Question 1

Is Windows 10 come pre-installed on the SSD or the HDD?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Windows 10 is pre-installed on the solid state drive. The mechanical drive is pretty much empty.

Question 2

I notice the ports (USB, Network, etc) on the sides of the laptop are all located towards the front. this seems inconvenient and would interfere with arm movement/placement. Do the USB cords, headphones, etc get in the way of comfort of usage especially for gaming?

Accepted Answer

Well, I'm on WiFi, I only use dongle style USB's, and my USB headsets, so they don't interfere at all,  I don't see anything getting in the way even if there were cords protruding out the USB's. Very nicely laid out. I can tell you one thing, this is an awesome PC, boots up and I'm internet surfing in 10-15 seconds and shuts down about the same. I have installed everything I need on the SSD and still have over 30Gigs left. I use the "data" drive (1TB) to store everything else. Very nice Laptop, runs so cool, I don't even need my laptop cooling fan setup and it sits on my lap most of the time. Hope this helps.

Question 3

How do you make the keyboard light up?

Accepted Answer

You press the function key (FN near the bottom left) and the F4 key.  Note that if you've reinstalled the OS you need to install the ATKACPI driver.  This installs a service which needs to be running.  You can grab the utility from the Asus website under 'Utilities' on their driver download site for this model.  Without that driver or if you're not running Windows as your OS, I don't think there's a supported way to make it work.  Kinda irritating that it is software based.  Hope that helps.

Question 4

How is the sound quality on this laptop?

Accepted Answer

Decently loud and about as good as you can expect from laptop speakers. I've heard better but these aren't bad. Comes with equalizer software so you can further tune to your liking or use several provided presets.

Question 5

Does this require a RAM upgrade or is 8gb enough?  More specifically would you/have you seen any difference upgrading to say 24gb?(adding a single 16gb stick)

Accepted Answer

Never found any need to upgrade, 8gb has been plenty for general gaming purposes. I suspect if you were doing heavy CAD/Photo/Video editing, then you may need more, but I would think another 8gb stick, upgrading to 16gb total would suffice. Granted, I have never even dabbled in those applications so I can't attest to the requirements of them.

Question 6

Is the lettering on the keys on the keyboard red?

Accepted Answer

All black with the letters in red. Also wasd keys turn red with the keyboard ligths. Hope its helpful.

Question 7

Does it come with an OS Disc or a program to burn one?

Accepted Answer

I don't remember it comng with aan disks, but Windows 10 has built in utilities for backing up the drives and for resetting the OSS to original condition with or without user files intact.

Question 8

ssd type ?

Accepted Answer

This laptop comes with a M.2 2280 SATA SSD, which is an 80mm long PCB.  It is user accessible along with the memory cards on the bottom.

Question 9

I would like to get this laptop for all-around use as well as gaming, but I am curious about how well the screen displays vibrant colors, as I will be working with some (minor) graphic design and artwork modification and editing.
I was also wondering if the backlight color on the keypad could be changed or programmed?

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide. :D

Accepted Answer

1. The screen is decent, but does not get overly bright. As far as working with graphics and artwork, it would suffice but not excel. It's a decent screen for the money, but doesn't match some of the better screens on high-end Dell laptops. Using a screen calibrator like the datacolor spyder series should give you decent results.

2. The keyboard backlight color is fixed and only has 4 settings, off and 3 levels of brightness. I don't know that it has a programmable interface beyond changing the brightness levels via the function key.

Question 10

does  anyone  know the max ram  for this?  the web site has  no info?

Accepted Answer

It has two ddr4 ram slots one being occupied by a single 8gb stick. This should be upgradable to 32gb but why you would ever need that kind of ram in this perticular machine would be rather pointless.

Questions & Answers