Whats the difference between the W3j now with merom...and waiting for the refresh?

Is there any difference if I buy a W3j now with the merom chipset vs. if I wait until ASUS releases it to the US?

What I mean is some dealers are customizing the current W3J with a core 2 duo chip right now....but the ensamble dealers dont have it yet.

Why wait? All I want is the merom and the w3j...will there be a huge difference if I wait?

Thanks!

 

You keep the ASUS warrantee basically. Whether that is better then the dealer warrantee is up to you.

 

The difference is in price pretty much. When the w3j with merom comes out it will most likely have the t5600. To customize it now it cost alot more then the base price

 

That's a good way of putting it..... waiting 3-4 weeks for the actual Merom model will cost less than getting it now.... and of course keeping Asus' warranty instead of voiding it and turning it over to your dealer is also a difference.

 

MilestonePC has recently begun saying that the stock W3J will likely have a T7***. Any reason for the discrepancy?

~ Brett

 

The reason is thaty asus in all of their hostory always used midrange cpu that were valued at approximately 239$ to 279$ disti price in the states. Going to a cpu that is more then 300$ without raising the price would be our of the norm. They normally stay in in the norm

 

Two things go into Asus' cpu selection...... first, the top end would never be used because in two months time that'll drop 25% and is overpriced to start with. From there, the models price point is a huge factor as for any given model they need to fit them between two other models in the line up. So, if it needs to be $1,800 - it may get one cpu.... if it needs to be $2,000 - it may get another or it may get an upgrade in hard drive or ram or whatever. So, right now, in terms of cost, the T5600 seems proper if Asus is trying to keep the W3jp at the same price point of the current model, however Asus is in a trend to start bringing back carrying cases and an extra year warranty standard, which brings the price up about $150, so their price points may indeed be going up and if so, a higher end cpu may be called for.

 

there is quite a discrepancy there. The us dealers do not think the a8js exists but the w3j is here this week. Milestonepc.com claims the w3j is a long ways off.

Im not buying a w3j but i have confidence someone will figure that out before I log on again.

 

The A8js will come in with the following configuration.... not sure why you say that US dealers don't think it exists.....

A8Js 14"W T7200 / 1GB / 100GB / SuperMulti / NV7700 512MB / XPPro

It's just that on the same incoming model list (which is from 9/12), it shows the next W3 as:

W3Jp 14"W / T5600 / 1GB / 100GB / SuperMulti / ATI X1600 256M / XPPro

Now, in terms of delivery dates, Asus usually stays with a similar release date that they did with the previous release.... however that would mean the W5 and V6 would be first to be refreshed and the A8 and W7 would be basically the last. The W5 and V6 were basically put off as a late refresh of both models only came about a month ago...... It's just that in the next two shipments there are some important things we already know are supposed to be coming.... which just makes something like the next A8 get pushed back to another shipment.......... In the next 5 weeks or so, we're expecting the W3jp / new R1f / W2jp / R2h / W7jp / A8js........ and probably in that order.... which is pretty much what I've said all along.

With that said, it doesn't matter what cpu, warranty, accessory, hdd, ram, etc that anyone says anything will be coming with. The fact of the matter is, none of these things can really be confirmed or guarenteed until the systems show up. In the past, Asus has confirmed configurations and eta's multiple time and even signed them..... and it doesn't mean anything and there is no legal recourse... So the best anyone can do is go with the current confirmed information and only try to confirm rumors and go from there. Anyone wanting to guarentee something should be classified as either as insane or just plain stupid because everything is out of the Asus office in the US' hands and Taiwan isn't responsible to it's US dealers in any way, shape, or form.

... so the moral of the story is, wait and see and nothing else really matters.

 

so whats the estimated date that we'll see the w3j? I know you don't know for sure but is it 2 weeks 6 weeks?

 

They left Taiwan probably about five days ago. From there, it's all just an estimate. I'll tell you right now that the first shipment is tiny and our allocation of the new W3's is pretty much the smallest we've ever been given to purchase for a new model, so that will directly impact everyone as most will not be seeing their W3jp until sometime in the middle of November..... That's why giving a date is really so arbitrary when there deffinately aren't enough units coming in to supply the first wave of buyers.

 

Not to be difficult, because I think your 'wait and see' advice is good keeping in mind Asus' antics in the past with changing specs. However, why is it that when the units have been manufactured and have already been shipped, we are not able to get the final specs? Asus just likes to surprise us, or what?

 

probably the fact that.. asus models change in spec but price dont differ much.. so if they announce specs... who would buy the left over old models?

 

Well, it comes down to this.... Just like any company you buy your custom computer from has some chance of screwing something up........ The US office is the end-user for the Taiwan factory. The only problem isthey have probably the same change of screwing something up, but when they do it effects a greater number of systems and there is no recourse. If the US gets the incorrect thing (the WXGA+ W2j for instance), Taiwan will simply give them a credit and tell the US to sell it cheaper. Trying to ship it back to Taiwan by sea would cost a fourtune and take a long time..... and they'd not only pay the US duty, but also the duty to get back into Taiwan.

