%, 2:38 remaining

After 1 hour and 30 minutes
- VPR: 48%, 1:32 remaining
- M500: 23%, 0.59 remaining

What does this mean?

Well, in this example it means that with nothing really happening, the VPR's power meter is almost always exactly right (no more than 3-5 minutes off) - and it would last for about 3 hours. But the M500 on the other hand is horrible. The power meter is off by about a factor of 2 (2 minutes are subtracted from expected battery life after 1 minute of time) - and the M500 which seemed to be "good" when it reported an expected battery life of 3:57 at full charge will actually be lucky if it makes it to 2 hours.

If there's anything worse than short battery life, it's short battery life while the system is inaccurately reporting longer battery life.

Lousy, lousy, lousy.....

-n

nedlyj

07-08-2003, 11:58 AM

(Sorry - this is a duplicate because I posted my original in the wrong forum...)

For those of you who have received your M500, could you check something for me please?

I just received my replacement unit (the AV panel on the first one was completely hosed, along with other problems) and have noticed that my little jog dial on the new unit does not work as it is described in the documentation.

Supposedly, when playing audio tracks or audio CDs (both with Windows open and with the laptop off and only the AV panel on) the jog dial is supposed to fast forward or reverse through the current track being played. Mine doesn't - it skips to the next or previous track - just like pressing the Next or Prev buttons below the jog dial.

Does anyone else's work correctly as a fast forward/reverse - or do you always jump to the next/prev track?

I need to know because if this one is messed up too, I only have another day or two to return this for full credit - and then stick with my 200A5.

Thanks,

-n

Ioman

07-08-2003, 12:01 PM

Originally posted by nedlyj
Wow - I just performed a completely unscientific and lame test of the M500 battery vs the 200A5 battery. But the results still speak volumes. Here's what I did:

Both laptops were fully charged, set to the exact same power settings in Windows and BIOS, screen saver turned off, and power set to Always On. Then 3 programs were opened: Photoshop 5.5, Notepad and Task Manager (on the Performance tab). The laptops were then left to sit - basically running at 0-1% CPU and 100MB of RAM in use - and I periodically checked the power meter to see the current value.

Here are the results:

At Start
- VPR: 99%, 3:10 remaining
- M500: 99%, 3:57 remaining

After 15 minutes
- VPR: 92%, 2:54 remaining
- M500: 87%, 3:29 remaining

After 45 minutes
- VPR: 77%, 2:27 remaining
- M500: 66%, 2:38 remaining

After 1 hour and 30 minutes
- VPR: 48%, 1:32 remaining
- M500: 23%, 0.59 remaining

What does this mean?

Well, in this example it means that with nothing really happening, the VPR's power meter is almost always exactly right (no more than 3-5 minutes off) - and it would last for about 3 hours. But the M500 on the other hand is horrible. The power meter is off by about a factor of 2 (2 minutes are subtracted from expected battery life after 1 minute of time) - and the M500 which seemed to be "good" when it reported an expected battery life of 3:57 at full charge will actually be lucky if it makes it to 2 hours.

If there's anything worse than short battery life, it's short battery life while the system is inaccurately reporting longer battery life.

Lousy, lousy, lousy.....

-n

What Mobile Mark 2002 does to ensure accurate power meter readings is to "condition" the battery by draining it completely and then recharging it fully. This helps to create a more accurate power meter and it seems to work.

Porsche911

07-08-2003, 12:10 PM

Originally posted by nedlyj
Wow - I just performed a completely unscientific and lame test of the M500 battery vs the 200A5 battery. But the results still speak volumes. Here's what I did:

Both laptops were fully charged, set to the exact same power settings in Windows and BIOS, screen saver turned off, and power set to Always On. Then 3 programs were opened: Photoshop 5.5, Notepad and Task Manager (on the Performance tab). The laptops were then left to sit - basically running at 0-1% CPU and 100MB of RAM in use - and I periodically checked the power meter to see the current value.

Here are the results:

At Start
- VPR: 99%, 3:10 remaining
- M500: 99%, 3:57 remaining

After 15 minutes
- VPR: 92%, 2:54 remaining
- M500: 87%, 3:29 remaining

After 45 minutes
- VPR: 77%, 2:27 remaining
- M500: 66%, 2:38 remaining

After 1 hour and 30 minutes
- VPR: 48%, 1:32 remaining
- M500: 23%, 0.59 remaining

What does this mean?

