Ryzeki's Asus G51J-A1 review

Still, I have to wonder why the 2D clocks don't stick. If you just let it idle--I mean literally idle, as in you just stare at the GPU-Z graph and don't touch anything--do the clocks go up? I remember I was using standard view on these forums and the ads would always raise my clocks to 3D clocks.

Speaking of which, I'm really curious as to how copper, new paste, and additional airflow would help you out. I squirm a bit when I see 90+ temperatures.

Zalman NC2000 or NC1500 for active, Xpad for passive. Ta-da.

 

Thanks for the concern. I just stood there watching GPU z and the clocks remained 200/120 with GPU at 61C. I don't know what causes to keep the 500/799 clocks after gaming for a while, but I blame nvidia drivers in windows 7.

As for copper, thermal paste and additional airflow... Well I got already the IC diamond thermal paste thing installed, so maybe for now the additional airblow and perhaps copper blocks as long as they don't require me to remove the IC themal paste. I also want to undervolt the GPU and probably even CPU.

Could I get a guide to change drivers succesfully and undervolt the CPU? it is the Guide you guys made "optimization" right?

 

I'm curious... up until now you seem to be fairly comfortable with the thermal performance of the G51J's cooling. Has anything changed?

 

Nah, I am still fairly comfortable with it. I have owned some hotter notebooks before ( *raises fists against Acer*) but with Asus I never had issues. I haven't experiences slowdowns, lockups, hardware failures or anything, not even with my previous G50vt with I ran very overclocked all day with temps similar to the 260M GTX and never had a single problem. I would be worried if I were the ONLY user with a high temp GPU and CPU, but the CPU is well on the range of the sagers, and the GPU is on average around the same as all other G51 users. My old G51vx which didn't last long becaus I had to sell, GPU got to 102C quickly, this one rarely gets to 92C.

However! There is nothing wrong in trying to reduce the temps It seems interesting to try and make the machine cooler and consume a bit less power.

 

Ah, good deal. I noticed you recently mentioned that you have the ICD7 TC. That would be good to see in the review page since it's supposed to help with cooling and it's not a stock option.

You mentioned that you were going to run Crysis benchmarks. Any chance of posting "1920x1080 / Very High / No AA / 64 bit / DX10" benches?

 

Yeah I have ICD7 TC, and mention it only on the specs. I might make another note or something to mention it.

Sure, let me do some runs. I am currently playing it with 1280x720 res because it is either that or 1920x1080 and believe me, 1080 is too much even for the newer dekstop cards.

The best you could probably do is all medium at 1920x1080, but let me download the benchmakr tool and upload the pics.

 

Here we go, two runs for Crysis at 1920x1080 res, 64 bits DX10.

One run (3 cycles) for Very high and one run (3 cycles) for all medium.

As I said, I think medium is pretty decent graphically, and considering the resolution the results were good.

 

Thanks for running that! What sort of temps do you get after a good Crysis session?

 

I actually just ran the same tests without overclocking the CPU and it yielded 1-2 fps increase all across, so the resulting average was 10.61 for Very high and 35.95 fps for all medium.

As for temperatures, I never get over 93C. Usually it is 92C tops, even furmark (stability test, not the xtreme burn mode) gets to 92 and stabilizes at 90 afterwards.

Only in the extreme test I saw 97C degrees after a while, and it was droping to 96C at the end.

I think those are pretty decent temps. Specially withouth undervolting, cooler, copper blocks or any other mod (except the IC thermal paste).

 

rixhobbies, check it out, a furmark xtreme burning mode:

Note: The clocks are displayed wrong because it read the last speed on the log in GPU-Z, instead of updating the clocks. Last time I did a test, it read 500/799 clocks, and the result was the same.

 

Well I declare my review to be officially over haha, I probably won't update the first post anymore except for mistakes, but let this thread continue to help anyone with questions or request for games.

thanks everyone for reading my review, and you should give me rep! jk jk, only give if you consider me worthy of the rep!

 

gaming performance wide is the G51J or the G51VX A! better I just want YOUR OPINION.

 

Also is this compatible with powerpad

 

wauw,,,
another zalman...
any recommendation except from zalman?
quiet hard to find zalman cooling pad...
all that i saw is only coolermaster, thermaltake, vantec...
not even enermax, nzxt,or so on

and maybe another active cooling...

