As you can see there are many memory chips on the video card, although the total amount of on-board memory is just 16MB. The graphics processor that made things happen is an nVidia TNT2 chip, equipped with a very small heat sink and FAN.

Asus Agp V3800/16m/ Video Card

I still remember the speed of my first TNT2 graphics card. It didn’t have many inputs or outputs, just one VGA port, but it delivered impressive 3D speed with Need For Speed Porche, Viper Racing and other 3D titles of that time. Don’t try to compare it to anything sold today, because in fact it was much slower than any integrated graphics solution in smartphones. It would be too ashamed to power on in the presence of a gaming PC that features a Radeon 6990 video card, although theoretically they are both high-end graphics cards with just 11 year release date difference.

Today these video cards can’t really be used under any circumstances. As most cable TV providers have already switched to digital and movie rentals are also using DVDs or CDs, there’s no need for a low resolution analog video signal recorder. Any cell phone with a camera can record video from the screen of a TV for example in similar quality.

However there are some passionate collectors, who still have their VHS collection and analog devices that go with it. If these collectors couldn’t keep the phase with the evolution of technology, they may still be using one of the first computers with analog video input cards, even older than the ASUS V3800 16MB AGP solution.

Asus Agp V3800/16m/ Video Card

All in all these TNT2-based cards are a part of history, but completely impractical today. There are all kinds of new devices that can do the same thing in much better quality, even with old computers that have only an AGP slot for video cards.

As you can see there are many memory chips on the video card, although the total amount of on-board memory is just 16MB. The graphics processor that made things happen is an nVidia TNT2 chip, equipped with a very small heat sink and FAN.

Asus Agp V3800/16m/ Video Card

I still remember the speed of my first TNT2 graphics card. It didn’t have many inputs or outputs, just one VGA port, but it delivered impressive 3D speed with Need For Speed Porche, Viper Racing and other 3D titles of that time. Don’t try to compare it to anything sold today, because in fact it was much slower than any integrated graphics solution in smartphones. It would be too ashamed to power on in the presence of a gaming PC that features a Radeon 6990 video card, although theoretically they are both high-end graphics cards with just 11 year release date difference.

Today these video cards can’t really be used under any circumstances. As most cable TV providers have already switched to digital and movie rentals are also using DVDs or CDs, there’s no need for a low resolution analog video signal recorder. Any cell phone with a camera can record video from the screen of a TV for example in similar quality.

However there are some passionate collectors, who still have their VHS collection and analog devices that go with it. If these collectors couldn’t keep the phase with the evolution of technology, they may still be using one of the first computers with analog video input cards, even older than the ASUS V3800 16MB AGP solution.

Asus Agp V3800/16m/ Video Card

All in all these TNT2-based cards are a part of history, but completely impractical today. There are all kinds of new devices that can do the same thing in much better quality, even with old computers that have only an AGP slot for video cards.

Today LED backlighting is the standard, although some monitors are still made with traditional backlighting, a more mature version of it, to be more exact, which is much more energy efficient, very close to what LEDs offer. LED backlighting isn’t at all a miraculous solution, as its lifespan isn’t longer, just around 50,000 hours before their brightness drops below 80%, but their power consumption is much lower and they don’t require high voltage converters, anything between 3V and 24V is just fine.

19” ASUS LCD monitors officially include displays with the new 16:9 resolution (1366 x 768), even though the big majority of these screens have only 18.5” diagonal. This is a misleading marketing scheme, also used in the hard drive industry (1KB equals 1000bytes instead of 1024kb) and amongst old CRT monitors, which always had smaller image size than their tube’s diagonal.

First let’s get real 19” monitors out of the way. These are screens from older generations with 5:4 and 16:10 aspect ratios.

ASUS VH196T-P costs $109 here.

ASUS VH196T-P from newegg.com

Yes, it has 16:10 aspect ratio and 1440 x 900 (WXGA+) resolution. Because it’s a relatively new model, its contrast ratio was somewhat improved, theoretically reaching 5000:1. Even though it uses traditional backlighting, power consumption stays below 30Watts while turned on and below 1Watt in power saving mode. Integrated speakers and both D-sub and DVI input ports make it perfect for office work, connected to 1 or 2 computers.

