Ivy Bridge Zenbook with FHD IPS screen UX21A UX31A UX32A UX32VD

Has anyone purchasing the UX32VD also purchased an insurance plan (accidental damage warranty) on it?

I plan on upgrading it with the Patriot Memory Signature DDR3 8GB 1600MHz SODIMM (The one everyone was talking about and recomending, see below)

I also plan on putting in the Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III (Also the one that everyone seemed to be reccomending)

Are these the best value/performance?

Will adding these void any warranties I am purchasing? I was looking at a Squaretrade warranty Amazon.com: SquareTrade 3-Year Computer Accidental Protection Warranty ($1250-1500): Computers & Accessories It is better priced than the one Newegg offers and seems same quality of service.

Many questions, Thank you for any help!

Is there anyway to get the window switching concept the Macbooks offer?

 

That won't work, you need the PTV2000 and that works fine. There are a couple of others..Belkin makes one for sure. Some TVs are coming with it builtin now too.

 

The patriot (cas 11) memory/crucial hdd combo appears to be the best value. Although as someone previously mentioned newegg is running a sale on the samsung 830 256g ssd ending tomm (6/28). A great deal for 190$ and free shipping.

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

 

That's the wrong sized SSD. You need the 7mm version.

 

what makes this SSD better?

 

I read a report on product return rates and crucial had the lowest return rate of everyone in ram and ssd both categories they took #1.

Purchased ux32vd, wish i could of got it with a core i5 for 200 less but it was worth it to be able to replace hdd and 1 ram, and ofc the discrete gpu. I'll add an 8GB stick of ram and a 512GB crucial m4 when it's on a good sale and put the 500GB hdd in a small usb 3.0 enclosure.

 

Go back 2 or 3 pages, I posted links to storagereview which specs the drives. Samsung a tad slower but native 7mm, sandisk extreme faster but uses more power and 9.5mm

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH! That could have been a headache....

 

I'm having 2 issues with my UX31A:

1) USB keeps getting disconnected in the middle of windows backups to external passport drive. It works fine on my desktop.
2) Slow wireless speeds

Is anyone else experiencing these issues/know a fix?

 

I hear ya. I'm not sayin they aren't awesome, jus that the samsung is a lil faster and a steal from newegg atm. I wonder...has anyone compared the i7 zenbook prime with the native adata ssd to the i7 32vd with the crucial or samsung ssd installed?

 

me having the slow wirelss speed issue. its bearable 12-13mb but my other laptop are in the range of 80-99mb,
theres no update for the 6235 yet so dunno if its software issue

 

Which Samsung??

 

I'd go with the Samsung 830. It's 7mm and at that price it's already cheaper than the 7mm Crucial M4 at the moment. It's also faster than the Crucial and maybe more reliable. Get it today as the Newegg sale will be finished by the end of the day if you want it.

 

I'm no expert but from what I've Googled about RST partition, the instructions are mostly for 8gb partitions but when I re-installed Windows 7 on my UX31A, I decided to just partition it to 4gb becasue UX31A is only at 4gb RAM max.

Apologies for asking twice but I really need a response to this. Does anybody know if the UX31A has the same keyboard configuration as the UX31E? I'm thinking of buying a keyboard cover and none are available for the Zenbook Prime yet but it's easily available for the Zenbook.

 

Mine is is slower by 40% than my 3 year old Compaq Mini Netbook on 2.4ghz frequency. Luckily my home router has 5ghz support & I was able to improve throughput by using that instead.

 

the keyboard was one of the biggest redesigns of the zenbook. Deeper key travel plastic instead of metal keys. You are best to wait for covers made for prime.

 

Anyone get shipment notification from Adorama that ordered after June 22nd, thanks.

 

how hard is the ram upgrade. I have upgraded macbook pros before. Do i have to disconnect the battery?
Thanks

 

Not a big deal, but has anyone discovered how to keep the keyboard backlight off? I can turn it off, but after a reboot or coming out of hibernation, it gets turned back on again. Can't find anything in the BIOS about it and nothing in the advanced power plans.

 

I certainly have no flex with the UX31A. The flex on the UX32VD seen in the video is extreme.

 

I just stumbled on an old video, but the UX32VD looks a lot thicker than the UX31A ASUS Zenbook UX32VD with Nvidia Graphics Hands On - YouTube

Does anyone know if Newegg is going to get the UX31A?

 

The license sticker (including the key) is on the power brick, instead of the notebook case BTW.

It lasts about 4-5 hours with a "moderately heavy" usage. Maybe more under lighter usage in battery saving mode.

