Asus 1201N Reviews and Owners Lounge

Read the Info Booth on upgrading the RAM but am still a tad unsure- I have a stick of 2gb PC6400 800mhz SoDimm (lifted out of my hubby's 4GB laptop) can i put that in my 1201N to achieve the 3.25GB max?

Thanx,

Dumm

 

if i read your post correctly that would only give you 3gb of ram. reason being that the 1201n (to my understanding) comes with 2x1gb sticks of RAM. so you would actually have to remove 1 stick out of your 1201n to add in the 2gb stick from your hubbys PC.

 

I saw there is a new nvidia ion graphics driver for the Ion (desktop) 196.21 as of 1/19/10. Should I download this or keep the one that is listed for Ion (notebook) 195.62 as of 12/04/09. The other 2 drivers (hdmi audio, chipset) that I downloaded were for from the Ion (desktop) sections since there was no win7 64bit notebook drivers.

I am using Win7 64bit.

 

Slumpey, you should be fine with using the desktop drivers, they are basically there same, only difference is there are no x64 notebook drivers since the ion notebooks/netbooks don't support x64, I know our 1201N does but that uses the desktop atom. Also I don't believe the newer drivers really offers much other than a couple of specific bug fixes, I wouldn't worry about updating unless you are having problems.

 

Just use the 32 bit drivers. But you can always force the 64 bit drivers anyway.

On another note, has anyone taken apart the notebook to take a gander at the CPU and GPU? I'm curious, before mine comes in and I start ripping it apart, if there are thermal pads on them or if they are directly in contact with the heatsink.

 

was wondering the same thing...

ive only seen pics of the RAM cover open and the keyboard removal for HDD swapping. from what it does look like you will have to completely take apart your 1201n to get to the side of the mobo with the heatsink.

http://blog.gangkast.nl/2010/01/harddisk-upgrade-asus-1201n-netbook.html

 

Good. That just brings a bigger smile to my face. I've seen that link before and from what I can tell, the 1201N chassis is slightly different in assembly compared to the other Asus netbooks, mainly because of the new motherboard.

What I plan to do is tear down the chassis to gain access to the bottom and see how the CPU and GPU are cooled. If they indeed have thermal pads, I'll rip them off and slide in some properly gauged and lapped copper sheets in there with thermal paste. If they make direct contact with the heatsink, then I'll just replace the thermal paste. I'll try to see what else I can do under the hood as far as hardware modding goes. But other than that, I'm dropping in an Elpida HyperX kit with heatsinks and a single platter Seagate 7200.4 250GB hard drive. Then comes Windows Seven Ultimate x64 optimized down to the bone.

I will be publishing pictures of my work so stay tuned. Hopefully Amazon can deliver my netbook before the end of the week so I can get started.

 

I replaced my thermal paste with some MX-2 this weekend, there is no pads or anything, so you should be good to go. Yeah it is pretty easy to get at the CPU/GPU tho you do have to remove the mobo.
2 Words of caution, 1stly you don't need to disconnect the LCD cable but if you dont go careful not to scratch the screen with the mobo since you wont have a lot of leeway. And careful with the heatsink screws and not to over tighten them, I already broke one and I wasn't using much force.

 

Now that's music to my ears. Thank you for satisfying my curiosity, jakejm79.

 

hey jake, did you see a difference by replacing the paste? why din't you go with artic silver?

thanks

 

@ Soviet Sunrise

you sound like me.

i love fixing stuff that isn't broke too.

i am in anticipation for the pics of your mods. sadly i still haven't ordered my 1201n yet due to a hold up on funds. (selling one of my gaming desktops desktops to get the money for the 1201n but dude is draggin his feet on buying it) but soon i should be getting the silver one from newegg and throwing a slimmed down XP install on it.

i plan on trying to get a nice OC so im trying to get the best RAM for this baby but ive never bought notebook ram with OCing in mind before. can you link the RAM your buying? i hope to get at least 1.8Ghz stable but 2.0Ghz is my goal.

as far as the HDD your getting... how much of a hit will you see in battery life with the new drive and also can you link that as well. i was considering getting a WD black 500Gb but im open for new ideas.

 

From reading some reviews online I found the arctic cooling MX2 to seem better than arctic silver. And it happened to be what I had laying around. I didn't take any significant readings before hand (plus I find the temp sensors to be so erratic especially when OCing) so I can't say for sure, but I think I am 1 or 2 degrees cooler at idle and maybe 2-3 at load, it certainly isn't hotter. I didnt really put it on there to make it cooler, I just happened to have some MX2 handy and was swapping the HDD so I figured while I was in there I would change thermal paste. Interestingly I think the reason (or one of them) the 1201N gets so hot is there is no real heatsink at all, just a small heat pipe, maybe adding some copper blocks to the pipe would help.

