ASUS G50VT-X1 with Nvidia 9800M Review and Initial Impression

Wrong, it has a 9800m GS.. the GT vs GS confusion came from the drivers not being updated with the new model.

 

Oh... I'm getting really confused now.

 

Yeah, it's 9800m GS and not GT. It really doesn't matter though, it's still a nice GPU. =)

 

Considering the price gap between the average GS-equipped notebook and what you pay for a GTS, it's really good value.

 

What would you do? Buy from store or order it online?? Cause I heard some people had a hard time it with it >.> I know one thing The geek squad doesn't need to touch it. The ruined one of my previous laptops...

 

Hi,

i'am a new member in here and not know a lot about notebook
so i need Ur help

I want to buy new notebookfor me, becoz i want to give my first
notebook( lenovo y410 3000 ) to my bro. I' looking for 15" notebook
and i found 2 interesting notebook, HP DV5t and ASUS G50Vt-X1.

My Budget is about $1300-$1500.

I am a gamer, I don't really need a high end notebook with expensive
price. But at least i want to play Crysis in my laptop.

So i have a few question :
1. Can u give me the dimension and weight of both notebook?

2. Which one is more heavy? is it still in reasonable weight?
because sometimes i will use this notebook for travel.

3. Between both laptop, which one is more cool? is the heat of
both laptop still reasonable? because i usually use notebook for
a long time to make program and to play a game. so if the
surface or maybe the keyboard feels warm, it feel not comfortable

4. Which one is better in performance? because i need good notebook
for make a program using Visual Studio 2008 and same time i use it
to listening music or may be do another things in the same time.
And in the spare time in work, i want to use it to play games.

5. if u don't mind, please give me the pros and cons about both.
I have seen the review, but i want to hear the user review
from u all.

6. How about both monitor quality? is it good? because i have read
that X1 show average quality.

7. How about both sound quality? is it good? because i have read
that X1 show average quality.

8. May be u can suggest me another type of notebook that better that
both?


Actually i also like G50v-A1 / x2 but i don't like the orange color on
that laptop.

Thanks for anyone who answered it or read it. I really appreciate it.

Sorry for may bad english. English is not may native language


Thanks.

 

I would personally get it from the store. I don't want my fragile laptop to be thrown around by some FedEx/UPS guy and open the box just to find out that I have a cracked screen or a jacked up hard drive. At least if you get it from the store, although the merchandise undergoes the same process, it wouldn't be that much of a hassle to return it for a replacement or refund your money back with a quicker turnaround time. If you got it online and there is a problem with it, you would have to call it in, wait for the box that they sent in the mail, send the laptop to them, wait for it to get repaired/replaced, and then transit time to send it back to you. Not to mention being thrown around in the delivery truck one more time. The process would take like a couple of weeks!! I can't wait that long.

Unless of course, if I'm getting a no-brainer deal from an online retailer, then I would have to rethink my judgment.

 

LOL, you are so right Daskid... that's what I was worried about too, those Fedex/UPS guys really don't handle the packages with care. I live about 90 miles away from the closest BestBuy. So here was my plan, get me the laptop and go to the nearest Starbucks and test it out. When there is something wrong go back to BestBuy and tell them. OMG... not to mention when I had to send in my latest HP, I got all back messed up. There was this huge scratch on top of it and the hinges had this weird looking glue on it. Ofcourse they claim it happend when I had it... I'm still mad about that... Anyways hows that for an idea? LOL I can get me a latte while I'm Starbucks

 

Hi, I'm new here and I've read a few pages on here but since everyone didn't seem to agree I will reask a few questions and I greatly appreciate any reply.


What components are upgradable?
CPU?
GPU?
Ram(how many memory card slots?)

Does it really have two hard drive slots (so can I have two hard drives in there..?) and one is empty?

Is there a 9 cell battery available for it?
I've been searching online for answers to these questions and I haven't found much and this forum is the only one that seems to answer these questions about this particular laptop.

I just want to know for down the road, I might want to upgrade the cpu and gpu and if it has another hard drive slot why not put in another hard drive.

