Gaming Asus under $2000

What would you recommened? Their website is a pain to navigate. Thanks.

 

v6va or a z70va.

 

asus w3v -- or it's upcoming predeccessor, the w3j, if you can wait

 

ASUS W3V thin n' light notebook.

 

as a gaming notebook the w3v pales to the v6va or z70va the x600 is good but but cant be recommended as a true gaming notebook. and the v6va is thinner than the w3v and just as light.

 

Z70Va, A6V(a), V6Va, Z83v, <--- x700
Z71v <--- GF 6600
Z81sp <--- GF 6800

The W3V isn't really a "gaming" notebook... but it'll get the job done too.

 

Right now the z81sp has my interest.

http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=621&l1=5&l2=70&l3=0

How do it's processors compare to the Pentium M's in terms of performance and heat/energy consumption.

 

Well they really dont. Performance wise the p4 will leave it in dust but its like comparing a 4 sec motorcycle to a 3 sec ferari. the 4 sec moto would be the pm in this case

 

But arent the pentium Mobiles better for gaming?

 

No they never were as far as i know but if you hook up the z81sp with the same video card as the z70va you will find the overall 3dmark has a negligeble increase in fps. One thing the p4 has over the pm is multithrading score thats about 2 times higher or so. Depends which p4. pm has no advantage over p4 other then 2mb cashe (which all new p4 comes with also) and obviosuly superb compatibility for mobile pro's which basically ammounts to better battery life and a much slimmer look.

 

The z81sp is 9lbs. That seems awfully heavy for a 15 incher. I'm basically down to this or the E1705. I have a lot of thinking to do. I'll post my configured specs w/ price soon on the Hardware thread and see what people think. I'm worried the Asus battery life will be awful and I need about 3 hours.

 

Um if you need 3 hours of battery life why are you looking at the z81 its a pentium 4. You might get like 1 hour of battery life. you should be looking at the z70va or z83 or z71 they also have modular bays for extra batterys. what size screen are you looking for.

 

I'm looking for a 15" but was interested in the E1705 because of the 7800. However, it's battery life probably isn't stellar either. That z71v does look like a pretty strong gamer for it's size after all. I want to be able to play games like FEAR and Brothers in Arms at medium to high settings but need about 3 hours of battery life for office type work.

 

The Z71v or Z70Va would be your best bets then...

 

I second that if battery life is important to you. I happen to own a Z81sp and it's preformance is very great except I only get about 1.5 hours of battery life (2 if im lucky) out of it. If it's going to stay on your desk most of time, the z81sp is worth it.

I happen to be transporting this notebook around with me more then what I thought I would be but the hard pull behind case I got when I ordered my notebook really takes the strain out of hauling it around.

 

Thanks for the help. I'm really liking the Z71v. So you think it'll handel FEAR/Brothers in Arms/Half Life 2 reasonably well? I'm still considering the Dell E1705 but I'm concerned about it's battery life...not really sure what it is yet.

 

You're on two different levels....... if you want to go 17" dual core - wait for the W2j and it's certainly going to beat the hell out of that dell....... if you want something smaller, then you can consider the models we've already brought up.

 

I know I am.

How long until the W2j because I need a laptop by March.

 

Fear is a pretty intence game. I would get a laptop with at least the X700 forget the 6600.

 

If that's the case, what's a similar laptop to the Z71v with an x700? The Z71v has the 6600.

 

Z70va is the closest but is also a better machine.

 

Ok, the Z70va is my Asus choice. Now it's between that and the Dell E1705. I do like the overall look and design of the Asus a little more as it reminds me of my Powerbook, but for the same price I could get the Dell with the nvidia 7800 and dual CPU. Man, this is a tough decision.

 

The Z70va is nowhere to be seen on asus.com. How long ago was it discontinued?

 

It's not discontinued. For some reason, ASUS doesn't seem to 'like' the M6 series, it's always missing on their site, on their brochures and other places....

 

Ok. Coriolis, you seem to have about the exact same specs my Z70va would have. How well can I expect it to run Half Life 2 and FEAR? I really want to play those games.

 

You should be able to play HL2, FEAR, Doom3, Quake4, etc. with no problems, especially if you had the same specs as Coriolis.

 

You are comparing apples to oranges here. The dell being alot more expensive and 2 times more heavy.....

 

Actually the Dell is no more expensive for me. For $1795 after my Affiliate discount and the current promotion, I configured a 1.83 dual core, geforce 7800 256mb, 1gb ram, 80gb hard drive, CD/DVD read and write, extra battery, and XP Professional.

For about the same exact price the Asus I configured at adamant.com had a 1.86 Pentium M, 2gb ram, x700 128mb, 80gb hard drive, CD/DVD RW, XP Professional, no extra battery and a 1 year warranty.

 

apples to oranges. what do you want better battery life? a 17in 15in or gaming machine. the dell is a gaming machine with a 17in screen and worse battery life. the asus is a 15in with better battery life and is portable and good with games but not as good as the dell. you have to pick one you cant compare the 2 directly

 

Speaking of Ferraris, here is one getting owned by a 30k car, the Mitsubishi Evo.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2042433800110624616

 

ive raced evos they are fast but they arent as fast as the modena i dont care what the video shows either that guy wasnt trying or didnt know how to drive.

 

I bet the guy in the ferrari didn't know what the hell he was doing. None the less, it is still funny to see a 150k car get beaten by a 30k car, even if a crappy driver is the problem.

 

It is a funny vid. If i was one of those kids in the evo id be laughing like hell also. they were moving though the ferrari prob downshifted into the wrong gear.

 

.... you know what... to keep this off topic -- the evo is a great car, but a friend of mine thought he was the king because it was an evo....... I flat out took the smile off his face when I beat him in my s4 w/ four people in the car....

.... sure, I only beat him because he's an idiot......because my car is heavier by a ton..... but when an evo beats a modena, the only person who remembers it the next day is the guy in the evo..... anyone can afford a $30k car...... not everyone can afford a $60k car.... or better yet, a $150k 360.....

There's only one problem....... the kid in the evo probably knows how to drive it........... the guy in the 360 may have only bought it because it's a ferrari... and even at $150k... it's "entry level" .....

so to quote Memphis Raines "Yes, yes yes... I saw three of these parked outside the local Starbucks this morning, which tells me only one thing. There's too many self-Indulgent wieners in this city with too much bloody money!"

Now, you get me Michael Schumacher to drive that 360 and we'll have a race, but you're talking two different leages.

 

Me personaly i drive every car as if its a race car i like to learn what a cars limits are i personaly think it makes me a better driver. IM sure others on the road will argue against that. Plus its a matter of who chickens out first everyone has different limits. I have a 330i but i have won more races then i should if it was just about which car is faster.

Justin i hope you bought it in standard.

 

I hear you Steve.... of course it's a standard.... I only have two problems....... I'm just like you and that can be dangerous... maybe not to my health, but to my wallet, if you know what I mean.

.... I think after all this work we're putting into this s4 for the show car..... I may pass up my spot for the RS4 this summer and hold out till 08 when my next license shredder is available.... the V10 R8....... I'm just hoping I can mature enough by then....... and not to mention be able to afford the payments....... they're looking at pushed 550-600hp and a top speed of 220mph.

... now back to the whole evo v 360 deal........ every import owner (or wannabe owner) is obsessed with 1/4 mile and 0-60 times...... I love the fast and the furious movies too.... but real driving isn't always in a straight a line and 60-120mph is a much better test of a car........... in fact, that whole 60-120 thing is what got me one of the most expensive tickets ever given in the commonwealth of virgina!

 

IF you can afford an R8 you must be doing very well. I am trying my best to avoid an all out sports car simply for the fact i really shouldnt be behind the wheel. I figured by now i would mature enough but i think ive gotten worse speeding wise. And yes alot of cars are fast 0-60 but when you are moving its harder to get that perforance depending on your gear and RPM you are in. what have you done to your S4 id love to see pics. One of these days ill pick up a fast toy for once. ive always lovet he elise and then maybe throw some turbos on it. But then again im a german car fan at heart to many cars not enough money

Then again theres cars like the Z06 which im not am american car fan to much. But i do appreciate the engineering involved in that car my friend has the new one and its a blast to drive. And for the price you really cant compare anything.

 

Well, the only reason I picked out the S4 was because at the time I ordered it there wasn't a guarentee the RS would come here........... and 4 doors and 4wd was a lot more "sensible" then my cousin's M3's.....

A Z06 is probably 3 of 3 on my list of current american cars I'd like.... the S7 - the GT and maybe the Z06.... but the interior is nicer in my silverado....

