Maybe get the i5 model if you can.
919284
I've had problems of the screen freezing at the start. And sometimes the pen does not connect. But that's probably it. When it works, it works.
3631386
When I purchased my Asus X550CA, I was experimenting. Could I get a decent laptop without paying a premium price?

My needs were simple: I needed a laptop on which I could write.

The easy answer is yes. Of course it would support all the related software. What about the rest?

The long answer is no. The machine is heavy, prone to freeze and crash, rebooting itself for no known reason. The weight I expected since I bought the laptop in-store.

There are reviews which can asses the technically merits of the "Asus X550CA" all over the web. Most of us buying at this level don't care about all of that. The only real question is will it help me get my job done? With the unexpected slow speed, the freezing and crashing, the answer is a two-star no. You can work well enough on it if budget is truly an issue, but you'll save money in the long run by investing another $100 or $200 in a better laptop.

Oh, and the plug is ungainly, fitting awkwardly into outlets, and sometimes falls out.

I'll replace this laptop soon. I don't recommend you buy it.

Anthony Trendl
AmericanSpeechwriter.com
894831
Okay, This product on amazon is honestly not worth it guys, it is an amazing motherboard, but you can get it for dirt cheap, brandy spankin new with an i7 processor for how much the processor is going on here, (Look up either pricewatch or portatech to get it.) But honestly, try to use those to buy stuff like this as you can get it for dirt cheap and run off good. i got a full hook up of the motherboard with the processor and 16 gb of ram guaranteed 100%  compatibility .. for $514. It's really worth checking out.
2973283
I was quite happy to finally get my i5! It looks amazing, with scores comparing with the i7! Ah, package day. I saw the big package and rushed to open it. It had a few things, among them was my beautiful 4690K! Or so I thought. After looking at the box, I set it aside and checked out my other parts. A few days later, I checked the numbers on them. I had been delivered the i5-4590. 4590. Excuse me? It was a jip. I contacted Amazon support and I am still waiting for a reply. Just remember to check the numbers, I was a tad stupid to not do so. Quite disappointing Amazon...
1664785
This laptop is running fine with 8GB RAM/i5 CPU but lack of the touchscreen and only came with a small SSD hard drive. I bought it on Oct 19 and not even used it much (4 hours the most) and today the price is $50 less when I bought.
I would not buy this laptop for $450 while you have many other better laptops out there with Intel i5 CPU/touch screen and bigger hard drive during this Holiday sale.
Check on Dell/Acer or even Asus....
1757083
Great cpu for it's price. If you don't need to multitask this is an amazing option, but if you're planning on doing several tasks at once, get one with more cores
3524991
This is one of the best bargain Intel i7 laptops for the price/performance ratio (I paid $560 for mine).  Many of the problems here sound like Microsoft Windows10 issues.  The most stable version of Windows was Windows 7.
3704724
I originally bought this convertible laptop because I wanted a small device to take with me when traveling that could run all my desktop applications, including Microsoft Office and Photoshop. I went with this unit because of it's small size and because it was using an Intel Core M chip, which I thought would give better performance and battery life than the Intel Celeron processors the cheaper devices use. Boy was I wrong. Even with 8 GB Ram, this laptop is average speed when it's working smoothly, and that is rare. More often, even with just a few windows open, the performance makes it almost unusable. I can't even watch YouTube videos (1080p) without it having glitches.

It's a shame, because I love the build of the laptop. It's a perfect size for travel, lightweight, and has a pretty solid build.

Overall, if you don't mind slow performance, go with a laptop with an Intel Celeron processor and save a few hundred dollars. If you want better performance, go with a i-Series Intel processor (i3, i5, i7).
59280
I've built about five computers using this processor, and they're all snappy as hell.

I've found that it's easy to overclock to about 4.2 or 4.3 ghz, without really increasing the voltage much, but after that it requires increasing amounts of effort.

My advice to the average user who's thinking about purchasing this processor, is that if you're thinking about buying this chip, and a 30 dollar cooler to put on it, you're dumb. Why would you spend 69.00 bucks plus another 30 to overclock a dual core system to the same basic performance levels as an I3 4150 when you could just buy the 4150?

Use the stock cooler, overclock this processor to 4.2 or 4.3. Ghz. That will give you a nice speed boost over stock.
The stock cooler will more than handle this level of overclock. It's really not worth pumping increasing volts into the chip to reach 4.4 or 4.5 ghz.

