Flbroker's ASUS G50Vt - A2 with Nvidia 9800M GS Review

I have been a student in the notebook review university for many years more than is reflected in my profile it has helped me purchase several notebooks over the pasts years.
I have developed a great admiration for the regular contributors that have educated me like no other university can. Kudos to you all!! Today I decide it was time to give back a little.

I received my new ASUS G50Vt-B1 and will attempted a review up to the standard I have seen other do here.

I would like to thank Ken from Gentech who has patiently and efficiently answered hundreds of questions I submitted to him as I researched my final selection going from the G1 to G50v to finally the G50Vt…Yes, I have bugged him a lot and he has always had the time for a response. In addition to the incredible patience and knowledge their reputation precedes them Reseller Ratings

I believe this will be the first review on this forum for this particular model… so here we go.

Well this is my toy:
Asus G50Vt-A2 Centrino 2
Motherboard PM45 Montevina
4 GB DDR2 800 (2X 2G)
Centrino 2 T9400 2.53ghz 6MB 1066 FSB
Vista Home Premium 64bit
2x 320gb Western Digital HDD's 7200rpm SATA
nVida GeForce 9800M GS 512M GDDR3
Intel WiFi Link 5100 a/g/n
Built-in Bluetooth™ V2.0+EDR
Blu-Ray Read/DVDRW Optical Drive
15.4” WSXGA+ 1680X1050 Color Shine (Glossy)

I have not optimized the drivers at all.. This is just as it comes out of the box.

Pictures:

Full set of pictures click here

General Description / Looks:
Beautiful!!! I had read a lot about the orange accent to the point that some commented that it was deal breaker!! I find the accents to be subtle and elegant like a dark suite with a nice red tie. I have had it for a week now and I have received compliment from coworkers, client and even strangers at the local starbuck. The lid is a mirror very nice but you can’t touch it (I always carry around my included micro fiber cloth) One nice feature is the textured section on the edge of the lid that allows you to carry the notebook without touching the mirrored part of the lid. This is a solid machine I pushed, prodded, twisted and dropped (just kidding on that last one). The notebook does not flex at all!!

Battery:
I ran a couple battery tests of both 6 cells and the 9 cell. For some reason I could not charge the 9 cell above 99%. I downloaded rather than play game because I figured most people would usually play while plugged in but we might be up and about typing document, downloading updates, email or files. This would put to work the screen, CPU (minimal), wireless card, hard drive, and Bluetooth mouse (in my case).

1) 6 cell using wireless LAN for internet download while sending email and writing this review, Power4Gear Battery setting High Performance, CPU Normal, LED Interactive
Lasted 1hr 44 min to 2% – recharged to 99% in 2hr 2 min

2) 9 cell using wireless LAN for internet download while sending email and writing this review, Power4Gear Battery setting High Performance, CPU Normal, LED Interactive
Lasted 2hr 51 min to 2 %– recharged to 99% in 2hr 29 min

3) 6 cell using wireless LAN for internet download while sending email and writing this review, Power4Gear Battery setting Saving, CPU Normal, LED Power Saving
Lasted 2hr 35 min to 2%

4) 9 cell using wireless LAN for internet download while sending email and writing this review, Power4Gear Battery setting Saving , CPU Normal, LED Power Saving
Lasted 3hr 36 min to 2%

I was going to test it at all out full power but got tired of watching the time and battery meter so … I’ll estimate it a less than the first two tests..lol

Not too bad at all considering this is a very powerful gaming rig!!

Size & Weight:
The notebook is NOT a 15.4” (the screen is) the width is just slightly less than a 17” which allows for an almost full size keyboard ( see pics with tape measure view). Don’t expect to use any 15” bag or sleeve… I went to several computer stores and searched online but I could not find any that would fit other than the one made for 17’. It fit in the current 15.4" bag I had but not in the protected sleeve where it's intended to go for maximum protection. I finally gave up and had a custom made sleeve to protect my new toy.

