*Official UL30VT-X1 Owners Lounge*

I've used premiere and after effects cs4 and so far it handles them quite well, however I haven't loaded any heavy clips or done heavy post processing so I wouldn't know for sure.

 

It's a great heads up, thx, for the Dell Outlet idea.

For me, after waiting and looking around for quite a bit, even though i'm a bit of a newbie in laptops (IBM Thinkpad T40, then my current HP dv5), it is apparent to me that for my own needs and circumstances, the lower weight, low heat generated, extreme (for today's options) battery life of ~8 hours practical actual use time, build quality, confidence in the company/name, price point... the ul30vt-A version is the best pick.

there's just nothing out there that has this basket of pros with so few cons. I don't even care that much about the switchable discrete graphics, and i'm not an avid gamer (very lightweight gamer here...blush), but hey, the option of such ability to switch is great! It's like you may never use the 0 - 60 mph 5.6 secs of your car, but hey, it's nice to know you can flip a switch to the nVidia and get uber performance.

my problem is knowning when to place the order once it becomes available. placing it right away can run the risk of it arriving prior to me being there to accept the package. placing the order when i get back can mean being at the back of the queue and run the risk of the early batches of inventory running out and i'm left to wait for yet another shipment. sigh. what to do?

 

If you do put a load on, would you please report back and let me know how it did? I'm very curious as I use premiere on an almost daily basis. Thanks again

 

Thanks for the helpful answers guys, it looks like the ul30vt is the machine for me, now if it only was in stock sooner.

 

Same here, I hope those people trying to get $950 sit on their stock forever

 

Ordered mine from www.amazon.ca today.

http://www.amazon.ca/ASUS-UL30Vt-X1...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1261973751&sr=8-1

$899. Shipping estimate late Jan early Feb

Id rather the black one I think.

 

Quick question for everyone before I thank you all for the help on posting all the useful infos

I normally purchase a spare ac adapter for my laptops so I do not have to move them back and forth (I keep one in the house and one in my travel bag). I have been looking for a spare OEM or OEM equivalent quality ac adapters, but could not find any seller except one on eBay that sells for UL20 / 30. It's selling for $50, oem.

Upon closer look, I found out that it is the same power supply as my MSI Wind PC, and by typing in the Model # ADP-65HB in eBay (or PA-1650), I was able to find alternative generics with the same tip size, voltage, ampere for around $8 shipped for a 65W charger. I made the purchase tonight, and will let everyone know once I receive the item.

Has anyone else bought spare power supplies or located the OEM version of the power supply? Thanks.



Thanks to all the helps from all the posters, I have also purchased a UL30VT-X1 and could not be any happier with my decision. This is coming from an HP dm3t that I purchased just over 1 months ago.

The UL30VT-X1 is so much better in terms of being a gaming machine. I also ended up buying a 5600mah battery from Buy.com and installed an OCZ Vertex 120GB to replace the "clicky/noisy" Seagate OEM drive. All the drivers are working and I have no issues after following all the helpful posts made by others here in this forum.

If anyone have questions on how to setup the machine for Win 7 or could not get drivers/items to work in the machine and are having trouble finding the solution in this thread, please feel free to pm me.

 

I'm so glad that you're happy with your UL30Vt!

Although I can't comment as to the purchase of a compatible spare power adapter, I can certainly relate to its purchase. Isn't a spare adapter one of the easiest updates to increase user experience with a laptop? The simplicity of not having to reach under a desk and unplug a laptop for transport every time is incredibly liberating. Just fold the book, put it in your bag, and you're off!

The best part is, that this upgrade is ~$10-$20. I try to encourage everyone that I know to do this with their laptops. Of course, with the UL30Vt's amazing battery life, I'm sure you won't be needing to use that power adapter too often ..... Unless you're gaming on the go, of course!

}:^)~

 

so 4400 vs 5600 battery.... are we going from 6-7 hours on a 4400 charge to 7-8 on the 5600?... or is the difference greater? Or in any respect... an hour more?

 

Today i've booked my Silver UL 30VT(Black had run out of stock,which is fine cuz i've always wanted Silver). It should arrive before the 31st Dec.

