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Info on Asus Notebooks - Is this one a good choice ?

M

matheusber

Senior member
Well, i'm about to change from a Toshiba Tecra M3, lost with broken GPU (GeForce 6600 TE), i'm about to buy another and here where i live Asus notebooks aren't common. As a matter of fact, I've never seen one !

So, how about its durability ?
are they really dependable ? Can I trust one of then as I'd a Toshiba or Sony ?

well, i'm old-fashioned and had a fullscreen 14" notebook, and now as I can find these screens and good 3D, I'm thinking in this Asus:

ASUS F3JP-AK048P http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834220118

Has good CPU (Core 2 Duo 2GHz), X1700 256MB (what does that Hyper memory means in this card ? I thought it was just for lower end cards ! Is it good it can use up tu 512MB ? ) 120GB SATA HD and some more ...

I have 2GB DDR2 from last Notebook so a new one doesn't need to have much.

Would this be a good buy ?

Some more info, I'm a big Quake fan, so I really play Quake 1, 3 and 4 (widescreen is a problem for old games ?), and also I do use Unix OS, FreeBSD and some Linux, so good compatbility should be wellcome 🙂

I've read some reviews, but I'd like to hear real people with real notebooks in real life 🙂

thanks in advance 🙂

matheus
 
The quality of Asus notebooks is top notch, especially the W- and V- lines of notebooks. The A/F series are aimed more at the value segment, but are still very well built (just more plastics). IMO, Asus > Sony >> Toshiba. You can check out forums.notebookreview.com if you want to talk about the Asus notebooks with Asus Resellers that post on those boards.

Hyper-memory means that the card will take up to another 256MB of system RAM for a total of 512MB of V-RAM. Since the card already has 256MB of dedicated V-RAM, the hyper-memory can only boost performance, but it probably doesn't do too much.

1GB DDR2 is fine, you can always upgrade it. You'll find few pre-builts with 2GB of RAM.

The F3JP looks fine.

WS should be fine for gaming. You could look into WideScreenGaming Forum for "hacks" to make some standard 4:3 games into widescreen.

If you wanted a little bit more power in the graphics segment, the 7700Go is a better card than the X1700, and the A8Js offers this card with the same hardware specs as the F3JP and price, the only exception would be the 14"WXGA instead of the 15.4"WXGA. Link: A8JS @ newegg

I have the W3J (first generation - 1.86GHz Core Duo, MR X1600, 2x512MB DDR2, 100GB HDD) and I have been extremely pleased with the build quality of this notebook. Plus, it stands out from the other notebooks that other people around me use.

My W3J review
 
From my experience with Asus laptops, they're almost always top-notch - I once had a look at the Z33A, and it too was an amazing laptop - great design, great cooling, durable, lightweight, yadda yadda yadda. Hypermemory is marketspeak, it seems - just ignore it.

That laptop should work well, though you may want to go with the smaller Asus A8Js instead. It's almost identical in features, but with two noticeable differences - it's smaller, with a 14" LCD, and uses an Nvida GeForce Go 7700 graphics card.

That Nvida card is a big selling point - Linux compatibility for Nvidia cards has always been far better than for ATI cards.

Also, the A8Js seems to have good linux support.

http://www.rothlaender.net/index2.htm
 
Thanks for all your input 🙂

As i'm not so close to Asus as in Motherboards, I thought it was on notebooks. Good it seems to me they're not " 🙂

The first Asus i thought was really the A8J's, a Core 2 Duo 2GHz and nVidia 7700 256, but I saw a 14.1" Wide and i really think it is small 🙁

That and the 20GB smaller HD are the only drawbacks for the A8Js.

Brainonska511: from:
Asus > Sony >> Toshiba
Click to expand...

you meant Asus is better than Sony (and Toshiba as well) ?
If so, Asus should be God, as i really enjoyed my Tecra M3. That was rock solid for me.

As I said, I already have two 1GB OCZ DDR2 modules, it could come even whithout any RAM 🙂

A8Js hardware is really that far from this F3JP ? (as in Linux/FreeBSD support) I must check on that, but if there is for one seems to me that for the other shouldn't be that far 🙂

thanks

matheus
 
Originally posted by: matheusber
The first Asus i thought was really the A8J's, a Core 2 Duo 2GHz and nVidia 7700 256, but I saw a 14.1" Wide and i really think it is small 🙁

That and the 20GB smaller HD are the only drawbacks for the A8Js.

Brainonska511: from:
Asus > Sony >> Toshiba
Click to expand...

you meant Asus is better than Sony (and Toshiba as well) ?
If so, Asus should be God, as i really enjoyed my Tecra M3. That was rock solid for me.

As I said, I already have two 1GB OCZ DDR2 modules, it could come even whithout any RAM 🙂
Click to expand...

