2014 Asus N550JK -DS71T quick mini review and opinion so far

EVO 840-240gb. 0.04W so very low. Decided to go for the proven and faster Samsung over the newer, cheaper crucial mx100.

 

I've been using an N56VZ for two years now and need a secondary laptop. Having such good experience with my current one, I've been looking at the N550JK.

How is the display on it compared to the N56VZ? The VZ has a matte display, but from what I can tell, the N550JK has a glossy one. I read a comment from one guy that returned his N550JK because of the display.

The model I've been looking at is N550JK-CM131H, with i7 2,4 GHz, 12GB 1600 RAM, 256GB SSD, GT 850M.

I've started looking at the G550JK, which seems very similar, but with matte display. Not touch, but I don't need that.

 

It depends. I have the n550jl-Db71 which is the Canadian version. It came with an IPS matte display because it is non touch.

If your model has a touchscreen then it will be glossy, if not than it is likely matte.

 

I need some advice on whether I should purchase the regular ASUS N550JK-DS71T or go with the ASUS N550JK-DB74T which comes with 256 GB SSD, 2.5 GHz processor, and 16GB ram.
I am looking for a noticeable performance upgrade from my previous ASUS N series laptop.

For comparison, I just sold my ASUS N53SV which was 2.0 GHz 2nd gen i7, 8GB of ram and 500 gb 7200 RPM hard drive.

I know that I 1) require an SSD for the OS 2) Need a 1 TB HDD which I will place in an optical drive caddy.

Would it be worth it to wait for the preloaded SSD version (still in backorder in all places I checked) or just manually upgrade it myself? Does anyone have the N550JK-DB74T? How does that preloaded SSD compare to the Samsung EVO SSD that is rated #1 on Amazon right now? Also, how does 7200 RPM compare to 5400 RPM? Since I already came from a laptop that came with 7200 RPM hard drive preinstalled, I feel that the newer computer’s HDD will be a slight downgrade for file storage.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

 

I picked up a DS71T about 2 weeks ago now. So far, I've been happy with it. It plays Minecraft just fine at max settings and 1080P, which frankly was my #1 criteria. I've launched TF2, played for 2 minutes, and it worked well enough. Ran the Bioshock Infinite benchmark, and results seemed promising. Oh yeah, and a few minutes of Borderlands 2, but I picked my hard character, and having not played it in almost a year I got frustrated quickly. Was running good enough for my needs though.

My biggest issue? The damn slow HDD. At first I tolerated it, but as I kept using it it was getting frustrating. NewEgg had 1TB 840 Evo drives for $400, so I bit the bullet and ordered one. Used the clone software to just copy the system partition over, and it's running MUCH better now. Whether you get a model with one included, or upgrade yourself after the fact, I strongly suggest swapping the 5400RPM drive for an SSD. I rip (ahem, watch) the occasional movie, so went with a bigger drive rather than pulling the ODD to slap the spinning disk in there.

The RAM isn't an issue, I don't mind upgrading it myself for $80. Haven't run into a huge issue with low memory yet, so the SSD was more critical to me than more RAM.

For "file storage", the included drive is fine. Well, maybe. I was seeing "busy" percentages in the Performance tab of Task Manager at 100%, and wait times of several seconds. This was entirely unacceptable to me. So for storage, as a second drive? It's just fine. For the primary drive? Heck no, IMO.

Will it be a performance boost for you? Of course, the 2.0Ghz 2nd gen vs 2.5Ghz 4th gen i7 will obviously run faster, plus the GT 540M vs the GTX 850M will give better gaming performance. How much? Eh, hard to say. You potentially could have gotten a few more years of good use from your old system with an SSD and maxed out RAM.

Overall I'm happy. The LAN port is a strange little thing, the stock HDD was putzy (but fixable), it's been playing the games I want it to, at the performance I want from it. Cost was reasonable, as I would've probably spent 50% more to get a GTX 860M GDDR5 GPU system. Oh yeah, I haven't found it to get terribly hot while playing, and the fan noise is completely decent too. I can tell they're running, but they're completely unobtrustive. Time will tell if that stays the case.

 

Does anyone know if it's alright to keep the laptop plugged in during use even though the battery is at 100%? I wasn't sure if the laptop bypassed the battery when its plugged in or automatically stopped charging at 100%.

 

It will stop charging but if you keep it plugged in it will continually trickle charge anytime it dips below. Keeping a battery always at 100% is not very good. Case and point, my HP laptop remained plugged in exclusively and after 4 years couldn't hold a charge for more than 30 minutes of use.

 

Hey pj, thanks for the response!