 

Does anyone know what keyboard ux31a sold in Germany has? Is it a standard QWERT?

I am thinking about buying from a Germany site as in the UK it is much more expensive (around £300).

 

i went with mushkin aswell , and you cant go wrong wit m4 512gb 7mm, its reliable and rock solid never had a problem with crucial ssds not as fast as the Samsung 830 but quite abit cheaper , thou i think im gona send it in and get me a 830 instead xD

 

What made you switch?

 

that for a handfull of bucks more i get an godlike , rock solid in every sense 512gb ssd compared to a "average" yet rock solid ssd , im just happy that i didnt wait too long , that was close , hey maybe i can even send my desktop m4 back for a 830 hmmmm..... that speed is addicting

p.s: damn it my desktop m4 , they wont take it back ...after 3months xD , well atleast my laptop m4 gets a nice replacement , guess you cant have it all , well my rig will just have to do with the m4 then , ahh the agony !!! why couldnt yall have told me this 3 months ago xD

 

I hope it's not an antenna issue. I have the same problem and watching the adapter it stays at 54 Mbps most of the time and jumps to 130, 150 and 300Mbps in spurts and then falls back. I was using WIDI yesterday and every so often it would just disconnect altogether saying there was no adapter but then let me reconnect right away. There is definitely a problem with it.

Oops..this doesn't look good..this seems to refer to another forum that DOES say this card has a ton of antenna issues. Different pc but same card.



http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19454498.aspx

Searching google there is a ton of posts about people having issues with the 6235..pretty much the same as what I am seeing with speed fluctuations.

For what it's worth changing 802.11n channel width for band 2.4 in properties/advanced to auto from 20 helped me a lot. Now I am at 300 mbps mush more but still not always.

 

interesting -.-

 

BTW, has anybody been able to register for the $15 Windows 8 pro upgrade offer? Every time I go to the site it says coming soon yet everywhere I read you could register after June 2nd.

 

1). I didn't know about the speed difference.

2). The Samsung 512GB drive is $719 to the Crucial 512GB for $399.

I'm being kinda reckless with this purchase, but I only got the Crucial, because the 5 per gig. Was actually better than most 256GB drives. And I've never gone SSD before, so if this drive isn't all its cracked up to be... please tell me NOW.

 

Earlier this week, newegg were selling the 512G m4 for $320. Unfortunately the price was only there for a few days before reverting to $399. Still the way prices have gone this year, I expect $320 will be the norm in six months.

Right now, I think that the best advice is to buy the smallest drive that you can live with - in my case it was 256G and then swap it out in a year or so.

I received a UX32VD from NCIX yesterday (Canada). Delivery was really fast - I ordered on Tuesday and it showed up on Weds (Ontario).

My impressions? Well it's a really nice machine. The screen is everything that the reviewers have raved about. And like everyone else, there is a certain amount of backlight bleed that happens when the machine is restarted but it isn't anything that you notice when actually working on the machine. My bigger issue with the screen is that the bezel seems big - the aesthetics would really improve from an edge-to-edge design.

The keyboard is really good - MacAir-ish. I don't mind the island style keyboard and my preference is NOT to have a squished in numeric keypad stuffed onto the side which a lot of manufacturers seem to think people want. Also in Canada we usually are stuck with bilingual keyboards which changes the standard keyboard layout - in this case, it's a English only keyboard. Not sure if mes amis can order a bilingual keyboard or not.

The mousepad is good but it can get in the way when you're typing. Again, nothing that you can't get used to. It also can occasionally cause the "ring of delay" in windows 7 when you select text or something in a document. Not a biggie - but not perfect either.

I plan on upgrading to 10G (Corsair Vengence) and a 256G m4 ($210 from Tigerdirect). Not sure if the RAM was required but it was a cheap upgrade ($56) for a non-cheap machine. The SSD is pretty much a requirement. Given the way prices are dropping, I may have been better off getting a 128G and swapping it for a 512G in six months. Instead I'll probably keep the 256 for the life of the laptop.

I compared this to the 13" Samsung - which is a really nice machine too. The only thing with the Sammy is that is pretty much closed off - and I think the 128G SSD may prove to be too small. The think the Asus is a bit more flexible (better processor, expandable memory, dedicated graphics processor, swappable SSD) and the Sammy is more of a "ooohhh look at me!" kind of machine. I mean it's gorgeous and everything feels great.

Anyway I think I'm the silent majority of buyers - pretty happy with my purchase but the perfect machine awaits us in2014. For here and now, I think this is the best ultrabook out there.

