Joined on 08/26/07
Pretty Good
Pros: Don't know a lot about networking but this works with Windows XP, Windows Vista 64 and Windows 7 64 RC. In XP and Vista I had to install the software that came in the cd and I have to say that it is pretty good with a lot more features than someone like me who does basic web surfing and gaming will use or understand. It even shows you other networks that have hidden SSIDs and what type of wireless they're using and channel. In Windows 7 RC it was pretty much just plug and play, with my D-link DIR-625 router I am connected at 270 mbps. It also comes with a really nice usb extension cable that is flexible and yet stiff, meaning you can make it so that the dongle is like an antenna behind your case.
Cons: The Rosewill software will run in your system tray if you install it so the process fanatics out there might be turned off. If I wasn't using 7 right now I would check how much memory it was using but I am too lazy to reboot and check it out. That said, I am not really worried since I have 6 gb of ram coupled with my i7.
Overall Review: I also tried streaming video to my PS3 with this using PS3 media server and a wired PS3 and it worked well, HD video with stereo sound played flawlessly. Of course I only did it as a test. I don't normally stream to my PS3 because I find my monitor is big enough to make me happy. Did you know that Rosewill is Newegg's store brand?
Good Not Great
Pros: Very small and light-weight. You can very easily carry this in one hand while running for others to view. Battery life lasts for about 4.5 to 5 hours doing moderate tasks like browsing the web or working on spreadsheets.
Cons: My biggest grip about this laptop is the keyboard feels really flimsy. It is made of this plastic squares that feel as if they will fall of after a couple years of use. I guess they had to compromise due to the size of this thing but typing on it is quite uncomfortable. Your WPM will fall on this thing. Another gripe is the sound. The speakers are placed underneath - left and right of the track pad. It is very weak. If you plan to use this on a bed, sounds will be muffled. Using the HDMI port, full 1080p performance also suffers from stuttering when playing 1080 videos. For viewing speadsheets or regular websites though it is fine. The 5400 rpm drive is okay. Windows boots in less than a minute most of the time. But if you have friends with fancy macbook airs then this boot up time might be unacceptable. Of course the laptop is cheap enough for you to buy an SSD for this thing and have more storage than an AIR and come at around same total price.
Overall Review: Despite all those gripes the redeeming factor for this product is its size. It is very small and portable which is why I got it in the first place over the Alienware M11x. If that is what you are looking for then this is the better laptop. As for me, I do care about 1080 performance and have decided that gaming on the go is also desirable, so when Alienware revises the M11 with DirectX 11 parts I will sell this and get that. For the reviewer who was complaining about bloatware, he or she should realize that despite being an annoyance. The bloatware companies help subsidize the cost of the laptop which makes it more affordable for you and me. This is not to say that bloatware is good but merely that bloatware is not all bad.
Great for PUBG and Tensorflow
Pros: This is so much more powerful than the 7970 I upgraded from. I can play PUBG on High in 1920x1200 at 80 fps with a Ryzen 1600. Also plays Battlefield 1 on High at 5760x1200 (Nvidia Surround) at more than 60fps. But the real reason I got it is so I can use tensorflow-gpu. This thing can run the MNIST-Expert code on the getting started page in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. For comparison the same exact code takes 30 minutes on my ryzen 1600. It also does all of this so quietly, it is so nice compared to the jet engine 7970.
Cons: 8GB however is not enough for large images. 100x100 greyscale images have to be batched only 16 at a time on a moderately complex CNN otherwise you will get the Resource Exhausted error.
Overall Review: If you have the extra money and are using tensorflow definitely go for the 1080 Ti or a Titan. For me I just use this to do some basic testing and model validation. Once I am ready I send it up on my company's GCP project to have moar powah.
Works well
Pros: With updated BIOS on my MSI B350M MORTAR ARCTIC and my Ryzen 1600, was able to set it to 3200 Mhz and CAS 14.
Cons: none
Overall Review: Watching the price so i can but another kit for 32 GB. Not really needed for gaming but for training Tensorflow models. It is nice to be able to hold the thousands of frame of a video in memory on a jupyter notebook even though in the end I have to batch it through to the smaller 8GB of my GTX 1080. For gaming even PUBG only really uses 8GB.
Great Little Board
Pros: Very nice simple motherboard. Worked right out of the box with some g-skill ripjaws F3-12800CL8D 4GB. USB 3.0 seemed to work after I installed the drivers, although I don't really have a USB 3.0 device to test it with. The BIOS on this thing is also really nice. Aside from being organized clearly you can actually name the configuration settings you save with your own characters rather than just saving it as "configuration 1" which is the case in my fancy $300 EVGA X58 board from a year and a half ago. It just makes is so much easier to remember which configuration is which when you're OC'ing. As far as OC I was able to bump up my i3 550 to 3.4 ghz by just +10 the base clock. Default vcore was at 1.3v which I lowered to 1.25v (it's linx and p95 stable 12 hours) I played Left 4 Dead 2 with the integrated and it wasn't very playable, unless you're desperate. 25-30 fps with everything on low and 768 resolution. World of Goo though is very much playable.
Cons: You cannot hook up your keyboard to the USB 3.0 port and expect to use it before Windows starts. Not really a con, more of a rant, but I don't get why all of the builds I've made in the last 2 years always have the default voltage for the cpu way higher than what it needs even at slightly overclocked speeds. I usually end up bumping it down until I can get it as low as possible linx 3 pass stable on stock speeds and then start overclocking from there. I didn't do that for this build because it's for my dad's clinic anyway and this i3 is overkill for what he'll be running.
Overall Review: Make sure you change the sata configuration to AHCI before installing the OS. I need a new keyboard.
Broke - RMA - Returned Broken Still
Pros: Runs most games on high @ 1920X1200
Cons: I bought this from one of newegg's competitors (the one that has "fly" in its name) back in July. Then all of a sudden while playing SC2 in October I start getting random flashes of very thin grey lines during gameplay. Panicked I restarted the computer but still had the same problem. I tested it in Bad Company 2 and Counterstrike Source and the had the same problem. I re-seated the card, dusted it off using canned air (it wasn't that dusty), reinstalled latest drivers all to no avail. The problem persisted no matter what. I finally took it out and placed my old EVGA 9800GT. Problem gone. Okay, so I call for RMA. Pay $24 to ship it and then get the same exact card 1 week later. No confirmation of it being received, no tracking number to tell when it is arriving, one of the worst RMA process I've experienced to be honest. Okay, big deal, they fixed the card anyway right? Wrong! I now have the same exact problem as when I sent the card out in the first place!
Overall Review: Did they even try to fix it? Are they expecting me to pay UPS another $24 to ship it to them?! Ughh. What a horrible experience I will never ever buy Asus again.