Questions about the Asus Q551LN-BBI706 Laptop

[Trippn Billy]

My grandson has asked for a 2 in 1 laptop for Christmas. The Asus Q551LN-BBI706 sold at Best Buy is the only one I can find with a dedicated (nvidia gt840m) graphics card.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-2-in-1-15-6-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black/7289029.p?id=1219262038351&skuId=7289029
With it's specs it should be able run most games at medium to low graphics settings. I have one concern. It is said to be a discontinued model despite only being out since September. Anyone know about this?
I have also read that only Samsung ssd and HD are compatible with this model. ???

 

[gytisxp]

There are so many other 2 in 1`s. Like:
Microsoft Surface Pro 3
Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro
Asus Transformer Book TX300
Acer Aspire Switch 10
Dell XPS 11

 

[Trippn Billy]

I have looked at all of those models. This is the only convertible laptop I can find with a dedicated graphics.

 

[gytisxp]

I have looked at all of those models. This is the only convertible laptop I can find with a dedicated graphics.

Why does your grandson need dedicated graphics on what is basicly a tablet. Does he have a decent desktop?

 

[Trippn Billy]

He is playing the PC version of Mine Craft with mods on my wifes I7 laptop with Intel 4000 graphics. With some of the mods the fps will fall below 15 with the game graphics set to min. and the laptops graphics maxed out. The benchmarks for gt840m graphics card is double the marks for the integrated graphics of the 4th gen I7. It is not a true gaming laptop but it is close.

 

[gytisxp]

He is playing the PC version of Mine Craft with mods on my wifes I7 laptop with Intel 4000 graphics. With some of the mods the fps will fall below 15 with the game graphics set to min. and the laptops graphics maxed out. The benchmarks for gt840m graphics card is double the marks for the integrated graphics of the 4th gen I7. It is not a true gaming laptop but it is close.

Why don`t you get him a gaming desktop?

 

[Trippn Billy]

He is playing the PC version of Mine Craft with mods on my wifes I7 laptop with Intel 4000 graphics. With some of the mods the fps will fall below 15 with the game graphics set to min. and the laptops graphics maxed out. The benchmarks for gt840m graphics card is double the marks for the integrated graphics of the 4th gen I7. It is not a true gaming laptop but it is close.

Why don`t you get him a gaming desktop?

 

[Trippn Billy]

My grandson didn't ask for a desktop. I started this thread to get info on a laptop sold at Best Buy not to debate the advantages of a desktop over a laptop for gaming.

 

[slidiot]

Not only is this laptop one of the few that is a convertible, but it also has a DVD drive, which is a rarity among 2-in-1s.

There is an HP Envy I believe I've seen in Best Buy also with dedicated graphics, and 12gb of memory.... might be worth considering. Its most obvious downside was not having the build quality out of the gate.

 

[jtoledo]

I bought this laptop last week and in another forum read posts by Asus person saying that is a discontinued model, Why? Doesn't inform but it's inconcebeable that a recent laptop with good skills get out of race too soon.

I'm worried because hate Win 8x and change the hard disk and installed an AData SSD for Win7x64, but lack of drivers. I started saturday so need more time to get it 100% functional.

I suspects that you grandson is like my daughter, she plays Minecraft and download lot of mods. The modest i5 laptop (don't remember his graphics card) almost burns after 45mins. When she unplugged from AC adapter, the cpu reduces his speed and power, but works over 30% (measured in task manager "TaskMgr"). The battery duration is too short, and practically drains to the fan, frequently need remembered that must use a fan base to avoid injuries in her legs. When she plays in my HP dv6 (i7 with 8MB, shared graphics) occurs the same, high power demand from CPU by java.exe.

Meanwhile notes low fps, "lagging" and freezes or even crashes when load many mods. But this happens by a conception mistake: MINECRAFT isn't a AAA game or requires a heavy graphics card... MINECRAFT RUNS IN JAVA and only demands a good processor instead good video card. If you see carefully, the graphics seems "primitive" squares. There aren't physics particles, reflections and so on, the principal fact is the interaction between java objects (classes). The "mods" are huge collection of java classes ( materials, objects, definitions, behaviors, animals, rocks, fossils ).

