ASUS Z70Va Review (pics, specs)

by A.W. Toronto, Canada

the Built On ASUS logo (view larger image)

After weeks of mass chaos, frustration, confusion and name calling, ASUS finally rolled out its cards, and launched the global release of the ASUS z70va. No they are not giant robots who are piloted by teenagers, but instead,a great addition to their barebone lineup. The chaos will now be forgotten, because it was stupid, and that's all I'll comment on it.

The z70va and z70v shouldn't be confused though, here's a small tad of interesting information to some:

A small history on this unit, the chassis does look indeed familiar to some, as it is the offspring of the very popular M6 series (Pentium M, WXGA, 9600) launched a year and some odd months ago, the M6Bne/M6ne models. Rumour had it that, the M6Bne would be released with a 9700 instead, but people didn't think so, I mean why? But that did happen, and the M6Bne's after that all contained 9700's. 14+ months later, the z70v was being released with the exact same chassis with a few modifications, and with up to date technology. 15.4" WSXGA with x600, a customizable barebone, as it was released right after the popular ASUS z71v. ASUS was on a roll. But that wheel soon couldn't hold - after weeks of turmoil, name calling, boycotting, and all that bad stuff, which I won't mention - the rumor that x700 would soon be in the z70va "refresh" came true. I won't go into detail but ASUS, in my opinion, made a mistake, but I'm sure they learned by now.

The z70va (view larger image)

This ASUS z70va is a laptop aimed for students as a mobile desktop replacement, as if the words "COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY" was the model name for it, with a fast Pentium M processor, 15.4 WXGA 1680 x 1280 Matte screen, under 6.5 pounds, mobile AND contains an x700 Video card? Not to mention a modular battery that can fit in the Optical tray, or a Modular Hard drive to fit in the same tray for exceptional battery life and space? Perfect for every student who wants to do some work, and then duke it out over Battlefield 2. Weighing under 6.5 pounds, with a battery life over 3.5 hours, Carbon Fiber chassis, WSXGA screen, x700, customizable to any need AND was very affordable - it sold like hot cakes. And I will not regret my decision, it is an awesome notebook!

Don't forget the check out emmzee's z70v review or jswriter's z70v review for better pictures, as it is the same unit, but my Digital Camera is quite....bad, and it was quite sunny when I took the shots!

The configuration I have is:

• 2.0 Pentium M processor
• 1024mb DDR2 PC4200 RAM, One stick of KingMax
• 60gb 7200rpm Hitachi TravelStar
• DVD+-RW Dual Optical Drive (Sold out at Time of Purchase, will get it in a few days)
• BlueTooth module (Not arrived but will be installed when received)
• Intel 2915 Wireless (To be replaced with Atheros 5005 wireless)

I got the above configuration for $2222 Canadian, after taxes. Was $18xx before taxes.

Reasons for buying?

As a student, my old AMD desktop was easily overheating, and the ThinkPad T21 I had borrowed from my uncle had to be returned, and I got a DELL Latitude LS400 in replacement, but a Pentium III 398mhz, 6gb HD, and all that good stuff, it didn't fill my needs.

I had saved $2000~ over the year from part time jobs, and I narrowed down to two notebooks, the LG LW60 and ASUS z70va. Because of their price similiarty, and that I can get a configuaration of 1.7 -> 2.0, 512 -> 1024, 60/4200 -> 60/7200 for the same price, I went for this one, and I don't regret it.

Where I bought it

There was not many Canadian ASUS resellers, and at one point, I wanted to order it from the US from reputable places like PROPortable and Geared2Play, but recently, CanadaSys (www.canadasys.com) has been the place to get ASUS laptops in Canada, both Built On and ENSEMBLE units for a great price and great service. Heck, they even have a Price Match policy!

ASUS's Built On unit's trademark (view larger image)

They also are building a Canadian Notebook Forums which is something I don't see many places do recently, and it builds their reputation! Their Customer Service is great, both Joseph and Danny are the two I spoke with and Emailed, they had prompt and informative responses as well. For all Canadians, CanadaSys is a place I'd fully recommend!