I am definitely without a doubt going with a SSD. I feel that anyone who is willing and able to invest $1,000+ in a laptop should be able to spend a tad bit more to have a speedy SSD over an ancient 5400 RPM HDD. Also, I have read that by doing a fresh install instead of just cloning a HDD will lead to even better results since a SSD reads and encodes information differently than an HDD. Of course, that also means more manual work installing programs and setting configs.

And you are right that my previous N53SV might have lasted me a little longer, but the problem for me at least was that I needed too many little upgrades that it would end up costing more than it's worth. For instance, I recently upgraded to the Asus PB278Q WQHD Monitor and run 2560 x 1440 resolution. Since I didn't have a DisplayPort I had to purchase a USB 3.0 to DisplayPort external graphics card for $85 so I could run at higher resolutions, but that also meant that my only USB 3.0 Port was taken up by my monitor at all times. Not to mention my battery needed to be replaced as well as my HDD so I decided that it all wasn't worth it. By the way, once you see the beauty and crispness of a high pixel density display you will never turn back!

I think that the N550 can easily last 5 years considering that it has 3 USB 3.0 ports, a mini DisplayPort, and top notch graphics and CPU with the option to upgrade to 16GB RAM. I am not really a gamer and I am mainly concerned with video editing and rendering, graphic design, and running virtual machines.

The main remaining question I have is does anybody know if the N550 has a HDMI port with the 1.3 or 1.4 standard. If it has the newer HDMI 1.4, then it would be able to run much higher resolutions than 1080p. Combined with a DisplayPort then I would be able to run 2 WQHD monitors natively. Nobody on Amazon seemed to be able to answer this question.

 

I think that you are probably better off purchasing the standard model and doing the upgrades yourself. That way not only do you have control over what SSD you use and how windows is installed (Asus has a ton of utilities and bloatware on these things) and you also will become familiar with how you device looks on the inside if it should every need to be repaired.

I doubt that Asus is putting in any top notch SSD. Consumer branded ones will be much better. I bought the Samsung EVO 840 for $150 and the Crucial mx100 is also available for $120.

But. I own the Canadian variant which came with 12gb of ram instead of the standard 8 (but no touchscreen) and a 7200rpm drive. The drive seems to be just as much of a bottle neck as my last one so I am throwing it into an enclosure and using it as an external hard drive. I'm saving money I would have put towards a portable drive.

If you think 8 GB is not enough for you without replacing it right away then maybe the other model would be better. I know that mine uses a little more than 2 for day to day use and never heats up but I've not yet started any demanding school projects.

 

NP! Reading through the 70+ pages of this thread before I bought helped me feel confident in choosing the N550JK, so only seems right to give back in kind. I'm sure eventually I'll get around to doing a clean install, but as I had already downloaded several games and started using it, I was feeling lazy and migrated.

I understand on the video out issues; I replaced my old desktop video card for the same reason once I bought a 2560x1920 ultrawide monitor. I'm confident this system, with Haswell CPU graphics and a latest generation nVidia GPU, will be able to output that resolution. That said, I'll test it on my screen and confirm that it'll run at at least that higher resolution OK. It's not 1440P, but maybe it'll help.

Oh duh...the GPU and IGP can do it, the question is: Is the port able to? ¯\_(ツ _/¯

 

I'm looking to buy the N550JK Canadian version and I had a question regarding the HDD. Is it a good idea to swap the factory HDD into the ODD after I install a SSD in the hdd bay? I'm just worried that that laptop would overheat since the 7200rpm is installed in the ODD.

 

Hey guys, thats the moment where i can add some valuable information to this thread.

I have the N550JK version without touchscreen and my 30" Korean Display Yamakasi 300 Sparta LED works fine in 2560x1600 over HDMI both under Windows 8.1 and the yesterday installed Windows 7 64x. It works just plug and play, so no fency settings in the intel driver or 55Hz or something like that. Just connect it and Windows suggests 2560x1600 at 59 or 60 Hz.

But be aware that some displays do not have an HDMI Port that supports resolutions above FHD so there is a possible source for an error (e.g. the dell U2711/2713HM i think)! Mine has 1.4 for sure and reports the correct resolution to the driver.

I was not able to run it with my 1,5 year old ivy bridge Laptop, so i think Haswell changed the rule here and supports higher resolutions through HDMI. Can´t say something about the resolution in the post above, as i have never heard about it and it sounds quite exotic.

If ypu have any questions about this do not hesitate to ask me to test.

Thank your for the thread guys, you really helped my decision to buy this wonderful piece of a Laptop, i am very happy. Sorry for my mistakes, i am not a native speaker.

