Howard's Asus G60VX-RBBX05 REVIEW

This is my 3rd encounter with Asus gaming laptop. I have owned Asus G50, G51VX and this is the 3rd one. Hopefully I can shed some light for readers.

DIMENSION: 14.8 x 10.4 x 1.6
WEIGHT: 7.2 lbs with 6 cell battery
CPU: Intel P7450 2.13 ghz 3MB L2 Cache
Memory: 4 GB PC-6400 Hyundai (2X2) at 800Mhz
HDD: 320gb 7200rpm HD
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GTX 260M 1GB
SCREEN: 16 inches LED at 1366 X 768
KEYBOARD: Chicklet type back-lit (white light) keyboard
OS: Windows 7 premium
PORT: 4 USB, 1 E-SATA, 1 HDMI, 2 Headphone, 1 Mic, card reader, Express card slot, ethernet.
BATTERY: 6 CELL
WEB CAM: 1.3 MP
PRICE: 999.99

DESIGN AND CHASIS:

G60 use the exact same chasis as G51. Both are same size, identical keyboard and ports which is very sturdy and no flex. Major change is the lid design which is dark blue/black and there is no more light strip on both side of the lid. The hinge is strong and tight, screen exhibited no flex or play while moving it back and forth. When I tried to press on the center of the lid, LED remained bright and no discoloration. This thing is built like a tank. There are touch sensitive buttons just below the screen that changes the LED scheme to vivic, cinema...etc the usual. Also has 1 touch button for battery saver, entertainment, extreme performance (overclock?)

One notable item is the top two corners of the LED screen which was not finished at a 90 degrees angle but a sloped design which some people might find annoying due to the few reduced pixel. I personally did not find it bothersome.

WINDOWS EXPERIENCE INDEX AND PERFORMANCE

With windows 7, the WEI has been extended to 7.9 as top performance. Under extreme performance
CPU: 5.7
MEMORY: 5.8
VIDEO/GAMING 6.7
VIDEO/AERO3D 6.7
HDD: 5.9

I have not noticed a huge performance increase over the G51 which was equipped with the same video card, same memory but a P7350 2.0 ghz cpu. However the overall windows boot up, gaming, touch and feeling experience felt much more smooth and fluid over G51. It's probably due to the combination of 0.13 ghz speed bump + windows 7 which is less of a resource hog.

I did not have access to an external monitor at time of testing and 3D mark vantage will not run because 16:9 screen did not meet the requirement of being able to achieve a 1280 x 1024 resolution. However 3D mark 06 was able to be performed at 1280 x 720 resolution and G60 achieved a score of 9020. Some of you may recall that G51's 3D mark 06 benchmark at 1280 x 720 achieved a score of 8880 found here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=392176

I wanted to get this article out asap and did not have time to measure FPS for various games. The only game tested was Call of Duty World at War. The game ran fluid with absolutely NO lag at 1366 x 768 with all possible detail turned up. All game play was ultra smooth and fluid. I know this is not scientific, but I do own a desktop with core i7 920. 6 GB ddr 3 and ATI 5870 video card. While detail is not as high as my desktop of course, the FPS did not feel any less than when I played the same game on my desktop.

DISPLAY

I could not tell the difference in size of this 16 inches vs G51's 15.6 inches. 1366 x 768, while not as high as 1920 x 1080, it is very adequate for game and web browsing. There was no dead pixel and LED is bright and gorgeous.

HEAT AND NOISE

This was always a concern for as long as gaming laptop was first introduced. Some G51 had overheating problem and my previous G51 sometimes idled at 86C and gaming at upper 90C. I did extensive research and G51's overheating problem was not widespread ,but rather hit and miss. Some were ok, some were toaster.

The G60VX I have idles between 59-61C with room temperature around 70C. At peak of extreme performance mode running 3D mark 06, world at war for 20 minutes, peak temperature fluctuated between 81c to 86C which beats G51's 90C anyday. One distinct trait of G60 was once I exited the game, it took less than 2 minutes for the temperature to lower to 66C.

This G60 was extremely quiet. While faint swoosh of fan noise was audible, it was by no means distracting. I could leave it on beside me and go to sleep. The fan kicked in when it reached above 80C full blast. However, even at that fan speed, the fan noise was by no means intrusive. As soon as I exited the game, the fan speed lowered almost instantaneously. I understand G51 and G60 have the same chasis, but I don't know what Asus did to internal to improve the air flow.

