Asus N61JQ vs K42JA :please help

kiranbvsn

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Jul 22, 2010
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Hi all i am trying to buy a notebook and ended up with Asus, but
I tried every thing to get Asus N61JQ-X1 series,:pfff:
But Asus didn't launch that laptop in india, and when i called to Asus sales they have given list of notebooks available in india
In that list, i found the below laptop can anyone suggest me how this laptop performs

Model Name K42JA-VX032D

LCD 14" HD Glare CPU Intel i-Core i5-460M (2.53G,3M)
VGA ATI HD5730 2G
DDR3 VRAM RAM 2G DDR3 1066
HDD 640G 5400rpm
ODD DVD RW 8X SM DL
WLAN 802.11 b/g/n BT BT 2.0
Webcam 0.3M Battery 6 Cell
 

kiranbvsn

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Jul 22, 2010
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my main concern is to play not hifi but above average graphic games like crysis2,battle field bad company2, e.t.c.., and also to work on multidmedia stuff like maya,e.t.c,
I thought of enhancing the ram after i bought that k-series laptop (if it is good),

and also one more thing is that the K-series laptop is coming with 2GB of HD5730 unlike Asus N61

when comparing the prizes the k-series is lower than N-series by 100USD,
 

kiranbvsn

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Jul 22, 2010
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Dont know why no one is replying, and my bad one more thing besides 2GB of HD5730 i've encountered was that i've seen that laptop can only expandable upto 4GB of ram, please any one help me in this regard

There is no USB 3.0 support only USB 2.0 is there

FYI, i am giving the link

http://www.asus.com.cn/product.aspx?P_ID=PIpKJ8dOCF1j8agU


Is it good to proceed further!

I am mainly using this laptop to play games and do multimedia stuff
 

mksng

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Jul 29, 2010
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Hi,
Role reversal!! Its time for you to reply & help others. I’m from India, also planning to buy this Laptop & glad to find you. I hope your purchase met your expectations. After seeing the specs of this laptop, I changed my decision & thought of going for it instead of Dell Studio 15 at the final moment. Can you please help me by sharing your experience so far? I’ll be grateful to you if you could check these links regarding my requirements. I intend to install Win XP Professional.
1) http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=35&post=61911&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0
2) http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=28&post=289539&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0
3) http://forum.notebookreview.com/what-notebook-should-i-buy-business/513072-laptop-eda-cad-winxp-1st-one-urgent.html
4) http://forum.notebookreview.com/what-notebook-should-i-buy/524007-one-better.html
5) http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-inspiron-dell-studio/524953-studio-15-reliable-buy.html

Thanks for your precious time & feedbacks if any.
MKSNG
 

mksng

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Jul 29, 2010
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Well it's not. i5 M460 is faster than i5 M450 as well as i5 M520!! Are you leaning towards Dell? Maybe you should try Asus K42Ja

It has i5 M460
2GB ATI Graphics Card
4GB RAM (Comes with 2GB actually)
640GB HDD
14" screen

Portable: yes
Reliable: yes

Cost: Rs.45000 /- (Including tax and after upgrading RAM to 4GB) :D That's Rs5000 lower than your budget and it's wayyy better than all the models you've mentioned..Oh and it comes with 2yrs Global warranty..!!

Hi..where r u purchasing this? In catalog it shows Rs.46,000 with 1 yr warranty. how come you are able to get it with 2yr warranty & 4GB RAM?
Please tell.
Meanwhile to add to my confusion, Lenovo y560 is also has similar/better config. i5-460M, 4GB, 500GB, Win7 Home Premium, 15.6", 1yr On-site warranty for around Rs.53000!! But here HD5730 has 1GB RAM!?
I don't know which to choose....
Mainly because of HD5730 I'm leaning towards these models instead of Dell. Any suggestions?
 

bon-asus

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Oct 20, 2010
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Heyy...You'll have to pay that much most probably. I'm getting this from a shop @cochin, kerala. It's a new shop so they're giving lotta offers. ;) Have you been to a computer shop before? if so you mite have seen the demo systems they have rite? same thing but they use it for display. I'm getting one of those and that's the reason I'm getting for such a low price. i wouldn't have gone for it but since the shop was opened only a week back it's fresh and new (the laptop wires are still tied, the screen, touch pad protection sticker is still in place, not removed yet... ;) and besides that not many people know or trust asus here so they wouldn't even care to go near it or check the lap..hehe
This is the offer they gave me to choose.

