ASUS N71JQ Owners Lounge

What is the latest driver for the graphics card? IS it on the ATI website? IS it safe to download and use?

And what is the exact one i need to download and install on my sexy new notebook

 

10.3 catalyst software/driver. mine came with it, since it was after march 24th when it was realeased. I believe xotic updated it for me when they put all the stuff on my SSD, and the version on the drivers disc is older. I havent checked.

it is rather stable. no issues for me.

 

Thanks for that

One more quick question for now hehe

When i press SHIFT > ALT > DEL to remove the files COMPLETELY instead of it going to the recycling bin, it doesn't seem to work?

What am i doing wrong?

 

Hello guys,

For anybody who is interested in having more RAM, I can confirm that it works perfectly with 8GB of DDR3-1333MHz RAM.

I have updated the RAM on my N71JQ-A1. I have bought 2x4GB DDR3-1333MHz Samsung M471B5273BH1-CH9 ram.

So far in my testing it works perfectly.

 

great to hear

Will be doing that once i get my 200GB SSD from OCZ..

But how come the SHIFT > ALT > DELETE feature doesn't work to delete things instead of it going to the recycling bin?

And also seems my n71 only comes with 1 hard drive which is 1x 640gb

Seems i wont be able to have a SSD and a 500gb 7200rpm hard drive as storage hey?

 

Did your Windows Index score go up with new ram?

 

Guys when i go to install the FASTBOOT driver from the ASUS driver CD, it always fails??

Why is this?

Can i download the right one from somewhere? If so can someone please give me a direct link to the correct one?

Thank you.

 

unless it changed in Vista and 7, I'm pretty sure it's Shift + Delete to permanently delete.

 

Hello Risco,

Yes the memory score index went up a lot. It was 5.9 before and now it is 7.4.

 

You can download the latest version of FASTBOOT from here:
http://support.asus.com/download/do..._name=FastBoo_Win7_64_105.zip&f_type=14&os=30

Did you order N71JQ-A or N71JQ-X?

The N71JQ-A comes with dual hard disk each one is 320GB 7200rpm.

As far as I know the N71JQ-X comes with a single drive and there is no adapter included in the second bay. So it is not possible to add second drive later on.

 

Wow nice jump! Could you do me a favour and run it with just 4GB of that stuff. I want to see if the ram is actually faster or you get and increase from just having more physical ram!

 

wow thats nice. the memory score is my low one. 5.9, too.

 

I would've thought ur index for memory at 8gb would of been more mine scores 7.4 but i have 6gb ram. makes u wonder how they come to the score.

 

it may be based on speed, not amount.
thats why I am curious, too, if the score is same with just one 4 gb stick in there.

 

Hello Risco,

I tested it for you.
With only one memory module installed (i.e. 4GB ram only) the memory index score drops down to 5.9.

So it seems the score is more dependent on the amount of memory.
The strange thing is that budgey's N71JQ has 6GB of RAM and he also gets a score of 7.4.
Maybe 6GB is what windows 7 thinks necessary and 8GB is overkill.

 

I have found the Win7 Experience Index of very little value, because it is not very accurate. Take the above example; with one 4 gig stick of ram he gets the same score I get with two 2 gig sticks. This is wrong, because with one stick you are not in dual channel mode. My understanding of dual channel mode is that you have to run two sticks of the exact same part or you will run in single channel mode. So if you add one 4 gig stick to get 6 gigs, you may no benifit from it.

The question I have is has anyone investigated running 1333 MHz RAM at 1333 MHz. I have read that if you just plug it in it will run at the default 1066 MHz. I do not see any clock settings in the BIOS.

Thanks Dave

 

My 8GB DDR3-1333 ram are running at 1333MHz and not at 1066MHz. I checked it with both Everest and CPU-Z. The DRAM Frequency shown is 665MHz which means effective value is 1333MHz for double data rate.

 

I can hear like a buzzing sound from the CPU (i believe) is that normal?

 

Hello, I want to introduce myself here because I just ordered the N71JQ-A1 from B&H Photo & Video, and it will arrive here on Wednesday or Thursday of next week, as I chose UPS 3-Day Select for the bargain rate (NY to California) of $7.35.

I have read the first 39 pages of the thread last night, and will finish it tonight and tomorrow, as I wanted to leave no stone unturned with this amazing group of owners! You are all so tuned into these beauties, that I've learned so much just from reading those 39 pages, and will pick up where I left off. I have a couple questions of note, and I hope I'm not being a bother by asking them before I get the computer.

I will be running 8GB of DDR 1066Mhz Samsung CL-7-7-7-29-104-4T Clocks RAM (according to Everest Ultimate) at first, right out of my present UL30VT-X1, and I wondered if this going to hurt performance seeing how these notebooks seem to come OEM with 1333Mhz SDRAM modules? :confused2:

If necessary I'll upgrade to better SDRAM, since 4GB modules have come down in price the past month or so (I got this 8GB for $251 shipped @ eBay).

