* Asus N61JQ Owners Lounge *

Yeah good luck to ya! Luckily they were giving me problems because my shipping addy was different than my billing so I even though they charged my card my order was still on hold until they could verify all my info so I was still able to cancel my order with them. A few hours before I ordered the laptop I ordered my pogo plug and they sent it though no problems whatsoever!?!? Oh well it all worked out better in the end! BTW I was pissed at them for all the problems they gave me so I took my business to powernotebooks and saved some cash by doing so. So far by the service I received from PN I can already say it was a much wiser decision.

 

It shouldn't... All of them are supposed to have 1066 including N71JQ, but I heard someone was saying that theirs came with 1333... I don't think it was the A1 tho.

 

Yeah I remember you were mentioning it earlier. It definitely looks like you made a good decision. I would do the same thing if I was in the states. But getting from xotic with 6 gb of ram would cost me $1650 cdn with shipping and everything. So yeah probably not.

On another note it's too bad that all of these companies (xotic, powernotebooks, gentech) offer the parts like ram for pretty much the same price as you would get it in any store. For example if you are doing customization from sony it comes out to be quite a bit cheaper. Like 8 gb of ram on sony's site is $300 cdn. On newegg I would have to pay over $400 for that. The customization on xotic etc. is really only good when you need thermal compound or something like that, where you would have to take the whole notebook apart to get it.

 

Yeah that's a bummer it cost yall so much for shipping. I just went ahead and ordered the thing stock, I really don't want anyone tearing into my newly built laptop trained techs or not. That's why I wanted the two year warranty cause if it's gonna go then I'm pretty sure it will be in the first two I would hope. As far as the ram goes I can just wait till later on and upgrade that myself and the turn around and make a little back on selling what it came with. Off topic I recently had to order the new Trailer Park Boys movie from Amazon.ca cause it wasn't out in the states yet. Paid a nice little shipping fee for that!

 

Just about all the Asus computers are supposed to come with 1066...even says so on the box it ships in but due to what most assume is a shortage they are shipping 1333 instead. My N71 came with 1333.

 

1. You can get AT LEAST 2 hours if you shut off wireless, bluetooth, and put it on Battery Saving mode (alot of people forget to shut off their bluetooth b/c you have to set it to shut off along with wireless). In fact, I've been here for about an hour now and I still have 58 mins left (and that's with a bunch of downloads going and wireless ON).

2. Backlit keyboards, IMO, are excuses to go blind. Why would you play games, stare at a bright screen in the dark? We're humans people, we work in light! I wouldn't spend the money on a backlit keyboard.

3. I don't see why those games you listed wouldn't work. Crysis works very well on at least medium settings on the 5730. 3DMark of 7997 = really good gaming performance. I've been playing Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2 at the highest settings on this for a while now.

4. If you overclock, you not only lose the regular warranty, but you will also lose the accidental damage protection as well (free for 1 yr, gotta register laptop and send in proof of purchase).

5. As far as I know, all ASUS laptops in the US and Canada have 2 year warranties - this is ASUS's approach to gaining dominance in this region. My dad's ASUS also came standard with 2 yr warranty and ADP. To confirm, just give ASUS a call. Newegg may be wrong in listing the 1yr warranty (maybe they forgot to change it because all the other manufacturers offer 1 yr warranties).

6. Overall, the N61JQ has got to be one of the best purchases I've ever made.

 

There's not much of it...I would recommend keeping the Asus software (you can disable some services, start ups, but overall they are useful programs). I had like...Office trial and antivirus trials, but not a whole lot of crapware.

Then again, I completely reformatted and reinstalled all ASUS utilities and drivers. You might as well do that if you really want a clean laptop

 

I had two partitions, C: being small and D: being rather lage. I deleted both, reformatted, and installed my Win7 Ultimate. The Expressgate, etc stuff can be reinstalled using the ASUS drivers/utilities CD.

Download PerfectDisk 10 and you'll have a auto-defragment solution for when your computer is idle (very useful for this kind of large HDD space)

 

The C: and D: partitions can be safely reformatted. I think ASUS made it so that no user can access the recovery partition. I also think that ExpressGate is located on the hidden partition, and reformatting, reinstalling Windows should not affect the hidden partition. Also, the Asus utilities/drivers cd has expressgate on it and it will reinstall if you clean install Windows.

