A8Js - Owner's Lounge

HOLY CROW!!!! I have given up gaming... I don't do it anymore... but... but... supreme commander?

My sweet spot has always been RTS. My favorite was always TA, but there has never been a TRULY GOOD successor.

That blew every expectation I ever had, just watching the video.

Oh, woe is me... woe is me...

 

Windaria,

Did you ever play TA:Spring? That was an open source engine that was designed by TA fans. It can support a whole range of mods, but there are some good TA-based mods for it. It's actually a better overall system than the original ta game (OTA). Good lobby client with lots of games running.

and ..... its better than SupComm in my opinion, at least its more fun and playable. Granted, SupComm is in beta, but I don't think it quite lives up the hype. Close maybe.

 

I hadn't seen any hype... I just saw those gameplay videos and nearly crapped my pants.

See, one of the things that I always LOVED about TA was that it wasn't small-scale. Most every RTS in the planet is a small-scale RTS where you maybe have 50-100 units. TA was one where you could just PUMP out the resources. Have tons of unit making factories in a rather short period of time, have them all make units and move them to a certain point, and just start flooding the map with over 100 moving like waves. So you'd prepare early, have them rally to a point where it was somewhat near where you wanted to start your attacks from, but once the battle really started raging you were orchestrating the battle not so much on an attack-by-attack basis, but simply directing your factories to produce and move to point A, B, C, etc. Ignoring most units that were already in existence, and just focusing on the ones that were coming out because they were all dying so fast.

You truly were your supreme commander. The battle was mostly at the presidential level. You were orchestrating the resources, the production, and the key strikes, and otherwise relying on your 'men' to shoot the right things, for the most part, simply because if you focused on ordering each attack then you would get swamped since there were just too many units to practically do that, both yours and the enemy.

It was the complete opposite of Warcraft, in that sense (though I was ranked fairly well in WCIII too).

Oh well... I've just never seen anything that comes close to that level, and what I saw in some of those videos was insane. Sure some of them were more small-scale with mega units that you would most certainly be directing a bit more... but for the most part...

I mean, you didn't have pointless peons walking all over collecting limited resources... oh no, instead you had nearly unlimited resources that could be harvested by simply having a structure. With unlimited resources came nearly unlimited power to simply build and build and build and churn out units like MAD. Yes, the early skirmish was the standard tactic. Then came the fast ramp-up, while maintaining a collection of units at all times until you could just let your factories go into endless production...

Sorry. I think I'm in love. I may actually play a computer game again for the first time in years (other than the occasional Mah Jong and Solitaire... that feecell certainly gets addicting).

And in the meantime I am waiting for Stamar's thoughs of his A8Js...

 

You've made no changes to the stock Windows install and you're getting 3.5 hours? I uninstalled Norton, Power4Gear (replaced with NHC), and made some Windows updates... but the most I can get is just shy of 3 hours. Even 3 hours was a surprise, since for the first two weeks I've only ever got 2h 45 minutes tops.

@peekaboo
Try updating the wireless drivers. I found that the stock installed drivers were buggy, as my wireless connection would drop after an hour or so, and the wireless card would freeze up (can't disable or enable). Not the same situation, but maybe it'd help with your hibernation problem.

EDIT:
As for the bag, I found it to be really small, and without much padding. It's not a bad case, and it's nice and compact and looks decent. Besides, I take it to school, so I don't want to carry a backpack and a messanger bag. I picked up the Elecom ZeroShock III sleeve to use with my backpack. (You can order it from Shinza, or if you're in Vancouver, you can get it locally at a store in Yaohan center). The ZeroShock 14.1" version fits the A8js perfectly, and snugly. The low-resilience foam feels like it'd offer a fair bit of shock absorption, the steel frame surrounding the case also adds some protection on the edges. The case seems to have a lot of lint, and it is a little bit bulky (adds almost an inch to the thickness), so it may not be the best choice for use with a usually full backpack -- but protection was my primary goal and I think this sleeve has it in spades.

 

You are quite lucky then. I've only gotten about 2:30 hours tops with the brightness turned way down, the cpu running at half speed, and wi-fi off.

