Ivy Bridge Zenbook with FHD IPS screen UX21A UX31A UX32A UX32VD

Really? I just called the South Coast Plaza Microsoft Store and they said the only UX31A's they have are the i7 versions. They have an i5 UX31, but it's the old model that's Sandy Bridge instead of Ivy Bridge, and also doesn't have the 1080p screen. You may want to double check before driving all the way there.

 

Thanks for the reply, Alchemist. That makes me feel better, I haven't really seen any rpm's above 3800 really. Sounds like I lucked out with my purchase. I'll report back with problems but it seems like a keeper.

And that microsoft store was a great deal, I was originally going to try to get a free xbox and sell it to help offset the cost. But the 20% off brought it down so much that I couldn't resist. Hope everyone else resolves their problems some how. Thanks again!

 

I was using HDTune (free Version). I grabbed crystal mark and ran its benchmark. here are the results:

Seq Read/Write 512k: 447.7/325.4
Rnd Read/Write 512k: 228.6/58.09
Seq Read/Write 4k: 14.51/11.86
Rnd Read/Write 4k: 28.52/8.309

How does that stack up with the Adata drive?

 

Yes, I said before my store only has the $1499 version and see no plans for anything else. Even the website only has the one.

 

I hope somebody runs it and lets us know.

 

The 512k random write speeds look really low compared to sequential writes and random reads.

 

i was reading this site testing the first gen zenbooks, and they tested those adatas as:

Seq Read/Write 512k: 482.4/458.2
Rnd Read/Write 512k: 418.8/437.2
Seq Read/Write 4k: 29.30/48.88
Rnd Read/Write 4k: 117.3/361.1

ASUS Zenbook SSD Review - Not Necessarily SandForce Driven Hits A Speed Bump - The SSD Review

your results are better than the old zenbook sandisks though..

its ridiculous to me that they can sell two machines that perform so differently and call them the same thing

 

Thanks for this, I asked the rep and he said he had two versions in stock, maybe he got mixed up with the older model, but what I am really looking for is the UX32VD which I noticed the similarities in which they are offering the same price as Best Buy, he did tell me he had the i5 for $999 (Best buy has it for that too, but its a downed version, so they are trying to compete with Best Buy pricing, but don't know the version are different! shh...). I will double check before I head down there for sure. Also I asked them about if its possible to open the brown box first to check the sticker outside the official zenbook box, he said no not until Monday, but I do not think he heard me clearly or something? If its possible that'd be great.

Edit: the i7 Ux31a after taxes would be just under $1300, if they had the UX32vd which I think the base price would be $1199. With the 20% discount and then the cost of about $230 in upgrades the 32vd would be just under $1300 therefore being the exact price of the Ux31a, but with a dedicated graphics card as well. Very good deal thats if they offer the Ux32vd before the 5th.

Do you think they will have another discount like this in the future? Why are they exactly having a discount right now? Back to School isn't until September?

 

Just so you know, the only differences (between BB version and non-BB version) that have been uncovered between the two versions is voltage that the RAM requires. And even that has only been checked by 1 or 2 people so who knows how valid that is.

They aren't stupid, they are competing with the $999 Best Buy unit because it is the same unit, regardless of model #.

 

They get away with it because they never list specs for the drive just 128gb SSD. Since they don't advertise any specific spec they aren't obligated to provide it.

But looking at the differences here... sequential writes are 8 times slower and just about everything is slower to some degree.

It sucks to be honest. Ive been through 4 of them... the first 3 were all adata but had other issues. With the fourth one I finally got one with no fan issues and only minimal light bleed but its got the sandisk drive. Im probably keeping the unit but part of me feels like im getting screwed.

That same part of me wants to contact asus and tell them Im not happy with the performance of the sandisk drive, that ive been through 4 units already and ill go through 50 if i have to to find one without issues. Maybe if everyone did that they would get a little QC and consistency. Even with the folks here, think about it if every sale had 3-5 returns that went off to refurb land thats gotta cut into their profit.

This is my second asus, the first is a g73sw-3de that was flawless on the first one I got. Ive got time invested in the ux31a and its about the only game in town right now for an HD screen on an ultrabook so ill probably keep it. But that said, if there are ANY other options next time around I probably won't even look at asus. I've never encountered a machine so hit and miss in my life.

 

I wouldn't worry about the benchmarks, you'll quickly forget about them over the usage of the laptop since there is no real world noticeable difference. Relax and enjoy your purchase

 

This is the prime selling season for this crop of zenbooks, while back to school sales might be in september kids going off to college are buying notebooks right now. Also, the closer we get to october the more info we will be seeing about new touch devices coming with windows 8 when its released in october. For example, there will be new zenbooks then with touch screens and tablet books, etc.

