ASUS VivoPC: A thorough look at ASUS EasyUpgrade, WiFi Go and other built-in apps

The world has gone DIY(Do-It-Yourself) with easy DIY solutions available for most simple to difficult tasks these days. The ASUS Easy Upgrade feature allows even the most technologically novice people to upgrade the VivoPC.To upgrade it, you just have to follow a few simple steps which require the most basic set of skills ever.

Space is the biggest constraint of our digital lives and it seems as though we can never have enough of it. If you need more storage space, it is very much understandable considering the amount of content we come across on a daily basis. The VivoPC VM60 comes pre-installed with a 500GB hard drive but you can upgrade it to have more space. Opening up the VivoPC is child’s play. You just have to reach out for the Kensington lock tab at the back of the unit and slide it down to unlock the brushed aluminium designed top of the PC. Once you’ve done that, you can slide back the top cover and it will reveal the pre-installed Hard Disk Drive.

The Hard Drive sits at the centre of the unit and though it looks as though it’s sealed inside, you can unlock it simply by sliding it horizontally and pulling it out.

After you’ve pulled out the HDD, you will notice that the HDD will have small rubber mounts attached at its corners where you would usually screw on the drive. These mounts are responsible for holding the hard drive in place.

When you’re installing a new drive in the VivoPC, you’ll have to screw on the rubber mounts to the new drive.

Once you’re done attaching the rubber side-mounts, you can install the hard drive itself in the similar way how you removed the previous drive that is by aligning the drive over the system, putting it down and horizontally sliding the drive in place. If for some reason you want to install an SSD inside the VivoPC, it can be done as well. SSD installation also follows the same steps that you saw in HDD installation but you won’t need to use the rubber side-mounts for installing the SSD. The SSD will be held in place without them. After you’ve finished installing the HDD inside the system, closing the VivoPC is just as simple. You just need to take the top cover and put it on top of the system by aligning it in place and then sliding the cover to its original position. Next, you’ll have to slide up the Kensington lock tab at the back of the VivoPC and you’re done.

If you thought upgrading the Hard Drive inside the ASUS VivoPC was simple, you’ll find upgrading the RAM similarly easy. Firstly, you just need to follow the same process to open the VivoPC as shown for the HDD installation process. Next, remove the installed storage drive and keep it away.

You’ll see a small tab below the HDD space which would have a sticker attached with illustrations. These illustrations are very handy as they show how to remove and install the RAM, but it’s fairly easy anyway.

You’ll need a screwdriver to open the RAM compartment but ASUS has designed the compartment in such a way that you just have to unscrew only a single screw. Once you’ve unscrewed the said screw, you’ll have to pull the small compartment cover and it would come off.

Looking inside the RAM compartment, you’ll notice the pre-installed RAM module. The ASUS VivoPC supports a maximum of 16GB DDR3 RAM in dual channel mode at 1600/1333MHz. So depending on how much RAM you require, you can purchase compatible RAM modules and replace the existing RAM. Installing a module is fairly easy as well because you just have to align the module according to the RAM slot, slide it in and press it down to lock it in place. Once you’re done with it, just close the plastic tab by screwing it on, put the HDD back in its place and close the top panel of the VivoPC. This is how you upgrade and install RAM inside the ASUS VivoPC and it’s actually very easy to do so.

ASUS WiFi GO! is a feature that provides users a unique way of enjoying multimedia content by providing a lot of control over how and what the user sees. Basically, ASUS WiFi GO! let’s you have control over your multimedia content with the help of your portable WiFi enabled devices such as smartphones and tablets. Previously, we had seen the WiFi GO! facility with ASUS motherboards but now, ASUS aims to bridge the gap by having our smart devices always synced through the app. To make use of ASUS WiFi GO! you’ll need to download and install the ASUS WiFi Go app for your smartphone or tablet and connect your smart device to the ASUS VivoPC through WiFi. Once you have connected your device to the VivoPC, you have access to a host of different components of WiFi GO!. The first component is Cloud GO that allows you to sync files across your different cloud storage accounts and helps in simple file management. This feature is especially useful for syncing and backing-up files.

The next component of WIFi GO! is Remote Desktop which is similar to most other remote desktop applications in the sense that it lets you remotely access and control your desktop directly through your portable smart device. The WiFi GO! app provides an overlay on your device’ screen that lets you perform almost all the functions that you normally would on your desktop.

DLNA Media Hub which is the next component of WiFi GO! allows you to stream multimedia content from the VivoPC to DLNA-enabled devices.

File Transfer component provides users the ability to share files between the connected portable device and the VivoPC.

Coming to the Smart Sensor Control component, ASUS has made sure that they leave no stone unturned. We say this because using this component of WiFi GO!, you can make use of the sensors built into your mobile device to control the computer. Having a different way of controlling your devices is always welcome and the Smart Sensor Control component is an example of this.

At some point of time, you might have thought that it would be nice to use the touchscreen of your smart device as a keyboard and mouse for your PC and so ASUS has answered to that with the Remote Keyboard and Mouse component of WiFi GO!.

Finally, the Capture and Send component allows you to capture and send screenshots right from your device.

The ASUS WiFi GO! is seriously an extremely feature-rich app that also lets users take a look at the current system statistics in the form of CPU frequency, temperatures, voltage and fan speed. This adds more intuitiveness to the app as a whole and makes it a user friendly package.

So, to cut it short, if you’re someone who just can’t be confined to the limits of most pre-built desktop PC’s, you should undoubtedly take a look at the ASUS VivoPC as you’ll find never-before seen ease of upgradability with it. And it doesn’t end there as the number of apps built into the system provide a lot of functionality to the ASUS VivoPC and ticks most of our checkboxes for recommending it to you.