Asus ROG G551

how does the 960m or 970m compare to the 860m? Is it worth the wait.. if so, for how long? And when is the broadwell processor expected. Any major advantages so far?

 

Well, my GL551 came in about an hour ago. Unfortunately due to my class schedule, I won't be able to mess with it until this afternoon, but I did get to look at the build quality, and I have to say, it's very nice. I'm also still open to doing temp. and RGB tests if someone is willing to tell me what programs to use and how to run them. Either way, I'll have some games installed on it and will come back with some numbers as far as FPS is concerned.

Also, on the topic of the screens, if you have no real need for a laptop now, and are willing to wait, you're always better off getting the ips model, if it does come to your country. I needed a laptop now, and this was the best one I was gonna get. For me, as long as the quality of the screen is somewhere between my gigabyte (TN) and alienware (IPS, but I no longer have it), I'll be more than happy. If it's anything like the HP Envy slim quad I bought a month ago, I'll do the same thing I did with that and ship it back.

 

Try some graphic intense game at full settings and see how well the single fan setup performs at keeping the laptop cool. Are the speakers loud with quality sound and bass. Do the speakers distort sound at loud volume? Do share some images or a video of your purchase. Thanks for the input

 

Hey all. I just got the laptop today and I'm playing around with it right now. I bought it off Amazon. I owned a Lenovo Y50 2 days ago and returned it for this. Quick review as of now is that the screen is WAY better than the Lenovo's already. I like the aluminum casing and it doesn't attract fingerprints as one of the Amazon reviewer stated. Trackpad feels nice but it's iffy right now and I think I have to tweek it. Two finger scrolls not very smooth. The number lock doesn't stay locked. I have to press it every time I log in which is annoying but I think there might be a workaround to it. No light to display it's locked either.

It comes with a two drives. The C drive which has 373Gigs and a D Drive with 537Gigs. I'm not sure if both are 7400RPM

It doesn't come with a subwoofer or a microcloth that other ASUS models came with which is a bummer. The sound quality is nothing to brag about. The Y50's was AMAZING and going to this was very disappointing. It's like a generic speaker (similar to my Toshiba Satellite's quality)

Start up time, I haven't had a chance to test as I'm installing updates. It didn't come with a lot of bloatware which was nice, but it also didn't come with anything great.

WIfi connects fine as I'm getting 10MBPS on my school's wifi (which is also one of the best)

While installing updates and downloading programs, the laptop did stay cool but there was warm air coming from the side vent. I heard that this was a one fan cooling system which is prob bad. Reviews from Amazon state that their CPU went up to around 90C which is MUCH higher than what the Lenovo went to. I don't play modern graphic intense game like BF4 or Watchdog so I can't give an accurate FPS/temp review, but I can test out Skyrim, BF3, and Rome Total War 2 and see how it does.

Overall, do I miss the Y50?.. just some of the features, but I had to get used to it. I owned it for a week. This however, I love it. Off course after having owned the Y50, some stuff like the great cooling and amazing sound form it is missed.

I plan to do a video review as well if no one else soon. I'll leave it to BeastOG to do the graphic stuff

 

Judging from Amazon reviews, this thing gets really hot. Speakers and tempratures on the y50 were much much better. What a waste of time... The single fan setup is a flop and so are the speakers. Gonna wait out for a better model. Sticking with my current laptop for now.

 

If I understand, it's better to buy a lenovo y50 with a replacement screen (the only thing on lenovo) than a asus g551...

It's sad because I started to appreciate this g551.

Go back to lenovo I guess...

 

Wait a second, you said that Y50 have a better cooling? I doubt that's true. Just check this review and on those temperatures, case comes incredibly hot! How you can say that GL551 have worse cooling?

 

I'm not sure if I had faulty hardware on my Y50, but when I used RealTemp and GPU Temp after about 2 hours of gaming of BF3 on ultra, it read 45C for both GPU and CPU.. while idle temp was 40C. It seemed odd. The keyboard from the number one key to the middle (including WASD) and toward the monitor (where the vent is) got REALLY warm. Reviews said it was warm but to me, it wasn't a temperature I would like to keep my hand on for an extended time. However, when I quit the game, it cooled down fast.

I haven't tried gaming with this laptop yet and I will later to give an update.

 

yeah seems to me that the gl551 has high temp, i read in a review on some website i dont quite remember that when trying watchdogs on high or highest the computer shutted itself cause of failsafe, so theres that..

