U30JC discussion thread

Wow, I'm glad I got one of these for my cousin last week then. Didn't know they were selling like hot cakes. Got it from GenTechPC. Still in the original box. Going to bring it for my cousin when I return for Summer vacation.

 

I never use drag+drop with the trackpad and have disabled that feature.

But my 2-finger scrolling horizontally & vertically works perfectly for me every time, no matter which way I put my fingers nor their distance. That's my present experience. And unlike the reviewer, I have never felt the trackpad surface felt like a plate out of the dishwasher nor that I needed to grease my trackpad.

Perhaps if a person has sweaty finger tips, that would be different. Mine aren't.

What about you, Th@n@tos, or other owners, any one have a problem with their two-finger scrolling or with the trackpad metal surface on their U30Jc?

 

perhaps you installed new trackpad drivers? i doubt the experience is as bad as the reviewer describes it. this laptop is still my top choice

 

Yes, I do have the latest trackpad drivers, though I think mine came that way. In any event, my 2-finger scrolling worked perfectly out of the box.

I will say that if I bear down on the pad surface, the metal does grip slightly (dish out of a dishwasher?). But when I scroll or use the mouse, I keep my touch light so that I move more smoothly over the surface. That's me any way.

And as for my take on the U30Jc, the weight doesn't bother me (extra pound for DVD drive doesn't feel like an issue.) The extra 3/16" thicker than the non-DVD VT still feels fine in my hand. I enjoy having a DVD drive available.

I DO have an external slim Blu-ray/DVD drive, but on many, many occasions, when I unplugged it (w/o a DVD, the drive doesn't show up on my eject taskbar icon) then until I rebooted my ASUS netbook, I could keep plugging in the drive & Win 7 wouldn't see it. So having a drive always there is simpler for me.

The only thing I dislike (sort of) is the screen. HULU HD TV, esp when I fill the screen with the image, shows blacks to be dark grays. It's a backlight issue, I think. So no amount of fiddling can fix it; only improve or mask it a bit.

Other than that (small) complaint, I really enjoy this notebook ... and it looks fantastic.

 

The trackpad is not as bad as the reviewer made it sound. I have had it jump a bit on me while scrolling in a IE window but no where else. I"ve noticed it likes my fingers more on a diagonal then touching in parallel with the uni-button at the bottom for vertical scrolling, horizontal it doesn't care. As far as the feel of the touchpad, I have 0 problems with it feeling like a "dish out of a dishwasher" and my fingers glide across it nicely. I need to go into the registry and see if the pinch and zoom function is actually there just not "on".

 

well i feel like an idiot. i should have jumped on that tigerdirect deal cuz my immunizations aren't due until late july....

 

Hey Th@n@tos, I finally found a way to tell which GPU is running under Optimus.

GPU-Z. If it is launched when the discrete chip is running, it will see both GPU's. Then with it on, any time the NIVIDA discrete GPU goes OFF, the NVIDIA GPU load under the "Sensors" tab will show 0% load.

 

And if you launch GPU-Z and it only reports the Intel HD chip, that means that the NVIDIA chip isn't running at that time.

Sensors tab will only show the load change, but if it sees only one chip, then it won't see the two until you close it, launch an app that wakes up the discrete chip and tghen relaunch GPU-Z.

NVIDIA's Test Tool gadget would be a lot easier, if only someone would post it on the web for the rest of us to experiment with.

 

Tomorrow I actually planned on loading it, CPUID HWMonitor, HD Tune and CrystalDiskMark and doing benchmarks. Thanks for sharing the find!

Another neat thing that I found tonight. High performance uses less CPU% then the other 3 while doing movie playback. Battery saver is double @ ~35% CPU usage while High Performance is at ~14%. During intensive applications, battery mode seems to be using more resources. I actually saw the estimated time go down on battery life when I switched to it and was playing youtube video's and web surfing.

I believe Gaming did better on Entertainment mode with battery life but I haven't gotten to fully test that theory yet, I will tomorrow.

I benchmarked video playback in high Performance mode, sound max, and screen at 45% brightness with wireless on (I forgot to turn it off, d'oh). Played an actual DVD for just over an hour, surfed around for another 45 minutes on the internet (was on the phone), then played Transformers:Rise of the fallen (from HDD, .avi backup) for the 2 hours 25min duration then started it back over and got about an hour and 22 min into it and it told me I needed to plug in the power at 7% and it had 16 min left. When I stopped video playback, it jumped up to 44 minutes left @ 7%.. LoL

Before I started all this, I had wireless on in high performance mode @ 45% brightness with IE open and surfing around and it said I had 10 hours left. It stayed the same with power point open and wireless off. I don't think their claim is to far off from what it will actually do. If you're a sales manager or something and had to do quotes, general office work, contact manager, etc.: I'm sure this thing will last 9 hours easy off the plug.

