N56vz review and owners lounge - Techno Art

..well.. you can get one of the clevos/blank china custom builds in 11 inches with a 650m right now. For something that is tiny, but has external hdmi options, usb/bt input.

Or a vaio s13 - if you get the 640le/i5 version with a 1600x900 screen, this is a very good compromise for a light notebook. Minimal chassis area, very thin, fairly high resolution, it's well built, etc. You can also unlock the bios very easily for the 640le versions.

But if you're gaming on it, either of those are going to be loud and warm. Not comfortable with the noise or the heat in the chassis. That's also the case for most gaming laptops..

So it's not a bad choice to pick the n56 for the cooling system. That part is important. And most likely the n46 (14 inch version) is going to be the same - if you can somehow get hold of the version with 1920x1080 screen and a 650m, that should be a good pick. Slightly lower weight (2.4kg), a bit smaller shape, that kind of thing.

And that's really going to be the lowest you can go right now for a comfortable "semi-gaming" notebook.

But it depends on your priorities, obviously. I wanted a larger screen, nvidia output to external, and 3d performance without having to carry around my own backpack. So I bought an n56, and I'm happy with those things, the low noise and, er.. perfect heatsink solution. But I still put my Eee in my backpack rather than add the messenger bag most of the time. Because 2.7kg is a bit heavy. (Even if it's not heavy compared to other 15,4' laptops..). So if you are going to be moving around a lot, don't need a quad-core for something, or will be running cuda and simulation runs, blender contexts maybe.. then there are other picks that will make more sense, of course.

 

I also love the N56VZ with all its advantages you mentioned but Asus did a very bad job in QA as it seems. I really wish they would spent more time and money in better support and contant quality. Just then Asus would be in the top of the best NB manufactories.

 

Thanks nipsen for all your help!! I think ill probably going to end up getting the n56.

 

Has anyone been gaming MW3 on n56vz, and keeping an eye on fps? What settings, and what score. As far as I remember, the first n56vz I tested never went below 30fps, I believe my eye caught this one going as low as 20fp.s Settings on max.

Is it expected the two laptops of the same model vary that much?

 

^no, it should be pretty much identical on this hardware. Strange thing, really. Is there a particular supplier that has all these returns, or..?

but I've learned a lot researching this as well, and getting corrected and questioned a bit. Was very helpful. Hopefully you will get a notebook with good buid-quality.

 

Hi guys,

I need a laptop for Web-Design on days and Gaming on night (with low budget), so i chose Asus N56vz
so i have some questions i hope you can help,

1. Are Colors natural in Asus N56vz Full HD display(i guess its a samsung display)? for example is Blue really blue or is it Purple? cause i had a Dell XPS L502x with HD 1366x768 display that was a disaster nothing was natural

2. Can i play high-end games like Max Payne 3 for about 3-4 hours daily cause i've heard that if this laptop goes too hot, CPU speed drops to 1.2Ghz per core and performance goes really slower (they didn't say it happens in games of course, so im asking if any one is using this for playing games too much)
i saw the answer about heat above, i dont care if it goes hot i just dont want the heat of too much game playing damage my laptop

3. is there gonna be a better laptop within next 2 months? should i wait or just buy it cause im dying to play some good games but i want the laptop to work for 2-3 years of game playing

Thanks in advance

 

1. At least the 1920x1080 display is somewhere below IPS-panels, and above average for lcd. You get some contrast change up and down, but fairly good view-angles. It's pretty good for lcd, really, since it also has fast updates, and no trailing, and so on. Usually have some instability in the picture, or you have saturation of some sort... What you see is that anything in a 3d context running on intel graphics is distorted somehow programmatically, so you're going to favour the nvidia card for 3d modeling because of that.

