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Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo A1630
Submitted by Coyotefanuk [edit]
Specifications
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
512mb DDR PC2700 333mhz
60GB Toshiba HDD2183 Hard-drive
Radeon M11 9700 128mb VGA and TV Out
15.4" WXGA Screen
DVD+RW,+R,CD+-RW,CD+-R.
3in1 media slot
3 USB2 ports, 1 firewire port, modem and lan ports, ir port and parrellel socket.
£999 From comet
Review
Look at the spec, now look at the price, now look at the spec again, price, spec, price, spec it just doesnt make sense. Now add to the equation the fact that this is one of the most powerful gaming laptops you can buy with some users showing stable overclocks giving a 3dmark 03 score of 3700.
It comes as no suprise that these things are selling out fast however I was one of the lucky ones who picked one up on the release weekend. A drive to Comet and a look and play with the machine told me the build quality was solid so out came the cash and after a quick check for dead pixels it was mine. Hugging the box close to my chest I dashed home to setup my new toy.
Showing the patience of a saint I got home and plugged it in and left it to fully charge the battery. Battery charged I fired it up and was met by a bright, sharp comfortable to use 15.4 inch widescreen screen. Happy that was working I set about Formatting the Hard-drive and reinstalling the software I use. All of the software comes on indivdual disks including a full version of Win Xp home. Next came an installation of the latest Omega drivers before a little benchmarking.
At standard clock speeds On first run this is my results:
3d mark 01
1024X768 = 11832
1280X800= 10001
3d mark 03
1024X768 = 3212
One of the big features of this laptop is the ease with which it handles overclocks, some people especially in Germany have added 500 marks to the '03 results with no loss of stability or problems. At the end of the day these are only benchmarks but after a week or two of UT2004, DX2, Thief3 and Total war Viking war I can report that this laptop will rip through the latest games with ease.
Thanks to the power-saving features of the Athlon chip which clocks down to a nice 800mhz normal websurfing and word typing will return a healthy 3 hours on full charge with the graphics chip also clocking down for maximum battery.
Internet and LAN access is also fully covered with the inclusion of a built in modem, 10/100 lan port and wireless (b+g). All which function fine straight from the box.
One big factor for me is the support from the FS website with updated drivers and bios flashes being made available. So far the bios has been updated once even though the laptop has only been out one month which must be a good sign that they are still trying to get the best out of the machine.
Ok that should be enough for the less technically minded so you can run out and buy one now. For the more Hardcore read on.
My next task was to strip it to it's component parts and have a little poke around at the gubbins. I shall catalogue it here in order.
1) Take out the battery and DVD drive, easily done with 2 little slides.
Fujitsu battery and a Ricoh RW8165A DVD drive
2) Flip it over and undo the 11 little screws on the bottom, off comes the access panel to display it's guts.
3) One screw and a little light pulling see's the Hard-drive removed
Toshiba HDD2183 60GB 4200RPM
4) Two little clips per RAM module and out they come.
2X256mb DDR PC2700 333mhz CL2.5
5) Two more clips and the wireless module is removed complete with main and auxillary wires which must run up either side of the screen. Underneath this lies the Bios chip and the Bios battery
6) 5 spring loaded numbered screws and out comes the CPU heatsink revealing a Socket 754 and an Athlon 64 3000+. Pull a little lever and out pops the standard processor. Very easy for future upgrades.
7) Next comes the GPU heatsink which like the CPU heatsink is an absolute monster.
5 screws, a little wiggle and out it comes revealing the Radeon M11 9700 128mb soldered onto the mainboard. Also revealed are the chipset controllers which are also cooled.
Reassembly is carried out in exactly the same way but reversed. I was very suprised at the cleanliness of the interior as my previous Advent was a dust chewing dirt sucker.
Pictures
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