I'll also be running an Intel X25-M 160GB SSD for the primary HD, will use Paragon's Hard Disk Manager to Clone the boot HD to the SSD, and use PAT (Paragon Alignment Tool) to get the parity correct on the SSD before use. I also use the Intel SSD Tool Kit, and the latest Intel RAID/SSD-specific driver, the Intel ICH9M-EM SATA AHCI Controller/driver, v9.6.0.1014 (3-3-2010), and wonder if it's appropriate for this AHCI Controller to get that driver as well, just like my UL30VT-X1 did?...it benefited a bunch in overall performance according to ATTO Tools Benchmark and HD Tach Benchmark Tool. :smile:

Is anyone here using the latest Intel SSD-specific driver like I am with an Intel X25-M SSD of any size at this time? If so, are you getting good results?

If it comes with Seagate 7200RPM HD's, which it likely will, I am also going to dispense with the 2ndary HD, and replace it with a 500GB Hitachi 7200RPM SATA II 16GB Cache HD, which my tests have beating every other platter HD in all aspects of performance. Does my setup sound like a good match, ie the SSD and the Hitachi 500GB HD? I am *not* a fan of Seagate HD's...

I'll stop there, though I have more questions they can wait for now...

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, and hopefully some will respond to the questions. You seem like an awfully nice group of owners, and I hope that I can fit in here and learn everything possible about this new beauty.

I work in digital content creation, photographer/film maker, and will be using the N71 mostly for media creation of all sorts, and some gaming but I am *not* a gamer.

I do hope to thoroughly enjoy this i7 720QM-CPU-equipped machine!

 

Cool; that is what I was hoping to hear. I was debating with myself on what ram to get.

Thanks for the info.

Dave

 

Welcome to the club,

The N71JQ is a great laptop, I am sure will get a lot out of it. It sounds like you know what you are doing already, so I can only offer my opinion. With regard to the memory, I checked on Crucial's web site and yes CL 7 1066 memory is compatible with this laptop. Personally, I have never been able to notice the difference with one step up in memory frequincy, so if it was me I would stick with the ram you have.

With regard to the SSD, I am using a Western Digital SiliconEdge, so all I can say is that it was a big step up in performance and you should expect the same. I did a clean install on mine, because I have read and confirmed that Windows 7 adjusts itself differently when installed on a SSD. For benchmarking; I suggest AS SSD. It is a free d/l and designed specifically for SSDs.

Good to have another enthusiast on board

Dave

 

Thanks Dave, it's appreciated. I did a Clean Install upon installation of the Intel X25-M SSD on my UL30VT-X1, and I wanted to *try* out the PAT (Paragon Alignment Tool) this one time, choosing to *keep* the OEM installation with the backup/Recovery Partition intact for this application. I have a good connection at Paragon Software, who *gave* me the PAT to use on future Cloning assignments with SSD's, and I am actually sort of eager to use it, as it does an 4096-parity Alignment with any Cloning installation. :wink:

Yes, you are correct about SSD's needing special treatment, aka the PAT for instance. In fact, you unknowingly used the PAT if you have a WD SSD, because it was Paragon Software who made and programmed the WD alignment tool in their installer package/driver packages, so good stuff! The Windows installer is "SSD Savvy" also, and there's no worry about correct Alignment with a clean install, it goes without saying, so your SSD is properly aligned in any case just from your clean install. :yes:

Many people do *not* understand Alignment, and will simply Clone their existing platter HD to an SSD, and it's usually an I/O disaster, with no parity/Alignment taking place, and data is not stored in that case on contiguous 4096KB blocks of SSD cells, ie the native SSD Alignment is very messed up by such an installation...the SSD is slow, accesses and writes data badly, etc.

FYI the WEI score on my SSD is "7.8" points, with that newest Intel driver being used for SSDs/RAIDs, so I've nailed the install on the head, so to speak! WEI is no great indicator of SSD performance, but your suggestion is a good one, as is HD Tach Pro and the latest ATTO Tools Benchmark Tool, which is SSD savvy also. When I reviewed the Intel X25-M 160GB SSD Retail Box for Amazon.com, I used a variety of benchmarking tools and included the graphics in my review there under the "Customer Images", which you can read here if you wish:

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Mainstr...tBy=bySubmissionDateDescending#R1Z5TETFZOZ7WW

I am going to enjoy the N71JQ-A1 very much, and look forward to it arriving next week. I was holding out for a G73 but decided that this package is more than adequate for my needs, and has the added bonuses of eSATA, USB 3.0, and ExpressCard 34/54 to boot, which the G73 has not, being mostly a gaming laptop by emphasis and application. This notebook seems to be just what I was looking for, and other than not having 1920 x 1080P resolution for the display, it's a best-buy sort of notebook, it seems, ie you get a *lot* for a small investment, a big bang for the $$$!

I'll be using the computer mostly with a Samsung 24" 1080P LED LCD display @ 1920 x 1080 resolution/HDMI input, so I'll be my own judge about resolution it seems. :smile:

I'll surely have a question or two about the notebook when it arrives, so I'll see all of you later on in the week, and hopefully my N71JQ-A1 will arrive intact, without any shipping damage or problems, and I'll be off and running after a couple hours of I/O and installation of software that I'll be using with it. Mostly I don't see people with a lot of complaints about this notebook, which is fantastic!

Until then, hasta la vista...

