I finaly recived my Scaleo X computer during the week just before christmas. I'am very happy with the configuration consisting of an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, 1GB memory, Crative X-FI sound card, Nvidia 7650GS graphics and 2 x 250 SATA drives.
So far so good.. but the main reason why I chosed to buy an SCALEO X computer was because to my undestanding this was the FSC "Top of the line" computer for consumers, and above all because this was a "Future proof: fully expandable and upgradeable" computer as stated on both the FSC swedish and english , and i guess German, sites.
I saw this machine as very good ground to start from and grow with and had a lot of plans about uppgrading memory and instaling a better graphics in the future.. I really did belive i could "grow" with this "state of the art" consumer computer for a reasonable long time (3 year or so).
Now.. the reason I'm writing this is because after checking that all the components were delivered and installed as stated I have been studying wich future uppgrades I can make in this computer. Guess what I found? ;
1. This computer is build around a Micro ATX Motherboard (MS-7293
v1.X). Maybe it is just me... but I would not choose a M-ATX board to build a high performance computer.
2. Only two possible PCI slots! One is now taken by the Creative X-FI card...wich leaves me with only one PCI slot. This is not what I understand as "Fully expandable and uppgradable".
3. only 1 PCI-E x 1.
3. A maximum of 2GB RAM! (althoug the presales info I've got stated att leas 3GB was possible!!) As of now both memory banks are taken (2x512MB) My old computer that i "buildt" myself and is around 2 years old does support 3GB of memory. 2GB RAM is not future proof by any
standards. My 2-3 years old Life Book laptop supports 2GB. Yes the memory of the ScaleoX is faster (DDR2)..but still.
4. Only SATA/150 is supported! To my knowledge the SATA/300 standard has been around for some time now.
I suppose it is my fault for not checking exactly wich MOBO the computer had but to tell you the truth this is no easy information to find on the siemens-Fujitsu site... I just could not imagine that the "best" of the FSC consumer computer would be this limited. The computer is not even a month old and I allready have to consider a MOBO uppgrade... this would also mean that I have to buy a new WinXP MCE licens as OEM licens do not alow for motherboard uppgrades as far as I know.
So what is my actual question? None really... but I feel kind of cheated to say the least and wanted to hear your comments and opinions. Is it jus me or would you also say that this is _not_ a fully uppgradable and future proof computer?
Please feel free to comment and excuse my bad english spelling.
Best regards
/Kenneth