New ASUS latops ASUS X4GSN and U30SD

Hi

im based in UK and hav seen the following 2 asus laptops being sold in Germany , the specs are good and price is accceptable for the specs.

Asus X4GSN-VX065V

Asus X4GSN-VX065V 35,6 cm Notebook schwarz / silber: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör

Asus U30SD-RO081V

Asus U30SD-RO081V 33,8 cm Notebook schwarz: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör

i hope someone can help , im wondering mainly about the following ..

1) will the keyboards be US/UK layout ? the photos show US layout , but im not sure , since its a german machine ..does anyone who speaks/write german can find out or get photo real of the kayboard layout for these german models ? ive tried but zero response so far , any help much appreciated, any ASUS german reatilers reading and have these models , please can you reply with photos of keyboard ?

2) The warranty for ASUS is international ? if i go ahead with this , im shipping it to UK so i would prefer UK repairs, does anyone know more about the warrenty ?

3) What happens to Customs ? VAT ? shipping to UK , do i incure any more charges?

4)Will the O.S win 7 be german ? i guess so ..so how do i change this to UK/english version ?

So sorry for the newbie type questions , im not expert on laptops and i really am not sure what else to ask for now , but please beleive i really need help /advice on this ..

Thank you for reading

 

Asus might introduce the new models officially at Computex 2011

 

Hi,


I have received my U30SD from Amazon.de already two weeks ago.

1. The keyboard layout is German.

2. The warranty seems to be international, but luckily I haven't checked its quality yet.

3. Dunno. I got it in the Netherlands and didn't pay anything extra.

4. You can choose the language of the OS when you first start your computer. I chose English.

Besides, I think it's a great computer and the battery actually lasts 10 hours (!!!!!) .

 

Hi ykykyk

Thanks for reply , is it possible you can take photo of the keyboard layout and post on here ? i would really like to see it in full, if not allowed to post photo, please email me it.

whats your thought on the laptop in terms of perfromance , graphics, heating issues ?

 

Interesting, the X4GSN basically looks like a renamed N43SN.

 

hi peter

i noticed the same thing, just sadly ASUS has ruled out 14'' laptops in UK. They believe theres no market for it here, disappointing for people like me who love these portable laptops. Im looking to buy now and just want to find out best deal for me, there was word of a k43SV but i dont think this has been released in europe.

 

I contacted ASUS today with exactly the same question. They told me that, unless otherwise specified, the laptop is sold with the local keyboard layout. This means: sold in Germany with the standard German keyboard layout (QWERTYZ). He also noted the pictures on even their own site or with the retailer are for marketing purposes, and do NOT show the keyboard it comes with.

I'm glad I noticed the pictures on Amazon actually show a non US standard keyboard (@ key not above the 2), and so will not be buying this x4GSN from amazon.

I also noticed the X4GSN seems to be a renamed N43SN, which should be released in the US and thus be sold with a standard keyboard layout. It seems it's already in sale in Poland - no clue as to keyboard layout there, and in Singapore, which should be with a standard layout, but cannot confirm that yet,. Could pay off to wait another week and see what that brings.

ASUS did confirm it comes with an international warranty, so no problems there, but has also confirmed the 14" notebooks will not be sold in the Netherlands, so I'll keep my eyes open for international retailers offerings.

Just discovered you can order the keyboard of your choice from Asusparts
The site doesn't list the U30SD (yet probably), not the X4GSN, but mentions that some models are sold with a different name, most of them in an X-serie. It seems likely the X4GSN is in fact a rebranded N43SN. Now to find out if the casing on the N43SN is the same as the N43JF. Seems likely, but you can never be too sure...

edit: The download for the X4GSN manual/bios on the ASUS support site points to the N43SN version, so the rebranding can be confirmed.

 

hi applesap

Thanks for your additional info , much appreciated.

The reason i asked for photo was as you rightly said , the retailers seem to use Stock/generic photos for promotion and not specific photos for each country. The Asus 30SD in germany seems to show only the QWERTY layout ,not QWERTYZ..hence me asking fellow member YKYKYK for a photo of his Asus30SD , he recently ordered it from amazon.de so hes the best person who can provide more valuble insight, hope he replies with photos.

