* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

Correct. When I use the laptop at home it's a glorified desktop. I have an external keyboard, mouse and two monitors hooked up.

At school or work I use the laptop display.

 

Do you game on both monitors?

 

Paladin,
I would like to use either the laptop screen + two monitors or, preferrably, three external monitors. Either way, three monitor total.
Curiously, resolution for external monitors is not a dealbreaker at this time.

however, i will use them on this n61jq for: Adobe CS4, aftereffects, second life, 3d models for second life, 3dpaint, and google earth modelling.

also, regular gaming.

I wonder if I should get this n61jq i7 or get a cheaper i5 and use the money on the external video output... :S some i5s are starting to look really good...

 

No, my monitors have different resolutions, so it would never look right. I primarily use the external monitors when I'm coding or editing/creating image assets. I do use my main 20" monitor for gaming. To tell you the truth I prefer the laptop monitor for gaming.

 

If you do any video encoding/decoding you'll want the i7. The i7 just screams doing that kind of computing. 8 threads vs 4.

 

I agree, I do a little video encoding and what took my C2D 45 minutes to encode takes this i7 8 minutes.

 

I use Adobe PPro and After Effects. I'd go with the i7 especially if you're rendering multiple particle layers. I want my rendering to happen as fast as I can afford it to. Time is money and impatience is a curse. Peace.

 

I'm really bummed about eyefinity not working on the N61. I'd love to have my three 28's setup to game.

 

Since I am such a nice guy and I understand your pain, you are more then welcome to ship one of those monitors here.... ummm... so you don't have to have it remind you of the missing feature... Yeah! That's it! ;-)

 

Are you sure this video card could even handle that high of a resolution (Eyefinity) for gaming? The Mobility Radeon HD 5730 is equivalent in performance to the desktop HD 4670. I have that desktop card, and it's a little old.

 

Lounge Owners, I'm working on David's idea of putting more imformation on the first page of this lounge. As David pointed out this will help prevent alot of the same questions coming up from new viewers to the Lounge. If you have any links or ideas of things I should include on this first page send them to me in a private message. Also feel free to leave feedback on the current first page as it is kind of a rough draft. And being a Bus Driver this is not really my thing.

 

Attached is a picture of my setup with my old 20" Sceptre monitors that have now been replaced with 22" 1680x1050 Samsung SyncMasters (which for my money are the best in the business).

My laptop supports one of the external monitors and the other is supported with my ViBook Plus USB to DVI adapter. The adapter is only $139.

 

Excellent. LOL! Btw, all three of the 28's cost me less than $1k. They're the 1920 x 1200 I-inc 28" LCD's. I bought from TigerDirect when they were on sale for $289. Actually I used BCB so they were even cheaper. Here's the link.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4938558&CatId=3774

 

Sweet! Thanks for posting this! So is your resolution 1680x1050 across the Samsung and laptop display?

Edit: Looks like I can use the ViBook but will need to buy an HDMI adapter since my 28's dont have DVI.

 

Yeah, ATI's site says it supports it.

 

Donald, if I hook up an external monitor to the n61, would I be able to use the laptop LCD as well (as an extension, not a clone)?

 

Hey people, I've only just found interest in this laptop and have a few questions to ask which i couldn't see in the first edited post.

What does this compare to Graphically? i.e 8800GT? (the reason i ask is because i'm selling my 2x8800Gt desktop and would like to be able to play all the same games at similar settings)

And What's the UK equiv of this? and if there isnt and i was to import how do i go about getting an equivalent UK power lead?


and last question... does this come in black? not a fan of brown... lol


Edit: Was it ever concluded why the RAM windows 7 rating score was so low?

 

Sorry Allyw123. I put you into this and then get sidetracked.

I think we need to get this organized or there will be some duplication of efforts. I will volunteer to help. Anyone else that would like to help can PM Allyw123.

Allyw123, I suggest giving each person that volunteers around 10-20 pages to go through. Either that or give each person a category to work on (i.e. One person takes Reviews and another Modification, etc.) This way it isn't too overwhelming, can be done in a single sitting if they want and doesn't over obligate anyone where real-life may delay all of their work. They can then return the categories, topics and links (or links if given a category) that are found in a PM to you. Once someone finishes those pages, they can opt to get more or take a break.

