~F3sv Owner's Lounge~

I meant relatively cool. Obviously you can't surf the web or play Oblivion and still have the lappy be a freezer. That just doesn't happen. But the temps I took for my review show that high stress does not heat the F3sv that much, compared to Dell and Acer notebooks I have owned (as well as others).

Expect some heat, but the Asus is built really well so it isn't that much.

Did you get 200 pin, 1.8V, PC2-5400 DDR2 667 ram?

Otherwise, you may have issues.

EXACTLY. This is the EXACT stick I used, and it worked perfectly.

 

Thank you

yes its a 200 pin, 1.8V, PC2-5400 DDR2 667 ram. RAM was surprisingly cheap. I got 1 GB for 2100 ~ 50$. Wanted 2GB but it isnt available here in India and was told that I can get it for around 10K ~ 250$. That was too much

My vista score increased from 4.5 to 4.7. I Hope the FPS in games will double

update :
Not impressed with Vista. Its not faster with 2GB than XP with 512 MB in my desktop PC.

Can i remove vista and install XP? and later if i get the Vista DVD, can I install it with the key that i got with the laptop? will it affect the warranty?

 

Can someone with 3GB of RAM post some benchmarks please? I want to see how much of a boost it is over 2GB.

 

Also, how I can get more than an hour and 35-40 minutes of battery life (F3SV-B1)? When I bought this, I was under the impression that it would last for 2.5 hours like the G1S. I wish they'd release a higher capacity battery for this thing.

 

Hi, I'm looking at getting an F3SV (haven't settled on a variant yet) soon and I'm planning to install xp pro on it. Will this guide (including the sata driver download) on slipstreaming the xp installation work for the F3SV? From what I've read, each system is a little different in terms of getting SATA drivers working during the installation.

Thanks

 

Ordered mine on Friday, F3Sv-B1 with an extra gb stick (corsair) of ram. Although, after reading Gentech's comparison of the 8600gs and 8600gt, I wish I had ordered a 2g stick, but I think the gb will serve me fine.

 

Yes, you can remove vista. Secondly, that was exactly what happened to my Win Experience Score - went from 4.5 to 4.7 with that extra gig. Robson didn't alter the score. Also, Vista bytes, like you say it does.

I dunno, since I haven't ventured into doing that. I suspect that serious undervolting, unnderclocking will help. Turn off a lot of hardware you don't use. Reduce screen brightness. You can also turn off Vista junk, like Aero to save battery life.

If you have OEM or full XP discs, that shouldn't be a problem. Keep in mind that you'll have to slipstream in drivers for all the new hardware, many of which may not even HAVE XP drivers.

 

Can I have Windows XP in external hard disk for games and 3DS max ? Vista consumes too much memory for my liking

 

Hey how did you install a ddr2 800 stick, I thought Santa Rosa only supports upto ddr2-667? Are you sure it is running at 800 Mt/s along side the FSB? Also is the difference in performance between ddr2-667 and ddr2-800 big, as per daily use, not benchmark results? Thanks...

 

hello

now im in the club F3SV-A1

 

from asus website; for Vista OS

VGA drivers, ver 7x in a zip file. isnt this the driver for the video card. ifso
shouldt i get the latest drivers from nvidia?

for vista or xp, have you all downloaded the latest drivers and utilities (dated May or June 2007) as provided by asus?

and lastly, i hope the f3sv-a1 out of the box, doesnt need a bios update to resolve any issues even minor ones.

i used to do this often in my old epox mobo. and i think that eventually killed it (i had like ten bios revisions in its lifetime with me wanting to always get the latest one)

i wouldnt dare do that now with an expensive notebook computer. unless its really essential and will have a big impact.


thanks

 

Just get modded drivers. LaptopVideo2Go.com

No, I wiped out the installed utils.

Actually, it does. If you want to run Robson especially. Included BIOS is 201, and the upgrades takes it to 203.

Hard to go wrong with the Easy Flash utility provided by Asus.

 

from the asus.com forums, re: f3sv

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.asp..._id=3&model=F3Sv&page_size=20&page=1&count=27

a post there say;

nvidia official claim

"the core clock is 600 MHz, the memory clock is 700 MHz"

on poster's F3Sv: the core clock is 500 MHz, the memory clock is 400 MHz

is the gpu running on power saving mode or something?

oh man. i hope this is an isolated case. or this will amount to a bad product or false advertising by asus (i think that speed is for the 8400m). i depleted my savings to get a f3sv (even paying more to get faster shipping, as im leaving for abroad - hence advantage of the global warranty).

i know its only one post and one claim, but it gets you thinking. especially since i havent received my unit but already paid for it.

and i was just talking about hoping nothing will be wrong with the unit.

