N56vz review and owners lounge - Techno Art

I think it might be a bit variable from system to system. But increasing the core frequency will increase the heat very little. Increasing the memory speed on the other hand very quickly increases the temperature. You would also need to increase the core temp to get any better response, or performance increase in general, when increasing the memory speed. So setting the core speed as far as it goes (1085) and then adjusting the memory speed until the temp settles at some point you've decided seems like a good idea.

I've ended up at 1085/1000. This is a safe overclock on my system. It will never go much above 75 degrees even on burn-in tests. Increased about.. 10-15 degrees on the core compared to standard clocks.

I'm sure the ram between the cards are a bit different, though, so I can imagine that Supranium's 1060 isn't an absolute limit for a memory overclock. But it will probably be difficult to consistently go much above that without modding the volt. Also... don't recommend settings that start to toast the internals. Specially on this system. It has extremely good cooling. But if the chassis starts to collect heat, it's not going to be good with the amount of plastic parts they use. So be careful.

 

Does someone know if new versions of N56VZ are coming next weeks, on the occasion of Windows 8 launch?

There should be no need to do this because of hardware or software constraints but here in Italy we are hearing from some retailers that some versions (brand-new ones, launched on Italian market less than two weeks ago!) won't be available for ordering starting just from next week because they will be already out of stock and no longer built.

In general, these days in Italy we are watching a quick and progressive disappearance of current N56VZ models from online shops.
So I'm wondering if Asus is preparing for some changes in N56VZ line or at least stopping deliveries waiting for the new OS.

 

It would probably make sense in Asusworld to relaunch the model with win8. Not sure I would have went for that over offering win8 as an optional upgrade (while making sure the win7 setup was actually known for being stable), from a brand reliability perspective. But I'm not making these calls at Asus (obviously). So yes. Can absolutely see that they would make a new sku of the same design in a month or so. Hoping to get better draft in the stock then, riding on the "brand new" wave of Win8 magic.

Imo.. this laptop is going to be a limited edition, by "accident". An outstanding engineering feat that had too many small details that could go wrong in assembly, that costs slightly too much to produce over the alternative solutions that are easily available. That also have lower percentage returns. But the design still is extremely successful if it works. And also had the perfect combination of components for the size and cooling solution. This kind of thing happens once in a while in the industry. But it's not often.

 

That's the reason why I am really torn between buying the present model and waiting for the new batch.
Models sold in Italy these days seems to be almost free from manufacturing defects seen last months (e.g. trackpad misalignment and the like), so they are a good choice.

On the other hand, searching now on the internet I've found that new versions are coming with Core i7 3630QM processor:
ASUS N56VZ-S4215H [N56VZ-S4215H]: specifications, reviews, discount offers and more | Hardware.Info United Kingdom
Asus N56VZ-S4203V / i7-3630QM / 8x2.4GHz upto 3.4GHz / 8GB DDR3 / 1TB HDD / Geforce GT 650M 2GB / 15.6" Full HD / win7 license

A slightly faster CPU is a good thing (with same TDP) but, for example, if the Vietnamese page is correct the S4023V version swaps two USB 3.0 ports with one USB 2.0 and one eSata and I don't like that (all current models I know have 4 x USB 3.0, which is good for me).

So, you are right: it seems the current N56VZ is so well balanced that I'm afraid it's likely that Asus can make it worse if it changes the design!

 

Ooh, nice. Forget everything I just said

No, if they keep using that chassis and that setup -- doubtful it's going to get worse. The entire usb 2.0 hub + esata has been a frequent request as well. So... not really much of a problem either.

Wish their bios-tweakers would be as responsive as this..

 

According to that site, if correct, it wouldn't be an USB 2.0/eSata combo port, but two separate port, so we were left with just 2 USB 3.0.

Why going back to USB 2.0?
I know that some peripherals, such as mice, are perfectly fine with 2.0, but why?
Uncommon compatibility problems (such as drive imaging recovery CDs not detecting USB 3.0 external disks because of lacking drivers) wil be ironed out within few months.

Regarding eSata, as far as I know it's just a little bit faster than USB 3.0 (if any) but an external drive requires its own power adapter.
Boot capability from external eSata drives is good but Windows 8 and Linux will be bootable even from fast USB 3.0 devices.

All in all, I wouldn't be very happy for such a change.
Thre real boon would be an ExpressCard slot addition, but I suppose they should change too much in notebook's design.

I agree.