ASUS VW193DR has the same price tag, but lacks integrated speakers and the DVI port, when compared to the previous model.

ASUS VW193DR from asus.com

Image quality is also the same, but at a much higher cost, because power consumption can reach 42Watts while active. This is clearly an older model and it’s not recommended anymore for any kind of users in 2011.

ASUS VE198D represents the link between old and new generations, as it’s based on LED backlighting, lowering power consumption to 25Watts max and increasing dynamic contrast ratio to 10 million to 1, while keeping the 16:10 aspect ratio and 1440 x 900 resolution.

It has the same $109 price tag as the previous two monitors at newegg.com. Unfortunately it doesn’t have speakers nor a DVI input, but it may still represent a solution for laptops with analog VGA out, even for netbooks with Atom N4xx and N5xx processors, which are known to have resolution limitations and only analog outputs (if a dedicated graphics chip is not present).

ASUS VH198T may be the best 19” model in this category. For only $119 it offers both analog and digital video inputs.

ASUS VH198T from asus.com

Integrated speakers and LED backlighting technology make it an excellent solution for home or office work and entertainment. Power consumption is also very low, only 25Watts (max), a reduction made without sacrificing features.

ASUS makes many 18.5” LCD monitors too, but for some reason newegg.com only sells two. This may be because these 18.5” monitors don’t offer as many features as real 19” models from older generations. 1366 x 768 resolution has significantly less pixels than 1440 x 900, but this is not reflected in the price. Monitors with the lower resolution cost just a few bucks less than their higher resolution counterparts.

ASUS VH192D costs $104 at newegg.com. Truth be told it has a much better contrast ratio than older models with traditional backlighting, 10000:1 and power consumption is also at a decent level, only 25Watts.

ASUS VH197D from asus.com

It lacks speakers and DVI input, but all in all it’s an OK general purpose LCD monitor, if we ignore the slightly higher standby power consumption of 2Watts (max). Today’s requirement for stand-by power is below 0,5Watts for truly green products.

ASUS VH197D has the same problems at a $107 price.

ASUS VH197D from asus.com

It has no speakers, no DVI input and power consumption in stand-by is 2Watts max, just like the previous model. It seems that LED backlighting only brought down the ON-mode power consumption to 20Watts. Personally I wouldn’t recommend such monitors to anyone, because that stand-by power adds a noticeable yearly amount to your home or office electricity bill, without offering special feature in exchange.

Most manufacturers make such products, because there’s a lot of money to be made from selling low-end components too. They are attractive for people who don’t need the latest computer hardware or who know a little about technology. The truth is that a low-end motherboard (~$40) has more than half the features of a high-end $200 motherboard.

Basically, you get double performance for 5 times more money, not a very smart investment, considering the short life expectancy of high-end hardware components before they are outperformed by newer ones and their prices drop. High-end components usually don’t last more than 1 year in the top 10, but of course there are some exceptions.

One of these exceptions is the Core i7 LGA1366 platform released two years ago. Although its prices dropped considerably, it still is in the top 3 performance-wise after two years and it’s not clear when it will be kicked out from there.

The upcoming Sandy Bridge platform promises some exceptional high speed and efficient computer systems, but the dual-channel memory controller and the low number of PCI-Express lanes suggest that the LGA1366 platform will not be dethroned yet.

LegitReviews has recently tested an improved ASUS X58 LGA1366 motherboard called ASUS Sabertooth X58.

Theoretically this motherboard is a budget model, it costs only $199. ASUS however offers 5 years of warranty, suggesting that the quality of the board is actually very high. Usually not even $600 motherboards get more than 3 years warranty, with the exception of some factory-assembled systems.

ASUS actually says that it has “Military grade reliability”, but this may only mean that it’s resistant to thermal shocks. Other safety features are not visible, excepting the army colors of slots and heatsinks.

