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

World Wide ENSEMBLE units = Free bag, mouse and 2 year warranty

North American ENSEMBLE unit = none of the above with 1 year warranty. Specs are usually higher though.

 

only 1 year global warranty for ensemble unit now in Canada, is it right??

 

Yeap.

The optional +2 years is N.A. only.

Though, if you can find a V6va, it has 2 years international

 

So basically the W3j is the same spec in US and Canada but without the goodies? That's fair.

Maybe they'll come with them this time?

 

Pretty sure they won't, ever since they took them out from both ENSEMBLEs and Built Ons(Yea, they had free stuff with barebones as well) back in November, they've never included it ever again, no point in going back to that

 

as for the free targus bag and sleeve with the a8jm order from canadasys/milestonepc im pretty sure the bag-sleeve is with any order.

someone ran 3dmark05 earlier and got 38** out of the a8jm, so i did a 3dmark0 6 and got, what i suppose is a decent mark for a 3dmark a year later. mind you, stock drivers, stock settings.

 

what are the stock 7600go drivers? and is there any newer ones out?

 

Heres some examples of 35Mark06:

3DMark06 Results:

Notebook 3DMark 06 Results
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB 1,528 3D Marks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400) 794 3DMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60 Nvidia GeForce Go7800GTX) 4,085 3DMarks
Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB) 1,819 3D Marks

 

yeah the 7600go fairs well in 3dmark06 as the acer 8204 with X1600 was around 20XX or so. So the A8Jm score is really good stock.

 

gusto,

did you format/reinstall windows before doing this test ?

is your file system still fat32?

sorry for all these questions, I'm debating if I should reinstall windows clean or use recovery.

I have to reinstall it anyways because it installed me every setting they could in french because I putted my keyboard in french during the instalation... A bit annoying

 

I received my A8JM today. Its sitting beside me right now, charging its battery. I'll write up a first-impressions review tonight with benchmarks.

I'll take some pics in the mirror with the webcam too. That's the best I'll be able to do until the weekend when I get my camera back.

 

i ran 3dmark06 on the original system. meaning the drivers and settings out of the package. And my partitions are still fat32.

the keyboard language SHOULD BE changable though.

 

It is, but windows seem to take in consideration that I want everyting in french.

And while I'm french, I like my computer to be english

Anyways, hopefully I'll have more time to play with it tonight.

 

To all the people who currently own a8jm,

do any of you notice the hooks are a little hard to close after youve opened it for a certain length of time? Ive noticed that i need to press the little "push" button sometimes. any of you getting this?

 

does milestone pc have a monthly payment plan? or a payment plan( say a couple hundred a month for a few months)?

 

i don't believe so.

 

Nope, pretty much only large corporations/businesses like Best Buy, NewEgg, etc. offer payment plans.

 

I'm wondering, is there any possibility that future revisions to the A8Jm will include bluetooth? Because if they do, that would suck for those (such as myself) who bought it early.

 

A very good question, Shorty. I've noticed some local store advertising the A8Jm with bluetooth, for around $2700 AUD. Whether they've just seen the BT button on the chassis and have jumped to the wrong conclusion remains to be seen...

 

They better not come out with an A8Jm with BT next month. I'll be pissed.

Does ALL the A8Jm worldwide have no BT?

 

Hmmm...I wonder. All these Australian websites selling A8Jm claims that it has built in BT:
http://www.i-tech.com.au/products/3972_ASUS_A8JM__CENTRINO_DUO_T2400__2x512.asp
http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=18676
http://www.sigmacomputers.com.au/site/1438230/product/494-8890870
http://www.commanderonline.com.au/c...F51A5CAFBDC456F305A1B3B?productID=51369&type=

Are we getting the short end of the stick here in Canada??? Damn it! I want BT!

 

I ran both 3dmarks and this is somewhat strange, on stock settings score in 05 is about 300-400 better on W3, but in 06 A8 has about 100 marks more.

 

you sure? i read some where the 3dmark06 score for the x1600 was 12**

 

1200?? That's must be some mistake, maybe 2200. On stock I have 2150-2200.

 

About Battery Life:

Settings: Running Power4Tools at Battery Saving, and also running Notebook Hardware Control at Dynamic Changing. Browsing the Web over Wired Network, Wireless currently off.

Im at the 1:10 mark, and the "hours" remaining is fluxing between 2:20 and 2:30. I doubt using wireless will make a difference of more than 30 minutes.

Some interesting numbers for those of you who may get this for university use, and won't be UT2K4'ing through the lecture

mastha,
yea, i read wrong

 

does running both NHC and Pwr 4 Gear together help in a anyway? I felp pwer 4 gear managing power better than NHC. What i dont know is whether pwr4gear dynamically changes the cpu clock, like nhc.

 

It reduces the performance to 25%. what that means exactly, i have no idea. I belive it does dynamically change the CPU clock speed, cause normally my cpu is clocked at 998, which is what NHC's lowest multiplier is at right now. When i run a task or play a game, it'll go up to 1.83GHz

 

yeah i noticed that and saw that pwr4gear can actually take the cpu down to 385Mhz or so giving it quite a large boost in battery life. NHC the lowest it cud go was 998 like u mentioned. So im just using pwr4gear for now.