 

Well, I ordered the X4GSN (N43SN) yesterday, said to come with a standard german keyboard, so separately ordered the US international keyboard from asusparts.eu. Should arrive within a few days, I'll let you know how that goes.

As for the U30SD, this sollution is not yet an option I fear. Hopefully ykykyk will post some pictures for you, or you'll just have to wait a little bit longer for the device to go on sale in the UK

 

hi applesap

great news , hope your X4GSN rocks. Would be cool to get some photos /mini review from you on that when you can. I dont think the U30SD is going to be released in UK , i contacted Asus UK and they said its not on there release schedule , there primarily focusing on 15.6'' laptops here , 14 and 13'' laptops ios not cosidered to be worthwhile market. Heres hoping ykykyk pulls through with some photos.

 

Will do, I'll post my findings and some pics when it arrives. As it is, there is far too little info to be had on the net about it anyway.

As for the U30SD, I find it really unclear why this is not released here or in the UK. You'll have to look at importing it I fear. I did find out there is another ASUS parts seller on the web, that has different keyboards for the U30SD:
F?oldal - asusalkatresz.hu
(please note the picture on the site is incorrect)
There's a UK version, which is also sold on e-bay and amazon.co.uk, it looks nice:
04GNWT1KUK00 | eBay UK
It'd be a bit of a gamble of course, and it'd be better to order the notebook first and check the part-number of the keyboard in it to check for compatibility, but it might work.

In any case, good hunting for that U30SD - what was initially my first choice. I opted for the X4GSN (N43SN) in the end because it has better specs (better sound, HD webcam, USB 3.0, eSATA) for less money.

 

Not that it wasn't already obvious, but I just noticed the Amazon description says this:

"Vier verschiedene ASUS Notebook Modelle sind zunächst mit der ASUS SonicMaster™ Technologie erhältlich: ASUS N43(X4G) im 14 Zoll Format, ASUS N53(X5M) im 15,6 Zoll Format, ASUS N73(X7B) im 17,3 Zoll Format und ASUS NX90 im 18,4 Zoll Format."

... which translates to (according to Google)...

"Four different ASUS models are initially available with ASUS SonicMaster ™ Technology: ASUS N43 (X4G) in 14 inch format, ASUS N53 (X5M) in the 15.6-inch format, ASUS N73 (X7b) in the 17.3-inch format and ASUS NX90 18.4 "in size."

So yeah, double confirmed.

 

What is the battery life like with the X4GSN?

 

Well, here's my mini-review, and I'm sorry to say it's going to stay really mini.

I just received the notebook today, and was surprised to find the silver model - I ordered the black version. And imo: this silvery thing is ugly. So I guess this one is going straight back. When the return is cleared with Amazon, I might add a few comments and pics.

Besides that, I also think it's too big still. I was going to get the U30SD, then noticed it has no USB3, saw the X4GSN which has the USB3 and eSata, a better webcam and better audio for less money. I guess more isn't always better. I'm also guessing the U30SD has a better keyboard, better battery life, better looks and it definitely is smaller, so I'll be ordering the U30SD (black!) next, which - if shipped as fast as this one - should arrive next Wednesday. We'll see how that goes. This time I'll wait for the device to arrive to see which part number the keyboard has to order the correct UI version (although I got it right for this X4GSN - pointless now though as it's going back). So, in the course of the next week you can expect pics of a U30SD, it's keyboard, and my first findings at how well it works. That is, how well my wife thinks it works, because it's a gift for her.

Oh, I can add the label on the side of the box mentions the X4GSN has the MB Ver.: N43SN - so that's triple confirmed now =)

 

Hey applesap

Thanks for mini review , every bit helps. I checked out the Asus x/n series and i didnt really like the keyboard and the things you mentioned. Glad your going for the ASUS U30SD , its what im after , just not sure about the keyboard etc , will be great to see photos of it and a review from you , there is a video review of it on You tube, maybe you have already seen it ? anyhow look forward to your updates

 

Wait, so the U30SD is available at retailers already? I assuming you are either in SE Asia or Europe? Do you have any links?


