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Review: Redmumba's Very-In-Depth Z70Va review - Page 2

post #21 of 43
9/5/05 at 10:41am
I am very impressed. With performance like that, this laptop should be able to hold me over for gaming until I build my new Socket M2 desktop.
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post #22 of 43
9/5/05 at 12:41pm
Thread Starter 
Same here! I had it running on 800x600 on the same settings, and I had a lot of slowdown... I thought, hey, maybe the native resololution will be the winner? ANd it was.
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post #23 of 43
9/5/05 at 3:47pm
The heat might be similar to the Z71v, it is the GPU?
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post #24 of 43
9/5/05 at 9:27pm
Thread Starter 
I believe so. The mini-cpi card is in the top lefthand corner, and the processor is in the top righthand corner (looking down on the keyboard). And since there's a conveniently located fan right there, I'm guessing its the GPU. I wish I could open it up to check it out, but getting to it is literally going to take disassembling most of the computer!
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post #25 of 43
9/6/05 at 10:36pm
which comp is this listed as @ discountlaptops?


link plz?
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post #26 of 43
9/7/05 at 1:38am
right now, it's not listed on their site.
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post #27 of 43
9/9/05 at 10:05pm
How does GTA San Andreas run? Please describe the draw distance and res. you use to play also. Thanks.
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post #28 of 43
9/9/05 at 11:36pm
gta san andreas should run almost full being doom 3 and hl2 can

its much less grpahic intensive and can run on alot less than the previously mentioned games

hope that helps

muah
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post #29 of 43
9/10/05 at 2:32pm
The ONE time I try and leave poss rep for red and its disabled doesn't that figure

That was a very nice review. Other then using a mouse for the Bluetooth, I'm not sure how someone could test it. Do you plan on posting tests using synced PDA or a mouse later?
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post #30 of 43
9/10/05 at 5:00pm
Hi all. I just thought I'd chime in with a few small comments. Red, I was speaking to you on PM's and again thanks for your help.

Coming from a Z71V, I just "upgraded" to the Z70VA now as well. There are a couple of things I noticed.

1) the optical drives are NOT interchangeable. The mounting brackets are fine, since both use a standard 12.5mm notebook drive. BUT, the bezel that comes with the Z70VA is rather specific to the drive installed (Matshita UJ-831D - pretty crappy). So, there goes using my NEC6500a in it
2) the PATA HDD and Optical drive in the Z70VA are still on the same IDE channel. Also the Z70VA doesn't support SATA so there's no getting around this *sucky
3) the screen on the Z70VA is a nicer than the z71v - virtually no "sparkles" (I still see a little, but it's much MUCh better)
4) ATI X700 vs 6600Go is a bit faster - after my OC's, 3dmark 03 5600vs5500, 2700 vs 2200 (365/354 on ATI, and 350/610 on 6600)
5) changing parts in the Z70VA is a bit harder (especially the mini-pci)
6) styling wise, both are about the same. I like both.

My z70va was barebones and I don't seem to have the internal bluetooth module
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post #31 of 43
9/10/05 at 7:47pm
tummy, did you order from g2p.com?
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post #32 of 43
9/11/05 at 4:24am

driver problem

i cant download catalyst mobile 8.5 from ati.com
this might be because asus is not one of the supported notebooks. redmumba, how did u get yours? does anyone else know?
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post #33 of 43
9/11/05 at 5:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Redmumba
Did you try running Driver Cleaner to remove all traces of the ATI drivers? If not, check here, as the issue may be with certain files not being deleted, or who knows what?

Also, make sure you're downloading the correct drivers. The UPDATE program doesn't even seem to detect that most people have an X700 card, so be sure you download the mobile catalyst drivers themselves. USe THIS link:

http://www.ati.com/online/mobilecatalyst/

If you try downloading them through ATI's site, it really makes you work to get the drivers...
He posted that in a different thread. Looks like it works to me. The link goes directly to the download of the driver.
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post #34 of 43
9/11/05 at 2:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tummy
...1) the optical drives are NOT interchangeable. The mounting brackets are fine, since both use a standard 12.5mm notebook drive. BUT, the bezel that comes with the Z70VA is rather specific to the drive installed (Matshita UJ-831D - pretty crappy). So, there goes using my NEC6500a in it
2) the PATA HDD and Optical drive in the Z70VA are still on the same IDE channel. Also the Z70VA doesn't support SATA so there's no getting around this *sucky...
Can you explain what you mean when you say that the Matshita drive is "pretty crappy"? In what way?
Also, does the fact that the HD and the Optical drive being on the same IDE channel mean that there will be speed issues related to burning CD/DVD's? (I remember reading about that previously..)

Reason I ask is because I'm *this* close to getting the Z70Va and I'm looking suspiciously at anything that might be an issue in the future..
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post #35 of 43
9/12/05 at 1:54pm

memory check

I'm just wondering how i can check on the frequency of my memory. is there a program i can use?
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post #36 of 43
9/12/05 at 3:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dem1k
tummy, did you order from g2p.com?
No, I didn't. I ordered from a little mom and pop store here in Vancouver.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheerfulnut
Can you explain what you mean when you say that the Matshita drive is "pretty crappy"? In what way?
Also, does the fact that the HD and the Optical drive being on the same IDE channel mean that there will be speed issues related to burning CD/DVD's? (I remember reading about that previously..)

Reason I ask is because I'm *this* close to getting the Z70Va and I'm looking suspiciously at anything that might be an issue in the future..
Well, there are a lot of reports about this particular matshita drive being quite fussy with different types of media. I haven't tried all of the media types I have yet but it didn't like 2 of the 3 discs I tried (only the Riket G05 actually burned; the G04 failed and also one other failed, but I forget what the type was).

The HD and optical drive being on the same channel means you'll have some issues when burning if you want to use your hdd for anything else; like, if I'm burning and tried to load up IE, the buffer on the drive gets down to 0 and it takes forever to load IE kind of thing. It's the same problem as the Z71V when using PATA drives, but the Z71V can use SATA to get around the problem; unfortunately, the Z70VA can't, so you're basically stuck in this crummy situation. I don't know if there is anyway you can fix it on the Z70VA.

Oh, two other observations.

1) I can't undervolt as much on the Z70VA as I could on the Z71V. I had to increase each multiplier by one notch in CHC
2) The fans in the Z70VA are quite a bit "whinier" than the Z71V.
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post #37 of 43
9/13/05 at 1:50am
With all this complaining about fan noise, has anyone ever tried to do a fan transplant? I'm pretty sure that whatever fan Asus uses it follows a set of specifications... if this is true there is probably a fan at least similar in dimentions to the fan asus uses... then you could change out the fan and get a quieter, possible cooler, lap and lappy...

another point... does the case itself seem to be resonating at all? if so, a rubber damper could be used to reduce noise output as well.
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post #38 of 43
9/23/05 at 1:34am
the ati link doesnt work for my z70va's x700...
it says cli.exe failed to execute.

any ideas on how i can install the driver ?
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post #39 of 43
9/26/05 at 12:26am
^---werd to that

I've tried installing these drivers numerous times and I'm frustrated to say the least. What the hell?? At one point I was able to install the Omega 5.9 and had the laptop boot up, and it stayed in windows for about 15 seconds and froze.
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post #40 of 43
9/26/05 at 4:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by fh1986
the ati link doesnt work for my z70va's x700...
it says cli.exe failed to execute.

any ideas on how i can install the driver ?
It said that for me me to. What you have to do is install microsoft .NET framework. It runs perfectly after that.
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