Right now there's easily another $20k into this $55k car.... soon to be worth a lot more once our custom wheels come... The R8 is certainly an option, but at what might be $120k, it's pushing it...... They're putting out an A5/S5 and maybe an RS5 in '08 as well..... basically it's a coupe version the 4 series and by then they're updating the interior again.... that honestly might be more my style..... and still a daily driver... and the R8 is a supercar...... But I feel like I'm going backwards a bit because one "sensible" thing I did was get a 3 door car (one way I justified it over the M3 comp ed)... figuring I wouldn't have to get rid of it if I had a family before I got rid of....... now I'm thinking the next car will certainly be an audi coupe... and by then I'll be 2 years older and ready to sink even more money into a new car, right when this one gets paid off......... am I flittering with disaster? Probably.... But the R8 gets it's name from the winningest race car in the world..... based on the engine and aluminum spaceframe in the Lamborghini Gallardo and on the LeMans concept show car..... and is probably going to look like a mix between the LeMans concept and the RSQ concept that Will Smith "drove" in iRobot.... And not to mention it's going to kick the crap out the 911, the Gallardo, the Aston DB9 and maybe the 360 Modena...... man, I can just imagine the first ticket I get in it ...... "I'm sorry officer, I thought this was the autobahn... are you sure your radar gun is calibrated for over 200?"

Here's an update to what's going on with the car: http://www.proportable.com/storage/jodea/images/s4.htm

 

Ooooooo' car freaks too, nice.

4g63 is still going strong in the new evos, good to see, since I might be getting an Eagle Talon TSI AWD '94, last of the great 1st gens as a hand me down from my cousin who has done minor bolt ons to it.

He's running high 13's at the strip.

Hey to get this back on topic I've gotta add that the Z70Va and A6Va, V6Va(no widescreen ), maybe the Z71V only because it has SATA support and the 6600go, which would be my choice over the x700.

Also I read somewhere, I think it might've been Tom's Hardware or something, that the Pentium-M's are actually more like the P3's than the P4's and overclocked actually outperform P4's and newer AMD's in multimedia tasks, not multitasking. Very impressive if you ask me.

They tested out some P-M's in Sonoma 915 chipset desktop motherboards overclocked and WHOA, terrific results with less voltage than desktops.

PM technology seems superior to P4 desktops.

Anyhoo', I say get the Z70Va and paint the lid because we're all nerds deep down who love our Asuses more than life itself.



Cheers,
Mike

 

Oh yeah to add to the comment that there's no way an Evo could beat a Ferrari is true, if they were stock.

Remember there are cars out there that could eat up Ferrari's in straight line racing. The dude in the video probably didn't know how to drive the Ferrari, but I just needed to add that.

Cheers,
Mike

 

I don't mean to interrupt your car talk (that video was quite cool), but you did interrupt my gaming talk afterall! Well I was all set on the Z70Va and looking forward to ordering it, when I read Chazman's Sager NP-5320 review again (it's been a while and I kinda just forgot about it). So, I'm stumped again. I think it looks great too. It has the 256mb X700 and that nifty camera and mini LCD on the front but is a little heavier with worse battery life. :decision:

 

If you want portability go with the Z70Va as it is lighter.

If you want a slightly better gaming machine go for the Sager.

Both are great choices.

I say go with whatever's cheaper.

Cheers,
Mike

 

Considering I plan on getting 2gb of ram regardless...will the 256mb X700 of the Sager have a noticeable difference from the 128mb X700 version on the Asus?

 

The additional video memory will get you notch higher texture setting in recent and upcoming games. COD2, for example, looks a bit better with a 256MB card. Other than that it probably won't improve your gaming experience as a X700 will be too slow to be playable regardless at the relolution/AA settings where framebuffer limitations start coming into play.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll wait to get a few opinions while I try to decide. In the meantime, is it just me, or do Chaz's buttons look crooked? http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/7502.jpg

 

Heh. The 'crookedness' you see in that picture is called 'barrel distortion'. It is caused by image magnification decreasing with increasing distance from the optical axis, an inherit flaw on the wide angles of zoom lenses.

Like this:

 

Ha! Well alrighty then. I figured it was something.

 

Do you guys recommend adamant.com? Their prices seem to be a little cheaper than powernotebooks.com.

Also, how do think the customer service compares between Sager and Asus? Chaz had good things to say about Sager including a lifetime technical support included so that's nice.

 

Asus Built-On tech support is handled by the dealer, not Asus. You'd have to compare a specific dealer to Sager....

 

Ok...proportable.com or adamant.com for the Asus. Powernotebooks for the Sager. I'll probably use one of those. I've read good things about Justin and proportable on here but don't know really anything about adamant.