As i am in Malaysia, the unit that i'll get isn't the X1 or the A1/A2 or whatever else it'll be called elsewhere.For us on this side of the world, it's called UL30VT-QX007V and has a different spec from elsewhere too. Maybe it's the James Bond edition(based on the 007 model number).Yes i know bad joke.

Anyway it comes in both Silver and Black,2GB RAM, 320GB HDD,Win 7 Home Premium,Bluetooth,8 cell 5600mAh Battery and 2 year Global warranty.

Decided to get an additional 2GB of RAM, Intel G2 80GB SSD and a cheap external casing to store the drive later. The laptop and RAM comes to USD844.59 while the SSD cost me USD243.77.

The laptop is only available in limited quantities and extremely hard to find.Same for the SSD drive too.None of the major outlets had them.No info on availability or even when the stocks would ever come either. I decided to get everything from an online seller on a local forum in Malaysia.

Will post pictures when i get the unit, unless someone else does so before i do

p/s: on the brochures at the outlets i went to,the models were listed as UL30Vt-C730WHP2G320GXS for Silver and UL30Vt-C730WHP2G320GXB for Black in case anyone is interested.

 

I bought an Asian model a few days ago as well, It's a Black UL30VT-QX0220V Hongkong edition. I'm visiting my wifes parents on the mainland(Shenzhen) so I thought I'd grab it to save the wait and taxes back home in Canada. $HK6650 / $895cnd out the door.

It seems to be the "top end" edition
SU7300 1.3ghz coreduo
2gb ddr3
nv210m 512mb / intel 4500m video
500gb hd seagate ST9500325AS (its dead silent no clicky sounds)
broadcom BT-253 bluetooth
intel 1000GN wifi, 5600mAh battery
targus case
mini asus branded logitech mouse
2yr international warrenty

Seems to have none of the creaking issues others have complained about, I pressed and twisted it around the palm rest area thoughly to make sure. The only issue I've had is the stupid hybrid video drivers causing the screen to turn off at the login screen... tried a few different things but it always seems to turn up. Hopefully nvidia mainstreams support for the hybrid setup and it becomes a non-issue.

 

So I'm interested in purchasing the UL30VT and noticed that Amazon.com lists the UL30VT as supporting S/PDIF output. I was wondering if anyone has been able to successfully output a digital signal from the headphone jack on this laptop.

The ASUS website doesn't seem to list this as part of the laptop's specifications so I just wanted some clarification. Thanks!

 

S/PDIF is from the HDMI port

 

Amazon has this line under "Specifications", so I think HDMI is a separate port.

Input/Output: 1 x Mic-in, 1 x audio-out (S/PDIF), 1 x VGA, 3 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x RJ45 LAN, 1 x HDMI

 

I found this on Amazon's discussions. It sounds like it is not supported.

http://www.amazon.com/S-PDIF/forum/...m_cd_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B002XZLURC

 

@mil2 and o8x8

Thanks mil2 abd o8x8, that works for me on Archlinux.

I wonder if there is a similar trick to disable the intel graphic and keep only the nvidia on ?

 

I fixed a bug where resume from suspend also requires to kill nvidia again
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5664880&postcount=1244

 

anyone find a solution for this?

 

Where in HK did you buy it from? I'm trying to locate a place that sells in HK at the moment.

 

Anyone played Modern Warfare 2 on this laptop yet? Choppy or no? What quality settings did you run it at?

 

That would be incorrect, the audio from HDMI is totally seperate. If you want to get S/PDIF out you need a 3.5mm optical S/PDIF cable or adaptor. Most modern laptaps have dual mode headphone/optical ports.

examples:
Cable
http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/1m-toslink-mini-toslink-cable.html
Adaptor
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...nology_GOP_490_TOSlink_Optical_Female_to.html

 

I'd also be interested in this.. I bought the UL30VT for the nvidia card not for the intel graphics..

