G51J-A1 Owners Lounge

u can get a skin to put over it but the light on the side will still show

 

I'm assuming that you've never seen this laptop in person yet, but it's not as bright as a lot of photos might seem. It's actually pretty dark, and doesn't "jump out" like you may think....at least that's my opinion about the cover. Now....if we couldn just get a way to turn off the lights on the back and sides it would be that much better. lol

 

anyone know which direct x the lap is running?

 

zOMG wowowow just got mine.

The G51J pwnz me. Compiled my kernel in 13 mins. Ridiculous.

Edit: Quick aesthetic pros and cons...

Pros:
Backlit keyboard looks as good as my MBP. Feels good too, but maybe a bit more squishy. Much more key travel than my G50V, which is good for me.

Screen is ridiculously bright, maybe as bright or brighter than my MBP, it is nice with colorful images. Much more crisp than the G50 due to LED backlighting.

Rubber palmrest is good but less soft than I had imagined. Still a massive plus, I always loved the feel of rubberized Thinkpads. Much better than the HARD EDGE of my MBP which eventually hurts my hands after prolonged use.

The touchpad and mouse buttons feel great. The removal of the light around the touchpad since the G50 is a definite plus. The buttons aren't like other ASUS models that have the click you can hear a mile away.

The art/design/whatever-that-is on the lid is not nearly as offensive in person as I had thought by looking at pics online. It's actually ... kinda cool? Kinda.

Cons:
Screen is ridiculously bright, on dark stuff it's washed out. Not nearly as balanced as my MBP.

Backspace key 'chirps'. Maybe others do too, may go away with time.

Caps/Numlock/HDD indicators are bright white LEDs. HDD isn't so bad because it is intermittent. Since numlock is always on due to the numpad, it's burning my eyes off. The LEDs on the 3 buttons next to them seem dim by comparison.

Arrow keys are hard to find by touch.

Shift and | are not right-aligned (only matters really if you run *nix).

Lid lights cannot be disabled in software anymore.

 

It's not "bright", if you want "bright", buy any modern day LCD monitor and turn the backlight up to 100% and be blinded.

It's washed out because it has poor contrast (and possibly viewing angles are to blame), and it needs to be calibrated. Turn your Gamma down for starters.

 

Yes, it is actually very bright. When using on well lit areas, the blacks do look black with a good level, and contrast is good.

A different story is told when you use it on dark rooms, or poorly lit areas.

 

What's a gamma?

If I want bright I'll stare at the NUM LOCK light blaring in my face.

 

What NVIDIA settings are you guys using? I'm at Gamma 0.80 and Digital Vibrance at +20%... seems to look a bit better in some ways and worse in others. I don't have much of an eye for this stuff though.

 

had the same chirping noise with left ctrl. went away some time between the first and second week (heavy use since i bind it to crouch in just about every game).

the numlock/capalock/hdd is only a little brighter than the power to the right.

i used to have +15 dv, -10contrast, -10 brightness. those settings don't stick if you don't have nvidia's driver service running.


edit: @MichaelKW: everything you need is in the first 2 or 3 pages in the bsod thread. (its a recovery dvd, but from what i see the bloat is separate)

 

ok i got mine days ago the things is fast very fast and plays all games very well keyboard is ok mouse is great this is my very first gaming laptop(been a fan of desktop very long now im in both sides) the only con i have seen in this laptop is the speakers anyone now if it can reach more volume its good but i feel like the speakers sound is too soft ive heard the msi gaming laptops speakers and just kills mine well since im buying a razer headset this is not like abig problem meanwhile the temps here in my work are gpu core 80c and cpu 59c but here in my work the room is very hot and besides i can bring my notebook cooler here in my home i get very low temps like 60c on gpu core min has ic diamond applied and 6 gigs of ram my notebook cooler is an antec 200.

