I have been testing the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX701 Gaming Laptop for almost two months, wanting to make sure I give a thorough review, make sure nothing happens in terms of slowdown or something bad happening to the motherboard, video card, etc. even when I left the laptop 24/7.
So, let’s begin with the review!!
Since 2006, the Republic of Gamers is a brand that Asus has used for desktops and high-spec laptops. And here we are with the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX701 Gaming Laptop.
You get the laptop, power cable adapter and a slimline external webcam.
It’s primary wow factor is that the Zephyrus S features a high-end Nvidia graphics processor (RTX 2080 Max-Q video card with 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM), a 17-inch screen G-Sync with a 144Hz refresh rate.
One of the things that I was surprised to not see with such an awesome computer spec-wise is the lack of an ethernet port. Knowing that I did not want to rely on Wireless for downloading apps/games or let alone playing online, I do recommend purchasing a Ethernet adapter with this laptop! With that being said, for those who depend on wireless, the laptop does come with an Intel Wireless-AC 9560 which is speedy.
Upon my first experience of starting the laptop, I wanted to observe how CPU and Memory were running and going back and forth through Memory Crate seeing the temperature especially as I pushed the CPU to its limits.
I always worry about heat especially with a laptop utilizing a lot of power. The laptop utilizes a ROG AAS (Active Aerodynamic System) in which the laptop was designed with heatsinks and pipes that blows out hot air and brings in cool air, it also has two large fans.
You can see the rear of the laptop as it is lifted up. It’s a bit unusual for me to see a laptop with that opening on the bottom rear but it works!
I love how when you turn it on, the lights begin with a rainbow of colors (thanks to the RGB LED’s on the backlit keyboard) until you see the Gamers Republic logo show up. The keyboard is down on the edge, mousepad is to the right of the keyboard. While it took me a shortwhile to get used to the mousepad on the right, in truth, I’m going to use a gaming keyboard and mouse if I’m going to play any video games on it because I’m more comfortable with it.
Above the keyboard is a tiny volume scroll wheel on the left side.
The laptop that I am reviewing comes with 16GB of Ram, Intel Core i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20 GHz and comes with a 64-bit Windows 10 Pro. And it comes with a 1TB 1TB PCIe SSD SSD.
Microsoft Office is bundled, as with McAfee LiveSafe and Armour Crate which allows one to set settings based on CPU Performance, Cooling, Noise Reduction, GPU Performance and Energy Saving.
For a laptop at this price, with great video also comes great audio. The Zephyrus S GX701 is capable of virtual 7.1 surround sound and for the most part, it sounds good coming of a laptop.
The laptop features an HDMI 2.0b port, a USB 3.1 port, a USB 3.1 Type-C port with DisplayPort 1.4 and a 3.5mm audio jack (these are on the left). On the right side is a USB 3.1 Type-C and two standard USB 3.1 ports.
For gaming, I’m taking advantage of the two USB 3.1 ports for my gaming headphones and another for an Ethernet adapter. I have the laptop going to a larger 4K gaming monitor to test out the HDMI and so far no glitches on either port.
I have been impressed by the 17-inch display and its 144Hz refresh rate which makes the games feel much smoother during gameplay. I am able to run games at the highest settings with no problems whatsoever.
I saw no lag while gaming and for the most part, installed a video and audio editing app and so far, these have run just as fantastic.
If there was one problem that I’m still trying to figure out is streaming games via OBS. I’m having an issue where part of the video streams and then stops, and all you can hear is audio. Also, you get the “your settings are too high”, so I started to lower settings on the game itself to no avail. Needless to say, this is a work on progress and I’m trying to get this to work. I have troubleshooted two instances of the laptop crashing and rebooting while trying to stream. But those instances were when I was trying to push the laptop to its limit. For those who don’t want to use OBS, you can install the Xsplit Gamecaster featured on Armoury Crate.
I also had instances where the laptop overheated while playing “Overwatch” and I checked the temperature via Armoury Crate and it was at 94% and the laptop itself was very hot when I touched it. I’ve perused the online forums and others are trying to find ways to best get that temperature down.
It’s important to note that I’ve played many games for many hours, days and weeks and in the two months of testing, about three times where I seen it overheat while gaming and the laptop reset.
So, I’ve kept my eye on using Armoury Crate and selecting a setting and doing tests to see which is best to keep the temperature down. I noticed that I had the heating issue while in Balanced mode and switching to Windows mode, I had less of a problem.
But I am extremely pleased of how magnificent this laptop has performed for even the most demanding games.
UPDATE:
I have since undervolted the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX701via Throttlestop. I was able to change CPU Core and Intel GPU to -125.0 for offset voltage. But for CPU Cache, I tried -125.0 but it would give me a BSOD, so I lowered it to 99.6% and so far no BSOD.
I’ve noticed with “Monster Hunter World”, it would crash too frequently due to overheating and a few other games as well. So, undervolting was very much needed.
As for overclocking, featured in Armoury Crate is a ROG GPU Tweak II app you can install to tweak settings. Mine are currently set with the following adjustments.
For those who want to choose which GPU to use, can easily go to NVIDIA Control Panel and choose if you prefer to use the the High-Performance NVIDIA Processor (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design) or the Integrated Graphics (UHD Graphics 630).
This laptop is no doubt a high-end gaming laptop that can also function for work and other intense work such as video, audio, photo editing. Tried working with many multiple apps and the laptop didn’t run sluggish at all.
As for battery power, it’s not the greatest. But it’s no surprise considering how much power this laptop utilizes. With that being said, if you are traveling and not doing much gaming and want to use your laptop for work, go into the Armoury Crate and you can switch to the internal GPU.
While this laptop is nearly perfect (without a Ethernet port, I’m sorry, that kind of removes any achievement of perfection for this laptop), another caveat is the price at over $3,200.
Granted, the CPU and the video card are top notch. Let alone getting a high end screen and for the most part, you are getting an expensive laptop, possibly over $2500 but over $3000, let alone over $3200. That’s a bit hard. Parents or people with the money who want a high end gaming laptop will no doubt love the specs and what this laptop has to deliver.
But for the hardworking gamer looking at this laptop and comparing it with another companies which may not be as powerful but yet high enough specs to play games at a high level, it’s easy to save that the price is a major caveat for many gamers.
So, expensive that even I would be scared to take it out of the house because it’s so expensive. But considering that the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX701 Gaming Laptop, Alienware Area-51M and June 2019 release of MSI’s GT76 Titan (which allows for space up to 128GB of RAM and a trio of SSD bays) are the most expensive gaming laptops on the market, with the high specs, hardcore gamers are going to have to expect a higher price tag.
Overall, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX701 is sleek, powerful, gorgeous, quiet and an overall magnificent gaming laptop! But there are other high-spec laptops that give the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX701 some solid competition and offer a bit more.
