W3J w/ Merom Pre-Order thread!

Too early to start this thread?

I've been waiting for ages for Merom to come out and it's soooooo close I can taste it! I want to be first in line to get my hands on this machine, even if it costs me a premium!!! I've banked lots of cash, I've already bought my accessories and I'm dying to get my new computer!!

Then again... W3J w/ Merom... or W7J w/ Merom?

 

It's never too early. I'm also just about ready too pre-order. Hoping it's as great as everyone's saying.

~ Brett

 

What if they go down in price? Will they give you back the money or what?

 

I don't think that will ever happen, but I imagine they would honour the price change as long as it occured prior to the reseller shipping the product to the consumer. Again... it's not going to happen!

 

Where can you pre-order one from?

 

You can't, there isn't even a set date, but knowing ASUS......yah....

As for the price, their ENSEMBLE line barely ever drops unless its by a rebate, they have set prices.

 

Thanks for the info, mate!

 

Right now there are too many issues for people to consider any sort of advanced order..... both on your side and for people like us.

1. We could be talking September 1st or October 1st...... basically saying that there really could be a big change of plans...... I've been predicting the W3 and W7 be updated to Merom by early October, but the next W3 / W7 shipment to the states is in just about a week... would they bring over more of the current model knowing that the more time that goes by, the less it'll sell and that there is a chance they'd be stuck with them? I don't know and that's one thing that has me questioning what's going on.... the funny thing is Asus doesn't know either, they are just sticking by their words that Merom models will start leaving Taiwan by the middle of August (wow, today is the 15th) and they should be to us and ready to go to customers by the first week of September (wow, too late for the back to school rush)... Anyway..... "starting to come over" and "all models updated by" are two very different things.

2. The price point is still unknown. Most likely, the price will be the same, at least that's how Asus will work it. If the cpu's for some reason have some huge price jump, Asus would make it work... ie: if 1.8ghz 64bit is the same price as the 2.0ghz 32bit, Asus would go with the 1.8 to keep the price the same. This by the way is just for a comparison, I haven't looked at how the cpu prices will or may change, but that's a more likely situation than anything else.

3. For us, I've instructed Sales to simply compile a list of Merom requests which we'll turn into a quasi advanced order list - very basic and informal. Basically, we don't have a shipment allotment, good ETA, or set prices yet, so we'll basically contact everyone on those various lists when that information becomes apparent and then give them weight over anyone else and based on when their request came in, to order a Merom model at the appropriate time. Like I said, very informal, but there's a lot of changes going on over here on the backend and I think for this situation, at this time.. it's the best way to go. They could come in next week, it could be a month and half....... but people are trying to get systems for back to school at this time and waiting till October is not on most of their minds..... so no need to make them feel like they're tied into something when there's so much more going on in their lives.

 

I'm one of those anxiously waiting for the W3J to have a Merom upgrade

 

i want to pre-order one too, just emailed proportable sales email

 

Do you think there will be any other upgrades like video card or processor?

I was looking to order a W3J this week but i may wait, if anyone has more details on a waiting list or preorder PM me.

Thanks

 

Justin, I was one of those people who sent the type of E-mail you described. About how many people have sent similar requests? Do you think you'll be able to fulfill all requests in the first batch you receive?

Thanks
~ Brett

 

I wanted to ask this group about the w3j. This model has quite a following - more so than any other model from Asus. So, there is apparently something about the notebook that just does not exist in the other models. When I read the review of the w3j, the author mentioned the build being better. Is it the gun-metal finish and the overall appeal of the design? I have to admit that it looks much better than the other notebooks. However, that is the only difference I could find that was significant.

I have a z96j on order with a merom processor. The design is about average and is definitely an inferior "look" to the w3j. The only other difference (aside from the screen size) is that the weight of the z96j is about 1 pound more.

I would be interested in your opinions about the future merom based w3j, because I buy notebooks about once a year and will definitely consider that one.

 

Where did you order that z96j from ?

 

We're not even to the ordering stage yet on those Merom models, so it's not really a big deal yet... we'll put an order in that is large enough to support the potential orders.... don't worry. I haven't looked at the list, but people have been on it since basically the W3 came out and they were already looking ahead to the next model.... there are also some on the list who bought a W3j in the first batch and asked to get on a list to get the Merom model when available.

Just as a bit of news... I think Asus' end of August delivery for the start of the Merom models is off...... October is now when they say we should be getting ready for them....... basically all of the shipments arriving next week for the end of this month are the same current models.

 

Does that include the V1J ?

 

Asus is holding off on the V1 at the moment........ one reason would be for Merom of course, but the other is because they said the docking station isn't ready yet and they don't want to bring it in until at least that is out.... but also as a business machine targeting business clients, I guess there are some other things they are waiting to be incorporated or tested to make sure this system will hold up to their needs....... so yeah, I think we're looking at October or later for that as well at this point.

At this point I believe the W5 will be the first Asus Merom model to be refreshed....... along with the V6 at the same time, if not a week or so later.... after that point, everything should start rolling in, but Asus said they'll have a bit 64bit announcement prior to the start of delivery and a date for that isn't even set yet..... so that says a lot. Although, keep in mind that things move fast in this business and something that is in the planning stages today could be implimented in a week...

 

I have a z96j on order from: www.btotech.com. The base configuration has a Yonah processor. However, you can upgrade it to the merom (for only $30 more!).

I cannot verify that the upgrade option isn't a mistake on the website. However, this vendor has a good reputation and confirmed my order. I am supposed to receive my merom based notebook in about four or five days.

Good Luck

 

Definitely no0t a mistake but were are down to but a few and the price went up by 100$. Once gone they will not be back anywhere in the states till october at the earliest.

 

Anyone who may have gotten their email kicked back to them over the last two days from sales, you may want to just drop another email. They were upgrading the email server the other day and blocked certain accounts from recieving.... so if yours got kicked back or you don't get a response by tomorrow.. just drop another email to them.

 

October for a W7J with Merom?

Jeeze...I might have to buy a yonah before then, that would suck...

 

Not really... Buy it when you need it... If you can wait for the refresh, you'll be rewarded for your patience. If you need it right away, it isn't that much faster than the current model. Keep in mind, there has been a lot of CPU development in notebooks so the jump from Duo Core to Merom is nowhere near as significant as the jump from Pentium D to Conroe!

I'd be more worried about other possible upgrades. 1gig of on-board ram could be included or a new graphics card. Those would be much a bigger upset than not having Merom because you can't upgrade those yourself where as Merom is 10 minute upgrade.

 

That's true.

I guess I will just wait it out and see what happens.


What is the ETA for Santa Rosa if I am already going to be waiting??

 

Q1.... late Q1 if you ask me and who knows if that is even a good ETA. Intel says Q1 and has said that for at least the last 2 months or more which is half a year or more from it's potential debut...... Which means early Q2 could come and go without us seeing any actual santa rosa based notebooks...

Usually... just so everyone's on the same page....... the big Asus/Intel releases occur between March - May and Asus/AMD releases are usually between October - December.

 

What kind of releases are you talking about? Any predictions for march-may of 2007?

 

Are you kidding me? Things that are coming out next March wouldn't even be far out of the sketch books at this point, if that..... I'm just speaking in general in terms of the last 3-4 years... that's when Asus has the majority of their big releases..... In March of next year, I'd expect the start of the Santa Rosa platform models to start coming in...... and they'd maining come between March and the end of May....... Other than that, I wasn't talking in specifics.

 

According to Anandtech, the performance difference between the Core 2 Duo(Merom) and the Core Duo(Yonah) are about +~10% for office applications and negligible for gaming. I dont think there will be any new mobile GPUs coming down the line not until the X2xxx and the 8xxx series come out.

 

I found alot more then that. Merom has a noticeable better effect on boot times, program load times and such. Its obvious from straight cpu benchmarks which show over a 20% increase which does not even account for 4mb cache vs 2mb cashe. Not a huge increase but certainly a step into the next level. All take into account lower watt requirements for the merom and similar cost.

 

I'd have to wait for more information to see if that statement is can be valid...

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3840

 

I would gladly take that article into account but i stopped reading where it said "merom runs hotter".

You would take the word of some reviewer over the word of someone that has been integrating the chips into actual notebooks i presume?

