Asus N56VZ-DS71 first impressions

[OC-Freak]

Thanks!

Looks like it might be same display as default display in the latest clevos (P150EM/W150ER).
That's a good choice, it's a very good display, not best of the best but very good.

[NoFightNoWin]

Here yo go:

Thank you for the picture and the review videos on Youtube. Can you also post the display model for the Asus N76 17 inch? That'd be much appreciated. Also I noticed that during the video review of the N76, the temperature (idle and under load) portion is missing. Can you tell us more about that? Thank you.

[z0mbi3]

Any of you tried replacing the Optical Drive with an HDD Caddy? I already replaced the internal HDD with a 256GB Samsung 830 SSD but I'd really love if I could put some of my VMs disks on a larger HD.

[mirado0424]

i am already getting a replacement computer sent out because my speaker crackle really bad even at low volumes, and when Im listening to music or doing anything with sound, and I am multitasking, if my computer freezes up the music will stop too and the speaker emit a loud robot sounding noise. Diablo 3 performance was also terrible it didnt matter what settings I put it on it would lag so much on a great internet connection. Hopefully I just got a defective unit...

[burghblast]

Thanks for this thread. I'm on the verge of ordering a N56VZ-DS71 myself. The first thing I'm planning to do is wipe the hard drive and do a fresh reinstall, which I always like to do whenever I get a new machine. Has anyone else done this? Have you run into any issues reinstalling drivers, etc. from scratch?

[escapist]

Any of you tried replacing the Optical Drive with an HDD Caddy? I already replaced the internal HDD with a 256GB Samsung 830 SSD but I'd really love if I could put some of my VMs disks on a larger HD.

Planning to drop the same SSD in mine when it lands on Wednesday. Did you just run the restore disk, or did you install 7 off an oem copy to avoid the bloatware? How's performance overall? Thanks!

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

[nipsen]

Thanks for this thread. I'm on the verge of ordering a N56VZ-DS71 myself. The first thing I'm planning to do is wipe the hard drive and do a fresh reinstall, which I always like to do whenever I get a new machine. Has anyone else done this? Have you run into any issues reinstalling drivers, etc. from scratch?

Yes. Many

They don't send out OEM disks any more. So you can do one out of two things.

1. When you start up the computer the first time, the AI recovery something reminds you that you should create a bunch of dvd-images in case you need to reinstall (and this is Windows, you will need to do that sooner or later). What the software does is to take a backup of a "hidden" partition on the disk, along with a bootable image on the first disc. If you delete everything, or install a new hard-drive, or an ssd, that kind of thing, you can boot from that first image, and basically mirror down the hidden partition, which then installs a "fresh" boot with all the asus programs on, for a one-partition setup.

You might be able to shrink that partition later if you want to install linux, and so on, but I'm not going to guarantee success doing that.

2. Download a win7/64bit OEM disc, install it on a fresh setup (as in delete everything, and delete all partitions, remove them from the partition table, etc). And use the key on the bottom of the panel. Then if you don't really have a problem with the asus software, you can install it via the driver disc. And that will be more or less everything except for the Works thing with office. ...frankly, install OpenOffice.. or Libreoffice, or what it's called now instead, it's better.

The problems you're going to run into are the following:
a) Asus' power control software needs to run with monitor/admin access. If you install the Power4hybridawesomepowersaiken software as admin, you can be lucky to get a bunch of hangs if you just continue to use it with your user-account.

This is a serious bug with their software, that stems from the fact that it's made for Windows xp, where the UAC (useraccesscontrol - nothing good about that, though) didn't exist. Tried to get support to understand that this might be something they should sort out. But no luck.

The Windows control software as well is completely mysterious, though. What does "optimise for media-playback" mean? Doesn't say. So solution is generally speaking to install and run the actual profile software addons as elevated user, and then remove the on-screen calls. I don't know exactly where the problem is, but that fixed it. So very likely it's a call between the different asus programs that cause the hangs when switching to and from battery for example.

b) Anything you ask Asus support from now on will be followed by "but we don't support people doing anything other than start the computer, boot it, and use it like "intended".

But generally speaking, all the software will be available on a driver disc, and you can install parts of it without many issues. But there's always some parts of the software package that have been taped together and suspended by a clotheshanger and a rubber-band, and so on. And that it will partially fall apart when it's not used exactly as the guys who put it together intended.

Hardware, drivers, etc, should be relatively painless, though. Specially when it's very common components like this. Something will be supported out of the box, and you can always get a driver from the dvd or the internet afterwards. That is not going to be a problem, at least.

[Aceshighhhh]

Can OP or anyone else tell us if any problems have occured with the machine since you've gotten it? I just ordered one and want to make sure I made the right choice haha. Also as far as gaming goes, what games do you play and what kind of frames are you getting normally?

[elmer_f]

#57 Nipsen have you tried out linux on n56vz?
Can you check what wifi-card is installed?
Nice description by the way.

[nipsen]

No, haven't got mine yet. I had a n53tk for a while, which is the same sized chassis, same software more or less.

And I don't know if it's the same wifi module, so I can't tell if it's going to work. But I think they're using the same card series as in the other builds (at least it's the same driver series for windows), so I'm guessing it'll probably work.

I'll check once I get the laptop, though..