newegg is selling a new N80Vn-X5

hey wolfpup this may cheer you up even more...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220488

Under Specification:
Display
Screen Size 14.1"
Wide Screen Support Yes
LCD Features LED backlight
Display Type Wide XGA
Resolution 1280 x 800

lol... newegg owned you =]
finally they updated their specs

 

Oh wow, thanks guys! I'm still a bit worried, but much less so.

Does anyone know what drivers I'm supposed to install? I did a clean install, and only installed chipset drivers, and "ATK Hotkey" from Asus' site. Everything else I just used what Vista installed, plus downloaded Nvidia's new notebook drivers (which installed just fine). (I think I might have installed the camera software too.)

'ATK Hotkey' made it so when I use the function keys to increase or decrease brightness, a little window in the upper left appears showing it's current level. It also made the hardware buttons above the keyboard work for Bluetooth and Wifi so you can toggle them on and off. The other three buttons DON'T work though, and I don't know what to install to make them work, or if I care. (I think I have a handful of devices not working in Device Manager, including the fingerprint scanner, which I don't care about.)

On a display model in a store, the left most button toggeled the laptop through some sort of power or performance modes. I'm not sure what that meant, but I don't think I care about that feature.

It did come with 64-bit Vista. I sort of wanted 32-bit, for Gametap if nothing else, but this is okay.

These are SUPER early impressions, but...

-keyboard and trackpad are nice I think, by notebook standards.
-screen looks okay in use, though viewing angles are clearly terrible if you see how at least part of the black of the boot screens gets washed out no matter what angle you view it from. Once it switched to the Windows desktop it looks okay though.
-Seems nicely built.
-Cooling may be FANTASTIC. This is what I've been most excited to talk about.

The Dell Studio XPS 1640 this replaced has a bizarre cooling design. The system's vent is in the rear, and gets blocked when you open the screen. While running the CPUs at 100% for a long time (I run Folding @ Home on all my hardware), the temperatures hit around 84c. I think that's within tolerance technically, but it's high.

By either closing the lid most of the way, or hanging the left rear edge of the system off a desk so air can be sort of redirected downward, temperatures would fall to around 64c, and then around 69c as the fans ramped back down.

This Asus meanwhile so far...well, before I say that, let me say that I'm actually pushing the Asus harder. I never ran Folding on the Dell's GPU, as it's an ATi, and has the typical driver dumbness (you have to resort to third party hacks to install reference drivers, etc.) Never got Folding working on the GPU, so the above numbers were ONLY with both CPUs pegged at 100%.

Meanwhile, I'm running THREE copies of Folding @ Home right now on the Asus-one on each CPU, and one on the GPU.

With that, the CPUs so far have maxed out at 49c, and the GPU is hovering around 63c. I know those numbers are great for the CPUs, though I'm not 100% sure if those are good for the GPU or not. I *think* they're pretty great though.

Remember that that's with ALL the execution hardware in the system pegged out at basically 100% while the GPU was doing almost nothing on the Dell for its numbers. Well, there is one thing that would work in the Asus' advantage though-my Dell had one speed grade faster CPU (2.53GHz/6MB), though I doubt that explains much of the temp difference.

You can hear the N80 running like that, but it's not bad at all, and it's just blowing warmish air out the left side.

I'll be playing something on it over the coming week, and of course trying out Blu Ray. (Haven't decided what I'm going to play first-I have a huge backlog, but want to try something that'll really push the hardware.) I'm not really worried though, given that Folding @ Home is already pushing the system probably roughly as much as a high end game, and even the GPU Folding @ Home ran effortlessly (versus it not even being able to launch on the Dell's Radeon 3670).

I'm tempted to crack it open and see! I'm hoping it's okay though. Hopefully in a year or whatever I'll be able to pick up something that for sure has an LED backlight, Core i7 x4, and a better (ie more than 32 processor) GPU (with Blu Ray built in of course!)

 

Some other things-the trackpad buttons are sort of loudish, but to me not really a big deal. I mean they're responsive and everything. Keyboard continues to actually be usable (I'm typing on it right now).

I dislike the scrolling stuff and tap to click on the trackpad, but I can't figure out how to disable it. I'm just using whatever drivers Vista installs, which I guess must not have options. I'd like to disable that stuff, but guess I'd have to install the official drivers or something. (I do wonder what else I need instaled on here...)

 

This is sort of the X5 thread I guess, even though the X5 and the GP011c are really the same thing as far as I know, so I'll cross post this here:

Well, I tried out the Lite On external Blu Ray drive I got with it. It comes with PowerDVD 7 (8 is the newest, I think), and the program MAY require activation, I'm not sure, so I'm not sure what happens when I reinstall the OS or use the drive on a different computer or whatever.

