Asus N56VZ-DS71 first impressions

Its not worth it if you are not constantly transferring large files.
What makes HDD laggy and slow is access times. Those are pretty much identical on 5400 vs 7200. You would win only on large file tranfers.

 

Has anyone solved the speaker crackling issue? On certain frequencies the speaker buzzes( or is it the keyboard keys??). Reinstalling, uninstalling and even killing the drivers do not fix this annoying issue. If this can be solved by opening it up, let me know. Thanks -kr

 

I ordered the n56 but its on backorder unless you want hard core gaming I would say get the Asus. If you do want hard core gaming get the Lenovo y580. I ruled out the HP due to heat issues.

 

Soo..uh...will there ever be a N56 owners thread or is it going to be this thread?

On another note, when it comes to laptops these days I am fed up having to use the fn key to perform a specific action, say volume control. Many times having only one hand availablenwhile holding my baby son in the other, i would want a really easy one finger solution for lowering volume. Is there any software allowing this? Say for instance i want my numpad + & - keys to work as volume control..

 

Guys, thanks a lot for the reviews here, helped me out a bunch when deciding which laptop to buy! ...ended up getting the N56 VZ.

I am facing two problems as of now that have been mentioned in the thread already. Dunno if anyone did come up with a solution so far:

Fan noise: the fan is constantly running. It is not too noisy, but it never goes idle. Even if the N56 is on power saving mode and no active tasks for like 15 minutes, the fan just keeps on running. Any solution? Any fan-control tool for Asus laptop available?

HDD noise: basically the same issue here. The HDD never stops working and thus you can always hear it. It produces a rather normal HDD "working sound", but when the laptop has been idle for 15 minutes, I expect the HDD to be idle or at least silent as well....Could that have to do with the 100 processes running because of the ASUS bloatware (although I deinstalled most)? Any idea?

 

Seriously, you have got a pretty powerful laptop and you can't expect it to be dead silent. Maybe you should have bought a Ultrabook instead.

I am always wondering about people who wants to have silent and powerful notebooks at all. That's not possible.

 

braindeady dont settle for answers like that. My N56VZ is really silent, and generally fans start running when gaming but on an acceptable level nevertheless. I hope someone will provide you with a solution as there has to be some settings you can play around with. I can go ahead and recommend a software I use myself , TuneUp Utilities. Use it to get rid of unwanted background processes/programs so that your laptop wont be working when in idle mod. There must be something going on behind the curtains.

So can anyone suggest me a solution to how to assign specific keyboard buttons to act as volume controls i.e. one-push volume control?

 

Thanks Well, there is trolls everywhere..

Problem is that I can't compare the sound level of my laptop to another N56VZ. I simply find it disturbing myself and normally, I am not easily distracted by noisy computers. It is just too loud, especially compared to my former years old laptop.

I already used msconfig to kill all tasks on boot-up. Didn't make any difference...Tune Up basically does the same thing.

 

Instead of calling someone a troll, you could give some examples why it's too loud for you. Most people say it's really silent compared to other (powerful) laptops. But maybe it isn't the laptops fault, and you should just lower the volume of your hearing aid device

 

If you use Media Player Classic - Home Cinema (MPC-HC), you can use the scroll wheel to change volume, so in theory you could use the swipe scroll on the touchpad to then control volume. I'd imagine that info could solve your issue in one way or another, whether you use MPC-HC or if you can bind that function in your existing media player.

 

@hodor Didn't mean it in a bad way, your respone was just less than helpful

Fan noise I could live with, as I understand perfectly well that I7 and GT650 need some cooling. What I just don't understand is the fact that the level of CPU and GPU usage doesn't have a big effect on the fan-activity. To me, it seems as if the fan assumes I am constantly playing BF3

The more distrubring issue is the HDD anyways. It is definitely not supposed to work non-stop...

And it is precisely because a lot of ppl say that the laptop is rather silent that I am asking for advice here...

 

Do you have a 7200 rpm HDD? I heard that this is much louder than the one with 5400 rpm. But maybe you could consider buying a SSD and replace it with your current one, when you got some money left.

 

Hi Jeffrey,

I was planning on purchasing the N56VZ here in the UK, as stated in my original PM. Should I be unable to purchase this, I will have to go to the Lenovo Y580, as it has very similar specs. Timeline is important however, as I do intense CAD modelling with my degree.

However, I do really prefer Asus due to class-leading build quality, and better customer service. I have been very happy with my previous Asus notebook (M51Sn) which is why I would like another.

 

Maybe i will buy asus too, thinking about durability and design . Looks even better than HP dv6

 

Hello my name is Jeffrey and I work for ASUS Customer Loyalty Team

Looks like this model came out in the beginning of May 2012. This should be available for purchase already. You will have to check to see if any online stores can ship to the UK.

 

Can you let me know of ANY online stores that I can buy this from, which of course come with either a US or a UK keyboard?

Thanks.

 

http://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb&sort...te+list+&asuch=n56v&asd=on&v=e&plz=&dist=&xf=

Incontro, link for you. UK stores. Just click the confifguration you want.

