ASUS K40AB/K50AB user guide:

1) Specification
2) The so called heat-regarding issue
3) Driver/software download
4) Overclocking HD4570
5) Tweak/optimization
6) SRS Premium Sound tweaks for music
7) Benchmark/game experience and tweaks
8) My reviews on K40AB
9) Windows 7 Experience Index score
10) Prolong the battery life: tweaks
11) Upgrade that doesnt void the warranty

Link to V1 if you interested

1) ASUS k40AB specification:

k50AB is similar in spec but it have bigger 15.6" LCD and full sized keyboard with numpad

*UPDATE*
The new k40/K50AB now comes with Turion RM75 2.2GHz instead of Athlon QL64/65 2.1GHz, which supposed to be slightly faster and more power efficient

2) Regarding heat on this laptop

There are no such thing as heat issue, high heat (60-80C) is normal on laptop because its restricted size and the amount of transistor and speed it have, because the suface area of the laptop and limited space, its hard to put full fledged heatsink on it, so laptop components are designed to handle higher temperature than desktop while at the same time consume as little power as possible

Normal temperature for this laptop is around 55-65C for CPU or 65-70C for GPU (HD4570). Both are idle temperature on my K40AB with the backpanel removed and cooled by cheap notebook cooler

Even with state of the art notebook cooler cant help it, it wont feed to the HSF inside as there are no intake directly to it

3) Driver/software download:

Download latest driver for K40AB/K50AB from ASUS here

BIOS link for k40AB

BIOS link for k50AB. Latest for k50 currently is 218, download here

VIA 7.30 audio driver download here

Mobility 10.12 Vista/7 x64 or Mobility 10.12 Vista/7 x86

Download Mobility HD 4570 driver:
This laptop support advanced PowerXpress, which disables discrete GPU and run the onboard when not gaming
Additionally if you are more advanced user you can opt not to install CCC (Catalyst Control Center) and install ATi Tray Tools. Its much lighter and provides with more setting to play with.

The latest mobility modder already support HD4XXX series so you can download normal Catalyst and mod it. Because of this I removed link from ASUS site and DNA driver

If you want to overclock HD4570, use AMD GPU clock tool v0.9.26.0

Download AMD Overdrive here
Overdrive is mainly used for changing memory timings, since it can't allow to overclock on k40AB

Download k10stats from here
k10 stats is used for downclock or downvolt your CPU to get the most from its batteries and reducing temperature when you just browsing

Some k10stat setting:
For idle I suggest reduce the voltage to 0.9V, I get under 50C when browsing with it
For load 1.05V is good, I'll try to test at lower voltage, but your result may vary (I can go notch lower, 1.0375V)

How to use k10stats

Download AMD Fusion from here
Fusion is used to reduce system process when gaming, reducing CPU overhead and freeing up memory so you get the most from your system when gaming

AMD Fusion Mobility is a much better than normal Fusion, as it can also optimises battery life. Download it here

Use the latest GPU-Z v0.3.6 to monitor temperature on this card. Download it here.

4) Overclocking HD4570
Overclocking HD4570 is a possibility now after the introduction of new AMD GPU Clock tool. Download AMD GPU clock tool v0.9.26.0 for overclock

The recomended clockspeed of HD4570 is around 700MHz - 730MHz for the core while the memory is 580MHz - 600MHz, this is purely theoretical, some can achieve higher core clock (like kucingfight can reach 740MHz core while I only managed 725MHz max but I can reach 615MHz memory)

It is highly recomended that you provide sufficient airflow when overclocking. And for best speed, even overclocking the memory is sufficient enough for quite a boost in performance as this is equipped with slower DDR2 memory

5) Tweaks/optimisation:

Tweaking Media Player Classic (K-Lite codec) for video watching here

LCD scaling problem can be minimized by following this guide and DNA driver. If you using normal driver follow this step
You can change the BIOS setting to just use the HD 4570 instead of switching between the onboard one, change from 'Power Xpress' mode to 'dGPU'. Its advisable to use HD4570

