So some questions about the new A8Js

Ok first off I'm seeing different specs about the A8Js at different sites. MilestonePC has it listed with C2D T7200, while NCIX has it listed with C2D T5500. So which one does it have...?

And here are some questions I've been wondering about, A8Js specific and some general ones:

1) Warranty. anyone knows for sure if upgrading the HD and adding a BT chip will void the global warranty or not? (I'm thinking of upgrading the HD, so I won't have the old one.)

2) When will the F3J(s)? start to ship in Canada? I went out to look at laptops today, and I see a 14.1'' is quite a bit smaller than a 15.4'', I think someone posted that there's 33% more viewing area with a 15.4'' than a 14.1''.

Is the F3Js about 1.5 lbs more than the A8Js? Would it be a enough extra weight for a bigger screen? I won't be carrying my laptop around too much, but it is nice to be able to carry a lighter one when I do, and I think I'll carry it around more if it's lighter. Can anyone has used both 14.1'' and 15.4'' tell me how much more convinient a 15.4'' will be for browsing internet, gaming, etc?


3) I'm guessing the 100GB HD A8Js has is still the one using the old vertical recording technology instead of the new perpendicular one. But can someone confirm?

4) I'm thinking of buying the logitech Z-2300 speakers for my laptop, how good will the sound be? Would the sound quality depend more on the speakers or the sound card? Also if I get an external LCD, what resolution will the LCD run on?

5) If Santa Rosa and Vista won't be coming out early-mid next year, and by the time the hardware price go down to reasonable range and the software matures, at least stable, it'll be another year at least. So I think buying the older Asus with just core duos, and buy another one say 2 years down the road might still be a good option. Anyone has any thoughts about this?

It's a lot of questions I know, but I would really appreiciate any advice you can offer. Thanks!

 

One of the ASUS resellers here should be able to better answer your question, but, from the limited knowledge about ASUS that I know:

- Depending on the region, the A8Js will have a slightly different configuration. The T7200 should be in the "official" North American variant, while the T5500 is in some of the South-east Asia region variants (I know in Hong Kong, ASUS is spec'ing them with the slower T5500 but with built in BT, while there will be no built in BT for the North American variant). NCIX might have circumvented dealing with ASUS N.A. and parallel imported them directly from say, Asia. Personally I don't think it should be a problem since they all come with ASUS' Global Warranty of 2 Years anyways.

- I would believe upgrading the HDD shouldn't void the warranty, then again, ASUS might handle warranty different to say, Dell (which I know for a fact won't void your warranty with after-market RAM/HDD upgrades). It is also a given that the official position of ASUS is that adding the internal BT module yourself WILL VOID the ASUS global warranty

- On the HDD, it depends on what drive ASUS ship them with. The newest HGST TravelStar 5K160 and Seagate Momentus 5400.3 series are the only 2 shipping and common SATA 5400rpm drives using perpendicular recording at the moment, and seeing HGST doesn't make a 100GB model of the 5K160, your chances are down to the Seagate. However, it shouldn't effect performance a great deal and I think ASUS will stick whatever 100GB SATA drive they can find the cheapest into them (which means it could be a HGST, Seagate, Toshiba or Western Digital).

 

The North American A8js has a T7200 - period

1. Changing the original specs at all can void the warrantty. Any dealer who changes anything is forced by Asus to tell you you'll no longer have Asus' global warranty and that they (the dealer) will replace it with their own coverage - mind you Asus is still getting the warranty money and the dealer warranty would then be "backed" by nothing... not a good situation. If you do it yourself, there are no bios logs or warranty stickers that would point out to Asus that you made the change, but it's always good to put the original back in for warranty work.

2. All the F3j's (two Jc's and a Jv) have been in the states for a week now... shouldn't be long for you.

3. Yeah, they're not perpendicular and don't expect those for another year I'd imagine.

4. Those speakers are better than decent - I prefer klipsch and would basically guarentee if you can appreciate good sound, you'll fall in love with them also... but I know the logitechs are cheaper.

