This Laptop REALLY Needs A Glory Hole

[@thirdeev]

I havent finished the video yet but that is one hell of a title weedman

[@jdmnissan]

ok

[@rusty_uzi]

📠

[@Sly9192]

Yeah, talk about putting yourself out there

[@DawidDoesTechStuff]

I felt it best summarized my experience with the laptop. 😂

[@Sly9192]

@@DawidDoesTechStuff you don't say

[@Jackpkmn]

I notice that with how the cooling is, where the ram is and the SSD slots are it could all be covered with one L shaped panel.

[@kamX-rz4uy]

Such a stupid design. It's not like it's an esthetically super clean design where a panel would "ruin" the look (like the bottom of a laptop needs to be smooth and seamless anyway). It probably saved them five cents per laptop.

[@DawidDoesTechStuff]

For sure! It would have been so easy.

[@Assassin5671000]

Makes me wonder if laptop should come with some plastic or rubber pads that can be swapped with the default ones ,do they really get any air from that 1 mile-meter gap left ?

[@Jackpkmn]

@@Assassin5671000 Often times no, this is a big part of why some laptops get way to hot. The ones that don't have additional ways to pull air. My TUF FX505 for example has a vent on the top and a vent on the back that air can be pulled in.

[@martynbriercliffe5651]

If you change the profile to manual in armoury crate you can adjust the power limits their maximum. May help gain some more performance too.

[@lichtbewolkt]

I think it would just thermalthrottle after that

[@DawidDoesTechStuff]

I did try that and it seemed to perform the same as Turbo mode. Thanks for the suggestion though.

[@stolczus7280]

@@DawidDoesTechStuff Did u play with laptop plugged to charger? Most windows laptop lose like 70% of their performance :/

[@imglidinhere]

@@stolczus7280 Yes. It was plugged in. Next silly question.

[@fynn1849]

@@DawidDoesTechStuff I got the same problem with my pc since a year:S really tried everything, nothing worked..

[@drumsmoker731]

Sigh, remember those days, when a laptop came standard with ports to the RAM, the HD drives and the battery was removable. 😩

[@Oboreru493]

The battery is still removable it just takes a bit more work

[@Versuffe]

Ram ports are standard in gaming laptops

[@DawidDoesTechStuff]

It could have been way worse. They could have just soldered it all down.

[@brucewrigleysgumchewz4667]

Yah..next thing you know they're gonna pull a Samsung phone and glue it all together...because who cares about user serviceability right...😌😏. Planned obsolescence..... Laptop battery dead? Need more RAM? Oh well..looks like you gotta give us more money. Drain your wallet and fill them landfills!

[@tyre1337]

everyone: rtx 3050 dawid: glory holes

[@raven4k998]

glory holes or rtx 3050 that's a tough choice🤣

[@justporter]

If you pull up task manager, you can see how many ram slots are in use. If it was soldered on it would say 1 of 1 channel or 2 of 2. With an empty slot it will say 1 of 2 in slots used.

[@RTLtheMan]

1:35 - Unboxing 2:20 - First Impressions (Design, IO, Display) 3:50 - Teardown (First Attempt) 5:07 - The Specs 6:02 - Firing it up and Testing Games (8 GB RAM) 8:06 - Teardown (Second Attempt) 10:19 - Testing Games (16 GB RAM) 12:10 - Final Thoughts

[@eliezerortiz5975]

Thanks timestamp guy

[@rpgamezzz270]

So where's the glory hole?

[@HEAVYIRONBREAD]

Legend

[@derex47]

What laptop is this?

[@RTLtheMan]

@@derex47 ROG Strix G15

[@Dj-Mccullough]

Ive been a Pc tech for cose to 30 years , probably a bit longer. FEW PEOPLE, could open a case like that without breaking clips.

[@lds_drive]

Are those clips meant to be broken as a security feature? Or it's just bad design?

[@DawidDoesTechStuff]

I know right! They are so easy to break.

[@OtterlyInsane]

I have the 5800/3060 version of the same machine. Opening it is a pain, but, if you are gentle the clips are fine. I've had mine open three times and no broken clips.

[@ulrichkalber9039]

@@OtterlyInsane seems you have talent

[@darthwiizius]

@@ulrichkalber9039 Or a bit of mechanical sympathy.

