RainMotorsports (Clutch's) ASUS G50Vt-X5 (Best Buy) Review

RainMotorsports (Clutch's) ASUS G50Vt-X5 (Best Buy) Review
STATUS: Initial Review + Extended Benching DOX 182.05

Table of Contents
- Information and Specs
- Shopping around and my choice
- Unboxing (Pictures)
- Chassis, Trim and Features
- Screen
- Performance
- Benchmarks
- Temperatures
- Battery Life
- Other Features, Thoughts

Information and Specs
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo P7450 (2.13GHz 3MB L2, 1066 FSB)
GPU: nVidia GeForce 9800M GS 512MB DDR3 with PhyX support
RAM: 4GB DDR2-6400 800MHz
HDD: 320GB 7200RPM SATA
ODD: 8x DVD R/RW DL Lightscribe
DISPLAY: 15.6" WXGA LCD (1366x768)
PORTS: 4x USB, eSATA, HDMI, VGA, Firewire, Ethernet, Card Reader, Audio
EXPANSION: Express 54 Slot
BATTERY: 9 Cell Extended
Price @ 3/1/2009: 899.99

Shopping around and my choice
I have been looking to replace my 450 dollar compaq since the day I bought it. It was a 16:10 15.4 inch with a 1280x800 screen, motivated by a 1.8Ghz Athlon X2 (Tyler Core "Turion") and a GeForce 6100 Go. As a professional coder I was in the market for more of a business machine, 16 inch with full keyboard Intel cpu and slightly better gpu. As budgets increased I ended up looking at HP's HDX16 with its 9600M GT or 130M. I finally came to my senses and not only decided I wanted a gamer, I had found all of what I wanted in a 900 dollar ASUS.

Unboxing (Pictures)
When the salesmen handed me the box i was dissapointed to not see the box other G50's came in. But as it contains less (no backpack) the box didnt need to be as big. The box contained the laptop, power adapter, manuals and recovery/driver discs.

Pictures were originally 8MP I have edited and resized to 1280x960 and compressed 75 to 90% quality depending on the image complexity. My server is currently down so I am hosting on PhotoBucket. I have a few more pics to take and i think a couple of them need to be compressed less.


Chassis, Trim and Features
The first comment that comes up about the X5 is the design on the lid. It definitely looks better in person than in photo and as you spend most of your time on the otherside of the screen its not bothersome. On the flipside of things the keyboard side of the chassis fades from a goldish brown to black to match the lid. I found this unnecessary and would have preferred black but the RoG logo is a nice touch.

On the keyboard side you are greeted by a numberpad, lighted trackpad, touch sensitive dedicated buttons and an OLED display. Up top is the webcam which is paired with the very useful facial recognition software. The dedicated buttons feature useful and easy access to Direct Console for overclocking, power modes, trackpad on/off, and the expressgate launch. The OLED display is a nice touch, though I am not impressed by its resolution which leaves text looking like a bad font. Its nice to see battery cpu and memory, but without temperatures and its non real time updating it sends you looking for an app to add features.

A big concern for those over the age of 9 is how the led lights on the back of the screen appear. While the side lights can be turned off the shield and lower bar can not be turned off. HOWEVER on the X5 the white lights which are sidelit, do NOT cast any light further then about an inch. With the side lights off in a lit room people will notice the design and not the lights. In a dark room with all the lights on they are still not bright and a cell phone throws more light. The picture below was shot at 2 stops below metered and is still brighter then it actually is.


The laptop is solid all around though the keyboard does have flex if you push hard enough. The back of the screen appears to be very well support unlike my previous laptop. The grill on the bottom is PURELY decoration (and not a subwoofer). Ive looked at it and even if you remove the black circle on the otherside of the panel it does not uncover the solid plastic "vent". The black plastic circle is actually a thermal barrier to reduce heat and increase comfort when in your lap.

I have seen many people ask will this fit in a 15.4 inch sleeve, bag, etc. The answers are as follows, the sleeve is an obvious no. However many people think 17 inches is the next step up and its not, 16 inch should fit just fine. Many 15.4 inch laptop bags that have space to either the left or right of the laptop for the power adapter should work though the 9 cell battery will make it a tight fit on some. My 15.4 inch backpack has enough room depth and thickness wise though with the 9 cell its a stretch, the end sticks up 2 inches and the corners hit the zipper.

