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A Ferrari 4005 Owner, Should I "Upgrade/Downgrade" To Travellmate 8204 ???

post #1 of 11
Thread Starter 
Hi, I'm A proud owner of Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi that i've purchased about half a year ago.
Anyway yesterday i saw a commercial about the new Acer Travelmate 8204, and i've been thinking to sold my ferrari to get one of those.

Do you guys thinks it's a wise choice ?

Actually i'm quite happy with my current Ferrari, apart from some problem i had before such as:

-Annoyinglly loud noise from the Slot loading DVD drive (especially when playing some pirated DVD's) I dont know wheter this is because the "Slot" in design or not, but i thought it will be "quiter on the normal tray drive that's come on the 8204 ???

-Fan Noise that's also quite loud when compared to my ASUS W1N which have Intel's Centrino proc, So i thought maybe the AMD is hotter so that the fan is running in higher r.p.m and producing more noise. I think the 8204 with Intel's Centrino Duo will be cooler and running quiter ???

-Battery life is quite short, actually it's longer when the laptop is turned on without any activity at all, but when i'm doing something heavy eg. gaming, encoding, etc, the Ferrari battery life is noticably shorter than my ASUS W1N with dothan 1,7.

-The Design!!! i really hate the "red" colour on the sides of the laptop, and also i hate the ferrari emblem, and "Ferrari 400" writing on the screen bezel, INMHO it looks very "CHEAP" actually i hate it from the first time i saw it, but i have no choice as the Ferrari is one of the most Powerfull 15'4" machine when i bought it, I do like the "rubbery" feeling on the casing though and also the carbon fibre lid :P. THat;s why i fell in love when i saw the 8204, it's like the Ferrari minus all the reds and emblems that i hate! :P But i'm still confused about the material of the casing , is it the same "rubberry" material ???

ANyway some of other points that i like about hte 8204 is because the centrino duo is more suited to me than the turion64 , cause we'll never know when will the vista's launch and also when will it be stable enough to be used as the main OS. I didn;t game that much,
but i always have more than 2 or 3 program running on my laptop at once.
eg, itunes,firefox,excel, movie encoding software, anti virus , etc. and i thought using the centrino duo will make the lappy run more stable since my ferrari sometimes like to freeze when too much program run at once.

But i did a research a little bit , and saw people complaining about 8204 Screen, Wi-Fi, performance, etc.

As for the screen i thought it's the same with the ferrari ??
both are acer and same 15'4" WSXGA+ matte screen, i mean how different can they be ??

Wi-Fi and connectivity problem i have no idea about it. as i seldom use it but i gues being a centrino , the 8204 surelly come with intel proset wirelles installed like the one on my ASUS W1N. and that program is a little hard to understand , i prefer the built in wi-fi program on the ferrari

Overall performance wise, on the paper the 8204 should beat the hell of the ferrari quite easilly, but i have no idea on the fact, maybe someone can help ?

and also will the 8204 run Hotter than the ferrari ???

Please guide me here, am i smart of dumb if i change my Ferrari to 8204 ???

Or is there any other laptop that match the performance and also small and light enough to be carried around everyday to the offiice ? i will not buy 17" .
15"4' is the biggest for me , it will be better if there are some 12" with about the same spec :P

All the expert, please guide me here, and i'm very sorry about my broken english

but i must make my decision fast casue the price in my country is still not updated, and the Ferrari 4005Wlmi still more expensive than the 8204

Ferrari is US$2590 8204 is US$2300 ( cause it;s on promotion)
post #2 of 11
If you read some of the other posts you will realise that people still don't have very good opinions for the 8204.

There are several problems with it, some can be fixed (such as the Intel network problem), while others are currently unfixed (such as the buzzing of the x1600).

Personally I thing that buying a laptop has to do with personal preferences and if you can go and use an 8204 at a store to see if you like the screen and how noticeable the buzzing sound is.

I also have the F4005, which was bought 09/05, and even though the 8204 might benefit me more (I do a lot of programming, encoding and gaming) I will probably wait for a bit before I buy it.

Now to answer some of your questions about the ferrari. I also think that the Slot Drive is a bit loud but only when I first load a DVD. While the movie is played it is actually quite quiet.