I'll post up numbers I find from benchmark utilities tomorrow.

 

Yes, you will see higher CPU usage on battery mode because the CPU is clocked down to a lower speed. Therefore it takes more CPU usage to process applications. I don't think that the battery mode was designed for movie playback, instead it should be for doing very light stuff such as surfing the web and typing things.

 

Ah, but be warned. I read somewhere that the CPU usage was also directly related to the discrete chip being on or not. If the NVIDIA chip was ON, the CPU load % went down. If the Intel GPU was in use, the CPU kicked into higher gear.

So be sure NVIDIA is really ON during movie playback when you're trying the different modes and testing CPU load. As an example, when I played an AVI file in VLC, NVIDIA came on instantly. When I launched the AVI using Movie Player Classic, it repeatedly ran it using the integrated graphics ... and that was even after listing that player as preferring NVIDIA in the NCP preferences. Weird. But if I right-clicked on the shortcut and told it to run MPC via NVIDIA, it did ... but it wouldn't remember that choice.

And I wonder, with you doing this testing, if we shouldn't start an Owner's Lounge thread for the U30Jc to better post your results. We'd all be interested in battery life and the effect of various modes on that.

For example, it was NBR's review on the U30Jc that reported a longer battery life when they used "Balanced" battery mode and set the NCP default graphics as NVIDIA.

I still don't get that. But I have found improved battery life (I think) on Balanced, and I don't know why.

... of course, if you're playing anything in HD, NVIDIA has to be coming on.

 

I do wonder what effect the default setting actually has for Optimus. Presumably, whichever you pick as the default the discrete GPU would be switched off when idling at the desktop, but if you launched a game it would be switched on.

For example, look at PC Perspective's testing of the ASUS UL50Vf, which also uses Optimus, but with an older Core architecture. Notably, the Optimus mode actually got better battery life than using only the IGP.

Things would be different with Arrandale, given the significantly more powerful GMA HD integrated graphics, but I can't say exactly how things would be different overall.

My suspicion there is that for video playback, the discrete GPU took much of the load off the CPU, and actually resulted in lower overall power consumption. Unfortunately, the situation is further complicated by the fact that the CPU is able to dynamically change its clock speed depending on the task.

I would really love to play around with an Optimus system to actually work out what it's doing, and how different settings change things. Still, I'm not in the market for a laptop right now so I'll just have to settle for letting others do the fiddling. The fact that that Nvidia test tool that shows whether the discrete GPU is on isn't publicly available is quite saddening.

By the way, here's a nice summary of the customization options available for Optimus.

 

Indeed, if only ASUS would make it available, with a warning that they provide no warranty or support for it's use, in case they felt it wasn't 100% stable.

 

Okay, Th@n@tos. Since you downloaded Steam games & are testing them, I decided to install Steam (yet again) and download my copy of HL2: E1 to see if I could get it to run.

Like last time, it first complains it can only see my Intel HD chip (though I've told NCP to run HL2E1 with the NVIDIA chip & I've got a video running in Firefox & confirmed by GPU-Z that NVIDIA is ON).

It repeatedly aborts with the error message, "Unable to load c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\**myusername**\half-life 2 episode one\bin\filesystem_steam.dll"

Same error with every app closed and on High Performance.

Are you getting your Steam copy of HL2:E1 to run on your U30Jc? Are you doing something I'm not or vise versa?

 

I just went down and checked, it came on and worked fine. I changed res to native and left the other stuff on high. Intro was pretty smooth and the beginning scene was around 45fps walking around and looking up at the top of the building.

I've never installed steam on my C drive before. Mine is D:/Steam. I think I remember you formated and have only the C partition. You could try moving your steam folder to C:/Steam and see if it works. The only thing you'll have to do after moving the folder is tell your steam shortcuts where it is again or create new ones. Cool part about steam, you can take that folder and put it on any other computer and run your games off of it, no registry stuff FTW!

And Steam gives the Intel graphics warning every time I choose a new game to load into as well. I don't check the box and tell it to continue anyway.


AND funny you should mention creating another thread just for benchmarks and stuff, that's a good idea!

 

Hey have you guys tried hooking up an external yet? im trying to hook up a samsung 2333hd 1080p monitor via HDMI, however when i do the text is all blurry and everything, not really experienced with external monitors connected to laptops especially hdmi, is there any nvidia settings i should be changing?

also i toned it down to 1680x1050 and everything looks sharper, except the colors dont come out as well, however the native res is 1080p, maybe i should jus go back to the ol reliable vga?

