I have the 5800/3060 version of the same machine. Opening it is a pain, but, if you are gentle the clips are fine. I've had mine open three times and no broken clips.
Such a stupid design. It's not like it's an esthetically super clean design where a panel would "ruin" the look (like the bottom of a laptop needs to be smooth and seamless anyway). It probably saved them five cents per laptop.
Makes me wonder if laptop should come with some plastic or rubber pads that can be swapped with the default ones ,do they really get any air from that 1 mile-meter gap left ?
@@Assassin5671000 Often times no, this is a big part of why some laptops get way to hot. The ones that don't have additional ways to pull air. My TUF FX505 for example has a vent on the top and a vent on the back that air can be pulled in.
Yeah, if only glory holes where the norm on laptops. It would make upgrading and fixing stupid OEM design decisions so much easier. Plus then you wouldn't have to brutalize their products as much... maybe they are masochists :D
I don't understand why Asus hasn't hired you and Dawid for product development yet. Also..... your videos are getting very close to NSFW with these titles 😂😂
Hopefully its not intentional, like Apple does with their products. we should all have the "right to repair" items we own. my MSI laptop (w/1660ti) luckily comes with 2 sticks, but its mounted on the keyboard side of the motherboard. UGHHHHHHHHHH. love the video tho! like always!
If you pull up task manager, you can see how many ram slots are in use. If it was soldered on it would say 1 of 1 channel or 2 of 2. With an empty slot it will say 1 of 2 in slots used.
Yah..next thing you know they're gonna pull a Samsung phone and glue it all together...because who cares about user serviceability right...😌😏. Planned obsolescence..... Laptop battery dead? Need more RAM? Oh well..looks like you gotta give us more money. Drain your wallet and fill them landfills!
I don't even understand breaking the clips can create a gap when there's 11 screws holding the panel on. You should be able to break every single one and have it still fit tightly.
If you need to have substantive skills to be able to open a laptop without breaking it just to add a RAM simm (or any other "user serviceable part") -- that's a major design flaw.
@Dawid Does Tech Stuff the datasheet 5:12 says it's an 8-core Ryzen 5 5600H. The sticker on the laptop 2:37 says it has a six-core CPU. Also here 5:16 it indicates a six-core CPU. ???
@@Chris-6768wv It clearly says “3.3GHz octa-core AMD Ryzen 5 5600H” in the first time stamp. You should try new glasses, or re-read what you thought you read.
I would much prefer the angled connector on the back or anywhere almost, straight ones tend to stick out and act like a lever and it's a great way to break a port which probably is solder to the mainboard.
Also it allows for you to tie the end of that cable to a leg of a cooling stand, so when you lift the laptop up to put in a bag, you can leave the power adapter end in place and it wont fall behind the desk (along with other cables you may want to leave in place). It's much harder to do with a straight on connector. I'd always choose a 90 degree over straight on.
I have last year's version of this laptop. i7-10870H and RTX 2070, which cost $1300USD. It had 2x8GB@3200MT/s. My version does have a glory hole and has 3 MVNe slots. I upgraded to 32GB of RAM and added 2x 2TB NVMe's for a total of 5TB of NVMe storage. It's a great little machine, runs cool, and is plenty fast for my needs.
I own this laptop build with rt3070 from release date 02.2021, and cant say anything bad about it. It works great! Screen , battery, performance, keyboard, plugs, hinge, build is great! Not slim but compact enough! Theres something totaly wrong with your settings if you have 60% gpu usage, my mashine works 100%, thottles a little on gpu side, but still can pull of 50% more performance and fidelity then my Playstation 5!
Not sure how much of an issue this is for other people, but the screen colors are absolutely terrible to the point I returned the 5900HX/3060 version. All the colors are extremely washed out , (reds orange, blues teal, etc) and no contrast at all. Ended up going with an Eluktronics Max-17 for the same price
@@joelthenoob9868 There is no way to tweak the software, it's a limitation of the low color capability of the panel. If i recall correctly its 77% of SRGB. Also 20ms+ response times
@@MaxTheCenturion ok, some gaming laptops I have worked with have completely adjustable colour. I haven't worked with one of these recent Rog laptops. It was a suggestion
@@joelthenoob9868 Most do have good settings! I just wanted to save someone the sadness I had when I started it up for the first time. You can even see the pink ROG logo in the video that's supposed to be red on start up LOL
@@DawidDoesTechStuff You fit the sponsors in very well... Others channels totally feel like hard CUTS to clip in their ads... Yours flow better, music vid ect... They dont make me quick skip past..... like most "Populour" channels... where you see then cut and paste.... clash of ..... whatever click bait Game sponsor... Appreciate you Dawid!
Even my 1991 Amiga computer(it was a microcomputer where the entire machine, including motherboard, floppy drive and later a hard disk was housed inside the keyboard for plugging into a standard TV via RF cable, a really common configuration on low price gaming computers back then) had a glory hole for putting RAM and an expansion card in. They have no excuses in 2022.
I get the same problems with mine. I bought one with a ryzen 9, 8 cores, 300 hz 1080p monitor so the bottle neck is real 😂. I’ve been getting very worried recently because I got a 4K monitor and my cpu has been pushing 90c but hearing you I’ve gotten some confidence back, thank you. I’ve torn mine open a few times now and I don’t remember anything falling off and I was pretty cautious on a clean table. I woulda cried if something fell off mine I’m just getting into PC gaming and have had so much trouble but loving it overall.
I own this laptop with a slightly different configuration. I had to open it because the stock Mediatek wifi card was crap, and I replaced it with an Ax200 from Intel. I was careful while opening it but still managed to break a clip too 😅
I'm with you 100% on the need for a upgrade access panel or a revision on the bottom plate that is not so horrible to open. I would be pissed off to have to go through all that to upgrade ram, storage, etc...
8:20 I recently got a Legion 5 15ACH6H with 5600H and RTX 3060, with "store-upgraded" RAM to 2x8GB sticks... and first thing I had to do after receiving it was open it myself because the store managed to break off three small plastic pieces when opening it and left them rattling inside XD On top of that they upgraded crappy 8GB 1rx16 stick, with second 8GB 1rx16 stick instead of replacing both... so I ended up having to replace the sticks myself with proper 2rx8 sticks, that with Ryzen can give even 10-20% gain in some games compared to garbage 1rx16 ones. Still though Legion 5 ACH6H is amazing offer for the price(Especially now when it's on sales due to new versions with Ryzen 6XXXH CPUs coming out, which provide relatively small performance upgrade, and demand much more expensive DDR5 RAM...), and it has fully powered RTX 3060, something that ASUS almost fooled me with since I planned to buy a TUF laptop with RTX 3060 at first before discovering them using low wattage version of it that's almost 15% worse XD
I am quite surprised that the thing is almost glued together, considering the optional ssd upgrade and especially the necessary ram upgrade. -I also enjoyed the Honey music video, which i may or may not have already turned into a ringtone...
My bet is that the internals and case are designed by two different departments. The hardware team was trying to make something mostly good within their allotted budget, margin, and other requirements. Where as the case design team said “let’s look good to management by cutting an extra part that needs tooling/assembly, coming in under our budget, and screwing over the hardware team’s efforts.” Management also probably said, “Yea and that will help prevent most people from seeing the terrible RAM configuration we saddle them with because RAM is expensive and hard to get a good margin on.”
@@Pies_By_Arvid The one stick ram in laptops have bin going on for alot of years... it's a good thing Dawid and others are shining a light on it. Yesterday i decided to inspect and order parts to upgrade an old ultrabook i bought in 2012, when i realised, it too only had 1 stick of ram...🤦🏻♂️ ...but yeah, it might be exactly what you are saying, about 2 departments working on each part, and the department manager having bin a little to easy, to persuade going along with the 2 separate design teams ideas.
