~U3S Owners Lounge~

just got mine...the loud fan very annoying

 

2.5 hours on my 3-cell was at 800 MHz/0.700V, screen at ~30%, wifi ON, HDD spindown after 3 minutes. Really stretching it, but not giving up the wifi.

Comparing SuperPi numbers at max CPU speed when plugged into the wall in a discussion about battery life is not really useful.

Sorry to hear about the loud fans... That'd be the nail in the coffin for me.

I still contend that for laptops < 14.1", battery life is of paramount importance, and Asus should be perfectly capable of making a machine with long battery life. The Thinkpad X60 gets longer life then the Pentium-M based X40 did. Intel has done a lot to improve power management, and it shows in some of the models that other manufacturers are making. The engineers at Asus just aren't paying attention.

 

Thanks Jumper.

The T2400 in the Thinkpad X60 has a minimum voltage of 0.762 vs a minimum voltage of 1.0375 with the T7500. I would think that makes a significant difference, although probably not to the point where it will extend the battery life of a U3S to that of the X60.

If my calculations are correct, the U3S will have to hit 5:45 on a 6-cell to equal the X60.

I'll try undervolting my U3S and run some more battery benchmarks. I'm using the following guide by Wingsbr found here

 

Power draw to get that 2.5 hours was probably around 9-10W. In more normal usage I see 11-12W depending on what I am doing. Always with wifi on.

The problem with undervolting now is that Intel locked the CPU voltages on Core Duo and Core 2 Duo CPUs so you cannot undervolt below the lowest stock voltage. So at the lowest speedstep, you won't see any difference at all. I was able to drop my lowest speedstep from .9V to .7V, over a 20% reduction. It makes a much larger difference at the high end - I saw a 10C decrease in CPU temperature and a great reduction in fan noise at 2GHz.

I wish it would shut down a core... I find my Z33 to be perfectly usable at 800MHz with my tuned XP install.

Can you try Aero off and see if it makes any difference? Also check the Intel graphics and wireless drivers to make sure their power saving options are set?

Appreciate your effort!

 

@eugenes

How bad is the fan noise really in performance mode? You seem to have quite an experience with a couple of notebooks. So how does it compare?

How do you think will the screen of the U3S perform outdoors? Bright enough for sunlight?

 

I find the noise in performance mode tolerable, especially if I'm playing a game (not something I'll do often on the U3S). Normally, I have the notebook set to battery saving, so the fan doesn't make much noise.

Out of the three notebooks I have, the G2S is the quietest, followed by the U3S, with the Thinkpad T43 in last place.

For temperature, U3S runs the coolest, followed by G2S, then T43.

I haven't had a chance to use the U3S outdoors. I'll try that out in the morning and maybe test the GPS as well.

 

Not quite sure if those are the same parts for north america. My 6-cell battery has the following part number: 70-NQF2B2000M. I sure hope they make white versions too.

kennyy: can you post the part number from your battery?

One additional thing I've noticed while looking at the battery. Asus placed some sort of paper material between the notebook body and battery. That way when you insert or remove the battery, neither gets scratched.

 

Eugene

Looks like we will only be getting the 6-cell both black and white color on 10/5as the latest update from Asus. They will check w/ Taiwan on the 9-cell and report back to us soon. Thanks!

 

Such a sad response kennyy I thought you would be more happy with your laptop.

Especially waiting so long...

But yeah I might have to not use performance mode unless I have headphones on when it is plugged in. It is tolerable. But I would still like if it didn't turn its fan on. I even put it on a note book cooler and the fan still has to turn on. The bottom of the notebook is cool to touch. I wonder why it has to turn on still.

Did you superpi yours yet eugene, what times are you getting I am getting consistent 55 which is pretty darn good.

 

finally the new asus flyer for germany lists the u3. but i am wondering about a few things:

1. it mentions having led backlight (does it really have that??? would have expected more info about that), price is kinda chip then (external drive included also...) compared to uk prices someone mentioned earlier...