 

Can somebody tell me what is the sound/music quality of this notebook? I mean on a good headphones. Is this integrated sound card rather loud at output? Is a sound clear?

 

I don't have mine yet, but if the UL30VT-X1, and the EEE PC 1201N are any indication of Asus quality in sound reproduction, it's got to be XLNT with this higher-end notebook with a dedicated sound card. I use Ultimate Ears Triple-Fi 10 headphones (IEM's, inner ear modules) often with my UL30VT and the sound is just clear as a bell, plenty loud (if you are worried about the quality of sound and its volume) with virtually perfect tonality across the spectrum.

I tend to defeat most of the sound enhancements in the RealTak HD Audio Sound Manager, in both of the previous notebooks, and just go with pure, unadulterated, just slightly "enhanced" music with perhaps a "living room" setting for the location, and other features defeated or unchecked, and I have zero problems with my IEM's and the previous two Asus products I've owned, as above.

Perhaps someone will answer who uses quality headphones before I get mine on Thursday of this week (April 15, 2010), and can tell you exactly what they are doing with respect to sound output for their IEM's or headphones, whichever it is they use. In my case, previous use with those less expensive Asus notebooks leads me to believe the experience here will be far superior to high end netbooks, and the best 13" notebook available these days.

Good luck, and I hope that your experience with an Asus product, whichever it turns out that you end up with, will be as good as mine has been: XLNT all around, no doubt in both control abilities and the sound reproduction itself.

 

The sound quality is really good on this compared to my 2003 Dell Inspiron 8200 or any other laptops I have heard so far. There is a sub-woofer underneath the laptop and I normally have the movie volume in the middle. I never really tweak or tune the setting. However, I did run into trouble with the 5.1 channel supports through their Asus software adjustment. It was difficult in sync with one of the 3.5mm input for my satellites speakers. When i run the test speaker the two rear speakers failed to produce. I'm running the 5.1 channel (black, green, orange/pink) from the laptop to directly my Logitech speaker model z-5300. I got it to work once but didn't further pursue the issue as I'm happy without the 5.1 for now.

 

If you use a good pair of headphones, or what some consider "audiophile." High end Beyerdynamic, Shure, Sennheiser, Audio Technica, Ultrasone, etc.

This is what you do for computer setup.

Download Foobar2000
- Foobar2000 to date has the best mp3 decoder and best support for lossless audio.
On Foobar2000 site, download the WASAPI plugin.

For me listening to Lame v0 320 or Lame v0 256 VBR with WASAPI bit perfect makes more difference than listening to FLAC on some crap audio player like AIMP2

Install both.

Go to the Realtek Control Panel, click tab for Default Format, and choose 16 bit 44100 khz from the drop down.

Then go to Foobar2000 preferences. On Output select WASAPI Realtek.
- In Output select 16 bit output.

When I use my Audio Technica AD900 I never go above the first click or 10% on Realtek using this method.

This is what people call Bit-Perfect output and the best way to listen to digital music on your computer.

Enjoy

Why Bit Perfect?

In order to play multiple sounds in Windows, Windows uses latency. You can't feed two audio sources at the exact same time, so Windows sends one after the other in slight latency.

WASAPI makes a direct path from your player to hardware, Realtek with no intereference. This means when you play music you also can't hear anything else. Also means the music is sent unchanged, meaning it will be louder than you would expect.

For most audiophiles or those who just enjoy listening to music on good equipment, they want to hear the music with no changes made, no sound processing or latency effects etc.

- All MP3 and CDs are 16 Bit 44100, upsampling it to 24 bit 19200 actually makes it worse, you want to leave the source as is, keep it bit perfect.

- Super CD, or SACD actually are not better for sound, it's a myth. The reason why SACD sounds different from regular CD, is because TWO different studios master them. Standard CD often mastered for the general public that like loud and boomy sound. SACD will be mastered for a more realistic, and true sound, that's the difference. Not because it's 24 bit.
- 24 bit 192 is only good in the studio work. For listening it's useless. Unless you are a audio enginner, master, or recording, USELESS.
- Your ears can only hear between 20-20,000 hz and 16 bit sound encompasses far more than that.
- One thing to distinguish, your ears hearing range is frequency. 44100 is not frequency that's sampling rate. Not that important, just an interesting tidbit. What is important to know, everything you can hear fits in 16 bit, frequency of sound in 24 bit is well beyond what you can hear, that's why 24 bit does not sound better than 16 bit, but it can be better for recording, mastering, engineering purposes.
- By the time you are 18, your hearing is probably around 20-18,000. Your hearing degrades as you age. By the time you are 40, looking at around 16,000, 17,000 hz.
- This is why audio reviews are so funny to read. Often the reviewer is 55-60 and their hearing is already crap... which makes them reviewing the product hilariously funny.

My Personal Setup for Headphone Listening and Speakers

I don't use Realtek.

Foobar2000 to an external DAC by USB. I don't like my music going through any soundcard, just straight from my PC to DAC. (Digital Analog Converter). All speakers/headphones are analog, must convert digital signal to analog. Then I feed it into a discrete headphone amp or 2 channel speaker amp. I listen to my Sennheiser HD650s with this setup or my JBL L20 monitors. Small apartment, can't use my L100

I'm a huge headphone fan since listening in an apartment makes it difficult to have large speaker setup.

