Does anybody own a V6va?

I'd like to hear from people who have used it and what their thoughts are (pluses, minuses). I can't find any reviews for it.

 

.... you already bought it... just sit tight and wait for it. There are almost a dozen members of this forum that I know of who have had this notebook for at least a week..... none of them have seemed to post much if anything at all........ No news is good news and from those I have spoken with, they're probably too busy enjoying it.

 

Cons:
* Some heat from right palmrest. May not be a problem for most people, but if you will be typing for longer periods of time it is going to be a bit of nuisance. For me it is a dealbreaker, but I am probably oversensitive
* No SVHS or DVI
* Limited support for fan control (speedfan does not recognize the HW, as far as I can see). Not sure if this really counts as a minus

Pros:
* Pretty much everything else. Its light, stylish, fast and has a good screen.
* Its also surprisingly silent. I was expecting that a notebook this small with high performance to have to make some compromises with respect to sound. It seems the new cooling technology has helped, because the CPU fan rarely comes on, and even then its not very noisy.

If the palmrest thing does not bother you, this is pretty much the ultimate notebook right now.

 

Thanks Bols.

I wasn't too happy about no S-video either but cards are available, I've heard.

How do you like that screen? Is it all that people are saying it is?

I usually use a mouse so the heat thing should be a big deal for me. You said it is a dealbreaker, does that mean you are returning it?

Probably 10-14 days til I see mine.

 

Yes, I am returning it. Tough decision, but my line of work requires me to work at the keyboard for long hours. The way I type, my wrists are always resting on the palmrest, and being even slightly uncomfortable is not an option.
Ill probably go for the Z70va instead. Too bad, as the extra inch of footprint just makes it a little less mobile. Also, the CPU/GPU cooling of the V6Va is better and less noisy.

The screen I got over here (Norway) is NOT the same as the on in North America. This one is matte, probably the old V6V type. However, it is still excellent in contrast and clarity. The lower vertical view angle does not bother me ether. If other people want to take a look at my screen, they're just going to have to bend down (or over, depending on...)

 

.... that's too bad, it's the brand and speed of hard drive that's causing that. Using a seagate 7200rpm that I through in there is actually as cool as the old hitachi 5400rpm that came with the v6v... Meaning that a seagate 5400rpm (which you'd be looking at the equivilent of about $150 USD) would run a lot cooler and not affect performance. I also couldn't tell you if your version of the V6va has the thermal tape under the touchpad or not, but that would make a difference too.

 

I would not be surprised if the seagate would improve the situation. I have not been a fan of Hitachi since they produced the 60GB drive in the Dell D600 that was running at appx. 60 degrees celsius.

Then again, I noticed that the V6Va is cooler on battery operation, even though the HD itself seem to be having the same temperature (appx. 39 degrees celsius). Some of the heat may just seep over from the CPU area...a fan override or BIOS update could help. Then again, it just may be that I'm being a p*ssy about the whole heat issue...but a notebook is a very subjective experience

 

... are you making use of powergear? You may be running your system at full blast when you're on AC and that would make the systema lot hotter. If you're just typing, you certainly don't need the cpu and everything else running full-blown.

 

Using NHC. Undervolted and running on "Dynamic Switching" when on AC. Should give a decent balance for normal use.

 

Can you guys post pics of your V6Va?

 

... well you're not doing something because it would be just as hot under battery power if you were making the correct changes.... the hitachi drives use the same power on ac or battery... so they should be the same temp regardless... it's something else... how about your graphics card? What settings are you using in PowerPlay?


About pictures, you could certainly check out our pictures or the pictures from the older V6v review that Andrew Baxter did (it's the same exact chassis):

http://www.proportable.com/detail.aspx?ID=155

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2311

 

Beautiful notebook. I would take off all the tacky intel centrino, MS and ATI stickers off it since they just ruin the look.

 

Yes i too would remove the stickers, i cant wait to get mine.

 

That heat issue is concerning. I've heard about it before. I just sent an email to the shop that is custom building mine and told him we need to nip that in the bud. So, I asked if there is a choice I'd like a Seagate drive (if that matters) and also asked him to put some thermal tape under the palm rest. Hopefully, that will take care of any issues.

I'd love to hear about other people's experiences with the V6Va. Although mine will be here in a week or so I just want to learn everything about it. I just dl'd the manual so I'll pour over that all night.

 

Theres been too many complaints of heat on these ASUS notebooks, much of the complaints toward the W3V. Well when playing Call of Duty 2 running at super performance, I still don't see the heat as a problem and I doubt the V6Va would produce as much heat.. so don't worry about the heat issue, it's not bad at all.

Most of these complaints come from very sensitive palms...

 

rosy palms?

 

Let's keep this discussion CLEAN, people
Back to talking about the V6Va now.

 

lol, sorry auroras. we geeks get carried away sometimes when it comes to sexy lappies.

 

I'm a geek too...so I understand.
But please... for the sake of the potential young(er) veiwers of this thread, let's just keep this discussion clean... haha.

 

you mean it has heated hand rests? AWSOME! Will keep you warm through this winter
What a great innovation

 

Anyone looking for good pics of the V6V (outwardly the same as the V6Va), check em out here http://www.overclockzone.com/infoissue/02-05/Asus_NB/index4.html

 

Great pics Zam. Thanks!

 

What is the difference between tv-out and s-video out? I seen some previous post saying that v6va does not have s-video out. Does it goes for V6v too?

 

TV-out is normally what an s-video out would be considered. It's not on the V6v or V6va due to thickness constraints.

 

S-Video is the most common connector for TV-out as most TVs support it and it can easily be converted to a composite signal with an adapter. S-Video use to separate leads to transmit the TV signal; one for chroma and one for luminance. Other options are composite video (only one lead, hence the name) which has worse quality than S-Video, and finally component RGB (one lead for each of the primary colours) that has the best output quality but is very rare on laptops. If you have a recent HDTV it may support a standard VGA input.

Neither the V6V nor the V6Va have any sort of TV out. If you need this functionality you can get a VGA converter. It's not an ideal solution for portability but works pretty well.

Edit: I write too much or too slow.

 

... that's true.... ATI had the best one but I don't think they are selling it anymore.... but there VGA to s-video is something a lot of people with V6v's got back when they came out..... from who thanked me for suggesting it, I think most people really liked the idea.

*edit*

Especially for the very few times that they actually hook their computer up to their TV.... it's a shame to pass on a system that just didn't have room for s-video, because you may or may not hook this up to your tv once in a blue moon.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815100117
i bought this VGA to S-video converter