2. Yeah. On a normally working version of the notebook, you can play for as long as you want. It doesn't eventually get so hot it's uncomfortable. It really doesn't... I've played through The Witcher 2 now in.. too long bouts.. with a 20% overclock on the gpu. It's effortless, basically. Never seen anything as good on laptops before, outside the ROG laptops.. Worst you get is that the aluminium close to the exhaust gets warm. Notebookcheck had a unit where the cooling failed, apparently. And if it hits 105 degrees on the processors, it's going to throttle (hardset at intel). Normally, it stays between 80-85 on load. With the overclock on The Witcher, the gpu eventually peaks out at 75 degrees for me. As in - "this is where the graph flats out in the most intense scenes, and the performance is the same as before". Not as in "it hits a wall and breaks down to throttle, so the temp doesn't rise any more", etc. So.. more than just "good" in laptop terms.

The boost works in the way that if one core is boosted, then it can reach a 33x multipler. Two and three cores active means 32x, four cores means 31x. Therefore "mostly 3.2Ghz". This has nothing to do with the gpu-load, and didn't on either bios version.

3. I doubt it, really. Not in this class. There's no new mobile graphics card in the works in the same class as the 650/660 card, with the same heat and power-use. Trinity laptops that turn up will be very interesting since they will have much lower power-use, so they'll last much longer on office-tasks. But something comfortable to game on, that actually is kind of overpowered for everything else - but still is portable.. you're not going to find better. If you don't believe me try out a vaio 15, samsung 7 and a lenovo y580. Those have similar hardware. Then you'll understand what I mean, when I say that those are office-computers designed for burst-performance. Just like you say about the heat - you worry that they'll eventually get hot when you use them for a long time. And those laptops do that. They are normal constructions with open heat-sinks, and heat-conductivity into the chassis. They get warm, and the keyboard and chassis gets hot. This laptop doesn't.. was a very good balance between power, size and performance, at a very good time, imo.

 

You my friend, are awesome
thank you for your great review, it was very helpful i was worried about the purple color and gaming performance
BTW do you have Adobe Photoshop on your system? mind if i ask you to do this Gamut test and take a screen shot: Problems with small-gamut monitor calibration

 

Sorry, don't have Photoshop. The model number on the eprom says "lgd02d9". *coughchough* ..happens to be the same lg-monitor they shipped as standard with the Clevos for a while.

 

Another fairly powerful and portable device is the Lenovo y580, which includes the 660 vid card if you're looking for an alternative. Their retail pricing is high, but they typically discount to around $1000 if you watch the Lenovo site.

I've been watching these two devices, wondering which way to go. The lenovo is a little bulkier, but has good sound and graphics, plus a second drive bay for an SSD if desired. some models come with a small SSD to complement the HD.

YMMV of course

 

I am considering this and the HP Envy 15 and I'm having a tough time deciding over them. The ASUS has a slightly better graphics card, although it's only ddr3 vs ddr5, slightly heavier and larger (I have a laptop of the same size & weight), a numeric pad which may come in handy sometimes, but I think for me the bottom being plastic is kind of a big turn-off for me since I've had a bad experience with plastic laptops, and the battery life is a bit less then what I'd like. All I wanted to know is what would make me consider the N56vz over the Envy 15?

 

..the finger-squishing edge on the front of the Envy.

That, and the cooling on the n56.

 

I think I may have posted this in the wrong place earlier, this site has many different areas and apologize if doing it again. I would appreciate any feedback.


Hi, I am new to the forum and I am no PC expert. I have been shopping around for a laptop for a long while and really like the features and styling of the Asus N56. The local Sam's Club has the N56VZ-Rb71 with the 7200rpm drive and the 1 year global warranty for $1068 plus sales tax, free shipping. It appears that it differs from the DS71 version only in that it has 1 year versus 2 year global warranty, from what I can compare and the hard drive is 5400 rpm. Xoticpc has the DS71 for $1159 with price match, although I don't know if they would match these different model #'s. Sam's club will let you return a laptop for 90 days for member satisfaction if you have any issues. Would I be better off buying the DS71 from Xoticpc and letting them clean install Windows since I am not very PC savy, I hate to mess things up if the laptop has too much bloatware. I am also attracted to the idea of having a 256 SSD which Xotic can install but the price then goes up to over $1400. I could also wait a few years and buy a SSD when they come down and maybe install it myself or hire a local PC guy to tackle. Any info or advice from you guys will be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi there,

I just recieved my Asus n56vz yesterday and it's a great laptop. Certainly an improvement from my last 4 year old laptop
Just wandering if any of you guys know a way around enabling turbo boost in the processor whilst the Nvidia GT650m is on? And can you manualy enable turbo boost? And what improvements does updating the BIOS 204 bring? Is it worth updating?

