G50V Owners Lounge

It's just what it says. A place for G50V owners of all types (A1, A2, X1, X2) to discuss their machines.

I've got my A1 on pre-order now.

Useful links about the ASUS G50 series
Compiled by E.B.E. Last update: February 28th 2009

Reviews and comparisons:

G50Vt:

• redguardsoldier's G50Vt-X3 quick review + undervolting + homemade cooler
• flbroker's ASUS G50Vt-A2 with Nvidia 9800M GS Review
• howard911s' ASUS G50VT-X1 with Nvidia 9800M Review and Initial Impression
• phunkybpb's G50VT-X2 Review and Benchmarks
• Delta_CT's differences between G50Vt models at a glance
• psxsage's ASUS G50VT-X5/X1 satisfaction Poll

G50V:

• emporiumboutique's Asus G50V-A1 Review
• ViciousXUSMC's G50V-A1 Review
• GenTechPC's Asus G50V 9700M GT Review, Benchmark, and games
• ViciousXUSMC's G50V vs. M50V comparison
• EXcaliberPC's G50V Preview, Photos, and Benchmarks
• emporiumboutique's G50V backpack review

Guides:

• Hahutzy's Windows 7 x86 - Minimalistic G50VT driver installation guide!
• dtd00d's The G50 DOES support a 12mm HDD!
• ClutchX2's Comprehensive ASUS G50 Guide (Models, Troubleshooting, Vista/XP/7, Overclocking, Undervolting, Mods & Upgrades) -- work in progress
• ClutchX2's G50VT Performance Thread
• GenTechPC's G50V XP downgrade guide
• aidar77's Guide to smooth Windows 7 on a G50Vt
• emporiumboutique's G50 disassembly guide
• ViciousXUSMC's G50V-A1 Exposed! Photos of the inside of the G50.
• ALLurGroceries's How to disconnect and disable G50V or G50Vt lights
• G50VT 9800M GS Overclocking; and the generic Exostenza's Guide to flash 9800m GS to GTS
• thalanix's successful overclocking of the G50V 9700M GT GPU
• GenTechPC's dual-bootingXP andVista on the G50V
• mike1977's guide on enabling SATA Enhanced mode after installingXP in Compatibility mode.
• forcedinductionz' Asus G50 - 260M GPU Swap Procedure.
• bret was here's Ongoing Project: G50V Core 2 Quad Support via BIOS Modification.

Common problems and troubleshooting:

• ViciousXUSMC's Common Problems and Fixes
• SATA-drivers solution to the freeze & keyboard issue
• G50V CPU stuck at high usage. The link points to a possible solution to the problem, turning off a USB controller. Also, BIOS 209 reportedly fixes this issue (follow the link to download BIOS 209).
• G50V keyboard combinations not working (such as S+D+Space). A beta BIOS 207 was released with a partial fix of this issue. The link points to the most informative page discussing this (partial) solution.
• G50V lagging/freezing. It seems the problem is being caused by the Synaptics processes. The linked page contains a workaround that sets their priority lower so that the frequency of the lags decreases significantly. Turning off the touchpad in the BIOS also does the trick, but prevents you from using the touchpad.
• G50v-A1, Random freeze and keyboard issue. Another thread discussing the freezing and keyboard issues above.

<!--NOTE THIS LIST IS OUT OF DATE. Too much headache to maintain it so I just removed it.
Credit: A big thanks goes to ViciousXUSMC and GenTechPC. Important contributions also by emporiumboutique, EXcaliberPC, howard911s, ALLurGroceries, flbroker, phunkybpb, Exostenza, and many other forum members.-->

 

Herro! Got mine on pre-order too, only from excaliberpc.com. I will get mine later than you US folks cause I'm FAAAR away. Really excited to be getting this baby.

*wave*

 

Can anyone who has been able to use the G50V some comment on the cooling. I am planning on trying the X9100 in it when it arrives, but I'm curious how well the cooling system is working stock, even if it is on the X1.

 

Does anyone have an idea when the G50V-A1 is supposed to be released?

 

how is the webcam quality? its 1.3MP compared to the 2.0MP of other brands and im wondering what its like.

 

I talked to ASUS today and I was told the unit I have (G50v Duo T9400,4GB, 500GB HD, 9700M GT 512MB) is a couple weeks away. I was told the 95 that I have coming to the event are the first ones in the US and some of them will be sold to attendees at ROGCon.

 

Question, if money was not a huge deal but still a factor, would you guys choose the A1 or the A2?

 

i want one, but ...
their customer service is not to good ... @least in the uk
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=232364

 

If you plan on watching blue-ray dvds, then the $200 difference is worth the upgrade. If not, then sticking with the A1 would be best.

But aren't you located in Canada? You wouldn't have to worry about a thing since Canada's customer service is simply superior than any others in the industry.