If you do it right, and wait until this processor goes on sale, you can build a 300 dollar gaming machine very easily.
Example: (sale and rebate prices)

G3258:  49.99
Cheap 1150 Mobo:  20.00 (After rebates/promos)
8 GB RAM  55.00 (2x4 GB DDR3 1600)
1 TB 7200rpm HD  50.00
R9 270 Video Card  100.00  (after rebate)
Case:  20.00 (After Rebate)
Power Supply  15.00 (After rebate)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total  309.99

You have to be patient to get deals like this, and it may take several weeks to accumulate all the deals, but it's doable. Matter of fact, I've actually built several systems with the above specs for about 260.00 all said and done. The thing is, these computers will play most games on the market at 1080p and "high" settings.
1774349
Bought this after owning the Samsung 2012 Chromebook. Surprisingly it had a little lag in it still. I got a refurb so that might have contributed to my experience. Because I wanted to dip my toes into Ubuntu a bit, I ended up returning it for an Intel powered Chromebook (Acer c740)
1597776
The specs on this machine may be great. But to get to appreciate them through Windows 8.1 is virtually impossible. So, for another $100 you can upgrade to 8.1 Pro but you CANNOT downgrade to 7.

Something else to consider is you're purchasing a Dell. That was smart 6 years ago but as of now, you're better off with no support. No call is worth the aggravation or time, as unless you're looking to show department racquet ball points, you will most likely not get the answers you deserve or desire.

I'm an IT admin, have intimate Linux and Windows experience. I can say honestly that no time I have invested in this machine has been worth it. If I were a tablet user, ignorantly expecting just the same on a PC it'd be awesome.

But the machine is limited by Windows.
1213810
kind of wish i just went for 4790k
i didn't realize that in the future I would be doing CPU intensive work
4942167
I bought this laptop about a year ago, Oh I have the Alienware 15 which just has an I7, 2.5 GHZ, 16GB Ram, still going fine but wanted to let others know what they where buying. If you are looking for a gaming laptop look elsewhere. it plays Civilization on low to medium settings and standard size  map and still runs slow as the game gets going, and yes runs very hot. I did not pay attention to the pecs which said (Oh I assumed it came with a CD player and It did not.)  UP TO 3.5 GHZ and the14 says the same UP TO 3.4 GHZ which means if you over clock it (and trust me I tried and my comp runs completely unstable and just crashes, not to mention that Alienware, err Dell doesn't want you in the Bios which if you don't know is where you would configure the overclocking. There is software for this but that's another story.) The graphics card is good for a laptop but not good enough for the name "gaming laptop" err,  quality of a laptop you think your buying. The NVidia 950 sounds great right? That's what I thought I already told you how it runs on games and on games like Skyrim or Arma 3 even on the lowest settings the game will run but eventually crash. Dell
wants you to buy this laptop and if you want to run good games buy a separate monstrous external graphics card that will help your laptop handle games like those but then I'm sure these laptops will over heat and crash so my advice is buy an Asus gaming laptop and make sure if you want to game "make sure the CPU is at 3.5 and the graphics card is not an NVidia 950M" ( M, being the one that wants you to buy the extra external graphics card) like we don't spend enough on this stuff. Do your home work people before you Invest lol in a laptop especially a "gaming laptop".
Well I hope this helps at all
3367774
This is a lot of bang for the buck computer with potential. Motherboard by Pegatron takes 1150 pin CPU's of Intel design so there is a terrific upgrade path to an i7 but I doubt you'll find it necessary. The mini-ATX of 9.6X9.6 inches has been found to be a faster platform, generally, than the $200 and up MB's. There are just two slots for memory on the motherboard allowing for 16GB ram total which gives you the fastest "double-data rate" without the burden of two slots that would probably never get accessed yet draw power from the PSU. Memory provided is PC3-12800 MB/s which is DDR3-1600...pretty quick stuff. The OS is 64-bit MS 8.1 which effectively does not limit memory or storage. 16GB should be more than enough for the next 10 years, if not more. I would justify just 2x4GB sticks for now as plenty and see what the future brings. Wired keyboard and two button wired mouse with scroll wheel: just what you would want starting out and wired is BETTER than wireless! The PCI-e X 16 (3.0spec) slot can take a middle level video card for some semi-serious gaming fun. 300 watt power supply is not taxed by this processor, a single HD and two sticks of DDR3 DRAM and there should be a little reserve left for a video card up to 85-90 watts draw (The PCI-e slot provides 60 of those watts, BTW.).  That would mean Radeon up to R7 250 or GTX 750/750Ti. Five channel surround is 3 channels more than you need for headphones. For gaming, you should use headphones so everyone isn't driven nuts by the noise gaming can produce. There is a headphone jack in the front as well as a microphone jack too (I prefer a good pair of audio quality headphones and a separate microphone...yakking a lot while playing gets you kicked off servers!). If not into gaming, the onboard CPU graphics processing section will handle 2D graphics or 3D stills just fine, but would be choppy for MMFPS like Counterstrike and above. At middle level resolution of 1280X720 the cards mentioned will do an excellent job with the great majority of fast, action packed games and play at 1920X1080 with easier to process games like the original Counterstrike, Battlefield 2, Quake III, Unreal Tournament 2004. This computer has a VERY fast CPU and it will turbo up for games where necessary. You would have to spend $400-500 more for a faster computer with a comparable video card. I recommend an AOC 23" monitor. (I use 2351F) for $119 on sale. You can feed it 1280X720 and it upconverts to its native 1920X1080 full screen with no loss of quality that I can perceive. Here is a link for the specifications on this computer: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04398867
Good Luck, and rest assured you will have purchased a fast computer that is future proofed for the next 7-10 years.
2623456
I recently purchased this motherboard as part of gaming system rebuild I am doing.  I rebuild my gaming computer every three years or so, and I try to go with close to the top end when I do, to increase longevity.  There was really nothing wrong with my old setup, in fact it would last the average user probably another 5 years or so, barring any unforseen radical changes in software architecture.  But I wanted to upgrade...I had the itch.

