~F3KA Owners Lounge~

I'm a happy owner of a new F3KA-A1 Laptop . Since I haven't seen a thread dedicated to the F3KA series (I hope I did not miss one dedicated to the F3KA), I will create one

Here are my computer's specs:

Windows Vista Home Premium
AMD Turion64 X2 TL-60 2.00G
Chipset: AMD M690G
15.4" WXGA 1280 x 800
2GB DDR2 667 (Both slots filled, max of 4GB memory)
160GB HDD, 5400rpm, SATA
Optical Drive DVD Super Multi
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 512MB
Modem, Gigabit LAN and WLAN (802.11b/g) & BlueTooth
8-in-1 card reader
1.3 mega pixel webcam
Integrated Sound card, internal speakers


I still have to download a few things (like 3D mark06 etc...) to test it.
Well, I'm off to the Asus website for the damage warranty thingy...

 

How is it so far I am interested in this notebook.

 

Driver version: 8.381-070524a-048278c

I just did a "mini test" while playing Warhammer 40k: Dark Crusade, single player mission.

No AA/AF. 1024x768, 32bit color. All settings in game set to the highest, except persistent bodies (none) and persistent scarring (low).

Fps: lowest 30, middle 48, highest 64.

No lag in the game what-so-ever, most of the time the frame rates were around the 60s.
Even when I got swarmed by the computer (I got whomped...), there's no lag.

 

Oh and here's the Windows Vista "Windows Experience Index"

Processor: 4.8
Memory(RAM): 5.9
Graphics: 4.8
Gaming Graphics: 4.7
Primary Hard Disk: 4.8


I'm very satisfied with this computer because it has fulfilled my criteria with the minimal amount of capital spent. (In Canada now, it can be bought for as low as $1,159)

**The 15.4" viewable is perfect in replacing my old 17" CRT (from my desktop)
**The wireless and bluetooth are bonuses since I'm a die-hard wired Lan advocate. So it's very likely that the only time I use the wireless will be in the public setting.
**The portable aspect gave me a lot more freedom and movement which I do not have the choice before.
**The Graphics Card is powerful enough to play games @ 1024x768 in high detail and good fps, and I won't be playing anything higher than 1024x768 (see reasons below).
**Since I do not like to use LCD monitor resolutions that it is not "native"/"natural" to it, I'll play games or set up programs that comes to it's native resolution as close as possible.
**I do not like to have the desktop screen higher than 1280 x 800 in a 15.4" viewable screen because it'll be too small for my taste, so this computer is perfect for me.
**I'm an AMD fan (before that, Cyrix [before Cyrix ceased to exist]), so no Intel for me =P


Hopefully I can find a camera and take some pictures. From the laptop cover, it looks no different than the F3SV series laptops.

 

I like my F3KA very much. It is very fast, HDD is 250GB which is nice advantage.

I planned to buy HP notebook but in my price range I couldn't find a laptop I want (there is very limited options on HP in my country, ASUS offers are much better).

The only thing I am trying to figure out is why DC++ doesn't work properly on my system as well as which firewall should I use.

 

Hello everybody,

I recently bought an F3Ka too.

The specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon 64x2 TK-55 running at 1800 MHz
1 024 Mb of RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon X2600
15.4 LCD, max resolution 1280х800
Made in China
DVD-Super Multi DL
TouchPad
4xUSB, IEEE 1394, S-Video, DVI, Line-in/out, Mic
MS Windows Vista Home Basic
A swivel 1.3 Mpl camera, WiFi (802.11b/g), Express Card , SD, MMC, MS/MS Pro card reader

Now, for the funny part. In two differnet spec lists Asus claims that this lappy has either 128 or 512 of on-board video memory. The seller claims it has 128.

I tried to use it with Vista. FPS in Oblivion Elder Scrolls IV was around 20-24 at first, then fell drastically.
I installed XP and with much trouble fit some device drivers in it found on the net. WiFi still doesn't work (there's no problem shown in the device manager, still the WiFi indicator doesn't come on when I flip the switch).

