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

Sad to hear about your experience. How wouldn't the laptop boot up? Did you try to diagnose what part became faulty?

 

Yea I was like, why yours is 1690x1050 and not mine? Maybe i'm doing something wrong...

That is the worst that could happen to you! Receive your laptop one day before!

Give us some specs

 

i need help i have been overclocking the graphics card on the g50vt-x5 i have changed the core from 530 up to 655 and the memory from 799 up to 955 i have tested using 3d mark 06 and furmark no problems what i want to know is this good overclock am i ner gts speeds yet

 

Got my G50VT-X5 on Wed. I also noticed that the resolution was not WSXGA+ and is WXGA. Not a dealbreaker, but I called Geeks.com to discuss the discrepancy and the rep stated they got a bunch of calls on it. After around 5 min or so, he came back and offered me a $35 credit. I took it. Upgraded the OS to Win7 x64 and OC'd the processor to 2.4GHz (OC'ing the 9800m GS seems to drop my 3Dmark06 score down from ~8500 to ~5700 for some reason so I'm leaving that at stock speeds for now). Overall I am quite pleased.

 

What the... I should give them a call too! Lol...

Thanks for telling..
I need some games to run on this beast. Only playing Need For Speed Shift on it with everything max lol. Like it a lot! I mean the laptop.

Haven't tried overclocking yet. Only tried the CPU to 2.35 because 2.4 was kinda unstable. I will do some more overclock when I get my SSD next week and switch to Windows 7. Still on Vista right now that came with the laptop lol.

UPDATE: I just called geeks and they offered me a $20 discount/refund. Thanks again for telling me this AdmiralQ.
Woo! That makes this a better deal for $550 Love this Laptop!

 

You're welcome mrPico. Just ran 3Dmark05 and 06 again. Got 9022 on 3DM06 and 13932 on 3DM05 Woohoo!! Not going to concern myself with OC'ing the GPU and the CPU seems pretty stable so far. Very pleased with this lappy

 

i need help i have been overclocking the graphics card on the g50vt-x5 i have changed the core from 530 up to 655 and the memory from 799 up to 955 i have tested using 3d mark 06 and furmark no problems what i want to know is this good overclock am i ner gts speeds yet

 

i can get 9289 3d marks in 06 on windows 7 64

 

I think you did some serious overclock there. Most people keep their 9800M GS at 600/800/1500(This is 9800GTS speed)
I heard shader clocks matters. Maybe you can't get a high shader clock with high core clock and memory speed that's why people keep it low.

Don't stress your laptop so much if you don't need the extra power I suggest. I wouldn't overclock/flash my GPU yet until I feel some bottleneck. The CPU is my biggest bottleneck right now.

I heard that if you can flash your ram to 667 then it would be easier for you to overclock your CPU. Because most laptops are limited by their RAM right now. Not sure whether the RAM on this is flashable or not though.

Update: I flashed both of my RAMs to 667 and am able to overclock the CPU to 2.6Ghz. Stable so far playing Need For Speed Shift max everything on 1366 x 768.

 

hey mr pico how did you flash them? i herd you need xp sense the program too flash them wont work in 7??


even tho i have some nice gskill 667s in my x5 now but it would be nice too flash the stock ones so i could overclock my 1201n with those rams


so far i went up too 2.8ghz son my x5 seems pretty stable too got a score of 10,500 something in 3dmark06 lol.


tho right now im little scared too do any overclock sense i had a bit trouble with my x5 pass couple days the 2nd hard drive bay was going nuts it would boot with 2 hard drives in matter what i did.

but got it solved some how today i just push the reset button in couple times with a pin than had too change the rams around back and forth and it came back too life..

not sure if it was the overclock or not...


almost had to take it back to best buy after about 10months of owning it and i really didn't want too do that in case they had too replace the whole laptop with the new models which pretty much i like the color and the looks of the x5 the best and the features like the led display on top of the keyboard

and i still cant find any game that bogs down this laptop so pretty much didn't really care about the gtx260 lol and my desktop is my main gaming machine.

but ya im glad my x5 is ok


oh and i also herd that these g50vts can be upgrade with a straight swap with a gtx 260 and the new 360s maybe?

i know the 260 can sense people installed them and it worked right off the bat

just finding them is a bit hard.. but at least i know they can be upgradeable if they start showing up on ebay or in the sale forum

 

I used the SPDTool 0.63 version. Try looking for a newer one if you can find any.

