Asus U36SD-A1 is now available for pre-ordering at GenTech, price is even cheaper than U36JC

I've talked to a few Canadian distributors, they say ETA of July 25th. So for retail stores, probably the first week of August.

No, it does not.

 

corrected it for you

 

Upgraded components are generally not covered by ASUS and they may question about such upgrades at times during repair which is one of the reasons why our company stopped offering system customizations. Certain customers prefer to receive their notebooks in brand new (sealed) condition or tested before we send them off and we really try our best to accommodate all requests. Most resellers on here are reputable and customers should not have any problems.

 

and now Core™ i7-2920XM, 2.5-3.5GHz, (32nm, 8MB L3 cache) ?! wth????
ASUS U36SD-A1

 

I think the U36SD user is going to suffer from a lot of thermal throttling switching to i7-2920XM. You're pratically putting a 55W processor in place of a 35W one. Can't imagine that to be very smart.

 

Can the u36 chassis even handle regular quadcore and now extreme. Is xoticpc testing and putting their own warranty on this upgrade customizations?

 

U36SD is not release yet so I use U31SD to test i7-2820QM CPU and it worked :

 

How is the U31SD so far Ken? Is the build quality good? How is the weight? Is the screen colorful and vibrant?

 

PMed back to you.

The build quality is typical Asus quality, the screen is bright and the color is warm type.

CPU idle temperature:

 

Damn.. maybe i shouldnt go for the quad cores.

 

50C is pretty damn high for an idle chip in the size of U36.

 

Yea.. Imagine it under some load

 

do you have any thermal tests under load, with some good thermal paste?

I think it's awesome to have something better than my current desktop in the u36sd package, but only if it can actually run...

 

does the U31SD-A1 have a USB 3.0 port? Amazon.com says it does but I have my doubts since elsewhere it is not mentioned

 

That's because U31Sd has small chassis, fan and heatsink.

I can test it tonight.

No U31SD does not have USB 3.0 port.

 

Thanks Ken for testing this for us. Are the fans on the u31sd quiet when at idle with the quad cores?

 

Makes you wonder if U31SD really can support a quad core that size, or is this going to be ASUS G1S 2.0?

 

The U36 is smaller than the U31 in all dimensions. If anything, we should expect better cooling from the laptop that's at its thinnest point, .25" thicker (the u31).

Ken, how does its fan and heatsink compare in size to those of the U36?

In the U36 video by the German reviewer a few pages back, the fan comes on loudly when simply watching a movie trailer on youtube. He then played a game for about 2 minutes or so and notes the fan is again very loud. This was with the i5 2410. Nice to know the fan is working, but a quad core 45w TDP chip would be a big challenge ...unless their cooling system actually works. Makes me want to buy one of each just to fully test for throttling and cooling properties.

 

Once you upgrade a major component like the cpu on these, they're no longer a legit and true A-1 model. They would be like any other customize computer.

 

The fan itself is quiet but the air blow from the vent is kind of noisy.

U36 is even smaller and going to be much hotter for sure. the noise must be just the air and I am fine with that. my current laptop making noise from the air+ fan and it's driving me crazy.

check out the temperature with 2820QM:

 

Does the cpu throttle below 1000mhz even when set to high performance and min/max @ 100% Ken? Because some ThinkPad and 3830tg are having these issues.

Another question, will Ivy Bridge CPU fit on the U31/U36?

 

80C is not too bad for a CPU temperature under load, although it is quite high for an ultraportable like U31SD.

Personally I wouldn't use it, but I guess there are people who does value performance over everything.

 

Thanks ken! That's super helpful!

It won't be often you run the quad core full tilt like that. The core temp is 88C and the external is about 50C? 50C is hot for sure but probably the upper limit. You could always have the max cpu set lower to help with heating issues. Obviously you're reducing performance, but might be able to find a happy medium between speed and heat.

Regardless, it's good to know that the u36 chassis can handle the heat!

 

Thank you for those pics, that's actually very reassuring. Competitors of the U series are putting out temps like that with the simple i5 2410 cpu (2.9 vs 3.4 gigahertz!). High 80's Celsius is also pretty close to where Arrandale i5's were in various 13 & 14 inch models. I'm not crazy about a 50 C idle but then again, we're past the Core 2 Duo days of 30 degree C idling cores.

How much would one of the lower clocked i7's under normal use degrade the battery life compared to the i3? I imagine it'd be quite a bit unfortunately.

 

Damn.. the only thing holding me back from upgrading to quad cores are the idle temps... 50 degrees Celsius... Given that the u36 is even thinner (though only by quarter of an inch or so), it will still be substantially hotter.

Hey Ken, would it be possible to have an i7-2620m or i5-2540m upgrade option available?

 

While we're asking Ken for upgrade options, I'd like to get one of these with a ULV chip such as the Core i7 2677M or i5 2557M. Not only do those chips support the AES and other special instruction sets that 2410M lacks, but they will solve the heat problem this laptop will probably have and may even give a bit of extra battery life. Right now there aren't many options for Sandy Bridge ULV + Nvidia graphics, would be great if a gentech U36sd could fill this niche.

 

Oh my. I so hate it when others steal my content That's my review there from my site, but scrapped by this other site. :|

Anyway, I'm also the one behind those clips mentioned by some of you in pages 9 and 10 of this thread and I got to play with a test model for a while.