Keyboard and palm rest remained cool to touch at idle and office tasks/web browsing. Under heated gaming, keyboard and palm rest became slightly warm but not uncomfortable.

VIDEO CARD

The soul of this laptop is the 1GB of GTX 260M video card. CPU-Z identified this card to be of G92 core with 65nm fabrication process. However, Nvidia and notebookcheck.com identified GTX 260M to be of a cooler more efficient 55nm fabrication process.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-260M.14559.0.html

This laptop was shippd with Nvidia 186.40 driver and has 112 stream processor. For those not familiar with it , this laptop GTX 260M card is roughly equivalent to desktop version of Nvidia 9800GT card which also has 112 stream processor and DDR 3 memory. This card paired with 1366 x 768 resolution, can run any modern game at high resolution.

MEDIA and SOFTWARE:

G60 came with recovery media and drivers. However it kept prompting me to create recovery discs which should be a more convenient than installing them one by one. Which would prompt some question about bloatware. I immediately uninstalled trend micro trial and microsoft works and other bestbuy, napster software. Besides the usual drivers, half of the software was Asus proprietery such as smart log on, AI recovery, splended video, power 4 gear hybrid. One notable software is the control deck which staggers all the system setting in a series of software presented on your screen with simple name/explanation on what it does. All you have to do is point and click. Very nice and user friendly.

CONCLUSION:

This laptop runs cool, quiet and is built very sturdy. The color scheme offers a mature professional tone while offers a hint of gaming menance as if it can take on any gaming rig out there priced above it. Sure it's not the fastest rig out there and not a 2000 dollars alienware. But coming from someone who has had extensive collection of gaming laptops from earliest day of dell xps to all kind of gaming desktop, this G60 will hold it own without any problems. I bought this laptop mainly for gaming on the go for modern warfare 2. I have no doubt it will handle MW2 any whatever game coming its way in the coming year with absolutely no difficulty. What remains to be seen is its upgradeability which I do not have such information yet. I reckon it will take a brave forum member to try it out

Thank you Asus for making such a balanced gaming machine without breaking my bank.

PS: Sorry about the unclear picture..I been super busy work full time + school full time + just bought a house and my camera broke..had to use my blackberry to take pic.only 3.2mp

 

Okay review. 6/10.

 

Thanks for the review, great job. Now I just need to find out how to get this baby shipped to Canada!

 

Only if I could put more pic in......dog on digital camera

 

I know you are going to upload more pics, but I didn't rate your review because of that.

 

Thx for the review.

You probably getting 60C+ idle becuase your 2d clock arent going down, some drivers have that bug. Try NVIDIA GeForce v186.82 WHQL, i idle at 47-50C on a 21C ambient.

If you can run more benchmarks, like crysis, 3dmark06, and if you feel comfortable, furmark.

 

More pic....I'm pretty sure the video card portion was misread by CPU-Z as 65nm. It is 55nm. The benchmark was 3D mark 06 at 1280 x 720. CPU and RAM usage was at idle.

 

8/10 review.. god i just used the numpad for that and its awesome having a numpad lmaoooo
cheers fellow g60 owner

 

Cheers! I just did 30 mins of world at war intense scene at the beachhead. G60 peaked at 76C !!! WOHOO... my last defective G51 peaked at near 100C!!!

 

weird, I looked at one of these at best buy tonight and I would swear the windows experience numbers were different. I was thinking the lowest number was 5.9 on the hd, I thought cpu and ram were 6.1 or something like that. Can't you just order from bb to ship to Canada?

 

You're welcome, thanks for reading it. I'll try the driver when I have more time. I just took a peek at Nvidia site, there's a new driver out. I'll try and see if I can install it tomorrow.

 

Nah..cpu and ram were respectively 5.7 and 5.8. I saw two machine at two bestbuy + mine...all are the same.....

 

Good review and congrats!
Good to see temps that low.
I know it has power4gear but can you OC the gpu with it?
If so how much?

 

Hmmm just looked...can't OC the video card........not sure if it's a good idea even if it could . Might gaming halfway and video card melt out of the bottom

 

Sorry meant CPU
Looks like a winner so far.

