M51Sn: Review & Owners' Lounge

Just ordered mine last night from GenTech. Such a great price! better than newegg!
soon as i receive it i will post some pics on here....

 

I think you ment:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&Subcategory=32&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

 

oh man...they must have just put that on sale!
oh well...that is my luck..

But, i think ken has a great site and has been great about answering my questions.

 

I would like to know more on heat and noise. Is it loud? Does it run hot?
I am getting a nice deal here in Romania:

Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 2x 2.5Ghz (800mhz FSB, 6Mb Cache)
4GB Ram DDR2 Dual Channel,
250GB HDD Sata 8MB Buffer
Display 15.4" WXGA+ X-black LCD
Video Nvidia 9500GS 512Mb + 1280Mb TC = 1792Mb memorie video
Ultimul Model de Placa video de la Nvidia. 3Dmark05: 6797pct
DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM Light Scribe
Modem, Retea, Wirelss a/b/g/n + Bluetoorh 2.0 Edr
Tastura Numerica, Touchpad, Express Card, Card Reader, 4xUSB,
Firewire, VGA, Dvi, TV-Out, Microfon, Cititor de Amprenta,
Webcam 1.3Mp Rotativ, Vista Premium.
Baterie 3.5H

This I would be getting at 1099 euros brand new, sealed, but without warranty. Though I am a bit worried about heat and the sound of the fan/s.

 

Wait there's a contradiction, this is an ASUS ensemble model. If it's sealed with the original ASUS seals, then you automatically get the default 2 years of pickup and return ASUS warranty. Do you mean that you don't get warranty from the reseller? That doesn't matter, since you would be working with ASUS on any warranty issue, anyway.

This 2year business is valid throughout EU, and your nearest ASUS service point (if you ever need warranty) is in Hungary.

If the box is not sealed with the original ASUS seals, I'd stay away.

About heat and noise, maybe GenTech will know. Or some people that have already got it.

 

It's a private person who's selling me the laptop. He has no warranty to offer, I don't know much of the provenience of the laptop and I saw no ASUS seal. The laptop is new, all accessories, I powered it up today 4 the 1st time. Can you be more specific on the 'orig ASUS seals'?

Thanks.

 

Register it on the asus website

 

M51Sn with Windows XP benchmark:

15.4" WXGA 1280X800
GeForce 9500M GS 512MB DDR2 @ 475/950/400
VGA driver: 174.31
Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 @1.66GHz 2MB 667 FSB
3GB DDR2 667 (2GB+1GB)
250MB 5400rpm SATA
Windows XP Professional

3DMark06 1024x768 no overclock: 4375




3DMark06 1024x768 overclocked @525/1171/437: 4864




3DMark06 1280x800 no overclock: 3930




3DMark06 1280x800 overclocked @528/1175/432: 4415

 

Holy Cheesecakes, those are some impressive results. Quite identical to 8600M GT scores, but still pretty good for such a low cost notebook. Ok it's final I'm purchasing this laptop. Thanks a lot for the benchmarks.

Slight problem; I can't find Windows Vista 64 drivers for the M51Sn.
I was hoping to upgrade to 4GB of RAM and that'll require Vista 64.

 

A-ha. I was under the impression that you were buying from a reseller. Kind of weird though, an owner wanting to get rid of it so fast (the computer is quite new). Oh well.

Call the ASUS Hungary number +361 350 4539 / 119, tell them the serial number, and ask them if it's covered by the 2year warranty. Then it'll be clear.

(Getting an original proof of purchase from the current owner would be advisable, as well)

 

No size does not affect much(if at all). Because 250gb uses new technology (PMR) and hence much more higher density.

In fact any 5400rpm 320gb is on par with 7200rpm 200gb albeit lower price.

you can compare them here:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage25.html

 

size does matter, The Seagate Momentus 120GB 7200 rpm also uses PMR technology.

 

What I meant was that the Vista score probably takes into account the size of the HDD as well (in GB), not just the R/W speed/RPM.

 

yes, WEI sucks !

