13.3" Monster from ASUS -- F6Ve-B1

Well I have looked at that page a few times, but I was wondering at other opinions since sometimes mileage may vary. Also, you know, extensive hands on life experience is far more useful and accurate than synthetic artificial testing.

 

I'd love to have one of these beasts. Any chance that there will be a review up of it on the main site sometime?

 

I have just ordered this laptop, but I will only be able to make a writeup on it two-and-a-half weeks from now, at the earliest. So not much hope here.

 

Hi and congrats E.B.E. for taking the plunge on it! The thing surely looks really appealing (at least on paper; and pictures as well...).

I have a nice rep plus one awaiting in the lobby for your review to come!

I noticed you hesitated for some time (or a couple of dozen of posts) whether this thing is a worthy replacement for your ASUS W7Sg. And may it be so!

On a side note, owning as ASUS notebook is not an unfamiliar venture for you as evidenced in your sig - the fourth one in a row, right? That would ultimately make you the most experienced ASUS' notebook owner on NBR and thus a pretty reliable source to address one's queries. Well, here we come to the point of my post - I have one [query].

Namely, in light of the fact that you are the creator of this thread: forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3757650 and the author of this comment: forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=4666727&postcount=2 I must really ask what makes you steer towards the brand, of which many shortcomings you are more than well informed? That's more that enough to discourage a potential buyer, but not you...

Are your buying decisions based on some kind of belief in ASUS-brand superiority (well earned on the computer base component market) or the reason is more trivial and comes down to your connections and the ability to strike good deals on all those machines?

Just a random thoughts that comes into my mind after having read some 3-digit number worth of your posts [so far; and counting in gMail-speed...] :>

Take care,
AdiQue

PS To provide some background, I am moderately-to-quite happy owner of the V1-series ASUS notebook, sadly endowed with infamous [not-so-fake] battery-problem. I'v had it replaced. And sadly not by ASUS Poland - they rejected my RMA. Thankfully I found support in ASUS UK consultants, who would have replaced the battery had I shipped it to them. They pushed .pl with a couple of e-mails that worked miracles. Thank God I can speak English. Otherwise ASUS would have screwed me. Dang!

Off-topic PS Has MysticGolem, the V1JP-reviewer part from NBR altogether??

 

Congrats EBE! Guess you decided to give you current Asus's some company eh?

 

Thanks, notice I said "2.5 weeks at the earliest"; it is at that time that I am leaving on holiday, and it is not at all sure I will have time for the writeup at that time.

Firstly, I am not the one who owned most ASUS machines on this forum, I think that distinction goes to David who has owned more than I can count; also ViciousXUSMC has had his fair share (at least 3 that I know of), and some other members too. The difference is, they sell'em, I keep'em.

Well there is no brand loyalty or "belief in ASUS". It's simply that:
- this notebook is the best match (at least specs-wise) for what I needed at the current point.
- the international warranty was a major point.
- also there was a set of specific circumstances that worked to its advantage; it was most convenient to get. But no, I do not have any "connections" that enable me to get ASUS cheaper than anyone else.
- not least importantly, I know the ASUS brand and I know what to expect; I know for instance exactly how to deal with warranty, bloatware, installing Windows XP so I will have it running in < 1 day, etc. So, familiarity also plays a role.

So I just weighted all these advantages with the disadvantages:
- the build quality which is below golden-age ASUS notebooks such as my V6;
- the possibility of overheating with these powerful components in such a small frame which would led to reduced reliability;
- the air stinkener... oh sorry, freshener
- the possibility of being royally screwed (sorry I don't find any other word for it) if I have to deal with the (poor) ASUS support here in the Netherlands for this notebook.

And I decided to take the risks.

Wow, I think even I didn't re-read that many of my own posts. Joking Thanks for the kind words, they're appreciated.

Not sure, haven't seen him in a long while.

Thanks, yeah in case they were feeling lonely.

 

Well, mine is waiting for me when I get home thanks to GentechPC.

I plan on spending the weekend putting it through the paces so if there is anything specific y'all want let me know. I have the usual games I can use for benchmarking as well. Still debating on whether or not to use 32 or 64-bit OS.

 

Ordered from Gen eh? Great Choice!

