A8jm owner's Lounge

Yeah, I agree!! X1600 vs GF7600 vs our skills!!

 

Hey guys, I just got my A8Jm a few days ago in the mail and I'm loving it! It's my first notebook so I'm really enjoying the mobility from home to office, even when in the car! I'm definitely not used to the keyboard yet, although I'm sure it's quite normal for notebooks to have such little travel compared to a standard keyboard.

I'm using this puppy to do Auto Cad work and it SMOKES that program like nobodies buisness. This is hugely to do with the power of the 7600 which also benifets from the fact that Nvidia's cards are all superior in OpenGL applications which is the video engine utilized by Auto Cad. The core duo is also quite impressive, and while using dual monitor it's really like having two computers at once. Although can anyone help me with gaming on dual monitor? I want to use my larger CRT to display the game but it auto-defaults to the 14"LCD.

3DMark 05 I scored somewhere in the range of 3750 because I decided I'd like to see more eye candy and not set it all to max performance. With a mamoth graphics card like this, it's not always about the fps ya know!

Oh and aslo, this is just speculation but I think that the core duo processor really benifits from a lot of RAM since it is shared between both processors when multiple things are being calculated at the same time. EG. when booting or shutting down the computer. I couldn't say no to the 130 dollar 2gb ram upgrade offered at milestone and so far I can see that there has not once been a ram slowdown where the processor has had to access the hard disk for extra resources. Do people in Europe feel any kind of slowdown from ram with the meager standard of 512mb installed in the A8J?

Maybe I'll download a utility to overclock my card, but I'm not as intense about overclocking as I was maybe a few years ago. Besides, if I were to game with overclocked settings I think I might have to worry about dehydration due to the amound of sweat my mouse hand would give off! I can't imagine the W3J being much hotter than the A8Jm, I can see that this thing can seriously push the mercury when in full flight. Thank god the fan isn't very powerful, otherwise my mouse hand would have no escape! But seriously it's not a huge deal, but I definitely think this is a major build problem and I'm sure ASUS will learn from this and avoid a right facing outtake in the future.

 

Hey guys, I'm almost done my A8Jm review to submit to Notebookreviews.com. Mind commenting on things I'm missing, what else I need etc?

thanks, the link is on my sig.

ps. yeah... still need more info for Everest and Battery life, and ppl have requested info on build in mic and webcam quality. Will put those in later on.

 

I ran mine on the battery today, surfing the web etc. with the screen at about 40% brightness and got 3 hours 15 mins. I'm happy with that.

 

hey darrick, I've read a lot of your review (even though I own A8Jm now!) and I've found one thing which needs changing.

Regarding the 7600go, it actually has 256mb of dedicated RAM and uses TurboCache technology to access system RAM for the remaining 256mb. This technology is equivalent to ATI's hypermemory which also uses system RAM to increase texture memory when needed. BTW the 7600 will rarely if ever use more than 256mb of graphics memory, same with the x1600 from ATI.

 

Buddie, the 7600go in the A8JM has 512mb of DEDICATED ram. No turbocache.

 

Buddie: yeah.. as far as I know and read.. our 7600 has 512 dedicated... do you have sources that can prove it's only 256 and 256 TC? I don't mind chaning it if it's wrong... but everything I've seen has said 512 dedicated.

 

Yes, I think Darrick is right. I looked around at 3 sites that sell the A8jm and all of them said 512MB's dedicated. I earlier thought it was 256 + 256 Turbochache just like the X1600, but I guess not.

 

Hey Folks,
Just joined the forum after lurking for a while. Tyring to decide on my first laptop and having a hard time. Just wondering: what made you choose the A8JM over the W3J? They are both so similar that I really can't pick one over the other! The W3J imho is better looking & appears sturdier, but the A8JM is cheaper & has a web cam. The gpu's are quite similar in performance. I am also considering the Dell XPS M1210, but the gpu is a little underpowered for my taste. I like to game, so the gpu is important. Any input that would help me decide would be greatly appreciated!

