Notebook Kick-Off with ASUS L8400B – THG.RU

Notebook Kick-Off with ASUS L8400B

With our recent article about mobile CPUs and mobile features, we prepared the road heading notebook reviews. For several years we use those mobile PCs. Notebooks provide the freedom to work whenever and whereever inspiration hits us.

Mobile computing came a long way from big and bulky desktop systems in a medium sized suitcase to those slim PDAs we know today. PDAs are nice, small and light, but I want to use a real keyboard and the same application as with my desktop PC. The ASUS L8400B Notebook is an All-In-One Notebook with a 14″ TFT Display, 750MHz Pentium III processor, DVD Drive, 20GB HDD and 196MB SDRAM. The Taiwanese Motherboard Giant ASUS entered the mobile market 3 years ago with the modular and upgradeable P6300 notebook. The tested L8400B represents a top of the line product within its All-In-One segment.

While a desktop PC can be sourced and assembled by every skilled person, a notebook is not so easy to assemble. Every part inside of the notebook is tailored directly to that notebook model. That is the reason why only very few companies in the world design and build notebooks. Most notebooks are sold with an OEM label. To the end-user the vendor wants to present its brand as a technology company with engineering skill. The assembly done by those vendors is limited to adding drives, CPU and memory, while the rest is build in Taiwan. The Republic of China (Taiwan) is the worldwide leader in notebook production. Don’t get me wrong, Toshiba and other big players make their own notebooks, but most others like Dell and Gateway get the notebooks from virtually unknown manufacturers in Taiwan. Those companies use the channels of existing brands for their notebooks instead of creating an own brand. ASUS is going both ways with its notebooks. About 50% are sold with the ASUS brand and the rest with several local OEMs. When you sell to several different customers within the same territory you have to make sure that those notebooks don’t look alike. For a desktop PC this is very easy to accomplish by changing the front bezel of the case or adding a sticker at the front with the company logo. A nice note to this: The AMD 760 Reference system used the same case that Intel uses for its P4 Reference system. A notebook usually does not have a changeable front bezel. Notebook manufacturer use different colors, different logos or different chassis Ids to differentiate brands.

Notebook Kick-Off with ASUS L8400B, Continued

tested Version L8400B ID1

L8400B ID2

Some little changes to the message LEDs, the switches and plastic parts, and voila there is a new notebook. Under the hood the parts are the same.

There is also the need to position one product across different price segments. To meet those critical price points of the market, the vendor can modify the specification. 5 different strings can be pulled to optimize the price: Display (type and size), CPU, HDD, Memory and CD/DVD ROM. Display size and resolution add to the price.

• Entry-level notebooks use a 12″ DSTN display that marks the bottom of the display prices, while top of the line products use 15″ TFT displays with up to 1600×1200 pixels. The best price/performance is provided by 13.3″ or 14″ TFT displays.
• CPU prices vary from $75 Celeron to $730 Pentium III.
• 2.5″ HDDs as used in notebooks are available in different heights of 9.5mm, 12.5mm or 17.5mm. The reason for the different heights of the drives is the number of disks inside. Most notebook drives used today are HDDs of 9.5mm height. The price is about double the price of a 3.5″ storage solution, while the performance of a notebook hard drive is of course significantly lower.
• Memory has its price in every computer. The tested L8400B Notebooks comes equipped with 64MB onboard memory and one SODIMM144 module with 128MB. The mixture of onboard and socket memory is a compromise of space required by the memory as well as cost and flexibility for upgrades.
• For top of the line notebooks the DVD drive is part of the default specification. In cheaper devices you will find a CD-ROM inside.

Different Views

Lets take a look at the ASUS L8400B

Front view:

1. The stereo speakers are mounted at the front side. Notebook speaker do not provide theatre sound. The size of the speaker is limited inside of a mobile PC and so is the quality of the sound. When you are sitting directly in front of the notebook it’s ok.
2. Battery LED. Blinking for low battery and always on while charging the battery pack.
3. Power LED
4. Power on switch. When the cover is closed, you will not be able to switch the notebook on or off. This is a small protection to prevent the device being enabled while you carry it in a bag.
5. Slide to open the cover with the display

Left view:

1. Kensington lock.

   

   Such a cable can be used to protect your notebook from theft e.g. during a fair or in the office.

2. The CPU fan is behind those fins.
3. DC power connector. ASUS uses a 19V 2.4A power supply for all its current notebook models.
4. Infrared port
5. PCMCIA socket for 2x TypeI/II or 1x TypeIII

Rear side:

1. Headphone connector
2. Line-In connector
3. Microphone-In connector
4. Serial Port
5. Printer
6. Proprietary Port dock for the optional Port bar
7. LAN/Modem
8. VGA out for an external display
9. SVHS Out
10. PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse
11. USB

The port bar can be used as connector to all the external cables with only one connection going from it to the notebook. Connectors are from right to left: DC-power, parallel port, USB1, USB2, PS2 Keyboard, PS2 Mouse, VGA out and serial port.