 

I ordered the M51Sn today from PCMall and will have it tomorrow. I plan to play Call Of Duty 4 on it right away, run some music recording software on it, and for my torture test, I'm gonna install Microsoft Flight Simulator X which is supposed to be designed for Vista and DirectX 10. I have a Pentium 4 3.6GHz desktop with 512MB GeForce 7950 GT and 4 Gigs of RAM and WinXP Pro. It chokes on MSFS X even on the lightest quality video settings. While this could be attributed to bad coding by Microsoft, I'm expecting a different result on the M51Sn anyway.
I ordered a 2GB ram stick to upgrade the laptop with next week, which will replace the 1GB slot and bring the M51Sn total RAM up to 4GB. While I have been told the 32-bit limitations of Windows Vista will not provide me with a huge speed increase, I DO know that adding the extra GB of RAM will allow it to run the memory in Dual-Channel mode, and should provide a bit more memory for applications to use while the shared video memory sucks up a GB.
I'll post my comments on here after I have an opportunity to put the laptop through its paces.

 

I wouldn't expect it to do too well. From what I've heard elsewhere even the 8800 series cards have trouble with it.

 

Still though, I hear that bang-for-buck this is a good gaming rig for $1000.

 

If it runs games equally well or better than my desktop, I'll be satisfied. MSFS X is still collecting dust on my shelf regardless, until I can find a machine that will run it.

 

smaller drive are less efficient and hotter, it reads less data per rpm than lager drives.

You can check out the game video on page one.

 

it isn't true !

 

is there a pictures for the m51sn?? i mean not the official image... the owners image.

 

It seems like this is the one to go for, if you like a suped-uped high-end monster of a laptop. But dos anyone know the noiselevel of this laptop? Is it noisy when you play demaning games? Dos it sound like a jet taking off, when you power it up?

 

Well, they have it at a germen dealership with lots of pictures. You can see them here:
http://www.notebooksbilliger.de/pro...gaming/asus_x55svas073c_gamerspecial_2_3072mb

 

I can't speak directly to the M51, but my M50 is very quiet. The fan and hard drive noise are both almost undetectable. Really, the only noise it makes is when the DVD drive is starting up a DVD/CD.

 

mine is very very quiet on boot up and during gaming. granted i havent played much. but playing UT3 the other night for about an hr or so i didnt hear any noise at all

 

Nice! Well then, its settled. I will have to buy this! So... were in Canada is the best place to buy it? I live en Denmark, but is thinking about having it shipped to a friends familiy and having them send it as a gift or an forgotten item, due to the extremly high taxes and toll on stuff here... have found a place in Canada that has it to 1049$. In Denmark, the cheapest place it comes at an price of app. 1775$ (Canadien). Thats some difference, eh?

 

Hmm... Just found a difference between the one I can buy here in DK and the one in Canada... Its the cpu in the two...
The one in Canada: CPU : Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 1.66GHz 667MHz 4M L2 cache
The one in DK: Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 / 2.4 GHz 3 MB - L2
There is a huge difference in the raw power of the two, but how will the minor stuff affect the overall preformence? And is it worth the extra money? Or is it better to buy the processor in bulk and change it my self? Could realy use some advice here now... Don't know what is the better choise...?!?

 

I think that 2.4GHz model is out over here, but it's a different model that costs around $200 more.

 

The M51Sn is extremely quiet. The DVD-RW drive does spin up a bit loud, but I have played Call of Duty 4 and a few other games on it and have no complaints about the noise of the laptop.
So far I have been very pleased with the laptop. I've been using it for about a week now. The speakers have virtually no bass, but I don't expect to get much bass from built in speakers on laptops anyway. The fingerprint scanner, face-recognition login features are awesome. The built in multi-format flash card reader is nice. I am researching the ability of using a SD (Secure Digital) card with Vista's ReadyBoost feature to speed up performance even more. Asus tech support tells me that with the latest Vista Updates downloaded, the card reader built into the M51Sn should support High Capacity SD cards up to 8GB or more. Another obvious solution for using the ReadyBoost Vista system cache features are to spend $89 on a ReadyBoost compatible ExpressCard Solid-State-Drive, or on a ReadyBoost compatible USB Flash Drive, but considering that both the ExpressCard and USB Flash drive would stick out the side of the laptop, if I could use ReadyBoost on a SD card that would be hidden out of the way, I would rather use that part of the laptop instead. ReadyBoost reports indicate they don't increase system performance too much, but I hear you can boot Vista about 20-40 seconds faster with ReadyBoost working for you, and that frame rates and application startup times are a bit faster.
I should also mention, I bought a 2GB memory stick to replace the factory-installed 1GB stick. So now I am running the M51Sn with 4GB RAM total.
I need to install some more games on here and try them, but so far this laptop is working very fast. I have been using laptops and desktops for years and am an avid gamer, so take it from me. This is probably one of the best gaming laptops you will find for under $1000. 250GB hard drive rules, and the laptops ability to output DVI or VGA to an external monitor is also nice.
I'll post more info as I try other things out on the laptop.
If you have any questions I can answer about my experiences with it, leave me a post and I'll respond as quick as I can. I really want to spread the word about this amazing laptop.

