ASUS A8j - A Programmer's Perspective, Pt. I

I confess: For the last two years I've lead a double-life. No, I'm not a spy for Mossad, or worse, cheating on my wife, but I do run both OSX & Windows at home. By day I'm a mild-mannered programmer typing away on a Shuttle PC with an aging AMD heart, while at night I don a black turtleneck and surf the web on an aluminum 12" PowerBook G4.

No more.

Dual-booting, or even dual computing, is too much of a bother. Because I spend %80 of my time writing Windows code, the PowerBook gathers dust, while over time most of the files I care about have migrated to my Shuttle. I finally decided OSX isn't worth the trouble - it's a fine OS (my first computer was an 8MHz Mac Plus), but Windows does everything I need.


My first computer

So I started looking for the perfect $1,800 desktop replacement. With Intel's dual core chips and the new generation of graphics cards "desktop replacement" no longer means "spinal injury". In fact there were too many to chose from! I narrowed the field by limiting my search to "top tier" vendors. Based on personal experience, and posts to this forum, I placed the main brands in these categories:

Insanely Great
-----------
Thinkpad
Asus
Apple


Great
-----------
HP
Sony
Toshiba


Insane
-----------
Dell

Programmers need vertical resolution. The proliferation of wide-screen monitors does nothing for us - all that matters is the number of lines of text you can see at one time. This didn't rule out widescreen (as we shall see) but I only measured vertical resolution. My 1024x768 PowerBook was too small so I only considered monitors with > 768 vertical resolution. Dot pitch is also an issue. I used to own a Compaq with a 14" SXGA+ screen but it gave me headaches. ( This post at Power Notebooks has the skinny on resolution).

Windows programmers need RAM - lots of it, and dual cores for compiling while a virus scan runs. We also need to test code on new systems, including full aero glass support on Vista. That means I needed a discrete graphics card, 2gb RAM, >768 vertical resolution, and a dual-core processor in a system that weighs less than 7lb.

I finally narrowed the field to five systems:

MacBookPro 15"
CPU: T2500 (2.0ghz)
GPU: X1600 (128mb)
Screen: 15" (1440x900)
Weight: 5.6lb
Cost: $2050 ($1900 + 150 ram)

Thinkpad T60
CPU: T2400 (1.83ghz)
GPU: X1400 (128mb)
Screen: 15" (1400x1050)
Weight: 6.2lb
Cost: $1700 ($1750 - 200 rebate + 150 ram)

ASUS S96j
CPU: T2500 (2.0ghz)
GPU: X1600 (256mb)
Screen: 15.4" (1280x800)
Weight: 6.4lb
Cost: $1450

ASUS A8j
CPU: T2400 (1.83ghz)
GPU: Go7600 (512mb)
Screen: 14" (1280x800)
Weight: 5.2lb
Cost: $1750

ASUS V6j
CPU: T2300 (1.66ghz)
GPU: Go7400 (128mb)
Screen: 15" (1400x1050)
Weight: 5.5lb
Cost: $1700 ($1750 - 200 rebate + 150 ram)

The MacBookPro was out of reach - my budget was $1,800, and in any event, I'd just boot into Windows, which seemed like a waste. (I would run a Parallels VM but I need full graphics hardware support for Vista development)

I've owned two Thinkpads and been happy with both of them. The new Lenovo site finally lets you customize a Thinkpad, but the build time was listed as 3-6 weeks, and the best graphics card was an X1400. Also - and this is subjective - it felt like a dull choice. I've been down that road; it was time for something new...

So I turned to ASUS.

The W3j was beautiful but it violated my 768 vertical resolution limit.

The V6j was very, very tempting. With a 1400x1050 screen it bests my 17" desktop monitor, and in a 5.5lb brushed metal case it is a thing of beauty. But the processor was a bottom-end T2300 and the graphics card a mid-brow Go7400. By no means slow, it wasn't the most bang for my buck, and the extra pixels and fancy case weren't worth the price.

