K53TA Owner's Lounge

Since the thread over in the main forum has turned into an owner's lounge, I thought this was past due.

For starters here are the links to that thread and the one over at slickdeals.net:
NBR K53TA thread
sd K53TA thread

Those two links have all of the information on overclocking/undervolting, the fix for banding, driver links and other known issues in the OPs. If your issue isn't listed in the OP, thread search it and it will likely be in the many following pages.

Rather than just cut and paste all of that information, I'll finish this post with my review and try to cover all of the points you may be wondering about before becoming a fellow owner.

Asus K53TA-BBR6, $449.99 at Best Buy

If you had visited a computer retailer 6 months ago and asked for a laptop that would play any game under $1000, you would have been told to lower your expectations or raise your price cap. Today you would likely be pointed to the K53TA. This notebook is literally the first budget gaming notebook where the word gaming doesn't need to be in quotes.

Powered by the new A-6 m3400 quad-core with integrated hd6520 graphics plus a discreet hd6650, the K53TA is capable of a lot more than Minecraft and some facebook games. In it's stock configuration the K53TA is already capable of playing any game at reasonable settings. The further benefit much discussed by users here is the K53's potential for tweaking.

The new AMD APUs seem to have a wide range of overclocking/undervolting ability. Users on NBR have gotten their A-6s up to 2.3GHz with 3.0GHz turbo at below stock voltages. The 4GB ram is also fortunately in one slot, making a cheap upgrade to 8GB dual-channel which will greatly benefit both the CPU and GPU cores on the A-6.

One bullet point many potential owners are interested in is the Crossfire potential. Currently the biggest drawback to the AMD Dual Graphics is poor or nonexistent DX9 performance. DirectX 9 based games will either run poorly in Crossfire or will only use the hd6520, which is weaker by far than the hd6650. For DirectX 11 games, like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Dragon Age 2, performance is exellent once the RAM has been upgraded to dual-channel. The iGPU needs the faster memory bandwidth to keep up with the 6650's dedicated memory. Even stock, DX9 games can almost all be set to use the hd6650 when Crossfire is off, making this still more powerful than any other $500 notebook.

The other main point of debate is the quality of the screen. The first issue was banding, which was fixed by a bios update that introduced graininess in dark images. Since the black contrasts were better before the update, hopefully it can be resolved. The screen quality is still very acceptable, just noticeable since the notebook is used for gaming.

The build quality has been almost unanimously praised as "better than expected." Although some have had complaints when compared to much more expensive laptops, I personally have never used another one under $1000 that felt and looked better. It runs cooler than Macs I've owned and the keyboard is not bad compared to the majority of laptops I've used. The screen hinges are small, but very solid in operation; the lid doesn't wobble when opening and closing.

In conclusion, I would say if you are in the market for a laptop in this price range now, you should get one before they're gone. It's likely there will be others in this new class before long, but it won't be within the next 6 months. If you want something that will play Skyrim in the university computer lab or your place of work this fall and your budget is $500, this is your best option (or only option). The fact that you can pick it up for about $480 with tax and buy a second RAM stick for $20 for a huge performance boost makes it a no-brainer.

 

Could you elaborate on this? I'm planning on buying a laptop for use starting december-january and was waiting out to see if more cheap llanos came out, if nothing else the k43ta and k73ta options. (14-inch for 768p gaming seems better...) HP's dv6z started at $725 (no gfx card...) and is as low as $600 now, many A6s (again no gpu) can be had for 400 or less when they were just 500 a month ago. You don't think someone else will try bundling these CPUs with a GPU in this price range soon?

Also is the reported graininess after Bios fix just the bad qualities of the stock display panel coming through, or is this some distortion that can also be seen when doing HDMI output? If the former I'll just look into panel replacement, the latter isn't so easy to resolve.

 

Here's a list of games I've tested and the settings I tested them in, will update as I install and test more games:

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Crossfire On, DX11, Medium settings, AO and Tesselation off. Average 40fps, high of 70, low of 35.

Crysis 2 - Crossfire on, DX11, Gamer settings. 35fps average, high 50, low 28.

Alice: Madness Returns - Crossfire off, DX9, max settings. 40fps average, high 60, low 30.