Build and Design

With its sleek Carbon Fiber casing, Brushed Aluminum 'creaseless' touchpad, the z70va is a beauty! It has sharp corners and a dark grey colour which just screams 'business notebook' but the x700 GPU sticker says otherwise! There is no flex what-so-ever, the keyboard is great. The LCD and the back of it, or the front, is very sturdy and does not flex at all. I couldn't find anywhere on the case that bent at all.

Pentium M chip and ATi x700 video card (view larger image)

There is metallic silver trimmings which is awesome and creates a 'halo' effect to it. The creaseless touchpad works great, it is very responsive and very cool looking. Just remember to install the new synapstics drivers to enable virtual scroll.

CD Player LED, Power Indicator, Battery Charge indicator, Bluetooth indicator and WLan indicator (view larger image)

Bright blue LED power button, with 5 instant launc buttons, Bluetooth, Default Internet Browser, WiFi on/off, Disable touchpad and Power4Gear on/off (view larger image)

Closer look on the power button (view larger image)

The LED's are placed well, as I can see if BT/WiFi/etc was on, and the blue LED power button looks great. The 'hotkeys' are very useful, as they turn on BlueTooth, the Default internet browser(FireFox for me!), WiFi, the Touchpad and a Power4Gear(ASUS's power management tool) or turns it off with a press of a button.

Caption: Underneath the laptop with 6 cell battery outlets (view larger image)

There are 6 visible fans, 3 on bottom, one at the back, one on the top right side and one on the top left corner above the keyboard, ventulates the notebook very well, as it is much needed.. The bottom left gets a bit warm though, the 7k60 is the culprit! On the bottom there are 3 vents, one near the GPU on the top left, one near the CPU on the top right, and one for the HD near the middle on the bottom left.

A regular optical drive (view larger image)

The Optical Drive is modular so you can hit the release button on the bottom and pull the OD out. The battery is placed on the front of the bottom of the notebook, and it is the BEST place to put it I would say. When I open the LCD panel, the notebook does not lift because if the balanced weight. Great job ASUS engineers!

Screen

The z70va is much brighter and vivid, and a better resolution then my 12" Dell Latitude (view larger image)

On my no dead pixel (Thanks to CanadaSys for checks before assembling and after assembling) 15.4" WSXGA screen, it is beautiful. The elevated LCD makes looking at the screen easier on the neck,. No need to look down! Besides that, all I can say is -- Beautiful.

Speakers

The z70va has 4 speakers, one at bottom left, one at bottom right and two under the LCD, and it works very very well. It is better then my old speakers, and I will be either buying the Creative Audigy 2 ZS for notebooks or an external USB 5.1 sound card to go with my Logitech x-530 speakers. The sound is very loud and crisp -- but like all notebooks, no bass if any, but that doesn't bother me so it's all good

Processor and Performance

The 2.0ghz Pentium M processor on the 915 "Alviso" chipset runs great, very fast, and coupled with my 7k60 Hard Drive and 1gb RAM, I can boot on the notebook in under 15~ seconds, a lot better, almost 300% faster then my old computer and the laptop! It is very snappy, and even when undervolted and under Power4Gear's Battery mode, it is still very fast and loads quickly!

As well, the z70va is quite a portable media notebook as well. At least that's what it says! (view larger image)

I was playing Age Of Empires III's Trial and it ran very well, as did WarCraft III under the highest resolution plus details. I may be installing more just to test out the x700, but for sure, Final Fantasy XI will be installed soon.

Running Age of Empires III Trial. Awaiting the game to be released! (view larger image)

Benchmarks

One thing to be mentioned regarding these benchmarks is that I had the GPU slightly underclocked, so performance was throttled a little for graphics benchmarks.

Comparison of Pi to 2 million calculation compared to other notebooks:

Notebook	Time
Asus Z70Va(2.0GHz Pentium M)	1m 42s
Fujitsu S6231 (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 6s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
Asus Z70A (1.6GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
Sony VAIO S360 (1.7 GHz Pentium M)	1m 57s
HP DV4170us (Pentium M 1.73 GHz)	1m 53s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

3DMark05: 2428
PCMark05: 3009

HD Tune Results
Min Transfer Rate	19.5 MB/sec
Max Transfer Rate	40.1 MB/sec
Avg Transfer Rate	31.1 MB/sec
Access Time	14.3 ms
Burst Rate	77.6 MB/sec
CPU Usage	4.5%

Keyboard and Touchpad

As already mentioned, the keyboard contains no flex and as of now, less then a week of using it, I'm already pretty comfortable with the keyboard. The Function and Control key are switched but I'm getting the hold of it. With the function key, I can turn on sleep mode, WiFi, adjust the brightness, send monitor output out, have dual screens, mute sound, and increase/decrease sound. No flex at all, I've tried every keyboard button. Compared to my old T21, it is quite similar, I am very impressed. The touchpad -- It works great, virtual scroll works fine, and overall, very usable.

