*** ASUS ZenBook Pro UX550 Owner's Lounge ***

Hi,
I´ve just bought this laptop in Spain, and the coil whine is incredible, I had never thought it could be so noisy.
But I´ve noticed that it is only present when the battery charger is connected.
Is there any fix to solve it? I´ve tried updated bios, intel hd graphics,..., but nothing worked.
Regards

 

Anybody here tried undervolting or applied thermal pads on it?

 

I've bought Asus zenbook ux550ve with GTX 1050TI and here what I've got! Termal issues! Yes It is almost impossible to play because of trottling! But to play on it completely without trottling you have to do this!! Download Intel Extreme Tuning Utility(XTU).
1. Go to XTU into Advanced Tunning - Core.
2. Undervolt CORE VOLTAGE OFFSET to minus 135v
3. Go to Advanced Tunning - GRAPHICS
4. Undervolt PROCESSOR GRAPHICS OFFSET to minus 100v
5. Download MSI Afterburner
6. Open it and press ctrl + f
7. You'll see the diagram!
8. Click on the square dots and make them not more than 1366 mhz! it will look like this if it is possible to show link images here https://1drv.ms/i/s!Apn9sISK57AbnPo2gp1w8cEK0uN2zg
9. Confirm the setting in MSI Afterburner and save a profile if you like! Now you can play any game without lags and freezes)) GL

 

Thank you so much finally someone who tried undervolting the gpu

 

Thinking of buying one of these. A few questions though:

1. How's the screen? Any differences on the glossy VS matte one? Which is better looking? Any differences in gaming?
2. Do I have to get a blue one if I want the glossy touchscreen?
3. Any news on a refresh in 2018?

Thanks!

 

1. I got the glossy version well not gonna disappoint you but you can see your own reflection on the screen under a bright room, so if you want the glossy one go get a anti-glare screen protector from amazon or something
2. No it’s also available on the black one
3. Nope not that I have heard of

 

Alright hey guys what’s your gpu temp when playing games? Mine went up to 71c and the cpu is like at 73c when playing cs go at high graphic

 

Gonna test out how well it would handle through r6 and gta 5

 

The coil whine is not really that loud and if you wear a headphone you can barely hear it and my headphone is not noise cancelling. The coil whine only happens when gaming.

 

With light/regular usage, what is the battery life of this laptop? Notebookreview posted favourable numbers at close to 9 hours, but I wonder how others are faring. Dave Lee stated it got around 6, however.

 

5-6 hours for browsing and word processing from my experience of owning it.

 

That seems disappointing, as I was able to get approximately 10-11 hours with normal usage on the Dell XPS 15 9560 FHD 97whr. Would have expected 7-8 for this.

 

About the thermal throttling, I ran cs go at high graphic got like 220-260fps then after 5mins it drops to 120-200 but I don’t really see a drop in any other game like gta 5 or r6 I’m not sure if it’s the cpu or gpu throttling I undervolted both of them so yea

 

Alright guys with the thermal throttling issue it only burdens me on one game
So at the start of my cs go gaming session it runs at 220-260fps at high graphic then after like 5mins it drops to 120-200 the whole gaming session

 

That's an old problem, as old as cs:go, it takes all the CPU it can and heats up the CPU if you let it run with unlimited FPS.

You can smooth out the performance by limiting the FPS either in game or externally with RTSS or other Frame Limiter.

Is it possible to permanently limit FPS in CS:GO?
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2700943/permanently-limit-fps.html

MSI Afterburner
Download the latest version of MSI Afterburner here.
https://www.msi.com/page/afterburner##downloads

From your numbers I'd say set the limit to 225, and see if that will remain constant - it won't get hot enough to thermal throttle if you pick the right number - a little higher number runs a little hotter, a little lower number runs a little cooler. Find a setting that remains constant throughout your entire session.

You can also use Task Manager using Core Affinity (right click on process) externally to disable core/threads running for CS:GO, I recommend the odd numbers, or even numbers to simulate selecting cores over threads, but it doesn't really matter, just disable 1/4 or 1/2 the cores/threads available to the Steam control software so that when it forks a CS:GO game it will inherit those limitations.

If your CPU will allow core multiplier settings you can reduce a couple of cores to a few X less, say for example 40x, 40x, 36x, 36x... it may take some playing around and long sessions to find the right mix for high single thread performance vs multicore thermal load.

Have fun

 

Thanks men

 

Can confirm that USB-C charging does not work. Tested with an Apple 87W USB-C charger.

 

Right for some reason my cpu’s clock speed drops when I’m launching a game, and then for like 10 secs it goes back to normal

 

Alright guys one more problem power limit throttling

 

I turned off turbo boost it stays at 3.4 now but at least it doesn’t throttle

 

The coil whine also happens browsing, with the power supply connected.
It is obviously thta if you use a earphone, you won´t hear it, but I think it is unacceptable in a current computer.
I´ve finally returned it to amazon.

it´s a pity.

 

Hi !
Any other people have coil whining or thermal throttling issue ? Is it the case for everybody ?
This UX550 is slightly cheaper than the gigabyte Aero 15 or the upcoming new Dell XPS 15, which I am also interested in, but those issues are clearly disappointing !
(and i can't think of an UX550 with the new Intel Coffee Lake... it will certainly be worse !)

 

hi everyone, I'm new here in this forum. I own the ux550vd with the i7 7700hq and gtx 1050 4gb ram 16gb. I've own the laptop since november 2017. I love the laptop as it's small and under 2.5 kg (with power brick), but still powerfull enough to play some heavy games. the speakers are great and I'm okay with the keyboard (not too nit picky with the keyboard). I am however having issues with the trackpad, the trackpad would misclicks and sometimes has a mind of its own. they don't have palm rejection and are quite sensitive with the inputs (it will crack up if you have 2 fingers or even part of your skin or sometimes other objects touching the surface, whilst using the tracpad), mostly I use a mouse or clean the trackpad when I wana use it, which is anonying.

I'm also having thermal throtteling issues, but not as bad as everyone says. the temps are very high often reaching 85-90 degree. Im not sure if the cpu is throttling but the gpu is throttling from 1700 Mhz to 1500 Mhz ( rarely reaches 1200 Mhz). I am looking for a solution for the heat issues as even with the laptop not throtteling as bad I do want to reduce the heat.

I've already repaste the laptop with arctic silver 5 but the thermal seems to not change that much (though I dont have a before and after benchmarks). I want to try to benchmark with the bottom plate off to see if it will improve the thermals, but if I remove the bottom plate the laptop wont turn on. maybe someone can help me with this. if adding vent holes helps with the thermal maybe I can 3d print a bottom plate or just buy a sparepart and drill holes on it. cheers

 

I don't really understand all the negative feedback about the UX550VE. Make sure you have updated the BIOS, updated both Nvidia and CPU graphics, Networking, IME if available, and you have a super light-weight, well-engineered design, with amazing battery life for having a 1050TI in it. Plus you get get 4 lanes PCIe TB3 connection for future GPU upgrades, albeit 2 ports share one controller, that's pretty much the standard unless it has quad TB3 connections, meaning 4 ports, 2 controllers, x8 lanes total. Keyboard is nice to type on, and display is very radiant, reflection is present but minimal unless in direct sunlight. Trackpad works great, I can't see a better deal for a laptop in this archetype. I heard one instance of "coil whine," a static sound coming from the fans and it was gone. The fans are super quiet to me even running Destiny 2 on full load it plays well. I am usually on my desktop, and with all my fans throttled down to 600RPMS, the laptop is still quieter (dual AIO water pumps could be the main source of noise). I had high expectations for this laptop and my needs were all met. I had very LOW expectations for the Havik laptop cooling pad that I suspected inflated reviews on Amazon. I was pleasantly surprised, basically eliminate thermal throttling for $20 and a slim, design. ASUS Zenscreen portable IPS display in the notebook sleeve in my backpack, and I can fit the Havik pad with 2 books and two binders. After all this good there has to be a catch right? The power supply is a brick. But it also charges extremely fast. No charging via USB-C which is the only real thing I am going to miss when I upgrade my desktop GPU and insert my GTX 1080 into an enclosure. USB-C charging could avoid carrying that brick of a power supply. But it's a pretty trivial issue. Maybe I got lucky, or the careful updates to various devices firmware's, drivers, software, and BIOS fixed some of the issues people are complaining about. Lastly, I thought I got a bad touch pad at first because of the slight tactile response when you tap it. But I've since grown to really appreciate the psychological response to it. Imagine turning off the tactile feedback on your smartphone when you're texting, etc. You wouldn't know how you lived without it 10 years ago haha. Here's a pic of my Zenbook Pro UX550VE. Edit: I guess I can't embed images, wait, Yes I Can! To avoid spamming, here's the link to the rest of the images and my desktop build: https://imgur.com/a/G1dlKHR

 

New zenbook pro unveiled.

https://www.asus.com/Laptops/ASUS-ZenBook-Pro-15-UX550GD/

Love the design, but I really don't know how will they deal with thermals.

 

Yes!
I tryed to do a table to resume all this new thin laptops with gaming capacities (in French)

 

These temps are still considered within the "normal" range. Are you testing these temps under stress?

 

if i used prime95 it reaches around 89 - 92, but if i used unigen heaven its about 80 - 90
i know they're not really gonna blow up or anything, it's just gonna be better if It had better temps so that the gpu boost can be activated

 

Their designs are unparalleled, cooling needs serious attention. I don't see the point in the specs though, downgrade the GPU for an i9, then add a 4k display that the GPU will not be able to keep up with. I'll stick with my UX550VE.

 

Has anyone tried modding anything yet? I'm interested in trying to make strategically positioned vents by getting out a dremel tool or similar. It seems like the intake vents are shared with the top or bottom speaker? We need to get some modders with experience, I can't even figure out how to unlock the BIOS. A cooling pad helps alot though, I'll upload my benchmarks stress testing with and without cooling pad so you can see the results. I am surprised by the cheap Havic cooling pad for which I had very low expectations for and actually like it a lot.

 

i'll probably buy the ux550g and try to find a lasercut business owner who can do the modding in the bottom panel for me.

 

Any hands on videos or the like on the new ASUS Zenbook Pro UX550GE/GD?

 

I haven't seen any yet, but is the GE really only being manufactured for the Philippines for now? Design is nearly identical too the UX500VE with a few minor changes. Cooling system looks exactly the same which is troubling... In AIDA64 Extreme stress testing all components at max (internalGPU, dedicatedGPU, CPU, memory, everything but one box checked[a little extreme in hindsight should have just stressed the CPU and Dedicated GPU probably), the GPU in my unit without a cooling pad actually holds it's base clock but does get throttled from it's boost clock so at this point the boost clock doesn't do much of anything in testing. I still love the laptop, it appears to me all the ports on the sides of the laptop are the intake, so if you are using every port, where is the air coming from........... I really want to open my unit up, re-paste it, add some quality thermal pads to transfer heat to the aluminum base over the gpu, cpu, memory, fsb, and see if I can actually utilize the boost clock. The CPU throttling was extremely depressing, bringing my CPU core speed after hitting 96 degrees C, down to 1Ghz and throttling in that range closely to maintain 75 degrees celcius. The GPU throttled to it's base clock to maintain 80 degrees Celsius. With the cooling pad the GPU performed about the same, but the CPU held up a bit better, and I'll post some numbers I quickly jotted down, both were 15minutes of AIDA 64 Extreme stress testing everything at once, which probably wasn't the best method actually in hindsight. On top of a repaste and thermal pads, I would like to add some vent holes to the sides, it behooves me to think about why ASUS wouldn't do that in the first place. I love the laptop looks and performs great but there is some simple engineering that could have been done to really improve it's performance with no effect on aesthetics.