PM me a section of 20 pages or a category and I can start. If you already started planning the layout or have an idea how you want it organized, can you PM me the information so I can start in that format? Do you want a PM with the information pasted into it or would you prefer it in an OpenOffice, Text, Calc, html or other formatted attachment?

We should be able to knock these out in no time if we get everyone involved.

 

As I mentioned before, it is almost equivalent to a Radeon HD 4670 desktop card. 3DMark06 score is 8000. As I understand it, a single 8800 GT card is faster than this card.

 

Supports vs. running at a decent framerate are two very different things.

 

In terms of screen resolution, as this is a lower res would it run similarly compared to a 8800GT@ 1650x1080 for example.

 

This seems like a good idea. I am new to this scene and definitely not a hardware techie, but I can help to sort out some info, and it would be much better to have a sort of FAQ and guide with info about this lap.
If i can help, im in.

 

Hmm. I don't know how much slower it would be. Maybe you could try playing a game at 1650x1080 and noting the FPS, then switch to 1366x768 and see how much it changes. You're looking at a 40% reduction in pixels going from 1650x1080 to 1366x768, but I doubt you will get a corresponding 70% increase in FPS.

 

Testador, Thank's a FAQ guide is a great Idea. I have already listed reviews and problems from the first 150 pages. I will just update that list as we go along. Now I will add a FAQ list. You, David and anyone else please send me any FAQ and answers to post on this list. Don't worry about duplication as I will sort that out. And if anyone objects to the validity of these answers please let me know and I will fix it.

 

Stevedogg is right. The N61 and most other notebooks out there don't have the horsepower to run games at the extended resolutions offered by eyefinity. If you read up on it more, ATI is trying to make it abundantly clear that eyefinity is a purely optional feature and it's up to the companies that use the 5xxx series chips if they want to implement it or not. On slower cards it's a nice solution for productivity software, etc. that doesn't require super pixel-crunching power. The lack of lag jumping windows between screens is certainly a nice bonus.

If you want eyefinity gaming then you need a desktop pc and a beefy graphics card.

 

With just the laptop (no adapter) you can run 1 external monitor and the laptop display (extended or cloned) or you can run 2 external monitors (one D-SUB and one HDMI) and no laptop display (extended or cloned). With an adapter like PowerNotebooks.com sells you can run 2 external monitors and the laptop display (I'm pretty sure they will run all three as an extended desktop, but Donald can confirm).

I wish I had the room at my desk for two monitors plus the laptop display. If I did I'd be all over that adapter.

 

Things I noticed tonight (that were not said here, or I missed):

The speaker bezel is metal.

The Computer plays a cool video intro the first time you turn it on.

The Blank express card/34 slot doubles as a SD card holder! Cool!

Multi touch three finger tap is "Right Click" The trackpad is very mac like, since a few of my friends have mac books this felt natural to me, but the horizontal scrolling bugged me, so I tuned it off.

I was not impressed with the overall boot speed, but... I'm used to my raid 0 desktop... so that's not a fair comparison.

Very solid build...

Since this was my dad's laptop I didn't get to mess with it much, Although He is loving the better speakers it has!

When Mine comes in the mail I plan to do my first video unboxing to the best of my ability.

 

Actually, your laptop will support up to six external monitors with the ViBook Plus adapters using a USB Hub, plus one external monitor and the laptop screen (or two external monitors without using the laptop screen) for a total of eight screens all running in extend mode.

Now THAT would take a BIG DESK

 

Would the graphics card really be able to drive that many displays or is there some extra hardware in the adapter?

 

Each adapter has its own video chipset, and they all have heatsinks that keep them cool. You won't find that in other USB to DVI adapters.

 

Ha I never even took out my express card thing, thats cool i can store a sd card in there!

 

How exactly does it double as an sd card holder? Wouldn't any obstructions in there be counter productive to fitting an actual express card?

 

Hi!
I'm planning to buy this laptop and i wonder if it have light sensor and switchable graphics(HM55 chipset->n61jq-a1).
Thanks

 

no light sensor or switchable graphics

 

Can it run crysis on medium settings at a steady frame rate?

