New and updated ASUS Notebooks + Spec/Prices = F8SV, V2S, F3SC, F3SV, G1S, V1S, VX2S(

Well there shouldn't be any problems (never tried gaming on external monitor actually, so take what I say with a grain of salt).

As long as the GPU can handle the game in the LCD's native resolution, you can use that resolution. Even if it can't you can use the external on a lower resolution, scaling is almost invisible (so it doesn't look bad) in games.

 

Does anyone else find it unusual that ExcaliberPC is the only US retailer with pre-ordering available?

 

that's why you don't pay right now...just get on the waiting list for it =]

 

My guess is that nearly all the retailers know about the V1S and V2S, and are planning to sell them at some point, but are holding off until they get concrete details on specs, prices and availability. Whether or not it's sensible for a retailer to allow pre-oder on a machine that they don't have this concrete information for, is another matter... .

 

There going to get them in sooner or later, And they have them 50 bucks less than retail.

 

I cancelled my inspiron 1520 order today. Moving on to V1S! Hope I am making the right choice

 

trust me you are =]

 

I agree, Going with ExcaliburPC aswell tremolo?. If you are PM me and I will send you the Customs forms you will need.

 

Yeah! According to excaliberPC.com, the F8SV come with

Accessories:
Included Accessories Carrying bag and optical mouse

I hadn't know this before now...
I will be preordering soon! (not just because of the bag and mouse...)

 

i think all ASUS notebooks come with a bag and mouse. correct me if i'm wrong though.

 

So taking your response in conjunction with E.B.E.'s, so long as I get a monitor with a 1400 x 900 resolution I should be fine? Sounds like a 19" WXGA+ would work- which appears to match the resolution of the F8s.

Are people expecting the F8s to come with DVI or HDMI connections?

 

Well according to my own answer I would say:

buy any monitor you want, the GPU will drive it in native resolution for desktop work. You will simply need to set the resolution lower for games, that will have no noticeable impact on how the game looks.

 

Yeap, all ASUS notebooks include a mouse and a bag. They differ from model to model, but it's usually a Logitech Mouse and a Targus Bag. Some mice are wired, some are RF wireless, some are BT wireless, depending on model - higher end gets the latter. The bags are the same, most are simple carry on bags with sufficient space for a few accessories.

Yea, pre-orders are iffy. Some retailers swear not to do it, cause the simple fact is, they don't want to sell what they do not have on hand in case of legal action if the end product is different from the advertisement.

Using it at max resolution should not be a problem, though for gaming, toning it down may be a good idea. However, try it at a higher resolution, it may not be as bad as it sounds to be. The F8 should have DVI.

 

Nobody is talking about the previous battery issues from the V1J. I hope they have fixed it for the V1S

 

probably should have....actually they BETTER have

 

OK...quasi-off topic, but to play devil's advocate, why? I should point out that I'm generally not a fan of Dell and am increasingly intrigued by the Asus F8s, but a poster on the What Notebook Should I Buy? board pointed out that a maxed-out Inspiron 1420 is $600 less than the F8s. My gut feeling is that whether it's the V1S vs. a 1520 or the F8s vs. a 1420, an Asus *is* worth paying more in terms of build quality, components (top of the line Asus specs beat top of the line Dell specs) and support, but how much more?

(Since I'm deciding between getting a 17" and 14" notebook, I'm also in somewhat of the same position regarding the Inspiron 1720, although the comparible Asus is out of my price range at $2000.)

 

Build quality wise I'd say Dell scores a 4-6/10 and ASUS scores between 6-10/10. This is build quality wise overall...not components used. It's all about how long you want to use the laptop for. I have a dell that's 4 years old and it's literally falling apart, screws, panels, you name it. I haven't really abused it either. Just transporting it from home to class and what not. My sister's IBM and my cousin's ASUS are still rock solid. It's up to you to determine if you're willing to shell out the extra $$ for build quality. I would, but that's just me. I'd rather have something that lasts.

On the other hand....you could just get the Dell and upgrade again in another year or two.

 

The Inspiron 1420 can't compare to the F8sv. It's not really any smaller, it may (probably will) have better battery life, but by how much, no one knows, and I'm betting that if you spec'd it out with the T7500 and everything that the F8sv has, it won't be more than a couple hundred dollars less expensive, which is no more than the price of a mobile graphics card like the 8600GT. So you're paying maybe a 50-100 dollar price premium for the build quality, which is well worth it in my opinion.