Thanks for the help!

 

You didn't have the 204 BIOS by default? I think all the new shipped n56 should have it already. Mine had it too.

Does the Asus logo on the backside glow in your model?

 

Yeah the logo at the back does glow. I'm guessing this means that it has the 204 BIOS already? Would you chaps have any idea of how to get the cores to turbo boost to 3-3.3 GHz for a constant time?

Thanks,

 

I made the 6 restore DVD with asus utility before erase all and making a clean installation. Also i made a backup with paragon utilities of the fresh clean installation.
Now, can i get rid of the restore partition ? Or i need it for warranty o whatever ?

 

Don't give them any ideas..

You know, I'm not completely sure. But I think you're supposed to be able to boot from the first dvd to run a recovery.

 

How big is that partition? I think you could remove it, the warranty isn't void when replacing the HDD with a SSD and the SSD has also no recovery partition...

If it isn't that big though, you could you leave the recovery partition and install Windows on another partition.

My N56VZ has arrived! I still have to do a clean install on my 256GB SSD (didn't place the SSD in the notebook yet) but the first impression is that it looks and feels great! I did play a game (Tropico 4) on it to check the temperatures:
CPU MAX: 76c
GPU MAX: 70c

I have to say the temperature when doing office work is quite high:
CPU: 52c

The only thing I noticed is that Asus should really pay more attention to quality control. My N56VZ is brand new and when I unboxed it I noticed my silver painting on the inside is already damaged:


I'm still undecided what to do with this: returning it and ordering a new one or just live with it...such a shame because the notebook is perfectly in any other way.

 

So do you think this is comfortable for long usage without shutting it down? After ten hours will it burn my fingertips?

 

Francesco V - After you've made the repaid DVDs you can delete the repair partition. The repair partition is there in the event that you don't make the DVDs. Feel free to delete the partition to free up more space for your Windows install. The repair partition is not necessary to keep by any means.

Cubic X - It's a shame yours came like that. The first one I got had a whole line of dead pixels. Amazon overnighted me another one though, so I was happy. If you play some games and then go back to office work the computer will be a tad warmer from gaming and will take some time to cool down to good idle/office-work temps.

Metude - I use my laptop for 12 hours a day and I have no issues at all with heat/warmth.

 

I had an N56VZ but returned it due to various issues I did not expect to find on an asus laptop.

Short summary:

Pro:

*Very good FullHD display (mine came from LG, same as often used by clevo).
*Low noise under load compared to many competitors.
*Good backlit keyboard.
*Decent heat management (partly due to turbo boost being disabled when GT650M in use).
*Good speaker system.
*Good looking!

Cons:

*CPU turbo boost disabled when Nvidia GT650M in use. What is the point of having turbo boost when it's disabled when you need it most... gaming? FAIL decision by asus.
*Horrible, REALLY horrible trackpad, with buttons that can't even be clicked at the edges.
*CPU fan makes rattling sound when spinning at lowest speed, making it audible when idle.
*Clicking/popping sounds in the speakers when not playing sounds/music (for example when browsing folders).
*Worse battery life than expected (just over 3hrs on wlan in power saving mode).
*Fairly high price for what you get.

The main deal breaker for me is that CPU turbo boost is disabled in games when GT650M is in use, but rattling fan when idle and horrible trackpad sure doesn't help.

I have the old model N55SF, and beside much better keyboard/better looks and better performing components the N56VZ is an downgrade overall.

Edit: Mine had bios 204 from factory.

