Does anyone have an ASUS Zenbook?

pwjohnston

So I have drooled over these since they came out. I heard v1.0 wasn’t a homerun, but when is it? I’ve heard tons of great things about the newer models. The main thing that has held me back is that I thought they solder the RAM into the motherboard and they do BUT:

Asus Zenbook UX32VD Teardown - Page 2 - iFixit

They have 2 GB on the board and another 2 GB removable. My question now is, I need at least 8 GB on a laptop, has anyone upgraded theirs? If so how much. The CPU can handle at least 16 GB I’m sure, but the I’m wondering what the motherboards limits are?

it_consultant

I have one and I would discourage anyone from taking it apart. I am thinking that at some point they will come with 8GB from the factory. I like the laptop, it boots really quickly and it is very light. I wish they would rip off the MAC magnetic charging port, I tripped over my charging cord once and now the male connector is a little bent.

pwjohnston

it_consultant wrote: »

I have one and I would discourage anyone from taking it apart.

Boo! What's the point of having a computer you can't take apart, even if it is pretty? No but seriously, I was afraid of that. What OS are you running on it? Any other complaints?

it_consultant

I run Windows 8. I think the newer models come with a somewhat more robust keyboard, which is/was the weakest part of the laptop. Otherwise it is awesome. I get curious looks from people who assume it is the latest mac book air.

gauntletmm

I have a UX32VD, and it's actually made to be taken apart and upgraded. Asus announced it as such and talked about it several times before its release. The first generation of Zenbooks had only the basic models: the UX21 and 31, with the i5 or i7 options and SSD capacity options. But when they launched the Prime series, I read one article (couldn't find it to cite) where the Asus rep said they had heard from the PC market and they wanted an ultrabook they could customize/upgrade (and, most importantly, with dedicated graphics). So along comes the UX32VD; the GTX 620M for light gaming and a little more graphical prowess, and specs just begging to be upgraded. There are several upgrade walkthroughs on the web:

the Tek Syndicate: Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD Teardown, SSD Upgrade, Ram Upgrade, Gaming Benchmark, and Review - YouTube
and ThreeGuysTech: Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD: SSD & RAM Upgrade - YouTube

and these, along with reviews everywhere (Amazon, etc) say that if you open this thing up, replace the 2GB of removable RAM with an 8GB stick (make sure it's 1600mhz and cas latency of 11 or less) for a total of 10GB and an SSD (I went with a 512Gb Vertex 4) you turn this thing into a beast! I love it... the 1080p display is already top of the line, and now I have more RAM than some desktop replacements, i7 processing power, dedicated graphics, and a ton of blazing fast storage space. I can't imagine beating it. I'm also a sucker for the look of the Zenbooks. So that's been my experience. I had heard about this model before it's release and everything I read said you should open it up and replace the slow 5400RPM HDD, RAM, etc. And it's quite common from what I've read.

To answer your specifics, the RAM maxes out at 10GB (2GB soldered on the motherboard, and 1 SO DIMM slot), most of them still come with Windows 7 (mine did) and it_consultant is dead on about the keyboard issue. The first gen Zenbooks had a lot of "flex" in the center of the keyboards; this one does not seem to have that problem. Speaking of it-consultant, maybe he has one of the other models of the Zenbook... they are all unibody construction, very rigid and Macbook Air like, and NOT meant to be taken apart and upgraded. But if you watch the 2 videos above, you'll see how easy (as if they wanted up to do it! lol) the UX32VD is to open up. Hope that helps!