I was using VISTA and it worked. I heard that some RAMs cannot be flashed. Just read the RAM(with the software) you want to mod then edit to the clock you want. After that, write to the RAM.
Becareful not to write timings that your RAM won't run. Don't mess with the wrong settings. What I did was just select rows and scroll with my mouse to see what they each of them change and read the ram again to reset them. After I decided which ones I have to change then I changed those only and wrote to RAM. Look at the Timing Summary at the bottom to see what each function changes about your RAM speed. I used a notepad to jot down what I have to change to a certain latency get my desired timing and memory speed.

You have to select the Timing Summary at the bottom to show what timing at what clock your RAM will run.

I had to exit Direct Console 2 to allow the software to read my memory. Sometimes it says SMBus Driver not supported.

I can't get past 2.65Ghz because when I put the FSB to 250 my PC crashes and restarts. RAM is on 417mhz when it's 2.6Ghz. I will find out later if it's RAM or CPU limiting it.

 

it worked after a few trys and manage too get 1 stick flash but i wanted too see if it effected it and restarted andgot back in windows and it showed 333mhzs/667


so i tried too get the program too start again and i cant now??


even closing all the programs.

and i even tried just booting with one stick and that program will not start just keep saying that smbus driver error or something.


tho it works fine like this sense it makes the other stick run at that speed too.

but i like too make them match.

 

also just have to watch how far you push it sense it seems like when i did 2.7 or 2.8 that's when i had those hard drive problems..


think i the max im gonna put mine is 2.6 even tho it goes too 2.8 but i just dont want too trust damaging something like it almost did or something did..

 

update just got it working again it ony works when i run cpuid hardware control with it lol

also do you know what value is the cas latency the main one?

cause this ram will not like over 800mhzs if the cas is 5 that it was netbook crash when it went over 820.


is it the cas latency supported setting?


or is it the undenifined ones?

 

What I do is I select the program to show Timing Summary at the bottom. It will show all 3 frequency that the RAM will run on what latencies. Your laptop will always choose the faster one that your RAM supports with the lowest latency. You might not have to mess with your latency because your RAM might be running with stock 333mhz latency which means it isn't underclocked. See below why it will run on stock latency of 333mhz.

I noticed when I just changed the SDRAM Cycle Time at Maximum Supported Cas Latency to 333mhz, I will have two 333mhz frequency show up on the timing summary. I had to switch the other two to 266 and 200 so that I have 333,266,and 200 frequency or my laptop would boot 333mhz at the stock 333mhz latency which would make no sense because that would give me a same overclock with the RAM being a bottleneck. To change the other two lower frequency, find Minimum Clock Cycle at CLX-1 (change this to 266/267) and Minimum Clock Cycle at CLX-2 (change this to 200mhz).

To change the CAS Latency, find "CAS Latencies Supported" row and change that. You will notice the TCL at the bottom timing summary changes. Other latencies can also be changed like that. Just look at the abbreviations such as TRCD and find the row where it says a long name then (TRCD) in parenthesis at the back. That is the row which changes that latency. I just select that row and scroll with my mouse to the ns value that will bring my RAM up 1 latency for example my RAM has a TRCD of 6. I scroll to 15.00ns and it's still 6 so I chose 15.25ns which makes my TRCD go up to 7.

Be sure not to put too tight latencies(too low) that your RAM cannot run.

 

thanks

got it the way i wanted it and the cas is at 6 now sense i change the other 2 settings too 266 and 200.

 

I'm glad to know that it helped you. I hope you can get better overclocks from it. I couldn't get to even 2.45ghz stable on my ASUS until I flashed it.

USPS sucks so bad! My SSD arrived the USPS unit in my state last Saturday, and it didn't come out to deliver today. I hope it comes here tomorrow, or I won't be happy!!