 

3 hours 22 minutes with power4gear

I mean it switches profiles automatically to something. the screen does dim though.

My laptop also has the power4gear sticker and not the splendid sticker so I am thinking there is something different about it.

The difference could be entirely software.

Im hoping that I actually have a different battery than you all lol Im researching this obviously.

Ive given a lot of thoughts windaria but i had to write papers over the weekend. Im using the thing at least 4 hours a day.

I love my machine

I can catch up on a few more negative things though, some that other people mentioned....

The lid is so easy to scratch. All the silver of the machine is made of a material that will mar so easily. All a8j computers will be quite ugly in a short amount of time you wont be able to avoid scratches.

I am going to attempt to wax it.

viewing angle is below average, worse than most . If you look for a dell e1405 or a toshiba model that use the same screen you might be able to see it.
If you are right in front of it it looks great though.

 

Mine also had the Power4Gear sticker. Which Power4Gear profile were you using at the time?

 

heh if its in any setting other than stock setting its entirely by accident is all I can tell you right now.

 

I just love reading what people think of this laptop. I mean, when I get one, I actually need to get two (both my wife and myself need to upgrade), so I don't know when it will happen... but I am obsessive about research, so oh well.

I wonder... I am assuming that this Splendid and Power4Gear thing are windows applications. Anything similar in the Linux arena? I believe I will likely install Windows when I get a computer, and not just use Linux, but it will be my primary OS.

 

Windaria,

The A8Js is a good machine, but it is by no means perfect. The longer I have had it the more I have realized some of the little things that are bothering me. Its best aspect is its performance, it is truly a speed demon. If you want a fast notebook while sacrificing other things, its a good buy.

 

well the first thing I can say is having 2 gb ram doesnt help battery life thats one thing you two have in your signature that I do not.

btw the setting says "quiet office"

 

Yes, but the question is... "what do you sacrifice"? If it is just build finish then I don't mind. Some people talk about viewing angles... It isn't like I am going to work on my laptop while it is at a 90 degree angle or anything, so I don't see that as being an issue either.

I haven't really read anything that sounds like an issue so far, so long as the hardware isn't sacrificing anything that would take away from longevity.

Everything is a trade-off... the only question is what. So far I have yet to hear of anything serious.

 

Windaria,

None of the "issues" I'm referring to affect performance. Things that are becoming inconveniences to me are the poor viewing angles, very poor internal speakers (the sound is great with external speakers however), the trackpad button click can be annoyingly loud, the junk dvdrw (its terribly loud and the latch is very difficult to press), the bad front latch to open the lcd, the below average battery life for this size of notebook (I realize its specs are quite powerful), etc. Some of these are just nitpicking, others could be pretty big concerns to potential owners.

 

Hrm... OK. Well, I don't mind viewing angles... in some ways I rather like that, as it means that people near me won't see my screen anywhere near as easily. To me it means "privacy". As for the speakers, I always use headphones as I hate to have those near me listen to what I am, so I don't mind that either.

What do you mean by the loud trackpad button?

Can you replace the dvdrw? I know that they do make aftermarket ones for laptops... if it is junk, then is this something that I can upgrade later?

The latch... OK, that is one thing, but at least it sounds like it will keep it secure. I would hate to have it accidentally open on me.

As for the battery life, I am mostly looking at 15-17" notebooks. The life is only low because of the system specs, and the fact that it has a 6 cell battery with that kind of a video card. I would never even consider a 14" notebook without this video card anyway, so for me it is a tradeoff. I gain a bit of portability, but instead of having a 15 or 17" laptop with a 9 cell battery, I just have a 14 with a 6 cell. Personally I don't mind that. My little wife won't mind it either, considering that carrying a heavier notebook is more of an issue to her, and neither of us want one of the typical crap performance 14" notebooks. <shrugs>

 

I am starting to write my review I am reviewing all the problems mentioned in this thread

I notice no noise from my dvd player though as I am preliminary looking at it.

quite standard except the whole front is the release button as opposed to a button.

