ASUS Z81sp Review (pics, specs)

by Aric W., Toronto, Canada

ASUS's desktop replacement, the z81sp with its powerbrick (larger image)

The ASUS z81sp is a desktop replacement style notebook made by ASUS that includes an Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz processor, a 6800 nVidia Go graphics card inside of a 15.4" screen chassis. The model I reviewed was generously provided by CanadaSys, one of Canada's leading ASUS notebook dealers. The configuration of the z81sp reviewed is as follows:

• Pentium 4 3.2ghz 800mhz 1mb Cache
• 512 x2 DDR2 533mhz
• nVidia 6800 Go 256mb MXM Type III
• DVD Dual Layer optical drive
• 80gb 5400RPM HD
• ASUS b/g wireless card
• 15.4" WSXGA Matte screen

Click here to see the specs of the z81sp using Everest

This is your typical ASUS quality laptop, meaning it's built well. It's made for a table/desk type existence as it's pretty thick, about 2.5 inches from bottom to top, and that makes it obvious that it will be quite heavy. There aren't many 15.4" screen notebooks with a 6800 Go graphics card, the only other notebook I know of like that is the Sager 7620.

The highest point of the z81sp compared to a Duracell AA battery

The Z80 weighs about 9 pounds which isn't bad for a desktop replacement, especially with a 6800 Go video card, as it needs a massive cooling system. So, although it's not the most portable notebook -- it is quite good as a notebook with lots of raw power.

Build and Design

z81sp compared to the z70va (view larger image)

The Z81 is made of plastic, but it's still hard and rigid, not a flimsy style plastic. The design is ok at best, it's pretty blocky. The casing is a mix of the gunmetal grey, same as that found on the z71v, and black trimming. This might seem a bit bland to some, but I found it quite suitable. The LCD backing is quite wobbly when being moved but when typing there are no vibrations, it is quite solid. I noticed the hinges were pretty solid, I doubt it will create those famous 'cracks' by other brands (EMachines comes to mind).

A closed z81sp compared to a closed z63a. The sizes are very large in difference (view larger image)

From the outside with the lid closed, it is quite thick as there are 'legs' about 2-3 centimeters up so that ventilation will flow better, as well as vents above the top left on the keyboard, half of the back are vents and the top right corner as well.

The bottom of the z81sp two speakers at the bottom, one large fan vent for the whole chassis ventulation, one on the right for the GPU and the Business Card holder on the left. Notice the 'legs' at the top of the laptop (view larger image)

After the LCD is opened, it has 'wings' which open up at 1-2 centimeters out, it's puzzling me why these are here. But I was glad to see the seamless touchpad ASUS had included, it's responsive as always, as well as cool looking.

The 15.4" z81sp compared to the 14.1" z63a. Notice the 'wings' on the z81sp (view larger image)

The LED's are placed pretty well, as underneath the touchpad there are the media hotkeys, Instant CD player, back, stop, play/pause and forward. To the right of that, there are 5 LED's, one for CD Player on/off, Power indicator, Battery charging, Bluetooth and WiFi.

On the top left, the Z80 has 4 hotkeys: Power4Gear, Touchpad disable/enable,WLan On/Off and a programmable hotkey. Beside that is the bright Orange power button, it's pretty cool looking, but I would of preferred blue! Also, the whole top of the keyboard area is laced with aluminum cross weave, it's pretty neat looking.

The top right of the laptop, includes the Power4Gear, Disable/Enable touchpad, Wlan On/Off and programmable hotekey, as well as the bright orange Power Button. The surrounding area is a aluminum 'fence weave' which looks pretty cool

The laptop has quite a few fans, and they are very, very big, but why not -- It's a Pentium 4 with a 6800 Go in a 15.4" chassis! The GPU is located at the top left, and CPU is at the top right, and there is a vent at the top left, one at the top right side, about three at the back near the GPU, and two large vents on the bottom.

A naked z81sp! Notice the heat sinks and, heat vents. Made of aluminum, the fans cool the GPU, the machine in general and the CPU respectively. The optical drive which is built in is located on the bottom left, an 8 cell battery is located in the bottom right and the hard drive is right over it. The RAM module is found right in the middle underneath the middle fan. The other module is located underneath the keyboard. (view larger image)

The GPU vent

Overall -- the z81sp isn't aesthetically pleasing, but it isn't ugly neither.

