ASUS X59SR-A1 review

I recently purchased this laptop off newegg for $799 plus shipping.

I haven't bothered with buying a digicam since my last one bit the dust, so no pics.

Full list of specs at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220459

Looks - this is one good thing, as it's a business-type notebook. It's all black with a chrome strip between the display and the keyboard. No funky color scheme like black/gold or black/copper.

Keyboard - this is a positive note. It's solid throughout. No flex. It doesn't feel like mush when you hit the keys. The clicks are pronounced.

Display - I grade this about average. While it may be bright, bleeding is evident with some colors. It's not noticeable when I play WoW. It's not too bad if you don't look for it. It has a 15.4 worth of real estate which I like.

Performance - this is one area I haven't stress-tested with benchmarks. So far, so good. Boot time is fast, shut down time fast. I glanced at the WEI, and it gives a 3.5 for the Aero. I played WoW on default settings, and it performed excellent. I will update the reviews with pics and screenshots when available. Very nice for $800.

Battery life - this is a disappointment. It only gives 2 hours worth of life. This may attribute to the Sis chipset and the dedicated GPU. Maybe a 9-cell would improve the numbers a bit.

Cons: This is unusual when compared with other similar laptops, but this model lacks a HDMI port. I don't care for the HDMI as I don't even know why I need it on a laptop. However, it does have a Kensington port. The mirrored polish on the lid is very easy to get dirty when you open/close the lid. I get annoyed and wipe it down. OCD!

Bloatware - this laptop came with Norton Security Suite and quite a few Google items. I had to clear out every piece of crap that was installed on it. Vista improved after removing bloatware. There weren't too many, fortunately, compared to others.

*******PICS!********
















after a week or two. I got it pretty good. Benchmark testing still yet to be done - I was customizing everything first. That will happen soon. Keep checking.

I would rate this as a good buy for most applications if you're not a hard-wired performance driven individual or you don't care for ASUS' crazy color schemes as of late. The bag & mouse that it came with is really good for using it as a travel accessory. Not bad for $800 - you get a COMPLETE laptop that's ready out of the box or on the go.

 

Nice, i always liked the professional look of Asus Business notebooks they are really nice.

 

Thanks for the 'capsule' review.

I've wondered about the X59Sr since I first noticed it on Newegg a few weeks ago. The N50Vn and N80Vn are getting all the attention at the moment and they are a bit flashier looking than the X59Sr.

But the X59Sr has been priced at $799 for at least two weeks on Newegg, a $200 discount off the $999 list price. Where else can you get a notebook with the 2.0GHz T5800, 512mb ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3470, 4GB RAM, Wireless-N and a 2-year Warranty for under $800???

It's not a bad deal at $999, but at $799 it's likely the best deal going!

 

you say it lacks an HDMI port...

true, but it has a DVI which is essentially the same thing. all you need is an adapter if u want to use an hdmi cable on a dvi port

site

btw i just ordered the laptop. hopefully i can squeeze in more than 2 hours of battery life. do you really recon that the sis chipset has anything to do with it or did you just read that somewhere else (like i did)? the dedicated gpu makes sense, they need more power. i guess if i need more than the 2-3 hours ill just get a 9 cell. do you know how much we would be able to squeeze in with a 9 cell on our laptop model?

 

CUSE

newegg doesn't specify 32bit or 64bit for vista premium. if it doesn't say 64bit does that mean its just 32bit?

are you planning on upgrading to 64 bit if ures is 32 bit?

 

Now we need pictures, if you may

 

i just bought the same laptop and i will post pictures

 

congrats, id love to seem some if you take pictures please try to take pictures of the keyboard area because i want to see how the matte finish look thanks alot bud and congrats!

 

Man that is a CLEAN looking ASUS. And a totally sweet price too! But I especially like the logo on the right side instead of the middle of the LCD panel.

 

So it does. I just noticed it on the back. I only saw a VGA the first time around.

Yup, you guessed right. It comes with 32bit Vista. Still recognize 4GB, though. I'm just going to leave it that way until Windows 7 is live then I'll switch over.

 

Will get pics up shortly - managed to find an old digicam in the pile of obsolete junk bin.