 

Thanks for your amazing and exhaustive answers guys!

First of all, I asked about volume loudness because I'm getting Sennheiser HD 555 and I found out that this pair of headphones needs an amp, especially when plugged into a laptop. I don't want to buy external sound card cause I believe N71JQ Realtek (ALC 663)will be enough for me. I have Asus F3SC and the sound quality is awesome. It has Realtek ALC 660.

But in the other hand, my brothers desktop PC has Realtek HD ALC 883 in it but the sound quality on this particulary model sounds like #$%^. Do you know is there any difference between ALC663 and 660? I hope 663 doesn't sounds like 883...

Another question is for ziddy123. I am not audiophile or very demanding and I will be listening to 320kpbs mp3 more often also I will be using it for gaming and movies. As I mentioned before, I don't want to buy any external sound card or other devices, only a simple amp. Do you think this one will be enough to liven up Sennheiser HD 555?

dmbas.elektroda.net/wzm%20sluch%201.JPG

specs:

power 2x0,5W at 32ohm
22Hz - 22kHz

And my final question is for everyone, do you tried to plug 5.1 set in your laptop? Asus_N71JQ post has worried me a lot. I am really looking forward to watch some movies in 5.1 from time to time.

 

Hello everyone,

First of all, you guys are amazing.
I've been reading 3 different threads for the last 2 hours and you guys share so many info that, while I thought I knew the N71JQ, I actually knew little about it !
So thank you for all these tests, descriptions and well... the whole sharing process !

I've been trying to find some information on this computer for quite some time now, and since I live in France, I've kept to the french forums... What a mistake !

But here's the deal :
I'm moving to the US in August to finish my studies there (and hopefully find a decent internship so I can "live the dream" a bit longer) and I need a new laptop.
I actually have an EeePC that I use in class, but I'll need something more versatile in my studio/apt (no TV). Some kind of multimedia center that allows me to watch movies, listen to music, skype, edit videos and play a bit with (I'm not a big gamer, last games I've played were WoW - stopped last year, HL 2 and Crysis). And I want it to last.

With the money I am willing to spend, the N71JQ seems to be the perfect choice for me. But what worries me is the Blu-Ray Drive.

I've heard that regular BR Players can be unlocked via a chip. Since that is a modification I am not willing to make, do you know if the BR Drive on the Asus N71JQ can switch between regions (for a limited number of times, as on most laptops' DVD drives)?
I'd love to be able to watch BRs during my stay, even if the screen is not Full HD... BRs and DVDs are quite cheap in the US compared to our € prices, so I might as well enjoy it !

Hence the question : Should I buy the laptop in France right now, or should I order it over the internet (any advice by the way? I only checked powernotebook and they seem pretty decent) ? I'm not a big fan of having a computer shipped to me, and I know several places in Paris where I could get my hands on it tomorrow.

And yes, I need it ASAP.

Well I hope I made myself clear and hope you guys will have some decent advice for me !

Cheers from Paris


PS: I hope I posted this in the right forum since I'm a prospective buyer and not an owner yet per se. If not, I apologize. Please beam me where I belong

 

Don't buy that amp.

You won't need an external headphone amp for your HD555 with a laptop. The RealTek and Asus headphone output is more than enough for your HD555.

I would only recommend an external amp if you are using something more difficult to drive like the K702, HD600, DT880, DT770 etc. It's not necessarily about power as when using with those headphones, it's not watts but voltage you want. And also for those it's a clean signal with a clean source. But for the HD555, I wouldn't worry about any of that.

I've used HD650 for gaming before straight out of the laptop headphone jack. If you are worried, I suggest looking at Audio Technica AD700. HD555 has a laid back sound, it's pretty modest. AD700 is a bit more forward and exciting and for gaming really can't be beat. If you need isolation look at Shure SRH440.

I believe those are better choices with use with laptops and for gaming. This way you don't need to lug around an external Amp, convenience is higher and personally I think the AD700 is a better headphone anyhow, especially for gaming. The N71 will sound great paired up with any of the headphones I mentioned without an external amp.

$86 at Amazon right now AD700. For anyone else, that is a steal and highly recommend.

bluemonday you do realize that the HD555 and AD700 are open-air meaning there is no isolation. Shure SRH440 for $100 has isolation and possibly look at some cheap Ultrasone or the closed variat to AD700, the A700.

 

Hmm I don't know how to send a PM to you, maybe I'm just blind or something. I hope our conversation doesn't clutter this topic.

So now I am pretty confused.. Maybe ATH-AD700 are actually better than HD555 but I live in Poland and importing ATH-AD700 will cost me extra 50$ more than Sennheisers and I won't have a valid guarantee so it will be risky. If I would buy ATH-AD700 from a local store it would cost me 200$! Thats crazy. I don't think I need those as I am going to us it only with Realtek sound card... From what I have found, HD555 sounds really great for that price. I hope they aren't overrated.

 

Anybody some news about the fan noise ?

