ASUS ROG Zephyrus GX501 Owner's Lounge

how's your temps? Im reaching as high as 90 deg when playing PUBG. its very alarming.

 

Same but for me this has been a common issue in most laptops I've owned. I blame Intel on poor thermal design as the gpu stays at a steady 60-75 C with similar cooling. The gpu doesn't seem to throttle as horribly at high temps as the 7920hq did in my gt83. It actually benched higher than the 83 in xtu lol.

 

Don't put the blame on Intel. Rather put the blame on the OEM's who shrink/skimp on the cooling design/cooling capacity in their notebooks. You can't expect good cooling if all they prefer is to make thinner and thinner laptops and give a damn in good enough cooling!! Put as well a part of the blame on the buyers who don't stop up, thinking and say NO to all this. Only minimal sale can force a change to the better.

 

so how do you guys lower the temperature?

 

Just received Asus GX501VSK with 1TB M.2 SATA SSD.

CPU and GPU are re-pasted with Gelid GC Extreme and CPU is undervolted by 0.130V with XTU.
Playing PUBG on ultra setting gives me CPU 74°C and GPU 64°C.
Fan noise goes up to 40db and It is very quiet compare to G752(48db) and GL702(55db) during load.

I’m super impressed how cool and quiet during load for how thin it is.

 

Damn! I JUST got my zephyrus and I have that same bend on the hdmi!

Can other people check too?

 

I had it on the three units I saw. It's a defect in the casing. It bends back though.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

Mine does not have any bend under HDMI port.

 

I after driver updates, undervolting, and a few tweaks here and there my 15r3 1070 is around 65 for both cpu and gpu on load. My issue is the provided ac adapter isn't good enough and I had to buy a 330 wat because anything lower causes the pc to drain while on load

On my zephyrus my cpu is at 85 and gpu 75

 

Here's my review so far. (In case anyone wants an opinion from someone who bought it).

Purchased my 1080 variant for 2340 USD on Amazon (seen it as low as 2250 and average of 2580).

Build:
Metal body feels solid, I like the overall construction. It both looks good and feels great.
The two main issues are, if you have it on your lap, the bottom part (which opens up for venting) flexes. It makes me worry it'll bend.

The monitor hinge is actually quite solid, even when typing hard, the monitor doesn't wobble. I like that.

There seems to be a build issue with there being a bent bit of metal under the HDMI port on the left. I tried to bend a bit of it back into place but it's not flush. Seems others have this same issue.

The lid is a bit of an oil magnet, but wipes off easily. The interior is actually pretty good at not staining with finger oils. My Razer Blade was impossible to wipe clean. Good job zephyrus.


Keyboard:
Despite what people say as a weird placement for the keyboard, it's actually more comparable to a desktop keyboard in terms of placement and how a normal keyboard is slightly raised. The key's aren't soft or hard. They aren't very clicky like a mechanical keyboard, but do have a satisfying soft bump.
I usually game with a keyboard with me anyway, even when with a laptop. but I felt like I didn't really need it. Just a mouse (which oddly didn't come in the box by the way, I thought it was supposed to come with one). Because of it's placement, I don't touch the sharp edge of laptop itself like I do on my Mac.

The one small thing I'll comment on is the fact that FN is on the left which pushes the CTRL a bit further to the left and means I have to stretch my fingers more. On the right there's this 'menu' button which is basically a right click. I say get rid of that, put the FN there and make the CTRL bigger.

Also bare in mind that the enter key is horizontal in the US version and vertical in the UK version (like macs are). I prefer the US version.


Trackpad:
The placement doesn't bother me, I like it actually. It's more 'natural' to have it to the right. It does take a bit of getting used to it.
The surface is super smooth.
The big issue with it is the size in terms of width. It's not wide enough to do a two finger gesture to go back to a page for example.

Love the number pad feature more than I thought I would. I actually use it a lot. it's also convenient for when entering pin code to login

I also noticed that there's some form of anti-touch on the edge of the trackpad. This is important so that if you are reaching for enter, you don't want to move the mouse by mistake. I didn't expect them to include that, but it's great!


