Official Waiting for the ASUS K-Series Thread

Finally we have some news on the K-Series. Look here in the Asus website there is the K-Series listed, called the "Domino-Collection".

Interesting that there are 2 GPU possiblities for the K51AB:
* ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD4670 with 512MB DDR3 VRAM
* ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD4860 with 512MB GDDR5 VRAM

How come that? Is both of them MXM II or what? It almost looks like an upgradeable rig.

CPU is not that good:
* AMD Althon64 X2 QL64 Turion64 X2 RM74
* Ultra Turion64 X2 ZM84 processor.

Both of them have only ~1100 points in Passmark, which is the power of a Intel Core 2 Duo T5800

I wonder how the cooling/fan will act. I hope it is not an uneasy "fan off and on"-regulation, but constant speed. I hated that on-and-off behavior so much on my last ASUS...

 

Some of the K series notebooks will come with linux, making it even more cheaper

 

Man, that would be nice! I've completely overseen that in the list. The fact that always a Windows Vista is pre-installed is annoying anyways

 

CPU is not that good:
* AMD Althon64 X2 QL64 Turion64 X2 RM74
* Ultra Turion64 X2 ZM84 processor.

What you guys think about these processors?
So what will these laptops be released?

 

i wouldn't mind if they delay the amd k series and wait for the amd tigris platform, caspian cpu's

 

This right here might be the deal breaker for me. Unless these test extremely well I'm just going to hold off and hope the W90 gets a Montevina + refresh.

 

i second that rschauby... the processor doesn't seem too promising, even though the video card is extremely powerful.

 

Good thing CPUs don't need to be very powerful these days. Unless you are playing GTA IV. As for screen resolution, doubt you will ever see anything other than 1366x768 since its 16:9 and a budget gaming laptop.

 

wow I knew they'd skimp on the CPU's a bit, but dang. why pair such a great looking GPU with these CPU's, it doesn't make sense unless they're shooting for a <$800 price tag (which would be amazing).

how upgradeable is the CPU on an Asus laptop? If I could upgrade the thing in a few months, then this isn't a big deal to me... Is it as straightforward as say on a Sager?

 

Wow a Radeon 4860 w/ 512MB GDDR5 being paired a Turion and Linux? Is there something I'm missing here or...?

1. Why would Asus pair such a high end GPU with a mediocre CPU? Not does it only have the performance of a T5800 (which technically isn't too bad) but AMD CPUs typically incur worse battery life (correct me if I'm wrong). Unless there is some AMD + ATI advantage here I see no reason why they could have done that. Sure the 17" laptops aren't known for portability and very long battery life and CPU performance may not be as important to a gamer as the GPU but the presence of Linux kind of obscures this point (See #2).

2. Is Asus forcing ATI to release good Linux drivers for this laptop? ATI isn't known for their great Linux support (far from it) on bleeding edge products. Is there really any point to that laptop (assuming no typos were made) if the GPU can't even handle 3D rendering well on Linux?

Though I am happy Asus is offering Linux, I hope they don't ship out an "illogical" laptop.

 

lets not jinx it sgogeta, this is my future laptop im planning to buy here. I also have the same question as najim.. i guess the purchase would depend entirely on how upgradeable the cpu is. If we can add the new tigris/caspian processor into the this laptop then i'd be down.

Btw sephoroth, at least they claimed the battery life to be 5 hours.. so if real world ratings is about 3 hours, that's not too bad considering the potential power of the 4860

 

I know that but that further makes me doubt its accuracy XD. Linux alone isn't exactly known for exceedingly good battery life. With that GPU (assuming it will work in Linux) and that CPU not to mention the presence of DDR2 RAM and a 17" display, I am forced to wonder how that makes any sense.

 

I don't think you will be able to upgrade to the next generation platform. But hopefully w/ AMD/ATI we will finally have switchable and/or crossfire with it, to help the battery life. If you search the forum for threads for what is the limiting factor in games, even a basic Core 2 Duo (which these AMD processors are equal to) will satisfy most games and still the GPU (even high end ones) is a bottleneck.

 

The more I look at this line-up, the clearer it seems to me that Asus never intended this range to sell to mobile gamers.