 

Do you guys think the backlight bleeding is a defect that will be fixed in future models? Is it worth an exchange to try to get one that does not have this issue?

 

I don't think you will get one without it anytime soon..yes it is a defect seemingly caused by the lower bezel not being tight enough. However it may also be caused by the hinge forcing it to loosen up. It will get fixed but I think every one out there right now has it..at least I haven't heard of any who don't. If you could see it in windows it would be a bigger issue but you can't.

 

Just as an update ASUS told me they have no plans to introduce the UX32VD in the UK!!!

Does anyone know if it's available with a QWERTY keyboard anywhere in Europe?

If I bought one from Amazon in Germany I'm assuming it would be QWERTZ?

Going to have to go back to the drawing board if this is not an option to get, very annoying!

 

So, Amazon raised the DB51 10 bucks after lowering it 30 last week..

 

I don't know if it was postet yet, but here is the (german) review of the UX31A from notebookcheck:
LINK

 

I got my laptop a few days ago and love it. I updated the ram to the 8gb corsair and installed windows ultimate on the 32gb ssd with dunces guide. Here are some quick thoughts.

Pros:
-Beautiful display
-Extremely fast especially when it starts up now (8 seconds with all the programs I normally use installed ie Photoshop, Office, Chrome, Itunes, Norton, Vlc)
--There's still 7gbs left after all updates and driver installs
-I have the HDD as extra storage and still have the original windows on it in case I need to do a recovery

Cons:
-Backlight bleed is pretty bad when the screen is completely black...
-Fan is erratic both on the SDD and HDD windows installation but I can only hear when I'm in a quiet setting. In all honesty it's not even that loud, I'm hoping they come out with a bios update for this soon.
-The Wifi seems a bit slower than my other laptop

 

well the drive is all its cracked up to be you cant go wrong for the price , as said for a handfull of bucks more you get its rock solid stabilitiy plus the monster speed , the m4 is by no means slow its still blazingly fast just compared to the 830 ..yeah not so much xD , 256gb times are long gone, 512gb is a minimum one should aim for thou nowadays, if youre like me and you run lots of programs and stuff

p.s: your pretty unlucky with em ssd pricings thats crazy , over here theyre only 150 bucks difference

 

Oh no! WHY!??!

 

The 2GB RAM soldered into the UX32VD, does anyone know if its 1.5v or 1.35 volt? Need to know if I should order the Mushkin given its 1.35 volt as well. Otherwise 1.5V will be fine.

 

Are we talking like dial up slow or just a second slower?

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2

 

For the Canadians out there, NCIX just received stock of the UX31A-DB51:
ASUS UX31A-DB51 Intel Core i5 3317 4GB 128GB SSD 13.3IN IPS Bluetooth Mini-HDMI WIN7HP Ultrabook - ASUS - UX31A-DB51

 

Not dialup slow...doesn't hold a wireless N connection very well..keeps dropping back to G and then bursts up for awhile and then back down. It has the latest driver and it isn't just this pc. A lot of people with the 6235 adapter on other laptops are complaining too. I find if I download something it will go up to 300Mbps and stay there for the duration. The problem seems to be when you aren't doing much which is why the internet seems so erratic.

 

Yes, with these Zenbooks we have the option of bilingual keyboard. Ncix has both listed on their website. (However, for the SS9 in my signature we can only get the bilingual - if I want cleaner keyboard markings, I have to order from the states...)

But still no UX31A-DB71 ANYWHERE.

 

Man, this is getting worse and worse. First backlight bleed, then fan noise, now bad wifi.

Guess it might just be too good to be true. Bummer.

 

Which model do you have? And what problem do you have with the wifi? I have a UX32VD and no Wifi issues.

 

Backlight bleed is minimal on my UX32VD. Don't have a problem with fan noise or wifi.

 

Anyone know to turn off the keyboard light, everytime my laptop turns on from sleep hiberate etc it turns on.

Also how do you adjust the volume, and brightness without having to hold Fn key and pressing the volume key?

According to ASUS website, new driver updates were posted about two weeks ago.

ASUS - Notebooks- ASUS ASUS ZENBOOK UX32VD

Should I download them, how do I check if my drivers and BIOS are up to date?

I am starting to get the fan issue where it will speed up then stop in a few and speed up again

How do I download and install BIOS update, I downloaded it GLOBAL and a file came I opened it but nothing.

 

Use the ASUS live update program.

 

For the volume key I used KeyTweak to assign F3 (vol -) and F4 (vol +) on my UX31. These keys should also be available to used on the Prime. I think you are stuck with using the Fn key for brightness.