[@AnnaDoes]

Yeah, if only glory holes where the norm on laptops. It would make upgrading and fixing stupid OEM design decisions so much easier. Plus then you wouldn't have to brutalize their products as much... maybe they are masochists :D

[@lycanthropickle]

Anna go look at some monitors or something

[@Diggler569]

I don't understand why Asus hasn't hired you and Dawid for product development yet. Also..... your videos are getting very close to NSFW with these titles 😂😂

[@garrettzkool63]

Hopefully its not intentional, like Apple does with their products. we should all have the "right to repair" items we own. my MSI laptop (w/1660ti) luckily comes with 2 sticks, but its mounted on the keyboard side of the motherboard. UGHHHHHHHHHH. love the video tho! like always!

[@megan_alnico]

After that taser incident I always raise an eyebrow whenever Anna brings up anything to do with BDSM.

[@DawidDoesTechStuff]

I feel like the companies get off on the idea of customers breaking their devices to fix a spec flaw.

[@fred_derf]

If you need to have substantive skills to be able to open a laptop without breaking it just to add a RAM simm (or any other "user serviceable part") -- that's a major design flaw.

[@hrayz]

I read the tech manual for laptops to see how to open. So many tricky clips and hidden screws...

[@nerdrenegade]

"I'm going to finish testing it and then I'll break it" 😂

[@eternylbliss2151]

Dawid should make a t-shirt that says that...

[@Enlightenmentbringer]

Just think of that new gap in the frame as extra "ventilation" :D

[@sweaterfish6311]

I don't even understand breaking the clips can create a gap when there's 11 screws holding the panel on. You should be able to break every single one and have it still fit tightly.

[@SchoolforHackers]

No shit.

[@ludara8697]

@@sweaterfish6311bending

[@DawidDoesTechStuff]

It helps cool the track pad really nicely. 😂

[@imark7777777]

I would much prefer the angled connector on the back or anywhere almost, straight ones tend to stick out and act like a lever and it's a great way to break a port which probably is solder to the mainboard.

[@raven4k998]

they should give you both then you can choose which one works for your situation

[@pu239]

6:15 The angled charging cable is actually quite helpful and easy to plug in when you are sitting in front of the laptop on a table

[@justporter]

Also it allows for you to tie the end of that cable to a leg of a cooling stand, so when you lift the laptop up to put in a bag, you can leave the power adapter end in place and it wont fall behind the desk (along with other cables you may want to leave in place). It's much harder to do with a straight on connector. I'd always choose a 90 degree over straight on.

[@xero110]

I have last year's version of this laptop. i7-10870H and RTX 2070, which cost $1300USD. It had 2x8GB@3200MT/s. My version does have a glory hole and has 3 MVNe slots. I upgraded to 32GB of RAM and added 2x 2TB NVMe's for a total of 5TB of NVMe storage. It's a great little machine, runs cool, and is plenty fast for my needs.

[@Neko2394]

I own this laptop with a slightly different configuration. I had to open it because the stock Mediatek wifi card was crap, and I replaced it with an Ax200 from Intel. I was careful while opening it but still managed to break a clip too 😅

[@raven4k998]

did you also upgrade the ram to dual channel for better performance?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@the_wiki9408]

You should get a bonus from your sponsors for the extra effort you put in.

[@michaelg1237]

LENODE

[@DawidDoesTechStuff]

As long as you all don’t hate the sponsored spots that’s enough of a bonus for me. 👍

[@fracturedlife1393]

I accidentally watch more of yours than i skip. Good work.

[@kingjoe3rd]

@@DawidDoesTechStuff Your sponson spots are legendary. Your Linode advert is basically a meme now.

[@abombfletcher]

@@DawidDoesTechStuff You fit the sponsors in very well... Others channels totally feel like hard CUTS to clip in their ads... Yours flow better, music vid ect... They dont make me quick skip past..... like most "Populour" channels... where you see then cut and paste.... clash of ..... whatever click bait Game sponsor... Appreciate you Dawid!

[@joannaatkins822]

And now, forever more, access panels will be referred to as "Glory Holes" and it is all Dawids fault

[@danthompsett2894]

when i seen the title i thought he ment the laptop was so sexy he needed a glory hole till i watched the video.

[@gtbarsi1103]

I'm with you 100% on the need for a upgrade access panel or a revision on the bottom plate that is not so horrible to open. I would be pissed off to have to go through all that to upgrade ram, storage, etc...

[@Nebelworfer]

I have a now dead Asus G1S and I loved how all the upgradeable components had separate lids for quick access. Just a couple screws and you're in, no prying required.

[@fattomandeibu]

Even my 1991 Amiga computer(it was a microcomputer where the entire machine, including motherboard, floppy drive and later a hard disk was housed inside the keyboard for plugging into a standard TV via RF cable, a really common configuration on low price gaming computers back then) had a glory hole for putting RAM and an expansion card in. They have no excuses in 2022.