I played Oblivion. At first it ran great, with 25-30 outside. Now it fell and the bottom value can be as low as 4-8.

I also played Overlord. It looks really smooth on medium settings, but I don't know the code to turn on the FPS indicator in it. Anyone?

Silent Hill 2 (one of my favourites) looks really smooth. Don't know how to make it show FPS either. It's an old game anyway.

Please keep this thread alive and let's share our experience with this laptop to improve its performance.

 

Sorry for the lateness of the posts. I couldn't get 3Dmark06 or 05 to work in Vista... hm...

There's also the F3KA forums @ the Asus website here:
http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=F3Ka&board_id=3

 

Wow Bro, Your HD2600 Catalyst Driver is super old ( 8. 381 ) thats like the 7.8 catalyst. Mines already 8.421 ( 7.10 Catalyst Which Improves all over Gameplay with all the games. If you go to asus website forum for our F3KA A1, You will see I posted how to DL 7.10catalyst and the modder.

 

Does anybody know if F3KA-X1 has 2 hdd slots?

I also found out it has on-board graphis: IGP radeon x1250... you can turn it on at BIOS.

 

Well, im a proud new owner of a Asus f3ka-X1. Upgraded to 3Gb RAM for 45 bucks in newegg. (extra 2Gb Stick)It's a greap laptop for the price, build quality is great, specs are great to....
Well, things that I love:
-Build quality.
-Specs
-Price

Just a couple of rants:
-I decided to buy a 2Gb stick for the lappy, to make it 3Gb total. Well, as of the current BIOS, it won't recognize more than 2.5Gb. That means im missing 500Mb. I read somewhere that ASUS is working on the new firmware to have it read the 4Gb that it listed on its specs. They really should make it read 8Gb, now that 64 bit OSes are in.
-Vista blows! Im going to try double booting Windows XP and Ubuntu 7.10. I'll let you know how the installation/driver hunt goes on both OSes.
-Battery life blows! 1 hr 50 mins on battery saving mode... ASUS e-store sells a 9 cell battery for the f3jm , and I found on another post that the battery will fit any f3 series notebook, it goes for $130, I might buy it to try and get 3 hrs battery life.

Other notes:
I will try to OC the processor to the tl-66(2.3Ghz) speed. Its the exact same processor, its made on AMD's new process. It should be able to run stable at this speed.
I will try to OC the video card a bit, I'll tell you how that goes.
I want to upgrade the battery to...

Overall, if you're willing to take some time with it, the best laptop for the price.

 

I finally got 3D marks going and the results were based on the 8.381 driver. It is correct that there is a faster version out there (I will upgrade later), but some of us haven't gotten around to update it or won't bother to.

Update, forgot this info before: Driver (8.381), 3Dmark05 resolution 1024x768, 3Dmark06 resolution 1280x800

The 3D mark program is the free trial from the website. So it's tested under 1024x768 and no AA or AF.

3Dmark05: 5137
3Dmark06: 2963

Below are the screen shots of the tests.

 

I also did a benchmark from Supreme Commander (will do a few more)

Edit: resolution is always 1024x768, Driver (8.381)

I've set different the settings and took a screen shot of the settings got this. The screen shots below will have the graphics details.

Low: (picture 1)
FPS : calls[ 6411] min[ 1.11] max[ 51.47] avg[ 21.958]

High: (picture 2) no AA or AF
FPS : calls[ 3294] min[ 1.13] max[ 30.21] avg[ 11.791]

 

Here are also the CPU-ID and GPU-ID on my system. It seems that I have the "older" Turion64 X2 processors and the specs on the graphics processor is fascinating.

The motherboard of the laptop is what it was advertised, it is based on the RS690/RS690M chipset.

