Unofficial review of X83VP-A1

i just wanted to recap and update. my first laptop was doa from ncix in bc, canada. i kept it for the weekend and tampered with it and thought i had voided my warranty as i was fooled with the flimsy sticker. i called asus anyways and got an rma number and they picked it up the next day. i was constantly checking my rma number but it was never recorded in the system. i finally phoned them up today to ask for an update. they told me it had already been shipped to me and gave me a tracking number. sure enough the package was already in my town (after traveling back and forth across the border several times since it was marked ca instead of canada...) the package arrived a couple hours later to my surprise, and when i checked the report form it said the serial number of the model they sent me was different. the new laptop functions perfectly so far and im unable to purposely recreate any crashes where the previous laptop would have. even though they botched the shipping, not that i paid for it, a 1 week turnaround is pretty good considering my warranty probably should have been void and they are on the complete opposite side of the country (3 day bus ride.. i know ive done it 3 times). very pleased with asus even though i got a peanut. i chose them for a reason and im glad i did. this laptop performs very well, at least 4x better than my old 2005 desktop. runs games like oblivion,gta4,cod4,and fallout3 on high settings without any problems. now i just need to see if i can buy a new keyboard with the ctrl key on the bottom left corner..

 

Got mine from AMAZON, this laptop is very capable of latest games.
Yet, there is no bluetooth, not like what AMAZON's description.
And ASUS actually charge you $9.00 to process rebate, what they call "No Wait" rebate and actually ONLY make you wait for 4 weeks .... Yes, there is charge for processing your rebate, so called "No Wait" rebate -- my AXX. So the actual rebate amount is $91, not $100.

For the time being, I still don't know if I will receive $91 rebate or not, cunning as they are, ther4e might be some hidden charges they don't want you to know in advance. Will post result when I get my rebate.

Oh, and the LCD is definitely not LED backlit, I've own LED backlit laptops, I know how LED backlit should look like, this laptop does not come close, and the view angle is narrow ...

more later ...

 

I have LED backlit too ....but they don't look any different......

 

Hey again

I don't exactly want to be the bearer of bad news, but if you've purchased the laptop expecting an HD4670 please:

1. use a GPU monitoring utility to check your max core and max memory speed
2. or contact ASUS support and have them look up what the loadout is on your laptop

I say this because after a number of e-mails back and forth inquiring why my GPU was hitting a maximum GPU clock of 550/700, core/memory, I received this information:

I may just be an isolated case, but it's worth checking over.

edit-----------------
for reference, the GPU in my laptop is spec-wise identical to this HD4650

 

sticker and system properties both say 4670 on my x83vp-a1

 

mine does as well.

however, what I initially found peculiar is this:

• Mobility HD4670 has a core/memory speed of 675/800
• ATI's Catalyst Configuration, GPUz, 3Dmark06, and other monitoring applications were listing the maximum core/memory on my machine as 550/700
• That coincides with an ATI Product Page for the HD4650
• After I checked the card itself, it had the markings "M96-M" on the silkscreen. Mobility HD4670's carry the marking "M96XT"

So I shot ASUS support an e-mail, and after some correspondence I received the message I previously posted.

Like I said, I may just be an isolated case, but it's worth a double-check.
In the end it's not really much of a difference, it's the same GPU chip running at a slower clock. However, some people could be picky about it.

 

It could be 4650 with 4670 GPU file ....so who knows ....if you really want 4670 speed (which is really minor ..lol), go use some GPU overclock tool ..it will help

 

It's a 4670 downclocked to 4650 speeds AFAIK.

I haven't found an overclocking tool that can be used under W7 x64 yet.

 

All right, so finally got my laptop today.

I just have a couple of questions for the owners.

1st. How do I un-partion hard drive, I found a couple of pages how to do this on this site, I just don't know exactly how to do it and should I back up data, reinstall windows and drivers, etc.

