Asus U35JC/U45JC

Apparently i cant pm yet with my post count

I am looking to buy the u35jc and you said you were going to be installing the backlit keyboard from the UL30 keyboard mod + installing a Seagate Momentus XT.

Can you share how it goes when you finish doing this? I would like to do that as well.

 

For those looking to buy the U35JC: J&R is now offering free shipping for the laptop. I'm not sure if this will apply to previous preorders (like mine), but it partially makes up for the lack of Bing Cashback.

 

Something doesn't sound right here. How does the U30jc have an 8 cell 5800 mAH battery but Toshiba has a 6-cell 66 Wh battery?

Also, the U35jc comes standard with an 8 cell 86 Wh battery.

I thought the number of cells in a battery had a direct correlation to the mAH.

 

del 10 char

 

Surely the Acer seems very nice but I am weary on Acer's reliability record and build quality. Great concept but I don't know about the execution.

 

Reading the Acer message boards concerning the 3820TG, I've only come across 1 case so far where the buyer promptly returned the laptop (bluetooth module issue).

Most seem to feel that the laptop is built solidly with little flex throughout its chassis and components.

 

Well happy to say that I have received my U35 today! I'm at work, so can't play with it will have to wait until I get home. Loooooong day ahead!

 

I've not done any formal testing, but here are my observations of the battery life of the U35jc with the i5 450M:

• I can watch at least 3 hours of Youtube shows continuously on an external monitor and drain not more than 75% of the battery.
  
• In battery-saving mode with super hybrid engine (SHE), the fully charged laptop shows ~10 hrs of charge left. This with wi-fi on and a few Chrome tabs open. I think this number is somewhat accurate, since the battery drains (~9 hrs left) very little if I keep surfing for another 30 mins to an hour.
  
• The bright LCD actually helps, since I am happy with 30% brightness most of the time.
  
• I've played 2-3 hrs of CIV4 several times on a partially charged battery. I don't think I used up more than 75% charge during these times.

Here are some things I noticed that may help:

• Use SHE and power-saving mode if your activities are not sensitive to performance slowdowns. This will get you hours and hours of battery time.
  
• SHE also works well clocking down the CPU (keeps things cool as well) in performance mode. Disable SHE only when you need max CPU power.
  
• Manually disable the devices you never/rarely use. For example, I never use the Ethernet port, so I turn it off.
  
• Manually turn off the LCD monitor (don't wait for the power settings to kick in) when you are using an external monitor or if you are leaving the computer for more than a few minutes. I believe the monitor is the biggest power hog.

 

Actually picked the Asus because I trust the brand more. But are there numbers to back this up? Acer is OEM for a lot of other companies, so I really find it strange that they could not build reliable laptops for their own brand.

 

Well i'm finding it very difficult finding anywhere with a 500gb Momentus XT in stock around London... Might have to wait 2 weeks for them to come into stock... Unless anybody on here knows where to get cheap computer parts in the UK?

 

Thanks, Quatro! I was hoping someone would tell me how to get by without the Asus ATK stuff. I actually have them (ATKMedia, ATKOSD2, HControlUser) disabled right now--too lazy to turn them off one at a time and see what happens. All the function keys are working fine, but I either get no visual indicator that they are working or I get very simple blue icons that I prefer on the upper right of the LCD (not sure if these icons are coming from Win7 or Asus drivers, but I have never seen them in my Win 7 Pro Thinkpad. Here is what I have noticed:

• Blue upper-right volume icon (better and less annoying than the original)
• Num and Scr lock displays crude Windows grey icon
• LCD brightness icon also blue, but looks silly because it only goes up 3/4 of the way even at full brightness
• No touchpad on/off indicator
• No LCD/monitor switching indicator
• No wireless on/off indicator (I use the physical/LED lamp)
• Life-frame (webcam) shortcut still works
• High performance shortcut (FN+space) still works (no indicator)
• Power4Gear button still works, but no indicator

BTW, the Trend Micro app is actually an RC candidate of Titanium 3, rather than the old PC-cillin OEM that came with the laptop. I think this app is much better than AVG (simpler, zippier, smaller footprint), but I will have to remove it after the RC period.

 

Can't wait to hear your impressions!

 

Well, it seems I am ever learning something new. I didn't realize that with the ATK hotkey drivers disabled, the hotkeys still work but their floating icon notifications don't.

Oh, I see. It's that you kept the ATK Hotkey drivers installed but turned off the rest of the ATK drivers and so the hotkeys work but "silently". If that works for you, great!

For me, I confess I rather like the shimmering wavy icons popping up when I change something. Very creative looking. I know, I'm a sucker for eye-candy. I'm not sure how it affects my battery life.

 

Well, i decided not to return my u35jc. I was unhappy with the fan making too much noise even when underclocked to 900 mz, but figured id live with it, and maybe it will come an update.

PC is fast, stylish, lightweight, and perfect for my schoolwork, which is what ill use it for mostly. Can also watch HD and play sc2 on med/low.

Viewing angle is abit crap imo, but works fine, and i got it for a nice price. I got a stationary which i use at home, so a powerhouse isnt that much needed, but it packs enough!

