ASUS N56VJ-DH71 Notebook Intel Core i7 3630QM(2.40GHz) 15.6" 8GB Memory 1TB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M

Pros: Great price, great specs, great looking. This has just about everything you could want in a sub $1000 laptop. As always Newegg service is tops.

Cons: Windows 8. What a horrible OS. It seems Microsoft wanted to put everything but the kitchen sink in this (except media player). It tells you something when you first boot up the computer and the first thing you do is google "How do I downgrade windows 8". Fortunately, there are things you can do to make it look more Windows "seveny".

Pros: Fast video card. plenty of storage, long battery life, good size, fits neatly in a standard Mad Men style black attache case.

Nice long power cord. Optional external subwoofer adds some thump to the impressive sound card output.

HDMI output is amazing.

Cons: The ASUS bloatware is substantial. The difference between a clean install and the bloated OEM one is ridiculous.

There is a shell extension that replaces the metro interface making Win8 into a better version of Windows 7.

Pros: The computer itself is nice tech but that's it.

Cons: Not a lot I can say without breaking guidelines apparently but I advise anyone looking at this computer to overlook it.
This computer only comes with windows 8 and you CAN NOT downgrade to the superior versions.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you are having a hard time trying to downgrade back to windows 7. Microsoft made it hard for customers to downgrade back to windows 7.

Here is a solution to downgrade from one of our ASUS customers.

Other Thoughts: Instructions for getting a real OS on this poor Windows 8-infected system:

0) Download drivers to a flash drive or other external device from the Asus site: http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=f55u, then choose Windows 7 64bit.
1) Get into the UEFI (what most people would still call a BIOS) by pressing escape before the system starts up (may take a few tries).
2) Go to Security and Disable Secure Boot Control at the bottom.
3) Go to Boot and Enable Launch CSM (CSM is a compatibility module, so UEFI acts like a regular BIOS).
4) Go to Advanced, SATA Configuration, and set the mode to IDE.
5) Save and Exit.

You can now boot to a Windows 7 or earlier OS installer DVD/USB drive and wipe the HDD and install a sane OS.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty