Official Asus U30JC Owner's Lounge and Review Thread

As the proud new owner of an Asus U30JC-A2B, I thought it appropriate to start this long overdue thread. I know a lot of people have talked about it in the UL30 lounges and there is a discussion thread in the main forum, as well as an official review (both of which are linked below.) As the first Asus Core-i notebook with 6+ hours of battery life, and the first at all to take full use of the nVidia Optimus system, it deserves a place; as well, there are no true, full, user reviews to be seen on NBR yet, so hopefully we can all agree that it is high time that this thread was started.

I will be posting a diary style review of my experiences with the notebook over the next week. There will probably be a paragraph or two talking about the day, how the laptop held up under my working conditions and what potential buyers should expect.

As for today, my order is in with Ken at GenTech PC Store and the expected arrival date is tomorrow. As usual, Ken was incredibly helpful, and willing to put up with my near constant badgering throughout the process.

For the first issue that is facing the potential U30 buyer, which model to get.
I originally ordered the A1, as that was the only game in town when I made my pre-order. On a suggestion from Ken, I upgraded from the A1 to the A2B, because I am a business user, I needed to upgrade the OS to at least Pro, which this model already had, and the price came out to be 50 bucks cheaper, while at the same time adding bluetooth and a 7200 RPM hard drive.
Also, there was the small detail of being able to get the computer tomorrow, as opposed to "some time next week" which is Asus-speak for "We don't (bleep)ing know."

Time issues aside, there is 100 bucks difference between the two models, and more than 100 dollars worth of upgrades, so if you are worried about value don't. The main issues between the two are going to be slightly better performance sacrificing some battery life(how much remains to be seen) and bluetooth. These are the features that are going to decide whether most customers will want to buy the A2B or the A1 and just add bluetooth or Win7Pro.

One of my goals over the next week is to compare the battery numbers I will be getting with a 7200 RPM HDD with those of the professional reviewers, who all used the 5400 RPM drives. In addition examining the battery life difference using Bluetooth as well. I imagine the difference will be negligible. The real difference (if there is one) will likely be heat. Though any unforeseen issues will be duly noted.

I am a business traveler, so I will be taking this computer on the road, to coffee shops, using it in the car, using it both outside and inside, at work and at home, and this coming week (with meetings scheduled and memorial day and office days scheduled) will be a good cross-section of the life of a typical business traveler. One situation I will not be able to examine closely is airports, but since that tends to be a measure of reliability on the part of the WiFi card and the battery, that information should come out in other ways.

I welcome others to suggest other aspects to test or situations to examine, as well to post their own stories.

Of course, all of this in addition to the following resources:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/449726-u30jc-discussion-thread.html
ASUS U30JC-A1 with NVIDIA Optimus Review
Asus Product Page for the U30JC
Asus U30Jc-A1 Laptop reviews - CNET Reviews
ASUS U30Jc review -- Engadget
Asus U30Jc-1A - At A Glance - Reviews by PC Magazine
ASUS U30Jc: Refining Thin and Light Performance - AnandTech

 

**Note: I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures, the computer was delivered at work and I didn't have access to a camera. I promise that future posts will be filled...I mean, really just lousy with pictures. I will make it up to everyone on the picture front.**
***Note Again: Thanks to Ken at GenTech PC Store for his patience and help with ordering the computer and getting it to me quickly so that I would no longer have to share a 6 year old Dell with my co-worker.***


So, day 1. We are half-way done here. It's the work half.

I was running around so much this morning (getting work done, running to the airport, work some more, etc.) I had almost forgotten that today was the big day. That is, until the UPS guy came in with a 13.3" Optimus-sporting Core i3 powered laptop sized box. I signed hurriedly, perhaps the sloppiest signature since I was 13 years old, and rushed to open the box. All of this was at work, where my co-workers were treated to the new marketing guy gallivanting around like a teenager at Christmas.
I was quickly brought back to earth by the practicality of the packaging. There was no glossy cardboard, no fancy over photoshopped graphics or off the wall pictures of "rad" adolescents having their faces blown off by what I can only assume is a game so awesome that without the powerful RoG titan holding it in, it is liable to jump out of your computer and kick you in the neck.
None of that.
I was greeted by a few wavy lines and the slogan "Smart Notebook, Smart You." Typical Asus advertising nonsense.
I could tell that this notebook, like its packaging, meant straight-up business.
Unfortunately, it also reminded me that despite my childish shrieking, I am a grown-up now, with a grown-up job to do.
Navigating the typical Matroska doll packaging that these notebooks are packed in, I was able to extract one power cord, one set of driver discs and manuals, and one Asus U30JC-A2B.
One thing that is quite shocking is the sturdiness of this laptop, for the sub-1000 dollar range. I have seen many reviews remark about the stiffness of the screen and keyboard, but let my go ahead and debunk that for you. The screen is paper thin. It is nice looking, and light, and an LED-lit screen, but it is thin. With a moderate amount of pressure you can bend it. However, regular pressure does not flex it, pushing down from the top, or directly into the back it is quite sturdy, but nothing this thin can be unbendable short of being made out of carbon fiber.
The keyboard also has a moderate amount of spring and flex due to the clips at the top (conveniently located for ease of removal) are not completely snug, so the keyboard bounces slightly as you type. Though some may call this a design flaw or a negative, it doesn't impede typing or feel uncomfortable. The keys themselves are a pleasure to type on and have nice spacing and size. I have had no problems acclimating to typing on it.
This, I believe, is indicative of the whole philosophy of the laptop. In any function that is necessary, it will deliver in spades, in the details, Asus cut back in order to lower the price point. The cutbacks are only noticeable if you look for them, and even then the likelihood of any of them severely impacting your computing experience are slim.
For instance, many reviews criticize the screen, its glossiness, poor viewing angles, etc. All of these complaints are valid, and I can not disagree with them. But (there is always a "but"), when you sit the computer on your lap for a movie, a game or for work, the screen delivers a crisp picture without blurring or ghosting with sufficient color that everything looks great unless you are a visual designer, in which case why are you using the laptop screen and not your $2500 professional studio screens? Also, you probably already have a Mac and aren't reading this anyway.
When watching trailers to movies (in 1080p without so much as a stutter), or typing up some web content, or playing the opening sequence of Tales of Monkey Island: The Siege of Spinner Cay, I never once thought "Man the color gamut on this panel isn't quite as full as I want it to be" or "If only the viewing angles were wider..."
Asus achieved a fine balance with this laptop.
Ultimately there is a duality to this machine in front of me that is intriguing. It is a machine of balance. Many companies, when they attempt to create balance, will spread the value of the notebook over the entire machine, so that when you spend $800 you feel like you have a keyboard that feels like $800, a monitor that looks like $800, a design that looks like $800, and so on. What Asus did here, in order to create what I would say is one of the finest balancing acts in all of the IT field, is to give you a machine with $1800 worth of performance and battery life, a $600 screen, $1500 feeling build quality, with a $500 keyboard cover, the keyboard itself feeling like $1200. They averaged all of this out to a superb $900 laptop.
They hand picked the elements that would be excellent and those that would be cut back. And in order to truly enjoy your experience with this laptop, the buyer must be aware of this. You might look at the glossy black frame of the monitor and question the quality, but the feel of the aluminum palm rests under your hands should comfort you. You may see the keyboard bounce up and down a little bit and think it isn't quite sturdy, but look up and just feel the keys under your fingers.
The U30JC gives you everything you need and nothing that you don't. Some of us have particular concerns or needs, and legitimately so, if you do a lot of travel and design work, and need a screen that is eye-searingly accurate and vibrant, well this might not be for you, also you will likely pay about one and a half this price for it. If you, for some inexplicable reason, have all of your storage exclusively eSata, then this won't be for you, or if you need expressCard for something. Those are all things that you don't need a review to tell you though. One look at the stats page would tell you that, and this could be the world's best 13.3" laptop (which it might just be), and there won't be any selling you on it.
For the average consumer with no truly unique needs from their computer, you should not be scared off by the lack of these ports, or people complaining about them. Most of the people I know who bought a computer because it had eSata and expressCard haven't even used them (Myself included). Again, if you have them and use them, this isn't for you, but if you are telling yourself that you might need them in the future, think again.
Something you will likely need, that most laptop makers are forsaking for expressCard and eSata nowadays, is an optical drive. No one realizes the pain in the that not having one is until you have to live through it and learn to do everything on flash disk. I had to switch to Linux on my last notebook because it handles flash memory partitioning and bootables better.
The doors are closing on the business now, and it is time for me to go home and tend to my guests, but I will leave you with one thought:
No laptop is perfect. Most computer imperfections are discovered after purchase, by reviewers and consumers who run into them sometimes in the most inconvenient way. In the U30JC, Asus took the problem of imperfections due to cost cutting head on, and decided exactly what they wanted them to be in order to minimize the impact on the end-user experience.
Which is preferable to you?

Check back in later in the week as I post some numbers on gaming, battery life, portability and suggest a few good coffee shops in the Southwest Louisiana region.

 

Just wanted to say thanks and keep up the good work. Rep for you. I don't have one yet, but am looking forward to it!

 

Going to post tonight or tomorrow morning, for Memorial Day weekend experience.

 

I'm getting this laptop today (just have to pick it up from the depot) and I guess I'll be posting some gaming benchmarks because I know that's what I was really curious about.

 

Here is the thing about Gaming Benchmarks. You can look at all the numbers and reports and graphs, etc. as much as you want to and still not know what you are getting. A lot of times (almost all the time) those numbers are averages, and what it generally amounts to is that the times when you pay the most attention to the graphics (when spectacular things are happening) is when the card runs the slowest, and when you stare at the ground you get totally fluent.
Don't get me wrong, measuring minimum frames, avg. frames and the rest can give you a good idea of where a laptop stands compared to other laptops, I respect that, and I definitely use those metrics when I am looking for a computer.
To the point, and as a mini-Memorial day review, I will comment on gaming fluency. I will not give a bunch of numbers, which any of you can find in 20 places by googling, but rather, I will describe the experiences.
First off, I played TellTale Games' Tales of Monkey Island, not the most graphically intensive game ever made to be sure (though it did cause some slowdown on my old 8600 GT.) The gameplay was fluid on the highest setting, though there seemed to be a bit of jitteriness to the whole ordeal, sort of like the microjitters you get from SLI or Crossfire. Its hard to put my finger on it, but the only practical effect was that it threw the voices slightly off of the lip syncing, making the all the cinematics a bit surreal. Reducing the settings didn't seem to clear this up though, so I assume it is just one of the realities of using a low-end card. I should note that after about 10-15 minutes of play I completely stopped noticing it. Individual mileage may vary, in that regard.
I moved on to some emulation, PS1 and PS2. (Don't worry, I dumped my own BIOS and used the physical disks that I own.) On the PS1 I played Parasite Eve and Legend of Dragoon, two of the hands-down best RPG experiences available and I can't recommend them enough to anyone who hasn't tried them. After working out some of the kinks of running a game based on decade and a half old hardware on the bleeding edge of modern computing (Optimus the main issue here), These games both ran absolutely flawlessly on the system, no slow down, perfect rendering and all the eye candy turned up.
PS2 was slightly different. I played Persona 3 (yeah, I know lots of JRPGs, I have a problem okay, forget about it). There was no slowdown and everything was mechanically sound, but for some reason I could not get the damn hair on the characters to render properly. I talked to many people who played the game, did all of their suggestions and saw screenshots of theirs that were fine, and mine didn't work. Poor Yukari had to walk around with her hair displaced 5 inches sideways from her head and there was nothing I could do.
Could I nail this down to the graphics card or the U30? Nope, and I won't, but as much as I wish I could say that it worked flawlessly it didn't.

Most of you, I am sure, are curious about more modern and demanding games, and I assure you I am too, but I don't have enough experience yet to give you a good description or story, so leave it for tonight or tomorrow so that I may regale you with tales of glory or bitter failure, or complete drunkenness, as today was my first really bad day at work (not the U30's fault, fyi).
In any case stay tuned. Also, I haven't forgotten about pictures, just about no one I see on a regular basis has a digicam. (My co-worker sold his or it broke or something.)

Also of note, the upgraded 6200 Advanced-N wireless card has been no less than spectacular. No drops, haven't seen less than 4 bars where other computers are getting 2 and speeds any Netflix Streaming fan would be happy with. This puppy streams HD like a champion, too, no slow down on Netflix, youtube or apple trailers. If you use wireless internet alot, and I suspect many of you do, you won't be disappointed if you drop the $35ish on the WiFi upgrade. How this performance compares to the base model, I can't tell you, but I can say that for $35 you can be sure.

Lastly, the viewing angles are starting to be a bit annoying, I always find myself readjusting the screen and fiddling with the position to try to get the best picture, which should not be the case (as those of us who have used good panels can testify to.) God forbid you try to share your screen with someone. I will say that the inclusion of an HDMI port is now a notable feature, as I am able to jack this thing straight into my home entertainment center and not worry at all about A/V issues. Which is really just V issues (heads out of the gutters kids) since the speakers sound just fine to me with the exception of loud music, which doesn't get loud, and deep base, which doesn't get deep. Neither of those issues come up often enough for me to care in the slightest, and I have speakers if I need those capabilities.

Sorry to drone on again without any pictures, and if anyone has any issues they really want me to address let me know.

Next issue: Hardcore gaming (as much as I can muster anyway) and the first day on the road!

 

The default wireless card works quite well. Better than my last 4 notebooks (UL80VT/Intel 1000, U6Ep/Intel 4965, G2S and Thinkpad T61p). However, the improved reception is probably due to chassis material/antenna placement than the actual wifi card.

 

My C90S and Eee 1002HA had similar construction and worse reception, but you may be right about the placement issue on that one.

 

Well tf2 runs perfectly fine for anyone who is interested, not sure about the fps but definitely nothing under 20, very smooth at high settings. Though a weird stutter problem happens where if i press a movement key everything will go on a half a second loop until i let go of the key. It only sometimes happens after about 45 minutes of gameplay and a simple exit and startup fixes it.

UPDATE 2: Found the problem about the wierd stutturing, its because Asus computers have a way of activating chinese input and that messes up with the input. I got this fix from another thread

Windows orb -> control panel -> Clock, Language and Region -> Change keyboards and other input methods -> Change keyboards -> Select the Chinese option under Installed services -> click remove

-Credit goes to David

Quick question though, recently I updated around 19 things with windows7 auto update and now the fan is constantly running at full speed, even as I type this where as before it was at its idle speed where you can only hear it if the room was completely silent. Has anyone experienced this and know how to fix it?

UPDATE: The loud fan is now gone after I closed the lid for about 1 hour, maybe it was just hot...

 

I have gotten all of the updates. I had the fan problem once and my computer BSOD'd (but that was a botched graphics driver install.)

Have you tried updating to the newest BIOS? I was having a couple of issues with the Optimus (310M driver crashing, mainly) until I flashed the new BIOS.
you can get it at support.asus.com
Flash with the built-in utility and restart.
I don't know if it will fix your problem, but worth a shot I think.

Small gaming update: After hassling with "the witcher," which has a built-in minimum requirements enforcer that rejects any video card below the x6xx lines for nvidia (even if they are actually fast enough to play the game, I found that you can add a flag at runtime "-dontForceMinReqs" that gets you into the game. You can do this through creating a shortcut and editing the target on it to have that flag, or making a .bat or simply running it through the cmd with that flag (which I have been doing.)
Long story short, it runs great, better than my 8600 GT did. The card doesn't support high-res textures or AA, but for the most part you won't notice, you can pretty much crank everything else and get 20+ frames constantly. Every once in a while, during a cutscene, a character will display some sort of priceless artifact of amazing importance and you will stare at a brown box because of the crappy textures, but that is the only thing that is really effected. Characters are still high-res and high-poly, so you don't have any flat textures on faces or anything like that, and the clothes are details which you can only really tell on a big monitor with your nVidia 997 GTXCSx2 SLI ridiculous edition on a desktop running at 1900x1200 full AA AF with high textures. In other words, no big deal, but serious PC performance freaks (no offense) will likely be disappointed.
I believe that the system makes up for having a low end card like the 310 by running at a reasonable 1366x768 resolution and having a enough VRAM to choke a horse.
In my opinion, this is a gamer's laptop, but to be completely accurate it is a gamer's Eee PC. The same guy who will spend over 2 grand on a top-tier gaming rig with a 17+" screen which you need to move around on a forklift, this scales down, practically speaking, to how a normal person might view a netbook. It is likely the bare minimum of gaming power that is acceptable for a gamer, particularly with this price tag. This may spark the debate between this and the m11x, but I refuse to get into that debate here, at least for right now.

As it turns out, the week's travel didn't require any computer work from me, so it sat innocently in my bag for the duration of my travels. I will say that it was sleeping for well over 12 hours and lost less than 20% battery (woke it up and it was at 82% )
Pretty sweet.

In any case, I am still dedicated to getting a review of the travel capabilities of this guy, as well as those pictures I have been promising.

Right now I am in Bruce, MS. I am typing this from a small desk at a lovely B&B called the Cart Barn Inn (I highly recommend it, if you are in the area.)
The only thing that has torn me away from this wonderful machine is being regaled of many stories by a woman I am sure must share some blood of William Faulkner. Truly, it sounded like listening to a new chapter from As I Lay Dying. Also the wedding of my half-brothers' sister, which promises to be fantastic. I won't drone any longer about my life here, but do know that even in the middle of the countryside, Mississippi, the U30JC is a champion.

P.S. I got the bluetooth hooked up to my PS3 controller for some wireless ePSXe gaming, routed to my TV with an HDMI cable, it has fully made the transition into a combo PS1/PS2, clearing room on my entertainment center as those went back into the closet (wires on those controllers didn't reach my coach and didn't feel like springing for old third-party wireless or extenders.)

Cheers!
--Alex

 

Just ordered mine today, should hopefully get here by next Wednesday. Where did you guys order from? I ordered from XoticPC since they are one state away from me and the cheapest I could find. The i3 base model totaled $850, which is the best I could find anywhere. I passed on the i5 model I found in Canada and the A2B since they both were about $150 more.

I plan on using that spare change to...
1. Buy a 60GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD
2. Upgrade to 6200 wifi
3. Possibly install bluetooth?

Where is the line for voiding the warranty drawn? New webcam would also be on my list of things to add.

 

I got mine from GenTech. I got the A2B which has bluetooth as well as a 7200RPM HDD. Though the true value came from having Win7 upgraded to Pro. Also got the 6200N upgrade (for $35)
Generally anything that isn't the RAM or HDD can't be replaced without voiding the warranty. Essentially, when you open the computer up, if you remove any tape or tear any paper, you have voided the warranty, I haven't looked inside yet so I dunno about the wireless or bluetooth cards (whether they void or not.)

