Hello to everyone
Been a long time I havent visited notebookforums mostly because I made my choice and I'm very happy with it. I kept the W3V. But as some suggested I made some modifications.
W3V model had some features I wanted and was impossible to have with the V6V:
8x DVD-R speed
S-Video out
Longer battery life (~30 min more than the V6V)
I took from the V6V:
the HD (80BG @5400rpm)
the processor (replaced the 1.73 one with the V6V 2.00)
one of the 512 RAM that was on the V6V
and I put them on the W3V.
Result: Everything works fine!
The processor was pretty easy to change though you have to be very careful
The machine I have now is very compact, has everything I could want on a light-weight laptop. Really happy with it.
For the moment I dont have any heat problems on the palmrest. On the downside it gets pretty warm but not what I would call hot or somehow disturbing.
I went with some overall benchamrks and compared with other laptops on the net and I was very satisfied. e.g 1min37secs to calculate 2M digits Pi with "Super Pi", 366 pts with Performance Test, 12159 for 3DMark 2001. As for games NFSU2, F1 2002 and Virtual Pool (Its the games I play most) they work flawlessly. For more recent or demanding games I guess most would turn fine but for this you'll have to try them.
Cons:
The fan turns on more often than before and there is a little more noise but still nothing bothering. I hope a future bios update will improve this as this model comes with such a processor as an option.
As many have noticed the sound in the W3V is not very good, not the quality but the volume. It doesnt have any distortion but it doesnt get as loud as I'like. The last update I found on the Asus site improved this but dont expect any miracles. At this point the V6V had an advantage as it was really loud for a laptop even if there was no bass at all. But I guess this goes for all laptops unless they have an integrated subwoofer like the Asus W1.
I guess some people are wondering "what about the guarantee?"
Well normally, no more guarantee I guess unless I have the luck Asus wouldn't mind in case I needed Asus support. From my experience Asus notebooks have top quality so I'm not really worried about it. But I'm sure some of you are sceptical and would consider this crazy and without any important reason to do it. At the beginning I was hesitating but for me its a matter of feeling like with most things in life (goes the same for my guitars). I ended feeling better with the
W3V in my hands with its final custom configuration than the V6V.
Honestly if I needed 2 laptops and had more money for the rest of my projects I would have kept both. From what I've seen, Asus indeed has THE best design IMHO. I also believe the same about quality and features for the purposes I wanted it.
Thanx to those who gave their opinion, suggestions or voted at the poll.
I'd be glad to answer to your questions if u have any.
Peace