 

NHC changes the CPU multiplier. Power4Gear does that and also enables throttling, which clocks down the CPU when it's not needed. You can throttle your CPU with RM Clock as well.

 

So I see the laptop is for sale on New Egg. When are sites like ProPortable going to get this laptop? Or at least sites in the US?
Tim

 

Asus North America is located in Fremont, California. Since Newegg is also in CA, they're one of the first to get a shipment. I'd guess that the east coasters (PROPortable, Geared2Play, ISTNC, etc.) will most likely have them in another week or so.

 

Is this laptop widescreen? If so I would guess that it has a full keyboard, right?

Oh and how does the LCD look? Does it glare too much?

What brand is the wireless card? I have had a little bit of trouble with my 2200BG from Intel.

How long is the power cord?

Is the touch pad on button? It is hard to see in the pics.

Sorry for all the random questions but this laptop looks better and better all the time. I hope someone does a good review soon.
Tim

 

Hi tim ^^

It is indeed widescreen, 14.1" WXGA 1280x800.

The screen is glossy, yes, and I found it 'too blue', but never got the chance to tinker around with the colours. The brightness was good, and ASUS's Splendid technology actually was quite interesting. At normal, it was kind of bland, but if I switched it to 'Vivid', it was an amazingly bright and vivid screen!

The wirelesscard is pre-assembled, I think its the 3945 Intel wireless card.

The powercord is about normal length, I'll say...1.7 meters?

The touchpad is a button, you press on the bottom corners for the easiest click, though its harder to click the closer you touch to the middle spine!

 

Thanks Cori.

So the touchpad is one long button or two seperate buttons? What is the click part made out of? Is it rubber or plastic?
Tim

 

Hmmmm, I have no clue really. It could be plastic, its intergrated with the touchpad, and it feels the same...

 

Justin at Proportable said he will have them on Monday.

 

Is this a typo on ASUS's site? http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=5&l2=61&l3=0&model=1095&modelmenu=1

Scroll down to where it lists the graphics card. It says 7800. I thought it was the 7600? What is the difference between these two? I am sure they can both handle BF2.
Tim

 

Indeed a typo. Been discussed and giggled at quite a bit by us ASUS forum regulars

 

Yeah I thought it was probably already noticed. I remember being a lurker when the z71v came out. Sorry that is kind of random but it is just funny how another laptop has already taken its place. lol
Tim

 

Def a typo. The difference is huge HUGE. the 7800 is pretty much other than the 7900 the fastest card on the market like double the speed of a 7600 more actually. Both will play BF2

 

the touchpad:



add edit: the left and right clicks are 2 seperate buttons but has an integrated design that makes it look like one the vertical line you see on the right side is the scroll. you slide your finger up and down that line to scroll page. material is same as wrist rest.

 

Thanks for the pic.
Tim

 

I've had mine for a few days now.

My take on it:

I found the touchpad button(s) to be a little stiff. It's not quite as easy to click it with my thumb as other laptops I've had.

The screen is nice, however, there's a fair amount of light leakage from the bottom, and the vertical viewing angle is limited for optimal viewing. The colors stay true when viewing from the side, but the glare screen makes it a little harder to see if you're not directly in front of it.

The 512MB 7600 gpu gave me a 3DMark05 score of 3806. I thought that was pretty respectable considering the Acer 8204 (with the 256mb x1600 and 2gb Ram) scored around 4200.

Weird quirks: The InstantOn button doesn't work like the documentation leads you to believe. It loads Windows, not a linux kernal media player. Basically, if the machine is off, it's just another power button. Also, there's a Bluetooth button, but no bluetooth. I guess the A8jm-H009H doesn't come with Bluetooth.

The weight is good, and build quality seems pretty tight. A few of the keys are more 'tappy/clicky' than others, but not enough to bother me.

For the price, the feature set is really tough to beat.

 

I have 2gigs of ram in my a8jm and i get a 3dmark score of 38xx. How is that the acer scored a 4200? Is the x1600 clocked higher than the 7600 in the a8j?

 

how long does this A8JM work on batteries (especially using wireless) ?

 

It is a 6 cells batteries, it should work more than 4~5 hours.

 

people, including my self, have been getting about a little over 3 hrs with wifi on. Good luck trying to get 4-5 hrs. I don't think that's possible.

 

I think the most I can get out of this baby with wifi on would be 3.5hrs not more. you would need a 8 cell to get that much time out of it.

 

BOOOOOO!!!!! I ordered a A8jm this weekend on www.platinummicro.com, it's price was $1488, and they say today it's out of stock, BOOOOOO!!!!!

Sorry, i had to tell someone who might care....

 

ok

as for the touchpad, above the horizontal line, above the left and right clicks, is also a horizontal scroll. Probably not used as much as the vertical, but thats why its there as well. The size of the scroll/click area can also be set