Screen

Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children playing on the z70va(left) and SpiderMan 2 playing on the z81sp. Notice the backlighting leakage. (view larger image)

The z81sp contains a 15.4" WSXGA Matte screen, which is 1680x1050 resolution and it's quite bright, but compared to my z70va, it isn't as good. The Z81 I reviewed had a perfect screen with no dead pixels, the colours were vivid and bold, and the viewing angles were quite good. Also, like the Asus M6 series (same as Z70va/a) the speakers are underneath the LCD screen, so the LCD is placed higher, and on the z81sp, it is about 3.35 inches from the bottom of the LCD. Again, this is not necessarily a bad thing, it raises the LCD so one does not have to look down to see the LCD but instead, across. Unfortunately there was quite some backlight leaking, as you can see from the picture.

z81sp on the Age of Empires III homepage. Honestly, this is a bad picture really (view larger image)

The viewing angles worsen, but trust me its a lot better than on camera... (view larger image)

The viewing angles aren't that bad on the z81sp, its just the pictures..(view larger image)

Shaky hands -- but screen is very viewable (view larger image)

Caption: Not as much here... (view larger image)

Speakers

The z81sp has 4 speakers, two at the bottom corner of the laptop, and two below the screen panel, similar to the z70v/a. This setup works well, as it has even sound coming from different sources. I found the speakers were quite good, loud and crisp. However, I didn't feel any bass, which was expected. Overall, good speakers for the on the go (which is doubtful for this laptop), but of course 5.1 or 7.1 output speakers are always recommended!

Processor and Performance

The Z81 runs on an Intel Pentium 4 540 Processor, a 3.2ghz Prescott at 800mhz FSB. It was pretty fast, it seemed to be comparable in speed to the 2.0ghz Pentium M on my z70va as I found no real difference in booting up and loading basic programs. It took about 12 seconds from pressing the power button to the log in screen. The nVidia 6800 Go at 256mb of Video Ram was very powerful, and integrated well into the z81sp and will be well used for owners of it. Another plus is that it is an MXM card, so it can be easily replaced! Or even better the 6800 Go can be used for something else! (cough, such as the z71v?)

I ran Benchmarks, and the graphics were awesome, the 6800 could really be seen working its stuff. The laptop ran pretty warm and was a bit loud but it was at its maximum so I'll forgive that. Other than that, while idling and surfing/word processing, it ran at a respectable fan noise.

Note that the computer has not been modified in any way -- the stock drivers (ATI) were the only thing installed.

Benchmarks

Not a bad score for a 15.4" laptop!

HDTune benchmarks (view larger image)

PCMark04 Results

We use the program Super Pi to calculate Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy, below are the results for the Z81 and a comparison to other notebooks:

Notebook	Time
Asus Z81sp (3.2GHz,Pentium 4)	1m 38s
Fujitsu S6231 (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 6s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
Asus Z70A (1.6GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
Sony VAIO S360 (1.7 GHz Pentium M)	1m 57s
HP DV4170us (Pentium M 1.73 GHz)	1m 53s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

Keyboard and Touchpad

The touchpad is awesome as always, the creaseless design and the response is great, I can't say anything bad about the touchpad, besides being a touchpad. The keyboard does kind of have some flex, which is quite disappointing. Most keys flex when I press down on a key, so that was pretty annoying.

The z81sp touchpad as well as the media hotkey and the LED's for CD Player on/off, Power indicator, Battery charging, Bluetooth and WiFi.(view larger image)

Input and Output ports

There are a no ports on the front, just the latch there.

Blurry front of the z81sp (view larger image)

On the right side, there is a PCMCIA type II card port, a DVD+-Dual Layer combo optical drive, a SD/MMC/MS/Pro card port, a firewire port, InfraRed port, and two USB 2.0 ports.

PCMCIA type II card port, DVD+-Dual Layer built in OD, SD/MMC/MS/Pro card port, firewire/1394 port, IR port, and two USB 2.0 ports. (view larger image)

The back of the laptop has an RJ11 modem port and an RJ45 Ethernet port. Also here is a video connector, an EPP/ECP parallel port and VGA port.