 

To be honest with you, I really don't care about the battery. If I can squeeze out three hours from the battery, which is the length of one of my once a week classes, I'm happy.

The hard drive won't hit the battery time as much since it's only a single platter; less rotational mass for the motor, lower seek times, less heat, less noise, less power expended, more reliable, etc. It's still a 7200RPM drive so at idle it will consume just a few more mAh compared to say a single platter 5400.6 250GB. But even then, we're talking about mere minutes.

The memory I have on the way is a 4GB Kingston HyperX kit set for 4-4-4-12, http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/con...o.asp?ktcpartno=KHX6400S2ULK2/4G&promo=hx2shp. I'm not going to be overclocking the CPU or the GPU so these will do just fine. Keep in mind that when you're overclocking the FSB, you're overclocking the entire FSB, meaning that your CPU FSB, and the memory FSB are juked up. This also puts stress on your memory as the memory bus is being overclocked beyond it's rated maximum. This means that your northbridge, which in this case is combined with the GPU, is starved for bandwidth and can only transfer so much. This also puts more stress on the MCH on the chipset/GPU since everything is being ramped up. More heat means less stability, especially when pushed outside of their factory settings. On traditional three chip motherboards (CPU/northbridge/southbridge), overclocking the FSB just puts strain on the northbridge. But because this is an Nvidia board where the northbridge and the GPU are on one substrate, the GPU also looses potential for overclocking since more of the bandwidth is going to the CPU and memory, and the heat produced from this just throws more barriers in it's way. To counteract this, you will need to downclock your memory by flashing it down or loosening the timings as, like I mentioned above, overclocking the FSB overclocks the memory bus higher than it's rated max. I'd prefer downclocking since raising the timings isn't nearly as effective. This way, you lose memory bandwidth, but gain more leeway for the CPU. But because the GPU uses the system memory as it's buffer, holding back the memory means a loss in GPU performance. This makes this platform very difficult to find a balance as it is different from a traditional three chip platform as the GPU is integrated with the MCH and the PCI-E bus. In short, if you want to overclock the CPU more, downclock the memory. If you want to overclock the GPU more, find a way to keep the chip as cool as possible and purchase the fastest memory available and/or overclock it by flashing lower timings or a higher memory bus speed.

I'm going to find a way to mod this little bugger. Apart from my M570TU, this is going to be the second notebook that I'm going to mod and publish my work on a public forum. However, I originally intended to publish the next cooling overhaul on my W870CU, but right now it has no video adapter so it's just a paperweight until I can get my hands on the upcoming GTX 285M. So for the time being, the second overhaul, or mini overhaul, will be done on the Asus 1201N. Come stop by when you have the chance. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=416414

 

Arctic Silver is outdated. MX-2 is pretty much the go-to paste in the price/performance arena.

I really want to see what Soviet can do to mod a netbook. And that's a pretty strong netbook. Atom dual core and 9400m.

And welcome to the Asus side, at least in the netbook department. I know you don't want to touch the performance models with a ten foot pole.

 

You know damn well that I loathe the G series with a cold hard passion, haha. I'm scaring myself that I'm much more enthusiastic over this netbook than I was with any of my Clevo's. I just checked my email right now and Amazon finally shipped it out via USPS. Now the wait begins for the netbook revolution.

 

It looks like I found my time saver. Enjoy taking apart your 1201N.

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Near the end of the video, I can see the heatsink that I've been dying to catch a glimpse of since this notebook launched. Now I know exactly how to mod it and I have already begun creating a blueprint for the initial layout design. I'm taking this notebook to Siberia.

 

Saw this article in my usual research fervor for anything and everything Atom related before my new netbook arrives in the mail.

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/new...n-record-intel-atom-330-overclock-ahead!.aspx

Btw wanted to thank you Soviet for linking the video, will make an HDD upgrade much less intimidating in the face of voiding the manufacturer's warranty. I wanted to ask why you had planned to install a 7200RPM HDD rather than say an SSD.

I have had no experience with SSDs as a Fixed Disk medium but from what I've read they are lighter,cooler,faster at the cost of capacity and simply price.

For this project you have in mind, to which I am very eager to see what you do with it and just how far you can optimize this netbook, what was your deciding factor on the HDD choice?