I assume if you needed to have bluetooth or 6200 card you would have added them when you ordered the computer since they don't get any cheaper elsewhere (25 bucks is the cheapest I saw it, which is only 10 bucks more and with the chance of voiding warranty and extra waiting and shipping, it isn't cheaper, and I couldn't find the broadwave bluetooth card anywhere.) so probably getting the SSD would be the best move (least chance of voiding warranty, decent upgrade to performance, at least on boot-up.) Though the i5 would be a way better performance increase for the 150 dollar increase vs. the 200 bucks you will spend on the SSD.
Up to you though, just my two cents.
Also of note, my laptop battery outlasted my cell phone battery yesterday, which was pretty sweet.

 

I just got mine two days ago, using tiger direct through Amazon, but Amazon now has them in stock again for $872 (free shipping and no sales tax).

I did a lot of research, especially in this forum, before buying and its exactly what I expected. So far I'm a happy camper. I would have liked to have a little extra weight without the DVD, but I couldn't wait any longer for the U33 bamboo so I got this one.

One question, how do I run the Express gate? I probably won't use it in the long run but I'd like to play with it.

 

From what I can tell the i3-350 and the i5-430 are both clocked at 2.26 and perform the same other than the i5 can turbo up to 2.53 yielding a ~7% increase in performance.

The thought that went through my head was that I could...

A. Get the i5 to yield 7% increase in synthetic benchmarks, while also increasing the TDP (real... not intel stated) and increasing heat. Would rarely be used since it only engages when CPU reaches 100%, definitely not when unplugged (not for me anyway, I cap my laptops at 50% CPU when unplugged). I don't plan on doing any encoding/encrypting anyway, if I did I have a Phenom II x4 desktop.

Or I could...
B. Cut boot, restore, wake, and application loading times in half while increasing battery life and reliability while decreasing heat. Based off of this info ( ASUS U30Jc Revisited: Adding an SSD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News).

Keep in mind that the information is for a Vertex I. I plan on getting a Vertex II since it is ~20% faster and the 4k random write is over 3x as fast. Hopefully more power efficient also.

What's the advantage of W7 Pro? I've never really found a situation for XP mode, I guess some work situations require the Pro for the advanced networking but otherwise?

Wanna do me a fav and flash us the underside of your laptop with the covers removed? Already checked the manual, nothing available that helps like some revealing pics would lol

 

well then, ive run into my first major problem, the wireless seems to have stopped working. I flip the switch on the front back and forth but it keeps displaying the WLAN is disabled image, even when i flick the switch to on. Even the fn command doesnt help. Im going to see if this persists tomorrow and if it does ill end up doing a restore eventually. Anyone know what the problem might be?

 

Try reinstalling your wifi driver and make sure it's enabled in your device manager.

This may help:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare

 

Hello. Been doing a lot of reading and research. From here in the States, looks like Infonsec Computers or GenTec Computers are the options for the A2B model. I noticed that:

1) Infonsec seems to offer one model with the i5 and bluetooth, but no options on harddrive upgrade (320GB/5400rpm):

2) GenTec only offers the i3, but with the 7200rpm 320GB drive and Win 7 Pro, as mentioned. But, they also list numerous upgrade opinions (larger HD, more RAM), ....including Blue Ray drives.

I know probably the easiest thing is to simply call them. But, I'm curious if anyone here has input or experience with dealing with either company? The thought of a 500GB/7200rpm model with a Blue Ray drive certainly is appealing! Does GenTec actually build up the model with the options desired?

Thanks.

 

Thanks for starting the owners' lounge, added to the Info Booth and to the Reviews and Owners' Lounges Index thread.

E.B.E., ASUS forum moderator

 

The infobooth webpage EBE just posted says

It goes on to say that there are no definite written rules as to what voids the warranty. I'd say Webcam would be a no go but not sure about the Bluetooth. It's about $26 plus shipping but for a few dollars less it will be nice to compare the range between the two.

E.B.E. do you have any insight on whether or not I will be able to install an internal blutooth module? If so how about pointing me to where I can get an appropriate card?

 

Yeah, I don't see how the webcam could be upgraded without relatively major modifications to the hardware, so that would probably not be OK from a warranty point of view.

As to bluetooth, there should be no problem installing it as long as you can get to the slot without breaking any CPU warranty seals. Where to get it: if a closely related model has bluetooth, it's usually a good bet that that model's BlueTooth card will work in yours. In that case, have a look at the ASUS eStore. Otherwise, I don't know, owners should be able to give some info.

 

I've never heard of Infonsec and I doubt they're even an authorized Asus reseller.
GentechPC on the other hand, I have dealt with numerous times and they are great and you should have full confidence in purchasing from them.

 

Thanks for the input on GentechPC. Seems like quite a few are happy with them.