So...... waiting and seeing is really how I've learned we need to go about it because anything can happen at any time and at this point almost nothing would surprise me. It has nothing to do with leaving anyone in the dark. However, when things are shipped, you have to keep in mind that the US office is almost like a single customer for a big company. It's not like they don't care, but they're putting out 3-4,000 systems a day for not only themselves all over the world, but many, many other companies. The US gets maybe 100-200 systems a week on average (while Asus is producing at least 100 times that).

 

So, basically by not releasing specs now, Asus is sort of insuring themselves in case they screwed up on the Taiwan end of the business... Well, I guess that kind of makes sense. I'd rather get the specs a little later, knowing that they are the real deal, rather than getting my hopes up over something that might end up being just a rumour. Wait a minute, isn't that what we're all doing right now anyway???

 

Oh, no... we have the configurations... and we've given to the forum. I'm just saying that I'd put more money on the US government falling tomorrow than I would on a signed letter from the president of Asus USA signed in blood.

When they show up, we need to go through them and make sure everything is as we ordered and make sure that all of the information is correct for the item to go up for sale at our store. Things like advanced orders are simply in place to shut up those wondering every single day when the systems will be in and help them ease that tension by giving them a guarenteed system if they want it when they come...... but heck, this has only once been a problem, but no one ever mentions color. Something like the new W3 could come here in Blue or something and the specs could be completely maxed out for some ridiculously low price and people would still complain because they weren't aware of it before hand... and rightfully so... but worse has happened and one thing we should have all learned growing up... If we don't learn from the past, we're bound to repeat it. Asus just doesn't learn and it's really not their fault. There are no other ODM's that have large, own brand products that they try to sell around the world... Asus is pretty much there on their own. Asus makes great products, but their marketing (which I'd include in both getting things out to the public as well as making good with the companies that sell their products), sucks and always has. It's why ODM's don't do this. Companies like Sony and basically any other big company that you trust (the ones spending all the money on marketing), are basically just marketing companies....... they have the products they sell designed and made and they just market it. It's that part that Asus lacks and it's basically the reason we can't trust their configurations. The US orders one thing, Taiwan builds it, it gets shipped by sea, the US office gets them and that's it.... no more, no less. There isn't a great deal of time put into the details, although one could certainly argue that it isn't hard to make sure a certain batch of like systems are all made with the same hdd, cpu, and ram..... it's not like a car or something with dozens upon dozens of options.

 

If a $2000 notebook implies it'll get a processor upgrade over a $1800, that still leaves the interesting question why the cheaper A8Js is getting a better CPU than the W3Jp? What's more, my understanding is that Merom chips are selling at the same price points as their Yonah counterparts and they will both be selling in parallel until they are both replaced in Santa Rosa. The 2GHz T2500 is officially priced at $294 and the 2GHz T7200 is also supposed to be priced at $294.

http://www.intel.com/intel/finance/pricelist/processor_price_list.pdf?iid=InvRel+pricelist_pdf
http://www.hkepc.com/bbs/itnews.php?tid=631837

So really to maintain the current W3J price point they should be offering the T7200 at no cost not using the $53 cheaper T5600.

Since you mentioned that the initial W3Jp shipment seems to be abnormally small, maybe it's because those first W3Jp have the T5600 and ASUS decided to cut those short so that a T7200 W3Jp will be the next shipment. I really hope the up the HDD to 120GB though since 100GB is pretty small nowadays, especially in it's higher end market.

 

Oh I cant even deal with figuring out headaches like this.

Justin at proportable takes a lot of time to write things out and i appreciate that which is nice.

I have just my machine I'm looking for though in this shipping information you have given us.
If you say that the w3j is on a barge right now from taiwan where is the a8js? Is it still in taiwan?
Pro portable is going to be selling the a8js then also?

 

Justin, is the a8js coming with a 1280x800 screen?

 

OK- I'm talking about prices in general to give you guys an idea of what I'm talking about...... The price of the W3jp isn't set to be increased. What I was saying was if it were, then the explaination would be as stated.

In terms of the A8 verses the W3, the A8 is cheaper to build and "average" next to the W3. I don't care if everyone on the forum loves the model, I don't because I know it's not a long term system. The specs are great on the A8, but it's still cheaper than the W3 because of it's chassis.

Now, beyond that, we'll need to wait until they arrive to make judgement on what's what..... We will be carrying the A8js when they come in however.

 

the a8js is supposed to be 1440 x 900

 

haha well normalcy is good?

 

Since the dealers see all of the laptops and deal with the problems most, I'd like to get their advice as to which one is really the superior model.

So Justin at ProPortable would rather have the upcoming W3j rather than the A8js.

What are the other dealers' preferences?