If you have difficulty installing XP, read this guide


k40AB can get pretty toasty when running games, here is the hot spots on it:
Red color is the main heatsink to cool all three major heat source( the CPU, chipset and the discrete GPU) the orange one is the CPU and chipset is located (GPU is under the red area), the slightly lighter orange on the far left is where the power connector is, this can get warm when you use the power adapter and lastly the yellow area is the harddisk, rather warm

6)SRS Premium Sound tweaks for music:
You can found SRS Premium Sound in Setup under Optional components (when you run the autorun driver installer, click Advance to open all optional driver/software), it’s a recommended install over default sound driver for better and louder sound from the onboard speaker

Set the 'Content' to music, 'Output' to Notebook Speaker, predefined audio to SRS Premium, click Options > Advanced control and adjust to these:

SRS Definition: 33% (mids brightness)
SRS TruBass: 60%
SRS TruBass Speaker Size: Medium
SRS 3D Center: 50% (vocal)
SRS 3D Space: 100% (instruments, soundstage)
SRS Focus: 50% (sound focus)

This purely depends on music you play, you are free to tweak it to your heart content. Use this as a baseline

7)Benchmarks/games experience and tweaks:

3DMark06 default score: 3047 3DMarks (Catalyst 9.7 )
Command and Conquer Kane's Wrath: playable at 1366x768 everything on High detail
Call of Duty 2: Playable at 1366x768 2xAA with High detail (no shadows)
By krovaxq:
*If the games you play feels sluggish, reducing shadows will give HUGE boost in performance*

Recommended resolution to play games is 1024x600, 1280x720 or 1280x768, 1366x768 is too high and this GPU is too slow for it. Overclocking can give a boost in framerate

Read here for NFS: Shift problem and remedy

If any of your old games dont support widescreen, go towidescreengamingforum.com to check whether it support thru hacking/inf edit or sort

Crysis/ Warhead is hard to run on ANY system, I found it performs well at Mainstream/ Medium detail at 1280x720 or 1280x768

Here is one of my custom config that playable at 1280x768 (set it everything to Low/Minimum before putting this (make a new text documents, paste it and rename autoexec.cfg)

Battery life: 2 hours 10 minutes in normal situation, if you undervolt to 0.9V using k10stats and force it to run 1.05GHz, it will squeeze 25 minutes more battery, plus the reduction of temperature around 8-10C *tested by hanz08*

8)My reviews on K40AB:

9) Windows 7 Experience Index (I'm using RC 7100):
CPU: 4.7
RAM: 5.0 (1x2GB RAM) or 5.2 (3GB)
Graphics: 4.2 (4.5 when overclock 710/610)
Game Graphics : 4.5 (5.4 when overclock 710/610)
HDD: 5.3

10) battery ife tweak

This is my own way to maintain and use battery:

1) If you use it at home and not move regularly, remove the battery after full charging even though its not charging, the battery DO get hot even if its not charging (this is from my own test)
2) If you want your battery to have a longer lifespan, use it at least half its capacity at least one a months. Lithium ion battery dont need full drain
3) If you plan to not use the battery at all (for some unknown reason, maybe a backup battery) charge the battery till around 40-50%, remove it and keep it at the cool place

Some link to read, here and here

11) Upgrade that doesnt void the warranty

I assume that if there are no sticker that say warranty is voided, it means it can be changed. Removing the backpanel is obviously dont void the warranty. The list that can be upgraded without voiding warranty:
1) Harddrive
2) RAM

Upgrade that void the warranty is:
1) Processor (removing the HSF will rip the warranty sticker)

This post has been edited by Najmods: Dec 23 2010, 08:59 AM

HD 4570 overclocked scores on some Futuremark/MadOnion synthetic benchmark:

Clockspeed is 729MHz for core and 616.5MHz on memory, Catalyst 9.10 minimum detail on control panel

3DMark01SE: 12860 3DMarks
3DMark03 version 3.6.0: 10086 3DMarks
3DMark05 version1.2.0: 6917 3DMarks

3DMark06: 3492 3DMarks
SM2.0: 1279
HDR/SM3.0: 1483
CPU score: 1492

3DMark Vantage:
Performance 1366x768: GPU 1061 CPU 1441
Entry: E3090 GPU: 5041 CPU: 1422

Crysis Warhead cutscenes video on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05xIpOgasz0

Battery test:

Set at high performance setting but tweaked to save power when running battery, PCIe link to maximum power saving, video set to maximum power saving, brightness is six notches from minimum, using onboard speaker at 4 notches from maximum, with CPU fan is locked at full speed via USB power. CPU set at 1GHz 0.9V, using HD3200 GPU in PowerXpress mode. Windows 7 theme leave as it is with Aero running. Wireless is ON with maximum performance. No external mouse or notebook cooler

Video is played on K-Lite CODEC Media Player Classic with two shader enabled, sharpen complex and 16 - 235 -> 0 - 255 [SD][HD]. Video tested is Watchmen encoded at 672x272 23.98fps, mp3 112kBps and 2:42:04 length run at fullscreen
Started at 5:02pm, shutdown at 6:37PM with 5% left on the battery

Overriding fan speed via USB power

Disconnect fan connector from the fan header on the mobo, use a long thin cable with very thin conductor that can fit inside the fan connctor like picture below
http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?act=Atta...post&id=1301481

You only need to connect the red to +5V and black to ground on USB ports. The USB port pinout can be found here. Look at picture below how it connected to USB ports. You can connect the ground to any ground on the mobo, like the charger ground will work too
http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?act=Atta...post&id=1301482

For you to get it work with the backpanel closed, you got to plug the wire inside the case, thankfully the inside of the USB port is open and you can safely put it there and still be able to use the USB port while it supplying power to the CPU+GPU fan

Picture below shows the +5V supply of the USB


And I ground the CPU+GPU fan onto the DC in pictured below, now you can put the backpanel and still running full speed


Optional mod: Resistor mod

You can put a resistor between the power connector and the USB connector to reduce its voltage, a 10 ohm resistor is good, somewhere between 5-10 ohm is good, I use 6.67 ohm (10 and 20 ohm paralled) to get reasonable speed and voltage and speed


BIOS flashing for dumb people:


The BIOS itself can flash it, download the latest BIOS, put it to any thumbdrive or put it to somewhere simple like C:\ or D:\, restart PC go to BIOS by pressing F2 and go to Advanced -> Start Easy Flash and browse for your BIOS files

This post has been edited by Najmods: Dec 5 2009, 09:26 PM

Since most of the aspects of this notebook is covered, i'll just share my personal reviews on it

1. As of writing, this is definitely the best bang buck lappy (<2k) that offers some punch for gaming
2. Power Express (3200->4570 & vice versa) * Update (3 March/2010)Power Express switching working perfectly with the new beta Catalyst 10.3
3. Battery life is averagely ok. (no suprise as AMD has inferior battery life). Full charge, (Watching movie + averagely loud volume) gives me around 1hr 40mins. Surfing could be longer, around 2hours.
4. If your looking for something that has longer battery life, skip this & go for intel. Off course, expect to pay more for the similiar config hardware
5. Excellent 2yrs Global warranty from Asus. definitely value added
6. Cooling design is very efficient. U'll hardly feel any heat emitting from the palm rest area even @ max load.
7. Good built quality & finishing (carbon fibre like ). It still creaks slightly here & there, but it's understandable for its price. I had even feel lousier plastics on other brands
8. keyboard is OK, a bit soft & 'thin' for my liking. I guess is a personal thing, but i still prefer the feel of Compaqs.

Recommended Software
- K10Stats (to undervolt & improve batt life)
- VLC media player (boost up the volume up to 400% - if WMP is too 'soft')
- GPUOverclock Tool (OC the vga to boost up FPS)

Pros:
- best bang value <rm 2k notebook, that offers some serious gaming power
- 2years Global warranty
- Adequate processing power
- Above average built quality for its price, nice carbon fibre pattern like
- It’s blardy <rm 2000 (to be exact rm1899-1999 – depending on model & availability). What more do u expect.
- Efficient heat management, palm rest is very cool even @ load

Cons
- battery life (not really a negative point, as it’s more of an AMD issue)

Frequent FAQ

1. HOW TO ACCESS THE INTERNAL PARTS For Parts Upgrading
- remove the 4 screws along the kensington lock area
- remove 1 screw in the battery compartment area (remove the battery 1st, u can see a screw holding the lid)
- slide the plastic lid out

