Why is the Asus so cheap when comparted with dell, apple, hp?

I was looking to buy a laptop, comparing the Dell XPS M1530, Macbook Pro, HP dv6700t and the asus M50Sv. The Asus seemed much cheaper but still had the same components, why? Is it a bad build quality?

Thanks!

 

because asus love their customers

 

For one thing Asus doesn't spend tons upon tons of money advertising.

 

Asus is one of the lesser brands when it comes to build quality. So yes, that's part of why they are cheaper.

 

That totally depends on the line you are purchasing. The U* line for example has got a superior build quality.

 

the m50 and m51 series are pretty durable from my experience.

 

Asus is cheaper because they are the manufacturer. HP, Dell, Apple, etc uses parts from other companies in most cases while Asus makes most of the parts they use.

Also like was said before, they do not advertise like the others, instead relying on their reputation and innovation (eeepc) to bring attention to themselves.

 

Cool, thanks, so Asus is a good laptop brand when compared to dell and the others?

Thanks again!

 

Yes, I've owned HP, Compaq, Toshiba, Acer and Dell notebooks in the past... Asus is on par or better in terms of build quality.

 

Ok, thanks guys!

 

How about on other terms? Haha, sorry to ask so much, but I don't know which one to go for. Thanks

 

Warranty and service, esp in the US, is better with Asus than HP/Dell (on par with Apple if you get AppleCare). You'll have to accept the difference in battery life across Asus' model lines, however, compared to all the others.

 

Ok, thanks

 

yeah if 2hrs battery life is acceptable, youll be very happy with an asus. currently that is their achilles heel, otherwise they are great notebooks.

 

The specs seems high (eye candy( , the price is cheap and support sucks.

Look inside an Asus, especially the heatsink.
1. You´ll see thin iron plate to dissapiate heat,
2. Dell has better heatsinks, they are made of alu-alloy,
3. Lenovo use copper.

That´s why Asus models always have heat problems and are cheaper than others.

But because of the heat, they will go minimum 2 times to RMA in 2 years!
And you have to live 2 or more weeks without your laptop.

greets

 

In the US Asus supportis great and people often have their notebooks back within a week of sending them off, if not sooner.

 

I really don't think so.

The U6 I'm currently using has aluminum heatsink, and it rarely gets hot, compared to the HP dv2000 I had. I've also rarely heard of heat issues (with the exception of G1/G2) on ASUS laptops.

 

No heat issues here either... I'm using the M50Sv, W7S and eeepc. It only gets "warm" due to the hard drive near under the palm rest, but definitely not over-heating nor is it an issue.

 

Umm Asus support is actually decent here in asia as well. I'm using an F8 and have no heat issues.

 

Perhaps the answer is that Asustek makes the notebooks for those guys as well? (at least some macbooks and dells).

 

I wish you to give more specifics on how different metals affect hit sink performance. From what I know heaver metals (silver,copper, iron are better absorb heat than light metals but first of all is the surface of dissipation. Real advantage of aluminum alloys is there weight
Secondly, aluminum alloys have oxidized surface that is not good for heat removal
Next, where did you see this thin iron plate?

After all, I run F8Sn without any heating problems with average CPU core =110F, GPU=150F, HD=96F

 

I use an M50 with no heating problems. I just got through with a marathon WoW gaming weekend, and at time my laptop was running WoW for 12 hours straight, and no overheating issues. I even dropped it while it was powered up from about 3 feet, and it survived with no issues. I say Asus is all right by me.

 

AFAIK I know ASUS is one of the better brands build quality wise; Dell not so much. They all seem pretty solid to me.

 

Here some Pictures.
Picture 1. from left: You see, Asus old W3 model, has got the smallest heatsink made of cheap iron. The heatsink of recent modells is a bit cheaper yet.

Picture 2 and 3 from left: Then Lenovo have the best cooling system. R61 then the top model T61.

Picture 4 :Then HP (8510p is the same like a dell), have a bigger heatsink as Asus.

Picture 5 the last from left: 8710w you see the alu-alloy heat spreader


Kind regards

 

Are we talking about SIZE of heat sink?
This is because ASUS has smallest CPU and does not need biggest heat sink

 

I´m talking of material cheapness and heat dissapiation factors.