Edit: Nevermind, I just saw the links on the first post are amazon.de. I wonder when or if it will show up in North America.

 

I know you are now after U30SD, but just to clarify that k43SV was released in europe; i have one.

 

hi slowdrive

i was also interested in the k43SV , but think the U30SD is more powerful. However can you confirm what type of keyboard you have on the K43SV? any photos ? and where you purchased it from

 

Small update: my (wife's) U30SD has been shipped out today. Could arrive tomorrow, though I doubt that as it is coming in from Germany, and that took a day with my previous order, so I'm expecting it to get here by friday (thursday being a holiday).

And as has been noted, it's on sale in the US now:
http://www.amazon.com/U30SD-XA1-13-3-Inch-Light-Laptop-Black/dp/B004YW6I38/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

 

hi applesap

looking forward to your pics and review contacted asus in UK and they said no plans to releases in UK...totally ting onmy plans . I too spotted the USA version , but its not as high spec as the top end U30SD, its only 4GB and DVDRW , not blu ray. I would need blu ray and 8gb, same model as yours , ahem..i mean wife.

 

Well, saintfury, it's a matter of days now, should be here by friday. I'm very excited about it, hope the wife will be pleased, it's an early birthday gift as her aging Toshiba notebook is slowly falling apart. From what I have read I'll be doing a complete clean install of OS and drivers before it becomes useable (get rid of all the bloatware), but I can live with that.

 

hey Applesap

I heard about this Bloatware business, tell me how your clean install works out, beacause if i get this, i would do the same. Must admit im not tech savy or expert on OS etc just starting to get into it, so advice on such matters always helps. Friday cant come any sooner..hurry up friday!

 

Well, it arrived yesterday. Neatly packed in a small box. Everything is covered in protective plastic, and it really looks a whole lot better after that has been removed. I'll put up some pics later. In the box are the power adapter, warranty card, a small booklet with the hardware manual (in German of course, but it's the same as the downloadable version on the website in many languages), and a driver DVD.

It's noticably smaller than the X4GSN, but it's a tad larger than the 3yr old 13.3" Toshiba Satellite my wife had. The cover is very nice matte black, as are the palmrests, with a large touchpad slightly off-centre. The bezel around the screen and keyboard is made of shiny black plastic, which both my wife and I don't really like. The chiclet keyboard has matte flat keys, feels and looks very nice, but being a German layout (QWERTZ, and more than half of the symbols are in strange places) it will have to be replaced. I knew that in advance, but not which type would fit this particular notebook.

Taking the keyboard out reveals it's typenr: 04GNV62KGE00. The GE defining it's the GErman one, so replace with US and you will find it's the standard UL30 chiclet keyboard. That means the UL80 backlit version should also fit. The screen does seem to hover somewhat above the keyboard when closed, so even a slight elevation shouldn't be a problem. I decided it's worth trying, so ordered a backlit version on Ebay. As it takes about 3-4 weeks to arrive coming from China, I'll have to be patient. I do hope it is as pleasant to work with as the one that came with the machine.

My U30SD came with the 8-cell 5600mAh battery, which is quite large, but fits beautifully in the back of the machine. I can't comment on batterylife just yet, because it's only been on for a few hours, but it seems fine. Working at low brightness it tells me that even at 15% batterylife remaining, I still have over an hour. The poweradapter is quite large and heavy for what was supposed to be a thin & light imo. But with a good batterylife it is of little consequence I guess.

The bios posts for about a second before booting into Windows, which makes resuming from hibernation very fast. I prefer the sleep mode (suspend to RAM), and that works fine also. The Core i5 isn't as snappy as I had hoped, my i7 quadcore is much faster, even though the machine has 8GB of RAM. I haven't done any benchmarks and won't, because what matters to me is everyday use.

It comes fully filled with bloatware by ASUS, more than two colums of icons for useless programs on the desktop at first boot - yuck. I've since done a fresh install of Win7, updated all the drivers and it seems a lot more responsive. The intel wireless 100 N isn't the fastest around, and won't connect at a faster speed than 72Mbps (where 150 should be it's max), albeit other machines here manage to get 300Mbps from my Linksys WRT610N. I'm considering swapping it for an intel 6230.