 

Since you are planning to add pics and that will extend the scope of the review, I am moving it to the Reviews and Owner's Lounges subforum.

Thanks for the impressions btw!

 

Ahh, there it is.

Thanks, EBE!

Pics have been added. Hope they will be good. Rather small, and colors are a bit off.

 

Here are some pictures that I took today
I'm glad this forum has the upload option because I am too lazy to upload them anywhere else.

So far the computer is great. I like the look, its simple and sleek and the performance is very nice. I didn't even remove any of the 'bloatware' and it works fine. When i have time I will remove unnecessary applications.

cuse: where did you upload your pictures?

 

Hey, good to see you got yours Boarder. Glad you like it as much as I do.

Uploading? I used photobucket for everything. I didn't know the forum had thumbnails.

 

I have now added this review to the Info Booth and to the Reviews and Owner's Lounges index. Thanks!

 

I'd like to point out that I cannot screw in my monitor dvi cable in the dvi port, although it fits perfectly fine. I'd like to be able to screw it to ensure it doesn't move about, just like you do on a desktop. Other than that the dvi connection works flawlessly and when in my room I utilize my 19 inch samsung syncmaster 940BW. I'm also using a logitech wave keyboard w/ mouse.

When not in my room the keyboard feels really good and I especially like the mouse pad and click buttons, more so than the ones of the n80 which bulge up. The look is sleek but discrete enough.

 

CUSE: found this awesome wallpaper that i think works well for this laptop since it is all black!

as mentioned in another thread in the asus forum the asus website has wallpapers uploaded to it as well as screensavers heres the link to one that I especially like

 

I got this same notebook last week, my opinions are pretty much the same, key board is sturdy has a nice feel,looks sweet, I like the plain look, 3DMark06 score was 1816 ,

WEI is

Processor 4.9
Memory 4.4
graphics aero 3.5
gaming graphics 3.9
Primary HDD 5.3

One thing I didn't like was that the recovery DVD won't let u select the size of the partitions it defaults to 60% C: 40% to second partition. I know I could use partition magic to fix but I expected to be able to choose. The bag that comes with it is pretty sweet I think, corded mouse is nice but I already have a wireless one. I have only been able to get about 1.5 hours out of the battery on high performance, which doesn't matter to me bc I almost always have it plugged in. boots fast, shuts down quick, overall great business oriented notebook with a great warranty. haven't tried any games yet so don't realy know how well it will perform.

 

what exactly is that sound when booting up that sounds like a floppy being read?

 

its the DVD rw drive, mine does it also

 

Oops...was just pointed out I made a typo in the model number. It should be X59SR-A1, not X1. Can an admin/mod please edit the thread title as I am not able to? Thanks.

 

Done. ______________

 

Hi all


I have just bought the same computer throug a online store in Denmark, but it makes a really loud and constant sound from either the fan or the HD. Sometimes it goes a little down, but the computer is never totally soundless... I'm not talking about the sound when booting, this is a constant and loud noise compared to that it's one-day old computer.... Is this the same with yours?

 

take it back to where you purchased it and exchange it, I would say contact Asus, but due to your location I don't think you would recieve the same level of service we do in the US

gl

 

yea take it back I don't have that problem at all

 

Cuse what's your battery lifespan ? were you able to get above 2 hours?

I got 1 h 50 m with wireless off, battery savings mode, using ms word

 

@ RHP did you get your issue resolved pls update us if you were able to resolve your issue with ASUS

 

Maximum battery life was averaging 2~ hours. Highest I've ever gotten was 2 hours & 30 minutes. Not sure why. Maybe it came with a small 6-cell?

RHP - sounds like it has issues. Mine is rather quiet. Fan noise is not bad. The DVD/RW drive spins up noticeably loud, but not bothersome.

 

Hi Everyone,

I have just purchased an ASUS X59SR-24DPM which is the model available here in Malaysia. It is much the same as yours but has a P8400 processor.
This is just to say thank you all for your postings as they helped me to make my decision to purchase this model.
I have had no problems with my laptop, everything works as advertised.

Regards,
vic stead.

 

I have a question on these laptops. Can you upgrade the cpu yourself (ie it is in a socket)? The model I am looking at comes with a T4200 but I would like to upgrade it to a P8400 cpu myself if possible.