 

Finally received my machine yesterday, used it for about 10 hours total, no games yet so I can't comment on the BSOD issue yet. So far I've swapped out the hard drives and memory (sig is current) and figured I'd run a few tests. These are the temperatures after Prime 95 with 8 threads and FurMark (extreme burning, Full HD, no AA), simultaneously. I stopped the programs after only 6 minutes, I wanted to get to 10 minutes but once I saw 98 C I shut them down. I have the IC Diamond compound installed. I will also be Forge Modding, and I'll post back with updated temps.

 

mmm, Have you try furmark no AA, full resolution, and no extreme burn in? I get 94C max on furmark, then it drop down to 92C. I also have IC diamond compound on both cpu and gpu.

 

Far out this is running hot. Would thermal paste be required to keep this laptop going for years to come?

 

Yea but he is ruining parallel tests, so the ability of the one fan/cooler setup gets crippled by both cpu n gpu being stressed. I think his temps are fine for what he tried (not saying 98C is fine, just the seems on par with because of the dual stress).

 

Ok, ready to Forge mod, but i'm going to try FurMark on it's own first, Extreme burn, 1080 res, no AA.

 

10 mins of Furmark saw temps peak at 95C for a few seconds, then leveled out at 94 C.

 

Is there a program to control the internal fan speed?

 

For those who are interested in OC to original stock speed on GTX 260M
ASUS G51J 3d mark 06 Stock score with:
Core Speed 550 MHz
Shader Speed 1375 MHz
Memory Speed 950 MHz

Max temperature according to CUPID Hardware monitor: 84C
COOLER USED: NC-2000

3D MARK 06 SCORE with ASUS clock speed: 10086
3D MARK 06 SCORE with GTX 260M clock speed: 11059

 

I have a question if anyone can answer, I noticed a discussion about bluetooth in one of the first few pages of this thread.

I currently own a pair of Logitech Freepulse headphones I bought 2 years ago (I know, bad idea). I want to connect them to the laptops bluetooth without using the dongle logitech supplied. I manage to be able to connect them, but It does not allow me to use them as an audio device.

Does the bluetooth device that comes with the laptop support A2DP? or is that an issue with the OS. I know logitech does not supply drivers for the headphones, but many people have got them working with their laptops without the dongle.

 

if those temps are with prime95, your cpu isn't going to 100%.
check the clocks with CPUz or TMonitor _while_ running furmark.

 

You still using Dox 185.85?

 

yeah, i'm still using dox 185.85

 

That sounds like an adult game.

 

Ok, I finally added my heatsinks last night, used the sekisui tape as well, here's the finished product. On some of the spaces around the video card there's not as much leeway as there was with the older models but I still fit a decent amount.

Also the back plate not bulges out slightly from the heatsinks on the video card.. Do I need to worry about this?

 

Which heat sinks are those on your CPU?

 

They were Thermaltake brand sinks that I purchased from K-Tron. Part No. A1978. Don't know if they still make them though.

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/coolers/memory/ramsink.htm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835116012&cm_re=a1978-_-35-116-012-_-Product

 

Ah nice, so a 6mm height fits. I got some 6 mm copper lying around I'll probably put them to good use when I get my 32 blocks delivered

 

@ComputerMD82 where are the before and after temp tests? =P

 

I'll run the tests and post up results tonight, I'm on my way to my father's, on a bus in the middle of nowhere right now

 

Nice placement, really looking forward for results, specially since its the first G51j moded, maybe furmark and orthos (i would suggest ibt, but i read some issues with i7s) or KGB approved OCCT 3.1.

 

Heyo all.

I'm a proud new owner of a G51J!

And of course, I DO have one question - has anyone figured out hwo to turn off those flashing lights on the front cover? It's a litle distracting when I'm using it in class... lol

Cheers!

 

Open up the case and unplug them .. only way as far as I read.

 

As far as I know, you can't

 

I haven't had a chance to look at this thing under the hood yet - but is it just pulling out some cables/plugs, or actually cutting them? And will it void my warranty?

thanks for the quick replies guys.

 

Ah yeah that, completely forgot about that option, my mind was just thinking a software switch

Edit: Here's the link if you're interested in that option
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=383177

 

Thanks! I was planning on running more tests tonight..