Well, in this example it means that with nothing really happening, the VPR's power meter is almost always exactly right (no more than 3-5 minutes off) - and it would last for about 3 hours. But the M500 on the other hand is horrible. The power meter is off by about a factor of 2 (2 minutes are subtracted from expected battery life after 1 minute of time) - and the M500 which seemed to be "good" when it reported an expected battery life of 3:57 at full charge will actually be lucky if it makes it to 2 hours.

If there's anything worse than short battery life, it's short battery life while the system is inaccurately reporting longer battery life.

Lousy, lousy, lousy.....

-n

Argh, so it does look like the M500's battery life runs out rather quickly. Thats a bummer, but at least you can watch a 2 hour movie! Thats more than previous laptops were able to do.

Ioman

07-09-2003, 10:19 AM

We did further testing and were in fact able to replicate the control panel error where it would not fast forward through a track. We added the edit to the review and reduced the score accordingly. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

nedlyj

07-09-2003, 11:54 AM

Ioman - thanks for the update.

Also, on my replacement system from Gateway, the Launch buttons on the right side of the machine are also contacted by the screen when it is closed. This causes the laptop to open multiple sessions of Outlook and IE when you close the lid and carry the laptop from place to place without shutting it down.

And, after more testing (and battery reconditioning) I find that your results of less han 2 hour battery life are accurate.

Too bad - this laptop had a lot of promise. With decent battery life and shorter panel buttons this would have been a keeper - but as it is, I now have two in boxes to ship back.

Next on my list is the HP/Compaq Presario x1000. I basically found a few promotions and got it at a "steal" for $1525 (delivered) with a 15.4 WSXGA+ widescreen (1680x1050), Centrino 1.6Ghz, 512 MB Ram, 64MB Radeon 9200, built-in wireless, IR, firewire, and USB 2.0, CDRW/DVD, and a 40GB hdd. Pretty darn good.

While the design itself does not appear to be as cutting edge as the M500, performance should be very competitive given the Centrino 1.6 and the 64MB video. Battery life is supposed to be 4-5 hours, weight is actually less than the M500, and we'll see how this screen looks.

Unfortunately, there are no quick-launch buttons, no subwoofer (I liked that more than I thought I would) and the power connecter is on the side (I hate that). But otherwise the overall design doesn't look too bad.

I assume I'll have it in a week or two (opted for the free 5-7 day shipping). I'll let you know.

For now, I'm still keeping the 200A5...

-n

clie

07-09-2003, 12:20 PM

To nedlyj.

I'm glad to hear that you're doing the test on the Compaq X1000, that's the one I’ve posted on another forum the other day just to offer people a different option for wide screen laptop other then the M500.

http://forums.designtechnica.com/showthread.php?threadid=2343&perpage=10&pagenumber=6

One of the great things about the x1000 is you can customize in anyway you like. My question for you will be, if the DVD-RW drive is an option when you purchase yours? Because the X1001us model has the CD/DVD-RW combo, but apparently is not an option when I check under the x1000 series. Another thing I want to know is actual battery life when running DVD, since x1000 comes with the Centrino technology, I assume the battery should last much longer then M500...

Also, the computer has a really nice video card - ATI Radeon. That's an amazing card, but say that you want to play around with OpenGL or even play some games - how is it compare to GeForce4?

Thanks.

clie

07-09-2003, 12:43 PM

To nedlyj.

BTW, can you tell me the new "promotions " that you found for X1000? I only know the $100 rebate and the free shipping going on right now at compaq.com.

Thanks again.

nedlyj

07-09-2003, 01:11 PM

Originally posted by clie
To nedlyj.

BTW, can you tell me the new "promotions " that you found for X1000? I only know the $100 rebate and the free shipping going on right now at compaq.com.

Thanks again.

There were 5 "discounts" for me - 4 of them apply to most everyone:

1. $100 rebate
2. Free shipping
3. No Tax (except in CA and TX)
4. 10% Off Coupon code (use code SV8248 or SV7095 at checkout, thru July 17)
5. Additional 5% off (from my employer only - part of EPP plan)

So, relative to the Gateway system, I saved $100 (rebate), $95 (sales tax), $180 (10% off), and $90 (5% off). That's almost $500 for me ($400 for most everyone else) - and I won't even count free shipping because almost everyone has that now, but it's worth at least $50 most of the time.

That 10% coupon code helps a lot.

-n

clie

07-10-2003, 04:42 PM

I just talk to Compaq on the phone, they said the DVD-RW for x1000 is a "mistake", but the dvd burner option will be available later this summer.

nedlyj

07-10-2003, 05:54 PM

Originally posted by clie
I just talk to Compaq on the phone, they said the DVD-RW for x1000 is a "mistake", but the dvd burner option will be available later this summer.

