Couple interesting W7j components information

Well, not that it's really important either way, but some people may be interested it in. I had a W7 in about hundred pieces the other day and there were two things that no else has mentioned that some potential buyers may like to know. This is really anticlimatic, so I'm sorry...

1. The lid is magnesium (just like the V6)... It didn't occur to me until now, but the W7 does have some cues from the V6.... mainly in the lid, the color and the thinness of the lcd. Is this better than aluminum or carbon fiber... no... the aluminum is thicker and heavier, which is good and bad.... and carbon fiber (as in the W5 lid) at least would have been able to be engraved easily.... the magnesium lids (used on this one, the V6 series and the old M3) are great for their lightness, and how they take paint, and how durable they are... they're just very thin which makes it difficult for engrave (not something 99.9999% of people are even thinking of doing).

2. The new screen that's being used is made by Toshiba.... and ****, the lid doesn't even behind to show how thin is is.... the panel itself isn't even an 1/8" thick..... thinner than the V6's panel, which is the thinnest I've ever seen for a 15". This would be the first Toshiba screen Asus has ever used and I think almost all of those with it would agree it's a darn good screen.

Just thought some of you would be interested in that.

 

Do you have any pictures of the lid and the LCD showing off how thin they really are?

 

No, but for your sake I'll take one of the lid and then the panel itself on a W3.

 

Did one of those hundred pieces happen to be the wireless card? There's a few people here, myself included, who would really like to know where its located.

 

yeah, let my get back to you this evening.

 

I'm anxious to know too...the intel card works great but sometimes the connection just goes away. Did the card go to sleep??

 

I found out I had to charge my camera battery.... I'll have to shoot them tommorrow.... but the 3945 card is good...... it's the drivers and set up that people have problems with.... The biggest thing I've found is people don't have or know how to update to the latest firmware for their router.... that's the biggest problem becasue that's often why your signal cuts out. The card itself is good and the newest drivers as well.

 

--edit--
nevermind

 

I am using the same router as I did with my old notebook with an atheros based card. Everything was working great. the 3945 card is good but i can't figure out why it just looses a connection and reconnects back when I have the lid closed for a long time. I did not set the computer to sleep or anything like that after a while...

 

Goldserve, perhaps you could try switching to static IP (if you are using DHCP currently) and see if the problem recurs?

 

Yah, but Super A/G, Pre-N, and other features that many routers and AP's are starting to adopt aren't supported, and it would be nice to know what it will entail to upgrade if the user sees the benefit.

So where did they tuck it away? I'm just hoping it won't be *too* difficult to get to.

 

Am I dumb or what. The Intel install will refuse to install the newer intel proset 10.5 - wireless 10.5.0.0 - generic TIC 119670. It will continue to install the old 10.1 that came with asus but the driver it will install is the new 10.5. Intel proset will then complain that the driver does not match the utility...

 

Bump for ProPortable.

 

I'm sorry..... I believe it was under the keyboard but I'm not sure you can actually access it without taking the motherboard out...... I don't remember and didn't get a chance to take pictures.... I was called out to santa barbara for the week at the last minute.... I apoligize but I'll get those up when I get back.

 

Booo.... I was hoping it would be simple to access so I can swap in an Atheros card.

 

Yeah, I just simply don't remember... I remember someone asking me and I went to look at it, but although I could see it on the motherboard, I didn't have the time to see if it was accessible...

 

My friend's ar5006x in his macbook is kicking the 3945's butt. Oh wells!

 

Can I just ask one question? I mean, I'm all about speed and range.... trust me, I am... but what exactly is "kicking butt"? Battery life is important, but I find the range on the 3945 to be as good as anything I've ever used and the best card I've used was an Asus G card that was amplified to twice the intel power (and that was when Asus was making the 2215 card)....

... I can get easy 300 feet with both my Linksys and Asus routers using this card and throughput can handle the best of the business class cable I'm using at home..... but I find the real issue in the routers.... out of the box d-link and netgear blow.. they can be tweaked, but they still suck. Linksys is pretty good out of the box, but firmware needs to be upgraded to work right with the 3945...... Asus' units are great.. the newest ones were made after the 3945, so those are good, but firmware is easy to update anyway...