RJ11/45, and ports listed above (view larger image)

On the left side, there is a Kensington lock, a battery switch (read more below), the power outlet port, two USB 2.0 and two regular MIC and Headphone jack, but I'm not exactly sure if its S/PDIF compatible.

Kensington, Battery switch, Power Plug, USB x2, MIC and Headphones/Speakers (view larger image)

Wireless

The z81sp uses an ASUS wireless card, which is a wireless b/g card. They have their own program which I found really great since it was very descriptive, detailed and customizable. It detected wireless access points nearby without issue.

Battery Life

Being a desktop replacement, the battery life isn't the best. With Wi-Fi on and surfing, about 90 minutes is the normal battery life. Unfortunately I did not have Power4Gear so I did not get to test the battery life using Power4Gear, but I would think at least two hours or more would be normal.

A closed z81sp, without the Built On ASUS sticker and it's powerbrick. Literally, its a brick -- its HUGE!

8 cell battery compared to a AA battery

The battery for the z81sp is built in, it is a square sized battery located inside the laptop and ASUS thought it's design out very well, as there is a switch on the left side (seen in the picture 2 pictures above surrounded by white) turning the connection to the battery on and off, since this is a desktop replacement it is a good idea since its plugged in all the time.

OS and Software

Being a barebone -- you can choose the OS, and the software included is the basic Nero OEM, ASUSDVD, ASUS medi@ and various others.

Customer Service

You can choose which ASUS reseller to buy this from so your mileage may vary but reputable resellers like PROPortable, Geared2Play and CanadaSys are good places with great customer service.

Free Case

ASUS always includes a free case with every laptop, but the z81sp is pretty disappointing, the z70v/a case was great looking and useful but with this one, the case was bland and overall designed okay at best. I hope ASUS puts it together with another case

Complaints

• Runs pretty hot and loud under heavy use
• Screen isn't the brightest
• Thick
• Power Brick is truly a brick
• Battery life, but respectable for a desktop replacement
• Keyboard flex

Praises

• Powerful
• Good battery life for a desktop replacement
• Innovative battery switching
• MXM video card

Conclusion

The z81sp is a good choice for a desktop replacement, especially if a 17" is not needed, this is a great choice. It is fairly small compared to a 17", and for people who don't have much desk space but need a powerful sitting laptop, this is a great option. Compared to the Sager 7620, it's a lot lighter, 9lbs compared to 10lbs, and less expensive. So overall it's a great choice for a small desktop replacement.

 

how much $?

 

it'd be about $1737 Canadian $

 

Why are notebook manufacturers still using the Pentium 4 processor? I guess just to keep the cost down huh? I was surprised at Asus using a Pentium 4, I thought now only manufacturers like HP, Toshiba and Gateway used em.

 

Wow, this thing is a beast compared to my W3V. But I don't think Power4Gear would work on the this one as it has a Pentium 4 in it, but I could be wrong.

But MXM video cards were hard to find and not many notebooks support the MXM video cards, so right now it really isn't upgradeable persay, but maybe. I would like to see how this thing would do compared to the new Dell XPS 170 with the Nvidia 7800.

 

Wow... and I thought my M6Ne was pretty big...

The Z81sp gives "beast of a laptop" a whole new meaning.

Good review, Coriolis

 

What wings, where? I cannot see them!

This things cooling system brings the one on mine to shame I bet it blows air in all directions when at full blast.

BTW I would have imagined a p4 at 800FSB would have more of a gain over the crippled 533FSB in mine. I get 1:45 compared to the 1:38 on the Z81. And with the SSE3 patched benchmark my time drops to 1:38. I just think it's a bit odd that the 800FSB isn't making too much of a difference even with faster RAMs.

Nice review.

 

holy toledy, thatsa big meatball! here I thought the Z70 had a tall profile for a 15.4.. this one tops the cake!

great review! I wish I had your job

 

At last, the highly anticipated Z81-SP review!

It's very nice coriolis, good info. I like all the pictures!

That thing is a huge beast - 2.5" thick? I guess the Pentium 4 accounts for that..... maybe the Go6800 too.

I was almost tempted to buy that but the Pentium 4 turned me off.
Actually, I probably should have bought it because, well, my little portable heater broke and I DO need to go out and buy a new one...

Well done!

Chaz

 

Hi guys.

