ASUS N80Vn-GP011C

Anyone that has this, please review!

 

Not to highjack the post, but...

I'm looking to buy a N80Vn-X1 from Newegg for $950. I want to swap the 9650 GT for the 3650 in my ASUS F8 Series F8Va-B1.

I would try and sell it on eBay for $800.

Any thoughts?

 

Give it a couple more weeks for reviews to start showing up. The N80 is quite new so not many people have purchased it.

I'm almost certain you won't be able to exchange the GPUs between the 2 notebooks. Also keep in mind you will lose all warranties on both notebooks if you attempt to remove the GPUs.

 

Hmmm.. but it looks so easy. Its all right there under the inspection plate. Other then some adhesive thermal compound I’m sure it would pop right out with ease.

 

There are many requirements to a successful GPU swap, other than the GPUs simply being removable. See the ASUS Info Booth_FAQ for some details. Until now a GPU swap has been confirmed to work in a single instance, NightWalker did it on his C90. Even that after several weeks of work...

 

I ordered this last week, and it's supposed to arrive on Friday. I will post a review as soon as I receive it.

 

please include pics. this lappy looks more powerful than the f8va and its cheaper.

 

Oh boy! I can't wait to get the review. I'm nearly a click away from purchasing it myself!

I saw a website early, forgot what company it was. But they had this model and allowed for CPU, memory, and hard drive upgrades. But then it got to $1700 and I wasn't happy with that price. ;( Will I be able to upgrade the CPU and Harddrive my self in the future?

 

Yeah, the new N80VN-GP011C and N50Vn-B1B models are sexy! I look forward to seeing some reviews.

 

I just bought the N80VN-GP011C from excaliberpc's ebay ASUS store. cost me $1159 and got a $200 cashback from MS Live = $959. I don't understand the need to upgrade on the CPU and HDD this model comes with. P8600 and 320 gigs of HDD ain't enough?! lol.

 

and yes, many people on this forum attest to the fact that this N80 is far more powerful than the F8. Plainly because it has the better GPU in the 9650M GT than the ATI HD 3650 in F8. I uncovered more benchmarks by googling and the NVidia 9650M GT really kicks ATI 3650's arse in all aspects. P8600 is in no way inferior to T9400. It matches up quite brilliantly and is blazing fast and for real-world usage, practically no one would even observe any minute difference. The 25W P8600 infact seems better than the T9400 when I see the battery life/heating/power consumption without any difference in performance. Overall the N80vngp011C is far more powerful than the F8vnC1 (T9400/ATI 3650). Am delighted with my right choice. I nearly decided on the F8 for the higher clocked/cache processor but then I wud've been robbed of the NVidia 9650M GT. Fortunately I made the right choice of N80 and got a far better machine than the F8.

 

Mine's arriving Wednesday - give a quick rundown of what details/benchmarks you want run and I'll get them up ASAP. New camera comes Thursday so I'll post hi-res images too! It's been over 3 years since I've had the fun of looking for and buying a new laptop, and I'm looking to geek out on it.

I got the $200 live/ebay/buyitnow/paypal discount, from excaliberpc.
The post that was talking about customizing it was gentechpc, and AFAIK that customizing voids warranty.

Also, don't know if this is pointing out the obvious but aside from the A1 variant of the N80Vn, there is the Best Buy only X83vm-X1 which is (currently) running for 1049 in a graphic print dark brown/tan colorscheme, weaker processor, and no bluetooth/LED backlighting/fingerprint scanner. Also their warranty is a 1-year manufacturer warranty only, with no accidental damage (part of Best Buy's push for Geek Squad warranties).

 

I am instrested in knowing if the N80 is rapped up in the same case as the F8.

Also, if it is, please remove the inspection plate for the CPU/Memory. I would like a pic of the guts.

 

OT: I still really don't understand the reason for wanting to swap the cards between the two pico1180 - Aren't the stat's fairly identical? Only thing I can think of is for the native resolution on the LCD, to which I say get an external monitor and run a dual setup at home when you'd use the higher resolution mostly.

 

^^^
zmatin, since you are gonna spend quite some time on analysis, could you focus on the performance of the 9650M GT with some figures? That would be great. And for you to post it here, it would be a first of sorts for this Nvidia card as far as info on the internet is concerned!

