ASUS U Series Bamboo Collection Owners Thread (U33JC/U43JC/U53JC)

[hightemplar]

Case1, you have convinced me! I will be getting the U33JC. I like how the U33J has a fully powered i3 compare to the UL30JT.
This will be the first laptop I'm getting without a DVD drive. I'm planning to to replace the hard drive with WD Scorpio Black w. free-fall sensor 320gb 7200 rpm HD. How would I install the OS without a DVD drive?

[Quatro]

Case1, you have convinced me! I will be getting the U33JC. I like how the U33J has a fully powered i3 compare to the UL30JT.
This will be the first laptop I'm getting without a DVD drive. I'm planning to to replace the hard drive with WD Scorpio Black w. free-fall sensor 320gb 7200 rpm HD. How would I install the OS without a DVD drive?

There are places on the forum that can explain how to install an OS via a flash drive.

Personally, once I had bought a netbook w/o a DVD drive, I found it quite inconvenient at times (not just for installing the OS, but for installing a lot of other things or watching a DVD movie or burning a DVD or ripping a music CD, etc).

So the first thing I did was buy a slim USB external DVD drive. It just made life so much simpler as I had a DVD drive when I needed it and it was slim, light-weight and only required one USB cable to power it (no heavy wall adapter.)

Slim, USB external DVD drives are available on Amazon or Newegg for $30-45.

BTW, I think the U33Jc will turn out to be a really nice notebook and very fetching to the eye. A solid aluminum top & trim except for the bamboo palm rest ... I wish I could see one.

... and really odd. The ASUS dealer in the UK is listing the U33Jc as having a DVD drive yet GenTechPC & XoticPC have both confirmed that the US model will not have an ODD. The U43Jc 14" will have the DVD drive. I wonder if the UK dealer is confusing the U33 with the U43? It would be unheard of for ASUS to offer a DVD drive in a model and remove it in other parts of the world. Too hard to change the entire chassis.

[Case1]

Case1, you have convinced me! I will be getting the U33JC. I like how the U33J has a fully powered i3 compare to the UL30JT.
This will be the first laptop I'm getting without a DVD drive. I'm planning to to replace the hard drive with WD Scorpio Black w. free-fall sensor 320gb 7200 rpm HD. How would I install the OS without a DVD drive?

That is great! I can't wait to see some reviews let alone receive my computer. How many weeks still?

Replacing the hard drive is a good idea. Quatro turned me on to the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive which I will probably get eventually.

It looks like Quatro went over the OS install. Just find a guide that explains how to do a thumb drive install. The first thing I will be doing when I get my U33 is a clean install from a thumb drive.

The external DVD drive isnt' a bad idea. I can do everything I need to with flash drives and the internet. I ordered a Blu-Ray drive on my girlfriend's HP and we have only used it a handful of times over the last year, and that was just for making CDs and DVDs for friends. Havent even used it to watch a Blu-Ray.

[SSJ]

Any reviews yet of the U33 Bamboo?

[Quatro]

30 programs/apps, each one installed via a thumb drive (after you get the CD contents to a thumb drive or find an EXE of the program, etc)?

No thanks. Most programs these days are accessible via a large EXE and one can keep them all on an external HDD (giant thumb drive ) but I find it easier to install some of my programs from the DVD.

Plus, I do DVD burning often enough and I rarely watch movies on my older, fat TV. I watch them on my notebook, so I need a DVD drive for that.

Granted, it's not a must as a LOT of my programs any more are bought online and are downloaded.

Oh well, after $900 or so on a laptop, having a portable, really thin & light DVD drive is a small expense extra for me.

Joke is, after the netbook, I wanted to buy the UL30JT, became tired of waiting as my $'s were burning a hole in my pocket and I wanted to get on with it ... and the U30Jc WITH an internal DVD drive came up for sale (no U33Jc at that time) so I bought that. Now I have an external DVD drive that I only use when on trips and I'm on my netbook.

[hightemplar]

Thanks Quatro, I'll look into installing OS via a flash drive. Hopefully I can build a bootable flash drive with Win 7 and integrated drivers for U33JC.

External DVD drive is not a bad idea however I rarely use the DVD drive on my desktop. But for $20 on GenTechPC & XoticPC, I can add on the external dvd drive for cheap. I just have to double check the brand/model they offer and hope it's not some cheap knockoff. Does anyone know if you can boot and install a OS from a external usb DVD drive?