 

Look at Xotic's phantom or Cyberpowers Raven

They aren't as thin but they aren't that big and they stay relatively cool. Especially after the paste cures. Xotic has a video review of their phantom on youtube. The laptop would not be suited for business use though.

 

I'll go with the asus g550jk. Better speakers, dual fans, thinner, lighter and sexier. GPU is a bit slower than this, but what the heck.. It'll run games till the next gen asus laptops come out with supposedly better speakers and cooling.

 

well, I just watched the vid of the Phantom. the screen looks great, but the NB itself is kinda meh. it looks more like an AW, which is a big downside for me. temps were rather good, though the CPU did hit almost 95°C. the keyboard looked okay, but it didnt seem very stiif. when that guy pushed the buttons in the middle, the whole KB was flexing like hell.

what I did miss in the video was the mSATA-slot. I had to take a look at their homepage to find out about that.

anyway: for me, the Phantom isn't a possible chioce, just because of the looks.

 

A friend in Taiwan got hold of the g551 model. Display is great but speakers are just average. No external sub woofer either. The laptop seems to heat a lot too, so he has switched off the turbo boost. You'll find his lame review of g551 on youtube.

 

i shoulda just bought the damn GS60 when it was on sale. This whole thing is starting to be an ultra clusterf***

 

A gs60!? Ô.o good luck

 

Well then.. temps were nice, but those case temps are too high for comfortable gaming. Give us a short temp review of your new laptop soon!

G550JK you say.. but there's GTX850M which is worse than GTX860M, but.. I just wonder, how Asus could be so stupid to make a gaming laptop without dual fans WITH better graphics (GTX860M > GTX850M). Those technicans need to be changed for people with heads in right place..

 

It's probably a marketing stunt to promote the gx500.

 

45c for ultra on BF3 just doesnt make sense if the idle was 40c, most likely there were some issues with the software or something. in the cpu stress test the y50 gets 98c, which is REALLY F.U.C.K.I.N.G HOT, i dont expect less of the gl551 tbh I expect for the computer to shutdown in a stress test lol.

 

Here's my quick review after gaming with this laptop for a bit. I played Skyrim, BF3, Witcher 2, and Civ5 for at least 2 hours each. Graphics were optimized with NVIDA Experience and all were set to ultra with highest settings and was tested with Open Hardware Monitor

Resting Temp: CPU - around 50C : GPU - 0C
Gaming Temp: CPU - averages 94C : GPU averages 86C
Laptop gets warm but it's a comfortable warmth. My Lenovo Y50 got MUCH warmer in the upper left area. This gets warm lower right and overall over the keyboard, but cools down fast when I stopped gaming.

Keyboard and body does attract oil print with prolonged exposure to your hands even after washing hands. However, a quick wipe with a wet paper towel gets rids of them easily.

Speakers are unsatisfactory. However, they have a Audio Wizard App that lets you change preset(?) I think it just increases max bass and treble, but changing from default sounds better

Boot Up time is around 10 to 15 seconds. My Y50 got no where near that... always took around 15 to even 30 seconds.

I'm not a tech expert so I can't say much.. My games all stayed near 60FPS and I never had stutters or screen tearing (which was AWFUL with the Y50 even with V-sync and triple buffering). Will those temperature end up damaging this laptop after more gaming sessions? And also, these are outdated games I'm testing with. I'm sure Watch Dogs and BF4 will put MUCH higher strain and higher temperatures too. I also tested it with my thermaltake massive 23 lx cooling pad and it did NOTHING. It's a shame since I bought it for this laptop.

Here are some screenshots of the hardware monitor

 

Nice review...
It's really sad for the sound...

 

Lets hope that G551 will have better speakers.. If not the G551 is just worse choice between itself and N551.

 

great review, i was hoping the notebook was cooler while gaming, but overall still great for its price. Ive read in some review that the laptop failsafe itself in watchdogs so beware with that.

 

your gaming habits are similar to mine, doesn't sound like you are too unhappy with the screen?

 

I've messed with mine for a bit now, and honestly the screen isn't that bad thanks to splendid utility. It comes preset to vivid (well at least mine did) and it looks just fine. Obviously the viewing angles aren't great, but it works just fine for gaming, unless you are a full on videophile. Worst case scenario would be to just replace this display with an ips display like people have been suggesting with the Lenovo.