 

Have you tried disabling Powerplay? I have an Asus A7K-X1 (basically the 17" version of the F3K, but with a GDDR3-equipped HD 2600), and GPU-Z reports 300 MHz core/400 MHz memory with Powerplay enabled, and 500 MHz core/600 MHz memory with Powerplay disabled.

 

Actually I wasn't aware there is something called power play (I assumed that it get disabled when I plug it to the wall, in which that is the condition when I took my screen shots and tests), thank you for telling me. I will try to find it and disable it and see what happens.

Update:
Apparently PowerPlay is enabled. I will disable it in the Catalyst Control Center and run things again. Thank you =)

Hm... no change in GPU core clock or memory clock.... maybe I'll need to restart.

hm... GPU-Z still lists my graphics running @ clock 110mhz and memory 252mhz instead of the default 500mhz core and 400mhz memory (it might be a GPU-ID/GPU-Z errata). Even with the Power Play disabled. I hope it will go up to the default values when graphic intensive tasks are in full force.

 

Thanks to mjfrozenchips for letting me know of the ATI driver mod. I've upgraded my driver to 7.11 Catalyst Driver (8.432) from the old driver (8.381).

I have retested the drivers using the Supreme Commander benchmark and 3Dmark06.

Supreme Commander
The settings are still the same as my previous test, all setting to high, everything on except no AA or AF and the resolution is 1024x768. The linked picture have the settings (same settings as my previous post and same picture).

New Driver V7.11 (8.432)
FPS : calls[ 5977] min[ 4.33] max[ 30.30] avg[ 16.578]

Old Driver (8.381)
FPS : calls[ 3294] min[ 1.13] max[ 30.21] avg[ 11.791]

An increase of 4.787 in average frame rate, that's a 40.6% increase in performance. Woot!

The frame rate noticeably has increased and image quality has gone up! Double WOOT!

3dmark06
1280x800, speed, no aa or af see picture 2.
The new score is 3090 (upgrade from 2963).


Fun bit
For the Windows experience index, the score has be increased as well. The score has increased to 4.8 (from 4.7) due to the increase of the "Graphics Gaming" section to 4.8.

It is now the most balanced laptop I've seen, lol.
Processor: 4.8
Memory: 5.9
Graphics: 4.8
Gaming Graphics: 4.8
Primary Hard Disk: 4.8

Note: I did not overclock anything, only changed the video card drivers.

Upgrade at your own risk!

 

Edit: OK, a reinstall of Modded Cat 7.10 without the CCC is working OK, get decent FPS on BF2. However, the 3D performance on Sketchup is worse than on my old 1.73 Centrino Radeon x700 Sager laptop. Annoying.

The ATI Tray Tool 3D performance bench and tuning do not work, I'm assuming that's because it can't correctly communicate with the GPU through the modified drivers? I don't know if my card is doing everything it should be in the 3D area, and since I'm not a driver techie I can't say.

 

F3KA owners might want to try Clockgen to overclock their CPU's. I have an A7K, which is pretty much just a 17" version of the F3KA, and I can overclock the Turion TL-56 from 1.8GHz to 2.4GHz using Clockgen. The clock generator in the A7K is the ICS 951416. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same in the F3KA. TL-56 and TL-58 CPU's are probably the most overclockable, since they are 65nm chips, while the TL-60's that Asus uses are 90nm and probably too hot to overclock. And, of course, good cooling is a must when overclocking.

 

Hey all, just got an F3KA and naturally had to join these forums to give a shout-out to other owners.

The thing just arrived today. I only have 3 complaints:

1. it gets warm under the right palm
2. fan noise / constant fan spinning / frequent fan spin up
3. a vary faint but constant clicking sound, I suppose from the HDD

I would complain about all the stickers that came plastered on the thing but I peeled them all off - every last one of them.

 

I just bought and f3ka-a1. Installing XP is giving me headaches, so I'm wondering what the performance is like when playing games on Vista with the 7.11 Catalyst. Is XP even necessary? Had to buy the damn OEM, but I can't find all the drivers I want. I'm basically looking to play Company of Heroes on close-to-highest settings.

