Z71V or Z70VA

Well, I'm not a reseller, but I have purchased both the z71v and the z70va and in both cases had to deal with ASUS customer support and reseller support. Take what I say as probably the worst case scenario, because my first z71v optical drive was bad, I'm on my 2nd bad z71v battery, and my z70va is in ASUS' hands for inspection. There are plenty of satisfied customers with these machines without any problems.

I have experienced the battery problem with the Z71v. It was replaced no questions asked, in a prompt manner. My only complaint is that ASUS doesn't have a cross-rma deal where they temporarily charge my credit card in exchange for shipping the replacement battery right away. Bottom line, they take care of business and sent me the replacements. The 2nd battery went bad just a little while ago. ASUS told me to check back in a month because they were out of replacements. As for the bad optical drive (it wouldn't write to DVDs no matter which media I used at any speed), I contacted my reseller, described the issue clearly and the drive was replaced no questions asked.

My z70va had a display/hardware issue (not the ghosting) and was sent back to the manufacturer. Pretty much no questions asked (they did ask me to do some pre-troubleshooting which I had already done), as long as you clearly identify the problem, they're very willing to help. Supposedly their turn around time is 5-10 days from the receipt of the defecive item. I got the replacement battery back from them within a week. Time will tell on the z70va.

It's been my experience that many resellers feel passionate about the products they sell and stand by them. ASUS tech support is a tougher shell to crack, but as long as you identify the problem clearly and in a civilized manner, they are more than willing to help. Overall the customer support process has been very positive, but I'm surprised that I had to deal with so many issues. I just have had a string of bad luck.

As for aethetics/performance comparisons, there's plenty of information on these machines on these forums as they're often compared to each other. But if you're interested I'll provide some personal insight as to both machines, even tho I've only owned the z70va for a weekend before I sent it for repair:
- If you're a tweaker/modder, I think you'll appreciate the z71v more. The components are laid out more openly and are very easy to access. And there's a pretty sweet GPU heatsink replacement being developed by members of the z71forums.com. I would imagine it would eliminate most fan noise to a quiet whisper.
- I've noticed noise levels of the fans, and they're pretty much similar, but the z70va does seem to have higher pitched fan noise.
- The z70va display (samsung) is superior to the z71v display (LG Phillips) in every single way. It's brighter and sharper. A must for detailed graphic work. I like it also because I have to stare at code for a good part of the day. Definitely saves my eyes from unneccessary strain. The z71v display isn't bad either, I've been using it for the past 3 months, and it's perfectly fine, it's just that the z70va display is noticibly better.
- Linux support. I installed linux on both, using tutorials I found on the web. Linux runs on both with little problems, but you'll be able to harness the power of the GPU more easily with the z71v. I've always been partial to nVidia GPUs.
- The z71v runs noticibly cooler. It just has a better internal layout, I feel.

In the end they're both really fine computers and are very simililar in specs, but have their unique quirks. I had originally intended to sell my z71v when my z70va was repaired, but I like them so much, I may just end up keeping both. If ASUS made a computer with the z70va chassis and display with the internals of the z71v, then my life would be perfect, well at least the computing aspect of it.

i say if u're not gonna be moving around much get the sager 3880. it's cheaper than the z70va and will offer about the same performance if not better. and it's quality is pretty good so u probably wont have many problems with it.

Very well thought out first post, MTNUSS! For in-depth information, you may want to talk to a reseller that sells all (or at least 3) of the 4 computers you're looking for. Three of such resellers that have good reputations are: Integrated System Technologies www.istnc.com/store Discount Laptops www.discountlaptops.com Power Notebooks www.powernotebooks.com One or more of them should be able to give you a thorough comparison between all 4 models.

You have to ask for cross shipping. Temp. $100 charge though.

xpyre, assuming that both work correctly, which do you prefer, the 70 or the 71?

Ah sweet, good to know. I'm doing that next time then. Thanks.

That's a tough choice but I think I prefer z70va. Display quality is really important to me and the chassis is visually appealing and has a good feel to it. Spec-wise they're virtually identical. I'm not picky about fan noise, or heat. That's my opinion for now. However, it may change when it comes back from being repaired and I really get down to using it.

z71v here and been using it for a couple month now and bring it in to school very weekday and doesn't have a single problem with it ... no battery problem , no optical bay problem , nothing !

Works like a Charm !!!

