Choosing between A8ja and W3j (warranty issues)

Hi everyone,
My first post here . I'm staying in Singapore and plan to buy a laptop for my final year at university. I hope to get it to last till I complete my graduate studies. I've narrowed my search down to two models:

A8ja (1.66 Core Duo, 100gb hdd at 4200rpm (!!!), Ati x1600, 2x512 MB of DDR 533, 2.4kgs inc battery). at S$ 2600, 2 years global warranty

W3j (2 Ghz, 100gb hdd at 5400rpm,, 1x1024 mb at 633, Ati x1600). at S$ 3150 (inc shipping from US), 1 year global warranty

The W3j looks to be the better machine among the two - but the Asus notebook warranty policy seems rather strange - I cannot extend the W3j warranty internationally to 3 years, while I can extend the A8ja warranty globally for an additional year. I'm ready to spend up at S$3500 including the warranty.

Should I just buy the A8ja and swap the harddisk drive? How much slower is the machine likely to be?

Is there any way to get a 3 year global warranty on the w3j? I will be travelling a fair bit and I can't hinge on a North America only warranty.

Thank you very much!

 

Those prices seem really high. Is that USD? You should be able to get the W3j from the US shipped to you without paying much more then $1800 + $100 + maybe another 10% for import taxes. As for the warranty, you might want to look in extending the warranty using a 3rd party. The 4200RPM drive is slow, and I would consider putting in a faster 5400 or 7200RPM drive in its place.

 

Wouldn't it be cheaper to ship from Taiwan? Some threads here mentioned the W3J for as low as US $1350 .... pretty sure you can get some retailer there to ship to Singapore?

 

Darrick - I'm not too sure if there are any Taiwanese shops that sell the W3j online. From what I know, most people buy it on their visit to Taiwan. Any links that might help ?

Jason - those prices are in SGD (1usd = 1.5 sgd). Roughly 2000USD inclusive of shipping.

Now only if I could get that warranty resolved.. suggestions are welcome. Has anyone got the w3j shipped outside US? What did you do about the warranty?

 

Well the warranty on the w3j is a global warranty so you can send it to your local Asus repair shop regardless of where you buy your computer from. As for the warranty. I believe that most extended warranties on the w3j are offered by the reseller and therefore its probably impossible to find a US reseller offering a global extended warranty. On the other hand, most problems with laptops will happen in the first year so generally a 1 year global warranty is sufficient. Even though its nice to be covered for more than 2 years just incase, a lot of times it isn't worth the extra money.

 

For the warranty, extending it means +x amount of years yes, but if you buy it in US, the 1st year is Global, but the extension will be N.American only.

 

There are a couple of ppl in this forum (*ehm* Jason ) who are in Taiwan... maybe they could buy it for you if they don't mind and send it to Spore?

Search for a thread called W3J $1350 Taiwan ....