 

Last night someone said "this laptop is going to be a limited edition, by 'accident' ... had the perfect combination of components for the size and cooling solution. This kind of thing happens once in a while in the industry. But it's not often."

And that scared me. So I looked around and found a site with a $60 off special and got that price matched at Best Buy and I went to bed happy thinking it was the right choice to get it now incase it stopped being available tomorrow.

Then I got up and... .

Now though I'm wondering if getting it from Best Buy was even the best solution - I like the return window incase there are issues or something unexpected happens - but BB doesn't participate in the ADW which I like - I can buy it with Visa without taking a hit, but I could have done that at Canada Computers also, the place where it is $60 off anyway - I don't know for sure if they are off the ADW, but I know BB is for sure.

Some more things to think about but I think I'd be happy with this guy. It's 2 lbs lighter than my current computer (an G51Jx) and the graphics performance is a score of 4500 compared to 8000 on the N56 while the CPU is 3350 compared to 8400 and the screen is matte compared to glossy and it has to be cooler on the palm rest - and hopefully the AWSD area won't get too hot. Re-reading the NotebookCheck review it says throttling down to 1.2 occured (this is a 2.3GHz base processor up to 3+ with Turbo Boost though right - so what does that even mean?) despite only peaking at 97*C instead of the 105*C that would cause throttling. The Power brick on both is 120W - vs the underpowered 90W on the U500/UX51VZ - and I don't need a dongle for the mic/headphones. The DDR3 vs. GDDR5 debate is irrelevant when we are talking about an $800 less machine - and my eyesight's not all that great for 1080p always and the projector I currently have is only 720p anyway. Plus I'm fortunate to get 1.5 hours on battery on this laptop on battery saving or 20 minutes or so of gaming all out - 4 hours on light usage is plenty more. And I already have the SSD and ODD to mounting solution et al - all ready to transfer - should be good - I can give this gaming laptop to my little brother who's in second year Comp Sci @ Uni and he should be plenty happy with it for everything he does...

 

@CCz I'm confused a bit. So when you went to BB did you purchase the N56VZ? It sounds to me like you're pretty convinced this is the right notebook for you. I also find that 4 hours on light usage should be plenty, yet I remain disappointed that the battery life is so low compared to the competition.

 

..the throttling they explain does indeed happen if you somehow get the temperature on one of the cores over 95 degrees. That's the "passive trip point" on all asus bioses..

Other than that, the iCore processors all have boost balance that lets one core go to 3.3Ghz. Two cores in boost means 3.2Ghz, three means 3.1Ghz.

But at load (either for one single core, or for all four) you should be at least 10 degrees away from that on the n56. I've seen 84-85 degrees on th hottest core while playing The Witcher 2, or when running a burn-in test for single cores.

So I'm pretty sure they had a unit with defect cooling. So no. No throttling on this laptop.

NBcheck usually are very reliable, so.. typical that they end up dissing the notebook with what is.. without any doubt.. the best cooling solution on normally sized laptops, that has ever been available on the market.

 

I was pretty sure about the N56VZ - it is superior to my current laptop in just about every way (it should be, since my current G51JX laptop is now getting close to 3 years old).

I still have yet to see it though - I ordered online since BB doesn't have it in stores - no where near me has demo models that I know of - and the order won't ship until at least tomorrow so I still have some waiting to do.

The other thing is the Y580 with a faster graphics card and longer battery life (but a glossy screen) was only $999 for a similar spec to the N56VZ - as a bonus it comes with a Intel Centrino Wireless Card and for $70 more I could get a 64GB MSATA cache drive installed on it (something the N56VZ doesn't even have the port for). I don't know how many of it's USB ports are 3.0 - but almost everywhere says the N56VZ has 2 USB 2.0 ports and 2 USB 3.0 (including the site I ordered from) but I think we all know it actually has 4 USB 3.0s. I'm down to saying that the Y580 is louder and hotter and I have brand loyalty for ASUS, none of their products have let me down since I started getting them in 2006 - but is that worth buying it for $1179 ($180 more than the Lenovo Ideapad) - that's what I'm trying to figure out. Maybe when I see it in real life and play with it a bit I'll be sure.

The U500/UX51VZ was the other wrench in the works as I was a day away from ordering the N56VZ when the other lappy was announced - now that I know it comes in $1900/$2300+ models though, I'm pretty sure it's not worth the price difference over this.