I ran Furmark, and it still hit 94C, but now I have a problem. I purposely left the laptop on all night because I wanted to make sure the IC compound cured and actually woke up in the middle of the night to hear a clicking sound, like a pendulum swinging in a wall clock. I thought it was coming from the laptop but it didn't phase me too much since I was half awake. When I woke up I remembered what I heard but the laptop was fine. I rebooted anyway and when it started up popped the Windows boot menu to repair the installation or start normally, I choose start normally, BSOD, then auto reboot. Repeat this 3 more times. I shut down completely, unplug, and remove the battery, press power, wait 20 seconds. Reassemble. Power on. No windows boot menu, only this:



That's all I get, tried multiple times, made sure BIOS is booting from the correct drive, removed the second drive.. nothing. I popped in the original 320GB drive and set the 500GB drive as secondary, it booted just fine and I was able to get my data off the drive, it recognized the drive on the 2nd attempt. Still won't boot off of it though. RMA'd the drive through Newegg. I hate seagate drives so much.

Anyway, I'm reformatting now on my 2nd 500GB drive. What tests would everyone like to see?

 

The classic Furmark burn test aka everything on with 8xmsaa (if you got a before result that would be great too!)

 

Can you post the screenshot for furmark. Did it hit 94 then drop back down or stay at 94C?
edit: so the copper mod didn't lower your temperature at all?

 

It peaked at 95C then went down to 94C and stayed there. I let it run for 10 minutes. It did take longer to get to 95C, not much though. I was really hoping for better results, that's why I was letting the compound cure.

I'll run it again tomorrow most likely after I format, I'll post the Furmark screenshots as well as HW Monitor. Other tests to try?

 

Constant high temperature kills hdd you know.

 

I left it idle. No tests or anything. It would be as if I was on this site all night ;-)

 

So the before mod and after mod didn't change anything. The copper only slow down the temperature increase, but it didn't lower the maximum temperature and stabilizing temperature. Kind of disappointing.

 

Poor paste application can easily pass the gain of the blocks. When i changed the paste for the 1st time (no blocks) i went from 93C tops (ibt+furmark) to over 100C in less than 3 mins.... when i reopen it, the gpu was barely making half contact. Not saying this is the case here, but it might, the gpu heatsink is a little tricky to seat correctly, you have to move it some to make the radiator enter fully allowing the pipe/copper plate to fully go down. I would try to re do it again, while checking how was the contact when you open it. Paste like MX3/ICD7/ShinEtsu are really thick and hard to apply compared to AS5 (in my experience), its much easier to mess it up and lose the gains it might give you, tbh if i knew how the paste would be a factor, i probably would just left it stock and just used the blocks.

If this have been done by authorized dealer, i would leave it like it is, reapplying might break/tear the warranty sticker.

 

I get what you are saying, but the copper block only need to be use with thermal tape. There is no paste involved. You don't need to open up the cpu and the gpu to do the copper block mod.

or are you saying, he has open up his gpu/cpu to apply thermal paste on it before he did the copper mod?

 

That's what he meant

Edit: He = ComputerMD82

I recall him saying in a few posts back that he replaced the thermal paste on his gpu

 

Im not sure....

From his post he has IC already on it, probably applied by Xoticpc, not sure though. Wierd thing is most have seen gains with copperblocks, but none have done G51j, this is the first, so idk.

fuyuki or Hydeo, either of you didn't order the G51j with the upgrade paste?

 

I ordered it with the ICD7 compound applied, from XoticPC. It's still possible that it's not seated correctly though, but I don't want to break the warranty sticker, they applied one over the broken one.

Funny, when I first ordered it, I asked my rep if they would apply ICD7 to the GPU RAM as well as the core and they said yes, this was when the model first popped up in October. When I opened it up I saw the Asus thermal pads on the RAM so I called and was told that the pads are thick to the point that when they tried to apply ICD7 to the RAM it wouldn't make contact so they only applied it to the GPU core.

 

Mine is just the stock paste from Asus

 

I have IC24 apply by gentech.

 

It should only be on the core, anyway. The pads on the RAM work as heat transfer agents and cushions.