Dragon Age 2 - Crossfire on, DX11, med-high settings. 30fps locked most of the time, jumps up to 60fps, game seems to force triple buffering.

RIFT - Crossfire off, DX11, custom settings (needed for this game on any rig). Average 45fps, high 55, low 30.

Back to the Future the game - Crossfire off, DX9, max settings (lol). 60fps steady, no surprise.

Portal 2 - Crossfire off, DX9, high settings. 60 fps locked.

 

At the moment, there don't seem to be other A-6 notebooks with dedicated GPUs on the horizon in this price range. Now that this one exists though, I wouldn't be surprised if the idea catches on. None of those other laptops really compare as they don't have a dedicated GPU. Although they may have other nice features, that is the sole feature that makes this laptop such a huge bargain.

I think the screen issue has to do with the vbios. Before the 206 bios update, there wasn't noticeable graininess. On an external monitor there is also none. I think something is just screwy in Asus' firmware. It's possible that another screen would have the exact same problem if you swapped it.

 

Do you think it's worth it to rip an image of my HDD and exchange my K5T3A for a new one after all the BSODs i've gotten from overclocking and maybe get another unit with better voltages?

 

If your voltages are really bad compared to other users on this forum, then maybe. Keep in mind that not everyone lucks out on a machine that can undervolt as well as the OP in the other thread. Mine has BSODd at 3.0GHz b0, but I'm still very happy with 2.8GHz. Considering that a lot of Best Buys are running out and not restocking, you have to worry about there not being a further exchange if your next one is worse.

BSODs won't really damage the CPU. Usually it's just the CPU shutting down to protect itself because a parameter is slightly off. As long as it consistently runs fine at good temps with the final proper settings, it's fine.

 

Hmm, I've read you can max out Deus Ex on this machine

 

Overclocked, yes, but it won't perform perfectly. It does perform amazingly well though with nearly everything on.

 

Yeah, why not? It's worth a shot.

 

yeah, but what if i get even worse voltages lol I mean I can do [email protected] neer going over 83C after like 1hr of COD4 Maxed out.

Anything that goes over 83C, it throttles down to P6, so if I wanna keep like 2.6 @1.7v say, I need to make a K10Stat PRofile will ALL P states at 2.6..I would rather use one for everything..Is this throttling common? also, I can't lock Pstates anymore for some reason...

 

And also, should i try to just pull a fast one and keep the HDD :>. if not, what do you recommend to use for making an image? and keep in mind, my GPU is OC'd to 700/1000 and running @ like 76-85C, is that an alright temp for the GPU?

 

After EVERYTHING, my cpu will ALWAYS throttle down to p6 if the temps hit 82C+, the only way to stop it is to make all the P states that clock. I disabled powerplay and have Windows High Performance at Min@60% and Max@100%...Also did a fresh install so I don't have Power4Gear or whatever...

 

I really hate to recommend a return if it works, but your temps seem to be significantly higher than most of the rest of us. Not only does your CPU seem to run about 5 degrees hotter at the same clocks, but that is considerably higher than I have experienced with my GPU.

Once again, that is still not dangerous. My G50VT is 85C all day long when gaming and it has been for a long time. That said though, if your CPU and GPU are running hotter, it would make sense that your unit was pasted poorly along the entire heatsink. If there are more K53s at your local store, you might as well swap while you can.

As for backup software, not sure. I personally back up files and then start each computer from scratch as far as drivers and modifications. Not really necessary, but scientifically sound.

 

What are your settings in rift for you to obtain such good fps? I am getting 41 in low and 23 in med, high, and ultra. I am not using crossfire. Any info would be helpful to a newbie owner to a powerful laptop.

 

A couple of questions:

How are you getting such good FPS playing Crysis 2? What drivers are you using? I'm using the stock drivers that came with the computer.Are you playing in a window?

Also i saw that you have 8 gigs of ram, how do you know if it's running in dual channel?

 

Glad you asked. Game tweaking is one of my specialties and RIFT is a game that needs tweaking. Even on a brand new high end system, you usually get framelocked by a bottleneck as you are now because the game is poorly optimized. Use these two links to modify your .cfg and in game settings for a magic 30fps boost. These are both from my amigos over at The Happy Gamer blog. Stupid Trion and their idiot coders.