[parawizard]

This is what I have been waiting for. Mind you I would have liked the blue stained bamboo more but I very much dislike plastic.

Hopefully I will be able to get a hold of it in Canada.

[kingswood]

I've been checking out some more resellers here in the UK and they ALL list the U33JC with a rather strange set of specifications, especially when you compare it with the units that are about to go on sale in the US:

• ASUS U33JC-RX068V
• Intel Core i5-430M (2.27GHz)
• Window 7 Home Premium 64bit
• 4GB (2048x2) DDRII 1066 RAM
• 500GB 5400rpm hard drive
• 13.3" HD TFT 1366x768, Color-Shine, LED
• Switchable Graphics: NV G310M, 1G VRAM + Intel GMA, 4500MHD,
• DVD Super Multi Dual Layer

An i5 processor and a DVD drive are the biggest differences.
But what the hell is with the DDRII RAM!!!!!??? Surely that's not right?

And would you check out the quality of the web sites we have to deal with over here!! I think they need to spend a little more on the look and feel. They don't really entice you in to spending your hard earned cash. It's almost as scary as handing your money over to someone on ebay and just hoping beyond hope that what you bought will actually turn up in the post!:

• U33JC-RX068V ASUS U33JC RX068V Intel Core i5 430M 2 27GHz Window 7 Home Premium 64bit 4GB 2048x2 DDRII 1066 RAM 500GB 5400rpm hard drive 13 3 HD TFT 1366x768 Color Shine LED Switchable Graphics NV G310M 1G VRAM Intel GMA 4500MHD DVD Super Multi Dual
• Asus Laptop
• Buy U33JC-RX068V Intel Core i5-430M (2.27GHz), Window 7 Home Premium 64bit, 4GB (2048x2) DDRII 1066 RAM, 500GB 5400rpm hard drive, 13.3 HD TFT 1366x768, Color-Shine, LED, Switchable Graphics: NV G310M, 1G VRAM + Intel GMA, 4500MHD, DVD Super Multi Du
• Asus U33JC-RX068V

By the way.. I'm a bit of a newbie on this forum.. can anyone tell me how to get URLs to appear as URLs rather than what keeps happening to me where they get converted into links based on the page titles? (as above)

[Quatro]

Does anyone know if you can boot and install a OS from a external usb DVD drive?

Absolutely. Like booting from a USB flash drive, the BIOS, anymore, knows to look in the external USB ports for bootable material like a DVD. If there's a bootable HDD already in the notebook then I have to tell BIOS on bootup which drive I want to boot from.

That's how I installed everything on my netbook.

[Quatro]

U33JC-RX068V ASUS U33JC RX068V Intel Core i5 430M 2 27GHz Window 7 Home Premium 64bit 4GB 2048x2 DDRII 1066 RAM 500GB 5400rpm hard drive 13 3 HD TFT 1366x768 Color Shine LED Switchable Graphics NV G310M 1G VRAM Intel GMA 4500MHD DVD Super Multi Dual

By the way.. I'm a bit of a newbie on this forum.. can anyone tell me how to get URLs to appear as URLs rather than what keeps happening to me where they get converted into links based on the page titles? (as above)

Well, you're doing better than me. I didn't know about the_[LIST] command or how to insert bullets with_[*]! So thank you for that lesson. Let's see if I can return the favour.

It's actually quite easy to correct what's happening to your posted links. Just click on the "Quote" button and you'll see what I've done.

Here is your first link redone.
Your link address with a new title I assigned it:
My Link 1

Now just your link as a bare link address:
http://www.morecomputers.com/extra.asp?pn=u33jc-rx068v

Unfortunately, what's happening, as you're seeing, the forum server webpage (or whatever program runs this forum) insists on trying to assign a title to links it verifies. That's what it's doing to you.

To get around it, you either need to give the link your OWN title (1st example) or after submitting it, reopen/edit it and you'll see the silly name it's given your link and you can erase it and put it back to the simpler URL format (the 2nd example). In the 2nd one, I had to submit it, let the server give it its name and then reopen it and delete that name and put it back the way I had at first.

A faster way, in a list like you've done, is to copy the list, submit the post, reopen/edit the post, and then paste back your original addresses. The forum server program seems to believe you really want that address by the 2nd try! But sometimes, it just won't comply and then you have to give it whatever name YOU prefer.