Screen
The screen is an AU Optronics AUO10EC also used by the Acer 5735. Reading reviews the screen worried me a bit, while the reviews i read are not wrong there are some things you should know. While tilting or rotating the laptop easily puts it out of its sweet spot, moving side to side and up and down really does not. Also i found when standing to the side of the laptop, being higher up puts you back close to the sweet spot and documented this in the last photo.


Performance
The X5 is motivated by the lower of the Centrino 2 C2D's, the P7450 which comes in at 2.13Ghz with 3MB of L2 Cache. While out performing the T6400 and coming in slightly under the T6600 it uses 10 watts less on the top end. Using ASUS direct console it easily achieves 2.3Ghz to overcome Midrange C2D's and their AMD counterparts. While not the best available the GeForce 9800M GS easily plays games prior to the crysis era and plays crysis @ 1366x768 in medium to high. The 7200 RPM SATA hard drive really puts out compared to my previous 250 GB 5400 RPM as shown in the next section of benchmarks.




Temperatures and Fan Noise
Temperatures - NOTE: All temperatures measured in a 65 degree Fahrenheit room with the P7450's TJunction Max at/of 90C. Hard Drive and Internal case temps can idle as low as 35C, however the hard drive tends to idle around 37C with the case temp at 43C. My processor idles at 43C/41C even in a slightly warmer room with the GPU idling at 48C. Under a 100% load the CPU will eventually climb to 59C. The GPU typically doesn't go over 79C however, stock or dox drivers, stock bios or gts bios, the GPU sometimes will reach higher temperatures around 83C.

Fan Speed and Noise - In Quiet Office Mode the fan can drop to an ultra low 100 RPM's if the temperatures are suitable. During normal operation the fan stays at a barely audible 3100 RPM blowing out cool to warm air. The fan is only really noticeable if the room is completely quiet. During gaming and GPU temperatures 75C and over the fan speed reaches its maximum of 4200 RPM. At 4200 RPM the fan is audible over room and game noise, however it is acceptable.

Battery Life
Extreme Gaming: 1:00:25 - Crysis, System Booted, CPU@ 2.45Ghz
On The Go Gaming: 1:18:48 - Crysis, Cold Boot, Stock Setup with LED's and WiFi Off.
Movie + Work: 2:32:01 -
I personally did not have the patience to attempt 3 straight hours of battery mode use. However other users have gotten 3 hours out of it and based on draw it is very possible. I have yet to test battery recharge time.

Other Features, Thoughts
I haven't had an issues with the 5100 wireless as some people have and it outperforms my desktops card. I do still plan to change it out so that when matched with a proper router I can get better range and internal network performance.

The keyboard takes a little getting used to, I keep hitting buttons on the numpad that I am not used to having and keep missing the arrow keys. The laptop performs well and was worth the money. The second hard drive bay is a nice feature on a laptop this size and I will be taking advantage of it. The insert for the Express card slot doubles as a SD/MS holder and can hold the memory card slot blank as well.

Benchmarks
Plenty more to come over the next week, but to start im using 3dMark06 Advanced, Crysis, and Doom3 along with various hardware benches. At the moment the laptop is in stock condition with no updates.

HDTune Pro Trial - Pulled a much faster than i am used to average of 67 MB/s.


WPrime
WPrime 32M @ Normal (2130 Mhz) completed in 36.878 Seconds
WPrime 32M @ Turbo Extreme (2347 Mhz) completed in 33.282 Seconds
WPrime 1024M @ Turbo Extreme (2347 Mhz) completed in 1070.756 Seconds

3DMark06 Advanced 1.1.0
1280x720 Normal - 3DMarks 8448, SM2.0 3972, HDR/SM3.0 3991, CPU 1820
1280x720 Extreme - 3DMarks 8831, SM2.0 4066, HDR/SM3.0 4063, CPU 2029
External 1280x1024 Normal - 3DMarks 7765, SM2.0 3589, HDR/SM3.0 3429, CPU 1882
External 1280x1024 Extreme - 3DMarks 7939, SM2.0 3608, HDR/SM3.0 3424, CPU 2052

Other 3DMark's
Vantage 1280x1024 DOX 182.05 (Turbo Extreme) - 3DMarks 3234 CPU 14252 Graphics 2575
3DMark05 1024x768 DOX 182.05 (Turbo Extreme) - 3DMarks 13913 CPU 12020
3DMark03 1024x768 DOX 182.05 (Turbo Extreme) - 3DMarks 26909 CPU 1625

