ASUS N81Vp Review

[Buhdahl]

for approx 1500$ and 1.6 inches of thickness you would think that ASUS would just make the system w/ a 15" WUXGA screen...any system that is over 6lbs travel weight had better be under 1" thick or much lower priced than 1000

and this one is 1400_+ tax/shipping/ + cost of spare battery...too much

but great review!

Asus is releasing a 15 inch version of this called the N51tp. Mostly the same specs but it will have a full number pad and better resolutions on some models.

[Buhdahl]

Rechecked the RAM installed and it is actually DDR2, corrected the list.

PC2-6400 = 800 Mhz, right?

[Wolfpup]

I soooooo wish this had Blu Ray and a Geforce GPU.

I've got an n80 (its predecessor...basically the same thing but with a Geforce 9650GT, and a 2.4GHz/3MB Penryn instead of the 2.6/6MB one).

Like the review says, the n80 seems really well engineered. I've been really impressed with its cooling system. Mine stays cooler with the CPUs and GPU at 100% from Folding @ Home than a lot of larger notebooks do at idle...really!

I suppose I'm glad this doesn't have a Geforce GPU, just so I don't feel sad that my n80 is now 'outdated'

[siLc]

PC2-6400 = 800 Mhz, right?

Correct.

Interesting to see ASUS still bundling the same old mouse and carrying case after 3 years. The carrying case, by the way, is meant for 15,4" screened laptops. As far as I know ASUS had a more appropriately-sized carrying case for 14" sized notebooks.
What is more, the lower part of the chassis is once again from a 3 year old model - the A8J. Not that is bad, but rather good - especially the 5 USB ports and a large potential for ports on the back side. The down side is that the screen bezel is kind of oversized vertically.

[Wolfpup]

I'm all for reusing the same components if it works! You can't argue with the cooling and engineering on this sucker. I'm actually really glad to hear that Asus emphasizes things WORKING over randomly redesigning it.

Dell's 1640, despite being a larger notebook, easily runs 30c+ higher than my n80.

[studlv]

I was hoping the main memory is DDR3 so it would run even cooler.

Does anyone know how the air is circulated and vented out? There are 3 grids on the bottom. Which one is the main air intake, or none of them are? I'm looking for a laptop that is truely that, a laptop, so it can sit on your lap and not afraid of blocking the air intake causing overheating (Dell XPS 13 over heated on me and died). Currently, only the Sony Vaio Z series and the Apple Macbooks with respectable specs are true laptops. But they're way overpriced and under spec'ed when compared to N81Vp.

[James]

Well, here we go. General 14" model laptops are finally starting to surpass my aging "gaming" laptop (5500 3dmark06 with max overclock). I guess it's finally time to upgarde.

Great review.

[Red_Dragon]

Again Red_Dragon, you're mostly fine but sometimes you really get on my nerves. Don't jump on that 6K straight away, then ask "who is gonna pump these to 8K". ATI cards largely depend on the CPU in synthetic benchmarks, highlighted by the 3870s 3000 point increase from a P8600 to a X9100.

Secondly, ATI cards do well in synthetic benchmarks, but usually fall back in real life performance.

Thirdly, it was run at 1280 by 768. That's 300 less pixels than 1280 by 1024, so you are actually looking at a result of 5300-400 if they ran it at the standard res. That's hardly impressive, especially for one of those "godly 4000 series" ATI cards you've been preaching about.

Awwwww poor baby, dont cry

Isnt it the same thing with nvidia? You put in a good CPU and your score jumps so that argument you are making is flawed. There was a guy on this site who had a 9800gts just like me with the same processor i think he was getting around 8500 3dmark when he put in an X9100 he got a 11,000 or so. CPU increasing a score substantially is NOT an ATI thing only and you have to be not so smart to think this.

also you are wrong again you said 5300 but at 1280 x 1024 it is 5720 3dmark score.

Also dont forget this is just a 4650 NOT the 4670 which will probably score about 1000+ higher. Lets wait and see real world benchmarks against nvidia then we'll see who is right.

[dtwn]

Does anyone know how the air is circulated and vented out? There are 3 grids on the bottom. Which one is the main air intake, or none of them are? I'm looking for a laptop that is truely that, a laptop, so it can sit on your lap and not afraid of blocking the air intake causing overheating (Dell XPS 13 over heated on me and died). Currently, only the Sony Vaio Z series and the Apple Macbooks with respectable specs are true laptops. But they're way overpriced and under spec'ed when compared to N81Vp.

My N80vn's fan vents on the right side. I would assume the N81vp, being built on the same chassis would do the same.

[Wolfpup]

Currently, only the Sony Vaio Z series and the Apple Macbooks with respectable specs are true laptops. But they're way overpriced and under spec'ed when compared to N81Vp.

Don't know about where it's intake is, but it has MUCH better cooling than Apple's laptops, or Dell's 1640.

I've used it briefly on my lap, and sometimes the fan's ramped up one level (but that's running the CPUs at 100%).