~ Asus F8 Owners' Lounge ~

So a new driver for F8Sa seems to be out, V8.441. My F8Sa started crashing now and then after I connected it to a 22" monitor, hopefully this will be fixed. All the servers are either down or very slow atm btw.

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=F8Sa

 

just wondering if anyone knows...does the F8 series adapter match any of the other Asus models in this list? Specifically, will the tip be the same? Much obliged...

 

The tip will be the same for all ASUS notebooks. All you need to do is make sure the power specs match (e.g. if the old adapter is 90W then the new one should be 90W or more). For the rest, (voltage, current, tip) I am almost sure it'll be the same.

 

Greetings Bryan, regarding the fingerprint reader, for me, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's not really an ASUS issue but more of the actual technology issue I think (or even user issue). My friend just bought a new dell (those xps 13 " ones), and we're both in the same boat when it comes to the fingerprint reader. You just gotta make sure your finger starts in the right spot, needs to be straight, etc. The time spent getting it to work could have been time spent just typing in the password... but I still use it. If it fails the first time, I just bite my lip and enter my password like every other normal person

Overall, I can't say much about everything else... yet, because I've had this laptop for only a week and a half or so and I've been so busy with school work that I haven't even loaded any sort of game. Only resource-hungry software I have are Eclipse IDE, Visual Studio (programming classes) and I guess Gimp (Photoshop alternative). I dont really know why I chose the B1 over the A1. I guess since this was sorta gift for me, I milked it... and if you can get the better one, why not right?

Here are some things I've noticed since I've gotten it:

1. Everybody asks what it is since every other laptop around my school happens to be a dell, sony. Then they get surprised Asus made it.
2. speakers are not that great for me, my old z70va speakers were awesome compared to this one.
3. Camera is pretty cool, its the first thing girls ask about for some reason ("wow, u have a camera, can I see?" I'm serious)
4. I can't really tell the difference in weight between the f8 and my old 15" z70va.

Lastly, if you get the B1 now, you can actually get a $100 rebate, which will put it at about 1399, close to the price you would pay for an A1 with upgraded RAM. Hope this helped you a little bit.

Cheers!

 

I was wondering if anyone had gotten their game graphics above 4.8 yet in the Vista rating? Mine was at 4.7 when I first got it then I just downloaded an updated driver for it the other day and it took it up to 4.8. I was wondering if anyone has had the rating above that and if so, how did you do it? I might play with overclocking a little. Also remember my f8 is the sa-x2 which has the ati hd2600 in place of most of the other models which are running the 8600m GT.
Anyway, if you have had it above 4.8 with the 2600 please share with me what you did. And also anyone with the nvidia 8600, what is your gaming graphic score?

 

I wouldn't say the laptop is heavy. However it seems to be rather heavy for its class. I think it weighs the same as a 15" Dell XPS.

The fingerprint reader works fine for me. Once you figure it out its very easy to use.

I would say so. Faster processor, more ram and bigger HD. The only thing is the resolution is higher, which may or may not be a good thing for you.

Yeah the speakers aren't too great. But for casual scrobbling they work fine.

Haha looks like I bought the right laptop!

This rebate is US only. For some reason the rebates are different between Canada and the US. If you do live in Canada, you could always buy it in the US.

 

Hi everyone! this is my first post! Just read the last 16 pages on this thread, so far I've learned a lot about the F8. I should be getting my F8SV-B1 in a couple of days! Got it from excaliberpc.com for U$1369 after rebates! can't wait...

 

Welcome to the F8 Family. I have only had mine for about 3 weeks and I am absolutely loving it. I hope you enjoy it. Let us know when you get it in and let us know what you think.

 

Thanks! Will do!

 

I just got my f8sv last Tuesday. So far no problems.

 

My A8Js died (a pepsi-related death). The insurance company replaced it with a F8Sa. I will finally get it tomorrow. Just a FYI.

 

Anyone has found a solution to remove the battery without making the laptop wobbly? Is it possible at all?

 

For those who use the Kensington Portable Notebook Power Adapters, I finally found that the Kensington Tip "N3" works with the F8 series (and possibly many others). Huzzah!

 

I don't think that's possible unless there is some kind of "dummy battery", an empty plastic shell with feet... You might try to make one yourself.

 

Im seriously considering one of the F8 laptops in the future, but how is the 14" models compared to the 15"? Which one should I get for college? And are the laptops warm and heavy?

 

This is really annoying. Do you think the battery will have its lifetime reduced if the laptop is plugged most af the time?

 

The F8 laptops, as far as I know, are all in 14''.

As regards to the heat, I think it's ok, I work with the laptop on my laps very often, without experiencing any discomfort.

The weight is 2.6 kg. Some say it is a bit heavy, as it is generally the weight you find on 15'' laptops.