2. battery will last only for 4.4 hours w/ the optional 9-cell-battery, thats ridiculous, especially considering the possibly included led backlight.... and if they admit to have only 4.4 hours...

http://info.asus.de/csm/pdf/nbflyerpl/asus_nb_preisliste.pdf on page 37, batteries listed on page 49 w/o pricing

so maybe someone could run a dvd until batteriy runs out to get an idea

h

 

The NA model doesn't come with LED backlight and only a 6-cell battery. A 9-cell battery should be able to let you watch DVDs for 3 hours (NA model). Depending on the amount of power saved by using LED backlight, you may be able to extend that time somewhat.

The above is assuming you keep the system at 800Mhz, 40% brightness.

4.4 hours on a 9-cell (amazing, truth in marketing material) is around what you can expect for average day to day use (surfing the web, email, 2d games) at a comfortable setting (800Mhz, 40% brightness, wifi/bt on, integrated graphics, optical drive NOT connected). You can extend that by lowering the LCD brightness to minimum and turning off wifi/bt, but don't expect to get more than 5.5 hours.

If you just let the system sit there and turn off the screen, it'll run for 6.5 to 7 hours.

These numbers are based on my calculation on power drain and battery capacity on a 6-cell battery, so are just estimates.

 

I've updated the original post with Super Pi numbers. I'm getting 57s, probably thanks to all the background stuff I'm running.

There's also a lot more information on battery life in the original post, in case you haven't noticed

 

lol well actually the loud fan is not a big issue, i'm very happy witht the solid built quality.
I'll try to look my notebook cooler can't remember where i put them... lol

Has anyone try the GPS?
Which bloatware should i remove please give me some hints! Cheers

 

Symantec has got to go. Replace with your favorite antivirus program.

The following doesn't do much, unload and remove if you want.

Asus LifeFrame
Asus Live Update
PowerForPhone
Anything else in the Asus folders you don't need.

If you don't plan to use TPM, I guess that can removed safely as well. Personally, I find it useful to have multifactor authentication and SSO.

My copy also came with a 60 day version of MS Office and Nero. Both have been removed.

 

well basically i have done what you listed. The 1st thing i deleted was Norton... lol i hate norton since window98...

so anyway hints on window vista tweaks? i already refer to http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3945 but i don't think it helps..

 

Actually, the article you linked is pretty useful I've done everything recommended there.

I also use TweakVista from Stardock to manage my services, so I don't have to dig through the service manager to figure out what to set to manual and what to disable.

Other than that, I haven't done anything else to the OS. I'm quite happy with the way Vista is working on the U3S.

 

I'm running the CPU Stability Test, it take so long...about 1 hour still running...
have you try the test before?

 

I didn't run any CPU Stability Test. It's been almost 3 weeks since I received the notebook. I figure any instabilities would have shown up by now

It would make sense for the test to run for a long time.

 

Eugenes, did you already have time to check the display of the U3S outdoors?
Don't wanna bug you, just curious

 

Not a lot of sunlight in NYC today so I can't tell you how it performs under strong sunlight.

Looking at the LCD outside was not an issue. Everything is readable.

I'll update again when the sun comes out

 

eugenes, do you plan to install window xp on your U3S?

 

Probably not. After using Vista for the last 4 months or so, I find XP to be somewhat inconvenient at times.

 

i still found out Vista very inconvenient for me...anway i will try to get used to it.

So far what games have you try on your U3S?
I installed CS condition zero...but it can't run just no respond when i click the icon...i will try to reinstall again....

 

I've only installed Guild Wars. It's playable and the frame rate averages around 30, but the resolution is just too low.

Coming from 1920x1200 on the G2S or 2x 1600x1200 on my desktop, it's just hard to get use to gaming on the U3S.

 

Eugenes, its like you live in this forums or something. You just joined a week ago and you are putting up some pretty high post numbers during that time. Maybe you should work for ASUS.

I was playing beyond the sword Civ 4 and it studdard a little bit. I might install windowsxp later this week and see if battery life improves.

Hows the black finish kennyy?

 

tajoh111, I probably have been living in the forums for the last day or so. I'm doing a few projects for work, so haven't been getting much sleep. And since I'm online, I end up here answering questions =)

I'm very tempted to install the SP1 beta to see if it helps with battery life or performance. Seems stable on my G2S.