Yes, I had heard that the DVD-RW would come later in the year too - but that doesn't matter to me because I have no use for a dvd burner on my laptop. It's the CDRW/DVD combo that I needed, which "is" currently available.

-n

plenoach

07-11-2003, 09:48 AM

nedlyj-

Thanks for the discount tips on the X1000. I'm working on configuring a system right now.

One question that HP hasn't been able to answer definitively:

Are there two user-accessible RAM slots? I downloaded a copy of the online manual, and the illustration and some of the text are a little on the vague side (beyond the usual "both slots may be occupied") to the point that it makes it sound as if only one might be upgradeable.

Anyone else who owns the X1000, feel free to jump in.

Thanks everyone!

-Peter

nedlyj

07-11-2003, 10:24 AM

Originally posted by plenoach
nedlyj-

Thanks for the discount tips on the X1000. I'm working on configuring a system right now.

One question that HP hasn't been able to answer definitively:

Are there two user-accessible RAM slots? I downloaded a copy of the online manual, and the illustration and some of the text are a little on the vague side (beyond the usual "both slots may be occupied") to the point that it makes it sound as if only one might be upgradeable.

Anyone else who owns the X1000, feel free to jump in.

Thanks everyone!

-Peter

Pete,

It's my understanding from looking at that manual as well that only ONE slot is actually user accessible. From the specs however it appears that the simms don't have to be the same size. So I would think you wouldn't have to replace the simms in pairs. But your initial configuration can limit your upgrade options without having to take the unit in for service to replace the internal simm. For example, unless you get a single 1GB simm installed initially, there's no way you could upgrade to 2GB without having that internal simm replaced.

Stupid design. But in the grand scheme of things, I probably won't need more than 512MB on this for a year or two. I'm much happier that at least the hard drive is easily replaceable

-n

Cloud

07-11-2003, 12:58 PM

That's a bummer about the audio control unit on the M500. It kind of seems useless if you have to have the laptop open to play music CD's. I like that it has a memory card reader, the metal shell looks sexy.

weezer006

09-19-2003, 05:48 PM

hi there, i currently own a new gateway m500. i was just curious if any of you guys had discovered or know a method by which i can modify the side "media" buttons on my laptop to work with third-party programs, such as winamp? i'd be curious; it'd be nice to be able to change tracks, pause, etc. in winamp with the side controller thing on the keyboard.

if you dunno, thanks anyways. have a good one

b4k4

09-21-2003, 02:19 PM

I know it is possible.. Although i am not sure how to do it.. I guess if you can figure out what kind of data is being sent, you could write a program to run in the background. The program would simply look for that button press, and when it gets it, it would send a keystroke to winamp or whatever. If someone finds out what data is being sent when you push a button, I may be willing to write that program.

ECA

09-21-2003, 03:04 PM

1. dont matter what a laptop looks like, as long as the options WORK. I could fill a pinata with Crap, and it would look good. but would you want to hit it.
2. Look into NEW batteries, there are a few companies that make the same design of battery, with HIGHER amp's. Which means longer life, and more time. Dont think what you GOT is what you HAVE to have.
3. Windows can only DO what the Bios lets it do. If a option dont work, look into the bios.
4. there are progs to customize KEYs, on the keyboard. make your OWN hot keys, so what you have to press a control/alt/fn/hot key
5. BETTER sound is easy, use headphones or auxillery speakers. As long as it has a decent sound card it will be great.
6. be-aware, these are CUSTOM systems, and ram configs CAN be weird. If you dont get things TOPPED out at purchase you may have problems LATER, IF you decide you want MORE of something.
7. MAKE sure it is UPTO current tech. PCI 166, USB 2.2, FIREWIRE(not for VIDEO editing ONLY), FSB, and get the intel chipset for port controls PLEASE(windows dont need special drivers for it), multi card port(SD, MD, ect).
8. KNOW what you are getting before you GET one, you get GREAT prices on obsolete/incompatible versions.

b4k4

09-24-2003, 09:06 PM

Do you have a link to these higher capacity batteries? Or a manufacturer at least? I have been looking, but all I can find is the identical battery it comes with... That would be the only improvement I make to my m500, other than the semi-lacking battery life, it is great. The battery life isn't that bad though, I get around 2 1/2 - 3 hours depending whether wireless is on or not, and my display is dim or not. I would like to see more hours out of it though. Any info would be appreciated.