Has anyone on this site done a review yet? (User owned)

 

Oh mine is also from GenTechPC.

I don't think there is a review up yet.

 

It's got 4GB, so why not go with Vista64? I haven't had any driver issues with it, which is quite unlike XP x64

 

Off the top of my head, David has had at least five Asus NB's that I can think of....He had a U3, a U6, a G50, hes selling an EEE 1000HE, couple of others certainly.

Haha, same though as far as keeping them. W7s, an EEE 1000H (ok, so that one is gone now...but still), and now (wait for it, wait for it) a W3J - uh huh, thats right. I almost bought an F6Ve too, but then I found a W3J FS thread and couldn't hold back.

I might be getting one of these beasts in a little while for review as well, so keep checking my website, it might show up.

 

I've owned so many brands of notebooks HP, Dell, Toshiba, Sony, and Gateway. Yet somehow i never got a Asus I know that will change this year though, im so certain!

 

Great someone finally can run some benchmarks
Do the usual 3DMARK06 test and whatever games you have
Congratulations!

 

OMG you bought an ASUS W3J in 2009? Well I can understand, it's one of the greatest machines ASUS has ever made. Still, a bit outdated.

I would be most interested in temperature benchmarks. Ken has run some tests for me on the F6Ve, and we were left with somewhat of a conundrum.

Ken could find no programs besides Everest that can read the temperatures off the GPU, and Everest gives unrealistic results (65*C idle, 106*C !!! under load). At the same time, physical measurements with the "laser gun" temperature sensor on the GPU heatpipe read: 38*C under idle, and 49*C under load.

The difference between the laser gun and Everest is huge -- nearly 60 degrees, much larger than for the CPU (at idle, the laser gun on the CPU heatpipe says 35 and Everest reads CPU43/Core1 36/Core2 38 -- so the difference is at most 5 degrees).

This indicates that, almost surely, Everest does not read the GPU temperature accurately.

So my request from owners at this point is to:

a) verify if your notebook exhibits the same behavior as described above (i.e., Everest reads very GPU high temps but the notebook feels cool to the touch -- I'm asking for "feel" since not everybody owns temperature sensors and is willing to open up the notebook).

b) if possible, try to find a software that gives more accurate readings of the GPU temperature; and post those temperatures, at idle and under load (e.g., 3DMark06).

Other miscellaneous useful pieces of information that came out during my discussions with Ken:
1. the notebook is glossy on the LCD cover/top; on the rim of the keyboard; but is not glossy on the palmrest and on the rim of the LCD. Especially the palmrest is important here, since a glossy palmrest means fingerprint galore.
2. there exists a 9-cell battery option, but it's not yet available in the US. Given a 2.5hours runtime on the 6-cell, the 9-cell should allow a battery life of 3.7 hours or so.

I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize the absolutely outstanding help that I got from Ken from GenTechPC during my purchase; he has spent time benchmarking two separate F6Ve units, taking bottom covers off to measure with the temperature sensor on repeated occasions, answered to very detailed sets of questions, and much more. Thanks, Ken!

 

Wow, I would love to get my hands on the W3J... as EBE mentioned, it's one of the greatest notebooks that Asus have made

Just to set the record straight, the Asus notebooks I own/owned are: C90S, W7S, M50Sv, G50V, U6V, G71G, EeePC 701, and EeePC 1000HE..... but hey, who's counting?

This goes without saying that Ken has been equally as helpful with all my Asus purchases within the last few years and is truly an asset to the Asus forum community

 

I'm really really trying to find a uk seller for either the F6Ve-B1 or the N81Vp-C1. Both look awesome, although on Youtube there are a couple of video's indicating that the N81 is significantly faster in Fear 2 (I'd be playing that for sure). However the F6 is smaller, so I'd probably buy whatever one I found first.

I have the most hope for laptopsdirect.co.uk, who I have contacted but they can't locate either machine on their lists. They have the older F6v's (ati 3470?) and the N80. I've found it on German and Polish sites, but it seems that they can't seem to jump the measly 26 miles across the channel. Any hints or tips for finding one of these new models in the Uk would be much appreciated.

Before finding these, I was dangerously close to buying an XPS 13 (1340) but was put off by high running temps, questionable reliability and useless tech support. I just hope my dell desktop never breaks down...

