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Thin & Light Build

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 8:17 pm
by chlrinekid
I'm a student looking for a little more "mobility" next semester, and after reading the fabulous article on how to build a laptop, have decided to do so myself.

The 14.1" widescreen chassis on the Z63A fits my needs well (typing...a lot), but I'm looking for a little more power on the gaming side. I saw that the W3V offers an X600 graphics card over integrated graphics in the Z63A, and figured maybe that would be better.

I haven't seen the W3V sold as a whitebox anywhere, and was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of a thin-and-light that had a little more beef to it? Also, are there any more differences in the two builds that I'm not noticing?

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 9:10 pm
by infinitevalence
the W3V is the same as the Z63A just with the gfx card. Saddly i dont think its avalible any other way than preconfig :( You could buy it and sell the parts you dont want from it on Ebay or some forum...

As for the Z63A, i use mine every day in school. I take mad notes, edit video and author DVD's (some times in class!) i have great battery life up near 9hs, the screen is awsome and its under 5lbs even with both batteries in.

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 9:19 pm
by chlrinekid
Thanks.

So granted I probably won't be playing Half-Life 2 in the middle of class, the Z63A would suit all my needs. Looks like I'll stick to the desktop for my gaming...

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 12:43 am
by killswitch83
yeah, I'm thinking of that chassis myself, though I've also thought about the Z71V as well.....but, I've also thought about a chassis with the 7800 Go, rather than the 6600.....ah, decisions, decisions, lol......that build will come right after my desktop, however, heheh

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 8:02 pm
by infinitevalence
The crazy thing is that if the game is not too new, or a huge video hog it plays all right on the z63a. In general though i use my desktop for gaming and i like it that way. faster drives, faster cpus, faster gfx, and bigger screen.

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:23 pm
by killswitch83
yeah, the 300-lb, break your back, emits radiation levels close to that of the sun, 24-inch Dell, right? :finga:

I still don't see how you manage to lug that thing around, you must have one hell of a back :rolleyes:

Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 11:04 pm
by infinitevalence
the 24" sits on my desk as much as it can. I brought it to quakecon both for SNG's and for game play. Life is just so much better in 1920x1200.

Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 12:18 am
by killswitch83
lol, but you must have mutated into a higher lifeform by now to stand that kind of radiation, rofl :finga:

that thing is HUGE definitely!

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 11:01 pm
by -mogwai
check out the uniwill 259ii

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:17 pm
by chlrinekid
My stuff is set to get here tommorow morning...thanks for the help!

Asus Z63A chassis
Intel Pentium M 735
Kingston 1GB DDR2 533
TOSHIBA Super Slimline 40GB 5400 RPM (16MB buffer)
CD-RW/DVD ROM drive
One 'o them wireless thingies

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 5:33 pm
by infinitevalence
Awsome i will try to find some pics of how to do the wire mod so you can OC your 735 if you want :)

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 10:35 pm
by killswitch83
chlrinekid wrote:My stuff is set to get here tommorow morning...thanks for the help!

Asus Z63A chassis
Intel Pentium M 735
Kingston 1GB DDR2 533
TOSHIBA Super Slimline 40GB 5400 RPM (16MB buffer)
CD-RW/DVD ROM drive
One 'o them wireless thingies
yeah man, let's see some pics dude.....post another thread if you want, would definitely benefit some of the people here for sure....hope everything goes well for you on the build :)

Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 10:36 pm
by chlrinekid
Alright, I'm not sure if I have the hard drive in right...I have the metal side facing down with the thermal stuff on top and the ribbon running over the top of that. I'm not going to even try to start it until that's right.

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2005 5:26 pm
by chlrinekid
Well, looks like I did everything right, because I'm using my brand new laptop right now :)

Thanks to all those that offered their advice, and thanks to Apoptosis for the in depth article on how to build it! (credit given where credit is due)

Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2005 5:52 pm
by killswitch83
be thanking Apoptosis for the set of whitebook articles, he wrote them :)

they are very helpful aren't they? Very in-depth, made it look easy to me, and I was afraid to build a notebook at first because of the fragility compared to desktop components, and I've been building desktops on a regular basis too. Good to hear you got er up man, glad to hear you're enjoying it :)

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 6:49 pm
by chlrinekid
3 and a half months later, the laptop is going strong! My only concern is that I'm running a little hot. Granted I broke down and OC'ed it, I still run at about 37 on my processor (minimum) and my hard drive just sits there and cooks (around 50 after about an hour of being on my lap). Where should my temps be?

Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:09 am
by infinitevalence
while it would be nice if it ran cooler it seems that they just run about that temp. Mine runs in the same tempreture range, and the hard drive in particular runs really hot.... To combat the problem i just run it on a hard oject like a book or something that way it still gets plenty of cooling.