Asus W3V v. Portable One MX

Could anyone list the specific modifications from the reference model W3V to the newest version of the Portable One MX? I ask because if I were to purchase the P1MX, being in Canada, I would be forced to pay customs on it (15%) whereas the original W3V I can buy through their Canadian website at a lower, duty-free price. I've been leaning towards purchasing a Portable One model, but if the differences are relatively minor, then I'll have to go with the Asus model because of the money I'd save.

 

the P1 model allows you to have more configuration options.. and in general, most of these options are for more power (ie, more ram, more HD, better CPU, etc).

However you will be receiving the P1 warranty, not the global Asus Warranty.

at the moment Asus is giving a $200 discount on the W3V which should reduce its price.. not sure if it applies to Canada

 

In addition to the standard CPU, HD, and memory options, the P1 WX also has additional standard tuning upgrades. (not sure of specifics, but this is what Ivan told me when I asked him about some of the upgrades compared to the standard Asus W3V).

And like the original MX, the WX also offers the improved heat dissipation via the Arctic Silver 5.

 

Thank you, that helps somewhat, as I was unsure whether the heat dissipation methods of the P1 we're included in the ASUS model. I've heard heat dissipation in the W3V is badly handled... so more reason for me to get the P1 over it.

 

Having just emailed Ivan, Patrick and Victor at PortableOne.com, I can confirm that the new PortableOne MX is everything that the W3V owner wished he was getting, namely:

The ability to upgrade and customize without voiding the warranty; a slathering of Artic Silver 5 to keep the cpu cool; custom-built, strategically-located graphite thermal foils to improve heat dissipation and reduce heat (especially around the hdd); rigorous quality assurance testing on site by the vendor instead of in some factory in Thailand; and a superior software suite.

I have been wanting a W3V for some time but for the same price, this new MX blows it out of the water. To borrow an analogy from PortableOne's Ivan Gospich, it's as if Mercedes started selling its AMG-branded supercars for their corresponding model's baseprice. Fantastic.

 

I've been looking at the W3V and have had concerns about the heat and the screen. It looks like the heat issue is being resolved, does anyone know if the screen is stock? PortableOne shows that the screen is UVA (ultra viewing angle), but from W3V reviews the viewing angle, especially the vertical, is anything but "ultra". Can anyone shed shed some light on this? I look forward to seeing reviews of the new MX.

 

others claim that the screen is exactly the same, and that it's just a marketing gimmick?

 

Customer service from "CanadaSYS" (a Canadian dealer of ASUS products) just told me that there are no real differences between the W3V and the MX, and that the alleged heat dissipation technology is just a marketting gimmick. This seems unlikely to me however, as the mere addition of Arctic Silver 5 is something...

 

Gimmick Reason why P1 has delayed shipping these units in the first place is because of the newly designed custom graphite thermal retrofits that P1 made for the units. And per all tests with these new retrofits that P1 integrates both the internal hard drive temperature and encasing are reduced by 12 to 15 degrees, bringing the operating temps down on the internal drive greatly improves drives performance and life as well. Also, I have noticed some other incorrect comments (i.e. the 7200RPM drives runs hotter and uses more power than the 5400's) which is completely incorrect, please find the below actual power requirements pasted from Hitachi's website for the stock 5400RPM and the drive P1 uses, as you can see the new 7200RPM drives are more efficient.

P1 60GB 7200:
Requirement +5VDC (+-5%)
Dissipation (Typical)
Startup (peak, max.) 5.5W
Seek 2.3W
Read (avg.) 2.0W
Write (avg.) 2.0W
Active idle (avg.) 1.1W
Low power idle (avg.) 0.85W
Standby (avg.) 0.2W
Sleep 0.1W


Acoustics (A-Weighted Sound Power (Bels))
Idle (typ.) 2.6
Op (typ.) 3.0



Stock 80GB 5400:
Requirement +5VDC(±5%)
Dissipation (typical)
Startup (max. peak) 5. W
Seek (average) 2.6 W
Read (average) 2.5 W
Write (average) 2.5 W
Performance idle (average) 2.0 W
Active idle (average) 1.3 W
Low power idle (average) 0.85 W
Standby (average) 0.25 W
Sleep 0.1 W


Acoustics (A-Weighted Sound Power (Bels))
Idle (typ.) 2.6
Op (typ.) 3.1

 

... does the Mxw3v warranty work globally like Asus , so you can return it to any
service place in the world or does it have to be returned to USA ... :asus:

 

Unfortunately US only, in order to effectively provide the service our customers are accustomed to getting and since we have various onsite services and we take care of all shipping fee's to and from if hardware was to fail we can only offer the services within the US currently.

 

That's helpful, it seemed very unlikely that the whole heating system would be just a gimmick. CanadaSys seemed to be dodging the question, when I finally asked very directly "Does the W3V have Arctic Silver 5 included?" the customer service rep had to admit he had no idea. Considering that the W3V's most majour drawback has been it's heat issues, it's not suprising they wouldn't want to admit the differences.

Sadly, that might mean I'm out 400$

 

Why's this section so dead? I just ordered an MX based off the reviews and threads I read in the ASUS section. Looking forward to getting my hands on it.

By the way, Ivan, there's a discussion in the ASUS board regarding the palmrest color. Some of us W3Vers are a bit disappointed that it's not a darker gray like in the photos on the manufacturer's site. I think they were using the photos for the W3N or W3A instead. Is there any way you can get a hold of the darker gray palmrests and make them available to us? I suggested this to Justin at ProPortable but I don't think he was too keen on the idea, even though he was able to obtain the darker palmrests from ASUS for a few of his customers.

 

I personally prefer the latest color scheme over the darker gray scheme originally used with the first gen. W3's. It is possible to special order such and re-assemble but I do not think it is worth the added expense to buy additional encasings and labor to modify it and I think it looks much nicer currently.

 

Have the new MX's begun to ship? Mine was schedueled to yesterday.

 

Oregan and Jerry pleases give us an update once you receive the units.

 

The shipping date has just been moved back till the 22nd

 

Ouch..... is that on Asus' side or PortableOne's?

 

It's some type of manufacturing issue regarding PortableOne's custom graphite heat foils, but I guess release date delays like this are expected with new products.

 

Arctic Silver has so little to no effect on pentium M chips sorry only does something on desktop chips. go over to the asus forums theres plenty on the subject about Arctic Silver ask any of the asus vendors while they dont bother using it on any of the pentium M systems cause they dont help with these chips. as for that graphite stuff that i have no idea. I had a asus z63a which is the same as the w3v just intel graphics. and heat is an issue i woudlnt say its the cpu but just the HD that causes it and on the w3v the gpu. but was annoying but i ended up returning it for another reason its a great built machine but i thought the screen was subpar. viewing angles no matter what anyone can tell you are really horrible i have 3 laptops and work in IT so i know what these screens should look like. if you try to watch any kind of dark movie or dvd you will not be able to get a uniform color on the top and bottum of the screen the colors invert move your head up or down and inch and the colors change and you can only get one part correct at a time not at all uniform i can even notice it on the desktop. that was my only issue with that pc but it was a big one for me.

 

Please learn punctuation.

 

Completely different unit, z63's are built on a plastic chassis and completely different displays, your below post should be in the Asus forum: Z63A vs. W3v

 

Ivan, are the MX's still on track to ship the week of the 22nd? I'm gonna need it for college pretty soon.

 

the z63a is the same unit as the w3v it has a carbon fiber chasis. no metal lid and no dedicated GPU or bluetooth. but it is the same shape size rest of the chipset and absolutely the same display at the w3a i am sure of that. you can go ask any of the asus dealers that. They use the same fujitsu display. I was just trying to comment on artic silver and the heat problem and got off topic wasnt really trying to compare the two pcs.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=19808&highlight=z63a
Look here if you dont believe me. See proportables comments who is one of the best asus dealers around.

 

You are incorrect SRD, the z63 is built on a bare bones/whitebox W3 footprint, major differences between the two are the Z63 is built on a plastic chassis (it does have a carbon/alloy lid), different motherboard and different matte type LCD display, made by a completely different LCD manufacturer, plus the different color scheme …

Further, Artic Silver is one of the absolute best thermal compounds available; the reason why most companies offer thermal pad type compounds instead of Artic Silver is because of application, applying it correctly on an assembly line, both Intel, AMD and etc have spent lots of research and monies designing equipment that applies Artic Silver and other similar compounds consistently on every chip on an assembly line, because of human error that can take place with the application. You are correct that the newer mobile processors run more efficient, but thermal compounds are still necessary and the better, well....

 

first is the z63a not z63 second its a 14.1" WXGA (1280x768) Glare Type - "Color-Shine" and "Crystal-Shine" TFT LCD - Wide Aspect: not a matte screen at all those are the specs for the monitor its the same as the w3v i am positive on that. they also both use the Intel 915GM & ICH6-M chipset yes they are different color and the w3v has internal differences. and the outside cause is metal ontop on the z63a its not.if you dont believe they share the same monitor you can ask justin from proportable.com or ynot2k.com eddie is the guy there.

 

Okay SRD, I have asked one of our engineers who work closely with Asus here in the bay area and per the parts details they forwarded to me, Asus uses a few different LCD's for various W3 Series lines, a couple of the series LCD's are made by Samsung and another series made by AUO. And looks like we do have a couple of Z63's in house I can compare now that you have my curiosity going.

 

I really am not trying to talk out my ass. i researched the w3v and z63a for a while and i was told by three asus dealers they are the same i had a z63a for a short while and my friend recently bought a w3v so i have seen both in person. the dealers tell me though that the lcds asus uses in those models are fujistsu 14.1 i cant be possitive on that just what the guy from proportable told me. asus does use many different panels but like the z70v asus and the w1n share the same panel so they do, do that also.

Ivang do you work for portable one?

 

Yes I work at P1, and you are correct that the Z63a's have a glare type display, but looking at the Z63a eval here it does not look quite as good as the W3v we on the floor and per our service manuals for ordering spare parts for the machines, Asus has 5 different panels for the various W3 Series, see below, and they do not have separate ordering info for the Z63a's so not sure which one is used on the Z63a unless I have a service guy take one apart, but they are not going to take one apart to settle this string.

Further, Fujitsu does not make LCD's for notebooks, for their CV screens they use 4 different manufacturers, if you want to know which LCD is for which Series you can ask us here we are Fujitsu largest Service Center in North America and it sounds like you are getting incorrect info from your sources..


W3N-1A LCD 14.0/WXGA- 70-NCB1L1001
W3A-2B LCD 14.0/WXGA/AS 70-NCA1L1100
W3V-1C LCD 14.0/WXGA 70-NCC1L1101P
LCD TFT 14.0' WXGA 18-2414063A0
LCD TFT 14.0' WXGA 18-241400000Q

 

It doesnt matter, I returned the asus as i wasnt happy with the viewing angles of the screen. I ordered a 6240 from you portable one but im still waiting for it. Hows the screen on that one? Ive never had the chance to see a fujistu glare type screen.

Oh by the way, Thanks for the info on the screens though because if thats true all the asus dealers are giving the wrong info on these forums. Is it possible that they have different part numbers for the same part but just have ones allocated for different series notebooks?

 

Different model numbers are for different displays types, not sure which is which unfortunately. Thanks SRD, and the display is made by Sanyo for Fujitsu S6200 Series.

 

Ivang not sure if you can answer this for me but i emailed portable one twice but never got an answer. does the 6240 have both memory slots on the bottum so i can upgrade to 2 gigs?

 

Yes both modules are assessable, and check the email address you sent your inquiry too, because everyone at the office is extremely good at responding to emails.

 

So how are the graphite foils coming along?

 

Yes they have arrived, so everyone here is working hard to get everyones new machines out this coming week, thanks.

 

Awesome, thanks

 

One other question about heat. I decided to bump the CPU speed on my P1. Is that going to significantly increase the heat? Frankly, I'd rather take the stock 1.86 if the 2.0 is going to be less comfortable on my lap. It doesn't seem like a big difference, but since heat is the one issue I read about with the W3V, I'm afraid I might be pushing my luck.

 

That is not an issue, especially with the Artic Silver 5 compounds, the only issue with heat was the hard drive bay, but we have improved the heat dissipation by filling the voided space between the hard drive and the encasing with our proprietary low density graphite thermal pads, which pulls heat from the drive much faster and consistently, we have data showing, using Spinrite Max Read/Write tests, a stock drive without the graphite overheating within and hour and with them installed hard drives never going over 51 degrees Celsius under constant maximum read/write progressions, well under max operating temps, which is quite extraordinary because you can get just about any notebooks hard drive to over heat under those stress tests, even if drive is outside of unit....sorry going on a tangent here but there is nothing worst for heat dissipation than a void of stagnant air.

 

Can't wait to see a review of one of these puppies.... graphite sounds pretty sweet....

 

I have a question, how do you sell it for the same price as the normal ASUS W3V's, but have upgrades in the HD and cooling departments? I just want to make sure things aren't "watered" down.

 

what do you mean? with the same specs as the asus ones its the exact same price 1899. but there have been some 300 dollar rebates on the asus ones.

Edited i read the post wrong i thought he said how can you sell it for less than normal whoops my mistake.

 

We have to buy hundreds at a time to bring costs down so we do not have to charge any additional for them and still perform all the upgrades, software, tweaks etc. And we do realize that we have to offer a superior product otherwise people will go elsewhere since pricing is exactly the same.

 

yeah I just ordered mine ..and I got the same excuse and I order 8/26/05

 

sry 1st post to complete that

hey I just ordered an mx ....after months of research...I kno u guys r the best ...

my order when it on fri 8/26/05

and they are delaying the shipments till the 1st week of sep.
for the same reason one of your posts had ...the arctic ...5? ..so yeah i was wondering if you had any idea of wat time next week will they start shipping

 

Question for Ivan, please, who clearly knows about laptop screens, specifically the different brands/models of screen used on particular laptops. And of course anyone else who has what to contribute.
I started another thread the other day (at http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1131682#post1131682) asking about how readable various widescreens are for mainly Office applications usage -- i.e., which would cause the least eyestrain and fewest headaches. The consensus seemed to be that matte screens were better in this respect than glossy screens. But obviously, there are all different varieties of matte screens and all different kinds of glossy ones, so I'd like your opinion please on WHICH 17" models of which brand has the best screen overall for my purposes?

Thanks!

 

WT....so now I'm really confused....I had my heart set on the Asus W3V...and now i see one at Portable One MX....what's the main difference? they seem to share the same specs except for the warranty and the ability to configure....can anyone help me?

in early appreciation for your help, here is a gift.
http://cheston.com/pbf/archive.html

 

As you pointed out, the customization is the main difference between the two notebooks. The MX allows you to choose your features, while the W3V is a pre-configured piece (the Z63a is the configurable Asus version of the W3V). Here's a quick rundown of some of the features of the W3V:

Processor: Pentium M 750 (1.86 GHz)
Memory: 1x512 MB RAM, 533 MHz
Hard Drive: 60 GB, 5400 rpm

And a run-down of the options on the PortableOne MX:

Processor: Pentium M 750, 760, or 770 (1.86, 2.0, 2.14 GHz)
Memory: 2x512 MB RAM standard, choice of 1x1GB, 1x1GB+1x512MB, and 2x1GB
Hard Drive: 60GB, 7200 rpm standard, may choose 80GB, 5400 rpm or 100GB, 5400 rpm
Option for fingerprint scanner
Option for second hard drive
Free carrying case and mouse
Bluetooth enabled

Now, some Asus resellers (like ProPortable) offer extra software or other perks for the W3V which reduces the gap between these two. Really, for $200, you're getting the extra RAM and faster hard drive, and that's a pretty fair price for those extras. The MX also comes with cooling solutions pre-installed (Arctic Silver, graphite sheets), but the effectiveness of these modifications has been debated.

 

Are you saying that the W3V doesn't come with bluetooth enabled?

 

You're right: the W3V does come with Bluetooth already. I had thought it was an extra that resellers had added, but it looks like it's a standard option.

 

Actually, you CAN customize the Asus w3v depending on where you purchase it. You can upgrade the HD, CPU, and MEMORY. (some places, more)


www.agearnotebooks.com is a place that allows you to do this. The only thing is, it voids Asus' global warranty and is replaced with a 2 year warranty from agear. There are a few other dealers who will customize the Asus W3 for you as well. I guess portableone.com is a place that will customize as well only they gave it their own name to go along with the customizations. (So in that is it now called the Asus w3v anymore?) Star tech calls their stuff "star built on asus," agear calls it Asus w3v-s. To me, that's being able to customize the asus w3v.

I looked into the pro portable mx.. they run at what? 1,900$?. For the same price you can get an upgraded Asus w3(Same specs as MX, or for about 27$ more you can get the 7200rpm 80 gig HD and 1 slot of 1gb RAM, as apposed to MX's 60 gig and 2x 512 ram) from startech( http://pc11.flashecom.com/startech/ ). It's a bit more expensive from agear, but not much.

So i really don't see the big difference. The only difference i see is the portable one mx has some type of cooling system but I read over and over that there is no noticeable difference in heat.

I will add that perhaps I am misunderstanding and if so, then maybe someone can explain what exactly i'm not catching. Cos I'm dumb like that sometimes. But from my understanding it seems many in here don't know there are other places to customize the w3v. Unless these other places are new. . .

Check out this link:

http://store.agearnotebooks.com/asusw3vs.html