 

I'm not saying that the article is totally accurate but to put some doubts into Intel's claims until we see the Merom in mass production. Are the one's you are integrating into notebooks Intel ES's or Retail Sample's?

 

Rather not provide any more info there. All i can tell you is that it is no more hotter then yonah under "normal" use

 

Hey Mike you forgot one option:

Already have W3J and going to upgrade to Merom yourself...

I was thinking of upgrading to the W3J merom release, but if it is only comming with a T5600 processor, thats the second slowest and only comes with 2mb L2 Cache.

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/core2duo/specifications.htm

Personally if Asus would sell me a W3J with the T7600, I would upgrade, so for now I will wait until Santa rosa comes out, then buy then my 1 year warantee would have run out and I could buy a T7600 Merom chip, which by then would have droped in price.

So unless Asus can tempt me with a faster processor in the W3J, for now, i am sticking with what I have

 

im waiting for a w3j aswell.

 

So let me make sure this is clear...right now the W3J comes with a 2.0GHz. When it comes out with Merom, which will supposedly be the only change made to the W3J, it will come with a 1.83GHz Merom. Now, doesn't that negate most of the performance increase expected by Merom? That plus I am hearing there are some discounts and extended warranty being given now to clear out the current W3J, it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of reason to wait for W3J with Merom -- unless there are other changes being made that we aren't being told about yet...since I am in no hurry to buy, that curiosity is the only thing keeping me waiting.

 

Now we have very good chance to see the new W3J comes with T7xxx CPU, just no ETA yet.

 

Good news! It's a race between the W3J and the V1J now as far as I'm concerned, who comes out first.

 

so ETA of mid/late October is no longer there?
I really want w3j with T7400 but this waiting is killing me

 

I would pay just for the release date of either (w3jp/v1jp) at the moment.
We should have an Asus release lottery going on around here.

 

I would deffinately get one if it had a T7600 and I would seriously consider upgrading to a T7400, just so I can keep my international warantee.

Any less than that and im upgrading the chip myself

Intel® Core™ Duo 2 processor T7600 4 MB L2 2.33 GHz 667 MHz
Intel® Core™ Duo 2 processor T7400 4 MB L2 2.16 GHz 667 MHz
Intel® Core™ Duo 2 processor T7200 4 MB L2 2.00 GHz 667 MHz
Intel® Core™ Duo 2 processor T5600 2 MB L2 1.83 GHz 667 MHz
Intel® Core™ Duo 2 processor T5500 2 MB L2 1.66 GHz 667 MHz

I still wish Asus would deliver two ensembles, one at the price point, like they currently do, and another with a top spec system, I know you can get a built on Asus modified by the reseller, but I need an international warantee.

 

You guys think the waiting is killing you? Everytime I see something about Santa Rosa on tgdaily, my heart stops. It's going to be a long cold winter.

 

im the idiot who couldnt wait to buy a laptop...finally get my w3j and now im hearin that the new ones are commin out right around the corner from now...great!!!

 

don't be so sure. im sensing what we have here is one reseller being a little unrealistic in just when these refresh models will be available in order to hold together a large group buy, clashing with the other resellers who know it will really be 2-3 more months until they can really be in the customers hands and they want to see the current models continue to move.

i believe this is known as "overhanging the market"

 

Could always return it, or sell it on ebay. Actually, what you should do is just upgrade the processor yourself. There are 2 auctions on ebay for a T7200, both are around 300 dollars.

 

No, Milestonepc is being totally realistic, its been other forum memebers that haven't been, expecting the Merom W3J's by late September/Early October when it will really be Late October/Early November. The group buy wasnt even the resellers idea, and has been great keeping members up to date on any news, and also keeping members on the reality track. He also hasnt clashed with any other resellers excpet maybe Eddie from BTOtech.com, and it was Eddie if I recall who started an issue about trying to beat Milestonepc's price for the group buy, by offering the W3J for under $1700. If Milestone really is just "overhanging the market", well hes pretty clever and sneaky.

 

yea but if i do upgrade my CPU by myself there goes my 3 year warranty i bought for 170 hahaha isnt that just GREAT!!!