G50V-A1 vs M50Vm-B1 Analysis

soon as somebody has one to review

Asus has not shipped them to anybody yet, nor do I think they are even ready for shipment.

There is a very good reason why, you just have to think about it.

Trust me that all the resellers are ready to leap on one of these for a full review as soon as they can, infact looks like so prone infact that Excalibur did a review on the Best Buy model.

I have personally deciced that I want the G50V-A1 over the M50Vm-B1, I wouldnt be recieving much of an upgrade to go from the C90S to the M50Vm other than longer battery, cooler operation, and sleek looks.

The G50 will be giving me all of that with more performance in games. Plus the looks at first were deciving, now that we have some high res photo's from the x1 review I can say that its not as ugly as I once thought and I am sure it would grow on me.

Still would have prefered those orange accents to be gloss black, or some kind of red. Even silver.

 

Added to the Info Booth, thanks.

 

A couple of differences between the G50 and M50 I think are worthy of note include (some were included in ViciousXUSMC's comparison and some not):

G50V:
DDR3 GPU (9700 GT)
Vista 64-bit standard

M50V:
Integrated Finger Print Reader
Swivel webcam
Touchpad media controls
Longer battery life

To me it seems like one of the factors that might be useful in determining which may be better for you is to determine how much time you plan to be moving around with the notebook.

If you're going to be moving around with it consistently then the M50V may be better, but if your going to keep it at home on a desk most of the time then the G50V may be a better decision.

Based on ViciousXUSMC's review of the G50 it looks like there were a few minor changes with the G50 since he wrote the opening post (you can find the differences in his G50 review at the link below).
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=283137

What crazy 3d monitor version is that?!? What is different from the current models? Is it planned for the G50 or the M50? Are you referring to the high resolution 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680x1050) that is an option in the m50's now, or is it something else?

 

I just wanted to make an important distinction. The new X1 spanks the A1.

There are two vastly different X-1's. It appears you're referring to the BB version because the Newegg version is actually a MUCH better deal and equal performer as the A1. This new and improved X1 deal destroys the A1 in price/performance IMHO. The NewEgg X1 has a better CPU (Same gen, only .3 mhz slower and 3mb onboard cache instaed of 6mb), SAME resolution as the A1, and the FASTER 7200 drive and it's under $1400.

Newegg's: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220379

BestBuy X1: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8906133&type=product&id=1213046768588

NewEgg A1: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220378

 

I agree, there needs to be a distintion between the G50V-X1 sold @ Newegg and the one sold at BB. I would say the Newegg product is totally worth your money while the one from BB isn't.

I would've assumed this to be common knowledge but it's probably best to make sure it's clearly stated somewhere.

 

however, I think this new X1 variant from Newegg, is NEW. It did not exist when Vicious wrote this comparison thread. However, I would like to know if this is a Newegg only g50v or will it be availiable elsewhere...preferably somewhere in Canada .

 

My comments on the newegg X1 - Its $1500 currently on sale for $1400 but we should still use the MSRP for the baseline comparison since sales are temporary.

So the A1 is $1640 so only $140 difference so there is no way it can "destroy" the A1 unless it was the same stuff for $140 less then I would call it a better value but not a "destruction" of the A1.

But they are not the same, they are different.

First of all, the main thing to note is the risk of buying a notebook from newegg, they have a kind of strict policy on notebooks. I read it the other day when I was about to buy the MSI Wind from them and did not like what I read. That alone makes me stay with real well known resellers that work with you like Gentech.

Now into the model comparisons.

First is the CPU comparison that you already made, indeed not a large difference but a difference all the same.

The T9400 vs the P8400, there is the speed difference, cache difference.
The difference is then further aplified when you consider the overclocking built into the direct console, with the higher cpu multi the T9400 goes just up to 2.8ghz while the P8400 is going to be slower, how much I do not know.

Then you have to consider the sheer value of what you have. Looking at newegg right now the T9400 is $340 while the P8400 is $220 so thats $120 worth of cpu right there.

Next the hard drive(s)

So you like the idea of a 7200rpm hard drive... but you have to notice that its ONLY 200gb and thats it. The A1 is comming with TWO 250gb Hard Drives. Giving you well over double the amount of space, and the option for raid 0 or raid 1. The speed difference I promise you is very marginally different, even at worse you had to wait 1 second longer for your favorite game to load. Thats much less of a price to pay then not having the space at all to install your favorite game after you put your other games and some music/movies on there. Im already using over 300gb of space and have not even really started to import half of my music/movies yet. Plus I have like 10 games installed. This is a notebook, its meant to be on the go. Im not going to carry my game disks with me to install them and uninstall them all the time.

Again the value, It will cost much less to buy a single 200gb 7200rpm drive than it would two 5400rpm 250gb drives.

We are well beyond the $140 difference from the Egg X1 and the A1.

Then there is the unknown... The specs on the egg say 4gb DDR2 ram but they did not tell you the speed of the ram. I would think if they threw some nice new DDR2 800mhz ram in there, they would want to tell you about it as thats a big deal. I mean they toss 7200rpm HDD in big bold letters. So just common sense tells me that "Super Fast DDR2 800mhz Ram!" should be there too but its not so its possible you may end up with DDR2 667 with this model.

With all that said is it worth the $140, I say no.

Is it worth the $240 currently with the sale?... Its borderline thats a good discount but I personally would have to add in another hard drive still so add that cost in. I would not buy a machine that holds and works with two hard drives just to use one. Thats also half the reason its so big, so why deal with the size if you wont take advantage of it?

It would have to be about $300 cheaper for me to give up my hard drives and order thru the egg rather than from a nice reseller. That would be cheap enough for me to buy the 2nd hard drive + shipping and go thru the trouble of installing it and come out saving some money. If anything I consider them near equal for what you pay as compared to what you get, so by no means do I agree that the egg x1 "destroys" the value of the A1. The A1 is still king of the hill coming fully equipped with everything you need at a great cost.

 

Many of your points are valid, I call shenanigans on others but either way we're each entitled to our own opinions..

VALID:

Fair enough. Destruction may have been harsh language. But for my needs (which are not everybody else's) it's a much better value.

Yeah, but that's because of Intel's well known lame pricing strategies. The performance increase is absolutely not worth the cost difference. This is nothing new, Intel always does that. You point is valid, but inert.

SHENANIGANS:

Why? Newegg's "sales" often last for months. If someone is going to purchase a laptop "right now" they're gonna pay $1400. The savings is $240. Period.

I gotta call big time S*H*E*N*A*N*I*G*A*N*S* on this one. Newegg not well known? Come on. Also, Newegg is EXTREMELY reputable. Arguably one of the best in terms of customer service in the industry. It's part of what they're known for. (As always there are exceptions with any retailer regardless of how good they are).

Newegg's policy isn't strict, it basically says you can't get a refund on notebooks. That's about the strictest part. That really doesn't matter though I don't want a refund if I purchase something it's because I've done my reseach intend to keep it. Based on your impressive posts I think you have the same mindset. To be fair though, Gentech's policy isn't better. You can only get a refund if you request it within 15 days, and even then they pop you for a 10% restocking fee (on an A1 that equals $164... OUCH) and it has to come back in what they consider "100% perfect condition" (I hope there wasn't any shipping damage) I'd actually consider that *stricter*.

Shenanigans. Yes the A1 comes with more space, but is more SLOWER space. I can notice a significant difference, (not huge, but 7200 is absolutely faster). Definitely more difference than .3mhz of cpu will make. Further, I don't think most people have 100GB of games to install. Do you?

While, this doesn't apply to everyone, but for me I have shared external storage where I put the majority of my music/movies/games. On my laptop I have my 5/6 favorite games, about 15gb of my favorite music, and about 20gb of movies, everything else is on my 500GB external drive to swap out as of if it's needed. I'm willing to bet 200GB is more than enough to be "on the go" for 90% of the people out there. For those who ONLY have a laptop (with no desktop or external storage systems) I can agree that 200GB may not been enough.

It's 800mhz

So because it's a $240 discount and not $300 it's not worth it? $60 REALLY kills the value?

Anyway, thanks for your input your posts are always well thought out. I'm just the new guy (to this forum at least), but hopefully will be a valid community member after my X1 arrives today.

 

To a large extent, it all does depend on personal needs and preferences. For instance, I'd give the (not so significant) performance increase of the 7200RPM HDD for 2.5 times the space... any day. 200 is no longer enough for me -- but yeah, I'm one of those guys who uses his laptop as the main machine, and likes all the data in one place.

Also, I'd point out an advantage of a small reseller such GenTechPC: they work with you through your problems, every step of the way. It's not something that a large retailer such as NewEgg will do, I believe.

But indeed, you have some valid points -- even though it would probably have been better to make those points in a gentler way. I'm sure ViciousXUSMC, as an experienced forum member, won't overreact to your post -- but still.

 

I think he miss understood me, I buy everything from newegg when it comes to parts. I was specifically talking about there notebook policy. Its pretty harsh and we even had this thread on the front page of our Asus forums for a few days now: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=296534

Its a very real story of a worst case scenario getting a notebook with newegg. Since I have had to send a notebook in for problems in the past it was much worth my time & money to have Ken on the other side of the phone rather than Newegg tossing me to the sharks.

Also being somebody who has done so many tests and both synthetic and real life benchmarks on hard drives I think your over exaggerating on how much faster a 7200rpm drive is compared to a 5400rpm drive.

Again it doesnt matter how much faster it loads if you dont even have space for it Games eat up like 10+gb these days easy, and then music + movies take up the rest.

The only thing I can think of that has any loading time at all is games and I load in just as fast as any other player with the "waiting for other players" dialog always there so not like I have any advantage if I can get in 2 or 3 seconds faster.

Plus since I am currently using Raid 0, some games do actually load faster due to that too.