The Fan problem has to do with "bad" ACPI programming and not with the Turion getting hotter than the P-M. For battery Life I get around 3:00 hours on battery while surfing the net, using word and other "light" usage. If you play games on battery or encode stuff then you should not expect anything more than 1:30 tops, since the CPU will be constantly clocked at 2.0GHz and the RAM will also be clocked to maximum.
post #3 of 11
Thread Starter 
@phsycotic-uk
thx for the response
the problem is i cant find any store in my country that have 8204 displayed.
and also trying on the stroe enviroment won;t be such a good idea as the last time i tried my ferrari on the store, the fan noise doesnt give me any problem, but when i do lot of work at night in my bedroom, then the noise started to bother me.

abotu the battery life , will the centrino duo last longer ???
cause i thought they are more efficient and uses smaler voltage, and also if i see the spec sheet, the battery on the 8204 have bigger capacity ??
post #4 of 11
ok few things

1) there is no Wi-Fi prob. Problem was with the NIC intel lan driver, but note well, THERE IS NO PROBLEM NOW

2) i love my screen. mine took a little color tweaking, but i am very happy with it

3) my x1600 buzzes only in certain situations, at a barely audible level. for example, in CS:S, it buzzes when i am in the first menu, but once i get ingame, it disappears. the problem also may be fixed with an actual mobility driver, which will be coming out soon.

4) duo owns. i get 4 hours battery with wifi on browsing. the concept of heavy gaming to me not plugged into battery is ludicrous, so i cant comment on that.

lastly - the 8204 runs VERY cool. like no heat from touch pad / top of laptop while gaming, and barely warms the legs when surfing internet. it does get warm while gaming underneith. it spits hot air outside on the right, but i dont place my mouse within 3 inches of the laptop
post #5 of 11
well I dont know what country you live in, but if the 8204 is actually CHEAPER than the ferrari, buy it.

Quote:
Location: Bandung, Indonesia
well then your country is indonesia :P

Anyway if upgrading to the 8204 wont cost you a lot, do it. If is gonna cost you $600 +, then I think you should for something better..

and you dont like the Ferrari design! wow!
post #6 of 11
Thread Starter 
@TAY
the x1600 will only buzz when pushes hard right ???
i mean if i do webrowsing and let's say microsoft word, will it buzz ???
i'll have no problem if it buzz when playing games, cause when playing games , normally i wear a head phone anyway :P

@filipo
yes i'm from Indonesia, i also think it's weird to see the 8204 price is cheaper than the ferrari
cause on my neighbour country, eg. Singapore, the 8204 is more expensive than even the latest Ferrari 4006 Wlmi with turion 2,2 !!!
anyway i've calculated the price of my second hand ferrari, and i'll be topping up about US$ 350-450
do u think it's a good deal ??
but do note that in my country the 8204 is only equipped with 120GB Hdd and 1G RAM, and also that cool Bluetooth VOip telephone thing is not included
post #7 of 11
Well then my suggestion is wait for the MSI-1039. It'll be a 15,4" that comes with the X1600, and will probably be less expensive than the ferrari and the 8204... I just dont know if there are custom laptop builders in Indonesia that can provide you this rig though..
post #8 of 11
Thread Starter 
nope never heard of that brand before in my country
and also i already bought acer EZ dock, if i buy the 8204 it will still be usable right ???
another thing is i already have this booqbags for my ferrari, will it fit the 8204 too
cause the bags is damn expensive
post #9 of 11
Thread Starter 
anybody?
post #10 of 11
cause the bags is damn expensive???

come on! you someone who bough Ferrari and want to switch to 8204, Man look, this is the truth also it may be little hard.

8204 & Ferrari are great computer, for you there will nothing you can do with 8204 can't with Ferrari, except waist your money on something that you MAY regret later, 8204 is not the awaited perfect machine, it has 2 things that shout don't buy me, new tech. that is not widly used yet, and problems that can get scary sometimes, also, Ferrari has a better components than 8204, I don't claim to be an expert, but from here and there you can gain the same point of view.

Look, don't buy 8204, trust me, keep your ferrari, I have one, invest money on HD and diskeepr 10, and beleive me it will pay.

Better if you really want something GOOD, wait later X1800 is mobile now, and there is a great chance it can find it's way to the new Ferrari with the dual Turion.

Don't Switch, Doesn't worth it!
post #11 of 11
Aren't the F4005 and the 8204 the same size?(give or take some mms)
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