I have a now dead Asus G1S and I loved how all the upgradeable components had separate lids for quick access. Just a couple screws and you're in, no prying required.
If only this laptop opened like the Legion, but I don't feel like giving Lenovo credit for their repairability right now because I am very salty about the whole CPU locking thing as it directly affects me. Every one of my main PCs has been a beast with various Xeons from old workstations all around a decade old at the time.
I like the angled power cable. Uh, all you have to do is turn it toward whichever way the power source is. If it comes straight out the back it can limit your laptop placement as well as more wear on the cord, as every power cord phone owner knows
I have this laptop with the 3050ti. I have upgraded it to 2x16gb RAM and added a 1tb Nvme drive. It runs great with games as Dawid said but the battery life isn't very good but this is more of a desktop laptop. The key to opening the laptop is the front left screw (when flipped) doesn't remove but is designed to lift the corner of the case open allowing a plastic tool to gently open the case going round it, I took my time and inflicted no damage. It was also why installed 32gb ram and 1tb storage, as I plan on never having to open it again!
I have one with 16GB ram and RTX3050ti so no need to rip it open well until I have enough money to buy SSD upgrade. The major concern are the bezel less display which is like a paper bends easily and results in backlight bleeds. But over all the laptop is worth the money I paid (3 months salary) performs good, looks good. I take to meet my clients and they are always curious about it..feels good
I think you may have given the term "Glory Hole" a whole new meaning. Some of your viewers are going to innocently use that term to describe access to a computer. You're a funny guy and I like watching your videos for a bit of light entertainment rather than a tech tech channel that can be a bit dry. Added bonus - sometimes I actually learn something.
Hey, that's the laptops we had to buy at work for our programmers because we literally couldn't find any workstation laptops on a short notice, except I chose the Ryzen 9 version with a RTX 3060 and 16GB of RAM. I chose that model specifically because the RAM and SSD weren't soldered, unlike a lot of laptops in that price range, and because it seemed to have a decent cooling system. That's actually the first 165Hz screen I tested, I liked it so much that I bought one for my personal computer, even if my RX580 isn't to best to use it.
I have an ASUS TUF with a 3060. I had all kinds of performance issues I couldn't figure out. Changing profiles helped, but not enough. Removing Armory Crate and all the ASUS software fixed all my issues.
Clipping coupons, the great American pastime. With all the money that ASUS have, if they are cheaping out on not having a glory hole at least they should design the case to open only by removing screws.
Something to add here! Upgrade the ram to x8 instead of x16 if you can. This can sometimes make huge performance difference, because x16 is much denser thus increasing the timings which can slow the computer down. LTT made video on that
I actually had the exact same issue! I received the 3050ti 7-4800H version of this laptop for my 18th, and I was a bit puzzled by the performance. Bought a couple of 8gb sticks to replace the 16gb stick (I don't really need 32gb of RAM whatsoever), plugged them in and voila! Went from 90-100 FPS on lowest settings in Valorant, to 144 at max settings. Manufacturers really need to start shipping products at their best. It's not too hard to ship a laptop with 2x8 instead of 1x16...
I can see the purpose of the 90 degree power plug. If you lift the laptop from the front leaning the back against the table top,, this prevents you front putting as much leveraged pressure on the port and breaking it.
This is designed to never be user serviced. Glory hole at the minimum, being able to completely take the bottom off without fragile clips and I/O in the way would be best.
I have this same laptop but in a higher sku: Ryzen 9 5900HX, RTX3060, and 16GB of ram (2 sticks, thank god). I love this machine. It will browse the web and stream video all day long without a hint of fan noise or heat buildup. The battery is massive. The downfiring speakers are surprisingly good for a laptop, especially when placed on a solid surface. The dolby software actually does something for the audio! It's my 4th gaming laptop (Asus GT8600m, Lenovo GT240m, MSI GTX970), and this one is my absolute favorite. Aside from the TERRIBLE bottom panel, I am completely satisfied with this machine. Had they just included a panel that allowed access to the ram slots and 2nd m.2 slot, I think it would be perfect.
I do miss the good old days when laptops came with small removable panel cutouts on the bottom for both RAM and HDD swaps. I don't know if I would use the same terminology for them as Dawid did, but those were handy.
Back in the day this was a necessity for a slightly different reason, though. HDDs were prone to fail, for example. I remember buying HDDs, installing them at home, having them fail within a day and returning them to the store up to three times. It was a similar story with RAM, even with new laptops (shipping and handling in particular as well as non-ideal storage conditions where reasons this would happen). To be perfectly honest, all this is just a symptom of the times. Way back when (e.g. 10 to 15 years ago and earlier), you'd buy your PC stuff (and laptops) in a brick and mortar store an just have a store technician handle upgrades (they'd usually do it for free if you bought the upgraded parts there). This also meant that it was often retailers who were offering different configurations instead of manufacturers, so small upgrades had to be easy. Ever since online retail took over, it's the manufacturer that configures your machine and they want you to buy the upgrade from *them* instead (with a considerable mark-up). In light of this manufacturers today don't care about how difficult upgrades are, unless the target market is business customers.
I have a similar MSi laptop. I bought everything I needed ahead of time and upgraded it. It's a bit easier to open than that ROG, but close. I upgraded to 16GB dual-channel RAM and added a second SSD. It would be nice if there was just an easier upgrade path than taking the laptop half-apart to do it. Mine has a 3060 (max-q) and it runs really well. In some cases better than my RX 5600XT in my desktop...
The Legion 5 definitely needs a glory hole too. It's kinda' the same design and was more of a PITA than it needed to be just to install an additional m.2 drive. And for the record, I used to be field engineer for HP and Dell. I've opened thousands of laptops. So while I can open it without breaking anything, I agree that this can be designed better, and other laptops are. But at least there are two physical slots for RAM. Getting real sick of these gaming laptops with one DIMM soldered to the board.
I like this dude for reviews throughout the ram configurations and full specifications of what to buy on the ram. More like this please i'm gonna share your page dawid salute! Btw make nvme ssd and ram tutorials too.
I go to college and one day I went to go use the bathroom and I left my laptop at a table. As you can guess someone came up and took it. Unfortunately the guy never got caught. 2022 has been off to a lovey start lol
My friend got a higher end model Strix and, while I didn't break any clips, it was a MASSIVE pain in the ass to open it... twice. Friendly note to anyone buying one of these in the series and adding a second NVMe drive, move the included drive to the lower slot, get a ONE-SIDED NVMe drive and an Alphacool HDX M.2 low profile heatsink for the secondary drive. Otherwise the secondary drive's temps could potentially get to out of operating spec levels.
I got an Asus Vivobook 16X M7600 and I daily it when I’m not in my dorm, I love the little thing. Powerful enough where I can game or render in public but slim enough and light enough I can toss it in my bag and I don’t really feel it. Screen is amazing and paired with a custom keyboard, I can bang out essays no problem on this thing
I actually bought one of these a couple weeks ago. There is a 300Hz with dual channel memory version (the one I got), it’s actually incredible price to performance value.
Same. Got the G15 advantage on a deal at best buy US $1500..(November?) just in the last month I think I saw they had $1400 or $1450!! 300hz display, 8/16 core 5900HX RX6800M, the 16 gb ram they put in is Single rank 2 dimms but dual rank or Dimms with tighter timings will increase the performance around 15% meaning you still gotta open the damn chassis
Wait they’re selling a laptop with a 3050 and a 300Hz display? Or does it have a better GPU with your model? I can’t imagine the 3050 could run anything at even close to a consistent 300 fps.
