Asus K50id x1 | Unleashed

I recently purchased the Asus k50id x1 laptop due to the great price and the 1 gig nvidia 320m graphics card would have enough kick for some gaming now and then as I am a casual Gamer, but as I found out later that the Graphics card has only 128bit memory and ddr3 not Gddr3 or Gddr5 - with only 24 cores. The nvidia 320m Core clock of 500mhz the same as my old Geforce 6100 go seemed very strange indeed. Anyway after doing some in depth research I did alot of tweaking and fine tuning - the same Asus k50id x1 with just a few tweaks runs dead space, race driver grid, jericho, devil may cry 4 very smoothly.

Buyers Tips for Gamers: Make sure your graphics card is at least a 1gb if you are getting a ddr3 type. You should be really getting a Directx 10 / 11 based card with Gddr 3 / 5 memory type with at least 1gb ram - Your Cpu does'nt have to be a Quad Core as Game developers are still coding for dual core systems and you will only need a Quad Core after 2years - That said a 2.4 /2.6 / 2.8 / 3.0 ghz Core2duo (Socket P) is more than enough and 4gb of ddr3 ram 1066 / 1333 - If you need more performance upgrade your Hard drive to a Crucial Solid state HD that may triple your systems Data Bandwith. Don't just run out and buy the Anything the looks good but doesn't perform well. Make sure you get a system that allows for Quad Core upgrade path for the future.

For those that have other Laptops | There are still some tweaks that you can learn about in my Guide that will give some performance gains. Please manually make restore points all along the way as you make changes. (After the system is fully tweaked I don't advise turning the restore function off just drop it down to 2 / 3% better to be safe than without a system at all)

Less is More | Keep it Clean

This a Screen shot of my desktop - My system - Asus K50id x1 / Windows 7 64bit basic / 2gb ddr3 1066 Kingston / nvidia 1gb GT320m / Core2duo T4400 2.2ghz (2200mhz) nforce 730i

• 1. All the icons that you don't use trash them, keep only the important ones.
• 2. Right click the recycle bin and set custom sizes for them mine is 320mb for C drive and others are set to remove files immediately.
• 3. Go to Control panel remove any programs you don't use includes any trial software that came with laptop. Carefull not to remove any system programs.
• 4. Your wallpaper should not be more than 1mb in size mine is at 43k.
• 5. Turn your screen saver off - you don't have to.
  
• 6. Right click on desktop click screen resolution / display / adjust brightness change to high performance. - Set all power buttons to do nothing - Put computer to sleep never - Turn off display never - Dim display 5 minutes on battery and 1 hour plugged in.
• 7. Go to Control panel / system / advanced system settings - Remote Tab uncheck box - System Protection click configure drop down to 2 or 4% - Only turn on for C drive (system windows drive) - Advanced Tab - click Settings select custom uncheck all boxes and leave only use drop shadow for icon labels checked. Click Advanced Tab again - click change button and set to the windows recommended size - mine is set to initial 3070 and max 4096.
• 8. Change the windows colour scheme to windows classic.
• 9. Download the Classic Start Menu here http://www.classicstartmenu.com
• 10.Turn off all windows update settings in the Control panel.
• 11. Click Start / Run type msconfig - ok / Startup Tab - Uncheck all unwanted items that are not important that you don't need or use.

Startup Items - Trimmed down:
Download Startup Items Screenshots:
Even the Eeestorage backup and Elan smart pad items are turned off - Notice only my Nod32 anti virus and autorun remover and classic start menu are active

• 12. Go to my computer and disable autorun feature on all drives - just right click and choose default action set to take no action. - this can help you against autorun viruses etc.
• 13. Download the free Autorun Remover here http://www.autorunremover.com
• 14. Open any folder / Organize / folder and search options - uncheck hide extensions for known file types.
• 15. Install Nod32 anti virus as this is the fastest among all packages period go here for download
• 16. Organize your start menu - remove any unwanted entries you don't need.
• 17. Disable indexing on all drives just right click on drive and uncheck allow contents to be indexed.
• 18. Get a Portable web browser - The World browser / Opera / Firefox (Portable versions)
• 19. Go to user accounts in C panel and change UAC Settings to never notify / turn off.
  
