F8SA-X2 Questions

Alright, so I'm narrowing things down and I think this would be a good choice for me. However I have a few questions...

Does anyone know the dimensions for the F8SA-X2?

This unit doesn't have Turbo Memory, will that effect performance?

The pictures look like there's a place for a memory card reader, but apparently it doesn't have one.... can anyone confirm?

Is there a longer lasting battery available for it?

How is the build quality compared to other Asus laptops?

Thanks!

 

Hmm...I own a F8SV and it's pretty good gaming machine (can play all the newest games on med to high settings), the F8sv DOES have a 8in1 memory card reader. However apparently no replacement batteries that can support longer usage time.

I suppose F8SA (can be said as F8SV's ATi counterpart) will the same. You might wanna check out Asus's website for more detailed info.

In terms of build quality, F series is supposed to be standard consumer build (not high class, but not cheap either)...apparently F8 series has better build quality than rest of its F family. To me, all the Asus laptops I've own have been satisfactory (dropped them a few times...banging here and there when rushing onto buses, trains etc).

Definitely a good brand and serie to look into.

 

Don't worry about Turbo Memory its benefits are doubtful at best.

For the dimensions, please check http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=26&l3=501&l4=0&model=1591&modelmenu=2

Usually all ASUS laptops have a card reader, even the cheapest ones.

The build quality opinions will vary, some will say that ASUS consumer notebooks are badly built, others (including me) will say that they are ok. It appears also that the F8 is somewhat better than the rest of the F series.

 

Alright, does anyone own a F8SA-X2 that can confirm the status of a media card reader?

Here is a link to the product on NewEgg (they say it's an exclusive product)...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220240

If you look at the pictures it has a place for where the media card reader should be, but the specs don't show it as an offered feature. The specs also list the resolution as 1280x800, not the 1440x900 listed on Asus's website.

Thanks all for your help!

 

Resolution may indeed be WXGA, then.... exclusive Asus product imports (i.e. BestBuy's G1 offering) often have some different specs from other identical product direct from Asus. The screen change, along with the Ati gpu, could explain the cheaper price.

As for the card reader issue, if no one here has that model then you may have to email NewEgg and ask them about the possible discrepancy - NewEgg wouldn't have a unique chassis for the -X2, and NewEgg has been known to miss details in their product spec pages before.

 

In Taiwan , somehow F8SA is more expensive than it's GeForce counter part -F8SV ><

and I'm pretty sure the screen reso is 1440x900 for the F8SA too cos I played around with both models before I bought the F8SV

 

Anyone know how long the battery lasts on the F8SA? And has anyone tried OC the GPU? Thanks!

~Josh

EDIT: I also am reading on newegg that it gets hot. Does it?

 

Typical ASUS batt life is nowadays 2 to 3 hours on power saving mode. I don't have details about this particular model. Is there a review up?

 

Mine will be in today. It's the exact same model you are looking at, that I ordered from newegg.com. I won't have a full review up until porbably later on tomorrow evening (I am excited for this to be my first laptop and and my first review here and at the same time have the opportunity to be the first to give a review on this exact model.) Once I get it in today I will jump on the forums here and give you the exact specs of the newegg model.

As for battery life the only thing I can say is from what I have heard pretty much the whole F8 series has about a 2 hour battery life.

The only suggestion I have heard is definately go on ahead and pick up some more memory for it. So I picked up another 2 gig for a total of 3.

My house is right next to my work, so the second my wife calls I am headed home to take pics and begin opening. After opening I will bring it over to work and send the specs your way.

 

While I am in here and I don't mean to hijack the the thread, but how come the F8 series isn't displayed anywhere on the notebook review website? It's not even available in the popular section and when you search you can find some reviews, but if you actually select Asus and then select a model, the F8 isn't even an option? It doesn't matter really, I was just wondering why. I'm not positive exactly, but I think there are missing from the popular area, including the c90 series.
And since the F8 isn't an option under reviews what would be the most comparable model? the F9?

 

Sorry for taking so long! I was getting really nervous that it wasn't gonna show up today even though the tracking # said it was out for delivery. However at 4:30 here it came rolling in. I was planning on putting up a few pics, however I am kind of in a rush this evening. #1 Because I have a lot of work to do and #2 because I want to spend the night ticking away on getting this laptop set up and cleaning out all the junk. Anyway here are the answers to your two previous questions:

1. The screen is 1280x800. A little lower then some of the others, and even though I don't have a lot of experience with laptops other than going to a million stores and looking at them over and over, I can say that for me at least the screen is absolutely breath taking. I put up a natural background of the forest and it is bright, bold and everything jumps right out the screen. So even though it might be a little less resolution, for a 14.1" size the screen is gorgeous! There is some glare but that's with any glossy laptop screen.