I do agree that the clips is balls and I do not know why include them when it have screws, but the technique to remove them is start at the front and when you reach the ventilation on the side, use the guitar pick to push the vents out and down. I had a hard time myself.
Ive had Asus Laptops for all of my life and they are always extremely painful to disassemble and you slowly get desensitized to the cracks when opening it.
What the heck I’ve had the exact opposite experience. Which laptops have you had? My Q550LF, Q304UA, and G14 were all super easy to open. I’m disappointed they decided to make the laptop in the video so annoying to open.
You're mixing laptop and desktop SKUs. Laptop GPUs are always slower than their desktop counterparts. Sure, you can complain about the laptop 3050 being slower than desktop 2060, but that's totally missing the point.
I agree about opening the back- it's not an overrecation. Not just to upgrade the RAM, but all laptop fans need occasional cleaning every now and then- some more than others depending on use patterns and environment.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who places importance on being able to open the laptop with one hand. It just smacks of quality when you can easily open the lid of a laptop
I won't ever buy another ASUS laptop. Everyone I know with ASUS laptops has disposed of them in like a year because they have battery issues, trackpad issues or start falling apart. I also forgot to mention that ASUS has been caught repeatedly now killing the performance of Ryzen laptops by shipping them with single channel RAM configurations, and choking off airflow. This laptop seemed to have thermals under control, but in the past there were identical Intel and AMD models, and the AMD models had plastic blocking off a lot of the vents on the bottom. I can't remember if it was you or another TH-camr but they took a dremel and removed the plastic and then it didn't overheat anymore.
My mom's old laptop still works fine. It's ancient. And by works fine, I mean, works despite at least 1 major fall due to our dogs pulling it off the table while charging, and requires constant feeding by virtue of only having wall power. But besides that? It still held up super well. I recently got her to get a new laptop, which she admits definitely now that it was necessary, but the old one was super great. So I can't deny it wasn't falling apart, BUUUUUUT that was no fault of Asus' product.
I’ll only buy Asus laptops. Ive owned 3 in the past 13 years and all of them are still working fine. My current laptop is a 2020 G14, and before that I had a Q550LF and a Q304UA. The only issue I’ve ever had was a hard drive failure on my Q304UA but thats a super easy upgrade/fix once I swapped it with an SSD.
i have the G15A version of this laptop. to say it rips is an understatement. the bottom panel does kinda suck but after opening it once, its not too bad now. really happy with the build and its nice to see the cassis doesnt change too much.
I own this rog laptop with a Ryzen 9 5900HX, RTX 3060 and a 16 GB RAM configuration and it was a snatch for me back in December 2021 as it was around the 1k price point when adding the shipping cost outside of US, my only complaint if any is that the storage space is a bit too small (500 GB) coz considering windows itself requires around 40-50 GB, it's a must to add an nvme SSD but then that means I would have to open it which I won't, so my next best option is to buy an external 1TB of SSD. which is okay but at the cost of speed and compactness.
The 90 degree connector may mean that they use the same power supply with different models or even possibly with some desktop models that have external power adapters. It may just be cheaper for them to create one adapter/power brick that runs a variety of systems they offer. Personally I like the way some of the Dell laptops have theri bottom panel. You have screws you take out, but it's also held on (or in place) with magnets, so once you remove the screws, there is no prying that's needed, You just slide the bottom panel up or to the side to move it off the small magnets which help hold it in place. No clips to worry about breaking. There are some small metal tabs that slide under the side to keep the panel in place but again, once you remove the screws, you just slide the bottom panel downward and the tabs are unlatched from the body. Easy to open. with laptops like this one shown, once you open it one time, opening it again is probably easier.
This was a fun one as I have a version of this laptop. Same casing and I have had to take it apart once so I really felt your pain taking the back panel off for sure. The temps on mine can get up there. Have see GPU at 89⁰C but usually hovers around 80-83⁰C with most games I play at max settings. CPU stays around 70s. All in all I'm very happy with it. The fan can be VERY loud. I cranked it up one time just to see how loud it got and compared that to how much it helped the Temps. It would drop the Temps a good 7⁰ or so but damn that noise. Specs Ryzen 9 5900HX 16 GB RAM (pretty sure single stick 😔) RTX 3070 1080p 300Hz screen
if u get an RTX3070 version of this one, you can really risk getting poor SSD performance from the primary NVMe Drive because it gets too hot sitting right next to the heatpipes. Some of them have 3 NVMe slots, others only have 2. But perhaps re your gaming performance, check the SSD temps as well. If they are getting hot it can cause performance issues as we know most NVMe SSDs tank in speed once they get hot. Probably not that much of a concern for the OEM drives, but if you were to replace it with a faster gen3 drive like the Samsung 970 EvoPlus, it will certainly get quote hot under load.
Dawid! The reason some companies say "IPS-ish or IPS - type panel" is because LG displays owns the trademark for IPS so other display manufacturers have to compare it to IPS and can't outright say its IPS
Dawid, you are on point here. I've upgraded a similar laptops SSD and RAM and now my laptop is held together with duct tape. The heat from the laptop melts the glue of the duct tape and then it starts drifting and covering the ports
I've got another RoG laptop that uses the same body shell (G15 Advantage Edition) and yeah, the nightmare clamshell and dubiously durable ribbon cables are baffling when you finally get inside and find that the motherboard is so easy to service. When I first got my laptop I immediately went for an SSD upgrade, and because of inexperience on my part I had to try several times before I got the SSD working. Every time I tugged on a ribbon cable or began to crack open the clamshell I felt like I was defusing a bomb. At least the many broken clips now littering my desk and carpet will make getting inside for regular cleanings easier.
i've taken apart like 10-15 new rog laptops and never had the plastic clips broken. you just have to unscrew the bottom right screw will will pop things off nicely
so i had a version of this laptop that had the Ryzen 7 4800 and the RTX 2060 in it for a while. I noticed the bottleneck too with the built in display. Figured out that the built in display uses the on board graphics built into the Ryzen processor as a kind of scaler. It pushes video through the RTX 2060 then through the Ryzen VEGA video to be displayed on the built in screen. If you use an external monitor through the Type C port, you should get better FPS and a more consistent performance through the GPU as it will no longer go through the VEGA graphics chip
The stock ram stick look like the el-cheapo 1Rx16 density ones. Swapping that out with the actual pair of the Ripjaws would probably yield better performance overall in gaming.
Have the same model, but with 5900HQ, 3070, 32ram, 2K sRgb However, thanks to you, David, I am terrified more than ever to upgrade storage. This is some kind of Schroedinger's cover: at the same time it's clips are broken and fine, and you will never find out unless you open it.
I personally own a Dell G5 laptop featuring the all same specs and YES!, and cost me here in Australia 🇦🇺 $580~USD on a great sale 🥰👍🤩🏆. I agree the ram upgrade makes a very noticeable difference to average fps and 0.1% lows. The RTX3050 is definitely an amazing GPU for the laptop price even compared to previous generation gpus. Love your content Dawid & amazing sense of humour 😜🤪.
I ended up with a similar model as this one, it has a 5900HX and a 3060 instead, but the chassis is almost identical. Mine came with two 8GB sticks for 16GB instead of a single 16GB, so something about this configuration makes them feel to use a single 8GB. Almost like they didn't have two 4GB available to install and just went "oh we have one 8GB". At least ASUS does install 2 sticks depending, so it is not 100% always 1 module.
I have an older version of this laptop with a GTX1650 in it and it’s one of the most comfortable laptops I’ve ever used. Not super powerful but for I do with it, it gets the job done well
While not the same model, one of the selling points on the Asus G14 I picked up last year was the lack of a webcam. Have no use for one so I prefer just not having it in the first place. Luckily it came with 16gb of ram in dual channel. Ridiculous that any manufacturer is still using single channel memory configs on any modern PC, let alone one targeted towards 'gaming'.
