* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

XoticPC.com or PowerNotebooks.com are the best deals on the N61JQ-A1. They do customizations and can get the A1 close to the price of the X1.

I didn't wait and there are many people here that also didn't wait. I do not know if the Lenovo comes with any Accidental Damage Warranty but, that was the biggest reason for me to jump at the N61.

It should be able to handle all of that with ease. If the images you are working with are extremely large, you may want to upgrade the RAM. Other then that, the graphic capabilities and processing power are fantastic for the price. The Core i7 processor has a very powerful integrated floating point unit and the ATI video card supports OpenCL (SDK needs to be installed though).

 

Hope this is good enough for you Risco!

 

For 5 - I did a little comparison of the ASUS in comparison to the one on my Macbook Pro. Maybe this will help.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5881959&postcount=570

 

I can answer your third question, with an i7 processor, those tasks are going to move every smoothly, even with 3d animation and modelling. I'm using a desktop i7-920 stock numbers and its great for all my content creation, so I can only assume that this laptop would be just as good at it.

 

Can's speak much for photoshop, but gaming is top notch on it. I was also doing some 3d modelling last night, and I couldn't be happier with how the processor tore through those calculations.

 

Thanks for posting that man. Now I can see that this resolution is not bad at all. In fact, its one I can live with comfortably, especially considering with my m860tu, I actually used to raise the DPI for the 1680x1050 resolution it had, thus almost defeating the purpose.

Oh btw, did my suggestion of capturing fraps on an external hard drive help?

 

I'm sure it would have if I had an external hard drive. I know I should have one anyway just to backup files and such, but since I have a laptop with USB 3.0 now I'm waiting for some more USB 3.0 hard drives to come out and get one then.

 

Cool. The asus shipments hopefully may be coming in early so I think I'll be doing some testing on this laptop myself very soon.

 

I'm waiting for more USB 3.0 Drives also.... Although I do want to backup over my network.... And WI-FI N is slower than USB 2.0

 

That would be awesome. I know a few people on here wanted to see some game videos and I would to myself for games that I don't have.

Yeah if you see one come out that has a nice price-storage ratio be sure to post it here in case I miss it. I'll do the same if you want.

 

You'll get far better performance using esata without the USB overhead. You can already pick up a usb2.0/esata enclosure for $12, 3x cheaper than the cheapest usb3.0 enclosure available now and they are available for notebook and desktop drives. If you already have a spare drive around then you are saving even more money. Use esata when it is at your desk and USB when on the go or sharing files with another computer. No need to wait on USB 3 prices to drop.

 

Before anyone starts yapping at 2MNY, he is correct.

Here is a CNET article comparing USB 3.0, eSATA and even mentions Firewire 3200. These are all theoretical speeds:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10141810-76.html

Here are real world performace tests of the current 3.0 drives:

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/02/05/esata-is-faster-than-usb-3-0-at-least-right-now/

Current 3.0 drives are not really ready for prime time. eSATA is still faster as it is a mature interface that has been optimized, tuned and perfected. USB 3.0 has its advantages and will mature over time but, it is too new a standard for tunes drivers and proper interfaces. eSATA is the way to go unless you want to wait another year or so for 3.0 to mature.

 

Thank you very much LordDavon, Brochiller, Deathwinger. Very quick responses and very friendly people around here, so one mroe reason to get this lappy
Your comments are really encouraging to get this one. I will maybe do that tomorrow. I will just try to NEVER look at ads for y560s (which surely will come up the day after I get my lappy) and be really happy.
Anyone else that has any comments on these questions illl truly appreciate it

 

Great comparison about the multitouch!!! thank you! certainly looks better than single touch. Im getting more and more convinced about this.
If I go with more than just a single 6cell (amazon) which do you guys recommend getting?
Is anyone connecting more than one monitor?

* edit rep + for you! thank you

 

This laptop doesn't have an extra HDD bay does it? I can't find anything on it but I could have sworn people were talking about adding hard drives to their laptops earlier in this thread.