 

I haven't been keeping up with the latest SSD news, but to the knowledge that I know now, SSD's technically do not run cooler than conventional HDD's. Back then, I took my temp gun to one of my buddy's 32GB Intel SSD's and it got just as hot under stress compared to the Hitachi drive he replaced. The misconception here is they do not run cooler, rather they just have a higher heat tolerance than HDD's. I'm going out on a limb on this one as I'm pretty sure my observations are out of date now, but I'm also pretty sure MLC tech hasn't improved very much since I conducted that test. If anyone would like to differ with me, they would need to provide me with hard evidence as SSD's do not have integrated thermal sensors. And by hard evidence, I mean taking an IR thermometer to the SSD under stress with the comparison to a HDD.

But getting to the point, I place my trust in HDD's. They are still more affordable for my wallet compared to SSD's and have the ample capacity I need to store my data. 200GB is all I need and the 250GB drives are more than enough. There are 256GB SSD's out already but those things cost more than my netbook itself. Cost, capacity, and reliability are the key factors that are holding me back, Ethermancer.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5515627&postcount=1018
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5515953&postcount=1020

My number one goal with this netbook is to get it as cold as possible without undervolting or underclocking, or going to extremes like in the link you posted above. I mod machines so that they are 100% usable in the average conditions, or "real world" conditions. I am more or a "tempmarker" rather than a "benchmarker." I've retired from benchmarking on notebooks a long time ago and I find much more pleasure from dismantling anything electronic that I can get my hands on and make it "better" with absolute disregard for the warranty.

 

Are the silver and glossy black versions made of different materials?

 

Yes. One is made from black plastic and the other is made from silver plastic.

 

lol...

ive been watching these guys for awhile now and am deciding on getting one. my question is , is there a way to convert it so either the screen can rotate or flip =onto the back without too much work. basically so it would rotate/flip like a tablet.

 

I just looked at Best Buy's website and i saw that they are selling a 1201NB. The only difference i see is that it has a matte top cover instead of a glossy one.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+...8161509986&skuId=9727739&st=9727739&cp=1&lp=1

edit: if the link isn't working for you, here is the Model #: 1201NB-RBLK001M | SKU: 9727739

 

Good choice on the 1201N, Soviet.

I haven't done a full disassembly yet, but I do intend to eventually use up the rest of my AS5 on it.

 

Looks like it has 1GB of RAM instead of 2GB, first difference I see, not that that's a huge deal if you are going to upgrade. If not, then it will matter!

 

No.

After all the shenanigans I've been hearing from Worst Buy G51 users, I wouldn't buy a notebook from them if it meant living for another thousand years.

I caught a picture of the Atom 330 and the Ion. The Atom looks like two N270's smashed together, like my old QX9300, and the Ion is a giant chip reminiscent of the old G70. Tearing it apart will be the first thing I do when I get it hopefully next week.

 

i second soviet sunrise on the best buy dealy, they suck they as far as custome service goes and they get "special" dummbed down computers to sell cheaply.

 

how far back does the screen tilt?

 

~141 degrees.

 

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=13009617

this is my 3dmark2006 score

at 2118 mhz
didn't overclock much on gpu

480 core
850 memory
1170 shader.

FSB was 176
and i just of Hit the limit of the octuner. i can 't go any higher in the program.
when i tried 180 .. the mhz doesn't change

By the way,
people asked me about what memory i used
it is Kingston Value ram PC5300 ddr2 2x2gb

memory was at 441(882 ) when at 176 fsb

i havn't even played around with memory timing just change the fsb in the octuner...
done..
damn i love my RAM lol!!


click them

 

Never buy a computer from Best Buy. They're nicknamed Worst Buy for a reason

 

I love everything I have been reading about the 1201n (except battery life) and I had some best buy points that I thought I would use toward the 1201nb. Unfortunately there are no buyers reviews yet or anything on their 1201nb model so I ordered one and took a pretty big risk to be maybe the first to buy that model. Its not a deal breaker but I was hoping that the 1 gig memory and no bluetooth advertised are typos. If they are, it would make it the best deal around. I will have to update this next week (monday) when I get it.

They also said that the max ram is 4 gig and not 8. I could possibly see them only putting 1 gig in the system for a best buy model (that would be easy to reconfigure), but wouln't it be too expensive to make a new configuration with no bluetooth on the board and a limit of 4 instead of 8 gig on the system just for Best Buy? I guess I will find out soon enough.

 

Oh and one other thing. The main reason I found out about the 1201N is because for christmas I had to pick out and setup a netbook for my mother in law. We ended up picking up the 1201HAB at Best Buy. I loved working with it and the size was perfect.

