Buying Asus W3J - Standard Config or Customized?

I am definetely set on buying the Asus W3J. However, I am not sure if I should get the standard configuration thats Asus sends to the resellers, or if I should get it customized from the reseller. Money is not a problem. Is it worse to get the W3J customized? I want to max it out. I was thinking about purchasing from Geared2play if I decide to customize it, and Proportable if I decide to get it standard. Can things go wrong if I have the reseller customize my machine? Is it reliable? I know that having the W3J customized will void the Asus warranty, but I'll still have the reseller warranty, which is probably better than that of Asus. So what do you guys think? I would rather customize it so that I can max out the W3J and get the top of the line, but if it is not a good thing to do, then I'll have to stick with the standard configuration. Here is what I'm trying to get done:

T2600 2.16ghz Core Duo
2GB DDR2-667 Dual Channel Memory
14" WXGA (1280x768) Colorshine Glossy
ATI Radeon x1600 256MB
100GB 7200 RPM IDE
DVD/RW 8X Super Multi DVD Burner

Will having the extra memory, better processor, and better HD cause the W3J to overheat or anything? I would like to hear from people who have first hand experience of this. Please just don't say it will overheat without backing up your statements. Thanks in advance.

 

I was planning on doing the same, sans the T2600. The T2500 goes over my budget unfortunatly.

 

Dude - go with the standard config. With the upcoming refresh, you're already looking at 2.0GHz Core Duo...going from that to 2.16 is nothing.

Also while a 7200 HD is nice, you have to figure it will generate more heat - not sure how big of a deal breaker that is.

Bottom line is buying customized voids the Asus warranty and basically puts you at the mercy of the vendor. Not a place I want to be. Who knows what tomorrow will bring with some of these guys.

Do you want to deal with Asus (and their resources) or some small shop with limited resources if something goes wrong? Ultimately it's a $2k gamble.

All that said, you're better off buying stock and adding your own RAM. There's even some speculation (though contrary to the "fine print" in the Asus warranty) that you can change your HD manually without having problems servicing your unit under warranty, provided you replace it with stock gear prior to sending it into Asus.

 

^ i definately agree with the Undertow, and if you upgrade it to those specs AbN, wow ur total becomes 3000$ USD!, come on, that's just too much for a laptop that will be outdated in 3 months =\.

I'm not saying you shouldn't buy it but wow $3k , for a laptop , you can buy 2 laptops for that, or the W3J and use 1000$ and buy a new Desktop with that, minus the monitor you prolly already have.

Yeah, watch out about voiding the warranty when you place that new HD in, and Ram.

Just to make things even more clear.

The W3J will now COME with a 2.0ghz and 1gb stick of ram @667mhz, i think the price went up 100$ (not sure) so it's still an amazing deal.

The W3J is an amazing laptop! don't under estimate its power, by maxing it out to get get a small 5-15% overall boost in performance for 1000$ more.

Hope this helps, please ask more questions if you have, we'll be happy to answer them.

Thanks,

MysticGolem

 

Alright. That being said, where can I purchase an extra 1GB stick of RAM for the W3J? Can somebody please give me a direct link to newegg or somewhere giving me the exact model I would need and that would fit perfectly in the W3J? Thanks.

 

Just go to Newegg and find a cheap stick of PC2-5300.

The CPU performance differences are miniscule. Unless you do lots of encoding and the likes, it's not worth it.

 

I bought a custom W3J from Allasus.com and I love it. Its got the t2500, 2 gigs of ram, and the 7200rpm drive. It's fantastic, and I got the startech 2 year warranty to go along with it, meaning I can upgrade to Merom without voiding the ASUS waranty. I got mine for 2300 from Allasus.com. Their service was excellent, not a single problem with my machine.

 

Here you go AbN the link to newegg and all 1gb sticks @667mhz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...09221136+130911434&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=381

If for some reason that doesn't work, you need to select SO-DIMM chips, and DDR2 category.

Nice Stocat, but how do you feel now that the W3J will now come with a 2.0 and 1gb stick of ram, in which you can easily add another for 90$, making the price of the W3J 1800 + 80 + (any 7200 rpm HD) = under 2300.

In anycase Stocat the upgrades were small but decent because your performance gains were also about 10% but for only 500$ more. I think that's better, compare to what AbN wanted to do earlier which was 1000$ for a 10-10% performance gains.

And yes Stocat, your right, when you customize a W3J by a retailer and they use their own warranty, you can upgrade to Merom without voiding the Allasus warranty.

Technically there's a tradeoff. If you keep the Stock W3J 1800$ you get 1 year ASUS Global warranty, for some this is nice.

The other side is many here don't feel there's a need to get a retailer's warranty since one will only be upgrading the ram at the least by themselves.

But in theory, if I prefered my retailer's warranty over ASUS global warranty, because i will remain in NA for atleast the remainder of the warranty and will upgrade to Merom very soon, i guess people would ask for a retailer warranty instead, but you do pay MORE for it tho.

You pay Base price + retailer warranty + any upgrades to the system.

One example is if i get the new W3J, 1800$ and ask for retailer 2 year warranty, 180$ and an extra stick of ram 80$, that stick voids my ASUS warranty causing me to get my retailer warranty.

My total price becomes roughly 2100$, compared to keeping the ASUS global warranty and just adding a stick of ram which would cost me a total of 1900$.

Anyways the W3J is pretty much awsome no matter how you spec it, the old specs are amazing, the new specs are even better and people who upgrade them get even more.

Thanks,

MysticGolem