Re "Infonsec", my error. I meant "Infonec Computers". From reading these threads, two other companies have cropped up also with an A2B model, or a model with the i5-430; NCIX (Canadian company), and BTO Tech (a New York company).

I plan on making a few phone calls, and seeing exactly what they can do re customization on the U30JC. I have a month or two before I really need to pull the trigger on a model - this computer looks like a really good one. I'm looking forward to more inputs on this forum. Who know, maybe I'll get lucky and they'll release one with a backlit keyboard by then!!!

I would really be curious how the blueray drive works, if anyone ever orders one with that option.

Thanks for a great and informative thread!

 

Could someone give me the part number for the 5600 mah battery? I'm getting the U30JC with the 4400 (core i5) and want to upgrade the battery if I find the life is not enough.

Thanks!

 

I'm looking to replace the Atheros wireless card that came with my U30Jc with an older Intel 4965AGN card I have in a HP laptop that no longer works. Are there any directions online on how to get to the U30Jc's wireless card? I can't find any. I'm not happy with the Atheros cards performance, and the 4965AGN is also dual band.

 

When you crack open the lower panel it should be fairly obvious assuming that they are the same interface. Why are you upgrading to an older card? If it is more powerful I highly doubt that it is more power efficient...

This vid will show you what to look for inside

YouTube - How to Replace a Laptop Wireless Card

 

U30JC's wireless card is underneath the keyboard, you just have to lift the keyboard and you will see the wireless card at the upper-right side.

 

Hi. Any idea if a particular retailer has the i5 option yet for the U30JC-A2B? Apologize in advance if the question violates any forum rules.

Thanks.

 

Anybody buy a notebook bag for this model? Looking for something that fits snugly but also has pockets for power supply, etc

 

Well I just got mine today and had a chance to play around with it but had a problem... Optimus does not appear to be working, mainly based on the fact that I am getting only a little over 4 hours of battery at idle. I'm thinking about doing the asus backup CDs just in case and then reformatting fresh (speaking of which can I use a W7 upgrade disk with the laptop Key?) but I'd be concerned that it would be difficult to get everything with optimus installed correctly. Anyone ever clean installed on an optimus notebook?

 

Take your pick and look at reviews. If everything stays the same this is sorted by ratings high to low.

Newegg.com - 13", 13.3", Laptop Cases, Laptop Accessories, PCs & Laptops

 

I know this laptop uses the Nvidia optimus technology. With that being said has anyone tested or used the Intel Wireless Display Technology (WIDI) with this laptop as it is supposed to work per this video:

YouTube - NVIDIA Optimus Works Perfectly With Intel Wireless Display (WiDi)

 

Thanks for the info. I got the keyboard off fine. Unfourtanetly my Intel 4965 card is a full size miniPCI express and won't fit. Not too big of a deal, I ordered an Intel 6200 half size card off eBay for 20 bucks shipped.

I do have another question....anyone have a tip on how to secure the keyboard ribbon back into place on this laptop? Seems like it should be trivial, but I can't seem to get it. I can slide the ribon into place and temporarily tape it down and it works, and I can push the lock tab into place without the ribbon, but I can't get the lock tab into place while the ribbon is in place. This type of connector is new to me, so I'm probably just doing something wrong.

Thanks in advance!

 

is it possible to remove the DVD drive in order to make the notebook lighter?

 

Does anyone know if the Zeroshock III 13.3" sleeve fits the U30JC?

edit: no it doesn't.

 

My U30JC has uneven rubber feet so it rocks left and right. It seems that the right bottom rubber foot is shorter than the rest. Does anyone else have this problem? I just got this notebook a few days ago, and its build quality is really letting me down.

 

No problem with the feet here... The keyboard is my let down.

I have a question for everyone else though, when I close the lid and put the laptop to sleep and let it sit for an extended period of time then open it up and hit the spacebar to wake it, the screen stays off and the fan revs up like it's hibernating but after it finishes and I hit the power button it starts windows like it rebooted. Anyone with similar problems? I'm taking this to college and that would be a seriously bad deal to have it reboot with unsaved work.


Oh and to anyone that hasn't updated their firmware I would recommend doing so. I was having problems with windows not recognizing both graphics in control panel but after the flash I have had no problems. Oddly enough it also made my mic crystal clear as well, my girlfriend had been complaining about it for awhile but the next time I got on skype the first thing she said was, "wow, your mic is really clear" even though she didn't have any knowledge of what I was doing so it must be legit.

I did get an SSD in it, 60GB OCZ Agility 2, although it is fast and did without a doubt knock 20+ seconds off of my boot time it wasn't quit as grand as I had hoped.

 

I haven't experienced any of your sleep/wake problems, but I also reformatted with a fresh copy of win7pro when I first got it to get rid of all that awful Asus bloatware. What don't you like about the keyboard? I think it's a pretty standard chiclet keyboard. They keys could use a better feeling coating though.

