Asus N51 Owners Lounge

It should be here tomorrow.

I noticed noone has posted any reviews. I would like to post one, but I'm not too sure how many people would care to hear a review from a new member. Besides that, I would need to use it for a couple months before being able to make a reasonably informative review.

This is a great site, with a lot of good information.

 

I am now using an HDMI cable to connect to my external LCD and the picture is quite clear. Appears that I only have this distortion/wavy problem with the VGA output. I suppose I should report this to Asus support.

 

You can give us your initial impressions and follow up with more detail later.
New member or not your input is welcome!

 

Hmm ok I'll share some thoughts.

This is the first laptop I've ever owned myself and used permanently for my own things, so I don't have too much to compare with.

Firstoff, I'm really glad with this purchase, which I plan to be using at college. It games well, runs extremely cool/quiet, with pretty good battery life considering its power, and all those can be improved far more with undervolting, which has me idleing around 26 degrees C (and it's really really hot up here in the NW)

The screen is nice, and though I moved from a desktop with a 19'' monitor, it doesn't seem small, and I'm liking the widescreen. It is quite reflective though, and as with most laptops, the viewing angle is extremely limited.

Webcam works great, speakers are average laptop quality, but have plenty of volume- in fact, I keep the volume around 10/100 for what I think is normal volume. Now the microphone on the other hand is terrible to the point of uselessness. It's situated right next to the webcam, and you'll probably think it's off, as it barely picks up anything. As its built into the lid though, any slight touch/vibration or even typing sometimes sends the input through the roof. To actually pick up your voice with this thing, you need to turn input up full, and mic gain +30 dB, and mash your face against the lid. Then you'll be audible, amidst a sea of fuzziness and static like a bad radio signal. Definitely have an exterior mic if you plan to be recording anything.

Lets see, keyboard is great, ctrl/fn in their normal areas. keyboard doesn't bend or anything either. All the expected exterior ports are present. As noted in many asus models, touchpad buttons are excessively loud, though I just turn on touchpad tapping for click instead. I have no idea what the ionizer does, but it sounds cool I suppose. There are a lot of touchscreeny asus utilities that can be launched through certain buttons/keys, though many are basically useless, and it'd be nice to be able to remap those pretty touchscreen keys to something else.

The laptop feels solid, and the exterior seems pretty resistant to scratches and fingerprints alike. One thing that bothers me is that when I pick it up my fingers tend to go around the DVD drive, and it definitely wiggles a bit and feels insecure. Too much pressure from grabbing it there might damage it, so I need to learn to pick it up differently. The LEDs at the bottom left are somewhat bright, but aren't too big of an issue. The built in wireless adapter is of good quality and gets much better reception than my desktop's adapter does.

I can't comment on battery life much, as it's plugged in almost all the time. The first time I booted up into windows vista, the laptop froze terribly and wouldn't even shutdown without manually making it. Since that first time though, everything's been working flawlessly. I've played everything except crysis at max settings with no issues at all. (fallout 3, supreme commander, demigod mainly)

Oh, and last time I checked x64 drivers were basically nonexistant, especially for the video card, so keep that in mind.

I'd say it's a great buy overall. It doesn't seem as popular as the n81s or the g50s, but I'm happy, and it has basically replaced my desktop.

 

Thank you for your comments enjoy your laptop

 

My initial (first 2 days) impression is as follows, which reflects much of what has already been said. Keep in mind a more informative opinion can/will become available as time passes.

I have been using strictly laptops for about 6 years now. The Thinkpads in my signature have been great (the T43 is my girlfriends which I "maintain" for her). When I worked in IT, we used/supported these at work, which was the main reason for buying them (easy access to parts/etc.). The T42 has been through hell and back, yet it still pushes on to this day. As I noted before, I can only hope this Asus will last as long, which I am expecting it will.

I have not gone into the OC and UV with this notebook yet, but I suspect as above that it will greatly improve battery life. Unplugged, the life has been fair, but this has been WITHOUT using the battery saver mode. Also, this has been with constant activity since the moment I opened the box.

The screen is exceptional in my opinion. Then again, coming off the Thinkpads, this was expected. But, I have had experience with some Toshiba, HP and Lenovo Y series laptops and this is right up there with the rest.

