z70va review

What were you looking for in a notebook? Why did you choose this one?

I was looking for a notebook for graduate school. I needed one that: would last a while, do Photoshop, Illustrator, Canvas work for creating posters etc. for conferences. It also needed to be light enough I could actually take it to a conference and have a nice screen. In addition, I would also like to play games while I’m supposed to be working.  Not necessarily hardcore FPSs but at least an MMORPG called EVE as well as being able to play Star Trek: Online when it comes out. I may do some dvd-ripping and burning as well.

I chose the Asus z70va or Chembook 2370va mainly due to overwhelming praise from forum members. Carbon-fiber chassis, great screen, nice keyboard feel, overall build quality, and good manufacturer reputation were among the large selling points for me.

My configuration is as follows:
Chembook 2370Va -C
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15.4" WSXGA (1680x1050) Wide -Screen Active Matrix Display
1.73 GHz Intel Pentium-M (740) Processor (Sonoma / 2 MB L2 Cache / 533 FSB)
Standard CPU Thermal Compound Paste
128 MB Dedicated DDR2 - Ati Radeon X700 PCI-Express Video Card
1 GB DDR2 (533 MHz) CORSAIR Memory (1 GB x 1) [$75.00]
80 GB Hard Drive (5400 RPM) [$60.00]
8X DVD±R (DL) / 4X DVD±RW / CD-RW / DVD Combo Drive w/ Software [$60.00]
Internal 56k Modem
Internal IntelPRO 2915ABG Wireless Ethernet/Lan (802.11 a+b+g)
Internal Bluetooth Wireless Card [$50.00]
8-cell Smart Lithium Ion Battery
Built-in 4-in-1 card reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO)
S-video out, 4 USB (2.0), 1 PCMCIA, IR, IEEE Firewire
10/100/1000 BaseT Ethernet LAN Port
AC Adapter w/ power cord
Free Deluxe Carry Case
*FREE* Notebook Essentials Software
No Operating System Installed, drivers included on CD-ROM
2 yr ChemUSA warranty w/ 1-way paid shipping
Lifetime Tech Support by calling 800-866-2436 (510-714-4045 ext hours)



Display
Excellent! I understand now why other new owners of the z70va rave about the screen. It is nice. Very crisp and sharp. No dead pixels (yea!). I thought that the hi-res was going to make text too small but was wrong. Screen real-estate is great;can fit all kinds of various windows on it. No screen flex at all (lcd being ‘smushed’). In addition, there is no creaky, plasticy sound when opening and closing. Let’s just say you will like the screen.

Ports and locations
To be quite honest this was one reason I was considering not purchasing this notebook. I thought that having all of my ports on the left and none on the back was the way I wanted to go. Well, I am now glad I made this decision and have realized that port placement really wasn’t as important and I thought it would be for me. Most ports are still on the left, although some major ones including video, 2x usb, power, parrellel, serial, s-video, modem, and LAN are still relegated to the back. (this actually makes sense since these are ports that are most likely to be plugged in for extended periods of time).
Firewire, 2 more usb, memory card reader, pcmcia slot, headphone jack, and cd controls are on the left side…leaving just the optical drive on the right (save an air vent which I thought was going to be terrible blowing hot air on my mouse hand all the time but the affected area is minimal and can keep your hand warm on a cold night!  )

Unique features
I opted for the built in Bluetooth and will most likely get a BT mouse.
The mic is built into chassis just below the keyboard on the left. I have used it and so far it works fine.

Battery life
I ran the battery calibration in the BIOS and loaded Power4Gear from ASUS. The following are battery life times reported by windows for various Power4Gear presets (on a fully charge):
E-mail/Office: 3:42
Batt. Saving: 3:58
CD/Audio: 4:18
DVD: 4:28
Game: 3:28
High Performance: 3:33
Can’t wait to take this on the road and maybe watch 2 movies before the battery dies

Keyboard
Very good. No keyboard flex whatsoever. Keys are responsive and just feel fine. This is really a subjective area and unfortunately you can’t get a ‘feel’ (no pun intended) for it by reading about it. But I have used laptop keyboards before and this is on the higher end for sure. Keep in mind the switched Fn Ctrl keys.

Carry case
A thorough assessment of the case with pictures was done in a review by coriolis http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1141494 but on the overall it’s pretty nice for a free case. Now it’s not one of those $70 Dell bags but it’ll get the job done with a decent amount of padding and multiple compartments to even take some notes/papers along with you.

Performance and benchmarks
PCMark04: 3539
3DMark05: 2354 (using drivers including by Asus)
SuperPI: 1min. 49 sec.
I haven’t overclocked the GPU or CPU at all but have run my MMORPG called EVE at native resolution (1680x1050) and it looks stunning. (Partly due to the great screen and party due to the fact the game just has stunning space visuals).


Overall thoughts and opinions.

Overall, I am very pleased with my notebook choice. Usually, most people do too much research anyhow so by the time they get their notebook there are no surprises (well no bad ones). So I hope this review was helpful to anyone trying to narrow down what they want. I understand what people are saying now about build quality. I am comparing this to my friends Dell 5150 and to be honest that Dell is like a plastic toy. Great sturdy feel and a great notebook!

Also if you have any more specific questions for me please feel free to get in touch with me here on the forums.

P.S. Sorry about not putting images in with the text ala Coriolis. I am still figuring out how to post
So...here they are at the end...not sure how to put more than 5 (I have more).

 

nice, concise review! It's always great to hear more positive reviews about the Z70Va
It really is a well-rounded machine

 

great review! what about heat and noise?

 

I don't even know how to get in the bios... well haven't tried is it just DEL like on every other computer or do you press something else when its loading up? Also if you load the latest set of ATI drivers you will get much better results with 3dmark05... I got 2538 with stock clock speed.

 

Great notebook! Great review! If you want to boost your 3DMark score, try the new 5.9 Catalyst drivers. My score jumped to 2670 with zero overclocking.

Enjoy your new baby!! :asus:

 

You press F2 at the begining, the Pentium M screen

 

thank you all, I really am pleased with it
Will try the Catalyst drivers for sure.

Heat and noise:

HDTune says HD is at 49C after running 5+hrs.
MobileMeter has my cpu at low 70s C after playing a game and comes down into the 60s for idle/regular use. (not sure how these temps compare...anyone?)

Fans are quiet when idle but do fluctuate a bit if anything intensive is going on. I don't feel this is annoying just noticable (and maybe it's noticable only because others were griping about it and I was listening intently for it )
During a game they are running high but game sounds drown them out. To be quite honest, if you are just doing Word etc. and not using the cpu all that much, the fans are silent unless you put your ear right up next to the computer.

Anything else?

 

Where did you buy your Chembook? After searching I found that most places "rebrand" them under their own name, so I was just curious as this looks like an intriguing notebook.

 

Discountlaptops is the place where they rebrand as 'Chembooks' I believe...

 

yes I got mine at Discountlaptops.com and would highly recommend them!
(don't worry "Built on ASUS" stickers are included )

 

Great review!

That Asus is really a nice computer - the looks are killer!

Hope you have fun with it!

:centrino:

 

Got mine friday, and have been playing with it since then. And i can only say that i love it. The only "minus" is that it is a little more noisier compared to my Dell laptop, but then again the hardware is completely different between the two maschines.

From me this computer gets a 9/10 possible points...

regards
Szimnau