Asus UL30JT

According to ASUS' product page (look in the specifications tab):
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=dh1loes9V1IGKwCA
the UL30Jt will onlybe offered with the Intel i5-520UM which will be clocked 1.06 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 1.86 GHz.

The U30Jc in the US is an i3-350M and is natively clocked at 2.26GHz. It does NOT offer the 33% Turbo Boost, but is still faster then the Turbo Boosted i5-520UM overclocked to 1.8GHz.

But the i5-520 may use less wattage and so conserve battery power more.

Still, ASUS lists the U30Jc at 9.5 hrs (I'm assuming with no wifi, low light & basic Office) and the UL30Jt as 10 hrs, so they seem pretty close in battery life.

For me, who wouldn't love that brushed aluminum lid & palm-rest on the U30Jc? Classy! :wink:

 

I would have held off as well, if I was sure it was coming in the next month or so.

I'd prefer to shave off that extra 1 lb weight.

Still, that brushed aluminum lid & palm-rest look awfully nice. And some say the screen has better color saturation & contrast.

 

Yeah I meant 520um.. I was originally looking at U30JC too.. but it's thicker and heavier isn't it? I know it's got much more grunt but I realllly want slimmer, less than inch notebook.. it's more important than the grunt for me so.. lighter, slimmer, going to take it around with me so..smaller the better.. But then again.. U30JC seems really solid tho..

 

Keep in mind the U33Jt is a "bamboo model" and so will cost much more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTwPFuftUqM

The PL30Jt is aimed at business users and may be higher priced as well:
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=LXkdJbGNlUNZJ1lu

Unless money is no object, that may put your comparison more down to the U30Jc & the UL30Jt.

Don't forget that the UL30Vt is still a very good light notebook and will be much cheaper than the others.

Is having an internal optical drive important to you in a notebook?

 

8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1066MHz DRAM at present will cost you $320-$400 more. That adds a lot to the cost of the notebook.

 

Yeah the cost of PL30JT is seems couple of hundred more here in Australia. Not even sure when it's going to be released but there are few places with pre order so.. Yeah I looked at U33JC too but prolly won't go since it's thicker.. my decision is heavily influenced by thickness..haha.. was originally looking at ADAMO desire range but the cost seems way over blown so.. and international warranty which is absolutely vital to me.

PL30JT is great for the matte screen.. and being all black.. so prolly go with that I guess.. Not going to consider UL30VT seems CPU is weak.. and would rather pay couple hundred more for i5 520um.

I have an external optical, for my toshiba r400 tablet.. but I've used it Twice.. to install win 7 and PS.. so.. :S .. also reason I am going for 30s instead of 80s.. it's like 2mm thinner I think but without the optical so.. haha.

Yeah.. I looked up the ram price..and went.. "meh".. hahah seems retarded expensive so.. maybe just 4gb.. until the price drops but I am sure by then I will be getting a new notebook.

 

SSD FTW. I'm calculating the budget for an optional SSD upgrade outside the budget for the notebook.

 

Or better yet........pirate.....

 

I don't agree with it, but it's a forum rule.

 

Yea, to get slimmer & lighter, you need a no-DVD drive model like the U33Jt (not out yet), UL30Vt (little slower but more battery life) or the UL30Jt (not out yet).

Plus, shedding the DVD drive reduces the weight by a pound! That's like 25% more weight then the UL30 models. It makes it a bit slimmer as well (3/16").

But the PL30Jt isn't out yet. Neither is the UL30Jt. ... so I'm going to enjoy my U30Jc.

........ Then after two months and you have your UL30Jt, I'll wish I had waited!

Truly, it is an imperfect world we live in.

 

If you want the extra power, Acer's TmelineX models look like a much better choice.

 

I agree. I've officially ruled out the UL80JT because of its weight. The 3820T seems to be the more powerful equivalent but is somewhat thicker.