In terms of a monitor... all of the systems will support well above WUXGA (1920 x 1200) (which I have on my 23")... so it's safe to say you'll be able to support up to the highest res 23" without a problem..... You can output to 60-70" lcd's and plasma's if you wanted as well without a problem. I think they all top out at 2048 x 1536.

5. That's a good idea, but I mean the merom models aren't really more expensive, but the core duos do have nice rebates.

 

Very very helpful replies, thank you guys both!

Justin, do you know the specs of the F3J's? I can't find them anywhere. And how would you rate it compared to A8Js?

 

They're on the same level build wise.... average... the F series is almost like almost like a 15.4" A8.

I do have specs of the F3jc's and the F3Jv

F3F-AP038H: $1,049
T5500 / 15.4" WXGA / 8x DVD-RW / 1 x 1gb DDR2 667 / 100gb 5400rpm SATA / integrated graphics / 1.3mp webcam / XP Home / 2 year global warranty

F3JC-AP053H: $1,199
T5500 / 15.4" WXGA / 8x DVD-RW / 1 x 1gb DDR2 667 / 80gb 5400rpm SATA / Nvidia 7300 w/ 128mb vram /1.3mp webcam / XP Home / 2 year global warranty

F3JC-AP052P: $1,299
T5500 / 15.4" WXGA / 8x DVD-RW / 1 x 1gb DDR2 667 / 100gb 5400rpm SATA / Nvidia 7300 w/ 128mb vram /1.3mp webcam / XP Pro / 2 year global warranty

F3JV-AP026P: $1,499
T5500 / 15.4" WXGA / 8x DVD-RW / 1 x 1gb DDR2 667 / 100gb 5400rpm SATA / Nvidia 76600 w/ 256mb vram /1.3mp webcam / XP Pro / 2 year global warranty

 

Thanks, I wish the F3Jv would have a T7200 even for $100 more.

 

That's exactly what I thought... When saw the first photos of the F3J's it immediately reminded me of the A6J series.

 

They're deffinately better than the A6 chassis wise, but I'd never want to give anyone the impression that these are like a W or V model.

 

the A8js has a fancier lcd lid.

 

Than what, the F3? That's like saying a camary has a better paint job than a corolla..... ok, so what. I wouldn't start staking claim in which notebook is sexier - the A8 or F3 - because it's like having one of those beauty contests down the mall on saturday.... someone has to win, but it don't mean she's beautiful... she's just better than rest. I had an A8 sitting at my desk the other day and next to it was my old W3v which is at least 18 months old now. Not that the A8 looked used out of the box, but the old W3 lid still looked like new, yet new the A8 lid still looked cheap. It almost looks the same, but a different color from across the room. However, touch them and push on them and you'll start to understand why the W3 is a more expensive computer.

All of this really doesn't matter - unless it matters to you - but I hope that was just a light hearted joke because when you're looking at a system at this level (high spec - average price).... the build and look already play second fiddle to the power.

 

I guess it's personal preference, but I've held both the A8Jm and the F3Jm and the F3 series seems like the higher quality model to me.

 

lol I think they look extremely similar. the main difference is the lcd lid.

Lol and the f3j has the lcd lid the same color as the chassis with black bands on it and the a8js has a sparkly silver finish on it.


LOL are you arguing with me? Either of you? Because I can start calling you names if you like.

DUMMYHEAD!!!!

ps I do think the a series is above the f series. Its differences are small but the components are a step up. You have the 200 nits screen in the f3jm, and the 220 in the a8jm. It is one step up. The cosmetic difference is small, but its there theres sparkly finish paint on the lcd lid.

difference is even bigger with the a8js and the f3jv, it has a higher gpu, cpu, ram might have the same hd. The F series is the bottom

 

Ok, well I'm just going to have tell you that a W3 or V6 or a W2 would make you blow a gasket then.

 

heh thats fine but are you arguing with me yet? because Im ready to call you names.....lol

The F series is exactly like the A series but its stripped down one notch.