 

My keyboard is very mushy and visibly bulges toward the center slightly. Not really that big of a deal.

I am also running a freshly installed copy of windows. Another problem that I was having is that when I reboot with a USB mouse in, the computer pauses on post then resumes booting when I pull it out. It will pause again if I reinsert it even when windows has started loading. Weird stuff, and I am afraid I am running into hardware issue, it seems that nothing I buy ever works 100%

 

huh that's really strange... You should contact Asus and see whats up, or even see if you can exchange it where you bought it. I decided on returning my U30JC to get a UL30JT or U35JC. I got tired with my 30JC and how much it wobbles because of the uneven feet.

 

Hello!
I just got my u30JC and already have a question/problem. I can't find witch grafic card is being used, how to switch among them and so on. I can't find anything about nvidia card, only in device manager there are 2 cards. Tried new drivers for nvidia optimus - nothing. Can someone help me?

 

Well, you can change what programs uses which card in the Nvidia properties in the notification area. There should be a tab somewhere in there (I actually don't have one of these laptops, I had to return my UL80JT the day after I bought it, so this is all from memory!).

Also, this utility is the one that tells you when the Nvidia GPU is being used. It was only recently released for public use.

 

Go to Control Panel>Appearance>Nvidia

Global should be set to integrated. On the next tab you can select a program (you may need to "add" it by finding the EXE in your c: drive) then you can manually select the graphics card.

If it does not give you an option to select which graphics is used (only gives 3d options) then flash your bios to the latest version. I had trouble with this but it only happened after a clean install.

 

Alright so I contacted Asus with my problems with hibernation. That was about 2 weeks ago and I never got any reply... I called them today, a relatively short called ended with me explaining that since I have updated my Bios and used both the original install of windows and a fresh install that this means my problem is hardware and not software. I've even used 2 hard drives. They said that they would look into it and email me back today. They emailed me back with what solution? Contact Microsoft because its a software issue . I am typically very relaxed when it comes to teaching technical support but I am about 24 hours from becoming technical supports worst nightmare.

So I replied to this email further explaining why there is not a chance in hell that I have a software issue. Also explaining that I WILL be taking a fully functioning laptop with me to college on the 18th (They would have had a full month had they replied to my email) or I will not be buying another Asus product ever. I'm yet to explain to them that I work for an Asus retailer and also have the ability to reduce Asus sales much further then my own personal use, but I would prefer not to resort to that. At this point I am still entertaining the possibility for a positive outcome. Keeping the fingers crossed.

-B&C

 

Decided I should post a review of the new B1 version and I guess this is the best place to do it

Asus U30JC-B1 Specifications:

Intel Core i3-370M
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
13.3-inch glossy LED-backlit 16:9 display (1366 x 768)
Intel GMA HD integrated with NVIDIA Optimus (GeForce 310M w/ 512MB DDR3)
4GB DDR3 1066MHz (2GB x 2)
320GB 5400 RPM hard drive
Intel Wi-Fi Link 1000BGN Wi-Fi, Atheros AR8131 Gigabit LAN
8-cell 15V 5600mAh 84WHr Battery, 19V 65W AC Adapter
Limited Two-year Global Warranty with one-year accidental coverage
13.12" x 9.52" x 0.8"-1.2" (W x D x H)
4.8 pounds
$869

Build and Design

Everything that has been said about the previous versions, the A1 and A2B, applies here as well. It is a little thicker and heavier than the average thin and light, almost as large as the smaller mainstream notebooks, but that size and weight increase allows for a very well constructed machine as well as the inclusion of an optical drive. Every part of the notebook exhibits excellent build quality. There is no flex on the palmrests or around the keyboard and very minimal flex on the bottom of the notebook right under the optical drive. Even the screen, which measures about half a centimeter thick, requires significant pressure to twist and bend. Overall the build quality of the notebook is what one would expect from a premium laptop but still not as good as a high end business orientated machine and slightly behind by HP dv6.

The design of the notebook will be very pleasing to minimalists or users looking to bring the notebook to work. The lid cover and palmrests are a gunmetal gray color, not shiny silver like the UL line, and resists scratches as well as fingerprints with ease. I am a huge fan of the brushed silver look on notebooks so it is very pleasing to me.

Even the bottom of the notebook is understated and looks good. There are two small access panels for the RAM and hard drive, two battery locks, and no vents. The lack of vents make using the notebook on any surface safe as you do not have to worry about blocking any air intake off.

