Picking up A8Jm from Milestonepc Today (if they get them today)

i s'pose u are talking to gusto?

But cori could you tell me if having the power brick plugged in could cause a problem? Its plugged into a surge protector

 

mine was mailed out today

 

Hey Gusto5:

Is your sig correct? Your A8Jm is a T2300? Did you downgrade the CPU?

 

hey gusto and zydus, what do you think of the look of the A8J? does it compare to a w3v??

 

ahaha...you suppose correctly.

im not sure about the w3v. i havent embraced it like i have the a8jm. personally i like the look of the a8jm better though. this is coming from a guy who doesn't like the finish of the w3j lid fyi.

 

Can you guys post some pics taken with the built-in webcam ? just curious on the quality of the pics

 

Ha..just ordered mine! Less fancy but still an Asus A8. And my very first laptop.
Will be here tomorrow.

 

Gusto can you make some benches (05&06) without and with OC? Thanks in advance

 

Just noticed that the A8J comes with IR. Oh and on the milestonepc website it says it comes with a wireless mouse, which I think is an error on their part, so Danny you better fix it.

 

Are you comparing it with the W3j demo unit that you got?

I wonder if it's going to vary at all from what Asus eventually ships to N.A. - ie...if they've done further tweaking to the cooling.

 

It is possible further work has been done, I don't know. The W3J unit I compared with the A8Jm was the one I played with more than one and half months ago, I believe I am the first Non-Asus person had hand-on experience with W3J

 

I hope this isn't too off topic here, but I plan on heading up to MilestonePC sometime this week (just need to find time to go to the bank, lol) and hopefully come home with an A8Jm.

I was just wondering if ppl here could give me some advice on whether or not I should get any of the upgrades, as well as the extra 2 year warranty. I usually don't go for warranties, but I have heard that it is worth it for laptops, and since this is my first lappy, I wanna make sure I'm doing it right!

Thanks!

 

Added bonus right there my man.

I'd like to think that maybe the "delay" had something to do with improving the unit. Maybe wishful thinking...

 

The question to ask yourself ellinger is if you're going to want to customize it at all in the future - namely if you're going to change the processor (with Merom) or do some other tweak that could void the warranty.

If you're not that technical, or just don't care about that kind of thing(NOTHING wrong with that) then I would say it's not a bad idea...I did and I'm still wrestling with the first question.

Basically there are still things that could happen that will fall outside of the warranty - accidental damage (drop it, spill something on it...etc) or software related issues like viruses and that type of thing I can't image would be covered.

Ultimately though I think it's worth it - one repair outside of warranty will cover the cost of the extended warranty and usually with that type of thing, if it's going to happen - it will probably happen more than once.

 

It could be just me but is the touchpad alittle off centered to the left? How does that feel?
Tim

 

It would feel fine. I would say at least half the laptops have touchpads off to the left.

 

Yeah I guess I am just used to using a centered touchpad. I haven't really been keeping up so I might have a dumb question here. Is the A8Jm being released in the US yet? Now if I could just get a little more cash.
Tim

 

Thanks for the advice Undertow. I hope I understood you correctly! So from what I gather, it seems the warranty (be it 1 or extended to 3 years) will only cover malfunctions or breakdowns with the original parts, so it excludes accidental damage and the like. But what would be an example of the former? Would it be something like the HD no longer working due to a glitch of some sort? How about breakdown just due to normal wear and tear?

So essentially, if I do plan on doing any upgrades in the future (i.e. processor), but still want the extended warranty, I'd be betting the most out of it if I wait as close to the end of the 3 years as possible to do it, since my warranty would be running out anyway?

I've read that the differences between 2400 and 2500 for the processor speed are negligible, and as for 5400 vs 7200 for the HD, the only difference is load times. Thus the only upgrade I'd consider at the time of purchasing would be doubling the RAM to 2 gigs. Any comments on whether this is a worthy investment?

 

^ Retailers may have an accidental damage policy/warranty so check with where you buy it - it may increase costs but that's security right there. I MAY be all wet on whether that's already covered by Asus, so Danny or Justin please correct me if I'm wrong.

As for what is covered, you're right - it's some sort of a break down internally - anything from HD failure to MOBO failure...maybe something internally fails due to heat build-up...etc. As you can imagine, they're complex pieces of equipment, so there's a lot that can go wrong ( not that they necessarily will though - it's really a ****shoot).

I believe you can actually change the HD without voiding the warranty - you'd just have to make sure that you replace it with stock before sending it in for warranty repair...that's the same thing with the RAM (ie...if you upgrade, don't sell the stock RAM sticks).

The processor is one of the items though that's a "no-no" though - I think they have a sticker over the cover to indicate modification.

Heat damage due to Overclocking or different drivers may lead to voiding your warranty - I heard that from retailers anyway...can't speak to personal experience or how Asus would handle that.

To sum up my far too wordy post, and taking all these things into account, I still bought it with mine because I'd rather pay $170 today, than potentially hundreds of dollars down the road to repair a used laptop.