I dont think adding paint to the lcd lid is going to get you chicks, but its different so Im pointing it out. It looks the same but that parts different!!!!! IS SO!!! lol

 

ok, i'll let you be happy about it... but if I don't take a stand someone is bound to call me soft and say that just because we sell it - i've got to call it the best thing in the world - not true.

 

Pictures don't do justice til you actually look and feel it.

 

In Coriolis' case.. there's a reason the V6 sold Lamborghini on a partnership deal and why they used it to modify for their initial showing.... and we're talking about Lambo having say..... not anything like Acer and other Ferrari F1 sponsers legally having the right to use the Ferrari name and logo on anything they want as long as they sponser the team.... two veeeeery different situations.

 

I don't care if it's in a pizza box -as long as the LCD is good and it has desktop level performance...

 

has outstanding looks like the mid level vaio.
It looks a great deal like the vaio Im replacing it with.

the f3 series does too, doesnt look cheap it looks great.

It doesnt look like the asus v series though.

 

I think F3J's lid is fancier than A8J's...

 

They both look better than dells... I´m sure of that.

 

Thank you all for the helpful replies, it has made me confused more than ever about which laptop to get

 

As an actual owner of an A8JS, I'd say you'd be stupid to buy anything else.

 

Haha... ok, looks and feel are two very different things. In terms of pictures, I find that the lower end models LOOK better in pictures than they look or feel in real life, while the higher end models don't come out as well as they really look - and obviously the feel is something you're not going to get in a photo, but they certainly feel more solid.

Like I've said before, to each their own... the A8js is a great notebook and is one that is selling very well and should continue to - for good reasons... I just wouldn't own that paticular one. Some people take the advice of someone who's owned 50+ different Asus models and has sold and built thousands of them over the last 5+ years as a food for thought. Again, like I said, if praise every bit or everything we sell, I certainly loose credibility and I don't want that.... the A8 deserves praise for it's high end configuration, it's great price.. and the fact that it's not a dell......but in terms of praising it's design or build - you just can't do that if you know Asus makes plenty that are better. Granted - this system as a W3 - would easily be $500-600 more expensive..... Why? Because of the design, materials and build quality..... period.

So, It's great and everything, but considering it's going to be a well selling model, I don't want the new crowd of people just picking up on Asus to think the A8 is what Asus is all about... The A8 is a notebook designed to bring over the tyical higher spec'd dell buyer that expects a lower price but better performance...... Asus is about being well rounded and quality from the chipset out. That's all... just don't want to the idea that Asus makes the highest quality notebooks around to go to the wayside.

 

It's too bad, because I'm willing to pay extra to get the high-end specs inside a high-end design/build.

I'll probably end up with the A8Js because I want that extra oomph you get with the CPU + GPU + higher resolution. If they offered similar specs in the W3J I'd be all over it.

The marketing is a little strange for US standards. If the W3J is supposed to be their top-of-the-line build, why doesn't it have the highest performing components. It obviously is not meant to be a business machine with that GPU and battery life, yet doesn't have the multimedia bells and whistles of some lower end (price-wise) machines that actually have better specs.

Are they just *so* concerned with their price point that they won't bump up the specs? Why not offer a $1999 and/or $2199 version that's beefed up? People who are getting machines with high-end video cards are used to paying good money for them.

-Ryan

 

Ryan,

The marketing may seem strange to you, but those wanting and willing to pay for the highest quality builds actually show they're not the people getting the high end performance. Basically, the W3 wouldn't sell well at $2,100 even with the set up of the A8js.

Before you go and say something like - yes you'd pay for it... i'm talking in general and based on what we've actually seen over the years and Asus own research studies.

To answer your question about why not have two versions - simple - more overhead and it would split sales. I prefered when we had everything coming over as barebones as this wouldn't even be a question --- but unforunately it is and I understand why.

 

Ok I found some pictures of the new A8Js on some website and I thought I'd post them here in case anyone want to have a look. (courtesy of enet.com.cn)

 

Some more...

 

And more...

 

And some more...

