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

I think the biggest issue is the hard drive going out early. I think there was some notes of that in early G50Vt-X5 threads. The "refurb" part may be manufacturers replacing that. When my 3 month warranty is gone and if the hard drive dies I wouldn't be too miffed: they aren't too expensive to replace.

Alot of the returns might have been because the G51 just came out, and people returned many decent G50Vt-X5's to upgrade themselves. This is what I'm counting on. *crosses fingers*

 

Yeah, I completely agree with you on the hard drive thing. That's what I was kinda getting at. I mean, if I'm saving ~$200, I can certainly afford to replace a silly hard drive.

That's a good point on the g51. I forgot about that, I suppose it makes sense a lot of people would want to move to the newer model. Though I can't justify spending the money on the G51 when it's barely better than the G50vt and comes with a significantly increased price tag.

 

Is this laptop compatible with a qx9300?

 

There is no plans for the G50 series to be able to support quads.

 

First of all, awesome review, I've found more information on the X5 in the first post than I did on the whole series of tubes(Internet, for the ones who don't get it). So a big thumbs up for that.

Now I've got a couple of questions for you:
1. In another thread on this forum, you said you were going to skin your X5, it's been a couple of months since you said that, so I was wondering, are you still going to, have you already or did you change your mind?
If you did, or are going to, I'd love some pictures once you do.
If you changed your mind, any particular reason, or did you just grow into the looks?

2. It's almost a necessarity(is that even a word?) to change the software that controls the OLED because of burn-ins(or w/e it's called). LCDHype has a screensaver feature for the OLED to prevent it from any burn-ins.
But, when you wan't to use LCDHype + Script + Everest 5.0(+ all those plugin dll's) doesn't it eat up a lot of resources? Did you benchmark, or try out, any games while you had it running?(Since that's it's main cause, to display information while you're gaming).

I'm asking this since I'll be receiving my X5 any day now and I'm already listing the software I'm going to install once I vlited W7.

Thanks in advance

 

Yep, thanks Clutch. I went for that TigerDirect Refurb X5 too.

 

Just got my Tiger direct refurb last friday. I have to say, I am quite happy with it. I also picked up a 128GB G.Skill Falcon SSD to boot.
One thing though, the screen does seem a little washed out when playing some games. Has anyone replaced the display yet to achieve a higher resolution/contrast?

 

Did you have any particular replacement screens in mind?
Since I might just try to replace it, but I wouldn't know what screen is compatible with the G50VT-X5.

Anyone who can confirm all G50VT screens can replace one another?

 

Sorry for the double post, but can anyone tell me if the AC adapter has a 3Prong plug to the adapter or a 2 Prong? (So where the cable connected to the net is plugged into the actual adapter), because I'll be getting my laptop soon and the power plug's different in the EU, so I'm going to replace the cable with a right one from ebay.

 

Thinking of putting a P9500 in mine. Is there any way for them to know you've swapped the chip? Warranty wise... I mean i don't see a sticker there or anything.

 

I don't know about refurbs, but for the one I got from Newegg there's a yellow sticker over one of the heatsink screws.

 

Ordering mine off of Tiger Direct Canada on Monday....possibly with a Logitech MX Revolution (though the mouse is irrelevant).

I hope that it is a return because customer wanted an upgrade....I do not want to go through Dell Hell again except with Asus...

Anyone know if I can redeem the Windows 7 Upgrade offer on this refurb?

 

I don't think you can get an upgrade. I asked for an upgrade for my refurb from Ebay, and I wasn't eligible for it. But that might be ebay, right?

 

I don't think you'll be able to get the upgrade, but you never know.

btw, Clutch, I just got my WEI score in W7, and it's on stock 0.5 points higher then yours, ALL my subscores are WAY higher for some reason ...

You used Vista, but the tests should be the same, right?

EDIT: I just found your WEI pictures of your W7 overclock, and your CPU is higher then before(but those are with your new CPU I think), but your other scores are almost 1 point lower then mine I haven't even OC'ed anything?

 

just bought one for my brother! see how this thing compares to my G51

 

So hows it compare to your G51?

 

Well, it wont be here till the end of the week, but I'll let you know then! I really like the looks of the G50, but I love the Backlit keyboard the G51 has.

 

Yellow sticker, or yellow tape? There are two strips of yellow tape on the inside, just holding things down I think.

 

Hi,

First off, thank you Clutch for such an informative and well presented review.

2 questions regarding this great bargain of a laptop:

Can i run an external monitor at a greater resolution than 1366x768 or is there some software/hardware lock on this ?

I have a Dell 1680x1050 LCD display that i would like to use as my primary display for gaming, will i be able to run it at 1680x1050 ?

My main computer right now is a MacBookPro [email protected] 2G RAM with a Mobility X1600 w/256megs running Vista 32 under BootCamp. It runs L4D smoothly at low/medium detail.
I just bought Fallout 3 and even at all the lowest settings it feels sluggish and obviously looks like .

How much of an improvement can i expect from this ASUS laptop over my older MacBook Pro ?

Thanks

 

Fallout 3 and L4D plays so well using the G50vt-x5 and if you tweak the GPU more its so smooth haha i did mine it's awesome!

 

Garlicman, you can run an external monitor by HDMI or VGA out.

 

You will see significant improvement. I sold my older 2.16 C2D MBP earlier this year and replaced it with the uMBP. That was a huge bump and that was with the 9600 GPU, the 9800 in the X5 is very fast. The only issue at all is the CPU and many people have successfully upgraded that! I play Company of Heroes on DX10 with ultra and high settings and its great. The best I get on my uMBP is DX9 high to med.

Cheers,

 

How much HDD space can the g50vt-x5 handle. It says in the asus website up to 640GB Can it support 1TB? 500GB+500GB since theres 2 harddrive bays
THANKS!

 

The SATA controller can handle many of the much larger capacities that are to be released in the future. Once mobile 1TB HDD's come out, you can dump two of them in your G50 for 2TB, or link them in RAID 0 for speed.

 

where can i find a bluetooth card for it?

 

so are you saying i can put in 2x 500gb 2.5" hdd in my g50vt x5 and it will be 1tb uner raid.. so asus website is wrong it says "up to 640gb"...

 

I can't believe I found my old post. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5009753&postcount=2

You can put as big of a hard drive capacity you want in your G50. There are users that have two 500GB HDD's in RAID to make 1TB. When larger hard drives come out later on, you will be able to expand as you see fit.

 

I have another question what kind of SsD is compatible for my g50vt for booting up.. can i have an SsD for booting up in bay 1 and a normal HDD in bay2 to for programs and stuff.

 

Yes. You can do that.

 

just got my brother one of these from overstock.com

$779.99 refurbished BUT 20% cash back so $156 off for a total of $626 shipped

you honestly can't beat that price for the laptop. i hope anyway.

he also opted for their accidental protection warranty, which i advised against but i suppose since he got the 20% off, it wasn't that bad of a deal

 

will a 2.5" SATA SSD work..

 

No, it won't work. Even though it is the same size as a conventional 2.5'' HDD and the G50 can use it, SSD's are actually timebombs that will explode in your notebook precisely 1337 seconds after you press the power button.

 

i do have a question though:

overstock.com and asus's website states this has a 1680x1050 resolution LCD screen

but when searched elsewhere, they all show 1366 x 768

i guess i will have to wait and see unless somewhere can clear this up?

 

lol nvm then ssd's are expensive now soo ill just get a HDD

 

yes, any 2.5" sata will work

but as said above, the timebomb thing is something to think about before putting one in there.

it's really all about if you think the 1337 seconds is worth it. some think so, some do not.

 

All your SATA are belong to us.

 

does the second hdd bay need a cage or w/e u call that? cause i have a spare hdd and installed it without a cage and it works...

 

You had that foam underneath, yes?


I've had a second HDD in my G51, using only that foam. No issues.

 

yea i have it so its all good without the cage...

 

Whenever i play crysis on my g50vt after like 1hr 30min of play i get the error nvlddmkm stopped responding and has recovered. I checked my temp and it was at 80-82C so is that bad? I had this problem with my bros laptop it was a gateway p-7805u and it gets it like every time he plays games so we ended up replacng his with another one.. his was worst.

 

Are you overclocking? If you are, that error implies that your overclock is unstable

 

nope but when im playing while on a laptop cooler it doesnt happen.. even in turbo mode via direct console.. but in normal mode without the cooler the error happens..

 

That suggests you're overheating.

Yow. A cooler shouldn'y drop you that much.

 

i know im asking alot of question lol.. Is there a way i can make Counterstrike 1.6 run 1336x768 res. i put it in widescreen mode but my only choice is 1024x768

 

Force it with -w 1336 -h 768 as a launch option.

 

I wanna use it for cs 1.6 and CZ but it doesnt work...

 

@mp5cartman

You should really get it checked out by a technician or someone like that

 

lol why? nothing wrong with my comp right?

 

No laptop should have to require a cooler to actually play games. The crashing without cooler implies that your laptop is overheating.

Try to clean out the fans or vents and if that doesn't work, replace the thermal pastes (if you are technically savvy) or get it sent to be looked at by a tech.

 

That's strange because the launch options for resolution are the same for the original half life engine and the new source engine. For instance here is the list of options for the original HL engine: http://nooniz.wippiespace.com/CS/Launch%20Options.txt