I have mine ASUS N71JQ for 3weeks now, and it irritates me a lot.
The fan starts without noise, at low speed
After 8sec it goes at full speed with a lot of noise.
After 5sec the fan goes back to low speed.

The change from low to high speed is very annoying.
It's even more comfortable when the fan is running at high speed at all the time.

 

I think the only solution to this problem would be if ASUS releases a new bios with better fan profile.
A dynamic fan adjustment profile would have been better. I don't know why ASUS implemented such a profile where the fan is either very slow or runs fast without any intermediate steps.

 

Mr. Ziddy123's explanation about the sound specialization technique was amazing...give it up for ziddy123! Say Yaaaaay! I've never seen such a clear and concise explanation of how to adjust the computer for proper sound output in my life, so my Lordie mark that post, it's a winnah!

Ziddy123 I've given you another Rep+ just for THAT post alone, so way to go, thanks for the tips and tricks, I'll be trying them out after I get my new N71 on Thursday.

Amazing also is the fact that we have the same Audio Technica AD700's! I chose them late last year after reading a ZILLION consumer reviews and professional reviews alike, and those ARE the most amazing sub-$100 real headphones in the world. Great price, unbelievable quality, and not-bass-thumping FAKE SOUNDING padded voice-acapella crap like the wanna-be's, especially those with heavy enhanced bass format like the Dr. Dre scrapola, all of that type of stuff just is not real sound, it's enhanced and totally fake.

AD700's all the way, I LOVE my pair!

When you can afford to have total isolation, I can only recommend the best IEM's out there today still, the finest sound, the best isolation, the best balanced heavy, clear, concise bass mix and 3-distinct individual speakers in the headphones, and that is the Ultimate Ears Triple-Fi 10's, which can be had for about $250 depending on the deal and reseller, but I bought mine on Amazon.com @ Xmas time last year for the unbelievable price of $97.89 shipped. Today they are c. $250 shipped, still a great buy on the best IEM's available today at any price.

I use the finest Comply Foam Tips, model TX-500, to go with the IEM's for total isolation and comfort beyond compare, and the result is sublime, inner-sanctum sound that only a superb IEM can give. :wink:

This is no crush on the Audio Technica AD700's but just another take on real, true sound, and that is what you get with isolation and the IEM's of your choice, mine being the UE Triple-Fi 10's (without microphone for phone use).

Audio that is possible with the UE IEM's is nothing short of a perfect audio experience. I listen to mine with a nice Rolls HA43 Pro headphone amp, which can be scored @ Amazon.com for about $50 shipped, and this amp is a 4-way studio quality amp, with both 3.5mm stereo and 1/4" headphone amp external plug-ins for you and 3 of your best friends! That's right, you can listen to the same music, 4 discrete sources with the Rolls HA43 Pro Amp, with a +20dB Gain possible per channel, per source, an incredible number. You'll not want to have your amp setting at higher than 4-5 clicks on the adjustment sliders, as they can blow your head off at higher settings, and you don't want that.

Here's the Amazon.com link for the Rolls HA43-Pro Headphone Amp:

http://www.amazon.com/Rolls-HA43-Pr...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1271235000&sr=1-1

I don't recommend using the Rolls HA43 Pro with a laptop, although it *can* be done with a simple stereo splitter cable (for a PC sound card, use twin single monaural cables, one per discrete channel in the PC sound card, into the Rolls HA43 Pro, for perfect sound input, to your headphones/IEM 3.5mm or 1/4" plug). I mostly listen to my Rolls amp with my desktop PC, which has a Creative Labs Fatal1ty Professional Sound Card, a most effective sound card for both gaming and recording, listening, whatever...I use it for all 3.

For customer recording with my DAK2000 PC Pro Mixer for stereo turntables/tapes to digital sound cards, the Fatal1ty Pro works a treat, with just a single line-in connection (to the Blue port on the sound card for input) from the source, and the rest is up to your turntable, the vinyl you're converting, and the PC you are working with, be it a desktop or laptop.

The Creative Labs sound card, in combo with the DAK2000 PC Pro Mixer is a beautiful way to convert your best and finest vinyl to digital formatting, be it for listening, making CD ROMs for the car or home stereo, or other sources of pleasure such as a multi-track rendering for your computer's unlimited-track mixing system, whatever the use it, it's a wonder all by itself, and you can integrate it with the Rolls for playback and hear it just like you will when it's rendered through the PC's sound card for your listening pleasure.

Getting OT here, excuse me, sorry about that. But the Ultimate Ears IEMs model Triple-Fi 10's, with Comply Foam Tips #TX-500 make for a fantastic isolated listening experience with PC desktop or laptop, and here's the link for the IEM's at Amazon.com for you audiophiles who have yet to try these out:

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Ears...TF8&s=electronics&qid=1271236037&sr=1-2-spell

And here's the link for the Comply foam tips:

http://www.amazon.com/Comply-Tx-500...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1271236638&sr=1-1

The IEM's from Utimate Ears are $244 shipped today at Amazon.com, a bit high for the times, but there you go. To think I scored my pair for less than $100 at Xmas time! WOW! Those are the finest IEM's available at any price, even if you are a Shure guy, these blow away any Shure IEM made, and are worth the $$ if you've got it to spend...these are it!