The weird thing about this is there is a K55A from ASUS that I helped a friend buy a couple of weeks back - it was like this model in just about every way (including CPU and battery life) except the outer design and the fact that didn't have the 650M but only the HD4000 integrated graphics - but I helped her get it for $569 - so I'm talking about $600+ extra for the graphics card, FHD screen, design and BluRay drive - meh.

Thanks,
Peter

 

Still waiting... The Zenbook U500/UX51VZ is looking too expensive, and I'm not too keen on Lenovo's newest dual-graphics offering. Time will tell.

 

Not worth it if you're not going to play a lot of games on it, use it as a mediaserver, run simulation runs, and so on.

A trinity laptop with a large battery might be an idea as well, if you're not that interested in the graphics card.

 

I'm still waiting to see if a version of the Asus U500/UX51VZ without dedicated GPU becomes available, but in case that doesn't happen I figured I should look into this Trinity laptops you've mentioned a couple of times. Do you like any specific models? I probably wouldn't do much more than listening to music and watching movies, maybe some extremely casual gaming, so screen (HD+ or FHD, 15 inch preferably) and battery life is important to me, and some decent speakers would be nice. That being said, I'd like good CPU performance, and from what I've read about Trinity APUs maybe that's not so good...

EDIT: I also care a bit about design, and I kind of like the N56VZ too, so that's still an option... It has a good price and good hardware apparently.

I liked the fact that the (unreleased) U500 had a SSD+HDD option, so if that becomes available at a reasonable price then I think I'll be sold..

 

(Note: just my opinions, nothing else. )

Unfortunately, the "Sleekbook" and "Reallythinbook" concepts AMD wanted to roll out haven't been much of a success. And we still are stuck with retailers wanting to sell "mini-pc"s in the 400-500€ segment, while reserving the HD(1920x1080+) screens for the luxury versions. There's no extra cost involved in producing those displays, though (per display, you are likely to find better prices for new hd ips screens than old lcd screens). There's also no reason whatsoever to have a huge graphics card to serve a high resolution screen. But technical things never mattered to people who are responsible for the budgets anyway.

So we're stuck in a situation where a lot of retailers want to make sure "low-powered" hardware has 1366x768 resolution screens with "ULV" designs. While anything with an HD screen will be in the larger, more expensive, chassis solutions. The ones that didn't really keep up with the Fermi cards from nvidia, and the dual cores from intel, a year ago, but which basically just barely manage with the newer and better intel designs and kepler.

That's why the n56 is such a success as well. It has perfectly balanced cooling to the most aggressive cards and processor you can have before the cooling starts to become underdimensioned at the moment, while still being in an acceptably small form-factor. So it doesn't struggle with the problems you typically have with the designs that come in the same chassis - where you have a bit of hit and miss when it comes to balance between cooling and normal running. And where it would have been possible to slim them down when the heat-envelope becomes smaller. And extra care with the cooling had prevented a throttle situation, like the one Samsung has on the y580, and the MSI with the similar specs as well..

I hadn't been shopping laptops in a while, and got to see an old HP with a core2duo, for example. That was even worse - like they didn't even think it was going to be possible to run it on full speed. I'd heard about the problems, but I didn't expect them to actually overheat in the way that one did. That surprised me a lot - that people were impressed with that kind of thing when it came out. And the thing just overheated while I was running some relatively small things on it...

Anyway. So Trinity APUs come in different models. The low-powered ones, new versions of the a6 through a8, with quad-core from 27w to 35w or so. The a10 has one 35w and one 25w quad-core model. The difference between them is the embedded graphics card on the cpu-die. Just to compare this, the minimum load you can get while an intel system with quad-core is active, at the lowest state, along with the ivy bridge module enabled, is around 50w. If you compare a "3d desktop load" on an a10 versus an i7, we're talking many, many watts difference. Same with effect-draw on low processor states, which is where you will typically stay most of the time.

So if you imagine using your computer for some video, browsing a bit, streaming content from the web, writing on, etc. Normal laptop tasks. Then this is a very good solution. If you add Creative Studio and so on to it as well - it is still a good solution because of the insane OpenCL performance on these apus. Had one example where someone I know replaced his old nvidia system - he's only on CS anyway, wanted the CUDA acceleration, was initially a dealbreaker - and replaced an older system with a new apu-based solution made of bamboo for a fraction of the price - and got similar performance to what I get on my n56.