Crysis
Stock 179.14 CPU Normal
Benchmark Tool 1280x720 Medium - Avg FPS 33.5, Max FPS 55.7
Benchmark Tool 1280x720 High - Avg FPS 20.9, Max FPS 30
DOX 182.05 CPU Turbo Extreme
Benchmark Tool 1280x720 High - Average FPS 24.60, Max FPS 33.64
GTS Bios DOX 182.05 CPU 2.45Ghz
Benchmark Tool 1280x720 Medium - Min 24.9 Max 62.3 Avg 40.3
GTS Bios DOX 185.85 CPU 2.45Ghz
Benchmark Tool 1366×768 Medium - Min 24 Max 56 Avg 36
Benchmark Tool 1280×720 High - Min 15 Max 37 Avg 25

Far Cry 2 - Internal Benchmark All Settings High
1280x720 GTS Bios DOX 185.85
CPU Normal 2.13Ghz - Min 25.51 Max 55.16 Avg 33.89
CPU Extreme 2.35Ghz - Min 27.91 Max 56.05 Avg 35.55

F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate - Internal Benchmark
DOX 182.05 CPU Normal
1366x768 4xAA CPU MAX GPU MAX - Min 45 Avg 91 Max 216
GTS Bios DOX 182.05 CPU 2.45Ghz
1366x768 4xAA CPU MAX GPU MAX - Min 51 Avg 98 Max 239

DOOM 3 - Internal w/Cache ULTRA Quality
Stock 179.14 CPU Normal
1024x768 ULTRA 4xAA - Average FPS 57.9
1280x1024 ULTRA 2xAA - Average FPS 58.4
DOX 182.05 CPU Turbo Extreme
1024x768 ULTRA 8xAA - Average FPS 91.0
1280x1024 ULTRA 16xAA - Average FPS 88.0
GTS Bios DOX 182.05 CPU 2.45Ghz
1280x1024 ULTRA 16xAA - Average FPS 91.2

Game Demo's - Stock Drivers/Clocks
NFS Pro Street 1280x720 Max No AA - MIN 30 MAX 66 AVG 44
GRiD 1366x768 Auto - MIN 29 MAX 55 AVG 39
DiRT 1366x768 High 4xAA - MIN 25 MAX 40 AVG 33
F.E.A.R. 2 1280x720 AutoSet Medium/Max - Min 24 MAX 61 AVG 38

 

Very nice review, Clutch.
Have you tried overclocking with SetFSB?

 

Not yet im in the middle of trying the dox drivers, did a sweep in safe mode, installed rebooted, rebooted again.... still says 179.whatever, having a feeling i failed somewhere. As soon as i get this mess figured out im gonna do some benches for those who cant or would rather not flash their gpu.

EDIT - Got it sorted off to watch the boring 3dmark lol.

EDIT 2 - On DOX Performance 182 in normal grabbing 8690 and cpu overclocked in extreme turbo nailed 9166 both 1280x720 i will test on the external for a standard score later.

 

Nice review Clutch!
It seems to perform very well and the only thing really limiting it is the CPU,(even if it does already play most games very well).
Upgrading to a higher CPU P series would give it a nice boost in performance.
Ever think of swapping it out?

 

Nice to see you finally have it! Epic review!

 

When i was shopping for it i was wanting to throw a P8600 in there after the warranty is up and probably still will. Its 200 right now figure in a year can get it cheaper. Was hoping GenTech might have one lying around but thy said all they had at the moment was an 8400.

Im rethinking the gts bios but i started heading that direction by getting the dox drivers installed. With temps up 5 degree's and the fan kicking in loud im getting a little scard. I want to hit 10,000 atleast once, that my magic number. Last night with DOX 182.something i hit 9166 (dc on et) @ 1280x720 this morning i connected it to an external and ran it at 1280x1024 got something like 8440. The P8600 on XP might net me 9,000 3dmarks which would make me happy lol but i dont want to flash the bios just to get a score i want to setup the unit to where I am comfortable running it that way daily.

 

Great review ,Im going to be doing some hardware and software mods soon on my g50vtx5 soon,Thanks to you guy's = / CPU frist and in about 4 month's on the software,Im still breaking her in ,I seen your review looking for info on the G50vt x5 ,You listed all the info i needed THZ!!By the way great forum. Glad i found it.

 

Not a problem that was my goal, to answer all the questions I have seen so far by people wanting to pick on of these up. Im currently reinstalling PhysX and about to run 3dmark vantage will update the first post with the score.