Thanks for reading about sound and IEM's and Audio Technica AD700's, which are the two best listening devices for YOUR EARS AND HEAD made today for the almighty $$$! My post hasn't touched on anything technical like the ziddy123's, just a practical couple of links for your listening pleasure, and then adjust your controls like the poster above and you're in like Mr. Flynn! :yes:

Just two days and counting until the N71JQ-A1 arrives, so you'll have to excuse my anticipation, but it's killing me to wait another 36 hours or so! I cannot wait!

 

You guys dont have to make the recovery DVDs. I used a free program called Macrium Reflect and made an image of my OS after I uninstalled the bloatware. The image can sit on another partition and you can make a bootable linux rescue cd to restore it. Its nice this way because you can reinstall your OS without the bloatware. Takes very little time too.

 

For the guys here who may be interested, there is a new bios v205 available for our N71JQ. It added a new feature into bios called ASUS EASY OVER-CLOCK.

vostro1400user at the N61JQ Lounge posted a link. Look here for more details:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=456659&page=322
Here is the download link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6139431&postcount=3219

Please also read the warning and short flashing instructions here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6139877&postcount=3236

This post serves for information only. Flash it at your own risk!

 

Greetings all. I'm seriously considering purchasing this laptop and wanted overall opinions. I've read through all previous 62 pages and the general sense I get is that it is a very good machine, but most of the posts are about specific issues so don't give me an overall sense of the machine.

I'd be using it as a desktop replacement, mostly for software development, photo editing (Photoshop), and maybe some video. I'm not really a gamer (sorry!).

The other laptops I'm considering are the Dell Studio 17 (a little cheaper), an HP dv7t (not too excited about those, however), and if I win the lottery a Dell Precision M6500 (very pricey).

So, in general, is the quality pretty decent? Is the screen good (colors, saturation, etc)? Is the glossy screen distracting? Performance-wise, does it hold it's own?

Thanks much for your input!

 

I am in general very happy with this notebook. The build quality is good.
The glossy screens seem to become standard these days. I am not a good fan of them, but there is not much one can do about it.
The biggest disadvantage of the glossy screen is that you cannot see the picture very well if there is direct light on the screen. Then you will get lot of reflections.

With respect to the quality of the screen, I am satisfied with it. But I am no expert when it comes to photoshop applications.

I am mostly using it for engineering work which involves lot of CPU and memory intensive tasks.

For me the important aspect of the notebook is very powerful hardware that I am using for work. I am also not into gaming on the notebook.

The only thing that annoys me is that when the notebook is idle then the fan is very regularly turning ON and OFF.

 

Hello to all at the Asus N71jQ appreciation fest.

I hate to be a damp squib at this love-in but I am not overly impressed by this laptop. Over the years I have bought quite a bit of Asus gear because they are usually first to release new developments (in this case 1st laptop with USB 3 support). 80% of the time they are 1st rate sometimes not as in this case.

The laptop is ok but it does have its problems. Recently people have been asking about audio. I find the speakers poor and the sub-woofer of no value but worse when I feed outboard speakers from the line out/headphone socket I get noise on the line e.g when disc IO is being done. This interference is only apparent when you aren't playing, once you play something its not discernable, however this indicates bad shielding of components inside. By the way the active speakers are shielded and close to the laptop however if I substitute my eeePc (love that thing) there is no noise so it is the N71JQ. This is a pity as Asus themselves make a big noise about its audio. Another bummer regarding audio is its 5.1 rather than 7.1 and there appears to be no option to make the .1 a full range speaker. Not good for us true audiophiles.

Although its quad core in typical use its only about as fast as a core2 (thruput). This is obvious as I can't seem to stress it using typical work I do. The most I could get was 60% compiling my development system and Linting it at the same time i.e. can't stress it with 1 app, I was hoping that the so called dynamic boost would kick in when not using all cores. I guess if you think about this is understandable why as Win7 is multi-threaded so all cores will generally always be in use. I guess the only way to see that boost would be to run dos on it which I will do in due course. Thats a beef with Intel I7 combo with Win7 but we should have been provided with some utils for manual control of features. I guess if I have time I'll gander the manuals and see what ports have to be poked to control it. If at all.

By the way as an aside there hasn't really been much progress really in CPU hardware design all they have been doing is shrinking the die so that the signal doesn't have to travel so far (and hence is quicker) and they can fit more transistors and so have larger and larger caches. Did you know that if you disable all the caches it will perform only as fast as the old but venerable 386? Its true I done it you just have to flick some bits in the cpu control registers. Ha Ha progress! and the best MP system was the Transputer which went the way of the Betamax, oh well thats life, the mediocre always survive.

The other annoying thing is the fan cycling when the machine is idling. It might be solvable by setting the max usage down but at idle where the cpu use is oscillating between 0 & 1% methinks not.

On the positive side the USB 3 is definitely a winner although that too engendered some disappointment but this time with the hard drive. I got the 2TB WD20EARS with the 64mb cache, don't bother get the the EADS, EARS is slow I got max at 87MB/sec Min at 47 and Avg at 73. Seek sucks at 20+ ms. EADS peaks at >100MB/s according to some reviews and WD blacks at 140 to 160!