 

I have this model and I decided to put the old drive into an external enclosure. The DVD bay is tapered towards the bottom to meet the rest of the chassis. All of the caddy's I've seen are just rectangular boxes. This means that the caddy won't fill the whole space. Also the Canadian model is black and the caddy's I saw were white.

 

Then how are others installing it in the caddy? I saw a post that linked this caddy - SilverStone TS08 9.5mm Height 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD Caddy for Laptop / 2.5" SSD/HDD Conversion Tray (White) - Newegg.ca
and there's a review that states the fit is right.

 

Not sure but this is the bottom of mine.

 

The color of the caddy doesn't matter, it will be completely enclosed inside the laptop. You use the bezel off of your existing ODD or you can purchase a new bezel here.

 

I see. The curved part Is part of the bezel not the drive itself.

 

Exactly.

Sent via Tapatalk because I'm slacking off at work.

 

Just bought this lapotop, and my is it wonderful.

However, it seems my display's backlight has a little bit of an issue... There's a splotch of darkness towards the bottom middle, and slightly in the corners, but the center one is most noticable. I've read people say it gets better over time, and that this kind of thing can happen with IPS panels, but what would you guys do in this situation? Exchange it? Everything else seems to be working fine.

Also, this picture is a little misleading. It's not actually as dark as it appears, but it is noticeable.

 

Screen bleeding is quite common with this laptop. I have similar problem.

 

Avoid buying from Adorama! I opened the back to upgrade the RAM when I noticed the following:

http://i.imgur.com/2AH3PRk.jpg

1) The cable had a small cut, exposing the internal wiring (could short-circuit in the future)
2) The plate/arm that holds down the DVD drive is missing two screws!
3) The cables weren't even stuck properly and the tape was not put well.

Yes, this is shocking for a brand new laptop. I guess mine missed the quality control. While this is not Adorama's fault, I bought it from them, and at this stage I just want a refund. They are not willing to give one. They have the laptop back and still have my money

Here's the kicker, they are saying they won't provide a refund because "I voided my warranty by removing the back cover"! Apparently I should have used an authorized Asus repair center to upgrade the RAM! Since when is this the case!

I never even got to use this laptop Now I am stuck....

 

Thank you for sharing this... That is indeed horrible. I now know never to buy from them.

At any rate, you could try to go through Asus RMA, or wrap the wire in electrical tape and live with the internal flaws.

I've also decided to exchange mine, though I bought through newegg and never took off the back cover. The screen has an uneven backlight producing a "dirty screen effect", 1 dead pixel, a bright dot and a faint checkered pattern appearing to be burnt in when viewing on pure black. As a graphic designer, I rely on the screen more than any other component and this I cannot live with.

That's what you need to ask yourself; can you live with it?

 

I'm thinking I might get this laptop for college/some gaming... will buy an SSD to put in....

Any thoughts before I pull the trigger?

Also where is the best place to buy from?

 

I really like mine except for that clicking noise that the fans seem to make. Not sure if that's a problems on most people's though.

As far as places to buy, I got mine on Amazon, and besides having to front return shipping in case of warranty issues (they paid me back for shipping as soon as they received it) it was a really easy process to ask for a replacement.

 

Good call on the SSD, it's very necessary. I've been happy so far with the performance in games, well and overall too. I don't remember if it was this thread or elsewhere, but I had heard "the CPU throttles on battery, as the battery can't put out enough power to run both the CPU and GPU." Well, that's wrong. The power profile on battery is set to throttle, sure, but I can switch it to High Performance and it'll run full speed again. Won't run for more than about an hour, but it'll run stuff great still.

No weird noises/issues with mine to speak of. >90% of my time on it since I got it has been playing Minecraft (little bit of Bioshock Infinite), with an external mouse, so I can't really give a judgement on the touchpad or keyboard skipping letters. Fan is a very subtle sound, felt heat is tolerable.

I ordered from Amazon so I could do Prime overnight. Bought $1100 in Kindle gift cards from Best Buy to do so, so I could get the reward points too!

edit: Looks like Amazon is current back-ordered; 3-4week lead time on the DS71T. They have the N550JK-DB74T posted with i7-4710 (100mhz faster), 16GB, and 256SSD, but it's $1399 and only pre-order.

 

Hi guys i recently recieved my new laptop, the n550JK and was wondering how can i turn on the backlit keyboard? on my keyboard the F3 and F4 dont have a function. is there any other way to turn it on?

 

If your keyboard doesn't have the logos for it, are you sure you have a backlit keyboard model (like the DS71T)? What is the full model number of your system, under the barcode on the rear? I understand some models aren't configured with it, like the model mentioned on the previous page.