The 'wings' are not really visible from afar, but check out the GPU vent picture, its the 'white' line that is underneath the ports

Just remember that everything was run from the stock drivers, so only the basics were install. Also, I did not defrag or anything, if that makes any difference

And it is indeed a beast, I took one look and it and I was like...whoa!

 

Are the wings metal? Heatsink?

 

The wings are plastic.

The heatsinks are all aluminum.

 

Great review! I wish someone would fit a 6800 Go into a 15.4" Pentium M notebook. I'd cancel my 5720 for that!

 

Heh, yea. But the heat on that thing was pretty hot, it has like 3 fans and constantly blowing hot air!

 

WOW, that thing was UGLY. All the way around. Have they sold many? Keep in mind, I own a DTR myself, so I'm not opposed to the genre.

 

I haven't asked but I honestly don't think they will sell much, its pretty good, but not everyone wants a P4, let alone a 6800 in a 15.4"

It will probrably appeal to major DTR's, with very very little moveing around..

(Which a desktop would probrably be better)

Should of used a PM, if they did, it would be the only one in its class and would be a major enemy with the i9300!

 

Sorry coriolis...quick english lesson: it's "should HAVE used a PM"... not should of.

hehe... ANYWAY, yes, I agree that they should have used a PM... the real time performance gains of the P4 architecture are negligible nowadays with the powerful Dothans...
oh well... there's always the Z70Va to keep people happy.

 

So far, only 5 units of Z81Sp shipped to Canada, we took all, and sold 4 in couple of weeks. Somebody already showed interest on the last unit today.

 

They used aluminum for the heatsinks? That's odd...

Copper is a much better conductor of heat...

 

I'm pretty sure its aluminum, unless they coloured the copper silver

Yea, I was there when those two guys were checking it out

 

If change all these aluminium to copper, it will be 11lbs.

 

Thanks for the review coriolis. Glad you are around to do this sort of thing.

 

Hopefully we see more 15.4" notebooks with GF6800s..
It's interesting, but with all of the cons (particularily keyboard flex, battery life, and backlight leakage), I think I'll pass..

 

The GF6800 runs too hot for most 15.4" chassises...which is why you usually only see them on 17". I doubt we'll see many 15.4" notebooks with it...unless manufacturers can come up with an innovative cooling solution.
No one wants too burn their legs while using their notebook... it gets hot enough already without the GF6800! verheat:

 

Although an extra heater in the winter would be nice.

Makes a good pillow warmer

If its a real DTR, moving only in the house, etc., the z81sp with a cooler would be a pretty good choice, especially if space was lacking.

 

I guess that's true...but think about the summer time

 

Do you really feel that this is true? Although I can find almost no benchmarks that test P4 vs PM on the stuff that matters to me, MP3 and video encoding, I did find this: http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=dothan20&page=1 which shows the P4 besting the PM in every test. Is this a valid comparison?
The reason I'm asking is that I feel that a P4 with HT for HT-aware applications (encoding stuff, mostly) should outperform a PM. I haven't been able to test this definitively, but when I buy a laptop, I want fast encoding, so right now I'm stuck trying to decide between a P4 and PM.
Comments anyone? Does anyone agree/disagree?

 

If you are encoding, rendering, etc., then a Pentium 4, especially the ones with HTT, would be the best. The Pentium M is quite capable of those though, and produces A LOT less heat.

 

Awesome review man.

I've been trying to come to a conclusion on a new laptop for awhile now. My last 2 lappy's were asus (l3800 and L4300-I think been awhile )

I found this Z81sp barebones unit for 1016.11 SHIPPED! and it has everything I want. (higher WS resolution than 1280x800, has gigabit, wifi, and a dvd burner) The 6800 Go is sweet and since it is upgradable it's worth it.

I qued up a P4 630 / 2x 1gb gskill ddr2 modules / hitachi travelstar 100gb-7200rpm hdd. 560.60 SHIPPED.

1576.71 shipped to my doorstep for a laptop that is heavy, But very powerfull. and it's intel based with 64bit support (PM's are jelious )

I was going to get a w3v. But after upgrading the hdd to a 7200rpm 100gig drive and getting a usb 2.5" carrage it was close to 1986.62 shipped and that was with only 1gig of ram not 2gigs. and a smaller screen. lesser video card. lesser processor. But such a sexy little unit.

