Asus M50VM Montevina, NV 9600M GS Review

Is anybody here getting Connection Interrupted errors while playing Call of Duty 4? Other computers on my wireless network are not having this problem.

 

Hi, new here, and desperately trying to get my hands on a
M50VM-AK005G (the UK version of the M50VM)
Problem is, i live in Greece, and cant find any online store that ships to Greece from the UK. Anyone has any ideas where to look on uk online stores ?

 

Sir, 4GB of RAM is ALOT and i think people will agree with me by saying you wont need more than that for a little while... maybe until next couple years.. until you are ready to buy a new laptop. These asus laptops are designed for pure bang for buck... if you want you can buy an HP but, you will be paying a lot more for just the same you can get in the asus

Plus, the chipset asus uses here, supports ddr3, but due to the high prices of ddr3 and some other things, they still used ddr2 800mhz ram.

 

Quick question, what kind of video output does the m50vm-A1 have? I can read that it has HDMI audio out but what about video?? (i.e. HDMI, DVI, etc. video out)

 

I disagree, 4GB of RAM is not a lot and I could use 4GB today with Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Premiere, and Arbortext Editor. By way of example, today Adobe Photoshop itself can use up to about 3.5GB of RAM and any available RAM above that it will use as scratch files to avoid storing data to the hard drive, this significantly improves performance. I can also see an immediate use for more than 4GB when creating home movies on DVD; last year I created a home movie on DVD that needed 3.5GB of disk space and I created it on a system with only 1GB of RAM but it took a long time to render and create multiple DVDs, having 4 GB and a faster CPU should make it a lot faster.

I don't see an immediate need for more than 4GB but I wanted to keep my options open because I plan on keeping the laptop for 5 years, which is why I was choosing a CPU that could run 64-bit applications. If I could configure an HP DV5 with a P8400 or T9400 and a 9600M GS card, with employee discounts I could purchase an HP DV5 for about the same price as an Asus M50VM-B1; however, in Canada I can't and only the P7350/9200M GS combo configuration is available. So I'm not even considering an HP DV5, and I will be buying an Asus M50VM-A1 or M50VM-B1 later this week. I'm leaning towards the B1 because it should render video quicker; for CPU intensive applications, my research indicates that the combination of a faster CPU and doubling the cache should give an average performance boost of around 13% and up to as much as 18% for audio and video encoding.

 

HDMI video, VGA.

 

You have read well! If you are going to use it for such apps, i wouldnt doubt they will drain resources away! CAD apps as well. Wont a reasonable pagefile size be able to help out that situation?

I am glad to see that you are well informed! I think the best bet is with the B1, but i saw on newegg its actually 100usd more.

What i did is buy the X1, it has a XGA display, 250GB HDD, but the rest is the same as the B1, but its 200usd less than the A1 and 100usd less than the B1. I of course use my laptop for moderate gaming and was bought to last just as long but for college, so i wont be relying intensively on peformance too much as you will, as you said you will be needing it for the Adobe Suite of apps. So if $$ isnt the issue, the B1 is te thing

One question though, what is the chipset in the hp dv5? in these asus' it is the Intel PM45. Isnt it the same as the HP? Hence wont the ASUS have the 8GB limit then?

 

The HP dv5 does use the Montevina chip set, which is why I was surprised by the Asus only supporting up to 4GB. The price difference in Canada between the A1 and B1 is only C$100 ($1250 versus $1350 @ www.swiftgamers.com).

 

I think you have your models (and prices) mixed up. The B1 also has the T9400, which is $150 more than the X1. The A1 model sells for $10 more than the X1, which has the same processor (P8400), but a larger hard drive and higher resolution panel. And the only difference between the B1 and A1 is the processor. So really, the best bang for your buck is the A1, not the X1.

M50VM-X1 (Newegg) $1249.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220340&Tpk=M50Vm-X1

M50VM-A1 and B1 (GenTech) 1259.99 and 1399.99
http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=SRCH&Store_Code=GPS&search=M50VM

 

I ordered the M50VM-B1 today from www.swiftgamers.com for C$1350 including delivery + taxes (C$1525.50 including PST and GST, about US$1425). Hopefully I should get before the weekend. The final deciding factors were that for an 8% increase in cost I get a 13-18% increase in performance with only a 7% decrease in battery longevity; in addition, the larger 6MB L2 cache should help improve performance in the future as more applications make use of the larger cache. With a 2-year Asus warranty (+ another 1-year from using my credit card to give 3-years of warranty coverage) I'm not concerned about reliability.