[@deceased_toker389]

I get the same problems with mine. I bought one with a ryzen 9, 8 cores, 300 hz 1080p monitor so the bottle neck is real 😂. I’ve been getting very worried recently because I got a 4K monitor and my cpu has been pushing 90c but hearing you I’ve gotten some confidence back, thank you. I’ve torn mine open a few times now and I don’t remember anything falling off and I was pretty cautious on a clean table. I woulda cried if something fell off mine I’m just getting into PC gaming and have had so much trouble but loving it overall.

[@yukariTheLalafell]

“Lady’s love nothing more than a dude whipping out some rog” then you mention doing honey lmao you win my internets for today

[@NomdePlume337]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who places importance on being able to open the laptop with one hand. It just smacks of quality when you can easily open the lid of a laptop

[@brando3342]

Ohhh, maybe I'll actually get a date if I whip out my ROG?

[@fetus2280]

Only if it has RGB mate .

[@shinokaminamikaze]

LGBTQ+ friendly lights are a must!

[@AnnaDoes]

I mean that's how Dawid landed me. He whipped out his ROG and I was like HELLLLYYYEEAAHHHH

[@brando3342]

@@AnnaDoes 🤣🤣🤣

[@Fadingfool]

That sound of the plastic clips giving way always sends a shiver down my spine.

[@RandomDude1999L]

This laptop reminds me of Legion 5 in quite a lot of ways

[@Roger_Val_]

Yeah mate I have a 17 inch one with a 3060.

[@DawidDoesTechStuff]

It even kinda looks like one to be honest.

[@RandomDude1999L]

@@DawidDoesTechStuff yea, you're right btw love the merch!

[@steelfox1448]

If only this laptop opened like the Legion, but I don't feel like giving Lenovo credit for their repairability right now because I am very salty about the whole CPU locking thing as it directly affects me. Every one of my main PCs has been a beast with various Xeons from old workstations all around a decade old at the time.

[@RandomDude1999L]

@@steelfox1448 yea, I'm pretty salty about that too, but the opening procedure looks fairly similar to me

[@MrCed122]

Hey, that's the laptops we had to buy at work for our programmers because we literally couldn't find any workstation laptops on a short notice, except I chose the Ryzen 9 version with a RTX 3060 and 16GB of RAM. I chose that model specifically because the RAM and SSD weren't soldered, unlike a lot of laptops in that price range, and because it seemed to have a decent cooling system. That's actually the first 165Hz screen I tested, I liked it so much that I bought one for my personal computer, even if my RX580 isn't to best to use it.

[@MaxTheCenturion]

Not sure how much of an issue this is for other people, but the screen colors are absolutely terrible to the point I returned the 5900HX/3060 version. All the colors are extremely washed out , (reds orange, blues teal, etc) and no contrast at all. Ended up going with an Eluktronics Max-17 for the same price

[@joelthenoob9868]

That is a setting that you can tweak in software normally

[@hawkchan6951]

​@@joelthenoob9868 i slap my monitors saturation on 200% better colors imo

[@MaxTheCenturion]

@@joelthenoob9868 There is no way to tweak the software, it's a limitation of the low color capability of the panel. If i recall correctly its 77% of SRGB. Also 20ms+ response times

[@joelthenoob9868]

@@MaxTheCenturion ok, some gaming laptops I have worked with have completely adjustable colour. I haven't worked with one of these recent Rog laptops. It was a suggestion

[@MaxTheCenturion]

@@joelthenoob9868 Most do have good settings! I just wanted to save someone the sadness I had when I started it up for the first time. You can even see the pink ROG logo in the video that's supposed to be red on start up LOL

[@nomchompsky2883]

I like the angled power cable. Uh, all you have to do is turn it toward whichever way the power source is. If it comes straight out the back it can limit your laptop placement as well as more wear on the cord, as every power cord phone owner knows

[@stevybaby6542]

I think you may have given the term "Glory Hole" a whole new meaning. Some of your viewers are going to innocently use that term to describe access to a computer. You're a funny guy and I like watching your videos for a bit of light entertainment rather than a tech tech channel that can be a bit dry. Added bonus - sometimes I actually learn something.

[@AllanBorch]

I am quite surprised that the thing is almost glued together, considering the optional ssd upgrade and especially the necessary ram upgrade. -I also enjoyed the Honey music video, which i may or may not have already turned into a ringtone...