 

ya it seems to overclock nicely with the stock ram flash now

have it at 2.6 and goes higher but not sure if i want too go any higher sense it does seem last time i tried 2.7 2.8 which seem stable it started too have problems with the 2nd hard drive bay not detecting..


the ram i had it before that i bought for my netbook but wanted too see how it does in the g50 was the gskill 667 with the heat spreaders i had my cpu way up too 2.85 but any higher than that would blue screen.

im sure i can get that high with this ram now sense at 2.6 the ram is ony at 820 830mhzs.

but might leave it at 2.6 sense everything is running smoothly

got a round 10.500 in 3dmark06 and almost 11k with 2.7 2.8

 

I just received my OCZ Agility 60GB and installed Win 7. Feels a lot faster now. My laptop didn't come with a 2nd bracket for the HDD. I installed a 250GB Hitachi 7200 RPM on the 2nd bay without a bracket and this OCZ in the first bay with bracket. 7.4 HDD WEI rating for Win 7

I'll just keep my P7450 on 2.6Ghz lol. When I push to 250FSB it crashes right away.

It's so cool to be able to flash your RAM and overclock higher

 

ya i didn't even think it was possible too flash ram lol well it never work for me before .. lol


ya i have 2 hard drives in mine 2x320gb 7200rpms sea gates and i also not using a bracket on mine sense it didn't come with one don't think none of the g50s came with them.

but they seem too not need them i just put a soft paper towel on the bottom so it stays in place which it does even with out it but just to make sure its safe and been using it that way for about 6months


hmm it would be nice too have a ssd ony if they were cheeper and bigger sense i usely fill up my hard drive quick.. lol


i have like 4tbs and half on my desktop and i already used about 1tb and a half... lol

 

i was trying to get 10 k in 3dmark 06 but cant get cpu past 2.399 too unstable.i use set fsb whats your guys tips on getting it to 2.66 ghz thats my target i dont understand ram flashing but would try it if some one could right a small guide with links to software ect thanks keep up the cool convo

 

So this is my first post on here. I have had this thing for about a year now. I was wondering if anyone has pushed it up to 8gb of ram.

I have it currently running everything stock, reloaded with Windows 7 Pro 64. Love that part just want to add more ram. I think ASUS said the board didnt support more then 4. But was wondering if anyone had tried and if so what your results were.

I use this for art and 3d rendering. The more ram the faster it will render my environments. Thanks.

 

one more quesiton, asus doesnt necessarily keep their driver page up to date as much as i would like is there a newer bios then what it came with

 

for the ram it will support 8gb sense couple forum members did it already and it seen the 8gb with no problems

 

ok. Thanks. ASUS said it wouldnt, but i think thats them saying they dont guarantee support past 4gb of ram installed.

 

also CLutch listed this cpu as the one he choose to upgrade to. I was wondering if there was anything special he had to do to make it run new bios? or was it just a plug and play. i read through the threads i must have missed that somewhere

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16819111006

 

should be just plug in play

 

who all did the 8gb of ram. ASUS says it wont support it, as well as GSKILL the ram manufacturer, I was thinking mushkin. But like i said i want to make sure before i drop the dough to get it. thanks for the input Gordesky. I appreciate the quick responses.

 

Are you going to buy the T9600 from Newegg? Looks kinda expensive. Should be cheaper on eBay or sometimes some forum members sell their CPU.

Don't know about the 8gb RAM. Are you gonig to run some applications that would make use of the 8gm RAM? General use and gaming won't see any difference as of now from what I know.

 

Yes on the new egg one. The 8GB of ram is for 3ds max 2010. would render the modeling environments alot faster then it does now.

 

heres someone that pop in 8gb of ram in his g50vt http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=337447

 

cool thanks must have missed that post. About to take my laptop down for the install of the new cpu. Just wondering one more thing. I know on my desktop i had to tell the bios the clock speed of the processor, will i be needing to do that for this board as well. Any one who upgraded the cpu so far answer that one for me please.

 

Next month I am going to try installing an G60Vx lid on my G50Vt-X1....wish me luck?
lol
If anyone has questions then ask me...

 

you mean with the screen and everything? it might be possaible


but if you mean just the lid not sure if that would work sense aint the G60Vx

a 16in laptop?

not sure if the g50vt screen will pop in that lid.


tho i could be wrong lol


but i would think the

G60Vx is a bit bigger than the g50vt

 

From what I have seen the G51 and G60 lids are exactly the same other than screen size and the G51 has the same screen as the G50,so an G60 lid plus an G51 bezel should work.

 

ok got the T9600 2.8 Duo core in. Going to run some things for the week before i begin looking at OCing it. Where do i find the instructions for that and OC instructions for the GPU as well. Time to crank up the power and performance of an already great system.