I have not yet used the webcam or the microphone. I do not expect too much from a laptop in general in this regard, but I suspect they will be fine for my uses when or if they are ever used.

The speaker are good for a laptop IMO. I don't think they're AS good as some of the HP models that I have experimented with, but again, this is one of those areas where I wouldn't expect the best in a notebook. Being a standalone, the speakers will be great. In any situation where "better" speakers would be necessary, that's when external speakers would likely be used anyway.

I concur with the above. The keyboard is very solid IMO. As I also read, the "click" is a little loud, but if this means that it won't wear out then I could care less. I've worn my T42 down so much, there is no longer a left click under the touchpad.

The shortcut keys on the unit itself are simple and convenient.

I really like having the numpad, and this is the first time I've ever personally had one on one of my own laptops.

The ionizer is clearly not necessary, and not something I was "looking for" but it happened to be in this notebook. There's really not much to say about this.

IMO, it does like fingerprints, but they wipe off rather easily. I agree it feels like a solid notebook. I concur about the disc drive movement, but it's not a huge deal. If I really wanted to be picky, I would say that the sliding wireless switch near the toupad feels "cheap". Again, this is not an issue, just me pointed out things that tend to not matter.

I have seen the same, but I expect they will be out before/when Win7 comes out, which I am looking forward to.

I also agree that this has been a great buy so far, and only time will tell if this is really true.

 

Can you still use a word processor while on battery saving mode?

 

Yes, you can.

The "Batter Saving" mode is simply an edit of the power settings. Besides that, word processor is one of the most basic functions you could perform. If you'd like to know anything else, I will try and answer as best as I can.

 

Also, many of the pictures that I saw of this notebook online, made it look as though the lid had a very "checkered" look to it. Looks were not that big of a concern for me, but I was a little worried based on the pictures I was seeing. When it arrived, I was very pleasantly surprised. Here's a picture with and without a flash to try to show what the lid really looks like. I think it looks great, and very different from most photos I've seen online.

 

Were did you buy your laptop? Good pictures! Gen Tech was showing the photos of the older model at one time. I don't know if they have since updated their photos.

QUOTE=BeefyBeefo;5177125]Also, many of the pictures that I saw of this notebook online, made it look as though the lid had a very "checkered" look to it. Looks were not that big of a concern for me, but I was a little worried based on the pictures I was seeing. When it arrived, I was very pleasantly surprised. Here's a picture with and without a flash to try to show what the lid really looks like. I think it looks great, and very different from most photos I've seen online.



[/QUOTE]

 

I ordered it from Buy.com (shipped and sold by them, not 3rd party). I paid
$1199.48 shipped with 2-3 day shipping. I ordered it on Monday and it arrived on Wednesday. The day after I ordered it, the price went up $30.

I noticed when researching that some sites were posting pictures of the N51Vf (older model), which is another reason for my posting the pictures. Are you considering purchasing this laptop?

Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to know about it and I'll try and help as best I can.

http://www.buy.com/prod/n51vn-a1-no...z-15-6-wxga-4gb-ddr2/q/loc/101/211417926.html

 

I purchased the older model with a 64bit operating system from http://www.xoticpc.com/

 

I am thinking I might buy the N51Vn-X1A. Can someone tell me how the speakers on that model or the N51 series are as a whole? (or as compared to the Acer 6930 series which advertises cine speakers with bass boost. I had that model and it was just passable and do not want to buy anything worse than that.)

Also, does it support 5.1, cannot find it in the specs?

 

I need to hook up exterior speakers for my N51 to be acceptable, but it is not an issue for me.

 

I don't find the speakers to be horrible. This would be personal opinion and I'm also coming from an T43 and these speakers blow that away (obviously). Besides that, I'm almost always wearing headphones if I'm playing a game...

 

Anyone have any luck with finding good 64bit display drivers for Vista/Win7 yet? Running 32bit Windows 7 on my N51 and loving it but really would prefer to get to 64bit.

 

For the N51's with the GT130m or GT240m, use these drivers:

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/24003-forceware-185-85/


For the ones with the HD4650, use these:

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx

 

I just got my N51VN-A1. When I install programs that are only a few hundred megabytes, gigabytes are being used on the harddrive. And when I uninstall said programs, the space on the hdd is smaller than when I first got it. Any help?

