Having used both A8JP and A8JS...

I thought I would share my experiences using both an A8JP and now an A8JS side-by-side.

I purchased my A8JP from Newegg and the A8JS from RK Computers. The A8JP has a manufacturing date of 2007 whereas the A8JS was manufactered in 2006. I asked RK Computer to send me a unit out of their latest stock and they told me they would. Not sure if they really did because I was surprised that it wasn't a newer build. Both the computers have the CMO screen.

I am running a clean build of XP Pro on both of the machines with 2GB RAM in each. So, they really are identical other than the video cards. You would think they would both be pretty similar while using but I have noted a few differences:

A8JP -
+ Very clear 2D image
+ Very quiet

A8JS -
+ 3D graphics are definitely better with vibrant colors
+ 3D performance is slightly better than the A8JP
- The noise of the fan is slightly more noticeable
- HDD is producing a soft-click noise every 20-30 seconds
- Gaming freezes for a split second everytime the HDD clicks

I am very annoyed by the HDD soft-click noise on the A8JS and thought it might be because they are using a different harddrive. However, upon running Seagate's Seatools software on both, I confirmed that the drives were the identical model with the same firmware. Both the drives passed all tests included with Seagate's software. So, I'm pretty sure the clicking issue is a problem with the A8JS bios. I downgraded the bios from 211 to 210 on the A8JS and the clicking was reduced, but still present. I have ordered the 100GB 7200RPM Seagate drive and will be installing that on the A8JS. I doubt that the clicking issue will be solved by that though. Overall, the A8JS was noisier because of the HDD issue and also the fan being slightly louder.

Another interesting thing to note was that side-by-side the A8JP produced a noticeably better 2d image than the A8JS. Perhaps the RAMDACs on the ATI card are better than the Nvidia card. The text looked sharper and the image looked cleaner. This wasn't much of an issue and the A8JS produced a pretty good image, but it was something I noticed right away while looking at both. As expected, World of Warcraft played better on the A8JS with more vibrant colors and more detailed textures. The A8JS showed no decrease in performance in graphically intense scenes whereas the A8JP did jitter from time to time when loading textures for a new environment.

So there you have it. If you are deciding between these two computers, then hopefully this will help.

 

Darn I was hoping for an AUO vs CMO direct comparison. About the clicking, I have not heard this at all on my A8Js. Do you still have both models? Is it possible to swap HD's?

 

Do both your systems have the stock 1GB RAM or did you upgrade?

 

god****it i just bought the A8JP , just for playing WoW

sucks that the A8JS costs so much more tho...

 

You know one difference to keep in mind is that as far as i know the hypermemory takes 256mb system ram whether you want it to or not.

So as far as a I know a 2gb ram a8jp has 1.784 gb .

 

itf, which bios version are you using? I have ordered a 7200RPM HD from newegg, so I will be replacing the HD on the A8JS soon anyway. Once I do that, then I guess we will know if the source of the problem is the HDD or not. However, I am not the only one reporting this issue, so I suspect its not the HD.

tokerblue, I have 2GB in both the machines.

arjung86, don't despair, the A8JP handles WoW very well. Until I got my A8JS, I was totally satisfied with the A8JP while playing WoW with most settings maxed out. Infact on the notebook LCD, you can play at the max resolution without any performance issues at all. It looks great! I only noticed a difference in performance when playing the game on my external 21" Samsung LCD with a native resolution or 1600x1200, which is higher than the notebook's native resolution of 1440x900. Its pretty impressive playing the game at the maximum resolutions on either display, so you will be fine. Plus, your game won't freeze for a split second everytime the HDD does a soft-click.

stamar, I don't think that is the case. It only borrows from the system RAM when it needs to. Every RAM check I have done showed 2GB at all times.

 

At the moment I can't give you the exact bios, but I can tell you I haven't done any updates since purchasing, and the purchase was made in early November so this is one of the earlier/earliest A8Js models.

I don't hear a single out of place noise on this and it's definately something I would notice..

 

ya I also have bios 204 which is the orignal one. No noise at all.

 

Hmm... yea a few people reported the clicking after updating to the latest bios. If you guys ever do upgrade, please report back to this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=103361