K53TA.. The best deal ever... could be!

Hi guys. I bought this system due to the relatively low cost, and potential graphics ability. I too notice the graininess of the graphics. Not to mention, the lcd itself has a grainy, pixelated look that I noticed before I turned it on. This is probably due to its low resolution for its physical size.

I'm actually thinking of picking up a HP G4-1164, same processor, 6520g, 750gb hdd, 4gb ram, 14.5" lcd same res, and a more attractive and better designed shell and feel imo... and save $150. The additional money for k53ta laptop only nets me the additional GPU, at the expense of an inferior screen, smaller hdd, etc. Funny enough, the windows experience index on the HP was 5.9, while my K53ta struggles to keep 5.3 (lowest score in graphics)

 

WEI isn't affected by turning on crossfire on the k53ta at all, sadly.

Personally, I value the gaming performance. I love that this baby can tear up Crysis and Space Marine. If you don't value that and can get something for $50 less, do it! Sounds like a great deal.

 

WEI means absolutely nothing. And the IGP in the G4 will perform at about half that of the 6650m dedicated GPU not in Crossfire. But if gaming isn't of utmost importance and/or you play older games, that G4 will be a nice machine. I am actually able to play Bad Company 2 at 1280x720 on battery with the IGP at 25-30fps with settings on low. Unfortunately you can't overclock the integrated GPU at all.

One of the main reasons I returned the K53TA was due to the screen. It was just miserable to use for any length of time. Even considered replacing the LCD, but that was another $100+ investment. If they had an above average LCD, mainly with good viewing angles and matte, I would have kept it without a doubt.

 

Not directing this comment at you specifically, but I don't understand why people place such an emphasis on WEI. I don't like 3DMark as a benchmark either, but it's infinitely more useful as a performance gauge than WEI.

 

Both laptops have the same integrated card on the APU. Crossfire on or off, my K53TA doesn't touch the same performance level (for WEI)

I tried running Americas Army 3 on my K53TA with low power processor and high performance crossfire, and don't notice a significant jump in performance. I'm just trying to rationalize the speed improvement and cost from going from 6520 to 6650 on this laptop, and its inherent setbacks by doing so.

 

A couple things. In cases where games are CPU limited, a faster GPU probably won't help much. Plus DirectX 9 performance is dismal, so I wouldn't doubt if the IGP and dedicated GPU perform similarly. I can play Bad Company 2 at 1920x1080 at medium detail at 45-55FPS with DirectX 10, but it drops to a miserly 30fps with DirectX 9.

For whatever reason they decided to gimp on DirectX 9 support, but DX10 and DX11 performance is excellent. Also 11.8 drivers give me a solid 15-20% FPS increase in the few games I play. Something else to consider.

Not sure if AA3 supports DX10 or not, but try forcing DX10 if you can and you should see a significant performance increase.

But if the IGP plays the games you want to play, by all means, spend less!

 

Asymmetric Crossfire, which the K53TA uses, only works in DirectX 10 and 11 games. IIRC, (and I could be wrong on this) America's Army uses the Unreal Engine which is primarily DirectX 9 and is more bound by the CPU than the GPU.

On any single-GPU notebook I've used, Crysis has given me much better performance in DirectX 9 than DirectX 10. Because of Crossfire, the opposite is true on the K53TA.

On many Unreal Engine games, there's a tweak you can do on an .ini file to force DX10. In my experience, though, this doesn't typically produce good results. The UE game I play most often is Mirror's Edge, which allows this change. Performance absolutely tanks when forcing DX10, at least on my system.

 

It tanks because the engine's DX10 implementation or because of the video card? Because I've found DX10 performance quite impressive with these GPU's.

 

Has anyone confirmed if an A8 CPU is compatible in our systems? I haven't seen one way or another if it is.

I went ahead and ordered one of the A8-3530MX's so I guess i'll find out if noone else has. The good news is the seller accepted my offer of $90 so not too bad of a deal. If it doesn't work out I'll just relist it. Be sure to post my results (sometime next week).

 

I'd place blame on the engine, especially since I don't believe DX10 is "officially" supported, being you have to tweak the .ini to enable it. Doubly so because Crysis in DX10 performs quite well on this machine.

 

Just got my Cooler Master Notebook Cooling Model NotePal U2



Findings later

 

Is it possible that there is an error with the chipset in there description?
The K43TA and K73TA have the AMD A70M chipset. Why would they use a 4 year old chipset on a new processor?

 

yes. we have the a70m chipset. it's an error.

You guys in canada have weird deals. If you can save $150, go for it.

the screen has a "screen door effect". and the grainy video exacerbates that effect.

I hope everyone here can help by emailing asus and asking for a BIOS/VBIOS update to remove the grain.

check out [H]ard|Forum - Powered by vBulletin and look at the nasty grainy greys.
if you scroll down the forum, you'll see that it's a fixed grainy pattern that doesn't move as you scroll.

