ASUS F3SV-B4 review

Asus has been making a name for itself in the notebook business with machines that are well equipped and well priced. This is a perfect example. It has both a wired Gigabit network as well as wireless 802.11 draft n. It has a fast processor and good software package. There is not too much junk software included, which is unusual. The dual layer DVD burner is a Lightscribe drive. It comes with a bag and good documentation. It has an nVidia 8600GS dedicated video card that is DirectX 10 compatible. The 160 Gig hard drive provides adequate storage. There are plenty of USB ports, a VGA connector, Firewire, DVI and audio plugs. I had a DVI to HDMI cable that I used to connect it to my HD TV and the image produced was great. The display on the unit is bright, clear and easy to view for an extended period.
I have been using mine for about 4 months and have been VERY happy with it. The battery life could be better, but it lasts longer than I would have thought originally. It is reliable, fast, not too heavy to tote and a great value. I haven’t found anything that compares in performance or price. The stock wallpaper says it all about this NB “Rock Solid – Heart Touching.”

Sony VAIO® VGN-C240E review

 This laptop came with one of the versions of Windows Vista Home. In its stock form, it ran great, everything worked wonderfully, it was very quick to do anything that I asked of it, and it even had great battery life.

However, I have to work with XP because of some outdated work programs. So, I installed windows XP Pro on this laptop. This caused some problems, mainly driver problems for devices that are in the laptop (video driver, audio driver, etc.). The Sony website is useful, but only gives you Vista drivers for this laptop (since it shipped with Vista). So, what you have to do is get the name of the device from the Sony website, then go to the manufacturer’s website to download the driver for XP. In most cases, this approach works well.

The only real problem is the “function” keys above the numerical keys on the keyboard (brightness control, sound volume control, switching to secondary monitor). Those controls still aren’t working, and I’ve tried numerous times to get them working. I do have access to these adjustments through software. I have decided to wait until the time comes that I can re-install Vista on this laptop, and install all the original Sony software, and (hopefully) enjoy all the original functionality.

That brings up another gripe that I have with the laptop bundle – no reinstall disks! The manufacturers have been doing this for some time now – shipping out the laptops with 10 Gigs or so dedicated to backup or reinstall software. I am sure this would have worked well if I would have been trying to do a Vista backup at some point, but I needed to wipe the vista installation and install XP. As soon as I did that, I lost the functionality of the restore partition.

Overall, I have been very happy with this laptop. I expected it to be fast and functional for what I need – but it has far exceeded my expectations in that way. PLENTY of computing power and memory and lots of hard drive storage space. The touchpad is out of the way when typing and I enjoy the keyboard’s feedback as I type this.

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