Officially an N71JQ-A1 Owner!!

Nothing substantial in the BIOS :/


Second thoughts :
- speakers aren't that great, don't expect to use them in a party, or even in a candlelight dinner : highs are irritating, and basses not that powerful. Moreoever, you just can't put the volume very loud.
- keyboard has soft silent touch, this is a real pleasure to use it
- the n71jq is more silent than my D630 : when I shut the d630 off, I nearly didn't hear anything in idle mode
- buttons on the upper left corner could have been a bit bigger/rounder, so we don't have to search for them when willing to mute sound for instance
- USB and jack are placed on the wrong side : when a peripheral is plugged, it's annoying to use a right handled mouse :/
- screen calibration improved the colors, but seems the darks aren't trully distinct, have to test further
- glossy screen is a real shame in bright light :/

 

As per the Asus description they are saying

Means...N series's USP is sound, but the review contradicts it

 

Could you please also give some insights on the build quality of the notebook?
I had a look at N61JQ and I felt it not to be very rubust and sturdy.
The screen back cover was very thin, if I press on it I could see some artifacts on the display.

Furthermore, the keyboard had lot of flex especially on the number pad side.

Does N71JQ suffer from same types of things?

 

Well, I'm maybe quite hard to please : I use to listen to music through Q-jays, and the sound provided by the N71JQ is very far from good earphones.

Anyway, it's enough for some youtube, but I think even movies watch would give disappointing quality.

I'll try make further tests

@Turbogear : I will check

 

A few random questions, some for owners, some probably anyone could answer.

I'm thinking about getting this instead of the N61JQ-A1. I'd want to get it somewhere I could get custom thermal compound. That means two HDD"s, since they don't seem to offer one.

• Does running two HDD's have a significant effect on battery life?
• I was told 17 inches makes the device difficult to use on airplanes. Is this consistently true?
• 17 inches has always seemed just too big. Has anyone else thought this, but then just gotten used to it?
• Are the hinges solid? Like does the screen stay where you put it even if you shake the unit a tiny bit?

Thanks for any answers you can provide.

 

N71JQ-A1 benchmarks:

 

That seems super low to me, am I wrong?

 

According to the Guru3D VGA charts that GPU score is equivalent to the ATI 4670... Not sure if it's lower than expected though!

 

Which confirms the expectations from notebookcheck :

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

 

I think the GPU score is about 20% higher than the 4670.

If I recall, the 4670 performed better in most games than the 3DMark scores would suggest, so I guess its the same here. It should be a very good upper-mid card, so long as you don't have unrealistic expectations.

 

That what I was thinking...you cant beat the price of $1065 for everything you get inside this laptop...I should have mine around 2-12-10. I ordered it from powernotebooks.com....Donald is a good guy if anyone is thinking about ordering one.

 

The specs on this thing show it as being 18.4 inches wide (from xotic and GenTech). Asus says the N71Vn is only 16.5 inches wide. It seems unlikely that there would be a difference of almost 2 inches since they look so much alike.

Would anyone mind measuring and letting us know the actual size? I can handle 16.5 inches wide, but 18.4 is a bit large.

 

16.5" is the correct width.

16.5" x 11.5" x 1.5~1.75"

The weight, measured on our calibrated digital scale is 7.9 pounds.

 

Thanks for the shout out...and your kind words

Just to clarify though, you ordered an ASUS N61JQ-A1.

 

Yah Donald...I just noticed this is the N7 owner thread lol!!!!!!

 

I thought that N71jq was 17.3".

 

Screens are measured diagonally from corner to corner, so while that screen measurement is 17.3" the total width of the laptop is 16.5"

 

Thanks for clearing that out.

If I want to compare it to a an M60J what do you think about this model?
Is it going to be much larger?

What about the build quality of this N71JQ compared to M60J?

I had the N61Jq already in my hands once and I was not satified with it. As the housing was feeling not very sturdy, especially the back side of the display was very thin and could be easily flexed. When I pressed on the back cover with a small force, I saw some artifacts appear on the screen.

Furthermore, the keyboard had lot of flex especially on the number block side.

 

I was told the M60J isn't all that great, but hey to each his own.

I talked to Justin a little while ago, and mine is shipping out! I just got my tracking number, even though UPS hasn't exactly located details yet, lol. But OMGOSH it's coming!

 

Grats Reicheru...take some pics for us when you get it!!!!!!

 

I ordered this from GenTech early this morning myself after bailing on the G73.....says its ready to ship all ready so should go out tonight or tomorrow worst case I'm assuming....only 2 days from CA to here so should have it on Thurs or Friday!!

Edit - Just got my tracking #....happy day....should be here on Thursday!!

 

Mine comes on the 5th it says! yay!

 

anyone have any clue why the RAM score on the windows experience index is 5.9? scores on comparable systems are higher than that. is it something to put much stock in?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=454556&page=7

Basically it's probably Windows 7 being dumb.

 

nice...forgot to check on that thread recently

 

It could be the way the bios is reporting to windows.

 

You will find that the audio on the ASUS N71JQ-A1, which has two stereo Altec Lansing speakers plus a sub-woofer that actually works, is really quite good for a laptop, but you will have to do some tweaking of your settings to get there.

Go into Control Panel>Sound and select Speakers, then click on Properties. Click the Enhancements tab, and check both Equalizer and Loudness Equalization. You will notice an instant increase in quality and volume. You can hear your movie quite clearly from across the room.

Then, for more refinement also check Environment and experiment with the different environments offered for even more enjoyment.

There a lots of other settings there with which you can also experiment.

Of course connecting a quality set of headphones, or better yet a good surround sound external speaker system connected to the S/PDIF port will really ROCK YOU!