It had me update to 7.3. It says it's using Nvidia's video acceleration, and appears to use roughly 20% of my CPUs when running. Like the version of WinDVD included with the Sony AW, it has to switch the video mode to the old style, non aero interface. I don't know if newer versions of the program have (or will) get around that or not, but at least it's pretty seamless, just switches in and out of it automatically.

The weird thing is, I can't seem to run it right while running Folding @ Home. The player barely functions. Quit Folding though and it works pretty flawlessly. Again, not sure why that is, as EVERYTHING else I've ever run works fine with Folding, as Folding runs at the lowest priority. I mean games aren't affected.

It could be another fluke of versions 7 probably being the first one that supports Blu Ray.

The other problem is the sound at max is pretty quiet, at least through my n80's speakers. You can hear it in a quiet room okay, but some more volume would be nice. Again, not sure why that is, as it might be the system even.

The video looks great though! Just fantastic, and sooooooo much better than DVD. I wish it was built in to the system, and I wish it didn't have these quirks, but I guess it's working okay. (I'll post back I'm sure once I watch my first disc for real.)

Oh, another surprising thing is the player was eating up a bit over 500MB! Not that I don't have the RAM to spare, but that was kind of a shock. It may just be horribly unoptimized all around, being their first release I guess. (I'd love if Vista just included Blu Ray support built in, but I guess that may be years...I think DVD is built in now, maybe.)

Oh, and the first disc I tried runs sort of slowly (the interface and stuff) even on my PS3-Mamma Mia. Unlike most Blu Rays I've watched, it seems to be wrapping the whole interface in some bulky probably Java based 'wrapper'. So other stuff might work with Folding still running.

But at any rate, getting it to work was effortless, which is a far cry from the Dell I had that didn't actually ship with Blu Ray software!

 

nice I see they updated the page on newegg. It is pretty helpful
To bad this isn't on live cashback

 

I went through that method, just in case. I don't think I've ever gotten any money back though :-/

 

For the button that cycled through power profiles, you need to install Power4Gear. The default Windows profiles might do a good job as well, so probably you don't really need it.

Congrats on the new notebook!

 

wolfpup how? I don't get anything in the search results

 

I'm thinking about getting this laptop, but I had a few questions -

How's the overall build quality? I've read reviews about the keyboard issues which makes me a bit nervous.
How hard would it be to put Windows XP or a Linux distro on the laptop with drivers and everything working correctly?
How fast is the GPU? I'm a casual gamer, I like to play PC games from time to time, how does the N80Vn-X5 perform in general?

 

XP drivers already collected by Ken:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4404376#post4404376

So it would not be difficult at all for you.

 

Build quality seems pretty good to me. The keyboard has a bit of flex, but no more than 90% of other keyboards. I woudln't really notice if I wasn't looking).

The thing I'm least impressed with is the screen. It's viewing angles are terrible (though I'm used to non-TN screens). I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary by laptop standards though (and the hopefully LED backlighting is nice).

The cooling seems REALLY impressive so far. The GPU's decent. Seems to handle Blu Ray okay, and it's one of the fastest of Nvidia's 32 processor parts.

My assumption is it'll handle today's games fine, though many not on full settings. (Like I think similar GPUs run Crysis on medium resolutions with mid to high settings.) I'm going to play with it in that regard probably tomorrow. I've been running Folding @ Home on the GPU though, and it even tears through that faster than I was expecting..

 

I forgot to ask, why would you want to install XP on it? The only major program I've run across that isn't fully 64-bit compatible is Gametap, unfortunately.

 

Also forgot to mention that Nvidia's official notebook drivers went on just fine, which Was REALLLY happy about. That's one of the reasons I picked this system.

EDIT: I guess if you don't care about the LED backlighting, you can get a similarly pried system with a slower CPU and faster GPU, but florescent backlight.

 

grrr you guys are really tempting me to press the submit button on newegg =/
I should take this page off of my bookmarks and never visit it again.. (jp)

I want this or the n81 but don't know yet. I am not really in any hurry to buy it either but I just want an asus 14 inch so I don't wanna be out of luck when time comes around to buy one. Do you think the n81 will have the same case?

 

Sounds like it does. I wouldn't mind if I got that Geforce GT 130, which is clocked I guess 1400 up from 1350Mhz, but I don't want the ATi part (even though it's theoretically higher end).

 

yea, i typically dislike ATI too, but then again, its been a few years...

