Asus C90S Review and OS shootout!

My GPU is always at least 30C higher than my CPU.

 

If ASUS doesn't fix the goddamn RAM issues already (incompatible RAM), I'm going to trade this for something else and leave them behind forever. This is absolutely ridiculous. Nearly four months and nothing to show for it? Ugh, it's just giving me a headache.

Every time I have to shut off my laptop just to move 10 feet makes me die a little more inside.

 

Because Wolfsdale = Penryn @ Dual Core + 6mb cache

 

I know that. Penryn is the umbrella term. My point being of course penryn will not be compatible because it is a mobile chip. Irregardless, its looking doubtful about wolfdale because of early reports denying that its compatible with the 945 chipset. All this is a moot point when Nehalem enters the picture.

 

Hi

Just got my c90s and my feelings so far.
Performance is just what i expected(and thats good), i have played hl2 with all settings on max and fps haven't yet dropped bellow 40, while it usually is somewhere near 100.
Crysis with all settings on medium is playable but it has some general lag on it. I dont know its fps yet since i dont have fraps installed now but i think its just above 20.

Stablity of my c90s is somewhat confusing since i had 2 blue screens on first hour i fired up my laptop and third this morning when it was loading up to windows(vista home premium). But it didnt crash when i played on game mode and overclocking mode for like 3 hours all together.

Temperatures stay near 70c+ while on game mode and oc mode(i think). I havent got any reading of them while playing but just after i have turned off game. Idle temps are 50c to 60c

Overally im quite satisfied and think that was 1300€ well spend.
But anyone has some solutions on those random blue screens what im getting every now and then. I wasnt doing anything heavy when it crashed and i didnt have game or oc mode on.

 

In reply of prev post that Clevo-D901 can support Yorkfield/Q9xxx/Q9450, i need to ask if D901/D900 will be supporting as described below. Cant AsusC90-Board also be enabled similarly for Yorfield.

ClevoD900/ClevoD901
Intel® P965 + ICH8-R
http://www.clevo.com.tw/en/products/prodinfo_2.asp?productid=18

QUOTE:
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3138
Elsewhere in the land of Intel chipsets, we have several manufacturers that will offer a combination of Wolfdale and/or Yorkfield compatibility on their 945GC-based motherboards. While this chipset does not specifically support 1333FSB operations, a couple of manufacturers have worked their BIOS magic to provide support. We might even see support on the venerable 975X chipset as ASUS is in the process of validation testing for their workstation boards. Even though the P965 chipset does not officially support the 45nm processor families, we have MSI offering BIOS support for two of their boards. We also expect to see "unofficial" support on the latest performance oriented P965 boards from ASUS and Gigabyte if stability problems when overclocking can be overcome. We will be testing a couple of their boards next week to see how well they work.


Asus C90
Intel® 945 G Chipset + ICH7
http://notebook-info.net/notebooks/asus-notebooks/asus-c90-series.html

QUOTE:
http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3138
Sure, the 975X, 945G/P, and even the i865 chipsets were able to support the new Core 2 architecture, but the motherboards designed around them required a significant overhaul in the electrical components and trace layouts to work correctly - not to mention new BIOS releases. We also had the release of the P965 family of chipsets that were designed expressly for the Core 2 series which brought about another twist in the selection process. It was a scant four months later when the Kentsfield quad-core CPUs were launched and we went through the entire motherboard/BIOS revision process again. Unfortunately, some of those users that purchased boards at the June launch of the Core 2 family found they required yet another board in order for Kentsfield to operate properly.

--------------------------------------------

Does this mean AsusC90 is more difficult (not impossible) to support Yorkfield than D900 becasue Asus 945G+ICH7 is June-2007 product. But Asus might be silently making current AsusC90's with this segment from above quote in mind ...
"Elsewhere in the land of Intel chipsets, we have several manufacturers that will offer a combination of Wolfdale and/or Yorkfield compatibility on their 945GC-based motherboards. While this chipset does not specifically support 1333FSB operations, a couple of manufacturers have worked their BIOS magic to provide support"
QUOTE:
http://my.ocworkbench.com/bbs/showthread.php?p=410709
Q31 (Essential)G31 takes over 946GZ/945G
Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor
Yorkfield Support
FSB 1066
DDR2 800
ICH7, ICH7R, ICH7DH

 

No, you just answered your own question! If Yorkfield is so important to you in a mobile computer, then wait 6 months(H2 2008) for the "Penryn QC XE Quad Core" mobile processor, instead of asking 6 million unanswerable questions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_future_Intel_Core_2_microprocessors

 

Asus is more likely going to release a new version of the C90 rather than updating the bios to support Penryn.