 

I have noticed better performance with turning Crossfire off in Dues Ex, I don't think it's really working

this chip runs 45W you will have to adjust the power supply, no?
Hope the MB supports it

 

I went to go pick up the notebook last night at a best buy near me and they had 4 in stock, guess what. Every notebook came "set up" and had a $70 fee attached to it. They called another store near me that had over 100 of the notebook model in stock, every single one of them was set up.

An employee said they get a new shipment on Friday and I'm supposed to call back then to check for notebooks without the setup. I asked for a machine without the setup, and since they can't find one insisted that they don't charge me for it but no luck.

I'm going to wait until tomorrow and give them a call, if I get the same foolishness I'm going to ask for a manager to step in. I have a friend who says I should accuse them of false advertising and I will surely do so if they continue to play games with me. I am very displeased with their "service".

 

WTH is a 'set up" display model or something the geek squad fools have gotten their hands and screwdrivers into?

 

Tell them to remove all the stuff or just argue with them.. They won't charge you after an argument or telling them to take it off. They rather just give it to you for free since it'll take them too much time to remove their "set up". I've done that before, they told me to pay $100 or something additional because it comes with backup disc and their "optimization".. but I was like, take it off, I don't need those crap... and they just end up giving it to me for free of charge.

 

I am going to drive down to their store right now and talk to a manager about taking it off or giving it to me for free. I'll report back my results.

 

Sorry for the double post, I have work to do right now and I might not be able to come back online until tomorrow. I went in there and I hassled them for almost half an hour, wearing my Air Force PT shirt. They told me the deal was only since Sunday, I told them I've seen it since August. They told me that they need to install software on 10% of all things they sell, I told them I don't need it and I just want to buy the notebook at list price or else I won't buy it from them. I told them I would go to the regional manager if I needed to so I could get the notebook at list price, and they took out their cd out of the plastic attached to it and gave it to me. I took the notebook out right there to check it, making sure the battery was in there, the charger was in there, and that it booted up properly, and there weren't any outstanding dead pixels I could notice.

 

Good, I didn't think bestbuy reps worked on commission, to push something like that, they either are or they are complete idiots. I hate that they started doing this, you're practically buying a open box computer now.

 

So you got it then? Sounds like it's in good order? What a load of crap. They do that to eek out more money on things that are selling well.

 

pretty much... they run the set up stuff for you.. I personally would reinstall the computer asap lol

 

anyone have a good undervolt k10stat profile?

 

These profiles work great!

 

Howdy, got this laptop after seeing a lot of the results posted in this thread.

Ordered online. When they brought the box out, a little plastic pocket thing was stuck to the side. That was the geeksquad thing that included a set of backup discs and some antivirus. They were confused since I had already paid the online listed price for it without any extras, yet it had that tacked on. They ended up just giving it to me without charging extra. I noticed that it had the latest bios already installed too (206), so that was cool.

I've been pretty impressed with it so far, having it for about a week. I've set k10stat conservatively, topping it to [email protected] at p0. Nice that it has so much headroom.

With the brightness all the way down and p6 state locked in and undervolted, I managed about six hours of light internet browsing while doing some homework a couple days ago. Really happy with this.

One thing though: I did not take into account how wide this laptop is. I need a new bag to carry this around as my old one just barely accommodates it. If I had any textbooks, it wouldn't close. Anyone have suggestions for good bags for this laptop (partial to messenger style, single shoulder strap bags)? Say one that can hold a couple textbooks as well.

 

based on extensive play of DX I feel it plays better without Crossfire

 

New bios on Asus

BIOS 207
Firmware change

Gonna update and see if anything is different.

Update: Can't really tell much from the update. It seems like the fan is kicking in and staying at a higher rpm longer. To late tonight to actually backup that thought though.

 

profiles are not one size fits all.

you need to lower your volts a little bit and see if they're stable.
you can do that by pinning the speed in k10stat, and running torture tests

 

Just updated to Bios 207. I see no immediate difference, but will run tests later.

 

I use a simple Nylon drawstring backpack/bag with my laptop. It fits perfectly and looks very discrete, though I don't carry books around, and only carry my binder in my hands.

 

Haha. Maybe all these ones that Calvin is talking about are all of the opened up ones that people have ended up returning. lol.

Strange...when I manually select the model (K53TA) the latest BIOS I see is 206. Where are you finding this 207? And whats really strange is that now when I manually enter my serial number, it comes up with a 22T1E LCD monitor... It always used to come up with my notebook...

 

Over the past two nights I've read through every post in this thread, and I have to say it's probably the most informative one I've read in a long time. Because of that, well, I really don't have any questions. It's also nice not to see every other post being trolled by some idiot. Thanks to all!

 

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download

Model Name Search

K53TA

Presto!

 

not sure if its my connection or router but is the wireless card a cheap one? seems very unstable with streaming connections and dl/ul speeds. i've reinstalled drivers and updated to latest.

if it's a crappy one, can anyone suggest a good wireless one?

 

I have compared the internal card with my wireless usb linksys adapter at home and have noticed no difference.

Comcast provider 19.29 Mb/s download 5.73 Mb/s upload.