 

You don't consider the hard drives an upgrade as well? See I have a 42" LCD 1080P t.v. at my house and no blue-ray player so it would be nice to have but but I will be at college for most of the year so idk how much it would come in handy. It's not like you can buy a blue-ray disk player for $200 so it is a good deal even if I don't use it alot. Hell it costs $300 just to upgrade the A1 to the A2 hard drives on Xotic.

 

Depending on your usage, the hard drives can be either an upgrade or downgrade. For me, I need the extra space, so going from a 500gb to 400gb would be a downgrade despite being faster. If you know you won't be using anywhere near 500gb, then the A2 would be a good "upgrade".

 

Ya I would even be fine with 320gb so it sounds like maybe I should go for the A2.

 

In reality, how much of a performance increase would a 200GB 7200 RPM hard drive have over a 250GB 5400 RPM hard drive?

 

Actually the 250GB 5400rpm is faster than the 200GB 7200RPM, just had it confirmed from Justin at Xotic. I read somewhere on the forum that because the 250Gb is bigger it got larger workarea (or something like that). And on top less heat, less batterydrain xD ftw. So if you don't want a blu ray you're better off with the A1's. (I mean 200 bucks more for a blu ray upgrade, WOW)

 

I believe it depends on what kind of task you are having the hd's do.

 

yes i am, thanks. just thought that the customer service should pretty much be the same since they are under asus regardless of w/c country their in.

btw, whats the advantage of the 2 hdd(raid??) in the g50v?

 

If you set it up as raid-0 then you will be reading and writing to both discs simultaneously, effectively doubling your hard drive speed. Of course if one drive fails all of your data will be corrupt.

If you set it up as raid 1 you will lose an entire drive's worth of space (as the second disc becomes a redundant backup), but all of your data is totally backed up in real time in case of drive failure.

 

With 2 hdd's you can basically have the option of more reliability or faster speed (raid 0 for speed raid 1 for mirroring). Basically raid one will have both hd's store the same data so if one dies the other one will have the data so you lose nothing. Raid 0 allows the data to be broken down across both disks so you get increased performance and speed with decreased reliability.

edit-^^ you beat me haha

 

A 250gb 5400 RPM drive is roughly equal to a 160gb 7200rpm drive in terms of read speed.

To match a 200gb 7200rpm drive you need the newest 320gb 5400rpm models.

They match is terms of read speed, but the 7200rpm drives will still have faster access time, and for most people that means slightly better performance.

Id prefer the larger drives tho as I use up disk space very fast and they are still fast enough. Also while hard to document as factual, common sense says the 5400rpm drives will use less power, and produce less heat.

The A1 would be the model to get for me, the screen is not full 1080p so I would be waisting a blue ray movie on there, and I am not going to take the time to hook it to my 1080p monitor just to watch a movie. This is double penalized by the fact I wouldnt pay the prices for blueray movies or blank media. DVD for me!

That all said tho, "only" $200 for the upgrade is very reasonable.

 

Hooking it up to the T.V. is only one cable haha. I would like to know the model of the HD's used in the A1 so I could feel better about what I am buying. At least I know the A2 HD's are Seagate Momentus . $200 extra for Blue-ray is extremely reasonable.

 

I know its HDMI I already have one to hook my C90S to my monitor but I have only done so once, I wouldnt take the time to hook up my laptop to my monitor when there is already a desktop hooked to it. Plus I have nowhere to place it on my desk.

On that note if I needed BR on my desktop its only like $100 for a cheap drive now.

 

thanks greyreap/~hi2u~

 

I understand, I would be using this in my living room and my desktop is in another room. As soon someone can tell me the maker/model of the HD's in the A1 I can make my order, I have been waiting for so long!

 

hey people..
Have a question. Live in Sweden and we got the two models G50V-AK019K and G50V-AK020K.

It seemes like the G50V-AK019K has an 9700M GS? Is this a type-o or what?
Haven´t read all the threads about the G50v but can someone please, whats the right card for it?

Asus G50V-AK019K intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz, 4096MB DDR2, 320GB SATA HDD, Nvidia GeForce 9700M GS 512MB, 15.4" WSXGA+, Vista Home Premium 64Bit

The G50V-AK020K has the T9400 and an 9700GT card.

 

hi guys, so what is missing from the X1 models that the A1 models have? And if the screen resolution is smaller on the X1 model, wouldn't it game better because the gpu wouldn't need to work as hard?

 

Well I think it has to be a typo because the Nvidia site doesn't even have a 9700M GS in existance so you can't really put in a graphics card that doesn't exist into a computer can you? Though the CPU on your AK019K model is different from our A1 model...

you can check out the Nvidia site here
http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_m_series.html

 

I would think 7200 rpm drive would be a good bit faster than the 5400 rpm. I wonder whats noisier though, Ive heard that 7200 rpm drain battery by like 1% more- to a point where its moot.