Brushed aluminum touchpad (view larger image)

Input and Output Ports:

On the left side, there is one PCMCIA adapter, two USB 2.0 outlets, an Infra Red signal detector, a MMC/SD/MS/PRO reader with a dummy(very useful for leaving dust out), a S/PDIF and earphone jack, a mic jack and the Music controls.

2x 2.0 USB, IR port, PCMCIA, MMC/SD/MS/MSPro, ASUS media buttons (view larger image)

On the right side, it is the removable Optical Drive(with included travelers drawer) and vent.

DVD/CD Rom and vent, with the Latitude for comparison (view larger image)

On the back, there are two more USB 2.0 outlets, and a 1394 firewire plug. As well as standard VGA out, external monitor and the ones seen in the picture!

Kensington Lock Port, Power Input,Parallel Port, Acessory port, Display outlet, TV out port, 2x 2.0 USB ports, 1394 Firewire port, Air vent and the Modem/LAN port (view larger image)

Wireless

It came with an Intel 2915 wireless, and right off the bat, I detected and connected to my NetGear router -- and it was flawless. There is also a Infra-red port, as well as a built in bluetooth module -- which I have yet to receive, but will be handy. I soon will be upgrading to an Atheros 5005 chipset wireless card, which is a lot better but I'll see for myself!

Battery Life

Right from the box, I has 44% battery life remaining, and it listed 1 hour, 34 minutes. After tinkering with Power4Gear, I had 20% remaining, and 50~ minutes remaining. With CHC on, 6x multiplier at 0.700v, 15x at 1.068, it is stable, and gives me 3 hours and 57 minutes on battery. Very nice!

The z70va's powerbar, bigger then expected but still small (view larger image)

OS and Software

I opted not to have an OS. Included was ASUS's DVD software, with ASUS's Medi@ Show and Power Director PRO SE, as well as a disc full of drivers which was very helpful. Nero OEM version was also included.

Customer Support

I purchased it from CanadaSys and I had a great customer experience, I can't stop praising about them! Danny is a great guy, there was a $20 discount for being a forum member over at their forum, and on the order sheet, Joseph wrote 'Coriolis' but Danny though it said 'Corsair' and he had to tell me that the price would go up. After realizing that it was my screen name, we joked about it -- especially that I thought he was Joseph but was really Danny!

Freebies

ASUS included a very very nice looking bag, I believed it would of been worth at least $70 after market. It is very secure, protective and useful. I actually don't need to buy a bag if I just needed the laptop and a book, the bag is very useful.

The bag that is included (view larger image)

Close up shot of the metal logo and the texture (view larger image)

Caption: Also includes a identification card, with the trademark Built On logo (view larger image)

Bag from above (view larger image)

One of the two sides, it has a paper/binder/book seperator (view larger image)

The other side, with a notebook holder and two pockets for powerbar, CD's, books (view larger image)

Notice the small words? They say ASUS! (view larger image)

z70va sliding into the bag

Complaints

• People complaining about the fan noise on the z70va!
• More people buying it and mine wouldn't look unique!
• The switched function and Control button, but it isn't that bad
• I can't think of any more praises for the z70va!

Praises

• Great config for great price
• Great battery life for a fast notebook
• GPU, x700 is blazing!
• The design, the vents, placement of ports, screen, touchpad and keyboard
• Speakers are very good
• Great reseller at CanadaSys

Conclusion

Built on, a great machine! (view larger image)

I absolutely do NOT regret my choice, although bigger then I expected, the overall performance, sheer power, exceptional battery life, aesthetically good looks all packaged within one unit. Exceeds my expectations, I love this machine!

 

Great review!!

That's an awesome looking notebook! Love the Asus logo, and the cool blue lights. I never knew it had 4 speakers, and a host of other things - thanks for educating me!

Have fun with your new notebook!

 

thanks for the review coriolis, despite the fact you dissed your picture taking ability and the camera, they're actually good pics. That Age of Empires III screenshot really makes the screen look beautiful -- oh, and the game looks like it's going to be cool.

Yup, another satisfied Asus customer, good to see it.

 

how about heat?

 

Great review, coriolis.
It was worth the wait

 

nice review and very classy lookin machine. I like your background, gives the laptop some more atitude

Congrats.

BTW you mentioned 6 fans, are you sure there are that many fans, or you ment to say vents!

 

Very nice... very detailed... I think it gives Andrew's reviews a run for their money.

 

great review coriolis!!!...looks like a great system!!! ..and i can't wait for AOE III either

 

Nice review. I would, however, like to know what the battery life of this system is out-of-the-box without any power modification because this is the way most people will be running this machine, and the windows power meter thing isn't always the most accurate.

 

I didn't run CHC or anything from the beginging, and from 44% to 0%, it took about 1 hour and 15~ minutes for it to run down, but WiFi was on and off(Just was testing the controls), screen to second lowest setting and in was in DVD/Movie and Email/Office mode on the default loaded Power4Gear and I was busy loading up the drivers on the CD they included as well.

So, I would think, right out from the box, 3 hours and 10~ minutes would be cloesest with WiFi on and browsing the internet with Email/Office Power4Gear mode on. 3 hours and 30~ minutes would be ideal with WiFi off, in Battery Saving mode on Power4Gear and typing up a word document.

As for the heat issue, its cool and quiet on battery mode, but if you plug it in and play games or install something or use PhotoShop,etc. , there will be some heat on the left wristrest(Well thats where my 7200rpm HD is..) and some pretty warm air from the multiple vents. But after undervolting it and using SpeedFan, the temperatures are usually around 40 degrees to 45 degrees, at times even cooler. One thing that is cool, if you set up the fans to max, it's kinda like a mini AC

I recieved the Gigabyte Atheros wireless mini-pci today, I'll be writing a small report on the differences between the 2915 and the Atheros 5005

 

Great review.

I can't take pictures for my LIFE. Ihave a pretty nice point and shoot camera, HP R707 5.1 MP, but I can't take good pictures like those. How do you do it so that theres one thing in focus and the rest is blurred? It looks so cool when that happens...LOL.

 

LOL!

Mines is the same point and shoot. Casio 4.1 MP. I also have a 35mm" 30 year old Canon, but I need a darkroom

 

Get a good distance away from it, zoom into the subject, and focus on the subject. The background will be blurred. The more you zoom, the smaller your depth of field is.

So said the student filmmaker.

 

I did a quick test with the Intel 2915 and Atheros 5005 wireless cards


Test 1.
Battery 100%.
WiFi OFF
Power4Gear setting at Saving
CHC at Max. Battery
Amount of Battery Life: 4 hours 56 Minutes

Test 2.
Battery 100%
WiFi ON
FireFox ON and surfing
Power4Gear setting at Saving
CHC at Max. Battery
Amount of Battery Life: 4 hours 20 Minutes

Test 3.
Battery 100%
WiFi ON
FireFox ON and surfing
Power4Gear setting at Saving
CHC at Max. Battery
Amount of Battery Life: 5 hours 7 Minutes

I'm gonna test it again later heh..

I'll get screenshots of battery life on CHC, as well as the speed, gonna try out bandwidth tests, but maybe different ones so it will be fair? Or does clearing the history work too?

 

coriolis, are you able to control the CPU fan behaviour with SpeedFan?

 

Hmm? Like the speeds of it? I can turn it on and off using SpeedFan and adjust the soeeds of it

 

That sounds interesting...I wonder if it would work with my M6ne.

However, I don't know if I'd like to run both RMClock AND Speedfan... CHC is so versatile.

 

I run Power4Gear CHC and SpeedFan at the same time, which works ine but people have said they dont work together...

 

Sorry for being dense, Coriolis...what did you do differently between test #2 and test #3 that explains the huge battery life difference?