 

This is probably because of Vista making restore points, which for some reason get very big. Have a look at my Vista optimization guide for a way to control the disk space taken by System Restore.

 

Getting a new N51-Vn with in the next week. Ill post my opinion once i do.

 

I just received the N51Vn from Newegg and fired it up this evening. So far, everything seems to be working ok, with the exception of the DVD drive. It is really, really LOUD. Anyone else had this experience? Also, the screen casing is separated in the lower left hand corner. Perhaps I can post more of a review after using it a bit longer.

 

sounds like you got a bad one...

 

It may depend on what you mean by really really loud... since everyone's appreciation of "loud" is subjective.

Laptop DVD drives can be quite loud. What kind of sound does that make and when?

Although, you could consider returning it just for the separated screen casing. Could you post a picture of that?

 

These aren't the best pictures, but you can see the separation. First, the bad side:

Apparently I don't know how to add pictures. Go Here.




Here is the good side for comparison:



Also, the loud noise is more of a terrible vibration and it only happened with a CD in the drive. I tried a DVD later and it wasn't too bad at all. That isn't really a problem anymore. My main concern is the casing. I like the laptop otherwise so hopefully this can be taken care of fairly easily.

 

I needed to return my laptop twice to ASUS for a case problem, which resulted in them changing the case and the motherboard. See my comments in earlier postings
Phil

 

Hmm I can't advise what to do, I can't appreciate the extent of the fault just by looking at these pictures... Send it in if the fault disturbs you and this outweighs the need of having the computer.

Maybe the CD was unbalanced? For instance, because of a label that leads to an uneven distribution of mass. I have this with a Windows XP CD, it really makes the optical drive vibrate when I use it; no problems with other disks.

 

I am planning to buy this Notebook (model N51Vn-X1A) as a replacement to my Toshiba A100 which is getting a bit old. I've read all this thread but I still have some concerns

First : I dont like the fact it comes out with Vista 32 bits...ive using Vista 64 on my deskptop and dont want to go backwards. I've read there isnt a driver Gt 240 for x64 systems so that is the reason i havent ordered yet. Anyone tried any of the alternative drivers someone posted here? Would definately love to get feedback.

Second: I read on newegg that some people are having issues with a chinese language included so any more info?

Third: Some people reported Windows only saw 3gb of ram...i presume its because they havent installed Vista 64..so just wondering if someone can confirm me it has 4 gb.

By the way, i've chosen this because it seems to be the best laptop here in Canada for the price. G51 and N70 are damn expensives here.

Thanks for your help

 

First: Somebody before posted a working x64 driver.

Second: I didn't have issues with it, but I do remember a chinese language toolbar popping up for strange reasons...easy to uninstall then never worry about again. A few threads around the forums go more in detail, though it was straightforward for me.

Third: I'm on vista 32 and it says 4 gb ram.

Note: I have the n51vn-A1, but i'd assume they aren't too different software-wise.

 

Finally, i'll probably wait until Windows 7 is released...prices on Vista laptops will surely drop and maybe ill be able to pick up something that has x64

 

I much ram can the n51 address? most 32bit laptop can address between 3.1 and 3.6 depending on the hardware.

This maybe only in head, but I work with lots of program opens at the same time, so I really needs the 4 gig

Thank you!

 

The best thing would probably be installing Vista 64 or Windows 7 when it comes out but its kinda lame Asus hasnt released the drivers for x64 systems.

Also, I wanna know what high-end games can you play and on what settings? I've read bad feedback GT 240m and would like to know if its really that bad.

 

I've played every game except crysis on maximum settings. (fallout3, supreme commander, demigod, cod4 mainly)

this is the A1 though, with the more powerful processor.

 

Ok, could you test Age of Conan on system requirements labs? Would really appreciate it. Might go with Dell XPS 16 if they cut the price since A1 is quite pricey here in Canada and there's isnt much of a difference with the XPS 16 in term of price. I also get Windows 64 and a better graphic card. Anyway swtill figure that out.

 

Just bought a n51Vn-X1a and installed Vista Ultimate 64bit only to find that there are no drivers for it on the ASUS website. I need a video driver (will try the one from a few posts ago) and a wireless driver. Can anyone help please?