 

I have the older model and my fan does not have any sort of clicking noise. Perhaps it was something obstructing the fan?

 

I've had my N550JK for about a week now. So far I really like it. I installed a 500gb SSD and an 8gb stick of RAM to max it out at 16. Honestly though, the improvements over stock don't seem all that noticeable. Although, I didn't really do much testing or benchmarking beforehand. Either way, I've been able to play some of my games on Ultra with no problems. It did get quite toasty yesterday after playing for a couple hours, but I didn't check to see what the actual temp was.

One problem I have run into and wonder if anyone else has noticed it: usually my trackpad is sensitive and detects taps and double taps just fine. But today is the first day I hooked it up to the HDTV via HDMI, and notice that the touchpad was no longer responding well to taps at all. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

I'm not sure, since it also sort of sounds like the fans aren't being controlled properly, like it's speeding up and slowing down in quick succession.

 

I removed the battery before and 'returned' it now into the laptop after 54days to:
1. check the battery discharge (i wanted to check it after 60days but i wanted to check if #2 will be fixed)
2a. my laptop is not automatically sleeping (i've set the it to do so after 1 min but nothing happens)
2b. Fn+ f7 does not fully work (the LED turns off for a few seconds then turns back on automatically)
Note 2a + 2b: touchpad is off + no mouse connected

----

battery % lost after 54 days of storage (in the refrigirator - yeah i know) is at least 7%.

battery didnt fix the LED/sleep issue. i pretty much guessed that this is a software issue rather than a hardware one. so i removed the battery again (42% charge) and stored it away in the laptop box. im still looking for the culprit XD

 

That is BS. I would go to the official ASUS forums and post about this to see what ASUS's official response is. Maybe they can put some pressure on Adorama, because that is simply disgusting behaviour!

 

Call them and ask for a supervisor, and also explain the following.
1. ASUS repair center doesn't perform upgrades.
2. ASUS does not restrict users from performing upgrades.
3. This issue is clearly a quality assurance problem, because the cut was very likely the result of factory tech installing the hinge.

 

I still have problem with the Atheros ar9485wb-eg, internet goes down when i start use 2 applications that use internet at the same time, the reception is really bad too..
HELP PLEASE

 

Guys, did you consider getting a cooler pad for your N550JK? The housing gets really hot when playing some Arma 2, which is quite cpu and gpu demending.
Any ideas which cooler model to approach?

Thanks

 

Notepal U2. Also CPU undervolt can do few degrees.

 

I saw exact the same thing (but even worse) and I bought from Amazon in June.

My N550JK missed screws at the following locations:

1. Hard drive cage (2 screws)
2. Plate/arm that holds down the DVD drive (2 screws)
3. The small PCB that hosts USB port on the right hand side (1 screw)

I first noticed something strange when I plugged in a mouse dongle into the right hand side USB port as it felt unstable. Later when I opened the back plate to install SSD and DVD-cage (for second hard drive), I was surprised to see several things were just placed there unsecured. I check several N550JK/JV YouTube videos and online photos to make sure these screws should exist in those places. Fortunately I did not see any damages (the N550JK is only a few hours in use mostly for SSD/hard drive cloning) and I have many spare screws that fit the size. I secured all these parts.

Since then the NK550 performed perfectly but I have to say I am disappointed on the assembly quality. I wonder many of the complaints on N550JK might come from the issues we saw here.

BTW, I recall seeing somewhere that Asus won't void warranty when the back plate was open for part installation. I believe it is due to the reason that N550JK does not have service ports for upgrading RAM and hard drive. Better to contact Asus for details.

 

Thanks Trollmaster!
Btw, how are the temperatures on your N550JKs? My processors hit around ~89 degrees celsius each + the gpu was around 86. The housing got extremely hot near the "Audio by Bang & Olufsen" inscription, it was burning my hand after 2-3 seconds, and I could feel the burns on my skin for like a minute after... is that normal? I mean, the temperatures that I'm getting?

How do I undervolt the CPU? I'd be happy if it stayed at around 2.4 GHz all the time.

 

I am pretty happy with the N550JK I got, I was able to check it out before I purchased it, so pretty much no faults.

I only thing I don't like is the silver keyboard. Using the backlight at night is a waste of time, the screen is so bright that I cannot see the letters almost not at all, then on a dark scene I cant see the letters as its now to dark. Not sure if there is anyway around this without lowering down the brightness which I don't want to do.

However the bricks and mortar store lied to me saying they just broke the seal of the box before bring out to the main cashier counter where I was waiting. They said the unit was brand new never been used, but there was a little of dust around the bottom on the display frame bezel and a couple of small spit mark on the matte panel, also the power brick and cord cables had been unrevealed with the twisty tie just sitting in the bottom of the box.