Screen and Speakers

I would rate everything about the panel on the U30JC as slightly above average. Brightness levels are very good at the mid levels but the maximum and minimum levels are both not as bright as previous notebooks I have used. Just like most screens on newer notebooks the viewing angles are adequate. Horizontally they are actually quite good, I don't notice a difference in color until about 40-50 degrees and even past that it is only the dark colors that suffer. Text is readable at even extreme horizontal angles. Vertical viewing angles are bad, however. If you stand up or move the screen slightly forward the colors fade so much that you have a hard time reading what is on the screen. Just like all non-business orientated notebooks the screen is glossy but it isn't so glossy that you cannot use it in a well lit room.

As the NBR review of the A1 already said, the speakers are not very good. Even at the highest levels they sound tiny and muffled. I would definitely recommend a good pair of headphones for audiophiles buying this notebook.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard is a chiclet style, which I do not like personally, but the size is good enough for me to get over it. I am a rather large guy and the keyboard is very large with lots of space between the keys, enough so my big fingers do not make many mistakes. The keys themselves, however, feel mushy but I think that is the way they are supposed to feel. The keyboard itself has almost no flex in most areas, it feels like you are pushing down right onto metal if you try at some parts, and the parts that do have flex aren't really a major problem. When using the keyboard you will not feel any flex when you are typing, you can only find it when you push down hard purposely.

In comparison to the keyboard the touchpad is relatively small but it works well enough. It supports two finger scroll and three finger right click, the only two multitouch gestures that I have ever used, and both work very well so I can't complain. The surface feels a little strange when first used, like rubbing your finger on a chalkboard, but once it accumulates the natural oil from your fingers in is fine.

Ports and Features

Read the NBR review of the A1, the B1 has the same ports and placement

ASUS U30JC-A1 with NVIDIA Optimus Review

Performance and Benchmarks

If anyone has anything specific that they want me to run then let me know but otherwise you could just refer to the NBR review with the i3-350M. The i3-370M is hardly better than it and not quite on the level of the i5-430M so that should give a pretty good indication.

Heat and Noise

The case of the notebook stays surprisingly cool even under heavy load. Even when stressing it the palmrests stays very cool and the underside did as well, with the exception of right under the exhaust vent. The temperatures around the keyboard were the same, cool on the right side but slightly warmer on the left above the vent. Internal temps stayed under 80C under heavy load for both the CPU and GPU and the idle/normal use temps were in the low to mid 40s. I was surprised at how much noise the U30 produces, however. When idling it is actually slightly louder than my dv6z using a 7200 RPM and AMD quad core. Under load that noise does not increase all that much, however.

Battery life

The NBR reviewer of the A1 said he got over 8 hours with continuous wifi surfing and the screen at 75% but I can't get close to that. I am getting slightly over 6 hours with the same settings and almost 7 under lighter use, same screen brightness and wifi still on but less flash intensive surfing. It is still amazing for a full powered Core i processor to get that kind of life but I am somewhat disappointed.

Conclusion

For a while now I have been looking for a thin and light with good graphics performance, great battery life, and good build quality and the U30JC meets all of these requirements. The inclusion of an optical drive is a plus for me as well but those looking for a true thin and light may want to look elsewhere.

Pros:

• Very good battery life
• High build quality
• Good performance for its class
• Cool to the touch
• Optical drive

Cons:

• Heavier than most notebooks in its class
• Slightly loud

 

Hey, can someone else go to windows command prompt and type
powercfg -energy

It generates an energy usage report (for seeing what may negatively impact battery life)

I get a bunch of these errors
"ACPI _PSD Object Failed Validation"

Wondering if there's something I need to install or change to get the error to go away, or if it's a problem with Asus' drivers themselves...

Any ideas?

 

Hey guys, I recently got my U30JC-A1 and love it.

I was just wondering if the Optimus graphics switching technology is automatic? Like if I run a game, will it switch from the onboard to the 310M?

Or would I have to do it manually in some cases?

The reason I ask is so that I can test how high I can run certain settings for some games.

Thanks in advance!

 

Anything requiring better graphics performance will trigger the 310M on. It is automatic out of the box. If you want to manually set it, there should be instructions on how to do so all over the thread.

 

I received my U30JC-B2 just a few days ago and so far am very happy with it. Had to get rid of a lot of bloatware to begin with but things seem to be running well now. I got a 3dmark06 score of 3733 and am also running Starcraft II on it. I chose to run it on low graphics settings (slightly customised) because I can't stand the occasional drop in framerate I get on medium settings.

 

I am enjoying my U30JC-A2B, but realize I did not pay attention to the ability to get wireless broadband. . .No express card slot! Unless there is an adapter to use the memory card slot

How much slower are the usb alternatives?

 

Hi guys,

After much searching, I believe this to be the model that i want (accept comparisons with the toshiba M645-S4050, Best Buy) is now doubt over the model specifically. U30Jc-B1, U30Jc-A1, U30JC-A2B? What advantages and disadvantages of each one? It's worth the $ 100 more for the A2B? I am very undecided, the more I look the more I am in doubt ...