[@Pies_By_Arvid]

My bet is that the internals and case are designed by two different departments. The hardware team was trying to make something mostly good within their allotted budget, margin, and other requirements. Where as the case design team said “let’s look good to management by cutting an extra part that needs tooling/assembly, coming in under our budget, and screwing over the hardware team’s efforts.” Management also probably said, “Yea and that will help prevent most people from seeing the terrible RAM configuration we saddle them with because RAM is expensive and hard to get a good margin on.”

[@AllanBorch]

@@Pies_By_Arvid The one stick ram in laptops have bin going on for alot of years... it's a good thing Dawid and others are shining a light on it. Yesterday i decided to inspect and order parts to upgrade an old ultrabook i bought in 2012, when i realised, it too only had 1 stick of ram...🤦🏻‍♂️ ...but yeah, it might be exactly what you are saying, about 2 departments working on each part, and the department manager having bin a little to easy, to persuade going along with the 2 separate design teams ideas.

[@Zhuurgen]

I was expecting a linode..not a honey, 2022 is already throwing me curveballs

[@AnnaDoes]

:D

[@TC_here]

Braver man than me.. you kept going after the first bad cracking sound while taking the back off.. I would have just put the screws back in and used it for web browsing.. its crazy how hard some manufacturers make it..

[@the_wiki9408]

I do miss the good old days when laptops came with small removable panel cutouts on the bottom for both RAM and HDD swaps. I don't know if I would use the same terminology for them as Dawid did, but those were handy.

[@totalermist]

Back in the day this was a necessity for a slightly different reason, though. HDDs were prone to fail, for example. I remember buying HDDs, installing them at home, having them fail within a day and returning them to the store up to three times. It was a similar story with RAM, even with new laptops (shipping and handling in particular as well as non-ideal storage conditions where reasons this would happen). To be perfectly honest, all this is just a symptom of the times. Way back when (e.g. 10 to 15 years ago and earlier), you'd buy your PC stuff (and laptops) in a brick and mortar store an just have a store technician handle upgrades (they'd usually do it for free if you bought the upgraded parts there). This also meant that it was often retailers who were offering different configurations instead of manufacturers, so small upgrades had to be easy. Ever since online retail took over, it's the manufacturer that configures your machine and they want you to buy the upgrade from *them* instead (with a considerable mark-up). In light of this manufacturers today don't care about how difficult upgrades are, unless the target market is business customers.

[@merlpriester]

I can see the purpose of the 90 degree power plug. If you lift the laptop from the front leaning the back against the table top,, this prevents you front putting as much leveraged pressure on the port and breaking it.

[@paulwilliams4274]

@Dawid Does Tech Stuff the datasheet 5:12 says it's an 8-core Ryzen 5 5600H. The sticker on the laptop 2:37 says it has a six-core CPU. Also here 5:16 it indicates a six-core CPU. ???

[@Chris-6768wv]

You should try new glasses, or re-read what you thought you read.

[@-Burb]

@@Chris-6768wv It clearly says “3.3GHz octa-core AMD Ryzen 5 5600H” in the first time stamp. You should try new glasses, or re-read what you thought you read.

[@Chris-6768wv]

@@-Burb Yep, you are right. Too much Bourbon! Apologies Mr. Williams.

[@Myosh03]

I own this laptop build with rt3070 from release date 02.2021, and cant say anything bad about it. It works great! Screen , battery, performance, keyboard, plugs, hinge, build is great! Not slim but compact enough! Theres something totaly wrong with your settings if you have 60% gpu usage, my mashine works 100%, thottles a little on gpu side, but still can pull of 50% more performance and fidelity then my Playstation 5!

[@zetectic7968]

Clipping coupons, the great American pastime. With all the money that ASUS have, if they are cheaping out on not having a glory hole at least they should design the case to open only by removing screws.

[@raven4k998]

the ladies really love a dude whipping out some ROG🤣🤣🤣

[@nikolaychervanyuk277]

Something to add here! Upgrade the ram to x8 instead of x16 if you can. This can sometimes make huge performance difference, because x16 is much denser thus increasing the timings which can slow the computer down. LTT made video on that

[@TheOriginalBruh]

For 1k€ I got a legion 5 with a 5600h, 3060, 16 GB Ram and a 512 GB SSD back in November, so this looks like a bad deal to me.

[@theairaccumulator7144]

Here that's like €1200 you got a super good deal

[@hutanualexandru5220]

Legion 5 is no cap best value laptop on market imo.

[@TheOriginalBruh]

@@chriscross3924 yeah and ?

[@totalermist]

@@TheOriginalBruh He's trying to tell you he overpaid; the same model goes for 1160€ now 😉

[@-Burb]

@Donald Nemesis Gaming I think he knows it’s a better value in terms of specs, he’s just saying it’s ugly.