 

Zenbook Pro UX550VE Stress Testing
Without cooling pad
CPU

Max temp 98 degrees C – starts throttling once it hits 95C it seems, then brings temps down to stable 75C – if it can be kept under 90 degrees, we could see major improvement in performance because it goes into like a thermal emergency throttle down to 75C after 95C or so and stabilizes there until reboot.

Stabilized 1097Mhz – 75 degrees C

Bus 99.8MHz


GPU 1569MHz

GPU Mem 1752MHz

Stabilized at this clock (base clock) at 80C


With cooling pad
CPU:

Max temp 97, max throttle 28%

Stabilized 1400MHz – 75 degrees C

Bus clock 99.8MHz


GPU

Clock 1620MHz

Mem 1752 MHz

Stabilized at this clock (base clock) at 79C


This was a quick summary, I have things to attend to would like to see if anyone else has done any mods but haven't found anything but an amateur re-paste on reditt

 

Holy christ, what are your thoughts on UX580? i personally loved it

 

I'm in love! Oh my god, looks sexy AF. I want it. Might have to sell my UX550VE it's basically brand new. I really wish they would have just thrown an i5 8th gen with 6 cores and a 1060 GPU though! That i9 is just overkill, and a 1050TI is a little underkill! Sounds like a heat generator, hopefully they have better thermal design, playing Destiny 2 it struggles to hold 60FPS on my UX550VE. Basically unplayable after playing on a 144hz monitor with a GTX 1080 and i7 7700K both liquid cooled. I've been brainstorming a way to cut ventholes, repaste, add some thermal pads to dissipate heat onto the metal bottom that way my cooling pad could make quick work of it, but it's pretty frustrating. I think it runs any game that's not a modern graphically intensive FPS, but still bothers me that they didn't pay a little bit more attention to the thermal design even though they boasted so much about its efficacy. That being said, I honestly don't think I will ever buy a laptop that ASUS has not made and will for sure not by any other mother board than an ROG beast from ASUS for quality, functionality, AND aesthetics. I know this is not a gaming laptop, but they did so well at packing high-power components into the UX550VE, it makes me wonder, is the thermal throttling helping the battery life?? A bit of sarcasm there, but a couple of vents on the side and some cooling pads would have been nice. Also I would like to see the BIOS unlocked, but that's pretty standard with laptops even some gaming laptops are locked up pretty absurdly. Anyway, done ranting, I want to do some modding and repasting and then playing around with underclocking a little bit to see if I can push off that thermal throttle issue. The coil whine doesn't bother me because it is only when a game or app is ramping up and once it stabilizes, all I hear is fan. Please ASUS release a i5 8th gen, GTX 1060 model, and add some more thermal solutions! <3

 

