Tuesday, August 25, 2009

ASUS K40AB Price vs. Performance?

My sister recently told me that she is looking for a notebook with RM 2k budget. I told her about the hottest selling ASUS model K40AB-VX001L. The reason why I recommend this notebook to her is simply because the GPU specification is above average users' requirement and the price tag is only RM2099!

This notebook is running on dedicated 512MB video memory (VRAM) - Just imagine playing Call of Duty 4 with higher graphic settings - phenomenal! Well, this GPU would really help my sister(an architect) in her daily sketches using AUTO-CAD.



Specifications as below:-

Model: Asus K40AB-VX001L-LINUX
Display: 14" HD LED Slim (1366x768) Color-Shine (Glare-type),Vesa Like
Operating System: No OS (Linux only)
Processor: AMD Athlon X2 QL64-2.1GHz
Main Memory: 2GB RAM (Added 2GB to make it 4GB)
Hard Disk Drive: 250GB HDD
Video Graphics & Memory: ATI Mobility™ Radeon® HD 4570, 512MB VRAM
Optical Drive: 8X DVD Super Multi-Dual
Video Camera: 1.3MP
Fax/Modem/LAN/WLAN Integrated 802.11 b/g/n
10/100/1000 Base T
Interface 1 x Microphone-in jack
1 x Headphone-out jack
1 x VGA port/Mini D-sub 15-pin for external monitor
4 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
Audio Built-in speaker and microphone
Altec Lansing® co-brand speakers
SRS Premium Sound
Battery 6 cells: 2200 mAh
Product Dimensions: 34.5 x 24.9 x 3.1~3.55 cm (W x D x H)
Weight: 2.35KG



My brother-in-law and I went to hunt for this glossy lappy @ Low Yat. We ended up buying it from Evernew IT shop as they have branches all over the malls around Klang Valley. I also made sure that the seller provides us the XP drivers as nowadays, newer notebooks have limited driver range for Windows XP.



Once I came back from LowYat, I installed licenced XP Pro, drivers and Service Packs. According to some users, XP drivers is not available easily and they have to ask other forumers to send them. My case is different,... the drivers supplied by the sales guy worked smoothly without an issue.

I also bought myself a Samsung Laser Mouse with Selectable Sensitivity Switch (1600dpi, 1200dpi, 800dpi, & 400dpi) because I have to give away my current mouse to my sister. :P


Installation was very smooth and speedy as the dual core AMD Athlon X2 QL64-2.1GHz processor did its job well. I then imaged the entire partition for 5-minutes-future recovery. I might want to consider ASUS notebooks in future as this company is good in producing reasonably priced versus performance laptops!

38 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi

wanna ask u ...does the laptop get very hot especially when using autocad?hows the temperature?any heat issue?

thanx

SinC® said...

Hi Yassir,

The lappy now comes with newer AMD processor and not the older processor which generates so much heat. As for Autocad (no problem yet for my sister's case), I don't think it will be hot as there is no intense GPU calculations as compared to HD media showcase or 3D gaming. Please refer also to LYN forum here for tons of info regarding this lappy. [http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?act=ST&f=187&t=1099903].

Thanks. :)

yassir said...

i think im gonna buy this lappy...thanx for the info bro:)

SinC® said...

Hi Yassir bro,

Once you got it, do share out about the performance and heat. My Acer's Aspire 4720G is also hot. I am currently using Cooler Master NotePal X1 to cool it, LOL. Next week, I'm gonna buy another ASUS K40AB for my god mom. :)

Anonymous said...

Hi, i intend to buy this laptop but couldn't find find the driver for XP at the asus website. Could you upload the driver for me at your blog? lots of thanks in advance. By the way, is the laptop becoming hot?

SinC® said...

Hi Anonymous,
It is not possible to upload the drivers as my internet connection is slow. You might want to try this site first as I have downloaded few drivers before. Link -> [ http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us ]. Kindly send me your e-mail so that i can furnish you more info about the link including screenshots.