 

Modern Warfare 2 on the Asus UL30VT
Asus UL80Vt Playing Modern Warfare 2

Asus UL80VT-A1 Gaming Benchmarks

 

I just bought the asus ul30vt here in malaysia...couldn't wait for amazon...

the specs are

U7300 1.3ghz coreduo
2gb ddr3
nv210m 512mb / intel 4500m video
320gb hd seagate
broadcom BT-253 bluetooth
intel 1000GN wifi, 5600mAh battery
targus case
mini asus branded logitech mouse
2yr international warranty

the hard disk does have a faint clicking noise...however i am changing to ssd so no difference to me...

i have no problem with the spacebar

but i do have a one time flickering of the screen when browsing the internet...was resolve after restarting the laptop hopefully it doesn't occur again...

bought it around 799usd...i think its quite a bargain as it has higher capacity battery compared to amazon...and come with a bag and mouse(not sure amazon has this)

only thing is that the ram is less as well as the hdd capacity ...ram can be upgraded to 4gb for extra 50usd...

 

hey there
i've been looking for one too! but evernew does not have any stock as of this moment, could you kindly let me know where you get yours?

 

ul30vt has very limited stock but i think you can order it from one of the shops at low yat

 

There was a solution on the 20-60 page in this thread i believe.

 

Thanks Abula

 

I think I figured out why the screen shuts off during boot up. If you've reinstalled the video drivers or done a clean install make sure you right click the nvidia setup.exe and choose "Run as Administrator" it seems to switch between gpu/ipg now just fine and doesn't lockup on boot.

Oh "driver sweeper" seems to help as well. You really should run it anytime you’re going to change your current video/sound drivers to forgo some annoying complications.
http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

 

My UL30VT machine run very slower on Linux (kernel 2.6.31) than on windows. This slowdown appears to be caused by the intel video driver. From the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file, it seems like the intel driver is stuck in an infinite loop making EDID probes. This use a large amount of CPU and is flooding the log file.

I wonder if there is a similar trick to disable the intel graphic and keep only the nvidia on ? I bought the UL30VT mainly for the nvidia card. I am looking forward to a get a way to disable the intel graphic.

 

Have you guys tried to see if the bluetooth can be switched on/off as a /sys/devices?
According to the BIOS, the system should be pretty similar to other laptops, like the toshibas.

Cheers

 

The US model has exact same hard disk model and multiple people have complained about how noisy it is. So, it is amazing that yours is dead silent. Can there really be so much difference between different copies of the same hard disk model? Does anybody have experience with that?

BTW, the noisy hard disk can be silenced a little by reducing in-drive power management (quiethdd under Windows, hdparm -B under Linux), but even then, it's still far from dead silent.

 

Yes it can, the control is somewhere under the "asus laptop" module (sorry, I can't give you an exact path, as I don't actually own this laptop; I was just helping my brother set it up over the holidays). BT is attached over the USB, and disabling it sends USB disconnect events.

 

Well, obviously it must be possible, but good luck finding out how...

Has anybody succeeded in getting Nvidia to work at all under Linux on this laptop? I searched extensively for such success stories and found nothing -- with this or any other laptop with hybrid graphics.

I've read claims that with hybrid graphics Nvidia is wired differently than normally, namely that the laptop LCD is not connected directly to Nvidia, but via the Intel graphics, requiring a different initialization procedure. This could be true, given that also under Windows the stock Nvidia drivers apparently don't work on this laptop and you need to use the modified version provided by Asus.

If you are inclined to experiment, you can start as I did: dump the laptop's DSDT (/proc/acpi/dsdt), decompile it using Intel's IASL compiler, and try to figure things out from the 16,000 lines of output you will get.

 

just finished reading through those pages and i found another post from a person asking about the same problem but never got a solution

 

i think it was talking about using synpatics driver or something.

 

Thanks, but I was wondering if the headphone jack actually supports the S/PDIF and if anyone's gotten it to work. I just wanted clarification due to the discrepancy between amazon.com and ASUS official specifications.

 

While I am waiting until the ac adapter to come in before confirming on the forum that it works (I am pretty sure it will as the diameters of the plug match and I have successfully charged the UL30VT with my MSI wind PC charger), I received an e-mail from one other forum reader about my experience with SSD, so here are my 2 cents in case others are thinking about the upgrade to SSDs:

Pros / Cons of SSD (generalizing Intel and Indilux based drives)

Pros
Faster - boot time in the very high teens to low 20 seconds
Completely silent. For some reason, the Seagate 2.5" in the UL30VT is noisier than other drives.
Supposed to use less battery - real life, probably not noticeable.
Heat - not really a con or a pro, probably neutral.