LED / Lighting:
I'm happy we have zoned lighting, which it was addressable LEDs though.
I dislike that I cannot turn off the red lights under the laptop that the buttons on the right are always red, and that the lights are uneven and unbalanced. Meaning some keys have their lights showing under the keys, but some buttons (the H, N, half of M and half B don't), and when setting keyboard to blue, some keys like the 3, windows, ctrl, and tab are a different shade of blue. I actually thought this was intentional, but I couldn't see the logic.

So Asus, please give us more control over the animation and the keys. Wish I had the same game lighting like razer has for their keyboards.


Ports and Connectivity:
Happy! 2 USB on either side, a usb C port, HDMI, and headphone jack.
I wish it had an SD card reader (but then again this wouldn't be used for a lot of productivity with it's poor battery life) and a display port and an Ethernet port for lan parties. These two issues are resolved with a USB C to display port adapter and a USB C to ethernet adapter (provided in the box).


Gaming:
No issues whatsoever. Made sure everything was updated. Playing overwatch on everything maxed at 120hz, I was getting around 131 fps. I had no stutter at all. However, bare in mind that you MUST be plugged in for a good experience.

I tested it without the charger and it's really slows down significantly. To the point where you'll have to go to low settings to avoid lag.

Unlike my Alienware 15R3, I have no perfmance issues when I'm plugged int. It constantly keeps the power. With the AW it would charge, and discharge even when plugged in, which would cause the games to slow down for a few seconds while it was discharging for a bit. I don't have this issue with the zephyrus.


Audio:
I'd say that the audio is the weakest part of this laptop. 1- volume isn't that loud 2- There's distrotion in audio on high notes which makes it unbarable 3- There's hardly any bass to it. I have to say it's one of the worst speakers I've had (the worst experience being the alienware 15r3 which is my other laptop).
Techradar says the speakers are 'loud and clear'. So either they've got low standards (they also said they don't like the keyboard placement which i think is great on a desk), or I've got an issue with my unit. Either way, for the price, I'm sure most people will agree we expect better quality control.


Display:
It's a mixed bag really. I'm happy that it's a 120hz panel, but I've noticed two things.
In darker areas in a game, there's visible ghosting.
In brighter areas of the game, you can see like a rolling shutter effect (yes Gsync is enabled and vsync disabled). This ghosting could be due to to the response time I've been researching for the screen, it's almost double the response time of AW 15R3.
Overall, I'm happy with the color reproduction for gaming.


Heat:
Sadly it does get hot. You definitly don't want this on your lap when gaming.
They keyboard got warm for me too. Not too hot but it's noticable.
To be honest, I was surprised I was getting 85 on cpu and 76 on gpu when playing OW. My Alienware 15r3 (after loads of headaches and tweaks) got 65c (that was a 1070 non-maxQ)
The raising of the laptop to give it more airflow is actually very functional. It's amazing what a few milimeters can do. (stop!).

I do recommend unvolting by around .100v. It took temps from 85 for the cpu to 73c average and 80 full load

What do I think? I really like it. I'm happy with my purchase.
Why did I buy it? For gaming at the office or when traveling (or wherever my desktop isn't). Not meant to be gaming at the park, only wherever there's a an outlet. This isn't really a laptop for your lap. It's a portable gaming machine that'll take anything you can throw at it.


Issues:
On occassion the screen will stay black although pc is on. A quick sleep and on again will resolve this.


Pros:
- Slim
- Nice build and design
- Fast
- Quiet as it can be under full load (audible ,but not as bad as bigger 1080s)
- Nice keyboard
- 2 USB on either side and USB c
- At the price I bought it for (2350), it's great. At 2700 USD which is the RRP, I'd think twice to be honest.
- Very fast
- Love the short cuts for airplane mode, sleep mode and ambient light sensor.

