Asus U46SV Owners, where you at?

In the midst of the enjoyable task of deciding which late xmas present to give myself and am stuck between U46SV-DH51/Lenovo Y470/MSI X460DX.

Leaning toward U46SV, but trying to find out what owners thought and didn't notice an owner's thread out here. (Is search broken btw? I always get no results)

Concerns are what I've read in reviews about:
- horrible speakers
- EMI shielding probs with the headphone jack

Any other gotchas especially with respect to Y470 and X460DX?

 

I was looking at the u46sv and x460dx as well. Got the u36sd instead =P

 

What prompted the u36sd buy over the other 2?

 

Portability and style...

The better question might by why the other two were in my contention. Screen size wasn't one of the reasons since all three have the same resolution. Although the stock RAM is higher on the other two machines, it's a minor expense if I ever need it upgraded. It really came down to the optical disc drive and better graphics processor.

With respect to the ODD, I thought about how often I would actually use the thing and decided it was just dead weight. I considered moving the stock HDD into the optical bay and installing an SSD as the main storage unit, but didn't think this would be a major benefit to me. External ODDs and HDDs can fill the void and I don't need to lug them around when I'm not using them.

In terms of graphics, I wanted a new laptop so I could start getting into graphic design and video editing so an Nvidia GPU with CUDA was a big plus. The gt520 has 48 cuda cores whereas the gt540 has 96. Since this would be used more as a pass-time or infrequent job task, I figured the base card would be enough for my needs. The only game I'll probably ever play on the system is the new Counter Strike when it comes out and the gt520 should have no problems with that.

By doing without an ODD and higher performance graphics card, I get a much lighter machine with longer battery life and (IMO) much better design styling. With portability being one of my main buying criteria, the u36sd was an easy sell.

 

Did you ever decide on the U46SV? I'm looking for a laptop myself and was considering this one since the reviews I've seen say it's portable and has good battery life while still being great for gaming. If you did get it, have you had any issues with heat while playing games? And if not, what did you end up? it is strange that there is no U46SV owner thread..

 

Hi
I bought mine in december last year, and i´m really happy with it.
It´s portable (although a little heavy with the 8-cell battery), getting apprx. 9 hours of work time with it (word processing etc.) Great for casual gaming, getting 30-40 fps in swtor with medium to high settings. I´ts getting warm but not hot while gaming. Just be wary about the speakers though, many complaints about only one is working (inkluding mine). It´s very good build quality and looks really nice. Hope this helps. Cheers

 

Yep there is no doubt in anyone's mind that the U46's speaker(s) suck bad. I personally disabled my speakers and use a Logitech Bluetooth headset all the time. The Gt540m is a solid video card. It is surprisingly durable and solid for playing most games out today and it is overclockable too. With some experimentation I clocked mine to over the 10000 mark in 3d06. That is close to the power of a 640le. You have to watch the temperatures though, they can get quite toasty. If your interested in doing this there is a thread "over clocking Gt540" , check it out. To the question about throttling: The U46 does do this if the Core I5 gets above 95c and if you play Bf3 it may very well be a daily thing for you. If you do choose to overclock make sure to have temperature utilities like gpuz core temp ect. The laptop doesn't get too hot when doing a 3d06 bench. Play a hour or 2 Bf3 64 man multiplayer and you wii see the real temps (90c to 95c-gpu 80c to 86c). The funny thing is you don't feel it on the palm rest or keyboard, so be sure to use those utilities if overclocking. I'll give you my current clocks but keep in mind that every chip is different. Even if they are all labeled Gt540, they all differ in some way (see the overclocking thread). Mine is running stable with no artifact at 815-915-1630.
Seanno