The main resources than demands are CPU megaflops and with 8 MB RAM minimum. I 'recommend' a desktop because has better i7's versions. If asks for laptops look with suffix M/Q not "U". "U" means mobile platform for basic demand and low power, "M" or "Q" offers better performance. Don't worry about the graphics card for Minecraft. The desktop will give better power for mods.

 

[jtoledo]

Finally almost forgot answer your second question:
1) You can put any brand of SSD drives, my AData included a small plate to adjust the height, was required to correctly align the SATA connectors. I could leave the AData disk with or without it. The height difference was in the top of disk and towards keyboard laptop.

Another observations: This laptop is beatiful inside. good design. The screen looks precious and it's touch! The body is almost 360 turnable in tablet.

If you buy it for your grandson plays Minecraft, will need a fan base. The bottom body don't have (in my personal opinion) enough ventilation holes, all the heat is distributed in the bottom like an iron for clothes. And knowing the high demand of that game, the worst thing for your grandson will be play with the laptop twisted like tablet, the heat from the body will be too near at the back of screen/touch. Little space for heat disipation.
Regards

 

[tuifua]

I don't know about it being discontinued. Amazon sells one (though I can't tell if it has the dedicated graphics card). It looks like Asus made a base model that Best Buy upgraded. I don't think the base model is discontinued.

I have one and it is great.

The first thing I did was replace the hard drive with an Samsung Evo 256 SSD. Easy install and is blazingly fast, cool, and quiet now. It literally starts up and is ready to use in less than 10 seconds (no exaggeration). I play Far Cry 3, Skyrim and Batman Arkham Origins on it which are much more graphically intensive than Minecraft and they play on high setting smoothly. I never have anti-aliasing turned on to max, but then again, I can't really tell the difference anyway.

The only thing I'm not impressed with is the trackpad. The buttons on it are sub-par. But it is usable for every day tasks and no one in their right mind would use a trackpad for games anyway.

I highly recommend this computer. You won't find another high-end, upgradable, 2-in-1 laptop with a dedicated graphics card, and an optical drive out there.

 

[dwaynehope]

I bought this laptop for my wife. I upgraded the hard drive to an ssd. it's screaming fast for everything we have tried, although, I can't speak to how great the video card is. but I believe this model N550JKDS71T, by asus, is also a convertible, has a little better dedicated video card, and is on sale at best buy for about $5 more than the q551.

but personally, I love this laptop.

 

[jzh]

I don't know about it being discontinued. Amazon sells one (though I can't tell if it has the dedicated graphics card). It looks like Asus made a base model that Best Buy upgraded. I don't think the base model is discontinued.

I have one and it is great.

The first thing I did was replace the hard drive with an Samsung Evo 256 SSD. Easy install and is blazingly fast, cool, and quiet now. It literally starts up and is ready to use in less than 10 seconds (no exaggeration). I play Far Cry 3, Skyrim and Batman Arkham Origins on it which are much more graphically intensive than Minecraft and they play on high setting smoothly. I never have anti-aliasing turned on to max, but then again, I can't really tell the difference anyway.

The only thing I'm not impressed with is the trackpad. The buttons on it are sub-par. But it is usable for every day tasks and no one in their right mind would use a trackpad for games anyway.

I highly recommend this computer. You won't find another high-end, upgradable, 2-in-1 laptop with a dedicated graphics card, and an optical drive out there.

I bought this laptop for my wife. I upgraded the hard drive to an ssd. it's screaming fast for everything we have tried, although, I can't speak to how great the video card is. but I believe this model N550JKDS71T, by asus, is also a convertible, has a little better dedicated video card, and is on sale at best buy for about $5 more than the q551.

but personally, I love this laptop.

I want to ask how did you change the hhd for the ssd?

