~ Asus F8 Owners' Lounge ~

Preamble

This thread is intended to consolidate most discussions about the Asus F8 series of notebook computers into one main thread.

Overview

The Asus F8 series consists of 14” notebooks featuring either a sleek black cover made with Infusion Technology (F8SA/SV) or a leather cover in either black or white (F8P). It comes with built in features such as fingerprint authentication, 1.3 megapixel webcam and much more. The F8 series uses high end Intel Centrino Duo processor combined with either the NVIDIA 8600GT, the ATI HD2600, or the ATI HD2400 graphic cards.

Specifications

F8SA
Screen: 14" WXGA (1280 x 800) Color Shine LCD
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz)
Graphics Card: ATI HD2600 512MB DDR2 (dedicated)
Memory: 1GB DDR2 667 memory
Hard Drive: 160GB 5400rpm SATA
Est. Price: $1,249 (USA)

F8SV-A1
Screen: 14" WXGA (1280 x 800) Color Shine LCD
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA 8600GT 256MB DDR2 (dedicated)
Memory: 1GB DDR2 667 memory + 1GB Intel Turbo Memory
Hard Drive: 160GB 5400rpm SATA
Est. Price: $1,349 (USA)

F8SV-B1
Screen: 14" WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Color Shine LCD
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 (2.4GHz)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA 8600GT 256MB DDR2 (dedicated)
Memory: 2GB DDR2 667 memory + 1GB Intel Turbo Memory
Hard Drive: 250GB 5400rpm SATA
Est. Price: $1,549 (USA)

F8P-B1W (white leather)
Screen: 14" WXGA (1280 x 800) Color Shine LCD
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 (2.0GHz)
Graphics Card: ATI HD2400 256MB DDR2 (dedicated)
Memory: 1GB DDR2 667 memory
Hard Drive: 160GB 5400rpm SATA
Est. Price: $1,299 (USA)

F8P-P2B (black leather)
Screen: 14" WXGA (1280 x 800) Color Shine LCD
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 (2.0GHz)
Graphics Card: ATI HD2400 256MB DDR2 (dedicated)
Memory: 2GB DDR2 667 memory
Hard Drive: 160GB 5400rpm SATA
Est. Price: $1,349 (USA)

F8P-X1W (white leather)
Screen: 14" WXGA (1280 x 800) Color Shine LCD
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz)
Graphics Card: ATI HD2400 256MB DDR2 (dedicated)
Memory: 1GB DDR2 667 memory
Hard Drive: 160GB 5400rpm SATA
Est. Price: $1,349 (USA)

Other notable threads about the Asus F8 series

F8SV: Games, photos and benchmark - F8SV-A1 pictures and benchmarks by GenTechPC
F8SV: Review & Benchmarks - Review of the F8SV-A1 by EXcaliberPC
Asus F8Sv-B1 Video Review & Benchmarks - Video Review of the F8SV-B1 by Geared2play.com
F8SA/F8SV Availability? - Discussions about the availability of the F8SA/F8SV
Specs for the F8SV (A1 & B1) - Discussions about the F8SV specifications
Asus F8 with leather finish - Discussions about the Asus F8P
Asus F8 with HD2600 real photo!! - Discussions about the Asus F8SA
Which ASUS model is this? - Early rumours about the F8 models
ATI HD2600 512MB vs. nVidia GeForce G8600M GT 256MB - Discussions about the GPUs in the F8SA and F8SV

 

Can't wait to get my B1.

 

My SA will be coming in the mail just after christmas! I am looking forward to this soooooo much! This thread was much needed also.

 

Thanks for putting this up Swiper. I was too lazy to...

Love the F8SV so far.... its been serving my wireless needs in Vanguard and Quake Wars. Actually going to give this a try as my desktop for a couple years.

My only wish is that the bezel around the screen was a litte more slimline, the webcam is like a hood ornament on a caddy....

 

Very much enjoying my F8SV-A1 right now On my way to the store today to pick up a 200 GB HDD though...didn't select the option when i bought it because I wanted to be able to use the 160 as a nice external USB drive

Just gotta figure out how to properly set up the system to dual boot XP and Vista though...

 

I believe that you have to slipstream the proper SATA drivers into an XP cd. Find out what chipset you have.

 

I would appreciate it if a moderator could modify the thread title to "~ Asus F8 Series Owners' Lounge ~". Thank you.