Made a little trip to my local Post Office and got the exact weight of each component:
G50 no Battery.......... 6lbs 12.70 oz
Small Battery................ 11.60 oz
Large Battery........... 1lbs .90 oz
Power Cord.............. 1lbs 7.00 oz
G50 /small Battery..... 7lbs 8.40 oz
G50 /large Battery..... 7lbs 13.60 oz

Noise & Heat:
There is no noise… I sit in an office with nothing else going on; no people, no traffic, nothing… and I can hear the air coming from the A/C as loud or louder than this notebook.
After hours of installing, configuring, downloading there are three spots that get warm
1) Right hand of the track pad. You have to be looking for heat for a review to really notice
2) Directly bellow this same spot on the bottom again barely noticeable
3) The speaker looking like circle at the bottom.
I decided to test it further I got into some comfortable shorts place my laptop on my lap and sat outside at a nice 78 degree weather.. I used it for two and a half hours strait with no discomfort. It does produce heat but it is all pushed out the side vent. You might be able to cook a hotdog next to the side vent
After several days without turning the notebook off, running at turbo extreme and immediately after running all my gaming and performance benchmarks this is what it looked like:


I found this at the Nvidia website



Hard Drive Performance:

This is the performance of the C: Drive divided into 3 partitions exactly as it comes from the main partition with the OS has 31% free space.


Keyboard:
I have not found any key lag at all. I have not tried those special combinations as I am not sure when they would be used. There is no flex on the keyboard while typing, for this review purposefully pressing each key hard!! There is a slight flex but you have to really be looking for it mostly at the top middle 6&7 keys area.
The numeric keypad is 3 columns rather than the traditional 4, so it takes a little practice to get use to then new configuration. The one thing I would have preferred if they did not make the Home, End, PgUp and PgDn mutually exclusive with the numeric function of the key pad as I alternate between then very frequently and have to constantly switch the Num Lk on and off.
The keys are firm and responsive; it maintains a very comfortable pushback on your finger preventing unwanted keystrokes.

The mouse pad is attractive with the blue illumination all around it. It has good sensitivity but not so much that you get unwanted movement of the mouse. As for the button it will take me a little bit to get use to them you really have to "click" down to get a response. Looking at the positive side they should stay firm for years to come.


Speakers:
Ok so the audiophiles will have to look elsewhere..but for the average user the speakers are loud and clear. I maxed out the volume and played and assortment of music from instrumental to vocals you could clearly hear the instruments and the words with clarity. Previous notebook I have had crackle, hiss and melded the sound into noise when played loud enough to fill a room. The G50 would have benefited significantly with at least a small subwoofer.. Maybe the mystery grill at the bottom was originally intended for just that… I have been wondering since it has been determined that for proper cooling that grill must remained covered; what if it remained covered by a small woofer???

Screen:
The screen is very bright and produces some of the most vivid colors I have seen in a while. The text is clear and crisp at all resolutions.

I tried out the screen under different lighting condition to determine if the reflection problems I have heard would be a problem. I tried it with a florescent light directly next to the screen, with all the light in my office one (double florescent and six halogen spotlights), outside in the sunlight and under the roofed patio of the coffee shop…. There is some reflection but it is minimal and did not affect my use of the notebook under any of these conditions.

The lid holds solid at whatever angel you put it; to open the lid you need just enough force to be able to do it with one hand. Once it’s open no matter if it’s on your lap, walking with it on a desk there is not flex.. The only flex you will find is if you pull on opposing corners purposefully looking for flex.:wub:

OS:
Let’s just say don’t like the 64 bit so much… it is a pain to get software to work and find appropriate drivers. I don’t care one way or another for the new Vista interface, its fine. However finding software, drivers or just getting software that works with 64bit is a pain or impossible. I work in finance and real estate and I would have to stop using about 15% of the software I currently use and have to buy newer version of another 10%. (Most Adobe, GSP Serial Emulator, and may other industry specific packages all fail to install or were unstable)

I will be looking to do a dual boot or completely replace 64 to vista 32 or maybe back to XP. Maybe when the rest of the software community catches up I will feel differently.

Benchmarks

Windows



Geekbench 2.0.19 - http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/

Geekbench is a cross-platform benchmark that measures processor and memory performance. Geekbench was designed from the ground up to take advantage of the latest technology like multi-core processors and 64-bit operating systems.

