Buying the W3J

So I think I've decided to get a W3J, so now I'm searching for a place to buy. Suggestions on resellers?
Any special deals?

I would use Newegg, except on the product description page it says 4 cell lithium ion battery. Is that a mistake? i sent an email to them to inquire about that.

Thanks!

 

It could be that Newegg gives you a spare 4 cell modular bay battery. geared2play.com and proportable.com and powernotebooks.com are great places to look at.

 

geared2play.com has a $70 instant rebate. great service too

 

Main battery should be 8 cell and the spare cell optical bay battery is 6 cells'

 

newegg's specs are a little off - they state 2 year global warranty...I thought it came with 1 year?

proportable.com , geared2play.com , powernotebooks.com, c9tech.com and 1toppc.com are great places to look. I highly recommend them; they're all great folks who are more then willing to help and you should you have any questions , before or after the purchase, you won't be dissapointed with the replies and help you'll get from them.

NewEgg is great but they don't do that - buy the W3J from someone mentioned above instead

 

When did that happen? I bought my W3j from them on Tuesday (they shipped it friday). That just sucks.

 

I belive it was changed on thursday night from 100$ mail in rebate for echeck or cash to 70$ instant rebate for paypal transfers or echeck.

 

I thought maybe the Newegg info was a typo, but then i looked at the official ASUS site and on their site for battery, they do say

so what does that mean? Does that mean 4-cell is the 2nd battery module? Or does it mean the W3J comes in an 8cell and a 4 cell version???? I ordered mine from Newegg and now I'm worried. -_-

 

Do any of these places allow customization of the processor speed or RAM on the W3J?

 

Yes, geared2play.com does

 

I bought my w3j from newegg on 5/19 and it came with an 8-cell battery. Nevertheless, their specs are sometimes off. At the time a bluetooth mouth was listed among the specs, which Asus sometimes bundles with the w3j. I contacted them to figure out if the mouse was included or not. They could not answer my question and referred me to Asus. In the end, the mouse was not included.

 

Does anyone here know what they would do if their w3j just broke down or something and needed it fixed right away? I'm wondering because I really want to get this computer but my parents want to make sure that it can be fixed right away since I will be needing it pretty much all the time for college. BTW My bad because I realize that this is off topic for discussion

 

Does anyone here know what they would do if their w3j just broke down or something and needed it fixed right away? I'm wondering because I really want to get this computer but my parents want to make sure that it can be fixed right away since I will be needing it pretty much all the time for college. BTW My bad because I realize that this is off topic for discussion

 

All warranty work on Asus Ensemble models (like the W3J) is handled by Asus themselves; you have to ship the unit to them. Turnaround time depends on what's wrong with it - in the unlikely event that something breaks in the first place. Someone like Justin (ProPortable) might be able to offer a better estimate of usual turnarounds, but "right away" probably isn't going to mean you get it back in 24-48 hours... you'd probably be looking toward at least a week with round trip shipping etc.

This really isn't any different from warranty coverage from other major vendors (Dell, etc); you'd still have to send it in and use paper/pen in the meantime. The difference is that Asus' are *much* less likely to have anything happen to it requiring warranty work.

 

Is there any place where I could upgrade the W3J's hard drive to an 80GB 7200 rpm? It seems like everywhere I am looking only has the 100GB 5400 rpm option.

 

Ensemble models like the W3j are manufactured by Asus with a single, set configuration. Upgrading an Ensemble unit voids the global warranty, and your only warranty is then through the dealer/reseller.

Geared2Play and StarTech are the major players offering customization for this model in the US. I'd suggest G2P of the two, if you must, but you're going to get more heat out of the 7200 drive in a compact unit that already gets warm

 

So is the 7200 rpm really that much faster than the 5400? Is it worth it to sacrifice the heating issues for the speed (however much of a difference it actually is)?

Also, if I were getting the S96J would you give me the same advice?

 

I'm very seriously considering the W3j, it looks like a sweet laptop.

One question tho, where do I actually buy the secondary (optical bay) battery? Is it the same as the W3v one?