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Review: Chuck232's Thorough Z71V Review (56K beware) - Page 3

post #41 of 68
7/7/05 at 3:48pm
I think I'm going to try with a Pentium M 1.7Ghz 400FSB. Anyone tried or have experience with the dipswitch on it? Do you think it's gonna work just like the 1.6? Do I have good chances of getting it stable? :P

Thank you.
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post #42 of 68
7/8/05 at 2:26am
Thread Starter 
Yep it should work the same as any 400MHz FSB CPU. Just flick the two switches to the right side to enable 533MHZ FSB and voila. Overclocking is always luck of the draw and nothing's guaranteed. However you'll be happy to know that there are people with the 1.7->2.26GHz mod working perfectly.
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post #43 of 68
7/8/05 at 3:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by InfoDav
I think I'm going to try with a Pentium M 1.7Ghz 400FSB. Anyone tried or have experience with the dipswitch on it? Do you think it's gonna work just like the 1.6? Do I have good chances of getting it stable? :P

Thank you.
See my sig.
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post #44 of 68
7/16/05 at 4:57pm

Building My Own z71v

Nice review, last week I built my own z71v and had the much of the same experiences.

Parts:
Asus Z71v = $750.00 at Computer Brain

1.8 745 400fsb Dothan = $314.00 at
Upgrade Source

DVDR $142.00 at
coboc

TOSHIBA Super Slimline 80GB 2.5" Notebook Hard Drive $127.00 at
newegg

Kingston 512MB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM Notebook Memory x2 $53.39 x 2 at newegg

INTEL WM3B2915ABGNAX Wireless Adapter $35.50 at
newegg

Total cost about $1530.00 including S&H and tax

I've built many desktops before but this was my first laptop, didn't take much longer to assemble then an average desktop.

Tried the 1.8 => 2.4 overclock and got BSODs oh well luck of the draw. At least my battery life is better.

Sparkles are there but you get used to them, don't even notice them anymore.

Build and size are perfect for me. This is my first laptop and I notice a significant loss of speed in HD access but had a raptor 10k drive before.

Comparing my laptop to a coworker that has the Sony Vaio FS660 the laptops are very similar in size, the overall construction on mine seems studier, but her screen is brighter with better viewing angles though lower resolution. Building my own z71v I have a faster notebook even though my overclock failed and saved $$$.

Question to the forum, any ideas on how to get the OC to work, I replaced the thermal tape on the heat pipe with artic silver. I've updated my BIOS to version 0208. Any ideas? Running at 1.8Ghz my temp goes up to 68 C this seems a bit high.

Also anyone know where I can find newer nvidia drivers that work with the 6600 go in this laptop?
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post #45 of 68
7/17/05 at 12:58am
Thread Starter 
The chances of getting the 1.8GHz->2.4GHz mod is pretty low to be honest. You could try a pin voltage mod if you're willing to have more heat pumped into the casing. From the sounds of it, you probably don't want that. You could however try this:

http://overclockers.com/tips1210/

It's a pretty simple mod that I'm actually considering doing once I get some thermal pads or something for the GPU so I only have to open it up once to do all the cooling mods.

68C is a bit high, but nothing to worry about too much if this is under full load. You could try reapplying AS5 and make sure you're getting good contact with the heatsink on the CPU.

This site:

http://www.tweaksrus.com/

Has modded drivers that work with mobile chips. I'm currently using their 80.40 version driver.
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post #46 of 68
7/18/05 at 12:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chuck232

This site:

http://www.tweaksrus.com/

Has modded drivers that work with mobile chips. I'm currently using their 80.40 version driver.
Thanks that link saved me some searching. Not sure about the mod though. I might first try checking that heatsink is on correctly. Man that was a pain to get on in the first place. Did the 533FSB OC work with the factory installed bios or did you flash it first?
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post #47 of 68
7/18/05 at 12:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve78
Nice review, last week I built my own z71v and had the much of the same experiences.