For Results go to this link Geekbench 32bit Results or Geekbench 64bit Results


3DMark® Vantage - http://www.futuremark.com/products/

3DMark® Vantage is the new industry standard PC gaming performance benchmark from Futuremark, newly designed for Windows Vista and DirectX10.

1280 X 1024




3DMark®06

3DMark®06 is the worldwide standard in advanced 3D game performance benchmarking and is the latest version in the popular 3DMark series!
1280 X 1024







1024 X 768




1680 X 1050






WPRIME - http://www.wprime.net/

Our aim was to make a perfectly threaded benchmark, such that it would consistently use 100% of the CPU while in use. This is achieved by using CPUz to detect the CPU count and use exactly that many processing threads to avoid any performance losses due to multiple threads running on any single physical thread.


Calculating sqrts of first 33554431 numbers.
Thread 1 calculating from 0 to 16777216 in THREAD#17F4.
Thread 2 calculating from 16777216 to 33554431 in THREAD#1B6C.
Thread 1 is 12% complete @ 3.586 seconds
Thread 2 is 13% complete @ 4.038 seconds
Thread 1 is 25% complete @ 7.043 seconds
Thread 2 is 25% complete @ 7.569 seconds
Thread 1 is 38% complete @ 10.623 seconds
Thread 2 is 38% complete @ 11.111 seconds
Thread 1 is 50% complete @ 14.11 seconds
Thread 2 is 50% complete @ 14.671 seconds
Thread 1 is 62% complete @ 17.555 seconds
Thread 2 is 63% complete @ 18.251 seconds
Thread 1 is 75% complete @ 21.067 seconds
Thread 2 is 75% complete @ 21.887 seconds
Thread 1 is 88% complete @ 24.594 seconds
Thread 2 is 88% complete @ 25.641 seconds
Thread 1 complete with 0 errors!
Time taken: 28.441 seconds
Thread 2 complete with 0 errors!
Time taken: 29.658 seconds
Process completed in 29.664 seconds.
Test completed successfully.
Calculating sqrts of first 33554431 numbers.
Thread 1 calculating from 0 to 16777216 in THREAD#1458.
Thread 2 calculating from 16777216 to 33554431 in THREAD#330.
Thread 1 is 12% complete @ 3.542 seconds

CineBench 10 - http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1708#download

MAXON CINEBENCH runs several tests on your computer to measure the performance of the main processor and the graphics card under real world circumstances. The benchmark application makes use of up to 16 CPUs or CPU cores and is available for Windows (32- and 64-Bit) and Macintosh (PPC- and Intel-based).

32 Bit


64 Bit



Gaming Benchmarks

SmartFPS v1.9 - http://downloads.guru3d.com/SmartFPS-v1.9-download-2084.html#download

SmartFPS.com is a free software to benchmark latest video cards and processors by real world games like Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Unreal Tournament 3, Call Of Duty 2, Battlefield 2, Serious Sam 2, Call Of Juarez, Quake 4, Prey, The Chronicles of Riddick: EFBB and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

**************************
GAME TEST 0.1: Crysis DEMO
**************************
WEBSITE: www.ea.com/crysis/
RENDERER: DirectX
DEMO: sfps01.tmd
AF & AA: Disabled by game's cfg
TEXTURE QUALITY: High
OBJECTS QUALITY: High
SHADOWS QUALITY: High
PHYSICS QUALITY: High
SHADERS QUALITY: High
VOLUMETRIC EFFECTS: High
GAME EFFECTS QUALITY: High
POSTPROCESSING QUALITY: High
PARTICLES QUALITY: High
WATER QUALITY: High
SOUND IN TEST: Off
VERTICAL SYNC: Off
MORE SETTINGS: Game.cfg, system.cfg, sfps01.cfg
Started EXE: C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis SP Demo\Bin32\Crysis.exe

>>> Resolution: 1024x768 (60Hz) <<<
RENDERER: Direct 3D 10
Play Time: 112.62s, Average FPS: 23.95
Min FPS: 16.79 at frame 409, Max FPS: 31.65 at frame 2582
>>> Benchmark duration: 259 seconds <<<