Asus have the same CPU like the other, but the cheapest cooling system.
I think these pictures a proof enough.

By the way my temps from an R60 at 29 C° room temparature.
On since 2h., while surfing and writing on forums.

CPU 50°C, GPU 51°C, HDD 32 C°. And yours?

 

Actually none of the pictures you posted showed any heatsink. If you're referring to the silver part surrounding the fan, I'm sorry, but that's not heatsink, but fan shroud.

It is very unlikely that Iron will be used as a heatsink material. First of all, it has extremely poor heat conductivity. Aluminum has at least 3 times the thermal conductivity, while weighing half, given the same volume. Given that most ASUS laptops weigh less than their HP/Lenovo/Dell counterparts, claiming that ASUS uses Iron as a heatsink material is unfounded.

On the contrary, compared to both Lenovo and HP, ASUS has the biggest fan, thus able to push for higher CFM, while lowering noise. Therefore of all the laptops I've used so far, ASUS laptops are actually the most quiet, and coolest.

As a result, your assertion that ASUS uses "cheap" material for heatsink, as well as smaller sized compared to other notebook vendors is incorrect.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_sink

 

ASUS U6, T7250, GF8400GS

CPU 53C, GPU 50C, HDD 30C. Does this prove anything?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_sink

Iron is worser, then alu, copper is the best or silver. That´s a nature law.

 

These are heatsink:

The orange part, which is copper.


Again, the orange part, Cu.


Likely aluminum.

Now, show me where the heatsink is:


Where is the heatsink?


Where is the heatsink?

 

Your toshi is between Dell and HP i think. . copper and alu!

yes your picture shows two heat pipes most copper with alu heat sinks.
And one copper sink with i don´t see, but suggest, a copper pipe.

And yes your modell U6 seems cooler like the multimedia models F3, X50,55, F8 or my former model A6, was too hot and died after one year and 3 RMA´s.

 

You still have yet to prove to me how ASUS used Iron as their heatsink, and they have the smallest heatsink on the market.

X50 (M50 series), F8 all run very cool. I'm not sure about F3 and A6. A lot of time it has to do with the environment the laptop is ran in (dusty, humid, hot), and user's own habit (putting laptop on the bed, blocking air intake/exhaust).

 

The most problems have the gaming models, because their users run hard on their graphics cards.

And yes most laptops should get a warm can of compressed air, to dissipiate the dust, especially after one year hard gaming.

 

Here are my temperatures: idle, under ORTHOS stress test and after a 3DMark06 test (for the last one look at maximum temps to see temp under load). All temps in Celsius.

idle: CPU: 26/23C GPU: 51C HD: 31C
CPU stress: CPU: 54/53C
GPU stress: GPU: 72C

Seems good enough cooling to me...

 

The CPU heatsink on my Asus Z71V is copper and works perfectly. The GPU heatsink is aluminum. I got my GPU heatsink replaced with a better one (also made of aluminum) because the stock one didn't have "fins" which made it less able to cool down the graphics card. However, since 2006 Asus has used copper heatsinks for GPUs as well as CPUs. So any concerns about heatsink materials are at the least outdated.

As was stated earlier in the thread, Asus can afford to sell their notebooks for less than most other major computer corporations because they directly design and manufacture, and provide warranties for their own units. HP, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, and others have to pay for ODMs (original design manufacturers) to design and manufacture their computers for them and then they have to negotiate warranty issues with those ODMs for parts or design issues. Since Asus sells through smaller resellers and does all the manufacture, design, and warranty coverage themselves, they save huge amounts of money because they do so much themselves and do not have to pay others to do it for them. Thus they can sell their products for less and still maintain the same profit margin because they much less money they have to pay to other companies.

 

Agoothelf: Your initial reasons to explain why Asus are priced much lower than its competitors are: 1. Poor customer support. 2. Poor quality of heatsink.

Firstly, you have to understand that Asus CS varies greatly from country to country. In the US and Canada, Asus CS is the top in the industry. Their standard 2 year international warranty, 1 year accidental and 30 day 0 bright dot protection is unmatched with any other computer manufactuere (maybe with the exception from Apple Complete care). So you argument regarding poor overall support isn't valid in this case since you're basing your conclusions on Asus CS only in Germany.

