A8J or W3J

I am looking at purchasing one soon and cant make up my mind. The W3J will be more money, but is it worth it? Any help? Or suggestions?

 

Hey there wagonproject,

The subject between A8Js and W3J is so often debated here at the Asus forums

The W3J is more money, and not as powerful as the A8Js either. You can decide if you want looks and quality or price. Everyone agrees that the W3J is a marvel of engineering. Its design and build quality is superior. The A8Js is not an ugly notebook, but obviously not as nice as the W3J.

I go for the A8Js though, because the processor is better, and the GPU in the A8Js is better too (NVIDIA GeForce 7700 vs. ATI Radeon X1600 in the W3J), and even with those the W3J is more expensive.

Asus is trying to phase out the W3 series, that's why they're not focusing as much on the W3J anymore.

 

Here's a bit of bedtime reading

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=84959
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=87641

Cheers.

 

The W3 has:

1 - a better build quality (we'll bunch better design and materials in here as well)
2 - a modular bay (2nd battery, 2nd hard drive, blank drawer to lower weight)
3 - audio dj (play cds without booting up the os)
4 - larger stock main battery (8 cell verses 6)... sticking with the battery, adding an optical bay battery gives you another 6, for a total of 14 possible, verses the 6 max in the A8..... at between 30-35 minutes per cell, that's a 3 hours on the A8 and 7 on the W3.
5 - built in bluetooth

Now, the A8 does have a more powerful cpu and graphics card... and is cheaper... I give that all the credit in the world. To counter the cpu and gpu, it also has a smaller main battery and the W3 has the potential for a lot more life with the optical bay battery and the x1600 is not an old or slow gpu by any means. For the added price of the W3, you really get a better built system, while the extra functionality is just a perk.

 

Also depends on what you want, if you don't need too much battery life, the A8js provides 2+ hours and on top of that a Go 7000 512mb, with a DVI port, if you need that too.

The a8js has better specs at a cheaper cost, with a webcam, but not as good build quality when compared to W3J. The W3J has many features as above mentioned.

 

Sam, I wish if you wouldn't claim Asus is phasing out the W3... they are not. It has at least another year, most likely 2 more years worldwide. The US market *may* stop selling it if they don't think the market could support it along with the A8 and V2...... but right now that is purely my own speculation - not anything at all from Asus.....

But again, the W3 is more expensive because of a few very important features and a much better build quality.

 

I have a W3J 1.83 Dual Core, and my friend just purchased a A8Js with a 2.0ghz Duo Core2 and 7200rpm drive.

The W3J sure looks better and is more versatile with the multi bay, but my god that A8Js is an absolute screamer kicks the pants off my W3J and even had better graphics performance than our new Dell Optiplex and precision 390 Dual core2 work stations!

I was well impressed.

Im not too worried because I know I can upgrade the cpu and hdd early next year, but performance wise the A8J is better.

oh yeah and I forgot, higher res screen, 5 usb ports web cam, DVI and VGA, it really is a good buy

Although his screen is higher res the W3J screen has better viewing angles.

 

Id try and grab one of these things


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834220104

while theyre still there.

 

Definitely! This is like the best deal ever for an Asus 14" with a high end ded GPU.

 

can't wait for my a8j. I'm also glad I don't have the money for a w3j so its not tempting.

btw, why is that one on newegg so cheap? the only differences i see are xp media edition and a ATI GPU.

Is something missing there?

 

wow thats a very nice price over at newegg.

 

Joking aside, that may actually be the best reason anyone has actually given - rather than trying to justify the pros and cons of each...

 

the only difference seems to be the x1700

it does have a different looking mouse than the one i got also

 

Is the nvidia worth the extra $300?

 

No, it is not! The Nvidia 7700 does have double the dedicated video memory, 512MB's vs 256MB's but both cards are actually quite close performance wise. The 7700 is 5-10% faster than the X1700. If you notice, the A8jp also has built in bluetooth and a 120GB HD!

 

media center though

 

Its different here in Singapore. The A8JP is more expensive than the W3J. Don't know why. But W3J will surely be worth it, I'm getting one this weekend

W3J
Core 2 Duo 1.83 / 1GB DDR2 / 100GB HDD / 14.1" WXGA / DVD Writer
ATI X1600 512MB HM / Bluetooth 2.0 / XP Pro OS
Free: 80GB HDD Swappable Bay + Case + Bluetooth Mouse
Price: SG$2498 = US$1600

A8JP
T7200 Core 2 Duo (2.0) / 1GB DDR2 / 120GB HDD / 14.1" WXGA CS / DVD Writer/ 0.3MP Webcam / ATI X1700 512MB HM / Bluetooth 2.0 / XP Pro OS
Free: Case + Optical Mouse
Price: SG$2698 = US$1734

 

the x1700 in the a8jp is exactly the same as a x1600

the difference in games will be large.

over 1000 points in 3d mark 06.

