Asus N80Vn-GP011C: First Impressions/Review

Firewire does work in XP. The only thing that doesn't work is the IR Receiver.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4159535#post4159535

 

The wrist area doesnt get hot at all. All the (hot) hardware is in the uper right section, not down around the wrist area. This is oposed to my GF's Dell Inspiron 1420 with will burn a whole through your hands if your not carfull.

I'm rocking Fallout 3 on my F8. I play on high with shadows, AA and AF off. Runs anywhere from ~60 in in door areas to around ~30 out doors. But this is with a steep over clock. I am extremely interested in how Fallout 3 fairs on your 9650M GT at those settings. Not sure if you know, but fraps will tell you this info. You dont have to be all scientific about it, just a general guesstimate.

 

But anyways… Back to my incessant, obsessive ramblings about GPU switching…

I am stuck with a few choices.

My F8Va-B1 cost me $1100 a month ago.

So. Here are the options as I see them.

1) Sell the F8 and by a N80.
I don’t think I could get a dime over $800 for it. So that would put me in the whole $300 over the cost of my F8 + $200 more to by an N80. Totally money out $500.

2) Buy an N80 for $900, swap the GPU’s and resell the N80 for ~$700.
I don’t think I will brick the laptops if it doesn’t work. The worst that will happen is it will say, “NO!” I don’t predict any type of physical hardware damage in the process. But if it doesn’t work then I have to sell the laptop for less then I bought it for without getting its GPU. I don’t mind being out money, but being out money with nothing to show for it would blow! Totally money out ~$200 (affectively making my F8Va-B1 cost me ~$1300)

3) Buy the Best Buy one for $1060.
Their 14 day money back guaranty would rock here. If it doesn’t work I can just take it back and pya the %15 restocking fee ~$150). Also, if I brick it I can take it back. The down side is cost. The Best Buy version isn’t worth the $1050 they are asking for, let alone one with a lesser GPU in it. I would loose BIG on this one. The only thing I could do is return it WITH the Radeon 3650 in it. However, the GPU in the Best Buy is kind of a POS. Not only is it NOT a 9650M GT, it is substantially underclocked. Even if I could return it with the 3650 in it I would still be paying ~$150 for it in the terms of a restocking fee. Not really worth it.

The best bet is to take the plunge and buy an N80. Maybe I can find one on eBay used for cheap.

 

does this have blu ray

and does the dvd rw let me write CD-Rs aswell? or just DVD-Rs

 

There's at least one version that has Blu Ray, but not the cheaper ones-it'll say if it does.

And yes, all DVD+/-RW drives also read and write CDs (and the same for Blu Ray writers).

 

for all the owners!
you guys pretty satisfied with the laptop?


im about to place an order for one of these =D

 

I've pretty much decided I won't, because I don't trust that they're really LED screens, given the mercury warning and the price

 

For what you're getting the price is superb! And the mercury warning is covering asus' butt, so they can go "well, told you so.." There really isn't any danger.. unless you intend to smash the screen and inhale the gas..
I'm still 98% sure i'll be getting this once it's out in NZ.. specially after today, carrying this 15.4" lappy around, viewing photos etc.. i need something smaller.. and with better display/battery.. just a wee bit concernec about the 1024x800 resolution.. im used to my 1650x1080..

 

It is definitely LED... have you looked at the comparison pictures I have up? No doubt that it is LED, multiple sources have confirmed. Look at Asus's website, etc.

 

FS: Near new F8Va-B1. Near mint condition. All CD's and manuals. Works perfectly. Still under warranty. $800. lol

 

Hey Zmatin,

I have a quick question. I'm wondering if you know how we could control the charge of the ASUS battery. Right now it is abou 99%-100% charged.

I've read from the lenovo forums that the thinkpads could control the amount charged in the battery. They recommend it to be charged 40-60% when it is plugged in all the time which is my case. I rarely take my laptop out. When I do I could just remove the charge limit and let it charge till full. I'm not sure about how batteries work but they say it will increase the longevity of the battery.

Does anyone know if I have this option to cap the battery charge on the ASUS laptop? Or does it not matter and I should just let my battery sit in there when it is next to the plug which would account for 95% of the laptop life.

And BTW, I'm almost 100% it is LED backlit. Look at his comparison pictures. It's bright and white. I've compared my N80 to a Dell studio my colleague bought 1 1/2 months ago which is CCFL lit. THere is no comparison. Also this screen 'Jumps' out compared to all the laptop on the local electronic store i.e. Best buy etc.