The screen is not bad, but not really good either, it's mediocre at best. It is brighter than my older non-led laptops here, but not much. Using it outside is definately not going to work well. My XPS15 with the fullHD panel is much brighter, and has amazing viewing angles. Viewing anlges for the U30SD are fair, left to right quite acceptable, but vertically the shift in brightness is easily visible, making it not better or worse than most laptops I guess.

It is fairly quiet, in a silent room you can hear the fan faintly in the background when doing simple tasks. I haven't stressed it to the max yet, and doubt I ever will, so can't comment on the noise it makes then. But for use in a quiet livingroom, study or bedroom it's fine. The flat bottom surface is very pleasant for having it on my lap, and doesn't feel hot at all.

Sound quality was, in my opinion, quite good really. Yes, it does not have a sub woofer or surround system built in, but it's definately not as cheezy as the Toshiba or Packard Bell we were used to. Having it come from the 'front' of the machine is a tad odd, but works well.

To sum it up: it works well, if the battery holds out as long as advertised, it's a very portable machine, fast enough for everyday use and a bit more even. It plays 1080p video very smooth, typing is very comfortable and did I may not have mentioned it yet, but the touchpad is a dream - super. Sound is good, the screen is mediocre but acceptable. The build quality is good, with a metal look and feel and strong design. For a optical-drive-thin & long-battery-life-light machine, it's actually pretty good.

 

Hi Applesap

Thanks for review , its concise and perfectly understandable Well you have confirmed the most importat aspects for me , namely the keyboard and build quality, i type a fair bit , so good ergonic keyboard is essentail. I cannot tolerate these keyboards that flex or are mushy in the middle. Hope this replacement keybboards works out for you, i will wait to see how it goes for you. Ordering from china ? you like to live dangerously my friend..ive ordered from there before and ended up with fake goods, fingers crossed your keyboard wont be the same. you briefly mentioned wireless card ? i take it it can be taken out and replaced with another ? i would like a powerful/top end one, so can i remove the one it came with ? does this void warranty ?


The screen is of interest to me , i heard LED were best and Matt Screens were better than glossy ones. Hope your photos shed more on this topic. Im not a gamer but im waiting for DIABLO3, i hope this machince has enough specs for it to run flawlessly, that and Blu ray movies.

This bloatware thing bothers me , i dont like the idea of having programs installed that i dont need. This reinstall you did , was this from recovery system or did you reinstall win 7 fresh? does the discs come with the machine ? i think i would have to do the same as you , just im not tech savvy, probably ask you more on this later.

will wait for photos to say more , im looking forwward to them. Thanks for sharing your review with us , its great benefit for newbies like me.

 

Having worked with it for a few days now, installing all essential software and getting used to it, I can safely say build quality is very good. The aluminum cover and palmrests are classy imo, and I can't really care the bottom is made of plastic, that's functional. Having a flat bottom is also nice for using it on my lap.

I'm very pleased with the keyboard, it's not mushy at all. The keys also have a noticable clicking point, but are not hard to push down. The chiclet type, with space between the keys is also very nice, hadn't used one before but instantly love it.

My previous orders weren't that disastrous, and the mod-thread lead me to believe I can take that gamble. For those small amounts of money, yes, I dare take the risk.

It's very simple: lift the keyboard and there it is, in the one available PCI-e slot, half size mini card. I've discovered that Windows auto sets it to 20Mhz, but changing it to 'auto-select' now has it run very stable at it's max of 150Mbps. So that mystery has been solved. As my wife wants to work with photo's that are stored on the network, I'll want more network speed for this thing, so I've ordered an Intel 6200 (locally this time, found a cheap shop nearby ). Should work well. Asus didn't bother to put a third antenna in, and I wasn't in the mood to install one myself, so didn't bother with the 6300.

Well, the LED is nice, it's crispier than both CCFL I had before, but not so bright you can use it outdoors sadly. Then again, I fear the only laptop that will do that for you is the Samsung 9 series, which is amazingly expensive and not all that well built. And doesn't have an optical drive.

I'll upload them soon.

