Building a Whitebox Notebook PC

ZenOps · Post by **ZenOps** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 11:09 pm

Just finished benching this baby... I did stock speed tests with the supplied Asus Drivers for 3Dmark2001

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8056603

It seemed a little low, and then I realized the CPU fan was not turning on. The laptop defaults to 600Mhz battery saving mode even when plugged into the wall. I had to change a Bios setting to force 1600Mhz whenever its plugged in.

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8056661

3Dmark03 is where I decided to use the Omega drivers, and Radlink overclock it... And OMG does it overclock far. I did several tests:

Default speed is 385 core / 210 memory

472.5 core / 229.5 memory = 3149 3Dmark03
486.0 core / 229.5 memory = 3169 3Dmark03
506.3 core / 229.5 memory = 3194 3Dmark03
472.5 core / 249.8 memory = 3278 3Dmark03
486.0 core / 263.3 memory = Screen corruption
506.3 core / 249.8 memory = 3333 3Dmark03
519.8 core / 249.8 memory = 3370 3Dmark03
533.3 core / 249.8 memory = Spectacular screen crash 3/4 way through.

I have left it at 486.0/249.8 for now. My hands were sweating when testing it above 500mhz core.

billdwyer · Post by **billdwyer** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 8:48 pm

The picture of the bay cover and the CD-RW shows the CD-RW has a black area at the top, where the drive door is, which mine does not. I have the same model #SD-R2512. Mine has a thin grey drive door. Is there more than one style? The picture next to it labeled "Installing the CD-RW" shows the CD-RW, with something that has a node on the left that would marry with the release lever. Where did this come from? The back of my CD-RW dkoes not have that nor does it have the black front with the silver edge. One last thing. The connector on my CD-RW is smaller than the connector inside the whitebook.
Any suggestion?

Post by **Apoptosis** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 9:37 am

Here is the label off my Model # SD-R2512 Combo Drive:

I'm not sure what is going on with the CR-RW/DVD-ROM Drive so I took the model number, URL, and links out of the article. I don't want people to keep getting the wrong drives for this notebook. I'm not sure if the model changed or if they switched over to a new version.

billdwyer · Post by **billdwyer** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 10:44 am

I talked to Asus, about the problem, with the CD-RW. You have to buy the drive, from one of their suppliers or the vendor that you bought your whitebook. The brackets that you need are not sold separately. The same drive that you would buy, as I did is not the same configuration and the connector is different. You probably bought or were given your CD-RW, when you got the box. Any supplier of Asus whitebooks should have the right CD-RW.

You have a great day! I am looking forward to Part 3.

kronus · Post by **kronus** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 4:37 pm

I'm posting from my new M6BNe :D Still waiting for fedex to deliver the CD drive. I installed XP from a usb drive

No dead pixels so far

Installing all this software takes a long time...

PJV · Post by **PJV** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 8:35 am

First I would like to say "hello" to everyone here as this is my first post. I saw the links for etailers and have normal reservations about doing business at that level from a "stranger". Could some of you please tell me where you purchased your Asus M6's from and what your experience was?

I have done business with Newegg, eBay, and other online retailers for a long time, and resellerratings.com have little to say about most of the sites that carry this particular product. IoCombo.com seems good but is out of stock...any input please! Thanks very much.

bobbybrown · Post by **bobbybrown** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 8:42 am

I got mine from alphapcstore.com

Called them about my order (to change from M6N to M6Ne), sounds like a mom&pop shop but they've been pretty responsive with my order so far.

PJV · Post by **PJV** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 12:23 am

And have you received your M6 yet Bobby? Please let me know how it works out for you at AlphaPC, I am very interested. Thank you! :D

shades_of_blue · Post by **shades_of_blue** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 5:57 am

pjv i can't speak for everyone on that list, but i can say this much, where i work we won't shaft you. right now there is or was an international backorder on asus notebooks, from my understanding. as a result prices on the m6n series have gone up about 100-150 more then they were a month ago. i don't know about other models, however, since we don't sell other models at my work.

bobbybrown you may want to go with a hitachi 5400 80gig, if you want size. personally i went eith the hitachi 7200 60gig. because i wanted the extra speed. 4200rpm drives are way too slow imo.

ZenOps holyhell, that a sick overclock on the gpu. i never would have imagined that it'd oc to well. looks like i'll have to oc my m6ne w/9700 and see how well it performs.

btw asus the vga driver found on asus's m6n downloads is much newer then the one found in their m6ne section. anyone who picks up a m6ne and wants a newer, more stable driver should download the one fround in the m6n section, as a result. using the older driver doom3 crashed on me and really po'd me, installed the newer one and bang, problem gone.

shades_of_blue · Post by **shades_of_blue** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:23 am

opps: did not see you already ordered your book bobby

bobbybrown · Post by **bobbybrown** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:43 am

I got mine today! Well, yesterday, but was tinkering with it and kinda lost track of time....

My specs:
1.7 Dothan,
512 3200 ram
80 gig HD (thanks shades_of_blue!) but 4200rpm though
Intel Pro b & g wireless
CD RW/DVD drive

One big problem. All my parts were ordered separate (mainly newegg and zipzoomfly) from the notebook (alphapc), so my CD RW drive does not fit the bay on the notebook. This is despite me matching my order to the right model. The connections do not fit.