 

Hello, i will soon buy F3KA with TL-60 and i was wondering, if you can overclock your notebook, is there any change with the noise, temperature and battery life. And dont you shorten the life of the notebook if you overclock it ? The Pros is better performance. What Are the cons ?
Will i lose my warranty if I overclock ?
And Greetings from Bulgaria

 

h0p, for what it's worth, I wouldn't even bother with overclocking if I were you. Overclocking isn't going to help much in games, gaming is all about the video card. You will see some performance gains in other applications but it is likely not going to be noticeable. The best games will come in things like video encoding. But, in my opinion, it's almost unnoticeable. I have an x2-3600 desktop that I overclocked from 1.9GHz to 2.9GHz and I honestly could not tell any difference at all. There might have been a couple of things that happened faster but nothing was for certain faster, heh and that's with a 33% overclock.

Others around here may feel different. Whatever you decide, enjoy the lappy.

 

Ok what about the undervolting or something like that ... I saw it in one thread.
What do you think??? Is it worth trying???

 

I have a F3KA with a TL-58 using Modded video drivers and playing COD4 and company of Heroes and Oblivion at mostly high setting havent checked frame rate but the games play great for me .!!!

By the way its not Overclocked !!

The only game I cant seem to play at all is Madden 08, or 07. !! Still havent figured that one out yet !!

 

I know that when i buy the notebook i have to put drivers in it (that was foolish thing to say) But I don't think that the CD in the box will be with the latest drivers possible, so I was wondering what will you recommend, witch drivers should i install the newest from the site or old ones. Witch ones will improve the performance more ?

 

I have mostly have had computers with Nvidia graphics where I have found that modded drivers gave better performance gain than stock drivers, in that being this is my first notebook with a ATI on board, but I would suspect its is the same!!

 

Can anyone tell me where to get all the drivers for Windows XP. I have an F3KA-X2 laptop if that makes any difference. Ive tried installing xp and I couldnt find all the drivers and it was nothing but a headache. Any Help would be appreciated.

 

Wraith, did you try Asus's website? ( I haven't looked myself, I'm happy with Vista).

 

I wanted to post an image that shows the programs that run at startup:



Seaching for many of these programs, the Asus one's in particular, doesn't turn up much information. More specifically, which of these programs can be uninstalled or disabled without actually disabling some feature of the laptop. It's a little bit irritating that so many things are being run. It's rare to find a company that actually "gets it": less is more!

Does anyone have any guidance on which of these can be disabled with no adverse effects? Power4phone and the Screen Saver Protector look like good candidates.

FWIW, that screenshot is of a really nifty little program that I recommend to anyone who is running any version of Windows:

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

It's a terrific utility.

 

I have tried to look on their website and no luck.

 

Can you give me a test between TL-60 and intel equivalents

 

i just ordered my f3ka a couple of days ago. still waiting for it to come. i have been reading that there are issues with the graphics card and linux. has n e one tried installing ubuntu and how was there experience?

my lappy needs to hurry! ;-)

 

I've checked Asus's global website and it has no XP drivers, that's why I'm stuck with Vista (otherwise I would have installed XP already).

For the chipset, try AMD's website? the sound, Realtek's website?

When I touch my computer, I'll check the specifications (detailed ones), you could probably find the drivers from the original manufacturer's website.

Good luck finding the drivers.

 

There are no drivers for XP? Thats not good I dont like Vista (personal opinion) There should be drivers some where... If someone finds them please give us a link .

