ASUS U Series Bamboo Collection Owners Thread (U33JC/U43JC/U53JC)

Forget any thought of 7200rpm drive. Instead, would definitelly recommend the Seadate momentus x hybrid drive.

You're already future-proofed with the 33 becuase of usb3 and widi. I'm wondering if the included bluetooth is vertsion 3 (I think perhaps not - wish it were).

The suggested memory additions could be done at any time down the road.

Overall, the 33 almost exactly fits my wishlist, but I just purchased my Acer 1810t a few months ago so am not quite ready to uprade again.

Will do so when the generation of m/b's & cpu's appears next year (arrandale? or is it some other?)

edit:
I think the next Intel generation due next year is called "Haswell"

 

Is the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive compatible with the Asus U33JC-RX068V?
How about a pure SSD drive?

 

All notebooks, at least to me knowledge, can take any 2.5" hard drive. This includes SSDs, Hybrid Drives like the Momentus XT, whatever. As long as it is a 2.5" drive, it will fit in any notebook, the U33JC-RX068V included. You would have no problem switching out the drive.

Keep in mind you would have to reload the OS either from a flash drive or an external DVD drive on any new drive you get unless you plan on copying all the contents of your old HDD to the new one.

 

Does anyone have full information on the trackpad? Not the surface finish, but the functionality. What level of gesture or multitouch does it support? Thanks!

 

That's not the question being asked. Yes, of course there are NVIDIA Optimus units that work with Intel's WiDi.

The question is: Are ALL NVIDIA Optimus systems running w/ an Intel i-series CPU & Intel HD on-chip IGP WiDi-capable? I'm fairly certain the answer is no. Even if I bought a WiDi box, it wouldn't work with my U30Jc because it's missing the WiDi extra on my unit.

If I'm incorrect, please show me where you find it? Where is there anywhere that says I can use my U30Jc w/ WiDi. Intel lists the limited number of systems that can do WiDi at present, and the U30Jc is NOT on the list. The U33Jc can do WiDi and is listed as such in its specs.

 

I agree with Case1. Your listed needs are actually small. The U33Jc will be more than enough for you. Get that and use it as is for a while.

If, down the road, you need more HDD space or a little faster HDD, go for the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid drive. But even then, you'll feel the difference in the launch speed of the program. Once you're in Word or Powerpoint, it requires very little resources or HDD speed.

Time will show you if your 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 RAM is enough. For what you list, the answer should be "yes". If not, and you like 30 tabs open in Firefox and 10 apps open at the same time, and your OS gets sluggish, has unusual wait-times or crashes due to running out of resources, then buy 4GB. 4GB at present will run you about $100.

The question of "future-proofing" has a lot to do with what you do with your notebook. If you stick with the same OS, even 4-yrs down the road and a "supposed" improvement in Office, you'll be fine. It's the battery you'll need to replace. The DVD drive won't give out, as you won't have one (or you'll have a portable external).

To answer your question on RAM, the U33Jc uses 1066MHz DDR3 due to it's FSB speed. That's its speed. If you put in 1333MHz RAM, it will simply run it at 1066MHz. So to answer your question: Putting in 1333MHz DDR3 RAM won't make any difference at all.

So a good rule of thumb, use what you've got for a while. If, later, you feel you need to upgrade, you can change out the HDD for a faster, larger one or add RAM, depending on what your need is.

 

I'm considering purchasing the Asus U43JC and I'm wondering if I would be able to overclock it's NVIDIA 310M as someone mentioned on here earlier. I basically play Medieval II and Empire Total War. It looks like these specs could play Medieval II well but Empire (with its endless problems) might be low quality.

 

There's a post on overclocking the 310m somewhere on the forums. Quatro I believe it was you post? Correct me if I'm wrong.

For the U33Jc. I thought since the new i-processors, and new motherboards, I thought they ditched FSB and moved to GT/s as the memory controller and bus speed?

 

Yes, you should be able to. See my thread here.