Your point about getting a laptop with SINGLE CHANNEL memory for $1000 is perfectly on point. And the design with the 2000's style cover on the bottom is also right on point. Memory will be upgraded during its lifetime, and the battery will very likely need replacing, too. I do think that ASUS knew exactly what they were doing here: Designing and selling a laptop destined to become e-waste instead of being upgraded with more memory, having the battery replaced, or the NVMe upgraded. Nice review.
Not sure why you think the angled power connector is bad? My default is that everything should be a 90 degree angle unless you specifically need a straight connector. But especially for ports in the back the angled connectors can help a lot if you're on a surface near a wall. Those straight connectors require the device to sit out from the edge further than I'd like just to have enough room for them.
Yeah, I'm of the opinion that areas of a laptop (eg. RAM, SSD) should have accessibility hatches separate from the main body, especially "Gaming" laptops, as there is a high chance upgrades will be made. The laptop provides extra slots for upgrades so it should be more access friendly to make the upgrades without having to pry and break the bottom cover with a crowbar.
4:22 Oh thank God, I can relax and enjoy the rest of the review now. Was wondering what the heck Dawid meant in the title. xD Great review, sir. Definitely agree on the clips, at all points.
I doubt it would make much of a difference, but did you use the original RAM stick with one G.Skill stick, or did you use both of the new sticks? Also I assume you tried Windows power settings. Fun vid as always!
My legion 5 has the same issue, to get at the upgradeable components the whole back bezel has to come apart, I bought a used zbook g2 (workstation quadro gpu from yesteryear) and it just has a nice latch, the g3 actually went back to the full back bezel design but much easier to remove than lenovo. I miss the individual coverings of MUCH older lappies, a zbook predecessor the elitebook (the obama laptop) had individual door thingies for the gpu, the mem and hdds/ssds. It just brought back memories of how I always wanted a fully modular laptop with discrete graphics (via mxm) and it never happend, instead we regressed and now you can't even upgrade the cpu (most these days are bgas).
I bought this same type of laptop in May last year and I have been looking for a review of this specific one. FINALLY found it. I do not look forward to upgrading the specs AT ALL. Also, the more you use it, the less traction the mouse pad has.
Difficult to open laptop chassis are a valid complaint in my book. That sh*t is stressful. My old 2012 Asus gaming laptop has a glory hole and actually came with two sticks installed internally but the glory hole opened to two additional slots. Even though the gpu is now horrendously underpowered it's still a great device with a decent 4 core 8 thread i-7, 24gb of ram, and a replacement ssd for the original hdd.
I've got an asus laptop that i bought just as COVID was shutting things down but we hadn't reached tumbleweeds on computer hardware yet. RAM upgrade was done even before I powered it on the first time, and yeah, it's just as terrible to open. I think about prying off the bottom for a larger nvme and then remember I can just redownload stuff off steam. (For the record, I DID install 2 1tb nvme drives in mine, but data expands to fill the space...)
Braver man than me.. you kept going after the first bad cracking sound while taking the back off.. I would have just put the screws back in and used it for web browsing.. its crazy how hard some manufacturers make it..
I did the same thing, bought a "relatively" cheap gaming laptop with a 3060 and a single 8gb stick of RAM (MSI GF65), then immediately opened it up and crammed a proper dual-channel kit in it. It also has no glory hole, but it has very few plastic clips so I was able to open it up without breaking anything. It was on sale at Memory Express and it was roughly the same price as a desktop RTX 3060 GPU - sure, a mobile 3060 has less power but this is also an ENTIRE COMPUTER.
This is the biggest argument for gaming laptops right now. You get a full PC, and a UPS in the form of a battery, for the price of a desktop GPU. It's also crammed into a 1L-ish chassis for that nice portability aspect too.
I own the ROG Strix G512LW with the RTX 2070 mobile unit and an intel i7-10870H and 16GB of ram. If it wasn't for the dual channel memory, this laptop wouldn't be nearly as good as it could be. ALSO!!! On Windows, be sure to set the power to maximum in the settings menu for windows. This makes a HUGE difference for these laptops as Asus really doesn't want you to run at full power all the time.
I havent finished the video yet but that is one hell of a title weedman
ok
📠
Yeah, talk about putting yourself out there
I felt it best summarized my experience with the laptop. 😂
@@DawidDoesTechStuff you don't say
1:35 - Unboxing
2:20 - First Impressions (Design, IO, Display)
3:50 - Teardown (First Attempt)
5:07 - The Specs
6:02 - Firing it up and Testing Games (8 GB RAM)
8:06 - Teardown (Second Attempt)
10:19 - Testing Games (16 GB RAM)
12:10 - Final Thoughts
Thanks timestamp guy
So where's the glory hole?
Legend
What laptop is this?
@@derex47 ROG Strix G15
everyone: rtx 3050
dawid: glory holes
glory holes or rtx 3050 that's a tough choice🤣
Ive been a Pc tech for cose to 30 years , probably a bit longer. FEW PEOPLE, could open a case like that without breaking clips.
Are those clips meant to be broken as a security feature? Or it's just bad design?
I know right! They are so easy to break.
I have the 5800/3060 version of the same machine. Opening it is a pain, but, if you are gentle the clips are fine. I've had mine open three times and no broken clips.
@@OtterlyInsane seems you have talent
@@ulrichkalber9039
Or a bit of mechanical sympathy.
If you change the profile to manual in armoury crate you can adjust the power limits their maximum. May help gain some more performance too.
I think it would just thermalthrottle after that
I did try that and it seemed to perform the same as Turbo mode. Thanks for the suggestion though.
@@DawidDoesTechStuff Did u play with laptop plugged to charger? Most windows laptop lose like 70% of their performance :/
@@stolczus7280 Yes. It was plugged in. Next silly question.
@@DawidDoesTechStuff I got the same problem with my pc since a year:S really tried everything, nothing worked..
I notice that with how the cooling is, where the ram is and the SSD slots are it could all be covered with one L shaped panel.
Such a stupid design. It's not like it's an esthetically super clean design where a panel would "ruin" the look (like the bottom of a laptop needs to be smooth and seamless anyway). It probably saved them five cents per laptop.
For sure! It would have been so easy.
Makes me wonder if laptop should come with some plastic or rubber pads that can be swapped with the default ones ,do they really get any air from that 1 mile-meter gap left ?
@@Assassin5671000 Often times no, this is a big part of why some laptops get way to hot. The ones that don't have additional ways to pull air. My TUF FX505 for example has a vent on the top and a vent on the back that air can be pulled in.
Yeah, if only glory holes where the norm on laptops. It would make upgrading and fixing stupid OEM design decisions so much easier. Plus then you wouldn't have to brutalize their products as much... maybe they are masochists :D
Anna go look at some monitors or something
I don't understand why Asus hasn't hired you and Dawid for product development yet.
Also..... your videos are getting very close to NSFW with these titles 😂😂
Hopefully its not intentional, like Apple does with their products. we should all have the "right to repair" items we own. my MSI laptop (w/1660ti) luckily comes with 2 sticks, but its mounted on the keyboard side of the motherboard. UGHHHHHHHHHH.
love the video tho! like always!
After that taser incident I always raise an eyebrow whenever Anna brings up anything to do with BDSM.
I feel like the companies get off on the idea of customers breaking their devices to fix a spec flaw.
If you pull up task manager, you can see how many ram slots are in use. If it was soldered on it would say 1 of 1 channel or 2 of 2. With an empty slot it will say 1 of 2 in slots used.
"I'm going to finish testing it and then I'll break it" 😂
Dawid should make a t-shirt that says that...
