ASUS A43SV a personal review

been so long i don’t do writing on this blog…

well … as my allowance come (finally) and after accidentally saw a heart-taker new ASUS laptop in BEC (Bandung Electronic Centre ) , finally i have the opportunity to own it.

At a glance, this new laptop just no more similar than other ordinary laptops.
Compared with my previous Asus laptop (which is K40IE) this new A43SV comes up with chiclete keyboard and silverish palm rest. A bit luxurious for the look. But, the most important thing is it equipped with the newest architecture Intel processor. The Sandybridge !! A lot of reviews around the globe already discussed about the powerfulnes of the newest generation of Intel’s CPU.

Even though the CPU only Core i3 2310 M, but since it still the member of Sandy Bridge family the performance is undeniably excellent. From many reviews stated that i3 Sandybridge’s performance is almost equal with the i5 processors from the predecessor architecture. As we knew, the former codename before the Sandy is the Arrandale. Moreover, the market name for it is stated below :

Celeron P4xxx/U3xxx
Pentium P6xxx/U5xxx
Core i3-3xxUM/3xxM
Core i5-4xxUM/4xxM
Core i5-5xxUM/5xxM
Core i7-6xxUM/6xxLM/6xxM

The increase of performace in the new architecture is caused by the use of new high-K metal gate in the manufacturing processes. Unlike the Westmere processor, Sandy Bridge is a highly integrated single die solution incorporating a graphics processor built into the same die as the main processor cores. Hence, one can expect better graphics processing capabilities since its memory controller and graphics are now interconnected using a new high speed, high bandwidth ‘ring’ architecture. The unique ring architecture allows the processor’s cores to share its critical resources such as its cache with the graphics processor, thereby improving the overall performance of the computer while maintaining an energy efficient system.

Frankly, old i5 owners will be irritated when they see the performance of this new processor, certainly.
The new i5 processor will have exactly same architecture with this i3 processor, minus the Turbo-boost technology. So, do not hesitate to choose this i3 processor if you are not demanding additional Gigahertzs provided by by Turbo-boost technology.

Enough for scientific words…

Apart from the powerfulnes, the integrated graphic is also surprisingly fast, especially for 5 million rupiahs Laptop. The NVidia GeForce GT540M is implanted under the keyboard. The most striking feature of this brand-new entry level of laptop GPU is not just an ordinary one. It equipped with the 96 unified shaders along with 128 bit interface which is rarely found on the ordinary laptops (not the gaming laptops).

After i owned the laptop, i managed to install all of my favourite games i had. And surprisingly, even the most graphic demanded game like CRYSIS 2 can run smoothly on the HIGH setting and resolution. The other games such as Assassin’s Creed : Brotherhood, Call of Duty : Black Ops and Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 are ran smoothly without a doubt.

Here are the CRYSIS 2 Screenshots :

the setting :

30 fps

27 fps

quite nice fps for a laptop GPU

An initial investigation shows that the performance of this laptop did not sound cheap.
By looking at the WEI (Windows Experience Index), we can draw a rough picture about its performance.

Obviously, the performance can not be neglected even for desktop users, especially the main entry one. The score itself is quite high for a low-budget laptop. To be honest, it is definitely fast. I feel that my ripping and rendering activity becomes much faster than the predecessors by large gap. I would say it was amazing to see how fast a video was ripped by this beast.

The other interesting fact is that it comes up with a half Terabytes HDD. Quite huge for everyday activities, but since it equipped with the powerful graphic adapter and also a fast processor, i’ll be teased to install all of graphic-demanded softwares.

In addition, the ASUS features embedded on this new laptops noted as added values to me. The Ice Cool feature is able to reduce the heat on the palm rest significantly. However, compared to my previous laptop which is ASUS K40IE, this laptop is little bit warmer. The old K40IE is very-very cool indeed.

Not only does the new A43SV has the advantages mentioned above, but it also has its disadvantages. The poor quality of sound is much-much worse than my old K40IE which has excellent and clarity sound for laptop class. Even though it equipped what is so-called ALTEC LANSING speaker, but the quality is mediocre. Frankly, i waould say that it is horrible. But, one obstacle will not hinder its superiority especially when we talk about graphic and rendering program.

Least but not least, for around 5,2 million rupiahs.. this cutting-edge baby born is a MUST HAVE gadget, especially when you are kicked out by your companion’s old core i5 laptops then this one will tie it down and make averybody drooling..

END OF REVIEW

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