Another feature of the LED screen is that it does not require an inverter. I'm not going to dismantle my LCD bezzle to check it out but that is the only other way I think you can fully confirm that it is a LED screen. For those interested here is the monitor info from PC Wizard.

General Information :
Manufacturer : AUO
Product ID : AUO5044
Manufacture : Week 1 of 2007
Video Input Type : Digital in 0.7/0.3v
Max. Horiz./Vert. Size : 33 cm / 21 cm
Monitor Size : 15 inches (estimated)
Aspect Ratio : 16:10
Gamma Factor : 2.2
DPMS Active-Off : No
DPMS Suspend : No
DPMS Standby : No
EDID version : 1.3

Features :
Maximum Resolution : 1280 x 800 @ 60 Hz

 

I am not aware of such an option to control the battery charge on ASUS batteries. I am afraid there's a good likelihood that the firmware does not support it...

Although it would sure be useful for nearly-all-the-time-plugged-in people such as myself.

 

Hi guys,

I've been watching this thread since I'm interested to buy this new Asus N80vn-GP011c as well.

I have a question about the OS. Do you think the 32 bit Vista installed is good enough (for how long) or should I consider installing the 64 bit?
It seems that with the 32 bit Vista, we're wasting the extra 0.5 Gb RAM on this nice laptop.

BTW, zmatin, thanks for your hard work to do this review. It's really helpful.
And how is about the rest of the battery test?
I'd like to know how long it will last on regular and heavy usage.

 

I have VIsta and XP running after following the directions Gentech posted. Like Snapple, I have everything working except the IR. Thankfully, I have no use for IR.

I'm surprised though... XP with about 33 processes running seems to have the same battery life as Vista when it comes to general light usage. I set power4gear to battery savings, and turned down the brightness and the CPU speed as far as possible. It seems as though 3 hours is the best you can do with Vista or XP.

I'm going to keep vista on just because I can use it to run DX10. I refuse to install vista on my Desktop.

 

You're not really wasting anything because.... It's a wash at that point, as the 64-bit version takes up more RAM.
Personally I'd much rather have the 32-bit version as there are too many compatibility issues I'd be stuck with on the 64-bit version.

Thanks-I Googled that panel, but nothing comes up really (except this thread!) But hopefully it really is LED backlit. It does look much brighter in those pictures, though if it were dual lamp or something...

I don't know, I just want to be sure. I should probably just get one of these, since geez, it's like 1/3 the price of the Sony or Apple I'm looking at. And I wouldn't care as much about the probably worse warranty, because if it holds up for a few years, as it hopefully would...

 

Wow this is shaping up to be a great laptop for the price. Do you have any estimate of battery life while playing any games? Or just under heavy usage?

Edit: Oh, and has anyone tried Ubuntu 8.10 with it yet?

Edit 2: Yet another question pop in my mind, are the speakers affected when you run it in your lap since they are at the front of the laptop?

 

Thanks for the answer.

I don't think there would be a dual lamp screen for this price range. =D
Also there is light bleed at the bottom of the panel when Vista is starting up.

 

Yeah, but it's even less likely there's going to be LED. And light bleed at the bottom kind of points towards it being CCFL, if I understand it right

 

Wolfpup: I haven't had any light bleeding issues and for them to call it an LED and it not be an LED = massive amounts of civil and regulatory trouble. It's an LED.

 

I have been using my new N80 (P8600) for the last 3 days. Here goes:

Build - Just what ASUS says - "Rock Solid". Sturdy laptop. The keyboard is a joy to behold! Screen is solid and hinges are all strong. Excellent build, again.

The only negatives are - the mouse trackpad feels like the one on a mac (now mac is a disgusting thing) and the click buttons are a bit hard. I liked the soft one on my previous hp dv6000 better, both the trackpad and the clicks were soft. However clicking ain't a big issue, i always double tap the trackpad to do all that when on the move. When at home, I always use the usb/wireless mouse.

One more negative - lack of dedicated volume control buttons. 3 more buttons would've been better - mute,up n down. However hotkeys are there to take care of this and I guess with time you'd get used to it.

Screen - To all the worried people on this thread - THIS IS a LED screen. Absolutely easy and pleasing on the eye.

Battery - Quite to my expectations. And quite sufficient for my requirements. With normal browsing over wifi, docs, notetaking, coding, chatting, youtube and music streaming online - comes to a solid 3 hours in the high performance mode, 3.5 hrs in the entertainment mode and nearly 4 hrs in the power saver mode. Note that downloading a lot of stuff over wifi or playing movies from HDD or playing games decreases the above times quite drastically. When I was doing all that, the battery gave me roughly 2 hrs n 15 mins, thats about it. But that is quite normal. I would rate the battery as very good.