 

soo it kind of bothered me that the price for the laptop actually went up instead of going down, but hey that is how business runs. But I was bothered even more by the fact that newegg says the original price was $1,049.99 and we save $30 by paying $1,019.99. Around a week ago when I became interested in buying this laptop this was not the case. The price was $989.99 and newegg said the original price was $1,019.99. Even though there is a $30 diff in the price now, it made me kinda mad that they were doing that and because that $30 can change the potential of someone wanting the laptop. Anyways today I contacted a newegg sales rep and notified them of my problem. At first I was told that the price was not negotiable then after further proving my point by adding that canadians still had to pay less then us he said he would make sure the problem was received by there "team" or whatever. I also added that me and my friends would not buy the laptop from them unless they gave us an equal opportunity to save $$$ which is a goal of theirs. Even in the review someone pointed out what newegg was doing.
So I just wanted to point that out and would like to make a request from the rest of you interested in buying the laptop to please hold on so newegg might actually change the price (yes I am aware my grammar sucks right now I am barely awake lol..)

 

Lol quick update: Seems like I am not the only one commenting on neweggs price jack. Someone commented about it again in the reviews.

 

Regarding the price, I have to say "eh". Prices go up and down all the time. I mean for $1000, it's not like $30 either way should (rationally speaking) influence you either way. Not that I'm always rational with my purchases!

Yeah, but things haven't improved. It's gotten to the point where Anandtech is publicly calling them out to knock it off on these marketing-driven monthly driver updates, contrasting them with Nvidia's updates that are actually checked before release.

Plus a not-that-old xXXX series part I have from them is no longer fully supported by their drivers (when years older hardware is from Nvidia), plus there were some older games (like System Shock 2) I couldn't play on my ATi based system.

I was willing to put up with it for a Dell 1640, but after actually having one, I quadrupled how much I don't want them. No way to update drivers without third party software, versus Nvidia actually releasing real drivers (and even before that, their desktop drivers worked even though they claimed they didn't).

 

but wolfpup it's just that I was going to buy some other stuff along with the laptop such as the extended warranty then a monitor I also had my eye on that was asus and the price was 189 then they made it 209 but they bought that down to 189 recently. It will kind of add up for me but I am pretty sure other people will be buying accessories and have a spending budget.

 

Well, I just look at it that they sort of dropped the price on the GP011c, which was $1200ish for ages until recently. This has (debately) slightly better specs, though no laptop bag included.

 

sorry i am out of it today. how is that one better then this? I thought the n80vn-x5 was better?

 

Yeah, that's what I mean. This is the replacement for that, and the price has dropped roughly $200 from where it was a few months ago. I mean the $30 in the scheme of things isn't too huge (though I should have jumped on it sooner).

 

yea true but like they aren't being to honest when they say the original price is higher and we save money when we really don't. Get what i mean?
Yea I should have moved sooner too but I wanted to find out more about the 81 which I was never able to lol.

 

Another price bump!!! The goal was to decrease the price not increase it..

 

Cross posting from the GP011C thread (note this is after a clean install):

I'm getting really frustrated with my X5 I don't know if it's 64-bit Vista (I really wanted 32-bit) or Vista in general, or what, but I just have so much weirdness. Random updates that I never told it to install. Right now it's shutting down, with the hard drive thrashing for no apparent reason (been at it for minutes-not crashed, but it's still doing something).

The included Power2Go is either incompatible or a buggy mess. (I'm switching it out for Roxio...hopefully.) I've several times had my start menu items appear as a folder on my *desktop*. Switching back to the default Vista start menu gets rid of it, and it stays gone when I switch back to classic, but then has come back twice so far.

On top of that, the screen's really terrible. Even if it is LED backlit (as it seems to be), the actual screen used is just atrocious. Horrible, horrible viewing angles that...well, if you adjust it for the top of the screen, the bottom is off, and vice versa-it's that bad. (Though to be fair, I've mostly only seen high quality notebook screens like on Sony's AW, Apple's stuff, Dell's 1640, etc., plus my desktop and Sony HDTV, which don't use TN panels).

(Okay, there after a good 10 minutes it just got done thrashing and shutting down.)

I've had the same thing happen with Word 2007-and again, I don't know, is it Vista? Vista 64-bit in combination with Office 2007? Something weird with the laptop?

But I mean I've had MULTIPLE crashes in Word 2007, and I haven't even done much with it. Like a typed a few paragraphs, and it hung when I clicked some menu. Hung again doing something else-nothing fancy or complicated.

When was the last time I've had Office crash? I mean I can't remember (though I've never used 2007 for any length of time until now).

This is all just really frustrating. At least the thermals on this laptop seem to be really good!

 

Also my external Lite On Blu Ray drive keeps not reading discs midway through a movie.

I don't know what the deal is. I don't think it's the computer because it still 'sees' the drive, the drive just acts like there's no disc in it.

 

Hi,

Just got the computer from Newegg. Overall, really nice computer. Anyone know if this is a Lightscribe DVD/CD Drive? I see down by the clock there is a Lightscribe Control Panel, but when I open under System Information, it says no Lightscribe Drives Installed. Anyone else seeing this?