After working with it I wanted one for myself but for 120.00 more, the ion configuration seems like such a better deal (Laptops have a 400-800 premium if you want to play any games on them). Plus I have a Flip Ultra HD camcorder (which is by the way.... wait for it.... AWESOME) and working with and playing these videos on the netbook probably wouldn't do well with the crappy intel GPU chipsets, plus a game here and there is a definate plus.

I also saw a video of someone playing CRYSIS Warhead on this netbook. It was jittery and not really playable, but the fact that it even played it was amazing. While I am on that subject, is there a way to load a game onto a netbook without an external cd/dvd drive? I think with my steam games I can just download them but I am not sure about other games. I was thinking of making an iso and then copy it to the hard drive with a usb stick and then mounting it but most good games have protection against that right?

I'll keep my fingers crossed!

 

Daemon Tools is a pretty good virtual drive mounting software, and it has measures to protect against DRM like SecuROM and SafeDisc. What exact games are you looking at?

ThomH, the 4GB limit is probably either a typo, or they put that there because 32-bit Windows can't read more than 3.5GB, regardless of physical limits. I assume 8GB would work just fine as with the 1201N, but you'd need 64-bit Windows to take advantage of it.

As for lack of Bluetooth, I have no idea.

 

How do you go about upgrading to 64 bit from the 32 bit, how much does it cost, and other than the memory issue, what is the advantage?

 

You buy the OEM or retail copy of Windows Seven x64. The halmark advantage that x64 has over x86 is the memory limit. Other than that, x64 is just a bit faster and can utilize and execute 64 bit applications.

 

2 gigs is enough for me. I was hoping there was some sort of cheap upgrade you could get from microsoft but they just want more money don't they. Heck, the OEM version of the 32 bit is the same price, in my mind, you should have the option.

Anyhow, it doesn't sound like it is worth the money for what I want... Thanks Soviet.

 

Asus doesn't give you the opton because these are mass produced, pre-built models tailored to satisfy the vast majority of average users wanting a netbook that can serve as an alternative for an ultraportable, as a means of being productive on light work, and as an internet kiosk for browsing and watching videos.

You can still load up your notebook with 4GB, it's just Windows x86 can only see 4GB total system-wide. We see less memory available because Windows is including the memory from the video adapter. No computer can operate without a video adapter. And whether it be an integrated solution or a dedicated GPU, they still contribute to the total amount of memory that Windows x86 can see. For example, my W870CU has 4GB of system memory and the GTX 280M has 1GB of video memory. If I have Windows x86 loaded, the total amount of memory that Windows can use is ~3GB. On our 1201N's, the GPU reserves 256MB from the system memory, so that total will be somewhere around 3.75GB.

 

I just think microsoft gets too greedy with their OS. I just upgraded to Vista about a year ago and it costs me more to upgrade to 7 than to just buy the OEM and install it.

If it wasn't for gaming, I would use open source like ubuntu on all my machines.

 

I have Rainbow Six Vegas, Battlefield 2142, COD4 MW, LFD, LFD2, TF2. The steam games (LFD,LFD2,TF2) would probably just be easier to install from the steam console, but it is the others that would be nice to install. Is there a list anywere of playable games on the 1201N and the settings?

 

4gb that 32 bit OS support,,, included the GPU memory
it is all the memory that the OS can see
so on a desktop with 1gb video card
the system can only see up to 3gb system memory

 

Go to www.N10user.com
you can go to the gaming section and find out what game can run on a N10J which is a 9300mGS + N270( which has better gpu but only single core cpu)
if it run on N10J ,1201n will do better.

 

man this netbook is soo tempting, however i just saw some stuff on the ul30vt. how does the ul30vt compare to this one?

 

I'm not sure how the 9300M GS is better than the ION, which is based on the 9400M GT.

 

ION is not 9400gt,, iti is 9400M
from wiki

* Memory Interface: DDR3-1066 or DDR2-800
* Graphics Cores: 16
* Core/Shader Clocks: 450/1100 MHz
* Texture Fill Rate: 3.6 Billion/second
* Maximum Anti-Aliasing (AA) Sample Rate: 16x
* RAMDACs: 300 MHz

9400M G[37]

* 16 Stream Processors.
* Memory Clock depend on System Memory.
* 64 bit memory interface (single-channel mode) / 128 bit memory interface (dual-channel mode).
* Memory Bandwidth depends on System Memory.
* 3.6 billion texels/s texture fill rate.