 

I think the specifications for the F8SV-A1 are wrong...
I believe it has a 8600MGT with gddr3 not ddr2...most retailers have it as gddr3
and i think there are versions in Asia with 8600MGS with ddr2
http://www.lucomputers.com/aStore/default.asp?productid=4532
correct me if I'am totally wrong

 

Think you might be wrong on that one Zare, unfortunately... Looking at the specs for it on my laptop, it's only running at a speed of 400mhz, as opposed to the 700 that (from my understanding) the GDDR3 version uses

I actually noticed that on the lucomputers site as well, but neglected to contact them regarding it to suggest they double check those specs... Pretty sure all the North America Versions are the same and that they're DDR2...

I'm pretty sure, however that the G1S or whatever has a GDDR3 version

 

All NA versions has DDR2.

 

Yep, its a DDR2 unit, confirmed by multiple sources. Plus, its 3DMark06 score is just under 3600, whereas a GDDR3 8600GT is right around 4300.

 

700 points just for that?

 

DDR3 or not, im getting great performance with overclocking, my current config is 600mhz core, 1200 mhz shader, and 569 memory

im trying to watch temps and inch along. It seems that ~569 is the max for the memory, otherwise the driver will crash, not requiring a reboot, but only if you plan to overclock afterword

Really wanted the B1 model tho, since im mainly a gamer, i settled with the lower native res, but i wouldve enjoyed web browsing on two browsers at once

 

Before I bought my F8SV, I was playing with the resolution on my work laptop (15" WUXGA) to see what resolution would be best for me. I did not notice any useful difference between 1280x800 and 1440x900 when it came to daily tasks like web browsing. The only thing was a little bit more useless desktop space next to the browser. I also did not see it being possible to comfortably using two web browser at the same time with a 1440x900 resolution.

 

It is DDR2 I crossed referenced the memory chips with the manufactures spec sheet. I have it posted somewhere around here

Gobo after your tweaks what have you achieved in 3Dmark06? I'm mainly interested in WXP numbers. Are you using any additional cooling in your setup?

Just for reference, no overclock the F8SV posted +100 in 3dmark06 than my AMD 3700 w/7800GT (both in XP)

Are you able to get 3Gb to work under XP w/8600?

 

I'm going to run 3dmark06 right now, and i dont have xp, but im assuming (like the trend is), xp will gain +400 mark score over vista

 

600 core:1200 shader:569 memory

highest ive gotten so far. The card is around 81*c most of the time when gaming, its usually at ~78

 

very nice. That's higher than a DDR3@stock

 

Gamer: Haven't gotten around to installing XP yet so I haven't found out if I can get the 3GB of RAM to work. I spent most of my day yesterday doing a fresh install of Vista after getting my new 7k200 drive (love it so far..have a partition waiting for XP though... and i got an external drive case for the original 160, so it's being put to good use )

I'm thinking I may end up OCing this puppy and just sticking with Vista for now. I'm not really SUPER concerned with the bit of boost XP will give (still trying to decide if I should stick with Home or go buy a copy of Pro, anyways), I'm just more concerned with compatability issues with Vista... Bioshock was giving me problems trying to install, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic was crashing on me a few times, and last time i was trying to show a friend, it was actually chugging along quite unimpressively...I didn't notice any background tasks, but I could be very much wrong...

 

Anyone know of a 9 cell battery for the F8 series? If so, then I'm almost sold!
Thanks!

 

From what I've been told by gentech, there is no 9 cell battery yet. Im also hoping for it so I could pull long mobile sessions. Someone on here pointed me towards the APC universal batteries that are about half as thick as a notebook and roughly the same size that you plug into the charge port. The batteries could add up to 6 hours from what Ive been told.

 

There won't be a 9 cell battery in the future either. Just look at the position and shape of the battery - its a rectangle under one of the palmrests. That kind of location really doesn't offer any way to fit an extended battery into the notebook. Just as the A8Jm and A8Js never got one, I highly doubt the F8Sv will get an extended battery.

 

I really wouldnt care if the battery stuck out the bottom a little bit. Its a bummer that Asus designed the battery that way. This laptop is a busy gamer's dream: small formfactor, great hardware, easy to lug around.

 

Not so long away from an outlet though...

 

Thanks guys for answering my question about the video card memory, it is ddr2.
But from what i've read it doesn't make a great deal of difference in gaming, it can still run games like Crysis at decent frame rates, anyway ill be looking at getting the F8Sv-A1 sometime soon.

