ASUS W3v or Z71V or Acer TM 8104???

I've been looking and looking...

Weight, battery life, speed, and GPU are important to me, not in that order but they all have value. I am a student and will be using my notebook for school, web surfing, games, and when I travel (a good deal).

Of course the W3v would be good for the transport factor, but what I dont know is how much bigger/pain is it to carry an extra 1lb and bigger screen?
How much better is the Nvida 6600 compared to ATi X700 and X600? I've read the facts seen the benchmark scores etc, but in actual use is it worth having the 6600? I game occasionally, no not Doom3, and will probably game more once I get the laptop as I'm always out. I do want a great screen for DVD's as I'm on the plane/bus a lot, so is the 15.4 the way to go over the 14?

I wish I could see the Asus computers in real life to see how much bigger the 15.4 is, but there are no sellers near me (no thats not my location under my handle). So, thats why I need some help in picking.

I have the Acer TM8104 in there b/c it has a better GPU (ATi X700) compared to the the W3v but its NOT a 14.1' screen. Now the Acer compared to the Z71v, the Asus has a better GPU, but overall???
Thanks in advance


General Questions

1) Are you looking for an Ultraportable (12" screen or less), Thin-and-Light (13" - 14" screen), Mainstream (15" - 16" screen) or Desktop Replacement (17"+ screen) style notebook?
this is my problem area I guess. Yes my laptop needs to be portable

2) Where are you going to be using this notebook (home, office, campus, library, outside etc.)?
home, campus, library, and outside

3) Will you be playing games on it (yes, no)? If yes, which ones?
Yes. Not Doom3

4) How many applications will you be running at one time (1-4, 5-10, 10+)?
5-10

6) How much battery life do you need (in hours)?
3hrs

7) How much are you willing to pay for this laptop and do you mind buying online without seeing the notebook in person?
1500 - 1900

Screen Specifics

8) What resolution screen do you like -- XGA, SXGA or UXGA (XGA is standard, SXGA gives smaller text and icons, UXGA is very small text and icons)?
above XGA

9) Do you prefer widescreen format or standard screen format display?
Yes...for DVD's

10) Do you want a glossy (reflective and bright) type screen or regular matte (no reflection and anti-glare) type screen finish?
dont know. glossy I guess

Build Quality and Design

11) Do you need the notebook to be extra durable (good idea for carrying about) or just regular strength (fine for a fairly stationary notebook)?
Avg

Notebook Components

14) How much hard drive (disk) space do you need (in MB) and do you care about hard drive speed (yes, no)? If you care about speed, what do you want (4200 RPM / 5400 RPM / 7200 RPM)?
at least 60 GB @5400

15) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, what do you want (DVD, DVD-CDRW, DVD Burner)?
Yes. DVD RW

16) State if you prefer a processor brand (Intel or AMD) and the speed you want (don't care / mid-range / fast / fastest possible)?
Fast

 

If you want to watch DVDs on plane or bus then smaller is better - the seat in front may make it difficult to open your screen to a comfortable viewing angle.

John

 

the differences between the 6600 and x700 are pretty minimal i think. you may want to take a look at the z70va also if you havent already. how much other stuff are you going to be carrying with your laptop? if you're going to be carrying a decent load, i'd recommend the w3v unless you're used to carrying a bit of weight.

 

I have no trouble at all opening my W3V on an airplane, unless the person in front of me is reclining all the way back -- in which case, there's not even room to read a book comfortably, so.....

If you're in school, you can probably find a textbook that's about the same size/weight as each of these machines. Just pop it into your bag along with the stuff you normally carry and see how much difference the extra weight/size of the larger machine makes to you. If not much, I'd go for the bigger screen -- it really does make a heck of a difference in readbility. And I get more than 4 hours on battery, so the larger screen wouldn't really be a factor there, either.

 

what about the diff between the X600 and 6600??? Pretty big isnt?

 

6600 = x700

In terms of benchmarks, the x600/6400 scores 1300~1400, while the 6600/x700 bumps up to 2400~2500

 

http://www.notebookforum.ca/phpbb2/docs/Benchmark.htm

According to this, at least, the x700 beats the socks off of the 6600 in a situation where the rest of the system has similar specs.

Of course, the Z71V beats the Z70Va in CPUMarks and PCMarks, but I don't think (I may be wrong) that the video card would impact those two scores.

 

actually, the main reason for that is the stock clock settings on the Z71v are low (below Nvidia's advertised). You can easily overclock the 6600 to get closer to the x700's 3DMark scores, although the ATI card still has a small edge.

As far as which notebook to get, I'd drop the Acer from the list, as it won't get the battery life you want with any consistency. The W3v, Z71v, & Z70va will all get 3+ hours battery life.

 

http://www.notebookforum.ca/phpbb2/docs/Benchmark.htm#Size, weight, battery life in one table

You might want to take a look at that to see a comparison of the Z70Va, Z71V, and W3V weight, size, and battery life.

djembe: Right, I completely forgot about that!

 

If you're going for portability and aren't planning on playing Doom 3, then the Asus W3v looks like a good notebook for you. I have had 15.4" notebooks for a long time (I'm on my third one), and I've never found them to be anywhere near the ideal size or weight for portability. 14" W3v gives you plenty of power for even high-end applications, and although it falls behind in gaming due to it's average X600, it makes up for that with it's slim form factor.

 

Although, he says he doesnt play Doom3, the x600 will give him enough power to play smooth at medium settings. So it still packs a punch in the graphics/gaming dept. With running 5-10 applications simultaniously, I think the Acer will choke a bit. Plus the point on the battery life is correct, it won't last.

 

Looks like the W3V wins...easily

 

Here's a quote from PC Magazine comparing the W3 to other mainstreams. Although the article is a little dated, it's still informative:

Surprisingly, the W3V packs some power in its small frame. The system has a Pentium M 750 (1.86 GHz) processor and 512MB DDR2 RAM. Its overall score on our SYSmark tests surpassed those of both our Editors' Choices, the HP dv4000 ($1,429), which also has a Pentium M 750, and the Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513 ($2,999), which has a slightly faster Pentium 760. It uses the excellent ATI Mobility Radeon X600 graphics solution, which is much better than the integrated Intel graphics solution found on the HP, though not quite as good as the nVidia GeForce Go 6600 found in the Toshiba. Still, we were able to play Halo for 2 hours straight without any degradation or choppy frames, which is a rare occurrence on such a lightweight laptop.
:asus:

 

What's the total travelweight for the Asus w3v? THe reason I ask is that my current latop weighs 7.7lbs but I know for a fact when I carry the bag that i seems more like 10-12lbs.

On the plus side, i have really strong shoulders

 

About 5 and a half pounds with optical drive.

 

Small enough and strong enough that it does not need a dedicated bag.

John