Well I am keeping it but its by no means as good as a lot of people here imply and others hope.

 

Anybody have any idea if his kind of update is likely, or something I should even remotely expect to happen at any point in the future?

Can't we petition, or storm the Asus castle gates with pitchforks and torches, or SOMETHING?

 

I think if enough people complains about it to the ASUS support, then maybe they will fix it in a future release of bios.

 

do you know if its a official BIOS. is there one for the n61jq ?

 

Thanks for your input and welcome to the owners lounge.

Just to make it clear, we are here owners of this notebook. Each is telling his or her opinion about the device and discussing problems. We are not here ASUS marketing team so we don't gain anything by praising it. So if somebody's view is more positive than the other then he or she would be satisfied with the device for his or her application.

Your applications are not able to stress the quad core to more than 60% is a positive point about this machine I think.

The problem with the fan cycling is already know and experienced by many of us. I hope ASUS will release some bios update to make it work better.

I also experienced some times noise on the headphone.
This is not only on this model my older ASUS M50Vm had exactly the same issue.
Mostly one notices it when no sound is being played and especially if you are using the usb ports next to the audio output.

 

No it's not official. A member at the N61JQ lounge posted it.

Yes there is also a bios for N61JQ. If you follow the details in the link I provided from N61JQ lounge you will see that this same package contains a bios v207 for N61JQ.

 

Turbogear

Thanks for the welcome.

Regarding the stressing what I meant was that I can't get it to perform better with the app than a 2GHz core 2 i.e. its takes about 2.5 mins on the core2 and on the JQ (with 10% cpu). There could be a couple of reasons for that I can think of offhand e.g. that the app (Open Watcom c++ compiler) is not multi-threaded enough or is IO limited.

Frankly I think it cant really be IO limited as HDTune indicates max min and avg on the primary drive of 95 47 75MB/s respectively. So there should be plenty of headroom for sources, objs and exe being combined only about 15MB which would easily fit in the disc cache with 4 GB memory.

What I am getting at is that at 10% cpu it takes 2.5 mins then why can it not use 100% and do it in .25 mins? or perhaps windows cpu reading is hogwash.

Anyway enough said on this

 

I guarantee you that if you installed a multiprocessor-Core Aware application like Folding@Home's High Performance PC Client, which will use all 4 Cores and all 8 virtual threads simultaneously on an A3 Work Unit, you will see the machine stressed to 100% CPU Load, which you can verify in Task Manager's Performance Tab, and therefore you WILL be using all of the computer's processing power all at once. It will finish a Work Unit like an A3 in 1/2 the time OR BETTER than that, I guarantee you vs a Core 2 Duo PC doing the same problem.

It's all a question of what and how you are stressing the CPU, what type of program you are using, IF it's multi-Core Processor Aware or not, and whether the program is instructed to take advantage of the CPU's processing power up to 100% of the "spare CPU Cycles", such as what Folding@Home's instruction set tells the OS and the CPU to do. You are not using all of the potential of the CPU and the machine because the programs you are using are NOT multi-Core/Multi Processor aware programs! I don't think you can knock the CPU or the computer for a lack of understanding of the processing power itself, which is what you are telling us tonight, it's JUST THAT SIMPLE!

Don't come here and tell us that a 4-Core CPU is going to complete a multi-processor aware assignment in the same time that it takes a Core2 Duo machine to do, because you are totally, 100%, WRONG with that thought, with that thinking, with your primary assumption in the 1st place. If you don't know HOW to stress the CPU and test its speed and power, perhaps I can be of some help there, but please do not come here and tell us that this Core i7 CPU is less powerful, or the "same" as a C2Duo machine, because that is hogwash, pure, Plain Jane Simpleton HOGWASH!

I don't even have my machine yet, it arrives tomorrow, but I could not resist answering you and your assumptions with obvious facts, and I am sorry to inform you that you do NOT understand your computer at all, not one little bit or you wouldn't have posted such a ludicrous statement, a whole bunch of statements like you did. This is a 4-Core CPU with 8 virtual Threads by virtue of multi-threading which occurs when the machine is stressed to the maximum, and I don't think you understand any of that!

Go back to Square No.1 of your thinking process and learn the basics, test the machine with some known multi-threaded, multi-processor aware tests and/or programs, and see what the machine is all about rather than coming here and trying to explain that you think it's slow, doesn't perform as advertised, and that it's not what all of us "think" it is...I am sorry, it is YOU who are mistaken by virtue of your statements in this thread tonight, it is YOU who needs to go back to Sqaure No.1 and learn what multi-threading and multiple Core technology is all about, and then perhaps you will be able to use this fantastic Core i7 CPU-equipped machine to its full capabilities, but not until then, I am sorry to inform you! :wub:

Have you ever heard of PRIME95 or Linux 0.6.3 or higher? These are applications that test the computer's abilities with multi-threading and multiple Cores to the maximum, and if you were to test this Core i7 720QM-equipped CPU with either of those applications you will see how they stress it to its maximum potential, its highest and most powerful CPU cycles, up to 100% of both memory and CPU cycles in the case of LinX, and you will see results in those applications that 2-Core machines cannot possibly compete with.

