Asus C90S Review & Live Video

Could the card be a PCMCIA instead of the newer format? Just a thought...

 

hmm its this one... http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=205&product=10769

 

yep thats pcmcia

 

so it fits right?

 

Yea hate to break it to ya, but that won't work in the c90. They changed the slots and although they made them quicker (PCIE) they are not backwards compatible.

 

wow...........................................................

 

Courtesy of wikipedia.

 

Ive noticed over the last 2 months that many people arent aware of the differences between expresscard and pcmcia...

 

Really I didn't know there was a new format until I read about the Asus external video card that is coming out this summer. I have never used PCMCIA.

 

Hi Everyone...
I want to bump in with a question that might be a little off topic, but it is about the c90s after all...

how upgradeable is this laptop?
I mean, ok I can open it up and put in new graphichs card etc, but for me the most important things are cpu and ram.

If I buy the c90s with the E6700 now, I could upgrade to X6800, but will I be able to upgrade to any quad-core processors?

And what with the ram? why is the max 3GB? as far as I know vista 32bit can handle 4GB and 64bit even more... is this because of the chipset? will there be or could there be an ugrade?

I mean, 3GB and E6700 is veeeery nice, but there are a bunch of laptops with 4GB and if I won't be able to upgrade the CPU much more I could as well go for the G2s (more or less the same price, bigger screen, better battery life... the cpu is a little slower but then again it can go with 4GB...)

all answers welcome, as I plan on ordering the lapop next week...

cheers

 

I would be interested in these answers, also.

 

basically, imo by the time i need 4 gigs and a quad core ill have a new computer anyways. right now the c90 is the best bang/buck.

 

the c90s offer 3gb, which is nice, but considering that vista itself can take one gig of it, only 2 are left... when working with 7-8 full-size raw pictures from a dslr on photoshop, then I need a lot of ram... 2 gigs are still alot I guess

it is more a theorotical question though... why the limitation with 3 gigs when lots (ok... a few ) other laptops can work with 4gb...

 

32bit OS cannot assign memory addresses above 3Gb - that is the reason for the 3GB limit.

There may be a chipset issue with 64bit OS and addressing the last 1GB, as other members have reported not getting all with Vista-64. The notebook works just fine, but the last GB of memory isn't being used.

 

the issues here is not an os limitation it is a chipset limit. every mobile and desktop (as far as i know) chipset prior to the 965 had this issues.

 

I also noticed that Asus did not approve any 2GB DIMMs on their "accepted list of RAM" not to say none will work, mine do, but I figured since this is based off of an older chipset it is probably still on the 2GB standard.

 

OK, thx for the clarification Eddie!
--CS

 

yea, thanks a lot for the answers

 

hey i got a question, i don't know if this is only me but after i installed all the drivers and utilities, the TurboGear folder pops up when window loads, is this suppose to happen? and how do i stop it

 

happens on all xp installations. i have not fooled around with it too much. remove the whole util for now and use built in vista power management until asus releases a new one. or maybee try to figure out how to prevent it wothout messing up anything else

 

Is anyone running only 64 bit Vista(on a C90S) to tell us what the actual RAM limit is?

 

ok someone help, reinstalled windows with a fresh install and now it gets stuck at the bar before it finishes loading. its never made it to the desktop and i have reinstalled twice.

i also cannot update the bios, everytime i try it sais cannot open file after i type UPDATE and click enter

someone please let me know if there is a solution

 

like i said above it is not an os limit. does not matter how many bits there are. The limit is set by the chipset. Intels problem, present in all chipsets predating 965

 

I think he was merely asking what the limit was when running 64-bit vista, not whether the OS was the limiting factor or not. I.E. does it show 2.8gigs, 3 gigs, 3.2 gigs, or what.

 

3gb present on all os, vista32/64, xp
if you use 4gb 3gb is still present

 

That's interesting. It seems like it must be a bios limitation since there have been confirmed instances of a 64-bit OS seeing more than 3gb or RAM on the 945G chipset. I've personally seen up to 3.5gigs on a 945G being recongnized.

 

i read about the same. i dont think it i sa bios issue. it all has to do with how the chipset manages its resources. 1gb always allocated to unknow resources in the 945 mobile chipset. never changed from brand to brand as far as i know

 

Wait a minute, the Asus C90s doesn't use a 945 mobile chipset. Right? I mean that's the whole point....

 

mobile or not its a 945 chipset
i call it a hybrid
i dont know but take my word for it, forget 4gb of ram

 

That's fine, it doesn't matter much to me. I just find it interesting because desktop 945 chipsets can use more than 3gb of ram. In fact, several laptop 945g chipsets can see more than 3gb of ram as well (I've confirmed this with the Dell Precision M90, and have heard of other instances as well). I don't see how it can be a true hardware limitation, unless the 945g chipset in the C90s is substantially different than the normal mobile and desktop chipsets.

 

What future hardware/software will allow us to exceed 3 Gb limit?