 

Can one of you happy owners put up the pdf manual for the U3S? Just curious and on the asus site I only found one in simplified Chinese! Not so simple after all...

Thanks guys

 

Hey Eugene, can you keep an eye out and see if this Vista update improves your battery life at all? I'm very interested in this.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...xes-for-vista-released-in-advance-of-sp1.html
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...01-df0c-4474-8c2c-72c09b7cec04&DisplayLang=en

 

I'll give those new updates a run on my U3S. They don't install on systems with SP1 beta =T

Update: at least one of the updates broke my audio =(

Update2: it looks like KB941651 may be responsible for the loss of audio. uninstalling it returned sound to vista. (the fix may also be due to a cold boot, will test some more later)

Update3: one immediately noticeable change from the patch...the battery icon. it is now animated while you charge.

 

I only have a physical copy of the manual. I don't think Asus included a PDF version of the English manual, at least I can't find it on any of the cds.

 

well it really nice..i love it...
can you make a guide on how to install win xp on U3S? i hate vista

 

E.B.E. has a XP install guide linked in his sig.

 

Yep, you do probably need to make some adjustments to the install disk in order for it to recognize the SATA drive. (I think). There are some XP install threads for G1S, I believe they provide a method. You can then pick up things from my guide to tweak your installation.

 

My initial feeling is that the new Vista update does improve battery life. I don't have any concrete numbers yet, but I just used the notebook for almost 3 hours while connecting to Verizon EVDO Rev. A.

I'll do a full battery run down tonight to get exact numbers.

Btw, a full battery run down increased my battery capacity by a few %.

 

Happens sometimes, batteries oscillate a bit when they are new.

Glad to see that Vista is actually doing something useful

 

Hopefully it all goes smoothly. I installed xp on my z70va, I wouldn't see how that would go any differently besides the sans optical drive.

I just imagine I would have to fool around with my bios setting and once I get it to detect the external upon boot it should work right?

 

I remember the SATA hard drive drivers being a problem with XP installations on the new machines, but I could be wrong, as I never followed that closely.

 

You basically have to streamline the intel sata drivers into a XP SP2 cd. Not really a difficult process, just kind of tedious.

 

a proper review of this model would be most appreciated.

to anyone that already has one: can you comment on the quality of the screen? as in, brightness and horizontal/vertical viewing angles? thanks.

 

That's what I meant.

 

You're more than welcome to ask for additional benchmarks or information regarding the U3S. It would be a lot more helpful to know what you consider a "proper" review

 

As I said I will try to get one up by the end of week. I am busy right now and will do it on the weekend. I have done a few things here and there for testing purposes but so far not enough to make a full review.

 

hey guys, i recently bought my us3 and i was wondering if there was anyway i can turn down the fan when i'm on 'speed' mode.

thanks,

 

I think there is a fan utility for laptops that you would control from within Vista. Not sure what it's called...

 

You might be talking about SpeedFan. But I'm not sure it's been updated since ages (i.e., a year or two ago )

I wouldn't recommend anyone to mess with their fan settings unless they know very well what they're doing. Those fans are running for a reason -- to cool the laptop down.

 

anyone know the name of this vista fan utility hes talking about?

thanks

 

well i can't play game on my U3S, i had installed couter strike condition zero, when i double click it, it got no respond, then i tried Halo 2, i can played but very lag, when i tried to change the resolution it will automatically shut off the game, What should i do? reinstall the OS? cheers

 

Maybe you didn't switch from the integrated graphics to the dedicated GPU?

 

I noticed one terrible thing for gaming at least with civ 4. If I put it in performance mode, something goes wierd and the fan kick in like crazy. That not what the problem is those.The problem is that the game starts to lag possibly from heat when the notebook throttles itself to keep the heat down I think. It becomes unplayable at this point and the game switches between unplayable and playable for minute durations at a time.

It plays fine in powersaving mode(the power4gear setting) because none of this throttling actually occurs.

 

i have tried both, still not working...i suspect is the window OS
i'm gonna to reinstall window vista...