As far as temps and gaming go, it's really not that bad. I have to agree with kbandrew24, it does warm up, but it's more than bearable. only place where you would really feel any heat would be right at the exhaust, but unless you're a left handed user it shouldn't be a problem. I played several games maxed out (some were graphics intensive and some weren't) and I haven't really had any problems with the heat. The only thing I can say I definitively don't like about this laptop is the touchpad. It feels really.... clunky is the only way to describe it. There also seems to be some slight play on the sides of the touchpad. Luckily I use a mouse, and hopefully its just something I'll get used to for when I do use it. I will say that the touch gestures work just fine for me though. Overall, I'm more than satisfied with it, it does have its bang for the buck.

 

My grandson got his a few days ago and is happy with it. He was using a Macbook for school work but wanted to play games also so he got the GL551. Games are running fine, was doing homework on it this afternoon. Last night we plugged it into the TV and he played using the TV for a while. Today we ordered an xbox receiver so he could use the xbox controller. We concluded the display was fine. With my aged eyes it doesn't have the pop that my other laptops have had but if we hadn't been reading this forum we probably wouldn't have noticed it. The only complaint so far is finger prints on the cover

 

cant wait for amazon restocking the gl551, so excited to get miine .

 

No news on the G551 (not GL) with the IPS screen yet eh?

/sigh

 

I'm sure this has been answered already, but I really don't get it still, so I gotta ask: how do you guys know that Asus will really refresh the line with 900 series GPUs and IPS in December? I haven't seen any official information saying that. Is it speculation or reliable sources have suggested it? Many of you consider it a fact, and I'm hoping it is, just don't wanna get my hopes high for nothing.

If that's true, why release de GL551? And without IPS besides... It just doesn't make sense to me. Then again, Asus has not been making much sense in the first place...

 

The G551 will be available with a IPS screen really soon. (G551JM)

For the Nvidia 900m... Personally, i just have some hope

 

i'm currently living in Taipei and checked the local computer markets. The G551JM with IPS and 4gig GTX 860M (Maxwell) are available here since a week or 2 ago. They retail for about 43 000 NTD (roughly 1075 euro's), although if you buy cash they'll cut the credit card transaction fee's and sell it for 38000 NTD (950~euro). Although it doesn't come with an SSD (although it has an expansion slots available).
While at Guanghua, i was checking some of the G551JM's out. Some of them were constantly demo'ing Dead Rising 3 (playable for customers), i asked how long the game had been running already and if i could see the temps. They were very reasonable, hovering at about 80° for the CPU and end 60, begin 70's for the GPU.

As for the GTX 900M series, it would be rather soon for Nvidia to already begin equipping laptops with the newest generation. The GTX 860M has only been around since spring last year, and most laptop producers are only now starting to swap out the older model GPU's for 800M series. Then again, i can severely mistaking, but if Nvidia will be releasing the GTX 950/960M somewhere by the end of the year, then i see absolutely no point in buying a laptop at this moment.

Somewhere next week or the week after that, the 970/980M laptops will probably start showing up at the exhibition center here. Eitherway, i guess i'll also better just wait for some more nws on the 900M series before buying anything (although CJscope, TW Clevo reseller, told me i could just have the GTX 860M swapped with a 960M if it were to be released)

 

Thanks for that bit of info. So it *does* exist. I just hope it comes soon to the US. Not from there myself, but that's the only place I can get it.

Edit: if the model with IPS does come... Are we assuming it will have the same $1100 price as the GL? I'm inclined to say it will be more expensive. Better to get prepared for the worse case.

 

Apparently the ROG website is currently undergoing maintenance (I'm located in the US). Could this possibly mean they're updating their website to launch new products? The G551?

And I really hope I can get my hands on the G551 under $1100.

 

pizzasogood, just before rog.asus.com went down I got malware warnings for the rog.asus.com domain, after I went in past the warnings I got http service errors, and an hour or so later the notice went up that they would be down till Friday Oct 3rd.

were talking about a site upgrade for a while, so maybe they decided it was a good time to implement it

 

Ah, okay. I really hope so. Fingers crossed!

 

N551 is supposed to come out 10/3 and g551 is 10/26 in Slovakia hopefully here in the us too!!!

 

So i got a question for you guys. A guy on amazon made a review for the gl551jm and said that the laptop goes to 80 to 85 degrees while playing, isnt that a little too high for a brand new laptop? and playing at that temperature so early won´t it decrease the life span of the laptop? thanks for the answers because i need a laptop to last at least 4 years so...

