ASUS U30JC-A1 with NVIDIA Optimus Review Discussion

Ah, I see. For some reason I always thought Intel's Turbo Boost must be present in order for Asus's Turbo Mode to work.
But it's still odd that Asus didn't put the Turbo Mode feature in the U30JC-A1 since the previous UL30VT series has it.

Kevin, would you be able to try download the UL30VT's Power4Gear Hybrid and see if that allows a Turbo Mode option?

 

Unless Asus has one version of Power4Gear that works across all their notebook lines, I don't think it will. The new i-series CPUs no longer use a FSB, so boosting the FSB as the UL30VT does won't work. Now, I know that there are ways to overclock an i-series (the Asus G73JH does it, as does the M17X-R2), but I think it might involve using a different program (most probably something like what the G73JH uses, which might actually be the same Power4Gear if they just made the one program to overclock everything they have... which I unfortunately find unlikely).

 

I'm aware of that, though notebookcheck gives the gt310m a bigger score than my 8600m gt. But i'm not purchasing the asus u30jc with gaming purposes, I chose it because it seems like a complete machine. It has a strong cpu (strong enough for my needs) AND a long battery life (definitly long enough for my needs), oh and it has an optical drive aswell, I couldn't ask for more. Untill recently only apple offered a decent cpu combined with a good battery life, and here comes asus offering a way cheaper alternative with better specs.

I admit I will most likely try to playing games like Assassins creed and cod4 during our 'history of art' classes, but I don't intend to criple it by stressing it too much. Besides I can always tune up my old acer by shuvin in an ati hd4650 (got to love acers mxm card slots).

The only thing that i'm affraid off is the price (might easily go to 800-900€ in Belgium), and that aluminium looks like it attracts fingerprints quite easily and that long silver button wchich functions as the mousebuttons is also too shiny IMO (curse HP for starting this shiny trend with their mirror touchpads and mousebuttons).

 

kevin, can you speak more to the "tinny" quality of the speakers. i'm no audiophile (i'm replacing a lenovo t61, so clearly audio isn't a huge priority) and really just want something loud enough to hear within a reasonably quiet, small room that isn't irritating. would you say the tinny quality is laptop-tinny, or especially poor in relation to other notebooks? thanks!

 

In terms of speed benchmarks, the i-3 is going to do much better than the su7300 CULV chip.

Keep in mind synthetic benchmarks like wPrime are biased towards hyperthreaded CPU's like the I-3, but the difference is pretty huge. (Ironically, the older prime test did not used hyperthreading or multi-core, so was biased against these technologies.)

wPrime:
i-3: 21 sec
ul30vt: 45sec overclocked. About 56 sec w/o overclocking

PCMark05:
i-3: 5366
ul30vt: 4100 overclocked, 3600 w/o overclocking

So at least with benchmarks, the performance difference is huge. but so is the battery life.

 

Oh NOOOO!!!

Yesterday when I quickly read through the news, I thought this had NV 310m + 350m... Turns out to be an i3 350 CPU...

The bitter disappointment follows.

 

Sony Vaio Z which is 13 inch comes with 1600X900 screen... extra space helps.

Very True! As long as CD's and DVD's are used , I ain't buying a laptop without a DVD drive!

Well does it beat SU7300 at 2.1GHz? I heard that at that speed , SU7300 almost beat a P8400.

Yes very true... although in Asus Turbo mode , the FSB has been pumped more so SU7300 is overclocked to 2.1GHz... in this case , CPU is almost 75% OCed... but not good on battery life so in one way , this new i3 is good.. u don't need to OC.. would have been great if core i5 CPU was used... looks like we just have to wait for Core i5/7 CULV CPU's to be used... also is the CPU soldered to mobo in this laptop?

 

Kevin, good review as always!

But it still hide question about Nvidia Optimus and switching efficiency. Article only shows us one side of battery efficiency - min and max battery life during min and max notebook load. But what will happened if load will be variable, for example this load profile:

1. 15 minutes of YouTube 360p video online
2. 15 minutes of YouTube 720p video online
3. 15 minutes of YouTube 1080p video online
4. 1 hour 30 minutes of 720p HD video in mkv
5. 1 hour 30 minutes of 1080p BluRay video
6. 2 hour reading NBR articles with all flash modules on pages on

What battery life will be then when:

Nvidia 310m will be locked on
Intel HD will be locked on
Nvidia Optimus set on automatic mode

Otherwise after reading U30JC article only one thing comes to mind - lock on NVidia 310m and forget about Intel HD and Nvidia Optimus

 

Nice review. Does anyone know, who the cooling works? There is no air inlet in the bottom. Where does the cool air come from?