Heat - Absolutely no issues here. I quite cannot see how the vent positioning pumps hot air on to your hands. I for one, do not use the mouse so high up and near the vent. Its a NO-ISSUE. The laptop is quite cool. I use it like 15 hrs at a stretch each day, with all the coding, word processing, heavy downloads, music, movies and browsing. Can't even call it heat. The laptop is quite cool. Excellent ventilation and cooling system. I had it on my lap for like for a good part of 5-6 hrs, did not even feel the heat. Could not even call it lukewarm! Yes, gaming does heat up the GPU and hence induce some heat, but even that is bearable.

Palm rest, keyboard area, trackpad - NOTHING gets hot. I'm lovin it!

Speakers - The choice for the speaker area is quite bewildering. When resting on a floor/table, the speakers face/hit the floor directly and the sound is a bit muffed. Still the speakers are good enough. Not as bad as a mac/thinkpad. Certainly louder and clearer than those. But a better positioning could've gotten it clearer and crisper on the lines of hp notebooks.

Processor - Don't go for the size of L2 cache bull****. P8600 is quite a fantastic processor for everyday use. I am a CS guy and this processor is quite worthy of most intensive tasks. People hardly use any heavy cache intensive software (photoshoppers apart). I don't think a mere 5 secs speed-up on a higher cached processor is worth the $150 more spent.

Graphics - Brilliant. Thats all I can say. This is the best graphics I have ever seen on a 14 inch notebook PERIOD. I can play all the games I like - CS, NFS, FIFA, PES, Spinter Cell at blistering pace and quality. Will post the FPS details later. But so far this is the only notebook where I can play FIFA 09 on the highest settings and still get excellent quality and frame rate. I have played FIFA 09 with the highest settings on T400 (ATI HD 3470) as well as T500 (HD 3650) and it sucked and stuttered big time. Quake 4 rocked big time. Medium settings and it was smoooooooth. Yet to try out the high settings on Quake. Will try Assassin's Creed on my asus this week and let you guys know. That game's quite a demanding game, so lets see how it runs on this asus.

Portability - Very portable. Not too heavy, not too light. Solid and portable.

Overall - AWESOME. And for $959, this is daylight robbery (in the positive sense )

 

lightbleed? what's that?

 

Wait...how'd you get that for $959? I thought it was more like $1150?

And pretty please someone try some work units of Folding @ Home on it? (Either two single core clients, or one SMP...or heck, throw the GPU into the mix too )

I want to know how it seems to handle being pushed to 100% for 15 hour stretches, day in and day out.

 

@Wolfpup

$200 Live.com cashback. You get the payment into your paypal which you can then encash as usual or use to buy something else using paypal. Its credited in to your paypal. I got mine. The only thing is that it becomes "usable" only after 60 days. It shows pending now on my account and will become usable Jan 13 or something, but heck, who cares, as long as its credited back in 2 months, its still $200! More like a MIR.

 

The $200 cashback is if you search for the laptop using Livesearch. Then go to the ebay listing and buy it on ebay's excaliberpc store. Service was fantastic. You get a 25% microsoft cashback banner on top of ebay if you follow the above steps. Only if that happens, you get the cashback. And its 25% or $200, whichever is lower. So $200 in our case. Worth it.

 

So I've been MIA all weekend playing TF2/L4D/etc (all with excellent framerates and all visual settings at least at medium, with many at high), which I haven't been able to play on my own computer in *ever*, so forgive the disappearance. Haven't bothered doing actual FPS logs, but I will say that the temps on the CPU/GPU/etc are all well in the range of comfort, with no observed temps above 60 celsius (and that's after a couple hours of play). I've been too busy to take on all the various questions directed at me, so I hope other forum users are stepping in to help.

All in all, I have just this to say, after actually getting to use my laptop for my everyday use: I love it. When I get another free stretch of time, I will definitely finish up this review to the extent I had originally desired, but my priorities have shifted so the review has to go on the backburner.

Best of luck to everyone, and this laptop definitely has my recommendation.

 

Woo thats a great sign! Great that TF2 and L4D work fine on this laptop!

 

I've only played the witcher on it. At medium details it's running very smoothly. IN fact, due to my desktop's slow processor and fragmented as hell hard drives, the load times are much better on this laptop.The screen is absolutely beautiful for gaming as well.