 

I went from m51sn to n56vz, no comparison, you won't regret it...

 

Any idea what the n56dp is going to include?
When you check asus download, there is now a n56vm, n56vz and n56dp which is empty!!!

 

That's pretty interessting. Also want to know what this version includes.

 

If it has a gddr5 650 then I'm gonna be thrilled. Even if that moves the cooling from good to average I'd be fine. I doubt it though. Too small of a difference.

 

Maybe there will be even a GTX660... as response to the Lenovo Y580.

Oh no, then I have to wait another month till there is a new review. ^^

 

I hope not, that would make me very sad, since I already got my n56zv, and I don't really care about you people, who didn't buy one that, that's the kind of guy I am

But didn't I read in here some where, that a version with 660m was on it's way? I like spreading the rumor though

 

This may prompt me to cancel my order and wait for more news. I would love a 660 in this laptop. Hmmm. Decisions Decisions. The N56DP is listed on the Asus support site. Just hit support, product specs, then search "N56". It will show the dp option as well as vz and vm. But when you click it the comp will tell you the page doesn't exist. the other two link to the product pages.

 

Where did you read this? Please give me the source

I also wanted to buy the VZ version but now I am not sure if I just should wait.

But don't you think that the NB gets too hot when there is a 660 in use?

 

It would be great but maybe it's not possible...650M drr3 already reach 90ºC, imagine 660gtx...

 

If you hit 90C on your card, then something is clearly wrong. Mine barely hit 80C on furmark stress test, while overclocked. And fan was still confortably silent.

 

My maximum was 81ºC to GPU and 83 to CPU but i already saw some people talking about 90ºC and on notebookcheck or other website like that they tested CPU and GPU at the same time and reached 90ºC so there is nothing wrong .

BTW- maybe the new version it's not a different grafic card but a different CPU, an i5 maybe?

 

Would this laptop be heavy for going from class to class on a college campus? I usually have at least 2 textbooks and a couple of notebooks in my backpack.

 

I think the asus n56dp is using amd processor instead of intel.
based on here:
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If you look at past models that ends with dp, like the n60dp, they are AMD CPUs...

 

Yeah, Its likely to be 4600M together with 7850M perhaps.

 

For the cracking sound issue, here it is some tips : http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...g-high-pitched-tone-squeal-2.html#post8675610

 

Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational rumor! Muahahaha...

I'm sorry, like I said, just like to spread the rumor, not often you get the chance to make up something good Maybe it was something about being able to order it customized, but not sure at all...

From what i read, the ideapad y580 runs pretty hot under load, so why not. The n56vz is doing a nice job, keeping cooled while gaming without much fan noise. So maybe gtx 660m gddr3 would work, if possible. And AMD usually runs hotter, so why put in amd, unless it is pricing.

 

Hi there. One quick question: Can anybody owning this notebook confirm that u can deactivate interpolation in the nvidia-drivers-options?
So when graphics is to slow for 1080p and u want to play a game at 768p, can you deactivate the stretching which makes the picture "blurry" and instead center the picture in the middle so that it is sharp?
This is very important criteria for me for buying this notebook. I rather play at smaller but sharper screen than on a big one but interpolated.
THX!

 

Regarding the touchpad. I have never had a laptop before, so the answer to this is not obvious. When typing, I would think that the palm of your hand would often rest against the touchpad. Does this confuse the laptop.\? Do you end up having to turn off the touchpad to type and then turn it on when you want to use it? Ideally, the touchpad would be able to differentiate against a palm against it versus finger gestures.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Hey guys. I just received this laptop in the mail last night from J&R, and upon powering on the notebook, the display would not turn on. I believe it was either damaged during shipping or was a manufacturing defect. I called ASUS support and they walked me through the troubleshooting process and they said that it needed to be either exchanged or repaired. What do you guys think? Should I exchange it for a new model from J&R or have ASUS fix it? Also, do you have any thoughts as to what the problem could be?

(@musteq, in regards to your question, when I received the unit I was worried about the same thing so I tried resting my hands on the keyboard. No part of my hand touched the touchpad, even when I pressed down on the spacebar, so I don't think it will be a problem. However, I have never had any hands on experience with this, as my unit is defective and won't turn on.)

 

If I were you I would get it replaced by the retailer. RMA will take a long time, and there is always the very slight chance that something else might have been damaged during shipping.

Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using Tapatalk 2

 

That's a very good point. Thanks for the advice.

 

Would it void the warranty if I upgraded the wifi card myself? Also, how easy would it be?

 

How is heat? I've seen several reviews (notebookcheck german for one) that say it gets very very hot in the GT650M version when gaming.

 

I just bought my N56VZ-ES71 from Amazon for 950. I'll update when I get it. I'm upgrading the ram and the hard drive to a hybrid drive.

 

I hope you noticed that is a max resolution of 1366*768....