 

Regarding the above discussion re: chipset supported RAM > 4Gb....

Asus only notes the supported RAM amount that is generally available at the time of release (hence, 2x2GB = 4Gb); other old systems note 2gb support, but have been shown to function fine with 3 or sometimes 4gb. Whether it will someday be more than 4gb depends on two things:

1. DDR2 ram being produced in larger than 2gb sizes.
2. Asus writing a BIOS to support #1.

As for the likelihood of #1, it is probably low as the industry is going to eventually be shifting toward DDR3 ram production and the DDR2 fabs will be shut down. DDR3 ram is not compatible with DDR2 ram slots afaik (confirmed in desktop, I presume is also the case in notebooks although I haven't yet come across references to support that conclusion). The higher ram support is currently limited to server orientations that have more than 2 slots available, which limits you to desktop applications as I'm not sure a notebook with 4 ram slots exists (and how one would engineer that in anything smaller than a big DTR is beyond me, unless you soldered it to the motherboard). The days of greater than 2gb ram chips being produced are extremely far off, imo, as there is simply not the need except for the most niche of applications to require that much (and anyone doing that sort of serious work most likely does it on a desktop workstation rather than notebook), making it unprofitable to even make that sort of thing.

Vista also tends to stuff available system RAM full of prefetch data, rather than leave a lot of it unused as XP does, further defeating the purpose of having more ram for the purpose of leftover empty space. Whether that changes in Windows 7, we'll have to wait until 2009/10.

 

lol i used newegg alone for prices sorry... i didnt check gentech sites for reference. Check newegg and you will see

if you check the prices on newegg, the A1 is 1299usd and the X1 is 1199usd (when i bought mine)

(maybe i should have check gentech!)

Same here, and those are some good prices. A bit better than newegg. I hope you enjoy your new lappy.
And clearskies cleared up the issue on the topic of 4GB RAM check his reply.

ClearSkies, thanks man! you cleared that up for me and made sense. Gentech themselves said it is not likely that DDR3 slots will be the same as DDR2, using your same basis i pressume. And that thought of vista prefetching RAM crossed my mind also

 

Thanks ClearSkies for that insight into why 4GB SODIMM chips are not likely to become {{EDIT OUT: a reality}} widespread soon. Although, given the habit of manufacturers of hyping big numbers (see the megapixel frenzy in consumer digital cameras, for instance) -- I wouldn't be one bit surprised if they did do it, even though it doesn't help more than a few percent of the total users...

I don't really follow this, though:

That RAM filled with prefetch data becomes available as soon as "real" data needs it, so I don't see how it changes the picture.

Except perhaps in fooling people into believing they need more RAM... which serves producers just fine.

 

No I never said it's possible, the platform supports DDR3 but the slot does not:

 

4GB DDR2 SODIMMs are available now; for example, see http://www.micron.com/products/partdetail?part=MT16HTS51264HY-667. And I'm pretty sure there must be others. Also note that 4GB DDR2 SODIMMs currently cost over $1000, so I don't see widespread adoption any time soon!

 

And to think that I run with 2GB of RAM... and some people still manage on 512MB...

 

And I currently get the job done on a 5-year old HP Pavilion a206x running Win XP on a Celeron 2.5GHz with 1GB of RAM; with the Asus M50VM-B1 running Vista, T9400 2.5GHz with 4GB of RAM I'm looking forward to getting the job done a lot faster!

 

I guess I misunderstood how Vista handles prefetch, then. That's what happens when none of my systems yet run it and I get away with not having to intricately understand how it works.....

Apologies to all for my mistake - thx EBE.

Well goodness gracious me

Who would'a thunk it ?!

 

omg.. i cant believe i wrote that... its supposed to be isnt possible. I misquoted you. Sorry about that. i will change ASAP!

THanks sooo much! I now got up from a nap

 

Unless you opted for the 64-bit Vista OS you're not going to get the system to access all 4GB, but it should still be a step up over you old system. Enjoy your new acquisition I think you made a smart choice in the M50VM.