 

I'm with Windaria on this.... I don't hear any serious concerns.
I'll have mine tomorrow so maybe I'll have different concerns.
I plan on trying a few good programs to get more hours out of it, but also to get more power out of it when needed....
Frankly, I'm very excited about this machine and one thing that nobody has addressed is the fact that it will become a real workhorse on 64 bit programs if anyone ever builds them.

 

Like I said, a lot of it may be nitpicking on my part. But I am sure someone out there looking to buy one would be curious about these things, as well as other things people have mentioned in this thread.

I still very much like this laptop, don't get me wrong. It is just after owning it for a bit longer you start to see its faults. Obviously no laptop is perfect.

 

I'll give my two cents in a "mini-review". I was going to write a review, even started to last week but have been swamped with work ... which I've been using this laptop to deal with!

Overall, I love it ... and I can't even stand my desktop anymore. This is my first laptop and I doubt I'll ever go back to a desktop. I shut my down last week and haven’t used it once.

Build & Design

Pretty good overall although I don’t have a huge basis for comparison. I like the look a lot and overall it feels pretty sturdy. There may be hinge problems down the road, but they feel fine so far Latch button and DVD tray are not the nicest quality as mentioned. The USB ports feel a little “gritty” when plugging things in too, but it hasn’t been a problem.

This thing weights about 5.3 lbs. It is a very comfortable weight to carry around. I have a 25 minute walking commute, and it hasn’t been bad to carry along with accessories, paper notebooks, readings, etc… Of course I seem to be not bothered by carrying lots of weight. Carrying the notebook in your hand is pretty comfortable, and if the screen is closed, it is balanced towards the backend, so its pretty comfortable to move about with one hand if needed.

Screen

Very sharp and crisp, mediocre viewing angles, low/moderate light leakage. The light leakage is the biggest problem for me, since I do a lot of digital imaging work, and the image at the bottom of the screen is invariably a different tone than the same color at the top of screen. This is my ONLY significant concern with this model.

The higher WXGA+ resolution is AWESOME! I couldn’t imagine only having 1200x800. This was a huge selling point for me. I’ve played some RTS and FPS games, and the response time seemed very good, no ghosting or blurring so far as I could tell.

Speakers

God awful. But I don’t care. In all honesty, it doesn’t seem like anyone should be expecting good sound from notebook speakers, but these are pretty grim. My wife has a Toshiba Tercra A6 (14.1” notebook too) and it sounds amazing by comparison.

On the other hand, external speakers or headphones sound surprisingly good. Unfortunately, the drivers don’t allow you to adjust bass/treble though, so you’ll need to do that through the external speaker controls or through whatever media player you are using. No volume control other than using the Fn-volume.

Performance

Yes, this is a speed demon in a very portable package. I posted some benchmarks on the OP. I think this is the fastest performing 14.1” on the market. I’m regularly using 1-2 adobe products plus GIS software and am exceeding 1.5 gb of ram usage, and it rips along just fine.

Game performance is a lot better than my desktop (Athalon XP 2700+, 1gb ddr3200, Geforce 6600GT) across the board. I played through the FEAR and PREY demos on med to high settings and it was very smooth. I can’t remember a single instance of the system getting bogged down. I’ve been playing the Supreme Commander beta too, which has crippled a lot of other people’s computers, but the a8js seems to handle it well.

My only gripe about performance is the 5400rpm drive. I will definitely upgrade to a 7200rpm drive sometime in the near future. I may wait for 7200 perpendicular NB drives to come out before that.

Heat & Noise

A little warm on the palm rest. Moderately warm air vents out of back right corner into mouse’ing space during intense gaming. Of course, its winter and it helps keep my paw warm. I can’t imagine this ever being a big source of irritation though.

Pretty quiet overall. The HD ticks a little when its doing lots of crunching. The DVD player sounds like a vacuum cleaner though. Don’t put media into the drive in the middle of a meeting! I haven’t tried burning anything yet, but it played DVD’s without a hitch.

Keyboard + Touchpad

The keyboard is nice, and I can’t stand normal desktop keyboards anymore! The layout is average and of course the Fn and CTRL key are swapped. I’ve gotten used to it. Its only an issue in FPS gaming, but I can just shift my key set up to the right a key and its all good.