Now, this laptop is replacing my 4.5 year old M6bne. When that came out, it was a 15.4 inch solidy built asus that could give you 4 hours for office work and then be a decent gaming rig. I remember I beat doom 3 on that thing.

For a replacement, I wanted something a bit more portable than a 15.4 inch and I was not actually looking into gaming. I wanted better battery life for office type use. However, after playing video games while in bed, I have to say the trade off isn't so bad. This really is the best true successor to the M6bne.

 

I just bought the N80VN-A1 version from excaliberPC on Ebay using the Live.com cashback and a 10% coupon that I had from Ebay together, meaning that I'm only going to end up paying $690 (instead of 989)!
I'm so happy and stoked to be getting this laptop!

 

Only reason I didn't get that one was lack of BT.

 

But it has BT doesn't it?! ..please tell me it has Bluetooth..
or does the B1 have BT and not the A1..

[EDIT]
just checked Ebay.. ignore my last comment..
A1 (T5800) hasn't got Bluetooth, GP011C or 'B1' (P8600) does have it..

 

Just installed assassin's creed and played for about an hour on high settings. WOW!! is the only word to describe the feeling.

 

Assassin's Creed and Fallout 3 are on my list to play next. Unfortunately finances are strapped, so I'm busy clearing that issue up...

 

ya... i cant wait to see your F3 fraps... that is a game i can do a direct compare with.

 

Wow Assassin's Creed at full specs.. this thingo's got some power

You think that ddr3 ram could replace the ddr2 in there..?
I'm starting the think that the n80, despite it's incredible performance may not be quite right..
ended up looking at the high end sony 13.1 inch 1600x900 display thingo's.. but they suck at games.. Nvidia 9300 explains that..

I'm really worried about the resolution and size though.. is 1280x800 gonna be enough..? is the unit gonna be too big.. grr, if only i could walk into a store and LOOK at it..

 

@iddy

thr's no gddr3 as far as asus is concerned, just because its not economic nor is it marketable. and this thing's got enough power with the current vram version.

If you're talkin about the RAM, then plainly I do not see any difference between my N80 ddr2 and the T400 's 4 gig DDR3. The difference is not of any importance in the real world, jus like say a processor with jus a few more clock cycles or more cache.

laptop size is comparable to that of a T400 approx, if that helps. If you are looking at such resolutions for gaming, go for an external monitor. For this kind of budget, the N80 gives you way too much.

 

And there's a minor paintjob error near the power on button, on the mesh like thing, there are some white paint marks on the black surface, not that I really care about it, anyway..

 

sweet, i'll do some looking into the thinkpad..
and i'll trust you on the ddr3 front, i suppose ddr2 is fine.. just forking out more dollars otherwise.
external monitor you say.. you mean like the LG LN246WH-BN? I was looking ay getting it for the ps3 a while back.. might have to take a second look.. lol, maybe something smaller though..
What's the max output resolution of the HDMI out on the 9650 GT..?

oh, and thanks for the help/direction!

lbut that makes it unique, and worth more

[edit]
wow, just realised what the t400 is.. my mates got one of them, and it IS a good size!
you restored my faith in the N80 evolution219, kudos to you!

.. now all i need is a 9 or 8 cell battery to make it last the uni day.. hmm..

 

I'm assuming they meant the video RAM, where there is a big difference...well, unless they've somehow clocked DDR to the same speeds and settings DDR3 is usually at (I have no idea if that's possible or has ever been done).

 

Okay, so come on, Folding @ Home? No one's tried it?

And how about Blu Ray through an external drive? Any luck?

What about force installing Nvidia's reference drivers? Any issues (and any issues with Blu Ray when doing so)?

 

I just checked and the ebay/live.com cashback is still being offered. Seems the sponsored link result doesn't come up 100% of the time. So if you don't see it the first time you do the live.com search for "ASUS laptops" try again in a few minutes.

 

If anyone needs to get a basic idea of size/dimensions/weight, head in to your nearest Best Buy and look at the X83Vm/b models that they have. They're basically a cosmetically modified N80 series, with Best Buy specified guts.

On a sidenote, the paintjob on my N80vn is too nice and it makes me uncomfortable. I prefer getting the first scratch/scurff/blemish out of the way so I don't have to be so careful all the time (you should see my car).