Sigh, remember those days, when a laptop came standard with ports to the RAM, the HD drives and the battery was removable. 😩
The battery is still removable it just takes a bit more work
Ram ports are standard in gaming laptops
It could have been way worse. They could have just soldered it all down.
Yah..next thing you know they're gonna pull a Samsung phone and glue it all together...because who cares about user serviceability right...😌😏. Planned obsolescence..... Laptop battery dead? Need more RAM? Oh well..looks like you gotta give us more money. Drain your wallet and fill them landfills!
Just think of that new gap in the frame as extra "ventilation" :D
I don't even understand breaking the clips can create a gap when there's 11 screws holding the panel on. You should be able to break every single one and have it still fit tightly.
No shit.
@@sweaterfish6311bending
It helps cool the track pad really nicely. 😂
If you need to have substantive skills to be able to open a laptop without breaking it just to add a RAM simm (or any other "user serviceable part") -- that's a major design flaw.
I read the tech manual for laptops to see how to open.
So many tricky clips and hidden screws...
@Dawid Does Tech Stuff the datasheet 5:12 says it's an 8-core Ryzen 5 5600H. The sticker on the laptop 2:37 says it has a six-core CPU. Also here 5:16 it indicates a six-core CPU. ???
You should try new glasses, or re-read what you thought you read.
@@Chris-6768wv
It clearly says “3.3GHz octa-core AMD Ryzen 5 5600H” in the first time stamp. You should try new glasses, or re-read what you thought you read.
@@-Burb Yep, you are right. Too much Bourbon! Apologies Mr. Williams.
I would much prefer the angled connector on the back or anywhere almost, straight ones tend to stick out and act like a lever and it's a great way to break a port which probably is solder to the mainboard.
they should give you both then you can choose which one works for your situation
“Lady’s love nothing more than a dude whipping out some rog” then you mention doing honey lmao you win my internets for today
6:15 The angled charging cable is actually quite helpful and easy to plug in when you are sitting in front of the laptop on a table
Also it allows for you to tie the end of that cable to a leg of a cooling stand, so when you lift the laptop up to put in a bag, you can leave the power adapter end in place and it wont fall behind the desk (along with other cables you may want to leave in place). It's much harder to do with a straight on connector. I'd always choose a 90 degree over straight on.
I have last year's version of this laptop. i7-10870H and RTX 2070, which cost $1300USD. It had 2x8GB@3200MT/s. My version does have a glory hole and has 3 MVNe slots. I upgraded to 32GB of RAM and added 2x 2TB NVMe's for a total of 5TB of NVMe storage. It's a great little machine, runs cool, and is plenty fast for my needs.
I own this laptop build with rt3070 from release date 02.2021, and cant say anything bad about it. It works great! Screen , battery, performance, keyboard, plugs, hinge, build is great! Not slim but compact enough!
Theres something totaly wrong with your settings if you have 60% gpu usage, my mashine works 100%, thottles a little on gpu side, but still can pull of 50% more performance and fidelity then my Playstation 5!
Not sure how much of an issue this is for other people, but the screen colors are absolutely terrible to the point I returned the 5900HX/3060 version. All the colors are extremely washed out , (reds orange, blues teal, etc) and no contrast at all. Ended up going with an Eluktronics Max-17 for the same price
That is a setting that you can tweak in software normally
@@joelthenoob9868 i slap my monitors saturation on 200% better colors imo
@@joelthenoob9868 There is no way to tweak the software, it's a limitation of the low color capability of the panel. If i recall correctly its 77% of SRGB. Also 20ms+ response times
@@MaxTheCenturion ok, some gaming laptops I have worked with have completely adjustable colour. I haven't worked with one of these recent Rog laptops. It was a suggestion
@@joelthenoob9868 Most do have good settings! I just wanted to save someone the sadness I had when I started it up for the first time. You can even see the pink ROG logo in the video that's supposed to be red on start up LOL
And now, forever more, access panels will be referred to as "Glory Holes" and it is all Dawids fault
when i seen the title i thought he ment the laptop was so sexy he needed a glory hole till i watched the video.
You should get a bonus from your sponsors for the extra effort you put in.
LENODE
As long as you all don’t hate the sponsored spots that’s enough of a bonus for me. 👍
I accidentally watch more of yours than i skip. Good work.
@@DawidDoesTechStuff Your sponson spots are legendary. Your Linode advert is basically a meme now.
@@DawidDoesTechStuff You fit the sponsors in very well... Others channels totally feel like hard CUTS to clip in their ads... Yours flow better, music vid ect... They dont make me quick skip past..... like most "Populour" channels... where you see then cut and paste.... clash of ..... whatever click bait Game sponsor... Appreciate you Dawid!
Even my 1991 Amiga computer(it was a microcomputer where the entire machine, including motherboard, floppy drive and later a hard disk was housed inside the keyboard for plugging into a standard TV via RF cable, a really common configuration on low price gaming computers back then) had a glory hole for putting RAM and an expansion card in.
They have no excuses in 2022.
I get the same problems with mine. I bought one with a ryzen 9, 8 cores, 300 hz 1080p monitor so the bottle neck is real 😂. I’ve been getting very worried recently because I got a 4K monitor and my cpu has been pushing 90c but hearing you I’ve gotten some confidence back, thank you. I’ve torn mine open a few times now and I don’t remember anything falling off and I was pretty cautious on a clean table. I woulda cried if something fell off mine I’m just getting into PC gaming and have had so much trouble but loving it overall.
I own this laptop with a slightly different configuration. I had to open it because the stock Mediatek wifi card was crap, and I replaced it with an Ax200 from Intel. I was careful while opening it but still managed to break a clip too 😅
did you also upgrade the ram to dual channel for better performance?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I'm with you 100% on the need for a upgrade access panel or a revision on the bottom plate that is not so horrible to open. I would be pissed off to have to go through all that to upgrade ram, storage, etc...
8:20 I recently got a Legion 5 15ACH6H with 5600H and RTX 3060, with "store-upgraded" RAM to 2x8GB sticks... and first thing I had to do after receiving it was open it myself because the store managed to break off three small plastic pieces when opening it and left them rattling inside XD
On top of that they upgraded crappy 8GB 1rx16 stick, with second 8GB 1rx16 stick instead of replacing both... so I ended up having to replace the sticks myself with proper 2rx8 sticks, that with Ryzen can give even 10-20% gain in some games compared to garbage 1rx16 ones.
Still though Legion 5 ACH6H is amazing offer for the price(Especially now when it's on sales due to new versions with Ryzen 6XXXH CPUs coming out, which provide relatively small performance upgrade, and demand much more expensive DDR5 RAM...), and it has fully powered RTX 3060, something that ASUS almost fooled me with since I planned to buy a TUF laptop with RTX 3060 at first before discovering them using low wattage version of it that's almost 15% worse XD
I am quite surprised that the thing is almost glued together, considering the optional ssd upgrade and especially the necessary ram upgrade.
-I also enjoyed the Honey music video, which i may or may not have already turned into a ringtone...
My bet is that the internals and case are designed by two different departments. The hardware team was trying to make something mostly good within their allotted budget, margin, and other requirements. Where as the case design team said “let’s look good to management by cutting an extra part that needs tooling/assembly, coming in under our budget, and screwing over the hardware team’s efforts.” Management also probably said, “Yea and that will help prevent most people from seeing the terrible RAM configuration we saddle them with because RAM is expensive and hard to get a good margin on.”
@@Pies_By_Arvid The one stick ram in laptops have bin going on for alot of years... it's a good thing Dawid and others are shining a light on it.