2. It does have a flash memory card reader located directly above the DVD drive that can read the following:
xD Picture Card
MMC, MMC Plusm RS-MMC cards
SD AND MiniSD (MiniSD needs SD adapter)
Memory Stick and Memory Stick Micro
There are tons of Memory Sticks listed so all of them made as of right now.

So hopefully that answers your two questions. If you have any others just let me know and I should be able to give you solid answers since I now have it and it's the exact same model that you are looking at.

Here is just a few other things I will quickly mention:

This laptop is beautiful. Maybe I am being biased because I just got it and it's my first laptop, but I was looking for function mixed with looks and all I can say is this is the hottest laptop I have personally ever seen. I know some people like to do mods and things, but I will never do anything to change the looks on this thing because it is just perfect in its design.

Secondly, I feel the build quality is exceptional. It feels sturdy and has a very solid feel to the chassis. Some said it was a little bit thicker then they were thinking, but I think it is just right. Any more would be too much and any less would be too little. I know that thin is in (just like everyone going crazy about the new mac air), but for my taste I wanted something extremely portable, but at the same time was usable and didn't scare me to death to pick it up. The F8 is perfect for me in this way as well.

Thirdly, I am very impressed with all the little extras that Asus includes. They seem to be interested in putting their best foot forward from the moment you open the box. Even though the free laptop bag and optical mouse aren't the top end, they are extremely nice and of great quality and it's just wonderful to have them right out of the box. I just can't understand some other companies selling you a $2000 plus laptop and yet they can't even give you somthing to carry it in?

So with that said, I really can't say alot more until I actually get down to using it and getting everything tweaked. I will throw out also that I personally really like the mousepad and the click buttons are really tight and feel extremely sturdy. I won't get my ram till tomorrow so I can't do that, till tomorrow night, but it runs smoothly from the little bit I got to toy with it. The only thing I can really nitpic on and it's not a negative thing because I love it, but it has it's negative side is the gloss. It has an extremely beautiful finish on it and it's a perfect finish and one of the reasons I liked it, I just know however being used it is definately gonna pick up fingerprints, but like I said that doesn't bother me for such a beautiful piece of "art". Plus from what I have read this is some new infusion process by Asus so the finish is meant to last and be more scratch resistant (probably the same type of finish as the HP's).

So as time goes by we will see what this laptop is really capable of (especially with gaming), but for now my first impression is that I made a 100% right decision and that I won't be dissapointed. As a matter of fact a few people have walked in my office since I brought it over and everyone that has seen it has ooohhhhheeedddd and aaaawwweeeeddd.

I am extremely happy today!

-Jamie

Oh yes and just one more thing. I don't think it's mentioned on there website, but I also got a free b/g wireless router with the system when I ordered from newegg and from reading other peoples reviews it sounds like that is thrown in the deal for everyone.

Also I just want to say newegg was great in answering all my questions, giving tons of details and being super prompt in getting my order to me. Ordered it at 7pm on Monday and got it this afternoon

 

Glad you received and that you like it. Keep us posted.

 

O_O

I'm jealous. I'm hoping to get the F8SV soon. If possible I may even just get the F8SA (and save myself ~$300). But I don't see it anywhere here in Canada.

 

reading this makes me happy! I got the same deal you did (with the router, also ordered 2gb of extra ram) and mine should be here tomorrow!

This will be my first notebook as well, I was looking for a decent small gaming laptop, and after some researching, this seemed to be the best choice for the value! I couldn't pass it up!

I'm glad you're happy with your purchase! I can only hope I will be just as satisfied.

 

Awesome to hear! It's nice that there are enough purchasing this model that we can kind of help one another out. Please let me know your thoughts as well. I like to hear multiple thoughts and hope that you will be as pleased with this purchase as I am.
The only other negative thing is this thing is so pretty, that I keep getting scared to touch it! I guess I will have to by me a nice soft pair of gloves. haha Just Kidding, that would be a little extreme!
Once you get it, I would suggest you go through the process of cleaning out alot of the stuff that comes with it. E.G.E. has a link in his sig that he wrote regarding the process of this. I am doing it right now and I think it is going to be a huge help once I get it done.

 

Thanks for all the helpful information. I'll be buying one on Monday or Tuesday. I think there should be enough of us to help make a useful peer support group.

 

Will this work with XP??
Have a F3sv, it had Vista but i really dont like Vista so i installed XP on it, and it works fine. So does anybody knows??? will F8sa work with XP??

ty

-krbalto-

 

Usually with a little effort in finding the drivers, any ASUS laptop will work with XP. I don't know particular details about the F8.

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that last night(Saturday) I finally was able to go pick up the extra 2 gig of memory. It was super easy to install and totally changed the performance of the computer. Now this thing is hauling. It feels like it is doing stuff before I even click. haha. Also now my Vista experience is sitting at 4.8 which I would say is pretty good for a laptop. Especially with the price tag.
Has anyone else noticed that this little 14" has the same specs as the 17" G2 Asus(at least the same as the one I saw last night at Microcenter), other than a bigger hard drive and the gpu card is ddr3? I still think it's pretty awesome what they've stuffed in this little guy and kept the cost so low.