Meaning that if you're not running too many simulation runs, you don't necessarily compile large projects over and over, or you don't encode video all day - a quad-core Trinity setup in a slimmer chassis is going to serve you incredibly well. Note that it's also not actually.. you know.. that far behind. We're talking about how encoding a 720p 30min episode will take 8 instead of 6 minutes. I.e., neither an intel i7 or an amd a10 is going to be able to encode 1080 video in high quality in real time just on the cpu-cores. And the way you would use these systems would be very similar in practice.

I don't care what Anandtech says, the performance on those chips are way past what you need for a normal desktop running 3d-effects, streaming music, and running some background video-encode for your handheld, or whatever. In fact, an apu setup will have more comfortable 3d performance compared to an intel system, since the desktop/blender/cs tasks wouldn't need to be run on a dedicated card. I dare you to try and run blender on an internal intel graphics card, for example - I promise you, you'll give up.

So like I've mentioned before - I picked that intel system now, because there weren't any particularly outstanding slimmer models with a low-powered cpu and high resolution screens available. And because it was so successful as that slightly overpowered multimedia-box that I can run games on if I want to. Also, wanted an nvidia card for the hdmi out - amd is not in the same league there. Their hdmi out is usable, but it's blurred through some vaseline filter or something. Not the best to have on an external work-screen. The software they have for external monitors also is extremely underdeveloped and difficult to use. So that's a concern as well, if you have an external monitor you typically work on. But are you really willing to pay twice the amount for getting rid of a small inconvenience like that?

Even worse - if you bought a system without the nvidia card, that at least starts to become similar in price -- you would actually get worse performance in that blender/cs/3d desktop context, because the intel graphics suck .

In any case. Since I bought the n56, a few options have turned up. The one I like best so far is the 6z Sleeekbookzz from HP. A small design, unfortunately only with a 1366x768 screen, but with an a10 quad-core option. HP also have designs you can customize, putting in an a10 without a dedicated extra card, along with an extra large battery. Both will be priced fairly low - and as an added bonus these setups will be less warm, won't be very noisy, etc, even on load.

So if I was looking for a laptop right now, I'd be wanting to buy a new slimmer design (i.e., the sleekzboookzzsz thing) with an a8-4655m, 1920x1080 screen, larger battery and ssd. The closest you get to that is the HP pavillion models right now. But if you ask the retailers what they have of upcoming devices like that, they might be able to point out something.

Also, hybrid SSD/HDD - don't bother. They're hot, they're more noisy than the best hdds - and performance goes in the crapper compared to your average hdd when it comes to access speed and predictable seek times. Not on synthetic runs, of course, because then you will test each part individually. But when the controller has to work between the devices, what you have is a below average ssd, and a noisy hdd.. Go for ssd instead, and get an external usb disk for extra storage. Or else get a smaller and quieter hdd design like the Spinpoint drives from Samsung.

Imo. (And sorry about essay..)

 

any one have any luck putting win XP sp3 on one of these? I need to install a vehicle diagnostic program, but it only works with xp pro.

if so, could i install it on the other partition or would i have to buy a spare hdd?

 

Oh I didn't mean hybrid SSD/HDD, it actually has two HDD bays (and no internal ODD) and it was supposed to have an option with a 128GB SSD along with a 500GB HDD, which was one of the things that caught my attention because I could avoid the hassle of putting an SSD and changing the HDD to the ODD drive myself. Sadly they still haven't released any information about that particular configuration, only about two 128GB or two 256GB SSD in raid 0, and that appears to be VERY expensive.

Asus also said that nVidia GPU was optional, but again no info on that yet... But, if I understood correctly your essay , maybe an option without dedicated GPU (and only Intel's CPU+integrated GPU) won't be very good if they do release it, so I might be better off getting the nVidia option even if I don't use it that much.

 

I certainly am interested in the graphics card - I used to work at ATi and definitely couldn't live with the HD4000 that doesn't even come close to matching the performance of my nearly 3 year old GTS360M in my ROG laptop I currently have. I was playing Civ 5 with my brother last night and he was so happy to see how nice and smooth this one is compared to the Core2Duo/X1600 laptop I gave him when I got this one - I haven't told him yet he'll get this one soon, hopefully - and then he can actually play SWTOR without needing to borrow someone else's system.

I'm just saying when I add it up, that $600 (ie. more than double the price of the cheaper ASUS model) gives me only those 4 product features - it's a bit steep for the difference is all I mean. I'll pay it because I want to be at least relatively future proofed to be able to run/play just about anything at some reasonable settings for a few years anyway - but it's part of my thought process as I wait to have this guy in my hands - hopefully very soon...