Im on the same thing here too though- 200 bucks for BD and better hds'. Mac's charge 300 bucks for 1 small HD upgrade (160 to 250 gb 5400 on macbook black model lol)

On top of that for me, I have a TON of blu rays, though i dont plan on watching either dvd or blu ray- I honestly own 10 dvds and over 75 blu rays now haha.

 

That is not necessarily true. Data density has an important contribution to data transfer speed, too, to the point that the latest 5400RPM drives are as good as the latest 7200RPM drives, due to higher data density.

 

So Do you think running a 500 GB RAID 0 5400 RPM would be faster than running a 400 GB RAID 0 7200 RPM?

Im going fro the A2 more for the 7200 rpm drives though the blu ray would be nice.

 

That would depend on the particular types of HDDs.

To get the best 5400RPM performance you'd need the 320 HDDs w/ 160GB/platter.

 

Guys, I wonder if it is possible to upgrade the 9700 GT to something like a 9800 after a while?

I'm not too worried about the 9700 not being powerful enough for my needs because I only play WC3, LOTRO and WoW. And some strategies. I THINK I should be able to run those on highest settings on this laptop.

 

Very rarely can you upgrade a gpu in a laptop and I doubt this is one of the exceptions.

WC3 will max, WoW will max, I never played LOTRO so not sure.

 

I have a question. If I do get the Asus G50, I am wondering A. will it even last oh.. 3 years? AND secondly I wonder where the 9700GT will be in terms of video cards would it be.... in current standards? Would it be like today's 8400 GS? ATI 3200? Even worse? I'm just curious since I really am not sure HOW FAST graphics card improve. I'm just hoping that it will be around a middle performing graphics card after 2-3 years.. *or am I dreaming?

 

The 9700M GT will be in between the 9600M and 9800M. It would be nowhere near the performance of the 8400GS. The G50V comes stock with a 2 Year Warranty, I think it can easily last you 3 years.

 

If you want to play new games at high settings it wont last, if your ok with lower resolutions and medium settings it should last atleast 2 years, close to 3 years.

Just as long as Crysis type encoding doesnt become common anyways.

 

except blizzard thank god. They program for like 5 year old systems and still somehow look great for when they come out!

*edit lets say you got a 9800GT would the same still apply? After 2-3 years you would still only be able to play new games at low-medium? well since its better probably more on the medium side?

 

The 9800GT would put you a little more ahead of the curve then the 9700GT.

 

So basically, if hard drive space is not an issue, the 200GB 7200rpm HDDs are faster than the 250GB 5400rpm HDDs? Would heat and noise production be similar?

And any chance of these laptops being updated with the 9700 GTS?

Does ASUS/any reseller offer raid 0 on these drives?

 

Could anyone get the atheros wifi on the x1 work? For some reason I can not connect to the wifi at my home with this one. I have the x1 with a T8300 by the way. When ever I turn on the computer the wireless card can not find any wireless networks. After uninstalling the driver (stock driver for the x1 that came in the drivers CD) and restarting the computer and installing the same driver again, it starts working. But again if I shut the computer down and turn it back on, no wireless networks can be found. I tried a generic wireless driver (.108 version) but it didn't help either. Did anybody have a solution to this issue.

I have vista 64bit, d-link n-wireless router and bunch of other wireless netwroks from the neighbours.

 

i heard this laptop will have a 3d screen? is that true btw?

 

How is the heat dispersion of this laptop while idling and under load? I worry about this because the 9700GT is a bit much to put in a 15" case.

@chaos:What do you mean by 3D screen?

 

No 3d screen
The 3d screen was announced at computex, but the production models (at least the current G50s) won't have them.

 

As I said, the answers to all these questions will depend on the particular type of drive.

In real-life, it is also possible that neither of the differences (speed, heat, noise) would be so important to be noticeable....

 

I asked xotic and the 250gb 5400 are seagate as well.

 

^^ So does that mean it's good? I hope the 250GB 5400 RPM will be very similar to the 200 GB 7200 RPM HD.

 

uhhhmmm, is that good or bad?

 

Depends are they both seagate hds

 

Guys who ordered from excaliberpc.com: do you know what kind of mouse is included if any? I wonder if I should keep my oldie but goodie MX518 or give it to my mom. Also wonder what the bag it comes with looks like. I hope a bit better than the laptop itself.lol

 

Here is the backpack:



And here is the mouse:

 

Oh thank you!

I guess those would be standard accessories no matter where you order from. The mouse is probably some version of the MX518 just has a different finish and that logo. And the backpack doesn't look super crappy, surprisingly. Wonder if it's comfortable, time will tell.