Can't comment on the games, but playing a blu-ray is like a breeze. The drive is very quiet, and the movie runs smoothly using the built in Intel HD3000 vid card. I opened a 1080p movie from the network simultaniously without problems, and Optimus kicked in to run that on the nVidia card, also perfectly smoothly.
There were no recovery discs with the system, but there is a recovery partition. I did make recovery discs and boot - just to be on the safe side. I then installed Win 7 fresh from a disc I already have.

 

Hi Appelsap, was wondering how you find the battery life?

Looking at getting this laptop for college and would like to see 7+ hours of general use if possible.

 

So far I'm very pleased with the batterylife. My wife worked with it throughout the day (Wifi on, system set to never power down or suspend), using internet, e-mail and MSN, doing some word processing and mostly photo editing, and after 7 hours was at aprox 15% left, indicating it had about an hour left in it still.

 

Well, here's some pictures, folks. Lets begin at the beginning. The notebook was securely wrapped by Amazon in a not so big box.

Inside the Asus box there was the powercord on top, the notebook wrapped in two carton placeholders and a box with booklets & drivers.

Taking the notebook out of its protective cover, it was again covered in plastic, and of course has all the fancy stickers telling you what's inside. Thankfully these were put on top of the protective plastic, so removing them was really easy (whereas Dell puts them on the machine, and I had to use aggresive chemicals to completely remove those from my XPS...). Thanks, ASUS!

The back of the notebook is fairly plain: two removable covers are visible, and removing them is easy.

The smaller one reveals the RAM, a whopping 8BG inside should keep you happy for a few years to come.

Behind the other cover on the bottom is the HDD, a 500GB WD in my case, but alas not one spinning at 7200rpm, this drive thus noticably slower, but useable none the less.

I do wonder why ASUS didn't opt for a faster drive, perhaps it's to do with a bigger power drain, but I'm just guessing here.
The keyboard has the German layout, alas, so will need to be replaced.

It's the standard UL30 keyboard, judging by it's part-nr as mentioned on the back:

That should make it possible to replace it with the same size U80 backlit keyboard as described in the UL30 backlit mod thread. I've ordered one, which is being shipped from Hong Kong (and on a freighter right now), so I'll update my review when it arrives.
Behind the keyboard is a PCIe slot for a half-size card, occupied by an Intel Wifi 100-N card, capable of 150Mbps.

It's very stable at that speed (after having adjusted the settings in Windows), but as my wife will be using the notebook to look and edit photo's on the network a lot, the faster the better, so I've ordered an Intel Wifi 6200, which is due to arrive tomorrow.

Turning it on shows you the bloatware it comes with, the desktop is really cluttered.

Note that the only thing I did was answer yes to the question of making restore discs, which is what it is doing when this picture was taken. After having done that, I did a clean install of Windows, which works well for me. You'll need to put the Wifi driver on a USB stick though, as Windows does not recognize it itself.

This unit came with quite a good battery, with a 5600mAh capacity.

It'll last you about a whole day if you keep it simple, such as browsing or editing texts. I put the machine, fully charged, on full brightness and left it idle for a few minutes. It then tells me it has over 9.5 hours left.

Using the Blu-ray drive, and starting with a half-full battery, I still managed to get it to play for about three hours at full brightness before it was under 10% and started complaining

The screen is nice, bright enough for any kind of indoor use, setting it at about half brightness during the day is bright enough, and a tad lower in the evening works just fine. Colors are fine, though I doubt Adobe would agree with me on that It is a TN-panel, like in most laptops, so viewing angles are not amazing, but about average.

Please note that the screen is very sharp, the desktop wallpaper here is blurry, it's a picture my wife took in the garden, but she's not so good when it comes to making macro-shots...

The unit looks very stilish imo, the metal brushed screen cover feels solid and is very thin.


Here you can see the ports on both left and right side of the unit.