 

No people were trying to ad a Hardrive to the CD-rom bay with some kind of plastic adapter, a cool Idea I may look into when/if I get an ssd. Its back a few pages in this thread.

 

The N71JQ does the N61JQ does not.

 

Ah ok, thanks guys.

 

Testador,Welcome to the Lounge! If you really have your eye on the Y560 maybe you should wait. It's hard to judge before it comes out but I don't think I would choose it over the N61.Who knows when it will really come out there could be delays. And I don't believe the $849 price. That will be a barebones option for sure. Just looking at Newegg reviews 70% recommended the Y550 while 90% recommended the N61.
As far as best deals if you are just talking the lowest price yes the N61JQ-x1 on Amazon would be the cheapest at $999. But as David said most people on this forum would go with one of the trusted resellers for service and customization.
And most would choose the A1 model for the larger HDD and the extra year warranty. Another option is Newegg which is currently selling the X1 at $1049 and is now listing a 2 year warranty. But call Newegg to verify the warranty as many of us were burned by a 1 year warranty from them.
Let us know what you choose.
Here are links to three N61JQ resellers who contribute to this forum and are recomended by many in it.
PowerNotebooks @ www.PowerNotebooks.com (Member name: paladin44)
XoticPC @ www.xoticpc.com (Member name: Justin@XoticPC)
GenTechPC @ www.GenTechPC.com (Member name: GenTechPC)

 

Your are welcome!
So you are still not decided which one to buy.

My birthday is also coming next month and I will be 34.

That is exactly what I think also. I always use eSata for backup. In fact I bought a Seagate a 2.5" 320GB 7200rpm drive last year and put it into eSata enclosure to do fast data transfers.

Besides the eSata is like a regular internal Sata drive. So I have a primary partition on it and I have an image of the operating system there.

You never know those unlucky moments when Windows decide not to work any more. Then such eSata drive comes handy as you can boot from it and use it as your regular internal drive.

 

Hey guys this may be a stupid question.. will it work of i plug in the AC adapter without the battery connected?

 

Yes, it should work without problems even when you don't have battery installed.

 

Really? Does anyone else just use the AC adapter without the battery connected? Reason i asked because I hardly carry my N61 around and its basically just sitting in one spot all the time. And without having the battery connected, battery life will last longer .. but then again, i would eventually claim it under warranty sometime in the future

 

Yes, I have a friend with Lenovo R60 and he does it also in the same way. He charges the battery to about 70% and put it in cool place. Then he use the notebook without it.

If you want to claim it with the warranty you have to do it within the first year.
I think battery has only one year of warranty.

 

I'd love to try that practice but I unfortunately can't as one selling point with me and notebooks is that extra battery backup acting like a ups, in the event of a power shortage or the quick requirement to move, that battery comes into extreme importance.

P.S. Anyone ever tried typing on a desktop keyboard after exercising. It feels nice

 

Yes, I also like to have the battery installed all the time.

It gives me also extra security that data will not be lost if for some reason electricity is cut; for example if the plug is pulled out without paying attention.

So far with my two old ASUS notebooks the battery was still working well even after two years. Though I never removed it and stored it away.

 

Yes the system will work perfectly fine without a battery installed and on AC Power. Most people keep the battery in. As Turbogear stated if there is ever a short power outage, you will be glad you had the battery in.

 

Now that my notebook is being used as a desktop anyways I keep the battery out. The cord is tucked away under my desk and I have no pets/children to fiddle with it. In the last 8 months or so since I started doing this I have never had any accidental shutoffs. Even if it did, I'm rarely doing something so crucial that it would be a problem if the power was cut (auto-save helps).

If your laptop stays put in a safe place for long periods, go for it. You'll enjoy like-new battery performance for most of your notebook's life. If you have spotty power in your house, your notebook is in a busy area, moves around a lot, or is used for critical applications, best to keep the battery in.