EDIT: Do not use the tweak "Run game in DirectX 9" by adding -dx9 to the .exe on this laptop. You want to run in DirectX 11.
Tweaks
In game settings

You should be getting slightly less frames than I am unless you are also running dual-channel RAM and the same overclocks.

I am using the newest patch, which adds DirectX 11 support. In DX9 this game runs very poorly on this GPU. I am using the 11.8 drivers which perform universally better in Crossfire. I am running fullscreen in 1280x720 with vsync off.

I am indeed running 8 gigs in dual-channel. You can check with many hardware monitoring programs. The smallest and easiest to read is CPU-z, in the memory tab there will be a section for dual-channel configuration in the upper right corner. It will say if you are running dual or single and if dual, whether it's symmetrical or asymmetrical.

 

That's normal, it's built into the CPU.

 

I just bought a set of Patriot 8gb and my CPUz shows nothing for the channels, however it should be dual channel.. and right now i managed [email protected] at 83C literally pumping hard. thats not too bad for a return is it?

These are my settings. It Undervolts OK compared to others here. All voltages and clocks have been run through the STANDARD test on IntelBurn for 5 runs and passed except for the 2800 BO, that passes 3 then hits 90C so i assume it'll be alright for that milisecond turbo boost. Is it worth a return?

 

Your memory should be dual channel. Someone else mentioned having trouble with CPU-z too. Try HWinfo or similar. Also I think it shows in the bios, but can't remember.

Although you mentioned your system running hot, it isn't your volts. You are running the same clocks at lower volts than I am. Are you playing games with the laptop directly on your lap in a warm room? I use mine on a desk. I also have a cooling fan stand which lowers my temps even further when I use it.

 

Anyone get in on this cheap ddr3 stick from newegg? I just snagged one it went out of stock for the past day or so, and was wondering if it will run in dual channel. It's the exact same speeds as the factory stick I believe so it should be dual even though it's not a matched pair right?

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9S-4GBSQ

 

I'm literally retarded. my homemade lego stand was blocking all the front vents :facepalm: but HWinfo doesn't show it up as dual channel either.. idk...

 

I see that there are so many gamer on this forum so my question will be easy to answer. I bought this laptop for 2 weeks ago for 2 purpose. For my son to use it for school work and for me to use it as HTPC. The stock configuration works for me (I do have some gripes - will talk later)

Since Newegg has memory so cheap, I'm thinking of upgrading it to 8GB. On back of the computer there is a cover with 1 screw. I removed it and tried to open the cover... it seems stuck and feels like if I pull harder it would break. Has this happened to anyone? and how did you open it without breacking cheap plastic?

As I mentioned earlier, I'll talk about my review of Asus K53TA.
I knew what I was buying because I was aware of AMD APUs. I actually purchased an i5 laptop on internet and when I went to pick it up at BestBuy I saw this one.

- This machine looks nice with striped plastic case, however, it shows lot of finger prints. I know I have oily skin but my Dell doesn't have this issue.
- First couple days, this laptop was dropping internet connection every few minutes. Somehow, it corrected itself, don't know how? Set-up was fine the first time.
- I had connected this to my Home Theater via HDMI, picture was good, I am not satisfied with Audio. The specs say HD Audio. But this laptop can only have 2 channels thru HDMI. Asus customer service says it can do virtual 5.1 but that's not what I'm looking for. I'll add external Soundblaster for better audio.
- After I disconnected from HDMI, the laptop speaker sound started to have echo. I could not resolve it using any audio settings. As a last try, I removed audio drivers and after reboot and re-installed drivers that is fixed.
- I like the multi-touch touchpad

 

Was pretty sure that AMD supports full 7.1 if you want it... your software and windows sound panel have to be configured to take advantage of it though. It probably defaults to 2 speakers in the control panel and you have to up it to 7. Then make sure your software is not downmixing the audio on its own. The realtek sound driver will not necessarily have the same features, tech support might have gotten confused with that.

 

Hello, future K53TA owner here, just wanted to ask something.

Does it have switchable graphics or you need to reboot to enable/disable the other card?
As it says in the Asus website this laptop has the M780G chipset, it also contains the Ati HD 3200 video card?

 

Fully switchable on the fly. Has an IGP of a 6520 and a discrete GPU of 6650.