Essentially, using NVIDIA System Tools & the latest NVIDIA 258.69 drivers, I was able to substantially o'c my 310M (well, for me, that was substantial).

My U30Jc has the 310M & the i3-350M 2.26GHz CPU (and some amazing cooling inside). In my Optimus system, my standard 3DMark06 score is about 3730. O'cing the card, I reached 4330 stably (an increase of 600 points or a 16% improvement).

 

Perhaps I'm confusing FSB & BUS ... and clearly, I'm still thinking the old way of onboard controllers and BIOS and forgetting how different the new CPU's are with the Northbridge having been done away with and incorporated onto the CPU chip.

GENETX is probably the best one to answer this question here.

So, since the CPU only supports certain types of memory speeds, Intel's page here on the i3-370M processor report that it only supports "DDR3 - 800/1066", so again, putting in a 1333MHz stick in that system will do nothing extra.

 

Here is a Youtube video about 4 months ago showing the Nvidia Optimus working with WIDI, Intel won't admit that it is compatible because from my research there is some fighting going on between Nvidia and Intel. Also, Intel wants everyone to believe (from what I read) that WiDi ONLY works with integrated Intel graphics: YouTube - NVIDIA Optimus Works Perfectly With Intel Wireless Display (WiDi)

Also, if you search through the netgear forum (the Netgear PTV1000 router that is needed to plug into your TV for WIDI to work) even when WIDI was exclusive technology to BestBuy and only 3 laptops. People posted the WIIDI working with their non WIDI systems.

 

That is good to know that Optimus still kicks in when WiDi is in use, but I still think Optimus has nothing to do with WiDi. Optimus' job is to switch from integrated to discrete graphics when necessary. I don't know why this would have anything to do with whether a notebook is WiDi capable though.

I still truly believe there must be some Intel component in the notebook that makes WiDi possible. Surely from a marketing perspective, if all of these i core processors were capable of WiDi, Intel or the manufactureres would be tooting their horns about it.

Your comment intrigued me about other non-WiDi notebooks being able to do WiDi so I tried to find the requirements. Here is the best I could find:

"Personal computers featuring Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200, Advanced-N +WiMax 6250 or Ultimate N 6300 coupled with Intel My WiFi technology and Intel wireless display software can transfer video information, including high-definition video, to special Netgear adapters that can be connected using HDMI to high-definition televisions."

So it appears if your notebook has one of those wireless cards you can do WiDI. I believe the other things are just software.

 

I agree. To me, no toot means it's not available/not present.

Now THAT intrigues me as I am wondering what DOES make WiDi work on a given notebook and not on others. The type of WiFi card? (i.e. WiFi on, WiDi on?) I did notice that the laptop photos we have thus far on the U33Jc don't seem to have a WiDi hotkey symbol on the keyboard.

Or is it something in the processor? (Therefore everyone w/ an i-series processor is WiDi capable? I'm not convinced of this.)

Or is it some added chip on the system board? Is there some kind of "Intel Wireless Display adapter" chip? The use of the word "adapter" by Intel causes me wonder.

The idea that it is in the type of wireless card used sounds interesting.

Any one read where the "WiDi-compatible" part of the laptop is coming from? Wireless card? CPU? Chip on the board?

Here's what a PCMag article said:

This makes it sound like it is indeed the type of Intel WiDi-compatible WiFi card combined with an Intel i-series chip that has the built-in IGP on the CPU. So my U30Jc has the latter two components but is missing the proper type of WiDi-compatible WiFi card. There IS a 1/2 - 2 sec time lag between the laptop & TV screen and distance is limited to 12 ft and the needed NetGear Push2TV box is about $100 ....

So it seems to me that the Alereon NoWire wireless adapter seems like a better & more powerful solution to wireless HDTV use. Here's a demo (not out for sale yet so no idea of its cost). Of course, this has to be purchased! But even with WiDi, you have to purchase the NetGear Push2TV box anyway.

 

Hey Guys,

Quick questions. The WiDi technology requires purchasing an additional adapter for your tv? If so , how much does one cost?

