Asus N550JV - user review and owners lounge

If you want to see if the CPU is throttling at all, run a game in windowed mode on the left and task manager on the right (CPU clockrate will drop from turbo to 0.77ghz if it throttles while playing). This is assuming that you seem to be noticing significant framerate drops time to time.
If you want to see if the GPU is throttling, use GPU-Z and log the clockrates to a text file while playing a game. Should be maintaining the GPU boost of 1163mhz for the most part.

The thermal temperatures look alright. 80C range is fair, and I've never ran into any problems in my previous Asus with those temps.

 

Anyone not get the headphone hiss with Realtek audio drivers? I uninstalled them and no longer have the white noise. Hard to believe Asus let that one slide, though I did install W8 myself on a ssd. I did play around with the Realtek settings before uninstalling and was unable to stop the hiss.

 

Well then, before I possibly buy it, would someone be able to comment on this for me.

If I buy it from Adorama (through Rakuten.com) I get 15% back in "Rakuten Super Points" which essentially equates to almost $160 back in points. The only kicker is I would have to wait 15 days before the points are deposited to my account. The laptop itself costs the same as at Adorama ($1065.95)

Would it be worth it to get the point and wait 15 days to buy the SSD?

EDIT: I also know the issues with Rakuten.com. I would be using a temporary generated CC number from my CC company

 

LOL. I take it you were lucky so far, but Asus and other manufacturers let lots of things slide. Just try your headphones on a G75 and you will love the N550. :hi2:

 

Yeah, I'll check that out. I was more curious how it compared with other users' temps and if people had been swapping thermal paste on these machines. I still have some Arctic Cooling MX-3 paste back from my Sager days, but I was hoping to not need to crack this machine open if not necessary. Also, are the hard core gamers here using throttlestop?

Did some testing and can confirm that within a minute or two of playing Far Cry 3 I started to see CPU throttling, though the clocks seemed to level at around 1.7 GHZ or something in that range. I didn't see any huge performance hit from it either.

After testing that I grabbed Prime95 and tried CPU alone. The CPU hit 80 in a minute or so and then throttled back to 2.88 GHZ, where it stayed for the rest of the test (temps at that point were mid 70s). Other users have indicated that they had no throttling while running CPU stress tests alone, so I'm considering doing a quick thermal paste swap. Does anyone know if this voids the warranty?

 

I figured out that I just had a cheap bit and it was what was stripped. The Torx 5 is so small it was hard to tell. I went out and bought the highest quality driver I could find and they went back in just fine. I just don't see the benefit of using Torx or even Phillips. Square drive should be universal by now and is impossible to strip.

 

I bet Asus did it to make people less keen on opening their laptop. Some might not even have an torx driver and then not bother getting one either. Same goes for many laptop makers now - making laptops less serviceable for the average end consumer.

 

Just a dumb question: For this laptop, Which method of installing W8 on SSD is preferred? Clean install or Cloning?

 

I always clone first. Usually if there are problem with the clone they will be readily apparent, but I have not had problem running a cloned drive since XP.

 

Is there any program that will creates recovery disk, preinstalled on this laptop?
I wonder if it can be used to clean install windows 8 on a blank drive.

 

So, my N550JV-DB1 hit 92*C at points from Avast using 30% of the cpu to presumably scan a fast steam download. On a cooling pad. Prime 95 however will only get it up to about max 85 or so. I have no idea what happened, I just noticed that the case was burning hot up at the top and checked realtemp. Any advice?

Idle temps: 44 43 37 37

 

Sorry to hear about your experiences. I got mine from John Lewis as well and no problems on the graphics card or display at all. It's got 16GB and a 1TB SSD in there now. All-in-all really happy with the system (especially after discovering that you can fix ACPI in Linux by putting acpi_osi="" in the kernel command line. All of the function buttons for keyboard & screen backlight/wifi/volume works perfectly now).

For me the N550JV is way better than the HP Envy Touchsmart 15 which I returned mainly due to the use of a really poor quality LCD panel. The colours were completely washed out and viewing angles were horrific (even at TN standards). The thing that made me snap and decide to return it though was the faint vertical lines that appears when the panel displays certain colours (mainly blue) probably due to shape and placement of the blue subpixels (the L521x Dell XPS 15 had similar issues). Apart from that, the HP has a below average keyboard with keys that don't feel solid and with quite a bit of flex around the ASDF keys. In the looks department, it's also not as nice as the Asus - the cover appears to be plastic with a metallic finish and the bottom is plain black plastic. They didn't even bother putting soft-touch paint on like the dv6s!

Having said that I hope you get your 2nd replacement sorted out and I believe it's well worth the hassle! (For others looking at getting this in the UK, save on laptops appear to be the only retailer have them in stock at the moment. The page is showing over 20 in stock right now. I trust John Lewis more though and think they are a better company to buy from.)