WBR

 

Gautam,

using the included Vista OS, is it better to get the latest drivers from the device manufacturer like nvidia or realtek? as reported by programs like PC.wizard.2007. or should i get them from the asus website?

for the convenient experience as i dont really want to do the high level stuff.

thanks

 

If you want convenience, just use stock drivers. IF you want to spend 10 minutes to get your machine into a gaming monster, you'll need to get the modded drivers and some overclocking tools for NVIDIA. At least, you'll really need to the get the drivers.

 

i visited the laptopvideos2go website and i now understand. they are really doing a great service.

but there are so many choices, wc nvidia driver do you think is for vista32.? or in general what latest nvidia driver should be used for the 8600m gs.


thanks

 

I am in the same boat as you. I visited the site but am unsure which drivers are for the 8600m. I really need better drivers, to up my screen resolution, since it seems to be stuck in 1280 by 800 even though it lists as 1360 by 768 and also to over clock the GPU with some other tools, to actually get its full potential.

 

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13652

i downloaded from here..

now finding out how to overclock

 

thanks for the link. and some questions if i may.

after i install this driver (which specifically supports the 8600m.gs) will installing the newer drivers from this site or nvidia's recognize the correct or current .inf file? Or will the new install overwrite it, and will need to get the corresponding .inf from laptopvideos2go?

because i believe nvidia suggests to un-install first your old drivers before installing new ones.

thanks

 

Hi Bigfleet!

When i started the setup, it asked me to uninstall the drivers that were present.
It uninstalled and restarted.

And the new drivers were automatically installed when vista restarted

 

Do the new drivers actually offer anything over the preinstalled ones. Have you been able to overclock to the clock speeds listed on the Nvidia site for the 8600GS?

 

I'm suddenly confused. I've yet to find XP drivers listing support for the 8600M GS specifically. I've checked nvidia, laptopvideos2go, omega drivers(though, they don't list ANY specific cards so maybe they support everything), and it looks like asus only supports vista drivers.

Does Anyone know of a specific driver that works for the 8600gs and xp?

Will these drivers work from nvidia?: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_158.22.html

Edit: Anyone know if the other drivers work for xp? ie. touchbad, bluetooth, audio, ect.

Thanks

 

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20070525182926687&board_id=3&model=F3Sv&page=1&SLanguage=en-us Check this link for info about XP and drivers.

 

Does anyone know where I can get a 9 or 12 cell battery for my f3sv-x1?

 

I was able to overclock 650/575 .. but yet to see any benefits.

probably the games i play dont require that much.

 

Try Crysis Demo/ Lost Planet demo. Also, if you are willing to give it a shot(I would have, had I got my laptop by now), see if you can unlock a few more pipelines using RivaTuner. 4-8 pipelines more, and you have a beast. There are 16 locked pipelines on the core(It's the same as the 8600 GT).

 

hey sess.. definitely..

If you can, please do tell me the steps. I have RivaTuner.. Overclocked with it. But how to unlock?

 

My apologies, but I can only give you a general idea. Haven't used it under Vista, so don't know whether it would be the same.

EDIT:Here's a nice tut way better than I can tell you. The only thing issue is that it takes a 6800 as an example. If it doesn't work, then I'll get a vista comp to test it out...
http://www.liquidninjas.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=13283

 

Thanks Sess. Will try it tonight.

you expect it to make a remarkable difference?

I am getting 25-35 FPS in Oblivion - outside. I installed the new drivers and overclocked to 650/575 . didnt make much difference.

guess its because it was already running smooth. will have to try in some demanding game. Probably Fear?

 

If you manage more pipelines, you could downclock a bit, so it'd run cooler. Basically, there's only so much higher clocks can compensate for lesser pipes. Hence the difference b/w the 8600GS/GT. The more the pipelies, the better the performance.

 

that was an Allan Donald bouncer for me.. clocks and pipelines...

I'll try it. hope I can unlock 14-15

 

Now you are being ambitious. 12 would be the limit, I believe. They are usually grouped in 4s, and for a card to be sold as a GS, at leas one pipeline is bad, so that makes a whole quad useless. Although the grouping might have changed with dx10. After all, with an unified architecture the grouping's redundant anyway.

