Zenbook U500 Announced: 15.6" HD IPS, GT650M, Quad-Core i7...

- I found out that the Windows recovery tool only allows actual USB drive backups, no optical media (tried DVD as well as Blu Ray, neither worked).

- Using the recovery disk will apparently not allow you to switch of RAID, as algen stated. To do this, you'd need to do a fresh install. Unless you have a key and a Win 8 home ISO, you'll have to use another license for this (i.e., losing the one that came on the laptop).

Non-RAID performance loss is most severe for sequential throughput, when the striped data can be read effectively from both disks in parallel. More random access patterns are less or barely affected. So it depends on your actual usage scenario whether you'll experience much performance loss or not.

 

This has already been done in this thread. Keep reading.

 

I haven't see any clip, just some attempts to measure the noise level, but with very different results...
Would happy with a link, if I didn't see the clip

 

We didn't do a video. A few of us did some measurements from our phones. The test results vary because the mics of our phones are different. The results would be the same, in my opinion, with a video since it has the same microphone variable.

It's being beat to death on here. I think it's a total non-issue. It's so subtle. Maybe someone has a bad unit or maybe I have a good one. But if you need an absolutely, utterly silent machine, this one is not it.

These were my results, with pics
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...d-ips-gt650m-quad-core-i7-43.html#post8942706

 

Please upload it as a. zip file with your screen model in a read.me file. That would help a lot of people in the future. Thank you

 

It seems that people don't understand that every monitor is different, and this the reason because exists the calibration.
If you use the result of calibration on another monitor you could deteriorate your situation.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

I keep seeing comments referring to a notebookcheck review, but I can't find it on their site. Which version were they supposed to have reviewed? Can anyone post the link?

 

Here's the review from Notebookcheck, it's in German so just need to translate.

 

So.. 2286 3dmarks in 3dmark11 on standard 650m clocks, and 60 degrees on the keyboard surface. KA-SWING!!!

And thank god they put in the gddr5 variant of the 650m instead of the ddr3 version, right? Or else it would have had a much worse score, and probably higher temperatures as well. This I am completely convinced of, because gddr5 ram is magical and given to man by pixies and sprites from Undentine.

 

Here's mine. I am using the latest beta drivers, and have a significantly better result.



And with a +135/+400 OC:

 

That's pretty nice. I see that with updated drivers the GDDR5 might have an advantage, no expert here so nipsen will have to tell me if that's true or if the drivers are also made from pixies and sprites.

What do you use to OC and if you play a game with the GPU OC'd, does the laptop become too hot to use ? i.e. palm rests and keyboard ? Can you do some testing for us with OC ?

 

One retailer here in Iceland has the U500VZ-CN046H in stock, 2x128gb ssd's and i7-3612qm.. I'm very close to buying it so I talked to a mate of mine that works there, he told me their display machine has a problem with fan noise in idle, and their tech guys have contacted Asus about it and are waiting for them to help in finding a solution. I'm gonna visit them tomorrow and fondle the machine a bit.. anything in particular I should be looking out for? I think I'm just gonna bring prime and furmark and torture test it a bit to find out about noise/heat during load first hand..

 

So i see the one on best buys website but does anyone know why i looks so different. Why is there only 4 gb of ram?

Asus 15.6' Laptop 4GB Memory 128GB Solid State Drive + 128GB Solid State Drive UX51VZ-DH71 - Best Buy

 

The English translation of the notebookcheck review is up :
Review Asus Zenbook UX51VZ (U500VZ) Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

They've got something seriously mixed up. The pictures are of a different model, and some of the specs too. However, UX51 is the only Asus with a 650M GPU, as far as I know. It's probably going to disappear or be edited soon.

 

If anyone is concerned about losing Windows license - worry not. First you can actually recover the key from the registry (I used a free tool called Belarc adviser), second, when I installed Win8 Pro from a MSDN image it already knew the key and had it entered anyway.

Breaking up RAID array didn't go smoothly though, you cannot force the loading of Intel Matrix Storage Manager at POST and Bios has very unpredictable way of deciding when it is the time to do it. I loaded into it once accidentally after trying to break it up manually and after that it took quite some effort to clean up the mess it created before OS installer could see the hard drives(Acronis couldn't do it, EaseUS couldn't do it and I only managed to do it with a second version that i tried of Paragon utility). USB Recovery drive apparently requires a healthy system EFI partition to work, so no recovery until you install an OS first or if your boot sectors get screwed up. So it was useless until I actually installed clean windows 8, at which point I was able to run a full reset-recovery for the first time after RAID was disabled. The self diagnose tool from the drive appears to be unable to fix the boot problems and the rest is all useless as well. I'm going to get rid of the drive now, the only useful function it might have is to restore system from the image without booting into the system, but that shouldn't be that important when you can reinstall windows and you keep sensitive data on the other drive.

 

Can you close the lid over a sandwich and get toast as well?

 

Why do you have to be so condescending and rude ? Can you not accept when you are wrong ?

 

Wrong about... 60+ degrees on the keyboard when running stock clocks?

It really is high. Not high compared to a Macbook retina, or a Samsung, perhaps. But, it is higher than some get on the gpu-sensor, under the heatsink.

So this is hot to begin with. And I really do wonder what the temps are with that overclock. The score also should be higher with that clock, so I'm just saying I don't think this is a stable clock.

(And I also think the chassis will toast a sandwich.)

edit:
So, just for the record. This is the inferior.. in "".. ddr3 version of a 650m running an overclock at 135+/115+
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4979294

So as you can see - higher gpu score. (editer: also, note the memory speed is the equivalent of a +230Mhz on the gddr5 setup, with the "quad-pumped" pipe, and so on.. Max temp at the second run is 76 degrees on the gpu sensor.

(...But I... I will admit that you might need over 100 degrees on the surface temps to toast a sandwich. And that it's probably going to take a really long time to do that on the u500 keyboard.)

 

I played with the UX51VZ in store. I ran Battlefield 3 on ultra. All of you people claiming low temperatures and quiet noise under load are in buyer's denial right now. I could hear the fan loud and clear, and the middle of the keyboard got hot enough to start fires. The laptop was also much larger than I expected, compared to the Retina. And compared to the touchpad on Apple devices, Asus still has a long way to go. I do like the large arrow keys on Asus keyboards, I guess. Overall, Asus is still a good distance behind Apple after releasing their laptop 3 months later. I'm going to wait for prices on the UX52VS, although I can almost guarantee they will be exorbitant like the premium model. Asus keeps thinking they can be Apple with Windows... but their attitude is mismatched with the quality of their products.

 

Hmm I thought the main issue would be that the Win 8 Home key would only work with the not-regularly-downloadable home version of the OS!? Are you saying your factory key was accepted by a Win 8 Pro install?

As to your RAID problems-- are they not circumvented if you do a non-EFI install? I'm not sure if that's possible at all with W8, I have to admit, but with W7 it is.

I had extreme difficulty just getting Win 7 installation DVDs running with EFI. I needed to slipstream a USB3 driver, but the BIOS would not 'see' the discs as EFI-bootable, even though they were. But as soon as I switched to "compatibility" boot, everything went just fine and there were no more problems seeing drives.

 

I does NOT fit!? The UX51 is too wide even if I measure slightly less than 38cm :-( Will have to search another one but this might be a hard ques if the MacBook bags do not fit. I do not want one where the Zenbook can fall around inside the bag :-( The 27cm (and of course 2cm) would have been perfect though.

Edit:
I will now order and try this one:
http://www.amazon.de/Cool-Bananas-RainSuit-Neopren-Frontpocket/dp/B0036PTKE8/ref=pd_cp_computers_2

Width is 39cm and therefore it should fit perfectly. At least I do hope that it does.

Edit2:
LOL, just saw that this bag (the one I ordered already) is for the 39,1cm MBP....no way that this one fits either ;-)

Edit3:
Looks like the rainsuit will also not fit. It measures 39cm but it includes the additional material to keep the notebook dry. I found this older model of the bag which should fit to the bigger previous MBP models. Therefore this one should really fit and has also 39cm width:
http://www.amazon.de/Cool-Bananas-S...78/ref=sr_1_39?ie=UTF8&qid=1353323258&sr=8-39
Sadly only black is available :-/

Will update you guys when I found the right one. Would be great if somebody could help to find the perfect one. Hope that I do not have to order several times again :-/

 

Often, bag manufacturers will list the outside measurements of the sleeve/bag and will not account for the thickness of the material, which effectively reduces the maximum size of the laptop which will fit inside.

When you think about it, it's incredibly stupid that they don't do that...

 

Hey DvP,

the bag problem...i already could test mine now ( Belkin Plissee Notebook Schutzhülle 39,6 cm schwarz: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör).
the bag doesnt fit so well, too much space in there..(length=1cm;height=3cm)

now, i saw this model Belkin Plissee-Schutzhülle für 38 cm MacBook und 33,1: Amazon.de: Computer & Zubehör
but im not sure if it fits this time..they just say that its for 15" MacBook...what you think ?

 

I don't think anyone is claiming that the laptop is quiet under gaming conditions. All the chatter has been about fan noise at idle. Fans are not running at idle for most laptops but the UX51VZ's fans are always on and generates some mild noise. I'm not a gamer so I have no idea how loud they get when cranked up.

 

I doubt that it will fit:
36.5 x 25 x 2.4 ....we need 38cm (20 x 380 x 254). I did now order this one:
http://www.amazon.de/be-ez-robe-Tas...1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1353335541&sr=1-3

The reviewer said that it is slightly too big for the macbook retina (15" - 358.9mm x 247.1mm) which could mean that the UX51 fits perfectly. My last hope would be this one:
http://www.amazon.de/Cool-Bananas-S...78/ref=sr_1_39?ie=UTF8&qid=1353323258&sr=8-39
The "specs" say that it is one cm bigger than the previous Banana Bag which I already odered. That would be also perfect but it is only available in black which is pretty boring. I hope that the be.ez LA robe will be my last bag order Hope that amazon does NOT hate me after all.

 

I have UX51VZ-XH71 that comes with 2x256GB ADATA drives and Win8 pro. I assume the same will work just as well Win8 Home and DH71 and Win8 Home from MSDN. RAID problems were caused by not being able to boot into RAID Bios (just wouldn't offer it), so I screwed up partitions trying to cancel RAID without it, then it finally booted into RAID Bios at some random point and showed one drive as in non-RAID, the other as still in RAID, I made that non RAID as well and after that it was very difficult to make anything see those drives. Acronis Disk director for example still showed just one drive with 512GB, other utilities would show two drives but offer to edit only one and Windows install would just hang up. Much of these problems were probably self inflicted, but I still do not understand how the Bios decides that it is time to load RAID Bios to allow proper cancelling of RAID, so be warned.

 

Well, you can actually run LoL in Full HD and with max settings only with HD 3000 (I can do this on my brother's XPS 15 L502x), so with HD4000 you're ok. However, if you play games that really need the GT 650m, then you DO need a full voltage CPU

 

Are you 100% sure? Would be very interrested to know the performance of a top ULV i7 + 640/650m. A comparison of Gigabyte U2442V and U2442N would tell us that perfectly. Some U2442V benches but not that well comparable:
http://ultrabooknews.com/2012/10/09/gigabyte-u2442v-ultrabook-review/4/

Might be a bit off topic so....maybe just forget the question. I am not that interrested anyway since I found my notebook already

 

Since I still couldn't decide, how bad the noise would be (I hear all different opinions) I wanted to ask, if someone of the UX51-owners also owns an iphone. Therefore you could make a measurement which I could compare with other sounds in here. Since this topic has probably discussed enough for others, I would also be very happy to do this over PM
Really difficult to estimate a sound over reading...
Thanks in advance!

Sepp

 

Asus updated their site to include Canadian retailers.
No news on UX51 availability though.

 

I checked the U500 out at my local retailer today, what a machine.. everything about it is incredibly sexy.. _Except_ the fan noise.. It's the only thing keeping me from buying this machine at this very moment..

Anyone familiar with Asus workings know how likely it is that they'll fix it? Is it safe to assume they will and buy it?

 

Has anybody gave SpeedFan a try?

Edit: Following some useful programs from overclock.net and some more

 

Somebody wrote that SpeedFan finds no fans which could be controlled.

@ ALL
Received a message from Asus that they are working on a bios update to fix the "fanspeed problem"

 

Is it [A] just the problem that the fan runs during idle time?
Or the problem worse - that the fans themselves are of bad quality and hence make noises that are not normally heard from laptop fans even at high load.

[A] is relatively harmless and can easily be fixed with a BIOS update.
on the other hand is a material defect which would need part replacement.

Could some of the owners throw some light on this? Of course a simple audio recording would be very helpful as well.

 

It's A. They run continuously, irregardless of power consumption. Irregardlessly, I'm in the minority and think the noise level is blown out of proportion. More regardlessness, it appears Asus is working on a BIOS fix. Regards, bamaster.

 

I have been following this thread since it's inception. So I know bamaster that you anyway seem to have a 'good' version of laptop fan.
So we would still need some data points from the others.

 

Asus confirmed some of the specs:

500GB With 24 GB SSD
500GB With 128 GB SSD
128GB RAID0 Technology
256GB RAID0 Technology

•Mobile Intel® HM76 Express Chipset without Raid0
•Mobile Intel® HM77 Express Chipset with Raid0

•380 * 254.5 * 6 ~ 19.7mm without touch screen
•380 * 254.5 * 6 ~ 20.0mm with touch screen

•2.06KG without HDD
•2.16KG with HDD

Touch screens are glossy edge to edge.

 

Hwinfo32/64 should or possibly can control the fan speeds and you can setup profiles etc.

If it does not you can always email the developer and he can possibly add the ability until Asus fixes it.

 

Today Notebookcheck.com (German version) has published a review of HP Envy DV6 7202eg with FHD display.
Even if someone has said that the panel code is different from that used in U500VZ/S15 the specs look the same, even the color space shape looks the same, also Notebookcheck says IPS panel, so for me it's same panel.

I'm not impressed by thermal performance in stress test because it has only a GT630 and chassis seems very bulky, so considering these specs then temps are not so good.

Test HP Envy dv6-7202eg Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

 

I am kind of torn ... I really want this laptop but the struggle people have been having with the BIOS and EFI is unsettling.

I really want the 128 or 256 SSD's without RAID 0 and the ability to set up any OS I want. Has anyone been able to do this ?

If not, is there somewhere a guide to which bloatware is good to keep and which bloatware is totally unnecessary ?

Maybe some replacement software etc.?

 

For those who want to read a professional review of the UX51, written in english - here is one from notebookcheck.net
Review Asus Zenbook UX51VZ (U500VZ) Notebook

 

I seem to be the only one on this thread who went through the trouble of breaking up RAID, and my problems are probably not easily reproducible. In the end I was able to set up both a clean OS and to restore factory preload without RAID. Just save the key, get an appropriate Windows 8 DVD and have a decent bootable drive with disk management utilities in case you RAID cancellation runs into some problems. I actually didn't try to get straight from disabling RAID to OS install from DVD since I was trying to make the restoration partition work, and I think that probably created most if not all of my problems.

 

So, deleting all partitions and raid 0 to go for win7 or linuxmint shouldn't be a problem then ?

 

Fantastic news.. Shouldn't take long I presume? Surely they don't do extensive testing given state of the fan control atm.

 

You know that Win8 natively support Hyper-V?

As to breaking RAID - you may try to follow Intel HM77 Chipset Guide (page 7). I believe Ctrl+I may work even if it is hidden from POST screen.

As to installing fresh Windows 8 without DVD drive - follow Scott's guide - worked for me (in terms of installing Win8 without DVD image).

And stop complaining about Windows 8 - learn how to use it - it's great OS ;-)

Pinning Useful and Obscure Stuff to the Windows 8 Start Menu

Windows 8 productivity: Who moved my cheese? Oh, there it is.

 

Source?

I don't want RAID too, for me it's a useless risk. I think I will just save my win8 key and do a clean Win 7 install. When win8 ISOs become easier to find, I'll have my key ready.

There is an Asus Bloatware Guide" here in Notebookreview: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/380681-asus-utility-bloatware-guide.html


Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

Are you kidding about source?
You don't read what you have posted?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...-ips-gt650m-quad-core-i7-222.html#post8946131

 

I don't want to discourage anyone but someone knows is good not to be much trusted much of what producers say, if we consider for example XPS15 L521X case, despite DELL promises, L521X owners are still waiting for a solution that will never come.
Maybe Asus is better than Dell, but to know this we can just wait.

If this solution will come for sure it will be paid with an increase of temps.

 

Why are they such imbeciles!!! Those links to future shop and centre hi-fi aren't even to the u500!! And I searched those sites for the u500, and they don't even list it!! !!!!!