There is a minor amount of flex across the middle of the keyboard when doing heavy typing (I think I’m a heavy typer), but you only notice it if you’re starring at the keys while typing. The key’s are on the quiet side, but they are definitely not “silent.” May have to watch typing in quiet situations.

The touchpad is really nice. I thought I’d HATE the touchpad, but its pretty useful. You can program functions in the four corners (I have forward/back buttons, open explorer, and jump to start menu programmed). The scroll bars take some getting used to in order to find the sweet spot, but they work well.

The buttons ARE difficult to press, and a little clunky, particularly the RMB. Oh well, its not a huge deal. I really like the look of the touchpad area however

Input & Output

5 USB, DVI, Firewire, Card Reader (works great!), ExpressCard, VGA, the usual. Lots of options, well placed, works well.

Wireless

Worked out of the box, but upgrading the drivers helps to reduce dropped signals.

Battery

I get about 2:30 to 2:45 in battery mode. Its is a downside of having such great performance, but I knew that going into it.

OS & Software

Check the OP for a list of pre-installed software.

OVERALL:

I’m loving it.

The outstanding characteristics is the performance, size/weight, screen resolution & sharpness, and input/output options. The downside is a low battery life, lower ‘quality’ screen (light leakage, bad viewing angle), and mediocre build quality.

It all depends on your priorities and budget, and for me, this laptop is exactly what I was looking for. There are a few cons, but they are drastically overtaken pros IMHO.

 

I agree completely! I think part of the problem with the speakers is location... I'm not sure how this compares to other notebooks though.

Personally, I feel the vertical viewing angle is the real issue.

You don't have a button on your DVD drive?

 

oh ya i do never mind

 

here is my highest 3dmark 05 score

http://www.geocities.com/stamarus/untitled.JPG

simply going into taskmanager and shutting things down and using a ram defragmenter should make it go up to 5500

I might do 06 tommorow but doing this is so time consuming lol. As far as I know this was the one thing I never saw on this site was overclocking the 05 score.

although the core will go to 550 the ram will not go to 500 and it doesnt seem to make it any faster to go to 550 it goes slower.

based on my knowledge thats all she wrote

the ram is clocked maximum.... it didnt get hot.... theres no like cooling to do to it no instability.

overclocking the core doesnt do anything more. I think around 540 if it were stable the score could go up 100 or so max from that.

 

Odds are the 7700Go is "data starved" so increasing the core clock won't have a big effect on performance. Too bad the video RAM is DDR2 and not DDR3...

 

12Marshall... they do make 64 bit programs for Linux. <smiles> Then again, most of them are server programs and really don't apply to commonly used programs. Oh well.

It isn't really nitpicking. Some of them are... the dvdrw and the trackpad button are most assuredly concerns for me. Issues? I don't know... but concerns.

Light leakage will be an issue too though. The only thing is that it is my understanding that a lot of them have this issue, and certainly all of them that are in my ideal price range for the features that I want.

Funny thing is, one of the biggest issues for me is the fact that the A8Js has a standard notebook keyboard, and not a keyboard that is more like the Acer Travelmates. Yes, I know they are the only laptop manufacturer with keyboards like that... but I mean, I use a natural keyboard. And sure a 5 degree bend in the keys isn't anywhere near as big as a natural keyboard, but anything that helps you separate your hands on a LAPTOP keyboard has GOT to be a godsend. Oh well... I can't justify $500 for a bent keyboard.

Ewww... preinstalled software.

One question... what kind of Windows CD does this come with? Does it just come with a "Recovery" CD, or does it have a standard Windows OEM CD, as well as their recovery CD? The reason that I ask is that one of the first things that I will do is make 4 different partitions. 3 8-gig partitions and the rest in one large partition. I will then use the 3 10-gig partitions for Linux, XP, and Vista (if I do go the Vista route), and use the last one for storage for all of the OSes to read. Sadly I will probably have to use NTFS as Windows can't read EXT3, I don't think... but oh well.