 

Justin,

I completely understand where you're coming from. You gotta go where the money is and the market research (and experience) tells you the consumers are. I know I'm not a typical consumer, so I have to hunt around before I find what I'm looking for. The tough part is the W3J with some higher-end components is my dream machine right now. I'm sure I'll be very happy with an A8Js though.

-Ryan

 

I'm not saying "I'm" going where the money is, I'm saying that as Asus gets more of a hold on this market, they stop asking someone like me what we'd buy or what we could sell - and start looking at what's sold in the past and research from those customers and the market in general..... Basically, when we could guarentee Asus we'd be 1/3 or 1/2 or even all of a certain shipment - they really didn't care... they'd say.. ok whatever you want as long as you're paying for them... it's up to you to get rid of them. But as the shipments get larger (these Q4 shipments certainly aren't the larger ones i'm talking about), but they have to think... ok, well PROPortable will take 100 units, but we need to bring in 1,000...... if they sell theirs, they'll buy more, but if they don't.. they're stuck with those and what Asus cares about... THEY are stuck wtih 900.. IT's sorta how works.

They basically found that the old W3v sold to younger folks who wanted it for gaming - at first.. and then the rest of the year it sold to 30 something's in a professional atmophere.... Whatever it really means, it comes down to the constant changing of where a model is marketed as other models come out. When the W3v came out, there wasn't an A8 for the younger power user...... and now, like I said, to make a W3 the specs of the A8js, it would be probably another over $2,000... more like $2,100.. and that puts it out of range for those customers who want the power because at their age or point in life a majority of them couldn't justify the cost difference for a better looking, better built machine... something in the 30's or 40's could.

I don't like it....... but it's all fluid for a reason.

 

Well the previous price difference on the w3j and a8jm was $300 and it had one step up in cpu. Am I wrong or didnt it have 20 gb more hd as well...?

That would mean a w3j with x1700 and 2.0 ghz 7200 should have been 1900 or less....

 

The difference between the A8jm and W3j were this:

A8jm:
XP Home
No Bluetooth
1.83ghz
$1499

W3j
XP Pro
Bluetooth
2.0ghz
$1799

Now, the new A8js increased in price by $100 to do the following:
stick with a 2.0ghz T7200
increase from a 7600 to 7700
XP Home to Pro
Obviously the increase in warranty, bag, mouse, etc

Now the new W3jp's price stayed the same to do the following:
Decrease to a 1.6ghz T5500
.. and again the warranty, bag, mouse, etc

So my comment wasn't just if Asus increased the CPU..... my comment was about increasing that AND the gpu. The GPU is what would bring the cost up.... likewise, an x1600 would bring the cost of the A8 down. The end result is just to show that the chassis is costing more. I could prove that by the cost of simply the replacement parts though as well....... a W3 lid costs twice that of an A8...... same with the palm rest... same with the bottom case.... things like that.

 

But then if ASUS could do a CPU upgrade, a GPU upgrade, an OS upgrade, and add the accessories to the A8Js all for $100, you'd think they could just do GPU upgrade and add the accessories in to the W3J for the same $100. The W3J already had a 2GHz T2500 so the 2GHz T7200 costs them virtually nothing since they are priced the same (officially), and the OS is also unchanged. I don't know the exact cost for a MR X1700 over a MR X1600, but it can't be much more than the difference between the Go 7600 and Go 7700 since they are direct competitors. This should mean that a W3J with T7200 and MR X1700 wouldn't cost $2100, but around $1899 like what Stamar suggested.

What's interesting is this:

Old W7J
1.83Ghz T2400
1 Year Warranty
$1499

New W7Jp
1.66GHz T5500
2 Year Warranty, Bag, Mouse
$1499

Now since there price is the same, that implies that the cost of the accessories is equal to the cost savings of downgrading the CPU. Now the 1.83GHz T2400/T5600 are officially priced at $241 while the 1.66GHz T5500 is officially priced at $209. So the cost of the extra warrant, bag, and mouse is $32. In comparison the official price of the 2GHz T2500/T7200 is $294 so dropping to the T5500 saves $85. This means that by dropping the CPU 2 steps, adding the accessories yet maintaining the price point, ASUS has increased their profit margin by $53 at the customer's expense.

