Considering an Asus S96J Purchase...

I've been looking at getting one of these for some time now, and now that I finally have the money I can do so. Anyways I was just curious if there is anything I should know about it before I make the jump and/or if there's something similar to it that might be a better machine for what I need (it seems like the number of Z/S96J topics have gone down a lot from when I was last here).

My main concern will probably be gaming, from the reviews I read it sounded like it could do pretty well in any situation, but I just want to be sure it can keep up with some of the newer games (Half-Life 2, CS:S, and Oblivion are some good examples). I'm sure I will be trying to run them with mostly high settings, but I don't mind cutting some options for extra speed if necessary. I also plan to upgrade the processor to 2.00GHz Core 2 Duo and the RAM up to 2GB.

On another note I've heard lots of good things about PowerNotebooks.com and thus have decided to go with them. My only question there is on the cash discount; does anyone know if you physically have to pay in cash in order to use it? Or can you use a credit card to pay it all off at once instead of monthly payments and still get the benefits? I was also considering emailing a sales advisor though I'm unsure of how that actually works...

And finally has there been any fixes for the grainyness issue? I saw that it was corrected for the W3J but am unsure of progress for the S96J. I know it won't bother me if I don't go looking for it, but it would be a plus nonetheless.

Here is the one I'm planning on going with:
http://powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=337

I would be upgrading a few things however...

Core 2 Duo 2.00GHz
Arctic Silver 5
2GB (2 SODIMMS) *CORSAIR* DDR2/667 Dual Channel RAM (it would be great if someone could clarify what exactly 'CORSAIR' means here since the price is elevated on all parts with that labeled)
60GB 7,200 RPM HDD (going for speed over space)
Upgraded DVD/RW Drive
Intel PRO/Wireless Card 802.11 a/b/g

I just really want to be sure that I'll be getting the most out of it, so I'll gladly take any suggestions you may have on this.

That's about it... thank you for your time, I look forward to your responses.

 

First things first, I suggest you to phone them for their special deals on their Powerpro line, which includes the asus.

Second, the cash discount are for only wire transfers or checks (cashier, e-checks, etc...). Credit cards are not applicable. I don't know about their monthly payments, so you would have to ask them.

Third, s/z96j does not have the fix yet (or so I think), but I am sure it will be out.

Fourth, cosair is just the manufacturer brand who make Ram. Its has higher quality than those of generic brand.

Fifth, honestly, you should ask them. Ron/Donald/powernotebooks are great. They have fantastic service and will help you out with any other question regarding the Asus.

 

The updated bios that fixes the grain issue on the S/Z96j has been released.

If your S96j does not have the updated bios, instructions for updating the bios can be found here: http://www.notebookforums.com/thread173555-3.html

Cheers.

(Grrrr . . . I'm having terrible response times with this forum.)

 

Ok, thanks for the info.

 

Wow, that's great news. Thank you both very much, I'll try to get in contact with someone over there later tonight.

 

Not so mad anymore . . .

 

I believe the "Corsair" option is for those individuals who specifically want the Corsair brand of memory only. Corsair is considered to be one of the best at making memory, but the others aren't so bad. Call them (powernotebooks) if you have questions regarding memory.

As was mentioned earlier do give them a call and ask about discounts on the S96J. If you can swing it, i recommend you get a larger 7200rpm hard drive. I have the 100GB 7200rpm drive and im happy with it, but even with an external hard drive i still find myself running out of space.

I've personally installed the bios upgrade and it has fixed the graininess issue. However, last i heard it is still a beta edition so you should hold off until a stable version is released.

Good luck.

 

PowerNotebooks was one of a few resellers I seriously considered making my s96j purchase from. Although I eventually bought from GenTech, Donald at PowerNotebooks was extremely helpful throughout the process. I suggest you check out both GenTech and PowerNotebooks before making your purchase, both have been selling notebooks for years now and you can't go wrong with either one.

As a side note, the beta bios works beautifully, be sure to thank Ken at GenTech for making it available to the ASUS community.