 

You can easily access the recovery partition in Windows 7. Go to Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Computer Management. In Computer management go to "Disk Management". You should now be able to see resize and delete partitions. I'd recommend not touching anything unless you know what you're doing.

 

I second with you on the N161JQ being a great purchase.
But please don't get involved with the warranty issue. Yes Asus advertises that all of the notebooks have a 2 year warranty. And they all probably do. Except for model N61JQ-X1. Trust me when I tell you that many of us have called Asus to confirm this. It says 1 year on both the laptop and the packaging.
Basically this model seems to be made for amazon & Neweeg. The warranty and hard drive appear to have been downgraded to bring the cost down.
Personally I don't think this was a bad idea. The more options and prices for people the better. Most people would rather order the A1 model for the larger hard drive and extra year warranty. But what if you are going to upgrade the hard drive to SSD eventually anyway. And alot of us get an extra warranty year through our credit cards.
The problem here was a lot of people that ordered the X1 thought it had a 2 year warranty.

Here is my problem . Newegg has made an exception and offered me a full credit for my X1 to be used on Newegg. But I don't see the A1 listed on Newegg anymore. And I just love this X1 to death. I have had it for 8 days now without one problem. What if I send it back and they don't offer the A1? Or if the next laptop I order is a lemon?
Decisions..Decisions!

 

I also know how you feel...got my N71JQ-A1 from GenTech last Thursday and I have fallen in love with it......best laptop I have ever owned and amazingly I am not even jealous of the G73 croud since that was the 1st one I had preordered.

I think the 2nd year warranty is well worth the extra what $65 but if you really dont want to part from it I'm pretty sure there are 3rd party companies that you can pick up extended warranties from but no clue how much they run or how user friendly they are as I have never used one.

 

Someone posted a link in another Asus thread that I can't find anymore. It reviewed all the Asus bloatware and made recomendations on which ones to keep. It was very informative and I ended up keeping most of it. It did recomend gettting rid of the Asus auto update which it said was very buggy and could cause you problems.

 

lol...this laptop just made my desktop cry!

my passmark results are lower =/

athlon x2 4200 / 4gb ram / 9600gt
i got a 792 rating

 

I need help from the owners lounge!
I am clueless on hard drive partitions and reformatting. So I see on this laptop it has a C drive 74GB with the OS on it. And a D drive 208GB for data.
I see everyone is changing this setup and my question is why should I change it. And which setup would you recomend on the HDD. Is my D drive even being used now as it is not showing anything on it?
I am not going to reinstall a clean version of windows. I also wont be insalling a lot of other programs or storing a lot of Data. I just want windows to load as quickly as possible and run as effeciently as possible.
Also eventually I want to upgrade to SSD.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=380681

 

In your case I wouldn't worry about it. The way it's setup from the box is actually not bad considering it only has 320 gb. You should just install all of your software to C: and keep your data on D:. So if something happens or you need to reinstall / restore OS your data will stay in tact. But I wouldn't worry about changing it. I always do partitioning but only if the the hd has one partition only. So with N61JQ I actually kept it the way it came.

As for the A1, I guess they must've run out or something. I doubt they would stop selling it. It sells really well. How many days do you have to return your laptop? 30? Cause I'm doing the same thing. I'll try to get at least store credit for my X1 and hopefully within the first 30 days they will start selling it on newegg.ca

 

Thank's tarlyn, I just found the link but you beat me to it. I'm glad you are happy with your N71. I can't belive how much I like my Asus. I never even considered this brand before but I am totally sold on them now. What a difference in build quality from HP!

 

Thank's for the help xismo. Yes you have 30 days. But I got my RMA 3 days ago and once you get that you have 14 days to use it. I already returned 2 HP's. And since I'm going to upgrade the hard drive to SSD I think I will just hold on to my X1. To much hassle and extra money for 1 year upgrade on the warranty. I get the feeling I wont be using the warranty on this thing anyway.
Here is a stupid question . How to I put my data on the D drive? The way it's set up now everything would go to the C drive by default I think. So do you manually select any item you want to put on the D drive or do you just move it over afterwards?