The keyboard may look a bit funny, this is because I've put some stickers over the odd German layout keys to make it US-international - a temporary fix till the new keyboard arrives. Doesn't look as bad as it does on some of these pictures.
The previous 13.3" laptops we had were slightly smaller, but not much. The U30SD is noticably smaller than the 15.6" XPS I have, as you can see here:


All in all it's a very nice notebook. It comes packed with a lot of (high) tech, and has a remarkable batterylife for such a portable machine (I haven't weighed it yet, will do that a little later). I do wonder why ASUS left some things out, like the USB3.0 it should be capable of, or a 7200rpm HDD. But the i5 dual core with hyper threading makes it an absolute winner when it comes to computing power for such a small machine.

edit: my kitchen scales tell me the notebook itself is exactly 2.2 kg with the 8-cell battery attached, although not an ultra-light, it's very portable and can easily be used on the lap.

 

Hey Applesap

You certainly say what you mean and mean what you say.. great photos, you delivered in top style. This laptop is pretty much what im after, Shame about the USB 3.0 being left out , i just bought 2 external HD's which have USB 3.0, dont understand why Asus left it out , like you say it seems perfectly suited for USB 3.0


Im just going to wait till i see how your change of germankeyboard operation pans out, if that works out im following the same route. Just what happens to the Warranty ? will this void the 2yr warranty that it comes with? Im newbie, so somewhat concerned when it comes to changing parts , reinstalling etc, last thing i want is told by asus..SORRY we cannot reapir or fix your laptop beacuse you modified it , id be up creek without a paddle then.

Oh..regarding the blu-ray, is the drive locked to a specific region ? im a HK, japanese , korean film fan and would look at importing dics , can any region play on it ? if locked , is there a way around it ?

truthfully this laptop so much resembles my aging , dying sony VGN-C1Z ..size , looks , weight wise. Ok the ASUS U30SD is way more slicker , but for me its similar to what im used to in size , so its a winner. Power seems plenty for me, like i said im not a gamer , just interested in 1 game , should be more than enough power to run it. I checked the games spec requirements and this seems more than capable, will be cool to play a game again with all the FX maxed out, especially if i get portable projector and hook it up, instant 120 inch screen

Let me know about the intel 6200 wificard upgrade ,how that worked out, i would want a fast, powerful wifi card too. also regarding clean install, you mentioned you had your own copy to do that , so if i install win 7 ultimate , will all the laptop drivers auto install ? do i have to download them all , if so where from ?

dont know if you do this sort of thing, but if you ever upload to youtube vidoes of this machine , let me know. your a star mate , great review and photos , much apprieciated, look forward to more updates and im sure i will have more questions to follow.

 

Well, if you just swap the keyboard for the same model with a different layout, warranty will not be an issue. Just unplug the old and plug in the new one, and it'll be the same as bought with that keyboad type.

If you use the swap to do a little mod, like I'm planning, and add the backlit version, there's a snag: there is no standard power connector for the leds. You'd have to do it in a way to make it unvisibly removable (so you can put the original back) to avoid warranty problems I guess. I'll let you know if/how I can manage to do this.

Dunno about the drive, I do know that PowerDVD has a limited number of changes, but this can be reset.

The original did a very stable 150Mbps on the 2.4Ghz band. The 6200 arrived this weekend, and installing it was easy. Works like a charm, it now connects at 300Mbps, and is very stable too.

There's basically two routes to go: either a clean install (which means sorting out how to register the new OS) and then download the drivers from ASUS, or from the manufacturers directly (Intel, nVidia etc). You can find them on the asus support site. The other option would be to uninstall all unnecessary programs after setup, which is way easier of course, but could leave some bits behind. Whichever you prefer, based on experience and needs

 

I've installed the backlit keyboard with succes. You can read about it in the UL30 backlit mod thread.

 

Hey appelsap Can you help me spot the +5v and ground connections?

I also have the U30SD

I saw your pictures but I can't figure it out

 

I noticed the pic is a bit blurry, it was late yesterday, and I was in a hurry to get the msg on the board and go to bed
The pinout for the SATA connector is this:



Look for the notch marking the first pin. In the U30SD (as in most notebooks), the connector is upside-down. The smaller connector is for the data, the larger for the power. Pins one to three on the power plug are the 3.3V lead, and connected on the motherboard, so if you squeeze a wire in there that may touch more than just one of these pins, it's not a problem. The same goes for the GROUND pins, 4-6. It should be the same for the 5V pins, 7-9. Make sure your wire is connected to the middle one (8), because if it then accidentally touches 7 or 9, or both of these, this isn't a problem. If it also touches 6 or 10, you'll short out the 5V lead, which could seriously damage the notebook and HDD, so please don't do that.