 

Wow, so 92C for Furmark at 1920x1080 on burn? The first time you did that it was 97C, wasn't it? Did anything change? (i.e. running a cooler, much lower ambient temps, etc) If nothing else changed, I wonder if the ICD7 is curing. I wonder if any of your other tested temps have dropped, too (assuming it is in fact the TC curing).

Thanks again for running those tests! (rep given!)

 

yea, what are ur ambients for that 1080p run? that would greatly influence ur load temps. also did u put ICD7? if u did and those are at the same ambients, that is a good result, 5C knocked off just by thermal paste. btw u voided ur warranty with the ICD7 rite?...do u think it was well worth it for a machine like this?

btw...hope u start playing steam games again, L4D and Tf2 is gonna be populated by AGO users this friday, BE THERE!!!

 

I'm pretty sure he had Gentech apply the paste when he bought it.

 

guyz,do have some overheat problem with your laptop??

 

Hmm. Would applying your own paste to the cpu and gpu void the warranty?

 

Yes. because you need to remove a warranty void if removed sticker to get to the CPU/GPU.

 

So much to answer in just one day hehe.

i'd say they are about the same, but on games requiring extra CPU power, the G51J will result a tad bit better. Since both laptops use Quad core CPU they are not that different, pick your favourite one! I am sticking with my G51J and for the few tests I have made, it is only 1-3fps faster in some games than the vx A1 (both on stock). Might change if games start coming out that are more favoured by the Core i7 architecture.

I wouldn't know, why don't you check out compatibility for Win7? I don't see why it wouldn't

You are welcome, and thanks for the rep! I personally believe it was indeed the IC curing, as the 97C degree test was done out of the box straight to furmark, and these new temperature tests were done days later after playing games and all. As I mentioned, no game has passed that threshold of temperature either so I think the IC thermal paste is doing it's job.

I will upload a new test in a couple of minutes(I am at work right now on another pc) but yesterday when I recorded that test I was at an ambient temperature of 79F and was using a crappy chinese cooler of a friend (that wasn't even aiming at the GPU) it was more like.... a 1 centimeter lift with no airflow haha. I checked temps before and after tests and they remained largely the same without it. I will test with a better cooler and check the effects! The tests I did afterwards were on ambien temps of 85F and no cooler, still got basically the same results. Gaming on such temps is also on those temps.

Another test coming in a bit, no cooler etc (expect the same results!)

Yeah I ordered from GentechPC with ICD7 thermal paste. When you order such thing from the reseller directly, you do not void your warranty. My ambient temps were around 80F when I did that last test. I think that the thermal paste was worth it because my gaming temps never reach that high.

I am doing another 10 min tests, no cooler, ambient temp of 80F and the current results are basically the same. This test was done from fresh boot to xtreme burn test.

I have lots of work on friday but at night I will try to connect. I have L4D but don't have Tf2 haha, maybe I will buy it another time

Not at all! The computer runs on the hot side but nothing out of specification and it hasn't caused me any problem whatsoever. I can play any game, do any task and everything is within specs.

Yes, as EIement said, when you try to apply the paste, you usually have to remove the warranty tag. In my case I ordered with ICD7 thermal paste from the reseller so I didn't void my warranty.

 

Here we go, another test.

Xtreme burn mode, 1920x1080, log temps, GPU-Z on the background, test ran from fresh boot to burn test only with no cooler and 79F ambient temp



Same results!

 

Well, I've since received my G51J, also ordered with ICD7 TC. The first thing I did was install and play Crysis which oddly enough resulted in a BSOD after playing it for about 15 minutes at 1920x1080, medium settings (which played quite smoothly). I need to try to re-install it and re-apply the patches. Tech support also suggested installing the latest graphics driver for this, which I will try tonight. Did you encounter anything like this?

So, I installed the HWMonitor CPUID monitoring tool and ran 3DMark06. Temps reached 99C (ambient was 70F). I sure hope those get better with time. I'll have to try Furmark next.

 

Be sure to install all patches, udpdates for windows 7. I am running stock drivers and all, and I haven't had a single crash in Crysis. The only crash I have had was a BSOD with Left 4 Dead and it was a weird error I haven't encountered again.

