Asus, Current recommendation ??

Hey guys,

I am planning to buy an Asus notebook. Price range max 1500€, should have a c2d processor preferably fast, good graphics performance sleek design and should not exceed the weight of 2.7 KG.
Which sold notebooks would you recommend at the moment?

Thank you

 

A8Js and W3J. Good luck choosing between them

Cheers.

 

Yes...I second the A8Js and W3J recommendations. Both are excellent 14 inch notebooks!

 

W3J is not a c2d processor..

 

As of last month it was...

 

The W3J-H026P is CD. The W3J-H037P is C2D. The latter is equipped with a T5500 1.66 GHz CPU.

Cheers.

 

Sweet folks, thanks so far. one last question, some have ATI graphic cards, which ATI card is comparable with, for example A Geforce Go 7400 or 7600 ? Is there a great difference between 5400 RPM and 7200? should i go for 7200? how about new things hitting the shelves for xmas? wait or buy?

Greetings

 

For GPU, you also want to check the amount of dedicated memory. The W3J has an ATI X1600 256MB, while the A8Js has a GF 7700 512MB. The equivalences between ATI and nVidia card are pretty straight forward ..

7400 = X1400
7600 = X1600
7700 = X1700

5400 RPM vs 7200 RPM ? Depends what you'll be using it for .. 5400 is fine for most people, 7200 will give you an edge for AV editing and other demanding applications. 7200 RPM is definitely becoming alot more popular.

I doubt you'll see huge changes between now and Christmas. I've heard rumors about upgrading the W3J CPU and GPU, but that's purely speculative at this point.

Cheers.

 

I would correct that go7700 is in fact about 20% faster than X1700 X1700 is as fast as X1600.

 

Thanks so far for your great input, i will have a look at those two models.

 

Since i live in Europe (german) i looked for some online shops that offer the A8JS. I found the following
http://nutrius.de/


A8JS-4S014P - 14" WXGA Glare/Intel Core 2 Duo T7200/120GB/2048MB/8xDVD Dual DL/NVIDIA Go 7700/XP Pro
Druckansicht |
A8JS-4S014P - 14\
ASUS A8JS-4S014P

14" TFT (WXGA+ 1440x900 Glare Type Color Shine Display)
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Prozessor T7200 (2.0 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 4 MB L2 Cache)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 7700 512 MB
2048 MB DDR2-667 (2x1024MB)
120 GB HDD SATA 5.400 rpm
8x DVD-Super Multi D/L Double Layer
WLAN 802.11a/b/g
Bluetooth
0.3 Megapixel Web-/Videokamera
Tasche und Maus im Lieferumfang

MS Windows XP Professional (OEM)

Anschlüsse
V.92 56K Modem
10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG WLAN 802.11a/b/g
Bluetooth
1 Express Card
VGA und DVI
Audio in/Mic
Line-in
Kopfhörer +SPDIF
5xUSB 2.0
IEEE1394
IrDA
TV Out (S-Video)
4-in-1 Card Reader

Stromversorgung
Li-Ion Akku 6-Zellen / 90 Watt AC Adapter

Abmessungen, Gewicht
335 x 245 x 34.8~37.3 mm / ca. 2,4 kg

Mitgelieferte Add-Ons:
DVD-Player SW / Nero Burning Software / Asus
Tools

For a whopping 1639€ = $ 2,120.55

while the milestone version costs only 1,247.54 €

With the European version i get xtra Bluetooth 1 Gig Extra ram and 20 Gigs hard drive extra.


There is also an alternative:

ASUS A8JP-4S015P

14" TFT (WXGA+ 1440x900 Glare Type Color Shine Display)
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Prozessor T7200 (2.0 GHz, 667 MHz FSB, 4 MB L2 Cache)
ATI Mobility Radeon X1700 256 MB VRAM (512 MB HyperMemory)
1024 MB DDR2-667 (2x512MB)
120 GB HDD SATA 5.400 rpm
8x DVD-Super Multi D/L Double Layer
WLAN 802.11a/b/g
Bluetooth
0.3 Megapixel Web-/Videokamera

MS Windows XP Professional (OEM)

Anschlüsse
V.92 56K Modem
10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG WLAN 802.11a/b/g
Bluetooth
1 Express Card
VGA und DVI
Audio in/Mic
Line-in
Kopfhörer +SPDIF
5xUSB 2.0
IEEE1394
IrDA
TV Out (S-Video)
4-in-1 Card Reader

Stromversorgung
Li-Ion Akku 6-Zellen / 90 Watt AC Adapter

Abmessungen, Gewicht
335 x 245 x 34.8~37.3 mm / ca. 2,4 kg

Mitgelieferte Add-Ons:
DVD-Player SW / Nero Burning Software / Asus
Tools

2 Jahre Garantie mit Pick-Up & Return Service
innerhalb D und AT (Akku 1 Jahr) inklusive 2
Jahre Internationale Send-In Garantie


This one costs $1,743.133

What would you go for?

 

Well, importing a US model you probably have to pay tax and duties and such, right? I would factor that in when making any comparisons.