Peace !

i thought they both used the same wsxga+ lcd?

fan noise and display quality are the 2 most important things for me(other than video card and cpu of course) and i heard the z71 was nearly silent while the z70 made some noise. is there really a big difference between the two as far as display quality and is the 71 really that much quieter?

thanks a lot.

im in the same boat as the topic starter. i emailed istnc and they said the 5320 was a better choice. i still can't pick. although the 5320 has a better video card than the asus'.

btw- if the sound issue you're talking about on the 5320 is the chirping noise, its on the 3880 too.

The chirping would bug me, personally. drizek, my Z71v fans are nearly silent except when playing games, and even then they're not very loud.

Djembe, have you done any benchmarking or testing with that 1.86? im in the middle between 1.86 and 2.0, and I would like to save the money if its not much of a difference.
edit:hows the heat from this laptop. one review I saw said it got uncomfortably hot on the bottom, another said it got warm and wasnt bad.

They both have wsxga+ 1680x1050 lcds but the z70va lcd is manufactured by Samsung and the z71v lcd is manufactured by LG Phillips. It just happens the Samsung lcd on the z70va has better clarity and brightness. Response time is the same however, I believe it's 25ms.

I wouldn't say that the z71v is significantly quieter, I felt they were both very close, but the z70va did have a higher pitched tone. Under heavy load, they were both pretty loud spinning their fans at practically their max rpm. I did notice that the optical drive on the z70va was louder for some reason, which is kinda wierd since both were made by TSST except one writes dual layer dics and the other does not. But overall, I felt the z70va does produce slightly more noise. I believe there was a thread somewhere here that measured the decibel levels of both computers... geared2play might have conducted the experiment, I'm not sure. I can only give you what my ears hear, but I think they provided some hard data.

I've run 3Dmarks & PCMarks, as well as Super Pi, if any of that helps. It's all on my review: http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=74877 Before I undervolted, the CPU got as high as 69 degrees Celsius, with an average plugged-in running temp of about 58 degrees Celsius. On battery, the average temp was in the mid 40s Celsius. After undervolting and enabling "dynamic switching" with Centrino Hardware Control, it averages mid 40s Celsius plugged in and low 40s Celsius on battery, going up to 58-59 when under intensive use. Regarding how hot it feels, it can feel warm on the plastic between the touchpad & the keyboard & right around where the "built on Asus" tag is below the screen. The palm rest areas are almost never noticeably above room temperature. About the only time I've felt that area get warm is when I came home to find my roommate put a blanket over my computer a couple hours previously while it was running! It also gets slightly warm on the bottom, but nothing to complain about. You can use it on your lap while wearing shorts, and you won't have any problems!

i have a z70va and am very happy with it

for gaming it should run just a little better than the z71v

and it loooks much nicer, the screen should be better as well

i just got my asus m6vaup today (z70va) and i must admit the quality of this notebook (inc. lcd) is amazing.

I agree. Good to see someone actually doing some research themselves before posting and asking what laptop to buy. Hooray for intelligent posters.

All four of those laptops are excellent notebooks. But the 5320 and the Z70VA are the newer and more refined versions of the 3880 and Z71V. They are superior in nearly everyway to their predecessors. I think you can safely narrow your search down to those two.

Choosing between them is harder though. I don't really know of any problems with the 5320, as I haven't kept up with it. But I do know that I've had my Z70VA for about 2 1/2 months now, and I haven't had a problem with it. The "ghosting" issue is really only in a few of them, and those that have it are normally replaced by the reseller without much hassle. The vast majority of Z70VA's have a flawless screen that looks beautiful, including mine.

The extra 128MB of dedicated video ram on the Sager won't really make any noticeable difference. The X700 is not a powerful enough card to run games at a high enough resolution and setting to where it would actually use that extra memory. The cards that actually benefit from 256MB of memory are the top of the line 6800's, 7800's, and X800's, where you can run games at 1920x1200 with AA and AF on, which takes up a lot of memory.

Also, as you already said, Asus gives you superior build quality, a much lighter weight, and better support from resellers than Sager does. Though I have heard that PCTorque is very good. So as long as nothing too serious happens to it to where they'd have to send it to Sager to get it fixed, support should be excellent from PCTorque as well.

Overall, the Asus Z70VA is a better notebook than the 5320 imo. The only things I would consider the Sager for are if you really want a WUXGA screen, as that is offered on the Sager and not on the Asus. WUXGA is way too small to me for a 15.4" notebook though, the text will be really tiny. Also, the Sager has a DVI port, while the Asus doesn't. So if you plan on connecting your notebook to an HD monitor, that's a selling point for the Sager.

Hope that helps some
-Striker