[@paulstevens5023]

You are spot on, there is absolutely no reason it needs to be this hard to open. We all know it's to stop upgrading/fixing.

[@j.p.h.8126]

Just brake all the clips so that it is held together only by the screws. Alot easier to get in the next time. :)

[@hoseinqadam]

I do agree that the clips is balls and I do not know why include them when it have screws, but the technique to remove them is start at the front and when you reach the ventilation on the side, use the guitar pick to push the vents out and down. I had a hard time myself.

[@jaysanchez4407]

Wait 62% srgb???? This must be horrendous

[@knownnuisance7512]

i was about to type about this

[@kingsmod8777]

i've taken apart like 10-15 new rog laptops and never had the plastic clips broken. you just have to unscrew the bottom right screw will will pop things off nicely

[@Thebatness]

I really liked the review and Asus should, probably does, know better on the design and memory configuration.

[@Ja_Crispy]

Dawid! The reason some companies say "IPS-ish or IPS - type panel" is because LG displays owns the trademark for IPS so other display manufacturers have to compare it to IPS and can't outright say its IPS

[@clem-1917]

This is designed to never be user serviced. Glory hole at the minimum, being able to completely take the bottom off without fragile clips and I/O in the way would be best.

[@Idylla]

Yeah the “physical design” of being serviced is bad, but it’s just criminal that the spec REQUIRES it to be serviced to get decent performance.

[@HanabiiiUwU]

This would also be a good IT laptop. That Ethernet port on the back is nice to have.

[@TheGameBench]

The Legion 5 definitely needs a glory hole too. It's kinda' the same design and was more of a PITA than it needed to be just to install an additional m.2 drive. And for the record, I used to be field engineer for HP and Dell. I've opened thousands of laptops. So while I can open it without breaking anything, I agree that this can be designed better, and other laptops are. But at least there are two physical slots for RAM. Getting real sick of these gaming laptops with one DIMM soldered to the board.

[@Zzz-j2f]

Dawid better drop a whole mixtape after those fire bars in the Honey ad. Don’t leave us hanging dude.

[@jonathansmith4737]

Ive had Asus Laptops for all of my life and they are always extremely painful to disassemble and you slowly get desensitized to the cracks when opening it.

[@-Burb]

What the heck I’ve had the exact opposite experience. Which laptops have you had? My Q550LF, Q304UA, and G14 were all super easy to open. I’m disappointed they decided to make the laptop in the video so annoying to open.

[@batsai]

I agree about opening the back- it's not an overrecation. Not just to upgrade the RAM, but all laptop fans need occasional cleaning every now and then- some more than others depending on use patterns and environment.

[@AlexM25]

I actually bought one of these a couple weeks ago. There is a 300Hz with dual channel memory version (the one I got), it’s actually incredible price to performance value.

[@dracopug]

You mean 3000mhz?

[@sprider3609]

@@dracopug 300hz refresh rate maybe

[@mcslender2965]

Was it the Advantage edition with AMD GPU? Those were incredible value for sure

[@danielberrett2179]

Same. Got the G15 advantage on a deal at best buy US $1500..(November?) just in the last month I think I saw they had $1400 or $1450!! 300hz display, 8/16 core 5900HX RX6800M, the 16 gb ram they put in is Single rank 2 dimms but dual rank or Dimms with tighter timings will increase the performance around 15% meaning you still gotta open the damn chassis

[@-Burb]

Wait they’re selling a laptop with a 3050 and a 300Hz display? Or does it have a better GPU with your model? I can’t imagine the 3050 could run anything at even close to a consistent 300 fps.

[@pitts86]

Dawid, you are on point here. I've upgraded a similar laptops SSD and RAM and now my laptop is held together with duct tape. The heat from the laptop melts the glue of the duct tape and then it starts drifting and covering the ports

[@cgarepair1487]

I had one of these before it was stolen and they actually are pretty good

[@danielowusu321]

Stolen how?

[@cgarepair1487]

I go to college and one day I went to go use the bathroom and I left my laptop at a table. As you can guess someone came up and took it. Unfortunately the guy never got caught. 2022 has been off to a lovey start lol

[@imvention5696]

@@cgarepair1487 lmao is it hard to ask someone nearby to watch the laptop for you?

[@cgarepair1487]

It just didn’t cross my mind lol

[@secret222]

Nice touch on the typeface. Very subtle addition to the theme

[@TSUNAMI17]

This dude has by far the most hilarious tech videos out there.

[@daddydaddy6506]

You have to change the settings in the nvidia control panel.