 

well said well said
i couldn't agree more =]
just remember with ASUS, the reason they cost more is because they use quality parts. (at least they used to) I know some members are going to argue they got worse ever since choosing to go with the economical approach and mass produce systems, but even still, their systems are much better than other brands.

 

I wonder how long it'll take the F8SV-A1 to reach it to market?

 

early september or late august.

 

That's what makes this so tricky- every time I think I've reached a conclusion on the best laptop, other variables come in to play. In addition to deciding between a 14" with external monitor and a 17", I've toyed with the idea of getting an inexpensive laptop for web surfing, light word processing, etc. and spending more on a better desktop for everything else or, as you noted, just spending less on a slightly lesser laptop and planning on buying something again in a couple of years.

 

Uh....

The Dell 1420 is made by Asus

Anyhow, the F8Sv still has the advantage in terms of specs while the Dell in terms of price. Build quality is a moot point since they're both essentially the same, except one has a logo that rhythms with a really warm place.

 

I know the 1520 is made by Compal, but I'm not sure about the 1420 though, but I would of assumed it was Quanta, however, no idea

 

No new info on the EEE? This makes me sad. I really want to see a final date and pricing

 

The build quality of the new inspiron's is admittedly better than before, however just because Asus makes the 1420 doesn't mean it's necessarily the same quality as an Asus ensemble laptop, since Dell is the one choosing the components and assembling the 1420, not Asus.

It was confirmed earlier that Asus was making a 14.1" laptop for Dell, I guess I just assumed it's the 1420. It makes sense though.

 

Meh, all true. Asus is still better since they have total control of what goes into their ensemble models. The typical consumer won't care to notice. But this the Asus forums... and we're far from the typical consumer

Here's the link for Asustek scoring the contract with Dell to produce a 14.1" consumer notebook.

 

I'm just waiting to get rid of the Uncle's DELL and get some$$ to pre order the V2S.
I think I will wright my first review here with your helps.

 

Ok, if the F8Sv hits the market with the specs listed on the Excaliber preorder page at the $1549 price point, I will buy. The T7500 CPU has essentially made my mind up...Its less expensive than an identical Compal IFL90, and its a LOT lighter.

 

quick question that i was wondering if anyone could confirm:

is the 8600M-GS GDDR3 = 8600M-GT GDDR2?

...and i mean this in terms of fully overclockability as well

 

One forum member was able to overclock his 8600GS (GDDR3) to achieve the same 3DMark06 as an 8600GT (GDDR2). However, if you overclock the 8600GT, I'm sure it'll have the advantage.

The bottom line is an overclocked 8600GS = stock 8600GT.

 

No, an 8600M-GS is still not equal to an 8600M-GT with DDR2 video memory. At nvidia stock settings an 8600M-GS will be about 15% slower than an the 8600M-GT (DDR2), and if both are fully overclocked the 8600M-GS will be about 10-20% slower than the GT version (depending on how far you're willing to overclock, whether you have a cooler, etc.) This is just based on the many synthetic and real-life benchmarks scattered over several forums, and may not be completely accurate, but it should be pretty dang close.

 

The F8Sv *does* look really nice for the price! What do you suppose explains the weight difference? Less copper for cooling?

 

only problem with that is the smaller screen size compared to the 15.4 though it really is a good deal.

By the way, will the f3SV-B2 be released in Canada?

 

The IFL90 is a larger 15.4" notebook, and has an extended 9 cell battery, thus it weighs a full 7lbs.

Same screen resolution though (cheapest 8600GT model is the WXGA+ one) so its not too big of a loss. Plus, I save 1.3lbs in weight, which is nice.

 

how does the DDR2 8600GT compare to the DDR3 one??? (f8 vs. g1) lol

 

The DDR2 version is significantly handicapped in memory intensive tasks, for example if you're playing on a higher resolution (1440x900 and above) or if you're playing a game with highly detailed shadows or very large textures. In those areas it could take as much as a 30% hit. However at lower resolutions (1280x800) or at medium shadows and textures, it shouldn't be much more than 5-10% slower.

 

just remember that there is no game that the GDDR3 GT can run that the GDDR2 GT can't. just note that the GDDR2 will be slower

 

And even then, not by much. The DDR2 versions usually have more VRAM (512MB vs 256), does this make a difference in memory intensive stuff?