And also, is it really worth it to pay an extra 100+ bucks for a u33JC over a U35JC just for the bambool, 3.0 USB and the WiDi?

 

I've never done the optical drive for second hard drive swap before; how fast does that swap kill the battery? I'd consider putting in a 5400rpm drive in if it doesn't cut the battery life down too much. Anyone have any experience or insight?

 

As has been said before, what the U33 has that the U35 doesn't:
1) Bamboo & aluminum finish over the entire keyboard area
2) WiDi
3) 1x USB 3.0 port & 2x USB 2.0
4) Bluetooth
5) 2.0 MP webcam (instead of the wimpy 0.3 MP)

I think those are the main differences, plus the body/chassis designs are very different.

 

The only adapter I see for TV would be NETGEAR Push2TV and it's around $100.

 

IMHO, 3.0 USB alone is worth it - particularly in a laptop where you couldn't easily add it later.

And usb3.0 is really going to shine as more and more usb3.0 devices become available.

As far as WIDI is concerned, I really like its convenience and functionality - especially on the pc side which doesn't require an add-on dongle as with the other 3rd-party solutions mentioned.

The cost of the netgear TV adapter is around $100.

I only wish the bluetooth on this beauty was 3.0 as well.

 

BTW, everyone, the 258.96 beta drivers are now out for Optimus.


... Nope. Forget this "update" for me. I just lost 400 points in 3DMark06!

 

Seriously guys, how much longer do we have to wait for these laptops to arrive in store??!! Has anyone been able to get a definite, locked in date from any of the resellers in the US or the UK? It's driving me nuts. I've been holding off from buying a new laptop ever since my Asus G1S died over 3 months ago from the dreaded bad batch of Nvidia GPUs they were built with

There's one reseller here in the UK who keeps pushing out their listed restock date. When they first listed the U33JC they had it as arriving on the 27th of July. Now it's been pushed out to the 4th of August!

http://www.morecomputers.com/extra.asp?pn=u33jc-rx068v

Just to confuse and frustrate me more, this dodgy looking site is listing it as coming into stock on the 20th of July:

http://www.oyyy.co.uk

 

Just found this performance review on a Polish site to help wet our appetites a little more. Some nice photos on there too: http://www.benchmark.pl


Enjoy

 

Another Polish review of the U33JC translated using good old google translate. Unfortunately, there are a few things that don't sound too good in the review, namely:

• Track Pad - "its disadvantage is bamboo finish. First, not very well feel the boundary between the active area, and the rest of the cabinet. Secondly, when we have even slightly wet fingers this material poses a fairly large resistance. They must therefore always dry well."
• Microphone - "the microphone collects a lot of noise, but applying an external device solves most problems."

http://pclab.pl review of U33JC

A slightly noisy microphone I can deal with but a track pad that makes your fingers stick rather than glide over it's surface, sounds like a very big bucket of wrong! I honestly thought that the track pad would be faux wood (i.e. plastic that looks like the bamboo wood). If you think about how wood wears over time, I can only imagine the track pad surface getting worse the longer you use it. What on earth were they thinking? This may really put the nail in the coffin for me. I might have to go for the U35JC

 

Thanks for that information. It seems like your interested (if you get the Bamboo line) in the U33JC.....I have no idea how to find reviews from other countries other than the USA. If you could show me I would appreciate it or if you could kindly look up any reviews for the U43JC Bamboo line I would really appreciate that

 

Here is a better link to the Polish review I posted previously. It includes the photos: Polish review of U33JC

 

Hey mjnoles1,

I didn't really do anything fancy. You just have to spend a little more time in google and make sure you scan the non English links it returns. It's also helpful if you select the "more" option on the left hand side of the google search window and select the option that only returns results from the last 24hrs or last week. Also remember that google will always list the English results first before it shows the foreign language results, so make sure you scroll down and work back through the results pages a bit. I soon discovered that the Polish appeared to have got their hands on the bamboo laptops before the rest of us... go figure! So I then went to the polish version of google www.google.pl and searched for U33JC. When I found an interesting link I just whacked it through google translate and Bob's your uncle!