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot Sinc..i just bought the laptop bt could not find ways to install the xp driver on it.Could you tell me how to enter the bios to change the boot from linux to xp?
Thanks again (",)

SinC® said...

Hi Anonymous,
There are few steps to be done before installing the drivers. First, you would need to get into the BIOS by pressing F2 buttons. Then, you need to change the boot sequence with DVD-ROM as the highest in the list. Once done, put in the your licensed XP CD and it will boot your XP CD first and not the linux from hard drive. Follow the step by step instructions and it will bring you to a screen on partitioning. Delete all partitions. As per standard best practice, create 2 new partitions so that XP can run on the first partition and you may keep your personal data in the 2nd partition. Once formatted on the 1st partition, install XP in it. Once XP has been installed successfully, install all the required XP drivers and then install also service packs up to Service Pack 3. Then your lappy can be up and running. Where are you from?

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot again. Sorry to cause you much trouble of explanation (",). i had followed your instruction and install all the drivers for xp. But it did not go well with ATI graphic driver. i already install it few times and it still did not detect the graphic card.How do you install the ATI XP driver? My last resort would be vista again(",) and I am a Malaysian.

SinC® said...

Hi there,
I guess you must be near to completion. Sorry that I left out the part whereby you need to change the graphic from 'Power Xpress' mode to 'dGPU'. Hope this helps! Alternatively, you may also drop me a mail at: [ sc_mav@hotmail.com ]

SinC® said...

Hi All,
Here's an interesting link all about the notebook above: [ http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1099903 ]

matt said...

Hi,

i just by same lattop like u..
but my webcam cannot function well..
can used when go thru the YM.
im not sure its correct driver.
can give some advice?
thanks

SinC® said...

Hi Matt,

What Operating System are you running on? Have you tried downloading/installing the correct version of the camera?

By the way...you can download correct and updated drivers from here:
[ http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx ]

Rgds,
SC

matt said...

Thanks Sinc@
Im using Win 7.
now can already..
Thanks a lot

SinC® said...

That's a good news! Enjoy your Asus lappy!

matt said...

hai..
how ur batery can stand?
around 2 hour?

SinC® said...

Hi Matt,
Not really sure about it now as my sister is using it. Last time i tested was around 2 hours for normal usage. I think it's normal for 14" sized lappy to perform that way. Hope you are happy with your unit :)

Anonymous said...

hi sinc
I bought this lappy yesterday with free dos.
I use windows xp sp3 on computer and am unable to boot it up successfully. I am at a loss for what to do.

I got a blue screen with an error message that said:

"A PROBLEM HAS BEEN DETECTED AND WINDOWS HAS BEEN SUT DOWN TO PREVENT DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER.

IF THIS IS THE FIRST TIME YOU'VE SEEN THIS ERROR SCREEN RESTART YOUR
COMPUTER. IF THIS SCREEN APPEARS AGAIN FOLLOW THESE STEPS:

CHECK FOR VIRUSES ON YOUR COMPUTER. REMOVE ANY NEWLY INSTALLED HARD DRIVES OR HARD DRIVE CONTROLLERS. CHECK YOUR HARD DRIVE TO MAKES SURE IT IS PROPERLY CONFIGURED AND TERMINATED. RUN CHKDISK /F TO CHECK FOR HARDDRIVE CORRUPTION, AND THEN RESTART YOUR COMPUTER.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION:

***STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF7B6D528, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0X00000000)

SinC® said...

Hi Toyid,
The error usually refers to one common issue -> You need to format the new hard drive before installing the WinXP.

You need to set the drive system without AHCI support in BIOS, then only you boot the XP disc and start to format and then install the XP. Hope this helps.

Anonymous said...

thanx sinc,u save me.its really work!
now i can enjoy my asus lappy
=)

SinC® said...

Hi Toyid,
Congratulations! I'm happy for you too. :)
Warm Regards,
SinC®

Anonymous said...

Hi

can i noe how much is your Cooler Master NotePal X1?isit useful to remove heat frm ur laptop? and did ur laptop gets very hot during heavy gaming? Thks for answering :)

SinC® said...