Yesterday i decided to inspect and order parts to upgrade an old ultrabook i bought in 2012, when i realised, it too only had 1 stick of ram...🤦🏻♂️
...but yeah, it might be exactly what you are saying, about 2 departments working on each part, and the department manager having bin a little to easy, to persuade going along with the 2 separate design teams ideas.
I have a now dead Asus G1S and I loved how all the upgradeable components had separate lids for quick access. Just a couple screws and you're in, no prying required.
This laptop reminds me of Legion 5 in quite a lot of ways
Yeah mate I have a 17 inch one with a 3060.
It even kinda looks like one to be honest.
@@DawidDoesTechStuff yea, you're right btw love the merch!
If only this laptop opened like the Legion, but I don't feel like giving Lenovo credit for their repairability right now because I am very salty about the whole CPU locking thing as it directly affects me. Every one of my main PCs has been a beast with various Xeons from old workstations all around a decade old at the time.
@@steelfox1448 yea, I'm pretty salty about that too, but the opening procedure looks fairly similar to me
I like the angled power cable. Uh, all you have to do is turn it toward whichever way the power source is. If it comes straight out the back it can limit your laptop placement as well as more wear on the cord, as every power cord phone owner knows
Ohhh, maybe I'll actually get a date if I whip out my ROG?
Only if it has RGB mate .
LGBTQ+ friendly lights are a must!
I mean that's how Dawid landed me. He whipped out his ROG and I was like HELLLLYYYEEAAHHHH
@@AnnaDoes 🤣🤣🤣
I have this laptop with the 3050ti. I have upgraded it to 2x16gb RAM and added a 1tb Nvme drive. It runs great with games as Dawid said but the battery life isn't very good but this is more of a desktop laptop. The key to opening the laptop is the front left screw (when flipped) doesn't remove but is designed to lift the corner of the case open allowing a plastic tool to gently open the case going round it, I took my time and inflicted no damage. It was also why installed 32gb ram and 1tb storage, as I plan on never having to open it again!
For 1k€ I got a legion 5 with a 5600h, 3060, 16 GB Ram and a 512 GB SSD back in November, so this looks like a bad deal to me.
Here that's like €1200 you got a super good deal
Legion 5 is no cap best value laptop on market imo.
@@chriscross3924 yeah and ?
@@TheOriginalBruh He's trying to tell you he overpaid; the same model goes for 1160€ now 😉
@Donald Nemesis Gaming
I think he knows it’s a better value in terms of specs, he’s just saying it’s ugly.
I have one with 16GB ram and RTX3050ti so no need to rip it open well until I have enough money to buy SSD upgrade. The major concern are the bezel less display which is like a paper bends easily and results in backlight bleeds. But over all the laptop is worth the money I paid (3 months salary) performs good, looks good. I take to meet my clients and they are always curious about it..feels good
I think you may have given the term "Glory Hole" a whole new meaning. Some of your viewers are going to innocently use that term to describe access to a computer. You're a funny guy and I like watching your videos for a bit of light entertainment rather than a tech tech channel that can be a bit dry. Added bonus - sometimes I actually learn something.
Hey, that's the laptops we had to buy at work for our programmers because we literally couldn't find any workstation laptops on a short notice, except I chose the Ryzen 9 version with a RTX 3060 and 16GB of RAM. I chose that model specifically because the RAM and SSD weren't soldered, unlike a lot of laptops in that price range, and because it seemed to have a decent cooling system. That's actually the first 165Hz screen I tested, I liked it so much that I bought one for my personal computer, even if my RX580 isn't to best to use it.
I was expecting a linode..not a honey, 2022 is already throwing me curveballs
:D
I have an ASUS TUF with a 3060. I had all kinds of performance issues I couldn't figure out. Changing profiles helped, but not enough. Removing Armory Crate and all the ASUS software fixed all my issues.
Clipping coupons, the great American pastime.
With all the money that ASUS have, if they are cheaping out on not having a glory hole at least they should design the case to open only by removing screws.
the ladies really love a dude whipping out some ROG🤣🤣🤣
Something to add here! Upgrade the ram to x8 instead of x16 if you can. This can sometimes make huge performance difference, because x16 is much denser thus increasing the timings which can slow the computer down. LTT made video on that
Wait 62% srgb???? This must be horrendous
i was about to type about this
I actually had the exact same issue! I received the 3050ti 7-4800H version of this laptop for my 18th, and I was a bit puzzled by the performance. Bought a couple of 8gb sticks to replace the 16gb stick (I don't really need 32gb of RAM whatsoever), plugged them in and voila! Went from 90-100 FPS on lowest settings in Valorant, to 144 at max settings. Manufacturers really need to start shipping products at their best. It's not too hard to ship a laptop with 2x8 instead of 1x16...
I really liked the review and Asus should, probably does, know better on the design and memory configuration.
I can see the purpose of the 90 degree power plug. If you lift the laptop from the front leaning the back against the table top,, this prevents you front putting as much leveraged pressure on the port and breaking it.
This is designed to never be user serviced. Glory hole at the minimum, being able to completely take the bottom off without fragile clips and I/O in the way would be best.
Yeah the “physical design” of being serviced is bad, but it’s just criminal that the spec REQUIRES it to be serviced to get decent performance.
I have this same laptop but in a higher sku: Ryzen 9 5900HX, RTX3060, and 16GB of ram (2 sticks, thank god). I love this machine. It will browse the web and stream video all day long without a hint of fan noise or heat buildup. The battery is massive. The downfiring speakers are surprisingly good for a laptop, especially when placed on a solid surface. The dolby software actually does something for the audio!
It's my 4th gaming laptop (Asus GT8600m, Lenovo GT240m, MSI GTX970), and this one is my absolute favorite. Aside from the TERRIBLE bottom panel, I am completely satisfied with this machine. Had they just included a panel that allowed access to the ram slots and 2nd m.2 slot, I think it would be perfect.
Just brake all the clips so that it is held together only by the screws. Alot easier to get in the next time. :)
That sound of the plastic clips giving way always sends a shiver down my spine.
I do miss the good old days when laptops came with small removable panel cutouts on the bottom for both RAM and HDD swaps. I don't know if I would use the same terminology for them as Dawid did, but those were handy.
Back in the day this was a necessity for a slightly different reason, though.
HDDs were prone to fail, for example. I remember buying HDDs, installing them at home, having them fail within a day and returning them to the store up to three times.
It was a similar story with RAM, even with new laptops (shipping and handling in particular as well as non-ideal storage conditions where reasons this would happen).
To be perfectly honest, all this is just a symptom of the times. Way back when (e.g. 10 to 15 years ago and earlier), you'd buy your PC stuff (and laptops) in a brick and mortar store an just have a store technician handle upgrades (they'd usually do it for free if you bought the upgraded parts there). This also meant that it was often retailers who were offering different configurations instead of manufacturers, so small upgrades had to be easy. Ever since online retail took over, it's the manufacturer that configures your machine and they want you to buy the upgrade from *them* instead (with a considerable mark-up). In light of this manufacturers today don't care about how difficult upgrades are, unless the target market is business customers.
I have a similar MSi laptop. I bought everything I needed ahead of time and upgraded it. It's a bit easier to open than that ROG, but close. I upgraded to 16GB dual-channel RAM and added a second SSD. It would be nice if there was just an easier upgrade path than taking the laptop half-apart to do it. Mine has a 3060 (max-q) and it runs really well. In some cases better than my RX 5600XT in my desktop...
The Legion 5 definitely needs a glory hole too. It's kinda' the same design and was more of a PITA than it needed to be just to install an additional m.2 drive. And for the record, I used to be field engineer for HP and Dell. I've opened thousands of laptops. So while I can open it without breaking anything, I agree that this can be designed better, and other laptops are. But at least there are two physical slots for RAM. Getting real sick of these gaming laptops with one DIMM soldered to the board.