I'm just curious what you need...... more range? more throughput? I'm just looking to find out reasonable issues...... Because of late I've found the same kids who will never use it, want to brag about having a maxed out notebook, with high end gpu that kicks out high 3dmark numbers but will never get used.... but this extends to wifi cards now too.... I'm wondering which of those people will ever use their wifi network over even 100' and will transfer big 1gb files more than once or twice ever to another computer on their network to make the higher speeds even worth it.....

In terms of internet connection, the old b cards (although not as secure), can handle everything the fastest cable connection can throw at at.... so, I honestly just want to know what different people are looking for. I don't want to hear from those people I talked about above that are using it to brag.... I want to hear real life situations that they're trying to get more out of...

 

More thoroughput, more stability. I can honestly say, being that I've owned the past 3 generations of intel wireless cards, that you run into far fewer connectivity problems with Atheros solutions. They just work, like they're supposed to... while maybe not you, but MANY people experience alot of problems with Intels stuff and many popular wireless ap's and routers.

This is NOT a knock on Asus for conforming with the "Centrino" badge, but more some well deserved kudos for Atheros. They simply make excellent chipsets that work as advertised, and offer plenty of nice enhancements to boot.

 

Beside each other, the atheros can pull 36mbps while the intel only gets 18mbps. The transmit power on the atheros can go up to 100mw and the intel is 30mw or something like that? Truely the sensitivity of the atheros card is much better and my old atheros card in my dell can do magic when no others around me can. (It was an after market, high powered card at 200mw)

 

As for real life situations, which I believe you asked for... you need to look no further than the fact that many families nowadays have more than one pc in the house, and home networking is becoming commonplace, along with media servers, game consoles, and everything that entails.

Having a wireless network that runs at the same speed as a wired connection is very desirable, especially considering that most homes aren't wired for such purposes... and the cost to get wired is considerabley more expensive than a Pre-N AP or router and a few client cards.

You don't have to transfer "1 gig files once a year" to appreciate and utilize that benefit. Even a 4 or 5 meg file transfer... like, oh say, copying an MP3 from your laptop upstairs to your HTPC downstairs or vice versa, would see a significant benefit to the additional thoroughput.

 

The card we are discussing is the... wireless internet card, thingy, right?

I'm new to the laptop world, and this W7J is just... like, fany to me, lol. Im used to my desktop with wires

So we're discussing that the card inside the W7J tends to drop WiFi Connections at times? for certain people with X or Y routers?..... does this trend also occur in like, school and library WiFi locations?

Thanks in advance

 

Can the 3495 card be replaced with an Atheros card? Will bluetooth be compromised by the swap? Never considered the possibility of swithcing the wireless card.

 

The card in general is ok, meaning its an average card, a regular users would see no problem for it.

However, the Atheros-based chipset wireless card is a superior card with more stability, range and less power consumption at a more powerful transmit power.

Just note that, changing the wireless card may void your warrantee. Oh, and BlueTooth usually has its own chip located somewhere else on the laptop motherboard

 

Could someone suggest a vendor for an atheros based card that is compatible with the w7j.

Thanks for your input coriolis.

 

there's usually group buys going around in the buy forums

 

That's the thing about it, not many dealers nor vendors even carry it.

 

Yah, since they're just a chipset maker, they can be hard to identify sometimes...

That's one of the reasons I wanted ProPortable's input, so that we could identify exactly where it is, and what interface is being used. I'm pretty sure it's mini pci-e, but that hasn't been confirmed in any way.

 

The problem with most Atheros cards are the drivers. Most Atheros based casrds are made by obsure manufactures who don't update their drivers.


My AR5006XS card was made by Gigabyte. The model is GN-WI01HT. Gigabyte is a fairly large company and is pretty good at updating drivers. iI ordered it from Buy.com for $42.99. They're currently out of stock though.

 

Hey Justin,

Could you get us some pics and tell us how to take out the keyboard? The network card is dying to be changed =p

 

Seconded... this Intel card is going me all sorts of issues.