Drooling over W3V -- Will it be discontinued!?!?

Hi, I'm currently working at a computer store, earning alot of money and I will have enough to buy a brand spanking W3V by November 30th, now I've come here (after reading alot of reviews) to seek advice on making the right choice, and if anyone knows that Asus will be still selling the Asus W3V after November 30th WITH Windows Vista pre-installed on it (Since Vista comes out early November).
Will they bring out another model? I hope they don't ruin it, because this has happend to me before, a product is out and too-good-to-be-true but it is! and the next minute it's discontinued!

p.s. any info on the heat/screen issues?

 

Not sure if they'll update it with Vista.. but you shouldn't have a problem getting a W3V in the end of November unless supplies are running low right NOW.

 

Vista is officially released in 2006. No notebooks will have Vista preloaded until the latter half of 2006..........

 

november 2006 is what Microsoft has said... although, if history is repeated, it will be released at the end of august 2006 (gearing up for back to school/work sales)

 

Officially Vista is set for Q4 2006, and quite interesting we're also waiting for an SP3 to be released soon after (Cnet)

 

Thanks you guys for all of the info on Visa, but do you have anything else that I should be aware of before buying? Any info on the heat and screen "issues"?

Also, I'd like to ask why Asus, and many stores that sell the W3V have the specs normally set at 1.6 Ghz processor and 60gb HDD.
Then you've got AGearNotebooks.com which sells a W3V with 2.3 Ghz processor and 120gb HDD!, so which really is the proper model?

Also I have one more question, is there any difference between the X600 64mb Hypermemory and the X600 128mb? There may be different combinations, but does anyone know of "Hypermemory" just means that it's taking 64mb from the RAM when in a game or something? I don't want to get conned by thinking I'm getting 128mb vid card in there when it's only 64! (Because some stores sell it for more)

 

The one at AGear has been modified thus the warranty is voided, and instead of the 2 year international warranty, you get the warranty AGear gives you.

As for the Hypermemory, it does take extra ram from your RAM to combine with your video ram..

 

Thanks, but I remain confused on the "Hypermemory" thing.
Forget AGear for the moment, does the W3V come with a X600 that has 64mb dedicated memory? And when they say "X600 128mb Hypermemory" in the specifications for the laptop does that just mean that the graphics card will use an additional 64mb from the RAM? Please enlighten me on this subject.

 

You are correct.

The base specs for the w3v's x600 is 64mb of dedicated memory. Hypermemory is a way of giving more memory to the gpu by allocating some of the system's memory to the gpu. (like what you said, it takes 64mb from the RAM and uses it for the gpu)

 

Muchos gracias. You've cleared that up for me.

So, the Asus W3V, from all the pictures and specs and reviews it looks amazing, but I've a feeling it's too-good-to-be-true, I mean, it has everything!, Just everything I want.
Does anyone know of any good places to shop for one? Cheap and delivers to the UK.
Please list your links!

 

You might want to check local Asus Retailers in the UK because you might pay more for importing the laptop to the UK.

http://uk.asus.com/products1.aspx?l1=0&l2=0&modelmenu=0&share=txt/255

 

I have previously imported another brand of notebook from USA to UK. Fedex was US$175, plus 17.5% VAT was charged by UK customs.

Comparing the price at http://www.proportable.com/detail.aspx?ID=107 with http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=Asus_Laptop_W3V-H007P
gives very similar pricing at an exchange rate of UK£1=US$1.8 (although the UK model suffers two disadvantages: the RAM is 2 x 256 and the HDD is only 4200RPM, plus it shows as out of stock at this time). The delivery cost would pay for a faster HDD and you can keep the original one as backup.

John

 

Thanks for that, ah-ha! now looking that AsusLaptop.co.uk site it says "ATI Mobility™ Radeon™ X600 64MB HyperMemory™ Technology ", but other sites say "ATI Mobility™ Radeon™ X600 128MB HyperMemory™ Technology", is there a difference?

 

As explained ealier in this tread, the graphics card has 64MB RAM on board, but can borrow another 64MB of system RAM to give the 128MB hypermemory. Rest assured that the X600 in UK and USA is the same.

John

 

Although how come it isn't the same in the USA and the UK for the RAM and the Hard drive?
I want to get it from the UK for obvious reasons, but I don't want to miss out on the better Hard drive speed and 1x512mb stick of RAM.

Oh, I just remember to ask, does anyone know if there is more than one type of keyboard for the W3V? Because I don't like the single-long-key for "Enter" and prefer the standard keyboard-sized "square"ish shape that takes up the space of two buttons (like the V6V i guess)?

 

My UK-sourced W3A has an Enter key that is slightly wider than normal keys and spans two rows. European keyboards have one more key than US keyboards so that they they can have the local currency symbol as well as the $. If you are used to a European keyboard then using a US keyboard can be confusing. You should be able to buy a UK keyboard through the spare parts chain, but I doubt if it will be less than £50 by the time it is delivered.

My own recommendation would be to buy the UK model and upgrade the HDD and RAM. This is easily done with the W3. Both are easily accessible and good guides are available. The original HDD can go into a USB 2 enclosure which are now quite cheap - see http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpresentation/index.php?alert=categoryresults&product_id=DYDNA03WH1 (this supplier is also a good source for HDDs).

John

 

Thank you John.

Now on to another subject, are there any other notebooks I should know about before buying a W3V? I like the W3V for obvious reasons; mobility, great for gaming, and is amazing for everything really , but I've seen a sony notebook called the "Sony VAIO VGN-S4M" and it's ALOT smaller and lighter (I've seen it in-store) and has the same specs as the W3V - EXCLUDING the beastly X600 vid card that I can't go without.

Any thoughts? (Please proivde links, Thank you)


p.s. is the "NVidia GeForce Go 6200 TurboCache supporting 128MB " equivilant to the "ATI Radeon X600 with 128mb Hypermemory"?

 

Sorry this thread may have been lost to the bottom of the forum, but I really would like to found out this information, I am patient and I don't spam.

Thanks
Dec1mal

Quote:

Now on to another subject, are there any other notebooks I should know about before buying a W3V? I like the W3V for obvious reasons; mobility, great for gaming, and is amazing for everything really , but I've seen a sony notebook called the "Sony VAIO VGN-S4M" and it's ALOT smaller and lighter (I've seen it in-store) and has the same specs as the W3V - EXCLUDING the beastly X600 vid card that I can't go without.

Any thoughts? (Please proivde links, Thank you)


p.s. is the "NVidia GeForce Go 6200 TurboCache supporting 128MB " equivilant to the "ATI Radeon X600 with 128mb Hypermemory"?

 

If you're still wondering if it'll be available next year in november (we're talking over a year away) I'd say, no, it won't be availabe, or at least it'll be EOL since two gens of notebook platform will be out by then. First will be Yonah and the beginning of dual core in laptops (discounting big ol DTRs with desktop CPUs in them) then you're looking at Merom with 4MB L2 cache and 64bit capabilities. Of course AMD will have dual core stuff out then too so you can do the choosing.

But why worry if the W3V'll be around then? More than likely you won't want to buy a W3V cause there'll be much faster laptops by then.

 

The Go6200 has 32 MB of resident RAM, more like the ATI X300. If you're still looking, check out the Sony BX (you'll need to go to the Sony B2B site). These look to be smokin' machines and the configurable one will be available as soon as they work out some supply proplems on the GPU. Sony is asying that the card will be an Nvidia (not ATI as it says on the web site).