I like this dude for reviews throughout the ram configurations and full specifications of what to buy on the ram. More like this please i'm gonna share your page dawid salute! Btw make nvme ssd and ram tutorials too.
I had one of these before it was stolen and they actually are pretty good
Stolen how?
I go to college and one day I went to go use the bathroom and I left my laptop at a table. As you can guess someone came up and took it. Unfortunately the guy never got caught. 2022 has been off to a lovey start lol
@@cgarepair1487 lmao is it hard to ask someone nearby to watch the laptop for you?
It just didn’t cross my mind lol
My friend got a higher end model Strix and, while I didn't break any clips, it was a MASSIVE pain in the ass to open it... twice.
Friendly note to anyone buying one of these in the series and adding a second NVMe drive, move the included drive to the lower slot, get a ONE-SIDED NVMe drive and an Alphacool HDX M.2 low profile heatsink for the secondary drive. Otherwise the secondary drive's temps could potentially get to out of operating spec levels.
Guess I'm part of the 1% who's opened this type of laptop twice without breaking anything 😂
Same here bro. I remember ripping mine apart 3 dabs deep 🤣
I got an Asus Vivobook 16X M7600 and I daily it when I’m not in my dorm, I love the little thing. Powerful enough where I can game or render in public but slim enough and light enough I can toss it in my bag and I don’t really feel it. Screen is amazing and paired with a custom keyboard, I can bang out essays no problem on this thing
I actually bought one of these a couple weeks ago. There is a 300Hz with dual channel memory version (the one I got), it’s actually incredible price to performance value.
You mean 3000mhz?
@@dracopug 300hz refresh rate maybe
Was it the Advantage edition with AMD GPU? Those were incredible value for sure
Same. Got the G15 advantage on a deal at best buy US $1500..(November?) just in the last month I think I saw they had $1400 or $1450!!
300hz display, 8/16 core 5900HX RX6800M, the 16 gb ram they put in is Single rank 2 dimms but dual rank or Dimms with tighter timings will increase the performance around 15% meaning you still gotta open the damn chassis
Wait they’re selling a laptop with a 3050 and a 300Hz display? Or does it have a better GPU with your model? I can’t imagine the 3050 could run anything at even close to a consistent 300 fps.
I do agree that the clips is balls and I do not know why include them when it have screws, but the technique to remove them is start at the front and when you reach the ventilation on the side, use the guitar pick to push the vents out and down. I had a hard time myself.
Ive had Asus Laptops for all of my life and they are always extremely painful to disassemble and you slowly get desensitized to the cracks when opening it.
What the heck I’ve had the exact opposite experience. Which laptops have you had? My Q550LF, Q304UA, and G14 were all super easy to open. I’m disappointed they decided to make the laptop in the video so annoying to open.
This would also be a good IT laptop. That Ethernet port on the back is nice to have.
this rtx card/laptop is slower than last gens lowest tier rtx card so thats cool
You're mixing laptop and desktop SKUs. Laptop GPUs are always slower than their desktop counterparts. Sure, you can complain about the laptop 3050 being slower than desktop 2060, but that's totally missing the point.
@@samiraperi467 you've missed the point but thank you for... well im not sure but have a nice day
@@samiraperi467
The 3050 laptop card is slower than the 2060 laptop card is what they’re saying
I agree about opening the back- it's not an overrecation. Not just to upgrade the RAM, but all laptop fans need occasional cleaning every now and then- some more than others depending on use patterns and environment.
This dude has by far the most hilarious tech videos out there.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who places importance on being able to open the laptop with one hand. It just smacks of quality when you can easily open the lid of a laptop
I won't ever buy another ASUS laptop. Everyone I know with ASUS laptops has disposed of them in like a year because they have battery issues, trackpad issues or start falling apart. I also forgot to mention that ASUS has been caught repeatedly now killing the performance of Ryzen laptops by shipping them with single channel RAM configurations, and choking off airflow. This laptop seemed to have thermals under control, but in the past there were identical Intel and AMD models, and the AMD models had plastic blocking off a lot of the vents on the bottom. I can't remember if it was you or another TH-camr but they took a dremel and removed the plastic and then it didn't overheat anymore.
whaat? ive never heard this
Yeah the old budget Asus stuff definitely had that issue. ROG is pretty good tho
My mom's old laptop still works fine. It's ancient.
And by works fine, I mean, works despite at least 1 major fall due to our dogs pulling it off the table while charging, and requires constant feeding by virtue of only having wall power.
But besides that? It still held up super well. I recently got her to get a new laptop, which she admits definitely now that it was necessary, but the old one was super great.
So I can't deny it wasn't falling apart, BUUUUUUT that was no fault of Asus' product.
I’ll only buy Asus laptops. Ive owned 3 in the past 13 years and all of them are still working fine. My current laptop is a 2020 G14, and before that I had a Q550LF and a Q304UA. The only issue I’ve ever had was a hard drive failure on my Q304UA but thats a super easy upgrade/fix once I swapped it with an SSD.
i have the G15A version of this laptop. to say it rips is an understatement. the bottom panel does kinda suck but after opening it once, its not too bad now. really happy with the build and its nice to see the cassis doesnt change too much.
I own this rog laptop with a Ryzen 9 5900HX, RTX 3060 and a 16 GB RAM configuration and it was a snatch for me back in December 2021 as it was around the 1k price point when adding the shipping cost outside of US, my only complaint if any is that the storage space is a bit too small (500 GB) coz considering windows itself requires around 40-50 GB, it's a must to add an nvme SSD but then that means I would have to open it which I won't, so my next best option is to buy an external 1TB of SSD. which is okay but at the cost of speed and compactness.
The 90 degree connector may mean that they use the same power supply with different models or even possibly with some desktop models that have external power adapters. It may just be cheaper for them to create one adapter/power brick that runs a variety of systems they offer.
Personally I like the way some of the Dell laptops have theri bottom panel. You have screws you take out, but it's also held on (or in place) with magnets, so once you remove the screws, there is no prying that's needed, You just slide the bottom panel up or to the side to move it off the small magnets which help hold it in place. No clips to worry about breaking. There are some small metal tabs that slide under the side to keep the panel in place but again, once you remove the screws, you just slide the bottom panel downward and the tabs are unlatched from the body. Easy to open. with laptops like this one shown, once you open it one time, opening it again is probably easier.
I have the 5900hx with a 3060 version and I love it Especially with dlss
This was a fun one as I have a version of this laptop. Same casing and I have had to take it apart once so I really felt your pain taking the back panel off for sure. The temps on mine can get up there. Have see GPU at 89⁰C but usually hovers around 80-83⁰C with most games I play at max settings. CPU stays around 70s. All in all I'm very happy with it. The fan can be VERY loud. I cranked it up one time just to see how loud it got and compared that to how much it helped the Temps. It would drop the Temps a good 7⁰ or so but damn that noise.
Specs
Ryzen 9 5900HX
16 GB RAM (pretty sure single stick 😔)
RTX 3070
1080p 300Hz screen
if u get an RTX3070 version of this one, you can really risk getting poor SSD performance from the primary NVMe Drive because it gets too hot sitting right next to the heatpipes. Some of them have 3 NVMe slots, others only have 2. But perhaps re your gaming performance, check the SSD temps as well. If they are getting hot it can cause performance issues as we know most NVMe SSDs tank in speed once they get hot.
Probably not that much of a concern for the OEM drives, but if you were to replace it with a faster gen3 drive like the Samsung 970 EvoPlus, it will certainly get quote hot under load.