Cons:
- that little bend under the hdmi shows there's a build issue. Other people experience the same thing.
- Can't control LEDS under pc and the always red led's on the right.
- Terrible battery life (perhaps a mode to use intel graphics to enable and disable would help)
- Terrible speaker quality
- Ghosting / rolling shutter effect in game at high fps.
-


Wishes for Zephyrus 2
- Fully adjustable LEDs, keyboard and any other leds
- better speakers
- better temps
- no ghosting screen
- Edge to edge screen
- Display port
- Better battery life
- A tactile feedback (like mobiles have) for the trackpad, so we feel the key press.


Software I used:

- Cam Monitoring
- Intel Extreme Tuner (to undervolt by .100)
- Wtfast
- Driver Booster (to check what drivers out of date but update manually)
- MSI Afterburner
- CPUZ
- GeForce Experience
- Razer Cortex
- Intel Driver and Utility Updater
- CCleaner



In conclusion:
Kill the damn healer!

OW players feel me.

 

Anyone else's audio jack completely stop working? It was working a day ago and today I found out that no headphone I plug into it will work. All the headphones work with my phone and other devices, and these headphones have worked with this laptop before, but the laptop doesn't even detect that a headphone is plugged in. It just pretends nothing is there. Is there some kind of fix I can do without taking this in for service? I'm in Iraq. I will not be getting service lol.

 

Long time lurker. When do we think we will get the 8th gen CPU into this puppy?

 

Where did you get a 330W power brick for the Zephy? Did it come with a compatible tip or did you cut out and reuse the one on the original power brick?

 

That was in reference to the alienware 15r3 which i compared this too

 

So its been a while since I last posted... Been Busy So I made a long post to make up for it
Below is an overall summary of my current situation regarding my GX501's battery and of past issues I have had:

First Contact - Asus rep tells me that they can't repair in under 4 weeks, cannot cross ship, and will not replace the unit. Asus lvl 3 rep recommended that I have battery sent to local authorized store. Day after I get back home, I head out and have Microcenter set up a battery replacement order. Even this process was time consuming and aggravating. After much arguing, they order the battery and allow me to hold onto my computer until the part arrives.

Last 2 weeks of my Winter Break - was in constant contact with Microcenter concerning the battery order. They checked up with Asus and were provided a date within the bounds of my winter break for the arrival of the battery.

Last week of Winter Break - After I called Microcenter several more times, they provide me with the shipping & tracking information. The shipping label had been created a month ago yet nothing was shipped. I talked with an Asus lvl3 rep who cannot do anything to speed up the process and cannot even pull up the information on the Microcenter order even though I filled out a form at Microcenter affiliating the order with my name and an RMA # given to me by Asus.


Currently - I am back at college with the Zephyrus, which is now constrained to my desk, with only around 40 recharge cycles and more than 33% battery degradation. Having checked the shipping label today, the replacement battery still has not been shipped.


Similar issues occurred only a few months ago regarding the manual and a power brick:

My overall experience with ASUS has been exceedingly poor, from overlooked product defects to really really bad customer service.
When I first got this laptop the manual was not in the box, not electronically on the computer, and missing online. After calling Asus support, I had reps who hung up on me; who argued with me that it was, in fact, available online; who were too busy trying to reprimand those arguing with me (eg. level 2, who also cussed before realizing I hadn't hung up yet); and who were generally incompetent (level 3), taking over 2-3 weeks to find the manual and send it to me.

Additionally, upon my request to purchase an extra power brick, Asus refused to sell me one, citing that they had none to sell, and telling me to look for 3rd party retailers. After even they could not find a reputable company that had any power bricks they still continued to refuse sell me a brick, even though they could have sold me one from the RMA department. At their behest, I bought a brick for an exorbitant amount of money from a company in Germany (which was now several weeks after my first contact with Asus regarding the extra brick). The international shipping took several weeks, forcing me to have to plug and unplug my brick for class, which was not easy (as the plug is behind my desk). When the brick arrived, everything was in Chinese and it in no way matched my laptop. At this point my current brick was showing lots of wear from being plugged and unplugged and was acting finicky so I had to RMA it. ASUS conveniently kept "forgetting" to ship the replacement brick, and once my defective brick was shipped back, also kept "forgetting" to refund my full down-payment. As a college student, I only have so much money.