Many thanks;

Graeme

 

Looks like we have a review posted... Sounds like not-so-good build quality. Of course we already know the insides are decent:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4923&review=asus+f6+f6ve

 

Given the price I paid, I was looking at either the W3J or a new 1000HE. Understandably, the W3J won out. For all its outdated-ness, the 3 year old W3J (mine has the 2GHz T7200, 2GB RAM, X1600, 100GB HDD) can still hold its own against pretty much any comparably-sized new $1000 notebook.

David, you are a glutton for Asus laptops. EIGHT? And they're all new ones too, none from before mid-2007....singularly ridiculous.

Ken and Gentech are pretty awesome. I bought my W7S from him back in 2007, and he has helped me out numerous times, both on the forums and otherwise.

------back to the F6Ve

The build quality complaints are certainly disappointing, but I was happy to see that the temperatures weren't as high as I expected (about the same as my W7S, actually), and the battery life was surprisingly decent....I'm happy with 2 hours out of the W7, so 3 hours with that much computing horsepower is pretty good.

 

Rakkuamiya:
Asus tends to be slightly slower when releasing new notebooks in the UK. You may have to wait a couple months before seeing them there. Also, I should also mention that Asus UK customer service is on the shoddy side. It might not be the best choice if you cherish your after-sales service.

Well, I've had other brand notebooks within the past few years too.... the new macbook (late 2008), Dell Latitude E6400, and I'm currently using a Dell Precision M2400 as my main work/school notebook which is turning out quite well despite a few qualms. The reason why I usually go with Asus is mainly because of their outstanding warranty, better than average build quality (on most models), and they usually offer great bang-for-buck systems.

 

I read the review, the build quality issues are somewhat worrying indeed, especially the part about the weakness in the ODD corner. These issues are not unexpected to me though -- I see this more as a budget performance machine, whereas the reviewer seemed to be expecting something more. Maybe part of my view is due to the fact that I am a European that paid an American (i.e., much cheaper than usual for me) price for the notebook, so I may be wrong.

On the bright side, temps seem to be just fine -- although I saw no actual CPU or GPU temps. And the battery life is also OK given the components inside.

One point where I totally disagree with the reviewer is the looks. Part of the reason for my choosing this notebook was that it looked "bland"/subdued and not gaudy/flashy. I will take the "cheap-feeling textured plastic palmrest" anyday over a glossy palmrest like in the N81, which means fingerprint galore. Similarly, I am very happy that the "Spirograph-type pattern [...] is barely seen unless you are sitting right on top of it" -- I dislike this type of LCD cover art, and the fact the notebook had it was something that I was willing to put up with, rather than a plus for me. But this is all a matter of personal preference -- it seems the reviewer likes flashy notebooks whereas I like subdued looks more.

I am eager to see the notebook in person myself, so that I am able to form my own opinion. You'll certainly be hearing about that!

 

Hmm, there's a fine line between clean and bland and cheap. Clean: W7S; Bland: any ThinkPad; Cheap: Dell Inspiron 2200 circa 2005. All of them have plain, matte black casing and relatively straightforward styling. I need to take a closer look at the F6Ve before deciding which category it falls under. (for the record, I'm a fan of subdued laptop designs; W7s is one of my favorite laptops as far as looks go, though I kinda dislike ThinkPads...)

Pricing....its about average as far as cost goes - same as the similar sized SXPS 13, but way more powerful (and apparently poorer build quality). So its not a cheap laptop by any means, but its power makes it probably worth the price you pay. I don't know how much the build quality will change that assessment....

 

I've had the laptop for about a week now (ordered from excaliberPC for $1200), and after reading the review, I can say my opinion about this laptop hasn't changed. It amazingly fast (coming from a Thinkpad R60 lol), and the I am quite happy with the build quality, though the speakers could be better. Like many of you, I prefer the textured palmrest and the not so flashy look of the laptop. I could go without the brownish spirograph on the front, but again it is barely noticeable unless you are directly looking at it.

 

Keep in mind the reviewer really disliked the looks of this notebook, so by the time he started writing about build quality he may already have been biased against the notebook. Also take into account that there are no negative remarks on the build quality in the F6V user review -- and the two computers are based on the same chassis.