 

Hmm...I don't see the point of using CHC and Power4Gear together; they pretty much do the same things... except CHC does more. THe only thing it doesn't do is adjust monitor brightness

 

coriolis, can you start up a program called everest, click on sensors, THEN run speedfan? You will see a sensor called Remote2 in speedfan and that is your GPU. Then play a game for a while, and return to speedfan and hover your mouse over the temperature and it will tell you the minimum temp, the average temp, and the highest temp. I want to know what your highest temperature is, and what your clock speed is (GPU and memory). I want to know exactly how your x700 compares to my 6600go (and i'm thoroughly impressed so far).

 

Hey! New to the forums i've really got a burning question:

On the review of the Z71v it showed the existance of an MXM slot for potential video upgrades...thats the only thing holding me back from getting the z71va...does this model have that slot? What about the dipswitches for easy 400fsb Dothan overclocking?

 

The z70va's GPU is soldered onto the motherboard. The z71v's 6600 CAN be taken out but you will need to modify something to physically fit inside and then do some heavy underclocking.

flaxx - I'll do that ASAP

 

edit: LOL I replied to the wrong post haha

I played FFXI for about 30 mins, then logged out and took this screenie, hope it helps

 

okay, but what was the peak temperature? you have to hover your mouse of the remote2 temp in speedfan. often when i get back to speedfan, my temperature has already reached the mid 70's or lower... but i see my peak was at 92-93 deg C because the temperature is from an on-die diode.

but i see you have a 350mhz clock @ 600mhz memory. So it appears that clock for clock, the they're almost identicle... however our z71v comes stock at 250/500. I can do 325/650, but then i start hitting temperatures in excess of 100 deg C within 10-15 minutes (and i once hit 108, but i don't dare go higher, though i know people hitting over 110 and its still stable but i don't want to risk it!). I think Asus should spend a bit more money on better heatsinks, cuz there is such an amazing potential for overclock. I'd be interested to know the heatsink design on your x700 and how far it has been pushed. I personally think our 6600go's are actually underclocked 6600GT desktop processors).

 

Allright, gonna do that again

Appraently when I alt+Prnt Screen the hovering data disappears so I can't take a screenshot.

Just finished an hour of FFXI, Remote 2 is at 67 degrees, min 35, max 75, mean 63.8

 

**** man! that's awesome! i'm so jelous! either there's a much better cooling solution, or just plainly, the x700 is superior to the 6600go. I know Whiteheat over at z71forums made a custom heatsink that let him have temperatures as low as 77 deg C (peak) and with that, he was at 325/650 (he was unfortunate to not have a system that overclocks as well) and with that heatsink i'd probably get around 375 to 400 on the GPU, which would give me between 2700 and 2900 points with 3dmark05.

The stock cooling solution on the z71v is really pathetic. I'm curious about he x700. So if you ever open it up, do take some pictures of it at several angles. You mentioned that it was soldered in, so that may also give more room (ours are actual 16x-PCI express cards).

 

Maybe, but it was so nerve-wrecking when I switched mini-pci wireless cards heh

edit: Just checked my Gigabyte Atheros Wireless Utility, I've detected 5 SSID's, normally I'd only find 3...

 

Nice review Coriolis! I have a question regarding to FF XI running on z70va. Have you try to run Vanadiel bench 3 on your machine? I wonder if x700 can handle something like Dynamis... etc.

 

I'm still new to FFXI, I've died about 14 times today, I'm halfway to level 6 LOL!

I have no clue whats going on, and the Camera angles are killing me, is there a way to make it stay still? haha thanks

 

Welcome to FF XI! Yes there is a setting under "Config" in game that let you lock the camera behind the character.

I am consider to get z70va and run FF XI on it. Would you mind to run Vanadiel bench 3 in high resolution and see what score z70va get? I really appreciated.

You can download it from http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/multimedia/download/bench/

 

extremely informative review on a great laptop. nice job! the bag pictures were a nice touch.

 

What I want to know is if you have tried using the notebook outdoors (in the sun). If so, is the screen bright enough to be useable? (I expect to be using whatever laptop I buy on the TTC/Go transit.. )

 

I did it but it never gave me a number. However, I was watching the Benchmark and it was at the 41xx when it stopped, on high resolution btw.

A good thing I think



I doubt it will fit on your lap on the TTC, unless you are on the ones that face away from the window, 15.4" are quite big.