 

Hi, a future K53TA owner here. Before I bite the bullet, I have a few questions to ask.

1. Is the ram upgrade worth it, mainly on gaming?

2. Is the black graininess after the bios update noticeable?

3. How is the battery life on this beast?

Thanks.

 

So there is no ATI HD 3200?

@jokerface888 : Only faster RAM can make a difference, but it cant use it.
Also, "bite the bullet"?

 

1: Given that it's about $20 and the reports here are a 5 or 10% increase in frame rates, you'll have to decide for yourself. I'd say so. Make sure to upgrade the video drivers to 11.8 as they seem better at taking advantage of the cross fire mode. Note that outside of crossfire, the RAM upgrade will make little difference.

2: yes, it is. It's not terrible but it's noticeable. Would I spend $200 more on a laptop that didn't have it? Not personally.

3: About 4 hours is typical. Some reports of more battery life out there but I'm doubtful I could get that much life out of it.

6levels, nothing in the device manager or anything else ever said HD3200. Not that the 6520 IGP may not be about the same, or very similar. But the IGP was not labelled that anywhere I've seen, on the box, the software utils, etc.

 

I'd like to ask this again since previous post was cluttered with multiple topics.

I'd like to add more RAM to this laptop. I unscrew 1 screw on the cover but can't still open. When I pull, it feels stuck like it has other tabs in middle and I don't want to break this thing.

Is it safe to pull hard or there is different way?

Thanks

 

@AK53TAPD : Don't you have the user manual?

@Sxooter : Thanks, so it doesn't have the M780G chip set? And the 5200mAh battery wont last more that 4 hours with the 6650M disabled?

 

Yeah lol. I was kinda worried about the black graininess. More like 'take the plunge' now.

 

No it has that chipset. In the AMD page on that chipset they're not saying all M780Gs have HD3200s. They're saying that's an example of the IGP this chipset can support. The actual IGP is dependent on which APU you plug into it. so, if there was an APU with a HD3200 in it, that's what you'd have. The A6 M3400 in the Asus K53TA has a 6520 IGP is all.

 

My brother recently purchased the Asus K53E-BBR9, I assume this is the same as the K53TA with only the processor being different.

His issue is with internet connectivity, the internet will work perfectly and load pages quickly but then randomly pages will start loading incredibly, I wiped the HDD and reinstalled a fresh copy of Windows 7 SP1 and when I was browsing the internet was working perfectly but now he is telling me it is doing this again.

 

I don't understand. Why is it bad that the pages load incredibly?

 

He probably meant incredibly slowly.

 

That makes a lot more sense.

Follow the advice that saturnotaku gave you and please don't make the same post in two threads in the future. This is referred to as cross posting and not only is frowned upon but is against the forum rules.

 

I thought he meant that an incredible amount of pages started popping up, and figured he had a click through javascript that was loading up lots of pages for him.

 

The K53E-BBR9 is a totally different machine under the hood. For starters it runs on an Intel i5 2410m. It also lacks any sort of discrete graphics.

CPU wise the i5 2410m is a fine chip. Not sure what the internet problems are about. If reinstalling windows solves the problem I would look to see what your brother is running. Maybe he is running utorrent with no bandwidth cap or upload limit for example.

 

Looks like BB no longer carries the K53TA .

 

You can ask them to ship it from stores that have it, I know they have plenty here in Florida. Tell them to ship from the zip code 33143, or store 557. They have over 100 in stock, although you will have to escalate with them to get them to sell it to you at the listed price as all of those notebooks come with their "service" and come with $70 added to the price.

 

Hello again everyone, has anyone played any Source engine game? I have problems with Team Fortress 2; whenever I decide to use the dedicated graphics card, after the map loads it changes to a far away view of the whole map and it won´t start the match. There is no problem with the integrated graphics card apart from the low fps, it seems even slower that my ATI HD 3200 desktop.

 

Would I do that over the phone or in store?

edit:

I tried calling them and got stone walled with the line "that is entirely up to the store"

I found one nearby that they did the extra stuff to so I will try talking to them. I don't think it is very promising though. This "service" thing they do is pretty lame.