If i was to import how do i go about getting an equivalent UK power lead?

Was it ever concluded why the RAM windows 7 rating score was so low?

 

It can run Crysis on high settings at steady frame rates.

Edit: Add YouTube video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1w45_VuGZk)

I have mine on all high settings. This one has all but 2 on high.

 

Only thing that concerns me is the screen res, I'm a total videophile and picture quality and details mean alot to me.

Has anyone compared it side by side to other higher res 16" laptops and seen any considerable difference?

 

It's the express card place holder that can hold the SD or MS card, the little plastic thing you remove to put an actual express card .

 

In order to cut down on duplicate questions I am adding FAQ's and links to the first page of this Lounge. Any Q&A suggestions or links would be appreciated. You could send me a private message or post it in the lounge.

 

@superjojo current prices place the 160gb Intel SSD @ $429. These prices are high because the cost of manufacturing the fast high-quality chips that go into hard drives is very high. There is also a huge demand for flash memory and low supplies. Most of the flash chips made now are for consumer devices like phones, camera cards and thumbdrives and are too slow/unreliable for hard drive use.

It's unreasonable to expect prices to come down this soon. By mid 2010 you might be able to purchase a decent Indilinx 128gb drive for ~$250 as prices come down and stores sell inventory to make room for newer drives.

The tech will get cheaper. http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3731 but it's still years away.

And this is just for drives made by Intel and Micron. We need some market competition to really drive down price and that is looking to be even further away.

At this point, expecting to replace your hard drive with a cheap SSD is unrealistic. At this point be willing to cough up the cash or use a combination of SSD and magnetic drives. I plan on doing the former, though the idea has a number of problems in its own right, primarily where to put the 2nd drive in a small notebook. The main advantage is you can buy the smallest SSD that fits your usage needs.

Find out how much space the files that will actually benefit from SSD use take up and tack on a bit more space for future use. This will typically be your windows folder, your program files, the hidden C:\ProgramData and the AppData folder from your Users directory. Your MyDocuments, Downloads, Pictures, Music folders and that hidden stash that take up the majority of space on your hard drive won't benefit from being placed on an SSD and can safely be moved to a big, slow magnetic drive.

 

My recommendation is that this is not the laptop for you. Personally the screen resolution does not bother me at all. But most reviewers in this lounge report dissatisfaction with the resolution and viewing angles. But for $1000 they have decided to overlook this given all that you get in this unit. But if the screen is at the top of your list then I don't see how you will be happy with this laptop.
At $1000 you can't get everything and a good screen is what you don't get on this thing.

 

Okay, Forum, so my situation is that this Inspiron 1720, 17", Intel Pentium (low Ghz) from 2007 is getting quite old and slow. It is over heating far too much and blah blah blah, I hate Vista. So I've been researching possible laptops for the last month and have come to the conclusion that this laptop would be the best for my situation. I love to game and next year I will be going off to college so I need a nice reliable laptop that is not too big like the G73jh or the G72gx. This laptop is perfect with only 16", great resolution (for me), i7 Intel and all those other specs you guys already know.

Well, It happens that I have been terribly sick in bed for the last few days and I thought I would "pull the trigger" and buy this baby! I plan to buy the laptop from PowerNotebooks.com and also plan to customize it with the Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6200 Wireless Card, IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU and possibly the Windows 7 Pro.

The question I have for the forum after all that ranting, is..

Is it worth the upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional? (Considering it's a $136.00 upgrade)

I ask this because like any other laptop buyer I want the most information possible before buying this laptop and I'm sure I'll get the best responses from this forum. A few things I want to know are the significant changes and effects (or is it affects?) of Windows 7 Pro.

Thank you!
-Sandy

 

Go to http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/compare to help you decide if you need anything Professional has that Premium doesn't.

For most people the answer is no.

 

The only "Pro" feature I really use on a regular basis is remote desktop connection (log into your PC remotely). That said, you may be able to get Win 7 Pro for cheap, since you are going to be in college. There are 3 options:

A) Get it for free through MSDNAA. If your college department participates in MSDNAA, you can have your department's MSDNAA contact set you up an account, and you can download Win 7 Pro Full for free (along with a ton of other MS software).