*********************************
GAME TEST 1.2: Battlefield 2 DEMO
*********************************
WEBSITE: www.eagames.com
RENDERER: DirectX
DEMO: sfps12.bf2demo
AF & AA: Disabled by game's cfg
TERRAIN: High
EFFECTS: High
GEOMETRY: High
TEXTURE: High
LIGHTING: High
DYNAMIC SHADOWS: High
DYNAMIC LIGHT: High
VIEW DISTANCE SCALE: Max
SOUND IN TEST: Off
VERTICAL SYNC: Off
MORE SETTINGS: Video.con
Started EXE: C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2 Demo\BF2.exe

>>> Resolution: 1024x768 (60Hz) <<<
Average Frame Rate: 128 fps
>>> Benchmark duration: 98 seconds <<<


*********************************
GAME TEST 1.3: Serious Sam 2 DEMO
*********************************
WEBSITE: www.croteam.com
DEMO: sfps13.dem
AF & AA: Disabled by game's cfg
HDR RENDERING: No
QUALITY: Maximum
DYNAMIC SHADOWS: High
PARTICLE AMOUNT: High
CRUMBS: Maximum
GEOMETRY LOD: Maximum
TEXTURE QUALITY: Optimal
TEXTURE SIZE: Maximum
LIGHTMAP QUALITY: Optimal
LIGHTMAP SIZE: Maximum
BLOOM: Glaring
LENS FLARE QUALITY: Glaring
PARALLAX MAPPING: Yes
REFLECTION QUALITY: High
REFRACTIONS: Yes
SOUND IN TEST: Off
VERTICAL SYNC: Off
MORE SETTINGS: Sam2.ini
Started EXE: C:\Program Files (x86)\Serious Sam 2 Demo\Bin\Sam2.exe

>>> Resolution: 1024x768 (60Hz) <<<
RENDERER: Direct 3D 9
Duration: 104.3 seconds (16136 frames)
Average: 154.8 FPS (193.7 w/o peaks)
Spikes: 464.2 max, 17.0 min
Sections: AI=5%, phy=25%, sfx=0%, gfx=67%, msc=3%
Highs: 207 in 0.5 seconds (389.4 FPS)
Lows: 2492 in 34.4 seconds (72.5 FPS)
30-60 FPS: 3%
> 60 FPS: 97%
>>> Benchmark duration: 118 seconds <<<

***************************************
GAME TEST 1.5: Unreal Tournament 3 DEMO
***************************************
WEBSITE: www.unrealtournament3.com
RENDERER: DirectX
DEMO: VCTF-Suspense
AF & AA: Disabled by game's cfg
DYNAMIC LIGHTS: On
DYNAMIC SHADOWS: On
LIGHT ENVIRONMENT SHADOWS: On
COMPOSITE DYNAMIC LIGHTS: On
MOTION BLUR: On
DEPTH OF FIELD: On
BLOOM: On
MOTION BLUR: On
QUALITY BLOOM: On
DROP PARTICLE DISTORTION: On
SMOOTH FRAME RATE: Off
ALLOW D3D10: Off
SOUND IN TEST: Off
VERTICAL SYNC: Off
MORE SETTINGS: UTEngine.ini, BaseEngine.ini
Started EXE: C:\Program Files (x86)\Unreal Tournament 3 Demo\Binaries\UT3Demo.exe

>>> Resolution: 1024x768 (60Hz) <<<
6205 frames collected over 52.58 seconds, disregarding 0.00 seconds for a 118.02 FPS average, 97.70 percent of time spent > 30 FPS
>>> Benchmark duration: 90 seconds <<<


************************
GAME TEST 2.2: Prey DEMO
************************
WEBSITE: www.prey.com
RENDERER: OpenGL
DEMO: sfps22.demo
AF & AA: Disabled by game's cfg
BOOST GRAPHICS: Disable
SHADER DETAIL: Highest
ENABLE SHADOWS: Yes
ENABLE SPECULAR: Yes
ENABLE BUMP MAPS: Yes
HIGH QUALITY SPECULAR: Yes
SHARPEN BUMPMAPS: Yes
USE GLOW: Yes
HIGH PARTICLE DETAILS: Yes
HIGH QUALITY SKINNING: Yes
SOUND IN TEST: No
VERTICAL SYNC: No
MORE SETTINGS: Autoexec.cfg
Started EXE: C:\Program Files (x86)\Prey Demo\prey.exe

