Asus N53JF Owner's Lounge

[nid_dipav]

Seems like everyone's finally getting their backordered and otherwise difficult to attain N53's...

[essense]

OK! So I just picked up my N53JF
Stock WEI:
Processor 6.9
RAM 5.9
Graphics 4.7??? --> 4.3 after clean install and updates X_x
Gaming graphics 6.5
HDD 5.9

First impressions:
Pros
Looks awesome.
Same, if not lighter than my 14" LG
I really like this keyboard; not really a fan of chiclet keyboards.
The touch pad is really really smooth and well designed unlike sony/acer/toshiba
Compared to the N61, the touch buttons are really easy to press
Very very good sound with or without SonicMaster (I can't decide if on or off is better)

Cons
Touch buttons are easy to press but I am still used to pressing near the middle but it's not possible on this laptop.
Still getting used to the multi-touch; Anyone know how to add in edge scrolling?
There is some flex but doesn't bother me at all and double sided tape will probably fix it
There is a high pitched whine from cpu
There doesn't seem to be an easy way to take out the BRdrive for a swappable hdd

What i've done so far:
Played COD4 and WC3 with no problems
Installed SSD ------------------> Everything is WAYYYYYYYYYYY FASTER !!!!!!!!!!
Fresh install of win7
ASUS bloatware guide by David Here
**For the record: to get into BIOS spam F2 when ASUS logo comes on**
Installing drivers and applications

[essense]

Table of Contents:

Model Differences
Where to buy
Games

SC2

COD BlackOps

L4D2

Benchmarks
Batterylife
HDD and Wireless card access
CPU Whine SOLVED [with consequences!]
How to watch BluRay
ASUS Bloatware Guide

Model Differences: N53JF

A1 2 year warranty (first yr = ADW), Bluetooth
XE1 1 year Accidental Damage Warranty, FullHD (1920x1080), Blu-Ray reader, no Bluetooth
XR1 1 year ADW, Blu-ray reader, Bluetooth

Where to buy:
Canada

NCIX
N53JF-A1 1069.99 CAD
N53JF-XR1 999.99 CAD

Memory Express
N53JF-A1 1099.99 CAD <-- Price beat NCIX = 1016.49 CAD

Tiger Direct .ca
N53Jf-XE1 1312.99 CAD (+$50 gift card)

USA

Amazon .com (special 1 month prime membership; $3.99 1 day shipping)
N53JF-A1 999 USD (+$50 gift card)
N53JF-XE1 1014.82 USD (+$50 gift card)(IMO BEST DEAL!!)

Newegg .com
N53JF-XE1 999 +14.83S/H = 1013.83 USD

Games:
SC2

Playable on Ultra settings but too slow for my liking, so if you want to play with tip top shape you will need to set it to medium or medium with some tweaked to high.
After 40minutes, highest cpu temp was 81 and GPU 68

COD BlackOps

Playable on 1280x720 at low texture, any higher and it'll lag. The movies lag regardless. Max temps: CPU 81C, GPU 76C.

Left4Dead2

Playable at FHD, max everything

Benchmarks:
3DMark06

7242 stock GPU (560/800/1120) Max CPU temp 81, GPU 64
8570 after GPU overclock (700/900/1400) Max CPU temp 83, GPU 65

CrystalDisk Mark

Stock WD 7200rpm 500GB HDD

Battery life:

Power saver + youtube w/ IGP= 2hrs45min
Power saver + regular surfing w/ IGP= 3hrs45min

HDD Access and Wireless card access instructions: here and also in your eManual
HDD

1) Flip your laptop over so that the underside is facing up
2) With the battery side away from you, lift up the two rubber feet closest to you (bottom left and bottom right)
3) Unscrew the two screws that you just exposed
4) Slide the cover toward yourself
5) Lift up
6) The HDD and RAMs are exposed

Wireless card

1) Remove the battery
2) Remove the screw connected to the wireless cover
3) Lift the cover out
(I will double check this later)