Thanks

 

Yup! That'll work. Make sure to bring installation files (in a DVD or in any external media) of the files you want to install; like games, utilities, etc...

Spend like at least 2 hours at Starbucks and "break in" your laptop. Also do reboots/shutdowns every once in a while to emulate everyday use. Good luck!

 

Hello,

Just got this laptop and I love it. I have one problem I wish I could fix though. I have WMC on my and my G50vt is receiving the MC remote signals. Does anyone know how to turn it off?

Nick

 

Thx,... I'm still waiting to get my old notebooks sold. But yeah I'll put games like Crysis, Oblivion, Hellgate London, etc. etc. on there. My usual programs like office, MSN Messenger, FireFox, Skype and all those everyday things. And "break it in" for 3 hours or so. And see what's going to happen. It couldn't be any worse then what I got right now...

 

I know about the ram, and processor are upgradable does upgrading the ram and processor void the warranty?, I still don't know is the gpu upgradable? Is it soldered to the motherboard? and is there another space for an additional hard drive?

I'd appreciate any insight to these questions, and please be specific if you can.

 

All of these questions have been answered before, but I'll explain them again. The RAM and Hard Drive can be upgraded with ease without void to the warranty. The CPU can be upgraded, but unlike the Hard Drive and RAM it will void the warranty. The GPU is some type of MXM removable card (not soldered) and can possibly be upgraded, but would also void the warranty.

 

You guys think it will stay $1049 (plus tax)???

My Toshiba got sold today... *cries*

 

Shadowkat ; where ?

 

Where? Best Buy! I picked one up today

 

I just got around setting up the X1 Christmas gift today . So far so good played Left for Dead and NFS Undercover. I played both for about 1 hour each without any problems. Not overlaoded with bloatware, I unitsallted Norton & Trial MSO. Besides the two games I loaded Office Enterprise and that is it.

My main pain is Vista 64, Flash, QT, etc... as they are not compatable.
X1 is preloaded with 64 IE and 32 IE. I have tried to dl Flash with 32 IE but that still doesn't work. I also don't like the "Republic of Gamers" logo but I will get a skin to cover it.

Like everyone stated the X1 is big for a 15" laptop. The size is more like a 17". I am gonna have to buy anyother bag for it. If you have a opportunity to pick up the X1 do so it is a great buy even at $1050.

 

LMAO yes Hanzo it is BestBuy... ^.^, I believe that 's the only place that sells the X1...

 

I seem to be experiencing this keyboard lag issue. I'm digging around here but can't seem to find the definitive fix (if there is one). Can someone kindly help me?

 

This is the thread, and my post basically sums it up:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=283541&page=29#288

Make sure you are on BIOS 209 before updating your drivers. Good luck

 

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately that didn't do it for me. I updated the bios and then installed the drivers like you said.

Looks like this is going back to Best Buy. Do you think they'll give me a hard time about it? I've never returned anything there.

 

Did you disable drive indexing, kill symantec AV and un-schedule the default scheduled defrag?

Also, did you try disabling the touchpad in the BIOS and using an external mouse (not forever, just to test if it's the synaptics driver problem)

If you are going to return it to Best Buy do it sooner than later. I don't have any experience but I do know that your window is a couple of weeks at most.

 

Early results look good that it's a synaptics driver problem. I disabled it in the bios and right now it appears to be working without lag.

So what would be the solution here? Hit synaptics up for their latest driver?

Thanks!

 

Well.. this is where that script I wrote comes in. It lowers the priority of the driver processes. You can try changing SynTp*.exe to lowest priority in task manager. That might fix it... yea, updating the drivers is probably a good bet... but this is the problem that the ATK hotkey driver is supposed to fix along with BIOS 207 (and now 209). As I mentioned in that thread, some people can't shake the problem even with all of these steps, so.... my guess is that there is probably a hardware defect to some models that come off the line. Another couple of users replaced theirs thru either warranty exchange or the retailer and didn't have problems subsequently (or didn't come back to post that they did...)

So I'm not really sure what the best thing to do is, but you could try my script if lowering the process priority works... might not be a bad idea to totally uninstall the ATK drivers and install the newest ones fresh.