 

Dont need guesses/likelyhoods (e.g. AsusC90"s" is a revision), Need a knowledgable person to asist in precisely what hurdles are between "Asus C90 Intel® 945 G Chipset + ICH7" and Yorkfield. In the light of above quotes what companies succeeded in magic of turning 945G+ICH7 to Yorkfield compatible. Is Asus also among those magicians, since Asus and Clevo are world leader in custom notebook MBs (yes even HP does not design notebook boards).

 

Ok, I've had enough of this. There is no guessing, and there is no answer. Companies like Asus are unlikely to do anything to support it, they are more likely concentrated in developing new products/notebooks that would make money rather than updating and researching for old products that would cost money and not make money in return. Basically they will be shooting themselves in the foot if they do, it's not that Asus doesn't care about their customers, but there is a limit as how far a company will go. Driver support or bugs is one thing, but additional research on unsupported processors isn't something of their priority. This is business and it has nothing to do with the technology whether or not the 945G chipset actually works, even if it does, Intel will deny it and nothing will be done. Yes, it's likely desktop 945G boards "might"(although I haven't read anything) support Penryn/Yorkfield/Wolfsdale, but the problem is that the C90s is a laptop; where power, cooling, TDP, and other factors that would inhibit and limit such support.

I'm not saying that the C90s is a bad laptop, it's excellent performance for how much your paying. An equally performing laptop with another company will fetches around $800-1000 more. Besides, I would be more enthusiastic if Asus were to release a 8800 GT DDR3 MXMII or 2600 XT DDR3 MXMII for the C90s instead, the performance gain would be so much more than a CPU upgrade Quad or Dual..

If you're so caught up on Yorkfield/Penryn on a laptop you might as well wait for the release/refresh or just go elsewhere because it's not going to happen on the current C90s. Even Clevo's Penryn support is right now unconfirmed on their laptops.

 

It's a 945G chipset and the Clevo is P965.

If Intel does not make the CPU to work on a 945G chipset, Asus can't do anything about it.

 

JCMS i agree 100% but according to quote in prev post, it confirms some makers did magic with 945G and made yorkfield capable. I must disclose my problem .... to you now (about whats all the fuss about yorkfield) that, i am a programmer for past 7 years and belong to region where its like "paying through nose" for 1500$ notebook. So the path i need to choose is wisest way of achieving future save investment. Asus is best buy cuz unlike Clevo variants it does not start from 3,000$ it starts as cheap as 900$ barebone and u can put components from local store on credit. Then AsusC90 has eSATA, 15"factor, OneClickOverclock. The blessed B0 revision of Q6600 is best for C90 cuz C90 cant OC Q6700 cuz of 3GHz barrier. So after all this homework the last question left for me to declare "AsusC90 is a go" was this Q9450 capability to enable me future safe i.e. SSE4.1 and further lower TDP.

Also in reply to a prev post, Phenom is not targeted for Notebooks ... is another killer for AMD own self. I am personally an AMD Fanatic but AMD's lately Apple like reasoning have made me so disappointed, like ... Intel-like-Quadsicore approach is not an "Angelic" approach (recently Intel has spoken out on record that it was near impossible for AMD to solder two X2 like Intel beacuse of integrated HyperTransport etc) ... then AMD's stance that Phenom is also not an Angelic-way to empower notebook. I usyually say AMD has developed taste for eating bread crums from the floor. and perhaps Intel-AMD's 1999 secret agrement is hint/factor of why SSE4a lags SSE4.1 hence keeping AMD walking leaning-head behind Intel and still thrusting ancient 4000+ X2 bases notebooks on Enthusiasts, this also confirmed their TDP charm is broken and was a myth. Intel has silently opened a new front in notebooks and AMD is still not getting out of Angel-ic/Apple-ic phobia. Rememebr when AMD had upper hand in Opetron Vs Xeon they put a patetion (Opteron Xeon Duel) on thier site for fans to sign in convincing Intel to show up with its Xeon to get humiliated infront of whole world and the Flash video on amd.com did just that, now when the tables are turned Intel has not posted such patetion thing to call for it fans join the AMD-humiliation competition. I think we should abandon fanfare and become wise-customers thinking from brain not heart.

So please if you could digg into how to make upcoming Q9450 enable on AsusC90, would it be like just updating BIOS, like MSI achieved, or Asus couldnt put enough enough enginuity in 945G+ICH7 before hand like MSI.

