* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

Well I just have to say that you are entitled to your opinion and i do respect you view on it, but still feel it is a waste of money. I put arctic silver on my desktop that I built quite a few years ago after I replaced the stock cooling fan with a nice Zalman all copper one a few months after I built it. The difference in temp was nowhere near considerable. This is the same for many friends and other people I know. I see it kind of like you telling a car manufacturer that the oil they ship you new car with is not going to cut the mustard and in fact damage the engine. Computer manufacturer's put their products through extensive testing just as the automakers etc... I just think that if it made that much of a difference then they would use that product that has to cost them pennies and in all truth would probably cost them the same as it cost's for stock thermal paste. I know besides water, heat is the biggest danger to electronics so why would they skimp on it if it made such a difference? As to the thread with 500 plus post, you could do the same talking about easy bake ovens if that was your thing so the size of the thread has no relevancy to it. Also, back to the automotive example. Would you want a mechanic to take the engine apart in your new corvette to apply some "paste" that he said would make it perform better?? I know I wouldn't, it was built to perform and it has the xxx year and xxx mile warranty. To each their own.

 

Sorry my mistake, typo. Its 5730.
SO only 2 hours of battery life?

Those who already own one.. would you recommend it because im planning to get 1 this week at msy.
Or are there any other ones that are way better?

 

Ken told me also that IC Diamond compound does not make too much a difference. So I did not order it when I ordered N71JQ.

 

Well I'm just glad we're both happy with our decisions to get/not get the thermal compound for our new N61's. As long as neither of us has problems down the road, that's really all that matters.

Good luck with yours, and I'm planning on putting up some temps of mine when it comes in so if you would want to do the same maybe we could compare and see if I really did waste my money or not.

 

This needs to be verified though as I have seen in other forums individuals getting 3 hours on 'office mode'.

Perhaps this is a Power4Gear and not Windows 7 default power management.

 

Yeah for sure, we just have to make sure both our rooms are at the same temp and your not sitting outside in the cold while running the test! lol.

 

Great! I swear I won't cheat.

 

how would you rate the 5730 against the gt325m?

 

They're not even in the same league. The 5730 is a much, much, better card.

 

Maybe these two links from notebookcheck help you to compare things.

Nvidia GT325M: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-325M.24062.0.html

ATI 5730: http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5730.23825.0.html

For me 5730 is a much better card in performance. Besides it supports DX11 where as the GT325M is DX10.1 card.

 

I haven't noticed my temps getting that bad. I'm using the stock compound and the CPU hasn't gone above 79 degrees and that's after playing crysis on high settings for about an hour. Same thing while playing GTA IV. It usually sits idle between 48-52 somewhere depending on room temp at the time.

I haven't installed anything yet to read GPU temps but I'm sure they are around the same if not a little hotter.

Anyone know of a good program for monitoring GPU temps

 

Update:
Again PNB came back to earlier price ($1036) after a hiked price ($1065) as Justin/XoticPC confirmed there is no price hike from Asus

 

The ASUS MSRP for the ASUS N61JQ-A1 is and always has been $1,099.

ASUS requires resellers to stay within MSRP less 3%. Resellers can set their price within that range.

When there is more demand than there is supply, setting the price below MSRP doesn't make much sense because no one can supply all of the sales in a timely manner.

I guess it is better to pay a little more, and get one, than to pay $34 less and wait and wait.

Therefore PowerNotebooks.com is back at $1,099 (cash discounted = $1,065.48) until there is enough supply to meet demand.

 

While I agree with you that the difference in temperature thermal compounds do is questionable, you also have to realize that manufacturers don't want your notebook to run forever. I'm sure they could if they wanted to, but it's in their best interest to get you to buy a new computer once every three years. That's not to say, that I think they are doing any sort of kill switches on any laptops, like engadget was speculating for sony models, but I really don't think they care if your laptop dies. I think they just try to manufacture it so it doesn't die within the warranty.

I was really unpleasently surprised when I disassambled my HP, only to find out there was a bare minimum of the paste on the cpu and none on the gpu.

 

Ally, my X1 is running great, but I might end up getting A1 instead. The warranty is still a pretty big problem for me.

 

Actually I wouldn't mind in paying the difference if I'm getting the same exact machine sooner. Unless when the batch that is coming in March has some benefit over the ones that are available, paying the higher price if you need the machine now isn't that bad.

 

Just checked and the asus site has the correct measurements.

 

Xismo, How are you going to swap that. Have you got an RMA from Newegg yet? Also Newegg doesn't carry the A1 anymore. If you get a full refund from our "Friends" at Newegg let me know. I'll call them and have "Friendly chat".

 

Getsum, Here is the asus specs on the N61JQ line.

http://go.notebookreview.com/?id=52...?P_ID=ZfpnPRZ5UxVOtrHJ&content=specifications

 

The ASUS N61JQ-A1 does not have the slow IEEE 1394 Firewire port.

Instead is has the much faster eSATA and USB 3.0 ports.