 

You might like PWboot (Portable Windows Boot Project). The tiny installer makes a small change to Vista/Win 7 so that you can boot windows from a portable drive. If you have some sort of hardware failure you can pull your system drive out, toss it in an enclosure and work from another computer. I install it by default every time I install windows now, just in case.

 

That sounds very interesting! What about drivers though? Do you need to install the new machines drivers or uninstall the old ones?

 

You'd need to install drivers for the new machine naturally. Thankfully, Win 7 is pretty good about out-of-the-box driver support so you should have good compatibility with whatever you hook the drive up to. If it's an older intel machine, x64 incompatibility is probably the biggest issue.

No need to uninstall any drivers. If the device that uses them isn't there, windows won't bother loading them.

 

As far as I read about this, PWboot seems to make the Windows 7 bootable when you put the harddisk into an external enclosure and boot it from an external USB port.

This would be much slower than using eSATA, where you get similar speed as internal SATA drive.

The advantage of having an image of the operating system with all your settings, tweaks and your installed softwares on external eSATA drive is that if windows installation gets corrupted, and you have no time to waste on installing windows back to C drive, you can continue working from the external eSATA drive.
Besides, if you have still some data on C you can copy it over to other partition and then use for example acronis to put the image of the windows back on C.
For me this is important as the laptop is used for work and there are times when Windows decides to just die on me at the wrong moment.

For just debugging purposes, I use Ultimate Boot CD.

 

Just make sure you charge it periodically (every few months). As Turbogear mentioned, 70% is a good charge to maximize battery life. If you store it for too long, it will drain and significantly reduce the life.

 

Hey guys, I just want to thank you all for all the information you have given about ASUS N61JQ. I finally pulled the trigger and bought it couple days ago, and just got it yesterday. I bought N61JQ-X1 from Amazon.com, paid the 2-days shipping for about $18, and got it in 2 business days. No delay in shipping.

When I play around with my ASUS, I noticed that I can't turn off my touchpad for some reason. I want to turn it off because sometime I accidentally touch it when I type. However, problem solved. I went to ASUS website, go to my product page, download the touchpad drive, and re-install it again (ELAN touchpad). It works perfectly now. So if any of you had the same problem, don't worry. Just re-install the driver. TIPS: I found a setting in ELAN Mouse Properties where you can actually turn the touchpad off automatically when the system detects a USB mouse plugged in. Kinda nice in my opinion.

I love my laptop so far. It is an awesome machine. Haven't had chance to really play games on it though. I do notice some high-frequency sound from the left side where the fan is, but it's not really noticeable, even in the quiet room.

 

I happen to have a 19V/4.74A (90W) adapter that goes with my old Dell laptop. I notice that the adapter for my N61JQ-A1 is the same voltage/current/power rating. Would it be safe to use the Dell adapter with the N61JQ, or are there other considerations involved in compatibility?

 

Why would you want to use an old adapter when you have a new one made for your laptop? As for compatibility, check that the adapters have the same polarity (e.g. positive on the inner conductor, negative on the outer). If they don't match, DO NOT USE THE ADAPTER.

 

Testador - you're in a win-win situation if you use a VISA credit card to make the purchase. See, VISA's enhanced (free) services will double the manufacturers warranty. I couldn't wait for Ken over at Gentechpc to get the N61's back in stock so I ordered it from Amazon yesterday and paid with my Visa credit card. It's already shipped. By the way, I can attest to how well the he VISA warranty works. Our expensive washer needed repairs and was out of factory warranty. Since I registered it with visa they reimbursed me the repairs Sears made. The registration process is painless. I always use my visa for large purchases. Never tried buying a car though. Hmm. Any way, here's the link to visa's enhanced services site. Click on the FAQ. And no I don't work for Visa.

https://portal.newcorp.com/visaclaims/servlet/VisaClaimsProcessRunner?USER_ACTION=ShowWelcome

 

Yup still not decided, the form factor of the N61JQ is what I want just the resolution is a sticking point.

Cheers mate, it helps a lot!

Guess what Asus did today though, to make my decision even harder lol!



