Asus Z71v Review (pics, specs)

by Rob M, Minnesota USA

Asus Z71V (view larger image)

The Asus Z71v is the latest in Asus' line of customizable notebook computers. The one I bought has the following specifications:

• Pentium M 750 Processor (1.86 Ghz, 533 Mhz FSB)
• 1 Gigabyte RAM (2x512 MB DDR2-4200@533 Mhz)
• 15.4" WSXGA (1680x1050) widescreen display
• 80 GB hard drive, spinning at 5400 RPM
• Nvidia GeForce Go 6600 graphics card with 128 MB VRAM
• Removable DVD+/-RW drive
• Intel 2915 802.11a/b/g wireless card
• PCMCIA, Multi-Card Reader (multimedia card, secure digital, memory stick), 4-pin firewire, Audio In, Audio Out/SPDIF, phone jack, Gigabit Ethernet, VGA-out, and 5 USB ports
• Windows XP Home

While you may not have heard as much about Asus as you have heard about Dell, HP, Gateway, and Apple, they have been around for a while earning the reputation as the best motherboard maker in the world. In addition to this, as an original design manufacturer, they have made the chassis and motherboards for several computers that were later sold under more recognizable names. As one of their more recent ventures, Asus released a line of customizable notebooks, and the Z71v is the most recent of these.Based on Intel's latest Centrino technology, the Asus Z71v has the power to do whatever you want it to, at home or on the road, gaming, surfing the internet, preparing presentations, taking notes, or writing reports.

I had been researching a notebook purchase for over a year before I found the Z71v. I wanted something that had a fairly large screen, preferably widescreen, had good graphics and sound, and would be able to play games as well as be used to write papers and do schoolwork. It also had to be fairly portable and had at least 3.5 hours of battery life. It was a hard combination to find! Until January, the prime contender was the Sager 3790, which has a 15.4" widescreen, an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics card, and still managed to get up to five hours of battery life. Then Intel came out with Sonoma, the next-generation Centrino platform, and I discovered the Acer Travelmate 8104, which had a video card roughly twice as good as the Sager's, looked better, and had all the next-generation upgrades. Unfortunately, the Acer would only get 3.5 hours battery life if the screen was dimmed down almost to opacity and just about everything was turned off. This simply would not do. However, after looking at the next generation, I really wanted a computer that could keep up with the Acer, and the Sager 3790 paled in comparison. Enter the Asus Z71v. The graphics card on the Z71v (Nvidia 6600) rivals the one on the Acer (ATI x700), it had all the new technology, and Asus advertised that it would get up to SIX hours of battery life. I pre-ordered it, and after an agonizing month of waiting for it to be released, one fine day it arrived. Here are my thoughts:

Build

The machine seems to be built very well. There is very little flex in the case or keyboard. The LCD is adequately shielded and does not blur or spot when I push on the back. The hinges are good, and the LCD will stay open in any position without wobble. The laptop closes with a latch, which clicks in place.

Asus Z71V Back Side (view larger image)

Asus Z71VRight Side (view larger image)

Asus Z71VFront Side (view larger image)

Asus Z71VLeft Side (view larger image)

Asus Z71V Above view closed (view larger image)

Weight & Mobility

The notebook weighs 6.5 pounds. It's a little bit heavier than I'm used to, but still definitely portable. I like the included carrying case, and it's easy to carry the computer and adapter along with various books, especially when using the included shoulder strap.

Screen

The screen looks good. The high resolution gives me the impression that I have a lot more room to work with, which is nice. The viewing angles are very acceptable, and the screen does not wash out when viewed from even extreme angles. Having a widescreen is also nice, as I am able to look at several open windows at the same time. Colors are vibrant, and pictures and video both appear sharp and clear. The screen does have one oddity: on solid colors, especially bright green and white, I can observe a slight sheen or sparkle. I do not notice this at all when looking at pictures, watching movies, or playing games, but it is noticeable when word processing, due to the solid white background. It does not bother me, and I stop noticing it fairly quickly, but for those who are more sensitive to this kind of thing, it might be an issue. As an addition, this notebook comes with an Ambient Light Sensor (ALS). This adjusts the screen brightness to the room brightness, so in a bright room, the screen will be bright, and in a darker room, the screen will automatically dim until it reaches optimal brightness. I find this feature extremely useful because it means I never have to adjust the screen's brightness manually (although I could turn off ALS and do that instead if I wanted to). I can just adjust the range of ALS brightness and I never have to think about it again. This feature also extends battery life.