Greetings from Bulgaria

 

Well, I got irritated with the shortcommings of Vista Home Premium (no hard disc back-up, no joining domains, virtual pc not supported in Home Premium, etc) so I sacrificed my one and only license of Vista Ultimate to install on this laptop. The installation went very very smoothly, without a hitch actually. It booted right up the first time and proceeded to download a lot of device drivers. I think there are some devices that Vista recognizes but doesn't necessarily have drivers for (the camera, the hot buttons, the touchpad, the vga, maybe some more) I installed some of the drivers off of the Asus disc: vga, touchpad, AHCI and that's about all. So in addition to getting some of those crucial features that I wanted, I also "lost some weight" - there are !TWENTY! fewer processes running, 800 megs less RAM usage, and only 3 entries in HKLM/run instead of the factory's 15. So it's now lean and mean, just the way I like it. I'm not going to install any more drivers unless there ends up being a need to. I don't plan on installing any of Asus's utilities (power4gear, the phone program, the camera program, the live update program, the screensaver program, the data security program). Seeing as I'm running just fine without all of these things, if any of you are so inclined to trim down on some of the installed things I reckon it won't hurt your stability.

Hope this post is useful to someone.

 

Wraith try this place it seems this guy found drivers for win xp, for the same laptop series (I have the same laptop, but I'm happy with vista ) http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...&board_id=3&model=F3Ka&page=1&SLanguage=en-us good luck

 

I ordered one yesterday from newegg, at 979$ with a free targus back pack it seemed like a very good deal, I'll just have it as a kickaround web and gaming rig that floats all over the house

 

sprintrjm, that's good. It's prolly time I ordered some RAM. I've read that prices are good to go back up.

What speeds of RAM will this thing accept? Will it accept DDR2-800?

 

This thread got quiet all sudden like.

Well I ordered 4 gigs of pqi ddr2-800:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141340

I'll report back.

 

Yes, Please keep us Posted

 

i got ubuntu running with the graphics card and wireless. it was a pain but if n e one needs help i can post links to the tutorials i used later.

 

RAM upgrade to 4GB and BIOS upgrade to 211 went without a hitch.

 

PLEASEEE!!! quinto0827, can u give me the tutorials to make it work in ubuntu? I had a very strange experience with the wireless card in ubuntu... i configured it once, worked perfectly and after restart i tried to configure it again and... failure... it just doesn`t connect. So, if u can help me i`ll wait your reply

 

i have the tutorials bookmarked on my laptop at home and I am at work. i will get the link once I go home. I know it is using ndiswrapper though. did you get the graphics card working properly?

 

This is going to sound stupid, but I was wondering if ddr3 will work with the mobo on this lappy. Anyone? I'm buying one on the 22nd (taxes) and I'm going to order the ram at the same time. I'm curious about a few things.

1. How can I tell what RAM I can use? Brand, size, model number?
2. Whats the best bang for my buck? I don't want to put any more than 100 in to ram, so I'm kinda stumped.
3. Hows the mouse pad and keys feel on this?

 

for RAM characteristics use the CPU-Z software (if you have the notebook). Otherwise check the ASUS product page

I would bet it's DDR2 SODIMM socket, I don't know any notebook that takes DDR3. But check anyway.

 

Its DDR2 667MHz PC2-5300 Dual Channel Memory.

Just read the reviews at newegg.

Keys are nice imo, and the pad works just fine, tons of options in the control software.

Cons:

Its a bit flimsy, but then its an all plastic notebook. Build quality is not great, but its appropriate for the price I guess.
The bezel around the screen rattles when you tap on it.

It gets really hot when you Game, I play WoW and would not be happy if it wasnt for the the fact I use a mouse, so my right hand is off the machine.

Speakers are weak, but I guess most notebooks speakers are.

Short battery life.


I have no regrets that I bought one, for the price its hard to beat.

 

sorry i took so long, here you go

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=512828

 

FWIW, Newegg now carries the 9cell battery.
154$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834998668

 

How much ram did you guys upgrade to? I plan on playing as many games as possible and I run photoshop and premiere often at the same time. I know vista 32bit will only read 2.75 gb or so so i'm wondering if I should upgrade to 64bit edition.


Any ideas?