Joined on 02/17/11
Comprehensive Review for DS02 Model - Great little laptop
Pros: -HDMI out -USB 3.0 -Bluetooth 4.0 IS built in, the description does not specify this adequately. -The little camera on it isn't half bad -Is VERY light, under 3 pounds makes it easily less to carry in a backpack than say, a textbook. - The Silvermont based N2815 (aka Bay Trail) is actually not bad, gets web/MS office based tasks done no problem, can also handle basic media consumption tasks like 1080p video and adobe flash without any hiccups (see other thoughts). -Mine gets up to 6+ hours on battery maximum, on average it gets about 4 to 5 hours. -Has some good software that comes with it (See cons), asus backtracker is fantastic (see other thoughts). -While it's probably not the best plastic, it does feel VERY sturdy and the overall build quality is fantastic. -Awesome speakers for a laptop this size, absolutely fantastic. -Not a touchscreen (i hate touchscreens so this is good to me) -4GB of RAM, finally someone understands! Seriously how can people thing anything less is ok for windows? -Price of course
Cons: -Comes with a SLOOOOWWW HDD, was a brand that I'm not even familiar with.(see other thoughts) -Not at all easy to replace the battery, and while it seems fine now, later on the battery could get weaker and cause problems.(see other thoughts) -Not easy to replace the HDD either. (see other thoughts.) -The resolution isn't amazing, but the screen size makes this not such a big deal. -No backlit keyboard, while not a deal breaker this would have been nice -Bluetooth drivers are NOT good, random disconnects and sometimes the BT adapter will disappear from device manager altogether! I don't know if this is windows 8.1 or Asus drivers' fault but either way it can be infuriating. -REMOVE ASUS SPLENDID VIDEO ENHANCEMENT GARBAGE IMMEDIATELY. It makes the screen have a rose/orangish hue and it drove me up the wall for days before i figured out what it was, just uninstall it and save yourself some frustration.
Overall Review: -Keep in mind, as soon as i got mine i installed a Crucial M500 SSD into it so my performance will likely be different from the standard default hardware. Btw an SSD is a GREAT idea much faster and less worry about jarring the PC when you move it. SSD INSTALLATION: I saw people asking about this so here you go. -FIRST THINGS FIRST; Boot up the PC with the HDD still in it and run Asus Backtracker, then make system repair discs with it so you can restore all the partitions and the windows install onto the new SSD!!! From what i can tell it will restore the recovery partition as well. -To do this, you have to remove 9 screws on the bottom side of the chassis ( 2 are under the rear rubber feet). Once that is done, get a credit card, and CAREFULLY go around the edges and separate the 2 plastic pieces, The entire top section which includes the keyboard will snap apart and separate from the bottom section where you removed the screws. Once the two pieces have separated, lay the top section over in front of the unit DON'T YANK IT!!! THERE ARE WIRES UNDER THE KEYBOARD!!! Then you should see both the battery and HDD in front of you, it shouldn't be hard to do what you need to from there and reassemble the unit, just remember to remove the battery before you go messing with stuff so you don't short the boards in the PC. Once your done, reassemble the PC by snapping the chassis back together and replacing the screws. Use backtracker's boot disk that you made to reinstall windows on the new SSD. It works a lot like the standard recovery console. -The Asus Rep is right, the battery IS replaceable (see SSD installation) but you have to remove the top half of the laptop to get to it, after that only a single screw holds it in. Not very helpful on the go, but good for people who don't like shipping off their hardware for such basic repairs. -The Card reader was a bit buggy or some time(wouldn't read cards), but hasn't given me trouble recently so it may have just been a fluke. -UPDATE THE BIOS if you want to use windows 7 on this flash the bios to revision 500+ otherwise you cant. I also noticed a slightly faster boot time after I flashed mine so you should do it if you know how. I've tried to be as thorough as possible, but if I've missed anything or i think of something else i will edit this review. If there is anything i missed you could ask in the Q&A section and i will do my best to answer.
One Year Later...
Pros: It at least seems to work for the most part. Cables aren't bad. RMA Staff were nice and tried their best to be helpful.
Cons: First one I had had bad power problems, random surges and shutting off for no reason, not powering on, etc. It got really bad so I RMAed it after putting up with it about a year. After waiting 3 weeks for an RMA with no PC in the meantime the new one isn't delivering enough power to the GPU resulting in crashes, again. I thought this card was supposed to handle SLI, why is it having trouble with one card?
Overall Review: I think I will steer clear of Rosewill for components in the future, I haven't had much luck with their parts, and the RMA just takes too long to make it worth sending the unit back again, I don't have the time to keep trying different units until I get one that works. They might have some nice stuff out there, but I just wouldn't know. I will probably just end up buying from another brand next time and get it in 3 days instead of 3 weeks, lesson learned the hard way I guess.
Works Really Well
Pros: -Reliably maxes out everything I throw at it -Runs three 1080p screens well in Sorround mode -Temps are pretty good, max is about 65-70c in games -It's very quiet, the fans do not engage unless the card is under considerable load -RGB LED is nice if you like that sort of thing I suppose -Build quality is pretty good all around -The thermal Pads and Bios were pre-applied to this card
Cons: -Would be nice to be able to turn off the LEDs or at least change their color permanently, you have to run EVGAs software at all times to do it or they default to solid white apparently.
Overall Review: I didn't really buy this card to OC, I just wanted the better cooling solution and good warranty, so the two 8 pins are a bit of a hassle since it's just one more cable in the case, but if you want to OC the card then I'm sure that you will find the feature handy. I had heard about some of the problems with this series and the VRMs overheating (Hence the new iCX coolers), but they seem to be fine now that the thermal pads and such are applied, I wouldn't worry too much about it. This is a "down tuned" card but with pascal that doesn't really matter, boost is clocking the card to 1850 Mhz pretty much constantly in Doom and Destiny 2 which is good to me. Oh yea, and it came with Destiny 2 which was nice, be aware that you need Geforce Experience to activate it and Battle.net to play it, both of which require an account to use.
Great HDD
Pros: Very Fast, especially on sata 6.0 Plenty of storage space. Wasnt DOA, always a plus
Cons: None
Overall Review: Didn't come with sata cables, you may need to buy your own.
Great RAM
Pros: Very fast XMP compliant makes it faster Overclocks easily without losing stability Looks great in the case
Cons: None
Overall Review: I would just like to say that the images for this product don't really do it justice, its not as light a blue as it looks on here. Its actually more of a darker metallic blue so it goes really well with any motherboard.
Works Fine
Pros: Its a DVD drive, it reds and writes dvds. What more could you want? Speeds are good and its not loud.
Cons: none