 

zmatin-
Yes. I have become a bit obsessed. I will admit...
One main driving reason. I'm hoping the 9650M GT will not/does not take the HUGE performance hit like the 3000 series does with AA, dynamic shades, and bloom affect. All bench marks I’ve seen show the 3000 series takes a 50% reduction in performance when x2 AA is turned on. This is with the desk top versions as well. This drastic decrees in performance is not seen on the GeForce 9000 serious cards.

evolution219 and zmatin-
Benchmark scores are downright impressive.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9650M-GT.10764.0.html

You rap that in a 14" laptop and that is just plain unnatural.

My 3650 is over clocked to the moon. Core is at 708 from 600 and mem is at 1016 from 800. I turn a ~4400 3DMark06 score. The lowest recorded 06 score with the 9650 is 4826 with the highest being 6000. That shows me HUGE performance gains from the 9650M GT

 

Not sure what zmatin is planning to do with his review, but I will be running 3DMark 2006 under both Vista and XP. I plan on using XP permanently and have picked out several driver versions for both Vista and XP to compare the 9650m GT's performance, both stock and overclocked. I will also have FPS charts of several games, including Fallout 3. I bought the N80Vn because it is (should be) THE fastest 14.1" under $1000 (for games).

Pictures will depend on other people's reviews, since it looks like some will have the laptop before me (I live on the East Coast :/). I will be comparing the N80Vn's physical characteristics to 3 other laptops that we are currently using - Lenovo T61 14.1", Toshiba M205 14.1", and Dell Dimension 6400 15.4" (size, weight, screen, etc etc).

Let me know if you want to see anything else that's missing...

 

Curious as to how you've got drivers and everything set for installing XP? From what I understand there aren't any XP drivers readily available for the N80vn, etc. I'd definitely be interested in keeping XP as my OS (although the buzz on Win7 is pretty good for late '09), but was going to get to know Vista because I haven't upgraded in over 3 years.

Also, I haven't ever really benchmarked anything, so my initial post was more of a request for suggestions as to what information people are actually looking for. Also, any tips on where to get benchmarking software, utilities, etc is appreciated.

Also, again, games I'm planning on running/testing: Fallout 3, Crysis Warhead, Gears of War 2, Halflife 2/TFC2/CS, and if I buckle and give back in to my old habit, WoW: WotLK.

Finally, hardware good enough for an excuse to buy PC games again! =)

 

I'm currently really close to ordering this haha, seems like a great product from Asus. Can't wait for some reviews ^_^.

 

@pico1180

I guess the 4826 is the one that applies to the card/settings that comes as such with this N80. Remember that the card that comes with this laptop is the plain DDR2 one and not GDDR3.

 

i also hope that the 4 gig DDR2 RAM and the DDR2 GPU stuff do not perform too badly compared to their DDR3 and GDDR3 counterparts respectively.. Am I being too greedy and harshly asking too much for $959?

 

Yes. I was thinking the same exact thing! But taking that logic, you would have to say the 3930 score on the 9600M GT is the DDR2 variant. That still shows a significant performance gain for the 9650M GT over the 9600M GT. In my opinion... and especially the Radeon 3650...

The question is, what price would you put on that increase.

 

Video drivers, chipset drivers, and wireless drivers are easy, since they come from other companies. ATK drivers can come from other ASUS models that have both Vista and XP drivers, and I figured I'd just try the Vista32 drivers for the rest. Major concern is the audio, I'm not sure who makes it but I'm sure a generic driver would work. A lot of 32bit drivers in general work on both Vista and XP, and Vista is usually the pickier one to begin with.

I will probably have to live without all the "cool" ASUS software (that I really don't care about).

Hardware that might not work in XP - Hot Keys, Bluetooth, Camera, Card Reader, Modem, FingerPrints

It's going to be a battle to get rid of all the ? in the device manager, but I really, really hate Vista. Tried it twice, I'm using it now on one of my work laptops, and I really want to pull my hair out sometimes. Plus games run faster on XP still, so that's nail on the coffin.

 

I've seen in a few places that it is an "Azalia" sound card, though I've admittedly never heard of them, with my prime experiences being with Realtek HD audio. EDIT: So "Azalia" is the HD Audio standard that Intel has set up, so no idea who is the manufacturer of the Audio in this system.