 

Thanks for that great review! Nice to hear that it handles games without getting loud. That's important to me (and should mean it can handle Folding @ Home too without getting loud).

I maybe should have gone for it when it was one sale that one day

 

great review!! i was hoping to find which notebook to replace my lil bro asus X51R (M51sn, same number.. kinda ironic ) ... and i think i will get this one since the graphic card are very good as well as can play latest games and the looks are simple but cool... wonder where could i get it in US.. is xoticpc a good place??

 

1toppc.com and newegg both have it at a great price

 

How did you overclock the 9500M GS? Because I tried both rivatuner and ATI tool. I am not sure how to get it overclocked though with them.

 

I use RivaTuner, at driver settings click: Customize>System Settings and check Enable Driver-Level Hardware Overclocking and choose Performance 3D at the dropdown menu.

 

Can someone post pictures of it in their home?

 

second that

 

Does anyone know why the 9500 gs destroyed the A7K-A1's Raedon hd 2600 gddr3 card in the 3dmark scores? The raedon hd 2600 GDDR3 card only scored 3234 compare to the 3693 score the 9500 gs ddr2 had with neither card being overclocked. This is strange, and im concerned because i was really considering the A7K-A1 especially when I saw the price was only 1,050 for a 17 inch screen and gddr3 card. Anyone know whats up with this?

 

It may be that the benchmarks were ran at different resolutions on each system. As in a higher res on the A7K-A1 than the other.

 

the resolution ran on the a7k-a1 was 1280x900

the resolution ran on the m51sn-a1 was at 1280x800...

i dont really understand how the resolution works with 3dmark scores... so the high the res the lower the score will be? does higher resolution affect gameplay as well?

 

Yes, the higher the res, the harder the GPU has to work to keep the screen filled with pixels. So all things being equal, lower es will often perform better.

 

hmm looks like i will be going with the m51sn then...

 

Yeah, me too as I said earlier... But now its critical... My Genex just trashed the SYSTEM.CONFIG file for the n'th time!!!
Was tolded by the store, where I bought it, after the ran a check on the HW for app. 150$ worth, that the Windows XP Home Ed. CD was the sinner, but they wouldn't even give me a new one... Fortunally I have Win XP pro too (legit and all!) But now it has done it again. AND ALL OF MY STUDIE-STUFF IS ON IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm pretty much sold on this. The worst I'll put it through is WoW, so I doubt I'll have a problem. The only question I have is whether or not I should bother with upgrading the CPU. Again, probably nothing more than WoW (as far as graphics go - other general computing and the occasional RDC into work) so I don't know if it's worth the $214 at Xotic to move from the T5450 to the T8100.

Can anyone say that the increased L2 cache and FSB will make that much of a difference? Memory will be 3GB.

Thanks!

 

Fairly huge I think, and it'll run cooler. If you do anything that pushes it I'd go with the faster CPU (ie games, media encoding or HD-playback, Folding, etc.)

 

Oooh, that's something I didn't know. Definitely something to keep in mind. Thanks Wolfpup.

ETA: Nice, found one on Newegg for slightly cheaper with the T8300 and 4GB of memory.

 

Why are the XP and Vista benchmarks exactly the same? Isnt the Xp benchmark supposed to be better? I think its kinda strange. Was there a mix up?

 

No they are not the same:

Windows Vista:
3693 1280x800 with stock driver no overclock @ 475/950/400
4149 1280x800 driver 174.16 overclocked @ 561/1122/451

Windows XP:
3930 1280X800 no overclock
4415 1280x800 overclocked @528/1175/432:

 

Does the battery life increase with the WinXP ?? If yes, i'm goning to buy m51sn-B1.

 

Yes, Xp gets slightly better bttery life.. but not by much. Should be in the range of 10-15 minutes.

 

Is there an Asus laptop with a battery life of more than 3 hours?(For normal usage without gaming and watching films).