 

Anything in x64, but not on the C90

 

I have purchased 2x1GB OCZ Ram...would that be compatible? ...nowadays Corsairs's better than OCZ, wasn't like that back then...
whereeee do u guys get E6700 FROM? everryyyone says they're out of stock and it's been discont. and they wont order,etc etc etc, (In canada...)
in either case, would 6750 or 6850 be comptible? I THOUGHT THIS LAPTOP WAS UPGRADABLE!
shud I go for a CHEAP processor like 6320 for now, and upgrade to the X6850 Quad core later on wen the price drops?
and..nice review, but...1.4hrs battery life, U GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!
and I already got the Seagate 7200RPM momentum, so make that 1hr batter life....
:'( my sony fatboy laptop right now can survive upto 1/2hr lol...
u guys have any step-by-step instructions for installing all the parts in the C90S?? i've done many desktops b4, but this looks complicated perhaps i'd pay the retailer 2 do it for me but tht means more $$!!

 

Where to begin....well the OCZ should be fine unless you get a defective C90s. We get our E6700 from whereever (newegg for me) just wait for it to be in stock. The E6750 and E6850 ARE NOT compatible because of their 1333fsb. It IS upgradeable. Dont sell yourself cheap on the cpu. Just wait or keep looking and get a E6700 cause its the best one to get. The X6850 is NOT compatible because of the 1333fsb. The battery life is about 1.4hrs. If you want battery life over speed then get a E6400 or slower. The HDD wont make that much of a difference in battery life. The assembly guide is on the C90s page of www.1toppc.com. It would be a good idea to have the reseller put it together because they will test it for you to make sure you dont get a defective one. I just got my rma replacement on mine. Trust me you DONT want a defective one that overheats and crashes.

 

THANKS!!
btw, sorry I meant X6800 which is 1033FSB, duno if the price will go down....either way i'll go for the 6700 and to be on the safe side, might aswell let a retailer do it, (and double check if the retailer will put the parts in AND check if the system works)...kool kool...

 

Gentech testing all there according to that, and I still don't have mine from them but I think they are a great company to buy from, were very friendly and answered all of my questions.

 

actually the e6700 can technically be better than the x6800

turbogear won't overclock the x6800 because its already 2.93ghz. but the e6700 overlocks to 2.93ghz just like the x6800 but also 1179mhz fsb which is higher then the x6800.

and i dont think that getting a lesser cpu will improve battery life because all the e6*00 have the same tdp, but i may be wrong so don't quote me on that

 

If a folder pops up instead of the program loading (in this case TurboGear) then there is a good chance the install program didn't input the correct entry in your startup area.

In Windows XP these keys could be found in the registry (regedit.exe) under Hkey_Local_Machine\software\microsoft\windows\currentVersion\run
or
Hkey_Current_User\software\microsoft\windows\currentVersion\run

(not sure if its any different in Vista - I'm not running Vista)

Check your startup areas and see if one of these keys is mis-written to open the folder instead of launch the application.

 

I'm a game ethusiast interested in a getting a C90s because I would love to have a powerful laptop that is upgradeable for a few years to save some cash. After customizing the notebook with the best stuff it was a remarkable $2000 something price tag.

My main question is on the graphics card though, because although the GeForce 512mb 8600M GT is pretty good, I was very excited about the GeForce 512mb 8700M GT as it is supposed to render better than the Xbox 360, and runs well on DX10 Crysis. The M Series notebook cards by Nvidia are all using the MXM standard, and the C90s uses it, I was still wondering if anyone thinks it would be compatible? If so, I would choose it over the 8600M.

It's sounding more like a newb question, but I'm a college student right now, and that thing called money is scarce, so I hope this laptop can really upgrade the gpu.

 

The 8700 is not compatible at this time. Asus has promised upgrades for the c90 and one that is while not confirmed is pretty much going to come is the ati hd2600xt which is supposed to be better then 8600. The 8800 is rumored to be available to the c90 which I believe.

2000? How my c90 was 1600 and that was with pretty good specs only thing I did to save some money was 5400 rpm. You can easily bring that price down 400 and save that cash for the gpu upgrades.

 

I think the X6800 are pretty much getting discountinued, the 6850 is stronger and cost $329 versus 999.

The 6320 overclocks nicely to 3.2ghz on a desktop so it i'm pretty you can reach 2.93 on it with the C90.

 

doing anything past the turbogears 20% will void the warranty, plus overclocking that much, will probably be too hot, desktop cooling is much better than this laptop, which is why it only allows 10-20% overclocking

 

If you take a E4300 or a X6800 in the C90, it's exactly the same cooling

 

how do you boost the volume?

 

is cheaper always better; is the dv9500t or the 1720 better than the system in my sig; do they have less overheating and other issue RMA's?

 

I noticed that XP seems to bug out on the C90. Could anything like that happen using a GNU/Linux-based OS. I really don't want Vista on my laptop.

Thanks for all of the info everybody.

 

That's seems to be because the memory clock is a direct multiply of the number of Raster Operator to give the fill rate to the final screen output.
8x00 series cards are criticized for being having very limited number of Raster Operators, limiting performance.