 

You might need it, but I'm bot sure about warranty.

 

Yeah that seems a little inconsistent with what others have said about their cooling performance. When did you get the computer and what bios version? My max with Prime95 was 81 or 82 with no cooling pad, but that's largely because the CPU throttles at 80 from 3.4 to 2.8 GHZ. Others seem have had better luck than me though and had no throttling. You should see if your machine is clocking down at the 80ish point. I'm also considering doing a thermal paste swap, and you could consider the same if you're not satisfied with the stock cooling performance. Btw, anyone who has tried swapping the thermal compound, did you see noticeable improvement in temps, and did you need to remove any warranty stickers to get to the heatsinks?

 

Xotic PC and v204

 

I did a repaste with MX-2 but temps are pretty much the same. The pasting was well done enough. Of course there are better thermal pastes out there but repasting won't make enough of a difference unless your stock pasting was very bad and you're experiencing weird temps, which can happen. Yes there's a sticker that touches a screw on one end but you can easily unstick it and put it back. Worst warranty sticker ever

 

i pushed the gpu memory from 900 to 1175mhz. No problem, didn't try higher, 1175 mhz was my max on my ddr3 630M GT. 1050-1100 mhz should be a safe spot and stable 24/7.Went from P2690 to P2973. Could unleash some fps in memory sensitive games. I didn't try to push the core since it is already insanely high clocked. I mean, i had a 650M GT before and 1150 mhz on core was my max overclock and it's pretty much the same gpu. Pushing the core will probably make it pass 80°C and throttle anyway so i won't bother.

 

Yeah, I got mine from Xotic too. I've had good experiences with them for the most part, but mine did come with somewhat beat up packaging (and a nice hole through the box all the way down to the PC). Anyway, I'd wait and see if it happens again and if it's an issue consider a repaste.

 

What gets me is that neither Prime nor IntelBurnTest will get close to that: it throttles before it ever reaches 90 (usually it gets to 86 and then backs down) but for whatever reason the throttling failed that time, because it was still doing 3.2 Ghz if I recall correctly. Maybe it has something to do with the load being only one core/thread?

Kallogan, what software did you use to OC the vram?

 

Nvidia inspector.

 

I Had to contact asus support because I couldn't find a way to create the recovery disk. They told me download their backtracker program. It allows you to backup and restore not sure if you can specifically pull out windows or not because it is embedded with the key. On that software the only option to make the recovery or backup discs was using a usb flash drive. I wanted to use discs but couldn't figure if there was a way to do that. Let me know if you find out any other information.

 

The ability to create recovery media (flash drive or DVD) is built into Windows 8. Try this: Windows 8 Tip: Create Recovery Media

 

How is the keyboard on this laptop? Reviews have mentioned it to be underwhelming and cheap feeling. I haven't been able to test this laptop in person. My local best buy has this model in stock

Asus - 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - 8GB Memory - 1TB Hard Drive - Black - Q550LF-BBI7T07 - Best Buy

Which is supposed to be very similar to the n550 and the keyboard on it is absolutely horrible. I will be doing very heavy typing on the laptop and am interested in seeing what people think of it.

 

I like the keyboard quite a bit, though it's a personal preference obviously. That said, the Q550 keyboard is identical, so if you don't like that keyboard, you might want a different laptop.

 

I would look into the Ativ Book 8,also at Best Buy. It's in a similar price range with similar specs

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Kallogan, what software do you use to stress test the Vram?

 

Damn! I am kinda bummed to hear that. To tell you the truth, the travel and height of the keys were fantastic. It was the physical makeup of the keys themselves that kind of bothered me. Maybe I was just not used to them. I was hoping that this would be the perfect laptop. I'll just have to get used to it, I guess.

Thanks for the quick response. I appreciate it.

 

Thanks for the heads up. The ativ book was actually my original first choice, but the 8770 (in the US for me, at least) and the really really shallow travel on the keyboard made me gravitate towards the N550. Did you make the decision between the Ativ Book 8 and N550? Which did you end up choosing?

 

Thanks for the info. I will try to make another set with discs using this way.

 

I am also considering this laptop and I found typing on the keyboard to be very suitable. Travel is decent and I was able to type as I normally typed. Maybe a little too much space between keys but that is just nit picking on my behalf.

 

Unfortunately no, I'm still in the phase of convincing myself that I need a new laptop ;D I might try to stop by best buy sometime though to try them out.

 

I recently purchased this laptop and everything is working well except one thing. Whenever I plug in any type of headset/earbuds I hear a static white noise in the background. I already saw some people post this complaint but I can't seem to solve this issue. Could it possibly be a problem with my headsets/earbuds? or maybe the fact that the audio jack combines both the audio and the mic together. I was thinking about possibly buying a headset that is connected through USB, would that fix the problem? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

Just uninstall the realtek audio drivers and noise will disappear

 

Down side, no external subwoofer, right?

