Ciao all,
well, at last, after a long waiting, the notebook arrived... as an overall impression I'm quite satisfied by this notebook but, like everything, there are lighter and darker sides...
What follows is a short review. I'll answer to any other questions.
Case 7/10:
As any desktop replacements, also this notebook is not thin... it's height 4.2 cm when closed and 2.5 when closed... looked from behind is quite "fat"... but from any other side seems much thinner than what it is, due to "slopes" on this 3 sides. The construction is very solid... the keyboard is wonderful... the speaker are really powerful (there's also a subwoofer) so the sound is far superior to the average of notebooks
The expansion ports (5 USB, firewire, audio, Rj11, Rj45, LPT, VGA, Svideo, 4:1 reader, 1 PCMCIA, and IR) are placed in optimal positions (on the rear the less used, on the right side the most used, on the left the audio and few more), except for the DC POWER, which is on the left side... it would have been better to have placed it on the rear part... anyway, nothing too bad
Display 7/10:
I've a dead pixel! Actually it's just half dead pixel (only the green led)... beside this, the screen is very bright, and works well... it's a 4:3 15''... so a resolution of 1024x768 seems the best one...
CPU 9/10:
Despite what can be understood from what it's written in the asus web site, it is a real mobile athlon 64... the 62 W model (not the 82 W DTR as the price suggested)... the CPU is really fast (1 MB of L2 cache) and it's quite cool.... working at 800 MHz the fan goes off at minimun speed for 30-40 seconds every 4-5 minutes...
While at 1800 MHz (the top speed) the fan is always on (at minimum speed 2500 RPM) and throttles to 3400 when at 100% CPU... the maximum temperature reached after many hours of 100% CPU is 62 °C... normally it stays between 40 and 52...
ATI 9700 PRO 6/10:
A very fast GPU... but clocked only 392 MHz! The Memory is at 179 MHz! I've scored 9700 at 3dMark01... 2500 at 3dmark03... then I've tried to increase speed to 450/220... i scored 10300 and 3200... much better... but overclocked... moreover: powerplay seems not to be supported... at least I get nothing on the display setting pages...
Memory 7/10:
512 (256 x2) MB of DDR 333... not bad... anyway it's impossible to add further banks... I've upgraded it to 1 GB thanks to a promotional offer...
HD 6/10:
It's a 4200 RPM!!! Buuu.... anyway, faster than my previous 30 GB 4200 RPM... a bit noisy... also because the fan is almost always off...
DVD DUAL 8/10:
Seems able to read every CD I've tested... even the most "tricky"... it has support for DVD- and DVD+ (reading and writing)... can read even DVD-RAM! Not tested the speed... but it's a 2.5x
4:1 reader ?:
Not tested... but it lacks the support for Smart Media! I only use smartmedia!!!
Battery 7/10:
Tested only once... a 65 Wh battery, pretty light... it lasted 2 hours and 22 minutes with display always on (brightness lightly dimmed...), 800 MHz for 96% of the time and Wireless lan connection... not bad... surely can reach 2.7 hours without wireless lan... and with a heavy power saving 3 hours... I'll try ASAP
Portability 7/10:
It's a DTR... anyway it weights 3.4 Kg, which is not bad... moreober the AC adapter is a 90W model, so much lighter than any other DTR adapters... the carring bad is supplied with the pc!
well, at last, after a long waiting, the notebook arrived... as an overall impression I'm quite satisfied by this notebook but, like everything, there are lighter and darker sides...
What follows is a short review. I'll answer to any other questions.
Case 7/10:
As any desktop replacements, also this notebook is not thin... it's height 4.2 cm when closed and 2.5 when closed... looked from behind is quite "fat"... but from any other side seems much thinner than what it is, due to "slopes" on this 3 sides. The construction is very solid... the keyboard is wonderful... the speaker are really powerful (there's also a subwoofer) so the sound is far superior to the average of notebooks
The expansion ports (5 USB, firewire, audio, Rj11, Rj45, LPT, VGA, Svideo, 4:1 reader, 1 PCMCIA, and IR) are placed in optimal positions (on the rear the less used, on the right side the most used, on the left the audio and few more), except for the DC POWER, which is on the left side... it would have been better to have placed it on the rear part... anyway, nothing too bad
Display 7/10:
I've a dead pixel! Actually it's just half dead pixel (only the green led)... beside this, the screen is very bright, and works well... it's a 4:3 15''... so a resolution of 1024x768 seems the best one...
CPU 9/10:
Despite what can be understood from what it's written in the asus web site, it is a real mobile athlon 64... the 62 W model (not the 82 W DTR as the price suggested)... the CPU is really fast (1 MB of L2 cache) and it's quite cool.... working at 800 MHz the fan goes off at minimun speed for 30-40 seconds every 4-5 minutes...
While at 1800 MHz (the top speed) the fan is always on (at minimum speed 2500 RPM) and throttles to 3400 when at 100% CPU... the maximum temperature reached after many hours of 100% CPU is 62 °C... normally it stays between 40 and 52...
ATI 9700 PRO 6/10:
A very fast GPU... but clocked only 392 MHz! The Memory is at 179 MHz! I've scored 9700 at 3dMark01... 2500 at 3dmark03... then I've tried to increase speed to 450/220... i scored 10300 and 3200... much better... but overclocked... moreover: powerplay seems not to be supported... at least I get nothing on the display setting pages...
Memory 7/10:
512 (256 x2) MB of DDR 333... not bad... anyway it's impossible to add further banks... I've upgraded it to 1 GB thanks to a promotional offer...
HD 6/10:
It's a 4200 RPM!!! Buuu.... anyway, faster than my previous 30 GB 4200 RPM... a bit noisy... also because the fan is almost always off...
DVD DUAL 8/10:
Seems able to read every CD I've tested... even the most "tricky"... it has support for DVD- and DVD+ (reading and writing)... can read even DVD-RAM! Not tested the speed... but it's a 2.5x
4:1 reader ?:
Not tested... but it lacks the support for Smart Media! I only use smartmedia!!!
Battery 7/10:
Tested only once... a 65 Wh battery, pretty light... it lasted 2 hours and 22 minutes with display always on (brightness lightly dimmed...), 800 MHz for 96% of the time and Wireless lan connection... not bad... surely can reach 2.7 hours without wireless lan... and with a heavy power saving 3 hours... I'll try ASAP
Portability 7/10:
It's a DTR... anyway it weights 3.4 Kg, which is not bad... moreober the AC adapter is a 90W model, so much lighter than any other DTR adapters... the carring bad is supplied with the pc!
