General Application Performance
We'll start with a look at general system performance. We've said in the past that most systems are now fast enough to easily run most modern applications, and that's true of the ASUS U2E. While it will be clearly slower in CPU intensive applications, for office work it performs well enough.
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The ASUS U2E pales in comparison to the slowest of the other laptops we've tested in the above applications. The Gateway P-6831 FX includes a relatively slow Core 2 Duo T5450, but it's still at least 50% faster. None of this makes the U2E "too slow", though we certainly wouldn't recommend an ultraportable for doing 3D rendering or video encoding. We were able to watch a 720p movie encoded with x264 without dropping any frames. (1080p x264 proved to be too much, however, with constant frame drops and audio dropout.)
PCMark Vantage could not run to completion. The Memories test suite consistently failed, as did the Gaming suite. Looking at the tests that did complete, we find performance that is consistently lower than the other notebooks with one exception. The tests that depend on hard drive performance run very well, helped by the solid-state drive. The Productivity suite outscores the Gateway P-6831, and the HDD suite has the ASUS U2E placing at the top of the charts. PCMark05 show similar results for the hard drive, which is to be expected considering the access times can be measured in microseconds rather than milliseconds and the drive delivers high sustained transfer rates.
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sam13007 - Friday, November 6, 2009 - link
hi friendsplease what's the model of the motherboard of this asus U2E please friends answer me.
thanks
Anonymous Freak - Sunday, April 20, 2008 - link
[quote]We still think that it would have been nice if ASUS could have managed to provide easier access to the bottom memory socket.[/quote]Why? If they are going to ship it with a 2 GB module in there, why does it matter? The chipset only supports a max of 4 GB of RAM, so 2x2GB modules would get you there. Heck, if they were going to supply it with 3 GB of RAM, why not go the MacBook Air-route, and solder the 2 GB onboard to save space, leaving just the one SO-DIMM socket.
JarredWalton - Sunday, April 20, 2008 - link
I wrote that before finding out that ASUS was switching the lower socket to a 2GB SO-DIMM - or at least, that's what they say. But then, you never know if your RAM is going to go bad, and making it easy to replace never hurts. A small panel on the bottom could have made this tons easier.howardmoore - Monday, September 15, 2008 - link
Hi,Is there a way to find out whether the bottom SO-DIMM socket does have 2GB of RAM installed without having to take the thing apart?
I say that because I have a U2E and bought 2GB Ram upgrade (2 x 1GB) on the advice of Orca Logic in the UK. Before I upgraded it said that I had 2GB of Ram, though the chip that was already in the top tray was a 1GB. I presumed therefore that the bottom tray had 1GB also. When I installed one of my new 1GB chips into the spare top tray the upgraded RAM read 3GB, but I would have thought that:
a) If the bottom already had 2GB the top would have read 3GB already.
b) If I installed 1GB more into the top, it would read that I now had 4GB.
So, what to do!? Do I go through the laborious (and potentially dangerous for the laptop!) task of disassembly to see whether I can upgrade the bottom socket, or just live with 3GB? Also, is there a problem with the two sockets being on different amounts - I read somewhere that they had to have the same memory amounts to work effectively. Finally, why cannot I not see 4GB showing?
Thanks in advance for any responses.
JarredWalton - Monday, September 15, 2008 - link
You can use CPU-Z (from www.cpuid.com) to see what memory is installed.Nimbo - Thursday, April 17, 2008 - link
3 years ago I could buy a 10.6' laptop with centrino platform (1.1GHz) 512MB and 80GB HDD for $1000 and DVD CDRW combo for $1000. How come a similar laptop with updated to today's hardware it's dobled in price. Back then the ultra small laptops were not regarded as special and Averatec did not charched a premium because of the form factor.Asus should follow the same path and de-primiumaze this niche market so I can aforded again.
JarredWalton - Thursday, April 17, 2008 - link
The ASUS Eee PC 900 series takes care of the lower spec market, I suppose. It seems that the ultraportable market has either become lucrative due to business interest, or perhaps there just aren't enough customers so they need to recoup the R&D expenses. The specs of a modern ultraportable are quite a bit better than the three year old stuff, though.kmmatney - Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - link
It would be nice if the optical drive could be swapped out with other hardware, like an extra battery or another hard drive...IvanAndreevich - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
Last time I used the optical drive on my laptop was to install the O/S. Really, I would prefer my T60 didn't have one. As for this, it would be a much better thing to have the full 2.5" HDD, and perhaps a slightly bigger battery, or faster processor instead of the aforementioned optical drive.I also have an IBM X31 without an optical drive, and it doesn't bother me a bit.
strikeback03 - Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - link
I use the optical drive on my T43 quite a bit for watching DVDs, burning the occasional disc, and loading programs. Plus the bay can hold another battery or hard drive. Too bad ASUS couldn't fit that functionality into the U2E, would let most people be happy with what they put in the bay.