Let's compare the specs:

UL30JT: 1.48~2.46cm, 1.7kg, 8-cell
3820TG: 2.3cm~2.89cm, 1.81kg, 6-cell


The UL30JT with its lower TDP rating and 8-cell will get bettery battery life. The 3820JT with its weight is a tad bit lower, about .242 or less than 1/4 of a pound heavier. But it's also thicker by a little more than a cm at the thinnest point. When both are out, I will most likely search for an Acer 3820T vs Asus UL30JT thread. If it's not available, I will most likely post one in the "What Notebook Should I Buy?" thread to diversify the responses.

 

I'm going for the UL30JT over the 3820TG just for the fact it's thinner and has better battery life. Sucks I'll take a hurting on performance, but hopefully it won't be THAT noticeable if I'm not gaming.

Sold the netbook and someones coming to buy the pc now. I'm gonna be computerless for awhile so hopefully that UL30JT drops soon!

You guys think it'll be this month since it's out in Taiwan?

 

Is it really out in Taiwan? or it available for pre-order.

 

ul30jc and 3820tg seem to be very close to one another weight and battery life wise and also size.

ul30jt is slower but lighter, thinner and has a longer battery life.
so i think im going for the jt...

im curious about one thing though... the jt supposedly supports turbo33, right?
the normal cpu speed for the 520UM cpu is:
1066mhz with both cores active
1866mhz with one core active

with turbo33 the 520UM should clock like this:
1400mhz with both cores active
2500mhz with one core active

can anybody confirm this?

1. is the ul30jt overclocking the cpu to 1.4/2.5ghz?
2. does anybody know if its possible to disable one core in bios to have 1 core with 2 threads at high clocks all the time?
3. can the cpu be changed/upgraded? will it void the warranty?
4. is the pll locked or can we manually overclock the cpu further?

me and several of my friends are looking for a 13" laptop with propper graphics, and i gotta say im confused why there is no ul30jt with REAL graphics... same goes for the timeline... the 5470 has 16 shader blocks which is comparable to nvidias G210/G310 16 shader blocks... which is a joke for real gaming... why isnt there a 13" laptop with at least a G335 or 5750M? it could be disabled or throttled down on battery use, but once home, you could actually REALLY play games on the thing...

anybody who thinks they can play REAL games on those whimpy mobile graphic solutions... forget it! lets face it, nobody really plays on the go, so the reasoning of not using powerful graphics cause they would drain the battery is bs... if anything its about heat, and a 200gr heatsink is more than enough for propper mobile graphics... guess ill have to keep my game pc at home to play games... too bad, id have paid 500 us$ extra if i could actually REALLY play games on this thing and replace my gaming pc at home with a laptop...

 

they are advertizing it at a sales event here... its basically like computex but they are selling all their stuff...
this kind of event only exists in asia afaik...

i noticed that some models were brand new though... msi for example launched a few new laptops and said they will only be available today, the first days of the show the laptops were not there yet. and acer is selling some models which it says will ship 1-4 weeks later... so yeah, they are taking pre-orders... ill go to the show again today and will check out if the ul30jt is actually for sale... if it is, ill probably take one home right away =))))

they are offering the UL30JT with 4gb memory and 8cell battery for around 950 us$/700E ...
is that a good deal? sounds pretty good to me...

the sad thing is that people there at the show have no fckin clue about hardware... they have some basic idea of how their laptops work but dont know any details... for example msi claimed their core i5 laptops actually allowed bclock adjustments in 1mhz steps in bios, but when i pushed them to show me, there were only 8 options in bios and they were all legacy and very basic settings...

 

According to a german review the will be no Turbo33 Modus on the UL30JT.

Google Translation of the review.

 

Good luck, I hope you get your UL30JT, if you do.. be sure to update us and review it.

 

Yes, the Polish article referenced earlier confirms this:
http://www.benchmark.pl/testy_i_rec...nosc_i_12_godzin_pracy.-2735/strona/8626.html

It's reviewing the UL80Jt, which should have the same internals as the UL30Jt. The i5-520 runs at stock 1.07GHz. Intel's BIOS (I assume) Turbo overclocks it to 1.86GHz. Then the ASUS Turbo33 (software) will boost it further to 2.48GHz (what an overclock! ), though what impact that will have on battery, I'm not sure.