 

Well this is certainly not good to hear, mine is coming from an online retailer.

 

Oh no, I suppose to get mine in a few days... >.> hopefully I won't bet getting that problem. I have to drive 90 miles to get to the nearest BesBuy. And... there is no way I'll order a computer online.

 

was it confirmed that the grill below the x1 is not a showpiece but an air intake vent?

 

I don't think any laptop ever had something on the bottom as a show piece. It's probably ventilation for the heat sinks.

 

Just an update on the benchmarks, mine out of the box with Norton and office demo uninstalled, plus the latest drivers got me a 9110 on 3dMark06. Sick for the price

 

you already posted the benchmarks on January 11th

 

It was originally designed as a intake vent for the cooling fan. Then I guess some engineer was smart and decided to cover that intake, so that the air has to come in through the other vents and cool other components like HDD and RAM. Probably a good move - the Clevo M860TU had problems with very high HDD temps probably because their fan intake was open, leading to airflow over the HDD.

This has been analyzed and documented nicely by Vicious a long time ago when he first got his G50. I'll see if I can dig up his post later on.

EDIT: Here is the original post by Vicious that I was talking about.

 

Yes, the circular piece on the bottom is purely decorative. It has been confirmed by Asus.

 

YAY! I got mine today.... Everything seems ok... Except my battery doesn't want to charge >.> hehe anyone has that problem with it? I'll keep you guys posted...

 

Um, this might be a stupid question you guys but do I need update the BIOS? Like starting from version 205 to 209 and then to 210? Sorry I'm just a little confussed >.>

 

oh boy, more trouble... it keeps reconfiguring when I restart, lol I know others have this problem too. Is there a way to fix it yet? It's really annoying >.>

Progress: -Updated video card

 

What do you mean by "reconfiguring"? Is it the non-stop windows update? I haven't updated my BIOS yet. Like what an old wise man said "If it's not broken, don't fix it!"

 

lol you know when you update windows and then you need to restart... then it reconfigures you updates or whatever... well that just keeps happening and it's like really annoying... you new laptop

 

umm, I might just be like you say the "non-stop" windows update... I just noticed it's trying to update again a bunch of stuff >.>

 

That happened to me as well. It will eventually get tired of doing it. Anybody can feel free to chime in since it wasn't really a biggie for me.

 

lol I must done something cause it quit...

 

I'm starting to think I should return this notebook when it's not getting fix by updating the BIOS. >.> I can't use the "~" in games, there is lag in games, it's kinda strange cause it should be able to play Oblivion IV without any problems (come on my old Toshiba could play so...). Yes I updated the video card to the right drivers. Any ideas?

 

weird you cant use the tilde in games...i do, in cod4 and world at war all the time.

I dnt know about oblivion but i get very good performance on the games i play. Have also tried fallout3 and FC2 and i got decent performance without any tweaks.

btw I am using nvidia beta driver 179.28 and always game plugged in.

 

Make sure you have "High Performance" setting on. I remove the battery and plug in my laptop every time I use it.

I can use the tilde key in-game all the time. Never had problems with it. I have NFS Undercover, CS:Source, L4D, Red Alert 3, and World of Warcraft. All run smoothly.

 

hmmm I'll try the high performance setting >.> I tried to use the tilde key in another games it seems to be working there. So I reinstalled Oblivion, still no success with that.

 

You have to enable the console in most games, it's not on by default... but even with that you can't use tilde?

 

yup, I already played oblivion many times and I know you don't need to enable the console. I checked to be sure though, I wonder what's going on >.>

A comment about the speakers: They are not as bad like people make them out to be. I actually think they are rather good.

 

Ditto.

Crisp and clear...

 

speakers good for me too...just depends on the app, like some online video players are really low but others sound fine...so i think its just the players

 

yep speakers r pretty gud..
also i did try to plug in a set of headphones and a usb mouse near it.. didnt really find any sort of disturbance like many faced.. mayb got away wid dat one atleast

So it shudnt b a problem if i dont elevate the nb from behind..?

was abt to update windows just now! was thinking it wud hv been sorted by now


Edit: jus saw the other thread.. mayb best to keep it elevated