 

Yeah I went back and double checked too... A1 = no bluetooth. So there is two differences between the models:

N80Vn-A1 $989 ($789): T5800 (2.0 GHz / 2MB L2 / 800 FSB / 35w)
N80Vn-GP011C $1159 ($959) [+170]: P8600 (2.4 GHz / 3MB L2 / 1066 FSB / 25w) + Bluetooth


I'm pretty sure that I'm going to pick one of these up as my Christmas present to myself... Now the question I have to answer... is $170 worth a beefier CPU? (bluetooth isn't important to me) I'm looking at this laptop being a secondary system that handles web browsing in the living room at home and has good TF2/WoW/WAR performance when I'm on the road away from my desktop.

It seems to me that most games are going to be bottle-necked by GPU on this system, even with the T5800. So the extra horsepower of the P8600 would be wasted, right?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Also has anyone who picked up an A1 done any Fallout 3 or 3Mark06 runs to compare against zmatin's or snapple37's benchmarks with the GP011C?

 

It'll depend on the game and settings, but I think at least some stuff will benefit from the faster CPU. But...yeah, it's going to be REALLY easy to bottleneck it with that GPU, which is actually low end by today's standards (just unfortunately not for laptops).

 

nice job,

 

I have the N80VN-X1.

I have a question about the vents on the bottom. There are 3 sets of vent holes. They all are parallel rows of slots with 9 rows of 2 in the upper left, 8 rows of 2 in the bottom and 11 rows of 2 on the upper right. They all have a mesh (with holes) type of material under the slots, allowing airflow. The upper right vent has a foil-type material completely covering the opening under the mesh, pretty much blocking any airflow. The other two vents have the mesh only, completely allowing intake (I think) of air. If you take off the large panel in the upper left, with the upper left vent, it is backed by a foil-type material that is neatly trimmed around the vent slots. I haven't tried to get at the back of the upper right vent because I would have to completely remove the bottom portion and I don't want to mess up the warranty.

Does this make sense? It looks like a vent but is completely blocked by the foil. It looks like it would be in a position near the GPU - possibly allowing a little airflow through/over the area. It almost seems like a manufacturing flaw where the foil wasn't cut around that set of slots. Do the rest of you with similar models have the vent blocked also?

Haven't tried to contact ASUS yet - waiting to see what kind of response I get here.

Thanks!

 

i'm a bad visualizer. can you take a pic of it.

 

I tried quoting and cutting/pasting a photo from this thread but the site says I don't have enough posts to post a link to another site (Photobucket).

Page 2 of this thread, second post from bottom has a photo of the vents that I am talking about. It is hard to see the differences in the opening without looking very closely and I don't think I could post a better pic.

 

If I'm understanding correctly, the vent you are questioning is the one next to the N80vn label, that is not actually on a removable panel. There is a picture in the slideshow of the bottom, btw. I believe that this is the vent directly below the optical drive, which makes sense because no one wants dust all up in the laser/optical lens. The "foil" covering probably allows radiant heat to vent, but no actual air flow. I am pretty sure this is on purpose, and not a manufacturing error/defect. Also, heat management has not appeared to be any sort of issue in this laptop, under gaming conditions, etc, so I wouldn't worry about it. If it is a manufacturer defect, it'd manifest itself pretty quickly and the warranty would obviously cover it.

 

Long time visitor first time poster. Thank you zmatin for the review and pics. It has helped me solidify my decision.

My only concern is the screen resolution. Does anyone know if there will be a 1440x900 coming out soon? I have found this out on Asus website:
->14.1" WXGA LED backlight ColorShine,Color-Shine (Glare-type)
->14.1" WXGA+ Color-Shine (Glare-type), (CCFL)
The WXGA is indeed LED. I am assuming the WXGA+ is going to be 1440x900?...but with CCFL. If anyone has news or know I would like to know.

My brother just came back from Taiwan with an F8Va and he has the display with 1440x900. I really like the res of the 1440 vs 1280. From the pics zmatin has posted the LED screen does look better than the acer and apple. I have mixed feelings about sacrificing resolution for an LED screen. I also did a test on my work laptop (Latitude D620 with WXGA+ 1440x900). Dropping down to 1280 made the text look fuzzier. Zmatin/Snapple and others that have it, how does 1280 fare and are you satisfied? Have any of you stepped down from a higher res as well?

Thanks.

 

The text looked fuzzier because you were viewing a non-native resolution. It's always going to look fuzzy at anything but it's native resolution.

Personally, I wouldn't want anything higher than 1280x800 on a tiny screen like that. But I know a lot of people love super high resolutions. Unusable to me