Even though happy with it, the battery has wear on it, I am thinking they have had the unit out the back running for ages or it had been on display in which they had put it back in the box at some stage recently.
Not sure if I should be worried about cycle counts or just be happy that the unit has no other faults, as I would hate to get a sealed replacement that might have an issue?

 

What's the connection speed shown on the status?

 

I am not going over 84°C on processor and 81°C on GPU. Your temperatures are quite high. Try coolpad or lower CPU voltages offset via Intel extreme tunning utility.

 

I think to compare these values you have to clearly say under what circumstances they appear.

Yesterday i did some testing, undervolted the CPU by -40mV and overclocked the CPU to 36x/35x/34x with intel xtu and the GPU by 135 core/150 RAM and found it to be stable after one hour of benchmarking.
The temps were never higher than 83°C max for both components. In real word applications with just the CPU at 90% usage it´s 78°C max. In Rome 2 Total War I am hitting 82°C max.

Considering it´s summer here i am very pleased. Especially as I am doing some heavy database applications that sometimes need 15h to complete and using the CPU by 90% continuesly by getting 78°C max and mostly 72-73°C.

 

Well, then it seems the temperatures I'm getting are quite high, compared to both N550JKs of yours... Any idea why is that? It's summer, so it's like 24 degrees at my place, but still it's nothing out of the ordinary... With Football Manager (hyper-threading on) set on "go on holiday" mode and doing it's computing now, the temperature fluctuates in the range of 55-71°C, with load ranging between very rarely going over 50% on any of the cores, which are running at ~3.2GHz. When load hits 100% in some heavy computing, the temperatures reaches 85°C, which is the highest recorded during the test, but the 100% load is only momentary.

On idle all the cores are at around 45°C.

When playing DayZ, which adds GPU to the picture, max CPU temp hits 93°C, with average of around 80°C.

Should I be worried?

 

Outdoor temperatures are hitting 30°C here. And temperatures reported by me are after few hours of playing Kingdoms of Amalur.

 

Hey it s Mbits.. Thx for help !

 

We are all using different tools. Maybe download the Intel XTU tool and do a 10-15 min stress test. It shows you if your system is thermal throttling and the max and average temperatures.

 

It is sort of overclocking, you are not really overclocking the base clocks, but just the turbo limits.
Without the voltage being able to under volt to ultra low limits which pretty much none of them can, then the TPD will still max out and the throttling with start when under full load.
It sometimes can be possible depending on how good your chip is, to under volt and maintain 4 core turbo without dropping down to a slower speed after the turbo time limit expires, even then you need to be able to keep the temperature in check.

The best thing about extending the top turbo bins, it that for quick bursts then you have extra responsiveness to your system from the processor.

I found in some circumstances that reducing the clock speed multipliers and getting a greater under voltage of the processor, this gave me a consistent sustained 4 core turbo are lower temperatures. Really only need this for applications that are going to load all 4 cores for a long time.

I use Intel XTU v5.1 and check the TDP using throttlestop

 

Thats true. When using PRIME to test the system it is 100% usage and starts to Power limit throttle regulary every few seconds. Even the stress test in intel XTU lets the system Power Limit Throttle all 10-20 seconds. But with the maximum of 82°C no thermal throttling at all.
In my real world application with 80-90% usage i am not throttling at all and can maintain even the 2x higher multiplicator over days of usage with -40mV. Thats why I am really happy about the result.

 

Yeah pretty much most people will not be loading all 4 core at 100%, therefore will not be throttling at all, thus why throw on a couple of extra turbo bins just to have a little bit snappier system, not that will be that noticeable.

Taking some voltage off the processor however is noticeable with temperatures 3-5c, and have the added benefit for slightly long battery life. Again here, I have found with about 5 different haswell processors, there is not much room to under volt, but 0.05v in most cases, once you start moving towards 0.1v then you are asking for trouble.

 

Hi guys, I just got my N550JK today, and I'd like to ask for some advice.

I got an MX100 512 GB SSD to go with it, and I'm still in the process of preparing an Windows 8.1 bootable USB drive to do a clean install for it. I downloaded the Windows 8.1 CL1 x64 from the mydigitallife forums repository(SHA1: 4D567D72CBFF463F5C2C64B0B221E7A408240183), and I've been trying for the good part of an hour to install it onto a new 64 GB thumb drive. It keeps failing whether I'm using WUDT, Rufus, or any of the others. Is the ISO I downloaded even the correct one to use, and if it's not which one did you guys download and use to do a clean install on your SSDs?