Thanks,
Peter

P.S. About throttling, when I search around I found there is one user in particular who stated (and posted a video) that when gaming on his N56VZ with battery mode it would work full power for a few seconds, then drop down to battery saving, then work full power, then drop down, etc... continually when he tried to use it that way - has anyone else found that happening? Thanks.

 

@impulse: Sort of.. wouldn't recommend you installing it on the same hdd, or even a second hdd when the first one is in the system. The boot-loader will be overwritten, and you need to know a lot of windows fu to get around it. It might work if you use a boot-loader that can detect both the winxp install and the win7 install. I.e., install winxp on a new partition or new disk, update your grub/linux boot, and use grub to boot either win7 or winxp. Might work.

Otherwise, take your hdd out. Install winxp on the new one. Switch back later.. Dumb solution, but less likely to blow something up.

@Osalgo: Well, there are lots of laptop motherboards at a reasonable prices that support raid. Nothing new about it either, just striping two disks and potentially gaining twice the read and write speed.. But when manufacturers start to lock their bioses, and add a premium cost for editing it for you, and adding that second disk. Then that's where we're at. Raid 0 is extremely expensive, and they only come with the latest Vaios. And... somehow everyone else out there don't want to compete with them by just opening up their bios-settings, and advertising that they'll get what the competition has for a fraction of the price.

Never understood how this works..

The intel graphics+i5 - it's not a good option for the use it will be sufficient for. That's my point. If you only use it for writing on, and surfing the web, there are other options that will literally give you twice the battery-life, while performing identically in practice..

@cataphract: If you go from 1800 to 2500 3dmarks in 3dmark11, it's maybe not that much either.. Like I said in the review - what's so great about this model is that it is a reasonably fast and well-cooled laptop that still isn't much larger or heavier than a "normal" laptop.

The throttling thing - oh, yes, a lot of people have had problems with the way the power profiling works. Because they make a clean install, and don't install the chipset drivers and the Asus power profile programs. Then the power-states either won't be set, or they're set according to some mysterious "multimedia" profile in Windows, that - depending on which professional or home-edition you own - will set the processor states to a compromise between "wrong" and "pretty much random".

If you don't have the right chipset drivers, the processor states won't go to boost, that sort of thing.

Has been a really popular thing to do, apparently. To not install the chipset drivers, and then go mad about how the computer is broken. If half the amount of people who did that just sent one message to Asus about the bios-settings, we'd have managed to make them imagine it could be a problem there long ago.. With using the same bios settings and ram-timings for all their models, I mean..

..I'm wondering - do they do the same for their ROG laptops? I thought the community guys involved there were pretty quick and hands-on with the updates and the settings.. but...

 

Hello there fellow N56VZ owners, i got this great laptop last week and been hard at work to set it up as best as i can, so i bought a Samsung 830 SSD (256GB) and installed windows 8 with only the necessary Asus drivers/software and i must say that this machine is blazing fast, it cold boots in 5 secs, and overall performance are great, been playing Guild Wars 2 for some hours without issue, CPU was around 75°C and GPU at 69°C.

Now i wanted to insert back the 750GB HDD instead of the Blu-ray drive but i can't figure out how to remove the back plate, does anyone have a guide or some tips? This morning i gave it a try but couldn't find a way to remove it, and while looking around i found a small fissure where i could insert a screwdriver and move a little the br drive but it moved only a few mm, feels like it's stuck by something.

Any advice on how to do it? i seriously can't find anything on the web, and this is the only reliable place i know.

Thanks in advance.



PS: i already have a 12mm caddy bay, and already searched this forum without luck.

 

I don't have anything for 2500 vs 4500 for 3DMark Vantage between the HD4000 and the GTS360M of my current laptop (and equivalent to the difference of the 4500 vs 8100 of the 360M and the 650M), I think that would be a noticable difference. This thing is lighter and my last "normal" laptop so I'm happy about that and I'm very hopeful about the cooling - should be a great system for me I hope .

Ahh good to know that's what people have been up to - hopefully that's it - I've made sure with my systems to have all the chipset drivers, P4G etc.. installed and working and I run the TurboBoost monitor and various tests to make sure. Glad to hear that should be all that's needed - it'll definitely be on my list of things to do when I move over my SSD and install it all fresh, thanks .

Peter

 

Thanks for the detailed reply!