Summary of Issues
Although the computer does deliver in terms of GPU performance, the CPU cooling is weak, the speakers are extremely tinny, the headphone jack sucks (and is wired in a way such that the same built-in "speakers" become the headphones, so I have to unplug the headphones to switch back to the speakers instead of choosing w/ Microsoft software in the taskbar), the trackpad has very irregular tracking which can be annoying, the screen developed bright spots, the perforated upper compartment filled with dust I cannot seem to remove, The asus logo on the perforated slab in the chassis also attracted dust (as its probably a sticker and the inset edges filled with dust), holding down the caps lock key causes the all user inputs to become sluggish (including the track-pad, probably due to infinite inputs being sent to the system instead of a single toggle upon key release -- this may have something to do with the poor track-pad tracking). The laptop's fans may be quiet but it still suffers from high pitched coil whine.

There have also been complaints about the HDMI no longer working on 4k and high res displays. I have not experienced this but it is believable considering how poor support has been for this "next-generation" MaxQ device.


Recent issues with CPU Stuttering have affected gameplay in games like Tekken and Battlefield 1, causing sudden frame drops, making them un-playable at previously playable settings (blaming Intel and Asus).

Trackpad and Battery Issues can be found here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...01-vs-aorus-x5-v7.811267/page-4#post-10640226




Conclusion Thus Far:
I am on my last straw with Asus. Although the laptop is fairly well designed mechanically (e.g. hinge, sturdy build), it has electronic issues and software issues and a few overall design flaws. Asus' inability to address ANY of these issues or to treat customers (me) politely only serve to increase my aggravation. The battery degradation issue makes what was a somewhat portable machine no more portable than the better designed, 2x more powerful GT83VR I sold to purchase it. At the end of my month-long winter break, Microsoft kindly allowed me to exchange and upgrade my Surface Pro to a Surfacebook 2 so I could have a reliable computer to program on during class.

The battery still has not even shipped from the Asus facility -- The battery is supposed to ship from a facility located within my state's borders and thus only should have been a simple 1-2 days until delivery)

 

Yup, that's why I didn't recommend you get the Zephyrus to start with - and suggested you return it right away when it showed overheating under load.

It's always the same with new product design's, and although your complaints are valid, they are minor - the manual, the power brick, the replacement battery are all symptomatic of a unique new design - every one of those things are only made for the production run's and spare parts come later.

It's been the same general idea with cutting edge purchases across many decades for me, and everyone else.

You can't expect more, even though you can get those things from well established large production run models - even from Asus - with low production run specials like this, or the GX700/800, G701VI, GL702ZC, they are all low production quantity runs, with rapid new model releases - if Asus continues improving that idea - with improvements and fixes until it hits mainstream quantities, if it ever does.

The battery I would have waited to deal with during the summer, but that's neither here nor there, and it will likely drag on further, so I wouldn't continue to agonize over it.

I was worried about the battery life in these Max-Q 1080 thin laptops, they get very hot internally and bake the battery - they don't like it hot - so they are degrading quickly. I'd get the replacement battery installed, and sell it.

At least you have your Surfacebook 2 to carry to class. You're lucky MS got hit so hard by Comsumer Reports, and they feel they need to be on the ball to replace their failures. Another purchase I tried to warn you off of.

 

Laptops: What I Would and Wouldn't Buy, Jan. 2018


@mason2smart - maybe something to replace the Zephyus

 

I get my money back if it breaks within 2 years. Courtesy of warranty I bought through microcenter. Hoping it lasts through volta. The post is more to raise awareness so others do not end up in the same boat.

 

Yup, early adopters already know these things, or they should.

You can't get a 2nd PSU when it's a new custom build - like the Zephyrus.

Manuals, documentation in general, support file downloads, all scarce on the ground - updates, not so much - unless you look around for other new products that came out after your model and use the same core hardware and IO components - even motherboards and AIO's are game for download possibilities.