 

Well, it probably won't be enough to notice but there will be a difference. I program so have projects with lots and lots of little files that update when I save. So the 4k benchmark is something ill be using on a daily basis.

Now when im doing dtp work i won't notice it at all. Sequential Large file read/writes are pretty good.

The most important aspect is fast booting and loading though, and the sandisk has fast (still not as fast) sequential read capability.

It just strikes me as something to yell at asus does, because if people don't they won't learn nothin. ;-)

 

The best buy version also doesn't include the 1yr accidental damage warranty. They do that because they want to sell you theirs.

The one from asus is for one incident, the best buy one ($129) is for as many incidents as happen in a year. I pressed them on the difference and they price matched me a little bit on it. cut my price down to 929 for the unit then added accidental damage. So they basically split it with me.

 

Well, it isn't terribly uncommon for manufacturers to switch parts in the life cycle of a product. What is alarming is that something as critical as the ssd seems to have simultaneously manufactured versions with different parts.

 

I will probably end up getting the S9 next time because at least I can upgrade the SSD in that one.

 

you dont think the difference would be noticeable? it seems to me that it would be easily noticeable when moving large or multiple files

 

No, I don't think so. Moving files within the SSD will just be changing a pointer to the location and will be instant, you aren't actually moving the physical location of the file. Moving the files to a network drive or something will be limited by the network...so no, I don't think anyone would really notice.

 

The Microsoft store is awesome for discounts. Often they will have 30% off the top laptops..when new ones come out they will cut the price on the current version in half. They were selling the Samsung S9 "B" version for 799 last week and it was selling for 1399 the week before. They always have great sales.

 

*copying files then?

 

I don't think Windows 8 will be out until the end of the year at the earliest.

 

If you go over to the Samsung threads they have done a lot on testing these and they say the sandisk absolutely dies when apps cause it to write to the page file. The PC basically stutters until its done. That's why they all upgrade them as soon as they can.

 

Simultaneous manufactured versions with different parts isn't even that uncommon but what is uncommon is not matching the specs of those parts. Its like making a gaming notebook and some have a 460m while others have a 650m or 680m. Thats just not done.

The problem is the vague nature of ssds in their specs... from their point of view all ssds are created equal. If it were a hard drive they would at least match RPMs and stay in the same realm for seek times, etc. but they are bundling all ssds together as equal.

Its a good idea to have two vendor products in your models that way if theres a shortage from a company your handled. But not matching specs is bad.

What funny is this happened before and people complained so they put stickers on their boxes so its clearly labeled. Then they put those boxes in plain brown boxes with asus seal tape so stores won't open them to let you look. The idiocy of corporations sometimes.

 

Official release date October 26th has been announced. Many new machines available at launch and lots coming in november. There are over 140 new portables in the pipeline before the end of the year including 40 ultrabooks.

Lots more options, traditional notebooks, notebooks with touch screens, touchpads with detachable keyboard docks (asus transformer but pc) etc. Then there are the intel win8 machines and the arm win8 RT machines.

Pretty much any hardware at the top of the food chain today is going to be sold through before november. Asus itself probably has 8-10 new models coming.

 

Thats scary.

 

You can? cool. I wonder if you can update the SSD in the S9 11.6" last generation.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure I buy that. Or if it is true, the ADATA would react in a similar fashion.

I stand by my argument that noticeable differences would not be found between these 2 drives. That is going from an ADATA owner as well. If someone has real life methods they would like tested I'd be happy to provide the ADATA timings from such tests to quantify.

Obviously if you buy a high end ssd, it will do better, but noone is passing these drives off as high end.

 

Probably..just can't upgrade the ram, it's soldered. I'm sure there is a thread on it here somewhere.

 

Does the headphone jack works fine ? As microphone + headphones with some cellphone headsets ?
I've got Bose OE with mobile kit that I use with my iPhone, I suppose I can use it on the Zenbook too? (with microphone)

 

Amazon just lowered the price of the UX32VD to 1249.99! I jumped on it and bought one, even though it's not in stock (hopefully will ship soon). Glad they finally lowered the price to match adorama and b&h, Amazon will accept returns on opened laptops (incase of any serious issues like listed here), but they won't.

 

Small block writes are 8-10 times faster on the adata drive so writing updates to the pagefile when your using virtual memory could move 8-10 times the data before it would start lagging. Its not an issue until you start using virtual memory, but at 4gb its not to hard to start hitting virtual memory.