 

At the moment, i feel like all gpus have to face a "Crysis" test, its like the new benchmark (the way doom 3 was a bit back), with the overclock i mentioned in this thread, i run the game at around ~20 fps at 1024 res, and a lot of custom settings (its a custom config file, but think high shaders, high post processing, high physics, high water, high volumetric, high etc. but some of the things about those high settings that go unnoticed are cut off, and dx9 mode too , with these settings, it still feels like 30 fps )

This laptop is good2go, i really hate the camera tho, i dont ever use it, but even then, best lappy EVOAR!
__
and i hate that i keep coming back to these boards, i should be spending more time enjoying this thing, but i wont rest until everyone has an f8, its just soo good for the price and the size

 

Really, how ugly is the camera on this thing in person? I think that's the only thing that's making me have second thoughts, haha.

 

Just got my new F8SA. Thought I would enjoy some lounging in the dedicated forum.

Anything I should know about this thing? Like latest drivers to use? Software?

 

It is not that bad. You will get used to it pretty fast. I also like the fact that it can be rotated around. (270 degrees I think). I plan to record my daughter dancing with that webcam and send it to her grandparents. Would be much harder to accomplish if the webcam couldn't be rotated.

 

I need a second laptop. I actually considering giving my F8SV-A1 to my wife and get myself the -B1 model.

 

That's a good one, I actually laughed for a while. Check out the F8P for around the same price range as the F8SV-A1 if you don't need 1440x900 screen resolution and high end graphics card. Thanks!

 

Does the f8 have a security hole for the laptop locks? I cant see any in the pics, and that is a must-have for me.

 

How bout the http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532"]Vista thread.

 

That thread is awesome. After installing firefox and uninstalling bloatware, the items specified in that list should be the first things one should do to optimize Vista on any computer.

Seriously, without that thread, I would have deleted Vista for XP.

 

Is there a good guide for getting rid of bloatware?

I'm getting all of my resources ready for when my B1 gets here.

 

Essentially, all you need to do is go into the "Add/Remove Programs" category in the Control Panel and uninstall all the crap that you don't need. You might also want to go into the "Change Startup Programs" category, and disable the stuff that you don't need. For example, I disabled every startup program except for the ones done by Microsoft (and Live messenger too).

For a guide, theres a pretty good one in the Guides forum.

 

Thanks, Vivek. I was just wondering if there was a reliable list as to the more cleverly named bloatwares that could be mistaken for something useful.

 

So has anyone tried to undervolt the CPU, or any other method to maximize battery life?

According to most people, there probably isn't going to be 9 cell battery due to the design constraint...so what are F8 owners doing to lengthen their computer times, besides plugging in every two hours?

 

Get a second battery.

 

Ha. That's classy.

 

Well, to be honest, its really the only solution you've got. Even with all the underclocking and undervolting in the world, you're not going to manage to get the F8Sv to give you more than 3 hours of battery life, and the physical shape of the battery compartment makes it so that a 9 cell extended battery is impossible to make. Which leaves the second battery as the only option if you need more than 3 hours of battery life.

 

There are universal batteries out there. They weight quite a bit sometimes though...

 

It's DDR2 not GDDR3 and it's official spec, GDDR3 did not pass thermal test on F8SV according to Asus.

 

Plus, GDDR3 would have jacked up the price and decreased the battery life as well.

 

To me, battery life is all user based. Of course no one's gonna squeeze a meanigful ten hours out of this laptop, but 3 hours isnt far fetched.... just dont plan to watch a dvd in those 3 hours

Ive gotten pretty good mileage, but then again, i use my laptop indoors most of the time, so i dont need the super powered backlight at all times. Checkin an email doesnt cost that match battery power and browsing the net is also rather inexpensive. There will be no gaming, and only light multitasking, but with the right power plan, 2hrs40+mins is very achievable.

*but after lets say 2-3 months of abusive charging, i doubt the battery will get two.

 

NOT really! A makes the upb70, and that weighs about 2 lbs for an additional 5 hours of battery life, which I think is quite worth it!

 

B1s this week, hopefully tomorrow.

 

14" WXGA+ isn't it suppose to be 1440 X 900, I was hoping for it to be 1440 X 900

 

The F8Sv-B1 WXGA+ is 1440x900 - that caption is wrong - it should read WXGA.

 

The picture shown is F8S but the specs is F8P, North America version of F8P will have 8600M GS, this is what F8P looks like: