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    F8va-c1

    Discussion in 'Asus' started by powerpack, Oct 28, 2008.

  1. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    Just ordered. Happy with price and config. Anybody have experience with this model or I guess F8's in general? Both good or bad. I guess I could still cancel if I hear horror stories.

    Will cost $1250 after rebate.

    To save you guys time.

    T9400 2.53Ghz 1066Mhz FSB
    4Gb's DDR2 800Mhz
    ATI HD3650
    320GB HDD @5400

    :)
     
    powerpack, Oct 28, 2008
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  2. ramgen

    ramgen -- Morgan Stanley --

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    I have purchased the same model and have been using it since the end of July. I haven't had *any* problem since then.

    The only changes I have made were:

    1- The original RAMs were hynix branded and running at 6-6-6-18 delays. I have replaced them with 2x2GB OCZ DDR2-800 which are running at 5-5-5-15 delays.

    2- The thermal pad between the CPU & heatsink was quite unevenly distributed. I have removed the thermal pad and applied AS5 which seems to decreased the max. temp by 5-6 Celsius (9-10 F).


    + I am looking forward to buy a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 series HDD as the last piece of modification. The 5400RPM drive seems to me a bit sluggish althoguh it has plenty of space (320GB)...
     
    ramgen, Oct 28, 2008
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  3. E.B.E.

    E.B.E. NBR Procrastinator

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    E.B.E., Oct 28, 2008
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  4. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    Thanks for the input guys (both). I will check those links E.B.E. ramgen have you done a bandwidth on both of your RAMS? Does your upgrade help?
     
    powerpack, Oct 28, 2008
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  5. ramgen

    ramgen -- Morgan Stanley --

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    Nope, I haven't run any benchmarks for the RAM. Vista's WEI for RAM was already 5.9 and it could not go up any further ;)

    I am not sure if that upgrade will increase the performance noticeably but there were two factors that convinced me:

    1- It will not hurt the performance, for sure.
    2- The upgrade was almost free. I have purchased the OCZ rams for $51.99 after the rebate and sold the original Hynix for $50.

    Edit: The price of the OCZ RAM dropped to $40.99 + $6.99 shipping after the rebate:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227251
     
    ramgen, Oct 28, 2008
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  6. Naris

    Naris Notebook Guru

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    You know, I do wonder if Asus is going to come out with a refresh of the F8 series soon. I was going to pull the trigger on one then I realized that companies sometimes give larger rebates when they're trying to clear stock for a new model.
     
    Naris, Oct 28, 2008
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  7. ramgen

    ramgen -- Morgan Stanley --

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    I personally don't think so. In order to "refresh" a model, you need to have newer architecture/parts of the laptop.

    What could be added to an f8va-c1 today? Perhaps a 7200RPM hdd (which you can also do by yourself) + BluRay (not essential to many users). May be a DDR3 upgrade but I do not think it is worth at the moment. Performance-wise there is very little / almost no difference between DDR2-800 and DDR3-1066 due to increased delays...
     
    ramgen, Oct 28, 2008
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  8. E.B.E.

    E.B.E. NBR Procrastinator

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    Maybe a GPU upgrade, like with the G50Vt. However, the F8 is not a gaming model so it's less likely to happen for this model.

    But yeah, for a "real" refresh we'd need to wait for Nehalem, which if I'm not mistaken comes in or around Q2 2009.
     
    E.B.E., Oct 28, 2008
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