I'm in love! Oh my god, looks sexy AF. I want it. Might have to sell my UX550VE it's basically brand new. I really wish they would have just thrown an i5 8th gen with 6 cores and a 1060 GPU though! That i9 is just overkill, and a 1050TI is a little underkill! Sounds like a heat generator, hopefully they have better thermal design, playing Destiny 2 it struggles to hold 60FPS on my UX550VE. Basically unplayable after playing on a 144hz monitor with a GTX 1080 and i7 7700K both liquid cooled. I've been brainstorming a way to cut ventholes, repaste, add some thermal pads to dissipate heat onto the metal bottom that way my cooling pad could make quick work of it, but it's pretty frustrating. I think it runs any game that's not a modern graphically intensive FPS, but still bothers me that they didn't pay a little bit more attention to the thermal design even though they boasted so much about its efficacy. That being said, I honestly don't think I will ever buy a laptop that ASUS has not made and will for sure not by any other mother board than an ROG beast from ASUS for quality, functionality, AND aesthetics. I know this is not a gaming laptop, but they did so well at packing high-power components into the UX550VE, it makes me wonder, is the thermal throttling helping the battery life?? A bit of sarcasm there, but a couple of vents on the side and some cooling pads would have been nice. Also I would like to see the BIOS unlocked, but that's pretty standard with laptops even some gaming laptops are locked up pretty absurdly. Anyway, done ranting, I want to do some modding and repasting and then playing around with underclocking a little bit to see if I can push off that thermal throttle issue. The coil whine doesn't bother me because it is only when a game or app is ramping up and once it stabilizes, all I hear is fan. Please ASUS release a i5 8th gen, GTX 1060 model, and add some more thermal solutions! <3

 

Sorry didn't mean to double post, I'm not sure what happened.

 

Interested to know as well!

 

So is the coil whine not a solvable issue? I am thinking of getting the 256gb , i5 model.

Also, is there a smaller/lighter power adapter?

I will not do much gaming, mainly for work.

 

From the best of my knowledge coil whine is not a "solvable" issue unless you consider headphones as a possible solution. Some units will be a bit better than others, it is like winning the lottery at times.

No smaller adapter that I am aware of at this time.

 

I just got hold of the Asus Zenbook Pro 15 UX580GE-E2005T. So far, no issues.

My only comments are:

1) I was "forced" to buy the 4K model as the FHD variants here are not touchscreens. It is not that I use the function too much, but, moving from my UX550VE to UX580GE should be an "upgrade".

2) Disappointed that the overall finish of UX550VE Royal Blue definitely looks more stunning than the new UX580's Deep Dive Blue. The concentric circles effect is just really nice on brushed finish of the UX550 compared the semi-glossy UX580.

3) the Screenpad in extended mode AND windows taskbar in auto-hide in desktop mode would cause the main screen to display a horizontal flickering line at the bottom. Solved by disabling taskbar auto-hide. Hope someone tries this and confirm.

 

Thanks RnBeer for the info. I just ordered a UX550GE-XB71T from HIDEvolution. Pretty well bone stock, except for the top pasting option. I live in the tropics and it gets hot here during the long summer. We don't need AC on because we are ocean view, but the Zenbook does! I will chime in with my first impressions as I soon as I get it.
These great Zenbook Pros are misunderstood and underappreciated, we have to spread the good word.

I have been reading countless horror stories about top of the line Dells and Lenovos, so its good to know, that for 3 the next years, HIDEvolution has my back, plus I don't have to look at an old school, conservative, black slab.

 

As previously promised (threatened???) here is my extremely biased, unprofessional, personal review of my 5 day old Asus Zenbook Pro UX550GE.


As usual, I tried to live for a day or 2 with the OEM install of Windows 10 but the incessant updates, bloatware and a major Adobe Flash Problem which was was caused by one of the 3 security updates in the Fall Creators Edition. I need Flash for my part time internet teaching job. Yes, flash is old and almost dead, but some sites still use it. The solution was to do a clean install of windows 10 and kill windows update forever.


As many of you surely know, Microsoft has been making it more and more difficult to shut down windows update. So I had to get creative with this install.


First caveat: the windows media creation tool has a bug (over 6 months now, still no fix) which stops it from creating a bootable usb. The workaround is to D/L the ISO and make a bootable USB with good old, reliable Rufus.


Now ready for the install. The first thing to do (IF LIKE ME YOU DON'T WANT F*****G WINDOWS UPDATE MESSING UP YOUR COMPUTER) IS TO TURN OFF YOUR ROUTER.


Do the install as normal. I had mouse problems, it was jumping all over the place (Kensington Orbital) and causing rapid ghost touches on the 4k touch screen. I plugged in an el cheapo HP mouse and it settled down to an acceptable level so I could at least proceed.