• 20. Turn off unwanted Services you don't need / C panel / Administrative tools / Services - Right click on each one and click properties to change start up type.
  

Turn off unwanted services:
Download screen shots of my services configuration click here
*Disable the Aero theme feature - I don't have aero as it is not in windows 7 64bit basic.
*The services tweaks will turn off your firewall so only turn off if you have good Antivirus with built in Firewall.

Ram tweak for Windows 7:
When you open the task manager (Right click on Taskbar to access) You will notice the top svchost.exe processes will be using about 80mb - just right click on it it and click end process tree to free about 200mb of Ram :) - big speed boost ! (You may lose wireless connection service) To clear ram after gaming for a long time - just Log off the user and Log back on -I always get 1580/ 1680 / 1720 MB of Ram free available.

Asus k50id x1 | Cpu & Gpu tweaks

CPU Tweaks:
If you don't want to use RM Clock just change your power options to high performance and check with Cpu z that your cpu is at 2200 mhz.

Get Fraps here to watch your frame rate and compare results & benchmarks before & after.

• 1. Download RM Clock click here
• 2. Set RM Clock to run your cpu at max 2200mhz all the time.
• 3. See the help file for the how to guide.
• 4. If you can't seem to run it or its not starting up download this driver signer
  

Run dseo13b.exe program
click "enable test mode". This allows 64 bit Windows 7 to be used for testing drivers
I rebooted to be safe, and you will see a faint test mode print in the corner
Run dseo13b.exe program again
This time select "sign a system file" and put in the location of the file RTCore64.sys found in the program folder.
You have now assigned a signature to that file
Reboot - your RM Clock software should now work smoothly.

Cpu Speed Boost tip: After you load any game hold alt key down & press tab to switch to desktop - right click on the taskbar - click task manager - go to processes find game.exe right click / Set priority / change to above normal. - Now switch back to the game with alt tab keys and notice the speed up... setting the priority to high might cause an app crash but try it

Nvidia 320m GPU Tweaks:

• 5. Download and Install the latest version of Directx click here
• 6. Download and Install the 257.21 nvdia driver here from Nvidia click here
  
• 7. Right click on your desktop go to Nvidia Control Panel / Manage 3d settings

Ambient Occlusion - Off
Anisotropic Filtering - Off
Antialiasing Gamma Correction - Off
Antialiasing Mode - Application controlled
Antialiasing Transparency - Off
Cuda GPU's - All
Extension Limit - Off
Max pre rendered frames - 3
Multi-display/mixed-gpu acc - Single display performance mode
Power management - Maximum Performance for highest framerates - Temps are still cool. Remember to set back to adaptive when not gaming.
Texture filtering negative lod bias - Allow
Texture filtering quality - high performance (Quality mode doesn't really drop framerate)
Threaded optimization - Auto
Triple buffering - Off
Vertical Sync - Force Off

• 8. Download CPU - Z click here for checking system Cpu speed etc.
• 9. Download GPU - Z click here for graphics card monitoring, temps etc.
• 10. Download GPU - Tool click here for Overclocking graphics card.

* You can also try NV Tray - Download click here and in the Direct3d and Opengl settings change from medium setting to low setting.

Turning your humble GT320m into a Raging GT360m:

• 11. Open the Gpu tool / Set GPU Clock to 500 / Set memory clocks to 790 / Shader Clock to 1100 and click save in Quick clocks 1.
• Quick clocks 2 / Set GPU Clock to 545 / Set memory clocks to 820 / Shader Clock to 1225 and click save in Quick clocks 2.
• Quick clocks 3 / Set GPU Clock to 580 / Set memory clocks to 820 / Shader Clock to 1375 and click save in Quick clocks 3.