Thin and light means cooked batteries, I'm surprised more people don't mention it. That's why smartphone batteries go soft so quickly. With more size / volume, isolating the battery from heat, the large laptops I usually get never have a bad battery - they run for years.

Promises from support people, they are used to dealing with the higher volume products, where recent models have a common parts pool - they have the same range of PSU's with the same connectors, they have common battery sizes and forms, and rarely run into shortages - let alone complete lack of spares, like with short run production laptops, like the Zephyrus.

Off hand commitments from those people are not only well meaning, but assumed to be backed up by readily available inventory.

The Asus support people are probably just as surprised as you that they can't get parts.

 

You won't get your money back. Read the fine print, it's at their option what option they provide you. Including many repair's, refurbished units - that probably need repairs, and maybe a new replacement of lessor value - prices go up.

I've "cashed in" on MC warranty's before, and I read the fine print, and I didn't get cash, I got partz.

 

I just purchased one of these second hand from someone that hasn’t had any throttling issues.

This will go alongside my NP9873. I’ll be taking this around when I’m at customers along with my work Lenovo P50 which has been great.

After cracking the case of my NP9873 (and now it’s out to have the screen replaced, separate issues) I’m a little gun shy about taking it out of the house.

Hopefully your situation will improve.

 

Also I would like to apply liquid metal to this laptop but I’ve never done it before. I do have the liquid metal on hand (Grizzly). I know there was a post about this here in this thread. Is anyone able to link where it is?

 

Well as you stated its not a mass produced computer. not so easy to replace. if I get credit im gonna just get back on the MSI bandwagon. LOL.

 

I have the 1070 one. Overclocked the gpu to 200 core and memory. Temps are pretty good. Runs identical next to brothers fat MSi 1070 laptop in Ghost Recon.

 

Asus STILL hasn't shipped the battery!

 

Hi There,

Just created an account on this forum to ask you, how'd it go? I just bought a Zephyrus, but I wouldn't mind dual booting macOS, any problems ? did you use a pre built distro or TonyHackX86 setup ?

Thanks

 

I used a stock distro acquired from a friend and then built the os and boot configs from the ground up.

there is no wifi support, no trackpad support and the laptop does not go to sleep when I shut it. I didnt dual boot. I boot it off a 128 gb usb drive. i didnt give it access to the pcie drives so it cant muck up my windows os.
Ethernet works though...

 

Can someone please post an EDID dump of the 120Hz screen? I sourced one from China to put in the 1060 version of the Triton 700 and now it does not have brightness controls... I'm hoping it's just and EDID issue.

 

Any deals yet? I'm ready to dump my Alienware laptop.

 

I am reviewing this laptop at the moment and I couldn't bring myself to carry it due to how annoyingly horrible the keyboard + touchpad placement and quality is.


The performance out of the box would be okay-ish, but if you have high ambient temperature of 24c or above it's going to be very difficult to keep components cool and not throttle.

Noise is alright, conforms with max-q specification max dba (can't remember exact value)

It's horrible as a laptop, if you want to use it at home docked to a monitor there's no displayport to drive a high refresh rate gaming monitor. Only HDMI output and thunderbolt 3 (not sure if this is even hooked into the GTX1080).


GTX1080MQ has roughly the same stock performance as a tuned GTX1070 laptop.

 

Hurm.. Interesting. Thanks for the info.

 

If you want a properly working laptop then I would look far away from the GX501.

Even asus's garbage offerings are somewhat better than their own GX501.

 

Hi guyz , i'm considering this laptop fro Pro Audio use i have 2 questions (sorry if that have been asked before)

1) Does this laptop allows switching from dedicated GPU to intel one ? (optimus or equivalent)

2) Does upgrading the SSD is avodiing the waranty ?

3) i usaully go for HP elitbook /zbook , Dell precion or Lenovo Workstation , but i needed something silent and rugged (the zbook studio is Noisy and the dell im typing on right now is not solid )
Do you guyz think the build quality of this opne is good ? (used to have msi stuff but the close mecanisam always had issues !! when you cloase them the plastic on lid get loose with time)

thks

 

If you get time, do you mind sending me a dump of the EDID on the screen? I bought one aftermarket and am struggling to get it recognized by the laptop. I'm hoping I can overwrite the EDID(assuming it's not locked).