2. How does a notebook cooler affects the temperature
- Virtually none. The Asus’s thermal management is efficient & cleverly design. U can’t even feel any heat at all even @ load. So save your money for other useful upgrades like RAM

3. How does it compare to dell studio 15 (1555)
Differences
Dell
– Intel T6600 ( more efficient/faster clock to clock compared to AMD, and lower power consumption)
– Has esata/HDMI/Windows 7 (asus has none, only VGA)
– 3gb DDR2 (no big problem, you can easily add more RAM to Asus)
– Windows 7 (asus’s freedos)
– ATi 4570 GDDR3 memory @ 680/800 ( Asus’s is DDR2 @ 680/500 – probably the max you can OC is 700/600 average)
– Has Blue Tooth module ( Asus has none, you could buy USB powered)

Asus K40/50AB
- Relatively slower processing power clock to clock ( I roughly gauge it equivalent to a 1.8ghz Core2/Pentium Dual core)
- Lower battery life [comparing the 15.6’’ version] (roughly 2hours vs 3hours of surfing wifi)
- Longer warranty 2yrs instead of 1yr from dell (big bonus)
- Better themal management/design ( Asus palm rest area is cool even @ load, feel the Dell studio 15 and you’ll know it’s hotter even on surfing)
- Has numpad ( useful or not, depends on individual)

DESIGN:
Individual’s Preferences, you could hate/like Asus’s or Dell’s design, or couldn’t be bother by any of it. Personally, I prefer the Asus’s design more, black, carbon fibre pattern like design. Built quality wise, probably the asus has a tiny edge better built construction than Dell’s.

Which one is better?
So, the price difference is around rm 700 – 750. I usually tell ppl this, both offer equivalent price: performance: paid. You get more stuff with what you pay more. Let’s breakdown the ‘upgraded’ components on Dell Studio 1555
- Win7 Home Premium 64bit = rm400
- Intel CPU = rm150 more?
- 1gb ddr2 = rm90
- 4570 DDR3 = mayb around rm100 difference?
- Bluetooth = rm20

So it works out more to be an ‘upgrade’ for the price difference.

If processing power, battery life is of your concern, go for Dell Studio 15.
If your on the cheap, with only max rm 2k to spend, look no further than Asus K40/50AB

This post has been edited by kucingfight: Mar 3 2010, 01:45 PM

Wow, V2 already.
Just officially become ASUS K40AB user last sunday.

Installing Windows 7, very smooth. Note that software n driver comes with asus dvd only support windows vista. I've trying to install, mostly works but power xpress doesnt works. Had to download win7 program n driver from asus website to make it perfect

Had been install GRID, laggy on 1366x768 with medium setting. Tweak some image quality setting so can run 30fps.
Also install HAWX, default setting also a bit lag.

Anyone trying NFS SHIFT ? I didnt try coz it run a laggy even on my desktop with 9600GT.

This post has been edited by Someonesim: Oct 15 2009, 01:49 AM

reserve for my personal review

why, i cant find Optional components setting.?

already installed audio driver from asus cd.. help me pls.

xKAIZERUx 's Asus K50AB-SX021L Review

After 2 month of heavy usage, Now its time for me to write up my own review of this laptop.

Detailed Specification


Pictures


Design and Aesthetics
The outer design of the casing is quite pleasing. With different angle, the color can be black or dark-brown. Closer look will reveal dots n short horizontal line, with also, in different angle, will change its color either black or gray. It makes the K50AB looks more expensive. But the cons here is the casing is really prone to fingerprint and other smudges.

Keyboard
The Keyboard with numpad is a big plus for people that worked with a lot of number. With the key adequately spaced, my medium sized hand(compared with a dozen of my friends hand) feels really comfortable. In this model, Asus have opted for fn + key for any other functions. More than half of the fn + key need driver installed to be functional, and this really irritate me, because I like my windows to be ran in minimal process as possible. Abandoning these software makes 10 key nonfunctional. The plus point is, the key is really responsive, I have no problem in typing my long assignments.