After shutting up annoying Cortana and getting the desktop, I Immediately ran StopWinUpdates_v2.5 (not sure I can put links here, so just Google it) It has about 12 Registry Entries and mods to disable the update service for good.


Now you can turn your router back on. Now if you're a Newb, don't panic: you will have about 27 drivers that are missing or need updating. Plus many features will not work. Also I didn't have any internet. I grabbed another computer went to the Asus site and got the Intel wireless driver, and in about 2 minutes the net was back up. By the way, that Intel AC 9560 wireless is a stable performance monster! I have a 50 mbps fibre optic connection and it gave me 68 mb/s bursts in Qbitorrent. A far cry from the infamous Killer wifi chips which work on some machines and not on others. (Dell I’m looking at You!!!)


Next, I grabbed Iobit Free Driver Booster and it fixed almost all of my driver problems. The only 2 remaining issues were: my keyboard was not lighting up. This was fixed by ATKPackage_Win10_64_VER2020 from Asus.


The next issue was my brightness Fn controls were not working so went to the Intel site and got the latest Graphics 630 drivers. I installed the Intel Driver and Support Assistant to keep it up to date. The brightness controls now function perfectly.


A quick note about Windows update: the reg hack batch files worked to great degree but not completely. Yes, the updater is now dead, however, my update history showed 2 minor Kbs and 1 of the 3 Flash security updates. My theory is that microsoft slipped them into the iso so they were installed like a Trojan! Pretty sneaky! But I had the last laugh …. No updates for you!!!! My win is 98% update free.


I then grabbed Iobit uninstaller and took out the bloatware. Ran disk clean for the installer packages etc.


Now, finally to the notebook itself. Frankly …. It is so great it's scary! What do I mean by this.? In my 30 years of computing, (yikes since Windows 3.0) I have never seen anything like it. It so good that I am expecting something to go wrong…. Too good to be true!!! But it is!


I ordered it with the deluxe pasting packing from HIDevolution because, as you know, slim beautiful, powerful and light means hot hot hot!


I am retired in a hot Mexican beach city, so it's even more important for me. You have seen tons of heat benchmark reviews, so I won't bore you with a rehash.


I will, however, give you some real life, seat of the pants examples: Every morning we do Tai chi and QUi Gong on our Oceanfront balcony. I got up at 5 A.M. and did some fairly heavy computing for 2 hours configuring, scanning, and a huge 50 GB copied onto a USB. I picked up the machine to move it out to the balcony and IT WAS ONLY WARM TO THE TOUCH! I could have carried it a mile! Moreover, every day I put my hand, several times, on what I call the dashboard, that area between the screen and the keyboard. Regardless of what I do, it only gets warm… never hot! I gave my wife a new HP Spectre 13.3 i7. She never uses it for more than surfing, email and watching videos. Even then, you don't want to put your hand on the dashboard for more than a second.


This thing is blazingly fast.! I use Macrium Free for all my image file backups. It will do a 20gb backup to a Lacie Rugged 7200 RPM ext drive (3.0 usb) at 1400 mbs!!! In less than 2 minutes!!! While it's doing that can you open 20 Firefox tabs and it will not miss a beat. You don't even know its running a High Speed backup in the background.


Now to the 4k Screen. Apple, please take your Rectum Display and shove it! This is the best combination of perfect colours, brightness, resolution, skin tones and perfect blacks that I have ever seen. Video and Photography Pros must at least, consider this machine. Ditch the overpriced, over-hyped CrApple Pro! I am not a professional user, but I do have 2 of the finest 4k TVS available to compare it with: A Sony Bravia 900EX, (48 inch for the bedroom). I calibrated it using Quantum Apotheosis’ settings. And my pride and joy, a 58 inch Panasonic Viera Pro Hdr TV Tc58Ex750X (sorry not available in US, only Canada & Mexico). No calibration needed, the OEM engineers did a great job. There are 26 configuration buttons available though if you are obsessive about that! The picture is absolutely mindblowing and the near perfect blacks will make you forget about the problem riddled LG Oleds. All this to say, I am a Picture Quality Compulsive Obsessive. So if it impresses me, then you know its not BS.