This is the first time that I've ever had to ask for an opinion on something like this. Typically I'm confident. But I guess in my age I'm getting more concerned with not throwing money out the window. This to me seems like the absolute Best Bang For The Buck!

What do you guys think ? :asus:

 

Let me just start by expressing my gratitude to you: Coriolis. Your reviews are quite simply very educating. They are very detailed and well thought out. But I must say that between your Z70VA review and this one, your reviewing has become allittle biased. Biased how? Because you are comparing a YOU OWN to one that you do not own. So naturally you would want to glorify your notebook's appearance. But dont get me wrong the Z70VA is an AMAZING NOTEBOOK. And Im not saying that the Z81-SP is BETTER then the Z70VA. All I am saying is that you have to take the notebook's purpose into consideration. Before I continue anymore let me just say this is not a flame in any way but rather an opinon. Also, do not take my registration date into account because I have read MANY MANY reviews on this website, but felt no need to post on any. It is now that I have purchased a Z81-SP I need to voice my opinon.

Firstly I would jsut like to say that many people do not trully know the meaning of a DTR... sure they know what DTR stands for and they know the purpose, but the actual use of a DTR is not penetrating the lobe of their brain. And before this acronym becomes any more clouded then that of Washington D.C (my comedy), I need to voice my opinon. The TRUE purpose of a DTR is to not be on someone's lap but to be on a DESK ITSELF, that is why it is called a DTR. I received my Z81-SP alittle over a week ago and let me just say to all you potential buyers out there, that this laptop does not have an untolerable heating problems. In fact the only time it gets hot is under a FULL LOAD, and im talking about CS:S + iTunes. And as all you gamers know... the source engine is very very detailed. So naturally it would get alittle hot, but all I do for this is manually change the fan speed (just as you do Coriolis with your Z70VA). When I am playing CS:S or doing graphic rendering I simply turn the fan speed to the max, which actually doesnt sound too bad. But my reasoning for this is not only to my hands not get hot from typing, but also because I have my headset on at the time, so any sound that does come from the fans is not heard AT ALL. This notebook is just simply amazing in the rendering/gaming processes, sure it isnt anything AMAZING in rendering but it SURELY cripples all graphical processes I throw at it. This laptop is graphically accelerated and IT SHOULD BE USED AS SUCH.

Secondly, I would just like to say that I think all the mockery about the notebook's heat is alittle uncalled for. This notebook doesnt get hot enough as to be used as :

I was almost tempted to buy that but the Pentium 4 turned me off.
Actually, I probably should have bought it because, well, my little portable heater broke and I DO need to go out and buy a new one...

(As quoted from: Chazman421)

and...

Although an extra heater in the winter would be nice.

Makes a good pillow warmer

(As quoted from: Coriolis)

I understand that these are clearly meant as jokes but seriously people, you are posting to people that potentially want to buy this item. I have used it for over a week, and so far it shows NO sign what so ever as being untolherable or dangerous or ANY type of unnessary heat. Chazman421 you havent even USED the product, what gives you the right to make fun of the notebook, when you havent even EXPERIANCED the heat, firsthand. This laptop is clearly not meant to be used for word processing or internet surfing. This is a PURE GAMING + RENDERING COMPUTER, NOTHING ELSE. Any notebook under that much pressure by the user would experiance temperture changes. Roughly I have tested around 8 gaming notebooks, that my friends own and let me just say this was one of the most temperature efficent laptops out of the ALL. There were some that were extremely cool, such as the DELL XPS M170 , but LOOK AT THE PRICE TAG ON THAT BABY. This is definately the best bang for your buck, if you are interested in the following:

Gaming
Graphic Rendering
Other Graphically Accelerated Tasks...
(These are what I believe the notebook was TRULLY BUILT for)

The pentium 4 for what I need it for is awesome. Chazman, Pent4>PentM in graphic rendering, by over double, without a contest. Sure the pentium M CAN do graphic rendering, but does it do it efficiently... the answer to that IMO is ... EH. The pentium 4 does it about 1/3 as fast as a pentium M does due to its' FSB.