Is it me, or does it look like it has no optical drive?

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/02/...isplay-and-bang-and-olufsen-icepowered-n-ser/

 

Hello. If you've bought a blu ray drive for your N61JQ please post the model and where you bought it. I'd really appreciate it. Peace.

 

That N63 looks NIIIIICE! I wonder about the specs though, although it is listed as a gaming laptop.

Does anyone know if Amazon charges a restocking fee on laptops??

@Risco...it does look too thin to have a cd/dvd drive but it probably has a slot loading on the other side. I can't imagine a gaming laptop without a dvd drive.

Edit: Judging by the spacing on the sides of the keyboard that looks like the 17" model.

 

I don't think there is a restocking fee, but they do charge return shipping. I initially ordered an X1 before I saw the A1. I just told UPS I wanted to refuse the X1 delivery after the first attempt (this was recommended by Amazon). Amazon issued a full refund upon receiving the X1, at no shipping cost to me. Refusing delivery is not something to abuse, but you can do it occasionally to return items without paying shipping. It benefits Amazon as well, since they can restock the items as "new."

As for the gaming laptop, be aware that ASUS' gaming laptops seem to run at least $400 more than these bargain models. They charge you huge amounts for high resolution.

 

I certainly would not want to use the old adapter if I can avoid it, but I figured it could be useful to know in the future if my Dell adapter (which I just bought a few months ago) would work.

 

So I've spent the last week catching up on posts in this thread. I'm a recently new owner of the N61JQ-X1 laptop and loving it so far.

A few thoughts.

1) Some people have talked about burning bootable CDs and never having them around when you need them. Check out http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/. It works very very well for booting linux distros from a USB thumb drive. I've used it for Ubuntu and XBMC-live.

2) I had a really strange issue with World of Warcraft. When I moved around in game, I had 60+ fps. When I stopped, even just staring at the ground, my fps dropped to 20fps after a few moments. Just poking around in the ATI settings, I changed the Catalyst AI to off, or advanced. Both seemed to stop this from happening. Anyone else notice this issue? I'm going to play around with it some more to see if it's really resolved. However, with everything besides shadows maxed, I get around 40 fps in Dalaran at the north bank during non-busy times. 30fps or lower during prime time. Would love to hear how others see performance there.

3) Blu-ray replacement drives. Just saying that most slim ones will work doesn't help much. Most slim drives I've seen have been external. How about some link examples?

4) Larger batteries! Anyone try a G series battery yet? Any word on when they'll release N61 batteries with more capacity?

 

Does that also apply to Visa Debit Cards?

 

If it is a Visa card then you must use it as a Credit card. So if the debit card allows you to charge it as a credit card -- meaning you do not use a pin to make your purchase but rather sign for the transaction then you are fine. Sorry to geek out on the whole point-of-sale thing. I know a little too much about the subject because I own a tech company that specializes in POS. Yeah the other meaning of POS comes to mind from time to time as well.

 

@allyw123 good answers and perspective, and also gave me an informative, friendly and inclusive welcome to the forums. thank you! rep+ to you
now checking the resellers, and it is pretty good to know that they are active in the forums as well. I-m mainly considering customization for the need to use multiple monitors.

I first thought the asus n61jq could support multiple monitors, but now I see that i may need an external adapter. any recommendations, anyone?

 

@PantsOnFire, thanks for the info on visa!

by the way, about the new asus n63 and n73, they do look great. but i wonder if 3d will really be availiable at a reasonable price. I like performance computers, but when they are marketed as "gaming" computer they generally seem to carry a higher price... i wonder if there is really a difference...

 

Virtually any laptop will support one external monitor. Beyond that there are several ways to handle additional external monitors.

What resolution do you need handled?

How many external monitors do you need?

Do you intend to game with them, or use them for business applications...or?

 

I use my n61JQ with two external monitors. One through the VGA (D-SUB) port and one through the HDMI port.

 

^--^
So, you don't use the laptop screen then, just the two external monitors?