New Asus UL30A offerings on Oct 22nd? (Win 7 Release)

Hey all,
I'm considering buying an Asus UL30A, but I'm wondering if I should wait until Oct. 22nd to see if they offer any new configurations (ie. with internal bluetooth). Does anyone know if this is likely?

And will the UL30A's sold after the 22nd have Win 7 preloaded, or still Vista with the free upgrade program?

In short: should I pull the trigger now on a UL30A-X3 or should I wait?

Thanks all!

 

After the 22nd, they'll have Win7 pre-loaded.

From what I hear, it seems that the UL30VT has Oct 22nd as its target date as well as the other ULxxVT units.

Again, this is all speculation, so.....


As for waiting, buy it when you need it. 3 weeks from Win7's launch isn't a very long time but if you simply cannot wait due to work/school circumstances, well there's not much to be done there.

 

wait 3 weeks unless it's a life or death matter.

 

Well, if you buy now you'll get both Vista and Windows 7, and 2 OS' are better than one, right?

 

I think 3 weeks is an appropriate time to wait for some possibly major benefits, which include:

-better configurations(or at least more options)
-chance to compare to new releases from other manufacturers (10/22 will bring with it many new laptops, I'm sure)
-also, the recovery partition that the Asus notebooks come with would then be windows 7 instead of vista, and since the thing doesn't have a built in dvd drive, it would become a pain if you ever had to reinstall the OS without that

 

i think after Oct 22nd windows 7 will be come preload on the UL30A machine, but i think alot of the retailers are still selling the vista version, since they might still have them in stock. Or the new windows 7 version UL30A will be release, but from the factory in China to the actual retailers. that's going to take some time. And i really doubt you can get the new windows 7 UL30A right away. Again, this is just my thought...

 

Hm... all good thoughts. I'm not very interested in the "VT" models because I do NOT want discrete graphics (heat/battery life), so really, the UL30A-X3 seems to be the right model for me. Low cost, fast processor, reasonable 320gb HD. It's down to $680 now, which is a damn good price in my book. I think I'm going to pull the trigger. I have a copy of Windows 7 x64 that I got from school for free anyway, so I suppose I'll just wipe the HD completely and install that.

BTW, what's with Asus only offering Windows 7 32-bit? Why don't they offer the 64 bit version in the upgrade?

 

That is something else I had not thought of -- I had somehow got the idea that the 64-bit is what made the dual core perform optimally. (? ? ?)

 

Sucks I know, they should have shipped the notebook with vista 64, then we would get a 64 bit upgrade. Although I believe the key that we will get with the 32bit upgrade will work with the 64bit version. Just have to get your hands on a 64bit install disk.

That's my plan anyways.

 

I would think the biggest deal with 64bit is accessing more ram. You need a 64bit OS to take advantage of all 4gb of RAM installed in the UL30A. That's why it's lame they provided a 32bit os.

I'm running 64bit windows RC1, so I see all 4gb.

How much RAM do the 32bit users see ?

 

It appears my Asus 32bit is seeing all 4GB as well, unless I'm doing it wrong. I right clicked on My Computer -> Properties and under RAM it shows 4GB.

 

It shows 4GB as installed, but is actually seeing less than that.

 

Do you know how much it uses ? I've heard things like 3.5gb. I didn't realize that it would show 4gb installed.

 

No. I am seeing 4gb on my 32 bits Vista on my UL30A-A1

 

So Asus only sends 32 bit Windows 7 for the upgrade? We won't have the option for 64 bit?

 

That's right... LAME

It's should have been 64bit across the board.

 

Okay, you may see 4GB but it is not using the full 4GB.

 

Here is Microsoft TechNet article regarding Vista SP1, says it will display the 4gb of RAM.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946003

Still unclear if the OS will use all the ram. If it does is there any reason to run the 64bit OS 99% or my apps are 32bit ?

 

Guess that answers my own debate whether I should try to sell my current laptop on ebay now and salvage the most I can. haha. Looks like I should definitely wait til Oct 22 or shortly after to consider an Asus UL30. Maybe I'll just try selling in a week or two.

 

Any information on what to expect from this ultralight? Google is giving me zero.

 

No, it is very clear. It will not use all 4GB of RAM. PAE, while supported in Windows, explicitly does not support addressing more than 4GB of address space...which means less than 4GB of RAM will be utilized.

 

Yes, looks like you're right. I just checked msinfo32 at it states I have 4GB installed physical memory, but only 2.96GB of total physical memory (I wonder why its not closer to 3.2GB?). What threw me off if that I recall seeing on my other machine with 4GB is that system properties displayed 3.2GB and not 4GB like it does on the Asus.