 

I read this review
http://www.notebookjournal.de/top10/subnotebooks (need to use google translate) But I still have no idea what they are saying.
According to this the battery like on the UL30JT will be poorer, but the CPU will be better? According to this review the UL30 is ranked higher?
Also ASUS can't overclock it higher than the built in overclock?
I think some of the meaning seems to be lost in the translation.

 

When I read this article : http://www.benchmark.pl/testy_i_rec...nosc_i_12_godzin_pracy.-2735/strona/8626.html
I feel like I should hold out

When I read this article : http://www.notebookjournal.de/top10/subnotebooks
I feel like I should just buy the UL30VT

 

Well, a Polish article on the UL80Jt (same insides) said it DID have Turbo33:
http://www.benchmark.pl/testy_i_rec...nosc_i_12_godzin_pracy.-2735/strona/8626.html

Also, ASUS' own product website:
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=dh1loes9V1IGKwCA
says that the UL30Jt will include the Turbo33 overclockability.

 

The Acer TimelineX 3820TG can be configured with the ATI Mobility HD5470 or HD5650. The HD5650 is a very capable gaming videocard for a laptop. Especially in one that is an 13" ultraportable such as the 3820TG.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html

 

If I understand it correctly, the translated battery chart on page 4 shows (understandably) that while the i5 processor is faster than the SU7300, over 1/3 the battery life is lost by higher power consumption.

Moral, there's a cost to the higher CPU speed demands.

BTW, a Polish article linked to earlier says the same: that the i5 stock speed is 1.07GHz. The Intel Turbo overclocks it to 1.8GHz and then ASUS' software Turbo33 overclocks it to 2.4GHz.

Impressive if true. I await it's release and others' reviews. I've bought the U30Jc so I need to be happy with it for the next few years (!)

 

So you have to leave the Asus bloatware on your computer to get 2.4Ghz!?

 

Yea. According to the German article, in the same battery run-down test, the UL80Vt lasted 436 min (7 hrs 16 min) as opposed to the UL30Jt lasting 254 min (4 hrs 14 min).

I would have thought the test battery in their UL30Jt was a small mAh battery ... except that they clearly say their battery was the 84 Wh 5600 mAh version.

That is a scarily large difference.

..... UL30Vt-A1 anyone?

 

The bad battery life is due to the power optimizations that the first gen Core i's are not getting. When other sites tested the Core i5-540M in the K42, they found under load it used a more power than a Core 2. As I've said before, the refreshed Arrandale's will get better battery life than these current first gen Arrandale's. In this case the refresh cpu's are the Core i5-540UM and Core i7-660UM.

Anandtech

 

im actually german so i read the original article... but what they claim doesnt make sense...

check the asus product page:
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=dh1loes9V1IGKwCA

intel turbo boost increases the cpu multiplier if only one core is active
asus turbo33 or twin turbo as they call it in other regions, increases the fsb or bclock... on the c2d platforms from 200 to 266 (33%) and i suspect on the ci5 they increase the bclock from 133 to 177 (33%).

normal cpu speed of the 520UM:
2cores active (3-4 threads) 8x133=1066mhz
1core active (1-2 threads) 14x133=1866mhz
memory multiplier is locked to 6x on mobile i5 and i7 chips afaik, so 6x133=800 aka ddr3 800

asus turbo33 speed of the 520UM: (this is what i think and HOPE)
2cores active (3-4 threads) 8x 177=1416mhz
1core active (1-2 threads) 14x 177=2478mhz
memory 6x 177=1062 aka ddr3 1066

if asus does NOT overclock the cpu like this... then why are they advertising a turbo33 feature on their website? and how do they reach ddr3 1066? the memory multiplier is locked, there is no way to unlock it or increase the memory speed in any other way... so im pretty sure they DO overclock the cpu like this

im worried that 1.4ghz will still be too slow... but then again, when do you ever use more than 2 threads on a laptop huh? especially when not playing games... im just worried that some tiny threads will run on the second core and use like 3% cpu power and then prevent the cpu from clocking to 2.5ghz... thats why i hope theres a feature to disable 1 core and have 2.5ghz all the time... only 1 core with hyper threadding, but thats fine by me... i think

the reviews of the 1.4ghz overclocked SU7300 were very positive... and that was with a c2d... a core i5 wont be MUCH faster at the same clock speeds, but it WILL be faster...