If your external device only has IEEE 1394 Firewire connectivity I would recommend getting an adapter for either eSATA or USB 3.0, or better yet get a device that has the faster connectivity

 

I agree with you Donald. It makes no buisness sense to sell under MSRP when there is a shortage of product. All your Powernotebook fans should understand that.
Now could you please chime in on the great thermal compound debate.
Not trying to put you on the spot, but your opinion is valued and respected here.
Do you think it is necessary? Would you add it to your Notebook?
My guess is that while you are happy to provide this service you are not making enough profit on it to promote it.

 

Professional Video Cameras that use tape still use the firewire connectivity, however, one can purchase a firewire 400 or 800 express adapter and get much better functionality than what are found on typical pc laptops.

I'd suggest you look at OWC (Other World Computing) for such devices.

 

Soon to be a proud owner of ASUS N61JQ after deciding not to wait for G73.
I wonder how much the difference of ATI HD5730 compare to Geforce 9800 GTS. Someone suggested it is comparable to Nvidia 250M GTS?

 

Firewire is so 90's anyway!

 

I believe the supplies would get better after the Chineese new year.
I think currently China and Taiwan has vacations.

In any case HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our Chineese members here.

 

should i be excited to get this laptop?! lol.. how would you compare it to the dell xps m1330 ?

 

Thank you for the reply.
But for a price concerned consumer like me will prefer to opt for lower price from a good reseller. Every $ counts

 

Just to add ... whether XoticPC/GenTechPC are bad than PowerNoteBooks (i d'nt ve idea) ? if not, then when its available with lower $ from them then its good to have, assuming all these 3 reseller are have same level of excellent service/support.

 

The 9800 is the better card, but not by a lot. Maybe 1500 points or so in 3dmark 06 but they are also not in the same class of cards. The 5730 is a better card then the GTS 250m but also not by a lot. If you use the 3dmark scale again its only about 400-500 points better in 06. But the 5730 supports dx11 where the Nvidia cards do not even support dx 10.1 yet as far as I know.

I am able to play crysis on high settings at native res on mine with little to no lag. Only time I notice it get lag is during cut scenes. Game play runs perfect.

The only game I've had major lag issues with is Dark Void.

 

Has anyone successfully read the temps from the GPU yet with the n61jq? When I installed the ati gpu tool it shows my temp sensors as inactive and am not getting a reading with everest. Although Tarlyn was able to read them with everest on his n71jq.

 

Mine says it went out for delivery at 4:42am, the UPS guy always hit up my house late at night on his way back to the warehouse.

 

I was able to using the amd gpu clock tool.

 

That's the program I used but forgot the exact name of it, it says my sensors are not enabled. I'll do some digging around. Starting to think it might have something to do with the bios version or something.

 

Ya you just need to click the enable check box down below on the same screen to enable them.

 

Makes sense. I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the info

 

IC Diamond will keep you cooler than the ASUS stock compound, if only by a few degrees.

However one of the best reasons to have us apply it is that we have found several instances where the factory did not do a good job. We have seen as much as about 20% of the CPU or GPU with no material on it at all.

Now on those the IC Diamond, properly applied, will indeed make a huge difference.

Would I add it to my notebook? Absolutely. And, you are correct in that it is too cheap not to have that added protection. We are not talking huge dollars here.

 

This is pretty much how I felt....was more concerned to make sure it was done right instead of hoping the factory did it correctly....I'm sure if the factory applied it correctly there is a very marginal improvement.

 

So I checked and the option to enable monitoring appears to be greyed out and am unable to select it. It will allow me to increase the clocks but nothing more.

I figured it out. Thanks. Didn't realize i had to select the sensors then enable. All good now.

Thanks

 

Has anyone bought a laptop from Dixons? They always give a different name for the stuff to make it harder to price match. Still they are the cheapest, but concerned about warranty?

They call it the :
Asus X64JQ-JX016V


I can get it for £938 inc 3% off with voucher code and 3.2% quico?

http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/sto...ku=941594&category_oid=-28735#warrantySection

 

That model is somewhat different to the ones I've seen (here in the US):

it has a 640gb Hard drive, 15.6" screen (instead of 16" or maybe just a typo) and it comes with BLURAY

I wonder how much that model would cost in the US

 

Well it is the same as the one here...I think. Dixons / Currys and PC World are the same group in the UK and have their own codes to prevent price matching. Its friggin annoying, plus I am not sure what the warranty is!

http://www.morecomputers.co.uk/extra.asp?pn=n61jq-jx021v

 

UPS is really testing me! The delivery time window is 9am-7pm and it's past six! That's how it always works for me. Tick...tick...tick...

 

Thanks for the reply, now I'm more confident in my purchase

 

Haha, that would drive me freaking CRAZY. I hope it gets there soon!

 

Sheesh...and it has been on the truck out for delivery since 4:42 AM

 

The UPS guy probably saw what it was and decided to play around with it all day.

 

brochiller have you gotten yours yet??? seems like forever ago that you ordered it.

 

No, I haven't gotten it yet. It's starting to seem like forever to me too, but I'm trying to be patient.

 

are you in the US?

 

Yeah. I paid with an echeck though which set things back a few days. I ordered on 2/5 but the echeck didn't clear until 2/10. It should be shipping anytime now though.