>>> Resolution: 1024x768 (60Hz) <<<
1468 frames rendered in 11.7 seconds = 125.4 fps
>>> Benchmark duration: 35 seconds <<<

**********************************************************************
GAME TEST 2.3: The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay DEMO
**********************************************************************
WEBSITE: www.riddickgame.com
RENDERER: OpenGL
DEMO: benchmark_mainframe2.XDM
AF & AA: Disabled by game's cfg
SHADER MODE: ps 2.0
MODEL SHADOWS: On
QUALITY: Max
SOUND: Off
VERTICAL SYNC: Off
MORE SETTINGS: Environment.cfg
Started EXE: C:\Program Files (x86)\Starbreeze Studios\Riddick EFBB Demo\System\Win32_x86_SSE2\SbzEngine.exe

>>> Resolution: 1024x768 (60Hz) <<<
Played demo: C:\Program Files (x86)\Starbreeze Studios\Riddick EFBB Demo\Content\Demos\benchmark_mainframe2.XDM
Time: 8.52 seconds
Frames played: 1491
Average Frame rate: 174.98
Min Frame rate: 19.81
Max Frame rate: 373.43
>>> Benchmark duration: 19 seconds <<<

Well I hope this provided a clearer understanding of this machine and its capabilities. I will continue to optimize the drivers and settings and will post the changes and improvements as I discover them. I feel very satisfied with my choice as it is currently configure and any updates will just be icing on the cake. If there is anything I missed or any additional information I can provide I will be happy to assist.

 

Adding rep. Well done.

Surprising how the G50Vt-A2 gets similar battery life to the G50V. I would've thought a lot worse than the results demonstrated here.

 

Awesome review.Which GPU driver version are you using? I'm guessing it is the newer one because the stock driver supposedly doesn't have powermizer.

 

my G50Vt-A2 just arrived, is there any drivers/things you wanna recommend to download?

 

Great Review....and Great Lappy

How much did you get it for?!!

+REP

 

I have the G50Vt-A1 and the stock drivers (179.14) do not have powermizer working in them. I updated to 180.44 today and all is ok!

 

Hi, great review. A couple of questions:

(1) Do they ship the laptop with a carrying bag and a mouse?
(2) There is an antenna input on the side. Is that for an external wi-fi antenna?

Thanks.

 

yes comes with mouse and bag... here is the mouse
mouse 1

mouse 2


bag to follow

 

bag 1

bag 2

bag 3

 

as far as the gpu driver version

 

At this point I have not done any research on the driver updates ... I will start trying updates and will post results as I try them

 

Thanks for posting the review.

I edited the title. PM Asus Moderator EBE so that he can add an entry for your review in the Sticky Index.

 

Have you done any gaming tests in 1680X1050 resolution? Do you think games would be would be playable? I wouldnt want my screen's max res to go to waste, especially considering that was one of the reasons I decided to go with a more expensive G50vt model

 

Agree, nice review.

But, Um, you might want to resize some of your pix in your various posts a little? Having a few really big ones is forcing the rest of the review to scroll a lot horizontally, which is making this difficult to read .

 

Have you guys noticed that the quick key to get into the mini linux OS stays illuminated unless you have the battery taken out? How do I make it so this key turns off when my laptop is off. I gather it eats up the battery slowly.

 

I can game all source powered games and COD4 at the native res with max settings (no AA, but I never use AA anyways) just fine. Haven't tried anything else, but the card is DECENT for a laptop!

 

If it can be OCed to a 9800GTS....

 

great review nice job and good luck with your laptop

 

Hey, really nice review. Thanks for sharing it.

By the way, how much cost u?

And can somebody tell me something about the ASUS M70 Series M70VN-X1 ??? I couldnt find a good review... Do you think this two are comparable?

Thanks again!

 

This is done through the G50's built in software correct? I mean, do you need to go into the bios or anything like that in order to OC it to a 9800GT?

 

I'll add it upon the next edit (which may happen only next weekend...)
But I have a feeling it'll stay on the main page of this subforum until then, so no harm done by the delay

OP, thanks for the review!