 

Nice I will be sure to mess with that when I get my N71 on Thursday!!! Thanks for the heads up!

 

After talking to some people about the N71JQ, I am also thinking to buy this one over the M60J now.
Unfortunately, there is not even single shop which offers this model in Germany so far.
Some shops told me that they will get some new products from ASUS by end of month, but they are not sure if N71JQ would be among them.

You people in USA are very lucky to get all the new stuff first.

By the way does anybody here know which WLAN card is built into the N71Jq?

I am considering ordering it from USA at Gentech.
Do you people know if 4GB+2GB=6GB ram would be a good ide?
I don't know if there would be some performace reduction as the dual channel mode would not work is that case.

 

I pre-ordered mine from Xoticpc and was told they would ship soon. See the other person on here already has a tracking number. I hope I get my tracking number soon.

 

Just a random question here: is 4GB of RAM really enough to efficiently and smoothly run a laptop with high end components like this? Also, how much RAM does Windows 7 use?

 

4GB is usually enough Ram for most users. With 4 applications running and FireFox with 10 websites up it uses under 2.5GB.

 

4GB is definitely enough. I've run Chrome, an IM program, Photoshop, Illustrator, MS Word 2010, a music player, and text editor... all without any real slugishness.

It's when you bring programs like After Effects with HD video in that things start to chug... but then even if you had 16GB you'd find yourself wishing you had more.

 

There will be an Atheros wireless card, and you have the option of upgrade to a couple different Intel cards, as far as I know. I got mine from Xotic. You can certainly upgrade your RAM, but usually 4GB is more than enough for the majority of people. I doubt there will be a performance reduction, so I wouldn't worry about it.

I get mine tomorrow! It left Nashville, TN at 3AM this morning It was shipped on the 2nd of February, and I get it on the 5th. 3 days for delivery is just AWESOME, and free?? I love Xotic

 

Well for normal use it should be enough to have 4GB of RAM, but I am using many time Ubuntu under virtual machine running VMware and that eats up a lot of RAM.
On my current notebook with 4GB of RAM when VMware is running alone with Matlab under Windows and I have three or four browser windows open with Outlook 2007 and Zonaalrm Extreme security running in the back ground the RAM uses goes to around 95% and the laptop becomes hard to use.

I hope one can fit a full size WLAN card in it and not only half-mini. I have an intel 5350 that I bought of Ebay a year ago and currently using it on M50vm. I will like to put it inside the N71JQ. I hope the N71Jq has three antennas. My M50vm had them and I easily replaced intel 5100 with 5350.

 

Just ordered mine today after trying out a Studio XPS 16 520m.
for 100$ more i get the i7, 2yr warranty plus 1year accidental, bigger screen(less pixels but doesnt matter), better video card, better cooling design, dual hard drive... list goes on ...

I hope this will be better than that studio xps i bought (and will return when i get the n71). i am really dissapointed at the placement of the fan on the SXPS and that the bios does not load properly sometimes.

I really hope i made the right choice.

Jp

 

I dont know if anybody has posted on this yet but the N71JQ comes with DDR3 1333MHz instead of 1066MHz as originally presumed.

 

Whoa, it does? I hadn't even seen that update yet! Is it on your website Justin?

I got a call from UPS confirming delivery tomorrow! Whoop!

 

^^ It will be in about 20 seconds. Show us some benchmarks

 

Awesome, I definitely will as soon as I get it and set it up. Thanks for the update!

 

Thanks for the update on the RAM speed. Are you guys planning on doing a video review of N71JQ like you did for the N61JQ?

 

Does the N71 suffer from cooling problems?

 

i ordered one today from powernotebooks.com and again the people there are great to deal with thanks donald and tim

i defected from the g73 but i think ill be pretty happy with this...

just emailed donald to see if it comes with 1333 memory...hopefully it does

some lucky person will be bumped up for their g73 order and i hope they have a blissful time gaming

i chose the i720 processor on the n71jq with the standard 4 gigs of memory plus blu ray and standard asus cooling goop and the intel 5100 wireless
and 3 year north america warranty

im happy with this configuration and i love the standard ports/slots this comes with compared with the standard g73 ports...

anyways its out of stock and again the torturous wait arrgghhh

 

Please post your CPU temperature once you receive it.

 

Why did you choose the N71 over the G73?

 

Just so you guys know... there's now an official owners lounge for this model.

 

Does the N71 have a backlit keyboard?

 

No backlit keyboard on any of the N series

 

That surprises me. For me, that's a big minus.

Thanks for info.

 

hey there,

i am not an avid gamer and i was debating whether i would get the most out of the g73 if i really dont play games much...my preorder for the g73 had the i7 820 cpu and blu ray and 8 gigs of 1033 mem intel wireless 5300, icy diamond thermal...it was a substantial upgrade for me since i havent upgraded in years and i couldnt wait for it to arrive but then reading the forums here i began to rethink everything...

i looked at other choices that had the ports and slots the g73 did not...the n61 seemed to be great since its smaller and lighter...the n71 was good too but again i was iffy on the big screen and carrying it around and did i really need 2 harddrives? both were less than the g73 in price which helps me out and donald from powernotebooks.com (always great service IMHO) mentioned the resolution on the n61 might not be to everyones liking...that pushed me towards choosing the n71...

so personally...i think the standard ports/slots would help me extend the useful life of my laptop in the long run by giving me the capability to add extra peripherals to it plus the fact that i would save money reconfiguring stuff (i7 720 instead of i7 820 which i again debated and asked myself was it worth the price for the upgrade and would i get the most out of it...probably not since most of what i do is surf the web (read this site), play music, watch movies, check emails etc etc...

so that was my thought process when switching and hopefully ill be satisfied when i get my hands on it