If it doesn't come with a standard Windows CD then I will have to buy that, which will add $80. Oh well.

 

I had the problem when merely restarting the machine, it works if you in the wireless connections programs (where you can see all the available networks) you just disconnect and reconnect to your wifi router...

But no I simply tried removing the software asus net4switch (which is supposed to take care of network profiles) and the problem disappeared...

where did you find the new drivers? On Asus website??

Thanks in advance

 

Starmar,

was that 5100 score with some OC'ing? Pretty high! What was your core/mem clock speed?

I only got 4237 w/ no oc'ing

EDIT: nvm, I see your speeds in your sig.

 

I had made some comments here that seemed best fit in another forum, so I have moved that post to the other forum. But if anyone is interested in server functionality, bit torrent downloads while your laptop is off, data backup solutions, viewing your downloaded videos on your entertainment center, etc. (and more than I had originally posted here), click here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1652903#post1652903

 

I added my benchmarks to the OP.

Regarding backups storage. Down the road I will get an ExpressCard serial adapter and a serial drive in an external enclosure. Basically you get the same performance as the internal HD. You can get a huge 3.5" one touch backup drive if you want for backups.

One thing that most people affected by HD crashes don't have is any sense of what/where their critical data is. They don't keep it on a seperate partition or copies on an external HD. Consequently, when they get a "crash," often just corrupted OS files that may require a reformat of the system drive, they loose all their data. I've yet to ever have a HD drive ever actually cease to function, and some of them in my desktop is over 5 years old, and purring right along.

EDIT REGARDIING WINDOWS: It comes with an XP recovery disk. I've heard that even if you wipe the recovery partition you can still install XP, and there is a way of bypassing the usual recovery operation and get a "clean" xp install.

Check section 3.2 in this thread for Asus specific recovery: Installing Windows

 

What kind of temperature are you guys getting on your A8Js when playing games?

I play AOE III and I use SpeedFan to read the temperatures, and this is what I get:

Local Temp: 57
Remote Temp: 63
HDD: 60
Temp1: 67

I'm guessing the Remote Temp is CPU, Temp1 is GPU, HDD is HD, and Local temp, I'm not sure what it is.

When it's on idle, I get these reading:

Local Temp: 43
Remote Temp: 48
HDD: 44
Temp1: 44

The laptop is on A/C, factory settings, I haven't changed anything yet.

Do these look normal to you guys?

 

So you CAN get a 'clean' XP install? YES! Awesome, that saves me $80 right there ($160 for me and my wife).

OK, you just made my day if that is true.

 

Hey guys got my A8Js three days ago, and after three straight days of playing around with it, here what I think:

Solid build, good heavy base for a 14.1 inch laptop. Alot of hassle when trying to re-install a new version of windows but nothing a bit of time could solve. Keyboard has little to no flex, but the trackpad is pretty annoying if you have moist fingertips (fingers don't glide smoothly). One thing that was really annoying is that I had to install my wireless and hotkey drivers after my windows did an update.

Built in speakers are garbage, but I didn't expect much from them. One thing I really lke about this laptop is the heat. There is little heat, even when gaming, so I can game on this on my lap with no problems. Battery life is okay, but I didn't expect much with this much power, I get about 2.5 hours with brightness at medium and wireless on. Gaming is awweeesssooomeee. I've been playing Battlefield 2142 for about 2 hours last night, and no stutters or anything with everything set to high at 1024x768 resolution.

All in all this laptop is awesome, I don't regret buying it. I posted a problem with my DVD drive, but that was my fault, I had a bit of caramel on one of the dvd's (don't ask lol). Anyone who is debating on whether or not to get this laptop, do not hesitate this laptop is great!

 

My temps on A/C factory settings are at

43C for CPU
36C for Hard Drive

 

bbc84, I'm assuming that is in idle?

I upgraded the HD to a 7200 Seagate. Though I don't understand what would contribute to such a huge difference of 8 degrees in temperature when the system is idle.

 

lh0628:

Do you know if installing a new HD will voif the global asus warranty?