Right side:

1. FDD (floppy disk drive)
2. DVD drive
3. Volume control for Audio-Out and internal speaker

Open Notebook

1. Touchpad. Notebooks use either a stick or a touch pad as pointing device. While touching the area with your fingers, you will move the mouse on the desktop. You can also double click while double tapping at the touchpad.
2. Control keys like those you know from a mouse.
3. Shift lock indicator
4. Num lock indicator
5. HDD activity indicator
6. Power indicator
7. Battery indicator (check front view)
8. lid switch – when you close the cover the display will be switched off
9. built in microphone

CPU Upgrade

So much for the outside of the notebook. Let’s get inside and change the CPU. After my first article about mobile CPUs several readers contacted me about changing the processor. The L8400B notebook uses an uPGA2 processor that can be replaced quite easily.

Let’s Start with the most obvious, the removal of the DC power and the battery.

1. unlock the latch over in the direction of the arrow
2. slide over the other latch in the direction of the arrow
3. remove the battery
4. just to finish the complete description of the notebook, this is the reset switch

The L8400B uses a 3300mAh Li-Ion battery pack

This part of the notebook adds ~400g (about 13.5 ounces) to the total weight of the system. Big batteries add to the system weight, but provide a longer time without the need of a connection to AC power.

CPU Upgrade, Continued

Open the notebook and unlock the three keyboard latches.

The small latches must be push aside.

After this you can lift up the keyboard and lay it down on the palm rest.

If you want to change the keyboard to a different language, or continue the complete disassembly, you can remove the keyboard like this.

CPU Upgrade, Continued

The cable is locked. Gently lift both sides of the lock and remove the cable.

In the next step the you have to remove the two screws of the function cap.

The CPU is at the top left hand side underneath the CPU cooler.

Only 4 little screws to go and you can lift up the CPU cooler.

Remove the Fan power connector and there we are.

CPU Upgrade, Continued

There are two different CPU sockets available for uPGA2 CPUs.

The Molex Socket requires a thin screwdriver. When the arrow points to the CPU, the socket will be locked.

The AMP Socket requires a thick screwdriver.

The tested L8400B Notebook has an AMP socket.

So much for the CPU upgrade.

Memory Upgrade

While the keyboard is away, we can also change the additional memory. The tested L8400B Version is equipped with 64MB onboard and one SODIMM144 Connector.

SODIMM144 is used in most mobile PCs for memory upgrades.

The memory technology used for the L8400B is PC100 SDRAM.

The SODIMM144 socket is located between the function cap and the keyboard cable connector. Open the latches at the memory module and pop it up.

Modem & Lan Upgrade

In my previous article about notebook features I have explained MDC (Mobile Audio/Modem Daughter Card) and MiniPCI cards. Those are standards for internal expansion ports. MDC is used for the internal 56k modem and MiniPCI is used for the internal 10/100Mb Ethernet Lan.

Both cards are under a metal shielding next to the SODIMM144 Socket and the CPU Socket.

After the removal of the metal shielding you can see at the top the modem and at the bottom the Lan card.

The MiniPCI card can be removed with 3 screws.

The cable at the top of the MiniPCI card is connected to the RJ11 Combo jack. Combo because the MDC modem card is sharing this port with the LAN. You cannot use LAN and Modem simultaneously.

Compared to this open-heart surgery the exchange of the HDD is a piece of cake.

HDD Upgrade

First remove three screws at the bottom of the notebook.

After this you can flip over the palm rest module with the touch pad.

The HDD is located at the right hand side in a small metal cage. It is fixed with one screw and can then be moved to the right and exchanged.

Exchange the Touchpad

The Touch pad cable uses the same technology as the keyboard cable and can be disconnected in a similar way.

Without palm rest and keyboard the notebook looks like this.

1. Low voltage differential cable from the built in VGA card to the display. While desktop VGA cards transfer the video signal analog to the Monitor, notebooks transfer the signal digitally to the display. LVD reduces the EMI noise and there is no need to transform the VGA signal into analog and later on back to digital for the display.
2. Inverter cable for the display.
3. Charger board for the battery control and the notebook power supply.
4. FDD, HDD and CD board to connect the drives.
5. LED and Switch board
6. Lid switch

Exchange the Display

The disassembly of the display starts with the hinge covers at both sides of the notebook.

Then the LVD and the Inverter cable must be disconnected.

Make sure that the display rests on something before you remove the screws underneath the hinge cover.

Carefully pick up the display. Remember that the display is one of the most expensive parts of a notebook.

Exchange the DVD Drive

If you want to access the DVD Drive, you will face a big challenge. Starting from the notebook base without display, you need to remove the top case module. Remove the phone jack of the LAN and MDC card and disconnect the lid switch cable.

Then remove the following six screws.

And take out the 3 screws at the top side of the notebook base.

Now lift up the top case module to release it from the bottom case.

After this the DVD drive is only a few steps away.