 

One more thing, I know it costs money to do no question there, but I am telling you the more robust CPU really unleashes this computer. It was like there was a bottleneck between it and the ram for execution of tasks now the thing is flying.

 

So it has been a little more than a year since I have bought this laptop and besides 2 problems that I had with it (All fixed) its still going strong with out any overclocking and modifications.
Has anyone had any problems within the last year with theirs?

 

Purchased it last Jan, still going strong. Loaded it up with Windows 7 Pro 64 when I got back from deployment. Sped things up a bit, just upped the cpu so more speed. But I run it hard with 3ds max 2010 and 2009 routinely with no problems yet to speak of.

 

Hey there!

Question, I opened the machine the other day to look at the CPU - I'm thinking about changing it. Anyway, I took the heatsink off... but now it seems the computer is getting hotter.

I think it's the GPU that's generating more heat... or rather, the heatsink not clearing it fast enough. I was wondering, is it okay if I remove the gray pads on the GPU heatsink and put some cooling paste instead?

Thanks in advance.

 

For your question above. I replaced mine with cooling grease actic silver like everyone recommended. Its going to be hotter with the larger processort. Mine is. The running temp is a big change even when under stress but the exhaust is slightly hotter then before.

Update. So ASUS stated via email that the g50vt-x5 would not handle 8gb of ram. I just put in 2 mushkin 4gb pc 6400 chips. its sees all of it. So I am going to chalk that up to ASUS no guaranteeing the expandability of the ram on this model. Still no OCing yet. Want to run it with all the new components for a while longer and let it work it self in before i start to push it.

 

Here is the shot. The hard drive is the only score not above the 6.0 mark in Windows 7 ratings standard.

My new specs:

ASUS G50VT -X5 (BB Model)
2.8 Ghz Duo Core (T9600)
Nvidia 9800m GS
8gb DDR2 800 mhz Ram
1 320 HDD @ 7200 RPM
1 500 HDD @ 5400 RPM (no 7200 were available at the time)

 

ha..my stock X1 has the same WEI score as your $1000 more machine...Although... I did Overclock the P8400 CPU to 2.83 GHZ during the test....

 

You have the same score as him because his HDD is pulling his general score down. Mine is 5.6 -.- with my stupid P7450 overclocked to 2.55Ghz. My memory is the second lowest with 5.7 My HDD is the highest 7.4 OCZ Agility 60GB SSD. But dang I missed on the deal for the Intel X-18M G2 80GB for only $150!!! I freaking bought the OCZ 1 week before I saw that deal! Man!

I undervolted my P7450 to 1.1V original was 1.138V
Doesn't show error at 1.075V but I feel something wrong with it so I left it at 1.1V

 

any one swap out the graphics chip to the 9800 GTS 1 gig? just curious no plans just wondering if it were doable

 

Not doable nor would the mod significantly improve performance.

 

tho if you can find you can pop the nvida 260gtx in it

sense theres a couple peaple that took one out of a broken g51 and tried it in the g50vt and it seen the card and work right there just ran a bit hot.

cant find the thread now but looking now.


there wasa card on ebay 260gtx that came out of a g51 sold for ony 55$ but it was not tested sense he said he found out it ony works with asus formfactor g50vt too g51.


heres the link http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=446885

 

cant find any for sale right now tho..

but they should be poping up in the future maybe than i would upgrade too one.

but the 9800 is still a heck of a powerfull card still still maxes every game out so im fine.

 

I posted this in the refurb thread, but it seems this is where the action is:

I am offered one of these by Asus to replace my F3sv that contained a 8600, which have a very high failure rate. Mine had failed twice, but the mobo was replaced one other time, so it could have been 3! Anyways, I read that the geforce 9800GT is actually based on the 8800....isnt that a bit problematic? I mean, doesnt that imply that its(9800gt) going to fail just like all the other 8000series cards?!

 

I think it's the actual 8000 series that had problems in manufacturing. I don't see any reports of problems that other series based on the 8000s to have defects. People correct me if I'm wrong.

9800GTS 1GB upgrade is not significant compared to the 9800M GS.
You can actually flash the 9800M GTS bios into the 9800M GS. Please read a good tutorial before doing this. You don't have to flash the bios. Just simply overclock to the 9800M GTS speed.

512MB is enough for the native screen resolution. You only need more if you are going higher res.