Obviously these numbers aren't perfectly exact, but it's still very likely that ASUS could have:

a) Priced the T5500 W3J at $1749
b) Included the T5600 while maintaining the $1799 price and still increasing their profit margin
c) Included the T7200 and possibly the MR X1700 for $1899 and again increasing their profit margin.

Availability seems to be making the last 2 options difficult, but it would be nice for ASUS to pass on the savings from the double CPU drop to consumers.

 

Heh theres no way to spin this correctly and Im not wanting to see anyone waste their time trying to spin it.
I think we would all be repeating ourselves and other people ad nauseum.

The price difference to me would be more reasonable if it had the 2.0 ghz, 2 year warrantee x1700 etc for the same price. Or less, isnt there windows money and cpu money in there just in the same price....

I mean it has to compete with itself lol.

The actual price of the chassis DIFFERENCE is now in a ridiculous range, well over $500 or more depending on how much the 7700 is supposed to cost.

By weight it would have to be made of uranium I mean like Ive said previously I must be the wrong person to try and sell these type of things too.

 

But I like to see all of you spin...

 

Noooo... At first you're saying it's a just component difference.. and now you're saying it's just a chassis difference.... and there's no spinning involved. I laid it out... you didn't..... I also know the cost of the parts, and know where the physical differences lie...... You're right that it should stop because if you don't understand... you simply don't understand. The difference between two people arguing a point in which they know and believe and what we have is that you're arguing based on what you know and I'm arguing on what I know..... I just happen to know more. So, you're not wrong, you just don't have all the information you need to logically argue the point. Either way, it really doesn't matter because it is what it is.... and if you think the W3 is overpriced, then so be it.... that's why they have the A8 and we could go on and on, but the W3 is still a good value - but so is the A8 - just for different reasons.

... that's all

 

Are you referring to me or Stamar or both of us? I wasn't really considering the chassis since I was just looking at the cost difference between different component choices on the W3J.

 

Stamar, but in a light hearted manner...... but really just in general to anyone who doesn't understand it. What I mean is that you can't just look at the component differences because it wouldn't be the full story.

The difference between the T5500 and T7200 is $100-$125. The cost difference in the graphics card between the 256mb X1600 and 512mb 7700 is about $175-$200.

So..... to have a T7200 W3 w/ 512mb 7700 (if possible), would make the price jump from $1,799 - up $300 to $2,099.00

So, honestly, what's the question here? A similiarly configured A8js and W3jp would then be $1,599 (A8) and $2,099 (W3)... which is leads me back to the $500 difference. If the question is can the A8 really be that much cheaper to build - yes it's plastic. The difference in cost between the plastic systems and the carbon fiber systems has always been at LEAST $300... there's a lot more cost simply in the CF alone......... Then the anodized brushed aluminum parts aren't cheap either.....

These are simple facts though. The only thing I might have a little wrong is the cost of the 7700 graphics card... the 512mb 7600 off the A8jm is where I got my price, so it could even cost a little more..

 

Well I don't think a Go 7700 is really necessary on a W3J. Changing from ATI to nVidia would probably complicate things. Just a MR X1700 would be more than enough and ATI has said it's a drop in replacement for the MR X1600 so it should be fairly simple and shouldn't cost that much more. A MR X1700 at 450MHz/450MHz should be very competitive with the A8Js' Go 7700 since the latter uses DDR2 memory so is bandwidth limited.

I think most people are just asking for a CPU upgrade anyways which shouldn't costs ASUS that much more since the T2500 and T7200 are priced similarly baring inflated availability prices.

 

I don't think the conversation is really if it's appropriate... I've been under the understanding that the converation I'm having is to justify the cost difference of the chassis and therefore how much a similiarly configured W3 would cost - which is why the W3 isn't configuration like that...