As for temps, did you order ICD7 on both CPU and GPU like me? Then be sure to not be covering your exhaust. My initial temps when I first bought the machine were 97C, but they have since dropped to 92 max and as you can see from screens, It is my current top temp. Keep in mind I have had my computer since friday 23 Oct, so I have had it more than most people, and probably the ICD7 needs time to set in?

 

When I applied ICD7 it took approx. 36 hours for full effect.

 

Yeah, I had it applied to CPU and GPU. Right now the OS, drivers, etc are all box-stock. I'll try the updated drivers tonight.

The laptop is sitting on a flat table and all vents are clear and wide open.

 

That's good to know. Were your initial results high like this? Did they drop a lot after the 36 hours?

 

Considering it took me about 2 days to see the reduction in temps, yeah I think the 36 hours seems about right.

 

My initial temps were exactly the the same on my G51VX-X1A (90C max on CPU) before and after ICD7 application. However, it took over 12 minutes to get there (previously 90 seconds) after 36 hours my GPU temperatures (both idle and on load) dropped between 2 and 6C depending on the application.

 

it is quite obvious...that you would go with the G51J. first off, its newer, = better. it has HT, it can simulate 8 cores, it has the power of a C2D in it @ 2.8ghz, that alone is the reason i would go for it. heck i would pay extra to have that type of feature. the A1 is more expensive as well, the G51J can be had @ 1450USD. it is cheaper, better, what else must u say? but then agian, its not like the A1 is total crap, im happy with my laptop, got it for 1252USD thru bing.com cashback + 100USD MIR. this C2Q @ 2.45GHz should last me at least 2 years.

btw, tried 1920x1080 xtreme and all that jazz, maxed 97C just like u, at stock ASUS clocks, and stabilized @ 95C. not too bad for stock thermal paste. i really do envy those ppl with the modded backplates tho...

 

Thanks a lot ryzeki for the review, it's pretty much all the info I need. After the saga of delays with the Dell XPS 16, I am probably going to get this notebook with an intel 80gb ssd (for the same price, around AU$2200). Just a few questions though:

1. Is the cooling fine with stock paste, or should I get an option with different paste? I would like to do this however most of the places that have this option charge ~$250 for shipping to Australia so it is not practical

2. Would a good cooler (like nc2000 or Cryo NZXT) make a larger difference than adding paste?

3. Does anyone know of a good alternative to sparco.com? They have cheap prices and reasonable postage costs to Australia, however are out of stock at the moment.

 

Well, I think I have an issue with mine. The temps are going up, not down, as time goes by. After playing Crysis the last couple days, the temps have increased to 100C at max. Furmark hits that inside of 5 minutes. And this is with ICD7 installed as an option. I could get a cooler, but I think I'd be masking an underlying problem. The fact that temps are higher confuses me, too, as it's no hotter in the room and the TC has had time to cure, which should lower them. I did try the latest Nvidia driver to see if it would help, but perhaps it is the reason for the higher temps.

I'm thinking it's time to send this back. I can't imagine what will happen with summer time ambient temps. Right now it's just 70F in here. During Summer we keep it at 79F.

 

What drivers are you using?

Are the fans going on to full blast after 90C?

 

any suggestions for a cooling for this laptop? getting mine next monday

 

Guruguy, you can try www.logicalblueone.com.au or www.affordablelaptops.com.au

I bought mine from logicalblueone ($2199)

 

I used the latest 186.81 WHQL found on the Nvidia website. Fans do step up 3 levels and seem to be running, but I have no way of knowing if they are hitting their highest intended speed or not.

 

I have looked at them, however you can get the same laptop + an intel 80gb ssd for the same price (when buying at sparco.com). The only advantage is that logicalblueone.com.au offers an extra year of warranty, which isn't extremely important to me.

 

1.- I think that cooling with stock paste should be around 5 C higher for GPU, and it should be fine as Asus designed the laptop this way. I wanted to spend the extra cash and keep it a bit cooler, but I think that spending more than $50 for the cooling is a bit too much.