Also, is this me or the screen colour picture quality is not very good? I watched highlights of a couple of b-ball games today and all the colours(especially evident in uniforms) were much brighter in my desktop. Is this simple due to the fact that desktop has 22' inch monitor and much better video card? Or is there any setting I can adjust to make the quality better on my laptop.

Thx in advance

 

partitioning was a bit tricky. if you use the recovery disk it will make 2-3 partitions. i bought another hdd and installed a different version of windows and even still windows automatically wants to make another partition for recovery. all you gotta do if you want to claim the space they waste is create a small partition, it will automatically create a second one, format both partitions then extend the one windows automatically creates to use the rest of the disk. i normally make a second partition though to make formatting easier. you shouldnt have to backup anything if you didnt put any files on there. i wouldnt suggest doing this if you are using the recovery disk though.. first time i tried formatting it like that and using the recovery disk it gave me a giant error.

funny colors could be from the asus software that comes preinstalled or from a weird viewing angle. you pretty much need to be looking at this screen dead on for good picture. hard to tell just from a small description what you mean.

 

yeah, a few people who've e-mailed me about that discrepancy are going that route.

I don't need the extra oomph myself, but it is an option

 

I have HD 4670

 

saincteye great post and sorry for hi-jacking it. If you want I will post separate threads.

About partioning, what do you guys think are advantages disadvantages or partioned HD and what do I need to back up in order to get windows back to normal functioning.

Thanks in advance

 

i bought another hdd for mine, i wanted something faster. windows 7 makes an extra partition and it stole 16gb if i recall correctly.. either that or asus factory install has a 16gb partition.. i like having 2 partitions on my main drive. one large partition for storage and one small (80gb) partition to run windows and my apps. makes things a lot easier if something goes wrong and you need to format. on my old win98 and xp computers i used to format once a month just to keep everything tidy and running at top speed. hopefully i wont have to do that with windows 7..but it is a microsoft product so we'll see

 

Hey guys, is the colour quality on your notebook good? My 15"6 notebook has a much better picture quality when viewing movies or youtube videos then my current n81vp, n81vp has a much better settings.

By picture quality I mean colours and stuff. The colors on my old Notebook look much brighter and clearer.

Is it because of smaller screen? Or is there any way I can adjust the screen for better picture quality.

 

haha, so the GPU identification issue continues. It's the damnedest thing getting this sorted out XD

Anyway, I've been writing with Asus support still and they finally bumped me up from the initial techs that fielded the initial message.

Apparently the HD4670 they used in the laptop is an OEM model not listed on the ATI product pages.
It's like the Dell-only model of the Crative xfi XtremeMusic for those of you who followed the XFI modding fad of the previous year or two.

I swear, all I wanted to know was what video card was in the machine. I didn't know it would drag on this long figuring it out

 

i finally got around to checking what my video card is and it is indeed underclocked. clocking it to the right speeds does give a decent boost, but it doesnt last for long. it eventually freezes after about 15 seconds at 675/800, which is what notebookcheck.net says it should be . its possible it could be an overheating issue as they dont attach the heat pads properly from what i saw on my doa laptop but its more likely a voltage problem. the stock settings are 550/700 according to everest. my fps is good enough right now i think i can wait for my warranty to run out before i bother trying to push this thing to the limit. if it werent for the keyboard this thing would be my dream machine.. all it needs is a faster/larger hdd,more ram, faster gpu, any new kb, which are all easily attainable.

 

hello, i'm from indonesia and i,ve bought the x83 from newegg........so far playable with all new games.......
the games i've installed :
bioshock 2, resident evil 5, cod 4, cod 4-5-6, the sims 3, manhunt 2, devil may cry 4, gta4(u have to patch it), asassin creed 2, etc...

ss my x83


wei index


gpu-z

 

any new driver for the gpu ? look like the 4670 is clocked down to 4650

 

hellow.....any new driver ?