Many others are very happy. Im content, but not 100% satisfied. But it will do!

 

Actually, my U30Jc comes with an 8-cell 84W 5600mAh battery. One of the newer models (U35?) will be coming with a 5800mAh battery, or so one review showed in their photos.

As you've just pointed out, unlike what we'd all assume, the cells tell you how many batteries are in there (size) but do not tell you amount of power (watts or mAmps) per battery.

I think there IS a correlation of the watt amount to the amps. But cells are not consistent in how much power is in each of them.

Does that make sense?

 

I hope your fan isn't defective or there isn't some software glitch.

I've not read of others typically complaining of fan noise or fan on high. There are a few, but it seems to not be normal.

One friend had the U30Jc like me and all was good. Then after a software update, his fan went crazy, coming on a high speeds and staying on. He tried many things to no avail. The fan stayed constantly on. But because my fan wasn't noisy or always on and it wasn't always originally noisy for him, he knew the problem was software. Only by restoring from before the update was he able to finally fix the problem.

A question: is the fan noisy even when you shut down, reboot and go into the BIOS setup (F2)? I'm trying to see if Windows software is affecting this or is it always like this, even outside of Windows GUI.

 

Thanks for that explanation. It all makes perfect sense now.

So basically, while the cells dictate the size of the battery, the cells do not necessarily dictate the power/efficiency/overall effectiveness of the battery.

Thanks to you, now I know what people mean when they say that one manufacturer may have developed more efficient battery technology than another.

 

I read that Asus is going to be using even MORE efficient batteries soon! Read about the Boston-Power Sonata batteries here.

At least 80% efficiency for 3 years? And backed by a 3 year warranty? Hot damn!

 

The number of cells in a battery does not necessarily mean one thing to the capacity.

The mAh describes the length of time a battery can put a certain current out, in the case of 5800mAh it can put out 5800mA or 5.8A for an hour before being flat, it can also put put 1mA for 5800 hours before its flat. During this the voltage of the battery drops the more it looses charge.

The Wh describes the amount of watts it can put out for a certain time. Watts describes the voltage x current. So an 86Wh can put out 86watts for an hour, this could be 86 volts at 1 amp, or 86 amps at 1 volt in theory.

So as the computers can operate at slightly different voltages then the Wh takes that into account really.

So the 84Wh 5600mah means its running at 15volts ish, if the cells are in series then this is roughly 1.9V per cell.

And the 86Wh is the same depending on the mah capacity.

If cells are in series then the capacity of the battery is equal to the capacity of 1 cell, If the cells are in parralel (rarely) then it is equal to the capacity of each side added together.

 

I wonder if its a battery you can buy on its own and use in a U35JC or other Asus laptops. Would be real nice.

 

Any idea where to download SuperHybrid Engine? The U35Jc driver page doesn't appear to list it.

 

I've been looking at the UL30 for quite some time now, but then decided that the ULV processor probably isn't enough for me (I run some intensive MATLAB simulations from time to time). That's when I saw the U30, which has a full fledged processor, but is unfortunately a bit bulky and heavy. The U35 is exactly right, it combines the best (for me, at least) of both worlds. The only problem is that I can't find it anywhere

I live in Greece and I'm looking for some European eshop or something which ships here. So far I've only found a few UK shops (here: ASUS U35JC-RX080V | Skinflint Price Comparison EU) but they don't seem to be able to ship anywhere outside the UK. I can wait a bit, but if anyone knows something I'd be happy to learn it too

 

Hey Boriskov,

These guy's have the 500GB XT in stock:
Seagate Momentus XT 7200.1 500GB 7200rpm 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Mobile Hard Drive

They look like a decent company, based in Milton Keynes and if you are unfortunate enough to live in or near Milton Keynes then you can even pick up from their store. For our American cousins reading this post, "unfortunate" was not a typo!

 

So, i pulled the trigger on the U35F-X1 and received it yesterday. Im liking it so far, with one exception... i seem to be getting 'phantom clicks' from the trackpad... my hands can be completely off the trackpad and yet i'll register clicks.

Any way to adjust the sensitivity of the trackpad way down?

 

What's so unfortunate about Milton Keynes (other than sounding like the love child between economists Milton Friedman and John Keynes)?

 

omg the u35JC fan is loud?!?!

 

Ha! I lived in Bedford for 3 years as was in Milton Keynes many, many times.

And I also remember how much I disliked Milton Keynes as being bizarre in it's dozens of round abouts (or so it felt) and its ugly sort of industrial, blocky look. It just ever felt so overly planned, blocky & boring - like a big city of council housing. Ugh.

 

Louder than the R705?

 

Do you believe the fan noise will distract you while doing school work?

 

Loud fan noise would be a deal breaker for me. I hope this is an isolated incident.

 

im dling it from this site...

http://support.asus.com/download/model_list.aspx?product=3&series=110&SLanguage=en-us

n u can update most of your driver by using the link provided in n61jq thread..

 

I am a new guy who stumbled onto this forum and had to read all the info about these Asus laptop models.

