Please Help Me Find the Best Deal

Does anyone know where I could find the best deal for a notbook with the following specs, the final price I got was $1984.00 USD.

Asus W3J with the following specs:

1. Display: 14.1 inch WXGA (1280x768) Glare Type TFT LCD
2. Processor: 2.00GHz Intel Core Duo T2500 w/2MB L2 Cache - 667MHz FSB
3. Processor Thermal Paste: High Density Arctic Silver 5 Processor Thermal Compound Paste
4. Graphics & Video: ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 w/ 256MB embedded VRAM
5. Memory: 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2-667 SODIMM (2x1024MB)
6. Hard Drive: 100GB 5,400RPM Ultra DMA HDD - 1 yrs warranty
7. DVD/CDRW Drive: 8x DVD-RW Super Multi DVD Burner Drive
8. Wireless LAN: Built-in Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 Tri-Mode 802.11A/B/G LAN
9. Main Battery: Smart Li-ion Battery: 8-Cell
A. Second Battery: None.
B. Second Hard Drive: None.
C. MS Windows: MS Windows XP Pro w/SP2
D. MS Office: None.
E. Flash Memory Drive: None.
F. AC Adapter: AC Adapter - 110/240V 90W AC Adapter
G. Auto/Air Adapter: None.
H. Gigabit LAN: Built-in 10/100/1000BaseT Ethernet LAN w/RJ-45 Jack
I. Build-in Bluetooth & USB: Built-in Bluetooth and 3x USB Ports
J. Build-in IEEE 1394 & Modem: Built-in IEEE 1394 and 56k V.92 Fax/Modem

Final Price: 1984.00 USD

One quick question, I noticed that the mouse/touchpad only has one button. How do you right click then? Is it like the Mac where you must press a key in order to right click? Thank you for you help. I hope that the is a better deal than the final price shown. I am a college student, so any discounts would be great. Thank you again for you time.

 

It looks like one, but its actually two.

As for the W3j, there aren't many places were you can customize it, so you're only limited to those options.

 

Ensemble units like the W3j are priced (more or less) by Asus, and not subject to a lot of retailer competitive pricing, so base price is fairly constant. Upgrades, through the handful of resellers who offer them and then cover the unit with their own warranty rather than Asus, only add to the base price - it looks like you added AS5 and 1Gb mem. Thus, the only thing that can alter the final price is the cost of those upgrades through (off the top of my head) Allasus, Geared2Play, MilestonePC and maybe one other that I'm forgetting I think. You have to ask yourself whether you *really* need them instead of what is stock in an already stellar machine.

While the touchpad button is one piece, the two buttons are underneath the metal on each side - right click is the right side of the button. There are no discounts for students on Ensemble models anywhere, that I'm aware.

 

pretty much all the W3J+ models are 1799USD regardless of the reseller your buying it from. It you want a good place to buy try, proportable, geared2play, milestonepc, agearnotebooks. Just buy the emsemble for 1799 and buy the ram separately from the cheapest place and install it yourself.

 

Yeah but I've heard that installing RAM for a notebook is way harder than for a PC. How bad does the Asus heat. And the DVD drive is it really that noisy when in use. How much did your Asus W3j cost Sirius? And where did you buy it from. Maybe I don't need that extra gig of ram after all, I just want it to handle graphic design applications such as Photoshop CS2 and Flash 8 and some games like Halo, Counter Strike and also to run Window Vista new Aero Glass interface. Do you think 1 gig could handle all of this.

 

It's literally this hard :
1. insert screwdriver into screws for memory panel on bottom of notebook, turn and remove.
2. insert RAM stick at 45 degree angle, snap and push flat.
3. reattach memory panel, insert screws and tighten.

That's it. The only thing that's different compared to the desktop is the 45 degree insertion. Anyone can do this and BBuy, etc charge $40 to add memory .

1 Gb memory should be just fine for most uses of the applications you mention, but adding memory is simple if you run into problems.

 

It is a bit more difficult on the notebook but nothing too complicated. The heat on the w3j isnt all that bad actually. A bit annoying if you're using an external mouse for hours but, not a big issue, just move your hand away from the vent for a while. Overall the heat isnt bad. For the processes you listed, 1gig should be fine, and if you end up really needing it, and have to install an extra stick of ram, you can always come to the forum for help.I bought my W3J from agearnotebooks.com. It was sold out in most places. Bought it for 1799, +shipping,(however you want it, agear offers free ground shipping which i used).

 

What exactly doest the Processor Thermal Paste: High Density Arctic Silver 5 Processor Thermal Compound Paste, do? Do you think it's worth the extra $20. Is the heating of the W3J like a hairdryer, or something that might catch your homework on fire. Does it heat really fast? For example if all I am running if Microsoft Word or Photoshop will it start heating fast, or does it only happen in extreme cases like gaming.

 

well the thermal compound is applied to help reduce the heat since silver is a great heat conducter. No point in buying its already applied in the W3J. The heat is nothing in the grand scale you are thinking of. Its very mild until you leave it on for quite some time or you're gaming in high settings.

 

Ok, thank you sirius I think I am ready to make my purchase soon enough. Do you by any chance got any pros or cons that could help me out. Or something that you find really really annoying. Is the volume pretty good, and how does it show you the battery life, I believe I read somewher that Asus does not show the battery life icon or something like that. Thanks for you guidance and help Sirius.

 

One more thing, I've been surfing around the ASUS Tech forum site, and found that many have problems with the ASUS W3J. One of the problems is that it takes about 15 minutes to boot up. Is this really true? I hope not. Another problem is that the notebook won't start up from time to time. Could this actually happen? Has any W3J owners here ever experiance any problems with their W3J notebook? If so if you could please state. Thank you.

 

Overall its a great laptop. Powerful gpu, great quality and performance. The speakers arent superb, but then again it is a laptop. Overall audio isnt bad. Yea the battery life is a bit annoying to check as you have to boot up to check. It does have an icon to show battery life but you cant check it externally like some laptops. Two annoyances, but nothing major are the Fn key and the volume control. There is no external volume scroll or button. So you have to press Fn+vol up or down. The second is where the Fn key is placed. I'm quite used to the ctrl being the last key at the bottom left corner, but on the w3j the Fn key is there so I make mistakes using ctrl shortcuts like copy.(also annoying playing cs)But I'm sure ill get used to it soon enough. Its a great computer and its pros outweigh its cons.
edit - the boot up is relatively fast. Mine takes around 30s.
Also with the problems- the W3J has been very popular recently so theres alot of post about them and their issues. As with any piece of hardware, its not perfect and its bound to have some errors. But these problems dont affect very laptop. So far, the only problem I''m having with the w3j is that the wireless connection weakens when its not plugged in.

 

Actually the only problems that were present are power management issues. Some fixed with bios some fixed with reinstalling windows on a single partition.

 

Could you please be a little more specific on the power management issues. You mean I got to reinstall Windows in order for it to run better. Also how is the screen quality, especially at an angle.

 

No you dont have to a bios update will work. It has for me. Some say they get the results by reinstalling to a single partition. here are some clips ASUS W3J = www.sretup.com/geared2play/w3j/w3j.avi or for lower quality www.sretup.com/geared2play/w3j/w3j.wmv