Can't find anywhere... Is there no real difference between the N550 and G551?

If specifications on the devices are equal and the G551 is thicker.

Internally wise it's identical? Anybody knows?

 

Half-informed guess from looking at them without opening up a g551 completely.. the n550 has an open heatsink solution that, admittedly is far above average when it comes to laptop coolers, and avoids the entire "five meter long strip of copper that's very hot on one side" problem that a lot of laptops in that class has. Or, it's an improvement on one of the best consumer-laptop cooling systems ever (i.e., the n56). And so one of the few consumer-grade laptops with a dual loop for the cooling. While the g551 has a closed heatsink loop for the two systems, like on the other g-series laptops. It weighs a bit more - the composite material in part of the chassis is more sturdy, though. Should be other screen options. I was told they were going to be making the next g-series chassis with an option for a lithium polymer battery as well, but that turned out to not be the case, as far as I know (the gx500 has one, though). You also get different bloatware along with it, and the ROG support folks aren't completely braindead. So if you're spending a lot of money on a laptop and will game on it - g551 or gx500. Apparently they removed the ugly logo and the lp-500 style grill as well, so you don't have to cover it up if you take it with you somewhere and want to take it out of the bag.

 

N550 has two small fans at the back - and is thinner. And has worse cooling/higher noise.
G551/N551 has one larger fan/heatsink at left side, and has better/less noisy cooling. And lower case temperatures.

If you can live with higher weight and thickness, the 551 design is better.

 

The G551 as part of the ROG series is designed for long gaming sessions.

 

Well I am looking at a N551 now. Have had bad luck for 2 years with laptops. First Asus G56 (kept breaking down for 6 months straight ) , then Lenovo Y50-70 (TN panel ) that I couldn't return.

 

Honestly, it's a bit hard to recommend an asus laptop on it's own merits. In spite of me owning several, and generally being happy with them. Because of the way they tend to tweak their bios (they don't just tweak it badly, they really don't know what they're doing), and how the build quality varies from model to model on details such as the power contacts on the mainboard, the seating for the mainboard and chassis screws, etc. That might very well result in what you had with the older g56, that I had with the n56 (the solder on the power contact on the mainboard broke, since it was placed too close to the heatsink, while everything else was fine), etc.

But compared to other products on the market, you do get a lot of hardware for a somewhat reasonable coin, in a cheap but perfectly ok chassis. Many products that supposedly are to made for gaming also don't match up in terms of the cooling system. And it's undeniable that both the new gx and the n551/g550 chassis are well made. And, that they've taken what worked on the n56 (that was a really good setup), and improved on that. ..Of course, the builds may have weaknesses, or these hilarious oversights, that we don't really know about yet.