W3V + Audigy 2 PC Card Thoughts

So I spent $1,873.74 on a W3V and a Creative Audigy 2 PC card from Newegg.com. First off don't even think about running this with the stock sound, I would be going crazy if I had to live with that. The output from the Audigy 2 is like 10x better.

Widescreen: good for movies normal computer use, good and bad for games. One of the first games I installed, Warcraft 3 is a good example of a game that doesn't support widescreen at all. On the default settings of the ati card the game will stretch to fit the screen and everything looks fat. You can change the ati settings to not stretch but that doesn't look good either; the image looks compressed and small. Age of Wonders Shadow Magic which is a great game for laptops (turn based, small install size, no cd crack) supports up to 1280x768 which is the res of W3V and it looks great. So games that support high resolutions are going to look much better. widescreengamingforum.com is a good place to check out.

Text is small on this screen, the ctrl +/- keyboard shortcut in Firefox is essential for reading the web.

Centrino Hardware Control keeps the noisy fan from coming on most of the time. When I'm playing games or watching movies I don't care about the sound.

The viewing angle issue is annoying, but i can deal with it becasue the screen is very nice otherwise.

The Achilles Heel of notebooks: the power jack is already tweaked a little bit from tugging.

All in all I am very happy with this thing, it is my first notebook and I'm glad the day of the lightweight dedicated GPU notebook has arrived. I mostly just wanted to say, if you're thinking of buying (or already own) a W3V please do yourself a favor and just order the Audigy 2 PC card for it, it's worth it.

 

in my opinion if you arent an audiophile you dont need to spend the extra money for it.. with the software you can select the underwater sound settings it makes everything to me sound smoother.

if you want better sound get a good headphone or earphone than get something that sticks out of the laptop in my opinion.

i dont believe the fan is that loud either.. its rather quiet to me.. in quiet small college room people barely know its on except when i forgot to turn the sound off.

 

I am using good Sony headphones and I'm talking about volume level more than audio quality.

 

actually volume levels vary.. some of my music have high volumes while some have lower ones.. so that might be the reason.

 

Volume lvl? How about a nice external speaker ^_^

 

If your travelling with the W3V I would second Northbook's thoughts. I have had mine for a couple of weeks now, and it is terrific overall. The size, screen, speed, wireless connectivity, etc. are great!
I took mine on a business trip two days after getting it with a mind on doing some work and watching Star Wars III on the way. I had gotten a set of Sennheiser PX100 headphones and thought I was set as they sounded great when I tried them at home. However, I found that even with the volume and Realtek EQ software maxed out i still had to use subtitles for the movie. I never really thought about the constant whine of jet engines, but it is much louder than I thought it would be. The W3V just could not put out enough volume.
I picked up an Audigy 2 card as soon as I got home, so I'm ready next time. Sounds awesome! Very clear and crisp, and will make your ears bleed from under the headphones if you want. Sweet!
I am very happy with my Asus. In any "normal" sound environment at home, the built in speakers and card are fine for me. But I think the Audigy 2 is a must for in flight movies! Just my .02! :asus:

 

Is it hard to replace the audio card? Just curious. I just got my W3V last week and am very happy with it, but I could see how volume levels could be an issue. Thanks.

 

whoops...i see now that it goes in a PCMCIA slot.

 

all you gotta do is plug the audigy 2 into the pcmcia slot. thats all.

 

No, you just plug the Audigy card into the PCMCIA slot on the right side of the computer. The audio then just runs to it instead of through the built in audio and speakers. Took me all of 5 minutes.
I had read about some people having issues with the install at other sites, but it was very smooth for me. And I am NOT that good with this kind of thing...

edit: whoops, sorry too slow on the keyboard. two replies before I could get this done!

 

you will lose the functionality of your built in laptop speakers with this card though won't you? without headphones or external speakers you have no sound. unless you can just eject the card and it is good to go again

EDIT, i just checked out newegg.com and someone said they released a utility that allows you to play sound through your laptop speakers. groovy

 

I have not had good experiences with the utility that plays the sound through the laptop speakers. There is a delay of like a second making it basicaly unusable. It was also making some crazy feedback with the built in microphone. Maybe I need to test it more, but I quickly removed the utility when I ran into that problem. However it's ok, you can just pull the card out and it goes back to the default sound.

 

I've got a W3V, and personally, I really don't think the Audigy 2 PCMCIA card is so neccessary. The headphone jack has SPDIF out, and if you use that optical out, to say z5500's at home, or a nice reciever, the sound is out of this world. Even with just the regular minijack to good speakers sounds lovely with plenty of volume. Built-in laptop speakers? They are always junk on a thin/light/portable. Be happy you have two of them. My last 3 laptops have had only one speaker, and the Asus really has better sound than most. Volume isn't fantastic, but it's great for a laptop, after a little eq tweaking, sound properties settings, It sounds great. Volume shouldn't be a problem through headphones, or external speakers. I use run of the mill Sony cushioned headphones (29.99 CDN @ sonystore), and I could make my ears bleed if I wanted them to... but it's not all about that.. it's about quality of sound.. and the W3V does have it.

 

Whatever, I thought the opinion of someone that has actually compared the stock sound to the Audigy 2 might be worth something. There would be no disputing it if you sat down and compared yourself. The built in speakers; I sure wan't talking about them, I use 50-60 dollar Sony headphones or an external reciever.

 

I'm will be getting some Logitech Z-2300's which are the absolute cream of the crop 2.1 speakers. I have the RealTek HD Audio on my Fujitsu as well, and it does a fine job but i am thinking about doing the Audigy 2 ZS thing too, i wish i could hear the difference in person but My roomate has a Audigy card in his desktop in his speakers so I will let you guys know the difference between my laptop with RealTek and his desktop with Audigy with the exact same speakers. the Logitech's are amazing by the way, i was just showing them to a friend and (my room's on the 3rd floor) we looked out the window and people walking by kept looking up at our window. THX certification is a good thing and the Audigy 2 is THX certified as well so it would be a perfect match for these speakers, I might just have to do it