B) Get it for $30 from Microsoft Store. Just call them and ask about the student offer. They will require a university email address to verify you are a student. This version is Win 7 Pro Full.

C) Get it for $30 through Digital River (Microsoft's sales partner for student offer). You also have to provide proof of student status. This version is only Win 7 Pro Upgrade.

Obviously you want to try in this order: A => B => C.

EDIT: Looks like Digital River no longer offers the Win 7 deal. Not sure if Microsoft Store still does it, but you will have to call to find out.

 

Thanks for the info, steve! I'll definitely look into those options!

 

We see allot of people upgrade to to Windows 7 Pro for the below main reasons:

1. XP Virtual Machine (IMO the best feature), if you have any programs that do not support 64-Bit or are finicky about Windows 7 this is a great feature. I personally use it for one program that does not like 64-Bit. Once you start up XP Virtual PC it opens a windows and it looks exactly like a XP Desktop with start menu and all. You can install special programs directly through this XP Mode. Here is some good info on it: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/
2. Bit Locker (encryption) and Advanced networking features
3. Pro allows you to VPN into your machine

 

I'm pretty sure BitLocker requires Ultimate, not pro. XP Mode is nice, but it is also supported by home premium if you have a valid XP license (Pro comes with a built-in XP license). The downside to using the Pro XP Mode is that you are forced to use the differencing VHD (whereas you could use a fixed- or dynamic-type hard disk with a manual XP VPC setup).

 

every time my computer goes 2 sleep / hibernate I get windows system dumps.....anyone know what may be causing this? I have not had the chance to update to the newest video driver...I cant download it where I am at currently. What you think guys ?

 

Hello folks, I'm in the market for what will be my first laptop (I'm old but never made the jump to laptop) and have been following a few threads for a while (primarily this one and the Studio XPS 1645 issues thread). I'm finally close to buying and am getting close to pulling the trigger on this sweet little baby, once I've settled myself on an issue or two. If I buy I'll be buying through one of the three resellers that have frequented this thread. I like that they have been hands on and proactive in talking to customers and prospective customers.

As I've read this thread through I'll try to keep it to questions i don't remember seeing answered here.

1) Power supply. What does this baby come with? 90w, 120w, 130w?
If it's 90w like I thought I'd read here and it looks like it judging from the resellers pages that offer ADDITIONAL 90w AC adapters, how does this laptop not run into throttling issues when others like the XPS 1645 does? Is it just THAT much more energy efficient or what? It's a bit confusing.

2) Case Quality: in one of the earlier threads about this laptop someone mentioned pressing on the back of the monitor and seeing an effect on the screen. Is this the case? I need this thing to be durable enough to be transported. I won't be throwing it around or anything, but I'd worry a bit about the screen getting damaged.

3) ASUS driver support: How is it? It sounds like people have had to scramble a bit to find the right ones. Will this be a constant source of headache? Will I be using 12 month old video drivers waiting for ASUS to get on the ball? Will I have to go to 3 different webpages to get the correct drivers?

4) Long term lifespan: I'm a bit concerned about the lifespan of this laptop. I'll need it to last a while (three years minimum), and while I know there are no guarantees, but how about those of you who've bought ASUS before? How has your luck been on their lifespan? I've been hearing increasingly bad things about the durability of HP's (though my wifes Elitebook is like a tank), and the 1645 sounds like ti's going to bake the monitor. how does ASUS stack up?

5) Heat: This laptop will be used for school, work, and games. I like games. I play games. I get that this machine is great with games, but what I want to know is will I need to give it breaks every couple of hours if I play games or will I be able to run an 6-8hr marathon session of whatever newest game I happen to be playing? I know this Laptop runs warm , but seems to have good cooling, but will this sort of behavior bake my shiny new laptop? Will I be drastically shortening it's lifespan if I do this? Fyi, I DO plan on getting the IC Diamond thermal compound as an add-on, as i know that the I7 is going to run hot.

6) Umm. I'm sure I'll have more questions, but this is all I can think of at the moment.

Apologies about the wall of text.