 

Hopefully that low cost won't show in build quality issues...
What are the temps on this thing? With all those powerful components in a 14"-er.

 

I was so close to buying this laptop until I heard about the poor battery life. The 1280 x 1024 resolution also was a big turnoff as my current laptop is a 3.5 year old Dell 14" laptop that runs at 1400 x 1050.

I decided I'm going to wait until the Penryn-based Intel Core 2 Duo laptops are out.

Either way, I still think the F8SA-X2 is a great laptop, especially for the price.

 

Well looking at it from a gaming laptop pov, I'd say the resolution fits with the video card.

Any higher and games would run choppy.

don't know the exact temps, but it gets pretty hot... and my only two gripes about the notebook are that the "exhaust" is in a horrible spot, and Windows Vista is a huge burden... I just got the thing and already set it up to dual boot with linux.

other than that I love this notebook, and am very happy.

 

Even though it is a plastic based build, I think the quality seems pretty good. Obviously it won't compare with a thinkpad, or a xps since it is a metal based build, but as long as you treat the laptop with some respect then I think it will do pretty well, but only time will tell so we will see.
As for the temps. How do you determine that? I have seen people putting up pics with the exact temps on each area of the laptop. Are people just using a flat thermometer? or what? Is there a program that gives you temps? etc? I am just wondering the best way to go about it, since I would be more than happy to place the exact specs up. I just need to know how to do it. As for mine, I haven't noticed any extreme heat (Like I did with the old alienware 5620d I had for a few months before making this purchase), but I also haven't ran anything real heavy on it, so I can't say too much on that yet either.

-Jamie

 

Well, don't install that software just to get the temps posted on the forum, but you can use for instance RMClock to monitor your CPU temps, and I think people use Riva Tuner for the GPU (is it ATI-only? I don't know). All my XP drivers show the temperature in the GPU properties page from Display Settings.

 

I thoroughly enjoy using mine. No problems with it yet. Although I've had to cope with using the HD2600, but there's not really choice.

I'm also curious of your 4.8 Vista rating, I only get a 4.7, the lowest comes from my GPU with the Aero experience

 

I hope I won't be yelled at for off-topic - but my F8SA-X2 has shipped from NewEgg. I'm trying to pre-locate XP drivers for it. Found the (160mb!!) HD2600 drivers on HP for the 8510p, and chipset is GM965, but I don't know which audio/etc it uses. Could any of you kind folks provide a short list from your Device Manager - which audio, ethernet, etc and whether or not it uses MS Universal Audio Architecture? Thanks in advance and I'm sorry for what appears to be a hijack...

 

My apologies I was at work when I typed that and it was off the top of my head. My total score is running a 4.7 as well and that score comes from the GPU, just as yours does. I had to go back and check.

 

This afternoon after lunch I am bringing my laptop over to work, so I will check the specs you requested and post them up.

 

Here's the info I found. If it's not what you're looking for, let me know. I am kind of new to the computer world, so I am hoping this will help you. If not let me know what to look for and some pointers on how to find it:

In device manager:

Audio is:
Realtek High Definition Audio
Driver Version: 6.0.1.5374
Also it shows a Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device
Driver Version: 6.0.6000.16386

Network adaptoers:
Realtek RTL8168/8111 Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0)
Driver Version: 6.191.305.2007

It looks like almost all drivers are provided by realtek

I don't know about the MS Universal Audio thing, but if you let me know where to find it or what to look for I will try and locate it. If it is in the Sound section of Device Manager I did not see it.

Once again I hope this helps, if not my apologies. I still have a lot to learn in the computer world. If it does though and you are needing more in order to search for drivers, let me know and I will get it ASAP.

 

How well does the 512MB Radeon 2600 HD perform? I heard it was comparable to the Nvidia 8600GT but I might be misinformed.

 

Yeah comparable is a good word. Most would agree the 8600 is a bit better though. Many also say that for watching movies, the 2600 is better. They are competing parts after all.

I'm hoping to get an asus f8sv soon, also with 3gb memory. Maybe then we can get pretty accurate results of the 8600 vs 2600.

 

jlcamp - I'm working in the mideast & haven't been able to check NBR often due to the fiber optic break - Thank-you very much for the info on audio and LAN. Searching for drivers now...Geo

 

Hi I was really interested in getting a f8sa but decided to wait for the f8sp. My question is do the f8s suffer from the cracked chassis? As in this thread

Thanks in advance.

 

I don't think it suffers from that problem. The general impression that I get is that the F8 is better built than the typical ASUS consumer laptop.

But you should wait for an owner to give you a more certain answer.