 

[CJ Banning]

well, the reason Q551LN is a specialty model made for Best Buy. Best Buy only the other section of the same model based is the TP500 line from Asus . The reason why it is discontinued is not because they stop making the components it's because it was a special one for Best Buy. If you go into a Best Buy now they are now eligible to sell the TP 500 line, which during Christmas. They were not able to sell. The only thing that you cannot do on this computer is run da Vinci resolve due to an incompatibility issue with OpenCL.
But other than that this is a great laptop should last a while, you'll rarely ever use it as a two and one, but the ability to watch a movie and have it Lanier lapis pretty convenient highly suggest you upgrade your RAM and has a four 4 inside the motherboard and then another changeable 4 gig which I suggest you upgrade to 8 GB. My other suggestion if you anticipate this laptop to last you whileis to get the Western Digital Black2 dual drive, which gives you 120 gig solid-state drive, and it also gives you a terabyte of the spin drive you have to go into the bios to update it, but if you can read it's fairly simple.

 

[nictibbe]

well, the reason Q551LN is a specialty model made for Best Buy. Best Buy only the other section of the same model based is the TP500 line from Asus . The reason why it is discontinued is not because they stop making the components it's because it was a special one for Best Buy. If you go into a Best Buy now they are now eligible to sell the TP 500 line, which during Christmas. They were not able to sell. The only thing that you cannot do on this computer is run da Vinci resolve due to an incompatibility issue with OpenCL.
But other than that this is a great laptop should last a while, you'll rarely ever use it as a two and one, but the ability to watch a movie and have it Lanier lapis pretty convenient highly suggest you upgrade your RAM and has a four 4 inside the motherboard and then another changeable 4 gig which I suggest you upgrade to 8 GB. My other suggestion if you anticipate this laptop to last you whileis to get the Western Digital Black2 dual drive, which gives you 120 gig solid-state drive, and it also gives you a terabyte of the spin drive you have to go into the bios to update it, but if you can read it's fairly simple.

Do you know what 8GB RAM is compatible with this laptop? Can it upgrade to 16GB at all or is 12 its max? I just got it and need a bit more for a game I wanted to play. Great laptop so far and I love it!

 

[crazyfool123]

I bought this laptop for my wife. I upgraded the hard drive to an ssd.

I also bought this. A couple of qs:

Did you replace the 1TB original or the DVD slot?

How did you install Windows after this?

Thanks.

 

[Jason Niesen]

Do you know what 8GB RAM is compatible with this laptop? Can it upgrade to 16GB at all or is 12 its max? I just got it and need a bit more for a game I wanted to play. Great laptop so far and I love it!

Here are some specs on compatible RAM http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/compatible-upgrade-for/ASUS/q551ln#

I have this laptop, too... and love it! However, it doesn't seem you can upgrade more than 12GB of RAM... which sucks because I specifically asked that at Best Buy and was told I could upgrade to 32GB. Even the link above shows it should have 4 RAM ports.

If anyone knows how to upgrade to more than just 12GB, I would love to know how!

 

[Jason Niesen]

I also bought this. A couple of qs:

Did you replace the 1TB original or the DVD slot?

How did you install Windows after this?

Thanks.

I also upgraded to an SSD.. it was fairly simple. I replaced the original 1TB HDD with the SSD but then attached the HDD as an external and redirected my desktop, documents, downloads, etc to the external.

With our current HDD still installed, you can find a Windows tool that will make a bootable thumb drive to use on your new SSD. You will have to make some changes to the BIOS to be able to boot from USB but it's fairly simple to do and easy to find on the web, if you need to (or post back if you need more help).

I wasn't ever able to get the FastBoot back but it is a small price to pay for the heaven that is SSD

 

[Tim_20]

Hey Billy,

I have to say...I just bought this computer a week ago...along with the Lenovo Y50-70 touch...and I am loving this machine. I haven't done much gaming yet besides Diablo III...but it ran that very smoothly on the highest graphics level. I love the fact that I am able to use it as a tablet (although it's a heavy tablet...doesn't bother me at all). I'm very happy with this purchase...and don't regret it a bit. you have to watch though...because a lot of newer laptops nowadays now come with no dvd drive. Although the slim external ones are only 30-40...I always prefer to have it in the computer so that my kids don't decide to take it and hide it 🙂

Hope this helps! good luck

 

[Mark1974]

I don't know about it being discontinued. Amazon sells one (though I can't tell if it has the dedicated graphics card). It looks like Asus made a base model that Best Buy upgraded. I don't think the base model is discontinued.