Dawid! The reason some companies say "IPS-ish or IPS - type panel" is because LG displays owns the trademark for IPS so other display manufacturers have to compare it to IPS and can't outright say its IPS
Dawid, you are on point here. I've upgraded a similar laptops SSD and RAM and now my laptop is held together with duct tape.
The heat from the laptop melts the glue of the duct tape and then it starts drifting and covering the ports
I've got another RoG laptop that uses the same body shell (G15 Advantage Edition) and yeah, the nightmare clamshell and dubiously durable ribbon cables are baffling when you finally get inside and find that the motherboard is so easy to service. When I first got my laptop I immediately went for an SSD upgrade, and because of inexperience on my part I had to try several times before I got the SSD working. Every time I tugged on a ribbon cable or began to crack open the clamshell I felt like I was defusing a bomb. At least the many broken clips now littering my desk and carpet will make getting inside for regular cleanings easier.
i've taken apart like 10-15 new rog laptops and never had the plastic clips broken. you just have to unscrew the bottom right screw will will pop things off nicely
so i had a version of this laptop that had the Ryzen 7 4800 and the RTX 2060 in it for a while. I noticed the bottleneck too with the built in display. Figured out that the built in display uses the on board graphics built into the Ryzen processor as a kind of scaler. It pushes video through the RTX 2060 then through the Ryzen VEGA video to be displayed on the built in screen. If you use an external monitor through the Type C port, you should get better FPS and a more consistent performance through the GPU as it will no longer go through the VEGA graphics chip
The stock ram stick look like the el-cheapo 1Rx16 density ones. Swapping that out with the actual pair of the Ripjaws would probably yield better performance overall in gaming.
Have the same model, but with 5900HQ, 3070, 32ram, 2K sRgb
However, thanks to you, David, I am terrified more than ever to upgrade storage.
This is some kind of Schroedinger's cover: at the same time it's clips are broken and fine, and you will never find out unless you open it.
I personally own a Dell G5 laptop featuring the all same specs and YES!, and cost me here in Australia 🇦🇺 $580~USD on a great sale 🥰👍🤩🏆. I agree the ram upgrade makes a very noticeable difference to average fps and 0.1% lows. The RTX3050 is definitely an amazing GPU for the laptop price even compared to previous generation gpus. Love your content Dawid & amazing sense of humour 😜🤪.
I ended up with a similar model as this one, it has a 5900HX and a 3060 instead, but the chassis is almost identical. Mine came with two 8GB sticks for 16GB instead of a single 16GB, so something about this configuration makes them feel to use a single 8GB. Almost like they didn't have two 4GB available to install and just went "oh we have one 8GB". At least ASUS does install 2 sticks depending, so it is not 100% always 1 module.
I have an older version of this laptop with a GTX1650 in it and it’s one of the most comfortable laptops I’ve ever used. Not super powerful but for I do with it, it gets the job done well
While not the same model, one of the selling points on the Asus G14 I picked up last year was the lack of a webcam. Have no use for one so I prefer just not having it in the first place. Luckily it came with 16gb of ram in dual channel. Ridiculous that any manufacturer is still using single channel memory configs on any modern PC, let alone one targeted towards 'gaming'.
Your point about getting a laptop with SINGLE CHANNEL memory for $1000 is perfectly on point. And the design with the 2000's style cover on the bottom is also right on point. Memory will be upgraded during its lifetime, and the battery will very likely need replacing, too. I do think that ASUS knew exactly what they were doing here: Designing and selling a laptop destined to become e-waste instead of being upgraded with more memory, having the battery replaced, or the NVMe upgraded. Nice review.
Not sure why you think the angled power connector is bad? My default is that everything should be a 90 degree angle unless you specifically need a straight connector. But especially for ports in the back the angled connectors can help a lot if you're on a surface near a wall. Those straight connectors require the device to sit out from the edge further than I'd like just to have enough room for them.
Brilliant title, never would have clicked this if I wasnt so fucking confused & intrigued lmfao
You are spot on, there is absolutely no reason it needs to be this hard to open. We all know it's to stop upgrading/fixing.
Yeah, I'm of the opinion that areas of a laptop (eg. RAM, SSD) should have accessibility hatches separate from the main body, especially "Gaming" laptops, as there is a high chance upgrades will be made. The laptop provides extra slots for upgrades so it should be more access friendly to make the upgrades without having to pry and break the bottom cover with a crowbar.
4:22 Oh thank God, I can relax and enjoy the rest of the review now. Was wondering what the heck Dawid meant in the title. xD
Great review, sir. Definitely agree on the clips, at all points.
I doubt it would make much of a difference, but did you use the original RAM stick with one G.Skill stick, or did you use both of the new sticks? Also I assume you tried Windows power settings. Fun vid as always!
My legion 5 has the same issue, to get at the upgradeable components the whole back bezel has to come apart, I bought a used zbook g2 (workstation quadro gpu from yesteryear) and it just has a nice latch, the g3 actually went back to the full back bezel design but much easier to remove than lenovo. I miss the individual coverings of MUCH older lappies, a zbook predecessor the elitebook (the obama laptop) had individual door thingies for the gpu, the mem and hdds/ssds. It just brought back memories of how I always wanted a fully modular laptop with discrete graphics (via mxm) and it never happend, instead we regressed and now you can't even upgrade the cpu (most these days are bgas).
I bought this same type of laptop in May last year and I have been looking for a review of this specific one. FINALLY found it. I do not look forward to upgrading the specs AT ALL. Also, the more you use it, the less traction the mouse pad has.
Never seen any of your videos til this one, I love your review style! Subbed
Difficult to open laptop chassis are a valid complaint in my book. That sh*t is stressful. My old 2012 Asus gaming laptop has a glory hole and actually came with two sticks installed internally but the glory hole opened to two additional slots. Even though the gpu is now horrendously underpowered it's still a great device with a decent 4 core 8 thread i-7, 24gb of ram, and a replacement ssd for the original hdd.
I have the exact same model and my GPU usage is pegged at 99% in most games. Maybe it's some defect in the specific unit you got? Great review btw!
The low gpu usage may be cause because the laptop doesn't have a muxx switch. This can be fix by pluging it ton an external monitor.
I've got an asus laptop that i bought just as COVID was shutting things down but we hadn't reached tumbleweeds on computer hardware yet. RAM upgrade was done even before I powered it on the first time, and yeah, it's just as terrible to open. I think about prying off the bottom for a larger nvme and then remember I can just redownload stuff off steam. (For the record, I DID install 2 1tb nvme drives in mine, but data expands to fill the space...)
Braver man than me.. you kept going after the first bad cracking sound while taking the back off.. I would have just put the screws back in and used it for web browsing.. its crazy how hard some manufacturers make it..
Breaking clips? This is like every laptop ever. It's incredibly annoying that manufacturers continue to make them this way.
I did the same thing, bought a "relatively" cheap gaming laptop with a 3060 and a single 8gb stick of RAM (MSI GF65), then immediately opened it up and crammed a proper dual-channel kit in it. It also has no glory hole, but it has very few plastic clips so I was able to open it up without breaking anything. It was on sale at Memory Express and it was roughly the same price as a desktop RTX 3060 GPU - sure, a mobile 3060 has less power but this is also an ENTIRE COMPUTER.
This is the biggest argument for gaming laptops right now. You get a full PC, and a UPS in the form of a battery, for the price of a desktop GPU. It's also crammed into a 1L-ish chassis for that nice portability aspect too.
I own the ROG Strix G512LW with the RTX 2070 mobile unit and an intel i7-10870H and 16GB of ram. If it wasn't for the dual channel memory, this laptop wouldn't be nearly as good as it could be.
ALSO!!! On Windows, be sure to set the power to maximum in the settings menu for windows. This makes a HUGE difference for these laptops as Asus really doesn't want you to run at full power all the time.