 

Performance isn't bad it's the small dumb engineering choices that add up. The gpu can be oc'd up to and past stock 1080 speeds

I get a decent 60 fps innshadow of war which in my opinion is very taxing on cpu and gpu

Audio on this sucks. Look for a computer with a decent dac and soundcard.

 

How can I do it?

I will dump EDID for you.

 

I just need the registry file like here in the video(time 1:25):

Also, if you could please run this and export the EDID to a binary file: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/monitor_info_view.html

That should be good enough for me to compare and try some tweaks. Thanks a bunch - I really appreciate it!

 

1. No, you're stuck with the GTX1080. Which means that your battery will be horrible.

2. There's a sticker on the SSD screw. But under US and EU laws this sticker is illegal. If you ever get refused out of warranty, taking ASUS to small claims court will always result in your victory.

3. Not sure. The entire chassis is really thin and flimsy imo. I suggest if you're used with the Zbook's good build quality, just get that and either uninstall your ears or buy earplugs.

I'll do that soon.

 

Just for the record: my zephyrus runs flawlessly. The only thing I have to criticize is the hdmi out which does not do the 2.0 spec. I never owned a laptop with such a horse power in such a small package and low noise under load. The build quality is way better than e.g. the Clevos of which I own three.

 

Thks , noise is an issue that's why i needed the optimus thingy , not really for battery , i usually work at least with pen can Beyer DT 990 Pro , so yep after 5 hours of mixing , mixing alone is fatiguing , if you add the laptop noise , it's just a nighmare ..... HP are noisy , my XPS as i tweaked it is exellent (9530) and i'm considering any portable powerfull quet and well layed out (ports) units , the new xps ports are a joke , the Zbook studio noisy ....the P51 is first on my list but never tried lenovo isince no more IBM , built quality and QC seems random ...

thks for your input

 

Hello everyone.

I've brought Zephyrus 3 days ago and very happy with it. But there's a flaw at the backside logo (the big eye thing at the back of the screen) . It's all formed up of red dots but the top dot is mis-aligned and I can see white light coming from it. Does anyone have this issue? It is only visible from a certain angle, about the screen aligned 90-110 degrees from the chasis.

Also I would like to ask how often should I unscrew and clean the fans? Or any signs that the fans are clogged?

 

Would you be able to post a picture on this issue? Thanks.

 

Need some advice!

Managed to get a brand new sealed Zephyrus 1080 version at a bargain price of £2195 ($3049 US)
Which is a good £500 off the normal price here in the UK!!!

It turned up today and I'm amazed at how well built it is, I absolutely love it

BUT, I have one stuck pixel in the top left corner of the display :-(

It doesn't show up on a black, red or dark blue background, but does on white and green.

I've tried massaging it etc but no luck.

The problem is, I don't think I can get a replacement at this price, so should I keep it? Or return for a refund?

I kind of know the answer, but just want reassurance I suppose lol

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that Costco has the Zephyrus with the 1080 max q model for $2300. Hard to beat 4 years of total warranty, and I picked up 3 years of squaretrade accidental for $99 as well.

 

Tapatalk kullanarak iPhone aracılığıyla gönderildi

 

Months later, still no replacement battery!

 

Honestly i wouldnt make huge deal over it is hardly noticeble. If you can fix it yourself id say go for it, otherise id recommend not sending in to Asus. From my interactions with Asus so far, Id rank their systems support at around the same level if not worse than Razer...

 

I am not considering sending it to Asus; but is there any way I can fix this? Unfortunately it is very noticeable when using in a dark environment..


Tapatalk kullanarak iPhone aracılığıyla gönderildi

 

I will say mine does not have that issue

 

Also do you notice that the left and right bottom red led's do not glow the same? Left glows much more. Can anyone check?