New T2020 recommended software/upgrade?

[Mistax]

finally received my T2020 from the refurb store and i was wondering what i should look into upgrading or software to get.

I'm currently a student in college majoring in CompSci and love to do Digital Media/Art. Majority of my classes are now in PowerPoint/PDF and what not.
I would like to be able to use it for math/science/ and possible engineer courses.

The t2020 is a ULV 9300 with 2gb of ram and a 160gb 5400rpm drive.
Comes with a 6 cell and a regular DVD/CD-RW dock and Win Vista 32.

I was wondering if it would be worth getting 4gb of ram and dropping the 160gb for a SSD and for the OS upgrade to Win7 32.

Software wise i heard one note/evernote and pdf renvue are good start.

[Frank]

RAM:
4GB is always better than 2GB However, 2GB is a lot already, and if you don't use a Virtual Machine or process huge files sometimes you won't notice a difference.

Win 7:
The upgrade to Win 7 is advisable, it's not only faster, but also more tablet PC optimized. It has a much better TIP and other features which makes it a joy to use on a tablet PC with the pen. Also does it work better with SSDs than Vista.

If you do the upgrade and also install 4GB of RAM, then you can also think about using Win 7 64bit. This will allow you to address the full 4GB of RAM, and if you use some 64bit optimized software, like PS CS4 64bit, you'll also notice a speed improvement.
Though, Fujitsu does not fully support the 64bit OS yet, this means that some rare Fujitsu specific tools won't work, e.g. Security Panel. It works regardless what OS you use, but you can't change the code in a 64bit OS, you'll need a 32bit OS for this.


SSD:
The speed improvement will be noticeable at boot up or first start of programs, but with 4GB of RAM, Win 7 and the improved SuperFetch, and the use of sleep mode, the difference will be really small in normal use again.
A good 160GB SSD is really expensive at the moment. If you don't need more space and have enough money to buy one, then why shouldn't you use it. However, I couldn't live with just 160GB, also is the speed difference not worth the money in my opinion. Better get a 500GB HDD for much less money.


Software:
Well, there are a lot of useful tools for a tablet PC. Sadly does every software has its quirks.
Larger software worth a look:
Microsoft Journal, Microsoft InkSeine, Microsoft OneNote, Evernote, Bluebeam PDF Revu, Grahl PDF Annotator.
Inkseine is great for brainstorming, Journal and OneNote for heavy notetaking (both have their advantages and disadvantages), Evernote for casual notes (as far as I remember isn't it possible to mix ink with text), PDF Revu as PDF viewer/annotator/editor and with some tricks note taking program, PDF Annotator for normal PDF annotating.

Just try every software and find the best mix for you.
I used ON in the past, but stopped using it because the bugs made me crazy and I wasn't able to do the stuff I needed. The same with Journal, just not enough features.
InkSeine, I liked the ideas, the lack of features made it useless for me.
PDF Annotator, a small and simple tool, sadly not usable for me and it did not work as I liked, finally I only use PDF Revu at the moment, and if Bluebeam keeps improving it as they do at the moment, I won't stop using it.
I keep all my files in PDF format, so everyone is able to read it, I have good print outs and it's easy to keep everything organized. However, it's perfect for my needs, others may prefer Journal or other tools.

There are also tons of little tools which may be interesting for you, like TEO, several OneNote PowerToys, other tools mentioned in the Software area.
You may also want a useful calculator, so either take a simulated TI, HP or other calculator, or, which I use, XCalc which uses RPN, just the best notation

[Kyle Porter]

Originally Posted by Frank

SSD:
The speed improvement will be noticeable at boot up or first start of programs, but with 4GB of RAM, Win 7 and the improved SuperFetch, and the use of sleep mode, the difference will be really small in normal use again.

However, I couldn't live with just 160GB, also is the speed difference not worth the money in my opinion.

Speaking as a SSD user this isn't completely true. Overall system responsiveness is EXTREMELY snappy, due to the low access times. It got to the point were I felt my buddies 2 Raptor's were a little slow (in RAID 0). The low access times make it hundreds of times faster (Literally and mathematically, surprisingly).

Basically what I'm saying is it is worth every penny to upgrade, even if it means you have to find a hybrid storage solution (External HDD for media).