Id definitely get that a8jp though cant beat that with a stick.

Seems asus is always coming out with some better deal lol Id call that the best deal out there right now.

 

For that $1298 A8jp at NewEgg they also claim it has Bluetooth!

 

The X1700 is faster than the X1600. Slightly. The 7700 does not get 1000 points in 3dmark06 more th an the X1700.

 

it will definitely make a difference but not 1000 points, but it will.

 

Can anyone tell me if the firewire on these lappys is the TI chipset? Sources say that TI is the only brand supported by all audio interface manufacturers.

Thanks!

UPDATE: Asus confirmed that the firewire chipset is Ricoh. they've evidently never used TI.

 

Does the A8Jp come with 2X512 or 1X1024. Newegg specs say 2X512, but I was wondering if anyone has personal experience. That would kill the deal for me.

 

Man if thats the case...There's usually a good reason it's cheaper.

 

even if the a8jp does come with two 512's, sell them and pick up 2 1gb sticks, you'd still come out ahead.

 

intel centrino chipset includes ricoh

basically any laptop with an intel cpu has ricoh firewire.

I dont think anyone thinking about whether or not the a8jp from newegg is a good deal or not is going to get one. I dont think youll have a lot of time before they are sold out.

 

800 points stock.

1800 vs 2600

overclocked max score over 1000 points. my overclocked 06 score was 3174

 

They say it's 2 x 512mb

 

Anyone ever shop at PC Super Deal? They are offering the A8JS for $1500

 

no but i got mine for 1499 when it was a new model.

Id just say thats not the best deal in the world.

I think you can get $100 off msrp on almost any model of notebook.

Almost all the resellers you see on that asus list can meet that price.

 

Does anybody here w/ an A8Js travel with it everywhere? I'm deciding between the A8Js and the W3J.

Right now I'm leaning towards the W3J because it has better build quality, and is better looking. I know the A8Js is about 20-30% better in terms of the VGA card. I'm just worried about breaking my poor laptop after bringing it everywhere. I'll probably even bring it to the bathroom.

 

You called that one right. In terms of the life of the W3j, the writing is on the wall (or at least on all the resellers websites). Either no Core 2 duo or only available with the paltry 1.63Ghz version (that's Ensemble, reseller upgrades are not from Asus).

So why would Asus be phasing out or not bothering to give the proper chips to a system which is obviously so popular among potential Asus buyers?
Well, Asus seems to be going the way so many have gone before, the business plan of starting out with a quality product to get your name and reputation started. Once established, slowly scale back build quality, and scale up profit margins. We've all seen it before, Toshiba, Dell, even Mercedes-Benz. Dell has learned its lesson however and now seems to be producing quality machines again (the xps build is beyond reproach). Toshiba and Mercedes haven't learned yet (probably cause everyone keeps buying their crap).

Those doubting my claims about Asus's quality need not take my word for it; the comments in the A8js owners lounge speak for themselves.

 

I think the W3J case is one of the situation where upgrading the chips mean bringing the already premium price of W3J up to unaproachable.

 

am i mistaken or does the W3J have a lower screen resolution?

 

W3J has a 1280x768 screen resolution.

 

Well I was really considering the A8Js until reading every page in the owners lounge and see people complaining about the screen. **** I just cant seem to pull the trigger on any laptop.

 

Actually, my previous laptop was a Dell Inspiron 8500 with a 1680x1020 resolution, and the LCD was absolutely beautiful and no light leakage whatsoever. When I moved to the a8js, yes the screen was not as good, but its not something you notice everyday, even while play games. The only times you notice are when the screen is completely dark like during certain parts of a game or if the screen goes blank, etc. It was also an issue for me when I was considering buying the a8js, but now that I see it, it's nowhere close to being a deal breaker.

 

Well I will never be playing games, so no dark scenes. Probably the darkest it will get is when I do CAD work and work on different backgrounds, black being one, just dont want to not be able to see stuff good.

 

I still cant decide!! I hate this!!! The only really 3d work I will be doing is cad work and architecture. No games. I like the w3j for its better build but the a8js seems to offer more!!

 

Please check out this thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=94846

The A8js is not that much better than the X1600 in the W3j. Though the processor is... There are vendors like G2P that have stocks of W3j with the same processor. So that too is a moot point unless you want Asus to be your warranty provider.

Don't let performance be a deciding factor in your purchase. Pick the one that is most useful to you.