[@lightsaber9644]

Guess I'm part of the 1% who's opened this type of laptop twice without breaking anything 😂

[@deceased_toker389]

Same here bro. I remember ripping mine apart 3 dabs deep 🤣

[@accelement3499]

this rtx card/laptop is slower than last gens lowest tier rtx card so thats cool

[@samiraperi467]

You're mixing laptop and desktop SKUs. Laptop GPUs are always slower than their desktop counterparts. Sure, you can complain about the laptop 3050 being slower than desktop 2060, but that's totally missing the point.

[@accelement3499]

@@samiraperi467 you've missed the point but thank you for... well im not sure but have a nice day

[@-Burb]

@@samiraperi467 The 3050 laptop card is slower than the 2060 laptop card is what they’re saying

[@Matthewv1998]

i have the G15A version of this laptop. to say it rips is an understatement. the bottom panel does kinda suck but after opening it once, its not too bad now. really happy with the build and its nice to see the cassis doesnt change too much.

[@XeonProductions]

I won't ever buy another ASUS laptop. Everyone I know with ASUS laptops has disposed of them in like a year because they have battery issues, trackpad issues or start falling apart. I also forgot to mention that ASUS has been caught repeatedly now killing the performance of Ryzen laptops by shipping them with single channel RAM configurations, and choking off airflow. This laptop seemed to have thermals under control, but in the past there were identical Intel and AMD models, and the AMD models had plastic blocking off a lot of the vents on the bottom. I can't remember if it was you or another KZbinr but they took a dremel and removed the plastic and then it didn't overheat anymore.

[@bradhaines3142]

whaat? ive never heard this

[@matthewavdoulos1341]

Yeah the old budget Asus stuff definitely had that issue. ROG is pretty good tho

[@HackedGlitch265]

My mom's old laptop still works fine. It's ancient. And by works fine, I mean, works despite at least 1 major fall due to our dogs pulling it off the table while charging, and requires constant feeding by virtue of only having wall power. But besides that? It still held up super well. I recently got her to get a new laptop, which she admits definitely now that it was necessary, but the old one was super great. So I can't deny it wasn't falling apart, BUUUUUUT that was no fault of Asus' product.

[@-Burb]

I’ll only buy Asus laptops. Ive owned 3 in the past 13 years and all of them are still working fine. My current laptop is a 2020 G14, and before that I had a Q550LF and a Q304UA. The only issue I’ve ever had was a hard drive failure on my Q304UA but thats a super easy upgrade/fix once I swapped it with an SSD.

[@atki81]

I have this laptop with the 3050ti. I have upgraded it to 2x16gb RAM and added a 1tb Nvme drive. It runs great with games as Dawid said but the battery life isn't very good but this is more of a desktop laptop. The key to opening the laptop is the front left screw (when flipped) doesn't remove but is designed to lift the corner of the case open allowing a plastic tool to gently open the case going round it, I took my time and inflicted no damage. It was also why installed 32gb ram and 1tb storage, as I plan on never having to open it again!

[@Dave5281968]

Your point about getting a laptop with SINGLE CHANNEL memory for $1000 is perfectly on point. And the design with the 2000's style cover on the bottom is also right on point. Memory will be upgraded during its lifetime, and the battery will very likely need replacing, too. I do think that ASUS knew exactly what they were doing here: Designing and selling a laptop destined to become e-waste instead of being upgraded with more memory, having the battery replaced, or the NVMe upgraded. Nice review.

[@rtyler1869]

Dawid, I would agree. My wife got one of these in Australia, but I was concerned about thr drive space. My old ROG had an upgrade port, which I used to put in new drives (including an nVME) so I knew I could do this with hers. But no access port. Was a real pain to get the back off, but you need to be really careful with the screws. They are a mix of long and short, and I made the mistake of placing a long one into the short holes with resulting damage to case on top 😭

[@ratedRblazin420]

Was at a coffee spot listening to your teardown and had my headphones in at a pretty reasonable volume. Anyway, I dropped my phone, pulled out my headphones while scrambling to catch my phone, and then 8:35 - 8:41 happened. Yup, time to leave the coffee shop.

[@kurkin23]

Had no issues opening this same chassis, but i do agree that the average person not familiar with taking this stuff apart ^ would start braking tabs and ribbon cables.

[@pjsw]

Still don't understand how you don't have a million subs yet your content is incredible

[@Varmint260]

I did the same thing, bought a "relatively" cheap gaming laptop with a 3060 and a single 8gb stick of RAM (MSI GF65), then immediately opened it up and crammed a proper dual-channel kit in it. It also has no glory hole, but it has very few plastic clips so I was able to open it up without breaking anything. It was on sale at Memory Express and it was roughly the same price as a desktop RTX 3060 GPU - sure, a mobile 3060 has less power but this is also an ENTIRE COMPUTER.