Good luck!

 

Hmmm, it seems they are quite disappointed with the quality of the screen, the bamboo on the mouse pad causes issues, and the microphone they are disappointed with background noise.

 

Yeah man! I can't work out why the hell they made the track pad out of bamboo??!! They must have been smoking crack! Or maybe injecting it into their eyeballs

I guess our only hope now, is that the units those Poles tested were pre-production models and they've improved on the areas highlighted by the review. I'm grasping at straws now though I think!

 

The display is a shame.

185.5 nits?

Especially since this device costs 1000€ here.

 

Just for comparison. Here is their review of the U35JC: Polish Review of U35JC (translated)


I've been on fire today! Hehehe

 

Truth being said, I have no idea what 185.5 nits mean? First of all, what is that? Secondly if that is bad for a display, then what would be good for a display? Thanks

 

Good question mjnoles1. I was wondering exactly the same thing. I thought nits were little bugs you got in your hair when you were a school kid and the teachers would send you home so that you wouldn't infect your fellow students :wink:

 

Well i'd rather not believe that Asus selling this thing with a worse display than the Asus U30jc!!

Notebookcheck: Test Asus U30JC-A1/QX043V Notebook

This quite a slap.

 

While that is certainly disappointing, I would expect the surface to get much better over time. As the oils in your skin work their way into the wood, it will get smoother and smoother, no? My girfriend's plastic touchpad on her HP was quite sticky at first, but once the oils cover the thing it is very smooth. I recall the touchpads being a complaint on her HP in reviews, but after a week or so it is just fine.

Maybe I haven't rubbed as much wood as you , but why do you think it would get worse over time?

 

AnandTech here gave the U30JC about 214:1 contrast and a white level of 201. I'm not sure it is much better than the U33JC.

BUT, if you look up Notebookcheck's review here on the UL80VT (same screen as UL30VT), you'll see that the screen/panel results are nearly identical to these Polish findings here on the U33JC.

So if you want to know what kind of screen the U33JC will have, just read any review on the UL30VT or the UL80VT.

As for the trackpad, on my aluminum-surfaced trackpad on my U30Jc, if my finger(s) are damp, there is a lot of drag as well. Trackpads in general need dry fingers. Perhaps the dimpled ones don't. I can't see that as a fair complaint. Also, he says he found it hard to feel the boundary of the active area of the trackpad (compared to the rest of the palm rest?) There's a physical indent in the trackpad (line break around it) in the photos! What more does he want? That's an odd complaint to me.

As expected, the battery life sounds nearly identical to the U30Jc.

BTW, here is that Notebookcheck article link again on the U30JC in English (rather than German!).

Oh, and here are the same guys in Poland here looking at the U35Jc. ... Curious that they found that the U33Jc got better battery life than the U35Jc.

 

I would think they'll have the wood acrylic-coated as they do tables & chairs from Taiwan. Stronger & more durable than varnished wood.

We'll see.

 

Andddd holding the preorder til we hear more. Ha

 

I already placed my pre-order for the U43JC through Best Buy .....But, if reviews continue to be not that favorable, I'll cancel the order (even though it kills me as this laptop has so much promise) and order my 2nd choice the Toshiba m645 and the Toshiba is $200 less.

 

I still don't see why the reviews are "not that favorable." There were gripes about the touchpad, but I expect it to get better as it gets some use. Plus, as Quatro pointed out, there is actually a physical indent so I don't see how it could be hard to tell if you are on the trackpad or not.

The microphone isn't a huge deal, is it? I imagine it would be fine for something like Skype and if one is really into voice recording/communication, they probably have a headset that is far superior to any built in mic.

OK, the screen isn't so great. What did everyone expect? It is still a U/UL series notebook. And that first link kingswood posted actually gave it 4.5/5 stars. I'm confused.

Am I just a Bamboo series apologist or do I make some sense here?

