Question:
Compal HGL30, W7J, or A8JM
I will be going to college soon, and I need to purchase a notebook. Currently im debating between the HGL30, Asus W7J, or the asus A8JM. How do they each compare? The HGL is cheaper in comparison by performance, but how is the build quality and such compare to the A8JM? I do some gaming (CS:S,etc) and a lot of photo editing and such, so im worried about the go 7400 not being powerful enough in the W7J. I would also maybe consider the W3J, but its a bit out of my price range.
Opinions?
Answer:
Re: Compal HGL30, W7J, or A8JM
I will be going to college soon, and I need to purchase a notebook. Currently im debating between the HGL30, Asus W7J, or the asus A8JM. How do they each compare? The HGL is cheaper in comparison by performance, but how is the build quality and such compare to the A8JM? I do some gaming (CS:S,etc) and a lot of photo editing and such, so im worried about the go 7400 not being powerful enough in the W7J. I would also maybe consider the W3J, but its a bit out of my price range.
Opinions?
lol, I'm in the same situation as you and am still pretty indecisive about it.
hard to compare build quality..but material wise..both the HGL and A8 are all plastic. Most Compal reviews..from the DL76, EFL30, HEL80..etc have all had positive reviews. They're known for cool running machines.
There's been some debate over the A8s heat..some saying its hot..others saying its average. the vent locations on the two are different.
the A8, you get more ports (2 more USB ports, fire wire and dvi out).. while the Compal gets you a finger print scanner and a 9 cell battery..something the A8 will never have because of where its battery is located. So if battery life is important to you (i.e u definitely needing over 3 hours) consider the Compal.
W7J.. thats a tough one..
Answer:
Re: Compal HGL30, W7J, or A8JM
I haven't seen the HGL30 personally, so can't talk about it too much... from what I've heard, it's comparable to the A8Jm except for the Go7600 with 256MB instead of 512 and no DVI ...
The W7J's Go7400 should be fine for photo editing, the only problem will be if you do lots of 3D modelling etc... photo editing shouldn't cause any problems. .. + I think it should be enough for Counter Strike. It's a nice piece of machinery IMO.
The A8Jm has everything you could probably need in a notebook ... the highlights being Go7600 with 512 MB dedicated RAM, DVI port should you want hi def output to external display, and 5 USB ports to plug in all the peripherals you need... there's a rumour that the A8J is hot... but I have one and I say it's a lie.... it does get warm in places (which notebook doesnt?), but that's it... it's not even uncomfortable warm.. the only place where it's warmer than others is the vent.... and it's still cooler compared to the W3J...
Answer:
Re: Compal HGL30, W7J, or A8JM
I haven't seen the HGL30 personally, so can't talk about it too much... from what I've heard, it's comparable to the A8Jm except for the Go7600 with 256MB instead of 512 and no DVI ...
The W7J's Go7400 should be fine for photo editing, the only problem will be if you do lots of 3D modelling etc... photo editing shouldn't cause any problems. .. + I think it should be enough for Counter Strike. It's a nice piece of machinery IMO.
The A8Jm has everything you could probably need in a notebook ... the highlights being Go7600 with 512 MB dedicated RAM, DVI port should you want hi def output to external display, and 5 USB ports to plug in all the peripherals you need... there's a rumour that the A8J is hot... but I have one and I say it's a lie.... it does get warm in places (which notebook doesnt?), but that's it... it's not even uncomfortable warm.. the only place where it's warmer than others is the vent.... and it's still cooler compared to the W3J...
The A8JM uses 256 shared and 256 dedicated I think and you dont really need more than 256 for that power in that card anyways. I will probably be doing some 3d modeling...but I will also have a desktop. Hard choice, anywhere in the bay area I could go look at the compal in person?
The finger scanner doenst really matter to me, but the 9 cell does make a diff. Im more concerned with the build quality of the compal compared to the A8Jm, as they are very similar in performance
Answer:
Re: Compal HGL30, W7J, or A8JM
Judging by the quality of the HEL80 (another Compal), the HGL30 should be excellent. Its GPU will handle any current game with ease. It also has a fiingerprint reader (which is actually really useful, I never thought they were until I used one myself), integrated bluetooth option, and a camera.
Chaz
Answer:
Re: Compal HGL30, W7J, or A8JM
Having used the HEL80 for a while now, I would personally go for the HGL30. But I'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed with either of the ASUS models. I would probably choose A8Jm of the two.
Oh and yes, the fingerprint scanner is a nice and convenient feature to have.
Answer:
Re: Compal HGL30, W7J, or A8JM
The A8JM is not 512MB dedicated, correct, it is 256MB + 256MB. The shared memory doesn't do anything for performance so it will be the same as a regular 256MB Go7600.
The GeForce Go 7600 doesn't use TurboCache -- the 512MB in the A8JM is indeed dedicated VRAM.
Answer:
Re: Compal HGL30, W7J, or A8JM
http://www.laptoplogic.com/news/detail.php?id=951
Regardless, whether it is 512MB dedicated or 256MB dedicated, it makes no difference. The Go7600 is simply not powerful enough to take advantage of even 256MB. Equipping it with 512MB is sort of a gimmick.
Answer:
Re: Compal HGL30, W7J, or A8JM
I know the A8jm's 7600 512 seems to benchmark over the HEL80's 7600 256 by quite a bit; but that might be due to clock speeds.
Answer:
Re: Compal HGL30, W7J, or A8JM
stock the a8jm benches very close to the w3j, which i own and is definitely hotter than either the a8jm or compal hgl30..but it seems that the compal may be underclocked for sake of heat and/or battery life..after OCing the compal its advantages as far as heat compared to the a8jm may be diminished so the main advantages between the two would be
compal:9cell for better battery life (paladin states 3.5 to 4+)
asus a8jm: dvi out + 256mb more dedicated gpu
the battery life for the compal still baffles me a bit since both the w3j and the a8jm go anywhere from 3:00-3:45 (talking max battery here no gaming) so the compal with the 9cell's gotta get at least 4-4:30..maybe 5 even considering its drastically higher mah rating of 7200 vs 4800 for the a8jm