Cons
Cost - cost/GB hovers around 2.4-3.5/GB range, depending on sale, vs mechanical HD of 0.15-20/GB.
Smaller sized
hypothetically have a limit on number of writes.
Need to deal with new technology (TRIM enabled drive) and optimize Windows to ensure longevity of drive.

In general, it is believed that if you want the best OS drive, it's Intel SSD, but if you want highest overall throughput speed, it's Indilux based drives, with OCZ providing the best overall support (and prices of their drives are higher as a result of the better support). I think Patriot have the best warranty of Indilux drives (10 years or so).

For more details on SSD, Anand wrote a few articles that are really long read, but excellent.

And for support of Indilux based drives, OCZ's forum is world class (of course they are only supporting their own drives).

 

Anybody notice on Amazon how techno intelligence just bumped the price up another $50 to $1000?

Is it possible for them to be buying up all the stock and just jacking up the price? I'm not quite sure how Amazon works?

 

Has anyone made progress on the jerky trackpad issue? I really dislike the trackpad, with the elan driver the movement is very jerky and it is hard to get the cursor in place to do anything with. I have changed the driver to other ones (synaptics, standard ps/2, microsoft, logitech) and in each case the movement is improved, but there are no adjustments available for it. In other words, I cannot adjust whether the cursor disappears when typing, the accidental input doesnt work, cant turn off tap to click, etc.

Any solutions for this problem? Are people using the Elan drivers noticing the jerkiness?

THanks!

 

What does the "X1" in the laptop name denote?

Also, where would be the best place to buy this notebook for Canadians? It's cheaper from amazon.com... but they don't ship to Canada. The amazon.ca website costs about 100 dollars more

 

I know! ASUS needs to realize the exchange rate has been high for a very long time, $799 USD = $834 CAD

 

I think there are people using the elan drivers without problems, and I believe I'm one of them. I'm really wondering why people are having issues and others seem not to.

I don't think the movement is really that smooth, but I don't really have much trouble using it. I tried uninstalling the elan drivers and using it as a standard ps/2 device but didn't notice any difference in the smoothness of the motion, so I reinstalled the elan drivers to get the functionality back. (FYI I'm on a clean install of win 7 premium)

 

I'm in the same boat as you

 

If you live close enough to the border there are plenty of Mail Depots near border crossings that you can ship to. For a small fee they take deliveries of packages under your name.

When you bring it across the border you pay taxes.

I live in Vancouver and ship to a location in Pt. Roberts Washington. I've bought an HD DVD player, Blu Ray player, DSLR Camera Lenses and a very nice Emotiva 875watt multichannel HT amplifier this way.

If you wait for a little while www.ncix.com will probably carry this laptop, although I don't think that their price will be very far off of the CDN of $899.

 

I noticed that price. I would think Amazon would not allow that company to buy them all up. Also, if you click on "3 new" on the Amazon page for the UL30Vt-X1, you'll see someone selling it for $2400!! What is that about? I wondered if it was some other form of currency, but it doesn't seem to say so. Does Amazon allow anyone to sell anything at any price? I can imagine eBay has such inflated prices, but I'm surprised about this one on Amazon. Maybe anything goes when it comes to these "marketplace" sellers?

 

Yeah, I hope Amazon would have a system that would flag large orders of a single item to prevent this from happening. If Amazon is the only seller out there I don't know where else these guys would be getting them from.

When I clicked on their seller page I noticed they are located in the town that I work in. I'm going to stop in there to ask them what they are doing.

 

hi is there any software i could download to have a more accurate reading of the battery life...i think i saw it somewhere in some post b4 but can't seem to locate it


i seem to be only getting 6hours of battery running the intel 4500 graphic card...

i have a 5600mah battery

 

Details on pre-order date and shipment date for the UL30Vt-A1 from Asus:

We are a little behind schedule in getting the product information to Amazon. 12/31 is the target date for pre-order. The good news is Amazon should be able to start shipping the UL30VT-A1 by 1/11/10, maybe earlier.

 

So Im noticing the asian releases all include a case? Thats minor anyhow...

And whats the hard drive brand of the north american release? Is it also a seagate?