 

this laptop is awesome... i downloaded wow to see if it will play it good but i have no account ololol.. so now im downloading need for speed shift... that will be a good test

 

Hey man. I was wondering if you used this rig for your school lectures. I also wanted to know how many hours you can go without it plugged in. I was thinking about getting a G51J or a G60VX but the battery life has always been an issue for me.

Please let me know what the battery life is at 6 and 9 cell. thanks

 

Just sign up for the 10 day trial should work fine for ya.

 

Sorry it only took about 45 minutes of WoW to drop it to 37% but I also had it in extreme turbo mode...so maybe in battery save you might get close to 2 hours but can't know for sure.

 

Beerwolf can you OC the CPU with Power4Gear?

 

Who cares what he says?
I liked your review (lots of useful detail) and I'd give it a 8/10.

 

duuude i was just playing need for speed: shift... it runs beautifully... i love this laptop omfg

 

Good review Howard!

Could you take picture of the inside of the G60vx (I wanna see if they used the same fan as in the G51J laptop?)

 

You know man I am wondering what it is oc'ing...I am gonna work on it more tomorrow when I get back home. Will let ya know.

 

Just unplugged and set to power saver mode with 50% brightness. Shows to have appx 2 hours battery left. That's with gaming mouse connected and wireless on and 50% brightness. So should be little over 2 hours with power saver mode which is pretty standard. This is on a 6 cell battery. I'd imagine its possible to get about 3 hours or nearly so with 9 cell battery and conservative power settings.

PS: Hey Beer, is it me or is it really hard to plug the power plug into the back of the laptop? damn tight..had to use more force than I'm used to.

 

Do you think it is worth the extra $200-ish to get the G60VX-RBBX0 9 with the 9-cell battery, 2.51 processor and 600GB HD?
The guys at Best Buy think the 9 cell upgrade will give about an hour extra. Is there a noticeable difference in performance between the 2.15 and 2.51 processor?


(plus I could get the G60VX-RBBX05 from the Best Buy in my back yard in 30 minutes vs. ordering the G60VX-RBBX09 to arrive the end of next week)

 

1) Nothing beats instant gratification, I wanted the 1199 one but didn't want to wait. Also that depend on if this will be your primary machine. If it is then the 2.53 is worth it and extra HD space. For me this is just a 2ndary machine in addition to my gaming desktop so 999 one is more than enough.

2) G60 could upgrade CPU so i'll just wait for price to drop in a while then upgrade.

 

That extra 320 GB isn't a big deal for me, so I think I'm going to shell out an extra $80 and get this G51 from Newegg. It has the 1920 x 1080 screen, bluetooth, and a better webcam. I really like it for the better screen though. What do you guys think?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220639

 

Nope they don't ship internationally from the U.S. site. they tell you to go to the Canadian one, but that one doesn't have the G60 listed!

 

If I had the cash I would get that or the 17" with 6g of RAM and a quad core.


I went out and got the G60 and I agree with the review, I have spent well over $1,500 on dell laptops yes more then once, and $1,800 on a macbook pro and I have to say I have never got this much for my money, this computer feels very solid and "high end" the keyboard is the same if not a little better then the unibody macbook pro, now it doesnt have OSX but windows 7 is nice. The only thing im confused about is I thought the RAM was 4g DDR2 with, well im not sure the FSB but I thought it was over 800? was I wrong?

it does seem to run cooler, or maybe just less noise? I know it can play empire total war with everything on no anti alias. look great!

I am very happy with this purches, even though i did set me back $1,100 cash! ouch!! but I love it, and will have this as my companion for a long time.

now how would I go about upgrading the CPU on this thing later on?


Also this is the only G60VX review I can find that has the real specs, all the others talk about blue ray and 1tb HD?!

 

200 bucks can get you a pretty kickass CPU. Install it yourself.

 

My only problem with the G60VX-RBBX05 is that it lacks a blu-ray drive and bluetooth. I think any laptop that costs over $900 these days should have the latter and former, especially bluetooth since it is relatively cheap.

 

I have 700GB on my desktop, a 300GB external backup drive and 250GB on my kids PC if I get really desperate...so space should not be a problem.

I am concerned about the difficulty in finding a 9 cell battery if I go with the 6 cell and determine I need the 9 cell. I did not see any on ebay or newegg.