 

Still have not updated any drivers or done any fine tuning but here are some game benchmarks at Resolution: 1680x1050
**********************************************************************
GAME TEST 2.3: The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay DEMO
**********************************************************************
WEBSITE: www.riddickgame.com
RENDERER: OpenGL
DEMO: benchmark_mainframe2.XDM
AF & AA: Disabled by game's cfg
SHADER MODE: ps 2.0
MODEL SHADOWS: On
QUALITY: Max
SOUND: Off
VERTICAL SYNC: Off
MORE SETTINGS: Environment.cfg
Started EXE: C:\Program Files (x86)\Starbreeze Studios\Riddick EFBB Demo\System\Win32_x86_SSE2\SbzEngine.exe

>>> Resolution: 1680x1050 (60Hz) <<<
Played demo: C:\Program Files (x86)\Starbreeze Studios\Riddick EFBB Demo\Content\Demos\benchmark_mainframe2.XDM
Time: 15.40 seconds
Frames played: 1491
Average Frame rate: 96.81
Min Frame rate: 4.93
Max Frame rate: 295.42
>>> Benchmark duration: 25 seconds <<<

**************************
GAME TEST 0.1: Crysis DEMO ---- 32 bit**************************
WEBSITE: www.ea.com/crysis/
RENDERER: DirectX
DEMO: sfps01.tmd
AF & AA: Disabled by game's cfg
TEXTURE QUALITY: High
OBJECTS QUALITY: High
SHADOWS QUALITY: High
PHYSICS QUALITY: High
SHADERS QUALITY: High
VOLUMETRIC EFFECTS: High
GAME EFFECTS QUALITY: High
POSTPROCESSING QUALITY: High
PARTICLES QUALITY: High
WATER QUALITY: High
SOUND IN TEST: Off
VERTICAL SYNC: Off
MORE SETTINGS: Game.cfg, system.cfg, sfps01.cfg
Started EXE: C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis SP Demo\Bin32\Crysis.exe

>>> Resolution: 1680x1050 (60Hz) <<<
RENDERER: Direct 3D 10
Play Time: 188.00s, Average FPS: 14.35
Min FPS: 10.34 at frame 398, Max FPS: 18.68 at frame 2661
>>> Benchmark duration: 418 seconds <<<


*********************************
GAME TEST 1.2: Battlefield 2 DEMO
*********************************
WEBSITE: www.eagames.com
RENDERER: DirectX
DEMO: sfps12.bf2demo
AF & AA: Disabled by game's cfg
TERRAIN: High
EFFECTS: High
GEOMETRY: High
TEXTURE: High
LIGHTING: High
DYNAMIC SHADOWS: High
DYNAMIC LIGHT: High
VIEW DISTANCE SCALE: Max
SOUND IN TEST: Off
VERTICAL SYNC: Off
MORE SETTINGS: Video.con
Started EXE: C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2 Demo\BF2.exe

>>> Resolution: 1680x1050 (60Hz) <<<
Average Frame Rate: 144 fps
>>> Benchmark duration: 122 seconds <<<


************************
GAME TEST 2.2: Prey DEMO
************************
WEBSITE: www.prey.com
RENDERER: OpenGL
DEMO: sfps22.demo
AF & AA: Disabled by game's cfg
BOOST GRAPHICS: Disable
SHADER DETAIL: Highest
ENABLE SHADOWS: Yes
ENABLE SPECULAR: Yes
ENABLE BUMP MAPS: Yes
HIGH QUALITY SPECULAR: Yes
SHARPEN BUMPMAPS: Yes
USE GLOW: Yes
HIGH PARTICLE DETAILS: Yes
HIGH QUALITY SKINNING: Yes
SOUND IN TEST: No
VERTICAL SYNC: No
MORE SETTINGS: Autoexec.cfg
Started EXE: C:\Program Files (x86)\Prey Demo\prey.exe

>>> Resolution: 1680x1050 (60Hz) <<<
1468 frames rendered in 15.3 seconds = 95.8 fps
>>> Benchmark duration: 82 seconds <<<

 

Hello you guys, just joined this site. I just bought this laptop and I was wondering where I could find GPU drivers? And does anyone know the best GPU driver for this laptop?

 

Finally found the picture that was making the report so wide that you had to scroll... now it should be easier to read..