[@DigitalJedi]

This is the biggest argument for gaming laptops right now. You get a full PC, and a UPS in the form of a battery, for the price of a desktop GPU. It's also crammed into a 1L-ish chassis for that nice portability aspect too.

[@HR-wd6cw]

The 90 degree connector may mean that they use the same power supply with different models or even possibly with some desktop models that have external power adapters. It may just be cheaper for them to create one adapter/power brick that runs a variety of systems they offer. Personally I like the way some of the Dell laptops have theri bottom panel. You have screws you take out, but it's also held on (or in place) with magnets, so once you remove the screws, there is no prying that's needed, You just slide the bottom panel up or to the side to move it off the small magnets which help hold it in place. No clips to worry about breaking. There are some small metal tabs that slide under the side to keep the panel in place but again, once you remove the screws, you just slide the bottom panel downward and the tabs are unlatched from the body. Easy to open. with laptops like this one shown, once you open it one time, opening it again is probably easier.

[@dangerwr]

My friend got a higher end model Strix and, while I didn't break any clips, it was a MASSIVE pain in the ass to open it... twice. Friendly note to anyone buying one of these in the series and adding a second NVMe drive, move the included drive to the lower slot, get a ONE-SIDED NVMe drive and an Alphacool HDX M.2 low profile heatsink for the secondary drive. Otherwise the secondary drive's temps could potentially get to out of operating spec levels.

[@chasetheriault3579]

Brilliant title, never would have clicked this if I wasnt so fucking confused & intrigued lmfao

[@Justin_80]

I've been looking at theses online on and off. Good to know they're not easily upgradable.

[@Joreel]

Just watching you ripping that poor thing open was painful because it brought back memories of me having to do that with my son's Asus laptop two yrs ago when we wanted to add a hard drive and upgrade the ram. So many screws, but worse all.the weird angled corners to be pried open. We got it open and upgraded, but I swore I'd never do it again. Now he needs a new SSD drive 😩 Surprisingly the best laptop I've had for ease of upgrading was a Lenovo I owned many years ago... Three covers that were easy to unscrew, one for ram, one for the hard drive bay, and one to replace the battery.

[@Skyhawk1998]

I've got another RoG laptop that uses the same body shell (G15 Advantage Edition) and yeah, the nightmare clamshell and dubiously durable ribbon cables are baffling when you finally get inside and find that the motherboard is so easy to service. When I first got my laptop I immediately went for an SSD upgrade, and because of inexperience on my part I had to try several times before I got the SSD working. Every time I tugged on a ribbon cable or began to crack open the clamshell I felt like I was defusing a bomb. At least the many broken clips now littering my desk and carpet will make getting inside for regular cleanings easier.

[@Eriamgh]

I have an ASUS TUF with a 3060. I had all kinds of performance issues I couldn't figure out. Changing profiles helped, but not enough. Removing Armory Crate and all the ASUS software fixed all my issues.

[@anubhabkhanra4899]

I have the exact same model and my GPU usage is pegged at 99% in most games. Maybe it's some defect in the specific unit you got? Great review btw!

[@RWripposte]

Dawid has been introducing Linode so much that I'm genuinely surprised whenever I hear him introduce other sponsors. That rap though. Phew.

[@hamishthecat4370]

Hey Dawid, at least most laptops now have screws that are the same length as compared to having the wrong length screws busting holes through motherboards, something that totally stopped me working on laptops at the time.

[@Thewaterspirit57]

This laptop also having ventilation in the top when opened, is honestly a good idea. It was enough to have vents on the sides, back, and bottom…. But also the top?? Like…. Damn.

[@youtubechanell1-m8z]

not one person paid attention to the Crate when you had it open. it was probably on panel power saver. Along with The dedicated graphics off. it comes like that fresh outta the box.

[@802Garage]

I doubt it would make much of a difference, but did you use the original RAM stick with one G.Skill stick, or did you use both of the new sticks? Also I assume you tried Windows power settings. Fun vid as always!

[@Worms_Pro]

Spot on review, hilarious attitude - yeah you may have been a little bit clumsy because SOMETIMES there are screws under the pads / stickers so the manufacturer know if has been opened. This is all of course, more of a reason to add easier upgrade options.

[@BayernMunchenFan11]

the 58x might be the best bang for buck headphones out there. insane how high the punch up to others.