Thanks

 

I've assumed it's not, but I guess I don't really know. You're probably seeing the lightscribe stuff installed by that Cyberlink program. From my experience at least, that's HORRIBLY incompatible with (apparently) 64-bit. Like I had the program lock up even just trying to pull down menus (and usually couldn't force quit it).

POSSIBLY my Office 2007 issues were somehow caused by that Power2Go or whatever, as I haven't seen issues with it since removing that. (Why they'd be related I sure don't know!)

Thankfully my copy of PowerDVD 7 that came with my external Blu Ray drive seems to work fine, even with random junk running in the background. (Now the drive itself isn't...it randomly 'loses' discs, but...I think it's hardware related.)

 

It doesn't.

Asus uses the same HDD image for all of their models within a given series, and if at least one of them has a LS drive then the image used in all will have the control panel and software. It's an efficiency in production thing - that way they don't need to sort through multiple HDD images in an N80 product run, for example; everything can just be done in a giant batch and the HDDs can simply be inserted into the chassis on the assembly line.

 

Well, plus that Power2Go program they include has it-it's installed with it regardless of whether the drive supports it, and I assume Power2Go is included on the image with the laptop (not sure though).

But...Power2Go was just TOTALLY broken for me, which I've been told is a known issue-doesn't work with 64-bit.

 

Can you upgrade to Vista Business when buying this laptop or am I stuck with Home? What do you think about this laptop for business (i.e. office applications and Outlook w/ the occassional Netflix streaming movie)?

 

You can't upgrade as far as I know, BUT

-Microsoft has that 'anytime upgrade' feature built in to the OS, if you really need Business, plus...
-Are you sure you need Business? The only thing Business really adds is the ability to log on to a Windows Domain. I have no use for that even when I'm in the office-in fact I absolutely do not WANT to log on from a personal machine for a variety of reasons. And I don't need to-I can access all the resources on the network that I need-just enter your credentials.

 

I actually don't really need it. I can join it to the domain but there's really no reason for me to.

I'm looking at this computer but the Dell M1330 with the 20% coupon may be the go ahead for me.

 

Oh, okay. Well...I guess the things to think about are that the X5's GPU is over twice as powerful (assuming you get it with the Geforce 8400 rather than Intel graphics), and it's CPU/Chipset is a newer generation. The 1330 has a better keyboard from what I've used in the store (possibly one of the best I've ever used on a notebook), and it also has an optional LED backlight, in which case I'm not sure which screen would be better. Not sure if the electrical current over the case issues have been fixed.

Between the two I'd go with the X5, but then I care about having a decent GPU as I like games and Blu Ray

 

so anybody like this? i'm trying to decide between the x5 or the lenovo t400 and don't know what to go for. i'd for for the asus in a heartbeat but the shipping charges at newegg is a 160$(!!). anybody know coupons for canada?

 

hey^ I am in the same situation!

 

and? what u gonna do?

 

From the link the site made at least, that Leveno only had Intel video, so I mean they're in totally different segments really.

 

what do u mean? whats intel video? the integrated driver?

 

Well it's just low end integrated video that would have terrible performance. It's probably fine for Office and browsing the web and things like that, but the GPU in the X5 is dozens of times more powerful (at least). Even for the Windows desktop that MIGHT matter (since it's actually using 3D hardware now to render it), but for sure it would for everything else.

Just depends what you want to us the systems for, but those two systems don't appear to be comparable at all.

 

i think i will get an asus but lenovo was recommended by a few people. I am a college student btw.

 

Well Asus makes great laptops and desktop parts and have for years!


Lenovo makes great laptops, but tend to be on the high side for good specs. They may be worth it, but I will save some $$$ and get a Asus!

 

thanks for the support

 

any idea on the asus tablet pcs?

 

anyone try to play oblivion or flight sim on this?

 

have u ordered it yet? i'm gonna wait until tuesday to see if by some miracle the price drops, and i still dont know if i should get it lol

 

Dang, if I had Oblivion I'd test it out for you.

I'm going to try out SM 3.0 Crysis sometime tonight hopefully (I tried 4.0 yesterday, and didn't know how to switch it to 3.0).

 

troublesome, trust me i am waiting for the price to change as well. contact newegg and tell them about the price change and how you will not buy it until they change it back. my excuse was how they were using a false original price tricking us to think we would save $30 when we didn't and point out how reviews talk about the price hike. If they change it back to 989 we would save $60. After you contact them they should give you $40 off of your order so deff try that if you are in a hurry. I think I will go for it.

Wolfpup, thanks just let me know how it goes

 

hey thanks, the only thing is i'm in canada and i'm not sure if the price was dropped in canada as well. but i'll call them and check it out, thanks for that