 

I think why most people chose the A8jm over the W3j is because the price is less than the W3j and it has a built in webcam. Why people chose the W3j? Built in Bluetooth, slightly more powerful GPU, better looking, and built better (brushed aluminum lid). Also the A8jm isn't as available in the US as the W3j is, so that could be another reason why there are more W3j owners. The Dell XPS m1210 is a nice notebook, but overpriced in my option. It would take $1800 to get everything in par with the W3j. And it's graphics card and build quality still wouldn't be quite there.

 

Yeah... for me:
- A8Jm is a few hundred dollars cheaper
- I don't care about looks that much
- DVI-D (W3J has none)
- 5 USB ports vs 3 USB ports for more peripherals
- Webcam

Jason, IMO - the A8Jm was supposed to come with BT, and all versions except North America has it, so I don't think it can be considered a disadvantage vs W3J.

 

you can always go w/ the portableone's MX which is a8jm with BT. It is also configurable, and the reseller's supposedly very very good.

 

I personally can recommend Portableone. I ordered not too many days ago, and the same day I received a phone call from them to confirm the shipping address (not on credit card) etc. Very friendly etc.

 

Thanks for the input guys.
I have been looking at PortableOne & have been in contact with a sales Rep who has been extremely helpful & friendly, answering all my queries promptly. At this moment, I am definitely leaning more towards the A8JM. The web cam is a huge draw for me as it would help me stay in touch with my family. Am awaiting feedback from Darrick (or anyone else, for that matter) on the quality of said webcam & mic. I am also partial to NVidia gpu's (being an avid gamer). Would really like to see some overclocked benchmarks!

 

Me too!!!

 

I've been using my A8Jm for over 2 weeks now. I really like it. But one thing that I was a bit disappointed on was the slow optical drive. I just started burning a DVD today and found out it reads at 6x and writes only at 2.4x. That is turtle slow. I have a bunch of 16x DVDs thats useless now.

 

Eh? really? I better check that out too...

But your 16x DVD's should be ok. I read somewhere that you can use the 16x media if you do a firmware upgrade for 2.4x burners...

 

Nero seems to give me at least an 8x option for dvd burning speed. I'll try it out later tonight/tomorrow morning and confirm that. My pool addiction is calling my name right now

 

Same! What is it with A8jm owner's? They don't seem to overclock nearly as much as Asus W3j owner's. Lets see what the 7600 can really do.

 

I'll do some overclocking and benchmarking in a day or two, and I'll post up my results. Any specific requests?

 

I burnt a couple of DVDs at 8x myself.

 

Cool! My only requests would be to run 3dmark05 and '06 if you have the time. And if you have CSS you could also run the Source stress test. Thanks!

 

ill just point out the source stress test on the 7600 hits 120 FPS

 

Not but what resolution was these on? What settings?

 

Anybody played BF2 or COD2 on the A8JM yet? If so, at what rez & what was the playability like? Framerates? Still waiting to hear about the camera. Any good?

 

The camera is decent enough. HL2 plays awesome, all settings on high.

 

I would estimate, based on it's 3dmark scores that it can do this:
BF2 - medium settings with 1 gig ram - 40 fps multiplayer @ 1280x800
COD2 - multiplayer high settings - 28-32 fps @ 1280x800 without AA/AF/HDR

 

Has anybody tried installing linux on this? Specifically the Ubuntu distribution. If I really do end up getting this one, I'll need linux for development purposes.

 

Just ran some benches. Non overclocked, nothing special done, not rebooted in a few day: 3dmark 2001SE: 18993 3dmark 05: 3949

For comparason, my desktop system gets 21000 in 01 SE (Athlon64 @2.4ghz, 1gb ram, 2x stock 6600gt's in SLI). I haven't run 05 on my desktop in a while, but i will, for comparason.

Whats a good utility for OCing my vid card on my A8jm?

dafrabit: I have an Ubuntu 6.06 disk here that I'll try later.

 

Any more battery life stats?

Could some of you guys do some tests?

Thanks.

 

OC'd Benchmarks:

Stock: 450 core/400 mem.
Oc'd: 516 core/443 mem. any higher on the mem gets artifacts, core may go higher yet

2k1 se: 19334
2k5: 4504

gonna try a little higher on the core, but its getting kinda warm......