[@roxymigurdia-t5p]

I always take my Dawid videos with a hint of madness and a side of LINODE. 👌

[@minilea144]

I bought this same type of laptop in May last year and I have been looking for a review of this specific one. FINALLY found it. I do not look forward to upgrading the specs AT ALL. Also, the more you use it, the less traction the mouse pad has.

[@tomperone9338]

Breaking clips? This is like every laptop ever. It's incredibly annoying that manufacturers continue to make them this way.

[@subbookkeeper]

I heard if you put it in an oven set to 50'C for a few minutes the plastic case won't break if you try to open it.

[@BReal-10EC]

I really appreciate your drive. Sometimes you just have to cram your spluger in the available hole and hope you can finish without permanent damage or at least no VD (visual damage).

[@RuruFIN]

Totally agree with Dawid here, nothing annoys more when using a laptop than the right-sided USB things bumping to your mouse. :D

[@markstefandomondon6663]

I like this dude for reviews throughout the ram configurations and full specifications of what to buy on the ram. More like this please i'm gonna share your page dawid salute! Btw make nvme ssd and ram tutorials too.

[@FerralVideo]

You know. I remember the days back when laptops "only" came with small "glory holes". All of them expected you to be able to: Replace the hard drive, replace/upgrade the RAM, replace/upgrade the battery (readily from outside the machine), replace the optical drive, and repace the keyboard. Given that battery life was only three hours if you were lucky back then, the only way to get meaningful runtime away from an outlet was to pack a bag full of spare batteries and ninja them when they ran out. You could also easily buy chungus batteries that hung off of the laptop like a cancerous growth and added another 50% more runtime. Some models even allowed you to swap the optical drive for an additional battery! I was genuinely happy to see the trend moving towards the entire bottom pan of the laptop popping off, to make servicing things like the cooling fan, thermal paste, and network cards (if an access door wasn't provided for the purpose) easier. Replacing the fan in my Dell D620 was *hell,* and it's never gone back together quite right since. And then this ease of access was immediately floundered as RAM, SSDs, CPUs, and everything else was promptly soldered down. And keyboards riveted down into the frame. *Thanks* Apple. Seeing this Asus laptop so serviceable inside, but so difficult to get to those parts from the outside, breaks my heart. It's almost as bad as my Fujitsu that you have to dismount the wrist rest to get to the hard drive. Which is a hard drive. It's going to die. And did. That was a "fun" repair.

[@sonnyjim2804]

exactly me when I try to add in another m.2 In the end, i just gave up and bought an m.2 enclosure

[@tixmatt]

I actually had the exact same issue! I received the 3050ti 7-4800H version of this laptop for my 18th, and I was a bit puzzled by the performance. Bought a couple of 8gb sticks to replace the 16gb stick (I don't really need 32gb of RAM whatsoever), plugged them in and voila! Went from 90-100 FPS on lowest settings in Valorant, to 144 at max settings. Manufacturers really need to start shipping products at their best. It's not too hard to ship a laptop with 2x8 instead of 1x16...

[@BarrelRider621]

This was a fun one as I have a version of this laptop. Same casing and I have had to take it apart once so I really felt your pain taking the back panel off for sure. The temps on mine can get up there. Have see GPU at 89⁰C but usually hovers around 80-83⁰C with most games I play at max settings. CPU stays around 70s. All in all I'm very happy with it. The fan can be VERY loud. I cranked it up one time just to see how loud it got and compared that to how much it helped the Temps. It would drop the Temps a good 7⁰ or so but damn that noise. Specs Ryzen 9 5900HX 16 GB RAM (pretty sure single stick 😔) RTX 3070 1080p 300Hz screen

[@michaelthompson9798]

I personally own a Dell G5 laptop featuring the all same specs and YES!, and cost me here in Australia 🇦🇺 $580~USD on a great sale 🥰👍🤩🏆. I agree the ram upgrade makes a very noticeable difference to average fps and 0.1% lows. The RTX3050 is definitely an amazing GPU for the laptop price even compared to previous generation gpus. Love your content Dawid & amazing sense of humour 😜🤪.

[@bruuuh_boi]

Have the same model, but with 5900HQ, 3070, 32ram, 2K sRgb However, thanks to you, David, I am terrified more than ever to upgrade storage. This is some kind of Schroedinger's cover: at the same time it's clips are broken and fine, and you will never find out unless you open it.

[@theanticitizen]

I have an older version of this laptop with a GTX1650 in it and it’s one of the most comfortable laptops I’ve ever used. Not super powerful but for I do with it, it gets the job done well