2.- It should make a difference, no matter which cooler, as long as it helps blow air under the laptop where the GPU is. Otherwise it will keep it a bit cooler but won't help much on the max temps. I did a run with an average cooler and no cooler, and got the same results on xtreme burn mode.

3.- Sorry, can't help there, I don't know hehe.

Hmmm, maybe the paste was not well placed, or maybe the heatsink wasn't placed back correctly. You should check it out if it bothers you, as you shouldn't be having such temps with ICD7.

My first G51vx (the best buy version) always had a GPU running at 102C and it never caused me issues for the month or so I used it, but yeah, such temps are a bit too much.

Well, I don't use anything in particular, but you can always get a nice cooler when you game, to help overall cooling of the laptop,

 

Thanks for the help, If I could rep you twice for your review I would, you've been really helpful. I will be ordering this the second my refund from Dell (Studio XPS 1645) gets processed. For some reason when a Dell rep tells you that they just cancelled your order, it in no way means that they have cancelled your order.

I may get a cooler (probably cryo nzxt or nc2000) but that will depend on how hot it runs when it arrives.

 

Awesome review ryzeki!

About the viewing angles, how bad is it? i currently have a dell studio 1535 (1280X800) and the vertical viewing angles are just awful! the screen changes color/brightness when i barely wiggle it an inch or so! how does the G51J-A1 display compare to that?

Also, is the dpi increased in the pictures?

Thanks!

 

Thanks for the support! I am glad I could be of help. You are buying an awesome now that is for sure!

Yeah, first try it out and then if you feel it needs it, get the cooler. Since I move a lot from school to work and friends houses, I am rarely at one place so I kinda am lazy about carrying a cooler when I feel I don't need it. But if you are going to keep it mostly in one place then I do recommend a cooler.

Thanks for reading!

Well, I would say they are bad indeed as contrast changes when you tilt the screen in either direction but it is not as bad in the sense that the picture looks like crap. And well, yeah when you wiggle the screen and inch it changes color/brigtness too. They are not really good viewing angles but the picture does not look bad at all. I always use it at the sweet spot so I don't mind it, and colors don't invert immediatley or anything like that. I would say that there are worse laptop screens like most Toshibas I have seen, and I think they are much better than the Studio 15 line from Dell, but I have only seen the Studio 15 S1555 018B.

Simply, when tilt the screen back (vertical viewing angles) the colors will start to darken a bit and when completely titled back, colors are already inverting. No one uses the screen all the way back though hehe. The horizontal viewing angles are not really that bad, and from what I have seen, they are not affected like the vertical nearly as bad. Picture doesn't mess up and I think only black colors invert.

Vertical are definitely better than horizontal angles, and they are just nothing impressive. They are better than my 1366x768 screen though.

And as far as I remember, DPI is not increased on the pictures I showed on the review. You can roughly fit 10 incons vertically on screen.

 

Thanks for the quick reply!

I just reread the review here on notebookreview and the reviewer said this about the vertical angles "Vertical viewing angles were very good, offering a broad sweet spot before colors started to invert if you tilted the screen forward or back" now im really confused. does the G51J come with different panels or different manufacturers?

 

When you ran your last furmark test, what were your ambient temps? Today my room is at 75F and I let furmark run until the temp tracker reached across to the end of the screen. It hit 98C but it tapped 99C for brief moments.

I ran it at 1920x1080, MSAA=0, 64bit, full screen, DX10 in case you feel inclined to re-run yours.

If these temps are too high even with ICD7, I think I am going to return it. I may even opt for a different notebook. I'm deciding what to do this weekend.

Thanks for your help so far and great work on the review and feedback!

 

Nice PC....I've always liked the G51 series style. Currently I have a G71 Bestbuy version. I just bought a replacement LG screen that's 1920 X 1080 that I'm about to install. I've also got a friend that has done a quad core upgrade on his G71 like mine. So that's my next project. I see that your's came with a Asus branded Razer Copperhead. Sweet! I recently bought a Razer Mamba.

If you play Borderlands for PC add me. My name is skygunner27.
Congrats on your new PC.

 

You are welcome, glad I could be of help!