I myself am looking for a new laptop and was checking out this website ( Gaming Laptops - XOTIC PC - Gaming Notebooks - Custom Laptops - Custom Notebooks) for Asus laptops with 3% off for cash, check sales (I guess they want to save on the fee that the credit card companies pass onto them). I figured since I did not see anyone listing this site, I would go ahead and give you guys another option for here in the USA.

The web site I listed above has the U35JC-A1 model for $794.02 (again if you pay with check, money order, or some PayPal e-check mode) with Free Shipping.

They seem to have both all kinds of 13 inch Asus models and most are even customizable. I am interested to know if there is much difference between the Intel i3-350M and i3-370M processors that you would actually notice a difference on? The U35JC-A1 has the i3-370M (and if you really want to spend the money, you can up the processor up to an i5-540M). You can also upgrade the hard drive, memory, operating system, wi-fi card, and also add interbnal bluetooth. I semi-configured mine with a 320GB 7200rpm HDD, added bluetooth and an advanced wireless card and the new total for the U35JC-A1 is $890 w/free shipping.

But they have a U30JC-A2B that has Win 7 Pro 64-bit vice Home Premium installed, but it has the i3-350M processor. I configured that with an advanced wireless card and this model has an internal DVD burner for $988.89

Not sure which unit to get. Thoughts, folks?

 

ok here are my full impressions for my u35jc:

pros
cool palmrest (a bit hot when playing games but tolerable)
dimple trackpad ( i love it whn they make it blend with the palmrest)
good battery life (8-9 hours with wifi on, surfing and brightness set to lowest)
brushed aluminium lid
chiclet keyboard (so comfortable to type)
sturdy built for the body

cons
fingerprint magnet (mine is black, so its more obvious than silver)
poor webcam (0.3, meh)
weak speaker
thin lid(its so thin tht i have to carefully open it lol)

until now, thr's not much prob with my u35jc xcept tht i still cant figured out y i cant use the latest nvidia driver 258.96 from nvidia..

n btw, did u guys tried tht expressgate? after i use it, whn i straight away boot to windows, the windows will hang afterwards.. its weird tho..

 

Haven't experienced this ExpressGate to Windows startup issue. I did experience Win7 hang several times during startup right after I twiddled with my startup settings. Did you make any OS config changes right before you booted to ExpressGate?

 

Never had this issue, but there was this one other guy in this same forum complaining about fan noise and some weird hum whenever he used the track pad.

 

It's built into "Power4Gear Hybrid". Asus has v1.1.35 here:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support-

 

I have had the same problem, but only when I'm in awkward positions, like lying in bed while reading. I do prefer to keep my touchpad very sensitive because of my lazy fingers.

Do you think it just takes getting used to? This is actually my first heavy use of a trackpad, since I've been attached to IBM Thinkpads, which use those great (but bad for the joints) eraserhead trackpoints. I actually find the new sensitive trackpads with gesture support very appealing.

 

i did update my expressgate to the latest version, so i guess maybe thts the main culprit..

but most of the time i ignore it as i seldom use expressgate..

thr's a new version already, 1.1.38 i think... its auto enable the s.h.e when u use the battery saving mode, compared to b4 whn u nid to manually enable it..

 

my post was answered. Thanks!

 

Chill everyone. This is one person (Stranden) reporting this fan noise problem on one machine. And it could easily be software-related.

Has any other U35Jc owner mentioned it?

 

If you are at the "High Performance" with power Plugged in, the Power 4 Gear Hybrid setting "Maximum Processor State" and "Minimum Processor State" is 100%, please try to set the Minimum Processor State to 50% or below, Maybe that can fix the fan issue.if you gaming, the fan will going to high speed for cooling the CPU and GPU temp....

 

You should have seen the chaos back when the ASUS G73 laptop first came out.

It was madness, I tell you. Madness!

 

man...i just read this entire thread. and i cannot tell you how excited i am to ditch my aluminum macbook for the u35jc.

 

Thanks man. I did some googling and i'm not sure I trust that company, looks like they have gone bankrupt in the past twice, not fulfilled orders,etc... I may just have to wait until other stores get some more stock in.

My first impressions, although I didn't get to play for long last night; are that I love this laptop.

 

Does anbody have/going to get the U45? Everybodys just going on about the 13inch

 

PCPro have reviewed the UK version of the U35JC:

Asus U35Jc laptop | Laptops | Reviews | PC Pro

 

Possibly useless review. They didn't even bother to weigh the laptop and just took its weight straight from the spec sheet.

Lazy on their part.

There's flex in its keyboard, but that can be easily fixed with double sided tape, so not a big issue there (even though they make it out to be).

 

Granted, it's just a bare-bones summary review. Not in-depth at all, but what makes you think they didn't weigh it? They don't say so one way or the other.

ASUS' official spec sheet lists the weight at 1.9 kg. They list it as 1.8 kg (3.96 lbs), exactly as two who have weighed it on this thread and one recent review from Taiwan.

Perhaps the weight really is 1.8 kg.

 

+1!?!!?!?!?!

 

Hey, I am very interested in how to fix keyboard flex with double sided tape, if you don't mind sharing the knowledge.