 

plots313, I am assuming this is the review:

http://www.amazon.com/GL551JM-DH71-...sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
...
"The PC selects the integrated Intel HD Graphics chip by default, which is less impressive performance-wise and loads your CPU, resulting in high heats! Since this change, my heats have gone down from 90-93 on the CPU to 80-85 and around the same for the Motherboard. Before, the NVIDIA card would hang around 40 C, even during intense gaming, now it's around 70-75 C because it's actually being used!"
...
"(EDIT) After playing BF3 for about an hour, stuff started to get REALLY toasty inside. I can't say I was using 1 graphical setting the whole time because I was tweaking graphics constantly. According to Speccy, my CPU (4710HQ i7) and motherboard were both hitting 90-93C, but the GPU was still hanging around 75. That being said though, it never shut down, so I'm sure the components can take the heat.

(EDIT) after speaking to ASUS customer support, they assured me that while it is hot, this laptop CAN take the heat and you don't need to worry about it as long as it doesn't start shutting down as a failsafe, I will update if I ever get a shutdown from overheating, so far so good though."

Going so thin there isn't enough volume to contain enough cooling to keep the temps low. The thinner the builders go, the higher the average temps for CPU/GPU, at least for highest performance laptops.

Apple did this first, and I had to stop getting Apple Macbooks because of it. I do a lot of constant load work on my laptops, I fill them with memory, remove hard drives to remove all the heat I can, and run them lifted up on a pedestal to cool, but they still run very hot.

Now PC makers are doing the same thing. Except with PC laptops, especially gaming laptops, there is a high power discrete GPU included, that Apple doesn't need to contend with - but the PC makers still try to match Apples volume reduction and it shows even in idle temps.

The other new issue is Optimus. Now that Asus has turned on the CPU iGPU the average load temps have gone up 10c for the CPU temps, and that is with the rendering done on the Nvidia/ATI GPU - if you do both CPU/GPU work on the Intel die, then the temps shoot up high enough to thermally throttle - the CPU won't die, and the CPU won't crash, but it will reduce performance drastically which shows in long running jobs - they take a lot longer.

You can tune the CPU a couple of ways to reduce temps on long running 4 - 8 thread jobs, beyond moving the rendering to the Nvidia GPU - if possible, and between all the tweaks you can get almost the full performance and not enter thermally throttling which really kills throughput.

Use Intel Extreme Tuning Utility - XTU to reduce the multiplier on the 3rd and 4th cores - from 32x to 30x should be enough. And, while you are there - increase the multiplier on Core 1 to 36x for faster single threaded work. You can try increasing the CPU memory cache multiplier to 36x, if it doesn't increase heat too much.

You can also undervolt the CPU by between -20mV and -125mV - make sure you using '-' values, or you will be increasing the voltage instead of decreasing it. This will help reduce heat generation in the CPU - this is an experimental process that you need to be aware of while doing it that a BSOD will occur when you reduce the voltage too far, then step back a little to test for stability. My G750JW would run -125mV stable, JX would do -75mV, JH does -45mV now and did -20mV out of the box.

For heat reduction between loads, set the Power Plan to Balanced with CPU min/max set to 0%/100% - that will allow the CPU to down clock between loads and reduce heat generated and cool down instead of constantly building up heat as while running the High Performance Power Plan that has CPU min/max set to 100%/100%.

The last trick is a last ditch tweak when the above isn't enough. Set the CPU max to 99%, that will disable CPU Turbo mode and fix the highest frequency, in the i7-4700HQ that would be 2.4ghz. That will allow heavy loads run without thermal throttling.

I guess my suggestion would be to make sure you have a pedestal that allows good air flow into the bottom vents, and plenty of space behind the laptop so the exhaust vents vent into open space instead of pooling the heat behind the laptop and allowing warm/hot air to get sucked back in to the laptop intake vents.

I will continue to favor getting larger frame laptops like the G750, and if the G751 cools well, that one too. If I need a thin laptop for toting around I will likely continue to use a tablet, or check out the 2 in 1 laptops using the new Intel Core M.

It's really not that much harder to carry around a 17" laptop as a 15", at least for me. The added screen size and cooling area make up for the additional size / weight.

Please come back and let us know what you end up getting, and how you like it

 

Welp, IMO Asus screwed the pooch royally with this one. Acer finally released the US info and pricing on the Aspire V Nitro Black Edition, blah blah blah:

Acer V Nitro Black Edition Notebooks Coming To USA

The 15.6-inch Acer V Nitro Black Edition sold at Newegg will arrive first in mid-October and cost $1,099.99, followed by the Amazon model in November for $1,199.99. The 17.3-inch model sold at Amazon, Fry's and MicroCenter will cost $1,499.99 when it ships in November.

