time to upgrade?

1. What is your budget?
<$2000

2. Would you consider purchasing used/refurbished?
new

3. Do you prefer a Slate, Convertible or Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC)?
convertible

4. What size Tablet PC would you prefer?


Large ~ 13.3"


5. Which country do you intent to purchase from?
usa

6. Do you have any preferences to brand loyalty or dislikes?
no

7. How many hours battery life do you require?
4+

8. What will be the primary usage scenario of this tablet? (Email/Web Surfing/Drawing/Word Processing/Entertainment/Notetaking etc)
Claims adjustor but still need wacom for dabbling in corel

9. Do you have an OS preference?
win

10. What software and tasks do you intend to run? (Microsoft Office or other Word Processing Suite/Photoshop/3D Studio Max/Autocad etc)
ms office, corelx5, Xactimate (RAM hog)

10. Do you intend on playing Games? If so please list.
no but watch netflix and like the switchable graphics on my current tm2



Screen Specifics

1. What resolution do you prefer?


WXGA - 1280x768 ~ has a wider usable area than XGA, ideal for viewing Spreadsheets and other programs that require desktop space. The mainly used resolution for new tablet PCs since 2008.


2. Do you require the screen to be readable in sunlight?
not if using an antiglare protector

3. Do you prefer your display to be glossy or matte?
no preference

4. Do you require Touch? (without pressure sensitivity) (Which one: resistive or capacitive)
yes, whatever is available

5. Do you require a Pen? (with pressure sensitivity) (Which one: Wacom or WACOM!


Component Specifics

1. What size Hard Drive and Memory do you require?

Will switch to SSD if not available

2. Do you require an Optical (CD/DVD) Drive to be built in?
no

3. Do you require ability to add a second Battery or Hard Drive (Modular Bay technology)?
no


Misc
1. Other non specific items ~ please add other items you require not covered above?
WEBCAM for skype, multi touch
2. Additional requests ~ anything other you wish to take into consideration?

Currrently have a tm2t (i3) and am at a crossroad. I run Xactimate which is a resource hog and am looking to upgrade. after pricing an SSD and 8 gigs of ram am wondering if its worth putting the money into this machine or start looking for a replacement. current stock setup on fresh reload with all the fat trimmed still locks up running the software. Is it worth spending the money on this machine? have not been keeping up with technology to know if its any better then where i am currently at. guess the question is... upgrade the hardware and wait another year, or sell the machine and combine that with the extra money to get something new.

 

just a heads up, if you are mostly looking at replacing your Tm2 with a 'full' Tablet PC (so one of the convertibles, or something that uses 'standard' parts; current ones would be the T901, T731, 2760p, X220t, whatever is replacing the XT3, and some of the older stuff) then buying any SATA II/III SSD now would mean you could use it in one of those after you are done with the Tm2 (or similar future machines), and the DDR3 that the Tm2 uses is sorta cheap @ ~$50 for 8GB and those convertibles could also use that DDR3 as well (and I don't see DDR4 coping up in computers for a while still, and at that it will be a while before it is in wide use

for SSD's buy from Crucial, Intel, or Samsung, anything else wouldn't be the best move as they suffer from major issues (partly because the new Sandforce drivers in them absolutly suck, partly becasuse the companies are going down hill and making shody products and not standing behind them -OCZ has proved itself to be the worst big manufacturer in the past year or so now, avoid them at all costs)

for ram, buy a decent brand -so no off-brand crap, or some re-branded A-DATA garbage, or OCZ, but anything else would be fine


also, when/ if you get a SSD then please do/ try a fresh install onto that and use the drivers from the SWSETUP folder on the HDD you would pull out of the machine, and you will have the thing running sleeker than you thought it ever could (trust me, all the paring down in the world doesn't compare to a clean install; you can use the Win COA code on the bottom to fully and legally activate the install from some Win 7 install media as long as its the same version as your key is for)

 

The only "upgrade" you'd likely to notice the difference with the TM2 is the Fujitsu T901 w the dedicated nVidia GPU.

 

from the offerings i was looking at it doesn't seem like the convertible market has made any progress this last year. guessing ill spend the money on the parts and wait things out. really kicking myself for not buying an i5 version but ill make do.

here is the hard drive im looking at:
Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) with Transfer Kit"]Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) with Transfer Kit
Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) with Transfer Kit

and here is the RAM
G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBSQ
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBSQ

any opinions on this hardware. from the user reviews it looks like the way to go. the drive is more then i wanted to spend but i dont think a 128g would be big enough considering on a fresh install im right at 60gigs of usage after programs. dont know if this should be a concern or not. Also i am using hp's restore option that only puts windows and drivers on. is this still not as trimmed down as it could be?

 

That ram looks good, G-skill is generally great, and the free 4GB card isn't bad


The SSD, now it depends on how much storage you must have built in, because you can simply buy a $5-15 enclosure and toss your 500GB HDD from the Tm2 in that, then you would have a 500GB USB powered external [but it will require you to to plug it in, and it isn't shock/ drop proof so whatever you store on it could likely be lost if you fumble it]... but if you want as much storage space internally then buying large is the way to go as the memory cards (even the fancy pants SDXC ones) are all very slow with barely typical USB speeds of 25-30MB/s transfer rate, and large. Faster USB flash drives are expensive, not that fast, and can be very unreliable... where as a large SSD is very fast, very reliable, and doesn't need to be dangling off the side of your computer to have the storage space, only problem is they are expensive.

But to off-set the cost somewhat, even well used SSD's command a pretty high re-sale value, especially the large ones above 120GB; so should you find you want something like the Seres 7 Slate (which wouldn't be able to use that SSD because it uses a tiny wi-fi card like SSD) then you could easily sell it for a very good price and have lost very little over the use of the SSD

So buying large will be just fine, except for the hit your wallet will take

 

ordered the stuff, should be here wednesday.

 

cool, that SSD should make it feel like a whole new machine (especially if you have never had a SSD before)
best of luck

 

stuff came in today, cloned the drive jsut to get a comparison.... Yeah, still slow even with 8 gigs of ram... reinstalling everything now and then ill see what happens