Secondly, the fact that the cost of a heatsink (despite the manufacturer), is quite negligible and doesn't explain why Asus is priced much cheaper. Heatsinks run about $10-$20.
In addition, the temperatures you posted for your system, like Viperabyss said, doesn't prove anything. Your system with an "all copper" heatsink still runs warmer than my M50Sv-A1 with copper plate and aluminum grill heatsink (See my idle temps in image below)

 

I don't personally think the ASUS are cheap... Check out some of the models from Acer for instance, and even some HPs. They're cheaper. I think the HPs have better build quality than Acer, and I think ASUS has better build quality than both... Also, ASUS seems to understand that you can't skimp on good hardware and have a pleasing product.

I think ASUS keeps down their advertising costs and makes their money through quality of product. They've been known as reliable hardware manufacturers for years, so people were willing to try out their notebooks.

 

I really think it has the most to do with advertising. In the past few days I have had an uncountable number of people ask me what kind of laptop I have. All of these people were unaware of computer manufacturers and wanted to know because it looked "cool." I said ASUS, and they repeated jesus?(hey zeus). lol, like I said before, I ran WoW for 12 hours consecutively on a flat wooden table, and my lap periodically, and it never got uncomfortable. My toshiba would have caught fire.

 

I would choose Asus over Dell any day.

 

So where's your proof that ASUS uses Iron as heatsink material, and that ASUS's heatsink is the smallest? Or did you just make that BS up?

 

I think we're losing the plot here. Heatsinks are a small factor to the price of laptops. In terms of pricing, it's already been pointed out that:

1. They use their own parts, and have excellent warranties on their products.
2. They don't advertise too heavily, so generally there's no reason to up the price.
3. They're not all show and no go. For what they're worth, ASUS are one of the better productive companies, in that they give the customers what they need, not what they think they want.

 

Just a little bit of silly science

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pipe

that answers about Aluminum,Copper, and no Iron

BTW Trans Alaska pipe line supported by heat pumps made from steel and filled with kerosene

It is hard to fathom that heat pipe works like a Air Conditioner but does not have a compressor. It uses osmosis force instead.

 

Not only is he confusing heatpipes and shrouds for heatsinks, he's not even comparing the same classes of units.

A system with an integrated graphics will obviously not need as large of a cooling solution as a system with a discrete graphics core. If you have a workstation-grade graphics solution, the spec will state you need a larger heatsink and cooling solution compared to a consumer-grade graphics solution because it (typically) runs at higher speeds and therefore generates more heat.

It's not because they didn't put in a big enough heatsink. It's because they put in an APPROPRIATE-SIZE heatsink since people don't want carry around boat anchors in their bags all day.

My V1J is really light for a 15.4" and while the temperature gauges run a bit on the warm side when running games, you should keep in mind that it is designed with a purpose and intended audience. The V1 series was designed for business people. The G1 series has a bigger heatsink and was designed for gamers. Business people will NOT want to carry that extra 1-2 pounds with them all day, and gamers will WANT to have that bigger heatsink because they will be running those games that much longer.

And yes, my V1 has a copper heatsink... no iron. Just because it *looks* shiny and metallic and not orange DOESN'T automatically make it iron.

And by the way, some of the Dell workstation-grade laptops we have at work have those "iron" plates you describe...

 

I tend to think that heatsinks are (almost) identical - it depends on heatsink manufacturers. I believe that all asus, dell, hp and other brans use stock heatsinks. Probably, the same with fans.

Heatpipes: it is a good practice to plate copper with nickel. So quality maker ALWAYS plates copper made electronic stuff. Fresh nickel plating is necessary for quality soldering too.

 

The heatsink themselves are mostly the same between brands. The major companies don't make heatsinks or heatpipes... they source them from a manufacturer. It would cost them too much to custom-machine a specific shape for each different model. But a higher end GPU obvioiusly will need a larger heatsink, so units which are intended to have "upgradable" GPUs might have overkill cooling solution in the common case that meet the minimum spec for the high end.

In any case, it's ironic how he says HP and Dell are better, since neither HP nor Dell make their own laptops. Then there's the fact that ASUS makes some models of laptops for Dell...