EDIT - Posted the vantage score but check out my new doom scores.

DOX 182.05 (CPU Extreme) 1024x768 ULTRA 8xAA - Average FPS 91.0
DOX 182.05 (CPU Extreme) 1280x1024 ULTRA 16xAA - Average FPS 88.0

 

Keep it coming,Clutch its topnotch info ,Your review was the only one i found worth a look .Hard fact bets opinion any day.Thz again brother

 

Just got done testing some overclocks with SetFSB. Results vary per processor but I got up to 2.529Ghz with no instant crash was able to use the system a bit. Ran a full Wprime 1024M on 2.45Ghz and the system seems stable at that speed.

http://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww285/ClutchX2/2529Ghz.png?t=1241048186

I have also updated the Crysis scores including an actual gameplay measurement in 1366x768 medium, just on the line of playable but I actually feel while the dox drivers have helped in High theyve hurt me in medium. I may Try the DOX version of 179 since I dont plan to do the gts bios.

 

Nice review! Glad to see you finally got it and are having fun "playing". LCDHype with many of the great scripts people have posted will help the OLED a lot. The only downside is the loss of Direct Console. I dual boot and use XP Pro primarily so I don't have Direct Console anyway and love my LCDHype scripts.

 

Well i installed all avaliable updates for Vista x64 and no issues with asus software. Added the following new benchmark:

F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate - Internal Benchmark
DOX 182.05 (CPU Normal) 1366x768 4xAA CPU MAX GPU MAX - Min 45 Avg 91 Max 216

 

Great work Clutch, keep them coming.
Any chance you have any of the newer games?
L4D,GTA4,FarCry 2, those would be very telling what this laptop is capable of.

 

CoD4, GTA4, and FEAR 2 on the PS3 sorry lol. Crysis is the latest I have and i picked it up with the laptop. After that is fear perseus mandate and GTA san andreas. I do intend to get some other games as they get cheaper but I can run some demo's if you would like.

 

GO FOR IT!
Let's see what this laptop is truly made from!

 

I will find some demo's later, ive undervolted to 1.000 flat and retested the 2.45 Ghz overclock and its running just fine. Will be doing a dvd movie battery test soon.

I also installed a second hard drive. Something i noticed is the second drive bay and even the side of the panel that is over the bay has a lot of foam there thats not on the otherside. I think asus put that there to hold the drive in place? Seem's todo a pretty good job only spot of non coverage is the back of the drive.

 

I don't know about GTA4 or FarCRy 2 but I was playing l4d last night max settings AA included and it was perfectly smooth at all times. Fallout 3 also ran on ultra high x8 AA not a single jitter inside or outside.

 

Well i took the leap and did the bios flash, 9166 @ 1280x1024 in 3dmark06. Wonder if i can hit 10,000 in xp lol. Will update with more benches soon.

 

I somehow get 9617 on 1280x720...and how did you run the reso at 1280x1024? 768 is the highest it can go vertically..Is it pluged into an external monitor?

 

Yes your laptop did come with hdmi and vga out lol. Scores at 1280x720 are only comparable to those running the same res so its almost pointless.

I havent run it at that res recently but i just dual booted XP and ran it on both XP and Vista after the bios flash on DOX 182.50 and got 9166 on Vista and 9333 on XP. Looks like XP doesnt outperform Vista that much on this, enough for a couple of frames in crysis. I have all the drivers installed on XP btw.

 

you replied very awkwardly.. My question just asked you for a yes or no answer on if you are using an external monitor or not because you did not state it on your previous post...I'm well aware it has a vga and hdmi port...I'm pretty far from being tech def....

 

Yes its on an external monitor, as it couldn't be any other way on an X5. Vista doesn't support screen scrolling and the display doesnt accept higher than native res like some monitors do.

Done some more benches, bios flash is good on my 1280x720 Medium in Crysis. High hasnt really seen any change though.... WIll be reformatting the review in a few minutes to accomodate new results under the flash.

 

Nice review. I'm looking at this lappy from BB to as I need one with a dedicated video for ggpo, 2df and mame.

Were you able to secure workable drivers and dual boot vista/xp?
How easy is this to OC?
What are you overall impressions after owning it for little bit?