 

I don't believe the battery life numbers - there is no way that having both integrated and discrete gpus powered on offers better battery life than having the only the integrated gpu active. Compare versus other reviews such as this one at HotHardware which shows forcing discrete on all the time reduces battery life by one hour.

 

Yeah it's the U33JC bamboo. But there was also a P-series, but I forgot the specs.

 

... and for those of you who don't care about the optical drive and prefer a more stylish notebook (still with optimus but with an i5-430M with turbo boost) and a 2MP camera:
found on an australian retail website: http://www.getprice.com.au/U33JC-RX022X-430M-2-26-500-13-W7P-Gpnc_24--44073193.htm
the equivalent of $1,300 american Dollars.

 

Any word on when the U33 will be available in North America?

 

Any word on when the U33 will be available in North America? I'm guessing the price in North America will be a bit lower than this,

 

The speakers would probably be fine for listening to music in a small room, but if you have a cheap pair of external Logitech speakers or something it would probably blow the internal ones away.

 

Hello Kevin! Thank you very much for your review, it is by far the best one I've seen for this model.
Now I know I'll be getting what I pay for

Quick question for you: I'd like to swap the primary HD for a SSD (probably one of the intel ones) and then put the HD that shipped where the optical bay used to be (I've started a thread here about it).

Based on this guide, I need to measure how tall the optical drive is (12.7mm or 9.5mm) and look at the plug on the back of the optical drive to see if it's a SATA or PATA optical drive. I couldn't see the tech specs on the CD bay in your review, so I was wondering if you had that information?

 

This is the optical drive in the U30JC

http://cgi.ebay.com/HL-GT30N-Super-Multi-DVD-Rewriter-Notebook-SATA-Drive-/230451478756

Uses a mini SATA connector.

 

Hmm wondering if ASUS couldn't achieve a stable 33% OC so they couldn't include Turbo33.

I'm wondering if anyone has tried OCing.
-Looking for a speed bump over my ul30vt

 

no, we don't know that yet when the new asus laptops will be released. I'd say between now and the back-to-school period. Who knows? We already have the list of laptops to come, which is good. Note that not all those laptops will be available in the US, as the source of this document is Asus global, not Asus US.

From what I understand, in the 13-inch category, the Asus line will be:
-- UL30A (already released, CULV), $800
-- U30JC (just released, this review, similar-looking chassis but thicker due to additional optical drive, has optimus and a core i3 with 35W TDP), $900
-- UL30JT and PL30JT, apparently very similar latpops, and thin as the original UL30A, likely because there's no optical drive... but both with core-U models (ultra low voltage, 18W TDP). I bet the US will only get one of those, if any (possibly the successors to the UL30A?). Price and availability unknown at this time; did Intel even start to deliver the core-U's to manufacturers?
-- UL33JC, slim and light like the above, plus bamboo-fashion-premium status, still no optical drive, but has optimus and regular-voltage core CPUs (35W TDP, no L or U models, apparently), better materials (?) and a better 2.0MP webcam. I bet we will get those, since the US had bamboos before, and those appear to be top-of-the-line in the 13.3-inch segment. About $1300, I'd say, but possibly lower given the price gap with existing model (fingers crossed!)

edit: forgot to mention, core i3's do not have turbo boost, period.

 

Excellent. That looks like a 12.7mm drive to me (I hope).

 

Ideally I would wait for a UL30JT or UL80JT, but I have also heard about Intel's delay in shipping the ULV processors. My laptop got stolen, so I need a replacement relatively soon (I am borrowing a friend's old Dell Inspiron for the time being, which is terrible but it works). I am willing to wait another month or two.

Since the U33JC doesn't have the ULV processors, I am crossing my fingers that Asus will release it soon! That, or I would be happy with a U30 with an i5 proc...

 

Just saw the cnet review of this and I don't get how they were able to get better score in Unreal Tournament III vs the faster combo of the i5 and nvida GT330 in the Sony Vaio Z?

 

cuz this laptop is G

 

did u ever decide? i am having the same dilemma, although the y460 does cost an extra, $150 at $1050 on the lenovo site, im also just thinking about waiting for the u33 or an i5 u30 to come out soon..maybe..? lol

 

The fact that Lenovo just released another discount code for the Y460 doesn't help, it is now available for $900. The code is good through the 17th though, so I still have a while to decide. I have been hearing about heat issues with the Y460, so I also want to hear some more reviews about that.