 

The solution was to download the updated AR928X driver from this page:

http://www.atheros.cz/index.php

 

None of my systems run it either, and I have not done any research into this SuperFetch business. So I can't tell for sure if the memory becomes available with no performance penalty, or if there is a penalty, how large it is. But I sure hope it becomes available very fast, and with very little penalty -- otherwise there isn't much point in this SuperFetch feature. I'm sure the designers of the feature did their research.

 

Do I have to register my M50VM to have 1year ASUS Accidental Damage Warranty?

 

correct me if im wrong guys but arent we supposed to register it before 60days of purchase? I read that in some fine print single sheet about accident warranty

 

Anyone got a hint on how to increase the volume of the speakers? They are pretty good, and they could sound a lot more. Any driver updates for XP 32? I Just love the machine and want to love it even more.

 

Hello. I wanna order laptop (Asus M50Vm-A1 ) from GentechPC and i have couple questions. I will glad if Ken from GentechPC will aswer me...
First of all, how long it will be ship to New Jersey? And what about shipping payment and tax?
And secondly, what will happen if i will not be at home when it arrive?
Thank you.

 

PM Ken your questions about GentechPC and you should get a faster response then you will to posting in a thread like this one. In general places like GentechPC and XoticPC order the systems from Asus (if they don't already have some in stock ). Next they configure them to your specifications and test them (for anywhere from 1-7 days). Then after they confirm there are no (apparent) problems with your hardware and software configuration they ship your system. If you opt for the free ground shipping GentechPC and XoticPC provide then it may take 3-7 days for your system to be delivered.

Since GenTechPC is located in California and you are in New Jersey you don't pay sales tax (just like you wouldn't if you lived in California and ordered from XoticPC which is located in Nebraska).

Since Notebooks/Laptops are pricey items companies provide instructions for the shipping company (UPS for example) to require a signature on delivery. If someone is not home to sign for your package when they try to deliver they will leave a message telling you when they attempted to deliver, when they will attempt again, and where you can pick it up from if you can't be home for pickup. You can also leave a note at your home requesting that they deliver to a neighbor (who would need to sign for the package). (Just make sure you can trust that neighbor, we had a few people not too long ago that problems with their neighbors keeping their systems. ).

 

Avid Gamer, thank you so much for info...
Already ordered it from GentechPC

 

Do we have to register it in Québec since we have the Protection des consommateurs and it rules?

 

Hello, I was looking into M50Vm reviews, but i couldnt find any model number:

Core2Duo(Penryn) T9400 (2.53GHz)
15.4inch 1680x1050 WSXGA+
500Gb HDD
Blueray Combo ODD
Geforce9600M GS DDR2 1Gb
6-cell battery
Vista Home Premium

Network
Gigabit LAN
Modem Port
802.11n WLAN

Video IN/OUT
HDMI
D-SUB
Webcam

Interface
Bluetooth
4x USB 2.0
IEEE1394
e-Sata
Express Card

Miscelleneous
Fingerprint reader
8-in-1 reader

My laptop doesnt seem to have Turbo memory, I remember seeing it on some other models, am i mistaken?

Also I read that Geforce9600M GS is capable of Hybrid Graphics to improve battery life, sametime i read that Laptop chipsets need to be setup to provide such feature. Does M50Vm have Hybrid Graphics?

Help please

 

on this whole forum is their any benchmarks on the m50-a1 because i am planning to get it and i want to know if it will be OK for games and everyday usage?

 

Its only a little loss of CPU power, I assume its pretty much the same.

 

Hi I want to run cod 4, crysis, wow, doom 3, and fear

can any one please tell me that either has this computer or not if it can run these games at least at medium? or higher?

 

is the p8400 on the m50vm-a1 overclockable?

 

GenTechPC posted bench marks of the A1 in the first post on the thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3625831&postcount=1

EXcalbier benchmarked the B1 which isn't that different from the A1 results.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=273365&highlight=m50vm+review

WoW, Doom 3, and Fear can all be run on high setting. Some M50Vm users run Cod 4 on high and others run it on medium (its open to personal interpretation. (I think it runs fine on high settings). Crysis can run on meduim settings without a problem. GenTechPC included a few screen shots and benchmarks of Cod 4 and Crysis in his M50vm review.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=273404

Overclocking the CPU will not provide any significant benefit in gaming (where the GPU does most of the work).

