Everything except HardDisk is looks impressive. ASUS W3J does not come with SATA disk. It is disappointing.
Q. Did you purchase their extended warranty? Is it worth it?
I didn’t. Usually extended warranties are a waste of money, but laptops tend to lead a hard life-- so it might be a reasonable choice in this case, if it’s not too expensive.
Is anyone able to comment on the relative keyboard noise? I would like to be able to take notes in class, but hate bothering everyone else. Thanks in advance.
Hey Jeff,
I was wondering what you think of the 14" screen for dev work. I’m thinking about the W3J and will mainly be using it with DevStudio and Eclipse.
Does the smaller screen size and res hurt?
Cheers,
p.
I think I might get the W3J too. I was recently in China and a friend’s office had standardized on the W7J, which was quite cool (and a bit lighter). However, it uses the Nvidia Go7400 which is not as attractive as the Radeon 1600 in terms of performance. Lugging around my Compaq athlon 64 notebook (probably weighing in around 8lbs) is becoming untenable.
Anyway, thanks for the concise review.
can it run passive at low loads?
The fan doesn’t ever turn all the way off. The fan is always on, but at a very low level. It’s not noisy. I am very sensitive to noise.
hard drive noise?
Nothing significant.
14" screen for dev work.
I like the widescreen for Visual Studio. It’s much better than the plain 1024x768 of my old laptop.
Is anyone able to comment on the relative keyboard noise
It’s no noisier than any other laptop keyboard that I can tell.
Hi!
This laptop seems to be ideal specwise, my only two concerns would be my subjective approval of the screen and noise.
How does the fan work? If your running on idle, or have forced the system to downclock itself to ~1Ghz does the fan turn on at all, e.g. can it run passive at low loads?
Also, has anyone tested if the software speedfan works with this thing?
What about hard drive noise?
Sorry for all the questions… I’m just trying to find out as much info as possible from people who have hands-on experiance with this.
I went looking for a new notebook computer over the summer and purchased the ASUS S96J “whitebook” from GentechPC (1toppc). It’s part of the Verified by Intel program and allows you to have more choices when selecting components and assembling them. Specs:
Wireless: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 Tri-mode 802.11a/b/g
Display: 15.4" WXGA 1280 x 800 Color Shine (Glare)
Optical: 8 x DVD-RW Dual Layer Super Multi
Camera: Built-in Camera
Additional Primary Battery Additional AC Adapter
Airplane/Car Adapter
I also purchased the extended warranty. Total was under $2K. I’m very satisfied with this notebook, but it probably would not meet your needs. It is larger (15.4" screen) and the optical drive is not removable. I haven’t checked the weight, but it feels more than five pounds.
I’ve installed the Omega drivers primarily to fix artifact (flickering textures) problems with the stock ATI drivers. The Omega drivers do NOT install the Catalyst Control Center (CCC), and include the ATI Tray Tools (ATT); all good!
As far as laptop fan noise (and battery life)goes, you can download a small app called “Notebook Hardware Control” (available for free @ http://www.pbus-167.com).
Not only it bypasses the system’s fan/processor speed, but it also lets you personalyse it and create profiles.
Simple Review:
I have been using the W3J for a month now. And I enjoy almost everything about this computer. Like play a game while you are downloading music and games from 2 application and running winamp. And not just a game, a big game like “Need for Speed Most Wanted” with full graphics. This is what goes for the performance of the notebook. Lets not forget the looks it. The nice and sleek black(looks dark gray) metal top is noticed by people at a coffeshop as more attractive then the Mac (4 people and counting). These things make me proud of my well spent money. So the point of me writing here is just to recommend the Asus and say that I’m not happy the way Dell makes it’s way through the US market. Why pay for a Dell when you can get a Asus that is many times better in many ways.
Notebook info:
I added a T2600 processor, 100Gb 7,200rpm HD, 2Gb of Ram, 1 year extended warranty, 120Gb External HD http://stores.ebay.com/OYEN-DIGITAL and a waterfield SleeveCase with piggyback, flap and strap http://www.sfbags.com/products/sleevecases/sleevecases.htm . At www.allasus.com They were very patient with me, I waited a month to get it.
I know it’s a bit of a lame question but how do you “download the full package and skip the tedious validation executable” with the catalyst drivers exactly, just for future reference if you don’t mind?
Thanks.
P.S. I have had this notebook for a while now and it’s awesom I’m thinking of putting a core 2 duo in to it now though, I’ve already put in an extra gig of ram.
SwitfOne, Have you researched on how your swap of the processor is going to look? If you can leave me some info on that. Thx.
I have had the W4J for about 6 months and love it except for two things. The touchpad scroll which is very anoying and hard to get use to. I placed a thin strip of black electrical tape on the boarder giving my finger a positive stop. Works great and is barely noticable. The other is the Intel wireless card. Lousy performance and software. Ordered a Atheros replacement. It uses the new mini express card so options are limited. I’m sure the Antheros will be a much better choice.
Like Gene, I have nothing to complain about on my W3J except the horrible dedicated trackpad scroll area, which I still can’t get used to. It’s working great and runs Vista like a champ.
I do plan to upgrade the hard drive to a larger, 7200 RPM model at some point.
Thanks for your review! Are you still pleased with your asus W3J laptop after 6 months of use?
For example;how is the build quality and are the components reliable?
Thanks! gerard
I cant find one in Australia, so where else can I purchase one of these ?
How’s the batteries holding out ? are they still holding charge ?
thanks.
Jeff,
Thanks for the nice review. I am looking to get a new laptop and the W3J is near the top of the list. Now that ram prices have come down and 2g sticks are more reasonable (~$220) I would like to put 3g total in it. However, it appears there is a bios limit of 2g even though the chipset could theoretically support up to 4g. Since you seem like a much more computer savy guy than myself, I was wondering if you had any comment on this. Is there a bios update that raises the 2g limit or was that an Asus error? Also, if you have your finger on the pulse of the industry should I wait a couple of months if a new batch products are released maybe with DX10 graphics cards in them? Thanks a ton.
HS
I have problem playing Halflife 2 even with the latest ATI driver, do anybody know how to solve this. It tends to crash or freeze during the game.
What’s your driver version? 7.5?