 

comparing ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_chipsets#Core_2_Chipsets
with
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1641&l1=5&l2=141&l3=536&l4=0

Asus says it support "DDRII 800MHz SDRAM"

No notebook vendor i could find supports this 800MHz. Now comparingthis factor to Wikipedia. The only candidates capable of FSB1066 and, and/or DDRII-800 are 945P, 945G and 975X where 975X has both supports. It seems Asus is lying and the mobo is some mutated form of 975X. Not the 965 cuz its June-2006 product and 975X is nov-2005 where 945P, 945G are may-2005 products. AsusC90 itself is a Jun-2007 (and that is on shelves date, they would be in warehouses since Q1-2007) product, 1 year in development makes it June-2006. So cutdown 975X is datewise more logical than P965-ICH8 because of its June2006 release date clashing with finalised desgins or lisencing-cost issues.
And Yorkfield is possible on 975X with BIOS update only. The last thing left to do is to request a C90 owner who have sample version of Q9770 to lay in C90 for a while and see.

 

No. You are wrong. ASUS says it's supports DDRII 800Mhz, but the C90s never runs this at 800mhz, infact what they mean by support(which is twisted of ASUS btw): is that it can run 800mhz modules by downclocking them to 667mhz. Just ask any user. they bought 667mhz modules knowing that DDRII 800s work, but they will never run at 800mhz so it would be a complete waste of money.

The C90s is 945 chipset.

 

LMAO! Wow, so it only downclocks DDR2 800 to 667, I should of gotten that rather than my DDR2 667 downclocked to 533, j/k!

PS Just about any PC that takes DDR2 can take 800, they just downclock it. Who knows maybe 800 gives the C90s some kind of overclocking edge that 667 doesn't?

 

Its not even 667mhz actully I have a post somewhere explaning how it all works.

Basically the ram runs a 1:1 FSB/RAM ratio so depending on what cpu you have, and what turbogear mode your on, that will equal your ram speed.

There is no 400mhz fsb for any of the cpu's so there is no 800mhz ram.

It supports it just fine tho, so its not a lie just media.

 

Good idea to use such a media, but not very fair as for me

 

Well I don't want to kick somebody while they are down but thats how every company works, and it is more correct to say it supports it even if it doesn't run at full speed than to say it doesn't support it. Then you would have some guy who got DDR2800mhz ram sending it back because he read it doesn't support it and then later finding it would work.

Hey tho its a learning experience, next time drop by here and ask us first

 

You guys do understand I was joking, right?

 

I think we should abandon AsusC90 and the D900's starting 3000$ price problem just might also be solved. www.dpctech.net has barebones in "comming soon". I hope it also give notebooks barebones also.

All the badmouthing (all truth though) about AMD. Also i didnt do it cuz all the world is doing it, infact i wasted more than year of AMD's false hopes the Agena is coming, its coming and it costed me professionaly. Whats the solution out of it, this AMD getting curses from all directions. I must have if i am true fan. To get out of it. AMD must get into notebook buisness like hell. The last frontier to conquer is all CPU range notebook capable. Right now Intel has mid-LGA-cpu-range notebook capable. AMD should do a good final respin and bring phenom 9700 from 135W to 80-90W and that should be BlackEdition aswell. AMD shold also design the chasis for it and should NOT uggly as Clevo chasis or AsusC90... it should be like Asus-GS2 chasis. so the table turning formula to undo the 1.5 years of bull**** is...

75W-Phenom-9700-BlackEdition packed in chasis like AsusGS2, HP DV9000, or HP Buisness series notebook like formfactor, with full keyboard should i say true keyboard with inst/del pgup/pgdn home/end paired just like desktop keyboard, its not diff just think an optical shrink.

I believe this scheme is saviour for AMD cuz accrding to Intel;s own statement ... by 2010 50% of PCs in world will be Notebooks.

 

My 667 RAM works at 533 on mine. The E4500 is 800FSB (200) so at 1:1 it sould be 400. I think that only affects the 1066 FSB cpu

 

what settings are you using in the 3dmark 06 to get the benchmarks posted

 

what exactly do you mean ? Resolution ? It should be on standard 1280x1024 resolution. Depending on each owner's c90 config, 3dmark06 scores range from 3000-4500 pts at stock.

 

thanks thats what i was looking for .
i should have asked what resolution. sorry

what do c90s get with 3d mark 03

 

Where is the Vista x64 camera drivers that stops the BSODs? The only one on asus website is from 08/08 so it's pretty old and it's not digitally signed + it's a kernel driver so BOOM

 

Sent mine back yesterday. Money back guarantee. I feel bad.