I run mines at 580/820/1405 ( most of the time ) to a max of 620/820/1420 ( rarely )

The last setting is the same speed as the Geforce GT360m found in more expensive laptops.
Temps remain the same even at this high speed basically the Gt320m is a down clocked 360m with half the shaders

When you need that extra speed just load the setting you want and lower it when not playing any games or just change from max performance in the Nvidia Control panel to adaptive.

3dMark 2005 Scores !

3dMark 2005 has long been used as a standard benchmark for gaming systems and laptops. Most entry level laptops won't run 3dMark 2005 at all however the Asus k50id x1 with its 320m GT 1Gig ddr3 dedicated graphics card should just have enough juice for the job.

The Benchmark results: (Cpu @2.6ghz + overclocked 320GT)
640x480 = 11259
1024x768 = 9458
1024x768 = 9406 (bi linear filtering)
1280x720 = 9006

As you can see above the 9000 mark is a great score for this laptop as the video card and Cpu are both entry level spec although overclocked *A stock score will be tested soon for comparison

2.2ghz | 2.4ghz | 2.6ghz | Turbo Boost

Even though I explain how to do this My stock system running at 2.2ghz runs games fine with just the Gpu Higher clocked. (Race driver grid, Dead Space, Jericho @ 1024x768 with AA) - I hardly use the Turbo Boost Mode, but its there if you want to.

• 12. Download the nvidia system tools v6 click here.

Only choose the performance option when installing. - Open the Nvidia Control Panel - go to Performance / Device Settings - Choose Cpu and adjust by 3mhz at a time fsb until 218 to get to 2.4ghz / 2400mhz ----- goes up to 2.6ghz safely without crashing.

Note: Only do this if you know your Ram can work at that speed as you will also increase the memory speed from 1066 to 1162, and do not save your setting to apply at startup just do it when you need some extra speed. * I have played Race Driver Grid at 2.6 ghz (really smooth) - the system did not crash but I advice not to this 24/7 - although temps were still the same for Cpu and Gpu - remember the other components are on the motherboard are running much faster but I don't know how hot. - that said I have a friend that's running his at 2.66Ghz perfectly fine.Temps are still the same and idle between 30 and 40 for Cpu / Gaming between 40 to 63-Graphics card idles between 45 to 50-Gaming between 55 - 68 which is normal.

Rig Boosters | Get yours NOW!

• 13. Download the Game Booster click here

This will add a 10% to 20% increase in performance while gaming. Once installed - Run Game booster and Hit the Switch to Gaming Mode Button. Also use it to defrag your Games and Game folders as well as windows folder and any programs you use all the daily.

The Ultimate Speed Boost for PC's Read all about the eBooster Program click here

• 14. Download the eBooster click here with instructions. ( I don't use this if you get it working its still makes a noticeable speed boost in applications )
  

Smart Defrag:You can also try this for more speed click here
Registery Booster 2010: this is very good - I have tried it shortens startup and shuts down faster! download - click here

All these tips will add a huge boost to your Asus k50id x1

Asus K50id x1 | System limits | Upgrades

Do not go higher than 2.6 ghz for the Cpu unless you want to destroy your laptop or you have water cooling or are running nitro & know what you are doing. The nvidia 320m Graphics card Shader clock must not go higher than 1400 mhz - as this is the main factor for higher framerates anything higher will cause a crash or Gpu lock down (my settings are 580/820/1400)

The Gpu clock must not go beyond 600 mhz(but not recommended I say leave at 580 higher than this = hotter) & memory clock - leave at 820mhz.

The Bottom line is the Asus k5oid x1 should have had a 2.4ghz Core2duo with a slightly faster Nvidia 330m Graphics Card , however if you don't mind tweaking and tinkering around the system you can squeeze out every last bit from the k50id x1 - see my game testing benchmark results and you can always upgrade even the graphics card to a 360m GT - still looking into that, but possible.