 

As something to try that might be easier - are you sure you can't use the vehicle diagnostic program with a Virtual PC by the way? That's how I use XP myself when I need to - I just don't know if you are using some port or device that won't interface through it (with anything typical it works fine, but I don't know how technical this would go).

Peter

 

As far as I know, this is a battery throttling only, i.e. not a thermal one.
I've read the same thing from several owners and I'm not sure is due to lacking chipset drivers after a clean install (as nipsen wrote).

Please consider that Notebookcheck found the same issue with N76VZ:
"While using the battery, the performance peak of 950 MHz can occasionally be reached, however is about 135 MHz in constant change due to reduced frequency. As in the CPU, the change in frequencies results in lower temperature around 53°C. Instead of 40.17 bps in Cinebench R11.5, only 26.15 bps can be reached. So in battery mode, an approx. 35% reduced GPU performance is to be expected. "

"Contra --> Graphics card reduces performance in battery mode and under high CPU performance"
Review Update Asus N76VZ-V2G-T1011V Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

and I don't think they made a clean OS install (forgetting chipset drivers) before reviewing it!

It could be just an Asus (wrong?) setting, maybe a bug.

 

That's the adaptive setting for the kepler cards. Reduced "speed" happens in boost mode on the power supply as well, depending on load Typical for a benchmark that will produce a specific load in sequences, that you would drop frequencies when running on lower clock-speeds (edit: < on the cpu)..

 

Maybe this is a common behaviour in certain cases, but according to owners' descriptions this happens just on battery and not on benchmarks but in games: as soon as they connect AC power this kind of throttling disappears and they are able to play at full speed, so it isn't related to load or, at least, not just to load.

 

But if you throttle your processor to 1.2Ghz. Which is what usually happens on battery, unless you change the settings.. Why wouldn't the game start to stutter? Or, why wouldn't the processor fail to create loads quickly enough for the graphics card to not slow down? The only programs you won't see that behaviour in are programs that aren't cpu-bound until the processor speed is very slow, like for example 3dmark11.

 

Sorry if i post the same question twice but i can't really figure out how to remove the BD Drive.

I try'd again now, removed only the screw with the "cd drive" logo near it and the drive moves a little but then its stuck, i can't pull it out, i saw lots of videos yesterday and most cd drives come out after removing the screws on the back, some have other under the keyboard, but i can't seem to find a way to open the chassis.

Anyone can point me to the right direction? Please?

 

Asus n56vm
There doesn't seem to be a thread for the VM so I'll post here.

I've bought a Clevo with a GTX660m and it's a decent laptop, just that the noise for office work is incredibly annoying...so I'm sending it back and will get the 56VM as the VZ isn't available in the UK

Questions before I buy:

1. How is the 56VM for normal use (web browsing and office work) in regards to heat and noise?
2. Is the GT630 good enough for the casual gamer (WoT/HL2)?
3. Has the 'popping noise' issue been resolved?

I've read a few reviews, but would appreciate opinions from owners. Thanks!

 

I own a VZ and couldn't be more happy with it, fan noise while web browsing is non-existent, nowadays laptops are very silent, i don't have any popping noise, nor dead pixels, it gets a little noisy while playing games but that's normal, and temps are fine, this laptop is designed to move the heat away from the upper section of the chassis and it gets warm only after long sessions.
The GT630M should be enough for your gaming needs, its fairly powerful to handle most new games at decent resolutions and details, probably DirectX 9 games will go even better since they need less power.

 

There's one phillips screw under a rubber pad right under the bd-drive. This screw holds down the caddy, basically. You should be able to fish it out after you remove the faceplate. It's not connected at the back or anything like that, it's just a sata-connector stuck on a plate at the back that keeps it from falling out.. other than that one phillips screw.

 

That's what i did, the drive won't come off, i don't really understand why since, as you said, there's only 1 screw that keeps it in place.
I'll try to use more strength, but on most guides i saw on youtube the drive comes off easily.

 

My goodness I hear you! I just took my ODD out of my N56VZ (model # N56V8 to be exact, apparently) - boy was it in tight. Maybe it was from the packaging, the weight from all the packages tightened it within the chassis, but it was very, very hard to get out. The first time I tried it came out a little bit and then when I gave it a bit of force and a bit more - the plastic cover popped off before the drive would move one mm more .

So I popped open the tray with a dull needle, took a pair of pliers and I carefully griped the metal part on the left edge and pulled - and it came out - it was just that part that was tight on it.

