some questions for 8100 series owners

1. Sparkle? Uhh I don't think so...the Asus Z71V doesn't have a glossy screen, so it can't be that you're referring to. The 8104 has a screen with the same resolution as the Asus, but no I wouldn't say it sparkles. It looks the same as every other laptop screen I've ever seen, except that it's very clear, bright, and crisp. It's not glossy though, if you're looking for something like the Crystalbrite.

2. The fan shuts off when the clock is throttled down, for the most part. The 8104 comes with a throttler of its own, but I prefer RMClock which undervolts and does it very well. I bring it to class with me every day, and running at 800MHz (out of 2GHz) the fan rarely comes on at all. The laptop is very quiet otherwise, and even the fan doesn't seem too loud.

3. For me, it's normal running temperature at max speed is somewhere between 51-58 degrees celsius. The bottom rarely ever gets hot, but the touchpad does get warm but never uncomfortably. The palmrests do radiate some heat, but it's not an annoyance to me at all. The fan runs on the left side close to the back, and hot air does blow out when the fan's on obviously. You'll never burn yourself, not even close. During games, I've seen the laptop get to about 84 degrees after looong HL2 sessions and overclocked using ATI Tool, but even at that temperature it's doesn't feel any differently. The fan does get louder, though. With RMClock running, it never gets above 75 degrees, even after long gaming sessions. RMClock running on automatic mode improves the temperature anyway, and under normal use I usually hover around 45-50 degrees.

One more thing...the fan activates around 45 degrees and shuts off when it reaches 55 degrees celsius. But when it's plugged in, the fans runs a lot anyway because of the GPU. If you turn down the card to "balanced performance" in ATI's "Powerplay" when you're not gaming, it won't affect the fan.

4. The rocker is fine, if not stellar. I use it, but to get its full use in Firefox and some other programs you have to download the drivers that come with the 8000 series laptop. It's not a problem, just a few minutes of downloading and you're good to go.

5. The build quality is great, with the exception of the laptop being made out of plastic and not metal like a Powerbook. It's very sturdy and carries well while closed, and the flex is very minimal. If you push hard there is a bit, but you have to really push hard. It doesn't feel flimsy, if that's what you mean.

6. I'm getting about 3.5 - 4 hours of use without wi-fi and about 3 - 3.5 hrs with it, pretty damn good in my opinion. I need to test this out more, but it seems that RMClock improves battery life as well.

7. The keyboard takes a bit to get used to, but once you are it's perfectly fine. It feels great, in my opinion, and is really comfortable. The curve isn't enough to mess with other keyboard use either.

8. No problems here. Some people have experienced some power switching problems and screen flickering, but mine was perfect. It's a pain in the ass that the audio-out jack is in the front, but I run my speaker cable down below and under my desk. The USB ports are oddly placed, but I use a bluetooth mouse which works flawlessly with the internal bluetooth adapter.

Good luck dude, and I hope someone else understands the "sparkling" comment better. I hope this can help you, and you'll be getting a great machine if you choose the 8104.

I think the 8100 has this same "sparkle issue". But Jesus christ everyone has to calm down, it's not annoying at all and I think this forum is taking it too far.

.. so now i have a name for what i i called: the screen looks a bit "dirty"... it does. compared to my hp notebook (zd7000 series) it has that effect. it's not too bad though. but if u are a screen fetishist u will probably bother. a friend of mine is a graphicdesigener and she's working a lot with laptops and she only recogniced it after i told her - so it's definitly not that bad.

tough to me it seems like u should get a less powerful more light and quiet machine. every laptop with a decend cpu/ram/gpu configuration seems to have some kind of heat/fan issue.. it is a fairly quiet laptop if u undervolt it and run ad minimum cpu frequency and turn down the gpu - but there are quieter laptops out there. so if u don't really need the power of this one (say - if u don't us ur laptop for gaming etc) i'd recommend u a laptop with integrated gpu, smaller screen and a lower resolution... at least this is a desktop replacement.

if u need all that - the 8100 series is a good compromise and i am quite content with it.

greetings
gernot