 

I found the problem on Steam's site: PC Tools' Spyware Doctor

I disabled it ... no go. When I shut it down (!), HL2:E1 suddenly loaded and ran fine.

It was the fact that Steam games ran for you that encouraged me to look deeper.

Thanks!

 

Just wondering how is the U30Jc´s Hard drive partitioned? I have a OEM Win 64-bit disk so shoud I make a clean installation from it and then instal drivers from the driver DVD (or website)? I´m not a big fan of crapware...

 

Actually, the people and reviews I've read that say this thing is full of crapware are nutz. My families Dell, Gateway and HP's were WAY worse then this thing was. Asus's utilities really aren't that bad and I can't see them eating up alot. The hard drive is partitioned with ~80gig for C and ~200gig for D. I usually do this type of partitioning as soon as I get a computer so to me it was perfect. I will be doing a clean install yet keeping this drive the way it is as a backup when I receive my SSD, I don't feel it's neccassary to do a full wipe. I believe Quatro did several full installs and now he's got most all the Asus stuff loaded back on, so unless you're wanting 1 big C drive (which I think is crazy for later on down the road), I'd leave her alone and uninstall what you don't want.

my $.02

 

Ha! Too true. I did end up putting it all back on (except Trend Micro) and then removed most of them (Live Update, etc). Turns out I needed/wanted Spendid & Life Frame2 to get my Fn+C and Fn+V hotkeys to work. Several of the ASUS apps ARE memory-resident, but Win 7 handles them well, and I don't feel any memory slow-down.

I always partitioned my '98 & onward rigs as Th@n@tos advised, incl. XP. But as of last year I stopped doing it. Can't say I've seen a big difference.

Where there IS a diff for me is defraging the drive. The OS is the one doing all of the reading & writing, so C drive gets a huge amount of activity. Much easier to defrag an 80GB C drive than a 500GB one!

 

BTW Quatro, glad you got your steam apps to start running correctly!

 

Sigh. Yes, at the cost of my AV. Oh well, I don't play online so at least I can kill the AV during game play, which isn't very often.

 

This is CrystalDiskMark for the Hitatichi that's in them by default. It will be a while before I fully decide if I'm geting a 80 or a 160gig SSD but will post up results then.


OK, I feel ignorant... How do you post the image from the gallery where it shows up in my post?

That's weird, I've run Advast free, AVG (both paid and free), and Norton Corp and not had any issues with Steam. Maybe try a different version just so it's not a hassle? I guess if you don't do any online gaming then it's cool. If you did, I would go in and lock your profile to read only: that at least gives you somewhat more security.

 

Double post, I have to get used to this forum not doing certain things I'm used to on another one.... Please delete

 

Your use of looks correct. I THINK the IMG reference needs to link to a JPG or some such image file. Your's is a web link only. (Yours links to an image, yes, but your address doesn't end in .JPG but an address NBR grants you.)

As an example, here is a web link I used that references a JPG file in the address:


I used this address:
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/1162259616246.jpg

Now the photo shows.

 

I understand all the above homie, thanks for taking your time to write that out BUT most forums allow you to post images from the gallary and I can't figure out how to do that. It might be disable or something but I swear I've seen it in other threads.

Anyone?

 

Question for you guys, who know about CPUs and how it relates to battery life.

I noticed the U30JC currently has the i3-350M CPU which uses 35W
and there is also the i7 -620M which also uses 35W

Does that mean if ASUS put the i7-620M in the U30JC it would have approx the same battery life?

Edit: Got the specs from http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/f3d52024f9.gif

As you can see there is a pretty significant difference in power consumption.

edit. the 35W doesn´t mean how much power the CPU uses, it "represents the maximum amount of power the cooling system in a computer is required to dissipate."

 

Thanks for the info and explanation.
Much appreciated.

 

They need to get this laptop in stock in more places.

It's already the #20 selling laptop on Amazon and it's only been 2 and a half weeks

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics/565108/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_e_1_3_last

 

I'm surprised it snagged a top 20 spot seeing as that it's been out of stock longer than it's been in since its release.

 

There's so little discussion about this laptop and it snagged the top 20 place. Seems like there are only a few U30JC owners here at NBR.

 

can anyone post pictures of the laptop while it's in use? Maybe even a video of it playing some games?

 

Homie??

 

not sure if you were asking a question or not but...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homie



and yes, i think the u30jc is very popular because all the reviews have been overwhelming positive. i think the most criticism came from this thread and not the reviews themselves i can't wait to get my hands on one!