Parts:
Asus Z71v = $750.00 at Computer Brain

1.8 745 400fsb Dothan = $314.00 at
Upgrade Source

DVDR $142.00 at
coboc

TOSHIBA Super Slimline 80GB 2.5" Notebook Hard Drive $127.00 at
newegg

Kingston 512MB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM Notebook Memory x2 $53.39 x 2 at newegg

INTEL WM3B2915ABGNAX Wireless Adapter $35.50 at
newegg

Total cost about $1530.00 including S&H and tax

I've built many desktops before but this was my first laptop, didn't take much longer to assemble then an average desktop.

Tried the 1.8 => 2.4 overclock and got BSODs oh well luck of the draw. At least my battery life is better.

Sparkles are there but you get used to them, don't even notice them anymore.

Build and size are perfect for me. This is my first laptop and I notice a significant loss of speed in HD access but had a raptor 10k drive before.

Comparing my laptop to a coworker that has the Sony Vaio FS660 the laptops are very similar in size, the overall construction on mine seems studier, but her screen is brighter with better viewing angles though lower resolution. Building my own z71v I have a faster notebook even though my overclock failed and saved $$$.

Question to the forum, any ideas on how to get the OC to work, I replaced the thermal tape on the heat pipe with artic silver. I've updated my BIOS to version 0208. Any ideas? Running at 1.8Ghz my temp goes up to 68 C this seems a bit high.

Also anyone know where I can find newer nvidia drivers that work with the 6600 go in this laptop?
wow at 1.8ghz and undervolted.. my temps are soo low.. like 58 under full load =o..
at 2.4 it is 68 degrees

i guess i got a lucky chip
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post #48 of 68
7/18/05 at 12:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1CenT
i guess i got a lucky chip
Yeah stop gloating

Hey I thought I saw somewhere that you were thinking of switching to a z70v, which doesn't have a the dip-switch option. If you ever do, LMK I'll be interested in buying that chip.

Seriously if you are switching, what are the main reasons, I hear the screen better and chassis is nicer but is that worth the performance loss?
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post #49 of 68
7/18/05 at 12:46am
Thread Starter 
The 533MHz FSB OC did work with the factory BIOS. No changes needed. As for switching to the Z70V, most are waiting for the refresh which has a X700 GPU which would mean as good if not better performance. And even though there are no dipswitches, you can still pin mod it to a 533MHz FSB.
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post #50 of 68
7/18/05 at 1:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve78
Yeah stop gloating

Hey I thought I saw somewhere that you were thinking of switching to a z70v, which doesn't have a the dip-switch option. If you ever do, LMK I'll be interested in buying that chip.

Seriously if you are switching, what are the main reasons, I hear the screen better and chassis is nicer but is that worth the performance loss?
nah i'm not gonna switch..
i just luv the z70v to death tho.. but then if i ever switch i would wait for next generation before i do that..
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post #51 of 68
7/20/05 at 3:06pm

how 2

hey im just wonderin is there a guide 2 overclock this notebook??
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post #52 of 68
7/21/05 at 3:56pm
http://www.overclockers.com/articles1230/
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post #53 of 68
7/21/05 at 4:32pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, that's to o/c from 400MHz FSB to 533MHz FSB, however to overclock it any further than that, I'm not sure what clockgen you could use.
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post #54 of 68
9/1/05 at 12:07am
Chuck, great review. Very thorough, especially the investigation of the cooling.
Most notebook bios lack the adjustments found on a desktop motherboard. I've wondered, since Asus is a manufacturer known to enthusiasts, whether this notebook's bios has any controls for the memory timings?
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post #55 of 68
9/15/05 at 11:10am
Thread Starter 
Since it seems like people still read this review and I've had some updates after using it for three months, I'll be updating this review shortly. I'll see when I can find some time in this university schedule though.
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post #56 of 68
9/18/05 at 12:55pm
Thread Starter 
I've updated the original review. Hope that paints a more accurate picture now after some months of use.
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post #57 of 68
9/18/05 at 6:36pm
Thanks for the update! It's always good to get new perspectives on a notebook after a few months usage.
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post #58 of 68
10/2/05 at 10:22am
Nice review

Quick question - in linux, does the WiFi on / off button work "out of the box"? Also, does the laptop have a "mail" led?