For now though, I am still waiting...

 

I believe the UL80vt is 1.1" thick and the U30jc is 1.2" thick.

So how is 0.1 inch (3/32) thicker "a whole lot thicker"?

Also, the UL80vt and the U30jc are both 4.8 lbs, so how is the U30jc heavier?

I'm missing something here.

 

Well the UL80vt is a 14in device vs the 13in device of the U30jc, so I can see weight as kind of being an issue as it is a 13in with the same weight as a larger 14in.

 

Too true. But he was the one comparing the UL80vt to the U30jc. So I was responding to that.

Personally, it seems the optical drive is what adds the close-to 1 lb extra weight in either of the notebooks.

For me, I would have compared the UL30vt to the upcoming (eventually) UL30jt; more apples to apples.

One site review (not Amazon) puts the U30jc at 4.4 lbs, which is lighter than the UL80vt by about 7 ozs. When my U30jc arrives, I can weigh it and give a real figure.

One reviewer added that the i3 required more cooling, so a bigger heatsink.

As an aside, my wife's plastic 13" Macbook (6-mo old) weighs in at 4 lbs. 15.5 oz and it doesn't feel terribly heavy to me.

Granted, if they were making the U33 (no DVD drive) not as a bamboo model (therefore cheaper) or were coming out with the UL30jt this month, I'd have preferred to have gone with them. I'd rather not have an internal optical drive or the extra 1 lb. I already have an external DVD/Blu-ray drive.

The lost battery life seems to be the trade-out to get the i3 processor.

But such is how the market has gone.

 

Quatro, you are right that the thickness is not much different. But Coldmack is saying what I was getting at. If you are the same weight, but with a smaller screen... then IMO it is a step back in terms of portability.

Everybody's needs are different. For some 4 1/2 lbs is fine. For me I want something lighter because I will be constantly carrying it. As of now, the only Arrendale with an optical under 4lbs is the Z, which is out of my price range. While there are a wide range of offerings in the 12-13" range with C2D CPU's.

 

Can anyone with hands-on experience with the UL30 or UL80vt tell me how the U30jc's screen compares to the UL80vt? Can someone compare contrast, color vibrancy, brightness and vertical viewing angles between the two models?

Several reviewers said the UL80's screen seemed washed out with weak contrast and blacks. All seem to say that the limited vertical viewing angle is about the same in the UL30 & UL80 (& the U30jc, I suppose).

Thanks.

 

That makes sense. It sounds like the UL30jt may fit your needs. No optical drive, 13" footprint, under an 1" thick & 3.7 lbs, like the UL30vt. I'll bet the price will be about $899 w/ a 500GB HDD.

It should feel light & thin.

*Sigh*. I WISH I could have bought that. But I don't want to wait until Aug or Sept for a notebook. I debated over getting the UL30vt for $763 or the U30jc with the faster processor (but loss of around 20% battery life ) for $899.

I also miss the deeper screens (16:10?) that the Macs and older notebooks have. These new 16:9 screens just look so wide and narrow to me.

On the up side, the keyboard, aluminum palm rest, build quality, aspects of screen vibrancy & contrast, faster processor and Optimus auto-graphics switching seem better on the U30jc.

 

I am thinking about getting the U30JC from GenTech (I have never dealt with them). You can customize the laptop. I was thing about the 128GB Crucial C300 Solid State Drive SATA III : $445. Does anyone know if the U30JC supports SATA III at 6Gb/s? Is GenTech reliable? I have usually used Newegg but I like the idea of having the U30JC customized. I would certainly upgrade the HDD to 7200 rpm if I do not go with the SSD.

 

I sincerely doubt that the U30JC will support SATA Rev. 3.0 at 6 Gb/s, however, unless you deal constantly with large files, you wouldn't be hitting even the SATA Rev 2.0 limit of 3 Gb/s, even with the C300, so I wouldn't worry about it terribly.

 

With the addition of a backlit keyboard, I'd be happy to forget about the macbook pro and give my money to ASUS!

 

Hi guys,

I'm from Belgium and have been searching to see how this beauty will be released in Europe.

I now found it on a couple of French websites, example: U30JC-QX002V

As you can see, it has the i5-430M.
Now I'm wondering how this'll perform? I suppose better than the i3-350M in the A1, but does anyone have an idea about eventual heat problems? The max power usage is 35W, like the i3, so the battery life should stay the same I guess?