1.demo lap
cost 43850 + 2500 RAM = 45350/- will give me for 45000
2.normal box packed
cost 45000(offer price) + 2500 RAM = 47500/- will give for 47000..!! (so you can get for that price with 4GB RAM, 2GB HD5730, 640GB HDD)

since both are from the same manufacturer, has the same config, has the same warranty etc i decided to go for the demo one, it's just one week (8 days to be precise), the best part is they don't even keep it switched on like the other big branded ones as most people don't even care to go near the asus.. ;)

Lenovo is a good brand too but why pay extra 6000 for a low config? asus has 2GB ATI HD 5730 compared to lenovo's 1GB, asus has 640GB HDD compared to 500GB lenovo.

visit this site http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/laptop-reliability-1109/ and download the pdf file. the report shows asus is the most reliable whereas lenovo is the 6th reliable brand.!

 

mksng

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Jul 29, 2010
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Good. Thanks again for responding to my concern. The one small problem seems to be Audio quality in K42JA, which initiator of this thread stated.
Indeed I had earlier seen the reliabilty report & upon seeing that only I looked into Asus website & was impressed by GPU+CPU combo. But HDD size is not a deal clincher for me.
Check this:

Lenovo Y560---- Asus K42JA-VX032D
51200---- 46000 Price
2560---- 2300 Tax (appx. not sure)
8000---- 6600 +2Yr Extended Warranty(to be confirmed)
6200---- 10200 (Win7 Home Pre. to Prof. upgrad---Win7 Prof)
------- 2500 2GB RAM upgrade
---------- ----------------------------
67960 67600 Total

The price for both works out almost same
So now the question & decision is based on these key factors-
1)
Lenovo Y560---- Asus K42JA-VX032D
15.6"---- 14"
(Display(resolution same) Which one is better, easy on eyes?)
2)
HD5730 1GB---- HD5730 2G DDR3
(now this one needs clarification. AMD website shows two types of HD5730 but memory is same 2GB. Then which one Lenovo is offering? Any GPU specialists chip-in)
3)
Graphics switchanble or not? Battery life?

Please do update once you get your laptop.








 

mksng

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Thanks for reply. CPU (i5-460M), RAM (4GB), HDD speed(5400rpm)are same both Asus K42JA & Lenovo Y560. Difference is K42JA has HD5730 with 2GB memory and Y560 has same HD5730 but mentioned to have 1GB VRAM only(which I'm not sure as AMD website shows two types of HD5730 but both have 2GB).
 

bon-asus

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Oct 20, 2010
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Hi...I bought the lap, and its good...really good... ;) Regarding the heating issue and battery life, I can't comment as of yet, cos it'll take time for the battery to start performing, but it did last approx 4.2hrs on full charge with me installing various softwares and listening to songs at the same time, so I don't think it's that bad. Once I start playing games or doing graphic intense stuff I guess I'll get a better idea of the battery life. ;)
And about heating issue, I think it's better than the dell inspiron 14R laptop that my roommate has and the fan makes less noise.. :) I think the fan itself is pretty powerful, there's this feature called power4gear, which controls the fan speed based on the heat inside, which I think is pretty cool, sometimes there's a little air coming out and sometimes there's a lot, but it's not very hot air but then again I'll let you know once I 'start' using the laptop the way I intend to use it. The graphics memory is 2GB and the lenovo has only 1GB.
 

mksng

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Jul 29, 2010
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Hi bon-asus,
Thanks a lot for posting your feedbacks on your purchase. Wish u the best experience with it. Do keep posting your reviews, performance of lappy. I'll be waiting another 2 days before I take the plunge & choose between y560 & k42ja.
Do update me on the display quality, ease on eyes etc.