If you want to remap the keys (ie the Fn key) you should be able to do it by grabbing the scan codes for both of the keys, and then altering them in the WinXP registry. There is a fairly decent explaination of how to do the mapping here

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device...kscan-map.mspx

A quick google search revealed this page of programs for getting the scan codes from your keyboard youself (or if you have linux, you can just monitor the keyboard to get them)

http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/d...can_code_info/

As for linux - the probable reason for the hotkeys not working is simply that they are not mapped to anything - you can really easily map stuff in linux, by just adding a hotkey config to the /etc/acpi/ folder. All you need to do is specify the scan code and some action (like commanding xmms to play or whatever)

Edit: Just found this for the Asus M6N - it is probably similar for the z71

Code:
/etc/acpi/events/hotkey

event=hotkey ATKD .*
action=/etc/acpi/hotkey.sh %e
\t

/etc/acpi/hotkey.sh

#!/bin/sh
# Thanks to Jan Philipp Giel for the template

case "$3" in
\t00000032)\t/usr/bin/amixer set Master toggle
\t\t\t;;
\t00000030)\t/usr/bin/amixer set Master 1+
\t\t\t;;
\t00000031)\t/usr/bin/amixer set Master 1-
\t\t\t;;
\t00000040)\tsu - am -c "/usr/bin/xmms -r"
\t\t\t;;
\t00000043)\tsu - am -c "/usr/bin/xmms -s"
\t\t\t;;
\t00000045)\tsu - am -c "/usr/bin/xmms -t"
\t\t\t;;
\t00000041)\tsu - am -c "/usr/bin/xmms -f"
\t\t\t;;
\t0000004c)\teject /dev/cdrecorder
\t\t\t;;
\t00000050)\tsu - am -c "export DISPLAY=:0.0;/opt/kde3/bin/kmail &"
\t\t\t;;
\t00000051)\tsu - am -c "export DISPLAY=:0.0;/home/am/bin/MozillaFirebird/MozillaFirebird &"
                        ;;
\t0000005d)\t/home/am/bin/centrino_check.sh
\t\t\t;;
\t*)\t\tlogger "ACPI hotkey $3 is not defined"
\t\t\t;;
esac
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post #59 of 68
10/2/05 at 10:59am
Thread Starter 
Wow, that's quite the research you've done! If I can get especially the volume controls to work on the keyboard in linux, I'll be very happy. The brightness controls already do so I'm guessing there's a partial file mapping there already.

I wonder if we can mod the registry somehow to change the audio DJ buttons. I still haven't found a way for it to open up Quintessential MP insteal of Windows MP...

EDIT: Oh yeah, there is an email LED. I don't personally use Outlook, which it seems to sync with, so I'm not actually sure if it works or not.
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post #60 of 68
10/4/05 at 10:57am
I should be getting mine delivered today (hopefully), so I will try to get the hotkeys working in linux, and that fn button remapped to control. I'll post the results here.

There should be a way of getting the DJ buttons working by editing the registry. The only real problem i forsee is if they are not part of the keyboard, and are wired into the motherboard or something really odd.

Thanks for the info on the mail led... i dont actually want it for mail, its quite handy to set it to notify you of new instant messages if you are in a full screen app - as long as you have a mail led, you can do anything you like with it - normally all you have to do is something like "echo 1 > /proc/acpi/whatever_the_driver_for_the_laptop_is/mail_led" and that will turn the led on, then you can echo 0 to turn it off... hopefully it will be a similar process on the asus
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