 

also, the f8 is a 14'' while the g1 is a 15.4''....so wud that mean that overall their gaming performances would be fairly equal?

the DDR2 has 512!? and the DDR3 has 256!?

 

The F8 will be pushing a WXGA+ resolution while the G1S pushes the WSXGA+, but unless you know gddr2 or gddr3 in the f8 its tough to tell. Personally I dont think it would make good business sense to have a $1550 notebook in a smaller form factor outperform a $1900 one.

 

personally i think that the F8 is a better buy because its a smaller screen with a similar video card, i know ddr3 is better than ddr2 but the the 8600m gt is by no means bad, its quite good and this is probably the first 14.1" screen that i have seen with a 8600m gt

lighter, bettery battery life, etc

and im assuming they both have hdmi, which means that, to me anyway, just connect to a bigger screen if you want one (i always use my c90s on my 50" plasma)

 

Thhe GDDR3 8400GT = GDDR2 8600GS thing hold less true for 8600Gs/8600GT, because they are different hardwares. 8600Gt, while its core clocked lower than 8600Gs, have twice the stream processors, meaning 8600GT has much better fill-rate than 8600GS.

<edited> Oops, typo, I meant GDDR3 8400Gt=GDDR2 8600GS, sorry.
Anyway, here's Hothardware link to specifications of 8400/8600 series.
http://www.hothardware.com/printarticle.aspx?articleid=964

 

DDR3 8400GT dosent even match a 8600GS, So no, Obviously it wont match a 8600GT

 

Is there any difference between the G1S-A1 and the new A2...other then harddrive space?

Also, anyone know what the response time on the G1S-A2 is?

 

I think thats the only difference, moving up to the 7.2k 200GB hard drive. The G1 display response time was supposed to be 8ms, you might want to get further confirmation on that though (I know for sure that the G2 is 8ms, not 100% about the G1).

The F8 and the G1 have essentially the same specs and graphics card (and so do the V1s and G2s) so all four have pretty similar gaming performance, even though one is a 14", one is a 17", and two are 15"ers.

And all of the DDR2 versions I have seen thus far are 512MB, whereas the only GDDR3 versions I have seen have 256MB (or 128, in the case of the lower end MBP). This doesn't necessarily mean that all DDR2s are 512MBs or all DDR3s are 256MBs, but thus far, thats how it has seemed, with the IFL90, C90s, V1s, etc getting a DDR2 512MB version, and the G1s, G2s, and MBP getting a 256MB DDR3 version.

 

Updated Info:

F8SV-A1, 2GB Memory + 1GB Intel Turbo Memory
*V1S-A1, 2GB Memory + 1GB Intel Turbo Memory
*V2S-A1, 2GB Memory + 1GB Intel Turbo Memory

* new 3rd year local warranty will be offered on certain models.

Asus G1 Series
G1S-A1 (all specs stay the same)
G1S-A2 ( 1GB TM added, HD stays at 5400RPM )
G1S-A3 ( 1GB TM added, HD upgraded to 200GB 7200RPM)
G1S-A4 ( 1GB TM added, HD upgraded to 200GB 7200RPM, Blu-ray disc drive and Vista Ultimate.), however Asus could also be using this product code for a lower end G1S with lower res. LCD Panel (1440 x 900) instead.

Asus G2 Series
G2S-A1 (all specs stay the same)
G2S-A2 ( 1GB TM added, HD stays at 5400RPM )
G2S-A3 ( 1GB TM added, HD upgraded to 200GB 7200RPM)
G2S-A4 ( no TM mentioned, lower res. LCD Panel (1440x900), $100 less than G2S-A1)
G2S-Extreme ( Intel X7800 processor, 1GB TM added, HD upgraded to 200 GB 7200RPM, Blu-ray disc drive, and Vista Ultimate.)
G2K-A1 ( AMD TL 66 Processor, HD2600 256MB DDR3, 1GB TM added, HD stays at 160GB 5400RPM.)

There's also a preliminary spec sheet for some other models including W2W-A1, A7SV-A1, VX2S, F3SV-xx, F3SC-xx, U3S-A1, R1E, F9S and U1F-A1. Please feel free to raise any questions that you migth have. All ETA dates will be reported and recorded as soon as all the info is fully verified and confirmed by Asus USA.

 

OOoohhh, really interested in the U3s. Nothing for the U1s?

 

Excalliber, do you have any word on north american availability of the
F8sa models?

 

Darn you Asus! W2W-A1 is a couple months too late! Oh well, you're still going to get my money.