 

I purchased the N51 from Newegg about 3 or 4 days ago. I've been having issues with the laptop freezing during gameplay. So far I've tried both Company of Heroes and F.E.A.R. Both seem to freeze around 10-15 minutes into gameplay. Sometimes the laptop is hesitant to start up again right away after it freezes like this, as though it needs to cool down (though it isn't noticeably hot), sometimes it starts right back up. Sometimes the sound will keep playing, sometimes it becomes distorted and looped.

Do I need to send this back in for repair, or is it possibly a driver issue? I read from one of the Newegg reviews that the installed Chinese language library could have something to do with freezing like this, but I've removed Chinese from my keyboard settings. Perhaps there's more to uninstalling the language?

 

I have recently received my N51Vn-A1, and I am very happy with it. This thing really flies with the T9600 and 240M! It's unfortunate that this laptop comes installed with Vista 32-bit (despite the 4GB of memory) and full of bloatware. It is not until after you fully wipe and reinstall that you can start to appreciate how nice this machine is. I have formatted and installed Windows 7 x64, and this laptop seems suitable enough to replace my desktop.

Some people here seem to be concerned about the lack of x64 drivers. This has not been a problem at all for me, at least not with my Windows 7 installation. Windows Update was able to detect and install pretty much all drivers required for my laptop, including the one for 240M (186.31 - with PhysX and everything)! The only other thing I had to install was the ATKxxx parts of software from the ASUS driver CD, and this was to get my touchbar to work. Now, everything is running perfectly.

The performance of the GT 240M - I'd like to comment on this. The 240M is supposed to be a midrange part, and in terms of raw power is a lot weaker than the 260M. However, this is largely made irrelevant in the case of N51 laptops which sport a 1366x768 display. After having tested a number of games, I can confidently say that the 240M does have enough power to run most of today's games on high/near-high settings at this resolution. The 240M also consumes a lot less power for its performance, being a 40nm part. Perhaps due to this lower heat output, the laptop runs very quitely, even while gaming. There is also the small advantage of DX10.1 support, but I guess this will probably not be realised by most games.
In closing, I would say that for most purposes, the GT 240M is well-worth considering. If high performance is crucial for you, or you play games in higher resolutions - then the GTX 260M or above would be more appropriate.

I hope you all enjoy your laptops as much as I do.

 

Hey guys I've been looking at the perfect laptop to buy to balance gaming and work, and I'm not sure I have found it but this n51 looks pretty close.

Just some questions.

How is the battery life in both maximum settings and power save?

And has anyone had problems with the 1368*768 resolutions? I have been hearing that it makes everything look grainy. I really don't want this to be a problem if I will be staying up late working on papers and such. I don't want to go blind from eye strain.

Gaming? At the max resolution of 1368*768, do the games still look good?

Srry if I am asking too many questions, but it would be awesome if you owners could answer them.

 

Yes this laptop is great for a balance. Games exceedingly quiet, and never above 45 degrees C for me.

Battery life obviously depends on many things. I wouldn't rely on it lasting over 2 hours though under normal usage (not gaming), or more than 2:40 ish if you really try to conserve power.

Resolution is great in my opinion, but I don't exactly have much to compare to. Only eye-strain you'll get is from light reflecting off the screen, especially if working outdoors.

chuckdeg: says age of conan meets all required, and all recommended except for recommended processor speed. Not sure why, since 2.8 dual core should be way more than enough.

delitus: any way to get the ATK software online? I don't have my cd with me, and I'm a little wary about switching over to x64 with windows 7.

 

So the battery life isn't this good? So battery life in powersave mode doesn't get close to 4hrs.? Because according to pjsyoga, that's what I would expect since according to him it gets 2:45 on high performance mode. Can anyone confirm or refute this?

 

I got a problem, my N51 is frozen. The screen is black with the windows cursor on it. Won't do anything, won't start up or shut down, any advice on what to do? I've had the laptop for about month and a half now.

 

pull out battery and see what happens?

 

Hey guys I'm thinking of buying the N51VN. I've particularly liked the previous model, the N50VN because it has great heat management, you can hardly feel any heat under idle. I don't really care if it gets hot under full load, but I like it cool for office work, browsing and such.
So does the N51VN get uncomfortably hot when during use?

