UX430UN Hardware Review - Part 1

Will be updating with gaming and other benchmarks in Part 2.

You can buy from costco.com for $999.99 until November 22, 2017. Hopefully be available on Amazon or B&H Photo Video or Newegg in the near future.

https://www.costco.com/ASUS-ZenBook...VIDIA-Graphics--1080p-.product.100375043.html

 

Great overview, can't wait for Part 2!!

 

Here's benchmarks and overview... none of me talking...

 

The USB 3.1 does support 4k/60! Even ran a few benchmarks to see what that little GPU can do. Dirt Rally on Medium details at 4K was running 20-24FPS!

 

Part 2 uploaded:

 

HTWINGNUT

You are a god....period

edit.. I love you man

 

I was going to do a final Pros / Cons video, but here's my thoughts:

Pros:
- Definitely thin and light at 0.63 in thick and 2.76 lbs
- Great battery life at 6-7 hours moderate use
- Good performance CPU with 4 cores/8 threads
- GPU can game well if you are realistic with its limits (i.e 720p medium settings)
- LCD is bright with good color reproduction, wide viewing angles, and 60Hz panel good for gaming too
- Three USB ports, two options for external display, supporting up to 4k/60
- Keyboard and touchpad are very good (not the best but very good)
- Solid overall aluminum construction
- Speakers are clear and not distorted
- User accessible bottom panel and upgradeable storage and thermal pipe repaste

Cons:
- CPU can get hot and thermal throttle almost too quickly without mods and/or undervolt
- GPU has 74C thermal limit that cannot be adjusted, which limits overall GPU clock speeds
- LCD has PWM backlight
- Stock SSD has an electronic chirp. This went away when replaced by an alternate SSD.

Other:
- Fan tends to come on even at idle, although very quiet
- CPU, GPU, RAM are not upgradeable
- Lid hinge is sturdy, but requires one hand to secure the base of the laptop in order to open the lid
- Speaker placement could be a bit better, since they are bottom facing
- Laptop does not charge via USB-C port
- Adding thermal pads over CPU and GPU can help better thermal performance
- Upgrade to Windows 10 Fall Creators Update resulted in black screens with 3D gamess. Needed beta Intel driver (seems a MS update fixed that issue).
- Wall wart power supply, inline would be better, and higher than 65W would be preferable.

 

Quick Addendum to HTWingNut's awesome review and info...

You can can upgrade the SATA SSD to an NVMe unit. I put a Samsung SM961 in mine. Looks like it's a two lane configuration given the speeds...


Before and afters...

 

Hi HTWingNUt, I watched your first video and I'm watching the second.
Just two fast question: how many millimeters thick did you use thermal pads? Any suggestion with a specific thermal pad?
And another question: which voltages did you lower and how much did you lower them? I know every CPU/GPU/etc. is different, I ask just to make some comparison.

I will change thermal paste with Grizzly Kryonaut and SSD with a 960 EVO, but i plan to do everything in the same time.

Bye and compliments for your review!

PS: watching your video review, If I'm not wrong, the problem about PWM arise only when brightness is below its maximum, is this correct?

 

I also bought this laptop and cannot believe how bad the throttling is! Literally goes from 1400 MHz down to 150mhz when it hits 74 degrees. It’s continually jolting and jarring. Tried quite a few games and different profiles on ThrottleStop.

Also could only get the i5 down by -30mv. My guess is the 8 series are tightly tuned from factory as I’ve tried a few and they all undervolt poorly compared with 6 and 7 series.

It’s shocking that they even allowed this sort of hardware to be released. It’s completely useless for gaming. Using the integrated intel 620 gives much better (stable, reliable) results.

Very disappointed. Also mine was manufactured 11/17.