CPU Whine SOLVED: (kinda)
by Whyte

1) open regedit
2) navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings
and search for 5d76a2ca-e8c0-402f-a133-2158492d58ad (CTRL-F to search)
3) double click Attributes and change the value from 1 to 0.
4) now right click on the power icon in the tray, go to Power Options,
5) click on change plan settings for your plan, then click on Change advanced power settings,
6) scroll down to Processor power management and you should see a setting called Processor idle disable, change it to "Disable idle". Click on Apply.
The Whine disappears! But there are consequences.. "With Procesor idle disabled, your CPU is going to run a lot hotter and comsume a lot more power."
My CPU and GPU went up 5degrees celcius instantly.. and stabled at around a 10degrees increase.. hmm..

How to watch BluRay:
by SmogHog

Download and install this: AsusDVD 3 in 1(PowerDVD 9 Suite OEM)
Register later
Play your bluray..
Have yet to see if there is a trial period.

ASUS Bloatware Guide by David: Here

[Mesa115]

essense - thanks for all the information.

I just purchased from Amazon the "N53JF-XE1 $1014.82 USD (+BR, +FHD, -1yr warranty, +$50 gift card) deal".
Amazon.com: ASUS N53JF-XE1 15.6-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Silver Aluminum): Computer & Accessories
I also used my Amazon credit card, which basically gives you another 3% cashback.

After tons of research, I think this laptop is the best bang for the buck for me. Good mix of processing power, graphics capability, energy efficiency, display resolution, connectivity, etc. Only thing missing for me is a firewire or express card slot, because I have a miniDV cam with firewire.

I don't understand why this model doesn't appear to be selling that well right now? Maybe the price isn't marked down as much as the older models out there, but with it's specs I think it's worth a little more.

I was also considering the N61JQ-XV1 which Amazon has for $850. I think its an older model, but more powerful processor and graphics, but worse battery life and screen resolution.
Amazon.com: ASUS N61JQ-XV1 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Dark Brown): Computer & Accessories

But for me it looked like the newer N53JF-XE1 was worth the extra money. Can't wait to get my hands on it, hope it looks as good in person.

[essense]

Congrats man!
I just ordered the XE1 model as well!
Amazon was forcing me to buy it :@
In the end I will have spent like $70 more than the XR1 but I get $50 to spend on a case or mouse or some BluRays!!

Anyone know if the Zeroshock III 15.4" will fit this??!

[nid_dipav]

I've owned my N53Jf-XE1 for the grand total of one week, so let's break this down

Appearances: I can't say I didn't first love this laptop for its appearances (its specs weren't half bad either). If I wanted shear power, I would've opted for an older generation g series or something. It's absolutely superb looking, I'm really loving the brushed metal look (though the bezel still irks me). Coming off the matte flat look of lenovo's (I hate shiny shiny plastic, which I'm glad Asus is starting to step away from), I'm very pleased with how, come on, I have to say it, pretty it is.

Size and Weight: It seems a bit bigger than expected (mind you, I've gotten very used to a 10" netbook the last several months while I was in between laptops (the previous thinkpad 14" also seems rather small in comparison). It's actually a bit lighter I originally would have thought, but seems about average for its size. Of note: with regards to laptop bags, this laptop doesn't always fit in sleeves and bags designed for laptops "up to 15.6 inches"

Screen: very nice, good viewing angles from the sides, though there is fade out tilted too far up or too far down. I'm almost a little bothered by how bright it is (I'm used to being on a computer for a long time animating or other intensive things, and I usually dim the brightness way down, but it seems like I can't get it as low as I want (either that or I wish there were more stops inbetween each integer of brightness.... but this is all just personal preference)

The bezel surrounding the screen is very shiny and a fingerprint magnet (as is the single mouse button (see below)

Keyboard: I haven't noticed any flex and its been a pretty enjoyable typing experience. The lay-out is a little odd for me (coming from two Lenovo machines) but I'm getting used to it

Mouse/Trackpad: I love this trackpad. Usually, I turn off the tapping because it';s way too sensitive for me and I end up clicking things I never intended to click, but I've only had a few occasions of doing so. I too miss the edge scrolling that I'm so used to (and because the multi-touch gestures don't seem to always work for me (magnification in particular). The surface feels really nice. The button isn't my favourite (its a single bar, and rather shiny) but has been acceptable thus far.