Please rethink whatever it is you believe about this computer, because you really need to do that exercise from the beginning and start over...your assumptions are all tainted and erroneous right now, and you sure do NOT understand how multiple Core/threaded CPU's operate in applications that are first of all Multi-Processor Core Aware. 2nd you don't understand how to utilize all of the Cores and threads of this CPU in an application or a test, for that matter, either one!

This is indeed a very powerful computer IF you know how to utilize all of its CPU power, and up to now you do NOT get it, not at all! Don't fault the machine when the operator knows nothing about how it works!! If you did understand what 8 virtual threads and 4 Cores can do, you'd have never posted what you did in this thread tonight, that much I am 100% certain of!

If you don't get it, I am sorry for you, but at the same time ignorance is NOT bliss in this case either! 4 Cores and 8 threads are what this CPU is capable of doing, and all of that @ 2.8Ghz @ 100% Load also! A Core 2 Duo machine cannot even begin to compute like that, because it just doesn't have 4 Cores and 8 virtual threads available to work with! I think you need to understand these things before you go another step tonight, before you do anything else with respect to your N71JQ-A1 computer!

Once you grasp the basic concepts of the computer, I think you will form a different opinion of its speed, power, potential, and abilities. This machine is at least twice as powerful as a similarly powered 1.6Ghz C2Duo equipped computer, and then some! If you don't understand anything about what I just wrote, it's not because I didn't try to help you grasp these concepts...you need to learn what this computer is all about before you use it any more, or you may as well just forget it, sell it, and buy yourself a Core2 Duo machine, which you apparently DO understand at this point...or maybe not? :rolleyes2: You know I really don't know the answer to that question, but I am certainly sure that your understanding of multiple-Core technology is practically ZERO at this point. :GEEK:

I honestly don't know where to point you other than to say this: a 4-Core 8-threaded CPU is more than twice as powerful as a similarly equipped 2-Core machine with 4 virtual Cores, if they both have the same Clock Speed. Once you grasp that idea, and can apply it to your understanding of the Core i7 720QM CPU and how it works in this computer, you will be 1/2-way home free, because at that point you will understand what having 4 Cores and 8 virtual threads avaialble for processing power means. Right now you don't get that concept at all, or you wouldn't have posted the things you did tonight.

Good luck to you, and I hope that I have helped you grasp at least a couple simple concepts with respect to this computer and how it works, though I don't know if, in fact, I have done that. This machine is a beautiful thing to me, and can do things that a Core2 Duo machine could never attempt much less accomplish. Physical reality says that this CPU is an 8-threaded CPU with all kinds of horsepower that a Core2 Duo machine just simply does not possess. Once you learn the basic concepts completely, and can apply that to this computer, you will understand that a processor with 4 Cores and 8 virtual threads is a very cool thing to have!!

I am so glad that I bought this CPU and I won't even have it until tomorrow, but at least I understand WHY I bought it, what it is capable of doing vs other computers with Core 2 Duo CPU's, and that's a LOT of processing power that a Core 2 Duo CPU just doesn't possess. I can only hope for the best for you and your understanding of this beauty, the Asus N71JQ-A1 notebook computer, and I certainly wish you the best computing experience possible with this fantastic Asus product!

 

@ rexrzer727

I hope you get your N71JQ today.

Once you have it, can you please check which bios version it comes with?

My N71JQ came with v204.
Yesterday, I found an unofficial v205 for the N71JQ at the N61JQ lounge. I included the link on the previous page here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=6139955&postcount=611


With the new bios, there is a new option in the bios which is called ASUS EASY OVER-CLOCK. This new feature has the following options: Normal, Turbo 1%, Turbo 2%, Turbo 3%, Turbo 4% and Turbo 5%.

With this feature set to Turbo 5% the maximum CPU speed when all the cores are fully loaded goes to 1.82GHz instead of 1.7GHz.
1.7GHz was the maximum frequency when ASUS EASY OVER-CLOCK is set to Normal mode.
1.7GHz was also the maximum with the older bios v204 where this new feature was not available.

 

What sort of Windows Experience Scores are you guys getting with this machine? I know WEI scores aren't a true measure of performance, but do give a somewhat decent generalization and can allow us to sort of compare performance from one machine to another.

Thanks!

 

Here are the scores from mine:

Processor : 7.0
Memory (8.00GB DDR3-1333) : 7.4
Graphics: 6.8
Gaming graphics: 6.8
Primary hard disk: 5.9

 

weird, my graphics are 6.7 and my processor is 6.9, memory is 5.9 (4 gb @1033mhz) and my HDD score is 7.7 (i have an intel SSD installed as primary OS drive)


and to the poster who wasn't satified with audio, i don't use headphones or external speakers, but tweaking realtek settings I found the speakers to be on par with my old external 2.1 setup on my 8 year old dell desktop. which were altec lansing speakers, too. I so satisfied with my purchase and would not change it, one bit. though 1080p would have been nice. but because of that I also downgraded the blu-ray to a dual layer DVD burner.

 

upgrade ram to 6GB, you can get WEI as 7.3(DDR3-1066) or 7.4(DDR3-1333).