I knew I wanted the Ivy Bridge i5 3570K.  Specs for the i5 are so close to the i7 it's ridiculous to spend the extre $120 for the latter just for hyperthreading that most software does not support...yet.  With that in mind, I wanted a motherboard that would last for years, and be more than capable of upgrading to the i7 when the change makes more sense (and the i7 is much cheaper).  Having had great success with Gigabyte in the past, I looked at their Z77 line up.  I compared with other brands including the other big Z77 maker at the moment, Asus, and came away with the G1. Sniper 3 as my choice in the end.  There are lots of features that you can only seem to find all on one motherboard only on the G1. Sniper 3. And whether I use them all immediately or not, I like having the ability to expand later when I do want to use them.

However...

The G1,Sniper 3 is an E-ATX motherboard.  It is about 1 inch wider than a standard ATX motherboard.  I didn't realize this when I confirmed my credit card payment...by the time I realized the issue, it was too late.  I thought I did my homework, but I failed to consider form factor.  D'oh!  If you are using a Mid-Tower case, odds are it will NOT fit this board at all.  Mid Towers come in a range of sizes, however, and the largest may fit, but you may need to do some modifications to make it work.  If you like a challenge and aren't sqweemish about cutting into your computer case, this might work for you.  Even if you are using a Full Tower, odds are it is NOT E-ATX compliant.  There again, you can likely make it work if you are willing to do a little modification.

Which is what I did...

Luckily for me, I have an Ultra Aluminus mid-tower case.  Like I said earlier, if your mid-tower case is large enough, you can pull this off.  The Aluminus is a very large "mid-tower" case...other brands would call a case of similar size a "full-tower", so check...you may be able to make this work. Aluminum is incredibly easy to work with for case modding...just need tin snips, patience, and a plan. The motherboard tray in my case, like with most cases from a few years ago, is only rated for ATX and smaller, but there is actually still plenty of room to squeeze in an E-ATX motherboard...with a little modification.  I had to cut the verticle lip from the trailing edge of the motherboard tray, so that no metal would make contact with the underside of the motherboard and cause a short.  Some black electrical tape to dress the edges and protect wiring from being cut on the sharp edge did the trick.  Carefully rerouting the cables from the drives and the power supply also helped make the install relatively painless...it also inproved airflow considerably...why hadn't I done a better job of that in the past?  There isn't as much room in there as I would like, but nothing is touching anything that it shouldn't be touching.

One issue that is worth mentioning...the front panel audio connection is about as far from the front panel audio as is possible on this board.  If your front panel audio cable will not reach the bottom rear of your case, it isn't going to be able to be plugged in to this motherboard.  If that is important for you, you may want to consider another motherboard.
3968322
The specs on this laptop are awesome, but when I turned it on and started loading my programs it started to freeze, then the BSOD. I don't remember the last time I had a BSOD. So I did everything I could short of formatting the hard drive and SSD and reinstalling windows. This included restoring windows to factory, updating the BIOS and all drivers and the problem still existed no matter what I did. I contacted the seller and they basically said tough S***. If I can fix this problem it might be a decent laptop, but if I can't, its $900 down the drain. I would say stay away from this laptop and seller.
1015056
Missed the fact it was I3 and not Core I5 but otherwise seems fairly good. Didn't like the warranty expired in less than 30 days on a new computer!