Thanks-MKSNG
 

bon-asus

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Oct 20, 2010
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Display is on par with dell and vaio, if ease on eyes is what you need then maybe you should stick with the lenovo as it has a bigger screen, 15.6".

Cons:
Battery Life (2.5hrs approx watching movie with power mode set to entertainment)
Audio (it has an altec lansing speakers but still the sound is a little low)

Those are the only two things i found as negatives, but i don't care much as 2.5hrs is more than enough for me and i always use earphones or headphones so the inbuilt speakers and its volume doesn't cause an issue either.

If you could arrange a little more money, then maybe you should try Lenovo Y560 (59-055616)
Rs.59190, it comes with i7 and ATI 5730 1GB graphics. The only thing that kept me away was that i heard many complaints about the lenovo display going blank, dead pixel etc.

Have you checked MSI GX640? If you can manage to get one, it'll suit your needs perfectly..!! 15.6" screen, a high end ATI HD5850 with 1GB DDR5 (its wayy better that the hd5730 in my lap), which supports almost everything out (Games and 3D animation softwares) as of now.. ;) a 7.1 channel audio out (3 audio out ports..!!) 4 GB RAM and an i5 processor..!! even the inbuilt speakers are very powerful..!!! only problem is it might get very hot and pump out lotta hot air but a cooling pad could keep things well...The lap'll cost around 48000. ;)

The shop where i bought my lap didn't have that model otherwise i'd have bought that instead of asus.. do check that lap out before you make your decision...
http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=135&cat2_no=271&prod_no=1998
 

mksng

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Jul 29, 2010
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Thanks for your suggestions but I will not go for i7(lenovo) & MSI. Want to finalise between these two (y560, k42ja).

14" (no problem display) vs 15.6" (display with reported problems)

Please let me know these things-
-Is graphics switchable in K42JA(can I turn-off HD5730 when not required? Gaming is not at all a concern/requirement to me)?
-Have you installed Windows XP professional?

 

bon-asus

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Not all lenovos have display issues, guess it'll depend on your luck also. maybe you should go to a store and see the two lappys for real and play a video or audio and see which one is good according to your needs, if possible the same video and audio.

This is what the AMD site says "ATI™ Switchable Graphics technology is supported with the ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4300 series, ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4500 series, ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4600 series, ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4860 and the ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4830 graphics processors." So according to that HD 5730 doesn't look like it has switchable graphics.

But i think it'll be possible to disable the ATI from bios when not required and enable it when required. Automatic switching I'm not sure :( Maybe someone else here would help.
:)

I'm usin Debian n Win 7 Ultimate. Why do you need win XP anyways? software compatibility issues?? or you like the easy and simple gui of XP??
If you use win 7 proff,enterprise or ultimate and download the free microsoft win xp mode software you'll be able to run all your xp stuff in virtualised xp mode( it's diff from changing the compatibility to win xp from properties tab)

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/04/24/secret-no-more-revealing-virtual-windows-xp-for-windows-7.aspx

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/windows_7_feature_focus_virtual_windows_xp_aka_xp_mode


http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/windows-xp-mode.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
 

mksng

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Jul 29, 2010
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You are right about comparing the displays side by side. I would rather try this than trying my luck after purchasing either of them. But Asus lappys are rarely put for display. hope i'll find one such store...
If anyone has seen them side by side, please post your comments.

Y560 has Switchable Graphics, which I think may be an advantage for Non-gamers like me.
The reports of Asus reliability fascinates me!!??

As for Win 7 Prof., Application compabitibility is a factor & I must purchase additional upgrade to Professional from default Win7 Home premium in Y560. It costs Rs.6200.

Thanks again for your effort to help me out....