2014 Asus N550JK -DS71T quick mini review and opinion so far

No idea, I'm allergic to Windows 8.

EDIT: Looks like just the N...unless you have a serial for the pro version.

 

How did you guys attach the bezel to the HDD caddy? I bought this caddy and I cannot figure out how to do it.

 

This breaks it down to very simple steps for you.
If it doesn't work, it's possible you bought the wrong HDD caddy.

 

Hello! Is there a difference in the screens of N550JK and G550JK other than latter being non touch and matte? Both are IPS right? Is it the same panel?

 

Spent a little more time with the computer and haven't figured out a clear cut reason why...but using the audio controls built into windows I was able to adjust the balance between the left and right side of the 4-speaker sound bar and get it leveled. On even balance (50/50) the left channel is definitely louder. 50/80'ish seems to give a good balance (I used some free audio tests on YouTube).

The trackpad actually does seem to be 'breaking in'...or maybe I'm getting more accustomed to it. Still takes more pressure than I'd like but it is what it is.

Basically turned off and removed all apps and such from the start screen and have the 'desktop' set to default (plenty of guides online how to do that) and that gives a Windows 7 like experience (if you squint a little and keep an open mind).

Still no SSD upgrade yet...maybe tomorrow.

 

I will get SSD in mail in next 2-3 days. I have no idea how n all, but read enough get in parts. Installing in computer got it. Software thing, easy way is clone using CD from Samsung. Although I am confuse, Should I put SSD in place of HDD or in Caddy. Another confusion is, recovery part of windows, if I just install fresh copy on SSD, do I need to format HDD completely, or I can leave it as it is, and still will be able to use as a storage.

 

I removed the bezel from the optical drive but I cannot figure out how to attach it to the caddy. The side of the caddy is completely flat with no place for the bezel to snap on. What caddy should I use if this is not the right one?

 

Question: how is the audio output quality? I've been reading the thread since the beginning but no one has talked much about this. I'm asking because I want to know if getting an external DAC would be worth it. I'm not an audiophile by any means, but I do like to have a pleasant listening experience. Specially with headphones: how does the laptop sound?

 

Thanks for testing it! I guess the poster I read the first time (think N550JV topic) was right about SATA II which is what I told people then I told some wrong as SATA I, well at least we know. But I wonder why they would do that and not just have both SATA III on the MB. Of course why would ASUS bother with the DDR3 vram version of the GTX850M in the N550JK or G550JK, or NVIDIA even bother to make a GTX card with DDR3 vram period!, Who knows....

I think the N550 looks nice myself, only thing I do not like for looks not function is the silver keys, I prefer the G550JK look there.

Anyone have any idea yet if the G550JK keyboard will fit and plug in fine to the N550JK? Guess I could ask ASUS? They said ok to pulling the keyboard out to change the back-light color should be ok to do this as well.

When I asked about it, I was shown that larger SSD's will perform better as well. You also need to remember having room for the OS to be comfortable, room for OS and program updates, room for other programs you may add later etc. I would never bother with a 64GB SSD in this laptop, why spend $1000+ on a laptop and put a 64GB SSD in for the OS and programs? I would go with nothing smaller than a 256GB and if it will be your only drive consider 500GB+ "if can afford it" (256GB seems to be the sweet spot for people on price though). This is the only reason I have not got an SSD myself yet is because I want 500GB+. I guess a 128GB with no recovery partition may be ok with the HDD in the ODD bay, but way too small for me. I have been temped to get a 256GB, but been holding out.

 

I read somewhere before buying the laptop that audio output is absolutely excellent, can't remember where though. The same review accurately described laptop speakers as poor/mediocre as best, which I agree with.

 

After some hassle I finally found the Realtek LAN drivers for windows 7. Updated the install guide a few pages back with a link:

Guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/750101-2014-asus-n550jk-ds71t-quick-mini-review-opinion-so-far-58.html#post9702947

Realtek Win 7 LAN: Realtek

 

I just received my N550jk and SSD as well!

Is it normal that the mouse/track pad has so much inertia? The one on my dell stops moving when I remove my finger but on the asus it seems to have inertia and continues moving a little bit, making it not very precise?

Actually I'm a little disappionted with the screen. I have it next to my old 4yr old dell TN screen, and the dell actually looks better (except obviously when looking from different angles). The N550jk's screen looks a little less bright :-/ Also too warm, but I imagine I should be able to fix this by calibrating it.

 

my mouse/track pad is perfect. More I am getting used to gestures - taps instead of clicking, its getting better experience. Does make things easier. About Screen, Yes I feel kind of more warm and less of bright, haven't calibrated screen yet. I think someone in earlier in posts said, that screen does require calibration. I am going to try all that once SSD installed.