 

i want one but its not even on the australian asus website yet!! grrrr. i love it how australia's soo far behind

 

Oh wow. It's a real word. Though if I applied "homeboy" to someone, I still wouldn't know what it meant. ("Momma's boy" or "house-bound"?)

I've clearly been out of the US to long ... or not long enough!

 

Didn't some other Australian forum contributor tell us how he bought his or where he ordered it from? I seem to remember that.

He had it shipped to him there and paid a bit of customs. I forget. ...

Oh, here it was:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6163369&postcount=344

He said:

Is that too high a price for you?

 

yeah, he got it from amazon and got it shipped over. but i personally prefer to buy from retailer or online from australia cuz if it breaks down i dont want to ship it back and all. i dont know it just seems like too much trouble.

 

I can see where trying to return it would be problematic if you had it shipped from the US! Then you'd be dependent on ASUS support.

How is ASUS support in Australia? Okay? Non-existent?

 

Hi dba415
These reviews have some excellent photos:
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/asus-ul30jc-1a.aspx?page=1
http://techreport.com/articles.x/18778
http://hothardware.com/Articles/Asus-133-U30Jc-Notebook-Review/

Especially nice photos at the Laptopmag's image gallery:
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/newgallery.aspx?id=41407

And here's a GREAT YouTube video walk-around (4 1/2 min) by GenTechPC without words showing the closeups and all sides of the U30Jc. We couldn't give you better than that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caVYPN5mmNg&feature=related

As for videos of gameplaying, mine would just look like a notebook playing a game; not very informative. I'm assuming you want to know what games play smoothly on the U30Jc's 310M and what doesn't. The reviews cover that better than any videos we could supply, IMO.

Th@n@tos has loaded up a number of games on his recently. He could tell you first-hand.

 

Hi Th@n@tos.
Umm ... is this what you were trying to do?



If so, then I was trying (poorly perhaps) to answer your question. Your image link needs, (I think), to end in an image file like .JPG or .PNG, etc., not just a web page.

A different forum I posted on was set up like that. I've no idea about NBR's.

BTW, you've ordered an SSD? How big? Wow. Your U30Jc should be really flying with that and its present specs. I look forward to seeing your scores.

I know an SSD greatly affects bootup and launching apps (as in 'instant'), but would it also affect your scores in a graphic benchmark like 3DMark06? If so, by how much? My present stock setup averages 3,700 in 3DMark06. (Man, I would love put an SSD in mine, but I went over budget just getting this!)

 

i would imagine it would be poor. ive never had an asus pc before so i cant say much. Well if you buy from a retailer (like jb-hifi or like a general electronics store) and get like a warranty there then you would easily be able to take it back and get a brand new one on the spot.

 

That's true. But does ASUS have any authorized repair centers there in your country?

It might be worth searching this forum to see if others from Australia who faced that. Or perhaps you already have.

 

Friend, buddy, bro, brother, etc. Sorry about using slang on that one, that is a word I use almost daily in txt messaging and on the phone.

 

Ha. That's fine. I've still no idea what it means ...

So what did you think of my getting your image to post (directly from your image in the image gallery no less.)

I'm clever.

 

Hey RandomGuy!
Did you see this Aussie web page?
http://www.shopbot.com.au/m/?m=u33jc

BTW, did any one else notice that the U33Jc Bamboo model appears to be on sale in Australia??
With an 8-cell 2800mAh battery??!
It's not even for sale on Amazon in the US yet.

Specs for the U33Jc Bamboo in Australia are:
U33JC-RX022X
CORE i5 430M 2.26GHZ (2.53GHZ TURBO),
NV GT310M 512M, 802.11BGN 10/100/1000,
BT, 0.3M WEBCAM, 2YR WARRANTY, WIN7 PRO, BAMBOO.PI DATE : MARCH 2010
SCREEN : 13.3 LED 1366 x 768
RAM : 4GB (2x 2GB) DDR3 1066
HDD : 500GB 5400 rpm
BATTERY : 8 Cell / 2800 mAh

 

That battery is a typo, no?

but yeah, not interesting to me. i would rather have metal+plastic than some pseudo-bamboo crap

 

how is the screen on U30JC? is it good enough for photo editing? i've read some reviewers note it's not as bright as macs or dells studio.

 

I wondered the same thing myself. Lots more money for half the size of battery??

But every Australian online linked site I checked listed the same 2800mAh battery. Weird. If it's like the U30Jc but half the battery life, that would put its max battery life at 5 hrs.