Just for reference, the amazon one thas $1200 has a 128gb SSD, IPS screen, is less than an inch thick, and maxwell 860m. Backlit keyboard, etc etc.

Also, from all the reports from the german websites they have been posting, the build quality on this is actually very high, one of the things they seem impressed with.

So. Looks like i'm waiting till Nov, and Asus just lost a sale from me with all their BS.

 

Thanks you helped me a lot with all those tips...if i end up getting the g551jm ill make sure to execute them to my best. Yes i would prefer the g750 but my budget cant stretch that far :/ so the g551 would be perfect for the price because i could game on a laptop and not pay that high of a price but those temps scared me a little because i need it to last my full time in college. but thanks friend, helped me good

 

Costco has/had the G750JS-RS71 for $1200...
http://www.costco.com/ASUS-G750JS-R...80p-|-Backlit-Keyboard.product.100117276.html

 

plots313, I forgot to mention another useful trick to reduce temps, especially on Steam games that use lots of CPU for rendering.

Laptops typically don't have an option in the BIOS to disable Hyper-threading, but using Affinity in Windows you can disable the odd Cores 1,3,5,7, only enabling the even numbered Cores 0,2,4,6.

If you set the Affinity on the Steam process before starting games, the games you start will inherit the Affinity setting and run cooler. Solved a Thermal Throttling issue for a user on Counter Strike Global Offensive





MetroLL.exe inherited the Affinity setting from Steam.exe



It's worth a try if you are having CPU heat issues including thermal throttling on games/apps.

 

but wouldn't the OS at first try to "fill" the physical cores, before moving on to the logical ones? yes, this might be a stupid question, but that is, what I would expect as a reasonable approach.

 

We dont have COSTCO in Portugal, and i have to buy it from a portuguese store so...and in here the G750 goes for 1800 euros while the g551 will go for 1300

 

SCARed, depending on the game / app, if it is multi-threaded, the OS will fill all the cores available, including the Hyper-threading pseudo cores.

If you disable the odd cores - corresponding to the Hyper-threaded pseudo cores - you effectively don't use them, only the primary cores get work, and generate heat.

The Hyper-threaded cores don't do the same level of work the real cores do, you are loosing some processing power by disabling the Hyper-threaded cores - something like 10%-20% depending on the game/app - test FPS before / after disabling

You can also disable 1 or more of the real Cores if you are still having a heat issue, but using another one of the tricks in the other post - like reducing the multiplier on 1 or more Cores - might be finer grain help than disabling a whole real Core. Disabling a full real Core might drop the performance too much - 25% in 1 Core vs 10%-20% by disabling all Hyper-threaded cores.

Play around with the tuning to get the performance and temperature target you need.

 

plots313, road trip?

How far is Seville, Spain from your location?

Costco opened a store there, here is the location / phone number, you could call and see if they can get you one at the US price.

https://www.costco.com/WarehouseLoc...bmit=true&location=portugal&numOfWarehouses=5

 

Woohoo road trip i still dont have my drivers license so i dont think my father would enjoy a trip to sevilha just to for me to buy an expensive laptop hahah thanks for the tip tho

 

plots313, Dad's love Road Trips almost as much as they love Costco

He's probably looking for an excuse to check out the new Costco!!

 

Hahahah free advertisment for Costco xD but now for reals, ill wait too see it the g551 can handle the temperatures and dont let them get that high, if it turns out to be a problem ill just wait for a new notebook that suits me ( altough i really want a new laptop right now ). Dont like the lenovo screen or the laptop overall for that matter and the Acer..nahh. Its a waiting game for me, maybe the portuguese stores will copy Costco till then and put the g750 at that price

 

Lol, if he is north portugal that would be quite a trip, maybe get a plane ticket or rail ticket

 

I seriously need a laptop for school, I was trying to wait until the g551 or n551 IPS model came out. I borrowed my girlfirend's MAC but looks like she wants it back so I have to figure something out. I hadn't really considered a 17" one, but this seems like a good deal. Ideally I would have liked a smaller one to carry around, but I'm using it primarily for coding, and when I need a laptop while traveling. What's everyone's opinion on 15 or 17? Is it that much bigger? I have a 17" one at work it is fairly bulky but not that bad. It just seems like right now all of the 15" high performance laptops right now in the moderate price range are flawed.