 

Can't believe you caved in Just kidding. How much is the additional 1 year of warranty? Cause I was looking on newegg's site and it may actually be cheaper then to get the A1.

I usually do it manually. But both ways would work either select D: before downloading or moving it over in larger chunks. That's up to you. I just meant that you should always try to keep data (music, photos, movies, games, downloads, etc.) on a different partition then C. There are also ways to change the default locations. It used to be done in registries but maybe Win7 has some options for it, I was planning in looking into it.

 

Does anyone hear a sort of high pitched beeping sound coming from the left side of the laptop? Its a really high frequency sound. Any idea as to what it might be? The hp dv6t that I returned also had this noise, but it was louder.

 

I think the 1 year through newegg is $59. But I'm not interested in that. What I meant is if I return the X1 to get the A1 it was $100 more. But now they don't even have them anymore. I just don't want to take a chance on getting a lemon laptop when this one is perfect.
Let me know if you find that default setting in windows 7.

 

Ouch! .We have not had any reports of this yet. Which model do you have and where did you purchase it?

 

First time I Have heard of seen any issues with a noise from these models and mine certainly doesnt have anything like that.

 

Yeah I know Sony F series had the same problem, maybe you can check on that thread. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=448894

And since nobody else had this issue with N61/N71 maybe you should try to have it replaced.

 

They made several changes to their inventory. I ordered my X1 on Saturday and it had free shipping, now it lists the shipping as $14.83 Std. Shipping. They also added several i7 laptops like the N51 line and many Sony's. I was watching all of the i7 laptops for a couple weeks before purchasing. The A1 was always listed.

I went with the X1 because it was $999.00 shipped. I knew about the warranty difference, but I get a new laptop about once a year. The accidental damage protection was the biggest deciding factor over the Toshiba with the Nvidia 330M. After reading 33 pages of this thread and 2 other threads before this one, I think I have made the correct choice (as long as it is lemon free). I should know on Thursday.

Sorry to see the A1 is no longer listed. That is some really bad luck (and a terrible coincidence).

David

 

It's still up at XOTICPC. $1065 shipped.

 

I'm seeing some odd changes on newegg's website in regards to this pc. They now have the x1 listed as on sale and the reg price at 1099 the same price the a1 was. And on newegg.ca the x1 is still listed as 1049.00 with no sale. This is starting to make me wonder if there is some shaddy business going on with newegg. Oh well I already ordered mine and it's on it's way so I'll deal with it.

 

That's alright A1, X1 its all good! I'm with you on saving the money. I never pay to extend the warranty and it almost always pays off. I probobally would have chosen the X1 even if I new about the warranty difference. I just didn't like being decieved. I'm sure your laptop will not be sour. But nowadays it can be a nervous wait to find out.
As far as the Toshiba goes I have seen the Toshiba and trust me you made the right choice.
Welcome to the lounge. We will be looking forward to your reviews.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. This is a marketing gimmick that I have seen them use before. That's why I never pay attention to list price. On the A1 if you search it on the Newegg site it comes up as a delisted item.

 

Thanks for the welcome. After selling my Dell XPS M1710 and HP DV2-1199us, I had a bit of coin to play with. My other laptops are an HP TX2-1025dx and Mid 2008 Macbook Pro. I really enjoy multi-touch on my Macbook Pro (it was the last version with a button bar below the touch area). The X1's looks just like the one on my Macbook Pro.

Has anyone tried playing with the ATI Stream or OpenCL with the ATI card? I am working on a 64Bit version of andLinux and I really wanted the GPU assisted compiling. Not sure if it is supported but, it would be nice. I will be using gcc, Visual Studio 2008 and Netbeans mostly. A little World Of Warcraft on my off time.

Also, does the X1 have paired RAM or a single RAM chip? I think I read that it was single, but I've read so much mixed information in these forums that it gets a little foggy. I would like to upgrade to 6GB once it arrives if there is only one chip.