In the specifications I cannot find anything out of the ordinary. It has an 8-phase CPU power design, which is usually expected to be discovered on an overclocking motherboard that supports processors with 130Watt power consumption at default speeds.

Like most X58 motherboards, the ASUS Sabertooth X58 has two PCI-Express 16X slots that function at full speed (16X) even when SLI or Crossfire is used. Upcoming Sandy Bridge motherboards support only 4X and 8X speeds.

There are six DDR3 slots available for the system memory, supporting up to 4GB modules (6 x 4 = 24GB!). There aren’t lots of 24GB kits around, but by sacrificing a little speed any DDR3 module from the support list (sold separately) can be installed. For the three-channel mode to be activated, it’s recommended to use identical modules or kits, otherwise it will most likely switch to single channel, dual channel or flex mode.

LegitReviews did a lot of tests, but the most important results are the ones regarding the overclocked performance and its power consumption.

As you can see the GPU score improved very little, because the X58 platform is a solid foundation for 3D gaming and applications even with default settings. Processor speed however improved by 20%, which is a decent overclock, but at this speed the Core i7 960 processor clearly needs a better cooler because by running Prime95 it reached 95 degrees Celsius.

The power consumption is acceptable, ASUS never sad anything about efficiency, just about stability and performance. That much it delivers.

In conclusion this ASUS board is a good investment, the odds are that the LGA1366 platform will still be around for a few years at least in the top 10. Prices will drop without a doubt when new high-end platforms will appear.

It’s hard to imagine what the ASUS technicians were thinking when they put an Atom D525 1.8GHz Dual Core desktop processor in a 12” laptop, instead of a Core 2 Duo ULV which would have had the same maximum power consumption but a much higher performance. There are quite a few Core 2 Duo Mobile processors which range from 1GHz – 10Watt TDP to 1.8GHz – 17Watt TDP (Core 2 Duo U7500-L7700).

When it comes to speed, the Atom isn’t the best choice for mobile. The Atom D525 model has a single advantage over any Core 2 Duo processor: it has two cores and 4 threads, meaning that it’s more appropriate for multitasking than any other two-threaded processor, because it can run 4 programs independently without the ugly symptoms of an overcrowded CPU core. The 4-threaded Atom may not be very fast, but at least it offers more stable multitasking.

The second most important part of the laptop is the ION2 graphics card with 512MB of its own memory (actually it’s a renamed nVidia GT 218), automatically switchable to the integrated graphics chip found inside the Atom processor, an Intel GMA 3150 with shared memory. Nvidia’s Optimus technology is responsible for automatic smooth switching when strong 3D computing is not necessary, thus saving energy.

The 12” ASUS laptop can function on battery power for up to 7 hours, a modest achievement if we look at other manufacturers that made laptops survive for up to 12-16 hours without being plugged into a power outlet.

One of the pleasant surprises were the two USB 3.0 ports, which enable a whole new way of attaching devices to it, at very high speeds and more power is transmitted through the ports. USB 3.0 supports maximum 5GBPS transfer rate, although most devices go up to only 200-300MB/s, about 50% of the theoretical maximum. Connectivity is definitely the strong side of the ASUS Eee PC VX6, it has a built-in Bluetooth 3.0 module too. With the help of this module you may transfer files from a compatible phone, PDA or PC at speeds up to 10 times higher.

Add to these features a 1366 x 768 resolution 12” screen, and you really have a computer for basic office applications, light gaming and FullhD video playback of course, if you have the proper drivers and software installed for the ION2 graphics card. The processor alone or with the integrated Intel GMA 3150 is not able to playback FullHD content at all. Please note that this laptop has a D-sub and HDMI outputs, so FullHD films can be watched at their maximum quality by attaching a FullHD external display.

At these small laptops memory size isn’t a question, there’s always only 1 or maximum 2GB installed and the processor (or its integrated memory controller) supports up to 2 or 4GB. The Atom D525 processor can address up to 4GB of memory on a single channel.

The laptop is 2.5cm thick and it weighs 1.5kg, much more than a 10” netbook that usually weighs around 1kg and that is much thinner. It should become available soon, the estimated retail price is around 600EUROs, more than $750.

Business class laptops usually feature a strong, classy chassis, and the ASUS B53F is no exception.

It’s never a good idea to put patterns on something that needs to look professional, official or classic, but ASUS managed to break this code with polished metal stripes. For example, Apple would never be caught with a product that has such an exterior, they have a strict solid-color policy for all their products.

The interior of the ASUS B53F is also well-planned, you gain access to all major parts by removing a single panel in the middle.

On the left side of the opening we see the Wi-Fi module connected to two antennas that usually go up into the back of the monitor for better signal reception. In the middle there are two memory modules installed (probably for testing purposes), but this specific laptop model comes only with 1 x 2GB of DDR3, one slot should be free. On the right side there’s a mini-PCI-Express slot, which is for a 3G module if we notice the two antenna wires taped to the circuit board. Under the expansion slot there’s the Core i5 processor, cooled with the help of a very flat heat pipe.

The socket seems standard, so you shouldn’t have any difficulty with upgrading it to a Core i7 mobile (latest generation with built-in graphics only) or with downgrading to a Pentium or Celeron solution. The hard disk rack is at the bottom of the opening, attached to the piece of metal covered with two pieces of rubber. Don’t be fooled, their purpose is only to prevent the hard disk from hitting the bottom panel, it’s not really an anti-vibration solution.

According to official ASUS specifications, the ASUS B53F laptop has a 15.6” HD LED-backlit display panel with 1366 x 768 pixels. The processor is an Intel Core i5-520M with Intel GMA HD integrated graphics and also with an integrated memory controller which supports up to 8GB of DDR3 memory in dual-channel mode. As for the hard drive, it’s a standard 5400RPM 320GB SATA drive, there’s no need for extreme performance in the case of this laptop, reliability is the most important. It also features a super multi DVD burner, Bluetooth connectivity, a memory card reader, a fingerprint reader and a 2.0 Meapixel webcam with lens cover.

Because it’s a business laptop, ASUS decided to ship it with a more advanced Sonata Long Life 3-cell 47Wh battery, which stores just as much power as a standard 6-cell Li-polymer battery.

The integrated numpad is also very important for business people, because they mostly work with numbers. Reaching for numbers in the line above the letters is very uncomfortable.

Theoretically it’s available worldwide. The ASUS B53F costs around $1000 and it’s totally worth it. The reduced power consumption is one of its main features, thanks to the use of the integrated graphics and a moderate speed 32nm processor, so there’s no real power-hungry or heat generating component, all the right components needed for reliability are there.

I personally went through this experience and I can say that it was very frustrating because other problems appeared too, not allowing me to create a boot partition that might be larger than 8GB. I found a solution relatively fast, with the 32GB jumper being enabled and a 8GB boot partition. After Windows started up I was able to create a large partition on the remaining free space (40-8 GB) visible only in Windows of course. Later on, other solutions came from hard drive manufacturers and On-Track. They all developed little pieces of software, one of which had to be installed on the boot partition (and into the boot sector). After this little software tweak everything functioned normally. Once this software loaded itself into the system memory all > 32GB hard drives were completely visible and usable even under DOS.

ASUS has come up with a similar solution for today’s large hard disk capacity problems. ASUS released an application that can unlock (or give access to) disk space beyond the virtual limit of 2048GB (or 2.19TB, when the commercially friendly 1000 multiplier is used instead of 1024).

This application works a bit different from the old 32GB solution, it creates a virtual disk with the remaining space, so only when the software driver is active can the partition be accessed by Windows. For now it works only with ASUS motherboards, but other manufacturers should follow shortly, because the storage space is something that even users with old systems need. Just to increase the internal storage capacity, users shouldn’t be forced to upgrade their whole computer system.

To be honest I never would have thought that motherboards launched in 2010 could cause problems with products made available later that year. Were all these manufacturers unaware of what Seagate, WD and others were planning to manufacture? Isn’t it obvious that the hard drive capacity will continue to grow? In my opinion such incompatibilities should be anticipated and corrected in hardware before users have the opportunity to connect the two.

The ASUS Disc Unlocker software can be downloaded here. There are two different download links, one for Windows XP and the other for Windows Vista/7. Theoretically it’s an adequate fix for a foreseeable problem, but it will be interesting to see if future motherboards will have some kind of BIOS enhancement to overcome disk drive size issues. Hard disk capacity isn’t the only problem, the sector size will also soon create problems as it was recently increased from 512B to 4KB and there’s no telling which will remain the optimal sector size for the following years.

50 pieces of Verbatim recordable DVDs cost only $19 and can store up to 50 x 4.7GB = 235GB, which translates into 8cent cost for every GB. In most cases you already have a DVD burner in your laptop or desktop without adding too much to the total cost (only another $20-$40). A 1TB hard drive costs $59 and extra $10-$20 if you want to have a rack to put it in. The cost per GB is of only 7cents, so this solution is even better than top quality recordable single layer DVDs.

Recordable 25GB Verbatim Blu-ray discs now cost $1.5 ($30 for a 20pack). 20 single layer Blu-Ray discs can store up to 500GB of data, making 1GB cost only 6cents on top quality media (Vebatim), but the cost of a Blu-Ray burner and reader definitely means a large investment, the cheapest Blu-Ray burner (10X LG) costs $99, three times more than an external hard disk rack or a DVD burner. The newest external Blu-Ray burner made by ASUS however costs a lot more than LG’s cheapest model.

The ASUS SBW-06C1S-U/BLK/G/AS is sold for just under $200. It may not be too affordable, but at least it connects to any computer with a free USB 2.0 port (including nettops and netbooks), so one of these drives may be a backup solution for all computers at home or at the office.

It has a 8MB on-board buffer in addition to the Windows disk cache, which is practically unlimited (may use most of your system memory when it’s free) on 64bit operating systems and helps every program run faster. Writing speeds aren’t very impressive, mostly because of the nature of the connection that the drive uses: USB 2.0. It writes BD-R at 6X, BD-R dual layer at 4X, BD-RE and BD-RE dual layer at 2X, DVD-RW at 6X and DVD+R/-R/+RW at 8X (no support for DVD-RAM?!), CD-R at 24X and rewritable compact discs at 16X.

This external Blu-Ray burner has an excellent design, but in my opinion that sticker on the back (with model number and patents) shouldn’t be there, because it can be seen when the drive is used in vertical position.

ASUS also launched a weird pointing device, still called a wireless mouse, but it simply cannot be practical with such a shape. If we look at the history of mice, they have changed very little over the years. The basic concept is a moving box on a flat surface, which is responsible for transmitting the coordinates of the pointer, while the button is a trigger, just like the enter key on the keyboard, which needs to be pressed after each command in order to execute it. Manufacturers added additional buttons over the years, but the most practical improvement was the scroll wheel, absolutely necessary for web browsing or for working with documents.

The base of this odd mouse is a 1200DPI laser and sensor, which detects movement, while the surface has a touch-sensitive area around the buttons in the middle. When it will reach retail stores, it will cost about $80. It will most probably be used as a multimedia remote control, rather than as pointing device which you Could use every day. Its connection to its USB base unit is wireless, so it offers mobility around the house or t the office.

Intel Atom N550: 575points / 8.5Watts = 67

AMD Phenom II X4 P920: 1920points / 25Watts = 76.8

This is a forced, theoretical comparison, which only shows how inefficient Atom processors are, despite their low power requirement. As it turns out, Atom processors are even less efficient than Core 2 Duo processors according to an older Tomshardware test. In the test they used an Atom 230 single core processor (with Hyperthreading) without integrated GPU or memory controller, that consumes 4Watts for 316 points according to CPUBenchmark.net and a Core 2 Duo E7200 processor.