 

Yeah if you need i can link you but check the G50 Owners thread has three threads of interest for that. Real easy to get setup. Overclocking is easy using the built in or using set fsb to get a higher clock speed. GPU overclocking in x64 is a different story but easy on XP using ATI Tool or just trying the gts bios. DOX 182.05 is the best drivers ive tested all the 182.xx and 185.xx. RMclock, ati tool and everest need signed 64 bit drivers and i dont believe that exists on ati tool. RMclock sells theirs but u can get a free copy from an evga driver disk or the web.

I just completed a battery test 1 of 3. Played Crysis for 1 Hour and 25 Seconds with 2 hard drives and the video card running the GTS Bios and in high performance max brightness. I will be doing a movie and a light usage test, expect 2:30 on the movie and 3:00 on the light usage.

I love myne, assuming you get a good one you should be pretty happy with it. Don't expect for this to run next years games on high though, it should play all last gen games on ultra and current games on medium to high. I see your sig and you should know i actually prayed about this purchase and got exactly what i wanted.

 

First, rep up for the good review and timely response.

Second, it looks like it's a great machine and I may bite the bullet on this one. I am currently comparing this one 899.00 and the gateway fx for 1149.00 to determine if there is really a 300.00 (incl tax) difference.

I convinced the wifey to let me have the 899.00, but it might be a hard sell for the 1149.00.

My only concern that I am hoping you can speak to is that some of the reviews on the bb website are saying that they had HDD, BDOD's and other errors during the first week of ownership. Have you experienced any of these?

 

Did the CPU downclock when playing CRYSIS on battery alone?
I know some laptops do this when running on battery power.
You prayed about getting this laptop!
I am glad you are satisfied with your purchase.
Is this your first "gaming" laptop? You sure are stoked!

 

@Wingsbr - As i said myne was perfect. Once in awhile you get a dud though the most common issue is a dead hard drive. Its a seagate if you didnt know. I read every single review on BB's website. Seem's everyone eventually got a working one except for the one woman who got 2 duds and quit. Not sure about the particular FX your looking at but their sometimes a stepup. The G50 only gets better processor and screenwise, bluetooth bluray those sorta things. They all have the same gpu and end performance is gonna be close.

@IKAS - Yeah i prayed lol, can't really afford to have been wrong on this one. Yeah its my first gaming laptop but my second new laptop and probably my 5th laptop overall. I wont be able to replace this for 3 years so hopefully it lasts me, if it makes it 2 i am building a desktop/arcade box that i could use as a pc but what a pain. My last gaming rig was a P4 2.6 HT with a Radeon x700 that i played doom 3 and fear combat on in 1280x1024.

I put the laptop in high performance mode to force the screen brightness and processor speed to stay up. Im trying really hard to remember if i had it overclocked or not, i think i did but im not so sure. 2 more battery tests plus a recharge test todo. Don't worry as i told david its gonna take me a week to finish my review.

 

Hey clutch have you tested the 185.81 beta drivers from nvidia? Just curious as to whether DOX is better or not hehe. I know you said you tested 185.xx's but I didn't see anything in your review so just wanted to check ^^.

 

I started using them last night. fps went up by about 5-10% in world at war but I haven't done any 3dmark benches or crysis.

 

and clutch, many people game on the x5 monitor...Its not as bad as we make it seem..plus if your constantly hooked up to a monitor why not dish out the 900 you payed for an x-5 for a desktop? Or spend 700 on a descent desktop and grab an Eee for portability?..We buy laptops too combine them not leave it on a desk growing webs

 

I game on the x5 monitor. But if your planning on comparing 3dmark scores with a desktop for bragging rights you need to be running it in 1280x1024. Only time I have hooked up to my lcd is when my tv is being used it spends its days in the closet now. I have a 22 inch 1680x1050 tv for things such as testing and if i feel like a slightly larger screen.

I bought the X5 planning on gaming on its screen and i bought a laptop because it allows me to move freely from room to room. I can get some work done while im jettisoning all that mexican food i ate. I don't believe i said anywhere that I was actually using an external monitor. Scores were on an external so that I could have a proper score. If i did 1280x720 people would ask what my 1280x1024 was.

Laptop 4 life, im only building my desktop because the 7750 Black Edition is dirt cheap and i figured i could make a mini arcade cabinet.

EDIT - The doom 3 1280x1024 was done on the tv as well due to doom 3 not support widescreen, otherwise i would have tested at 1366x768 (and i would play it at that). I actually play it 1024x768 with the gpu set to auto aspect ratio.