I stripped about 3 mm of the wire insulation, twisted the wire to make sure it doesn't fan out too much when being connected, then folded it over the connector on the HDD and gently squeezed that back into place making sure the wire touches the connector.

 

For the ground, can't you just put it in any screw?

Also If I do the 5V it will be brighter than if I do the 3.3V right? You think the 3.3 is good enough?

How long did this mod took you?

So again let me get this straight...... (I have built over 20 desktops so far, but never done a mod like this.)

I will remove the power from the HDD, then do the soldering on those pins, and the plug the power to the HDD again??
Can't it be easier to find 5V or 3.3V connections on the mobo?

Is there any other alternative?

 

NO PLEASE NO, no soldering to the HDD, you could damage the drive! I suppose you could solder it to the pins of the SATA plug sticking out on the backside, if you wish. Note that I didn't solder any wires to the machine or it's devices. The only thing I did solder was the wires to the keyboard's flat cable, to make sure it was connected well. Mind you, that when doing that, it's advisable to take out the memory and cover the machine, so any solder falling down doesn't fall into the notebook - that would also seriously damage the machine, likely beyond repair.

To get the wires connected to the SATA power, here's what I did. I simply pushed (jammed) the red wire in with the SATA plug on the HDD into the mobo connector, so it would be squeezed in there against the contacts. If I then later decide to remove the mod, all I need to do is take the HDD out, and the wires come loose again. It's that simple. Just make sure you squeeze them in at the right place

You could connect the ground at any ground place, but I prefer to put it in there with the SATA plug to avoid damaging the SATA power system. I think it is your safest bet, and it's fairly easy too. IMO, using the SATA power is the easiest and most accessible place to connect to. Others here have used the 5V lead on USB connectors, but to get to those on the U30SD, you'd need to take the whole thing apart.

Using the 5V will make it brighter, yes. Whichever you prefer depends on what you want. If you want it to look like a christmas tree, and don't mind the bright lights when looking at a movie in the dark, then use the 5V. If you want the keys to be visible in the dark, but nothing more than that, then use 3.3V.

It took me over an hour to figure out that I wasn't going to take the whole machine apart. You can skip that. It then took me half an hour to figure out where to put the wires. You can skip that too, just look and read what I did. I suppose the mod itself doesn't take that long, but because you have to be very careful with the flat cable, and take it slow, I'd say you'd need about an hour. Slow and careful are the key words here.

 

I see now, just make sure contact is good with the pins and connect it back together?

The one thing which I still have a trouble understand is that you say its the easiest way.... but from what I understand the HDD is located at the bottom of the laptop, so I would have to route the cables until they reach the bottom? right?

 

Yup.

Ah yes, that's true. But when you take out the keyboard, you'll find the only opening that shows any bit of the mainboard is at the top, where the wifi-card is. The flat cable isn't long enough to reach that, and routing wires down along the bottom of the keyboard is going to push it upwards, I wouldn't recommend that. Getting the flat cable to go directly through the nearest opening towards the bottom is the best option imo.

 

Lastly, can you verify the webcam on it?
Is it .3mp or 2MP?
and
If I got the US version (4GB) can I upgrade it to 8GB?)
and
How much did the battery decrease with the backlit keyboard?

 

The webcam is a .3 megapixel one.

Upgrading the memory is easy. I think the 8GB is overkill, 4 will do nicely for most users.

I didn't check how much drain the backlit keyboard is on the battery, so dunno really, but in testing with my other notebook (with standard backlit keyboard), I never noticed any difference in batterylife with the backlight on or off. Having it on the 3.3V lead might help there to keep the drain to a minimum.
Perhaps, if I feel like it, I'll do some benchmarking with the backlight on and off (as I can easily disconnect it). But I'm a little pressed for time right now, I have a lot of - paid - work to do.