9300M GS[36]

* 8 Stream Processors. ( in wiki the chart said 16.. here said 8..need to double check )
* 580 MHz core clock.
* 1450 MHz shader clock.
* 800 MHz memory clock.
* Up to 512 MB memory.
* 64-bit memory interface.
* 6.4 GB/s memory bandwidth.
* 4.6 billion texels/s texture fill rate.



9400M is slower then 9300M GS
read here
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

 

i can assume correctaly that the g210m is suprior to the ion and ion 2? right?
and the ulv c2d are faster than the core 2 atoms as well right?

 

@ cpt_jr

the UL30VT is at least 2 times the computer the 1201n is in every way. battery life, CPU performance, GPU performance, etc...

but its also almost twice the cost as well. ($499 vs $899)

in regards to your sig... the UL80VT & UL30Vt are basically the same. the main difference is the size and CD/DVD rom.

 

Over at the Asus.com forums we are seeing a physical 3.25GB RAM limit no matter what OS is installed, be it 64-bit or 32-bit Windows 7 of any variety. We think that the BIOS is to blame for this issue, not the OS, because we have several members who have bought 8GB RAM, and 64-bit OS, yet all that RAM is held in "Hardware Reserve" and there's only 3.25GB available for the system...

I have verified this with Everest Ultimate Utility and Task Manager which of course will identify available, physical RAM, and system RAM, with my install of 64-bit Win 7 Home Premium; with 4GB RAM installed (PC-6400 800Mhz Crucial SODIMMs 6-6-6-18-51 Clocks 2T timing) I am still seeing ONLY 3.25GB RAM, so go figure!

Nobody has been able to address 8GB RAM with any configuration, it's just that simple, so count 3.25GB as the limit for these netbooks presently, unless there's a BIOS update. I am at 0318 BIOS, the latest on the web site, so that doesn't change anything yet either. Everest shows 3329MB physical RAM, with 2 x 2GB SODIMMs installed, and it shows them also...just doesn't account for the rest of the RAM that is "missing in action" at this point.

The 1201N is a great notebook/netbook value though...I went the Western Digital Black Scorpio 320GB 7200RPM route, with good success, no sweat on the installation, it's a piece of cake. This is nothing compared to ripping apart an Acer One to put in one PC 8500 1GB Apple DIMM, like I did with my One, now that is an exercise! A few more puzzles to solve there vs the nice, easy layout of the 1201N, plenty of room, and a quick take apart...I was done with the HD swap in less than 20 minutes.

I've had my 1201N since Monday this week (18th), and have enjoyed it for work and watching HD movies, mostly AppleTV movies-formatted M4V upconverted to HD with the 1201N's native Total Media Theatre 3 getup, as it's very effective with the ION engine. So far no BluRay movies, but in the forum at Asus.com we have several members who bought into the Asus external BD reader/DVD+/-RW writer, and they say that viewing BD movies is perfect with the 1201N.

What else? Hmmm, several members are having intermittent power outages with their 1201N's, so that's something to watch out for I guess...I've had none, nothing like that. Just a solid, good performing netbook OEM Box stock, then add a fast HD and max the RAM out to 4GB and it's a decent performer...nothing like my Sony VAIO mind you, with its ATI 4650 512MB graphics dedicated engine, and 1920 x 1080 real estate, BluRay burner and reader, now that's a powerhouse! But for a netbook this is fine...

rexrzer727

 

NEED HELP - BOOT BOOSTER MISSING FROM BIOS, F9 DOESNT WORK

how can I get boot booster back. It is not in BIOS and I think I accidently might have deleted the partition that might have had the files (if this is correct).

How do I get it back, can I reinstall the latest BIOS again. Please assist. My F9 doesnt work either. Will the recovery dvd do the trick.

Also if I want to get back to factory settings, will the recovery dvd do this also.

 

That's unfortunate to hear. 3.25GB is still plenty for a netbook though. Chipset limitation or not, I'm still poised to tear this badboy apart and start making magic. You can watch all of this happen from your beanbag chairs over at the Asus.com forum.

 

Don't know if there's been anyone posting about this yet but Asus is preparing to releae its EeePc Netbook with an Ion 2 in April (and pinetrail?). Apparently, the Ion 2 is based on the 310M. That should make for an interesting unit. I wonder if the 1201n will get a refresh.

Here is the info on the EeePc:

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20100120PD217.html

And pictures of the Ion 2 in nettops:

http://www.netbookchoice.com/2010/01/15/nvidia-ion-2-to-be-geforce-g310-discrete-gpu/

Bronsky