 

that's just ( Great ) review .... but i wanted to ask you is there big
diffrence between
1 - 8600m gt 512 mb gddr2 ( 400 mhz )
2 - 8600m gt 256 mb gddr3 ( 700 mhz )
3 - 7700 ? 256 mb ? ( ?? )
i know the second one is best one HOW is the differnce in ( movies , photo shop ) maybe little movie maker with little gaming


CPU > 1.8 @ 800 fsb VS 2.4 @ 1066 (( BATTERY life , HEAT and general performance (serfing websites , playing music , word )) how many minutes is bet 1.8 vs 2.6 ... battary better by X % performance better by %

system will be supported with 2 GB of RAM @ 800 MHZ if THE C90 accepts (800 mhz)
other thing provide from ur exprience which HDD is the best FROM the side of (( build quilty )) not fast , why ?
---------------------------------------------------------------------

i have 120 gb(( WD )) very fast ultra-ATA from about 2 yrs !! freezes my computer every 20 min + deleting my movies , images + bad sectors ..... NOT only me, my relative also had 80 gb WD also died !!

i have IBM 20 GB hdd on old P3 laptop from 7 years ... it runs 20 hour's a day .. shaking .... still works ( Great ) without any pro ! so what's ur adivces ? IBM , SEGATE , SMASUNG , SIEMENS (GERMAN ) ....ETC1

 

It's just like gaming, save early and save often I disagree these days with your WD comments.

 

Is there a list of compatible processors anywhere for this laptop?

 

Supported: E4300, E4400, E4500,E4600, E6320/6420/6600/6700

Recommanded (price ratio): E4600 or E6600

Wait 1-2 months for the C90P though

 

I agree. It should be everything the C90S was plus alot more, however it will still be sort of risky to be a pioneer on a new laptop even if it is a "refresh" of an older model.

 

WEll, it is the C90S with a P35 motherboard after all.

Old issues leave, new ones come. hehe.

 

So the E6550 isn't supported, just those specifics ones you stated?

-Towels

 

Only those I listed are supported

The 6550 does not run on the 945 chipset

 

Shame.

It's more powerful, and cheaper than some of those listed.

-Towels

 

Yes, but this affected everyone who bought a C2D between november and july =/

The C90P will support it though

 

Not sure I want to wait/ can afford one of those.

-Towels

 

I've asked from www.gentechpc.com guys can i buy it with DDR2-800MHz RAM. And they said "C90S won't recognize 800MHz DDR RAM". But in www.killernotebooks.com Uchigatana has DDR2-800MHz RAM. What is the difference between this Asus C90 based barebone notebooks? Someone can clear my confusion?

 

can the c90s take 8800m gt?

 

Unknown if it will (heat and power consumption), but at this point and time no. C90P's 8700M (and possibly the 9500M) has been our only bright point.

 

No, the 8800m GT is mxm-III while the c90s has mxm-II. The type three is only like a few millimeters bigger though...

 

hi all
just a question about the turbo gear stuff....
the cpu overclocking seems to be fake.....
??
even if in cpu-z the core / bus / fsb speeds are changing ....
while tweaking the turbo gear utility.......
the cpu benchmarks result are poor
i use some audio applications for bench ableton live :
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewto...tart=180&sid=e99a4d0e9012a087f119d3be71ba0a7d
the same cpu result for normal/gaming and overclocking mode
it's ok with the power saving mode : +20% cpu use

if you have any ideas about that?

thanks

 

It may be something else holding the cpu back, like the hard drive or ram. What are your spec's?

 

I ran 3dmark and saw higher scores when overclocking. Don't think it's fake when 3dmark's benchmarks reflect otherwise.

 

Yeah, also make sure and check that you're NOT in power saveing mode, put it on High performance.

 

i agree about the 3dmark bench .....
i put "always on" in the power management....

but the fact is i'm at 48% in standard mode for the bench with ableton
same for gaming & overclocking mode
and if i put in power saving mode the reult is 70%....
strange...
if the downclocking make some differences the overclocking should too?
even if it's a special kind of bench(floating point .....i think)for audio processing
i don't think it's a ram or HD issue...
i tried the bench with an E-sata 160Go xternal Drive @7200
the ram is the one shippped with the asus C90 (europe)2GB
with an E6600 cpu and an 8600m GT
cpu-z reflect the core/fsb/mult changes for the 4 different modes......

all my previous test with O/C was on desktop models
the fsb speed changes always reflect some cpu perf changes....
here...nothing even if the fsb go from : 700(power saving) to 1228(o/c) MHZ!!!!!!!!

 

I bought this notebook in December with Vista Home installed. After two months of futzing with it, I've dumped Vista and installed XP. The heat generated by this thing is un-acceptable. Buying this machine was a bad choice on my part.

 

What did you expect from a desktop processor and 4 fans sticking off the back of it? It's not that bad in my opinion, but it's also not a "cool" laptop by any means.

 

hey, would there be any point in replacing the c90s motherboard with the P35 mobo (c90p) or is it even possible?

i don't really know that much about motherboards, but isn't that the only diference between the c90s and c90p?

 

at xoticpc.com the c90s have the option of 8600GT 256mb DDR3... will there be any problem getting a ddr 3 graphic card??

its kinda weird there's no Xtreme CPU available for it at xoticpc... is it unstable??