W3J Debate

ok everyone.
I am in NEED of a notebook ASAP.
I need it for my classes at Cal Poly and the quarter ends in December.
I know I want a W3J, but knowing that a Merom W3J is coming out is holding me back.
What I want to know is how long I'd have to wait for the W3Jm.
If it is too long, is the performance gap between the Core Duo 2.0ghz and Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz that big?
Any help would be appreciated.
thanks.

 

well the a8js was announced a while ago... and it still going to require november before we see it in North America.. the w3j i dont believe is even announced or available over in europe.. so it will prob be late november... unless something i missed while reading... i'd like to know too

 

Apparently there's a beta BIOs for W3J which supports Merom already. There's a thread about it somewhere in this forum (I think it was about graininess issue fix). So if you can find a reseller who'd be willing to replace the CPU with Merom and take over the warranty, you'll be set.

 

i would like to know as well, but while you are thinking about this, the asus w3j barebones can be had for $1249.00 at geared2play.com which i have not yet seen but it is amazing that this is actually available... and they even customize it with the merom processor... so TECHNICALLY YOU DON'T HAVE TO WAIT, JUST BUY IT FROM THEM WITH THE MEROM IN IT!!!!
http://geared2play.com/store/products/laptops/asuselite/w3j/w3j.htm

 

EDDIE at geared2play.com has it...

 

Whoa, calm down everyone - there's no such thing as a W3J barebones. What Geared2play does is take a fully built Ensemble W3J, take out the parts you request be upgraded and then ship it out. Doing so voids Asus' warranty if the processor is replaced but you then get G2P's.

~ Brett

 

nrbelex so whats the difference between barebones and what EDDIE does???

 

essentially practically speaking ofcourse?

 

But.... Justin is from ProPortable. Geared2Play/BTOTech is Eddie.

 

ahh my mistake!!! i confused the names!!! lol

 

There's no such thing as a barebones Ensemble... Ensemble comes pre-built... what resellers can do is customize it, voiding ASUS' global warranty, and replace it with their own... so if you have any problems, the reseller will take care of it for you instead of ASUS.

 

Not exactly. For that to be true a reseller will have to have a written warranty visible for all. So far i dont see that most places that do customize ensembles. Anyone cn customize the ensemble but some vendors will give you the shaft when you need warranty becuase as they claim its asus warranty.

 

There are a few differences between a "barebones" like the A8Js and the "Ensemble" W3J.

• Ensambles are generally considered to be of superior quality - which is a good thing for you since you're getting a modded Ensemble
• You lose the Asus global warranty which uaually comes with an Ensemble by modding it and get a warranty through the modder
• You've paid for the parts that are being removed and upgraded, paying more to replace them, then not getting the parts you already paid for
• Any updates like new BIOS versions which Asus releases likely won't work for you because of the modding

I'm sure there are a few more I can't think of at the moment but that's a basic list. It's not that bad but most people will tell you that customizing a barebones to the specs you want is a far better deal that customizing an Ensemble.

~ Brett

 

hmm, thanks for all of your responses. I looked into the geared 2 play option with merom, but unfortunately, the end price ends up being $500 more than if I wanted to have the same options in a Yonah W3J. The main concern of mine, is how much of a performance boost Merom has over Yonah, and if it's worth it to buy it now, or wait for the new processor, because I need a notebook as soon as possible for school. If the Merom W3J shows a significant performance increase, I'll try and find a way to hold off until then (if the release isn't too late). Any chance the new model could be released in october?

 

As soon as possible? Merom is not a good enough reason to wait, then.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2808

Take a look at some benchmarks and ask yourself if it is necessary. But from the way you make your need for a laptop sound, it probably isn't nnecessary.