I have a laptop now several months in operation and I'm still very excited. The battery life is very good, display is absolute peak, and the SSD is still fast enough ...
--------------------
I have the ASUS UX31A (with 256 GB Sandisk SSD) now for about a week and would like to share my experience:
1. Start
After initial startup, the touchpad was virtually unusable. I started the program "ASUS Live Update" and had to restart, until all the drivers were updated the computer several times. It would be nice for the first time you start an automatic start of been "ASUS Live Update", then update all drivers and then reboot. But the lengthy tour has led to the desired result. Touchpad works just fine.
The bios I then manually updated with the tools of ASUS to version 206.
2. SSD from Sandisk
Windows will start in a few seconds, Lightroom starts very quickly and also the operation (only RAW photos Canon EOS 40D) is fast enough for me. Copying large files (films), is felt sufficiently fast (Total Commander is about 50 MB / s to copy a partition C to D. The SSD has to read and write so ...).
Because of the many tests that show specifically at 4k large files a marked difference to AData SSD, I once copied the Lightroom catalog with the preview pictures of partition D to C. 3,978 files in 3,706 folders (3,441,579,344 bytes) were from partition D min to C in 1 and copied 20 s. A file is then about 865 153 bytes in size. The test is not really practicable for me but still better than tests with 4KB large files that are actually playing, in my view only when you start programs involved. Since Windows and Lightroom start for me quickly enough, I have no problems with the SanDisk SSD.
The business policy of ASUS I find also very poor. If already several manufacturers of SSD, but then please with almost the same specifications. I would also like the AData with the better test results. Since the notebook but otherwise absolutely great is (no rattling touchpad, no warped lid and it is available on all feet) I'll keep it definitively.
3. Fan Noise
For me, again one of the puzzles that I the various hard drives and the very uncomfortable updating the drivers, ASUS can not understand how. Once all the drivers were updated and the notebook the first time has awakened from the standby again, the fans have shown what they can do. This condition was a 1200 - absolutely unacceptable expensive notebook.
In order to assess what the fan straight, the program SpeedFan ([...]) I have installed myself.
In order to eliminate the fan problem, the following drivers must be uninstalled:
Control Panel / Programs and Features / Intel® Dynamic Platform and Framework Thermal Drive
Important: The driver must be uninstalled from the Control Panel, because it is not just about one, but several drivers that can not be uninstalled separately from the Device Manager.
Turn off your notebook now, so go down and not as proposed by the uninstaller restart.
After the notebook is off, press the power button and min. 40 sec. hold. The long pressing has the same effect as if the battery is removed. The processor is therefore hereby connected absolutely stress-free.
Then start the notebook back to normal.
For me and for many other this approach worked. My fan is now either or rotates very slightly audible 3200 rpm.
If desired, the Intel drivers from the ASUS page [...] can be re-downloaded and installed under the Robrik "Others". This has in me immediately but meant that the fan ran at full bore ...
The only negative I previously been accrued impact of uninstalling is that the Device Manager now eight (8) "unknown devices" are present. So far I have but besides these entries still can not see any negative consequences.
I explain this phenomenon so that ASUS have programmed in the BIOS and Intel as a driver fan control. However, these two programs do not seem to know each other and interfering. Since the fan control in the BIOS can not be disabled, leaving only the uninstallation of Intel - Driver.
This approach, I have found only through research on the internet. The hotline from ASUS has not helped me.
I am with my UX31A with SanDisk now very happy and hope that this also remains so long ...
