ASUS ZX53VW 15.6″ Gaming Laptop, NVIDIA, GTX 960M 4GB, FHD, Intel Core i5-6300HQ, 8GB DDR4, 512GB SSD, Backlit keyboard, Microsoft signature image, Anti-Glare Matte Display.

Upgrade ready laptop accepts 32GB RAM and up to a 2TB M.2 SATA SSD – See important instructions to configure the display adapter, December 9, 2016

By 

MICHAEL G LUSTIG (NJ USA) –

  

This new ZX53VW gaming laptop from Asus is a real powerhouse. It comes with a 4GB NVIDIA GTX 960M which supports 4K video on an external monitor via the HDMI port. SEE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW to make the GTX 960M the default display adapter.

There’s not a lot of detailed information on this laptop so here’s what I know:
* There is a USB C connector but it is not Thunderbolt so it can’t be used for video (I was really hoping for this to work for a dual monitor setup.)
* There is 8GB of DDR4 laptop memory included. There are two memory slots and they support 16GB per slot for a total of 32GB. See my photo where I removed the 8GB chip and added two 16GB DDR4 chips for 32GB RAM. Make sure to buy DDR 4 laptop memory like Crucial 16GB Single DDR4 2133 MT/s (PC4-17000) SODIMM 260-Pin Memory – CT16G4SFD8213 for a total of 24GB RAM or Crucial 32GB Kit (16GBx2) DDR4 2133 MT/s (PC4-17000) SODIMM 260-Pin Memory – CT2K16G4SFD8213 for a total of 32GB RAM.
* There is a M.2 (2880) SATA SSD slot but it DOES NOT support NVMe. I tried a Samsung 960 EVO Series – 1TB PCIe NVMe – M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V6E1T0BW) and the card fits but there is an error: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
* There is also a SATA III HDD bay where you can fit a 2.5″ SATA III HDD. I took apart a 2TB external HDD I had an installed it into this drive bay. Note: 4 screws are included for mounting the HDD but there are no brackets so you have to get them separately.
*There are two graphics display adapters: Intel HD Graphics 530 (strangely the default) and the NVIDIA GTX 960M. You need to change the default display adapter to the NVIDIA GTX 960M. See the instructions below.
* There are 3 standard-sized USB ports (two are USB 3.0), a USB C (non thunderbolt) port, a HDMI output, speaker/headphone jack, RJ45 network outlet and a cable lock receptacle.
* There is a built-in camera, Blue Tooth, Wi-Fi, stereo speakers and a touch pad which can be disabled from the keyboard when using a mouse.

This computer is shipped with a 512GB SATA SSD in the M.2 slot. You can remove it and replace it with a SATA (not NVMe) SSD up to 2TB but you have to remove the existing 512GB SATA SSD first. There is also what I believe to be an SATA connector an enough space to mount a SATA SSD. I’m not using this connector yet but I have a 1TB SATA SSD I’m going to try next.

Keep in mind that I took a brand new computer and added 32GB of RAM and attempted to add a 1TB NVMe SSD which almost doubled the price of this computer. I ended up returning the Samsung 960 EVO because it didn’t work. I now know there are different connectors for SATA and NVMe drives where the NVMe drive has more pins but is the same physical size.

I ordered and cancelled a MacBook “Pro” specifically because it was limited to 16GB of memory. While it was being built, I decided I wasn’t going to settle for 16GB and that I couldn’t justify spending several thousand dollars for a computer that didn’t meet my needs. In the real world, professional computers for web development (like I use mine for) have a minimum of 24GB RAM so there’s nothing professional about the MacBook Pro. The ASUS ZX53VW with the 4GB NVIDIA GTX 960M, 32GB RAM and a 2TB SSD is truly a professional setup and has ample RAM, storage and a fast display adapter.

This computer is not thin for numerous reasons. There is a lot of space inside to add a SATA SSD, and SATA M.2 card and there’s a Blue Ray DVD player taking up space that most new laptops simply don’t have anymore. The drawbacks are the lack of dual monitor support offered by a Thunderbolt 3 connector, an i5 CPU as opposed to an i7 CPU and the lack of Thunderbolt and NVMe support. (ASUS has other laptops that support Thunderbolt 3 but this one doesn’t.)

I tested this “gaming” computer using Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X Steam Edition and at full HD (1,920×1,080), it was pumping out 32 FPS. Using an external 4K HD monitor, flight simulator couldn’t handle the increased resolution and was only capable of generating a few frames per second. I am using a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick as my controller and it works great. As for speed doing real world computing, I installed Hyper-V and three VMs using Server 2012 R2: A DNS server, a SQL server and a SharePoint 2016 Server. With all three VMs running, I still have excellent response times because I dedicated 4GB of RAM per VM. The VMs boot and run very fast and I can definitely use them for my job as a web developer.

The case is plastic and isn’t as nice as some other laptops but it is metal-lined. The keyboard has a…

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