It will fit on your lap on the subway though

 

Coriolis, do you know if the keyboard on the Z70va is an improvement over the Z71v? I tried the Z71v in a store and frankly the keyboard was barely average. The space bar seemed to be recessed below the level of the frame a little and the key action was so poor it made my wrists hurt. I'm a writer so I have to type a lot and a comfortable keyboard is really important.

Also, would a 5400rpm HD produce less heat without too much reduction in response time over the 7k60 you have? Thanks!

 

TTC?

Thanks for the benchmark score. The score actually better then my home PC (Athlon XP 2500+ w/ 9800 Pro 128MB for 38xx).

 

i don't think you answered this question (regarding if your z71va has the 400/533MHz fsb switch)?

 

Sounds like you want an IBM Thinkpad... :buyIBM:

 

You may be right, Aurora. I'm eagerly awaiting word on the new Z60M to see if it might fill the bill. From what I'm hearing it will only have an X600 video card, but if the keyboard is superior to everything else out there then that's what I'll go for. The specs seem good enough to compensate for a little dropoff on the GPU, all things considered.

Still, that X700 on the Z70va would be sweet if the keyboard is up to snuff.....

 

The keyboard compared to my old ThinkPad was good, it was very similiar, but I think the keys are a little bit too high but I'm used to it now heh.

The M6 series doesn't have the dipswitch, only the z71v has it. You'll have to physically pin mod for the overclocking.

Remember that my GPU is underclocked a bit

 

has pin mods been done to overclock p-m's? As for your GPU -- when are you gonna try a bit of an overclock? Now that you can read your temp, you can monitor how hot it is getting. I'd be very interested to see what you can top it out at.

With this poor cooling solution I have, i can max at 350/700 (vs. your 350/600). So until i get my new heatsink, you will have me beat (as long as you can overclock a bit, haha), but i'm interested by how much.

 

I don't know...LOL!

I'm not much into overclocking

I recently underclocked the GPU to 300mhz!

 

why have you underclocked?! you realize thats probably a 3D frequency and not the 2D (mine runs at 300 but in 2D it runs at 50Mhz). I could understand undervolt, but we don't know how to do that yet.

Haha, i understand why you hate overclocking... i used to as well, but these overclocks I do are educational and i do it exercising safety. My CPU for example, is overclocked by 33% but all i had to do is raise the vcore a bit (but its still well below the original... i.e. i'm still undervolting it, just not as much as stock freq). But now that you can see your GPU, i use speedfan and created an event that makes my speakers BEEP when my temperature on the gpu reaches and exceeds a temperature (i have it set to 99 deg C, but i don't know if your GPU could handle temps in excess of 110 like the nvidia... to be safe, i'd set yours to 80 deg C).

Anyway, it's your choice. Sooner or later, someone ambiscious is bound to overclock it... just depends how long before they do.

 

How is FFXI on the Z70Va? I plan to play it a bit on mine when it arrives... may have to get an external mouse though cause its may get annoying using the touchpad for controlling my character. Also what server are you on Coriolis? If you are on Fenrir send me a /tell sometime. Ans for a repository of knowledge ffxi related go to this site

 

FFXI is fine

I'm on....uhhh...

Gilgamesh?

I may overclock in a bit, but not right now

 

I just got my z70va... booted it up, and its kinda loud, not incredibly loud but noticable. Maybe its just because I am installing windows and everything and the optical drive is the loud part. Will post more impressions when I have them. When it was just idling it didn't seem to make any noise though.

 

Coriolis:

Do you know what brightness spec your screen is? There is a local Asus retailer in my area and they don't seem to know. Can't find this info on the net either.

 

Brightness specs?

I don't think ASUS ever released that info, 2000 nits maybe? I don't know, just guessing.

Where do you live?

Check the ASUS uncomplete FAQ: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=25849

 

Where can one purchase the Atheros 5005 wireless?

I have checked Newegg, zipzoomfly and googled but can't find a place to purchase. Also I see you mention the 5006, is it better to buy this instead?

How come GigaByte doesn't even list the card on it's site?

Thanks

 

I don't know about the sites, I was never told the brand LOL. It just said 5005 chipset Atheros Mini-PCI

I bought mines off eBay, becuase there was a lack of sellers of it in stores.