Thanks for the help!

 

I don't need the backlit to forget about the 13" mbp. The asus ul30jc is way cheaper, has a stronger cpu and has way better graphic options and also a very nice battery life. I see no reason to even look at its 13 inch competitiors like the 13 inch MBP or the sony vaio S series.
Its kind of like the asus g73jh, ever since they released that laptop, way less people are considering the way more expensive Alienware systems (xept for the genious m11x). Keep it up Asus ^^

edit @lenskapje

I had the same question as you did about the dell vostro 3300 series, where we compared the i3 to the i5 cpu's. Basicly, the difference in power consumption is very small.

Btw, since you live in Belgium aswell might I point out that laptops tend to be released faster in the Netherlands, the only problem is that they use qwerty keyboards.

 

Ok, so the i5 performs better and battery/heat stays the same?

I don't need a laptop right away, mostly to write my thesis next schoolyear.. I think the u30jc does a great job at combining battery life with performance, and with the good build quality I think it's perfect for carying around!

 

Gah, the U30JC seemed like my dream come true until I saw that it came with an optical drive.

All I'm asking for is a 13" laptop with:
-Optimus
-Core i3
-No optical drive.

Someone mentioned the UL33JC as being the laptop to meet those standards. I may have to wait out and check those out.

 

optical drive does not hurt and it is not that think anyway. I am sure you could put a second HDD there is you really wanted.

 

UL30JT will have all of that and no DVD drive, but with an i5-520UM instead of an i3. The i5 is overclockable with TurboBoost33.

 

I don't understand why everyone seems to disdain optical drives. I understand that they are rarely used anymore, I almost never use mine, but it is better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

 

Exactly, plus you get space for a 2nd HDD.

 

i dont want a CDdrive either!

damn asus, this WAS the perfect notebook replacement for me until i saw it brings optical drive

 

I find it funny that the dedicated graphics gets better battery life than the integrated one lol

 

I own a U30Jc, and I think the battery life in that test isn't exclusively the nVIDIA GPU. It can't be to get 8 hrs.

Optimus does its own choosing unless I am utterly specific. So even if the general default is the nVIDIA chip in the CP settings, Optimus will still choose the integrated graphics if it sees no need for the nVIDIA chip ... unless I've specified a specific program to run in discrete graphics only.

Optimus is there to save battery juice.

So the rundown test they ran didn't mean they achieved 8 hrs running only on the discrete graphics. That is impossible on that battery w/ an i3 2.26GHz CPU and a GF 310M chip at this time

 

Quatro, since you own one, how long will this laptop last in intermediate use? So if you're working in word and excel for example and some music playing in the background? All the reviews I've checked so far always let the laptop be idle or working at full power..

 

Hey, quick question:

After a fresh install of Windows 7 x64 Pro, and installing all the drivers, my CPU monitor (and Control+Shift+Escape) all show one CPU, even though Device Manager properly shows that there are 4 cpus (dual core + hyperthreading). There's no option in the BIOS to enable/disable cores.

Additionally, it "acts" like it's only running one thread - an install will pretty much hang the machine, which you wouldn't expect a dual-core to do. I think it's not properly running on all cores. Did you have this problem? Does anyone have ideas for a solution?

Edit: solved! I updated the BIOS to the latest revision of 205, but I don't think that did anything. Looks like Windows just randomly decided to limit itself to one thread. There's a cool utility called EasyBCD that allowed me to reset to number of processors to zero, which slapped Windows hard enough to make it wake up & smell the multithreading.

There's a cool Microsoft thread on how to do this here. Now running:

Returns 4 instead of 1 like before, they all show up in Task Manager, and everything is faster.

 

I'd say around 7 hrs with wifi, Office apps & quiet office/balanced mode.

I've not run the battery all of the way down in one setting yet. Though I've gone 3+ hrs on Office apps and had at least 50-60% battery left.

 

so tell me about this ul30jt laptop. So far ive read that its got the same specs (other than the i3 processor) and minus the opitcal drive. Is the processor in the ul30jt weaker or stronger than the i3 and also will this laptop be similar in price to the u30jc??

 

Kevin, Quatro and other owners: What do you think of the screen and the touchpad? I've read in some reviews that the one-button touchpad is awkward and the screen is not that bright in comparison to Macs or Dell Studios. Screen quality is important to me as I do a lot of photo editing. Thanks