 

Probably. Didn't try as i don't use it. A little less volume too but not that much.

 

Kallogan, which piece of software did you use to test the video memory overclocks?

 

How do i uninstall the realtek driver? i tried looking for it in the uninstall menu but couldn't find it (windows 8)

edit: i tried uninstalling the audio driver but as a result, the entire audio system was disabled and I was unable to play any music at al.

 

Anyone know how much % the color gamut of the 1080p is ?

 

In the spec list at one of the Norwegian sellers it's listed as 45% NTSC. Not sure if this is correct though, could be 60% as well.

It for sure is not 90%+ at least.

 

It should be there.

 

Can you find the program "AI recovery burner" on the laptop? It allows you to create factory recovery dvds. If not you can try f9 during bootup to use the recovery partition. The recovery drive option built in Win8 will create system repair disk but it won't reinstall Win8. I wish I could check it but mine is still being shipped.

 

Hey, are there any known issues with this laptop? I'm really interested in ordering it, and from what I've found there are no known issues with it.

 

My only issues are the placement of the speakers are really silly and make the sound extremely bad unless you like to listen to music with your laptop flipped upside down. The other issue is the HD is a huge bottleneck for the system, so I would plan on replacing it ASAP. Since I don't really expect a laptop to have great sound in the first place and have a better HD being sent to me, I am extremely happy with it otherwise.

 

Ok thank you I already plan on changing the HD, so that's no issue.

 

You will be happy with this laptop. It is the best one I have owned and I have owned a lot between me and my wife. The design of the case is just phenomenal. I game a lot and my previous laptops were insanely hot and this one just barely warms the left side of the laptop, but only slightly. The bottom does get warm, but I use a pad and again, it is way less heat generated while gaming than anything else I have ever used. I also need to get out my monitor calibrator and measure the color gamut. The screen is the best laptop screen I have ever had for brightness and colors. My photos match everything on my nice calibrated desktop display. I have read complaints about the cramped keyboard, but I have had no issues with it. I like the way it types and I do like the number keys on the right since I use them a lot for work related programs.

 

The sound is not bad at all, let's say a little above the average notebook, but i agree that it would have been better with a better placement of the speakers though.

I also agree that the HDD is the weak part of this lap. Luckily enough, this Asus is pretty easy to disassemble, it is not always the case with other Asus notebooks.

Also, i would suggest to put some adhesive pads to rise the lap from about 5cm height as it would prevent throttling easily while enjoying the peacefull silence of that great cooling system. It's really nothing to do, takes 30secs max

It's really a great lap overall, the best i had so far.

F22 > I overclocked memory gpu with Nvidia inspector and tested the stability through 3Dmark11. 1175mhz was no problem to run a complete 3dmark bench, but from my expérience, going above that should be tricky. As i said before, I suggest a safe 1050-1100 mhz for everyday gaming. I'm not sure how much it can help in games though. Probably a little boost at 900p or 1080p but very moderate depending on the game.

 

i bought those to put on the heatsinks and pipes :

Copper DDR DDR3 RAM Memory Cooler Heatsink FOR RAM VGA UK Seller 0224 | eBay

Will probably won't do much but i always wanted to try

I'm too lazy to expand pipes through the optical bay via a caddy but it seems pretty easy to do. Just removing the optical drive helps a lot the cooling system haha. Best airflow ever

 

Thank you both for your help I'm now trying to decide between the Touch and non-touch. Do you know if the touch is very reflective? Would it work outside? Is the touch-screen responsive? Would you say that the matte screen is grainy?

 

This is the seventh laptop to grace our household. I have managed IT accounts for entire military bases and exposed to a ton of different laptops. This laptop seriously has the worst sound I have ever heard with the laptop right side up. If you flip it upside down, then yes, the speakers are better than most other laptops. The sound reflecting off of objects like a desk or pad is just atrocious. There isn't anything else you could really do to make it sound this bad than reflecting it off objects except muffle the speakers by blocking them, which happens if you use it on your lap. Maybe I am just sensitive to reflected sound, but I'm not really an audiophile of sorts, so my standards aren't even that high to begin with.

I pretty much despise matte screens and much prefer reflective because of how crisp and vibrant the screens look. I decided to take a risk on this laptop and get matte so I could use it outside in our lounge area in the evenings. I was prepared to send it right back if I did not like it. I was totally impressed by the matte screen and I am keeping it. The matte is not overpowering like most manufacturers seem to force on you these days. There is no sparkle and the screen is bright enough to overcome the matte without looking garish. The only thing I do not like is the monitor itself is recessed from the bezel by a few millimeters, but that only distracts from the looks slightly and not really a big deal.

 

Oh, I will say that if you use your laptop strictly as a desktop replacement and leave it on your desk all the time, then you can tune the sound with that little base speaker attachment to not sound too bad. Once you move it and it reflects off of other materials, you will be right back to square one.