I have one and it is great.

The first thing I did was replace the hard drive with an Samsung Evo 256 SSD. Easy install and is blazingly fast, cool, and quiet now. It literally starts up and is ready to use in less than 10 seconds (no exaggeration). I play Far Cry 3, Skyrim and Batman Arkham Origins on it which are much more graphically intensive than Minecraft and they play on high setting smoothly. I never have anti-aliasing turned on to max, but then again, I can't really tell the difference anyway.

The only thing I'm not impressed with is the trackpad. The buttons on it are sub-par. But it is usable for every day tasks and no one in their right mind would use a trackpad for games anyway.

I highly recommend this computer. You won't find another high-end, upgradable, 2-in-1 laptop with a dedicated graphics card, and an optical drive out there.

 

[Mark1974]

I purchased my Q551LN Oct.2015 its now going on Feb2016. Having a dedicated two gigabyte graphics card is a definite huge plus. I would like to add that it is upgradeable to 12 gigabytes max. 8 gigabytes that it comes with, 4 built in to the mother board,4 on the (sadly) single slot
Ram Chip, which can be upgraded to 8, and the extra 2 gigabytes for the dedicated graphics card, for a total of really 14GB's if you put it all together. This is plenty for most applications. The only recommendation, that has been ABSOLUTELY awsome, is to upgrade to an SSD Drive. I used SATA 512gb that I found on sale at best buy for $99. Otherwise 256 gigabytes would have sufficed for my storage needs. My point is my computer is now a beast. I am telling the absolute truth that it starts up in no more than 5 seconds. Not to mention when loading your applications to use, it does this almost instantaneous! vVersus the crappy 5400 rpm 1 terabyte that it came with. I guarantee you will be the happiest man or woman on the block acting like a little school girl after you do this. Being that it has a lit keyboard (an absolute necessity for me), it is a convertible to be able to use as a tablet, it has a touch screen that uses a top of the line 10-point touch capability which blows away the competition, Bluetooth that works seamlessly with my android which happens to be a Samsung S5. Any and all pictures or videos or notes, contact information, you name it, syncs directly to my computer as soon as I get near it. I have only 2 gripes. 1st the black brushed aluminum which is gorgeous clean, fingerprints ridiculously easy. This can somewhat piss a perfectionist like myself off. So I've been looking for some type of cover, or killer sticker set. The 2nd is the screen has an auto dim that must be disabled in the settings for it to have the kind of back lighting that I personally like. After thats disabled the screens pretty damn good. Like others have said this is not a gaming computer, but definitely has enough power to game at an acceptable rate. Other than that this is one screaming badass machine. I personally used to be a HP man. I hesitantly let myself get talked in to giving this a test drive after many a talks and lots of research. If you YouTube this model, there is a perfect demonstration of installing the SSD Drive. It was quite simple. I also love that it has a CD / DVD driver burner. This slot can also be removed and fitted with your old 1 terabyte hard drive if you're the type that doesn't need or use a CD / DVD Drive. Talk about serious storage capabilities! Ladies and gentlemen, I'm telling you, you're not going to do any better than this without spending serious duckets. I've built many tower systems also, so I am speaking from experience. Don't take my word for it, do your own research. The first thing you should do is go to Youtube and type in, Asus Q551LN SSD Hard drive install. The guy doing the video is very informative about this computer while showing you the easy steps to putting in the solid state hard drive and making this probably the fastest computer anyone you know has. Desktops included. Once again I believe 8 gigabytes of memory is plenty. But if you want to go crazy you can always upgrade to 12. But after installing the solid state drive I think you too we'll see that it has plenty of capability without upgrading the memory. Email me if you have any questions. Markyreeves@yahoo.com