So, as always in life, take everything with a grain of salt, and form your own opinion. I certainly will in 7 days from now when I'll get to actually use the notebook.

That is precisely where I stand. Although I like the looks of the V6 at least as much as those of the W7S(g).

 

Agree, review should be focus on performance not just how it looks, you buy a computer for computing not really how it looks especially at the price range at $1200, if the looks is so important than computing then how about Asus Lamborghini VX3 12" with T9300 CPU, NV 9300M GS 256MB Video Card at MSRP..... $3,299. So is the VX3 a better laptop for computing? Absolutely not.

 

So basically with the new ATI Mobility HD4570 is just a powerful as the DDR2 Nvidia 8600M GT from the 3DMark2006 scores I am seeing here, and all in a smaller 13.3inch package !!!! Nice !!!

 

I would tend to agree with respect to the seemingly pre-judged feel of the review. While it's not a big deal, this comment just stood out to me:

Port selection was decent given the small size of the frame and every bit of space being used by something.

"Decent"? I don't think I've ever seen a notebook in this price range, with this much power, that had any more ports. Sheesh... what more could you ask for. How many notebook manufacturers out there put eSATA ports in their machines yet?

 

Indeed the selection of ports was one of the factors in my decision to buy this notebook (namely the presence of 3xUSB + VGA+HDMI+eSATA).

I know that the F6Ve was the only notebook on my 13"-14" list that had all these ports, but I cannot generalize and say it's better than most others -- since I only considered a subset that satisfied other requirements.

 

I just wish more places carried reviews of Asus notebooks. They're tough to find. I'm sort of up in the air between the F6Ve and the U6Vc. I tend to prefer 12.1" machines for my commute back and forth to work. I looked at the specs between the two and the F6Ve is only slightly larger. The U6V has pretty much all the same ports... same amount of RAM (although, slightly slower... but both use DDR2). Of course the build of the U6V is sweet. The GPU in the U6V isn't as powerful as the F6V, but it's quite capable for the size of the machine (a 9300m GS with 256MB dedicated memory). I guess my biggest issue is the price. At about $1,650 US... it's basically $400 more than the F6. There are just little gives and takes with both models. My biggest problem is that I can't find a review of the U6Vc. I can find plenty of reviews of the U6V (and it's pretty bamboo case). It's sort of like all the reviews of the F6V scented version being around forever... but only within the past day or so did we finally get a review of the F6Ve. I think I'm leaning towards the U6 (but I'll probably go in the opposite direction in the next ten minutes). I'm actually in NYC a few blocks away from J&R which carries both models. I went so far as to decide on the F6V... called to see if they had it in stock... the guy put me on hold... I had to take another call, so I ended up hanging up on him while I was waiting... but of course I ended up second guessing myself again and didn't call back.

 

Let's not exaggerate. I have a DDR2 8600M GT and it gets 3869 with a T9300 while the 4570 gets 3167 with a T9550. Take out the processor difference and the 4570 is about three quarters as powerful as the 8600M GT -- this is still very impressive for something that runs this cool and fits in a 13.3" machine because the cards are definitely of the same order, but it is certainly not "just as powerful".

I also agree about it looking just about right -- it's not entirely bland, but nor is it flashy.

One question for somebody who owns one of these machines: how much does the battery stick out from the back? I didn't notice it at all in the pictures on Newegg, but it is rather prominent in the review.

 

Newegg pics are probably promotional ones with the 3-cell battery. The pictures of the review are accurate for the 6-cell battery.

 

W3J!!!!!! (sorry, couldn't resist....its arriving today, so I'm kinda excited) Based on pics, I think the W3 looks better than the V6, but I'm less of a traditionalist than the usual V6 crowd, so yeah. I know what you mean though, back when they had the W5, W7, W3, and V6, that lineup could not be topped design-wise.

That reads like the ports in my 15.4" MSI GX600, except missing a USB. If I'm not mistaken, those are the same ports that are on the S37/Z37s barebones unit, right? I remember seeing HDMI and eSATA on those.

 

Well mine is here and so far I am happy with it. It is defiantly a low-key machine. As soon as all my downloads finish I will put it through its paces. I also want to play with the express gate option as well. Going to have to go get some new drivers as well and see how the performance does after that.

Still debating on whether or not to go to Vista 64-bit though.

 

what drivers are you updating on yours?

 

hello long time reader first time posting. i received my F6VE-B1 this afternoon and i was a little afraid after reading the review about build quality. well after opening the box and giving it a good once over i can honestly say there is nothing wrong with the build quality. i can pick it up from the CD side and there is no noises. i think the mute colors and design give it a very understated business look (which i like). there is something to be said for simple. i would be happy to answer any questions people have but keep in mind i an not the most knowledgeable computer person as you are going to find out with my first question. How do i set up and use the finger print reader? i can take pics if there is anything people want to see. is there anything i should do before i start installing my software?

 

I am going to say the reviewer was probably bias about the build quality... I honestly can say the build quality is average (i own the F6, but this laptop chasis is based on the same as mines), if not, it is better than average.

This march break i traveled with this laptop over 1000+km and through the whole process, the laptop went through bumping my lap over hundreds of times cause i had to walk in some part of the trip.. It also went though many bumps in the trunk from pot holes... Went through some crazy temperature changes in the environment like plus 12 to -16 and this laptop still performed like a champ. No cracks in the palm rest like the F3 series, didn't seem like the hard drive was affected from the laptop bumping into my lap hundred of times and the bump it receive in the trunk from the pot hole on the high way...

So my conclusion is this laptop build quality is actually great, "looks can be deceiving"...

In fact the wifi card in this laptop is actually pretty good, i was receiving 2 bar signals sometimes and it still catch it and perform pretty fast internet wise.. I was actually transferring (The file size is pretty large, about 100 photos - 200-500mbs) and editing my photos on this laptop and it performed really well, in fact the new f6ve is probably going to perform even faster and better..

The battery was pretty good for a Asus laptop... 2 hours and 50 minutes with a 6-cell battery on entertainment mode and battery savings mode.

 

thought i would give everyone an update. i returned this laptop the build quality was not the issue. the speakers are absolutely garbage. they were barely audible in a quiet room. they honestly sound like a stock set of headphones (the in ear type that ship with a mp3 player) turned up way to loud. there are some highs very little mids and not even a little bass. if you can live with a laptop without speakers the rest of the package is good.

 

^ That is very true! The speakers on this laptop is garbage.. Might as well use your headphone jack and plug it into a external sound device (I plug mines to a speaker).

 

i have external speakers at my office but when i am on the road i like to watch some movies or use my sling box and it seems stupid to buy a small laptop and lug around a set of speakers.

 

Hi~
A 16:10 of this 13.3 inch F6v-B1 screen &a 16:9 of 14.1 inch N81Vp-C1. Does it affect visual results? Any difference in viewing experience? How about visual experience in gaming? or just plain surfing? Why do some mind the difference &some don't? How is the comparison of resolution in these 2 models?

Consider picking one of the above. They have similiar battery life, with N81Vp-C1 being a lightweight 14-incher with good specs, so wanted to go for it. (Although some do say N81Vp-C1's 1Gb vRAM performs nothing more than 512Mb etc etc.) Bottom line is, I don't want to get a screen that I don't enjoy watching~ Share some insights please?

 

From what I understood 16:10 is for widescreen notebooks (but 13.3 inches hardly sounds like a widerscreen~?), & 16:9 is for widescreen TV's. Still it doesn't explain if the resolution difference or visual effect difference~
Thanks

 

I don't think Newegg has promotional pictures, they have a physical booth where they take pictures of the actual items in their inventory before they sell them.

A 3-cell should be flush. The batteries look the same to me. It's just, in the review, you are seeing the battery stick out from angles not shown in the Newegg pictures.

 

I put some size (notebook and screen) info together for myself and thought I would share, someone might find it useful.

 

Thanks captspaulding1000, those were good outline comparisons.=D

 

What sort of battery life is this getting?

 

- Battery life: 2 hr 25 mins WiFi on with 6 cell battery in battery saving mode.

 

Thats pretty good with the gaming performance that this thing can offer

 

Ouch. Just as bad as my G50.

 

Wow. this can be spec'd to be just like my m860tu right? jeeeeeeeez. hows my gpu compare this this one?

 

Your gpu should kick it's soundly.