My G51Jx was simple, it came right out easily - but this - this guy was tough. Hopefully you can use that method if you need to - and be very careful doing it - and you'll be able to get it out.

By the way, my Z96JS, my first ASUS laptop, was made in Taiwan - I only just realized this one and my G51Jx were from China - ah well. Hopefully it'll hold up well - so far so good through all the checks, tests, dead pixel apps and whatever else I've thought to through at it. Only thing is someone said the CPU should idle at 25*C - but mine has never gone below 35*C idle or not (though I'm still copying over the files from my HDD before I swap in the SSD - so it's got all that bloatware on it that may be causing this). The person didn't post what the ambient temp was though, and that could be important in this instance. Mine currently is 22-23*C in here so I'm anticipating a little higher.

Thanks,
Peter

 

yeah, you have to pick off the faceplate first. A scredriver, etc. Then get a grip of some sort so you can pull a little bit back and forth. Also works to whack the laptop down on the side, but don't do that.

Idle temps on the core won't go below 35 (and will hover around 45-50 on idle as long as anything happens), perfectly normal for that processor. Might have been a different sensor or something like that.

 

mine sits around 40-45°C, but here is still a bit hot

oh well, that's sort of what i try'd yesterday but then gave up seeing how it wouldn't come out, gonna try again this evening and see how it goes, hopefully i'll finally be able to install the 750GB drive and move some of the stuff still sitting in the external hdd.

 

@ bl@ck

Seems similar to my temperatures in idle.
Just one quick question: How did you set up CPUID to show the GT650 instead of just the CPU cores? In office mode mine just shows the CPU cores. So, I always have to start a game and then restart CPUID to get the temp stats from the dedicated GFX card.

 

I use HWINFO personally, it seems to show temperature info on both the nVidia GPU and the CPU at the same time for me without any issue on the Sensor tab.

 

actually some people do use it that way, but i've never had to fool around with a virtual machine. The device is USB, so no problems there.

 

Well then, why not give it a try?

Download Windows XP Mode

It has to be easier and more convenient than having to swap HDDs or shut down and change the BIOS every time you want to boot to XP - it doesn't take long and I've done it a bunch of times over the years - my vote is, give it a shot

Here's a basic guide to get you started: How to Use Microsoft Virtual PC: 14 steps - wikiHow

Peter

 

I did it, finally.
After using more strength and a pair of pliers i was able to take the br drive out and install the caddy bay, it fits perfectly, that was really hard, thought i was going to break the drive at first.

 

I also have HWINFO64 and it doesn't show me the nvidia card for some reason. Is there any way to activate the sensor stats somewhere in the program?

 

Cheers for the reply :thumbsup:

Anybody know for certian, whether the N56VM has a backlit keyboard? lots of conflicting info online. Emailed asus, no reply >.<

 

I just got a N56VM and there's no backlit keyboard on mine.

 

As I just mentioned I have newly got a N56VM.. and the touchpad is driving me MENTAL!

It's the 2 fingered scrolling - it seems to randomly alternate between thinking I'm using 1 or 2 fingers. I can be scrolling down a webpage, and without lifting my fingers, change direction to scroll up, and the touchpad decides I'm suddenly only using 1 finger and just moves the mouse. I have to have about 2 or 3 goes at scrolling before it works generally. Flicks are a nightmare too.

Is there a particular driver I might be missing.. or one I shouldn't have installed?
Asus Update is all up to date.

The 1 finger operation is fine.
I used to have a touchpad that scrolled using the edge of the touchpad so you could use your thumb - that worked a dream - are there any customisations that can be applied that allow the same on the Asus?

 

Hello and many thanks to users who posts interesting informations about this laptop. I wanted a reasonably priced notebook for professional applications: GIS, RDBMS (Oracle, MS SQL Server), virtual machines and office. I narrow my options between N56 and Clevo W150ER. Same CPU, 16GB RAM (Corsair Vengeance), 128GB SSD Samsung 830 and internal HDD in caddy. I choose build quality from Asus (metal, better acoustic) over a little better display and better user acces from Clevo.
Installed Win 7 Proffesional and almost all Asus bloatware (heh, no live update) on SSD; boot time in 10 sec. After all other programs installed (130 processes at boot) boot time increased at 15 sec. I updated some drivers, only USB3 driver from Asus was wrong (installed as Dell USB3 driver and didn't recognize any USB 3 devices; reverted to original driver and everything was ok).
So far all is good and i'm very pleased. Ok, some strage popping noise, I don't mind, put sound to minimum. Subwoofer is a joke (very little volume and some distortions), touchpad has no issues at all (very, very good).
A little strange problem when put one USB3 (HDD) and one USB2 (mouse) on left; they don't work good simultaneous (either mouse cursor is jumping or HDD is reporting paging errors). Putting one in left and other on a right USB port there are no problems...
Original HDD (Seagate 750GB/7200rpm) is quiet, I was a little surprised that it's not very noisy at seek; ok is noisier than fan at idle but not very much..
Idle temp. at 47 degrees, 1800rpm. Not dead silent but very close.
Choosed 3 years warranty extension just in case; hope I will never need it.