Last example: there is a demo from Quantum Apotheosis (YouTube) called AUO Demo| Ep.388: Traditional Chinese Dance (google it) It is not even in 4k, just enhanced HD 1080p. The first day I got my Zenbook I watched it and my eyes couldn't believe what I was seeing. I asked my wife to put on the Sony Noise Canceling BT phones and watch it. She didn't want, “I don't have time for that” she said, “I'm busy!” She is not into computers or high end 4k tvs, they are just a means to an end for her. I didn't answer, but quickly put the phones on her ears, sat her down and put the phones on her. Suddenly she stopped complaining, all I could hear was Wow, wow, wow!!! She actually sat still for the whole thing! When it was over she said, “absolutely amazing!!” Coming from her that is nothing short of a miracle!


Let's talk about Harmon Kardon. They used to be a guarantee of high quality but now they are very hit or miss, depending on the model and manufacturer. My wife's HP Harmon Kardon Spectre 13.3 speakers sound like they were designed by Minnie Mouse… they are so tinny! The volume has to be run on Max all the time too.


Why in heck have reviewers not latched on to this next one? Probably too enthralled by the gimmicky touchpad screen option. The Zenbook Pros speakers are absolutely a joy to listen too. No distortion on the highs, mids are great and surprisingly they actually have some base to round out the experience. I don't know who designed the DAC but I have a suspicion that this is what makes the difference, not Harmon Kardon. Using BT headphones, the sound is as good as my ZTE Axon 7 Smartphone, which has the supposedly great, Dolby Atmos!


Ok, so, at this point, you are thinking this review is a load of BS. This guy is a Senior Asus Fanboi! He has nothing bad to say about the Zenbook.


Ok if you forced me… here we go. I disabled the touchscreen (in device manager) right from the get go! Are you kidding, a touchscreen on a 15.6 inch, 4.2 lb Notebook!!! Added weight and expense for something no one will ever use! Its just a features pissing contest that OEMS are involved in. I am sure the engineers cringed when the marketers forced them to accept this design obligation. You can use it like a tablet on the sofa … you say? You can't! it's a locked clam-shell, not a convertible. If you persist, then I will give you an example, try sitting on your sofa with with a big, heavy, Great Dane on your lap and let me know how that goes!


Next, the illuminated keyboard has 3 illumination levels, low (letters? What letters?) medium (I'm starting to see them) and high (ah! Now I can see them). Also the letters could have been a brighter white or a flashy yellow. The illumination on high is sufficient but could be better. My wife’s Spectre has great keyboard illumination and differentiation.


Some of you are surely balking at the price, but believe me, if you have the means, this notebook is worth every penny. It puts the CrApple Pro Series to shame! If you want to safeguard your investment, buy it from a reputable reseller such as HIDevolution (I have no personal connection to them, just a happy customer) or others. Their techs will apply paste to protect the internals from heat degradation and do the burn in, if it doesn't POST they will grab another BEFORE sending it to you. The factory only pulls one out of many units to do a test, so when you buy from them, it is basically a lottery. You will minimize that nervous feeling when you press on the power button for the first time.


It might be wise to take the 3 or 4 year warranty ( I took 3) to protect your substantial investment. This is not a $500 I'll-buy-another-one-if- this-breaks notebook!


Oh, and last downside to this computer. This notebook is like owning your first BMW, after, all other cars feel good, but nothing like a BMW. You will be spoiled for life after experiencing this level of device and locked into only the best machine$. After tasting caviar how can you eat spam?