Personally I think it's fine as the computer is quite fast, you can't have everything.

I love the F8sv. Mine was stolen and I chose to buy the very same one, without any second thoughts: I can't see any computer that could replace that one.

 

Anyone tried a docking station for the F8SV? I wonder how well it would work...

 

asus doesnt have a docking stationg for F8 series, only their business series has it.
And as far as I know theres no a single one out there that does well with the video. Even the ones that uses the express card ( which due to its higher bandwidth of 3gbt/s) lags when it comes to video.

If anyone knows one that does the job well, let me know, i been looking for one for a long time

 

I've been the proud owner of a F8SA-X2 for around a month now and I like everything about it. The only concern I have is the video card. It's the ATi HD2600 and it performs awesomely when it's working. However, from day one, the driver crashes quite often while playing any 3d games and even when I'm not doing anything. About 10% of the time it recovers and is fine, but the other 90% it crashes around 3 times in a row and then finally black-screens and freezes up.

I have tried the new drivers, I have tried the original drivers, I have used the mobility modder to use drivers. They all fail to prevent these crashes. I guess what I would like to know is: if anyone else is experiencing this, if it's because of vista, or if the card is bad.

If this has been covered already in the thread, I apologize, but i didn't see it.

All-in-all, this notebook has been awesome. And just in case, I did upgrade the ram (removed the 1G stick of ddr677 and replaced it with 2 1G sticks of ddr800).

 

If you tried multiple versions of ASUS and modded drivers, it's probably a bad card. In which case you have to send it in for a GPU/motherboard replacement (depending on whether it's soldered on or not).

 

Crap, that's what I was afraid of... well i guess it's time to start that process. Thanks.

 

Maybe do a Windows restore to factory settings. Or a clean install. Before giving it up and sending it in.

 

NOOB QUESTION ALERT:

Will I be able to replace the graphics card in an F8SV with an nvidia SLI card sometime in the future?

 

The F8's graphic card is non-upgradeable as far as ASUS claims.

Not sure if the graphic cards are interchangeable between the F8's, ie; F8P --> F8SV-->F8Sn

Anyone with visual confirmation on this? Open your rear hatch and take a picture, I've seen the F8SV internals from GenTechPC's review It would be interesting to compare..

 

Ok, because i'm hearing about all these laptops being released with nvidia SLI cards and i'm just worried that getting an F8SV now with whatever card they come with will be obsolete in a little while.

But then again i'm just a noob with blaring curiosity.

 

Nvidia SLI cards are only on high-end gaming laptops, and those tend to be larger than 17" base dimensions. ie; Clevo D901C etc.

It would be technically impossible to fit a dual SLI enabled cards in a 14" the approximate size of the F8 without making it ridiculously thick.

Unfortunately, computer technology has a very quick turnover rate and the word obsolete even applies to high-end machines.

 

Yeah, I did factory resets and all that jazz, but still got the crashes. So I sent it in and got it back 3 days ago. I'm kinda mad at myself after talking to them on the phone a couple of days before i received it. They did replace the Video Card but apparantly there was still issues with it. So they tested the ram and one of the sticks was bad and once they removed it, no problems. I ran mem test before i asked for the RMA and it found no problems, so i was pretty sure of myself that it was solely the video card. The interesting part about this (for me anyway) is that i have a desktop here and, while the notebook was at Asus, i was installing windows with some new ram but there were errors happening left and right. After varios checks I ran MemTest. No errors. Finally, i just swapped out the ram and that fixed it. Lesson learned I guess. So an instructive week and a half for me. I still love my F8SA. Best money the company spent on my behalf.

FYI, i bought ram (2 sticks to add and replace the 1 that comes with) with the purchase of the notebook, so ALL MY FAULT.

@DX3 I can't take a picture right now, but I know the F8SA looks identical to the layout of the picture in your post. would be interesting if it was possible to swap out the video card between the F8's. even better if Asus sold the card seperate. somehow I doubt it though.

 

Who made the ram you purchased ?

 

Out of curiosity...

I imagine the F8Sn's chassis is similar to other F8 notebooks. If so, how has this chassis stood up to the test of time?

Take my Compaq 900z. Not the best laptop in the world, even when I got it, but its held up pretty well. Been struck indirectly by lightning once (fried the network card.. really annoying), left on for days or weeks, and is still going pretty strong. Granted the thing is almost 5 years old and the hinges are starting to get some wear.. I do believe there is a crack forming in the plastic as well. Anyway I figure that I got some pretty good life out of the thing (esp for the price), and will probably continue to use it even after I buy a new laptop.. I've been known to format that laptop every few months to play with various other OSs.. It will probably continue to be a good machine for that

So how does this Asus hold up in the long haul? Have you guys had any really noticeable problems?