It was shrewd of Asus to highlight the HD4860 in the K-Series line-up at CeBIT, despite only two models now including it; it has created a lot of interest. The advertised specs are, however, very modest; no Blu-Ray, no fingerprint-reader, webcam as an option and no information about LAN, HDMI, eSATA, card-readers etc. When they say 'No Frills', I think they really mean it!

So, however convinced I am that the K51AB may well be a very capable gaming NB, I think Asus are just pitching yet another range of budget 'entertainment' notebooks to the masses. Lean, functional and quite possibly among the best in their class, but not intended to compete with the MSI GT628 for instance (whenever that makes its appearance).

We shall see...

 

The K series IS designed for the budget gamer. It was never there to compete w/ the mid-high end stream such as the GT628.

 

I see mobile gamers falling into three categories broadly speaking, and GPU line-ups often reflect this.

• High-end gamers want the best there is. They'll put performance above price every time.
• Mid-range gamers are more budget conscious and are always looking for the perfect compromise between price and gaming performance. I think the majority of mobile gamers fall into this category.
• Budget gamers are not really 'gamers' in the accepted sense. They buy budget computers because they're cheap - of course - that's their top priority. If they can play - and enjoy playing - a game or two, then that's a bonus.

The K-series was so immediately attractive to us on this forum because we know very well where the 4860 sits in the GPU pecking order. This - according to NBCheck is a "Class 1" GPU. Wow! ...in an affordable 15" NB - sounds great! Then we see the full K-Series Line-up and discover that the next best GPU offered is the 4570, which is a long way down the list, yet it is the alternive GPU offering in the best of the K-Series. Keep going back through the series and the GPUs become less and less suitable for gaming.
Then we note with grudging acceptance that the CPU may be pretty mediocre after all and we all start complaining that this was another missed opportunity.

I get what you're saying - and it sounds like you take my point - but I feel like you're reacting to my post on the grounds that I'm somehow dismissing an important segment of the mobile gaming community. I don't think I am.

Will the K51AB w/HD4860 be a great gaming notebook for the 'mid-range' gamer? - quite possibly. I certainly hope so. It may not have the bells and whistles of the GT628, but the fact remains that the HD4860 should out-perform the 160M GTS and that means that - for me at least (and whether it was intended or not) - the K51AB is competing with the GT628.

But who do you think will be buying all the other models in the K-Series range? Not gamers. Asus have indicated 24 possible CPU/GPU model combinations in this new range. Only two of those have a GPU worth gaming with.

 

Possibly the highest end model of the K-series would be good for mid-range gamers, but until Asus or one of its resellers releases more information, all we can do is speculate

 

Amen to that brother. This laptop is still a plausible choice along with my other possibilities for university this September.

So the current list would be:
Sager 8662
Asus K series
MSI gt628
G50vt
maybe the n81vp

To ozofriendly, now that i think of it, its true. this laptop does lack most of the standard features of other laptops such as the g50vt or the msi 628, but like you said... this laptop is very potentially friendly for cheap gamers. If i decide not to fork out 1.3k for a msi or 2k for a sager, the k series seems like the next best choice.

 

Even if the K series comes with a dissapointing CPU, don't re-sellers usually have a couple choices of which CPU you can get, they might possibly offer better CPU's.

 

we'll have to see about that. Maybe xotic-pc will give sweeter CPU options, that would be an awesome idea.

 

Is there even any better mobile AMD Cpu? If you lookup cpubenchmark, you will find out the best Mobile AMD cpu left is the Turion TL-62 1.252 points. Nothing in the range or above the Intel p8400 which has 1.554 points. So how could you upgrade this machine anyways?

 

even my old inspiron 1525 has t7xx !

 

Which T7xxx? Most of the T7xxx series is worse than the T5800. Just because it has a higher number, doesn't mean it's better.

 

cache is always bigger though right? Not necessarily clock speed though

 

Almost all T7xxx have 4mb cache which is double the T5800. Most also have higher clock speeds (only T7100 is less). However, about half of the T7xxx have lower FSB speeds, which does make a difference. I wouldn't say that most of them are worse than a T5800, but not many of them are much better.

 

How do we know the high-end (gaming-wise) K series will be cheap?

 

to be honest, we don't we're going to have to believe what the sales rep had to say about it being <1000$

can you link me to this?
And atm there isn't, which is why i'm hoping Caspian will do the trick. motherboard support for future AMD processor is what i'm betting on

 

I got the values from here. All remaining higher AMD CPUs are Desktop Chips.

From what I've read here the "Caspian" only comes with the "Tigris" platform. I doubt that the Caspian CPU might be compatible to the Puma motherboard
Somehow ridiculous: the timeline in the graphics (2nd link) claims the new platform comes in 2009, and now we have 2009, and Asus puts in all these outdated "Puma's" into their notebooks. It almost looks like garbage disposal.

 

well fu that and go with MSI GT628

 

You might be right, overstock products can give birth to cheap prices especially considering the only expensive thing in this laptop is the 4860 itself. I know the possibilities are definitely slim to none that they will release caspian on this "no frills" product. I guess this will be the "BUDGET gamer laptop"

the thing with the gt628 is that the keyboard layout is extremely cramped. Some keys of the gt628 including (;.'/) are extremely small and will give anyone but a gamer trouble when doing large amounts of typing. Additionally the coating for the touchpad as i have heard is not the greatest in the world.

 

speculation based on the components being used (CPU, low-res monitor, etc.) and the fact that the Desktop equivalent of the ATI 4860, the HD4770 is said to have a $99 price.

 

Heh. I didn't mean it is good. I merely meant it isn't the worst CPU out there XD (Don't make us typing from Pentium D's so depressed! XD). The T7150 is the only one in the 7xxx series that performs worse and the T7250 should perform approximately the same. However, both of those in the 7xxx series run on lower voltages.

 

but having a small size form factor increases the price significantly. Seeing as how the Gtx 260m with a p8400/p8600 is able to hit 10k is extremely showing of the capabilities of a 4850/4860 in a gt725. Although the 3dmark06 will probably be lower due to the subpar processor, we still can't deny the fact that the video card is good ;O

 

Grrrr, i should've waited for this instead of buying the G50VT-X1!!!

 

r u drunk?

 

well i guess its true, the 9800m gs and 4860 in performance doesn't differ that much. Additionally, the processor woulld be far better on your laptop then the zm-84 offered in this laptop. This is seriously the BUDGET laptop with "no frills"

 

But the power consumption is difference ,and also performance per watt.
The core G94M is old technology.The new is G94M+ @ GeForce GTS 150/160M .

 

any word on how much the k51 will weigh?

 

thats true too, 40 vs 65nm is probably what gives the extra hour in terms of battery life.

 

The 4860 should be much faster then the 9800m gs.
The 4850 is slightly faster then the 9800m GTX, and the 4860 is about 10% faster then the 4850. That extra 10 fps in a games like Crysis, can make a huge difference.

 

I'd give the 4860 and 4850 30% over the 9800M GS, at least.

 

That sounds pretty good...is there any chance that this thing could end up with Intel processors as well?

 

i doubt it will come with an intel processor. Look at the n81 vg that was recently released. It is 999

 

9800m GS is very ocable, just see my benches

 

It's irrelevant to compare a 4860 to an OC'd 9800m gs since, currently, we can't test how much the 4860 can overclock. Although, the 4860 should overclock very well since it uses 40nm die.

 

true.. i guess i should hope that another company will make another 15.4 with a 4860 in it :O, the processor is still no good for school applications and what not.. or is it?

 

Not possible, i'm not old enough to drink yet
If you compared the 4850 to the 9800M GS it scored a higher score on 3dMark Vantage, so im guessing the 4860 will be better then both of em.

 

Heh, yeah but look at the CPU it is paired with XD.

 

Would you care to elaborate? I cant tell the difference between a good CPU and a bad one, unless it shows the CPU speed heh...

 

The current CPU options on it are:

* AMD Althon64 X2 QL64 Turion64 X2 RM74
* Ultra Turion64 X2 ZM84 processor

Both of these have been said to benchmark approximately equal to an Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 which has a clock speed of 2.00GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, and 800 MHz front side bus. If you have a P8600/P8700 then you should get much better performance and probably battery life off of it.