 

if i wasnt ambitious i wouldve settled with an 1505

this is what i got



any chance?

 

Try enabling units one by one... Then testing to see if artifacts appear..

 

Well, I've been following along in this forum for a bit, reading over the unlocking stuff, and decided to try it too. When I did all the steps, and unlocked one pipeline and restarted it seemed to uninstall my gpu driver. Is this a normal thing to happen, or did I do something wrong?

 

WOW this worked great! I reinstalled my driver, and ran the Lost planet dx10 demo and got a 15 fps increase! I'm going to go on and unlock more cores and see how fast I can get this thing.

 

hey Mongatard..

How did you unlock the pipeline? I reached the stage till I got this screen (post 83)

I tried right clicking and all. didnt work.

 

Nevermind, I feel dumb. The fps increase came from installing new drivers Well at least I know the new drivers make this card work better.

 

doesnt matter how it increases as long it does

atleast tell me how you unlocked.. even if it wont cause any increase in fps

 

I guess you just click next to the spaces and check them. I don't think anything can be unlocked on this card though...

 

what kind of drivers (ver., date etc.)? and from which site, asus?


with best regards,

 

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13378 The driver and modded inf from this site.

 

from laptop2go, has any one tried both the vista drivers ver. 158.45 (i figure this is the general nvidia driver but modded with .inf files)
vs. the ver. 101.19 (it say its the asus released driver but further tweaked by L2G).

which is better for the f3sv? or is it possible the higher numbered driver is better for gaming performance (faster gpu but f3sv will run hotter). and the asus released driver is more for general use performance so gpu will run stock speeds but cooler with longer battery life.

i dont have a f3sv yet so i cant test it myself.

thanks

 

By the way. Currently there is not way to unlokc any pipelines on the 8600 GS. New Drivers will increase performance significantly. Also find new drivers for the battery, because I have heard that with correct drivers for all your hardware components you can actually get this puppy to hit the 4 hours of battery life claimed. I am currently searching on how to do so. I called Asus about the battery and the screen being 1280 x800. Question, does anyone else who has an F3SV X1 have a resolution of 1280 x 800 rather than the advertised 1360 x 768?

Thanks for the response. Oh and I am sure that no one here has been able to ma out their batteries past 2 and half hours right?

 

@rafiki - It would be great if you could do further research into the battery life issue. The battery life that I clocked for the review was under stock drivers, actually everything was stock at the time.

 

Yea i have an X1, the highest res i have is 1280 x 800.

 

Hi everyone, I am reading in the Asus "VIP" forums that the 8600M GS is actually seriously underclocked. I have no idea why this is, but I am guess we are LOSING a lot of gaming performance due to that.

 

It is possible that the pipelines are hardlocked. But there are ways aroung that. I can't be much help as nb graphics are not really my forte. However, this: http://firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_6800_unlocking/page3.asp
gives a good guide.

I'd say heat issues are what's forcing the clocks to be lower...

 

You are right. The official clockings from Nvidia, are not even close to what the 8600M GS all f3sv owners have. We are underclocked to about half I would say.

Here are the "standard" or public specs from Nvidia regarding the highest modded GS Card.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8600M.html

The clocks we are running are way lower. I am not sure but I think the GPU is clocked at 450 and the shader clock is clocked at 700 or even 600. Memory clock is dependent on the memory installed, so it would be DDR2 on the Cards, and I am assuming they are probably underclocking it to 400 or 350. These are guesses based on game performance. I havent had time to look at bench marks or even search for measuring software. So when I find the software I will come back with the info. Also I am searching on the issue of the battery life. I am not going to send in my laptop to Asus simply becuase I need it. Here are some tips to extend battery life as in my experience.

1. Drain battery completely and then fully recharge for atleast 24 hours, while the computer is shutdown in order to allow for minimal consumption.

Repeat this cycle often, as this is a Li-ion battery.

2. Turn down screen brightness to below 50 % and use the Power4Gear software to throttle down the CPU and other components. It is actually pretty good software, but there is better.

I will search for the software or drivers to imporve battery life. I am hoping to get atleast 3 hours, becuase I know that 4 hours is unrealisitic for a 6 cell. Later I will fight with Asus and convince them to give me an 8 cell battery.

 

The whole clock issue on the 8600 changes the game - and throws a chink into any benchmarks done so far. That's a shame, because the F3sv actually has much BETTER performance than noted in test runs.