 

Sent my son in college a K53TA last week. I wonder now if I should have upgraded the memory (4GB to 8GB). He is not tech savvy and will be afraid to access the ram slots. I downloaded the Asus manual but it is not specific to the K53TA.

1. Does this model come with one 4GB stick or 2 X 2GB?
2. Where are the two slots located? Are both easily accessible?
3. Brand and timing of ram? Part number? Are people all seeing the same ram?

Any help would be appreciated

 

Unless he has some special need, he will not see much if any performance benefit from upgrading the amount of RAM. Most application are only 32 bit and thus limited to using 2GB of RAM. Even ones that aren't, rarely benefit much from the extra RAM. I think it is just a matter of programmers designing for the masses which primarily have 4GB or less.

If he does some very heavy Photoshop work or video editing he might see a difference.

 

OK, thanks. I guess I'll wait and see if he has any performance issues. There are just so many references to upgrading ram it is hard to know how much is enough!

 

1 4G stick, 1333MHz, easy access once you get the access panel off.

The primary performance advantage comes from having two channels and helps the IGP perform better, especially in crossfire. Otherwise there's no real advantage to going to 8G.

 

I went in there with a print out of the web page for the notebook and told them multiple times I would only buy it at list price and I would not need the "service" they install. Bother them enough and they'll come out with a notebook and let you buy it. Go in the store and ask for a manager and ask them to ship it from the store. They also must give you an open box discount since they opened it to do the "optimization".

Best Buy Optimization Is A Big Stupid Annoying Waste Of Money - The Consumerist

Hey, Best Buy, Way To Drive Another Customer Away With "Optimization" Nonsense - The Consumerist

 

I have a personal resentment for Best Buy (although I still shop there) mostly because they have the Geek Squad who dare to talk to me as if they know anything about computers. Every time I go in there I relentlessly cut through their BS "tech talk" and corner them with knowledge until they are forced to admit that they don't know jack and don't deserve to dress in the collared shirt and pocket protected uniform of geekdom. I'm sick I know, but I honestly loathe them because they are the enemy of everything I stand for trying to spread knowledge and correct information.

When I bought my K53TA it was no different. When I showed, they claimed they only had optimized models. When I told them that in my opinion Asus ships notebooks as they should be (plus a wee bit of bloatware) the rep tried to tell me that the steps they had taken would greatly boost the performance in games because they had optimized teh crossfire. Oh man, here we go again with the sky high false claims.

I then asked exactly what he meant, as I am an enthusiast and had just built an A8 desktop running hybrid crossfire (6690d2) and even with a dozen hours of research had not found any tweaks (aside from faster RAM and a FSB OC) that would alter APU crossfire performance in the least.

When words like Asymmetrical and micro-stuttering came flying out of my mouth, he got this look on his face like you get when you try to BS a book report and the teacher catches you red handed because they've read the book. Made my day and rather than paying more I got it as an open-item discounted as I made it clear to them that their "service" was equal in my estimation to a unit someone had opened and spat on and that was the price I would pay.

 

Well I got lucky and happened upon a BB that had one sealed in the box. I knew their stock computer said they had one when I was at another store but when I called they couldn't find it. This morning we were right next by so after a lot of searching they found the sucker.

Just then my wife decided she would rather get a 1080p dv6z. I bought the Asus anyway and sold it at cost to my sister in law who has been looking for a cheap gaming laptop for a while now.

It feels good to have gotten the deal even if we didn't keep the laptop.

Edit: Reading about the "optimization" thing confirms a lot of my suspicions. It's one thing to try to convince people to buy services they don't need. It is another thing to use it as a tactic for misrepresenting your prices. To me the whole practice seems like a giant liability. Some day a geek squad employee is gonna get it into their head to install key loggers onto all the laptops are something similar and get caught. Or maybe a suit for false advertising. Or maybe they will get caught trying to resell used laptops as new optimized ones.

Given that there is no restocking fee. I am tempted to try buying the last closed laptop in a store. Pop the seal on the package, write down the serial number and return it. Then get a friend to try and buy an "optimized" laptop at the same store and see if they get the same one.

 

I bought mine on Saturday the only two they had were "optimized" the did lower to advertised at customer service after a few minutes of checking their inventory. I got lucky because I only had $482 and the total was $481.50 the original total was $581.50.