As for the battery life... Yes its definately a downside, but yet again a DTR used for graphically accelerated tasks REQUIRES ALOT of battery to perform. Dont post on here saying a X700 is a great solution for a gaming notebook. Cmon... it really isnt ...SERIOUSLY LOL look at the benchmarks between the X700 and the GeForce 6800 GO 256MB on this baby. The 6800 CRIPPLES the X700. Any task that requires drastic performance of the major components inside a computer generates an amount of heat. Let me tell you from experiance, from someone who has USED notebook for more then one day. This notebook does not get INCREDIBLY HOT, it doesnt even get hot enough for you to move it, if it IS on your lap. But then again it is not MEANT to be on your lap, it is meant to be on a desk. Would you put your desktop on your lap? I dont think so, unless you like having heavy things on your genatalia.

In conclusion,
This notebook is definately the best bang for your buck. And to whoever said this thing was ugly... it really isnt. It isnt AMAZING like an XPS Case or an Alienware. But it is pretty appealing.

My Z81-SP Customization + Price

3.0GHz Pentium 4 EM64T 2MB L2 Cache 800Mhz FSB
2GB 533MHz Kingston Memory
100GB IDE 5400RPM Hard Drive
nVidia GeForce 6800 256MB
Windows XP (Home)

FOR...
$1831 USD(Rounded Up).

Not bad...

PS:
64bit64bit64bit64bit64bit sorry I just had to say that

 

Good opinion, nice to see well thought-out posts like that. And yes, they were jokes about the Pentium 4 being a heater, etc.

However, I strongly disagree about the X700 not being a gaming card. It is. I have a 256MB X700 in my notebook, and I get 3,247 in 3DMark05 using a Pentium M 1.86GHz. For a thin-and-light (relative), that is as much as anyone can ask for. A Go6800 is designed for DTR notebooks, so comparing to an X700 is not technically fair. They are not even in the same class.

Thanks for voicing your opinion.

 

erised, did you experience any backlighting bleed through on the lower part of the lcd? This is the primary concern of mine with the z81sp model. If I wouldn't have seen that in his review I would have bought on instead of this compaq v2424NR.

I have 12 days left to take this one back and spend 2x as much on the z81sp. But currently I honestly cannot validate the 2x cost. Considering I wanted a laptop to replace my pda (asus a620 fs )

 

Chazman, I may have come out wrong in how I stated what the purpose of the X700 card was. Clearly it CAN be used as a gaming card. As it is only 2 series lower then the highest ATI Gaming card (850). Also the fact that it is a 256mb card is definately a plus. All I am saying about the X700 card and 6800 is that clearly if you want a graphics card that is going to be used specifically for gaming, you should go with the 6800. But yes, Chaz you definately are right...it isnt fair to compare a DTR to a thin-and-light. Unfortunately I fear I have become a hypocrit because indirectly I felt that was what was being implied in this review. Because I saw mention of a comparison between the Z81-SP and Z70VA.

PROS I have found about the Z81-SP's 6800 + P4(and why it is well worth the extra temp + thickness)
Granted that the 15.4" chasis does not seem it would be compotent with the 6800, I have to just say that the craftmanship of Asus' cooling in the Z81-SP is very well thought out. The heatsink being made out of aluminum gives the inside of the z81-sp a very light yet very cool interior. Honestly, at first glance anyone who knows 2 winks about notebooks and/or computer hardware would think... "wow, how does this thing stay cool", and would automatically assume that with the amount of fans, it would be fairly noisy. But honestly, I dont find that it is noisy at all, and it does manage to stay relatively cool, regardless of its hardware. If someone is in the market for a fairly cheap gaming notebook I think that this is definately one to take a look at. I believe for what Coriolis is using the X700 for suits his tasks perfectly. But... for someone like me that wants to run the Source/Havok Engine on a DTR, you are going to need alittle extra power then the X700. Both cards are fantastic, but quite obviously (due to its benchmarks), the 6800 is a greater preformer. Granted that it does increase the temperature within the notebook by a subsequent amount. Also my reasoning for wanted to get the P4 not only for rendering is because it has 64BIT support, which would allow me to run all the HL2:64B games. Which are not much different (other then faster loading times, and alittle cleaner finish), but it is definately a plus, in the gamer's market.

Also take into consideration that there are a good number of DTRs with an X700, which IMO if not paired with the correct processor, clearly contradicts itself.