The S96j was even more tempting. For $1,450 I could trick out a perfect system and still have cash for a thirty martini lunch. But the *whole point* of a notebook is portability. Otherwise you've just bought an overpriced, underpowered, mini ATX. While 6.4lbs won't break your back, it's enough to make you think twice before throwing it in a bike-bag.


ASUS A8j

The A8j has the same screen resolution and computing power in a smaller, lighter package. Everything I've heard about the vendor Portable One is positive, and although the price was a bit high for a low-end ASUS, the specs were correct, and while it's no W3j, it certainly isn't an ugly system.

I'll be back with my first-impressions when the system arrives...

 

Great first post! Detailed and informative. (+rep )
Welcome to the forum. Looking forward to your presence here.

I'm from Portland, too! Working tech in Lake Oswego.

Hope the A8J treats you as well as I think it will

 

Thanks for the hello! I found these foums very useful so I'd like to give back to the community. I'm at a software company downtown. We do Windows & OSX, but I'm a Windows guy. I hope you're right about the A8j - it's a lot of cash for something I've never seen in person

 

Hey, I think it'll be well worth your money. I've had it for about a month now, and no regrets

 

Very true, if it weren't for the information on this forum, I wouldn't even know about ASUS, much less hold them in such high regard. It's pretty clear that they make excellent notebooks, but I definitely understand the concern about not seeing one in person before purchasing!

Just take comfort in the fact that your feedback will help other folks make the most informed decision possible about their own notebook purchase!

 

Looking forward to what you have to say, its either a8j, w3j. or w7j for me It seems all three models are so close, its just the difference between half a pound here, and modular bay there, or a better video card. The more input from those of you who've jumped off the cliff already the better the rest of us are.

Much appreciated.

 

Alas the W7j AsusBook isn't available yet... which perhaps is a good thing. There really were too many choices. I almost bought an HP nx9420 - until I realized just how big 17" notebooks really are. I bike everywhere so lugging it around wasn't an option. Good luck!

 

the A8j has pretty much the same rez as a w3j 1280 x 768 vs 1280 x 800 really not to big of a difference. how is one perfect and not the other.

 

Nothing magic, it's really just a threshold point. While 32 pixels isn't much (about two extra lines of text) 768 just pushed the boundary too far - in other words, like I gave myself a budget of $1,800 dollars, I also gave myself a budget of >768 vertical pixels, and <7lb. Without some parameters there were just too many choices.

 

everyone says 32 pixels i forget the equation to figure it out but its like tens of thousands more pixels.

 

I forgot about the multiplier - that would be 25,600 pixels.

BTW you sold a W2V? How was it? I was lusting after a W2j, those must be the most handsome non-Apple notebooks out there, but I could't scrape together $2200...

 

Honestly it was the nicest laptop ive ever used or scene. the weight was nothing for its size and the constuction was the best. I mean it was like the exotics of laptops. i have owned about 6 asus laptops and dozens of others every brand. Nothing compares in looks and construction to the w2 series other than the v6 series. which i owned as well. i guess you can tell i liked it alot.

 

# of A8j pixels 1024000

# of W3j pixels 983040

difference = 40,960

 

You probably have a good old days image of Toshiba...
Sadly nowadays the quality is comparable to Dell....

 

32 x 1280.

personally i would have gone with the macbook pro though, if you could afford to ditch out the extra cash. welcome to the family

 

Aah finally a post from a programmers perspective.
Good review.
But I cant belive you would make a fuss ove an extra 1.2 lbs.
We need exercise man

 

I'm working on it! Actually - I bike to work every day, so that's why weight is an issue. A number of years ago I had a 9.5lb dell through work and it *hurt*. My 5.5lb PowerBook G4 was just about right.

The Asus arrives in a day or two. I'll let you know what I think...

 

ack! I was multiplying the wrong dimension. The macs are sweet - but it was my impression that in XP you get no iSight, no illuminated keyboard, a single mouse button, and poor power/heat management. I could be wrong. ( see above )