Asus M50VM Montevina, NV 9600M GS Review

OK. But i think that the blueray is too expensive at the moment. You guys from US, country of cheap eletronics, think it is worth paying 369 plus to have my note with it (Blue-Ray driver)? what about cooler? the M50SA, i read that it needs.

 

I'm curious about this too!

 

Yes! It does just that... swivel

 

checkout the video here:

 

thanks for the video, i thought that was what it did,

also if i order a M50Vm-B1 from you guys will it ship right away?

 

I ordered mine last Tuesday and I got it on Friday.

 

Maaan I really wish this came with 9600GT gddr3, or even GDDR2. the GS is the only thing making me hesitate a bit, since I want to game on it.

 

I agree that it would be perfect with the 9600gt. The graphics card on this is what is making me lean towards the G50vm. I am only a casual gamer so the 9600gs might suffice but I am not sure.

 

What games do you play? 9600 GS is a pretty good notebook card for not burning up your wallet.

 

Bit the bullet and ordered the M50Vm-A1 tonight and canceled my Dell M1530! Thanks to Ken from Gentech and everyone else for the info helping me with my decision.

 

Well I will be bringing it to college so I wont have my 360 anymore so I will be just getting into computer gaming. I want to be able to play a Cod4, crysis the usual fps games. I am thinking two to three years from now I will have trouble running modern games at decent resolutions and settings.

 

yeah im going to order tomorrow morning, i think this is way better, newer chipset and everything i wanted in the XPS 1530, and you wont need to wory about a defective gpu

 

Yea.. You might want a better card if you want to play those games and future ones. You should be able to run CoD on medium though.

 

I've been looking at getting this laptop to bring to college with me, I won't be using it in classes much, but will probably take to the library and use occasionally during class. Anyone think this is too large or heavy a notebook to be using like so? (I'll be using it for gaming in my residence building and such when I'm not working thats why I'm looking at a decently powerful notebook like this)

Edit: I've done a faq and everything on this page: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=275013 in case anyone needs more information

 

Got SpeedFan installed, running HD encoding, fan is on full

Core1 51C
Core2 52C

Laptop is cool to the touch. Anyone knows how they did it?

 

[mystical voice] Magic![/mystical voice]

 

Yea. I idle on 34 C and load on 52 C with Orthos. 78 F room temp.
I recommend Core Temp more than Speed Fan.. Or HWMonitor

 

I think this would be a good notebook. I'm not sure how graphic intensive Diablo 3 is yet though. The other games should run fine. The only problem is that you won't get 3+ hours of battery life.. The review said 2:50 but you'll get 3:00 tops.

Laptop is 6.5 pounds and if you get a nice backpack it shouldn't be a hassle to carry. It'll be like a textbook. It's sturdy and well built to last.

 

Yeah, I'm considering the 9-cell, but that would make it heavier...


maybe a spare 9-cell so when i know i dont need too long i can stick with the 6-cell

 

I want to order this notebook here in Germany, but there are still few things confusing me.

It is not yet released to the market here, but I can place an order online.

This thread, as well as ASUS website, says that 9600M has 1GB ram, but the websites which offer this notebook in Germany claim it to have only 512MB.

I don't know if ASUS is going to sell this notebook with only 512MB video ram in europe or is it just that ASUS gave wrong specs to the sites where one can pre-order it.

Official ASUS site says 4xUSB, but does not mention esata port.
Most of the online stores here in Germany are mentioning 3xUSB and 1x esata port.

I don't know if there would difference in number of ports and video ram between USA model (M50VM-B1) and the German model (M50VM-AK014C).
Usually this is very unlikely.

It is really a specification mess. I hope they release this notebook soon in Germany so that we can really be sure, but this makes it really hard to pre-order without being sure what you will really get.

 

For Shotzie and anyone else taking this to college/debating between 15" and 17", here's the perspective of someone still in college and having owned both 15" and 17" laptops.

I started college with a Dell Inspiron 9300, a whopping 10+ lbs with the upgraded battery. Being my first notebook, I didn't realize how much of a pain it was lugging around. My second was a Pavilion dv6000t, which was much better though still hefty at around 8 lbs w/the upgraded battery (it feels like the battery doubled the laptop's weight haha). Loved the design, but the heat issue has me annoyed and I jumped on this deal last Friday:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=277530

M50Vm-X1 $1166 shipped (don't have to pay anything until next year w/Preferred Account).

I actually prefer the 1280x800 native cuz my eyes aren't the best

Turbo, have you tried calling the vendors and asking? That might clear some things up.

 

From someone who's been using a 15.4" in college for well over a year, I think it's the ideal size for optimized mobility vs. viewing/performance. On rare occasions (classes when I'm trying to hide my laptop haha) I wished I had a 14", but you just can't get the price and performance at that size.

 

I don't know if you read my earlier post but as far as gaming goes this handles them well. I have now tried two graphically challenging games. Second Life and Team Fortress 2(essentially Half Life, uses same engine). Both games run nearly as well on the same settings as my desktop PC using the GeForce 8800 GTS (620megs) and a dual core AMD running at 3.0ghz per. I set them both to the highest setting so its a fair bet Diablo 3 will run well too.

 

Hey check out gentechpcs website. There is now a B2 and B4 model with wsxga+ and blue-ray or 500gb HD! I am glad I waited, more options!