 

Unfortunately, I had to return the Asus M50VM-B1. Why?

1. Fan was noiser than expected, and it was on all the time
2. I had to reinstall Vista within 24 hours of using it! Why? My system slowed to a crawl for no apparent reason (no installs, nothing else running etc). After reinstall, everything worked as expected.
3. I was getting frequent 'Windows has stopped working" messages; I couldn't discover the cause.
4. My wireless connection suddenly stopped working and I couldn't get it to work again, even after another Windows reinstall; I suspect it was an early hardware failure
5. Very noisy CD/DVD player, especially during startup and installs
6. I couldn't get my corporate connection software to connect reliably (Contivity, TunnelGuard, CyberArmour)
7. I couldn't connect to my POP servers via Vista Windows Mail
8. I didn't find it much faster for most tasks than my 5-year old HP desktop (running XP)
9. I found the trackpad uncomfortable to use (but I bought a Wireless keyboard and mouse).

I eventually decided to compromise and forgo the excellent GPU and games-playing features (I don't play games anyway). I decided to stick with HP mainly because there are no conflicts with my corporate connection software. I ended up purchasing an HP DV5-1007ca that came with a P8400, Vista Home Premium, 3GB DDR2 RAM, 250GB/5400rpm hard drive, 15.4 brightview 1280x800 screen, and Intel 4500MHD for $799.99 from Staples.

So far, I have had no issues with my corporate software and only one occurrence of the "Windows has stopped working" message, overall it seems very stable. Only two things bug me, the fan, while quiet, does run all the time no matter what the load and the hard drive activity noise, while very low, is irritating, but for the price and overall performance I think I can live with both. With the money saved, I purchased an external LG 20-inch LCD for $229 and I've set it up as my main screen (set at 1680x1080) and the DV5 laptop as an extended screen; now I have a larger working screen and a smaller screen that enables me to offload my mail and browser windows so they are visible all the time.

In conclusion, not a good first-time experience, and probably my last, with an Asus laptop.

 

thank you and so can the 9600gs be overclocked and if so how much should i really overclock it?

 

I tried with 177.92 drivers to overclock to 450 clock and 850 memory, but system crashed, so doubtful the card can be overclocked very much.

I'll leave it to the experts though, maybe other drivers do better.

 

Wow. Sounds like there were some serious defects with your B1. I have the B2 and aside from bloatware issues (I just installed my own version of Vista Business instead) with the ASUS software, it's working great.

Oh and that godawful trackpad problem.. Grr.

 

whats the max resolution this laptop can play crysis and other games at good well playable settings? if 1280x800 is max then their is no point in getting a 1440x900 resolution laptop right?

 

htwnzlil1, not sure what you are trying to say, but i have crysis and the a1 and you can definately set it to 1440x900, although you would probably have to compensate in other settings.

in any case, i find it nice to have more max resolution for the desktop, makes working multiple windows very nice.

also, i dont know this, but i imagine the video card IS capable of higher resolutions, just you would need to be using those resolutions on a better screen (i.e. use the hdmi cable connected to an hdtv).

 

ok thank you for your answer winsoverithaca

 

HI!

Can anybody say me if I can install an Xp OS on this laptop? Is there drivers for everything on this laptop for Xp?

 

Yes. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=273404#winxp

 

DOSE THE "SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Drive" IN THE ASUS M50VM-B1 HAVE THE LIGHTSCRIBE OPTION IN IT?

 

NO. THE FEATURE WOULD OTHERWISE BE INDICATED... /Capslock

The notebook comes preloaded with Lightscribe software, but the hardware doesn't support it.

 

With most settings on low, or medium?

 

Um, i was just saying you can choose to play at that option. Personally i chose to play it at 1024x768 (windowed for kicks) and everything at high except shaders/shadows at med. DirectX 9 gave me significant better frame rates, and I would say I averged 20 fps throughout the game (the last levels it takes a hit, but everyone takes a hit there).

 

Oh okay. Well, thats good to know. Playing @ 1024x768 Res is enough for me when I get this baby B)

 

My Touch Pad become disable. The volume touch pad still ok but i can't enable the multimedia pad. When i press mode, it don't change to the multimedia mode .

Another question , can i install another hard disk in this machine? i understand that this machine support 2 harddisk. i plan to install 7200rpm hdd with XP as its OS.