Battery Life: Classes are on Thanksgiving break right now, so I haven't really tested the unplugged life, but it seems to be a solid 2.5 hours with regular (non-demanding use), and somewhere around 3.5 on battery saving settings (and my own dimming).

Temperatures: I'm really impressed by how cool this is running. The only part that ever seems slightly warm is the fan and the bottom near the fan. I very much appreciate this

Performance: Startup still seems to take longer than necessary, but that just means I haven't removed enought bloatware and cleaned up msconfig enough

I haven't put this through too much pain yet, but so far it has stood up to some light use of Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max alongside Adobe Lightroom which was running at the same time. The only strain seemed to occur when both maya and 3ds max were running at the same time (albeit briefly) but it hardly seemed to approve.

I've only seen the dedicated card come up once (while running maya/3ds max). I ran portal on the integrated and it stuttered a bit, but wasn't switching to the dedicated card courtesy of Optimus. When I switched manually things ran much smoother

DVD/Blu-Ray: I have not yet tested this

Sound: Fantastic. I mean, it's no match for a speaker and subwoofer combo, but its fairly powerful, not remotely tinny (you can hear a slight strain and distortion when you up the volume too much). The loudness and the clarity were what I was most pleased with.



Bottom Line: I kind of hope the Optimus gets smoothed out (though I haven't been able to upgrade the drivers via nvidia, not sure why), and it stays as cool as it has been (though I'll probably get a laptop cooler anyway... for rendering). I don't imagine I'll upgrade anything (I'm used to 2 gigs of ram, but we'll see if I consider 4gb sufficient). I'm still getting used the higher resolution (my lenovo had a 1400x900, which is actually pretty good (I didn't realise it at the time)). My eyes have suffered enough at the hands of computer screens, so that is something I'm going to have to work out. But the screen space you gain from it.... so great for any digital art work (or coding).

I'm not sure why people complain about lack of Express Card slot (use usb already, its industry standard, and most companies are nixing them anyway) or lack of firewire (another commodity item thats fairly useless to a decent chuck of people). At least with this laptop you get a usb 3.0 port and an e-sata port... both of which also function as usb 2.0 ports, but yeah.

All in all, I'm immensely pleased with my laptop choice thus far.

[allidea]

I just got mine N53JF and I want to change stock HDD to SSD. Can someone please explain (with pic, if possible) how to reach to HDD. Since I just bought it I don't want to scratch back cover while trying to open it (since there are no screws). Thanx.

[essense]

Originally Posted by allidea

I just got mine N53JF and I want to change stock HDD to SSD. Can someone please explain (with pic, if possible) how to reach to HDD. Since I just bought it I don't want to scratch back cover while trying to open it (since there are no screws). Thanx.

here

is a video, it's in korean but it doesn't matter
Basically take out the 2 screws from under the rubber feet
slide the cover toward yourself
then lift up

Btw, this instruction is also in the Emanual =]

[allidea]

Thanx a lot!

[engnrd]

Originally Posted by essense

Model Differences: N53JF

A1 2 year warranty (1yr ADW), BT
XE1 1 year Accidental Damage Warranty, FHD, BR reader, no BT
XR1 1 year ADW, BR reader, BT

I was hoping someone could clarify for me some of the abbreviations here? Does FHD mean Full High Definition meaning that the XE1 is the only model with 1920x1080 resolution? And I'm assuming BT means Bluetooth? So if I specifically want the higher resolution screen, I'd need to buy a bluetooth usb dongle if I also wanted bluetooth?

The N53JF-XE1 seems to be the best deal that I'm able to find that meets most of my requirements and has the resolution I want; I'm just trying to make sure I completely understand all the N53JF options.