 

For the mouse I played with the settings a bit and it seems to help, although not perfect. For the screen, I guess I will have to search for a way to calibrate it. I don't feel like paying anothre $70 for a calibrating devide... The brightness really is disappointing though. I'm sure I'll get used to it but for my first IPS screen I expected better.

Now I just have to install my SSD and reinstall windows, that 5200rpm is really slow!

 

Thanks! I really hope so. I've heard about the speakers, but it doesn't concern me that much, personally. I know there are machines that sound really good with speakers, but it's just not a priority for me.

 

I've tried my heaphones on them and they sound better than my old laptop. They sound very good actually. But take this with a grain of salt as I am no audiophile (but I have a decent pair of headphones and know what they usually should sound like).

 

Recently bought an Asus N550LF and happy with it so far, however I've noticed a really strange issue. About 20 seconds after loading the Desktop (using Win 8.1) the colours on the screen suddenly look 'washed out' and less vibrant. I've messed around with the brightness and colour settings (however limited they might be on W8) but haven't been able to recreate the tone of the colours in those 20 seconds after the desktop loads. Anyone have any clue as to what might be causing this?

 

There's a program that should have been included called ASUS Splendid Utility. It may be changing your video settings. You can open it up and see if one of the other presets looks better. If not you can use it to change the color temperature yourself. Not sure if this will fix your issue or not but it's worth a try.

 

This seems to be the culprit, thanks.

 

if it the brightness that changes, its a stupid option in windows 8 that dims the screen when looking at a black background, and gets it bright again when looking at a white background.

 

No it was definitely the Asus bloatware. Uninstalled and I no longer get the weird yellow tint over everything 20 seconds after the laptop boots.

 

Hey macrint, thanks for your step by step walk through. Sorry if I missed the answer to this, but did you install Windows 7 on an SSD? Did you simply replace the included HDD with the empty, unformatted SSD? Or did you have to do something with the SSD before installing? No need to worry about the Bios embedded key for Win 8 (provided I already have a Win 7 key)?

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

 

Anyone knows where to get the screwdriver necessary to remove the case on the laptop? Are these usually easy to get by in local shops like radioshack?

 

It's a Torx T5. You should be able to find them at just about anyplace that sells tools. T5 is kinda small though, might make it more difficult.

Sent via sub-space radio from NCC-1701.

 

Yeah I installed Windows 8.1 fresh on ssd, but it was horrible so I bought windows 7 and made another fresh install. No problem to get it to install, however I read somewhere that it needs to be a version with service pack 1 included in order to avoid trouble with missing drivers during installation. With a fresh hard drive you have nothing to lose anyway so just go ahead and try

 

Just doubled the RAM to 16gb and rocking the Samsung 840 EVO SSD...really letting this machine breathe now! It's like a different computer...except for Windows 8 ehhh.

Even doubling the RAM really pepped it up...boot and load times were definitely faster (this is based purely off the seat of my pants "feel"...I didn't benchmark it).

The SSD is awesome...anyone thinking about doing this upgrade or not...I highly recommend it. Wasn't hard to do a fresh install and shed some of the Asus bloatware. Just follow the guides posted on here and you'll be fine.

The Torx T5 can be found at Radio Shack in a small electronics repair toolkit they sell. It's a decent kit...not super high quality but if this is the only thing you'll be doing it should be fine. I have an "I Fix It" branded kit with a bunch of other nice doo-dads but I also do a lot of small electronics tinkering. Amazon sells it for around $70...the Radio Shack kit is about $18 I think.

I purchased two new 8gb sticks of RAM - Kingston 1600MHZ DDR3L PC3-12800 (KVR16LS11/8)....make sure to buy DDR3L. If someone would like the 8gb Samsung stick I pulled out (literally only a few days old) send me an e-mail and we can work out a deal. [email protected] (just checked, running about $90 on eBay)

 

I just pressed it into place. Seems to be holding up so far.

 

I really, really, really hate the intel/windows 8 feature which dims the screen when you open a page with dark background, or view something dark. It seems to come like this by default, so if any of you think you are going crazy thinking the screen is somehow dimming, IT IS!

To remove it :
windows - Laptop monitor brightness changes depending on image displayed - Super User

 

I just removed Windows 8. Seems to do the trick.

 

Tell me about it. I was very tempted to do the same but I figured since I have the touchscreen, I might as well leave it. Plus I didn't feel like paying twice for windows!

 

Hey everyone!

I have last year's N550 with 750m DDR3. I think the upgrade to 850m was pretty substantial but since I use this machine for work, I don't mind the upgrade

I imediately changed the HDD to an SSD and so far after over half a year of use, I haven't had any issues except for the mousepad when clicking/moving the pointer.

