M2400, another ultra-sleek notebook on the market

Zatni Arbi, Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id

First, here's a little tip about the importance of power supply for our desktop computers. My PC is a Pentium III machine that I assembled myself. I chose an expensive ElanVital T10 casing for this PC, which also came with an ElanVital power supply.

Within the last three months or so, the fan inside this power supply stopped working. I kept procrastinating and thought I would take it to Astrindo, the company that imported it, and ask them to replace the fan as soon as I had the chance. Well, one day last week, my PC suddenly started to reboot on its own. Soon it became worse, such that I had to turn it off altogether. When I turned it on again, I checked the BIOS. The ASUS CUSL2 motherboard was smart enough to tell me that the processor had become too hot and unstable. That was not a surprise to me, as I had overclocked the 733 MHz Pentium III processor to run at 907 MHz. Overclocking is very easy to do with this motherboard. When I reset the processor speed to its original 733 MHz, it worked again. But the power supply was now as hot as a toaster.

I knew that if kept using it I would end up losing my entire PC. So I went to Astrindo in Mangga Dua Mall and had the fan replaced. I was quite lucky, as it had a very good power supply that was still working properly. Cheaper power supplies might not have lasted a week without the fan.

While the fan was being replaced, I had a chat with the technicians there. I learned from them that it was really important to use a good power supply in one's system.

"ElanVital's power supplies are very expensive -- around Rp 500,000 apiece. On the other hand, at the computer stores upstairs in this building you can find a complete casing for your PC, including the power supply, for around Rp 160,000," Eko, one of Astrindo's technicians, told me.

"The problem with cheap power supplies is that they can quickly toast the motherboard and even the graphics cards, because these components are very sensitive to voltage spikes."

I was also told that a lot of computer stores cut costs by using cheap casings and power supplies in order to be able to offer their PCs at competitive prices to their customers.

"They will use original ASUS motherboards, because that is what their customers want. But computer buyers very seldom check the power supply that they get. If something happens to the motherboard, the store will just return it to us, because we will replace every burned motherboard as long as it is still under warranty," Eko added.

I asked him what they did with the returned motherboards. "We just dump them," said Eko. Once the boards are burned, they cannot be repaired.

Fortunately, as Eko told me, the latest motherboards from ASUS are now equipped with protection against poor voltage. "The computer will simply refuse to power up if the voltage levels are incorrect," he said.

So, if you buy a locally assembled PC, make sure it has a good power supply. Use a utility such as ASUS PCProbe to check the voltage levels of the power supply output. And if the fan stops working, do not procrastinate as I did. You might not be as lucky as I was.

Sleek notebook: Last week, I also got to test drive the third notebook in a row. After the IBM ThinkPad A31p and the Acer TravelMate 630, this time it was an M2400 notebook from ASUS.

In many respects, the M2400 is not that different from the ultra-portable ASUS S1300 that I reviewed in early April. They are both wrapped in a polished magnesium cover, their keyboard and touchpad are basically the same, and they are both very sexy.

Like the S1300, the M2400 has a built-in modem, a Fast Ethernet port, an IEEE 1394 port for video capture, a VGA-out port, a parallel port, a PC Card slot plus line-in and line-out audio ports. Like the S1300 too, the M2400 comes with neither a S-Video port nor a floppy diskette drive. You will need to buy an external, USB-based floppy drive if you choose this notebook.

The first difference between the M2400 and the S1300 is the size of the TFT screen. While the S1300 comes with a 13.3-inch screen, the M2400 has a larger, 14.1-inch one. I found the M2400's screen better than the slightly bluish one on the test unit S1300 model. The second difference is that the M2400 has a bay for removable drives. My M2400 test unit came with an internal, removable DVD-ROM drive.

The third difference is the CD playback control buttons on the front side of the M2400. These buttons enable one to play audio CD without powering up the notebook, as if it were a CD player. Once I accidentally left a Balinese gamelan CD in the drive and it played it over and over again for the entire day. When I finally stopped the CD, there was still a lot of power in the battery. When the notebook is on, the buttons will control the playback using the operating system. Needless to say, the notebook is far too expensive for just playing audio CDs.

No operating system: I had quite a scare when switching the notebook on for the first time. After showing the ASUS logo, the text on the screen read "Press any key to reboot". It happened over and over again, making me think I had damaged it. I had been told by Pak Fendi, who lent the unit to me, that it was brand new. How come it refused to work?

I frantically contacted Pak Fendi to let him know that he might have sent me a defective product or that I might have ruined it. He laughed and told me that the M2400 came with no operating system installed. In fact, there was no operating system CD in the box. I had to find it and install it myself.

Fortunately, I still had an unused Windows Me that I had bought at Changi (airport) around two years ago. I installed it on the notebook, and it worked flawlessly. ASUS provided all the necessary device drivers on a CD ROM included in the notebook's bag.

What is on my wish list? There are a couple of small things that ASUS could improve on this US$1,750, Pentium III M notebook. As with the S1300, I wish there were a space between F4 and F5 and between F8 and F9, so that one could easily locate them without really looking down at the keyboard. I frequently use Alt-F4 to close applications, and that is why this is such a big deal to me. The Insert and Delete keys could be grouped together with the arrow keys, too, I suppose.

I found placing the CD on the tray a little too challenging. I had to firmly press the CD down on the shaft before it would snap on, and I was worried I might damage it after all that pressure. Like the S1300, the two speakers on the M2400 are too weak, too.

ASUS also placed the backslash and vertical bar key to the left of the space bar. This was not a very good design decision, I think. I often pressed this key unintentionally, thinking that it was the Alt key.

Despite these minor wishes, this notebook is really a great joy to use. The power is more than sufficient for most tasks these days. Connecting to the Internet from a hotel room or business center is a "no-brainer" with the built-in Fast Ethernet port. The notebook is very quiet, too, so you will not disturb your sleeping partner.

It is not easy to choose between the S1300 and the M2400. However, I guess I would go for the M2400 for its larger and better TFT screen.