Request for Comment on A2K system

I've been chasing down parts to put together my own system and I think I finally have things settled. I'll be using it for mixed programming (I'm a statistician) and gaming. I'd love to try XP-64 on it as well. Tell me you think. Thanks.

Base System: ASUS A2K (Z80K), Combo Drive, Mobility Radeon 9700 128 MB
HDD: Toshiba 80 GB, 5400 rpm, 16 MB cache
Getting these from www.eWiz.com

CPU: AMD 64 3400+ Mobile 61.5 W
Mem: 2 * 512 MB = 1 GB
From Newegg.com

The whole thing is going to be ~$1400

 

I know it's bad form to reply to one's own post but I finally built the machine and have some first impressions:

Good:
Assembled in about 20 minutes.
Beautiful screen with no dead pixels.
Hard drive is whisper quiet.
Memory works at 400 DDR despite what the spec sheet says.
Fan throttles appropriately for temperature, unlike some A2x models
b Wi-Fi works flawlessly. I can't test g.

Bad:
APIC not enabled so no XP-64
XP install disk must have SP1 or 2 integrated. I wasted a day on this.
At full speed the fan is distractingly loud.

Weight-wise it's about the same as my old ThinkPad A31, and each subsystem is at least 30% faster, so I am quite pleased.

 

That sounds overall like good news.
The A2K is a relatively nice looking system... the only thing that steered me away from it was the bulkiness of it; my M6 appears much thinner and about 1.5 pounds lighter...

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 1.5 Dothan, 512MB Ram, Tohiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

I bought the z80k which is the same as the a2k only the US version. When you install the heatsink on the cpu there is a piece of wax paper that says Shin Etsu. I have used several different thermal transfer products from Shin Etsu bur never even seen something like this. What in the world do you do with this piece of paper? There is a transparent piece stuck to it that looks like tape but if you attach the tape thing to the heatsink that would probably make the heatsink useless because I have never heard about heat transfering plastic before. Also if this is the epoxy that you are supposed to use for the heatsink attachment then it would be a hell of a job pulling the double sided tape off of the clear plastic. At the moment they look like they are homogenious mater. There is a gray mater applied to the heatsink already that looks exactly the way Shin Etsu does however it is dry and deffinitely not tacky like the stuff in the syringe that I have used before.

What did cwkaufmann do? Oh yeah there is also another piece that came with the barebone that looks like the top of a cpu with a hole for the die. I guess this one is to be applied to the cpu for isolation or something.

Good thing my cpu is not here yet because this would have driven me crazy. I am just about ready to scrape all this crap off and put some arctic silver (only I don't have any alumina left and I am going to have to use a regular 3 or 5).

 

Please disregard the last post I figured it out and in a couple of hours I will actually apply it. The paper piece is actually a Shin Etsu double sided heat dissipating tape. The reason why I didn't think it was is because I have never seen it in thing form. It is usually a lot easier to use but that's not that big of a deal. Oh yeah and the other piece the I thought was for the cpu is exactly for the cpu. Shin Etsu compounts are 100% non conductive but I guess ASUS decided to take extra precautions in order to avoid customer complaints as much as possible. Great job ASUS, only where are the instructions?

 

I removed the adhesive compound on the heatsink and use the Arctic Silver 5 instead, much better cooler. Fan only comes to medium settings. I do use the Vantec cooler when playing games.

Philip