Asus Z71V Screen (view larger image)

Asus Z71V Screen Vertical Viewing Angle Example (view larger image)

Asus Z71V Screen Horizontal Viewing Angle (view larger image)

Sound

The sound is provided by two speakers in the front of the laptop, and it is some of the finest sound that I have ever heard come from laptop speakers. DVD audio comes across clear and sufficiently loud to be heard in the next room. It still has volume limits, and playing classical music that has a wide range of volume is not recommended, but the sound is rich, and there is a built-in audio mixing console where you can adjust the different frequencies and add effects.

Keyboard

The keyboard feels great. The keys are nearly silent, and have adequate bounce.

Asus Z71V Keyboard (view larger image)

Touchpad

The touchpad works well in general. It is somewhat sensitive, so I had to get used to typing so I did not accidentally brush past it, and click on something inadvertently. The 2 buttons work well, although they are distinctly louder than the keyboard buttons. The scrollbar is useful, also.

Asus Z71V Touchpad (view larger image)

Performance and Benchmarks

Here are some general system benchmarks that will give an idea of the overall power and speed of the notebook.

Time to boot up: 30 seconds
PCMark04: 3594
Time to calculate Pi to 2 million digits in Super Pi: 1 minute, 38 seconds

We use the program Super Pi to get a benchmark of processor speed. The Super Pi program simply forces the processor to calculate Pi to a selected number of digits of accuracy. Calculating to 2 million digits is our benchmark. Below is a comparison chart of how theAsus Z71V with it's 1.86GHz processor stacked up to other similar notebooks when running this calculation:

Pentium M 750 Processor (1.86 Ghz Pentium M)

Notebook	Time to Calculate Pi to 2 Million Digits
Asus Z71V(1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 38s
IBM ThinkPad T43(1.86GHzPentium M)	1m 45s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
IBM ThinkPad T41 (1.6GHz Pentium M)	2m 23s
Compaq R3000T (Celeron 2.8GHz)	3m 3s
Dell Inspiron 600m(1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
Dell Inspiron 8600 (1.7GHz Pentium M)	2m 28s

Stock benchmarks on AC Power using Nvidia 71.13 driver, 250/400 clock:

• 3DMark01 SE: 12904
• 3DMark03: 4358
• 3DMark05: 1706
• Aquamark3: 29822

The 3DMarks listed above were somewhat below those achieved by the Acer 8104 (approx. 2300 in 3DMark05), but considerably higher than those for the Sager 3790 (approx. 1000 in 3DMark05). Still, I updated the drivers for my graphics card and overclocked it a bit to see if I could get higher scores. Geared2Play, one of the websites selling the computer, suggested that the ideal overclock speed was 290 core & 573 memory, so those are the speeds at which I set it.

Overclocked benchmarks on AC power using Nvidia 76.50 driver, 290/571 clock:

• 3DMark01 SE: 13569
• 3DMark03: 5310
• 3DMark05: 2126
• Aquamark3: 36455

These benchmarks are much closer to the Acer's scores, and I am happy with them. Before I switch to the next area, though, here's a warning about overclocking: if you overclock the graphics card too much, it will overheat and will cease to work correctly. Since it is a $200.00 replacement part, please be careful if you choose to overclock.

Battery Life

The battery lasted 2.25 hours playing a DVD. Doing basic applications (word processing, surfing the internet, etc.), it lasts between 3.5 and 4 hours. Not nearly the 6.5 hours that Asus claimed is the ceiling, but still enough to easily get through my 3.5 hour long classes. If you're going to be on a long flight or need more than 4 hours of battery life, I'd suggest getting the modular battery option that swaps for the optical drive.

Heat & Fan Noise

The laptop stays wonderfully cool most of the time. According to Mobile Meter, the CPU has a temperature range of 37-66 degrees Celsius, averaging 40 degrees Celsius on battery and 58 degrees on AC power. And the only place it gets noticeably warm is on the bottom in the back. It's not uncomfortably hot even after over 6 hours of use.

The laptop has 2 fans: the chipset fan and the CPU fan. The chipset fan is on all the time, but is virtually soundless. When I first powered up my computer, I literally could not hear any noise whatsoever. The CPU fan comes on when the CPU gets to 55 degrees Celsius and is audible, but stays fairly quiet most of the time. The only time it speeds up is when doing heavy gaming and during very CPU intensive applications, like running Super Pi.

Audio DJ CD player:

There are some buttons on the front of the laptop which are used to play CDs without booting into the computer's operating system. In my opinion, this feature would have been much more effective if it played DVDs. CD playback is only so-so. Music seems to play well, but vocal can easily be drowned out by instruments, and it's sometimes hard to hear what the singers are singing. It varies from CD to CD, in my experience.

DVD+/-RW drive:

The drive works well for me. Burn time for a 60-minute CD was 6 minutes. Read/load time takes a bit longer than I'm used to from my roommate's desktop, but it is still acceptable. Time to completely install Myst 3: Exile (4 CDs): 30-40 minutes The only thing about the drive that I don't like is that it's the loudest part of the computer when it spins.

Pricing and reseller experience:

I bought mine for $1940.33 US dollars from Integrated System Technologies. I wouldhighly recommend them to anyone who is planning to buy a new computer. Rick, the owner, answered a string of questions that I had about the notebook when I first placed my order, and Gwen, the co-owner, sent me e-mails detailing the Z71v's process through pre-order, build, and shipping. It was discovered that the Intel 2200 wireless card (that I ordered) had an issue with the chipset of the Z71v, so IST upgraded it to the Intel 2915 for free. They even set my name up in Windows! You can't do any better than that!

Overall

Pros:

• solid build
• low heat & quiet fans
• high resolution screen
• good video power/performance
• good quiet keyboard
• adequate battery life

Cons:

• screen sparkle exists
• Audio DJ does not play DVDs
• DVD+/-RW drive can get loud when it spins up
• touchpad sensitivity takes a little getting used to

Overall Rating: 4.5/5, highly recommended

 

Excellent and thorough review.Congratulations.

I got 1' 37" for the 2M Pi test.



Cheers

Asus Z71V
-----------

1.86 Pentium -M Sonoma
2 GB DDR2 PC-4200 RAM
NVidia 6600go 128 meg
60gb/7200 rpm Hitachi HDD
Dual-Layer DVD +RW
BOOQ Vyper 15" Sleeve

 

ooh, a second faster than me! I'll have to try again... sorry, just my competitive nature coming out. [ ] hey, it's not on the review, but you can get the Z71v at...
www.istnc.com/store
www.proportable.com
www.xmeld.com
www.agearnotebooks.com
www.geared2play.com
www.discountlaptops.com (as Chembook 2371v)
www.powernotebooks.com (as PowerPro A 2:21)
www.abspc.com (as Mayhem G4)

drum while you work

 

Thanks for the great review, Rob [ ]

ASUS M6800Ne, P-M 715 (Dothan 1.5), 512MB Ram, Toshiba Combo drive, Samsung Spinpoint M 40G HDD with 8M cache, Mobility Radeon 9700

 

"I had been researching a notebook purchase for over a year before I found the Z71v. I wanted something that had a fairly large screen, preferably widescreen, had good graphics and sound, and would be able to play games as well as be used to write papers and do schoolwork. It also had to be fairly portable and had at least 3.5 hours of battery life."

Very nice review, but it beats me why you had to look for a year for those specs:
HP nx8220; Sonoma, 5h battery, very well built, 15'wsxga, up to 128MB videocard with own memory, very slim (1.1'), modestly priced

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by robbert1925

 

A great review - with excellent pictures! I ordered my ASUS Z71v earlier this week from www.ISORM.com. It should arrive tomorrow. It's slightly different from the one in this review. 1.73 cpu, 80GB 5400rpm SATA drive, and a single 1GB DDR2 memory stick. My experience with ISORM has been 5 Star! They are courteous, prompt, and communicate immediately if there is a problem with the order. Better than Newegg, and that's a tough league to play in! I chose to purchase my notebook without an O/S because I haven't decided which one to use. It's nice to have that choice, without having to pay upfront. I'll post a review after I've had a chance to do a test drive (probably in 10 days).

Grandpa

 

Great! I hope you like it as much as I like mine! [ ]

drum while you work

 

congrats ,billman.

 

Ok, so it looks nice, it's sturdy, and seems good overall. But I'm not sold. I'll be using this machine primarily for schoolwork and games. The latter is my favorite hobby. I haven't been keeping up with graphics cards lately, so I have to ask: how does Doom 3 run on this thing? With my desktop, which is 1.8ghz AMD Athlon XP 2200+, 512DDR ram, nVidia Geforce 4 MMX 64mb, and 80gb 5400rpm, Doom 3 ran smooth even on high detail. How does this laptop compare?

 

I don't personally have Doom 3, but according to those on Notebook Forums who do, it runs perfectly smooth (approx. 40 frames per second) at high detail on the Z71v.

drum while you work

 

This is a great review. I have been searching for just the right laptop for siome time now, and just haven't been able to find the "Perfect," blend of performance and power until I read this review. I have been trying to decide between the Pentium M 760 w/ Centrino or with the AMD Turion ML-37. Both clock in at 2.0 GHz. I love the AMD 64 platform. All of my desktops are AMD 64's. The only thing is that they are so limited in what they support on the portable platform. No PCI-Express, the memory modules have to PC2700, and there are very few makers. ACER/HP Compaq are the two I found to be most reasonable, but the HP has shared video RAM, and both only utilize PC2700 ram with a clock speed of 333MHz. What a waste for the CPU's 2200MHz bus. So finally I decided to go to my favorite motherboard manufacturer, ASUS. I knew that they made pre built laptops, but did not know that they made barebones kits for user customization. I read a bit on the Z71V, and decided to look no further, especially after reading this review. I just ordered one and it will be here tomorrow, Tuesday, August 23, 2005. Here are the hardware specs, and after I run some platform test I will post those numbers.

Z71V Barebones w/ 15.4 WSXGA, PCI Express nVidia 6600 128 Dedicated RAM, WLAN/LAN 802.11g compliant/Auto sensing ethernet. Intel 915GM chipset, with Intel 2915 WLAN Card. Dual Layer DVD+/-RW.
Intel Pentium M 760 (2.0) GHz CPU w/ 2MB on-die cache
2Gig PC4200 (5333MHz) Kingston Extreme Laptop DDR2 Ram (2 X 1Gig 200 Pin)
Hitachi 80Gig 5400 RPM SATA HD with 8M Buffer
Windows XP Professional SP2
Do-It-Yourself Price for $1650.00US @directron.com

-sin

 

I just got this unit lastnight, but have one issue with it, The right side of the keyboard seems to be much more loose then the left or middle, the whole corner moves when i press PgDn for example.

Is this like this on all of them, or is mine just loose?

Other then that, I think this laptop is awesome!

 

OOPs, never mind, it just wasn't clipped under the little clip in the corner, all fixed now.

Great review by the way. You covered just about everything.

 

thanks! I'm glad it was helpful

 

I have the Z71V w/a 750 processor right here and next to it an HP NC8230 750. Both 1024meg, 60gig, XP, ABG wireless.

Buy the HP!

When you add up all the cost, the extended wrty (for base chassis only - not CPU, Mem, HD, DVD/CD) the price is the same between the two units.

The HP keyboard feels MUCH better, the HP seems a bit faster (still testing right now), the HP screen is similar(same resolution) but slightly better image quality, same auto-dim feature, the Video Card is similar but w/o the extra cooling issues (ATI X600 64meg), similar wireless performance which is very good, HP adds a serial port, a hot swap media bay, nice docking bay options, same 3yr wrty but all inclusive, Blue-tooth support, point stick in addition to same glide point mouse. Asus adds a low end case, SATA support.

I'm a dealer and the cost is identical - buy where you want but the HP feels like better quality with a tighter case - less flex and creak, the keyboard is way better feeling- I actually like to type on mine ! Also, call the tech support for each. My z71v had a weird problem with the wireless where only w/o encyption would it connect. Tried all kinds of things - Asus was not very helpful nor was Intel. Hard to tell what was really wrong and felt like I was on my own. The problem turned out to be AV related (uninstalled the AV and problem went away, changed AV brands to fix) But HP's is support is much better.

IF the Asus was lower in price by $150 or more then I'd say go for it but at the same price buy the HP

 

Have any of you tried your S/PDIF Output yet?

I have tried without success (with every configuration imagineable) to get the RealTek 880 HD Audio to output via S/PDIF (no sound at all). Analog output works fine.

The same jack (1/8" headphone jack) is used for both analog and digital output (as far as I can tell). In the RealTek Sound Manager, there is a S/PDIF out tab where you can select "no output" or "output digital only" (with 3 sampling frequencies). No luck with any setting.

I was using sw version: 5.10.0.5034, but just upgraded to 5.10.0.5152 (latest) - still no sound.

1) physical connection - what should I use? Going into my digital coax input on my receiver, I've tried 1/8 mono -> RCA = no sound. I've tried 1/8 stereo and tried either the left or the right channel -> RCA into the receiver = no sound.

2) software settings - Is there something I'm missing? The Sound Manager interface works properly on all other items, with the exception of the S/PDIF tab.

If it works for any of you, can you let me know your configuration in detail so I can try it on my end? Thanks!

~marc

b/t/w: I've got pretty much the same specs as the rest of you - 1.86 Ghz Intel, Dual Layer DVD burner, 1 gb ram, 80 gb 5400 rpm HD, wifi, etc.

Oh, and I have one dead pixel near the middle of the screen that drives me bananas, but otherwise - barring this audio issue, I have no complaints about the machine.

 

Just got Z71V-64MB running w/ 1.6 (725) SW3 setting 533
Seagate 80GB SATA 98025
Everest 2.80.534 Module 2.0.139.0 BM results=
Memory Read 3522, Write (Trial, btwn 2810-2828), Latency 99.8 ns,
CPU Queen 1677, Zlib 13098 KB/s, FPU Julia 862, SinJulia 1138
Photoworxx (Trial btwn 7594-9341), Mandel (Trial btwn 1488-1606).

 

Figured out the S/PDIF out - it's optical not coax. There is a special optical cable that fits into the headphone jack... Then it works like a charm!

Now, I've had the battery replaced TWICE. After a few months, it doesn't hold a charge. This second time, they said, "Now we have new version battery for Z71V laptop." So hopefully that won't happen again.

Lastly, I've updated the video drivers to the newest on their site (numerous times, but most recently in early April, 2006), but since I bought this laptop (back in late June of 2005), I've never been able to watch DVD movies - audio and video playback are ALWAYS choppy. Anyone else have the same problem?

 

While running BM I noticed PCMark04 details indicates I have 64MB memory , which is as advertised for this newer (or older that Asus is dumping cheaper?) version of the Z71V/6600 .

But total AGP memory is 256MB ? Listed near bottom of details.

1. Is this a glich in PCMark04 when BM this model ? or,
2. Does this model V also borrow from SODIMM memory like the A does (which lacks dedicated video card)?

3. What does PCMark04 show for the real Z71V (128MB) total AGP memory?

-64MB has SATA & DDR2, but lower quality LCD (=A)
PCMarks 4444 on battery .

 

Just downloaded PCMark04, didn't run the tests yet (it's late)...

Total Local Video Memory: 128 MB
Total Local Texture Memory: 128 MB
Total AGP Memory: 256 MB

Does that answer your question?

1.86GHZ Intel Pentium M 750
1024MB RAM
Samsung MP0804H (80 GB IDE)
TSST corp CD/DVDW TS-L532A
Realtek HD Audio
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6600 128 MB
1680x1050x60hz
32KB L1 Cache
2MB L2 Cache
1 1024MB DIMM type- 3DRAM??
2nd slot is free
M7V Motherboard

 

Haven't revisited this thread in a while. I've had the same issues that you have and found that there are 2 major factors that contribute to this:

1. Background programs that take up a lot of CPU usage (Diskeeper scans are a major example of this) will interfere with video playback

2. The program that you're using to play DVDs has an impact. The standard AsusDVD program works okay, but I've found that InterVideo WinDVD seems to work the best. For instance, a DVD that was choppy when played with Windows Media Player worked great with WinDVD. I don't know why, but there you go!

I have also noticed occasional very brief pauses in playback due to the DVD burner, but those don't usually get too bothersome. If you want to eliminate them entirely, though, you can do what I did and copy your favorites to your hard drive. I've never had any problems with straight audio playback.

 

djembe,

Thanks for the feedback!

- the background processes don't seem to be the issue - if I do a fresh boot-up and only try to play a DVD, I have the issue.

- the application might be the issue - both AsusDVD and Windows Media have the problem. I haven't purchased WinDVD, so I haven't been able to try on that app.

- if I'm just playing an audio cd, it works fine - when I mentioned audio earlier, I was referring to the video being choppy and the sound of the DVD being out of sync / choppy as well.

If it's as simple as merely using WinDVD, that'd be wonderful. I'll have to give that one a shot. I'll report back once I've done that.

Thanks for your insights!

 

in case anyone's interested in a two-year follow up (with better pictures), you can check out my review update here: http://www.notebookforums.com/thread74877.html