EDIT: at 524 core, it was freezing pretty bad in 3dmark 2k5, and I ended up with a score of 2700. It looks like ~515 is about the max for the core, and 440-450 will be the max for the memory.

 

Dang thats quite a good score man! I didn't think the 7600 could break 4500. Almost as good as the X1600 Oc'ed. I just did a re-foramt of my desktop: AMD 3200+ (2ghz), 2GB's DDR400, Geforce 6800 and just ran 3dmark05 and got 3750. I have had it up to 5k with driver updates, GPU overclock, CPU overclock to 2.5ghz. I'm doing some tests to see what exactly benifits 3dmark05. First I will update the drivers. Second I'm goig to Oc the CPU to 2.5ghz then run it again. 3rd I will OC the GPU. The highest I ever got was 4987. I want to break 5k.

What drivers are you running? What resolution?

 

^ Lol reachin 5000 3dmark05 is pretty good with a 6800Vanilla.. You shoulda bought a 6600GT.. it can get to 5500 if u overclock it nicely..

 

Daffrabbit: I'm posting this right now from the Ubuntu 6.06 i386 live cd. Everything worked great without any configuration. I entered my wep key, and I was on the net instantly. All other hardware seems to work just as it should. I'll do an install to the hard drive soon.

Jasonck: 'll let you know what drivers i have later, once i boot back into windows.

 

@ darrenf : could you run 3dm06 also with OC clocks?

 

Hello,
could you tell me to which temperature the ventilators of this laptop start to spin ?
I’m interested with this computer but only if I can leave it at night (downloading files for exemple) in my bedroom with NO noise at all (except from the hard drive of course).

I would like it to make no noise at all with office applications/surfing/streaming radio either (low multi task environment).

This is realy important for me, please help

 

Does anybody know if the A8jm is availble in the UK and if so who might sell it?

 

Trevize, emailed you. But in general, downloading shouldn't bring the fans on, it's very silent during regular office tasks.

 

Thanks for your email It helps me a lot to take my decision.
And I think as soon I'll get the money, I'll grab one of this A8JM (one with the old bios so).

 

The fans do turn on occasionally but you wont be able to hear them at all. On the stock firmware (207AS) The fans kick in when the cpu crosses 50 degrees. The cpu idles or during every day internet/word tasks (pwer4gear quiet office setting) between 48 - 50. Never goes above that. And the fan is super quiet. Even while gaming, when the fan goes up to 3700rpm it is very quiet.

 

U can always downgrade the BIOS just use winflash /nodate from DOS prompt (courtesy Zydus)

 

I second the call for benchmarks of 3dmark 06 with the overclocked gpu

 

Ok, I gotta DL 3DM 06, and I'll run it this afternoon.

 

Darren I suggest you get the newer bios while overclocking and revert back to the old one when you are done. The newer bios has newer thermal logic, basically the fan starts spinning 2800rpm and earlier around 42 degrees i think. Kicks up to 3200 around 50 and 3700 around 59 - 60. Cpu temps ofcourse.

 

I don't get the logic behind the new BIOS 208..... spins at 2800 rpm around 42 deg = spinning all the time since the CPU is never below 48 (at least on mine)....

anybody care to offer an explanation?

 

yeah if anyone could explain this to me i would be grateful as well

 

another question to other owners:

Have you ever figured out where to find drivers/firmware updates for our optical drive (TSST TS-L632C). Hardly any information on the web about this model.

 

Still hoping for some more battery tests....please?

 

Rogue.. any suggestion on what else you'd like to see from battery tests? any specific things or test apps you wanted to see?

 

I'm basically wondering how long the battery will last with modest use. Will it get me through a flight from Vancouver to Chicago?

So, no tests in particular. I'm more wondering what people are getting for battery life. Can it be pushed to four hours on real low settings? Will it consistantly get three good hours? That kind of thing.

Of course, I realize that running a dvd or gaming will deplete the battery quickly. But how does it do for general office work?