The 14.1" notebooks are not that small. IMO, it is a great compromise between portability and power.

As for the RAM, I hope your OCZ modules are DDR2 667, since that is the speed of the FSB on the 945 series boards.

I think Toshibas have gone down in quality lately, but that's just hearsay. I could be wrong, but I do know that Asus notebooks are up there with the best.

IMO, the 20GB isn't that big a deal. You can always upgrade the drive yourself or just set up an external hdd for more storage.
 
Hm ... they are 533MHz :/

well, i'll try it and see if its that big deal ..

The HD size issue is the least i'm worried, the 14.1" for me is small. I used to think 14" fullscreen is good, and indeed it is for me in a notebook. But less that that may be small too much. That's why I'm looking for a 15.4" if Wide, looks more like a 14" Fullscreen with a patch to it 😉

matheus

ps: hm, that A8Js you posted has indeed 120GB HD 🙂
 
The 533MHz ram will work. It won't matter so much if they are in dual channel, since the bandwidth should be greater than the FSB speed. Also, it could be argued that the higher CAS latency of the faster RAM negates the effects of using higher speed memory, particularly in notebooks.

As for the size, that's all up to you. You may want to go to a local electronics store just to get a view of the 15.4" notebooks vs. the 14" Widescreen notebooks.
 
🙁

Seems to me I'm not buying any ! 🙁

I contacted Asus in my country and they said that they give no warranty whatsoever in Notebooks, just the dealer !
I had problem with my last dealer, and I'm not that ok to buy in small dealers that may vanish out of nowhere :/

Looks like only Dell and Acer (I think Acer is ok) would support in Here. I like Asus best, but what can I do ?

And I never found any Core 2 Duo Acer up to now ... apart that I did enjoyed that Asus'

matheus
 
Originally posted by: matheusber
🙁

Seems to me I'm not buying any ! 🙁

I contacted Asus in my country and they said that they give no warranty whatsoever in Notebooks, just the dealer !
I had problem with my last dealer, and I'm not that ok to buy in small dealers that may vanish out of nowhere :/

Looks like only Dell and Acer (I think Acer is ok) would support in Here. I like Asus best, but what can I do ?

And I never found any Core 2 Duo Acer up to now ... apart that I did enjoyed that Asus'

matheus
Click to expand...

That's surprising, since they do offer a global warranty and have a site dedicated to Brazil. I guess the only option would be something else or buy an Asus from a larger retailer.

Edit:
Looking at the U.S. support site, there are no global service centers in Brazil. Oh well.

If you look into Acer, just go with something with a MR X1600 or 7600Go (use slightly more power since they are larger die), and it should be about the same as the F3JP. As far as Dell goes, the midrange 15.4" notebooks do not have midrange graphics cards. They use low-end parts, like the 7300Go or the MRX1400, which will play newer games, but only at the lowest settings. Those cards may be able to push Quake4 on some decent settings, but I'm not sure.
 
I know, I was definitly hurt on Asus :/

well, I never liked Acer design, although the hardware itself looked to be good. I heard Acer has warranty passport and no bullshit with this. If it is this way, my next Notebook is an Acer !

Just have to find a 2GHz Core 2 Duo powered Acer with decent 3D (I'd rather use nVidia as for Linux/FreeBSD), but Acer site doesn't help me at all ! I must write a book about this adventure !

And now more then ever, thanks 🙂 I do really thank you ! 🙂

matheus

ps:most powerfull Acer I've seen is X1300/X1400 and Core duo 1.66GHz, and that wouldn't satisfy 🙁 well, I'll keep on looking for !! 🙂
 
hehe

well, i do appreciate your help, but tell me your problems with linux that I'll help for free 😉 that the ideia behind the comunity, isn't ? 🙂

about the Acer, this is indeed a great one, but I'm looking for something more likely to 2GHz 🙂 and that is kinda found. if an GeForce 7700 Acer is found, better ! 🙂

I did sent the 5680 Acer, and both Asus to my dealer and on monday I'm about to receive the answer. I always thought a 7600 would be enough, but when was said that the 7700 is way better (www.notebookcheck.net says there are some more pixel pipelines) and the transistor size change (must remember that Acer's geforce is 128MB ram and Asus' one is 512 !), I'm not sure anymore. now I want a GeForce 7700 powered one 🙁 and can't find an Acer ! just the 7600 🙁

So Cheesehead, what are your problems ?
I'm more likely to be a FreeBSD man now, but I still remember Linux stuff, at least what is enough to make a pc to boot a good linux 😉 (I do think I can help, so let's try huh ?)

matheus

ps: I almost forgot. The perfect size for me is 15.4" if wide, and 14" if fullscreen.
 
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