Z33Ae 8 Months Out

Well, it's been 8 months now since I picked up my Z33Ae. I see that the new Z35 is out, although I still prefer the older styling to the new.

I've traveled all over the country with my trusty Asus - literally - over 8000 miles of driving around the US, plus flying twice, etc. I've used it in cushy hotels while on trips for NASA student competitions and on peoples unsecured wireless networks while on an old-school, $200 for all of break spring break roadtrip.

I manage to kill the XP install on my desktop three weeks ago, and I haven't even bothered to fix it yet. I'm considering selling it and just using the laptop permanently... I don't do a lot of gaming anymore.

The only interesting thing I have is that battery wear is at 7% and 5% for my 3-cell and 9-cell batteries, respectivly. I try to store them charged to 40% and use them often. I think the battery compartment design of the chassis in general is very resistant to heating of the battery, which greatly improves the life.

Would I buy another Asus? You bet! I get a lot of comments about it wherever I go, mainly that it's so small, and that the styling is unique. Amazingly, I've run into 4 other people at my school with different Asus models - almost enough to have a User's Group! I'd probably get an Ensemble model next time around since they have differentiated them in styling from the Built Ons, and I like the higher end styling more.

 

Great to hear this.

Your wear percentage is good for the amount of work you do away from the outlet.

Are you looking into a Core 2 Duo (Merom) notebook, or will you go for a Core Duo (Yonah)?

 

Nice to hear the positive feedback. I just built a z33ae last week and so far I'm very happy with it. It was less than $700 to build it myself with a 1.73 Pentium M and a 60GB Seagate. Assembly took all of maybe 15 minutes, tops. If you can install a video card in your desktop PC, you can put one of these together easily, save a bundle of money, and have a really nice ultra-portable.

 

Good to hear, Jumper. I feel the same about my Asus notebooks... and in fact, I HAVE stopped using desktop computers for over a year now. My trusty Z63a follows me pretty much wherever I go, and it hasn't failed me (yet)...*knocks on wood*

Glad to see you're a super satisfied Asus user. I, too, would probably try an Ensemble in the future...(when I'm not a poor student anymore).

Cheers!

 

I don't plan on upgrading for another couple of years, to be honest. I built an X2 desktop system two months after they came out and took a huge depreciation hit, and I just don't see the need for a dual core laptop just yet. Buying two computers in 6 months has pretty much satisfied me for now.

My next purchase will probably be a single PC to replace both, probably a 14" with dedicated graphics, in about 2 years.

I am really hoping that we might see more PCI-e channels on laptop motherboards enabling a seperate external graphics card in a desktop dock. I'd kill for a 12" laptop with a full 20 channel PCI-e implimentation and 16x of that connected to whatever desktop PCI-e graphics card I want in a box on my desk... Of course, desktop manufacturers might not like that much.

 

What's a desktop...