 

@daveozzz: there are a few things like that in the elantech drivers. But you need to edit the registry a bit to expose them. Should be a few threads detailing it on the forum, but it's not difficult.
regedit
/HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Elantech/SmartPadDisplay/
This controls the visibility of the settings, not the actual settings. Then open the touchpad settings panel and edit.


Another thing you might want to do is to reduce the "number of lines" for scrolling in Windows. And then increase the speed of the scroll in the touchpanel drivers instead. Might suddenly be possible to use the two-finger scroll then

@Mirceav: I thought I was imagining things about the usb 3 devices.. But seems that if you have an usb2 device, then that hub is set to usb 2 via driver. I think the problems turn up if the drivers allow one device to go up in speed after that.. Not sure how this hangs together either..

 

I did a fresh install of Windows 7 to my Vertex 4 SSD on Friday - the installer was giving me trouble so I set the BIOS to IDE mode to see if it would allow it to detect the HDD and run setup. In the end it was something wrong with the ASUS Win7 disc so I ended up making a "One Disc" solution and selecting to use the Home Premium from a copy of a Dell Windows 7 Pro DVD and installing from a USB Card Reader. It asked me for the IRST driver and that was fine, I put it on the SD Card in the onboard reader and besides telling me none of them were compatible, it installed and ran with no problems after that.

When I installed it successfully, the system would boot in 15 seconds from when I hit the power button to when I had a usable desktop. Based on what some others had said I thought this might be a tad slow (though I don't know if they were measuring from power button press or what) - so I remembered I had set the BIOS, and I went back and set it to AHCI.

Windows 7 would then blue screen on boot - even if I changed the registry setting. So I decided to reinstall from scratch with AHCI enabled.

I did so, and the install went off without a hitch. However now (with AHCI enabled) my system boots in 25-30 seconds from power button press instead of 15 when IDE was set (!). Previously it would jump into windows just as the balls started to gather in the middle of the screen - now the Windows logo constructs itself and it sits there for 5 seconds after before it does anything.

I've been going through the SSD Optimization threads, but I didn't do any of that stuff the first time - I have the same # of drivers as before (ATK, Chipset, IRST) and when I did the timing on both they had not gone through Windows Update yet.

This is odd to me - what did I do wrong?

Thanks very much,
Peter

P.S. @Mirceav - how is yours booting in 10 seconds? What are you measuring from? The ASUS logo?

 

As an update, I've now installed all the basic drivers - as many as I would - (nVidia, P4G, Instant On, etc...) and the boot time is consistently about 25 seconds from hitting the power button. The Windows logo constructs itself fully and sits there pulsating for 5 seconds.

Is this slower than others are seeing with SATA III SSDs?

Thanks,
Peter

 

I boot from SDD (intel 520 240GB) from power button to windows login in 18/19 seconds. I had xoticpc do the clean win 7 install. I do have some asus drivers and utilities, including Power4Gear, life frame, and max audio. (Not sure what exactly the xoticpc guys installed from the asus drivers cd.)

 

From the moment I press the poewr button. But it was at the very beginning, with only basic software (OS and Asus bloatware). Now with all my aplications (RDBMS, GIS, webservers, virtualisations software) increased to about 15-16 seconds from power on.
There are very few utilities that I don't install from CD, one particular is LiveUpdate.
About SSD, I choose my SSD from this forum (working with VM will write a lot of data on SSD).
Well, I have to go back about my words that original HDD (Seagate Momentus 7200.5) is silent. It's not very silent in quiet environment, I have a constant whirl noise. I have to open the ODC and try some foam...

 

Thanks... actually what ended up helping was that one of the first things I had done when getting the laptop was to increase the mouse pointer speed in the windows control panel... when I put this back down to the default speed everything seemed to start working in a more sane way.