@R3v4n - WHen you use dox drivers are you using them in performance? In balanced I get 45 fps in doom3 versus 91 and i have 16xAA on in both so its not like the jaggies are showing up. I find im getting 5 frames less in stock drivers (182.xx 185.xx) then I am getting n 182.05 dox performance, DOX's new drivers are balanced with tweaks which is why they get lower frame rates. I have not tried the beta drivers I will get around to it. Im used to ATI where the best driver is what it came with + the latest version of so like 4.xx cards work best on 4.12 etc etc, nvidia is different.

 

kk I misunderstood you my bad. I was going to build a desktop with a 7750 and a gtx260 core 216...decided to go with the laptop for some reason lol can't pass up gaming in bed on lazy days..

Hey I read that you oc'd your cpu up to 2.45...What program did you use?

 

Set FSB which you cant trust the fsb reading on have cpu-z open to check the fsb and or just look at the bottom for the over all clock.

Your results will vary i ticked the bus clock to the 500 mark which i forget its like 306 or 308 mhz bus speed, but setfsb shows it as slower. I have tested 2.45 Ghz under a 100% load for an hour and it seems stable. any higher really 2.48-2.529 crashes within a few minutes, 2.53 instant crashes for me.

Your results will vary from myne as not every processor is the same. If you BSOD after having crashed boot into safe mode shutdown and reboot and the machine should boot fine. I used rmclock with a signed rtcore64.sys to under volt and the 2.45 Ghz ran stable on 1.000 volt as it does on the stock 1.250. Tried to overvolt which it only allows 1.375 and no real usable increase in overclockability showd up.

 

kk I'm gonna see if i can reach 2.4

Did you do a bios overclock with direct console first and then go up from 2.3 or did you leave direct console alone?

 

Set FSB does the same thing that direct console does oh and use ICS9LPR604AGLF with set fsb.

 

kk got you

 

I havent tried dox drivers at all yet they look to be a pain to install lol, so I was just wondering if they have a noticeable performance boost over the beta drivers from nvidia.

 

There exactly the same as installing stock drivers..... Past the initial hello it starts up the nvidia installer. You should always driver sweep even with nvidia drivers for best results.

In other news i officially voided my warranty accident breaking the warranty sticker on the processor screw.

 

*facepalm*

That really sucks

 

ehh well look on the bright side...Your one step closer to a new cpu!

 

EXACTLY, Unless a P8600 comes across int he 100 dollar range then I think I will still wait, 200 is a bit much to throw at it. Right now id rather get my zalman cooler, a nice mouse, and replace the backup drive that just became my secondary.

My usual luck is nothing goes wrong in the first year to year and a half. This unit has been perfect so I'm not terribly nervous but it does suck that i accidentally got the sticker stuck all the way on.

I wanted this to last a minimum of 3 years but just in case im gonna start putting away 20 a paycheck and I will have enough money in 2 years.

 

Why not grab an x9100 off of ebay for 300+?

 

X9100 runs at 45W, which would have me a little worried when OCing.The X9100 was made to OC but I don't know if the stock fans in the X-5 will dissipate heat fast enough.
I know it would work but do you take the chance of melting the other components in your laptop?
That's a tough question to answer, to me it would not be worth it, better of getting a higher P series CPU (25W) or a T series CPU (35W).
Performance would be almost just as good + it would run cooler then the X9100 CPU.

 

Im actually buying David's T9600 2.8Ghz with 6MB of L2 Cache. Will use some good paste and a Zalman NC2000 cooler.

 

How much? Use some arctic silver 5 compound..Works like a charm.
I wanted to go for the x9100 since its 3.1 from the start without oc and I would leave it as is. Should be good with some arctic silver 5 on it. Every game I play already runs amazingly on this laptop so with a core 2 extreme cpu its already icing on the cake lol at leat for a few months ..God I hate how fast laptop technology moves.......

 

His asking price was 270, there is another guy who has one new in the box for 340 doesn't look like he ever sold it in the thread though. Its a 550 dollar processor new and only a bit more then the slower with less cache P8600 would have cost.

I think Im gonna install far cry later im almost done crysis i think.

 

kk let us know what you get on its benches.I think I got around an avg 27 fps with ultra high at native settings...I used dox 185.02 at the time

 

FAR CRY? Heh you should be running at like 100 fps in 1080P lol. I dunno but if my 6100 could play it in low then the 9800 Should pwn it at 1366x768 in high. Far Cry always looked better than fear and used less power todo so.

 

Lol I meant farcry 2 sorry..>_> oops

 

Wow nice review!!. It seems to be VERY powerful .