 

it should it was available in some places with a P8400

 

CUSE did you install windows 7? Any driver issues?

btw for those wondering...laptop does the job, only disappointment is the short battery life and this laptop does not hold a 9 cell. So I guess the best bet is to get 2 6 cells. Apart from the energy inefficiency its fine.

 

I just installed Win 7 Pro 64 bit, when I had Win 7 Ult 64 bit RC, I had issues with the graphics driver that windows downloaded thru windows update, I couldn't get my external monitor to display correctly until i removed the windows driver and installed the Vista64 driver, when I switched to the final release of Win7Pro64 I just used the win764 driver from asus and never installed the one thru windows updates and it works fine. The Win7 sound driver from asus caused cracking and popping in my speakers removed then installed the Vista64 sound driver and my problem went away. other than that all drivers were installed by windows. Only thing I haven't got working is the OSD2, the Fn keys work just nothing shows on the screen when changing monitor output or brightness wifi on/off etc... also this thing ran vista 32 pretty well and I didn't see much of an improvement in performance in Win 7 vs Vista. the biggest improvement I made to the performance was upgrading the HDD to a 7200rpm 320gb drive, makes it much more snappy....hope this helps

PS battery life is poor as mentioned above, but i'm almost always plugged in so it doesn't effect me

 

I haven't been on here in quite a while.

Now it's been a year since I purchased the laptop. It gave me no problems at all*. The battery life is its arch nemesis. The keyboard is holding up great.

Haven't installed Win7 yet, it isn't a priority.

*It does have an issue that popped up yesterday - it won't power off on its own regardless of method - via start menu or the power button. It will just reboot. I have to hold the power button until it turns off.

Is this a software or hardware problem? Time to contact ASUS? I believe it has a 2 year warranty. I've got a year left.

 

Hey guys,

I installed windows 7 64 bit on my asus x59sr-a1. I had to delete the restore partition which had vista and the drivers on it because it was giving me a lot of problem when i tried to install other os's. After I deleted it I had no problem installing windows 7. I have the same problem with the sound driver. The driver which installed as default on windows 7 causes cracking noise and makes it really annoying to listen to anything.

Also, but this is not related to one particular OS, my computer has several serious issues.

#1 it sometimes just powers off instantly all of a suden (overheating?)
#2 sometimes when i reboot it stalls with a cursor bar after the ASUS bootup logo shows
#3 when the above happens I have to manually shut it down by holding the power button. Often i have to wait a minute or two before I can restart it otherwise nothing happens when I press the power button (the green light goes on and off)


Which drivers can I install for the sound, and any ideas relating to the other issues?

Thanks



PS (CUSE, i also have the same issue sometimes it restarts when I command it to shut down)

 

haven't had any of the issue you mention, no issues during shutdown or anyhting like that, for the sound uninstall all current sound drivers ie device manager uninstall then delete the driver when it ask, you may have to do this more than once, then install the vista64 sound driver. As far as the shutting down or overheating, I have had mine undervolted almost since I got, I was able to set the 10x multiplier all the way to the lowest voltage, it knocked off 8-10* off during stress testing

 

Thanks for the reply. I had done the following before but it didn't work; that is I uninstalled the driver that automatically installed with win 7 64 bit, downloaded vista 64 bit driver and installed that using the executable installation file in the download. the result is the same

sound gets bad (cracking noises) every now and then, particularly when i have to many things open.

 

there is a setting in the sound control panel windows not realtek that gives you a quality setting, click CD quality and see if that helps, I think I may have had to do that

 

That's the default for me. Here's a screenshot.

Btw there is no cracking after a reboot, it starts when i load more than a few programs are several browser windows

 

i'm going to install windows xp 32 bit, windows 7 does not run well at all on this machine

 

I told you wrong there is another place another place in the HD control panel here is a shot, imo XP is a step backwards, xp didn't run as well as vista did on mine, if you upgrade to a 7200rpm HDD you will see noticable improvement, the HDD is the major bottle neck on this machine. only thing that Win7 64 bit doesn't do as good or better than vista is WMC, when I minimize or expand WMC it slams the CPU and is sluggish for a second, i didn't expierence this with vista 32, idk if its the video card driver or what

gl