still, im not sure if 1.4ghz might be too slow for my tastes...
so i really hope i can either overclock the laptop manually and push it to 200bclock which would be 1.6ghz, or, better, upgrade the cpu in future and get a slightly higher clocked ultra low voltage core i5 once intel releases it...

 

Haven't see an expresscard slot on the UL series or the U30JC. Could still do a DIY ViDock using the mPCIe slot *if* you can easily swap out the wifi card. Can't see any pics to confirm if the wifi is accessible under the memory/HDD doors.

 

Fortunately battery life isn't important to me. But still........I'm getting the impression Intel kind of half-a$$ed the first generation ULV i-series processors.

If I find the performance improvements in further tests done are nominal, I'm going to reconsider the current generation SU7300 laptops again. I'm not paying $150 or more for a machine that's just marketed as being somehow better than its predecessor without reasons given for why it's better.

 

That's not true. Turbo Boost allows for different a different increase in multiplier depending on the number of cores active.

For the i5-520UM, it's 4 bins on 2 cores, and 6 on one. Consequently, the maximum Intel turbo frequency on 2 cores for the i5-520UM would be 1.6GHz, or 2.133GHz if ASUS overclocks this by 33%.

 

second wave? whats the second wave then? i thought this core i5 520UM aka arrandale ULV were the second wave they talked about?
so idle power consumption is still higher than c2? then how can asus claim 10+ hours battery life for the UL30vt?

 

all this is confusing... so after the reviews and benchmarks of the Core i5 520UM....

What can we conclude...

1. Performance increase over SU7300 = % ??

2. Drop in Battery Life over SU7300 = % ??

 

The second wave is talking about the refresh of the Arrandale's that are due out in Q3 (July-September). For the ulv range three new cpu's are being introduced:

1.06GHz Celeron U3400
1.2GHz Core i5-540UM
1.33GHz Core i7-660UM

Supposedly, these will have better power optimizations over the 520UM, 620UM, and 640UM which are all now available in limited quantities. Perhaps Intel will revise a new batch of 520UM, 620UM and 640UM's to include the optimizations newer Arrandale's will have.

 

This.

10 characters.

 

thats what i said...?

oh? yeah there is usually a 1-2 step multiplier increase even if all cores are loaded with turbo boost... on desktop cpus... this makes sense as if the cpu is cold enough and doesnt pull too much current, it can clock higher even if all cores/threads are loaded... but on mobile cpus? i didnt expect those mobile cpus to have a turbo boost for 2core/4threads as well... thats very interesting! thanks!

hmmm the 520UM doesnt show up on intels spec tool... weird...
http://processorfinder.intel.com/

but the regular mobile i5 chips have a turbo multiplier even for 2core/4thread load, so i guess your right! awesome!

but does it really affect power consumption that much?
hmmm

 

still not enough...

btw, i found this
http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SLBQP.html

so its 1600 for 2 cores and 4 threads and 1866 for 1 core and 2 threads... PLUS 33% asus turbo which means

2133mhz 2 core and 3-4 threads
2480mhz 1 core and 1-2 threads

awesome!!!
now im just worried about power consumption...