Touchpad
The touchpad is quite weird. It integrates with the casing, and it is not as responsive as other touchpad I've touch so far. Most of the time, I rather be using a provided USB mouse. The touchpad uses multitouch technology, with that, 2 finger operation will make it scroll, 3 finger tap will open up context menu(the right-click in our mouse). Sometimes, it doesnt work.

Screen
The 15.6" screen is a welcomed and the main reason why I choose K50AB over the lighter and longer lasting brother K40AB. The viewing angle is average. With minimum brightness settings, you have to be viewing the right angle to get to see full screen without the color to be washed away. The brightness however, is great. I have no problem watching DVD in bright sunlight.

TBC...

Software Tutorial

K10STAT


1. Go to P-State TAB.
2. Go to the P0 and P1, choose P1, at CPU voltage, set 0.9000
3. Press apply.

Play around with the settings. This is few of my reccommendation on the settings of K10 stat and its potential.

setting 1: always 2.1GHz mode.


setting 2: always 1GHz mode.


This post has been edited by xKAIZERUx: Nov 7 2009, 10:00 PM

Wow. So many people reserve post. Btw, tones of information being provided. Let's see how many repeated questions are being asked.

Wow V2 alr..TS forgot link back to V1.

Guys.. i already update my thread on guide for gpu scaling problem. so.. if you have some problem or have some difficulty on using the guide, just ask..

thank you very much..

This post has been edited by syahpian: Oct 15 2009, 09:15 AM

front page should be posted with info or faqs. not like other threads the in b4s, the first! the haha! the stupid "yay! v2 v2 v2!!!" or like shit good morning, etc...

i agree with najmod to limit this thread to strict discussion or guide only. so i'm reserving my post for any screenis. anyone who have screenshots of games, benchmark screenshot, pm me with the image link, and I will put there.

I think somewhere i have found another software to monitor GPU temp, but I seem to forget where i put the software, even the software name.

Anyways, I've installed Fusion Mobility version,i've noticed that switching from 3200 -> 4570 isn't a problem now. more of like, with fusion, screen doesn't go blank switching from Batt -> AC Adaptor -> Batt. In short, i think the powerplay is working properly, but not sure to which extend if the 3200 is able to stretch the batt life longer

this is the score of windows experience index K40AB(not overcloked) on windows 7 ultimate 64 bit(rtm build) with 4gb ram and 320gb hdd

cpu 4.9
ram 5.7
aero 4.2
gaming 6.0
hdd 5.3

This post has been edited by GothFebrio: Oct 15 2009, 02:20 PM

Why is AERO & GAMING score so much differ?? I tot the score should be close

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Added on October 15, 2009, 2:28 pmor the same

This post has been edited by miahahaha: Oct 15 2009, 02:28 PM

hey guys, just wanna share things with u since all of our laptop gpu is same
finally, the new gpu-z 0.3.6 can display radeon hd4570 details without any problem
here the download mirror link

i suggest to put some game that is hard to be run with and they modified the .cfg file....example like gta4,nfs:shift etc...
and i wanna ask the window 32bit and 64 bit system which is better??
more smooth??

Guys i cant use any hardware monitor to see my K50AB gpu temperature, even the MSI Afterburner which najmods posted doesn't show the temperature. Everything else working just fine.
I am using CPU-iD Hardware monitor by the way.

This post has been edited by NaGeNaZ: Oct 24 2010, 12:04 AM

nope. it shows the same on my f81se. except my aero is 4.3 and gaming 6.0. and my brothers f8sv with 8600M GT scores 4.8 on aero and 5.9 on gaming.

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Added on October 15, 2009, 7:11 pmat last. thanks for the useful update.

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Added on October 15, 2009, 7:12 pmuse the latest gpuz.^^

This post has been edited by GothFebrio: Oct 15 2009, 07:12 PM

on Win7 rtm 7600 WEI for ram is 5.7 for 4GB. x64 user here

and i find sumthing weird on my WEI.. on win7 7600rtm..

Windows 7 Experience Index (I'm using 7600rtm):
CPU: 4.9
RAM: 5.7
Graphics: 4.1
Game Graphics : 6.0
HDD: 5.5

due to x64?

ur score is almost about the same as i posted. theres nothing weird about it.^^

This post has been edited by GothFebrio: Oct 15 2009, 09:08 PM