Last, has anyone tried Ubuntu on the machine or any flavor of Linux? If so, what is supported and what is not? If not, wish me luck! ;-)

 

I wonder if they are trying to move out all of the X1 inventory. It really doesn't make sense to have both models at such a small price difference. They also can't lower the A1's price too much because they have the X1. Maybe they will sell off the X1's and bring the A1 back at $999.

 

Does anyone have the A1 yet or its all on back order?

 

I'm pretty sure it's paired. I've yet to open it, but I plan to upgrade it, to 6 or 8 gb. I'm not sure however how would it behave if I put in 4 gb stick from different manufacturer. No one seems to be able to answer this question.

 

ATI doesn't list a driver for the 5730 on their website. My guess is that Ubuntu does not support it yet. You may have to use vesa until they release something.

 

My guess is that at $1099 they could not sell the A1 since all the other resellers sell it at $1065. Also the A1 might be hard for them to get since Amazon doesn't have them in stock yet. And finally I think they might have a bigger profit margin on the X1.

 

Well, I ordered my X1 this afternoon off newegg before I read any of this. I'm pretty excited. I have a heavy duty desktop and will be using this as a second, more mobile machine. Gaming wise, probably the only game I will play on it will be World of Warcraft which I'm assuming will have no issues. I often run multiple accounts, so we will see. My desktop only has 4 gig ram and is running vista and doesn't have problems, so I am assuming that there will be no issues here...

1 question - I read in the reviews on new egg something where someone mentioned that it comes with the original windows install disk. Is that true. If so, it would be pretty easy to fdisk the hard drive and then reinstall huh?

Thanks

 

The only way to know is to pull out one of the chips and fire it up. If it runs, you should be able to mismatch the RAM.

 

According to this screenshot, the RAM is paired: http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=44421&d=1265238891

It was on page 4 of this thread.

 

Might be able to plug in the vendor/device id's and get it to load the ATI drivers. Video drivers should be supported pretty soon anyway. My biggest concern is the USB 3.0 chipset, Touchpad, Media keys, Wifi and bluetooth.

 

I have the A1 ordered from powernotebooks. I only noticed the sound this morning cause it was really quiet. Like right now I can't hear it unless I put my ear right over the keyboard.

 

You actually have the A1? Does powernotebooks have it in stock? What state are you from?

 

Er. When I ordered it they were out of stock, but they were getting a shipment on last wednesday and had my order out on thursday. I got my laptop yesterday. I'm in SoCal. I ordered about a week ago.

 

Congratulations! Welcome to the Lounge. I think you are going to love this Laptop. It does not come with a Windows disk, just a restore disk. That is pretty rare nowadays to get a Windows disk.

 

Please keep us informed on your laptop. At least you are in good hands with Powernotebooks.

 

No it doesn't come with Windows disc.... It comes with Windows recovery disc, there's a difference. It should only restore your system to the factory settings with all the bloatware etc.

David, thanks for the tip I might give that a shot, since I don't want to order a 4 gb ram, find out it doesn't work and then return it and having to pay for the shipping. But even if I wasn't able to mismatch, I should still be able to put in two of the same sticks right? Say 2x4gb gskill.

 

So no one hears any high frequency noise at all...like when you put your ear right over the left side of the keyboard? Does anyone know where the video card is located? It could be coming from there maybe? I've heard some video cards make noises like this. Reminds me of the mosquito ringtone, or the frequency coming from an old TV

 

xismo, I found this listed in the specs for the N61JQ line.

Main Memory DDR3 1066 MHz SDRAM, 2 x SODIMM socket for expansion up to 8GB SDRAM

 

There are other laptops with the HM55 chipset shipping with 6GB RAM. The only difference is that they have 3 RAM sockets. This is telling me that we are most likely not getting a mixed configuration.

 

Ok now you have started it! Are you sure you have not been hanging out in the Sony F series forum. Reading that thread would make anyone paranoid.
Yes I hear a very high pitched whine when I put my ear up to the left side of the keyboard. But it is so high pitched that I never would have noticed it unless I put my ear up to it. This noise cannot be heard otherwise.If yours is making a noise loud enogh for you to hear it while on your lap, And the noise is bothersome to you then I think you should look into returning it.
But I'm sure I'm not the only one that checked out the sony F series. So lets not start a mass panic here. As far as I know yours is the first and only report of this.