 

Proud owner of a F8SN-B1, thanks eXcaliburPC

 

hey, I am a VERY proud owner of a F8Sa but now have a problem....for some reason i am unable to upgrade my vista home premium with the sp1? has any body else had this problem? I tried both the windows update program and it runs into an error, and also the download via the microsoft site.

any body else ran into this problem so far?

 

I upgraded my F8SA-X2 two days ago using the downloaded version - I didn't have any errors - although the Step or Stage 3-of-3 part of the install script popped up for the next two reboots. But, mine has ATI graphics - maybe your error is related to Nvidia graphics??

 

I just got my F8Sa. It's a bit like my old A8. Different finish, which is better. Worse support for the screen, which is worse. On the A8, you could press anywhere on the lid and you wouldn't get any ripples.

Also, I got an AUO screen instead of my old CMO.

But I have problems with my recovery disc. I was trying to do a clean install. So i removed the recovery partition and the two others, turned them all into a ntfs partition. When trying to install using the recovery DVD, i got an error. Highly annoying.

Here's the error message

 

Hey. Im finally ready to buy an f8. Last time i looked there were about 4 version of the f8. now there seems to be more like 10. It's so confusing to my simple mind.

Would anybody have a link to a place that lists all of the F8 models, with their specs?

thanks heaps.

Edit: nevermind. I found that the Gentech PC store is the best place to see the specs beside each other. like here:
http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=SRCH&Store_Code=GPS&search=F8SN

 

F8Sn is the latest and fastest. Best GPU and Best CPU available for the F8.

 

Can anyone tell me if Power4gear is altering the CPU's clock frequency? I can't find any settings relating to that in P4G's parameters!

If not, what is the Asus software I should use with my F8sv, under Windows XP?

'cause the fan seems to be running all the time :-(
A number of other users have complained about this as well under XP...

 

It's like that for me as well. I ahve not instale P4G though, as I find it useless. I also want to know of a fan controlling app.

 

Anyone knows how to update the 8600gt drivers under Windows XP ?
I'm a bit lost!

 

There's a Sticky on how to do it in the Gaming forums, here's the link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=204425.

 

hey guys i am going to buy a Ausus F8 pronto, but..i am lost..there are so many versions available within my budget:

1) F8 with T7100 - T7700 processors with 8600 GT or HD 2400 GPUs

2) F8 with T8100 - T8300 processors with 9300 GPU

This one is a little out of my budget:

1) F8 with T9300 processor and 9500 GS GPU

So which one will give better graphic performance? Will the T8XXX and T9XXX provide better battery life?

 

the best will be 9500m GS very closely followed by 8600m GT. In fact, they're basicly the same card. I don't know wether HD2400 is stronger than 9300m g/8400m GS, but both are far behind.

T8xxx and T9xxx (penryn) should provide better batterylife, but it's still quite abysmal.

 

Just bought an Asus F8SN-B1 myself for $1130 shipped.

9500GS and 8600GT are much better than the others you listed.

Basically the 9500 GS is slightly better than the 8600 GT if both are DDR2.
However if the 8600 GT is a DDR3, you should go with that one. As far as battery life goes, from what I read on all the reviews I could find on the web, Asus F8 laptops provide just under 2hrs of gameplay and about 2.5 hrs max of web browsing.

For places to buy look under Dealers here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=122632

GPU comparisons:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9500M-GS.8167.0.html

Good luck

 

Well, my F8sa doesn't reach 2 hours web browsing, at 50% screenbrightness, with everything downclocked and processes shut down.

And there's no way that any F8 gives 2h of game play.

 

Yeah I'll be lucky to get an hour and half out of mine web browsing, so unless something has been dramatically changed in the "n" series.

 

Just got my Asus F8 today. T8100 processor and 9300GS GPU, running Vista Home premium.

But wow my windows experience index is only like 3.4? Which is like the same as my X61 with x3100 graphics?

 

Alright, i'll have a look! Thanks!

 

Which screen brighter and has better viewing angles, the 1440 or the 1280 one?

 

Pls don't post nearly identical questions in separate threads, I will delete your other post on the F8Sn thread, quoted below:

Thanks.

 

I need a notebook because im going away for a while in September and the notebook i buy will be my only computer for like 6 moths. I like the F8 serie because it looks sleek has good performance and because it looks portable, i just have some questions. Is it really smaller then a 15" laptop i know the screen is smaller but does it also make the machine more portable then for example a M50 or a dell XPS M1530. And i have a question about the battery life i rad its only about 2 hours with moderate use are there any bigger battery's for sell if yes how much battery life you get on one of those.

Im currently considering a F8Sp-X1 or a dell XPS M1530