Intel Atom 230: 316points / 4Watts = 79

The conclusion of these tests is that the Core 2 Duo design was one of the best ever made, while even the most recent Atom design is worse than AMD Mobile products.

The ASUS Eee PC 1015PW is based on the Intel Atom N550 1.5GHz dual core (+HT = 4threads) processor, which offers an extended battery autonomy and a 4-thread parallel processing never before seen in netbooks. Even if it is a relatively slow processor, Windows 7 and applications run smoothly if there’s enough RAM installed (usually 2GB is optimal if you’re planning to use a page file too).

A 10” LED-backlit LCD panel serves as monitor in most small size laptops, and the ASUS Eee PC 1015PW is no exception. 1024 x 600 is the maximum (native) resolution, but it doesn’t bother the average user because the Intel GMA 3150 integrated graphics processor is also very slow, only 200MHz core speed and it doesn’t have its own memory (it uses shared memory). This also means no FullHD video playback, not a big loss if you consider the small size of the screen. It comes with a 250GB or 320GB classic hard drive and ASUS also offers 500GB of on-line space for backup or whatever.

The ASUS Eee PC 1015PW has a strange mix of connectivity features: a 10/100MBPS LAN adapter, Wi-Fi B/G/N, Bluetooth 3.0, three USB 2.0 ports, multicard reader slot and a 1.3 megapixel web cam. Not often do we see slow LAN and USB connections paired up with fast Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

No official price or release date has been confirmed yet, but I can safely say that it won’t be a cheap netbook, considering the three special exterior designs in which it will be made available: Purple Rain, Gold Dust and Angel Skin. Its price should be similar to the one required to be paid for purchasing the Karim Rashid ASUS netbook.

The Eee PC 1215T made by ASUS has a 12” screen, but it’s still a netbook, mostly because it lacks the internal optical drive. As I suggested in an earlier post, optical drives are no longer a necessity for computers, but it is a good thing to have for emergencies and that’s why a complete laptop should have one too.

This small notebook (or large netbook) is based on an AMD Athlon II Neo K125 processor, whichis considerably faster than Intel’s Atom processors, but lacks parallel computing because it has only one core and has no support for HyperThreading. Running at 1.7GHz with 1MB of L2 cache and helped by the powerful ATI Radeon 4250 on-board graphics processor it is suited for basic 3D gaming on the 12.1” LED backlit HD Ready (1366 x 768) screen. Performance wise, the Radeon 4250 is faster than what Core i3, i5 and i7 processors have inside (Intel GMA HD), but a little slower than nVidia’s ION2 solution, which technically is in a different category because it has dedicated memory. The Athlon II Neo K125 processor was launched in may 2010, so it’s relatively new, but its speed puts it only above an Athlon 3000+ in the performance charts. When it comes to efficiency however, the 12Watt Athlon II Neo is the champion, even when compared to Intel’s 13Watt Atom designs. The laptop comes equipped with 2GB of DDR3 memory and a 320GB classical hard drive. Preinstalled Windows 7 is the norm for all laptops nowadays and the ASUS Eee PC 1215T is no exception. It has all standard communication modules: 10/100MBPS LAN, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-FI B, G and N, SD/MMC memory card reader and a 0.3 megapixel webcam incorporated above the display panel.

Giving up the internal optical drive made it possible to use a large battery pack, 5200mAh to be more exact. This extra power combined with low-power components result is a 7 hour battery autonomy, comparable with some of the most successful laptop models ever made. According to sources it’s already available for shipping in Europe for only 449EUROs.

Before 12” laptops evolved from netbooks, they had optical drives and much better performance. One of these laptops is a MaxNotebook, R230 model.

It has a standard DVD burner while the processor is also a Core Duo T2330 and the 12” 1280 x 800 screen is managed by a decent Intel GMA X3100 on-board graphics chip with shared memory.

Although it’s an older model, it clearly demonstrates that ASUS didn’t try hard enough with its new Eee PC 1215T netbook, so I would advise against purchasing such a big and incomplete laptop when you have other, much better choices.