I find it interesting that the 6 cell and 9 cell versions have exactly the same picture at bestbuy.com. Usually the bigger battery has a larger footprint. There is a 9 cell for the ASUS N51 at newegg that would stick out the bottom of the laptop which is much less convenient for transport in my backpack.

I have been spoiled by my IBM Thinkpad T40 which works perfectly for business and have not had any significant issues for 7 years (and still works great if I want to settle for playing Diablo 2 level graphics). I can just shut the lid without shutdown and open up 8 hours later (not having to wait to start up) and have plenty of battery left. They told me I could not do that anymore. I had assumed that much since the lights on the ASUS G60 still flash when you close the lid.

 

Is the G60VX-RBBX05 the only gaming-friendly laptop that Best Buy is selling in their stores? It seems most of their floor models have integrated graphics cards and slow CPU's.

 

I saw this one there:
HP - Pavilion Laptop with Intel® Core™ i7 Processor Model: dv7-3085dx

ProcessorIntel® Core™ i7
Processor Speed1.6GHz
Display TypeLED-backlit high-definition plus widescreen display with BrightView technology (1600 x 900)
Screen Size (Measured Diagonally)17.3"
Cache Memory6MB on die Level 2
System Memory (RAM)6GB
System Memory (RAM) Expandable To8GB
Type of Memory (RAM)DDR3
Hard Drive TypeSATA (7200 rpm)
Computer Hard Drive Size500GB
Optical DriveDouble-layer DVD±RW/CD-RW
Optical Drive SpeedsDrive speeds not specified
Direct-Disc LabelingYes
Digital Media Reader or SlotsYes, digital media card reader
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GT 230M (NB10P GE)
Battery Type8-cell lithium-ion

 

G60 kills this HP......at least on video card....GT 230 has 48 stream processor which is ok, but it will lag if its DDR 2 , there are two versions...

 

Not to forget in quality. ASUS is number 1 in reliability and service while HP is on the bottom of the list.

 

Yep Howard the power plug is pretty snug. But I actually like it that way. I have seen older laptops where it's a loos fit and they end up not making good contact.

 

Ok good..cause I have to use relatively heavy force to put the plug in..just wanna make sure I'm not breaking it or got a bad one.

I'm loving it man....if not gaming on desktop my set up is G60VX + Creative Fatal1ty headset + M/S sidewinder mouse.....the dell xps gaming mouse pad...loving it.. was talking to my co worker..he is enr to get one lol

 

Love my G60VX (999 one) runs quiet and cool...already installed 30 updates from microsoft for windows 7...go figure. But after the update, my GTX 260 now idles at 56c down from 61C out of box

 

i love my g60vx this is friggin awesome, im scared tho ive been downloading installing and havent turned it off since i got it lmao

 

Just played 1 hour of COD world at war, temperature PEAK at 79C, this laptop is night and day from G51!!!

and within 2 minutes, its back down to 66 c again......will soon drop to 56 or 58c....i really wonder what asus did to G60's cooling

 

http://www.cpuid.com/

go to this link, download hardware monitor, that will tell you temp

 

looks like the gpu on the g60's running cooler than the one on the g51j

 

How about the CPU?

 

Just to make sure, I did another 40 minutes heated battle of call of duty world at war Soviet offensive with large battlefield, lots of people, shots, movements, buildings....

CPU both core max out at 47C
GTX 260M max out at 76C~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a nigh and day from G51's max temp of 90-100C...

 

can we get a snapshot of the underbelly (inside) of the G60?

 

Now after idle for 3 mins..the G60VX fan slowed down to a whisper.

Both CPU core after 3 mins of exiting WAW idle at 42C
GTX 260M is down to 65C.......can't hear the laptop running...

PS: I have played the exact same game and scene with the white G51 from bestbuy (since returned due to various problems, wireless and heating especially) The White G51 peaked at around 95 or 97C I forgot..but somewhere around there. G60VX is running 20C cooler...This sounds too amazing to be true but I'm looking at it right now!

 

Will try to find some time to do it....trying to rent out my income property and work full time..mid term coming up too lol a bit busy but I'll see.

Glad I didn't choose the newegg G51...with quad..imagine the heat would have been.

 

You should check drivers or powermizer settings, your videocard should go down to 50s at idle, unless something is different on G60 or your ambient temp is high. I just took a screenshot of my G51vx (no gaming just browsing, no undervolts still at stock).