A lot of people want bluetooth, and adding it later is a pain. You can look up the price of a 1GB stick of DDR-667 and see how much value that adds...

 

It's a slight difference in cost. If i add up all the import taxes and tariffs + shipping I get to the same price - bluetooth. I think its a deal, now i have to decide if I go for X1700 or Gforce 7700

 

Since I had had a terrible experience (which has not yet ended - see discussion at the thread Asus after-sales service), I would urge you to purchase A8J and not W3J (its overheating problems are true, the battery is mediocre, while the built quality underneath its sleek and unique design quite unmatchable).

Also since you live in Europe you might need to be aware of the quality services of Asus repair centers in our poor continent!

Last but not least, please be aware of the fact that " a guarantee is not good if they are unable to fix your laptop in case it's broken and/or if takes them a couple of months to do anything about your technical issues".

Good luck!

 

Exxi, unfortunately you have to accept the fact that American guys can buy same laptops WAY cheaper than we Europeans, no matter what brand are they.

Before I aquired A8Js, I owned Sony Vaio T350 that was bought in US by my friend who went there. I got it almost 35% cheaper than I would in Europe. But it wouldn't be that much cheaper if my friend haven't succedeed to *cough* avoidcustoms*cough* due to small form factor.
Downside was that I had no valid waranty cause it was applied only in US and Canada.

Theoretically, only way you can benefit from lower price is to buy laptop in US but with worldwide warranty and somehow bring it back to Europe "unnoticed". NOT that I encourage you (or anyone else) to do something illegal, of course !

 

Is the difference huge between Geforece 7700 and ATI X1700. Can i go for the ATI laptop, safe money and feel good about it? what do you think?

 

Difference is not huge at all.

Difference between A8Js and A8Jp is:

1. 7700 w512 RAM vs X1700 w256RAM

2. 2GB RAM (2x1GB) vs 1GB RAM (2x512MB)


Price difference is cca 250 €

If you are in position to sell 2 sticks of 512MB RAM and buy 2x1GB for A8Jp, I believe you'll pass cheaper than buying A8Js in the first place.
I wanted 7700 (don't ask me why ) and I wanted 2GB of RAM but didn't want to trouble myself with selling original sticks and buying other ones...

 

I'll save you some time, so you don't waste your time debating b/w W3J and A8Js like I did.

These are reasons why A8Js is better:
- screen :a8js has 1440x900 while w3j has 1280x768
- graphics: a8js has 7700 512mb dedicated, w3j only has X1600 (7700 is 20% faster according to Laum)
- Webcam: a8js has one, w3j doesn't
- issues: a8js is pretty much perfect, while w3j suffers rebooting errors (hardware issue, maybe fixed w/ bios later)
- ports: 5 usb on a8js, 3 on w3j ; a8js has dvi, w3j only has vga
- hard drives: sata interface for a8js, while w3j still uses older P-ATA
- cpu: c2d t7200 (2ghz) for a8js, while c2d t5500 (1.66ghz) for w3j
- cost: cheaper for a8js

These are reasons why W3J is better:
- build quality is all aluminum, meaning better build + style, while A8Js is plain in appearance and build is not top-notch
- dvd drive is modular bay, meaning it can be used for a 2nd battery while a8js will only do dvd drives.
- built-in Bluetooth, but you can get an A8Js w/ BT built-in from milestonepc

Hope that helps. In terms of comparison, I'd favor the A8Js. I would actually compare the A8Js w/ the Macbook pro and ASUS's upcoming G1.

macbook pro:
- all-around aluminum build
- follows almost every spec in the A8Js except for the ability to change parts around (meaning u'll hav hard time upgrading HDD to 7200rpm)
- also, it's an X1600 instead of a 7700go, and for a X1600 256mb instead of x1600 128mb, you're forced to pay for the 2.33ghz core 2 duo
- trying to follow specs as close to a8js as possible, you're spending atleast $1000 more
- iSight webcam will not work for windows

Upcoming ASUS G1:
- better build quality + fancier w/ style
- made all out of aluminum w/ some carbon fiber
- here's the bad thing: the carbon fiber is fake. it's this extra layer on top of the aluminum build, and when the layer gets scratched, it reveals the aluminum beneath it.
- heavier (6.8 lb roughly)
- more expensive


As for geforce 7700 vs X1700, the gf7700 go is better. X1700 is a X1600 w/ better power management, that's all. I'd pick up the 7700 if you had the chance. On the upcoming G1 and G2 series, the G2 (17 inch model) will get the X1700 while the G1 (15.4 inch) will get a geforce 7700. What I'm suspecting is the X1700 on the G2 will be clocked extremely high so it'll run at least faster than the 7700 on the G1, but that's just because the G2 is a 17 inch, so it'll probably support higher clock speeds. Of course, you can always overclock

 

Maomanmaman, thanks for the input about A8Js vs W3J but unfortunately W3J is NOT available throughout Europe, only in selected countries.

I bought my A8Js in Germany and I believe Exxi is from Germany, therefore he cannot buy W3J there unless he orders it from a different country (Switzerland, for example).