 

thanks!!
do you know any more details about these?
will these be clocked higher at roughly the same power consumption?
or will they be clocked higher and have a lower power consumption at the same time?

if its the first, then i dont care... i noticed that anything past 2ghz doesnt really matter unless you use heavy duty apps or games... if it reduces power consumption i might care, if the batter life of the ul30jt is really much less than the claimed 10 hours... i figured the real battery life is 7-8 hours, claims are always higher... but if its 6 or even less than that... meh :/

EDIT:
regarding this review
http://translate.google.com/transla...735/strona/8626.html&sl=pl&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

they said the laptop drew 4W power even when it was switched off?
sounds like their laptop was damaged if you ask me, that doesnt make any sense at all...
and 70W under load? :0

 

Sorry, I thought you meant that Turbo Boost was only active when on one core. In any case, 2133MHz on two cores and 2489MHz on one core is probably right. I've generally been going by Wikipedia for the Turbo Boost binnings, which says +4/+6 on the multiplier for the i5-520UM.

 

You've convinced me. Makes perfect sense. Well done!

Well, if you want 2.5GHz all of the time, why try to operate on only one core? Why not just buy the U30Jc which is the i3-350M and operates on BOTH cores at 2.26GHz ALL of the time. Surely a 2.26GHz dual-core is better that a 2.5GHz single core any day.

And the U30Jc just looks so sturdy & classy with that awesome aluminum top & palm-rest. :wink:

Well, if it won't be much faster, why pay $150 MORE. Save yourself the trouble and just get the UL30Vt with the SU7300 processor. The NVidia graphics in both are basically identical.

 

You're wrong, though, since we've already established that the 520UM will have a maximum multiplier of 12 when on two cores, not 8.

 

Not sure, but looking at same-site battery tests of the UL80Vt & UL30Vt (SU7300) and the U30Jc (i3-350M) and using the same 5600 mAh battery, it looks as if the U30Jc (w/ the i3-350M and Optimus) gets about 15-20% less battery life then the UL80Vt or the UL30Vt.

AnandTech says the UL80Vt's SU7300 under PCMark05 scores 3028 (1.3GHz) and 4149 (1.7GHz)
NBR says the U30Jc's i3-350M at 2.26GHz under PCMark05 scores 5366.
So the i3-320M outperforms the SU7300 by 177% at stock speeds.
The i3-320M outperforms the SU7300 oc'd to 1.7GHz by only 129%.

So I've dropped in your answers above.

I hope my math is correct. Correct me if it isn't.

 

no problem
yes and no, i actually thought that for those ultra low voltage i5 chips there was only a turbo mode if 1 core is active... im still confused why there is a turbo mode for 2 cores active at all... then why isnt it the stock multiplier? cause the cpu speed will still dynamically change based on load, so in idle itll be lower than the stock multiplier anyways... i really see no difference in having a stock multiplier of 12 or stock multiplier of 8 with a turbo mode of 12...
either way the max speed will be 12x133 and in idle it will dynamicall switch to 6x133, 7x133, 8x133, 9x133, 10x133 or 11x133... hahah

your welcome... but i was actually wrong about one thing ^^
there is a turbo mode for 2 cores and up to 4 threads as well, so the actual speed is 2133mhz for that... so 2.13-2.48ghz... thats really fast... more than enough for me...

1. size 2.weight... the UL30jt is 1.69kg according to asus... im on a vaio SR right now at 2.2kg or so, and i want something lighter with longer battery life... and if possible, more perf (P8400 2.26ghz c2d atm)

the UL30jt gives me all of that, and at a good price... even improved graphics... i dont care tho, and they are still too sucky to actually use anyways...

the U30jc is above 2kg, same as my vaio, its thicker than my vaio, doesnt have as good of a battery life as the UL30jt (as far as i know) and its not as flexible cpu speed wise as the ul30jt. on the ul30jt i can select the following 4 basic modes, and performance goes up with each step.

