I ordered one for my brother about 3 weeks ago as his college admission gift. Specs of interest are below:
15.4" WXGA
735 1.7GHz Dothan
ATI 9700 64MB GPU
512 333MHz kingston
40G 5400RPM Fujitsu HD
Intel 2200 WIFI
I went for the barebone system. Purchased it from computer brain. Customer service is really good. They gave me a call to confirm the order and offered to actually assemble the system and fully test it before it went out for a small fee. I went for it for some extra piece of mind. I received all my components from newegg in 2 days. 4 days later i received the barebone.
Laptop Arrived
Packaging was very professional. Barebone came with a nylon mesh carrying case, fairly small adapter, fake cd drive drawer, Tv out cable, some cds and a bunch of papers and manuals. I took out the laptop and though, wow this thing is pretty big!!. Keep in mind i have a 600E which was THE portable laptop of its days. I am still typing on it right now
, so i wasnt used to the larger size of 15.4" screen notebooks.
Assembly
I flipped the laptop and HD installation took exactly 2 mins. Memory took another 2 mins. Then i couldnt figure out how to get to the CPU socket. The lack of another "door" on the bottom made me think its probably below the keyboard. As expected, the manuals mention nothing about how to take the thing apart so i gave computer brain a call
. The tech was very helpfull and explained to me how its done. Basically 2 screws came off the bottom and three spring loaded latches where disengaged using a small screw driver. I carefully took off the keyboard and unattached the ribbon cable (CAREFULLY, its thing and fragile). After the keyboard was off i had to unscrew half of the top chassis brace. One thing i did notice is that below the composite exterior (doesnt feel like plastic), the chassis is fully metal. Nice!. So i got to the socket and in went the CPU with some thermal grease. After the CPU istallation was done i noticed that the second memory slot sits right next to it. So i took out the memory stick from the bottom and intalled it there while i was at it, incase there could be a future memory upgrade, i can just use the bottom slot. Next the WIFI card went in. The slot for that was on the other side of the laptop accross from the CPU socket. Everything went back together, took a deep breath and then pushed that silver power button for the first time 
.
Software installation
The LCD came on and i quickly pushed F2 to get into the bios. Made sure everything was correct and adjusted my boot priority. In went the XP cd and 15-20 mins later windows was good to go. After that i installed the Drivers included on the ASUS CD and some typical apps like office and such. Installing programs was VERY fast!. So everything looked good.
Hardware performance
I wanna mention that the screen is excellent. Very bright and colorfull. Viewing angles are very good. My old 600E screen doesnt even compare. And guess what............. NO DEAD PIXELS
AWESOME
The wifi clicked with my wireless home network and i was up and surfing. Downloaded the latest omega drivers and 3dmark01SE. Scored a woopin 7450 points
umm... hold on.... WTF! 
. So it turns out that the CPU is stuck at 600mhz. To make a long story short, it needed a bios update. Reran and 3dmark and got 10760. Thats more like it 
. So i used the laptop for about a week before my brother came back from vacation. Wow this thing is fast. I came to love the wide screen and got adjusted to the size. Its actually pretty thin for its class and doesnt way much at all compared to the big kahunas like HPs and such. Overall very happy with the purchase. My brother came back and loved it. Very nice machine with alot of features. I went back to my IBM and its like getting rid of your ferrari and going back to a metro. If you guys want some hi res photos i would be glad to take some....
Some scores:
Screen : 8/10 just because the new Xbrites came out recently. 10/10 in its own class
Keyboard: 8/10, little flex. Not bad
Sound: 7/10. I am not into laptop speakers and i have heard better.
feel/sturdiness: 9/10. Feels pretty sturdy. No case flex etc.
Battery life: 9/10 for its class. about 4.5 hrs.
-Moh
15.4" WXGA
735 1.7GHz Dothan
ATI 9700 64MB GPU
512 333MHz kingston
40G 5400RPM Fujitsu HD
Intel 2200 WIFI
I went for the barebone system. Purchased it from computer brain. Customer service is really good. They gave me a call to confirm the order and offered to actually assemble the system and fully test it before it went out for a small fee. I went for it for some extra piece of mind. I received all my components from newegg in 2 days. 4 days later i received the barebone.
Laptop Arrived
Packaging was very professional. Barebone came with a nylon mesh carrying case, fairly small adapter, fake cd drive drawer, Tv out cable, some cds and a bunch of papers and manuals. I took out the laptop and though, wow this thing is pretty big!!. Keep in mind i have a 600E which was THE portable laptop of its days. I am still typing on it right now
, so i wasnt used to the larger size of 15.4" screen notebooks.Assembly
I flipped the laptop and HD installation took exactly 2 mins. Memory took another 2 mins. Then i couldnt figure out how to get to the CPU socket. The lack of another "door" on the bottom made me think its probably below the keyboard. As expected, the manuals mention nothing about how to take the thing apart so i gave computer brain a call
. The tech was very helpfull and explained to me how its done. Basically 2 screws came off the bottom and three spring loaded latches where disengaged using a small screw driver. I carefully took off the keyboard and unattached the ribbon cable (CAREFULLY, its thing and fragile). After the keyboard was off i had to unscrew half of the top chassis brace. One thing i did notice is that below the composite exterior (doesnt feel like plastic), the chassis is fully metal. Nice!. So i got to the socket and in went the CPU with some thermal grease. After the CPU istallation was done i noticed that the second memory slot sits right next to it. So i took out the memory stick from the bottom and intalled it there while i was at it, incase there could be a future memory upgrade, i can just use the bottom slot. Next the WIFI card went in. The slot for that was on the other side of the laptop accross from the CPU socket. Everything went back together, took a deep breath and then pushed that silver power button for the first time .Software installation
The LCD came on and i quickly pushed F2 to get into the bios. Made sure everything was correct and adjusted my boot priority. In went the XP cd and 15-20 mins later windows was good to go. After that i installed the Drivers included on the ASUS CD and some typical apps like office and such. Installing programs was VERY fast!. So everything looked good.
Hardware performance
I wanna mention that the screen is excellent. Very bright and colorfull. Viewing angles are very good. My old 600E screen doesnt even compare. And guess what............. NO DEAD PIXELS
AWESOMEThe wifi clicked with my wireless home network and i was up and surfing. Downloaded the latest omega drivers and 3dmark01SE. Scored a woopin 7450 points
umm... hold on.... WTF! . So it turns out that the CPU is stuck at 600mhz. To make a long story short, it needed a bios update. Reran and 3dmark and got 10760. Thats more like it . So i used the laptop for about a week before my brother came back from vacation. Wow this thing is fast. I came to love the wide screen and got adjusted to the size. Its actually pretty thin for its class and doesnt way much at all compared to the big kahunas like HPs and such. Overall very happy with the purchase. My brother came back and loved it. Very nice machine with alot of features. I went back to my IBM and its like getting rid of your ferrari and going back to a metro. If you guys want some hi res photos i would be glad to take some....Some scores:
Screen : 8/10 just because the new Xbrites came out recently. 10/10 in its own class
Keyboard: 8/10, little flex. Not bad
Sound: 7/10. I am not into laptop speakers and i have heard better.
feel/sturdiness: 9/10. Feels pretty sturdy. No case flex etc.
Battery life: 9/10 for its class. about 4.5 hrs.
-Moh
i can't flash the bios because the bios rom says its an m6ne and the rom is m6n