If you have read this epic length review right to the end, you definitely have no idea what good writing is or are a total masochist


Now go out and buy one of these puppies ! If it's not the way I said it was, then please feel free to denounce me in this forum, call me an idiot and a BSer.

 

Hi all,

Just got the UX550GE yesterday. I'll mainly be using it for photo and video editing with some casual gaming. However, I've noticed right out of the box gaming frame rate is terrible at 1080p fullscreen, yet it works fine windowed at the same resolution. If I set my desktop to be 1080p beforehand, it runs fine, but what's the point of doing that otherwise? Then I checked the task manager and it showed that both the integrated and NVIDIA GPU were being used, with integrated graphics having much higher percentage. I get there are issues with thermal throttling on the UX550 but this seems more like a scaling issue above all else.

 

Overall, I feel like 4K on the 2018 UX550's is overkill and does more harm than good. It seems more an issue of optimization than a speed bottleneck, but everything is far more fluid with 1080p desktop, just it looks pretty awful due to the sloppy scaling (what's so hard about using nearest-neighbour Intel?). The 1809 Windows 10 update seems to improve the 1080p fullscreen/4K desktop issue considerably, but I still have to tweak my settings a bit lower than if I have 1080p for both desktop and the game. Unfortunately video playback is another issue. I'm having a hard time watching 1080p 60fps videos in fullscreen. Everything seems to work fine with the default Film & TV player, but both PotPlayer and MPC have issues in fullscreen. Unfortunately Film & TV doesn't support MKV files.

 

Hello FYLin21.

Do you notice any electrical noises/coil whines at your unit? I would really appreciative if you respond. I want to buy either a zenbook ux550ge or an xps 9570, but I only read and hear bad things everywhere about them, as Jolga77 said. So, do you hear anything from your unit? If yes, is it audible? Can you work on it in a dead silent room? If not, I would be the happiest man ever and would order a zenbook.

Thanks!

 

Sadly there is a substantial amount of coil whine on my unit, which was manufactured in November 2018. I don't know if this is true for all units though. My room isn't dead silent so I don't mind as much, but it can be annoying at times. It literally screams during some operations. The fans also run loud under heavy use (that is, anything that uses the NVIDIA GPU), maybe a bit better than my N550JK though (that thing became a power-hog towards the end my use with it, battery is more or less the same (2.5-3H using Excel and Powerpoint) although the Zenbook seems much better for browsing with around 4.5-5 hours).

The N550JK I had was pretty good for a multimedia laptop except it had numerous durability issues that left me reluctant to choose ASUS again but the other options out there just didn't seem as appealing and the UX550 was on sale.

 

Thanks for answering!

Do you know where the sound come from? You said: "It literally screams during some operations". This makes me believe that in your case, the sound is coming from the SSD. But when you don't copy or do things with your files which involves using the storage, just scrolling in browser, does it whine? Is the sound present in UEFI/BIOS? I want to know if there is still a motherboard issue due to its design, or the sound can be eliminated by changing the SSD. My previous Zenbook Pro (UX501 with 6700HQ) started to whine after a period of time. Or at least, I couldn't hear the sound in the first 6 months. After noticing it, I couldn't bear it, so I went to asus authorised service and got all my money back. However, I'm still in love with zenbook because of its nice and pretty design, great battery, great performance even if throttling, and so on, and I want to buy a new one.
Thanks again!

 

I can't really recall when the "screaming" occured, but it was basically a louder whine that happens under certain situations (I think it was while installing or uninstalling files but I'll need to check again).

I'm not sure where the whine comes from, but it whines each time I view an image or browse a folder regardless of location (I use an external SSD for most of my files). On Instagram, the whine happens whenever I type a letter and it loads the search suggestions. It sounds a bit like someone's frying eggs on your laptop but not as loud. It still happens when you go into BIOS and the fans get loud while you're in as well. These things don't really bother me as much as the sloppy performance of 1080p video playback and gaming when the desktop has been set to 4K.