1. no turbo, no asus turbo33 = 1066mhz max battery life
2. no turbo, asus turbo33 = 1400mhz good battery life
3. turbo = 1600mhz-1866mhz good battery life
4. turbo + asus turbo33 = 2133mhz-2483mhz ok battery life

i dont know... i havent held either one in my hands so ill check... but thats not a reason to buy a heavier and bigger laptop with shorter battery life...

yeah, pathetic isnt it? the only difference between G210 and G310 i that the latter has a 2% higher shader core clock... LOL... as if youd even notice that...
idk... i was thinking about getting the ul30vt, but... itll be slower than my vaio i have now (P8400 2.26ghz c2d)... hmmmm

battery life is something im worried about with the UL30jt...
the polish article said that nvidia optimus did not work for them... so that means they had the nvidia graphics enabled all the time... and they were running with cpu turbo and with asus turbo33 overclock...
so thats the highest cpu speed and most power hungry gpu enabled, so pretty much the worst case scenario...

and even in that worst case scenario they achieved 2-3h battery life...
the nvidia graphics doubled the power consumption in the anandtech review, so they halfed the battery life... that means with optimus working properly and the nvidia graphics disabled, the battery life should be 4-6 hours... and if you dont overclock the cpu using asus turbo33 it will probably be 5-7 hours?

thats still not that much... batteries degrade and lose 33% of their capacity after a year or so, on my vaio its even worse... so 5-7 hours doesnt sound that good... :S

im worried now... should i buy the jt or maybe rather the vt based on c2d? it seems that 2cores is enough these days if you dont play games... and you CANT play games with those cr4ppy mobile graphics anyways... hmmmm damn that polish review really scared me lol... i think ill wait for more reviews...

 

Not my specialty, but your numbers sound too optimistic for a mere 1.07GHz dual-core processor. Can you show me any sites where they tested the i5-520UM's in an ASUS machine or just the Intel boost alone?

On several sites, I've read exactly what XS_sayaa has said, that the Intel boost/overclock has to do with the cores in active use. 1.07=2 cores. 1.8GHz=1 core active. Then ASUS Turbo boosts those 33%. Meaning 1.07GHz (2 core) under ASUS' Turbo33 goes to 1.42GHz. 1.86GHz (1 core) goes to 2.47GHz.

I'm not seeing where you're getting 2.13GHz on 2 cores.

 

SU7300 3028 (1.3GHz) 100%
SU7300 4149 (1.7GHz) 137% +37%
i3-350M 5366 (2.26ghz) 177% +77%

im pretty sure hes right...

http://www.semiaccurate.com/2010/03/05/intels-ulv-calpella-platform-almost-here/

1600mhz 2 cores, plus asus 33% overclock = 2133mhz (12x177bclock2124mhz)

and i found this
http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SLBQP.html

so its 1600 for 2 cores and 4 threads and 1866 for 1 core and 2 threads... PLUS 33% asus turbo which means

2133mhz 2 core and 3-4 threads
2480mhz 1 core and 1-2 threads

*slobber*
those clock speeds are really really nice...
but power consumption... :/

 

Good question. I'm not quite sure on the specifics of SpeedStep, though, so I'm not entirely sure.

If you want gaming capability, why not the Acer TimelineX models coming up? The 3820 is 13.3" and some models will have the HD 5650.

 

5650 is still too slow for me...
i emailed a friend at asus if they have an UL30jt in their office and if i can have a look at the battery life before buying one hehe
wish me luck...

my gf knows somebody in acer, ill check if i can have a look at the 3810 or 3820 as well... but they are slightly heavier and bigger so id prefer the asus tbh...

 

Not sure, but I still think you were right the first time on the Intel i5 TurboBoost.

One tech site says:
"the 2.66GHz i7-620M; it takes advantage of Turbo Boost to clock up to 3.33GHz when only one core is needed,"

Another says:
"Core i5 models will also support Turbo Boost to automatically overclock one core when the other core is shut down."

"turbo boost increases the 2.53Ghz to 3.06 but that is only if one core is used"

"the processor with turbo which will lend power from one core to the other for single thread apps"

Then again, an Intel page lists TurboBoost figures for 1 core or 2 core on the desktop i5+i7 processors. But under their mobile i5 processor, it simply says "1.86GHz (max)", so perhaps you're right in your second conclusion. Perhaps the 1-core/2-core principle only applies to their desktop i5's+i7's.

 

Well, gosh golly. Clearly it's not what you know, but who you know!

We're jealous.

 

Are you sure? It'll run Crysis quite well on medium settings at the native 1366x768 res, for example. It's definitely leagues better han the 310M.