Asus X53E SX-1186V Laptop review

Asus X53E SX-1186V main specifications

• Processor: Intel Sandy Bridge i5 2430M clocked at 2.4GHz (2 core with HT technology)
• Turbo 2 frequency: Up to 3GHz
• Chipset: Intel Mobile Express HM65
• RAM: 6GB of 1333MHz DDR3
• HDD: Western Digital Scorpio Blue 5400RPM with 750GB of storage
• Graphics: Integrated Intel HD3000
• Screen: 1366 x 768 pixel 16:9 LED backlit with a glossy finish
• Display outputs: 1x HDMI (HDCP compliant) and 1x VGA analogue out
• USB: 1x USB3 socket and 2x USB2 sockets
• LAN: 1x gigabit LAN (Atheros)
• Wireless: Intel Centrino Wireless N with MiFi support.
• Webcam: Asus branded .90 megapixel
• Card reader: 4 in 1 including support for all SD type cards
• Battery: 6 cell Lithium Ion 59.4 Wh
• Optical drive: Matshita UJ8BO DVD/CD re-writer
• Operating system: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

The specifications are very good indeed, with a powerful mobile CPU, a good bundle of RAM, and a large capacity hard drive.

Other hardware features of the Asus X53E SX-1186V

Now let’s take a look of some of the other hardware features of the Asus X53E SX-1186V laptop.

As we have already discovered, the X53E SX-1186V is fitted out with some very good quality computer hardware. With an Intel HM65 chipset, which is the mobile version of the H65 desktop chipset, you would expect to find at least SATA 6Gbps support, and the Asus X53E SX-1186V doesn’t disappoint in this department. We will take a brief look at the SATA performance of the Asus X53E SX-1186V later on in this article.

USB

As we can see from the above screenshot, the Asus X53E SX-1186V has two USB controllers. The USB2 ports are fed from the HM65 chipsets PCH (Platform Controller Hub), and the single USB3 port is powered by an ASMedia ASM1042 USB3 controller.

LAN and Wireless

Wired Gigabit LAN is powered by an Atheros AR8151 PCIe controller. It works well as we will see a little later in this article, but I would have preferred that Asus had implemented the onboard Intel Gigabit LAN.

The Wireless LAN is a different matter altogether, and uses the excellent Intel Centrino Wireless N card, which is fitted to the laptop’s motherboard. The range and speed of this wireless connection is awesome (see later in the article), but not only that, it also supports MiFi, which allows you to use the laptop as a wireless access point for connecting other wireless devices, such as mobile phones.

Sound 

When the laptop is connected via HDMI to a TV, the sound is supplied via the integrated Intel HD audio controller. When you use the sound from the Asus X53E SX-1186V, the sound is generated by the onboard Realtek ALC269 HD audio controller, and fed to a pair of onboard Altec Lansing speakers. Sound from the laptop is pretty good.

 

Let’s head to the next page where I will take a brief look at the bundled software…..

 

• Introduction
• Bundled software