Aspiring W3V buyer questions

Pardon me, this is my first post in these forums.

In about 2-3 weeks I will be purchasing my first notebook PC, and I think I've narrowed it down to the W3V, which seems extremely popular on these forums.

My first question is, is there a merchant where I am able to purchase the W3V, optical bay battery, and a 512 MB RAM upgrade at once? (Seperate, not configured.) I'd prefer to buy them together, but if not I'd like to buy at least the W3V and optical bay battery from the same merchant.

Second question. (Thinking ahead here.) I've read that reinstalling the OS on a notebook somehow boosts its overall performance. I don't know how true this is, but would this be a recommended thing to do before doing anything else with the notebook?

Lastly. Since this is will be my first notebook purchase, ever. Is there any accessories recommended in general for notebooks or the W3V in particular? Is the carrying case that comes with the W3V adequate? Should I think about getting a notebook sleeve?

I think that sums it up, thanks to anyone for their time.

 

You can get those 3 from most dealers, check out www.istnc.com, www.gearedtoplay.com and www.proportable.com, they also frequent these forums.

And the reformat and reinstall is good for computer which have ALOT of junk included, aka Dell, Sony, etc. ASUS does not install anything, so there is no need to reinstall there.

The carrying case is good from what I've seen. A sleeve would help, but not needed.

Some accessories I would look at is a external mouse, a microfibre clothe to clean the screen, a sleeve and a bigger bag if you need it.

Hope that helps

 

thanks coriolis for the prompt response. I was not expecting that. You've been really helpful.

 

the w3v should come with a bag and mouse i think.

 

Indeed it does. Oops!

The bag is pretty good, but it won't do if you need anything else in it rhough, but its good as a sleeve. The mouse is a Logitech which will do good, but you can get a regular corded, lets say Logitech mx518 for use at home or something.


The ASUS w3v/z63a bag(Pic taken from www.notebookforum.ca):

 

Agreed - the Asus will not come loaded with a bunch of junk software (like Dell). Reinstalling wouldn't do you any good.

The bag is great, fits perfectly - so it depends on your needs. Don't buy another bag until you check this one out, it just might do it for you. And yes, it does come with a Logitech optical cordless notebook mouse.

Anyway, you should love it!

 

Does it just fit the laptop, or laptop along with the mouse and AC adapter?

Got pics?

 

Along with the W3V I can fit AC adapter, mouse, CD wallet, various cords (Svideo, audio, ethernet, firewire, various data cables etc...), cellphone, gameboy, calculator, a magazine, etc, etc.. There's plenty of room for stuff other than just the computer.

I took a few pics of it a while back when I posted a review of it

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=15778

 

Hey, I just wanted to make a note here that it's not gearedtoplay.com, but geared2play.com.

Just thoguht I'd let ya know. They have some great freebies.

 

Agreed!

I just ordered a Z63a from them, and while I have not recieved it yet, their service so far has been nice (heck, you can reach the owner on AIM), and their prices are really quite good.

 

ASUS does put some "junk" on their systems. I ended up doing a reformat with the W3V just to make sure everything was clean (and the disk came formated in FAT32 !! perfer NTFS even though it's a bit slower)

Off the top of my head, some of the "junk" i can name are:
wireless console utility (no point to it)
live update / inf update
that winflash utility

 

3 things that are actually useful that don't take up much space to begin with. Then again, if you don't know how to use them, then you might consider them "junk". Winflash and live update use almost nothing and basically are there for when you need to update stuff, like the bios and important drivers. The wireless console allows for easy control of wifi and bluetooth in one thing. It's stupid for some people, but it's far from "junk".


About the drives being formatted in fat32.... if you know know why you "prefer" NTFS, then you'd probably also know that there is a link on the desktop which is basically a macro that will convert the drive for you. If you're really into NTFS, you should know that it's 100% safe and just as effective to go from an original fat32 to NTFS - one time..... You can NOT go from NTFS to fat32, or go back to fat32 after you change it to NTFS. So, since a lot of people still prefer fat32, leaving it that way from the factory is the best choice.

 

I agree with ProPortable. Those apps are super tiny, and doesnt use much or any of your resources until needed. As for NTFS, it's a preference and I prefer it, but if you got FAT32, you can always change it easily.

 

strange, I didn't see that NTFS conversion utility when i first got the W3V.. must have missed it somehow
I perfer NTFS mainly because of the 32GB partition limit (probably the reason the W3V ships with 3!! partitions on the hard drive), Although I think the limit is up to 137GB if you don't format it from the winXP setup, but it's a real hassle. 137GB is still small by todays standards.
Another reason is the 4GB filesize limit (uncompressed video and dvd images can actually push 4GBs in a single avi or iso file)
encryption and security features.. i've used only once on a folder of internal documents from my work, but it's a nice thing to have around when i do get some sensitive data.
NTFS is also supposed to be more stable, reliable, and supposed to have better data recovery than FAT32, though I never had to test this (yet *crosses fingers*)

As for the junk:
wireless console, there are bluetooth and wireless hot buttons on the unit itself, I don't see a need for an added utility when I can control those two from there.
Live update / winflash, Honestly, how often do you need to flash your bios? I used winflash once to get the latest BIOS off asus, then uninstalled it. I doubt I'll use it again for the next year or so, so why leave it on my system. Drivers, I perfer to do manually just because I like to decide which driver build I want to use (latest is not always the greatest).

 

Trust me... on this I know. A friend of mine who used to be on tech tv was probably the most knowledgable person around in terms answering this question every other day....... the thing is fat32 is still slight better for gaming. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be used at all any more. And since there is no harm in doing the one time transfer to NTSF, it's really no big deal.

Hey, people with Asus systems seem to update their bios with every new one that comes out. The program is like what... 2mb? Not doing much just sitting there for the next time you need it. Trust me, sometimes finding it can be a pain when you really need it. The live update is just for people who want everything done for them. Some people say it doesn't work, but at the same time.... it ONLY works for 100% needed drivers and bios'....... other than that, those people doing the automatic thing, probably don't need everything that comes down the pike.

 

Are ASUS BIOS updates that frequent? you make it sound like they come out with a new one every month or something. If I ever need to flash my bios again, I'll just download it from the asus site again while i'm downloading the new BIOS. that's the beauty of broadband connections

for NTFS vs. FAT32: I'm not a 'hardcore' gamer; though I do like to enjoy the occassional epic title (half life 2, halo, warcraft 3 etc). That's surprising that you state it's faster for gaming specifically; I know FAT32 is generally a bit faster because of less overhead for encryption / security / compression etc. but why gaming specifically?

 

Actually, they do update the bios and various drivers quite frequently. I've got a Z70V and its gone over 6 bios revisions already. It's only been out like 5+ months.