Hence, my one advice is to just order the optical drive together with the whitebook. The person at alphapc had advised me of compatibility issues but I had already ordered mine so I did not listen......now I have to go back and order the drive from them.

QN: How does one do software installation without the optical drive?

QN 2: In the set-up guide posted by Apoptosis in this forum, I did not see anything written about needing to use thermal grease when installing the cpu. Is this an omission, or is thermal grease not necessary for notebooks???

By the way, mine came very well packed, and it arrived 10 days after order was placed (UPS ground - free shipping).

Back to tinkering...

)))

shades_of_blue · Post by **shades_of_blue** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 7:08 am

ok, i think i know what your problem is, it's the backplane. i just checked out mine and it features a backplane which is almost level with the top of the drive. tell them you need the mounting hardware and backplane for the drive. that should fix you up.

my personal nbk specs
m6ne
1.6 dothon
512mb 2700
60gig 7200
2200bg
cdrw/dvd

btw intel should have a minipci wifi nic which supports abg released in the near future.

bobbybrown · Post by **bobbybrown** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 7:21 am

Hi shades_of_blue,

Did you order your optical drive together with your notebook? I am going to ask for this backplane from alphapc but just wanted to make sure that it is not a proprietory part that comes bundled with the optical drive.

Silly me. In my attempt to remove the keyboard, I almost removed all the screws at the back of the notebook before I realized that the 2 screws that Apoptosis was referring to have a letter "K" clearly marked beside them....

bobbybrown · Post by **bobbybrown** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:09 am

Well, alphapc says that the backplane is part of the optical drive and cannot be sold separately. So I guess that means that I will have to order the optical drive from them.

It's 109 + 10 for shipping.
And it's another 10 bucks restocking fee to return my optical drive to newegg.
Should have done this in the first instance with free shipping.
This little escapade just shaved off quite a bit off whatever savings I made ordering separately.

But at least now I feel as if I know my ASUS inside out (literally!)

shades_of_blue · Post by **shades_of_blue** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:11 am

at my work we order the drive with the book itself, as we get better rates that way. however, i'm sure it is proprietory, which means you'll probably have to bitch at them to get it. if you don't have the other mounting hardware tell them you need that too. also prepare for probably spend like 20bux for the stuff.

i say this because i'm fairly sure toshiba makes the items needed for asus and in my past exp toshiba can get real shady with their prices. at work we paid 7bux for a black slimeline face plate direct from toshiba. what kind of **** is that? we're talking a 50cent part here.

shades_of_blue · Post by **shades_of_blue** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:24 am

i see... call asus direct, see what they can do, you may get lucky. chances are they'll give it to you without many, if any questions because their support guy won't know enough english to dare question you.

PJV · Post by **PJV** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 9:32 am

So where is it that you work Shades of Blue? Also, I have a 1.4M (Banias), and wanted to know if I would be happy with that and a 60Gig 7200RPM Hitachi + 512MB of memory? I already have the chip and memory here and just trying to find a reliable etailer to get this notebook and not ripped off instead. I got a great deal on the processor, and figured the money might be better spent on faster disk and 512MB to 1Gig of memory.

Gaming is not a huge concern, but I wouldnt buy an M6NE if I didnt want to play any. Also, widescreen vs. standard screen; does gaming suck on a widescreen? Thats what I have heard, but of course I don't believe everything I hear!

shades_of_blue · Post by **shades_of_blue** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 9:57 am

next, the 1.4 banias has a 1meg cache, so it should be more then enough muscle for everyday use and 512mb is perfectly fine for a notebook imo. as for the hdd, if speed is not too much of an issue i'd say go with a 80gig 5400 drive instead. it's cheaper then the drive i got and slightly larger, just got as fast.

i've got the full screen version, of the m6ne. not a big fan of widescreen pc'ing personally.

as for my work, it's already listed, somewhere in this topic. but i'll list it again http://www.cobaltcomputers.com

BklynKid · Post by **BklynKid** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:09 am

Hey ZenOps, which BIOS setting did you have to chnge to force 1.6Ghz? Just today I noticed I was running at 600Mhz, which was causing all my bitching about CS:S and Source ;) Anyway, I had to install the Intel INF from the M6Ne CD (fixed it in System Properties displaying the proper speed, haven't checked the BIOS for changes yet).

Anyway lemme know which setting. Thanks.

Oh and when is part 3 coming (overclocking & optimization) to the whitebox series?

bobbybrown · Post by **bobbybrown** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 12:17 am

kronus wrote:I'm posting from my new M6BNe :D Still waiting for fedex to deliver the CD drive. I installed XP from a usb drive

No dead pixels so far

Installing all this software takes a long time...

Hi Kronus,

Can you elaborate how you managed to install XP from a usb drive? Did you mean a usb cd drive? I am also waiting for my cd drive to arrive, and am *desperate* to start installing my os and software.

Legit Reviews

Building a Whitebox Notebook PC

Building a whitebox notebook: Part 2 Assembly of the Pieces

Building a whitebox notebook: Part 2 Assembly of the pieces

Where can I buy one and not worry I am getting ripped?

M6ne arrived today!