So far I dig the touchscreen use. I like the look and size of the laptop but I would have preferred and even stronger chassis. Personally I like the sound this machine produces with the included subwoofer, but I found that the speaker placement has a negative impact on sound. Since sound comes from the front rather than upwards, sound is greatly diminished. But when raising the laptop slightly I get phenomenal sound.

 

I'm having a hard time doing a fresh install after swapping the optical drive and SSD/HDD.
I can't seem to be able to boot from the usb, there is just 1 boot option (windows boot manager).

Anyone else encountered this problem?


Also: Don't buy the hdd caddy from newmodeus. The one I received is not even with the rest of the frame which is really disappointing, especially since it was pretty much the same price as the one from europe. I will contact them and see if they can do something about it.

 

Ok I found my answer:

Solution
Please enter the BIOS (press and hold F2 key when power on). Switch to “Boot” and set “Launch CSM” to Enabled. Then switch to “Security” and set “Secure Boot Control” to Disabled. Press F10 to save and exit. Press and hold ESC key to launch boot menu when notebook restart.


from here: I can\'t boot my asus x401a from usb windows 8 [Solved] - Asus - Linux/Free BSD

 

Hi everyone!

I just picked up the Canadian version N550JK-DB71-CA and it looks awesome! This is my first Windows 8 machine and my first Asus laptop. I'm so excited!

I want to ask what's the best first few things to do after the initial setup before I start really playing around with it and loading software. Do I need to make a system backup or is there a factory reset option? Are there certain system settings I should adjust?

What do you do when you get a new PC to play with?

Thanks!

 

Hi, I need some help. Sometimes when i open the lid, the screen lights up, but the image is black. If i press fn and f7 one time, the screen light goes off. Then i press again and now i see the logon screen. This happens at random. Other times it's all normal. I have connected external monitor and the black screen is only on the laptop, and not the external. What can it be?

I can mention i have also installed a ssd a month ago, if that would matter.

 

Any way to disable the integrated graphics in the BIOS?
can't tell if this laptop is having issues choosing the right GPU to use when playing certain games
namely Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3, which both launch from the Blizzard Battletnet launcher

I know it's been an issue with Blizzard games specifically but I feel like I'm getting really poor performance in those games on this hardware and suspect it's because the games are using the Intel gfx card

 

Which store did you buy it from?

 

I got it from my local Canada Computers so no waiting for shipping, and price matched it with Direct Canada to save $75 plus tax.

Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk

 

Quick question - I'm almost sold on the N550JK, but I'm (hopefully!) going to England in the fall to study. Will I just be able to use an adapter, or do I need to get a UK specific cable/brick?

 

The brick is rated for 100 - 240 volts. So you would just need to get a UK cable that goes from the brick to the wall. They can be had for less than $10 bucks. Much cheaper even if you shop around.

 

Good to know, thanks for the advice.

 

Does anybody know if the GPU would work well with 3ds Max? The 3ds Max website lists a GTX 465 as the minimum system requirement, and Game-Debate ranks the 850m essentially at the same level as the 465, meaning the N550JK should just barely squeak into "minimum requirement" territory. But don't bare minimum requirements usually mean terrible performance? Have any N550JK owners used 3ds Max, yet?

 

Actually, the GTX 550 is the slowest card on their list. And the 850m is much faster than that one. I would think you shouldn't have a problem. It's not gonna be as fast and smooth as a workstation running a Quadro card but it should be fine.

 

Can anyone tell me if the wireless chip in the N550JK-DB71-CA model is the qualcomm one? If so I should be able to upgrade it with the intel ac 7260 right?

 

It's listed as B/G/N so I'm assuming it's Qualcomm. I don't see why you wouldn't be able to upgrade to the the Intel AC card. Even if the BIOS has a whitelist it's obviously a card they use because mine came pre-installed with it.

 

hurdur you're right. I didn't even think about the fact that all the U.S models come with the 7260. This would be it right? Intel Wireless-AC 7260 Dual-Band WiFi + Bluetooth Mini PCI-E Adapter at Memory Express

 

Here's the latest version from Intel.
WiFi + BT drivers.

 

Hey guys,
So ive had this laptop since the first day it launched.
However, lately its been overheating (when im playing video games)
It reaches temps of 84c on my gfx, even with the U3 laptop cooler ( only 30min of gaming makes it reach these levels of heat)
I have called and gotten a repair order ready, however I was wondering if this has something to do with the laptop being defected, or do these laptops overtime just stop running cool?

Thanks

 

I sent an email to newmodeus concerning the fit of my hddcaddy, I wonder what their answer will be:



Its not too bad but its just enough to be annoying, especially on a new laptop

 

Do you get throttling or issues about overheating? 84C is not a particularly threatening temp for GPUs, as even the higher end ones run upwards to 93 C before throttling performance.

Have you monitored your CPU as well? I noticed mine throttles after an hour gaming, depending what I am doing. I have the 750m version though.