 

i have not updated mine YET.. but for what i have read the best and most updated drivers can be found at:

http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showforum=88

give it a try and tell us what you find.. i will do the same shortly

good luck

 

Fanatastic, unfortunately I don't know much about what drivers to download, so I'll just wait for you to reply and tell us what drivers you find work the best. A link to the driver(s) you find would be greatly appreciated.

 

I think the clocks can be done entirely through software, at least it can be done that way on my desktop card. I have no experience with laptop OCing but I imagine it should also work the same, provided that the modded laptop drivers don't remove that function. Voltmods are a different story though

 

Good info, and nice review.


One question: Do you know if the Blu-Ray drive can burn dual layer DVD's?

 

Wow a really really nice laptop, How much did it cost you with all the conf. you gave it?

 

Yes the Blu-Ray can burn dual layer DVD, it's a 2X Blu-Ray read/DVDRW Super Multi Drive.

 

I paid $1,918.66 USD total for notebook and additional 9 cell battery no shipping.... and i know Ken will match any price out there... he matched the lowest price i found at the time of my purchase

 

just received mine today... still trying to setup everything to my liking, as i can tell, so far i like this lappy...

the screen has bunch (10 counted) of red and green dots but they aren't that noticeable unless your really close to the screen (at least no bright dots) so not sure what to do about that just yet

 

Whoa. 10 is quite a lot...might want to take advantage of that neat zero bright dot warranty. I don't know what the turnaround time is though.

Then again, you might get lucky and find they unstick over time. I managed to get the one pixel on my desktop unstuck after 2 years...

 

I have a perfect screen.. as far as my eyes can see... You might want to try this http://www.jscreenfix.com/

If that does not work definitely contact your vendor... that many is TOTALLY unacceptable...

also heard about this one http://udpix.free.fr/

and finally also this might work... http://www.widowpc.com/2005/08/fix_dead_pixels.php

good luck

 

I was wondering why I only got a 3dMark06 score of 7878 at 1280 X 1024 resolution. I am running default drivers. My settings for 3dMark06 were the same as flbroker's review. The only difference I could find was that my cpu is running @ 2527MHz which is lower than the one here. How could this be? Was he using Direct Console to overclock? If so, my overclock does not seem to work, it always is reset to normal.

 

I moved my question to the forums.

 

thanks, great review
+REP

 

ANy idea how to reprogram the media function keys on the arrow buttons do NOT launch media centre and possibly work with winamp??

 

I know the mouse says MX518 on the bottom, but does it not look more like Razer Copperhead/Diamondback 3G? Or am I missing something?

 

Thanks alot, I'd seen another review of a G50 with an MX518. Great you could clear this up before mine arrives tomorrow! Can't wait.

 

It's a great machine, your going to love it!!

 

Getting mine next week first ASUS onley dell's beafore I will replace the HDD for 2 SSD in raid 0 just MLC bace one but I have ben using SSD for a bit now and can't go back to mecanical drives. Cant whaite to get it.

 

I have a two small complaints that are neglible to most.

The way Asus partitioned the Hard Drives. Four Partitions is alot, although Ill learn to deal with it because I don't want RAID.

The touchpad takes alot of pressure to click, although that doesn't matter because Im using the Razer Copperhead 3G

 

is that a OS partition on each drive? Can you not just fget one free drive and set the partition to just one drive? Seems really annoying to have 4.

 

The HDDs are split into four partitions, three of them are 116 GBs and the Fourth one is 105. One of the 116 partitions is for Vista64.

 

Thats a hell of a lot of space for the OS... have you not tried resizing it?

 

Indeed, I suggest you use a partition manager (even the one in Vista should do) to rearrange/resize/change the number of partitions to a setup that you like. For instance: half of the 1st HDD for the OS, the rest for data, the second HDD fully one data partition. Or, 1 full HDD for OS, 1 for data. That shouldn't be too difficult to do.

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E.B.E.

 

yeah, ill probably have 1 had a half HDDS for data. I downloaded that free partitioning program mentioned in another thread a few days ago, so if Vista doesn't manage it, that should.

 

Ill check that out, but I have been putting games on one of the partitions so, I think I will resize the OS Partition to suit my needs.