I no longer have the sample unit but I can answer your questions if you have any.

Thanks

 

I was wondering the same thing. In fact the ASUS Global web site lists only the following processors in the specifications for this model (Meaning that the system has been tested and/or designed to handle these processors, particularly the thermal cooling):

Intel® Core™ i7 2620M Processor
Intel® Core™ i5 2520M/2410M Processor
Intel® Core™ i3 2310M Processor

 

U36 will run hotter that's for sure because of the thinner chassis.

Yes we will add more CPU options in the configurator and remove some CPU options that runs too hot.

If the ULV chip is available to purchase we will add it, it's just most the time the ULV chip only provide to notebook manufacturers to be integrated on the mainboard.

 

Thanks .. Thats great news! Hopefully you can add cpu options before the u36sd is released. Will preorder ASAP!!

 

Some questions :

1) So you actually test each of the processors that you offer (Once you get one of the laptops in your hands), in particular for any thermal issues? That is reassuring.

2) Also, do you offer matte displays? If not, do you know how difficult of a modification this would be, because I see that aftermarket matte displays are offered by various suppliers for many laptops (Although maybe not for this model just yet because it is brand new).

3) Is there an option in BIOS to switch between the Intel and Nvidia video cards?

 

1: Yes we will test all the CPUs to see if the laptop can handle the heat. but for U3SD it looks like it will run very hot even with stock CPU according to reviews so CPU upgrade probably not a good idea but we will see.

2: If the 13.3" matte screen is available we will offer it.

3: I don't think so, haven't seen any Asus laptops offer that option in BIOS.

 

Did you mean U36SD above? If so, you are already offering a CPU upgrade on your web site. Huh?

 

Wait, what?! You mean that NO Asus laptop offers the BIOS option to use even just IGP only? It's Optimus or nothing?

 

The optimus implementation doesn't involve a mux like the older multi graphics implementation so the switching is all done in software. You can force it in software to use one or the other. Using nvidia software in windows or bumblebee in linux

 

There could always be a BIOS option to disable the nVidia GPU alltogether at the BIOS/UEFI level and become IGP only, however, no notebook vendor has done this, yet (and it can be done).

 

Yes no Asus laptop offer BIOS option for IGP only, I do remember seen other brands (Acer or HP don't remember) still have hard switch to switch between nVidia and Intel Graphics.

 

I have a quick question for you guys.

Do you think it's overkill to choose 8gb ram with an I5 2410 2,3GHz cpu?

The difference between 4gb and 8gb is 80$ in Denmark, where i'm buying.

 

Lenovo offers the option in their BIOS to select either graphics unit, although I guess it has a mux and that is why?.

 

Can you retrofit a WWAN card into the U36SD?

 

Any idea a quad core would get too hot even by a decent cooler pad when gaming?! or without one when browsing or doing light stuff??
i'm considering one with a 8mb i7 .

 

The i7 in there isn't a quad. Finding an i7 quad in a 13.3" package is nothing but a dream at this point.

 

can you?


(blabla, message too short)

 

Thinkpads with optimus have this option because they have dual mux. This is not an option on any ASUS model I have ever seen.

If you want *only* the IGP on single-mux (normal optimus) it is possible to power down the nvidia card in Linux using acpi_call - but it may need modification depending on the BIOS.

 

I need to read up on Bumblebee for Debian a bit more. Last I was looking at it, it was kinda rough around the edges though still in some places I read more currently, it's still referred to as a work in progress. I suppose all software technically is though.

If things have become more refined, then I can still aim for an Asus. $800+ is a lot to spend and then hope that I can get a proper linux distro working efficiently on it.

 

ah, that's what I was thinking about, only a lither different. I thought you could simply power down the nVidia GPU via the BIOS/UEFI, and not have it even show up during address allocation... so it's completely hidden until the BIOS reenables it (for all intents and purposes, it becomes a normal Intel IGP laptop with no nVidia GPU)?

 

@GentechPC

IF i bought the laptop and brought it to the UK how would the warranty be affected. Also, who would i take it to in the UK if it broke.

 

Any idea on the realistic battery life on these things? Can it pull 7 hours?

 

On asus' global website, the u36sd says it's available with the following processors:

Intel® Core™ i7 2620M Processor
Intel® Core™ i5 2430M/2410M Processor
Intel® Core™ i3 2350M/2330M/2310M Processor

Looks like intel is set on releasing new processors

 

My understanding for using linux with the u36 is that the straightforward thing to do is to NOT install the nvidia drivers. Then disable power to the graphics card using the acpi call. You then just have the intel gpu working.

I've done some reading on bumblebee, and it's really not where we would like it to be. Bumblebee offloads data to the nvidia gpu, which is good. Problem is that the nvidia card has to be on, and in linux will be using a lot of power. I think right now, the main option is to run specific programs (a game maybe? or gpu intensive program blender, etc..) using a special command, optirun. This command turns on the gpu, and starts the program that follows, and redirects all graphics calls to the nvidia card.

So it's not really an 'on the fly' switch, or automatic in any way. It just lets you use the nvidia card, period, whereas before installing the nvidia drivers screwed the whole thing up. IT's a big step forward, but not the smooth, continuous result you see running in windows.