Hi Anonymous,
I got it for RM79.00 and it does helps to extract the hot air out that surrounds the hot spot at the base of my lappy. My lappy gets hot when I do gaming but with X1, it could reduce the temperature. Give it a try. :)

CB said...

I've check on evernew website December 2009 ago, K40AB is present. Today I checked, it's gone!! What happened?

SinC® said...

Hi CB, not sure about which link you mentioned. I just checked via Google and found this link [http://www.evernew.com.my/]. Hope it helps...

Cheers,
SinC

CB said...

Yes exactly http://www.evernew.com.my/
It's gone.

SinC® said...

Hi CB, you are right. It has gone missing, maybe they are out of stock. You may call them directly before going over. Happy Shopping.

CB said...

Hi again SinC®,

Here's the good news :
Today, me and my friends went to low yat to buy a laptop. My friend just bought a K40IJ and i think the body enclosure and mechanical system is similar to K40AB. Am i correct? Anyway, i tested it with Windows 7 Ultimate (bought with free dos) for about 1 hours and the lappy is literary COOL! The driver works fine. No need to install anything after a fresh install

Here's the bad news :
We bought it at evernew it, first I recommend my friend this K40AB. But the salesperson said that it is OUT OF STOCK!! :(
So, we bought the K40IJ instead. Maybe if I want it, I hv to order it first.

SinC® said...

Hi CB,
Yeah, the housing is the same but the difference only on the internals - intel based. I got the same situation when buying for my god mom. The guy said out of stock, and as we were about to pay for the intel unit, we saw a staff pushing in the new K40AB stocks! We quickly grab a unit and canceled the earlier purchase :)

Latest update: Just glanced through the LowYat pricing and I came across this unit:-

Model: A42JR-I350W
Processor: NEW 2.26 GHz CORE I3 [CI3 350M] WITH HT
RAM: 2Gb ddr3
HDD: 500 Gb
LCD screen size: 14”( 1366x768 )
GPU: ATI HD 5470 - 1GB dedicated memory !!! [Class 2 GPU]
OS: Win 7 HP
Price: RM 2, 699 ( 236 X 12 MONTHS)
Date Spotted: 03.03.2010

What do you think? Add a couple of hundred bucks for more powerful Processor and GPU specs! :P

CB said...

Hi SinC®,

Yes, i know this new A42JR from my chinese friend. Asus had been putting up high spec system at very low price. But my budget is below Rm2500. So i gonna stick to K40AB. I know that HD5470 support DX11. Im not a heavy gamer, i just want to play normal games without lag. or maybe i just wait until the price goes down. I found this A42JR on amega.com.my. All of their branch is located at PJ.

here http://www.valueweb.com.my/web/theme/show_item_details.asp?product_id=12220101718&category_id=141200653534&storename=AMEGA

SinC® said...

Well CB, if you are in hurry to use, get K40AB, or else, just wait for just a while. Buy only once (A42JR) which is up to the latest spec and you can use it for more duration. Just my humble opinion. :)

Anonymous said...

can she scroll using the mouse pad ?

SinC® said...

Yes, if you install the touchpad driver correctly, then you can scroll for sure.

Anonymous said...

oic, so need to find the driver to enable the scrolling function from touchpad...i tot my one spoilt ... lol

irusya said...

Hi everyone ))) Could you please PLEASE answer one very stupid question abt this asus k40ab, i just got one and wondering if it has bluetooth thing in it which i just activate, or should i run to the shop and get a usb thing for it??? i cant find anything in the papers it came with, Thanks a mil!!

SinC® said...

Hi irusya,
If not mistaken, this model does not come with bluetooth module. Please check your specs. :)

Anonymous said...

Hye there, u can download XP driver here http://drp.su/drivers/notebooks/?v=ASUS&m=K40AB&id=55&l=en

Anonymous said...

Доброе утро!
Даже очень незабываемый сайт.

Море приколов...Дудка, Альфа, Дудка, Speed, и т.д.
Заходи на сайт:
[b]
http://xudra.cowevyvyhi.tk


[/b]

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