 

Argh. Anyone have a link to the latest Elantech trackpad drivers? I had them installed and up-to-date and scrolling was buttery smooth...like Macbook smooth. I got curious about the Asus beta trackpad drivers so I uninstalled the Elan drivers. After installing the Asus version, scrolling is terrible. I am fine with inertial scrolling not working on the Elan drivers (which it doesn't). I'd rather have that than jerky/non-responsive scrolling as exists with the Asus drivers.

 

October 26, 2012.

 

Interesting, best buy is showing the ux21a, i5, 128gb, 4mb, full hd screen for $999. Not in stock yet though.

 

They have all variants now!

i7 with 128gb for $1199
i7 with 256gb for $1299

 

Here you go: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/30288505/Touchpad_Elantech_Win7_64_Z105100.zip

I am emphatically dissatisfied with the Asus "SmartGesture" drivers, they have too many annoying features (Like cursor acceleration and broken inertial scrolling) that should be allowed to be turned off, but no ability to.

The Elantech+Touchfreeze are about the most perfect touchpad experience this side of a Macbook glass trackpad.

 

could somebody please measure the length of the powercord end to end? Hoping it's as long as my 1000HE's powercord

 

So, never got an answer to my question a few pages back, and probably won't be seen again. So...

Can anyone confirm circular scrolling?

 

Where do you see this?

 

Hey everyone have a bit of a dilemma in regards to the trackpad

So Ive had this laptop for about a month and the trackpad was really smooth and great to use.

Now all of a sudden today my ASUS Live update did this automatic update in regards to trackpad driver.

Now all of a sudden the scrolling is no longer smooth but really fragmented and inconsistent.

How can i fix this?

Thanks in advance

 

I'm on ELAN driver for my touchpad, it has no circular scrolling.

Synaptics driver do however.

You are probably on asus smart gesture driver. Someone in here mentioned about horrible scrolling on the driver.

I suggest uninstalling the driver for your touchpad and install Elan driver for now till asus get a grip on their touchpad driver.

If you are annoyed by accidential clicking on touchpad with your palm while writing you should try Touchfreeze. Not a perfect solution but works decently.

Downloads - touchfreeze - Utility for Windows to disable touchpad automatically while you are typing text - Google Project Hosting

A guy uploaded the Elan driver so I wont have to do it:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/30288505/Touchpad_Elantech_Win7_64_Z105100.zip

 

Am I the only one who hates inertial scrolling? I find the Elantech drivers to be perfect in regards to scrolling. Honestly, I dont have any qualms about the touchpad with elantech drivers and touchfreeze.

For all those wanting ASUS links to the Touchpad drivers and official releases look HERE: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download Touchpad

 

ux31a - Best Buy

ux21a - Best Buy

 

Thanks for this! My touchpad is finally back on par with my wife's Macbook Pro!

 

So I grabbed Best Buy's i7/256GB version of the UX31A ( UX31A-R7202F) when it came in stock for about 5 minutes Wednesday night, and it's currently on its way (supposed to get here next Wednesday). Just wondering if anyone has one of these in hand yet? They don't seem to stay in stock (it went back into a 'sold out' status not long after I ordered).

 

I have a UX31a-DB71 with a 256GB Sandisk SSD. I see a ton of posts on here saying that this SSD is extremely slow compared to the ADATA. My laptop boots to the desktop in 7 seconds and everything is extremely fast and snappy. Where will I see slow performance? Personally if I can't notice the slowness then it's not worth returning over and over again. I am just curious where I would notice the slowness.

 

How is the fan on yours? I have the i7-3517U 256GB sandisk from the MS store and after a couple days I essentially can't do anything without the fan coming on (around 3300 rpm). The second I open a new tab, load a new page, switch windows, open a new program, etc. - the fan comes on, then goes off after a bit if I don't do anything new. I can't tell if its worse after full boot or resume though. Is this the way it is supposed to be?

For what it's worth, I'm happy with the drive. I don't do much that requires very quick read/write speeds so it works fine for me. It's WEI is 7.5.

 

When you start running something that uses the page file.

 

I was in BB today and noticed just like last time that their demo unit has the adata SSD and I bet they don't have one of them left in the store that you can buy.

 

Possibly a newb question, but what is the page file? The reason I ask is because I have tried installing MATLAB on my new i7 with the sandisk SSD, but it hangs up during the install and usually freezes the computer. I have tried about 5 times and have had the same result everytime, a few times all the icons disappeared and I was left with a blank desktop and had to hold the power button. I have never had this problem installing this same copy on other windows 7 machines.

Has anyone successfully installed MATLAB on their sandisk u100?