 

Anyone?
I've read this review (for N51VN) and it says it heats up to about 35 degrees C on top and tp 40 on the bottom. I don't know if the same applies to the N51VN though. Can anyone confirm this?

Here's the review:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-N51V-Notebook.19745.0.html

 

That review says the heat management of the N51 is pretty good, average or better I'd say. All laptops will heat up under load, it's the other factors such as where the laptop is placed and ambient temp that make a huge difference. On a flat desk you shouldn't see/feel much heat, in the palm rests or otherwise but resting on your uneven lap the air flow will be restricted enough to feel some heat. I'm not a believer in laptop coolers as I think they are a gimmick. The only way I'd use one is if I gamed for 3+ hours (I do) and didn't have AC (I do have AC) playing on my lap (I do not).

Anyway, I just took hold of my N51Vn-X1A last night and immediately put Windows 7 RC1 64-bit on it. I didn't even fire up the 32-bit Vista already on it. Windows 7 found all drivers except the video driver which was downloaded from Windows Update along with the Ricoh memory card reader driver (there's more than one). The only driver that didn't install was the second Ricoh driver which I'll troubleshoot tonight, not enough time last night.

I've built hundreds of desktop computers over 10 years and my current rig is overclocked to hell and back (4.4ghz E8400 water cooled). Needless to say I wasn't expecting much out of the N51. Much to my surprise it's a fast little machine (P8700 2.53Ghz). I attribute this mostly to the 7200rpm hard drive which is the weakest link of all modern computers and obviously a new install of W7. For reference I use an Intel 80GB X25-m on my desktop machine (main rig) with W7.

Did anyone else notice there is a "speaker volume level" (or something like that) in the BIOS? Is this referring to the motherboard speaker (of which I don't hear a POST beep on startup) or the actual Altec Lansing speakers? Again, I didn't have time to play with this just yet. It has a setting from 1-10 and the default is 5. I'll set it to 10 and see if there is a noticeable difference tonight.

I looked for a few weeks on the best all-round gaming laptop under a grand and this fit the bill. I built some laptops from iBuyPower, CyberPower, PowerNotebooks and of course Dell/HP but it turns out Newegg had a special on the N51 this week that hit a sweet spot ($950 shipped). The best deal other than that was Cyberpower using the Compal KHLB2 barebones kit. Same CPU, with a Radeon 4650, 4GB DD3 1333 and equal other features/ports but no OS that rang in at ~$920 shipped. The Vista OS with W7 upgrade and ASUS support was worth the extra $30 bone despite the marginal memory speed loss (doubt I'll ever notice it).

I was originally set on getting a Radeon 4650 based notebook since it seemed to be the mid-range killer card but according to Notebookcheck.net the 240M is right on par with the 4650, losing in some games, winning in others. Overall the 4650 is slightly faster but not enough to make a real-world difference.

So far so good with my N51. No gaps in the casing, no BSODs, nothing unexpected........ yet.

 

What about the low contract ratio they are mentioning (and high level of black), is it bothering?

 

I responded in your other thread, but as I said, temps are fairly good considering the power it has. You can undervolt quite a ways as well. Under normal use (like right now just browsing the web) I'm at 22 degrees C.

I don't have too much experience with monitors or laptop screens, but everything's looked quite good to me, except obvious things like glare. Viewing angle is really good actually.

 

alright so when im playing any game, really noticed in left for dead my laptop will start making a beep noise whenever i press a key, i turned off sticky keys thinking it was like that but it still happens and it sucks

l4d is all on low setting this machine sucks right now

 

Hi there from Germany.
I noticed this thread while searching for a review of the N51VN-SX050C. I now have a Acer 5736G-734G32MN with practically the same hardware. I really like the performance of this thing but the cooler control doesn't work at all (Intel Speedstep does not work either). The cooler runs all the time and much too loud to work concentrated in a quiet surrounding. So my question is: is the cooler quiet? Is it even off in idle (dont expect that, but a low rotating cooler would be enough)?
Thanks in advance for answers.

 

Can noboby confirm a tolerable cooler noise? Any N51 experience would do.

 

Very low noise. I can only hear if i put my ear about 3 inches from laptop. Of course it probably heats up under stress, but despite all my game playing I honestly haven't noticed.