1. Disconnect the speaker cable
2. Remove the screw
3. Slide out the DVD drive

Exchange the Motherboard

The charger-board needs to be removed to get down to the motherboard.

1. remove the screws and the metal bracket
2. disconnect the switchboard cable
3. gently lift the charge board

Under the charge board is a metal bracket with a spacer screw. This needs to be removed too.

Remove the 4 spacer screws at the CPU socket.

You made it. Now you can lift in a 30° angle the motherboard out of the bottom case.

There are at least two versions of the L8400B motherboard. One version with 64MB on board memory and one version with 128MB.

Everything inside of a notebook is tailored to that specific system. Upgrading is limited to CPU, HDD and memory. Some minor modification can also be done by trained personal, but you will not be able to get a different motherboard or a different VGA card from a different notebook vendor. The disassemble procedure shown is only for this ASUS L8400B model. When you are inspired after reading this article to take you notebook apart, you will find the entrance into most notebooks via the keyboard or the hinge covers. Please be aware that taking your notebook apart will void the warranty.

The total disassembly provided use valuable information of the spec sheet.

Specification

Test-Setup

* The Speedstep Processor runs in AC mode with 750MHz and in battery mode with reduced voltage and 600MHz.

Battle of the Battery

You already know several of the Benchmarks. The ZD BatteryMark had been added to our testing suite. I have tested the battery run down time with different operating system and different settings of the display. The default setting of the operating system will make sure that the notebook will shut down with the last drop of water. At 10% battery capacity the first warnings will pop up and the brightness of the display will be reduced. When you reach 3% battery capacity the operating system will shut down to protect your data. It is like the gas meter of your car. When you are running out of gas while driving at a highway the driving pleasure will find a sudden stop. In my testing I have disabled those protection mechanisms to squeeze out the last bit of energy out of the battery. Just to make sure that the power management doesn’t kick in, we came up with our own custom solution (the UVDW-Roll-O-Meter), which we will not disclose here yet.

Two testing procedures are available in this program: Conditioning and Life Test. The conditioning test is a near worse case test with non-stop calculation, display and hard disk access. The life test added some pauses between tasks like a regular user. Those are the moments where the power management can jump in and cut down power consumption to save the valuable battery time.

We will use the worst-case conditioning test for our publication.

The used operating system is also influencing the battery lifetime.

Most shipping notebooks are equipped with Windows98SE or WindowsME. The main reason why most of us at Tom’s Hardware Guide use Windows2000 is the stability. We get the additional 5 to 7minutes as a small bonus.

While discussing the power consumption of the CPU and the complete Notebook, the display takes also a vital part. Yes, it consumes plenty of power, but judge for yourself.

Battle of the Battery, Continued

Without a display the notebook is only a bulky MP3 player, but it shows its influence on the power budget.

Of course we ran our regular set of benchmarks to give you an impression of the performance.

The performance of the used S3 Savage/MX can’t be compared to a Desktop PC with its unlimited power budget. Quake is running in stretch mode of the display. The used display has a resolution of 1024×768 pixels. If there is a different resolution selected the display will either be stretched to fit the display resolution or will be centered with a black frame to fill the display. I used Mercedes Benz Truck Racing to show you the difference between those two modes.

The performance differences between center and expand mode are only minor. When the VGA controller expands the display to fit it to the complete screen the picture appears slightly blurred though.

The 3D performance scales with the CPU.

Sysmark Results

The used HDD influences the Sysmark2000 result. Notebooks use 2.5″ drives while desktop PC’s come with 3.5″ hard disks. The used IBM DJSA-220 drive is performing very well for a small hard disk.

IBM Travelstar 20GN, DJSA-220

3.5″ Desktop HDD vs. 2.5″ Mobile HDD

The rotation speed of 2.5″ disks is much lower compared to desktop disks.

Results, Continued

The disk access time is higher and the rotating disks are smaller in size.

Winmark is a good indicator for a drive’s real performance, as this benchmark simulates real disk accesses.

The High end Winmark is creating a higher load to the drives compared to the Business Winmark.

Final Thoughts

What I like:

• With the µPGA2 CPU socket the CPU upgrade is a snap.
• The system is balanced in computing power and battery run down time.

What I don’t like:

• The hard disk installation is a pain. Other models of the same vendor provide a much easier way to change the HDD.
• Removing the CD/DVD on a flight is close to impossible.
• The display back cover is too weak.

When you push the display back cover or put some heavy stuff on top of your closed notebook, you might damage the expensive display. I think the display should be better protected than the nice note that came along with the Notebook: DO NOT directly push or place objects more then 1.5kg on the top of the Notebook.

Conclusion

Notebooks can’t be compared one by one with a desktop PC. The mobile requirements force a different approach in the design of the total system. Some of the benchmark results might be rather disappointing when compared to our high-end desktop parts, but this would be comparing apples with oranges. Modern desktop systems need 250W just for the system without the monitor, while a notebook requires less then a fifth.

The ASUS L8400B is a real desktop replacement for office and mobile use. It also marks the beginning of our Notebook reviews.