 

Consider what you normally utilize, and the kind of ram it takes. You'd probably want 1.5 to 2 times that amount of ram.

I know the upgrades from HD RPM, ram mhz and processor may seem neglible, but if you up them all, then its more influential, in essence.

yea, my signature was out-of-date

-edit-

so did anyone get the a8jm since me and zydus? i gotta take some new pictures. Mine are too high resolution

 

Yeah I'm about to pull the trigger on buying an A8Jm. Still debating whether it's worth it to opt for the W3J since it uses the aluminum, has a bigger battery and is a bit smaller. I'll be carrying my laptop around in a backpack, not a dedicated laptop bag. (Tons more convenient for univeristy ya know ) Do you think the A8Jm is up to the job? I'm a little hesitant right now, especially since the W3J is $300 canadian more! What's your thoughts Gusto and Zydus? Would you feel comfortable carrying it in your backpack?

 

technically the a8jm is a better machine. and its cheaper. with DVI makes it even better. the aluminum on the w3j doesnt mean much its better to have it on the palm rest. and the w3 series are known to have fading palm rests. the w3j is also .25 lbs more in weight. so the a8jm is alittle lighter. so its really up to you.

 

Really suggestive i suppose. I got the a8jm as a desktop replacement, and a notebook for mobile purposes, like university. i think th A8Jm will do the job well. In regards to the weight, that depends on what kind of textbooks you have. Im in biochem, so my textbooks rack up to 7lbs apiece. Either will be more than suitable, and you probably don't want to carry a flashy notebook at university either. 2c

 

Is the A8Jm made out of plastic, or a better material? How well will it stand up to be bashed around on the train (inside the case, of course) and other things like that?

 

It's plastic, but you don't really notice that at all.

 

thanks for the opinions guys. I've decided to order the A8Jm because it will suit all my needs and won't blow my budget. Gusto really swayed my opinion when he mentioned that having a flashy notebook in uni isn't a good idea. I've had two REALLY nice jackets stolen from me at the bar before, so I guess looking good makes you somewhat desired, but even that has its yin and yang. Thanks again, I'm about to order.

 

We ever verify screen res?

 

It's WXGA.

 

800x1200 is it not?

edit: is that the WXGA res?

 

As in, same as W3J, correct? 1280x768

Sigh. I prolly am a minority, but I was hoping for the WXGA+. Can't win all the battles though

 

You can resize them with a free app like Irfanview.

 

So far, all the 14" model is 1200x800, but z62j (1400x900) coming soon!!!!

 

Just ran battery tests on mine. I used power4gear set to Max Battery and the battery was fully charged at 100%. I had wifi off. It took 3hrs and 40min for the battery to reach 0%. Brightness at 2nd last notch (its dim but fine for typing in word etc).

I think thats really good. So with wifi on and general usage i guess we should expect around 3hrs.

Something i noticed is that if on Max Battery i leave my laptop alone it switches off the screen after sometime and then the hdd. Once the hdd switches off i am unable to get the laptop to "wake up". I have to hold the power button down to shut it down, and the start it up again. If i close the lid to make it standby/hibernate i can simply press the power button again to start it up. Anyone know how i can get the laptop going again after the hdd switches off (i know it switches off cos thats what powe4gear says)

Oh and power4gear clocks it down to 385Mhz (around there dont remember exact). NHC is only takes it down to 988Mhz and cant seem to take it any lower, so I am sticking with the Asus utility for now

 

After reading all the discussion i was sort of afraid that the resolution would not be as nice, but this screen is brilliant, and 1400x900 might just be straining on the eyes.

 

i saw a LG T1 before, it also supports 1400x900 and very beautiful machine. i'm still waiting for it to come out in the market. Probably, it is similar to LG one.

 

ive been playing some games, like counterstrike source, and the temperature according to Notebook Hardware control only peaked at about 56'C. Ive stopped about a minute and its already subsided back to normal temperatures

 

gusto could you check and tell me if u put power4gear on max battery and after about 10 mintues when everything swtiches off, how to start the machine back again?

 

heres one screen. lets see if it works:

 

^^ why did u keep the protective screen on?

 

To protect the screen Duh! even i knew that.

 

Lol, you're supposed to take it off once you start using it..

 

Just got mine this morning... liking it so far ... now to reformat with XPP and put everything back together ....

 

Take some pics of it while you're formatting or w/e ;D

 

thats right. but also, thats the picture i took after taking it out and loading it.

 

haha i had the same music book as you

 

I didnt format mine, so maybe we could compare differnece in performance, i just converted my file system to ntfs

 

jah! ive kept my partitions fat32 for the time being, so i guess we will compare. What do you want to do first?

 

lol I have no idea haha, whatever we want. I am just downloading counter strike source off of steam, can't find my cds. And i used windows blinds to make the windows look nicer.

 

For those who bought the A8Jm here in Canada:

Did it come with a Asus bag and mouse as depicted here?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=54598

 

Tallshorty: No, it came standard, but Danny also included a free Targus carry bag and sleeve + 512 MB USB Flash drive with pre-orders. Not sure about now, maybe he'll still include them.