Jackyl, I too was very cautious when I first decided to buy the Z81-SP, after hearing about the Backlighting Leakage. But from using this notebook for alittle over a week, I have concluded that it really isnt that much of a problem. Sure, its a downside, but the rest of the notebook has just so much to offer. I think that if you change the notebook's brightness, that should cure the backlight's bleeding issue. I dont know how this book's backlighting is triggered really, but I figure that if it is like the majority, then the lower the actual brightness of the lcd is, the lower the backlight should be. Honestly I really doesnt bother me Jackyl. All in all, I think this notebook is pretty awesome. Sure it has its cons, but to me its pros just make it all the sweeter. So if you would'nt care to spend more on the upgrade, go for it. I don't think you will regret it. The fact that you want the laptop to replace your PDA, I think this may be alittle overkill. But if you want a notebook that can also perform Graphically Accelerated tasks, then this IMO is the best bang for your buck. Although, keep in mind that I primarily use this notebook for Gaming + Rendering so the bleeding does not bother me. If you intend to watch some Widescreen movies, the bleeding may bother you, due to the fact that the bottom portion would be black. I have yet to conclude wheither or not it would bother you to a point where you would focus more on the bleeding.

I was also saddened because I REALLY wanted to try one of those Glassview notebooks, but I have to say that this notebook's LCD is very nice. And just like in Coriolis' review, it has great viewing angles for an LCD.

-Erised

P.S I apologize Chaz, for I did not express how much I appreciated your reviews as well. I think others' comments on your reviews stand for mine as well when they say that they are very detailed and well-thoughtout. Take Care.

 

Thanks both of you for the information. I can't beleive this but this compaq is actually growing on me. Sure it doesn't have sure power. But it's got nice battery life and the lcd is WoW. And the styling is well because of a lack in better terms is just down right sexy.

I would have bought an asus w3v but the cost of the w3v was more than what I had configed a barebones z81sp and a newegg order to be. So the v2000z series compaq was less than 1g after tax.

That lcd bleed over is not something that I like to see on a quality unit made by asus. I'll have to pass this round.

Thanks for the great review and information guys. I sure hope that this information helps others in their purchasing or searching situations.

 

The compuke is goin' back, XP Pro x64 was a joke, not to mention lack of driver support. My beloved Win2k os would install but no driver support from compuke/hewgimemoney. So I'm takin' it back.

I'll already spec'd out a Z81SP. P4 630 (3ghz/2mbL2/800fsb) / 2x 1 gig Gskill DDR 533 / Toshiba 100gb 7200rpm hdd / and then a barebones Z81SP.

All said and done $1601.68 <----Best bang for the buck considering that 15.4 WS does 1680x1050 I'm spoiled by being use to high resolutions. 1280x768 is childish.

BAck to asus camp I go :asus:

 

Hi, I got on November a wonderfull Z81sp Lapton, I custom for my needs because I'm a photographer.
Now I need to sell it , so do you know where can I sell it for a good price... Its in perfect conditions

 

eBay - The World's Largest Online Auction!

 

I recently just bought a z81sp . So far it crushed my expectations. It runs Oblivion perfectly and i think this game has the highest requirements of any game on the market. If in can perform that well with this game im sure every game will look and perform amazingly. Really my only questions are well the operating system i bought for it . was the 32 bit version of xp would the 64 bit version have any real diffrence in games ? also how do i put my fan speed on max because the laptops GPU seems to get pretty hot pretty quickly when playing oblivion on 1650x1050 mind you but still i think it could be a little bit cooler if i knu how to change my fan settings. and about fan noise well right off the hop when i load oblivion the fans kick on a little bit faster but after 30 mins of play its like they go into overdrive and get a little bit loud but of corse thats due to the GPU heat yet again im sure that could easly be fixed id rather it always be on max then randomly turn on it would probley prolong my laptops life too.but overall i think i got a good deal pentium 4 630 3.0ghz 1gb ram go 6800 asus wireless b/g card dvd+/rw all for $1250CDN used but in flawless condition also i wanted to know is the powerBRICK saposta get quite hot or should i buy a new one because it seems to get quite hot pretty quickly like after 2 hours of play its pretty hot.thanks and great review Coriolis

Paul