But at work using my mobile hotspot I do notice the adapter gets better speed than the internal card. But my hotspot is a snails pace running between satellite speed and ISDN 378 Kbps down and 23 Kbps up

I have 3 of the Linksys wireless USB adapters, they do not make my model anymore but the Linksys RangePlus at around 15 bucks has the same specs.

 

possibly could be my connection then, i also have comcast...just noticed quite a bit of stuttering with streaming even with 10mb buffer zone...dl/ul seems irratic...at times dl is 1.5mb then drops to 400kb...reboot..then back to 1.5mb then drops again after awhile...

 

anyone know how to fix this.
dont want to rma it, i've become emotionally invested.

Asus K53TA - YouTube

 

crap. bios 207 didn't fix the grainy display. Keep emailing them !

did you use a paper clip to manually open it, or any other funny stuff ?

the whole dvd drive is designed to be easily removed by one screw underneath the ram cover
the whole drive just slides out easily. You don't even need to disassemble the whole laptop.

You can probably arrange an rma of JUST the dvd drive. they can plug the drive into any laptop and see the defect.
since it doesn't require full disassembly of laptop, I would think asus would allow it.
If they hesitate, argue with them.

worst case, I would send the dvd drive alone anyway, with a note attached, telling them to plug it into any laptop.
they pay shipping both ways, so you don't lose any money.


By the way, under Device manager, what does it show for optical device- Matshta, or slimtype ?

moving your laptop closer to router doesn't help ?

to rule out internet connection, try transferring files wirelessly on local network between computers

I can download and upload at 3MB/s on a wireless G network all day.

this atheros wireless card is in tons of laptops- sony, hp, etc etc

 

Yeah I got it, I'm gonna do a fresh install, updates, and then do benchmarks and maybe open it up to make sure everything is in working order.

That's what I'm going to do.

They did give me a $30 discount, which is why I'm going to extensively test the notebook for any defects. It might just be an open box discount because they installed their junk but I wouldn't trust these people even as far as I could throw them.

 

thanks link626!
the dvd-drive is : Slimtype DVD A DS8A5SH ATA Device
it was just normal usage, haven't done any poking w/ paper clips w/ it.
i've been sliding it in for ~30x before it finally closes.

 

Push Harder! Could be the DVD is offset into the laptop by a few mm and requires the door to move further inward before it latches.

 

Also it might be that you can adjust it by removing and replacing it and it'll start working. If it won't lock closed after you've adjusted it time for a return. If Asus won't play ball, you can always grab one off Ebay for $20 or so.

DS-8A5SH

 

Those of you who got a Freak squad "optimized" laptop...... did it come with norton antivirus ?

On my 2nd k53 unit, they gave me a geek squad open box, and they uninstalled the trendmicro AV and installed norton.

not only is the service a huge scam (although you can bypass by store pickup option), but i think they earn extra money from Symantec for "optimizing" and removing the factory antivirus.

I have the same lite-on slimtype dvd drive, and when I push lightly on the left or right side like he is, it latches on just fine.

You can hear it click, so it should latch.

I would still RMA the drive.

 

I'll check to confirm that link626, I need to go through this thread again and make sure I do everything properly. For those that installed BIOS 207, is there any difference noticed yet?

 

re: bios 207

no visible difference regarding screen.

the only other problem i can think of was the left side usb ports disabling after hibernate or sleep.

maybe someone can check that.

 

Hey everyone, I have a couple questions for those that got their laptops in the past couple days. I live in Wisconsin and I called my local Bestbuy. I was told that they are discontinued and are not available at that location or any location around it. Did any of you call to reserve it and pick it up or did you just show up and they had it in stock? I just find it hard to believe that people keep getting them but apparently in my area they just don't exist. Is it worth heading to Bestbuy even though they say they don't have it? I just find it kind of weird that they were using the Bestbuy website to see if it was in stock.

 

After following this thread and seeing some you tubes I typed in my zip code on best buys site, there were two stores that had them in stock.

Now doing the same thing they all say "ship to store 7 to 10 days" so they must be available?

 

One thing I've found is that the connection seems to be bad if you are using this laptop on the battery. This seems to be due to a setting in Windows Power Options. Go into advanced power settings on your profile in use through Windows Power options and go to the wireless adapter settings. Expand it and make sure that "on battery" is set at maximum performance. If it was on medium power saving, this really cuts into your bandwidth.

 

when they say they don't have it, they don't have it.
doesn't matter whether you walk in or do online store pickup.

BB seems to have allocated very little to the midwest.

availability for ship-to-store depends on whether the regional BB warehouse has these in stock.

what happened with your dv6z ?

seems like they're letting people order this again.

last week, it was unavailable when you selected ship to store.

 

I unfortunately got a dud with the dv6z. When I used the 6750M it made a very high pitched squealing sound. On top of the noise, no matter what I did games would stutter and skip to the point that they were unplayable even at the lowest settings. On top of that my fan made a buzzing/grinding sound when it went above idle...it didn't sound too healthy. It was a very beautiful laptop, I just had some serious bad luck.