But then your point goes back to the original issue..... We're looking at increasing the cost of the W3 by $100-150 to do the cpu and gpu update as YOU or I would be in agreement on - going with an x1700 and T7200.

That's not even an option because Asus wants the W3 at $1799 - period... there's no talk in configuring it higher..... Like the A8 was bumped up $100 - it was basically in the CPU - apparently the OS upgrade wasnt' as much as it would have been last year.

The W3 can't be priced over the V6... or at least that's what ASUS believes.

 

Oh. I didn't consider that. That would certainly limit things.

Is the V6J getting a Merom refresh too or will it just be replaced with the V1J when it decides to show up? If the V6J gets a T7200 (over a T2400/T5600) and the accessories that would probably bump it's price up to $1999 and allow more room for W3J growth. Unless ASUS wants to maintain the V6J price point which will mean that with accessories the V6J will downgrade to a T5500 like the other models.

 

No, I don't see the V6 getting replaced by the V1 - just supplimenting it.... The V6 is super thin and the V1 is at least as thick as the W3... I think the V1jp will be priced at that $2,100 point to be honest with you. The V6 merom update should be in more like a month and half... and to be honest, I don't know what supply and cost are going to look like then... it's a world away in this industy.... but it'll be around there.

 

The a8Js uses MXM? Wahhh?

 

(I believe it has an asus-specific MXM card and therefore you can only update the graphics card if asus sells an upgraded asus nvidia MXM card. or so i read somewhere.)

I have a question about my new Asus a8js. It's supposed to have shipped with a 5400 rpm 100gig drive. the two drives, C and E add up only to 86 gigabytes of space. Also, in the C drive, it says that 13.5 gigs have been used, when adding up all the folders and etc yields around 9.5 gigs. Why is this?

I understand that there's some sort of hidden partition. (i did make hidden files and folders viewable before calculating used capacity) if so, where is it taking the capacity from?

If anyone can shed any light on this issue, it would be most appreciated. Again, my apologies for being not very knowledgeable about this. I did try to find a recovery partition guide etc. on the forums but couldn't find it in the articles area. Thank you.

Edited to add: nevermind, i did my math wrong, it was more like 90 gigs, which i guess is okay and i got to the recovery partition in admin tools. now i just need to figure out how to repartition and etc.. rooting around in the forums I still don't understand why I'm missing 4 gigs or so in my C drive, though.

 

The Gparted live CD can probably clear a lot of things up for you.

~ Brett

 

Swap file maybe...

 

Well, at this point I'd really like to see some legitimate benchmarks (GPU performance only) between the A8Js and W3J to see how much performance you're actually losing between the 2 (with some overclocking too).

The key for laptop longevity for me (to keep me from buying another one in 12-18 mo) is how long can the GPU play new games at decent graphics settings (doesn't have be MAX).

I can still use my origianl Dell XPS Gen 2 laptop, although it burns my legs and has a nice vertical blue line down the LCD. Another reason to switch to Asus

-Ryan

 

Seajewel,

The drive manufacturer's can say that you will get a full 100gb out of their 100gb drive, but it's never happened to me. On my current 120gb Seagate drive I have a total formatted capacity of about 112. I googled around a bit and read a review about the Hitachi 7200rpm 100gb drive being around 93gb formatted capacity.

So with your 90gb in your Windows (visible) partitions, you probably have another 2-4 in a hidden recovery partition, which you should be able to see with something like XP's Admin Tools, (Disk Manager.. I think..?). Lastly in terms of the unnaccounted for 4gb, it is likely a swap file, or something hidden, Windows is using for the OS. I think there's some way to see the swapfile parameters under XP, but I don't know where to look.. (Again probably somewhere in the Admin Tools section of the Control Panel..)

BTW, if you're up to tinkering around and measuring things, I would be curious what your operating temps are with the A8Js. CPU, GPU, and HDD temps would be useful. Gophn's written and in-depth tutorial at;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=81690

But I'm sure there's a simpler way of finding out the temps when your'e tooling around on your laptop.. Any feedback is useful..

Thanks.