 

..not sure that's true, OC. Don't think they actually disabled turbo-boost at any time. But that the throttling kicked in at extremely low temps. Then they just removed the temp-limit altogether in the 204 bios, and rely on the 105 degree kick-back hardprogrammed in the processor instead. Which isn't really a good solution either... But, never was a relationship between the gpu and the cpu that way. It just throttled at 75 degrees or something like that. Which the core will reach in about one second on load

Agree with the battery, though.

 

Mine had bios 204 from factory, and when gaming (Star wars: the old republic and diablo 3) CPU never went above 2.3GHz.

Using intel GPU and testing with prime95 I got full 3.3GHz boost with one thread, 3.2GHz with two threads and 3.1GHz with 4 threads.
Loading furmark to activate GT650M, CPU was stuck at 2.3GHz even when loading only one thread in prime95.

Asus is not alone when it comes to CPU turbo disabling, clevo has done the same in several of their models. I understand it's hard to design good enough cooling systems, but I'd rather have throttling happen due to temps reaching internal limits of the components than having silly bios limits.

 

Weird. See, I have 3.2-3.1 Ghz when playing the Witcher 2. If I switch to the battery-profile, it'll be stuck at 2.2 Ghz.

..they have some sort of software control on the multipler, though. Could that be what's going on? If you take a look with intel's turbo xtreme program, or whatever it's called, the profiles are listed there.

 

Well, hmmm -- that undershoots the 3.5-4 hour estimates we've seen (though maybe not by much). For purely reasons of self-interest (getting mine on Sunday) I'm going to assume it's a sign of build issues! Corroborated by your fan and (possibly) trackpad problems too.

-Matt

 

..or chipset drivers, power profile issues. I.e., if the processor never drops to 1.1Ghz in power-saving, but stays at 2.2Ghz, then it's going to burn through the battery a bit faster. I get 3h while streaming to hdmi on a second monitor, and having light on the laptop screen, for example..

 

I don't have any turbo boost issues with the 650m in use. Play around with your power options (advanced power options). I get 4 and a half to 5 hours on battery with the display on the lowest setting while web browsing. I configured my power plan myself and don't have excess things running.

 

I'm gonna take that, frame it in gold, and put it on the wall.

OT: just stumbled on the Gigabyte U2442 -- don't think I've ever seen an IB Core i5 and a 640m in a 1.5kg (plus backlit keyboard, no ODD, mSATA SSD + HDD, 1600x900 resolution) package before. Wonder what battery life is like on that beast. Interesting.

EDIT: Well THAT was an unexpected answer:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/other-manufacturers/681789-gigabyte-u2442n-review.html

-Matt

 

Fine by me: http://i.imgur.com/NRYDK.png

Keep in mind this was not fully charged and I am doing some heavy network traffic in the background. Sure, if I launch a high-def video the battery life will go down but if I'm browsing I can easily get 5 hours.

 

HAHAHAHHAHAH that was AWESOME! Thanks.

But hey what kind of vodoo magic are you practicing? Those are some mighty strange numbers for the N56. *scratches head*

-Matt

 

Sure thing! I'll type up a longer reply when I have more time of my exact power settings and so forth later on. I sure do enjoy it!

 

You're a prince -- thanks again.

Hey what the...I just went to find the rep "boost your super powers" thing...and there's a LIKE button???? When did that happen? Yikes, we've Faceboookified.

-Matt

 

lol. Everything's relative, huh..

 

Well, I'm almost done writing up a comparison of the Sony S15 and the Samsung NP700Z5C. Both machines are a bit off the mark for my tastes/needs, and I was wondering if the N56 is a better fit. But the Gigabyte comes suspiciously close to the list of specs I put in my comparison wish-list. I'm just still scratching my head over the 5-6 hour battery life AND under 5lbs (EDIT: HECK, actually under 4!). I figured with an IB CPU and a 640m or better, something would have to give.

Your write-up of the N56 was masterful, by the way. A pleasure to read. May need to frame that too.

-Matt

 

Thanks @LulzChicken

Is it possible to upgrade graphic card in this model and N56VM (I know this is not right place to ask this model but same architech in case.)?

