Asus Barebones Mobile Athlon64 Notebook

[mdahc]

The Asus A4000K (at least the A4000K is the closest thing I could find on Asus' Web site) is being sold by Adamant Computers as a barebones kit here. Does anyone think these guys are reputable?

System specs:
15.4 WSXGA (1680x1050)
Mobile Athlon64 2800+
64MB Mobility Radeon 9700
40GB 5400rpm HDD
256MB PC3200 (2700?)
DVD/CDRW Combo Drive
Modem, Gbe ports
802.11 controller
4-in-1 card reader
4 USB, 1 Firewire, 1 IrDA, 1 S-Video
no software

 

[cheesehead]

It's not too bad a deal, and you have to remember that most laptops are made from barebones produced by only a few manufacturers. I would, however, go with a laptop with 128mb of VRAM; the 64mb included is going to severely limit gaming performance.

 

[mdahc]

I think I'm going to just wait until Turion appears in the marketplace. I was really looking for a notebook with a combination AMD64 and nVIDIA Geforce 6 series (i.e. the Geforce 6200 Go w/Turbo Cache or the upcoming 6600 Go). I'm not really looking to do any hardcore gaming, but I would like a machine that supports PureVideo (I sometimes watch DVD's on my laptop when I'm lazy).

 

[IlllI]

Turion ???

 

[imported_jon1003]

Originally posted by: Cheesehead
It's not too bad a deal, and you have to remember that most laptops are made from barebones produced by only a few manufacturers. I would, however, go with a laptop with 128mb of VRAM; the 64mb included is going to severely limit gaming performance.

Not entirely true. The 128 mb is only marginally better than 64 mb. I have the 9700 64mb card in my asus laptop and can play HL2 on medium settings or better at 1200x800 quite nicely.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: mdahc
15.4 WSXGA (1680x1050)

Wouldn't that be WUXGA? Either way, : Drool ;

- M4H

 

[mdahc]

No, actually WUXGA would be 1920x1200 (this one's 1680x1050). Also, Turion is AMD's response to Intel Centrino Marchitecture. It's supposed to surface within the first half of the year, and I think it's supposed to support PCIe while being 64-bit, too. Since the current Mobile Athlon64 (the 62w model) can't really compete with the Pentium M in terms of battery life, AMD's trying to further break into the mobile market with a new set of chips.