 

Also, this comment on the second link posted on page 18. Stated this " It is a pity that the WD Scorpio drive installed is one of the slowest drives we had the opportunity to test"

A terribly slow hard drive is a big concern to me as well

With this initial reviews on the U33Jc, I am second guessing my pre-order on my U43JC and thinking maybe I should cancel that order and get the Toshiba M645...I dunno

 

That is why I ordered a SSD . YOu should at least grab a hybrid.

 

ASUS often doesn't use the same HDD maker in their same model in different countries. Wait until the U33 & U43 come out in the US (any day now) then call GenTech and ask them what type of HDD is inside; who is the maker?

And then don't stop there. If you're serious about what speed of HDD you get, go online and read a few reviews of the drive, including on Amazon and Newegg.

Here's a review on the 640GB WD Scorpio Blue HDD (5400rpm). He says:

Newegg user reviews gave the HDD 4/5 eggs (stars) in 178 reviews (102 were 5 star). HD Tune Pro showed an avg throughput of 60.4 MB/sec. My 320GB Hitachi drive with my U30Jc tests at 63.2MB/sec. I don't see that the WD HDD is that bad. And more than likely, you'll see a different HDD in the US models anyway.

 

So what.

For ~$130 you can get a 500GB Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid to replace it.

And, as Quatro mentioned, the WD drive appears to be better than its specs would suggest.

 

I would like a hybrid drive please ... I just wonder how long it will take them to increase that NAND flash from 4GB to 8GB.

What I really like is an SSD but it's just too out of my price range for now.

 

I repeat my question: How much longer do we have to wait for these laptops to arrive in store??!! Has anyone been able to get a definite, locked in date from any of the resellers in the US or the UK? It's driving me nuts. I've been holding off from buying a new laptop ever since my Asus G1S died over 3 months ago from the dreaded bad batch of Nvidia GPUs they were built with

There's one reseller here in the UK who keeps pushing out their listed restock date. When they first listed the U33JC they had it as arriving on the 27th of July. Now it's been pushed out to the 5th of August!

http://www.morecomputers.com/extra.asp?pn=u33jc-rx068v

Just to confuse and frustrate me more, this dodgy looking site is listing it as coming into stock on the 21st of July:

http://www.oyyy.co.uk/product.php/1...m--intel-gma--4500mhd--dvd-super-multi-dual-l

 

I hope your right about the US version receiving a different 640B 5400rpm hard drive from the other countries, even though it seems kind of odd to me that Asus would not just keep the same hard drive in all their laptops no matter what country it is going to. Why would they change the particular make and model depending on the country?

 

It probably has to do with the price point that Asus are trying to meet within the different countries it's selling to. A smaller capacity HDD will help keep the price down and keep it competitive with competing manufacturers of similar spec laptops in the country in question. Or in the case of the UK model they might go for an Intel i5 processor instead of the i3 to give it an edge over other models in the 13.3inch category.

It's all about marketing.

 

Well, the US version of the U43JC comes with the 640gb 5400rpm hard drive which is the specs they were testing in the link you posted.

 

Anyone else concerned with this quote from Asus Global site in reference to their Bamboo line:

"U Series Bamboo Collection notebooks are made with genuine bamboo and thus bear unique, naturally-occurring wood grain patterns. As with any organic product, these patterns and textures may change with time. These are due to the natural characteristics of bamboo and do not indicate a defective material. "

How well will this laptop hold up for the long run and how well will it look in a couple of years? I am obviously referring to the line that "these patterns and textures may change with time" comment.

 

Which link are you referring to? I'm pretty sure that all the links I have posted are for the U33JC or the U35JC.

 

Google Translate

^That link and it was for the U33JC, but the hard drive that was tested in the U33JC was a 640GB/5400RPM hard drive, the same spec hard drive that the U43JC is receiving. So, my theory is both laptops are the bamboo line and basically both laptops are the same except 13inch screen vs 14inch screen and U33JC doesnt have a dvd drive. So, I don't see why they would use a different manufacture and model in the U43JC than the U33JC if the hard drive specs are the same (640GB/500rpm)