 

No, it's part of the mainboard.

 

@metude: nope. Welded to the mainboard.

@rants: that's the thing, though. The battery-well is actually pretty big on the n56 (and the gigabyte as well). There's nothing really stopping any of the manufacturers from creating a longer and slimmer plate for a lithium polymer battery with .. twice the volume.

Or just even enlarging the cell volume in the existing battery pack by making the polymer "solution" square. Possible to do that.

Because it's not that the n56 really draws extremely much power. It drops down to 20w draw at normal idle. This is actually pretty low for an ib/quad/nvidia system. But the battery is just not that large (even if it's still average in that class.. :/).

 

So my N56VZ has arrived and so far I must say that I am very pleased, however my sub-woofer port seems slightly unaligned, so its hard to get the sub-woofer to stay connected, I don't think it's making a proper connection in the port, has anyone else experienced this?

 

Yes, I also have the same issue. Just dont try pushing it down with the subwoofer cable or else you will break the pins.

 

Btw - new update today. The touchpad "driver" is getting replaced with /yet/ another asus batch of interrupting executables that wrap the same functions as the existing driver-package. Except they enable the inertial scroll permanently, disable the options panel, and simply disable the the "smart-area" customisation, etc. Might be an idea to pass over that one.

They have, ever helpful as they are, deleted the previous version of the driver from their web-page as well. In case you wanted to install a driver that actually works afterwards.

edit: you also lose the option to have different acceleration on the mouse-wheel and the touch-pad, of course, since that setting as well is removed in the new package.

Well done, ASUS! Quality and Persistent Innovation!

 

I have the naive and optimistic feeling that if I pick one up this weekend, the driver CD will contain the previous trackpad driver, if not the one before that. One can always hope.

-Matt

 

Seems less blindly optimistic to bet on Asus being lazy, at least.

 

Hey, so I'm trying to decide where to order this from. I live in south florida, US. The one's I've seen are Amazon, which gives free shipping, at 1110.00 dollars. Otherwise, there is Xotic PC, at 1124 dollars. I've heard that XOtic PC has great costumer service, and that I should order from them. Also is there anywhere else I can get it cheaper?

Also, I'm ordering an SSD. I figured this would be a good choice.

Amazon.com: SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB SATA 6.0 Gb-s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SDSSDX-240G-G25: Electronics

It has very good reviews, and I figured 240 gb is enough to hold a lot of data; worst case scenario I can get an external hard drive. Is this a good SSD for this computer? I'm kinda noob with this stuff. Thanks in advance for help!!

 

For this option all you need to do is pick up a SATA to USB 3.0 2.5" hard drive enclosure and put in the HDD that shipped with the laptop. These can be picked up for ~$15.

 

You might also give microcenter a try:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0394503

They have a slightly better model (7200RPM HDD, but you're pulling yours out anyway) for $999. If they don't have a FL store (I didn't see it in their listing) you might also get it without tax.

I'm planning to pick mine up in-store on Sunday.

-Matt

 

Version V6.0.1.6622

Description Realtek Audio Driver
File Size
125,48 (MBytes) 2012.05.23 update

I noticed this audio driver on ASUS website and am wondering if it is a fix to the audio crackling issue that I have read about. I hop to buy a new laptop soon and this one looks otherwise nice, but I hate sound problems.

 

I already tried latest driver directly from realtek in mid-july, didn't make a difference.

Don't have the N56VZ anymore or I'd give this version a shot too, even though it's older.

 

The pin on the cable or the pins connecting the jack to the motherboard?

 

just got the n56, pretty sweet machine. just a couple of things i've noticed:

1. the right side of the touch pad as well as the right palm rest next to the touch pad gets somewhat warm. can this be attributed to the hard drive?
2. the blu-ray drive seems to be louder than a typical optical drive when trying to read without a disc. seems to try for longer too, maybe around 4 seconds. normal?
3. sound popping like most of you out there. going to try installing realtek 2.68 drivers and see if that fixes it.