Hmmm, I think the horizontal viewing angles are ok, and the vertical are just average to mediocre compared to the good LCDs. I am not saying that the panel suddenly inverts colors as soon as you touch it, but you will definitely see the brightness change from top first. However, as I mentioned too, colors and picture remain good and don't mess up, so you can find the sweet spot rather easily. When web browsing etc you won't even notice much about the viewing angles, as it is mostly noticeable with dark colors. It is a good screen but the viewing angles are just average and could be improved. I'd say you have about 30-40 degrees of headroom before colors start to look a bit weird. Horizontal angles are much better and tend to have a wider angle.

Compared to most 1366x768 displays, and most notebooks like the best buy offerings, the screen is great. Compared to my LCD HD TV, only the sweet spot can compete, but my TV has 178 degree viewing angles, and once you are used to those, you can't lie saying all panels has good angles haha

I do think the panel looks awesome in a moderately iluminated room. When viewing in a very dark room it just seems too bright making some dark colors look more on the greyish side.

You are welcome, and thanks! I will help as much as I can.

Well, the weather right now keeps Ambient temps around 76-84F. My last test was done at 78 or 80F, between those temps. I will try to do a run tomorrow again for a longer while until it reaches the end of the screen and post it.

The laptop was made to take the heat, but I can understand how that can be a bother to users. It is entirely valid if you feel like returning it and change it for another notebook. You are within the temperatures of the G51vx-A1, but you can call Asus or reseller to see what's up. Don't worry as you still have time and warranty.

This is a great notebook, but not the only notebook out there. And don't worry, you will get support from us no matter what notebook you have!

Thanks! Yeah I originally was going to buy a G71GX from best buy back in july, but it was just too big and too similar to my G50vt in apperance that I wanted something a bit different. A nice 1080p panel with a quad core and you will have a great setup for a long while!

Yeah the Razer copperhead is awesome, and I like the design they made it with Asus logo, it pairs up well with the notebook.

As for Borderlands, I am definitely considering buying it but right now I am a bit poor moneywise haha so maybe I will buy it later. Sure we can play anything. If you have steam you can add me too, it's ryzeki. I don't play much during the week but sometimes my weekends are free.

Gotta love work+college

 

Thanks for the detailed feed back! looks like the panel's viewing angles is good enough esp for a guy like me used to an entry level laptop display.

One last request if you have time, can you do the Street Fighter 4 benchmark and post the result?

 

Sure, here you go. Long story short? It runs maxed no problems haha:

1920x1080, all high no vsync no AA no AF and no extra details

SCORE: 9742
AVERAGE: 86.37FPS
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz
Memory: 4096MB
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
Display Setting: 1920x1080 60Hz

On stock all high and no extra details etc, the game runs too fast so it is better to use vsync. Considering that the test was always over 80fps, expect 60fps all the time with vsync enabled and these settings.

What happens when we add a bit of AA, AF and one of the extra details (Tint is my favourite, i think it makes the game look much better than the other available sets).

1920x1080 all high, 2x AF 2xAA with Tint extra detail

SCORE: 5928
AVERAGE: 52.08FPS
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz
Memory: 4096MB
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
Display Setting: 1920x1080 60Hz 2xAA

During the fight sequences, framerate never dropped from the 50s range (except when doing some special attacks which dropped it to 48 fps for a second, but doesn't affect gameplay).

Which such high framerate, you won't have problems enjoying this game maxed out.

 

One quick question. Does the power adapter take a clover leaf shaped lead, like the one shown here:



Don't want to have it arrive and realize I have the wrong power cord.

 

Yeah, my power cord looks like that clover leaf shape.

 

All the games I currently play aren't on Steam or aren't Steam versions. I know that 6 gigs of DDR2 ram is alot to be worried about running programs but for some reason I'd rather not run Steam of Gamespy Comrad in the background using up memory. Borderlands is currently my favorite. I also have PS3/360/Wii. If you game on PS3/360 add me:skygunner27

I just got done putting back the original display(1440 x 900) that came with my G71GX. It never occured to me that running my new display at 1920 X 1080 would cause my performance to decrease and when I set my games at 1440 x 900 on the new display it made the games look awful.

I guess I'm kinda happy that my original display is 1440 x 900. Which means that my 2.53ghz C2Duo/6GB ram/260m should be future proof on my displays native resolution. Time to get a refund for the display lesson learned