 

i played half life 2 episode 1

In a 1024 x 768 window while downloading at 300 kb/s and running other programs

everything set to max and got 80-100 fps


so it barely even noticed half life 2 it was like small annoyance.


The speakers are standard laptop speakers most sound exactly like that. they are not the next grade up, like were in my old sony laptop.
nothing that out of the ordinary about them. they are loud enough and have enough fidelity to listen to a movie and hear the quality of an mp3

not the audiophile type.

I am not certain what kind of speakers asus uses in each model

 

There's no yes/no awnser for this.

Do a search for "asus warranty" and there are some helpful posts.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/search.php?searchid=532981

 

well I am just learning about this dalantech,

but what purpose does overclocking the core over the ram do?

what is the core possibly doing going faster than the ram?

I did notice score increase of 80 points by raising it to 520 from 490 but that could have been other factors too as I was starting to shut down background programs.

then raising it to 550 made the score fall back 200 points.

 

yes it is at pretty much idle, or light usage like word proccession and surfing the web. As im looking through this site its still the same temperature.

 

The core processes the pixel data and applies all the 3D effects, so overclocking the core could increase the GPUs ability to generate frames.

But the core can only process the frame buffer (what you're seeing on the LCD) only as fast as Video RAM can supply it with data...

The core may be able to process the frame buffer faster than Video RAM can supply data to it -so that the core is just sitting there chewing up clock cycles waiting for data from Video RAM.

 

Very impressive!!!

 

3dmark 06


http://www.geocities.com/stamarus/06.JPG

500/492
http://www.geocities.com/stamarus/06oc2.JPG

 

BTW stamar who is 'joel unger'?

 

me 123456778

 

Impressive scores you got there stamar, what games are you playing now?

 

i have only looked at the games lol i havent really played much of them

i tried half life ep 1
rise of legends
hommv

None of the current games yet like oblivian those are all old school games. My a8js runs them all at 1440 x 900 max settings and shadows at high fps

ill see some of the newer games later. Lkike oblivian and nwn2

The most impressive thing ive seen was actually the 3dmark 06 tests and it definitely was slow going through those.

 

Very nice scores Stamar! I knew the 7700 could break 3k for '06 and 5k for '05, and you just proved it. Next thing is just to overclock the CPU a little. Don't think it's possible... perhaps with software. LOL you just made me want to get an A8js even more....

 

Did someone try Linux on this laptop (Fedora Core 5 if possible), i would have some feedback > Is the ethernet controller installed automatically ? Is it stable ? (This is the two important things for me) , and what about sound card.

I plan to sell my Acer extensa 4102 and a Sony Vaio S5XP for this Asus, but trading 2 computers for 1 makes me fell bad :/ , so it realy has to be THE super-great computer I need

 

Hrm... peekaboom... just to ask, how much bloatware is in the basic XP install? As in, does Asus include a lot of garbage, much like Dell or Gateway, that just bogs it down and is FAR more of an annoyance than anything else?

I would also be interested in Linux compatibility... particularly with regards to Ubuntu.

 

The general consensus is that Asus bundles far less bloatware in their basic install than the other major companies. A quick uninstall of Norton and maybe one or two other programs leaves you only with useful add-ons. If you're really paranoid, going through a re-install using Asus' restore CDs but restarting when it asks for the driver CD will leave you with a clean install, minus some of the drivers which you can then manually add.

~ Brett

 

hei, stamar. your score is quite impressive. Did you use any optimization software or diable any pre-installed program or service? I dont have 3Dmark 06 but my 3Dmark 05 score is about 4600 with defualt configuration. I've no idea if its normal.......

 

r


no I didnt spend time to configure it very well. Some but I didnt create a gaming profile uninstall drivers and system programs.

This computer starts with 46 processes going which is a huge amount.

If you were interested in raising your score from just a software end you could make both scores go up 100s of points.

But because you cant overclock it past 500 that is all to improve.

Btw overclocked it isnt hot at all its barely different. I dont remember the temperatures but a few degrees different.

btw I really like the program power4gear and splendid I wouldnt want to lose those those are really good. I dont think there is another one out there Id rather have unless one you think so. This is in response to bloatware.