Edit-
M50VM-B2 = 500gb HD
M50VM-B4 = Blue-ray

 

Anyone looking to game on this machine will be pleased.

I have played CoD4, Crysis, Oblivion, Universe at war, Command and Conquer 3, Unreal Tournament 3... and this is a 9500 GS Card which is about 15-20% slower than your 9600GS card.

note: I don't use AA or AF

Cod4 can run on almost max settings easily. If you turn down shadows you can run it near 60fps most of the time.
recommended settings: 1280x800 res, max settings with low shadows.
expect 45+ fps or so, some levels in the main campaing run at 35+

Crysis can run on our laptops! but indeed it is one heavy hitter...
recommended settings: 1024x640 res, high textures, high objects, medium everything else--- run this on DX9 mode it does have a performance increase while looking good enough.
for a rather big jump in fps, you can set the shadows on low.
expect between 20-30fps, average 25, and lowest near 15 fps. Very playable but be advised, the last battles DO slowdown A LOT and I have no clue why. this also happens on my PC with an Ati HD4850 so its something with the game.

Unreal tournament 3 can run at max but 30ish fps, I recommend the 1280x800 resolution to maintain a decent performance, as Unreal is a game that requires high fps to be good. besides the game settings cannot be much tweaked inside the game.

All rest of the games run great at near max settings, just play with some settings to get the best for your system. since we are 128 bit card users I recommend 1280x800 res for best performance while mantaining a good looking image.

Something to consider: The greatest weakness of the card are shadows. If you find a game runing too low, check shadows settings. The second weakness would be shaders but not that much of a problem compared to shadows.

ah btw I play on stock settings no O/C.

 

You forgot to mention that the B2 version comes with a 1680x1050 resolution!

 

I mentioned wsxga+ but wasn't very specific lol. Either way, they are both a lot of laptop for the money. I really don't get why the blue-ray model gets a lower resolution, doesn't make sense to me.

 

opps.. sorry about it

 

Thanks for the review!

I ordered the M50Vm-B1 last night. I can't wait to get it.

 

where did you order from, i am looking at GenTech seems like a good company

 

I ordered my A1 last night from Ken at Gentech. He answered a few questions through PM and has been very informative in the Asus threads. From everyone else's good dealings with him and his availability here made it a no brainer.

He called today to confirm my order and was very pleasant to talk to and thankful for the business.

Can't get better than that...just waiting for it to get here!

 

I ordered mine from NewEgg.

 

does it only come with 32 bit vista?

 

Newegg is more $$ plus if you decide to return it you'll be stuck with 15% restocking... from GenTech I think it's 10%

 

I enjoy shopping with NewEgg. They actually don't accept returns on notebooks, only replacements for defective units. True, it does cost more from NewEgg, but honestly NewEgg seems a little more professional than GenTech. The GenTech website has some spelling errors, although I'm sure they're reliable enough. I've had nothing but good experiences with NewEgg, and whenever I order 3-day shipping from them it comes in less than 2 days.

Of course, I've ordered things from relatively unknown websites as well, but inexpensive things mostly.

 

I got my M50Vm-B1 ordered from GenTech

 

HIGH FIVE

 

Lol~ loved Borat, even though that movie is so wrong on so many different levels

Anyways, yea, although gentech's website needs a little updating, their service is just as reliable as Amazon and newegg. I've purchase multiple notebooks from them and each time they were delivered as scheduled, if not sooner. One thing good about gentech is that they provide an extra layer of protection so that if anything goes wrong with your notebook, they will be able to help troubleshoot your problem. It just gives you another option other than contacting Asus.

 

Do these laptops currently have the switching between dedicated/integrated graphics capability?

 

They do not.

 

looking on gentech's website the m50vm only comes with the 32-bit version of vista... does this not make the 4gb of ram pointless?

 

i have a copy of vista64 pro i plan to use

 

i just meant I was planning on getting this laptop, but don't currently own any copies of vista so would i miss out on that last gb of ram?

 

I have a friend from Pakistan who can get me the copy of Vista 64 Pro I plan to use.

JUST KIDDING

 

it seems silly that i should have to pay $120 or what ever to upgrade to the 64-bit version..

 

You wont ever be using 4gb of ram at any one point of time so it doesnt really matter, but i forgot why but with the new montevina platform you will actually have access to a little over 3gb of ram.

 

Maybe there's a way to get the 64-bit version of Home Premium for free if you already have the 32-bit version. Could somebody look into this?

 

I could care less about misspelling on the website, personal touch is what sold me on Gentech. Although, I've been shopping at Newegg for 8 years now where I buy most of my hardware, I would not buy anything expensive due to their policies. I've personally had an unpleasant experience with Newegg that related to a notebook purchase a few years ago.

 

Ha! Infraction, hammer, smoke, and ban!

Just kidding.

 

Has anyone ordered a laptop from www.asuslaptop.co.uk in the UK?

I'm thinking of getting a M50VM. At the moment they only have a model equivalent to the M50VM-B4 but with a 500GB.

What is the service like? If anything would to go wrong with the laptop would they return it to Asus or would I need to send it direct?

I've been reading some horror stories about Asus taking 3 months to fix a laptop.

Thanks