Really and truly, a lot of those features that might not work under XP are the details that attracted me to the system. Right now I have bluetooth in my laptop and I find it immensely useful for when the laptop is doing double duty running movies over our TV in the living room and I don't want to get off the couch. My external webcam annoys me because I can only web-cam/skype in one location where it is set up. The card reader is great, not needing all the cables to offload my various digicam/cameraphone pictures. And the fingerprint thing is something I've been looking forward to, so that I can store every single password I can think of into it.

Also, the issue of this system shipping only with the 32-bit version of Vista Home Premium has come up, and I was wondering how XP handles 4gb of ram? Wouldn't the lack of 64-bit support impact gaming by only allowing 75% of total RAM use? I imagine that it'll be easier to go 64-bit vista than XP in this case, if gaming is the issue.

 

Does this come with a restore CD that would let me buy my own separate hard drive and then reinstall the OS from scratch? Or would I have to buy a new copy of Vista?

How would I know I'm actually getting the LED backlight on this? That's why I'm really looking at it. Very solid CPU and GPU, LED backlight, and a good price. I guess I could add that $130 USB Blu Ray drive to it.

That stinks if it's using slower RAM though. I'd rather have half the RAM but have it faster, as I know there was a big difference between the 8600GT cards with DDR 2 or 3 (although if it were like overclocked DDR2 or something...)

No, for 4GB or less 32 or 64 bit is pretty much a wash. You have access to less under 32-bit, but 64-bit takes up more RAM to begin with.

I WANT 32-bit right now as there's just too many incompatibilities I'd be running in to, and 64-bit wouldn't give me any real advantage.

 

In regards to 64-bit vs 32-bit, I checked the global ASUS website, and it appears that there are 64-bit drivers for everything available for download.

I'm fairly confident that Win7 will be good enough to warrant dealing with Vista in the short term. I'd gladly stay on XP until then, but the downgrading and drivers compatibility issues make it not worthwhile. Besides, doesn't seem like Vista should have any sort of issue running on this laptop's specs.

I'm 99% sure that this version of the N80vn is LED backlit, btw. There's a thread somewhere listing the models that don't, but this one is supposed to. DDR2 ram for both system and graphics, for the record.

 

I sort of feel nervous about accidentally getting one with CCFL. Is there some easy way to tell?

 

this post states that both available N80vn versions are LED backlit, and it is the N50 series that has various versions of CCFL and LED backlit screens with different configs.

Also, if you go to the Asus global site, when you look under the specs for various N80s, you will see that the WXGA resolution screens are LED, and WXGA+ screens are CCFL.

 

Okay, thanks!

Hmm...how well do you guys think this will hold up to Folding @ Home on both CPUs whenever it's on?

 

I wouldn't suggest stressing the CPU on a notebook with F@H. It would work, but it will only shorten the life of your system.

 

I agree. 100% CPU/GPU load running 24/7 on a laptop is a bad idea, no matter how good the cooling is.

As far as Vista vs. XP, I'm set on getting XP running on the laptop. If my tests show that 3dmark '06 scores are the same, I may switch back to Vista if the lack of driver support is too frustrating. But I suspect XP's scores are going to be at least 10% faster.

I have bluetooth, card reader, finger print reader, and camera on my current laptops, and I do not use any of them so I probably won't miss them. Same amount of memory is recognized in XP and Vista 32, and on XP it won't make a difference anyway for games after 2GB.

Viva la XP!

 

XP will show a higher score on 3Dmark06, but you'll be stuck with directX 9. Gaming wise, they perform similar (a couple-few fps difference). Vista will also have better power management so if you treasure battery life, then XP may not be for you. The only reason why someone should stick with XP is if you need to run specific programs that are not compatible with Vista.

 

Well, either way I'm doing it, because I refuse to buy any computer hardware that can't Fold.

It won't be 24/7 on the laptop though, just whenever it's on and plugged in (which will still probably be 16 hours a day though).

 

Make sure you get a laptop cooler, like the Belkin or Antec.

 

I'd prefer DX9, the quality difference is minimal but performance difference can be meaningful. I have a lite build of XP that is clean and fast, and I do not want to devote 20 more hours into making a clean Vista image. I also don't think it's worth it to move to Vista until 64bit support is solid.

For many games Vista is a lot slower than XP, but you really have to test each hardware to know the difference. I plan on doing the benchmarks once I receive the laptop.

 

Initial Unboxing Pics and First Impressions:

So I just just JUST got home and found this on my doorstep (stupid FedEx should've gotten a signature, but whatever - it's in my hands safe and sound). These are taken with my 2.0mp camera-phone, so bear with the quality for now. There's a slideshow/link to a Picasa album where you can see detail (as much as there is).

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width='800' height='533' flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fzkmatin%2Falbumid%2F5267828690271432689%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss%26authkey%3DjPj6DAphTJQ" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>

My first impressions are very good, with the packaging and everything being immaculate and the utmost attention paid to making sure that the laptop arrived as glossy and shiny as possible. To this end, they included a microfiber wipe (tasteful brown color with Asus embossed on it) to maintain the gloss / wipe smudgy fingerprints.

Included are a small optical usb wheel-mouse (with Side Scrolling tilt wheel - nice bonus feature), and a moderately padded laptop bag with shoulder strap. Also included are a Quick Installation guide, User Manual, and Express Gate manual. Discs included are a recovery DVD (clearly stating 32-bit O/S only), a utility/driver disc (32-bit Vista only, specifically stated), and Cyberlink's Power2Go 6.0.

According to the battery packaging, this battery is "For use only with models: F8xxx, L80xxx, N80xxx, A8xxx, PRO80xxx, Z99xxx, X81xxx, X80xxx" for what it's worth. The A/C adapter is a nice size, standard issue, though slightly bigger than my current Acer's power brick (though not scorching hot... yet).

Right now, I am letting the battery charge and will go through the entire setup/initialization process, and will be running benchmarks/etc later today. Again, please let me know what specific benchmarks (and programs) you would like to see. Haven't had the chance to go buy any games for it yet, so those will have to wait a bit. I plan on doing 3d benchmarking, Overall system benchmark, and Temperatures.

Thanks for any advice/tips/comments, and I look forward to sharing my experience with this shiny, shiny, new notebook with everyone.

 

Nice pictures!

 

Thanks for the pics. Mine should be arriving any day now. It looks amazing. Just wondering if you can give the general impression of the product. Are there any noticeable keyboard flex on the laptop? Also I'm wondering if there is a problem with the keyboard lag. Other than that it looks extremely glossy.

 

The keyboard is definitely very new and clickier than I am used to on my 3.5+ year old Acer laptop. The key travel is deeper, with a lighter action than I am used to. I'm not really sure what you mean by keyboard flex, unless you mean how stable the keyboard is during typing, to which I would say that it is definitely higher quality than the Best Buy versions (the X83vm/vb), with a light texture to the keys. It'll take a tiny bit of getting used to typing on the Asus keyboard after being used to the curved keyboard of the Acer for so long. I also haven't noticed any keyboard lag that has been reported in the Best Buy versions, and I type on average between 55-65 wpm.

I will confirm that reports of the touchpad's buttons being stiff and "harder" to click, but I normally use an external mouse or just tap-click on the touchpad itself. The drivers/software with the touchpad allow a lot of customization with 4 corners of tap hotzones with various actions that can be customized, and horizontal and vertical scroll. If these seem basic/mundane, I'll just say that these are new features for me, and I dig them. It's the details that count for me.

 

Audio is Realtek HD (Azalia Compliant) Driver version: 6.0.1.5699 Codec: ALC663

Wireless is Atheros AR928x

Note: I will compile these into a single post under its own thread, but for now I'll just trickle in details as I play with the new system.

 

Nice pics zmatin~!

I'm not sure if you're up to it, but it would be nice to see the first N80 user review on NBR
Here's a list of the typical benchmarks used in a review: 3DMark06, 3DMark Vantage, PCMark05, HDTune, SuperPi, wPrime.
The default resolution for 3DMark06 is 1280x1024 however, NBR in-house reviews typically uses 1280x800.
It would great if you could also briefly comment on the build quality, screen, keyboard, noise level, heat and especially battery life.

 

Very nice pics. Hopefully you'll be the first to thoroughly review it too.

 

Hey all - consolidating everything into a new thread here. Hope to see you there!

 

Hi guys - I have out for a new notebook that is powerful, good battery life and in my free time (when back from work) let me enjoy some high quality games.

I really like this Asus note book but can you guys please please please tell me HOW it is possible to get $200 discount from Exacaliberpc???

I got the $200 live/ebay/buyitnow/paypal discount, from excaliberpc.
The post that was talking about customizing it was gentechpc, and AFAIK that customizing voids warranty.

 

that rebate stopped in the middle of december Im afraid

 

thanks simonov for the info