 

I've read here in the forums that it doesn't get too bad, but I'd like some precise temperature readings from gaming and so forth. I guess it doesn't matter much now that I've already bought the thing, but still

I sure do. 90% of the time it's going to be hooked to an external 23" 1080p monitor anyway. I'm currently on an Asus N61JQ that has a 16" screen with the same resolution. It doesn't bother me much. Call me crazy if you want!

Is there a way to get to the fan/heatsinks on this laptop? Apparently if you remove some of the rubber feet on the bottom there are additional screws. Can anything tell me if this is true or not and if I can indeed get to the fan/heatsink if I need to clean it and/or re-apply thermal paste?

 

Could you do some temperature testing? Would be nice if you could tell us about the temperature on the palm rest and WASD keys. Is there any throttling while gaming?

 

..imo, people are complaining about amazingly silly things.

1. Touchpad: The touchpad buttons have the pressure point towards the middle, instead of out towards the edges. So if you push as hard as you can at the edges, out towards the side, you can probably push until you break the pad without the button going down. You notice that after about.. three seconds. You have to notice, or else you're going to push the pad out of the bezel.

In the same way, if you push to the left and right of the middle of the pad, it works perfectly fine. They've added a couple of neat things to the touchpad software as well, so that even if you still control the pointer when moving over the part where the buttons go in, the movement is not as sensitive there, outside the middle of the pad. You can control that area where the pad becomes less sensitive with an ellipsis in the Elantech software. Sheer genius. Excellent pad - much better than the one on the new Macs..

And none of the reviewers picked that up?

2. Heat: It's a quad-core i7 with boost to 3Ghz. Of course it's warm! The question is how the laptop gets rid of the heat, and if the chassis is heated up. It's not. Good news is that the core goes up to 80 degrees, and at that point the heatsinks and the air-channels work the best. So the heat is pulled out of the chassis extremely effectively.

The graphics card ends up at 70 degrees or so at load. And there is a spot under the graphics card heatsink that does get slightly warmer than the room temperature the rest of the surface of the keyboard has. We're talking maybe two degrees warmer. You can feel it, but compared to the foot-warmers like the Macbooks for example, this is negligible. That reviewers would actually mention it as a design flaw or something is amazing.

What you do have with this laptop though is that the aluminium is very thin, so that if you sweat on your hands, and rest your hands to the surface, then it feels warm. So if you have big hands, and type while keeping your hands flat on the palm-rest, this might make the experience a bit... subjective, so to speak. I thought it was very comfortable, because of the angle of the aluminium sheet with the keyboard, and so on. But I can see how some might prefer a palm-rest that feels cold to the touch for a short while when they put their hands down. It is however, pure placebo.

3. Throttling: The boost-state is locked out when the graphics card is running. I.e., it runs at 2.5Ghz when you're running games. What this means is that a cpu-bound game.. that maxes out an i7 quad-core running at 2.5Ghz.. is going to suffer a bit. While in return, the gt650m card with the dynamic overclocking is going to run perfectly. That's why we see the benchmarks are so extremely solid and stable between the units. Simply because there is enough power -- watts -- to go around on the components, to push the graphics card fully.

This also enables you to safely run heavy tasks with predictable performance while on battery. I can't begin to explain how useful this is.

Somehow all the reviewers missed that, though..

Annoying stuff. Anyway. So this thing gets a solid approval, even though it has a few negatives, such as low battery-life and so on (though not compared to similarly powered laptops, just to point that out).

I don't know.. Does anyone want me to write a review? ..if you do, let me know.

 

^- Wow, that's great. Thanks for making those things clear enough now.

Sure, I really would like to see a review from you!

But after this great post I think I gonna buy the N56VZ anyway. I hope you can advice me some tips though. For instance when I want to do a clean Windows install, which Asus programs I should reinstall?

 

That's easy on this one, at least. No problem installing everything. Then you can uninstall mediaespresso afterwards, if you don't feel like buying it. Nothing completely obtrusive included on the driver disk.

You know, they even removed the annoying "wave popup" thing for the volume, power-states and so on Replaced them with the black simple popups from the Realm of Gaming laptops.

 

Ah interessting, cause a lot of people said that most of the preinstalled programs are pretty useless and they really advice a clean Windows install, for performance reasons.

Just another quick question: How does the notebook indicates that WLAN or Bluetooth is turned on?

 

No, you should still do a clean install. There's the full array of .. stuff.. on the disk when you buy it. But if you do a clean install, then you can at least install everything on the driver-disc without ending up with anything annoying.

There's one lamp for wifi and bluetooth. The same lamp. You turn bt and wifi off and on in rotation with a hotkey. But you can click on the popup to turn on or off one or the other, both, etc. Not sure if that happened on a driver update, but it seems to remember the combination when I turn it on and off with the hotkey now. The lamp is lit if either bt or wifi is turned on.

..was a bit funny, since it defaults to turning everything off. It's not turned on at the boot, unless you specifically want to use wlan for booting a network source. So you turn it on, then the driver remembers what you had when you quit, and windows brings it back up when it starts.

Strange how just a couple of small things can seem like a "problem", when you're used to something happening in a specific way. I.e., that the hotkeys do things in kernel space, instead of the user-space.