Asus notebook refresh (w/ merom)

When merom finally ships, Do you think asus will refresh there current models with a merom in it?

 

Well Intel just released a Bios update for the Asus S96J/Z96J that adds support for merom

 

Sorry for not being clear. I meant ensemble.

 

Merom is currently shipping. And yes, based on an announcement they posted on their website a few days ago, they are planning to update the ensomble line. I'd give it 3 weeks.

 

I'm probably going to order a A8jm, I figure its going to be more than 3 weeks until the dealers haev them with merom ready to ship. What are you basing that on?

 

3 Weeks? More like 3 months!

ASUS is very very slow in updating their ENSEMBLEs, they will NOT release anything until their current stock is all gone.

Wishful thinking will say, 2 months after Merom.

 

i JUST bought a w3j....

 

Dude, i just bought a W3J too! No worries though. This machiene is a beast as it is, and to be honest, i'd normally be upset by something like this...you know, a new processor making my old one obsolete a month after a bought it. But For some reason, nobody seems all that upset about merom overtaking their yonahs. Im not. I mean, the difference is negligible at this stage. I love my W3J. Even with a yonah, it'll still be top notch for a year or two.

 

i don't think upgrade to merom is necessary.

 

When it does come out, how much will prices drop for the current core duo?

 

All of us can just swap in the merom processor into our W3Js and we'll be good to go.

 

Yeah quite honestly, core 2 duo is not going to be that much of an improvement for notebooks. Plus, it won't be out for awhile in Asus ensembles. If your really worried about it, i'm sure you could replace your cpu, but there would have to be a bio's update for it.

 

sweet... well i was pissed because i was never really informed about hte core 2's till now... but since a lot of you went ahead with the purchase knowing about the change that will occur, it makes me feel a hell of a lot better... It's a great laptop!

I think the whole 64-bit thing is exaggerated too, won't vista run perfectly well on a 32bit platform? The vid cards support vista aero, so i think vista would run just fine on this machine too.... ?

 

yes vista will run just fine. vista will be coming in both 32 and 64 bit versions.

 

do you if the Santa Rosa platform is coming to the market the first quarter or second quarter?

 

I see other notebooks have been dropping in prices (ex. sony) and I was wondering whether or not Asus will too since we're getting closer and closer to Merom. I can wait a bit before purchasing if its going to save me some money.

 

This question has been addressed several times before..... Asus does not generally drop prices of their Ensemble units to reflect changes in component pricing - they simply upgrade various parts on the new shipments and then keep the same price point, i.e. the W3j refresh of June/July, or occasionally offer rebates on existing models to clear them out for incoming updated units. The latter is unlikely to repeat again after the most recent round of rebates expired on Sun, since most of the models are either sold out or low inventory and don't have a lot of pieces sitting around in the warehouses that need to be moved anymore.

So, as discussed elsewhere by Justin etc we can probably expect the refreshed models being released over the next 8-12 weeks to have Merom at some point (a couple of the models sound like they're going to come over at least once more with CDuo procs). But, since reports indicate that Intel is going to price Merom at near the same price as the Yonah CDuo chips there may not be much more that is upgraded for the refreshes (except maybe the W2j screen). It's too early to speculate much on refresh specs, we'll have to wait and see .